Grateful Friday

 The past few days have given me enough to be grateful for that I can muster some courage for today.  Halloween celebrations for school are scary, which I guess is on brand for the holiday.

Wednesday two good things happened.  Adam came home, always a good thing.  Also, we had our ward trunk or treat in our cul-de-sac.  The fact that it was in our driveway/cul-de-sac is 100% the only reason I went.  I don't love Halloween and I mostly love being where the people aren't.  But I had a good time!  I have a lot of good friends and it was fun to visit with them.  The primary children shyly--and not so shyly--came up to me to show me their costumes and I love that I'm getting closer to them.

It was all exhausting for the weak little link that I am, but I enjoyed it.

Yesterday was a good day at school.  I love talking to my friends.  I am getting to know the 4th grade teachers better all the time and I really like them.  We have this big thing in common: school teacher.  It is fun to connect about other things too.

After school we had a Finer Things Friday.  We have one a month.  Since today is our Halloween celebrations and no one will feel like anything that doesn't include a dark silent room, we had it on  Thursday.  Jamie had set up a mocktails bar and it was amazing, like everything Jamie does is.  I decided to skip the bottleneck of drink makers and opted for a bottle of butter beer. (See what I did there?  Bottleneck vs. bottle.) Delicious. I sat amongst my friends and we were all chatting and laughing and having a great time.  We talked about everything from school to travel to labor and delivery stories.  You know, like you do.

I am grateful for that school and those people.

I had a buzzed up sort of day.  Braeden is confronting lots of Big Boy Decisions with his career.  At one point, I was walking down the hall to pick up my class from computers and mentally spiraling.  There is freaking out about yourself and then there is freaking out about your children.  It is a whole new level.

I felt this peace wash over me.  I remembered specific times when we were guided to know what to do.  The same will happen for them.  I know that.  God is in His heaven and He loves us.  What a gift it is to me that I know that.

I am grateful.

Delightful

 My cute niece Charlotte has been having a lot of headaches, which I hate.  But I love Charlotte.  They have been trying to get to the bottom of it with doctor visits, but so far have not solved the problem.  Tabor told Charlotte that until they figure something else out, she is going to have to "live with the headaches like so many of us do."

Charlotte said, "Maybe we can all take a group picture, you know like the Olivia pictures."

It delighted me right down to the ground.

Olivia (my sister) insists every time she is in the same room with Olivia (our niece) and Olivia (our aunt) that they take a picture.

At the Murray cemetery each Memorial Day, those of us who claim to look like our generously proportioned ancestor, Ellen Yorgason, pose for a shot by her headstone.

I like the idea of a headache sufferer group.

I thought about it yesterday morning when I woke up with an enthusiastic headache.  I think headaches are easier to bear when you consider you could be posing with others in a "we get headaches" photo, especially if Charlotte is in the group.

Maybe that's just me.

Third grade swear words are also sort of charming.

I have a student who says, "Oh biscuits!" when she makes a mistake.  A few years ago, I had a girl who would exclaim, "Daisies!" when she was unhappy.  Yesterday a boy said, "Holy sherbet!"

I hope they never change.

Early in the school year, I was trying to drive home the point that I love it when my students ask questions.  I said, "When I have a student say, 'I don't understand,' that is one of my favorite things."

At the time I was standing in front of the room and holding a marker.  I said, "My job is to teach you, not just hold this marker, so let me teach you. Tell me if you need help."

It has become a thing they love to repeat.  They love to tell me that I'm not just there to hold a marker.

Yesterday, a student gave me this drawing.  I loved it so much I hung it on the wall.  

She even drew base ten blocks!

Sometimes they are delightful even when they're naughty.  I have "treat sheets" in my class.  They are on colored paper, so they are easier to keep track of.  It is a review math worksheet that they take home, complete, and bring back for a piece of candy.  A boy made 23 colored copies on his parents' printer, sure that I would hand over a piece of candy for each page.

He said, "But I did all those pages."

I said, "You copied it after you finished."

He said, "No I didn't."

I said, "You did."

He said, "OK." and went back to his desk.

If his parents are wondering why they are fresh out of yellow ink, I may have an idea....

Not all doctors are the same....

 It's not like it's the only doctor's office around; I don't think I'm going back there.  

Yesterday I got an appointment at the urgent care at the doctor's office where I usually go.  When I checked in, there was a sign that said without an appointment, the wait time was 1 hour 3 minutes.

I think my appointment was a fiction, because I waited an hour before they called me back.  (Luckily, I had my book with me.)

The doctors take turns manning urgent care and my least favorite one was working.  He said something vague about it being kidney stones, but probably not.  What?!?

He said I definitely had an infection and he was going to give me an antibiotic and a backup antibiotic.  He said, "Why did you get this? Don't you drink enough?"

I told him I try to.  I told him I have lymphoma, so maybe that was why I got an infection?

He 100% had that info in my chart, but he clearly hadn't read it and he looked shocked.  He said, "Oh, then do you think we need to do a culture?"

I said, "I don't know."  (This is why I have come to you, medical professional.)

