Funny New Experience!

NO WAY! I can't believe what I got to do today at work!A Video shoot - like with hired professionals!

It was like way cool but totally way hard.

The Creative Arts Director came into my room with his Camera Man and they set me up at my desk and proceeded to interview me about my job. They wanted to know what I did, how I helped students, what was the best part, my name and how my school related to EBUS.

Sounds easy right?
NOT! At least not for me - but it was a thrill and an adrenaline rush in it's own way too! Keep reading to share my adventure.

The director wanted it to appear as if I was having a normal conversation with him and just explaining my job. But they want it in nice succinct sound bites. Uhhhh...how in the world?!

As I was talking to the Director about what I would say, the camera man was circulating around and placing white papers here and there. When I went to move one, he said "uuuh unnnn...don't touch." Oops! No no touch-y Jeannie! I didn't know he had a purpose in placing those papers!  Mistake number one!

Then the camera guy clips on a lapel microphone and then he starts to lift my arm here and there so that he could hide the cord = oh, I didn't even think about the cord! So, ok, I'm just to sit here and plan with the director. ok.! Mistake number two!

Next the director propped up my collar and smoothed my hair and he says, and I quote, "It seems you have an errant lock - I'll have to get my brush." Me, being ever so helpful, tried to stand and get my own comb - which led to the camera guy getting aggravated because I was moving out of position and creating havoc with the cord attached to my lapel! = oops! Mistake number three!

All this before we even begin shooting!

Plus the students in my class were watching all this through the glass wall = seeing me getting fixed up and interviewed and they were mighty curious about what was going on as they craned their necks around the columns and peered in with spying eyes and smiling faces.


I am not counting any more of my mistakes because they'd add up too quickly, but here's how the rest of the event played out:

The camera guy says "And we're rolling in three, two, one...."

Next step: the director tries to get me to "naturally" say my piece by asking a prompting question...do you think I could phrase the answer the same way twice to get in all the words he wanted? Nope! And this was only the part where I only had to say my name and how I worked to support students at Ebus~!

I thought I had to be all serious and business-like because of the way they had positioned me - so I think I was pretty dull at this point - and remember we have hardly started yet! I asked if I could be more "alive" and the guy said yes because the camera "flattens" people. Can it "skinny" me too?!

After two takes of that, we moved on the the more complicated part where I explain my job....Take 13, take 29...no just kidding...but it definately was not a good clip there as my tongue tried to keep up with my thoughts and then my thoughts skipped all around so I couldn't think of what I was trying to get across!

What was the question again? Oh yes, "explain your role in supporting students..."  I have only spoken the word "liason" about twice in my life before - so why did I have to use that word at this moment?!?! Who can explain how the brain connects to the tongue because I think my connection dun got broke somehow! How wild this all was - too funny!

And the end where I talk about the best part which is seeing the success of students who complete online courses....I don't think I remembered to smile because I got more and more nervous as we went along!  And I'm not sure if I did the "natural visiting" thing - cuz I think I talked slower than normal and more stuttery in places, and oh well - it was a very fun experience no matter how it turns out!

To top it all off, the camera guy was filming me on my blind side!!!! ~ whooo wheeee ~ I think I'll win an academy award for shhhuurrreee!

But overall, what an adventure - can't say that happens everyday! New experiences, even if they botch up, are still great because they're new and different which means exciting!!!

I can't wait to see how they edit it!

These two pictures are me today - first one with my principal because I wanted to remember this day of videoing! And the other one at home cuz I wanted to see how I looked today!!!!

randoms

So here's a little bit of this and that, here and there and 'round about.  Enjoy!

This is a Mother's Day bouquet, and my dog, and me featuring my bald spot and bulges on a sunny afternoon.

 This is in my daughter's art classroom - she painted the jeans with zebra stripes and wishes they were the right size for her. (too little -size zero, and too short, but super cool paint job! rrraawwwrr!)

