Baking Day, Sick Birthdays, and What comes around goes around

Well, baking day was a blast. Poor Sissy had the flu so she was out of the picture napping and watching cartoons. Lovey on the other hand was a hoot. I think she must have sat and did sugar cookies with me for about two hours. We rolled it, cut out the shapes and frosted a double batch of cookies. I don't think she even moved from her booster chair. it was great getting some one on one time with her so I could get to know her.

On a bummer note, I ended up spending my birthday with a high fever and chills. Just want I wanted for my birthday! Luckily it really didn't last so by the morning I at least felt half human.

On the Irony front, I have spent the last two weeks substituting for the teacher that I did my first student teaching with. I was within 8 days of completing my student teaching when he decided he was bored and wanted back in his classroom. His students never excepted me as an equal and had difficulty when we made the transition from my practicum experience to lead teacher. To make a long story short, I ended up having to redo my student teaching quarter as well as spend my summer taking classroom management classes and having to spend $4000 extra than I planned for. The good news is I got a fantastic mentor teacher the second time around and am so happy for it. Anyway, I purposely did not substitute for this teacher as I wasn't sure that I could trust this teacher. So I show up to sub in a fifth grade class and am told that I would be in a 1st grade class for a week. Unfortunately, there was no lesson plan and I had 15 minutes before the students showed up. Well we survived the first day, but the second day the assistant principal calls me in to tell me that the teacher I am subbing for is on paid administrative leave for misappropriation of school property/funds. Oh boy, I was really not happy after this little bit of info. All I can say is that is was an interesting two weeks. I had a great time with the kids and would have continued but, it looks like it is going to be a long haul and the parents are a bit hostal. Not my idea of a good time. Back to subbing here there and everywhere.

My life in Old Lady stockings

Due to some really strange, unknown computer issues, I have been unable to get into my page, hence the long pause in writing.

Now that I am back to work, albeit a bit slowly, I have these wonderful knee high stockings that hold in everything. Compression stockings are what they are called. They remind me of things that my grandma would wear to help with the edema in her ankles. Hence the name Old Lady stockings! Hopefully I haven't offended anyone by that. I am thankful that I had the person I did to fit me. She was very charming and very thorough and as she has to wear support stockings all the time she shared some great knowledge about custom orders and how they come in different colors, sport socks, etc. This is a good thing as I will be wearing these for the rest of my life. I can't complain however, because they are actually really comfortable and I find that my ankles and feet don't ache like they used to before life with Old Lady stockings. My dear friend, Esther, reminded me of when she was pregnant with one of her boys and had to wear them-I think hers were pantyhose however and I understand that is a whole nother ballgame. She had quite the time getting them on and they were quite restrictive. I am VERY happy that this is not the case for me. I will take my knee highs any day over full on pantyhose compression stockings! Not to mention I get a kick out of showing off my "sexy old lady hose".

I was reminded last night of how much people missed me (that felt really, really good) since this was the first CoOp Council meeting I was able to attend since getting sick. It also mad me realize how blessed I am to regain my health and how wonderful it is to have people who care and pray for me. I was also reminded that I had neglected my duties as chairperson of the multiple committees that fall under my job-opps. I felt a little guilty but have put together a game plan to get on it first thing in January. Not to mention that the Co-Chair of the counsel is a complete blessing and has offered to help me with it and help with anything I need-I love that lady. She is a grandma who has offered her time to meet her daughters obligation to the CoOp while her daughter goes to school, so that her grandkids can benefit from the CoOp. She is cool and goes by Mimi (her grandkids word for grandma) by everyone at the school. She reminds me a lot of a younger version of my own beloved Grandma B., loving and kind and concerned about everyone as if they were her own children/grandchildren. I wish more people like that lived in this world so that those who long for and deserve a loving grandparent/parent relationship could have one. I guess that is what makes it nice when we can create our own family of choice.