He hemmed and hawed and said, "I will give you two antibiotics."

He yawned an enormous yawn and asked again, "Should we do a culture?  I guess your insurance will cover it, since you're doing chemo?"

I didn't know what they had to do with each other, plus I had already explained that I was finished with chemo (plus, you know, my chart).  He said he decided to do a culture.

I said, "Do I still take the antibiotics?"

He said yes.

On my drive home, I realized he never told me the scenario that I would take the second antibiotics.  So I called back.

You'll never guess that I was put on an enormous hold.

I napped for an hour and a half in the afternoon.  

Besides that, I had an enjoyable conversation with Olivia.  It perked me up.  I sent Mark to get Papa Murphy's and I didn't really cook it all that well.  (I am not the pizza baker in the family and it shows.)  The three of us visited, Adam called, Braeden called, Emma had worked at our house because she was going to a friend's wedding in PG.  I sent her off wearing one of the necklaces my dad made my mom for the occasion.

Somewhere along that I started feeling better and I am going back to school today.  

The ups and downs of immunocompromised life....

Weekend

 We had a nice autumnal weekend.  I loved having Adam home.  He left again for a few days last night, but it is a short trip and he doesn't have too many more trips for this year.  I am so looking forward to falling into a routine of him home and nothing out of the ordinary happening.  Just us.

Sometimes boring sounds like the most delightful thing.

We went to the grocery store Saturday morning and swung by my classroom for a game board I wanted for primary.

Fabulously mundane.

In the afternoon we went to Sense and Sensibility.  Despite the comfy heated recliner seat, I didn't nap, so I felt pretty proud of myself.  I also felt proud of myself the night before when we were discussing the movie and Mark wasn't interested.  Geri said something about him not being a Mr. Darcy fan and Mark said, "I thought it was Sense and Sensibility?"

My boy knows Jane Austen and my work here is done.

I enjoyed the movie.  A few liberties were taken with the story, but I didn't mind.  

We took a walk at Harvey Park, then Geri treated us to dinner at La Costa.  It was a nice day.

Sunday was a cozy morning of getting ready for primary (but then I didn't actually do the music) and watching QEs primary program on zoom.  I even got to tune in to Boston's primary program briefly and watch him do his part.

Adam spoke in church and I enjoyed it.  He was pretty nervous and he is doing a presentation today in Las Vegas that he is also nervous about.  After church he said he now only had one pit in his stomach instead of two.

I guess that's moving in the right direction.

We had a nice Sunday afternoon.  The kids and I filled out our ballots, we had dinner, we had a Come Follow Me lesson, and we played Qwixx.

Mark took Adam to the airport, Emma went home and when Mark came back, he and Geri went downstairs to watch the Seahawks.  Mark said I could join.  I appreciated the invite, but more than that I appreciated going upstairs. 

I had a rotten night's sleep and I suspect I have a UTI.  So that's fun.  I got a sub and a doctor appointment.  It isn't the most auspicious start to a week, but hopefully things will improve.

Grateful Friday

 Yesterday was a cranky pants kind of day.  (Although I wore jeans.)

It was rainy and we had inside recess.  A boy crawled under my desk and cried because he didn't win the Blooket we played.  I told him if he wasn't old enough to not cry about Blooket, he couldn't play anymore.  He put his head inside his t-shirt, but he stopped crying.

Later in the afternoon two kids cried because they didn't have enough time to finish.  They had spent oodles of time in clipboard selection because they wanted to work somewhere beside their desks.

I hadn't slept well so I know my patience was thin.  That usually results in more fragile children, which is a losing cycle for all of us.  Between not being home last weekend to do the weekend things and trying to fit them all in this week, I've been stretched thinner than normal.

I have a pathetically small margin of stretch.  

I have a sore throat and my old friends, the mouth sores, back.  I need to rest in order for my life to work and that is discouraging.

I have a rock that a student painted in a rainbow and gave to me years ago.  I use it to prop open the door when I have recess duty.  A student complained that there was no purple in the rainbow and that is his favorite color.

I said, "One of my students gave it to me as a gift, so I didn't complain about it."

A girl said, "Also, she is a teacher and a grown up so she doesn't complain."

I am a grown up and I do complain.  I felt chastised.  I need to do better because no one likes a complainer.  

I went to recess duty and watched the children run and play and I watched the clouds dance across the stormy sky and I watched the mountains, red, yellow and brown, steadfastly looking over us.

I don't really have much to complain about.  I need to take care of my weak constitution, but my life is pretty great.  I had a student wear his bicycle helmet all morning because he wanted to.  After a while he came up to me and said, "If one more person asks me why I am wearing this, I might take it off."

I mean, these kids are nuts and they delight me.

I had a boy pull a tooth out during math.  I gave him a ziplock bag and he put it in his backpack and they all laughed at my jokes about him being a jack-o-lantern just in time for Halloween.  They are the easiest crowd to make laugh.  And several of them tried to pull out more teeth so they could also be jack-o-lanterns, but no one was successful

What really righted my ship is last night Adam and I drove to Salt Lake to meet up with Megan and Emma for dinner.  Megan is in town for a conference.  Driving to and from Salt Lake with Adam mended my soul up a bit.  It is good to be with him.

