Holiday

Hallelujah, it's time for a break, albeit for a week.

We started off with a bang and bruise.

Son#3 got smacked with a stick (by accident) in gym class, and sports a gorgeous blue shiner.

We went to a pancake restaurant last night where Son#2 flapped his right foot inwards, spraining his ankle spectacularly.

He and I were in hospital until midnight last night.

Then the morning started off well until Son#3, out of the blue, vomited all over the comforter on my bed, and over my bedroom floor.

Sometimes it just sucks being an adult (I said to myself whilst scraping vomit out of the grooves between the floorboards).

Oh well.

At least we don't have to go anywhere.

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I'm just letting off steam

The new job has been 'interesting'.

I'll be honest.

This is not some Michelle Pfeiffer movie where the pretty and tenacious teacher blows new educational life into deprived youths.

It didn't 'gel' with 3 of the 8 groups.

The director is a weak and egotistical man.

I told him that no, I will not be teaching said 3 classes (life's too short), but here we are now, 1 week later and I seem to be teaching 2 of the 3 again.

Meanwhile the husband is in a deep depression.

Son#2 was beaten with sticks by FIVE classmates (he managed to bite one of the little bastards), and has been recalcitrant and defiant ever since.

I, of course, complained to the highest echelons of our village school.

Son#3 is on multiple pairs of pants a day again.

Son#1 has been tested for IQ and whatnot.

He is very, VERY gifted but with a serious attention deficit disorder.

His teacher is reluctant to send him to a higher level school, going against the advice of the developmental specialist's findings.

Tomorrow it is work in the morning, Son#1's orthopedic surgeon and then his therapist in the afternoon.

The husband is going to a family birthday party with my in-laws (I wasn't invited) and my father-in-law is slowly losing his marbles.

Life in our nut house/shell.

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True Story

I survived the first day of lessons at my new job.

I feel like getting an 'I-made-it!!' tattoo on my forehead.

8 hours of solid teaching, and I came home and sat on the stairs until the husband fetched my slippers.

This is self-flaggelation but I need to know (after nearly 4 years of uselessness) what I am capable of.

What was that?

Curiosity killed the cat?

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Like a Rhinestone Cowboy

I woke up with terrible pain in my left foot (utterly Daniel Day-Lewis, don't you think?) and left leg.

Eventually Son#3 and I hobbled to the hospital, thinking it must be a lung embolism waiting to happen.

Life isn't that exciting (thank goodness), and it turned out to be a boring-but-painful heel spur.

Yes, compadres.

I have a spur.

How much more Cowboy can one get?

The weekend was fine-ish.

Son#2 got a toolbox with tools that now sleeps next to his bed plus a metal detector for his birthday.

Happy birthday Bucky!

What a long time 9 years is (and what a different person I am now).

We are looking for a house exchange in Canada for the summer, if ticket prices can stay on the low side.

The husband was in a funk for most of the day and so was Son#1.

I applied for jobs closer to home, cleaned the house and cooked my lunches for the coming week, all on one foot. 

It will be a busy week.

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Our Week So Far

Son#2 will be 9 on Saturday!

It's been a rough and tumble week with work, tummy bugs, the flu and a birthday party in the mix.

Come on, Weekend.

We need you.

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Twisting

I have a new (temporary) job.

40 km from home, through inevitable traffic.

It is temporary, and at a vocational college where 98% of the largely adolescent student population are either on file at child welfare or have some serious learning disability.

There are security guards and safety procedures.

Students dealing in drugs and getting arrested for house robberies.

I had no idea that this world existed.

Not really...

I will have to see how my weary body will handle this.

I got through my shell-shocked first week.

At night I am so tired that I sway like a drunkard and the husband sends me to bed.

It is not the intellectual world of the university, but I knew this when I quit.

At home, Son#2 is kicking and screaming.

Everything is NO.

I feel very sad about it.

We all have colds and feel pants, and my fever is climbing again.

But hallelujah, Monday is a day off next week. 

Lo-ve-ly.

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