Wanted: brilliant poem ideas.

I've been avoiding my blog lately. Procrastinating from writing and instead just thinking about writing. Which isn't all that useful after a while. I might get some good ideas but that's as far as I get. And, I have several deadlines for submissions and contests coming up. The thing is, I just feel so restless. I want to go out in the sunshine (it's finally warming up) or get on a plane and go somewhere. Luckily my trip to the island isn't that far away. But I want to do more than that. I want to travel EVERYWHERE and I'm just sick of waiting. Sigh.

There is a contest deadline this week for a poetry site I've been submitting too, and I desperately am trying to come up with a half-decent poem to send off. The thing is, my ideas are completely dried out at the moment. I keep reading old poems, and re-reading my favourites, trying to remember how I came to writing them, and how I got the good idea in the first place. But honestly, most of my poems just come to me. I barely revise them at all, they just arrive in a rush of words, usually scrawled in a notebook, and I revise as I write, working until I get to the great ending that started the poem in the first place. Or, I'll see a great image, or someone will tell me something that just seems to fit perfectly with a poem.

So, anyone got any great ideas?

On the bright side, I finally got my office organized to do some writing without feeling so cramped. And, I sent off the story I've been meaning to send off for like a year now! Trying to stay positive here, can you tell?

I'm also excited that I get to teach English 12 all day tomorrow at the high school. Finally! I actually get to teach my favourite subject and grade. Methinks I should prepare some extra work to bring in just in case the teacher left us no lesson plan... (let's just say my last subbing experience in the computer lab was basically spent fooling around on facebook with the rest of the class as the assignment took up about 15 minutes of the 80 minute class!).

What else? Oh, did I mention that it's been above 0 for a week now! And that I can see my grass? I know, you can really only appreciate my excitement if you live any farther north than I do. But, I actually went out onto my deck in my t-shirt and just SAT there, enjoying the warmth on my arms for once. I even skipped taking my vitamin D that day. But, in a couple of weeks I'll be enjoying the island rain once more. And for once I realize that I LOVE the rain. Life just isn't the same when there's no rain 8 months of the year. Can you even imagine that? It's just bizarre.

Leaving you with a pic of my Dawson Creek friends:

Mike's birthday

In the midst of moving, it was also Mike's 25th birthday. He worked the day of his birthday, so on Sunday the 3rd, we went out for lunch and then had an afternoon of bowling with our friends from church. Amazingly, everyone and their kids were able to come--we usually have small turn outs due to all the shift workers in our group. It was a lot of fun to be all together. Here are some of the highlights (even the baby girls made it!):




The newest addition: Baby Gwen, born January 4th.


Can you guess which ones brought babies?







At the bowling alley--I came in second!

At long last

I've finally got my internet connected, and some time to post pictures of the house, which I realize are long overdue. We are still unpacking, but every day I get something new accomplished, such as new phones, and smoke/co2 detectors. How exciting. Now that we have a house, there are so many boring things you have to buy before you can get to the fun stuff!

This past week has been super busy, with the move, and a bridezilla party with some girlfriends on the weekend (we wore our wedding dresses) and also Mike's birthday yesterday. But, first, to the pictures...





The huge tv room at the back of the house, and the windows that look into the backyard.





The kitchen, the brick wall in the kitchen, and the dining room.


Here are the bathroom, laundry room, and the living rooms with some of their furniture in them.







Well, hope you enjoyed the pics--let us know when you wanna come visit. Although it was in the minus 40s last week, so I would recommend waiting for spring!