I am looking forward to a weekend.  Geri is here and we are planning to go to the new Sense and Sensibility movie and Adam will be here until Sunday night and I will soak that time up.

Also, I think we are securely in sweater weather and I love that.

I am grateful for my life and grateful for a blustery recess to remind me of that.

We the People

Yesterday we read a passage about the Constitution.  It is part of our curriculum now to learn about the three branches of government.  

I haven’t had a more intense government discussion since Braeden was 5 and demanding to understand checks and balances.  (No surprise that kid is getting a PhD in political science.)

I decided we needed to start strong so we talked about the Revolutionary War.  They all thought they knew the name of the war and none of them did.  I gave them a hint.  It starts with an R.  A boy ventured a guess, “The Repentance War?”

No, and I’m not even sure how repentance would wage a war, but I’d like to see it try.

Next stop was talking about the Articles of Confederation briefly.  The newly minted Americans didn’t want to have to pay a lot of taxes.

But that didn’t really work out.

So they convened.  We talked about what a delegate is.  We read in the passage who was there, including Alexander Hamilton. I had to tell a boy to stop singing songs from Hamilton.  You really never can tell what the range of their experiences will be.

We read that Americans now observe September 17 as Constitution Day.  A girl was deeply insulted.  Why hadn’t we celebrate Constitution Day on September 17?  

One boy told me twelve times his birthday is on September 18.  Eventually, when his hand was raised, I said, “I know.  Your birthday.  September 18.”

The righteous indignation persisted, “But why didn’t we celebrate Constitution Day?!?”

Ah ha!  It came to me.  I said, “It says we observe it, not celebrate.  So we notice it is Constitution Day.”

“OK,” she said grudgingly.

We landed on three branches of government in the passage.  I told everyone to buckle up because these were big words.  Imagine 22 wide eyed 8 year olds pretending to buckle a seatbelt.

Legislative, executive, judicial.  We got into it.  

Can you go to the Supreme Court if you don’t like someone?

No.

Who was the president before Donald Trump?  

Joe Biden.

None of them had heard of him.  They are all impossibly young!

We talked about how the members of Congress and the president live in Washington, D.C. 

The president lives there?!?

Yes, he has a house there.  The White House.

I thought Washington, D.C. was in England!

I tried to correct all the misconceptions.  I gave it my all.

I don’t know if they truly understood it, but I do know that I truly tried….

 

Haunted classroom

 Yesterday was the day everything went wrong.  I swear there was a ghost around messing with things.

During math, the document camera wouldn't work.  It was frozen with an image of the remote sitting on the desk.  I picked up the remote with the intention of trying to figure out what button would unfreeze it (like I really have any idea) and the kids got freaked out that they were seeing the remote on the desk, but "it is in Teacher's hands!"

Ghosts.

During phonics I couldn't get my slides to cooperate at all.  I was trying to extend the display so that I could see the notes and show the slides and nothing doing.  I tried multiple times.  No dice.

During my specialty, I was talking to Alissa and I said, "What am I doing wrong?!?"  I showed her and it worked perfectly.

Haunted.

On Monday, the tech guy replaced the battery in two computers and assured me they were fixed and charged.  

They wouldn't work.

Eerie.

During literacy, first I was the ghost and messed things up.  I had been planning ahead (a teacher work day will do that to you) and I was all prepared with the next story.  We halfway through reading it and I realized, wait, this is next week's story.  

Ugh.

I told them my mistake and we went back to this week's story.  

During writing, I have no idea what was afoot.  The slides that I had been using, that I had in fact written on with my Apple pen, were just gone.  I know they were there at one point, but they were gone.  I imported them again from my Google Drive and my notes were there.  

Then they weren't.  I found it again and it was a brand new slide with no markings.

Spooky.

I just gave up and wrote everything again.

I know when I've been beat.

Back at it

I feel a bit sad that fall break has come and gone.  I was looking forward to it and it sped on by. I didn’t feel like I got as much time with Adam as I would like.  Lately I never get enough time with Adam!

We flew to California and had a great time adoring our grandchildren and visiting with Anna.  We took a few walks and read some books and played with legos.  I love just spending time with them, learning their routines and getting to know the kids a little better.  Braeden arrived on Saturday morning.  We went to Crepeville for brunch and to the Arboretum and library to walk around and soak in the beautiful day.  After naps/quiet time we went to Bobby Dazzler's, which is the best imaginable name for a pumpkin patch.  It was also pretty hot (there's sunny and then there's Central Valley In California Sunny).  We didn't stay too long, but it was a great place and Adam and I especially appreciated that so much of it was free.  A great place for families!

We had Papa Murphy's pizza and watched the BYU football game.  Adam took Emma and me back to our hotels during halftime, because we aren't very good BYU football fans.

(One hassle of the trip was that we were in separate hotels, but one car rental.  It was not an insurmountable obstacle, but a hassle.)

