BBQ Season!

If it was up to me, this would be an official season.  BBQed food has it's own flavour, its own personality.  I love it, and thankfully, my chef husband loves preparing it.  :)  Here's what was for dinner tonight:

Bison prime rib (BBQed, of course), barley risotto with spinach, onions and bacon, and steamed broccoli.
Here's the source of the inspiration:

Rick's new toy.  He searched long and hard for this addition to our family.  Now, I can't give you shopping requirements and details of what he was looking for, but it had something to do with massive BTUs, a rotisserie, large cooking surface, and I think it had to look good. :) This one fit the bill, after much shopping around.  It's awesome & he's very happy with it. Bring on the summer!!

THE MTS AGM; OMG.

For the past 3 whole days, I have been attending The Manitoba Teacher's society Annual General Meeting.  Just to give a little background to those who need it, teachers in this province belong to 2 unions.  Their local one (such as Louis Riel Teacher's Association, or mine, the Winnipeg Teacher's Association) AND a provincial union as well; Manitoba Teacher's Society.  (Why 2 unions, you ask?  That's another discussion and debate all together- some for it, most against.)  So every year, there is an Annual General Meeting for delegates from all the little local unions to come together and talk about some big education issues, the budget, our retirement fund, (re)elect the MTS executive, and a host of other tidbits.  This Annual General Meeting (AGM) is held over 3 days.  3 very, very long days.  This year I decided to request to attend.

I think it's important to be informed.  This school year, I am one of the delegates from our school to attend our local union meetings (WTA), so I thought that it would be taking it a step farther to attend the MTS AGM as well, as seeing as our school had not been represented at this meeting for a long while, show our solidarity in attending.

First came the pre-meeting; called the "Binder Meeting".  At this gathering about 3 weeks before the AGM, you are presented with the largest binder you can purchase that has all the information you need for the upcoming meeting.  Over the next 3.5 - 4 hours, the local union went over said binder, including all info you needed as a delegate to vote in an informed way.  READ: information overload. I went home very apprehensive of the upcoming AGM.

Then the AGM.  3 days of intense discussions.  Session started at 9, broke at 12 for lunch, reconvened at 1:30, went to 5.  No breaks.  All talk, with some raising of hands.  LOTS of arguing over small points of contention.  At this AGM, each local union has an opportunity to raise amendments to policy.  There were 100+ amendments to talk and discuss over these 3 days, in between other official reports, called "timed items" (timed items to be held at specific times in the schedule, hence the name).  Timed items often were dry, consisting of retirement info (looooong way away), budget (numbers- YUCK), Provincial Executive elections, or other speeches carrying little interest.  During these times I found myself amusing myself as I could, and creating doodling pages that describe visually the time I had on my hands.  Day one:

  I simply took a "FYI" memo and decided to decorate.  This is usual of my meeting diversions; in order to focus better, I busy my hands.  Some do marking, some puzzles, I artistically doodle. I do not in any way consider this art, but it makes me happy to create it.  :) During the lengthy budget talks on Thursday, this is what I got done.
Day 2: 

I got a little more creative the second day, and found the dividers in the binder a much better doodle surface.  On Friday I used the "union-speak" words of the AGM as a platform to create this page.  Words such as "amendment", "delegate", "A or B resolutions" inspired me. Most of this was done during the TRAF (Teacher's Retirement Allocation Fund) talk.
Day 3:

Day 3 I took a different style.  I took a collective look at all the acronyms of all the local unions, and patterned them around the provincial union, MTS.  The medium size letters around MTS are all the local unions in the city of Winnipeg (Pembina Trails Teachers Association, River East Transcona Teacher's Association, etc), and the handwritten ones are all the rural unions (Borderland Teacher's Association, Portage la Prairie Teacher's Association, etc.). Amusing.  I didn't have a lot of time today, as it was Saturday and business was at a quicker pace, but complete none-the-less.  :)

Just to show you that I was not close to the sole person amusing themselves as they see fit, one person that caught me eye was a gentleman from the AEFM (French Teacher's union) that was making the most intricate origami.  He was passing them out, and I got this one:

An eagle.  Amazing, Eh?  He also made numerous frogs, dinosaurs (a T-Rex, awesome!!), and others.

