Spent the weekend on a whistlestop trip down south to do a bit of 'sorting out' at our house down there. We accepted an offer on it just over a week ago, and although we aren't holding our breath, we thought we should check that the place is still ok.

And it is.

It's gorgeous! I can't believe it's been on the market since last summer... bloody media and their scaremongering about a housing crash.

We're currently having our 'Midland House' (home) plastered, which is pretty exciting... every day we come back from work to a new surprise! Our plasterer is really really good, although he's had a few mishaps and hurt himself a couple of times, poor chap.

This week it'll be finished and then we start the mammoth task of painting the whole place.

Fingers crossed that in a month or so we'll have all our stuff that's still in the other house with us... and that it will have sold!

All's going well at the moment, bar various issues with selling the house that i won't go into.

School is good... I'm feeling really settled and happy there, and extremely glad I moved here last summer. I can't believe I'm only 2 months off the end of my first year there. It's great to know I have a permanent job and will be in the same place with the same people come September.

We're off to Canada in just over two months to spent a month travelling around thre different provinces - can't wait! And it'd be even better if we have the house sold by then and actually ahve some money...!

It's the holidays!!!

Tomorrow I'm off to York with my fellow year 5 teachers to do some scouting out in preparation for our residential trip next month... should be fun.

Went for a drink with some of my work-mates after work today... we headed over to the bar in the senior school and picked up some free 'end of term' champagne! Was nice to have a bit of a chill with everyone. We're starting a sweepstake to predict what year groups everyone will be in in September. I only have 11 more weeks with my current class. 55 days... not long at all really.

In some way this year has shot by, but it also feels like I've been at my school for ages... in a good way. :)

This week brought parents' evenings. Overall they were fine, although a couple of parents were the very stereotypical pushy-private-school kind who I was just glad to get rid of. Well, at least it's over. On Monday and Tuesday I was at school for 12.5 hours each day.... by Wednesday I had already worked a 'normal' person's 36 hour working week.... so the total this week came to just under 60 hours. Ouch. No wonder I have a head ache.

Only 3 days next week and then a glorious 3 weeks off. I'm going up to York with my 2 Year 5 colleagues the day after we break up for a recce on the place we're visiting on the way to our residential trip in April. We sorted room allocations today... crickey, I can't believe it's so close.

I'm looking forward to spending time over Easter finalising things for our summer travelling around Canada. The flights are booked, Toby's bunny-hotel is booked (and gorgeous) as is our travel insurance. Next on the list are coach tickets to and from Heathrow (and now we live a lot further from the airport than we used to!), accommodation in Vancouver, Banff area and Jasper (as they're the busiest so most likely to book up) then Calgary, Ottawa, Victoria and the other 2 or 3 places in BC Interior. I am incredibly excited.... in exactly 17 weeks we will just have landed in Ottawa for the first leg of the trip....

Back at school now... as busy as ever! I'm feeling a bit 'fragile' at the moment, so struggling to stay focussed and positive on things at work. I'm spending around 12 hours a day here at the moment... and 60 hour working weeks aren't much fun, especially when the majority is spent either alone or with 18 ten year olds! :(

We went for a couple of lovely walks at the weekend... one down the canal in our town and another round a beautiful village about 10 minutes away by car. It was nice to get out... although the original plan had been to go and fly my kite... until we realised we'd left it in our other house 200 miles south of here!

We're hoping to head down south at some point to pick up my keyboard/synth and stand, which is currently the only piece of furniture (bar a toy box) in the spare room in our old house. I miss my keyboard... I'm accompanying my violin group at the Spring Strings concert on Thursday and I wish I had it up here so I could practise! I must find some time tomorrow to play it through a few more times.

I'm also playing my violin in the concert, in the 'teachers' ensemble' with the 2 violin and cello teachers... should be interesting! Hopefully I haven't lost the ability to play... I haven't played regularly (bar in my Thursday violin group) for a three years now, since I started my PGCE.

This week marks 22 years since I started playing the violin - how time flies!

What a week... on Monday we accepted an offer on our house, got all excited about it, then I've just had a call from the estate agent saying that our buyer has pulled out. I'm very annoyed, cross and upset, but I know it can't be helped. Apparently they'd put in an offer on another place several weeks ago that was refused... and now they've come back and said they'll accept it. So they've dropped out house.

What's even more frustrating is that yesterday I booked our flights to Canada, and accepted the quote from our plasterer to come and plaster all our ceilings and most of the walls. So we have a lot of money going out and not much coming in. Grrrr...

Sod's law that after a buyoant lots-of-years of the property market, the one time we want to sell the market falls apart. I'm not planning on moving again for quite a while after this!

Keeping everythin crossed we get another buyer soon... we're in Canada for a month in the summer so we really can't afford to have everything hanging on until then...

I've just checked my sitemeter to have a gander at how many people have visited icklesarah.co.uk recently... and someone arrived here by searching for "I hate shopping for wedding dresses" in google... a kindred spirit!! :D Well, actually, I enjoyed it in the end... it was just the prospect I hated.

