Road Trippin' it to Kelowna

This has been a pretty great summer so far. There are no big vacations like last year but I'm dreaming of my next one :) We had a getaway up to Kelowna to visit family and boy did we pack alot into our 5 days! This post will be dedicated to our trip to the kangaroo farm in Winfield. Grampa took us to a place called Kangaroo Creek Farm (http://www.kangaroocreekfarm.com/) Here are some pictures from our TWO trips there:

Highlight of the trip for Lexis: she got to feed a baby kangaroo! They close for a few hours in the afternoon so the animals can rest. Just before the closing the joeys needed to eat so Lexie got to be one of the lucky few who got to bottle feed them.

 The girls got to hold a Sugarglider aka flying squirrel.

 Snuggling with joeys.

 The kangaroos are just out and about and you can feed them and pet them.

 More fun with the Sugarglider.

 Okay, what's your first thought with this picture? Mine was "I hope the birds don't poop on the girls head." Well, Olivia got pooped on! She handled it pretty well. Thankfully it was down her shirt and not in her hair. She got a peacock feather for her troubles.

 Cassidy was so enthralled with this little albino kangaroo! Her name is Sophia and Cassidy couldn't stop talking about Sophia for days.

Baby Emus- these dudes were aggressive when it came to food!

The girls did not want to leave Kelowna. They're begging to go back already. They were pretty spoiled though! Great food and awesome company! Thanks to Grandpa Knox and Joyce for hosting us. Thank you to Aunt Betty and Uncle Willy for letting us come to the lake everyday and always having snacks and wine!

Ridiculous AND Outrageous

My head is spinning. I'm not sleeping very well and my neck and shoulders are a mess. All my stress seems to be held there. I'm stressed. I needed to do a blog post but organizing my thoughts on what is the most stressful time of my life so far is really hard. Forgive me if I am random or don't make sense. The first really horrible thing to happen in this brutal dispute was the 10% pay reduction. Imagine it people- you're employer decides to take 10% off your paycheque. You're still working as hard as usual but getting less pay. It's just maddening. Then it's the lockout before school, at recess, at lunch and after school. I'm telling you this is the most ridiculous thing EVER. Again, where ever you work just imagine you are now locked out of work during those times. Go find somewhere else to eat your lunch.  It doesn't even make sense. My school of 500 students is supervised by 3 people at recess and about 6 at lunch. What? Those breaks are usually filled with planning, photocopying & working with kids. How on earth do you lock out your employees from working hard? So each recess and lunch we stand outside our schools. It's drawn us closer together but do not forget for an instant how awkward this is for us teachers and how unsafe it is for the students. We live in Canada, how does all this happen??? Isn't this something we read about in somewhere like Putin's Russia? It was ridiculous and outrageous to have our pay cut & be locked out but it became all the more outrageous when the Labour Relations Board said it's all okay. Oh wait, you work for Clark so you can't rule in our favour. Thanks. Come to a school and see how hard we work and how much we care about our kids and then see if it's still okay.
We all had hopes over the weekend that a deal would be reached. It's hard not to get your hopes up. Boy were our hopes crushed this morning when we found out that the proposal from the government has just gotten shittier. There's this weird dichotomy going on with us teachers now: we are fighting mad and drawn closer together b/c of this situation but morale is low. It is depressing. Very depressing. There's worry that this might drag on into September. The government has not budged in I don't know how many months. They are not showing any signs of moving on wages, class size or composition.
We're doing this for class size and composition. Not wages. Of course we want a raise, who doesn't? We went into this to make a living. It's so frustrating trying to get through to people about class size and composition. Things suck my friends. You might not see it but trust us, it sucks. Oh don't get me wrong we make the best of it. But special needs kids are going without help. What do you think happens when the special needs child in your kids class is in class with NO SUPPORT? The teacher has to then become the special needs child's own personal education assistant. So what's the rest of the class doing when this happens? Not much. Certainly not learning. And even if a teacher can let a special needs child sit on their own with no support how shitty is that? They're getting nothing out of class. What kind of education is that. How are they supposed to grow up to be a productive member of society? I recently posted on a friends facebook post that I would love to be honest with the parents in my class. It's tough teaching with no support. Even if it's not your kids who needs the extra support it'll benefit your child. We all have stories to tell. My story this year is the boy who pooped his pants DAILY for 4 months. Same boy who makes sounds all day long, bothers the other children constantly and struggles with every aspect of the Grade One curriculum. Again I ask you to put yourself in my shoes. You're teaching an amazing math lesson on mental math strategies. The kids are engaged and inquisitive. And poop happens. Literally. Everything comes to a screeching halt. I'd be on the phone trying to find someone who could help me and kids would be waving their hands asking for help. Then I would have to have the 21 other kids wash their hands. Even the thought of poop makes me want to run and wash my hands. This would take a good 10 minutes and that lesson was a bust. EVERYDAY people. First, I do not get paid enough to deal with poop. Second, this child gets a little time with a counsellor once or twice a week. That's it, the end. Kids in BC do not get enough support. I feel like crap when I have to choose which kids get academic support and which don't. I get 5 blocks of support time for my kids. (Our LST teacher was on leave 1 day a week so I only got 4 blocks of 45 minutes each week for half of the year; more savings for the district) I can put up to 6 kids in a group and it's up to me how many groups I want to make. Do I have 6 kids in those 4/5 blocks or do I have 12 kids who twice a week help? I lie awake thinking about these decisions. I see the impact of my decision when some kids are making progress and others are not. 
I'm just plain tired. I do not believe in the BC government but I sure do believe in God. We need a miracle for a contract to be reached.