I was reminded of this when I was talking to Esther yesterday about issues with her selfish sister and neglectful parents. I do not say that lightly, and I do not say these things to be mean. I just cannot honestly describe her childhood with these people as anything but neglectful emotionally and in some cases physically. My heart was breaking as she was telling me about how "put out" her sister was when she called her on the carpet about some of the selfish crase things she has done and accuses her of "constantly bringing up hurtful, spiteful childhood issues from the past." Part of me is callous and reminds myself of the mean nickname I had given her sister when we were in high school because of the rediculous sacrifices Esther made in order to make her sister more comfortable and "special". In reality it was just another example of how two messed up parents allowed their extremely selfish younger daughter run their lives as well as deprive Esther of the basic human necessities and love most healthy people get as teens and young adults. The funny thing is. Esther has processed out of all this and has grown tremedously into an incredible human being and it is the rest of the family that feels threatened by her happiness and trys to blame her for their own unhappiness. Luckily, Esther is so much healthier that she does not allow this garbage to become her own, but gentle puts it back where it belongs, on them. Unfortunately, this results in limited relationship for Esther, but as I pointed out to her yesterday. This truly does free her to focus on her immediate family and her extended family of choice who love her unconditionally, pray for her, and support her in her triumphs and struggles.

I guess that is why God puts people like Mimi in our lives. So that we know that there are people we can count on to help us through, to celebrate our victories, to lift us up, and give us someone to lift up. I still believe in praying for those in our bio family, even if we don't have a healthy relationship with them, but that doesn't mean we need to be pulled down into their self made mire.

Wow, I guess I have had a lot on my mind tonight. Cheers to all and remember to take time out for you this busy season.

As wonderful, spiritual, giving, and loving Mother Teresa was, as it shows in her personal diaries, she had no living person to fill her up when she was empty. She turned to her diaries to give honor to her doubts and shortcomings (or at least what she thought were her shortcomings). Even someone as pure and wonderful as she had times when she needed to get out the negative things that plagued her.

Find something that fills you back up so that you can be ready to be a beacon of light to others and so that your pitcher never runs out.

Love and Prayers for now...

Freedom...at least for a few hours

Yeah, I got to go out today for a bit...okay, I know that sounds hokey, but hey, being confined to the couch is tough to do when you like to get up and go all the time. Happily, I can say I got up and went today-shhh don't tell my doc.

Having decided we needed to go to Costco-pretty much the place my husband and I do the majority of our grocery shopping, since three males in this house can consume way more than we could keep up with in the normal stores, my mom and I decided if we used the electric carts technically I would not be on my foot, so off we went. Since we were out it gave me the opportunity to mail a package from the post office (along with my mom's ballot), and hit the library for Smiley's movie that was on hold and Stretches next book in the series he is reading. Having done both of these errands it was off to Costco.

This was actually a pretty good time to do this. We hit lunch first-where else can you feed two people including drinks for less than $4.00-Yippee! Then it was a short wait for two electric carts. I got mine first-I know that sounds silly but to cover Costco when you aren't supposed to be up and around, well, this was so much easier. Not more than 10 minutes later my mom was on her own cart cruising the Christmas isles. (My mom has a perminent disability and cannot walk more than about 20 feet at a time). Happily, we quickly got our shopping done and were off back to home. My ankle and foot was fairly swollen, but I promise I will not get up from the couch tomorrow. (I just realized I have a school board meeting tonight I should go to-darn!)

So, my question is, should I really have gone to Costco today and utilized the electronic cart? Technically, I can walk now with minimal discomfort, it is the low grade fever and swelling that are keeping me on the couch - okay, not to mention that my leg still has the lovely reddess and heat. Anyway, what do you think-I felt a little weird really...

Movin on down the road

As I was waking up this morning, I realized that I had spent an aweful long time complaining about my hospital adventure lately and not much time on my favorite topic-self-improvement, professional development. (Translation: What helps a teacher be a better teacher-or person for that matter). So I have decided to got "my train back on track" as one of my kids favorite teacher always says whenever she digresses.

So the benefit of being stuck on the couch has been the opportunity for uninterupted reading time. I have enjoyed 3 Karen Kingsbury novels for pleasure reading (I have decided to go back to the beginning and actually read the books they way they were written) and Yesterday I just picked up a Leaving the Saints by Martha Beck which was recommended to me by my dear friend, Esther. I also have various tech books/magazines I get from ASCD (a teacher magazine that has some great inovative teaching ideas etc.) and Educational Horizons from Pi Lambda Theta (Educations Honor Society). I rather enjoy reading a few different books at a time which is not always easy, but something I picked up long ago.

I love to read and have since discovered that they best way to teach how proficient readers read, is to study my own reading habits and learn along with the children. There are so many wonderful techniques that work well with Guided Reading, I love trying them out. Something I read really stuck out to me however, that is, how can we expect our students to gain deeper understanding of what they are reading by using the techniques etc. that we teach them, unless we first look at our own reading and use the same techniques and principles. Ahh lightbulb moment.