Sunday we all went to church and both Adam and Braeden were not happy with me during sacrament meeting because QE and I weren't being as quiet as we could be.  She had a notebook and markers and she was having me draw things, but she had notes and sometimes the notes got louder than Braeden (or Adam) approved of.

They had their primary program practice and I stayed to watch it.  I loved it.  They are a very small but mighty group.  Anna is the chorister and does a great job.  Braeden said I had a professional interest in watching and he wasn't wrong.  I mostly loved hearing QE's little voice belt out the songs.  She is a gem.

Her little brother got a little homesick for his mother so I took him out in the foyer and we had a good time looking at all the pictures and rattling my mint container.

We had lunch at Braeden and Anna's and Geri and Talia joined us.  We happily spent a little time with them, then Emma and Mark and I went to the airport.  Adam stayed in California to drive back to Utah with his mom.  Adam was very concerned that I know how to get to the airport; he described it all in case my phone directions didn't work.  He outlined where we'd parked at the SLC airport.  Mark reassured him that he would manage my luggage.  I think Emma was a little fed up with the entire thing and she said I was a Passenger Princess.  It's true.  Traveling with Adam has made me a spoiled brat (and I'm also not great with directions).

Mark told Emma that I preferred Embarking Empress to Passenger Princess.

I guess I will answer to either.  Really, I just prefer traveling with Adam.

Monday was a teacher work day.  The school felt like a ghost town.  My team and I met in the morning and updated our curriculum map and planned a writing project for December (which made us feel really prepared and sassy).

We invited our 5th grade friends and Nicole and Jamie and we all took a (much much) longer than our typical 30 minute lunch break at Tru Religion.  I got pumpkin French toast and I will be thinking about it for a long time.  I really loved that it wasn't too too sweet.  I mean, it still seemed like a dessert rather than a lunch, but it wasn't overly sweet.  My friends were all supportive of it as a choice and no one saw the irony in me getting a Diet Coke.  As Lacey said, "Imagine how much more virtuous you are than if you got a regular Coke!"

So true.

I got a lot done in the afternoon, even mundane organizing tasks.  I am ready to see my cute students again today!

Fall break

 Yesterday we had a fire drill.

I had forgotten all about it and so I hadn't told my students.  They freaked all the way out.  Most of them were convinced they smelled smoke.  Children spiraling everywhere.  I kept telling them it was only a fire drill.  They did what they were supposed to do: left the school and lined up on the field.  They still kept telling me they smelled smoke.

I promised it was a drill.

Even when we went back inside, some of them swore they smelled smoke.

Alissa's class was walking in next to us when we got the all clear and her girls were loudly chanting armpit, elbow pit, armpit, elbow pit... over and over and over.  For no apparent reason.

We celebrated a birthday after lunch.  I have them make cards for the birthday boy or girl.  Some of them scribble their name in pencil and hand it over.  Some of them gather a palette of markers or start sharpening colored pencils for the masterpiece they have in mind.

It isn't all compatible time wise.

The student council had put pumpkin shaped notes on all of the classrooms leading up to Fall Break.  Mine read: Thank you for being a good example.

On the reading teacher's door it read: You are as smart as Albert Inestine.  I texted my kids that one and said the layers of irony weren't lost on me.

I noticed the note on a kindergarten classroom said, "You have one day left."

It seemed vaguely threatening.

By the end of the day I had papers to pass out for picture retakes and papers to pass out for PTA spirit night at Hangtime.  I answered ten thousand questions.  Why do we need a retake?  Do we have to have a retake?  What if my parents don't want me to have a retake?  Does it cost money to go to Hangtime? (Yes, it's a fundraiser.) Do I have to go to Hangtime?  What if my parents don't want to take me to Hangtime?  

Then Armando from Boys and Girls club stopped by with two different fliers to hand out.  Before I distributed them, I told my students, "Do not ask me one question about these papers.  I don't know anything about it.  Take them home."

A student raised his hand.  I said, "Is this a question about these papers?"

He slowly lowered his hand.

All of this is to say that I am ready for Fall Break.

Dark ride

 We had another Underground Dress Up Day.  Everyone wore black.  Head to toe.  Not one student noticed as far as I could tell.

After school, Matt saw Alissa and Miriam together and said, "Did you guys call each other and decide to wear black today?"

He thought he was being funny.  They explained the Underground Dress Up Day.  Alissa said, "You didn't notice your entire staff was wearing black?!?"

He hadn't.

Besides that, my afternoon was head spinning.  Disneyland is on my mind because Alissa is taking her kids over Thanksgiving.  Yesterday at school reminded me of a dark ride at Disneyland.  Around every corner there is something unexpected.

In literacy we read a story called "Every Vote Counts" about the importance of voting.  It led to a Big Discussion about school closures.  (I was not the one who brought it up!) I couldn't promise them Bonneville wouldn't close because it is not up to me.  They talked about Bonneville being "on the chopping block."  They wondered where they would go if the school closed.  Would the same teachers go with them?!? I did tell them that I wasn't worried and they didn't need to worry either.

I could tell that they were still worried about it. Their little faces were stressed.