Joy, guilt & anticipation

JOY: My day started out great. I had the computer & the laptop on and open to the same webpage. My hand on the mouse, ready to click "Add to Cart" the moment the item came available. My heart was pounding, my mind racing. Is my computer time set to the same as theirs? What if one of my page refreshes takes too long and I miss out? Am I sure I'm on the right page? I refresh the laptop and it takes a little longer than usual...but now there's the "Add to Cart" button on the laptop! I click on that and refresh the computer at the same time. I hope I'm not too late on the computer. I see the button I want and add to my cart. Yes! Success! I do a little happy dance, I'm super stoked. I'm so happy I almost forget I still have to take Cassidy to preschool. Her little voice cuts in "Shouldn't we go to school?" Oops, yes. And what is it that I'm so excited about? I registered at Hillcrest for skating! Oh yeah, we live large here. That's right, skating lessons at Hillcrest. When you need to register for anything at Hillcrest, you need to be at your computer at 9:00am exactly to click add to cart or forget about your class. It's full within seconds of coming online.
GUILT: I'm going back to work 4 days a week next year. I'm feeling great guilt over that. Maybe I should have waited another year and stayed at 3 days? Then Cassidy would be in full day K. Guilt, guilt, guilt. We've got a wonderful nanny this year but she's off travelling at the end of this school year. We're hoping to get into the daycare by our house which has before & after school care for the big girls and group daycare for 3-4 year olds. As lovely as it sounds I'm still feeling horribly guilty.
ANTICIPATION: So Dan isn't totally shooting down my idea to go to Vegas for our 40th birthdays!!!! I also want to go to Oregon with the kids in the summer, go to the Mariners vs. Blue Jays game AND also go to a Seahawks game in the fall. I'll have to pick and choose. But I'm super excited for now. That is until Dan says "You know, we can't afford a vacation this summer." I nod & mumble yes. But in my mind I'm all "Umm....no I don't know anything of the sort actually"

I really want to go back to here:

And here:

 

But this time there won't be anyone eating the sand:

Disclaimer: she's okay! It was nasty & yucky but she didn't swallow any sand.

There was another March birthday I haven't blogged about yet...

Little Miss Olivia turned 9. 9! How is that even possible??? These past 9 years (coincidentally it's the entire length of my 30's) have just flown by. Oliva has grown from this helpless little infant to intelligent, smart, funny big girl. Boy is she opinionated and strong willed.
Instead of having a big birthday party Olivia chose to go down to Seattle for a couple nights. My girls love staying in hotels. Cassidy has been talking about "our hotel" ever since we came back in August. We went to the Pacific Science Center in downtown Seattle and Woodland Park Zoo. We hadn't been to either place so it was pretty exciting. Here are some photos from our trip:

                                            Tidal pool at the Science Center.

                                            Rocket ship at Science Center.

                                           Our favourite restaurant: Cheesecake Factory!!!

                       

                                          Every trip someone has to get stuffies. Even though mommy says "No more stuffies!!"

                                           Our favourite hotel: Embassy Suites (Lynnwood, WA)

                                         Waiting to get into the zoo....

