BACK AT IT!

It's been ages since I've updated here! I guess we've just been busy! I dug up the perennial garden I have beside the patio, split everything and gave half of it away to my good friend, Maria, then re-planted the rest of it. I still haven't had a chance to get my bulbs in, but hopefully it won't rain too hard this weekend and I'll get to it!

I only have one week left after this at the temporary job I took at Maquinna Elementary. I've enjoyed the change of pace, enjoyed getting home early every day and being able to spend more time in my garden, and with Don, but I'm also kind of looking forward to getting back to the highschool. Getting back into my routine of working out at Curves on my lunch break, seeing my work buddies, and enjoying the older kids. I mean - the little kids are cute and I've enjoyed them too, but they can be kind of annoying. They have stupid little imaginary problems all the time that they want you to fix for them. Like "Jimmy keeps following me" or "She won't let me play with her"........ Teenagers, if they come to you for help usually have an actual, real problem that deserves to have your time devoted to it. I guess I just belong with the older kids.

I feel kind of bad because I've missed quite a bit of time while I've been @ Maquinna. We had Don's cousin's wedding to go to at the beginning of September, I missed time twice for being sick, and now this past weekend I took Friday and Monday off to go to Alberta.

My world-travelling daughter is back home - Hurray! She's back in Canada at least. She's settled in Calgary where she has a good friend from school that she can room with. Don and I went out this past weekend and took all her stored furniture (well, only a dresser really) and her boxes of clothes, books, kitchen stuff, etc. It was wonderful to see her! Calgary seems nice and it's a good neighbourhood and a nice house she's in. She amazes me! She landed Friday afternoon and had 3 job interviews already set up for Monday! She was offered a job right off the bat - and away she goes!

After Don & I got Rachel set up we drove from Calgary north, around Edmonton to Hinton where Brandon is working. We had dinner with him and some of his crew and spent the night there before heading back. Brandon's doing so well - he's growing up so much, and has a really good group of guys to work with. He seems to really be enjoying it.

We left Hinton before sun-up and drove through Jasper at just the right time! We saw sooo much wildlife along the way! We just went through the park gate and saw a beautiful coyote running along side the road, then a little way down Don noticed a whole herd of mountain sheep up on a mountainside. We pulled over and got out the binoculars for a better look and there must have been about 100 of them up there - all spread out over the side of the mountain. A little further along we saw a big bull elk right beside the road, and as we drove through we saw several groups of them - mostly males in singles, or small groups, but we also saw one bull elk with a whole herd of cows - he was bugling and trying to shoo them up the hill, away from the road when we stopped. He was a poor skinny guy - looked way rattier than the rest of the bulls we saw. Don says that's because he's been screwing his brains out - 50 times a day, and hasn't had time to bulk up for winter - he'll probably die this winter. We also saw a lynx (bobcat) run across the road right in front of us, and we even saw a bull moose! WOW!

I was going to add some photos here, but it's late now and I can't remember how to get the uploaded images into my post - check back later......

RELIEF

Well, I'm still home sick. This totally sucks! I can't believe how crappy I feel. Today is Tuesday and I've been sick since Friday afternoon. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. I still feel dizzy if I try to move around too much. I really feel like I have to go back to work though - I've already missed two days and there's things to be done! I hope they have someone covering for me.....

Well, I didn't get that other job - and really, I'm relieved! I like it where I am so I didn't really want the change. I'd feel like I was letting everybody down and making things difficult for them. Now I'll have another month at least to get everything organized there and leave it in good shape should the girl I'm covering for actually come back at the beginning of November. Besides - I'm planning something for Hallowe'en! I want to visit the kindergarten class and teach them the little pumpkin song!

Can't wait!

Working for a Living

I've been back to work for barely one month and I've already been sick twice. I guess that's what happens when you work around a bunch of snot-nosed little kids. In the first week I gave out more bandaids than I did in three years at the highschool. When I do noon hour supervision the little girls come running up to complain "he's following us" or "they won't leave us alone" yet if you watch you can see they're "leading the boys on". Good grief. These kids are 6-10 years old. Poor boys just don't have a chance from the get-go do they?

I really like this job, though. The staff is great and the principal/vp are so nice to work with. I should have taken this job when it came up as a permanent, but, it's less than full time and I just bought back a bunch of pensionable time so I can retire early - why defeat the purpose of that now by working less than full time? I didn't know if I would like it either. I guess I was a little afraid to take the risk of getting stuck in a job I don't like. There are fewer and fewer clerical positions in the district these days and I feel like wherever I go I could be stuck there for quite a while. At least now I know that I do like it so if I have an opportunity to change I'll know what I'm getting into.

I may be changing jobs again next week. There's another temporary available at the middle school. It's full-time, and the pay is better again than the job I'm doing now so I've put my name in for it. I have mixed feelings about it though. I really like it where I am right now and I'll feel bad if I have to leave them in a lurch, but with Don's job up in the air I really feel like I have to take this opportunity if I can. It would mean an extra $1000 between now and Christmas. Hard to believe it can make that much difference, but it does. If I don't get it I have one month left at Maquinna, and I guess the girl I'm covering for will be back. I thought she might extend her leave, but apparently not. You never know what's going to happen though! Change is in the air.