I told you so!

Blog. I have a blog?

School is soon in full swing. The order is (roughly) decided for each unit and each lesson for the first semester in each class, though I haven't formally written up all the lessons. I have a good idea how to break down my assessment/evaluation to derive a mark. I just have to finish a syllabus for each class but the information is ready to go!

I've just tackled a little bit every day for most of the summer. It really doesn't seem like I've done much, and I know that, come the start of school, I will have to kick it in gear a lot more. I just hope that I've done enough this summer!

I can see already that this blog is going to fall by the wayside, especially since I feel it is very unprofessional to complain about student behaviour on the internet. I guess I could brag a little, which will hopefully be the case some of the time. Furthermore, I could complain about how stupid computers are when they don't work because we all know that I will be frustrated with the computers at least some of the time!

Speaking of computers, I made the cutest movies on Windows Movie Maker with pictures and video clips of the kids I used to babysit; well, I think that they are cute anyway! I'd upload them but I'm not comfortable putting too much information on the internet about other people's kids, or even my own. In fact. I don't think that I've put many pictures up, even on facebook.

I'm just going on and on about nothing so I might as well get down to some real work.

Nice wedding pictures Sheryl-Ann!

Working Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down

Oops! I actually posted this one without any information included! Apparently, I am not supposed to press "return" that many times.

Really, I'm not so down, just sometimes overwhelmed when I think of the work that is going to go into this fall. I am so glad to be back in the classroom but I am so not looking forward to the additional work involved! Really, I should write a very short blog!

One read suggested that I should blog about acronyms used in texting which might be sort of interesting if I knew any. I don't even own a cell phone. While some consider us to be in the stone ages, I just truly don't want to let other people have the ability to contact me that often. I am one the few who will glory when my gmail account has no messages or my telephone message manager is empty. Crazy? Perhaps!

Truthfully, the dedicated Mac user in our home would like to get an iphone but we'll see.

Anyway, if any people who read this want to clue me in re: a few texting acronyms, feel free.

Oh yeah, Jen, if you're reading this, I must let you and all other English people know that I sometimes feel a little intimidated when I know that those reading could also be critiquing my work. This is probably because I do the same when I read other people's compositions. I am somewhat irritated by incorrect capitalization, punctuation, word usage and the like.

And, I also thought I'd respond here, in my blog, regarding potty training. I didn't want the thread to be sent to all my facebook friends when I comment on potty training. We started putting all the kids on the potty at 18 months. With my mom's help, my first was trained by 2 years, 4 months, night time and everything. I mostly looked after my second and the same thing happened. I used to think that people who didn't have their kids trained by 3 yrs were lazy.

Then, I potty trained a child for the third time. I began the same way but with different results. Four months before she turned four, one week before her friends would go to prekindergarten without her, she finally relented and decided to put her #2 in the potty instead of diapers or underwear. There was a very long time when I thought my house would constantly smell like a poop factory.

Lately, in talking with friends, I found out that other kids who get "bunged up" have trouble potty training. They are so afraid to go to the potty because they are afraid they might have a bowel movement, even if they only intend to go #1. So, with this child I've learned not to sweat potty training because begging, punishments or even bribes (she got a mini-computer the other kids didn't get) would not work. We are still working on night-time training with this child and I am just "going with the flow," most literally!

Thankfully, my final potty training experience has been much easier! The fourth and final potty trainer decided one day that she would potty train. One morning, at about 2 years, 4 months, I put her into panties and she had about 3 accidents. (Oh yeah, eventually, this is key; those pull-ups let them be lazy. While it is more work, they are a little more hesitant to wet themselves when they are wearing underwear.) Anyway, when I put a pull-up on her for "quiet time," she had to go and actually told me about it. I was a little miffed that she hadn't done this earlier but after that she just told us all the time. I even have her out of diapers at night even though her older sister is not!

This just shows that while parents need to put effort into training, we really have so little control over what happens.

And, I do find that bribing works. I sometimes think, "Well, they'll be chubby and potty trained."

So after my "opus" on potty training, I should sign out and get to work. On last thing, I am trying not to write too much about my family, knowing that anyone in the world could be reading this! So, if you kind readers are at all concerned, please tell.

Over and out. (Have I used this one before?)

This afternoon I all of a sudden thought, "Oh yeah, my blog!"

We've been busily enjoying a vacation in Regina, with a short hiatus for a family reunion in Swift Current, and are soon to return home. I have accomlished almost all I set out to accomplish here in Regina; as in previous summers, I run all of the "big city" errands that are more easily done when offices and stores are ten or fifteen minutes away rather than one, two or even three hours away. I won't go into detail.

Our family reunion was wonderful. I really miss the times that I spent on the farm as a child. We were SO carefree; unbelievably so! Because I was a girl and often not asked to do farmwork, we had the whole day free to play. I can't even imagine that these days. I also appreciated that we could just be ourselves at the farm, mostly unencumbered by the concern of what others thought of us.