It reminds me of when I found that someone had reached here by searching for "cardigan fetish"... just don't ask! :)

I'm spending a gorgeously indulgent morning in bed with the laptop, planning our summer of travelling around Canada.

The current plan (and they change regularly) is to fly to Ottawa, spend a few days there, then fly on to Calgary, and spend a few days there before driving into the Rockies. We'll visit Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, drive the Icefields Parkway, then head down into British Columbia and take a scenic route through lots of towns/villages - Radium Hot Springs, Nelson, Nakusp, Kelowna - and then drive on to Vancouver. After a couple of days in Vancouver (timed to see the massive fireworks festival we saw last time) we'll float-plane across to Victoria (on Vancouver Island) for a few days, then head back to spend my 27th Birthday in Vancouver, staying there for a few more days.

We'll be away for a month... and I am SO excited. We need to sort out somewhere for Toby to stay... there's a good 'bunny boarding' place not far from here, which we're hoping to visit in a few weeks.

It's all very exciting!

It's half term! Today my class earned their 100th class point (since September!) so we had a 'day of fun' - free choice time after assembly, decorating cakes after break (which they loved) and then musical bumps/statues and a dance competition after Games in the afternoon. I enjoyed the day, although it was probably just as tiring as a 'normal' day. It's nice to see my kids in a different situation though.

I'm now over half way through the year with them, which is a very strange thought.

Now I'm looking forward to a week of doing very very little. And probably rather a lot of marking and assessment... (not looking forward to that part).

I'm trying to write in here more often... so here goes!

I am absolutely berluddy knackered. Half term can't come soon enough! I know hitting this bottom-of-a-black-hole feeling every so often in teaching is inevitable, but that doesn't make it any easier when it comes. My kids have been challenging today, and on top of that I had a kid visiting for 'assessment' - I don't think I did it as well as I could have done (I completely forgot to hear him read!) but he seemed to enjoy himself, and seemed a nice chap. My terrible two have been bouncing off the walls and can't seem to behave themselves... cue lots of Golden Time lost on Friday. One has already gained a yellow card, which means 5 minutes off, and I'm sure there will be more to come...

Ben's playing me feel-good music to cheer me up, from the early years of University.... is it really 9 years ago?!

It's the weekend! Unlike many schools around here, I don't have half term for another week... but with only 5 more school-days tso go, the end is in sight. My kids have been getting niggly and hyperactive over the past few days, so they're definitely in need of a break as well. But my mood was lifted yesterday by the beautiful sunshine - I had Golden Time outside (democratic vote... and no yellow cards this week, a first!) and then volunteered to co-supervise After School Care outside, as the lady who runs it was out on the Year 6 trip. It was great!

I can't wait for the summer... I love being able to take the kids outside to do work. I think I need to order a set of 18 clipboards!

Today we're off to collect Granny and take her to a big garden centre nearby to spend her Christmas garden tokens. Just waiting for Ben to prise himself away from Football Manager on hte PC...!

Tonight Ben and I have our second plasterer coming round to give us a quote on skimming most of the house... I'm quite excited as it means we're actually getting somewhere with this house!

The big jobs we have to do are:
- re-plastering/skimming
- redo kitchen
- new carpets/floor throughout
- fix damp patch in dining room.

Not too much then... well, compared to our old place anyway. Which, incidentally, still hasn't sold. Perhaps the cut in interest rates will encourage a few more new buyers onto the market...

Along with the rest of the teachers in my school, and probably in the country, I'm getting increasingly tired and grumpy in the run-up to half term. One of my kiddiwinks (the challenging one who moved to my school because of his behaviour at his old one) has been completely up on the air and I feel like I'm spending about 90% of my time/energy on him. It's tiring.

There are changes afoot at school, and it'll be interesting to see how things work out for next academic year. We're already starting to think about year groups for next year... I'm hoping to remain in Year 5, as it'll only be my second year at this school. It'll be quite cool to do things next year for the second or third time (or even fourth for a few things!) and hopefully get a bit better at it. :)

My class are on 93 class points - when they hit 100 they get a whole class party. They're very excited about it but I'm semi-dreading it - a few of mine get very silly when the routine changes...

2 more sleeps until the weekend!

I've spent the afternoon messing around with icklesarah.co.uk - I'd had some problems with the coding of my previous template and never got around to fix it. I've decided to pretty much discontinue my 'teaching blog' as I don't often have time to update one, let alone 2 blogs... so this will become both.

I'll still link to my teaching/PGCE blog just in case anyone's interested in ancient history, and I may pop the odd 'comedy teaching quote' in there for posterity. :)

I took the picture in the background whilst we were on our honeymoon in British Columbia in 2006- it's my favourite view in the world. I've spent a lot of time this weekend researching this year's summer jaunt - 4 weeks travelling across the Canadian Rockies. All being well, we'll be heading up the Vancouver coast to see My View on 2nd August 2008, before watching the final of the Internation Celebration of Light fireworks festival at English Bay. Holidays doesn't come much better than that. :)

I can't believe it's been so long since I wrote in here. I think icklesarah.co.uk needs a bit of an overhaul to be honest... I have so little time to write now!

