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. :)