I am reading an I Survived book to them and it is about the Molasses Flood of 1919 in Boston.  They are riveted by it.  They wanted me to google pictures of it to show them.  The book mentions World War I and the Spanish Flu.  They had to know more.  We ended up talking about that and also the Black Plague and Covid 19 (they were all 2-3 years old then!).  They wanted to know who the "bad guys" were in World War I.  They wanted to know about Hitler.  They wanted me to show them everything on the map and they wanted to understand how France fought against Hitler, but was also occupied.  They wanted to know when World War III was going to be.  It was a lot.

They are super curious and think I know everything (and I really, really don't).  I tried to answer their questions the best I could in child friendly language.  I tried.

I was telling my team after school and Alissa said in their class, they voted on which candy bar was best.  That was their version of the "Every Vote Counts." Sounds like a good idea!

Adam came home last night!  I am so happy he is here and we will be together for five days!  That feels a little pathetic that 5 days together seems like such a bonus.  The bar is pretty low.  I will take what I can get though.

Braeden is flying here today (just in time for us to leave tomorrow....).

I am excited to see him and sending up a lot of prayers for him and his job interview.

Rainy days and Mondays

 It just rained and rained.  We might as well be in Seattle (although when Mark watched the Seahawks game, I noticed it was sunny there).

Despited many messages to parents and a piece of paper they signed and sent back with all the times and pertinent information about the field trip, I had several parents messaging me before school, wondering what time the field trip was.

I broke the news to the students that we were skipping the park because of all the rain.  They were disappointed and one of them was pouty, which bugs me.  I can't really tolerate a pouty child.  My students usually sense as much and she got over it pretty quickly.

In multiple messages, (because I guess they didn't believe me so they kept asking?) I had told the chaperones that we were loading the bus at 10:20 so they should come then.

Two moms showed up at 10:00.

So they sat in chairs in the back of the room. 

We lined up and everyone was in high spirits.  They were going on a bus!  We didn't have enough students for the district to give us two buses, so we piled on, three to a seat, including parents.  I was the last one on the bus and there wasn't a seat for me.  I would have happily drove myself, but I needed to be on the bus so I asked if a parent would be willing to drive themself.  A dad volunteered and unfortunately, unlike an airline, he didn't get any reward to agreeing to be bumped from an overbooked flight.

Unless you call not riding three to a seat with hyped up children a reward.

Everyone was pretty happy at the aquarium.  Miriam and Alissa and I hadn't given ourselves groups of children so we could walk around and mingle with all of our students and take pictures of them.  It was nice.  

There was a group that didn't show up at the appointed time to meet the bus (there always is) and we were already past our lunch time and the natives were getting very restless.  I had my students sit on the floor and we played Down By The Banks of the Hanky Panky, which they love.  We finally packed back onto the bus and got back to the school after 1:00.  Lunch for the school was long past and I was expecting that we would need to be with our students in the lunchroom but Matt and Nicole were there and said, "Go have lunch!"  So nice.

We then had a short recess (it had stopped raining for a little window) and I showed them Lucas the Spider  videos for about ten minutes before clean up and read aloud time.  I had promised them a "staycation" when we got back from our abbreviated field trip and I guess 10 minutes of Lucas the Spider videos counts for a staycation.

After school we had a leadership meeting.  Matt asked me how the field trip had been and I said that we didn't lose anyone.

He said, "Exactly!"  He had talked to one of the dads who had gone on the field trip.  Matt had asked him how it was and he had said not great.

Matt asked him if they came home with everyone and the dad said yes.  Matt said he needed to manage his expectations.  Coming back with everyone was a success.

The dad was a parent of one of Miriam's students and his daughter had been bit morose the entire time at the aquarium, so that may have colored the experience for them.

I drove home, thrilled by the snow on the mountains.

Mark and I took a walk with umbrellas and went to Habit Burger for dinner because I hadn't had meat for days and was craving some.

Then it was home and time to settle under a blanket with my book.

More rain is expected today and we need every drop so I am grateful.

Weekend

 

We got a lot of rain over the weekend and this was my view.  Properly autumnal.

Friday was such a good day!  All the teachers Door Dashed Swig in one giant order. There was a dance party in the hall the last two minutes of school.  ( I stayed in my classroom--it was loud.) It was sunny and warm and pleasant.  Friday vibes all around.

I went home (perpetually tired) and took a little nap and got geared up for my evening.  Mark and I met Lili and Josh, Olivia and Edgar, Marcos and Omar at The Smoked Taco.  We ate tacos and crowdsourced how to transfer the BYU football tickets from Olivia's phone to Edgar's.  We got it figured out and Adam wasn't even there!

Mark went home, Edgar and his boys went to the game. We still had a little time, so Olivia, Josh, Lili and I went to Onoh's for malasadas.  (They are like donuts, but better.). Not really clear on the size, we ordered a half dozen.  They gave us one extra because our order was over $15.  So we had seven and they weren't small....

They were delicious though.  I decided Josh was the most equipped to cut them and he gamely got to work.  We split six of them between us (they were all different) and I took the seventh home because we were stuffed.  