All kidding aside, the AGM makes very important decisions about the welfare of teachers.  While so much is political rhetoric, the well-being of the teaching profession follows guidelines developed at these meetings.  Everything from professional development, to prep time to terms of disability is discussed, with so much more in between.  I am happy I was a part of it this year.  Future years, well, we'll have to see how I feel after catching up on sleep missed, work at school, cleaning at home, and time missed with family.

Oh, and for the teaching community out there, here's a newsflash:  As of September, it's no longer a "SAG" conference, it's a "SAGE" Conference.  (Special Area Groups of Educators).  Cool, eh? No more sag jokes.

Today when I arrived home today after 7 hours of meeting, I found this:

...and I curled up on the couch next to them.  Nice.
Thankfully, I have tomorrow to put my affairs in order before heading back to work.  :)

Holiday weekend fun! **and car repair update**

Heloooooooo holiday weekend!  There are so many factors stacked against me for not having a good weekend, yet, I am.  Erika these days has been prone to extreme moodiness, resulting in tantrums at the slightest provocation, Rick's suffering from the dreaded man-cold, the car is just out of the shop with a very large repair bill, and the weather was not cooperating for outdoor play.
YET, I rise to the challenge!!  Saturday morning I went with Erika to my sister's for some visiting and a mall walk- which only resulted in 2 full-blown tantrums.  :)  The rest of the time was a lot of fun.  You even find humor in these situations; like when your daughter is screaming full-volume and you just happen to run into a coworker AND a friend.  Yikes.  Winnipeg really is too small at times.
Saturday afternoon was lovely.  Whilst Erika ate then napped with Ricky watching over her, I indulged in a coffee and mani/pedi.  LOVELY.  See?:

Pumiced feet, and pretty toes.  :)

 

Then I headed to Superstore to shop unencumbered by child.  Still fun,although it was grocery shopping.   Sunday morning brought a visit out to Grandma's house for a brunch of waffles, strawberries and whipped cream. Omg, so good.  For a while now, I've been considering cutting Erika's hair.  She often gets small knots because of the fineness, and cries daily about brushing.  It breaks my heart to have to put her through something like that unnecessarily.  So, after much heartache (for I LOVE the girly-girl look), my mother cut about 2.5 inches off the bottom. It was hard, but I think it will be so much cooler for her for the summer, and less struggle every morning.

So, to compensate loosing the long hair, when we went to Costco I bought her two flowery sundresses for the summer.  :) 
AND...THERE'S STILL ONE MORE DAY TO GO!!  So, technically, isn't this Saturday night all over again?  Niiiiiice.

**More on the "flashing engine light": Turns out, the car's 2/4 spark plugs were misfiring (not covered for replacement), and something called a piston or cylendar head was replaced (covered under power train warranty).  Even with the coverage, we're down about $500.  Could be worse, I guess.

 

A flashing light and spring fling!

Today was an exhausting day.  It started this morning with the engine light flashing once again.  Now, the engine light has been on/flashing for a bit now, but we took the car in yesterday to get this fixed.  It was out the same day, with a $200ish bill for new spark plugs and diagnostic.  They thought they fixed the problem, but it was not so.  :( The same problem was there this morning, thus making another trip back to the south-end dealership necessary tomorrow morning.  I can only cross my fingers for a *major* problem to be discovered, one that is covered under our extended power train warranty.  We have the worst luck with car repairs, though, so this will probably be bad news tomorrow.  Stay posted for an update.