Our children experienced some of that at the farm this past weekend. There were lawn tractors out for them to drive (without the blades running), quad rides, and even rides on the BIG tractor. A cousin had donated his above-ground pool which the children often used. And, to top it off, several dogs, cats and a litter of playful kittens wande43e around the yard. A few of the kittens are of a breed that has six toes on each paw which makes them look chubbier and even cuter. I'm sure there is a picture of one of my kids holding a kitten while eating her hot dog. Very sanitary but who cares!

We are soon home where I'll have to get to more school work. I haven't done as much as I intended but I have still made fairly good progress so that it is only once in a while that I suddenly panic, wondering why I took on what seems like such a mammoth task!

I'll leave you with an acronym closing whose meaning I have recently learned. You see, I must be old, or perhaps don't have time to pay attention to all of the acronymgs used these days to speed up texting. Anyway:

ttyl

Nothing to do?

Could it be? Am I really bored? It happens so rarely of late that I don't know what to do. I guess I could work on school work and I will later. Jason's at Bon Jovi -- Ha ha ha! Emily's at Auntie Sandra's and the other three are watching Billy the Exterminator after jumping on the trampoline almost endlessly. It really ended when they started wrestling a little too hard. Then Livi hurt herself and Omi jumped off the trampoline to me -- when I wasn't looking. It all went to pot from there so I had them come in. I feel guilty about this until I realize that they had swimming today, played outside at the Sandra Schmirler park for a while and jumped on the trampoline.

Wow, my kids are getting so big; other than nighttime, they are potty trained. Yeah! I spent almost nine years changing diapers and I can't say that I'm sorry to be done with babies. Don't get me wrong; I love my kids lots.

Oh yeah! We got passports today! Or at least we began the process; hopefully the rest goes as well as the first part did. What a lot of work!

My life really isn't interesting enough for a blog. I'm done reporting for the day. I'll do some work now...maybe.

Still here; not doing laundry

Yes. I'm still here. Though "here" has changed for a while. We are visiting Mom and Dad for a while which is why my title is "not doing laundry" unlike one of my previous titles. It's nice to be here where I have less responsibility. (Yes. Mom even does some of my laundry. I DO NOT ask her to just so you know. And I DO help out around here.) Our summers in Regina include swimming lessons, shopping and running errands so I am still busy.

I really have little to say. In fact, this fall, I may convert this blog, or create a new one to use as a parent-teacher communication tool because I will have little time to do anything other than school work or care for my own family. Jason didn't think that my suggestion to rate the student's behaviour on-line for all to see would go over well. Hmmm...

Jen, if you're reading this, it doesn't surprise me that you think the character "Dwight" is funny. In my head I can imagine the three of us driving down the highway, to or from Kindersley, laughing at Dwight's antics. I'd write LOL but I'm really getting tired of that acronym. In fact, I think I'll make my own up to replace it. I'll get back to you on this one.

I'll have to quit writing for now because I have nothing else to say that could possibly have any relevance to anyone.

Au revoir!

Maybe finish these thoughts

Well I haven't been here in a few days because I got tired about talking about my current topic, The Office, and really saying nothing at all. Here on the home front the girls' two rooms got painted by my mom and dad (I'm spoiled; actually it was a gift to the girls with matching comforters), some of the gardens and flower beds are less weedy and I've done a little more school work.

Now let's finish these this business about Jim and Pam and their office cohorts. Meredith, could anyone be that inappropriate at the office and not be fired? Well, Meredith can. My favorite episodes that, for me, exemplify her behavior are as follows. In one episode, Meredith the alcoholic lights her hair on fire at an office party and is too drunk to notice. Michael, later in the episode attempts to drag her, practically by the hair, to a rehab centre only to find out that you can't drop someone off their. I think he comes in to tell them that he has a "deposit" or something. Second, in the episode where they have casual Friday, Meredith the inappropriate wears a very short dress (which is probably just a skirt). When Toby asks her to pull it down to extend the length the result is not pretty. Actually, I assume it's not pretty because the top half of her is blurred out.

Angela, conservative, right wing, Angela. Her office parties are about as lame as mine, though I do not share her obsession with "The Little Drummer Boy."

Hey, The Office is on right now!

Anyway, I watched an episode the other day where Angela said that the clothes at Gap Kids were too racy so she goes to a doll store to order clothes for large, colonial dolls. I am a pretty conservative person myself and this seems a little over the top even to me. Her conservative nature takes a little holiday when it comes to Dwight.

I really wanted to save Dwight for last because he is the most exaggerated of all the characters in the office but everything I write about Angela leads me to him. Angela might have great lines about colonial clothing, but Dwight's dead-pan one-liners really top anyone else's in the entire show. One of my favourites occurs in the episode where Dwight shows the audience all the weapons he has hidden around the office and says he thinks it is "better to be accidentally hurt by someone you know than to be hurt on purpose by someone you don't know." I relish Dwight's "wisdom." I think I already mentioned the episode where he lights the office on fire to teach the office workers a lesson about fire safety.

I never realized how under-qualified Kevin was for his position until lately. I heard the other accountants speak of his inadequate numerical intelligence but in one episode, Michael intimate that Kevin actually came in to the office looking for a job in the warehouse but Michael saw potential in him, apparently a lot of potential because he hired him to work in the book-keeping department on the spot. There is the episode where someone convinces Holly, a replacement when Toby takes a vacation, that Kevin is mentally handicapped. Let's just say it's not really a stretch for her to believe it.

