The Big C

It has been rearing it's ugly head a great deal of late. It never ceases to amaze me how unfair it all seems.  In my work world, one of my colleagues at a sister school was diagnosed with cancer of the throat a few weeks ago. She has undergone some pretty radical surgery of late. The husband of one of my colleagues has had cancer for over a year now. It has gotten worse and what they wanted to operate on has now become inoperable. It is incredibly sad.  The mother of one of our school's youngest students had battled and won, we thought. It is back now, with a vengeance and she is about to undergo a radial treatment where she will be isolation for 6 months...away from her little ones. Today was their last day with us. very sad.

And now the personal touch. My mom's results came back a couple weeks ago. The cancer has spread. They were able to get her in very fast and we spent last week in the city while she had all her lymph nodes on one side, removed. Her face and neck are a hot mess of stitch after stitch. Watching my dad in there.....he was so sad. Broke our hearts. Mom is at home now under home care and very weak. Our next stop, regardless of the results of the tests, will be the Cancer Clinic.

All this from a mole.

Last week was the first time I verbalized "My mom has cancer."  It did me in. Even just typing this...I am breaking down.

She is so strong, but it just seems like a battle we can't win.

It is just not fair.

And the holiday begins

What a busy, swirling last week before Christmas break.

 There was Christmas concert this week where the older students were part of a play and the little groups popped on for their songs. There were 3 performances of this and then with a big sigh of relief, we could take the stage down and get back to having a gym again.

It's been bitter cold and the kids have been inside almost 100% of the time for noons and recesses rfor the past 3 weeks. They get so squirrely without that time to run around and get some fresh air, but with windchills into the -40C range and more, that's a little too much fresh air for safety.

My class had their annual potluck party. 35 kids eat a LOT of food. They had a great time though. I was surprised at how many had no potluck etiquette experience to draw upon. It was a great teaching moment showing them how to not touch every dish with their hands...how not to take heaping amounts until everyone had firsts, and then seconds.

I have had a student teacher with me once  a week for the past four months, then a few more days as he was done his  exams. The best part is that he is a former student of mine and a lot of the activities were things he remembered from being in my class, only this time he got to see them as the adult. There were a lot of  'so THAT is why you always....." comments :-)

We had pajama days and movies today. I popped popcorn yesterday after school and then again early this morning. We sang carols this afternoon and then we released them to their parents for the holidays.

It was a great feeling to be home and in my jammies by 4 PM. Such decadence!

DS2 left this morning for a winter camp weekend. Crazy kid...excited to be out and camping this weather. I am taking advantage of his being gone to strip down his bed and do laundry and get it tidied. I know...he should be doing this, but for some reason I just feel the need to surface tidy and clean.

I am curled up watching Season 2 of CSI New York, that I got from the library today. Tomorrow will be soon enough to do all the things I need to do, outside of the house.

F'ing taxes

I am mad. steaming mad.

Remember back HERE

where I got a larger than expected tax refund?

Remember I called Revenue Canada THAT day. THAT DAY!! to ask them to check over all my files as their number did not match mine?

Remember that I asked the man who answered AREYOU SURE this is correct???

He assured me it was.

Well today I got a statement saying that they reassessed and I now owe THEM $1300, with interest thank you very much you deadbeat citizen!

I called the number on my assessment and they have NO record I ever called. None

Merry F'ing Christmas

Where the money stands

as of December 8th

Debts
Mortgage - $25 925.49

Total Debt - $25 925.49

Savings/Planned Spending
TFSA/EF - $3075
RESP - $15 800
RRSP - $6100 ($1500 more ready to be added in when I meet with bank)
xmas 2013 - $1400 (for the moment....beginning to dip out of this now for the holiday)
DS2's trip -$1030

I am happy to have added to DS2's trip fund. He won't be going until April of 2015 but a head start will make me a much happier woman. I want to be sure I have that money ready for his trip, as I did for his brother.

I have added a category I am planned spending for, which will probably not show up on this radar...college. I am tucking away money each month for the upcoming bills for DS1.  This will get tapped into as need be and right now I have no clue how that will unfold.  I suspect this will go on for 4 years at which point I hope/suspect both boys will be done.

Air Miles Credit Cards

Looking for a little input here from folks, particularly my Canadian readers.

I have a lot of flights in my future if I ever want to visit DS at college to see him play or fly him home at Christmas etc.

I bank with BMO and use their BMO air miles CC...the one with no fee. I get one reward mile for every $20 in purchases.   I am wondering if I should choose to get one of the other airmiles cards where there IS a yearly fee, but the ratio of dollars spent to miles earned is better.

I would be using it for flights down to the US and back and those days would be rather specific so I would not want to fight 'blackout' times.

I really haven't used my airmiles for much beyond some gift redemeptions.

Thoughts? suggestions?