Went Shopping

Yesterday I was working in a town that is close to the only city with malls around here. About an hour away. I was only working a half-day morning so decided to go to the mall to look for a duvet cover for the afternoon. I've been wanting one for a while and it will keep me warm once winter comes!

So I looked and looked. I finally found one that I really liked but it was $200 just for the duvet cover, and then the shams were $44 each! Craziness. I wrote down the brand name and searched for it on the internet today to see if I could find it for a lower price and had no such luck. Maybe there will be a sale coming up! D said he would go "halfsies" with me if I wanted it, as a late b-day present.

Anyway I also did a bit of other shopping as well. I bought parts of TWO Christmas presents!! I bought some teaching clothes, all on sale! A pair of jeans and a couple of t-shirts that have my hometown name on them (weird to see that in a city mall) on sale! It was a productive trip, I haven't added everything up yet though.

When I got home I also bought a couple of pumpkins and some Halloween candy to keep us energized while we carve pumpkins. Tomorrow we will do that and roast the seeds mmm. I still need to pick up some pumpkin carving kits. Tonight we are going to have a game night, yay!

Last night D's roommate returned from college and we watched Anchorman. I'm looking forward to game night tonight!! I worked a half-afternoon today in a really nice grade 3/4 class. Have a great night! Off to update my budget from this shopping trip :S

All Financial Goals Accomplished!!

I paid off $5000 to my family loan!

I saved over $500 for Christmas!

I saved $1000 toward retirement!

I saved $500 for travel!

I made over $2010 doing work other than teaching!

And today I contributed to my TFSA to push it over the $5000 mark too!!

Mondays...Halloween costume ideas?

I'm happy that today was a teaching day for me. However Mondays are always hard. I taught grade 5/6 today, and wow were they ever a chatty class! They weren't bad, just chatty. It's tiring staying on top of that too with close to thirty 10-11 year olds!

I had a good weekend. Friday I hung out with D and we watched My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Saturday my friend came up so we spent the day together and visited another friend. That night we visited another friend from elementary school who just bought a house. She bought the house with her boyfriend who is a nurse. I don't know how they can afford it since she has a seasonal job and isn't currently working. She is a teacher but cannot get on the supply list in our area. Sad really! Their house is beautiful though and I want one!

Sunday I hung out with D for the morning and he invited me to go to his parents for supper but I declined so that he could have some family time. I'll go the next time, they are very nice! I hung out with my cousin instead and had some family time myself!

A friend in town is having a Halloween party on Saturday. I asked D if he would be interested in going but he wants to take me to this town where his uncle works. If that doesn't happen I might go to the Halloween party. Is anyone dressing up this year? Any costume ideas??

My mom wants my dad and herself to dress up as Mr. and Mrs. Clean. Wear a white t-shirt and put on white eyebrows and an earring. My dad already has the bald part covered ;)

Everything My Brother Touches...

BREAKS!!

Last week it was the car. I have never had the battery die on me until he used it. Suspicious, lol.

Last night he borrowed my printer to print resumes and I went to print something today and it's dead. What is going on?!? Actually it's not completely dead but it's making really weird sounds and not working.

Looks like I'm going to have to buy a new printer. I wonder if they still sell my model since I am pretty sure I have a couple of unused inks and it fits so nicely on my desk! Maybe it's fixable??

Quilting! Picture progress...

Well I haven't had any jobs this week. Actually I got three calls last night when I was on a walk with D and I accidentally forgot my phone at home! Oops!! Anyway, this time off has let me be productive in my quilting! Here is a taste of what I've done: (by the way it's a rag quilt defn: A quilt, usually using flannel, whose raw edges of seam allowances are exposed and then cut to form a soft fringe.)

This is what my desk looks like right now. I have cut out most of the printed flannel, but not all of the white squares yet. There is a total of 315 squares to put together this rag quilt.

My floor is covered with these 6"x6" squares laying out the pattern.

So far I have only completed 4 rows. Each with 13 squares in them. This is going to be the "rag" side (this is before I fringe the edges).

I wanted to show the back, the flat side of the quilt but it won't let me upload anymore pictures! Maybe tomrorow! It's still a work in progress, might get it done this week though if I continue not to get any calls! It's my first rag quilt, and second quilt (if you count my extremely small baby quilt I did last fall). Hopefully it turns out!