 These are the teddy bears the girls made with Holly Hearts. Awww!  Big smiles!

 This is the super-sexy Savignacs sittin' and smilin' in smoke!  Say big fella I like your trees = why you burnin' them?

 This is an outbacker, rednecker man hot roddin' down the highway in his lawn mower!  Slow down eh?

 This is my desk at work.  I love my job!  The kids are the best part!  I really love the little green bendy guy dancing on top of the desk cabinet - my younger daughter made him and I want more of them!

 This is a yummy delishy sandwich - mmmm....hungry anyone?

Have a random good day eh?

bok choy

Here's to bok choy and suey choy = two vegetables that changed my attitude today.

I've been struggling lately to find the joy in life.  So today I started googling things such as "how to get more out of life" and "defining goals" and came up with several good websites.  I've never written out my goals before and felt like I didn't really have any.

I've been so fortunate in life - gotten the husband, the children, the house, the job that I love, and satisfaction with spiritual things...so what else is there?

I recently tried for a different job that would give me more financial success but was not the successful applicant.

So other than finanaces, what are my goals?

I did the exercises that were suggested on one site and then wrote an email to my sisters telling them about my new found "wisdom" and mentioned that I'd like to start cooking with some new, more fun ingredients.  The first thing that popped into my head was bok choy!

Not sure how these flowers came to be right here, but I'll leave them for your viewing pleasure...might take away the horror of the next shot!  :)

 Never mind, this isn't the horor shot...these are just the chopped veggies - bok, suey, snap peas, mushyrooms, sprouts and celery -  that I drizzled in oil in my new-to-me pot on the stove top.  And here's the two inspirations for the dish...bok and suey.  Do you know which is which? Eenie meenie, miney...MO...and my mother says you are not it!

Here's the horror shot - talking to bok on the cellular and about to chow down on suey!  Ahhh, what a mother does to have some fun!  Rock on eh?

So this is our delicious dinner featuring not only bok choy, but also suey choy - a chinese cabbage with chicken and rice.

Life changing moments :  The ginger sesame sauce killed me it was so good.

What are you gonna try for fun ingredients?

Gerbera daisy bouquet

A beautiful bouquet of flowers was waiting for me when I got home today!  How lovely!  Dwight had gone grocery shopping and had picked these up - and for no reason at all!  My goodness they're so pretty!  I really really love them! (And I really really love him too! xo)

Here we are - both looking a bit tired by the way - but these lovely daisies brought cheer and smiles all around!

Stunning aren't they - the first close up of the flowers is an awesome desktop background.  If you'd like to use it for awhile, you're welcome to - right click on it and click on "set as desktop background."

Did you know that according to ehow.com gerbera daisies rank as 5th in people's favorites?   I can sure see why!
"Daises are among the most liked flowers in the world, coming in fifth behind roses, carnations, chrysanthemums and tulips."

Hmmmm-neat!

Snow shoes and shorts

Dwight bought a pair of snow shoes and the girls had a blast trying them out:

This has got to be a sign of warmer weather!  :) yay!

Finally!

It's March! I've never been so glad to turn the calendar page over as now. The January and February months have been so long and wintery, but now we can look forward to spring and sunshine! It's a happy day!

A quick update of some events over the past few weeks:

Our school put on an amazing production of "Grease" so I was kept very busy after hours making the program, snapping and printing pictures and making bulletin board displays.  It was all so worth it - our kids did a fantastic job.

My Mom (also known as Wild Shelley) ended up on crutches.  Not good.  Her hip has been giving her extraordinary amounts of pain and then she fell twice which ripped the main ligament in her knee.  Now she can't walk and it's so frustrating for her.  Jeepers.

I seriously considered taking a different job that was offered to me but decided against it.  This other job was more hours and year round as opposed to ten months like I have now, but it was clerical, front office, Bcesis, Excel, data, numbers, student records and simply not a good fit for me.  I love being with the kids at school, supporting online learning, writing our school newspaper, emailing and solving problems that arise...but numbers, data, Excel?  No way!  I'm feeling very settled with my decision and am happy to stay where I am.