                                         Lexie was so excited to see a real bear!

                                Olivia said that this peacock was the most beautiful animal she had ever seen.

                                                 Out of order- more science center pics

                                                 Giraffe at the zoo....

                                                  Me and my monkeys   :)
Can't wait to go back!!!

Happy Birthday little Miss Cassidy!!! (slightly belated)

This is belated because this has been a busy week. Report cards were due Thursday- enough said. But Olivia was sick with a fever, sore throat and coughing. And you know me, I was up with every cough. Anyways, Cassidy is 4!!! She is still so little but also so big. She's my little cuddle bug. I sure do love her big hugs. She wanted a big huge My Little Pony for her birthday and since there was nothing else on her list that's what she got. Seriously, she can almost ride it. It's also got light up wings and horn. She squealed when she opened it! We had pirate paks for her birthday dinner then sushi with Pa and Avo the next night. She still thinks it's her birthday and I'm not arguing- yet.
Now I wish I had new photos of her but I'm a loser. I mean, I'm so busy. That will go to the top of my list of things to do. Here's some old photos to enjoy:

My little stinker. She is so opinionated and strong willed. No is a favorite word again. She actually told me she's the boss. It does feel that way.

Hello my friends.

So it's been awhile. Hi, how are ya? You wouldn't believe how many blog posts I write in my head. Something happens and I think "oooh, that's a great blog topic." And then life happens and I'm tired. And now it's the Olympics! I love the Olympics. Of course I love watching Canada but I'll watch other countries too. We're always calling the girls to watch something and they really don't care. Lexie at least pretends too. Speaking of Alexis I took her out to school with me! She enjoys coming to my class but she won't do the work I give the kids. She happened to come on Valentine's Day (she had two pro-d days in a row). I suspect she may have come for the party. But in her defense she did want to come before she knew there was a party. She did awesome! She talks about her "best friend" in my class and when I'm marking things at home she reads names and knows who's who.
It's 9pm on a Sunday and I still have school work to do so I must rush on.
School- I'm going up to 4 days next year. Our super awesome nanny is going on a tour of Canada and the US after this school year, so we need to find a new nanny or daycare for next year. Just to warn you, I'll be asking around. School is going well. I'm finding my groove again in grade one. It was shocking at first to go from end of grade two to beginning of grade one! They're so little. But good news- we're half way through the year and only 12 more working days for me until Spring Break!!!
The girls- Cassidy is still loving preschool and loving the nanny. She is an opinionated little girl. She knows her mind and that's exhausting. Like when I'm trying to get her into a warm jacket when it's cold and she's refusing. Alexis loves grade one and is such a keener. She's even in enrichment, which I think is basically just extra work for kids who are finished class work quickly. Miss Olivia loves school one day, loathes it the next. She's my drama queen. She can actually have "The Best Day Ever!!!" and "The Worst Day Ever" within minutes of each other.
Me & Dan- just truckin' along. Work, looking after the girls, crashing on the couch after they go to bed. Our alone time is in the car on the way to work. I'm pushing for a date night. I did get a really nice Valentine gift! A charm for my Pandora bracelet- a little fish with blue eyes!
Here are some more pictures from December. We haven't saved any pictures from 2014 to the computer yet.

 Alexis at her Christmas concert.

 

Olivia got to come to Cassidy's Christmas concert.

 Cassidy at her Christmas concert singing "3 little Christmas Trees"

 I can't believe I got her hair in pigtails! They didn't last much longer.

It's been a month

Where is time going? It's almost Christmas according to Cassidy. Who can blame her for thinking that? Costco has had their Christmasy stuff out for a couple months, the mall is all decked out and of course Starbucks has their yummy festive lattes out. I have even got some Christmas presents for the girls!!! I just love this time of year. There's so much anticipation. But I just have to get through report cards. Blech. I hate those things. Love my job, love my kids but can't stand doing report cards. Here are some random hotel pictures leftover from our summer road trip:

I think I'm done sharing California pictures. Ask me to see our Shutterfly books and you can see more. Don't tell Dan but I'm already starting to plan our next summer's road trip. I want to do the Oregon Coast again. Seaside seriously rocks! I feel so relaxed there. I buy my fancy $9 bottle of wine and crack it open when all 3 dudes have fallen asleep. Dan and I open up the sliding door and just hang out with the lovely sea breeze floating in while we chill. But seriously, don't tell Dan.