More Car Troubles!!

So after I spent around $600 a couple of weeks ago on my car (muffler, oil change, brake pads), it continues to die on me. My brother borrowed my car earlier this week and went to take it out again and it was dead. I get a boost to it, and it works fine. A couple days later this happens again when my dad wants to borrow the car. He gives it a boost and it works fine.

I have driven the car everyday and no problems! Must be those boys!

Until today. My mom and I go to a festival which is about 45 minutes away from my town. Fun festival by the way. Then we decide to leave and I try to start....and nothing!! I had to call my brother to come out and give me a boost. On the way home I stopped at Canadian Tire and bought a new car battery.

My dad installed it this evening and I'm hoping that is the end of my car troubles for a long, long time!

Car battery was $107, but when I return the old one I get a $10 refund. :)

In other news, D and I saw Red on Friday. It was really good, kind of like the old funny James Bond movies but with a team. I laughed out loud at some points, I would recommend it. Saturday D had to work so I worked more on my quilt. It's coming along. A LOT of cutting and sewing though. I'll update with some pictures hopefully this week. The cranberry festival today was good, we went on a tour of the marsh, did some wine tasting, and ate some cranberry crepes, mmmm. Hope you all had a great weekend!!

Met Another Financial Goal

I really enjoy these three paycheque months. I put $800 toward my TFSA today. Yay! That brings me past my goal of $4000, but now I want to hit $5000 for the year. I'm thinking it's now doable. I also want to begin to add more to my Travel Fund. There are still 2 and a half months left in this year.

I have also babysat a few times this month. Not exactly my favourite thing to do after a day spent working with kids, but it's nice to have a bit of extra income!

On my off time that's not spent with family or D, I've been working on my rag quilt. I have ALMOST all of the squares cut out. I have no pattern so we will see if it works! Hopefully, the flannel fabric is so soft! I'll keep you updated on how it is coming along. If I can complete it before new years that would mean I get to cross off a non-financial goal of mine, and I'm not doing very well at those this year!

This weekend there is a cranberry festival going on close to where I live. I am thinking I might take my mom there if D doesn't want to go. She and I went several years ago and it would be nice to go again. D and I are also going to try to go to the movies and see "Red" tonight. Our theatre only has early show times so it depends on whether he gets off early enough. I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!!!

I had a good thanksgiving weekend. Spent Friday working and that evening hanging out with D. Saturday D and I made lunch together and then I met up with some girl friends from elementary school for dinner and drinks. Afterward I saw D and we had a really good chat about things going on that I wasn't entirely thrilled about. Sunday I went over to a friend's house who just bought her first house and is living on the same street as me! Then D and I went to his Nana's house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was really nice to meet his Nana, she is so cute and taught us a new card game. Yesterday was a holiday so we fed his boss's 9 puppies and 2 dogs who was on a hunting trip. That was a lot of fun to see the puppies! Then we just hung out for the day. I looked into teaching overseas, and then we made supper and watched Grown Ups.

Things I am thankful for this year
-my family
-my friends and D
-the health of all those people and myself
-the fact that I have a job
-that we live in a safe country :) The news is definitely scary to watch sometimes, makes you not take what you have for granted.

What are you thankful for? Happy Thanksgiving!

Quilting!

So one of my goals this year was to make a quilt. I have not started. Actually I haven't sewed in so long! I started working on an apron back in March or April and almost completed it but then stopped for some reason. Every piece was cut out it just needed to be sewed on. Maybe a task to complete this week.

Anyway back to the quilting, I want to make a quilt. Last fall I learned how to machine sew. My first project was a baby's quilt. I really like the way it turned out! One of my new years resolutions was to make a real quilt. I even bought some fabric and created my own design. However I got tired of it and decided I didn't want to make it anymore.

This weekend I sewed a patch onto one of D's workshirts using the sewing machine. It sparked a renewed interest in sewing and on Monday I made a stop at Fabricland and picked up some fabric to hopefully make a rag-quilt. It's using flannel material so it will be really soft and warm when it's complete!

I SHOULD probably complete the apron before I move onto the quilt. Maybe I can do both at once. A little bit of cutting for the quilt, and a little bit of sewing for the apron. I could definitely use an apron with the baking I've gotten into! We'll see. I'll post pictures if I ever complete either! Always more fun to start a new project than to finish one you've been working on for a long time. Although once the project is complete it does give a lot of satisfaction. Just gotta get it done!