My husband bought snow shoes and is out making tracks in his smooth white snow...I'm still shocked!

I discovered that my computer has 30 out-of-date drivers. Whatever that means!
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My daughter finished her Science Fair project - Yay!

My other daughter found a stylish wool jacket that was on sale for $12.99 down from $89.99!

And I ate too many bowls of vanilla ice cream topped with bananas and chocolate chips!  :)

Have a good day everyone.

Pink Cupcakes

Happy cupcake day!

Emma turns 2 and has 2 cupcakes while relaxing in her pink beanbag chair.

Look.  The icing is the best part!  You got a problem with that?

It's lip-smwacking delishy-wishy-ious!

Now leave me alone so I can give this cupcake my full attention!  I'll just set the other one down for later.

Cupcake anyone?

The Candy Man Can

"Who can make the world sing?

The candy man can!

Cuz he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good!"

I'm sure you've heard the song but I'll try to find it on You Tube and put a link on the bottom for you.

My Auntie is my "candy man!"

She is famous for making candy and though I'm not normally one for sweets, she makes this one kind of toffee that I absolutely love.

This was a really nice morning spent with my Auntie.  I got to watch how she made it and took some pictures so that I'll be able to try it at home.

Mmmm - the ingredients - are brown sugar, butter, condensed milk and golden syrup....and mmmm...starting with that, how could anything be wrong!!!

(Oh - she also made a tasty chicken soup that day too as you can see.)

I'm in love!  Loook at that toffee!!!  And I got to take home the batch!!! How lucky for me!!!  Plus she gave me a cast iron pan that she's used for years to make toffee.  I hesitated to accept it, but she said she has another one in her cupboards.  I hope so. 

Anyways, it was so nice to spend the morning with her and watch my "Candy man" making the candy that only she can!  Thanks Auntie!  You mixed it with love and made the world taste good!
Here's the song for you :
 http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4933508143836519480 
by Sammy Davis (and I prefer to think he was really talking about candy - not cocaine!)

Family Time

These should cheer up your day if it's been anything like mine...very snowy, very blowy and very grey and cold.

  But here's to a couple of kids who brightened our weekend:

Isn't he a cute little dude at six months old?

How about this adorable little two year old face below:

What a fluke to actually snap the camera when the bubbles were right there!

And then there's this newest snuggle bundle addition to the family:

We all had a good time together this weekend

 celebrating Emma's second birthday. 

Sure hope everyone drove carefully home.

Touch of Summer Color

"I feel the need....the need for speed!" (name that movie)
Top Gun of course -- my all time favorite summer time movie!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlkInNZ7xis&feature=related - short clip

This is a longer music video with scenes from the show...makes me want to go watch the movie again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f90YCdYIADQ&feature=related
 
Actually I feel the need...the need for color!  I've changed my desktop backgroud to a lovely summer butterfly and flower picture because I feel like my eyes are starving for bright, beautiful blues, pinks and greens!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCmUhYSr-e4 - mmm - another Top Gun song for you...Sitting On the Dock of the Bay....love it!

How about you?  Are your eyes needing a lift 'round about now?  Here's the summer picture that I've used for my background so that my eyes can feast on this little bit of loveliness - ahhhhhhh!

Spider Plant Project

Oh groan.  It's time once again for Science Fair Projects.  This year there was a change in the procedures and my daughter had to apply to have her experiment idea approved before beginning.

Her original thought was to try to prove that breakfast IS good for us.  She wanted family members to take a test after eating breakfast.  Then on a different day, take a test first but then eat breakfast right after the test.  Seemed pretty fine to me.

But the all powerful committee didn't think so!  They declined this experiment on the basis that it could be harmful to the subjects.  Harumph!?! Are you kidding me?  With a Science Committee like this, pretty soon there won't BE a Science Fair!!! 

