I don't want to jump in, unless the musics thuming, all the dishes rattle in the cupboards, when elephnats arrive

It has been pretty freezing here. I thought I escaped the cold when I left Winterpeg. Yesterday morning it was 52 in our house. Yes that right, I may have had icicles hanging from places. There is no insilation in this house, single pane windows, base board heaters, its an old place. The cats and I cuddle together at night for warmth. I wake up in a curled up ball, heaven forbid my feet make it down to the freezing nether regions that are at the foot of my bed. Yesterday I thought my feet were gonna freeze to the bathtub when I went to take a shower. It is supposed to warm up. My fingers are crossed. This is me all frazzled this morning. That is my office. I love my office. I was trying to warm up from the sun shinning in.

The picture was taken with my new computer that came with a built in webcam. I love it. It was also free, so thats a bonus. It is a lime green Dell. The free part comes because of Scholastic Book Orders. Every time my students or I order books we get bonus points. I had 30,000 bonus points, enough to cash em in and get this free $1200 laptop. Gotta love it.

Her I am looking a little more chipper. The big screen in the back is to hang my earrings on. This office is a jewelry shop lately. Beads everywhere. And I mean everwhere. Yesterday Banks knocked over a whole tray of beads. I dropped some not so nice works, and he went into hidding for some time. It took me almost and hour to collect all the beads that were spread all over the room into every nook and crany. I am drinking some yummy Roobois tea. A Christmas gift from Lissa. I also got a tea steeper thing called a Brewt. It is wonderful. Speaking of Lissa...

Here we are at Christmas. Anways, Lissa is going to be my new sister-in-law!!! Yay! Justin popped the question last weekend. The big day is set for September 20. Now I can stop planning my non-existent wedding to my non-existent groom, and help her plan a real wedding. So my brother calls me at midnight last Friday, freaking out, he tells me he and Lissa just had a huge fight, she stormed out, and doesn't know where she went. I in turn start freaking out, I was like what did you do? Then he goes well then we got engaged. Oh and we didn't get in a fight. What an ass. I almost had a heart attack. They have been together for 4 1/2 years, so that woulda been pretty devestating.

To go along with how cold it has been here, I have some picture of what I did on our two snow days. Yay for people who don't know how to handle snow. Pretty much a little cold and a few flurries = a snow day. We built 6 snow people.
Last night I went out to a friends and we played games and had drinks. We played Apples to Apples with 13 people. It gets tricky when people are putting two or more cards in, and you have to choose from 30 cards. Good times. I havn't played that game since junior year. I think it was Cassie's favorite game.

In case you havn't noticed I am slightly obsessed with my webcam. Apparently I can put a plant infront of it and it will take pictures throughout the day to chart its growth process, and then you can put them all together into some sort of movie. I might just have to try that. Or set it up to watch if people snoop through my stuff, hmmm.

This afternoon I went climbing with my friend Tim. Tim's from Seattle. He's cool like that. I have never been to Seattle, but I imagine it to be pretty cool. Tim is a great climber, excellent. Today, I was a not so good climber. My bod suffered a 15 ft fall. I am still in a lot of shock from it all, and I measure I won't be able to move too much tomorrow. We were up on the red rocks getting to the top ridge. I was up on this cliff, and there was a little ridge that Tim had crossed, and I was two stepps in. I had good footing, but was looking for a hand hold. I brushed some snow away and thought I had a good one, I tested it out, was strong, or I thought. I pulled on it and all of a sudden I lost my footing and the rock I had my hand on broke away and I fell fell 10 ft, the rock came flying down and landed on my back, and then I slid about 5 more ft. The piece that broke away was about 5 lbs, 1 foot long and about 4 inches thick. Great type of rock to have come flying down and land on your back. My knee is black and blue and skinned up, my elbow is in rough shape, and my neck is pretty stiff. Can't wait to see how I am in the morning. I guess I am pretty lucky though. I am pretty freaked by it all.

Tomorrow is a holiday for me, no school! Whoo hooo. I plan to get my Etsy site up and going. Well thats the goal. I'll probably just sleep all day and do nothing.

Merry Chrismakwanzaahanukkah to everybody!