I am a huge proponent for adult book studies and had I taken the library job at one of my favorite schools, I had already been plotting to introduce a book "club" of sorts for the teachers using "fun" reading to practice Guided Reading and to help them get in touch with their own reading understanding. I would imagine this will still be something I will probably do whereever I finally end up teaching on a full time basis.

Oh, I should probably tell those of you who are not teachers, Guiding Reading is just a trade name for a process of demonstrating the skill you want the students to learn with text that is a little harder than what they could do on their own, then giving them a chance to practice the skill with the teachers help using text that is closer to what they can read on their own, then finally releasing the students to use the skill in their own level of reading, then finally bringing the students back to discuss the use of the skill, do any "tweaking" that might need to be done, etc, and celebrate the successful use of the new skill by the students as they take what they learned and apply it to new text. It is really amazing to see this in action. The students gain such a deeper understanding of what they are reading. I am still amazed by the level of conversation my 10 year old and I now have over whatever book he is currently reading. He has such deeper understanding of the characters and what is happening in the story lines that it is fun to watch him get so excited about reading. I see this so often in many of the students who have taken part in this approach to literacy. Truly inspiring...

Any thoughts, ideas that have worked for you, examples of how you approach literacy? Please share.

Day 2 and a nice neighbor

Happily I can say my Type 1 diabetic neighbor was discharged on day two of my stay. This left me with some peace and quiet for rest. I took advantage when I could by found it difficult as I was still in pain/feverish not to mention overly tired.

Day 2 evening brought a nice lady and her husband. He was very doting and sweet, he even stayed the night, choosing to sleep upright with his head on her bed-aahhh. I even enjoyed listening as he read to her from the Bible to pass time and help her with her pain. She never really complained but had been sick for about 3 months-poor baby-and came in with an absessed tooth. Wow-what was an absessed tooth turned out to be suspected MRSA-for those who don't know that is the newest craze going around of highly contagious, highly resistant virus. Luckily it is most commonly spread orally-whew, since they had been taking her vitals for the last 24 hours then taking mine with the same blood pressure cuff and oxygen meter-gee thanks. To make a long story short, she was quickly whisked down to a private room on the 5th floor after the couple happened to mention the doctor had brought up the possible diagnosis of MRSA that afternoon, but neglected to tell anyone else-including the nurses. That's so nice. I don't think our nurse was very pleased with our doctor as there was about a 6 hour time lag between the possible diagnosis given and the patient being isolated-HUM opps! I would say maybe that wasn't the case, but unfortunately with walls made of fabric curtains, I too heard the misterious diagnosis of MRSA-not that I knew what it was at the time. Apparently, when her dad came to visit her in the hospital that evening it was brought up that another family member had recently had it and that her dad urged her to make sure the nurses knew. Boy did that start things moving pretty fast.

So that was the end of my nice neighbor-boo hoo. I would have kept them around if I could just so long as they didn't give me any more whining drug seekers-my pounding head couldn't take it anymore.

Life in the hospital was looking up, or so I thought...

3 days in the hospital...

and more gratitude than you could ever imagine. Yes I had a little side trip to the hospital and I am now very thankfully home! I am still pretty much flat on my back but much more happier to be this way at home.

So what in the heck you ask? Well, Monday was a very interesting day for me. It all started with a very sensitive sore knee that I thought I must have slept wrong etc. I was substituting in one of my favorite classes for a half day and was doing quite well when I noticed my knee was really bugging me. As the morning progressed the area behind my knee began to hurt worse and my calf had a bit of an ache to it. As my day was finishing up I thought "No biggy" and worked it a bit hoping to losen up any kinks. Well, low and behold about a half an hour before my half day was to end I started to feel a little chilly. This did not sit well with me at all as I had a rather unconfortable episode of cellulitis in this same particular foot a few years ago and it was not exactly something I have liked to repeat. Ironically, I had just discussed this episode with a dear fellow from church on Sunday who had picked up a little friend on his way home from Tijajia on a Mission trip the previous week and had to deal with the same thing-cellulitis caused by a bacterial infection that entered into his foot by an open cut. Hum interesting, since I still recalled the wonderful pain which accompanied this, he and I were comparing notes.