So the second idea was an idea to test whether baby spider plants would grow better in water, ginger-ale or lemon juice.  This apparently is okay with the committee...never mind that we might actually kill the baby spider plants!!! 

So here's a couple pictures of the first day.  The roots in the water are looking pretty good now (on day 9) and the plant in the gingerale hasn't changed too much but has grown no roots, and the plant in the lemon juice is slowly rotting!  Joy oh joy of Science Fairs!

Chasing the Rainbow!

Quite a sight we saw today!

My daughter and I were headed home and right before our eyes was a mini-storm with snow and rain clouds racing around.  The clouds were really low and we could see the wind blowing them and pushing them along - right into this beautiful winter rainbow!

Laura asked if we could keep driving ahead instead of turning off down our road, so we did.  We pulled over to try to get some pictures but it was so cold and windy outside.  It's hard to see in the pictures how swirly the clouds were, but the way they were in real life was pretty neat!

 We were so close to the end of the rainbow!
 "Wouldn't it be so cool if there was really a pot of gold at the end.  The gold would be right there in the field!"

It turns out that the pictures we took from inside the car came out better anyways. I guess the tinted glass of the windshield gave things more contrast...I like it!
We kept driving but didn't end up with any better shots.

We did get an entirely different view of the day from up at my sister's house.  Pretty wintery isn't it with all those slanty trees blowing in the wind. These next two pictures were taken by my daughter and I think they turned out really well.

Stay warm, keep bundled, Miss Spring Must be around here somewhere!!!  :)

Snow Fort

Gigantic snowfall + Kids = Snowforts!  How fun...this past couple of weeks we have had some serious snow.  Now that we've entered a bit of milder weather, the snow has settled into some really perfect piles for digging out little hidey holes.  Good times!

Then all you need to do is add a dog and some sunshine for a pretty perfect afternoon!

Cute - snowy hugs!

Have a sunshiney day!

It's Piling Up

Snow!  And more snow!

Look how deep it got - just over one day/night last week!

Only 53 days until the official first day of spring - March 21st!

Looking forward to it!

Kitchen Fairy

Oh how I wish the Kitchen Fairy would come visit my house.

I'd like him to do some chores for me.
Notice that the Fairy is a "HIM?"  That's cuz if we're talking fantasy, we might as well go all out!  And we'll make him tall, blonde and handsome too.

I'd like to have the oven cleaned please.
I'd like to have a never-ending supply of goodies for the kids...and some healthy snacks that taste great.
I'd like to have breakfast, lunch and dinner served.

He could also wash the curtains, mop the floor and have big muscles so that I could just enjoy looking at him.

And no.  I do not have any pictures of this guy.
But I do have a phone number: 1 - 800 - kitcn - fabio

"Gimme the phone kids - NOW!"

:)

Don't break a leg!

The morning after a slumber party, the girls decided to jump out of our barn into the snow - crazy nutbirds!
I told them they could jump but I said, "Be careful."  I also told them not to break their legs.  I'm glad they listened!!!
They had a fun time - no broken legs - so I had a fun time too.  When they looked at the pictures afterwards, they decided they liked the way their shadows looked on the barn wall. 

 This is Laura and her friend - who we call Country Pumpkin - and we are very sad because she is moving away.  This party was to wish her well as she and her family set out on a new adventure way down south.  Hopefully with things like Skype, Facebook and texting, the girls will be able to hold on to their slightly zany friendship.  We'll miss you so much Country Pumpkin...who will cut down our Christmas tree now?  Who will bring us blue bow tree toppers?  Who will made saskatoon pies with 3 or 4 cups of sugar for us?  Who will be our Big Black Feather Friend?  We love you and wish you the very best! 

 We're following the leader, the leader, the leader...

 And the leader says, "Jump!"

This is a really great bunch of young ladies who I am so pleased to know and love!  Happy days to you all.