Happy Birthday Uncle Tim!

Oh and here is that video by Cindy. She re-posted it on YouTube.

It's time to spice up my blog with more interesting things to look at. I think I've become addicted to browsing Flickr. I know that I'm behind the times in creating one of these things, but who can resist? They are so yummy and inspiring. It's like a huge release of endorphins just looking at it for me. Sounds silly, but seriously!


It's Saturday morning, I'm about to listen to music, probably this person because I've just discovered him on iTunes and I must have his new album. I think a lot of the songs can be downloaded directly from his site. I just love his sound, track after track, and it makes me happy.


Now I'm going to make birthday cards for my uncle, Alex, and Patrick's father, whose birthdays are all soon approaching. Yay creativity! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Well I'm sick AGAIN!! I blame it on the germ-infested children that I am constantly surrounded by. I've had a massive headache for the past 24 hours, a sore throat, and overall, I just feel like crap. I hate it because it's my weekend off of work and I wanted to be outside doing all kinds of fun things, but it looks like I will be keeping it on the down low for the next little while until I get better.

What an exciting morning I had going through old bills, bank statements, and pay slips (some from 2001, hello, what the heck do I still have them for?). I shredded most of the them, and then organized my new file folder with labels. It feels good to have a place for everything, but at the same time it almost seems like nothing was accomplished. I had so much stuff compacted in one area that I managed to fill an entire garbage bag, and yet my room still looks exactly the same as it did before. Ah, the joys of not yet owning your own home and having to hoard everything that belongs to you in such a tiny space...

I subbed in Kindergarten yesterday, and surprisingly didn't LOVE it the way I thought I would. Yes, it was fun, but I was overwhelmed by the neediness of the group, who would not stop with their "Miss Ashley's" every five seconds, and I'm not even exaggerating! I'm having second thoughts about whether I'd really prefer teaching younger grades. I know I shouldn't base my decision on one experience alone, plus I was feeling under the weather, so I will hold judgement and see what it's like when I'm on stage. It's not like I will get to choose which grade I'll have anyways, so I guess in the end it's futile even thinking about it.

I've been wanting to scrap lately but find that I have a shortage of good pictures. I need to plan some photo-shoots or force myself to use older pictures. I'm also continuously overcome with the urge to go shopping, but then I look at how many supplies I actually have, and I feel guilty even fantasizing about it. I mean, come on, let's try to make a tiny dent in the ridiculous stash I have just sitting there! There are certain items that I do need, like card stock and adhesive, but I can't really justify a trip to the West Island only for those items. Maybe I will have to go to Omer DeSerres, but they never really have what I'm looking for. Oh, the dilemmas of a scrapbooker!

Alright, enough rambling. Here's a layout I made last weekend:

It's been a busy week, with work at three different places (daycare, subbing and library) and taking care of my dad since he's still not very well. We're trying to ween him off his muscle spasm medication right now to see if it's that what's caused him all this. However, it's still very possible that there is depression and anxiety combined with it. The doctor and pharmacist both agreed that it was better to get him off these pills first, however, before starting more pills and possibly complicating things further. He's been in slightly better spirits, but still is very weak and tired, and hence doesn't feel like doing much. It's hard to see him in this state - he's not himself. I can't wait until he starts to feel better. We try our best to keep him busy, but it's when he's alone that it's pretty rough and he gets very down and lonely. It's all part of the adjustment period after a stroke, I know, but still... some days I just can't even believe that all this has happened - it really feels surreal. I try my best to keep positive and hope for better days. I also relish in the small pleasures of daily life. I am definitely learning how to be patient and trying my best to be mature, strong, and so forth. One day at a time.

I scrapbooked a bit this morning - it's been ages since I've made a page. It feels good to get back into it. I've found this new site called picnik that allows you to edit photos online and then download them to your computer. I simple love it! I think one of the reasons I wasn't scrapping much, aside from all the craziness going on, was because I wasn't inspired by any of my photos. Well, this site is helping me make even crappy photos look good.