Wouldn't you know the next day I would wind up with the same thing-go figure-in the same leg as last time-go figure. Unforturnately, I know it was cellulitis or a blood clot by 4 pm Monday as I noticed when I put my leg up on the exam table to be ultrasounded the beautiful tell tale red on my calf. As I informed the Ultrasound tech (once she ruled out a blood clot) that she needed to "grab a pen right now and mark where the redness ends because this thing is going up my leg before you blink". She reluctantly did it although she made some snide comment about my wanting her to play doctor and mark my leg. To make this already overly long day better, when she called the doc who ordered the ultrasound back they told her to have me go all the way back to my town where there was a three hour wait for a walk in clinic-Uh no. I pretty much became slightly baligerent at that time and gave her the list of events that would now take place once this lovely redness had reared it's uglyness. With a bit of contempt she checked the local walk in which had half the wait time and was right across the street. We opted for across the street.

By this time I had a raging fever and was really getting a bit tired of everyone dilly daling. Luckily when I told the receptionist what was going on and what the next steps of my symptoms would be she was nice enough to pass this on to the nurse, so they did do there best to get me in.

Mind you I had spent very little time with my leg up at this time with an ever increasing blood pressure and temperture. I loved the nurse who said "82 over 133, that's pretty good". I think she was having a difficult time understanding that my mom and I were telling the truth when we both tried to tell her that I have LOW blood pressure and that this was EXTREMELY HIGH for me. The nice thing was the triage nurse at this clinic finally realized that my leg was looking a bit swollen and that maybe sitting around all day in a wheelchair wasn't helping it much. DUH! Oh did I mention how painful it is to walk when this occurs.

Now we were looking at about 8pm and very little resolution. Up until this point I hadn't eaten since breakfast, nor had anything to drink this of course is just fantastic when you have a raging fever. (Not to mention people asking that same dumb questions over and over again). At least the walk in doc had some sense when he took some blood and realized-gee her white count is 203,000 and this infection has spread rather quickly up her leg. His thoughts-send me to the hospital. We were told that there was a bed waiting for me and everything was set-hum-that is a whole nother story for us to explore. Well, we got to the hospital about 9 ish, I think I finally made it up to the room and layed there barely coherent with fever describing the events of the day, symptoms, past occurance, past coarse of treatment yet again only to repeat it again at 12:30am to the on call doc that was supposed to have everything ready for me-HUH? As there were no doctor orders until after this joker finally saw me in the wee hours of the am, not so much as a Tylenal or even water was allowed. Warm blankets thankfully were so at least that problem was being addressed.

Since shift change came right before the doctor came, it was quite a while before his orders were written, IV antibiotics were ordered, water was given, oh, and did I mention water-and the nurse was wondering why she was having such a difficult time finding a vein and called someone else to put in my IV cathiter-Duh. Good thing I was so hard to understand by this point and too exhausted to fight. Well the IV was finally started about 1:30ish am on Tuesday morning-well more than 12 hours after this fun little adventure started. Then there was the adventures in the hospital but that's another story...

My leg is just starting to heal (with the type of infection I have, it literally "burned" my skin from the inside out so now it is blistering in some areas and turning black in others-I know it sounds so pretty). I can live with the "grossness", it's the pain with any pressure and the sever swelling that makes it tough. Since I do not take narcotics for pain, I tend to avoid as much pain as possible and go for the couch route with crutches for mandatory movement! hahaha

There has also been an interesting side affect of headaches, but that is more than likely remnents of the fever/infection. The good news is my fever is slowly going down and I should be normal before too long-oh wait, I guess that means I would have had to be normal in the first place =-) haha For this, Tylenol is my new best friend, happily it only seems to be really bugging me to much around evening, but then again-I haven't been home with a couple of goofy boys for three days so we'll see how things are going.

Stay tuned for more of the many zany adventures of my last three days...

Monday, Monday or something like that

Can you believe I got a call at 7am this morning to work at 7:30am. Hum, NO! Normally, I could have done it but considering I just woke up, no. It was at one of the middle schools that I hadn't worked at yet so I wasn't too gung ho anyway.

I think that as I am already scheduled to work three days this week, I am not too worried about working today. Actually, I got some housework done, relaxed a bit, finished the laundry. All those lovely things I never get a chance to do. How do people manage a family of 4, a house, work, cook decent meals, not go crazy. Any suggestions other than hiring a maid-sorry out of my budget.

Stretch has his third football game tomorrow. He has turned into quite the football animal-he loves to tackle and for such a skinny guy it takes quite a few guys to bring him down. So far they have lost their games, but not for the lack of trying. We find it interesting that the coach continues to call the same plays even after they have proven to be unsuccessful. Any thoughts on this?