This past week seemed like it was never going to end – EVER. It doesn’t help that I’m one of those perfectionist people either! Although STEAM camps are over for the summer, I do multiple things for our Before/After/Summer school program. Our big competition for the summer was our Second Annual HOST + myOn Summer Book Battle sponsored by myOn (Renaissance Learning)!
We had 18 elementary summer sites with 23 teams and three middle school sites with three teams! Although it shouldn’t be stressful – it was for me because I just want everything to be as close to perfect as possible and everything to go off without any issues. Our tech genius, Justin, was with me both days for both battles!
The elementary battle was insanely awesome and the middle battle – well, there were a handful of students who just couldn’t – for a few minutes – behave (we later learned there was a substitute instructor for the site), After all was said and done – the battles were awesome and we get to celebrate two sites in the next week or so!
After moving in March 2023, I finally started unpacking some of my Funko Pops and I’ve started to cover my bedroom wall – as you can see! I collect different things, but these are, by far, the largest (in size) of those collections! And you can see some of my Tigger beanies as well! Some of these were only available at the Disney Store in London – so, my mates there kept me updated on what was there and would send the ones I wanted! The doubles I have will go to my new classroom representing Walt Disney (himself), Doctor Who (The Tenth Doctor) and Bond, James Bond. One of my besties, she’s my sister from another mister, will come help me unpack and get my classroom set up this Wednesday and Thursday. I’d like to just have that done before I have to go back on 2 August. And then just 10 days later, students return!
So, my niece and I finally set out to do the Ice Cube Tray Sushi! With sushi grade smoked salmon, cukes, avocados, cream cheese, seaweed snack (Sea Salt and Teriyaki) and sushi rice, we set out to create our first ever! You can see other pictures under FAVOURITES > FOODIE ADVENTURES. It was – in our opinion – a success – a bit messy, but it was – after all – our first time! It was YUMMY! A bit heavy on the cream cheese because we couldn’t figure out how to cut it thinner – is that even possible? I mean I love cream cheese, but not as much as we had in each piece! Little Rhett (16 months) tried his first veggie roll — he loved it all except for the seaweed because he couldn’t chew it up. We’re going to up our game next time by adding blood red tuna to the mix!
Even though there were bright moments this week, my anxiety tried – desperately – to seize control most days. For me, I know that my anxiety is trying to leave the background when I’m weepy and cry in the morning. I’m not ashamed of crying, but this crying just happens – there is absolutely no control and those big crocodile tears stream down my face. Alexa & Bull try so hard to comfort me, but they – at times – tend to make it worse because I don’t want anyone or anything touching me when I’m going through those moments. So, if I’m at home during the day – they just snuggle together next to my desk and get up to both occasionally to check on me. It doesn’t help that most mornings I’m nauseous. Anxiety is so different for those who have it at the level like I do. So, it’s a learning curve constantly trying to figure out what does and does not work. So, if you’re experiencing anxiety a/k/a panic attacks for the first time – just know that it’s different for every single person and how your anxiety presents itself will be different and similar to others.