Finally (I think) Andy, I sort of understand Andy and I actually think that he harmonizes fairly well which is sort of lame on my part but I spent a lot of hours in the "music hallway" at school in position as one of the school "artsies" in high school. So what, I had some musical talent. I'm no American Idol but .... He's really over the top and proves so in a dance off at Jim and Pam's wedding when he severs his nether regions when attempting a "banana split" move. His obsession (at his age) with his college singing group is a little weird.

Maybe these things happen in real life. Maybe office employees could be this strange or this stereotyped. All in the same office? In reality would a boss really hire someone to work as an accountant when they have no training? Could someone really be the quality assurance manager when their own quality is not assured? Would someone start the office on fire and only get reprimanded and lose his position as safety manager? Could a boss, oblivious to his own racist, sexist . . . attitude, actions and comments really run the most productive office in the entire company? Perhaps, but I contend that most of the characters are exaggerated versions of the real life counterparts that give us the ability to laugh despite the fact that in some small and weird ways ways they resemble people with whom we work, live or spend time.

Except for Jim and Pam.

As major characters, their lives are rather ordinary. They live. They work. They fall in love, despite the chaos of the office and the small disturbances of the office employees in the wedding plans. And, like many of us want to, they escape everything to be by themselves and to get married in front of strangers in the presence of a boat Captain, next to Niagra Falls. Then they share their second wedding with the friends and family. I cry every time.

And then I laugh when everyone dances up the aisle, Kevin knocks over the flowers and Dwight kicks a bridesmaid in the face.

Toby, Ryan and Kelly

I will have you know that I usually try not to live my life vicariously through characters on television. I am really perturbed by people who talk about Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Angela Landsbury or other famous persons as if they are best friends. (Just kidding about Angela Landsbury! Yeah for Murder She Wrote on at 5:00 on Vision TV! I've trained my kids to like it but I digress. Anyway, I write about this television show (The Office) just because, because well I don't know, it just cracks me up (like in Parks and Recreation when Leslie Nope calls the bathroom the "whiz palace" when she is nervous- ha). If you have any thoughts that might enlighten my own, please feel free to comment. Oh yeah, today more exercise, more weeding, more work for school, more blogging, less excitement!

So where was I? Toby Flenderson. Micheal's nemesis. Perhaps nemesis is not quite the correct word but anyway could any boss hate an employee quite so much just for existing. Granted, Toby's name, like Jim and Pam, depict his non-committal, pansy character, and like other characters Toby's whiney characters is written and portrayed to the wimpy limit. Part of me feels sorry for the poor guy and the other part of me is disgusted that he doesn't just "take the bull by the horns" and assert himself. Does every office have a person like Toby? See, this is the thing with the characters, they portray normal, yet stereotyped office characters so that watchers can identify with the work place to some extent but still laugh because the extra-ordinary characters are usually above and beyond the norm.

This brings me to Ryan, the temp, who seems relatively normal. He is the young, assertive, aggressive office worker striving to climb the corporate ladder. Michael realizes this, perhaps to some extent, because he presents himself as a "mentor" for Ryan. Any "Office" connoisseur must recall the episode where Michael visits Ryan's business class, playing a Robin Williams, Dead Poet's Society role, ripping pages out of (expensive!) books and telling the students that they will learn more from life lessons than from books. My favourite part is when he "pumps up the jam" with his "boom box" as he walks down the classroom aisle. Needless to say Ryan is unastounded by Michael and unaccepting of his help with proves intelligent as he climbs up the corporate ladder. But as most characters, Ryan is exaggerated in his character who does not hold onto his position because of a small addiction to drugs and success. Equating success with sales he logs in all sales twice, spiralling him back down the ladder back into Michael's accepting office. Now, Ryan is mystifying me with his new nerd persona; I'm no really sure what this is about.

If anyone is reading this, do you notice that I use the word "really" quite often?

How could I mention Ryan without Kelly, his on-again, off-again, on-again, off-again girlfriend. Honestly, she treats the office like a grade eight classroom with all the drama and no offense to grade eighters, immature make-out sessions that come with the territory. Besides treating fashion magazines like her bible, Kelly is a notable character because of Michael's attitude toward her Indian heritage. He frequently brings up religion, instead of avoiding it like the plague as most offices do. Michael singles out people because of their religion.

In fact, Michael likes to single people out because of their race, religion, sexual preference, thinking that he is creating an inclusive office. On television, this is funny but in reality, he would not longer be the boss. Remember when the new office workers came over from Stamford and Michael made a rather large gentlemen climb onto a chair on top of a table. Michael was trying to make them all equals. He ignores the person who points out that he is raising the new workers on a pedestal.

I feel like all these paragraphs are filled with nothing but mindless chatter. Really, I am getting to something. These characters are realistic yet unrealistic, except for Jim and Pam, a calm reality and normality in the centre of a storm of unreality around them. Tomorrow, I continue.

Goodbye and goodnight! Okay, not goodnight yet but goodbye.