We went to The Ruth and settled into our seats and I loved every minute of Pride and Prejudice.  I loved sitting next to Olivia.  We thought all the same things were funny, just like we did when we were growing up and watching movies together.  We'd turn to each other and laugh at the exact same times.  

I got very very tired.  It was over way past my bedtime.  When I got home, I blearily talked to Adam on the phone then went to bed.

I woke up with a sore throat and feeling a bit sick again.  A frustrating reality of my life.  I must pay the piper.

Mark had finally succumbed to the sickness Adam and I so generously shared, so we had a quiet Saturday at home.

Last week there was a day when I was talking to Braeden on the phone and Anna and the kids got home.  He asked QE if she wanted to talk to Nana.  She politely said, "No, thank you."

She knows her mind much like her aunt did at the same age.  Ask me how I know....

On Saturday it was a different matter altogether.  She enthusiastically talked to me and told me about what had been going on in her life.  One thing she said is that she had gone to Target and got "the mints that are minty and fruity."  She said, "They remind me of you, Nana."

It melted my already pretty melty heart when I am talking to that girl.  I love that something reminds her of me.  I usually try to have those Duo mints with me because she loves them. I told Mark the story and he said that Grandpa Linn always had those too.  

You can rest assured that I will never not have them now!  

We did hand bells in primary and they were a hit.  Afterward, I heard two children say, "That was fun!"  Sometimes they just look at me like I owe them money, so it was nice that they enjoyed it.

In the afternoon I talked to Adam, did a little family history, had our monthly sibling/dad meeting and Emma stopped by. 

I love our monthly meeting.  This was our second one and I am so glad Marianne got us started doing them.  I go away from them uplifted by the goodness of my siblings and my dad.  We shared things from conference that mattered to us and I especially loved that.

I wish I could take away burdens from each one of them and their children because life is not that easy sometimes.  I do appreciate the growth that happens in the hard times though.

I love those guys.

Today it is rainy and cold and we have a field trip.  We had planned to go to the park and have a picnic after going to the aquarium.  That would have worked almost every other school day up until now.  Rats.

We will adapt and overcome.

Grateful Friday

 I am grateful for my school.  Yesterday Matt got us cake and gathered us in the library to celebrate our success.  Our students are doing so well.  Comparing last year and this year beginning of year (or BOY as we all call it) data, we are killing it!

It is exciting.

I told Adam about it and he quizzed me about what I attributed it to.  I said I thought it was autonomy and focus on our essentials.  He said, "You're all just good teachers?  Everyone?"

I think so.  We're not in it for the money or ease.  We're in it for the love of the game.

I am grateful that Adam is in the United States at least so I can talk to him on the phone easier.  When he is on the continent, I can talk to him on my way to school and in the evening.

I am grateful for the good book I'm reading.  It is one I think my mom would like too.  It is nice to have a good book for company.

I am grateful that Olivia and I are going to a play at The Ruth tomorrow.  (Lili and Josh are going to, but Olivia said their seats aren't by ours so "they won't hassle us.") We're going to Pride and Prejudice.  You can't be uncheered by that!  Mark and I are going to join all the Cobians (except Ruben) for dinner at The Smoked Taco before the show.  I feel lots of pressure to pick a good place Edgar will like.  Hopefully The Smoked Taco will come through for me.

I am grateful Kim and I got to walk yesterday.  Our availability to walk hasn't coincided lately and I'm glad it did finally.

I am grateful for our kids.  Braeden is working hard to get a job.  He has a lot of capacity and I am proud of him and his efforts.  Emma texted last night that she is testing a GF cinnamon roll recipe.  I have tried making them three times and they have all been epic fails.  Emma usually makes whatever she wants to happen happen, so I think she'll keep trying until she succeeds.  Mark is a great buddy to have around that I appreciate especially when Adam is gone.  He takes good care of me and makes me laugh.  

I am grateful for warm days and cool nights.  I love October.

These are the days

 These are the days of white-knuckling through another day of school when I didn't feel all that great but I did it anyway.

These are the days of Adam and me being excited by medicinal purchases.  I think we are officially in a new demographic.  I'm over here tickled by the patches I found for my horrible terrible no good very bad canker sore that was part of the viral fun.  Adam was as pleased as he could be by the Afrin he got for his congestion.

These are the days of still just loving my class.  They are so sweet.

These are the days of good friends at school.  We were chatting with our fifth grade besties and Lacey got up, looked up and down the hall, and closed her door.  We had tea to spill.

These are the days of scratching together a Christmas list, prompted in part by Amazon Prime Days.  Also, I love Christmas shopping.

These are the days of coming home from school exhausted, but able to rest.

These are the days of Adam heading back out into the world.  I'm glad we'll have fall break together.

These are the days.

Sickness and in health

 I truly just want to be a school teacher.  I want to go to school and come home and walk with Kim and make dinner and enjoy an evening with Adam and Mark.

Alas.

I had a sore throat Sunday and felt pretty rotten Monday and stayed home yesterday.  My cancer doctor wanted me to get checked so I went to the doctor and it was a fat waste of time.  They proclaimed it viral.