Today was also the Spring Fling band and choir concert at the school.  The day consisted of band/choir practices and a dress rehearsal.  For the evening performance, 2 of the 4 grade 6 teachers couldn't make it to supervise, so it was left on the most part to myself and another to contain 100 grade 6s before, during and after the concert.  There was one point in the concert where the 7 and 8s were singing and the 6s out of the performance room.  We kept them in the next room, the smaller gym of the school.  Now, if you've ever been around LARGE groups of adolescents, you know that their energy is multiplied when together.  Imagine 100 of them in the same space for 25ish minutes. OMG.  They were crazy.  I THOUGHT that they couldn't be heard in the performance space, but the noise of them (which was considerable) was leaking out a bit through the back doors.  After a bit, I had an aggravated parent come up to me and the other teacher, asking who was supervising the rowdy group.  Now, it being 8:30 at night, I probably was not with it enough to respond correctly.  I calmly looked at him and said; "Well, me, but it got too loud to be in there." 
He was not amused; I promptly got the motley crew to simmer down. *Whoops*  All ended well, great music was sang and played (Star Wars and Spiderman theme, along with a Journey compilation and Queen too.  Awesome!).

Ahhhh, spring at last around here.  A pic of Erika in one of her new springy outfits is in order:

Such a little lady! 

I promise to get some outside pics taken soon, as we're spending lots of play time

out of doors with the warm weather.   

HAPPY MAMA'S DAY!

Happy, happy day to everyone that celebrates motherhood today.  I'm very lucky to celebrate with my family and be showered with attention, gifts and affection.  We stayed in for most of the day today, and that was perfect.  After the week I've had, a little r&r to recuperate was just what I needed.  Ricky catered to me today with a sleep-in to start, cinnamon bun french toast for breakfast, and many other little favors throughout the day to make today so nice.  Along with hugs and "happy mama's day" whispered from my little girl, I was showered with gifts:

A heartwarming pot rest with Erika's hand print, a much-needed mug, mums that Erika picked out herself after sniffing all the pots of flowers in Safeway, and a lovely handmade card.  Very, very sweet!

What a great day- I don't want it to end. 

It's been a week...

I think it's been a week since I've last posted.  It's been a rough week, to say the least.  Shortly after my last post, I got the sad news that my Uncle Ray passed away.  I haven't been very close to Uncle Ray for the last 15 years, but I have very fond memories of him as I was growing up.  He was always ready with a hug at the family gatherings, and I always found myself sitting beside him.  He was quick with a joke or a funny tale, and always asked how I was doing and what was new.  He was great. 
One story I remember vividly is when a friend of mine and I decided to visit Uncle Ray at the fire station where he worked.  I was in high school at the time, and my friend had just gotten their licence, so driving around for any reason WAS a good reason.  We stopped at a Tim's, picked up a dozen donuts and went by.  Uncle Ray was so happy to see me.  He invited us in and gave us the grand tour, which included trying on the full fire fighter's uniform.  I was hesitant, being a very cool teenager, but did and got a great laugh.  I wish I could find the pictures we took that day. 
He was an amazing guy, full of life and love and laughs.  His face is always in a smile in my memories. I know that it sounds silly because I hadn't spoken to him for such a long time, but I'll miss him and remember times with him fondly. The funeral was this past Friday, with all the ceremony of the Fire Department- bag pipes, honor guard, ceremonial bell.  It was very moving.

In addition to being sad this week, I was struck with my 1st cold in about 3 years.  I've felt a sniffle or a tightness in the chest a bit here and there, but this one hit me like a ton of bricks.  Sinus congestion, nasal drippage to the extreme, then a cough that keeps you up at night.  It's lovely.  :/  Thankfully, the worst seems to be over.  Erika's been sniffling a bit today, and I REALLY hope it's not the start of what I had!! **fingers crossed**

On a positive note, Rick and Erika have been very sweet this "Mother's Day weekend" showering me with affection, attention and gifts.  My new Starbucks travel mug (double walled stainless steel, baby!) will be put to good use, and the potted mini mums that Erika picked out are so pretty.  Erika also made me a pot rest at daycare made out of stone with her hand print on it, and a homemade card.  So sweet. 

We're switching Erika over from a crib to a toddler bed this weekend, and so far, so good.  We went out and bought a new comforter that she picked out,(Ummm... Dora, of course!) and a big-girl pillow.  She is loving her "special bed" and really likes how she can climb in and out of it herself.  She needed a couple reassurances last night, but for the most part slept fine.  It's low enough to the ground that I'm not worried about her falling out, and she's been pretty good about it.