h had a floor allergy this morning which meant he had to be carried everywhere and all the time, or the screaming.
So I took him to school, because he did not seem able to go to day care. He was mostly a sad little scrap at school unless his mum was with him, and then he cheered up a bit. The kids like h, but he is a serious impediment to teaching. Quite distracting. But I did manage to explain to myself the difference between autopolyploidy and allopolyploidy, even if all the students didn't follow. But they reckon they did.
But it is indeed a lovely thing about this school, that they quite like having kids come, and you certainly don't get any harrasment about them being there, while most schools hate having littlies come in with mummy or daddy.
Today was glorious weatherwise, and I was completely irresponsible and spent the afternoon doing gardening things and having a swim.
We took the lawnmower to the fixit man, as it made a fearsome noise when I started it. He didn't get it till lunchtime, but had it fixed by three. Wonderful service at Gonville Mowers and Bikes.
Off to be a little responsible now, and look at the thesis.
OOHHHH isn't it pretty!!
That's enough looking...
Heh
Today I went swimming in the pool for the first time since we bought this place, and of course the pool. It was wonderful. The water was great, and because it is a private pool, I can dive as much as I like. Public pools don't let you dive very often...
I was interviewed for the school magazine today. Racheal make up a story and then checked with me that it was okay. Rather a novel approach to interviewing. She also tried to get a picture, and some of the shots she got look like I need to do remedial evolution.
Had Ronnie round for tea which is always wonderful, she loves the kids the cooking and the house, so I always feel like the whole evening just glows.
Damn boring I know, but i want you to know I have had half a root canal done, and it didn't hurt at all. Nor was it particuarly uncomfortable. There were some funny moments.
One moment that was not funny was having anaethetic injected directly into one of my facial nerves. It was like a jackhammer travelling up one side of my face.
Funny was the dentist hitting the wrong button, and I was sitting upright with no lid on my tooth like he was sending me away like that. We both laughed.
Funny for me was him dropping the handpiece with the filling compound in it. He was rather embarrassed, and apologised. I said "Shit happens". He plans to remember that for the next time it happens to his technician person. I suspect he has been grumpy about it before, but will try at least for a short time to be more philosophical about it.
posons did not mean anything to me. The student who wrote it couldn't even work out what it said.
Turns out to have been poisonous. If she had been a lot closer she would have got the mark, and passed...
Took a small class out today to the bush so they could collect data for doing some credits on zonation. Went well. Will be interesting to see how they go with making some sense of the data they collected.
R swimming again tonight and the temperature up to 22 degrees C. I'm thinking of getting in myself...
Things going pretty well, but are financially stretched even though it is pay week. All my pay will be transferred to the dentist, and we don't actually have enough in the account to re-pay the credit card so we are effectively in debt... And Christmas is coming.
Cue the theme from Jaws.
Appaarently my teeth don't actually have any root canals, and so the appointment I have with the dentist on Wednesday for a root canal may be a meaningless experience. But the lack of blood supply and general vitality under the surface of enamel explains why the teeth are going so rapidly to crap.
Heh.
The bugger is that this is going to cost me heaps.
the seventh form are away so I am down one class, I don't feel very enthusiastic.
I definitely have to see the dentist about the tooth on the other side - it feels exactly like the first sucky tooth did in the weekend. Damn.
Bills seem to be mounting up alarmingly. I am getting stressed.
I have a permanent job.
Now I've signed up, I'm getting jittery about whether it is the right thing. But that may be Ctinuing tooth issues.
Its hurting on both sides now.
I had a toothache for the weekend. I haven't really had bad pain from my teeth before. I hope I don't have it again, but that may not be a realistic hope.
I was in tears this morning when I rang the dentist and they said not till Wednesday. But then they created space for me, and it was 1 pm today. I was still in tears when I got to 11 science, but they coped and so did I. Kids can be a lot more sympathetic than some people would have you believe.