The new material I picked out is a light purple/lilac colour. I hope the patterns go well together! I'm going to make it three layers with white in the middle. I may even make my roommates some pillowcases again this year for Christmas. They really liked the ones I gave them last year. Or I'll have to think of another project that is somewhat simple and useful for a gift idea.

Didn't Get It.

I didn't get the job. I wasn't expecting to really but it was nice that I even got offered an interview. I've been supplying for 2 years now and it was my first interview for an LTO. The principal let me down really nicely. He said it wasn't something I said or I didn't say but they went with someone with more experience. Apparently a person who has worked at this school before and has had 3 LTOs in this grade level. So that's to be expected and he gave me some pointers for my next interview.

He said I interviewed well and was articulate and that he will put my name out there for other jobs. He also said that I could see him to practice for my next interview if I ever wanted to. He was really nice.

I thanked him for the consideration.

On the bright side, I did get a teaching call today and worked a full day teaching grade 6. The kids were pretty good as well. I also put $500 in a TFSA and $500 into an RSP (I need to update me RSP bar). So getting closer to those financial goals. I don't think I will complete a lot of my non-financial goals this year! Less than three months until 2011!!!

Last night we celebrated my brother's birthday who turns 24 today. We went out for supper which was nice. D came over and we chatted and played with that Tipp-Ex youtube video for a while haha. My mom asked what all the laughter was about and so I showed it to her after. She wasn't as interested lol. D and I are going to go for a walk tonight with the dog, will be nice to see the fall colours on a warm fall evening.

I applied for another half-time teaching position last night but I was at the school the position is for today and a teacher kind of mentioned to me that she pretty much has that job. I didn't even mention the job or the fact that I applied for it at all, so that kind of sucks. I'm hoping more positions will become available soon. This teacher glut is quite depressing!

Interview Today

Saturday was fairly stress-free. I made a breakfast for D and I and then we spent the day hanging out. I did some laundry and then we watched a movie that night. We are now all caught up on the Harry Potter movies :)

Sunday however was a little more stressed. I went over to D's and brought a big file folder I have full of interview material. I reviewed it for most of the day. Still never feeling 100% confident, but feeling pretty good about my experience and answers.

After supper I came home and studied some more and talked to some friends about interviews. This morning I woke up and got ready for the interview. I headed to the school and waited 10 minutes for the secretary to tell the principal I was there.

I was brought into his office which was freezing cold and was greeted by another principal from a school I have supplied at as well. They ask me about 6 questions, all of which were not on my list of prepared questions!! Grrrrrrr. However I feel that I handled the questions and answered them fairly well.

There was one that caught me offguard and it went something like, "tell us about a time when a student was misbehaving and you feel that you handled the situation wrong." I did not expect that question.

I was surprised they also didn't do the "tell me about yourself" or "why should we choose you" question. The principal said that he would contact me either way today so that is good. I have a feeling they have someone else in mind for the job, someone with a little more experience but I'm happy to have been considered and the interview itself was good experience.

The person who does get accepted for the job is going to have a busy week, the principal said that the person chosen will come in to observe the class tomrorow and then start full-time this Thursday for the rest of the year. Pretty crazy! I'll let you all know what I hear.

EEEEEeeeeeeekkkk!!!! So excited/nervous!!!!

I have my FIRST teaching interview coming up.....on Monday!!!!!!

I taught last Monday for this 1/2 split class. The regular teacher for the class was a girl I used to go to school with that is a couple of years older. Class went well, sweet class. That night I went on her facebook and she posted that she got a PERMANENT job!! I told her that was amazing and congrats and mentioned that I was in for her that day.

She writes back and asks if I am looking for an LTO and says that she will put in a good word for me with her principal. I guess she did because today at 3:00 I got a call from the principal asking for an interview! It will be held at the school at 10:15 on Monday morning. I am sooooo excited/nervous for it. There goes my weekend, now it's going to be stress-filled, lol.

I am going to read up on the curriculum and look through my past interview questions I wrote down. Any advice???? I am terrible at interviews, I get so nervous and have been told I am too modest with my answers. Teachers, are there any questions you know might be asked? Any buzzwords I should drop? Eeeeek!!!