I talked to Olivia and we decided that if feeling sorry for yourself would help, it would be pretty great.  The doctor could prescribe x amount of time of self pity and then you'd be all better.

I don't like having a body that gets sick, it turns out.  I would completely nail a self pity cure.

At them same time that I feel so frustrated and woeful about my lack of perfect health, I know that I have much to be grateful for.

I should for sure come out in favor of life not being fair because I have a lot of blessings I did nothing to deserve.

I am grateful life isn't fair.

I'm glad Adam was home a little longer (he's leaving today for more travel, but when he returns, we'll be together and healthy? for a few days).  

I'm grateful we're sick now and not next week when we're going to California.

Mark took me to the doctor and showed me funny memes while we waited and is willing to do anything I need.

I talked on the phone with my dad and sisters and they gave me all the sympathy.

I am back at school today.  I will do my best to remain upright.

Weekend

 Friday was a good day at school.  We did math and then Jamie read Officer Buckle and Gloria to my class and Matt read The Book with No Pictures to the third grade.  I read aloud, they read silently.  We rotated classes and I read Hooway for Wodney Wat to Alissa's and Miriam's classes.  A day with reading is a good day.

Adam and I went to Costco, along with everyone in Utah County.  It was the busiest I've ever seen it.  We were in lines halfway back in the store, but it was Costco and they moved us through pretty quickly.  Next we went to Trader Joe's.  It wasn't too bad.  Last year we went to Trader Joe's between conference sessions  on Saturday and it was the busiest I've ever seen it.  We have to file away all this research.

And I wonder what someone new to the area who doesn't know about general conference weekend would think....

Friday night Adam was feeling run down and exhausted which was a surprise to no one.  

Saturday morning he was sick.

He felt awful and had a fever.  He just kept getting worse.  People always say, "I don't know how he does it," with all his travel.

I think his body said, "He's not going to do it anymore."

We watched conference and I loved it.  I made Christmas ornaments for my class next to Emma putting together a puzzle.  

After the second session of conference, Adam had a temperature of 104 so I took him to urgent care.

I had made a flu/covid shot appointment for all of us at 5:00 PM at CVS.  I told Emma and Mark to go without us.

Urgent care wasn't too busy.  They did all the tests and while he tested negative for both flu and covid, the doctor said he thought it was one of those because of the high fever and sudden onset.  He knew about my lymphoma and told me my job was not to get sick.

He said, "But it's not his fault."

I wasn't going to blame Adam.

By then it was 5:30 and I still wanted to try for my vaccination because I would rather get it the day before I didn't have to go anywhere.  Adam said to leave him in the car and go do it.

The kids were home by then so I went to CVS.  They acted like too bad, so sad, I had missed my appointment.  But then, a lady working there was the mother of one of my former students.  That was the good news.  She got me in!  The bad news was that there was lots of chatting and Adam was in the car....

She told the guy administering the shots that I had taught her son and then he wanted to tell me all about tutoring his nephew in math and what a successful tutor he was.  During the whole story, he was just holding the syringe and I was mentally coaxing him to stick it in my arm so I could leave and get Adam home.

We finally finished.  Adam moved to the guest room, as part of the keep Thelma healthy initiative.  I gave him Pedialyte and Tylenol and Advil on a rotating basis.  Before I went to bed, I delivered NyQuil.

He woke up Sunday feeling a little better, but not a lot.  So far I have not been able to talk him out of Anaheim/Atlanta/Nashville this week, but I did talk him into staying home today.

It's the little things.

We enjoyed the Sunday sessions of conference.  My Covid shot (I'm trying to refuse the notion that I'm getting sick and also stressing about it anyway) wiped me out.  

Life isn't always what you want.  I was encouraged by the good words I heard about Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father's love for us.  

We're going to be OK.

Grateful Friday

 I was grateful to be back at school yesterday.  I had to apologize and soothe the injured feelings of my students because I didn't tell them I was going to be gone.  Also, the sub didn't know how to do things.

I told them that I didn't know I was going to be gone and I had written not great sub plans.  And also, the sub they had when I had my treatment was Lela, who was my sub all last year.  I said, "She knows how my classroom runs, this sub had never been here before."

They seemed a little mollified, but all day they kept telling me things the sub did wrong.

I would respond with, you still need to do what the sub says.

We had more conferences and everyone came except one parent.  A lot of parents just come at random times even though they signed up.  One mom was kind of miffed because I was at dinner during the time she signed up but there was no sign up during that time.

Because I was at dinner.

I squeezed everyone in though and got it done.

Today is the statewide read-a-thon and I'm looking forward to a chill day with lots of reading.  The third grade has activities planned and we are having Jamie and Matt come in at different times to read a story.  We are going to do silent reading and I'm going to read aloud to them.  It will be good.

I am super grateful Adam is home.  I am grateful for conference weekend.  I love it!  Emma is coming and staying Saturday night and it feels like a holiday and the gateway to the holiday season.

Happy times.

Migraine town

 I don't like visiting migraine town.

I had a headache all day on Tuesday.  It was manageable and we had a pretty good day.

