Stress

This week has sent my stress levels through the roof.

Not only am I writing final reports for my students, I also have to start applying for jobs for next year....and I had some devastating news.

My Mum was diagnosed with breast cancer this week. She found a lump in her breast the week before and was immediately sent for a mammogram and ultra sound. Luckily, she has been having mammograms regularly for the last 15 years or so, so they had plenty of history to check back on.

The result of those tests came back as cancer. We were all in shock.

The following day, Mum went to see the cancer specialist in Melbourne and received some much more encouraging news.

The "cancer" is actually Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS) - which is basically "pre-cancer". There are cancer cells present, but they are encapsulated in normal cells and have not yet become invasive. Very good news.

Even more amazingly, the lump she found was not the problem. It is highly likely they are benign cells. But because they were scanning that area, they found the problem cells. Talk about a miracle!

The result is, she has to have the cells surgically removed and that will happen December 18th (the last day of school for me this year). She may end up having some radiotherapy but won't require chemotherapy.

So, back to the job hunting. The school I am at now has two contract positions available next year, one of them is replacing the ICT specialist teacher (who has taken a new job as an ICT coach for all the schools in our area). She spoke to me yesterday morning and said she had recommended me for the position because she felt I was the only one she could entrust the job to! What a great ego boast that was :) It is also a fantastic opportunity because the position also entails becoming a "reading recovery" specialist, which will be another great skill for me to have to further develop my career and employment prospects. Fingers crossed I get this job!

Reports are almost finished. Half of the grade is done, the other half is more than 75% done. I hope to get them completed this weekend.

Finishing

I've been struck by the finishing bug. That's a very good thing.

I started this quilt in April this year. I took a course online at Quilt University during my first school holidays. Unfortunately, I ran out of time during my holidays and didn't get it finished. It's still not finished, but it is so much closer :)
There will be sashing between the blocks in the same dark brown as is already in the blocks. Then I plan on doing some sort of border around the whole thing to bring the finished size to about 68" square. My working title for the quilt has been Strawberries, Chocolate and Cream.

I have also been knitting a lot. I am addicted to knitting socks - which is a good thing since my niece begged me to knit a pair of socks for a friend of hers (it's very flattering, actually, that a teenager would make such a request ;)). Here's what I came up with:


And here's a pair of socks I made for me :)

Made with a really yummy yarn called Noro Kureyon Sock. Feels course when knitting it up, but once washed it is positively scrummy - very soft and cosy. To get the stripe effect, I knitted the socks from both ends of the ball at the same time. Two rows from each end. Of course, that makes it virtually impossible to have both socks look exactly alike, so these are fraternal twins.

Another overdue update

I'm one week away from the end of my third term as a classroom teacher. Then it's only one term of about 9 weeks to go to the end of my first year.

I have to say, I am incredibly tired. The last few weeks have been very busy. The school has a big production with all students involved. The senior grades are the main cast and the juniors are the "chorus". My students are in the chorus. This week we had our first performance. Leading up to this week, we have been doing lots of rehearsals. It's been hard to fit in our regular curriculum. Add to that all the other "special" activities.

First we had tabloid sports - the whole school participates in simple sports on a rotational basis. The school is divided into 4 "houses" and there is fierce competition between them on sports days such as this.

Then there was Book Week. We didn't do a great deal for this, but we did have a Storyteller come and visit and she was fabulous! While telling her stories she showed the children rope tricks and also folded an origami crane. The kids were completely enthralled.

Following Book Week, it was Literacy and Numeracy Week. We split the children up into mixed groups and they visited different rooms in the school to participate in some math activities based on storybooks. In my room, I was crazy enough to try making spider webs using cardboard circles with holes punched around the edges. To make the webs, the children had to lace yarn through these holes. While some were able to do this easily, most really struggled. (guess who ended up finishing many webs?) Nevermind, it was still fun. The book I used to introduce the activity was One Hungry Spider by Jeannie Baker

That same week, we also had two guessing competitions. One was to guess how many snakes were in a jar. The other was to guess which book was each teachers favourite when they were children (I chose The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe as mine - I would have chosen The Very Hungry Caterpillar - but my students would have got that one right away since we've been using it in the classroom this term). The children also brought in their favourite books that week and we had a "read in". It was so nice seeing small groups of children reading their favourite books to each other :)

Oh, we also had a day where kids carried a poem they wrote themselves in their pocket. That was a fun day to do yard duty :) I read many poems that day and all the children were so excited to share them. It was simply called "Poem in your pocket".