Me and the class worked out the cost would be about $800. The dentist reckons they are bang on. Thats pretty painful too. We all reckon the plan is to do a root canal on the bad tooth and remove the wisdom tooth. But the spoiler is the bad tooth may not even be good enough to do a root canal on, and then I might lose that tooth too.
The antibiotics and the local anaesthetic mean I have felt better this afternoon than I have all weekend. That's a sad indictment on the weekend.
Rang the previous HOD and told him I can't apply for his job which i had previously said I could. But the present boss is going to give me three weeks paid study leave to do my thesis in, so I feel obligated to return to present school, at least for a while next year.
But I wish I could go to school A in some ways. The kids work a bit harder, and the top students there are really very clever. And I like that a lot. The top students where I am ain't nothing particularly special. And doing two tests with different classes today Cfirmed that in my mind - they really struggle to learn anything as they have NO SKILLS. I am going to have to spend heaps of time on teaching them to learn instead of teaching them science. Ah well, good skill for me to have.
Took senior son to the drama class, and he is going to be in the end of year production. He will be a frog in cinderella. I don't know what the frogs are in there for, but we will know by the time rehearsals are over. And he really liked it. So we will be going to drama classes for a while at least.
Yay, weekend, and even better, the husband is going to be home with his family to enjoy it too.
Prepare your lessons, its more restful than winging it. Even some prepared lessons are better than none.
Don't buy into negative whinging. No, teaching isn't a slack easy no-stress job. But it also isn't the hardest most stressful job either. And who else gets all those holidays right from the first year of work? Its not a privilidge all those weeks off, its actually a right! All teachers get them!
Don't lose your only copy of the class textbook, especially when the school doesn't have any more copies. And especially not when there are only five weeks of teaching to go so it doesn't seem worth buying another one...
First day back and it was raining. I don't think many people were very keen to get back to the chalkface. First up was my hardest class and I think it showed. For them and me.
Staff meeting ended up being a few short items, and then because so many people don't do what they are asked to do, we spent ages working out who was getting what prizes. Interesting how some people think - and their priorities. The sports teacher places a great emphasis on sport, while the deans value behaviour and the Religious education head values Csistent persistent attitudes. But good to have more input than just signing some kid up in a voting fashion.
Went to friends house for tea - should really have come home and got my shit together.
Apparently women with jobs and children are not frequent bloggers. Wow, I'm amazed. Its something so obvious we probably need to fund research to find out if it is true. And whether the workload of two essentially full time jobs has anything to do with it...
I had a good break in Nelson with the parental ones. They have just bought a new camper van and me and h were Not Allowed In. Especially h. It was all shiny and new, and H has Very Sticky Hands which Leave Marks. But the rumour is the marks all over the french door thingys are being left for a few days as a momento of our visit. Sweet. They are also much more flexible these days about me using the bigger car with the car seat clips, which makes me much happier about the safety parts of driving with the kids. Even if I do tend to indicate I'm about to turn a corner with the window wipers! (its european, and the little levers for the indicator and windscreen wipers are reversed from my car).
My friend who refuses to solve her problems still has the same problems - no surprise!! ;) It can be frustrating being her friend, but it is not my place to solve her problems, only to be a supportive friend. Its one hell of a learning curve for my own self discipline.
The children seemed to have a good time. The husband is getting cranky about all the weekends that he is having to spend away (four in a row, we're up to number two). It makes me happy that he is cranky about it, otherwise I might think he would rather not be at home.
Today the paragon of a husband climbed onto the roof (which is a long way from the ground, and therefore out of my safety zone) and cleared out the gutter. Now when it rains we don't have Niagara Falls outside the bathroom window. When he pulled the gunk out that was blocking the downpipe, it roared and shook as the water drained away. Its making me deleriously happy, all the silence when it rains.
Which it is doing a lot.
At the other end of the house there is a gas fire going, and there is a dog and a cat sharing a beanbag in front of it. I was going to turn it off as there is no-one up that end of the house, but they looked so happy, and aren't they 'someones' too?