My news: in August Ben and I moved 180 miles north to Derbyshire. We haven't yet sold out southern house, but decided to extend our mortgage and buy a lovely 2 bed period terrace in the town where I work... we moved in at the start of October, and currently own 2 houses.... fingers crossed not for long.

I started at my new school at the beginning of September... it's hard work, but I enjoy it... and the work is a 'better sort' than at my old school - very little stupid red-tape and planning, but I find myself spending my time doing more useful things. My colleagues are great, I've had no problems with senior management (I am so glad to be out of my old school!) and I very rarely take any work home, so the weekends and evenings are my own.

Ben started his job at the same time as me... it's going really well and turning out to be a lot better than his old one. I think he really feels like he's 'going places' now.

So... for now we're waiting for our soutampton house to sell, working hard, and considering what the next few years will bring us....

I've just about recovered from my horrible cold and asthma from the first week of the holidays - sods law i'd go down with something yucky as soon as term ended! I can't believe it's 2 weeks since I finished at my old school - it's only just hit me. That's 1/3 of the holidays gone! :(

I've achieved very little, really, due to being ill and Ben still being at work. He finishes on Monday and has 4 weeks off (3 of which are paid because he accrued lots of nice holiday!) until he starts his new job. Next week we're going up to the midlands to try and find a house to rent whilst our one down here sells. This afternoon I need to call the estate agents and give our notice to leave our contract so we can go multi-agency. the house has been on the market for 4 weeks and it hasn't sold...

I had a lovely morning yesterday meeting up with a good friend whom i've known 'virtually' for over 5 years but have never met in person, and her husband and two children. I held her daughter, who is only 6 weeks old, which was great. I had a great time - want to do it again this morning!

Only two more days at home on my own, then Ben and I can spend some time visiting places... when we're not house-hunting or moving house, that is!

Bye Bye Old 5B!

On Friday i said goodbye to my first class, and it was really quite sad - lots of kids were in tears, and I had so many saying "Why do you have to leave?", "I'll miss you!", "You'll never be replaced" etc. It was very sweet of them, and they almost set me off!

Now, conveniently for the start of the holidays I've gone down with The Cold from Hell, so am sitting at the computer designing things for my new classroom, and trying not to be too active.

I'm really looking forward to starting with New 5B - we just need to sell the house!!!

Doesn't time fly?

I now only have 5 more days left teaching my class, and 5-6 weeks until Ben and I make The Big Move up to Derbyshire. On Thursday Ben landed himself an excellent job in Nottingham only 6 miles from my new school, and the house has now been on the market for 10 days - no offers yet, but 6 pretty positive viewings.

We'll be staying with my Granny for a bit when we move up there, although we're hoping to soon be able to move into our own home. We'll consider renting somewhere tiny for a bit, but with a mortgage to pay at the same time, that wouldn't be much fun (even though Ben's new salary is pretty damn good, and as a teacher my pay will be about £100 a month higher from September).

It's all a big adventure though! We're both very excited about the future - Derbyshire here we come!

THIS is why we're moving to Derbyshire!

Isn't it beautiful?

I've just realised how long it is since I updated my icklesarah weblog. So, an update!

A lot has happened in the last month, the main thing being that I was offered a job in a wonderful school at the end of May, so will be leaving my current school in 4 weeks!

And the big news is that newschool is in Derbyshire! Yes, Ben and I will be packing up our lives, selling our house and moving 170 miles north this summer. We're both super-excited about moving somewhere new; somewhere we can afford a lovely house in a village! We've already spotted a few houses we like, but are trying not to set out hearts on anywhere until our house is sold.

We've spent pretty much every free moment working on the house since I got the job, and it's almost ready to go on the market... has new carpets, double glazing, done loads of stuff ourselves inside, and now we're just waiting for the rain to stop so we can get the outside painted!

Ben's got his eye on a couple of jobs, so hopefully he should be able to get something really good too.

It's all very exciting, albeit a little stressful... but we can't wait to be up in the beautiful Derbyshire countryside.

Life is going well... schools chuntering along, and we're slowly getting the house up to scratch. Double glazing goes in in 2-3 weeks, and various other places are in the process of being painted. Ben's been temporarily promoted at work, and I'm very proud of him. :) Only a week to go until half term, and I'm actually not feeling too drained. Months of metaphorically 'sitting' on my kids is starting to reap rewards in terms of behaviour, and I'm enjoying teaching my class quite a bit more, and am really liking my two 'naughty boy's now they're being lovely members of the class. Now all I need to do is help one chappy to stop having screaming-head-banging-tantrums half way through lessons and 5B will be a wonderful place to be!