Wordless Wednesday - Hi cow!

Hi Ho Hi Ho... it's off to you know where...

Today is September 1st and the thing that I have been in denial about (a.k.a... going back to work) is less than a week away. It's unbelievable to me, how fast this past year has gone. After 14 months off, spending 24/7 at home with my little boy, I'm going to have to venture back into the real world. Yikes!

The only saving graces that are keeping me from bursting into tears right about now are: (A) -  I'm finished work at 2:15 every day (thanks to an earlier start time) so I can rush home to the little one, and (B) - Edison will be home all day with his Daddy, which is awesome.

In the beginning of July I ventured in to the school, which is an old school - but new to me as this will be my first year teaching there. When I saw the band room... well I just about had a heart attack. It was a mess! There was stuff laying around everywhere. And there was DUST, DUST, and more DUST... which goes along with it being an old building I guess.

Anyone who knows me, knows I like to stay fairly organized at work... it's much more productive that way. Well, this was an organized person's nightmare and I knew I'd have to tackle it before the first day of school.

Last week Marilyn (who has sadly retuned home to the real world as well) went in with me one day while Jonathan stayed home for a trial-run with Edison for the whole day. My band room has three storage rooms, all of which were a total mess, so Marilyn and I dealt with one of those rooms that day. The room we cleaned was the one that stressed me the most because it had all the band music piled in it... in no order what-so-ever. It doesn't make for a very efficient music library when none of the music is in alphabetical order!!

While Marilyn put all the music in order (and entered it into the computer as she went), I dealt with binder upon binder of old stuff.... like outdated music resources and about 10 years of attendance binders. I don't know the music teacher who was at that school before me... and I don't want to be mean... but I think he was somewhat of a hoarder. There was so much stuff that just needed to be thrown out... that was clearly garbage, that he was hanging on to.

I took a few before and after pictures... they were taken on my phone so they aren't the greatest quality, but you'll get the idea.

This is the music room... my new home away from home 

The storage room BEFORE... binders, binders, and more binders 

The other side of the storage room BEFORE... this was the disastrous state the band music was in 

AFTER... the band music relocated as is now in alphabetical order 

AFTER of the other side. Note how you can actually see the floor!

This was all the garbage and recycling that came out of that room

On Tuesday my mom came over to hang out with Edison while Jonathan and I went in to deal with the other two storage rooms. I knew the school had a lot of guitars (63 to be exact) and a lot of them were missing strings, so Jonathan had the fun job of replacing strings while I dealt with the other stuff. I was absolutely covered from head to toe in dust!

Another example of the disorganization that I inherited  

Jonathan, hard at work 

Another storage room BEOFRE. There was so much piled in front of those filing cabinets, I had no idea what was in them.  

 Part way through the clean-up

AFTER... garbage gone, things back in an organized way

The guitars, after some TLC from Jonathan

BEOFRE... I didn't get a great picture of this storage room before because it was very full of stuff, and I couldn't find the light switch at the time 

AFTER... full but organized... we even found a floor in this one too! 

The garbage... there were a lot of things that would cost more to fix than to just buy new... so a lot was thrown out that day. 

As we were leaving, Jonathan said "I feel dirty"... and it was true, we were pretty gross. I'm glad it's dealt with now so that when I show up for my first day of real work next week, I don't have to worry about tackling any more dusty junk. Thank you to Marilyn and Jonathan for helping make my return to work a whole lot less stressful! 

Wordless Wednesday - Who needs clothes?!?

Powell River - Day 5

Thursday was our last day in Powell River, our visit was coming to a close. It was time for Jonathan to get back to work, Edison to get back to his real bed, and Albert to return home from his mini-vacation at my mom's house.

We decided not to leave for the ferry until 2:30 in the afternoon, so we still had a lot of time to hang out and do a few last minute fun things.

We went for the usual morning walk with the wagon. This time Tyler and Linden joined us as well. We began the walk with Edison and Sienna in the wagon, Tyler on a bike, and Linden walking. Part way through Linden decided he wanted a turn in the wagon, so Sienna got out to walk. Once Linden was in, Sienna decided she wanted to pull the wagon! Let me tell you, this thing is harder to pull when bigger kids are in it. I didn't think she'd make it more than a few feet. Well, she sure proved me wrong! That girl is a trooper and she just kept pulling and pulling. Then, tired from all that pulling, she decided to pile into the wagon and we had our first three-person wagon ride.

Edison and Sienna at the beginning of the walk. If you enlarge the photo, you can see that Edison is blowing raspberries. 

Linden's turn 

Muscle-girl Sienna, pulling the boys 

All piled in

After our walk we decided to say our goodbyes to our friends, the chickens. While Edison wasn't really interested in touching the chickens, he sure did like watching them. This was also the first time that I was the one to collect their eggs... every other day, someone else beat me to it!

Going into the coop to see what I can find 

TA DA! Beautiful brown eggs

In the early afternoon, Marilyn and Tyler took the kayak out to get the crab trap. Thanks to Jonathan's underwater video (aka - his lazy way of checking the trap with out having to pull it up or touch anything slimy), we knew that there was a big sea star in there. When one of those gets into the trap, no crabs will go near it. So, out they went to bring it in. When Marilyn tried to pull it up, it was so heavy that she couldn't get it up and into the boat. She ended up dragging it behind the kayak the whole way back to shore. Here's why:

It had three sun stars in it! 

I decided to be brave and pick one up 

It was prickly and mushy all at the same time 

Sienna inspecting them. According to Sienna, you should never touch the middle... or they will eat your hand. 

Marilyn and I went for one last kayak ride to put the newly cleaned crap trap back in the water. Jonathan went out for one last underwater video searching for the big dogfish, sharky thing. We packed, said our goodbyes and it was time to hit the road. 

One last picture of Nana and all her grandkids 

Marilyn: Queen of the self-portraits (thank goodness for cameras with timers)

My little walker is always on the move

Thank you to Sara, Gord and family for having us out for another awesome visit! We had so much fun and I love watching Edison with his cousins! If we're not back sooner, we look forward to coming back again next summer!

Powell River - Day 4

This past Wednesday, we enjoyed another great day in Powell River.

It was a day filled with walks. Marilyn had been going for a walk with Edison and Sienna every morning that we were there. On Wednesday, I decided to join them. We walked down to the end of their road and back and by the time we pulled back up to the house, Edison was passed out! It was really cute. This was the first time he's fallen asleep in the wagon.

Arriving back at the house 

Fast asleep... clutching Sophie

Later that afternoon, Marilyn and I took all of the kids to Willingdon Beach to hang out and explore the area. We started at the playground where everyone enjoyed climbing, swinging, and general monkeying around. After that we went on the Willingdon Beach Historical Walk, and then ended the afternoon with a little picnic at the beach. 

Edison and Sienna on the swings 

All four cousins, teeter-tottering 

Reading one of the many signs along the history walk 

A squirrel!  

Checking out the tugboat!  

Sienna, driving the bulldozer 

Pretending she's in jail.  

Tyler, swinging it up 

A huge steam engine!

This Willingdon Beach experience was a far cry from the last time Jonathan and I were there in December. We were basically at the beach for 10 minutes before we decided it was too freezing cold out, and promptly got back into the car. It was so nice to be able to spend so much time outside this time around and really enjoy our surroundings.