Patrick's sister Cindy is finally graduating from Cegep and we went to see a show at her school the other night. It was a compilation of all the best videos made by students in the Creative Arts program. Her video was the best by far!! It was an Barbie animation/comedy where Barbie discovers, to her horror, that Ken doesn't have a real "package". The whole audience was dying of laughter the entire time, and then they burst into frantic applause at the end. I wish I could post it here but I think she would lose the rights to the video in that case (since she had to take it off YouTube for that reason).

Aside from that, Patrick and I lugged the entire RockBand game over to my house last night in the hopes that it would inspire my parents, my dad in particular, to have a fun time and to do something together. They tried a few songs and they seemed to like it, but it was a little too hard for them and they gave up! Pat and I sang/drummed/guitared our little hearts out nonetheless, but it was an extremely aggrivating ordeal since the x-box is having issues and it keeps giving Pat the red light of death. So before we play, he always has to overheat it, then stick it in the freezer. I'm telling you, the man's a technical godsend and I have no clue how the hell he's able to fix all these intricate machines simply by researching tips on the Internet. Thank you babe, I really appreciate all your effort.

Anyways, I'm off to eat very shortly. Here's a pic of Patrick that I edited using the site I mentioned. Take care!

Tags, tags and more tags! That's because I'm making them for every single student in "my" class, since tomorrow is the last day I'm there. I wanted to individualize them, so needless to say it's taking a rather long time. I have yet to write special messages to each student. Tania is baking them cupcakes, so once we put everything together, I think they're in for a nice surprise.

A new episode of Lost tonight is one thing to look forward to. There wasn't enough Sawyer last week, so let's hope for some of that tonight. I also want more details about these new "others" from the boat.

In other news, well, there are some difficult things to deal with on the home front. I won't go into much detail, but my dad is experiencing depression and anxiety lately. Apparently there's a 50% chance that stroke victims will have this, so it's quite normal. We're just hoping that he starts feeling better soon because it can sometimes be very overwhelming for everyone, especially when he's having feelings of worthlessness and worrying about everything imaginable under the sun. The doctor has prescribed him some pills, so we're hoping that will help. I was apprehensive at first, but after a certain point, it was just too much and we all decided that he needed that extra little push to overcome it. We'll see how it goes - I'm really hoping for the best.

So it's National Scrapbooking Day, and I'm not celebrating (shocking isn't it?). The reason is two-fold. First, I'm working today. Second, we're celebrating my mom's birthday this evening. I'm a bit disappointed, but then again, I don't think I would have been very productive there. I would have liked to meet some online friends in person, however. I hope you all have a great time!

I've been coming down with something the past few days, no doubt contracted from being around so many children. It hasn't become full blown and I'm trying to mentally override it. I'm just low energy, and this morning in particular, I don't feel much like working out. I really should. I may. But perhaps making a scrapbooking layout before work would be better?! We shall see. I think because there is no sunlight streaming through my basement window, I have less motivation. It sounds silly, but it really does play some part in my mood.

My first evaluation on stage went well. It's intimidating to have someone observing from the back of the room. I became much more self-conscious and constantly felt that I needed to take more control to show that I'm not letting Tania take the full load. It's tricky when you're team-teaching. Of course we both know that we are sharing responsibility and we work well together, but we were both worried that he may not perceive it that way. Thankfully, however, he had only positive things to say and thought that we complimented each other very well. He even said that it was okay if we did our second evaluation together, so heck yes, I'm all about less pressure. We're going to come up with some amazingly fun science lesson that somehow incorporates a potion from the Harry Potter novel they've been reading. We just have to put on our thinking caps between now and next Wednesday.

Last night Patrick and I went out for supper with Julie and Ken since Julie and I had a craving for Leo's cheese pizza - yum. The biatch waitress wasn't there, thankfully, but "our" waitress, the nicest waitress ever, was. It was a nice time, and Julie quite entertained us while imitating one of the boys she was teaching. Afterwards, Pat and I watched "Gone Baby Gone" and I was pleasantly impressed by it. It had lots of twists, and the ending was so powerful. It brought up lots of huge questions about the grey zones in life... you should check it out if you haven't already.

Anyways, time to go. But I shall post some newish pages to celebrate NSD.