Back into the swing of things!

I am back at one of my favourite places in the world: school!! I love school! Which is a very good thing because I am in school to become a teacher. 


I just had class today from 8:30 until 3, which actually was not as awful as it seems. I loved all of my classes and I think it is going to be a great term. 


I would like to share two stories of something that happened this week and both are music related. 


First, I had a private concert! I was killing some time between classes and decided to sit in the Nipissing music lounge. A first year student was there playing the piano and thus I was treated to a lovely concert as I read Oliver Twist. This first year was playing the piano and singing and later played his guitar with his friend who also brought her guitar. They both had wonderful voices and were excellent musicians. I would have to say that enjoying other people's talents is a simple pleasure. There are so many wonderful talents out there and I regret leaving without thanking them both for sharing their music with me. So here I go: Thank you musically inclined strangers for a wonderful concert! 


The second musically story is a Canada story. My Canadian History since the Confederation professor promised to play a song at the beginning of every lecture to help wake us up, as this is an 8:30am class. Because today was just a short lecture that only involved going over the course syllabus, she played the most Canadian song I know. The Hockey Song by Stompin' Tom Connors. I would like to say that the entire class started to sing but unfortunately my life is not that awesome. The entire class did, however, start to grin from ear to ear. Then I started to think if there was another song that represents Canada as much as this song does. And I am not even a huge hockey fan! 


So enjoy this song (this video was the best one available) and let me know what song you think represents Canada for you. Besides our national anthem, of course!

Have you met Marshall?

Have you met Marshall?

Sorry that it is blurry, we found out the hard way how difficult it is to take a picture of a kitten!

When we 'rescued' his mother, Noelle, on Christmas Day last year we never imagined the crazy stuff that was about to happen! Noelle was feral; she hissed at us, she scratched us, and yet she was the most adorable kitten we had ever seen. We were finally able to catch her, quarantine her, and get her to the vet for her first shots. After months of only catching glimpses of her at the barn, we noticed how big her belly was getting. Despite our hopes for only worms, as gross as that sounds, we finally heard tiny meows coming from upstairs. The only problem was that we could never actually see where the noises were coming from!

To make a long story short, we found them and placed them in a tiny version of Fort Knox. Chicken wire, cardboard and a whole lot of staples went into getting a stall impossible to get out of. Getting Noelle in was the next challenge. Using her kittens as 'bait', we were finally able to coax her in long enough to close the door.

Where does Marshall come into this story? Well, right here!

One of Life's Simple Pleasures: Kittens!!

We knew we had to find homes for these darlings because we already had 7 cats, but it was so hard not to get attached and fall in love so quickly! It was hard to say good-bye, but we knew we found good homes for them. Until...

We get a phone call. You have to come pick up the kitten, we can't keep him anymore. I will spare you the details, but taking the kitten from a young boy's hands and hearing his voice break as he says goodbye to 'Shadow' was one of the toughest things I have had to do.

Marshall. is now a member of our family, on the condition that I take him with me when I move out. Which won't be a problem at all, since he is the most adventurous, curious and lovable kitten we have ever had! One of my new joys in life is to snuggle with Marshall. at night and being woken up through the night with kisses.

It is impossible to keep a straight face in the presence of one or more kittens. 

 ~Cynthia E. Varnado

Over a rhetorical shirt reigns a floating proof

Love the title?! I do! I could not think of a good enough title so I went here: a random word generator. It took only two clicks before this beauty popped up!

I decided to plug this into Google Images and see what appears. The result was a random bunch of images, some of them involving t-shirts and some were just plain odd. My favourite images of the bunch were:

The random title is fitting for this random blog post. As it has been too long since I last posted I figured I should get into things again. 

I have been reading the most wonderful books recently: Far to Go by Alison Pick, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. I plan on writing reviews for them all very shortly. Right now I am read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer. 

 

I recently came across this list here: 365 Simple Pleasures to Brighten a Year which I read through and just adored. Check these simple pleasures out when you get a chance, I will be featuring one every blog. 

Today's Simple Pleasure is...

1. Songs that bring you back to great moments in your life.

It is amazing how much music is a part of my life. The radio is normally always on, or we have a CD going, or I am upstairs listening to my Sirius Satellite Radio. The main musical influence in my life is Elvis Presley. I have been a fan of Elvis for many years now and I could listen to his voice all day long. Whenever I hear an Elvis song I do think of my trip to Graceland that I took with my dad for my 16th birthday. It was such an amazing experience to be at Graceland and I cannot wait to go back! 

I decided that trying to complete the list of 50 Ways to Scatter Sunshine is going to take too long if I try and do it in order. So I am going to complete this list out of order. 

50 Ways to Scatter Sunshine

9. Leave an encouraging note in a library book

I rarely take out library books myself, so I put this note in one of the books that my mom borrowed. 

Sunshine successfully scattered!!