Eight days until I am outta here. I am pretty sick of kids hacking their goobers all over me. I also got a flu shot. I am super pissed at myself for getting it. I kinda got talked into it, and flu shots just arn't my thing. But I was sick all last school year due to all the kids and there goobers... so people advised me to get one. I listened. I am stupid. I got the shot three weeks ago. I immediately felt wosy. My arm went numb and for a week and a half my arm was useless. My right arm. I would wake up in the night with no feeling in it, I couln't lift it, or extend it. Severe pain. It finally went away. Now its back again. Its been three weeks. It hurts so flippn bad. I feel like a gimp. Anyhoo I am thinking about going to the doctor, cause maybe there is an infection. What if I had to get my arm amputated? I have been thinking about loosing my arm all day. All the things I couldn't do. Hopefully I survive.

We got two inches of snow Monday night = no school on Tuesday. Whooo hooo. Wednesday there was a water main break = no school again! It was a great week. Tomorrow is Friday, and then I'll be home in a week. I am pumped.

I went to a cookie party last night. Everyone brings 2 dozen cookies or more, and then you switch. You end up with tons of different cookies. They are tasty and I am gorging myself on all the tasty treats.

Tomorrow I am hosting a Christmas Par-tay. I am excited, I love to be the hostess. We'll have about 12 people or so over. I am gonna cook all sorts of tasty appetizers. Yum. We'll drink of course too, so that will be great.

I am mostly pumped about our van Leeuwen family Christmas these days. The last two years I have forced everyone to share a "interesting" talent. Last year it got a little out of hand. Oh and in case you are interested my talent is my ability to lick my elbow. Yes the Guiness book of world records says its impossible, but not for this chick! Anyways this year instead of the old talent sharing we are starting the First Annual van Leeuwen Family Christmas Ugliest Christmas Sweater Contest. I just hope everyone goes along with it, and I am not the only one who shows up in a hideous garment. I should really just walk down the hall and ask some of the teachers for their sweaters, but I don't want to offend anyone.

I watched Christmas Vacation on Tuesday. I laughed so hard I cried, but that coulda been the wine... hmmm. Its a good movie. Funny.

Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season!

Here we are cutting down the Christmas tree.

The wonderful Donkersloot family!

The tree all decorated.

My bedroom. I just ripped out the carpet, to reveal these wonderful hardwoods!

The Giggler Treatment by Roddy Doyle

This is by far one of the best books on the planet. It is not wise, it does not hold the secret to life, it was not life changing, but I laughed my pants, well 'trousers' off. If you live close to a library you must go check it out. I just read it aloud to my class, although some of it may have been over their heads, we had a great time. Here is one of the quotes that had me in tears. The premise is that this kid is justifying why his dad is not a bad guy.
"Jimmy: And even though he wouldn't let me pick my nose, even though there was a brilliant bit of snot up there and I wanted to flick it at Grandad because he was asleep and his mouth was open."
I seriously lost it, and I don't think my students knew what was going on. The book is ridiculously awesome. Please read it.

"hey kid, will you hold me when I sleep? and will you find me when the tide decides that I got to leave?"

www.pandora.com = awesome. I have been listening to this for a while, good tunes, great way to find new artists. If you havn't already - check it out.

Last weekend my soccer team had playoffs. We made it to the semi-finals to play the #1 team. The Chivas. They were undefeated all year. It was 3-1 at half time. We came back and tied it 3-3. Went into double overtimes, and then a shoot out. It was fricken amazing, and we won. The finals were on Sunday, and we lost 1-0. We shoulda won. We had two key players missing, and frankly we were exhausted for the big game on Saturday. I was pissed, I think I am over now. So here is a pick of us with our lame second place medals.

I am pumped to have the WHOLE week off of school. Very relaxing. I have plans to do... nothing. Hopefully I will be refreshed to handle the students until Christmas. What a group. But on to happier topics...

I get to go home for Christmas. Sweet, I am pumped. I miss snow. Ridiculous I know. It is 70 here and sunny, no complaints, but yesterday when I called home, everyone told me it was snowing, and I started crying, even more ridiculous. I went on a hike out in my backyard yesterday, this is what I saw.

Isn't that crazy beautiful? It is really amazing. So I should not be crying about snow, but maybe I was just crying about snow and what is means to me. I miss my family, and my friends. Alot. Such is life.

I have been making earrings like crazy. I was in a craft sale a couple of weeks ago and it went really well. So I think I will continue on this venture. A small local co-op/artist/store thing would like to have me at their shop, so I am thinking about that too. I am also setting up a shop on etsy.com. I will post more about that sometime soon.

"Miss Van Dorp, what do you call those big ol hairy fox things?"

"Teachers teach because they care. Teaching young people is what they do best. It requires long hours, patience, and care."

I am starting not to care.
My patience is running out.
Today I threatened to kill the janitor.
I feel I am on the verge of a break down.

These are the hellions that have done this to me.