My Anniversary

So today is our anniversary. We've been married 16 years today. I didn't realize how long of a time that was until I saw some pieces of our wedding video. Everyone is so young!!! I can't really watch it. I just feel embarrassed. Emi watched the whole thing today. She's so cute. I think Emi and Griffin have been the two best things about these past 16 years. I don't know what our family would be without them. Anyway, today hasn't been that special. I woke up with the flu. ugh. not fun. So my day has been spent crafting in the living room and being sick in the bathroom. I've actually got a pretty good start on my ruined tower of Amon Sul. It's for my Lord of the Rings game. I got started on it at Mom and Dad's when we were there earlier this week. I've been able to do some work at home.I think it's looking pretty good. It's about 18 inches in diameter. Emi helped with the glueing of the steps. Just so you don't think I'm a crafty genius I did have templates and instructions to make this. It's been fun. Now the question is can I see the project through to fruition. Maybe it should be a New Years Resolution.

cheers

Christmas Holidays

A couple of things. Christmas break started yesterday with a trip to Winnipeg for a Landville Drywall Christmas lunch. I got to sit with some of the guys and see just how much Dad's company has grown. I remember back when there was 10 of us around a table and Dad and Wilmer (business partner) were still doing grunt work. Yesterday there must have been 50 people in that room. I'm very proud of my Dad. He said there weren't a lot of new faces which meant Landville must be doing something right to get them to stick around. There are some days where I wish I had stayed with Landville because now would be the time I'd be taking over. But at the same time I don't think I was wired for that industry. I'm pretty happy at where I am in my life and where it is heading. I'm having a lot of fun being with kids and trying to be a good influence on them while trying to teach them something. And I don't think my Dad ever wanted me to take over. It's a tough job. I've very thankful/lucky to have this job to fall back on when we needed money because I've been in school or in between jobs. And I think Dad appreciates the fact that I want to be involved in the company. We certainly see each other more often then. And that, I would have to say is the best part.

cheers

Christmas Time's A'comin'

Well we're 6 days away from Christmas. I'm looking forward to the break. One of the reasons is that starting Thursday we're all going to be home for two weeks. That's because the kids and I are done school and Tina is taking holidays. It's been good getting ready for Christmas. We've been doing advent readings just about every night at supper with the kids. Part of the ritual is lighting candles before the meal and then turning off the lights. At the end of the meal we sing a Christmas song and do a reading that ends with the snuffing of the candles. This is the third year we've done this. It's become special. A way to slow down during the Christmas season.

We're going to need that slowing down now because it's going to be busy. We've got three gatherings an anniversary and New Years Eve to celebrate during that time. And hopefully get that darn skating rink done. I finally got the hoses out and started packing down some snow yesterday. Between my nephew and I we got about 1/4 of the rink done. I might get more done today but we'll see.

My practicum is almost done. I've really enjoyed spending these 5 weeks at Emerado. It's gone by so quickly though. I think I've learned a lot. I just need to sit down and figure out what. That's not a joke. I think there are lots of things I've learned and am probably incorporating without even knowing. All I can say is I can't wait till March.

cheers

Integers Game

I played a great game today with the kids in my class to introduce them to integers. I did it at the beginning of class and didn't even tell them the topic was integers. The basis of the play is taken from the old board game stock ticker. The basic play is using three dice to move stock up and down. For my game I used a 4 sided dice, a dice with with arrows, a 6 sided dice, a 10 sided dice and a 20 sided dice. On the board I had a graph style layout with the team names at the top (I let them choose) and then along the y-axis I had the board numbered from -10 at the bottom to 10 at the top. Everyone starts at zero. I put the kids into four teams and started the game. For the first few rounds I used the 4d, arrow dice and 6d. The 4d would tell me the team, the arrow would tell me up or down (pointing towards me was down, away from me was up) and the 6d was how far up or down they went. I started off rolling and then went around to groups to let them each member of the team roll. It got pretty loud but fortunately I had a headset microphone to use. I told them the first team that got to 10 would win some candy. Fortunately no one won right off the start. We went a number of round with no winner so I told them we were raising the stakes. I switched the d10 in for the d6. After a few more turns we were getting close to the end of class so I switched out the d20 for the d10 and had each group roll one more time regardless if a group reached 10. At this point I had the d20 rolled first, then the arrow then the group to build suspense. It was a lot of fun. The best part was when the kids were calling out the numbers they moved up or down to because I was too "slow". The team that won really enjoyed the candy too.

cheers

Another Day

I'm just about ready to head out for the day. I feel kind of crappy because I've got a cold and my head is all stuffed up. But I'm still looking forward to going. I'm having so much fun at Emerado. I feel like I'm a part of the community. The saddest thing is in January I'm back to once a week. That will be hard. And even more sad is that at the end of April I'm no longer a part of Emerado. I gotta go now. I have an evaluation today. I'll do more later maybe.

cheers

Practicum Block

So I've finished the first full week of my practicum block. (+1) day. It's been good/tiring/stressful/fun. A lot of times I feel like I'm one day ahead of the classes I'm teaching. I'm working one class at a time rather than looking at the big picture. Apparently real teaching can be like this too. I've taught about 10 classes? Give or Take? Some have been struggles some have gone really well. None have bombed yet. So that's good. I'm having fun for the most part. Everyone once in a while the angry eyebrows take over and I start getting a little cranky. Yes I do get cranky. I get so tired. I come home and I'm wiped. Lately I've been taking a nap right after supper. On Monday I actually fell asleep at the table.

Well two more math classes to get ready for tomorrow.

cheers