Next week, we have two more performances of our school production and on the last day of term we have a "show day", which is a bit like a mini state fair. All good fun!

Must say...I am really looking forward to my holidays :)

Hello. I'm still here...

I keep meaning to take a few moments to post here, but in the end I always forget. Or something else takes up my time.

Anyway. If you still read here - I am sorry. I know I have been neglectful. I won't make any promises though ;)

The news. I am coming to the end of my first 6 months as a classroom teacher. It has been good. It has been hard - so very hard! But it has also (mostly) been a pleasure.

I have a challenging group of children, with lots of different abilities. The class is a majority of boys - which is a challenge in itself ;)

I have survived. Mind you, I am getting my second major head cold this year. Not the Swine Flu though (I don't think).

AND...I have just been given a second 6 month contract! Yay!!!! So I am employed at least until the end of the year.

My first lot of reports are almost finished - that has been hard. I'm not sure it will ever get any easier either from what much more experienced teachers have been telling me.

So that's me. Thanks for hanging in there. I will try to update more often than every 3 months ;)

Another milestone...

Yesterday was my Graduation. It is official, I now have my Graduate Diploma of Education (Primary).

Here's a photo of me with my proud parents.
And here I am with two of my close friends I made last year. Belinda in the middle (because she's so darn tall) and Laura on the right. These girls made the year so much more enjoyable and I believe I have made some lifelong friends there. We chat regularly via email and sometimes by phone, comparing our experiences, crying on each other's shoulders or cheering each other's successes. There is one more person who should have been in this pic, but she was too shy to do the "walk on stage" thing and didn't want to do graduation. Her name is Lisa (and she's as tall, if not taller than Belinda). I feel very blessed to have met such wonderful people.


I went out for dinner after the ceremony with my parents. We went to a restaraunt close to home - our first time at this place - and it was wonderful! Great service, amazing food and we didn't have far to drive home afterwards!

Only a week of school to go and it is the end of first term. The time has just flown by. I am looking forward to two weeks off though.

Mojo Monday Card Challenge

This is the first time I have participated in the Mojo Monday Card Challenge though I am sure I have used their sketches to make cards before - just never entered :)



Recipe:
Hero Arts Clear Design: Four Dolls
Paper Trey Ink: Paper Tray
Basic Grey printed paper
SU! Whisper White and Glossy White paper
SU! Purely Pomegranate & Pretty in Pink ink
SU! Scallop border punch
Hero Arts Gems
Brad
Prima flowers

A new bag

Thanks for your lovely comments about the passing of my dear cat. I miss him so much every day.

Last week, I had an unexpected day off work due to the high fire danger. Since I was stuck at home, on high alert, I decided to do some sewing. I've had this pattern by Moonshine for about a year. I bought the fabric at the same time too - both were purchased at the Australasian Quilt Convention.

The pattern is called Paddington Satchel.

The bag is fully lined and has a mobile phone pocket, pen pocket and two other pockets for keys etc. I also used magnetic closures.

Goodbye

I just said goodbye to this gorgeous cat for the very last time. This photo was taken not quite 3 years ago - when he was the "sprightly" age of 14. He was still so full of spunk then - cheeky enough to lay across my scrapping table and try and get me to play with him.

He has not been so well for the last twelve months though. I thought he was on death's door at Easter time last year. He was obviously in immense pain - I think it was arthritis. He would sleep all day in the same spot in the garden. I'd go and get him at meal times so he would eat and then he'd slowly and painfully make his way back to the same spot again. After about a week of this, he was suddenly a lot better again - but his hind legs were still not "right". He also started to go blind at about this time.

Progressively, over the twelve months, he completely lost his sight. His hearing was perfect though and he come to our call or follow our footsteps. He had many mishaps though - he was constantly crashing into walls and trees. And he also fell off the edge of the stairs several times too. One time, I found him dangerously close to falling into the pond. We set up barricades to stop that happening again.

But finally, his time had come. Sadly, I think he had a stroke and completely lost the use of his limbs. It was hard to watch him so helpless. Thankfully, he wasn't like that for long.

I hope that he is now frolicking like a kitten again and finding a nice soft bed in the sun. I'll miss you dearly Maudy - you were the best cat, I've ever known.