It was the big day that they had earned their reward.  They all came in fuzzy pajamas and within minutes they complained about being hot.  Pretty soon it just smelled like sweaty children.

Luckily they haven’t hit puberty yet, so they were not too smelly.

They had their stuffed animals and blankets and I put everything on a top shelf none of them can reach.

A boy huffily told me that in second grade their teacher let them keep their stuffies if they weren’t a distraction.

I said there were probably a lot of ways I was different than their second grade teacher.

We had a pretty typical day, but the last thirty minutes, we pulled out all the blankets and they got cozy with their stuffed friends and we watched three Pixar shorts.

One of them was Bao.  They loved it.  There is no dialogue and one point a kid said, “Why do they not speak?”

An English learner who usually is pretty quiet said, “They’re Asian bro.”

They nodded like that explained it.

After school, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, the ac was on.  

We were not sad about it!

Also, Matt had come in our classrooms near the end of the day to give coupons to the students for the book fair.  In the gaggle of after school teachers that congregates in the hall sometimes, a few teachers were fretting about the state of things in their rooms when he walked in.

I soothed everyone’s worries by telling them we were watching a Pixar short when he came into my class.

At least they weren’t doing that when the principal walked in!

Parent teacher conferences are always a wild ride, especially the first ones of the year when you realize which apples didn’t fall far from which trees. 

A mother came in breathlessly and said, “I am sorry we are SO late.  Is it still ok to meet with you?”

They were actually 30 minutes early, but I had the time then so it was fine.  The woman unclear on the time she signed up for is mother to a student who is never quite sure of what is happening in class.  

A super chilled out islander girl came in with her tired looking pregnant mother and four siblings.  Her brothers tumbled around and soon enough the two littlest brothers had their shoes off and they were doing what seemed like a haka on top of my kiva.  Their older brother repeatedly jumped over the kiva (which is a big no in my class) and was equally wild.  The mother didn’t seem to notice.

My student said, “We aren’t supposed to….”

But then she gave up mid sentence.  I didn’t worry about it either.  Not my circus….

All the parents were really nice which explains why I like their children so much.  My headache kept getting bigger.  I went home and finally took my migraine medicine.  It didn't help, which is woeful.  It is the nuclear option and when it doesn't work, I've got nothing.

It did work to make me feel awful.  I hate the feeling of it.  Usually, it makes my headache go away so I can sleep and I don't feel the effects.  But since it didn't work, I was just miserable.  I couldn't sleep.  Finally at 1:00 AM, I gave up and wrote sub plans.  Sub plans written at 1:00 AM are never going to be great and these were extra bad because I said in the plans to have them go to iReady and do the math lessons I assigned and then I never assigned the lessons.  I realized my mistake and texted my team.  I told them to please apologize to the sub and I posted the lessons then, even though math was over.  I figured if she needed some filler in the afternoon, they could do math lessons.

I felt super frustrated about being home.  I would so much rather be at school.  I like it there and I have stuff to do there!

I spent the morning in comfy clothes and I tried to drink a lot of water.  I don't know if that really matters, but it feels like at least I am doing something.

After I took a nap, Mark texted to tell me that he had had an allergy shot between classes, was having a bad reaction and was coming home.

On the heels of that text, he texted that he had driven Adam's car and it wouldn't start.

I told him that there was a battery charger in the car.  Mark said he didn't think it was an electrical problem.  The lights and everything were on, it just wouldn't start.

We both tried to call/text Adam with no success.  I drove to UVU.  I was wearing mismatched t shirt and sweatpants and I looked 100% like I had just rolled out of bed because I had in fact just rolled out of bed.

When you have short curly hair you resemble an alpaca if you don't spray some water or something on it.

I was just rumpled alpaca.

I finally got ahold of Adam by doing a find my phone ping.  He called me back immediately (he'd been at a dinner with his phone on silent).  Mark and I miscommunicated about which building he would be at and we were neither one doing all that well.  He had hives all over his face and neck and seemed pretty miserable.  Adam thought that there was something else wrong with his car--maybe the starter or alternator?-- but he thought the charger would get it back on the road and home.  

Mark and I, in our various disheveled and miserable states, opened the hood and contemplated our life choices.  A guy drove by and rolled his window down and asked if we needed jumper cables.  We said we didn't.

Then the battery charger had 25% battery life which wasn't enough to get it going.  Adam kept saying to try again and I kept wishing our friend with jumper cables would return.

A girl drove up and parked next to us and asked if we needed jumper cables.

It was time for all the nice students at UVU to help the strugglers!  So kind!  She got us going and Mark and I drove home and I directly tucked myself under a blanket.

I realized that I need to be a lot nicer and give people the benefit of the doubt more often.  The horrible sub plans?  I was doing my best.  The guy with hives and his alpaca mother at the UVU parking lot?  They were doing their best.

Later in the afternoon, I took a walk with Kim that was very restorative.  It was what I needed.  When I got home, Mark was coming out of his allergy medicine haze and he and I tried to figure out what we wanted for dinner.  We ran through a whole list of things, but landed on toast (me) and beef jerky (him).

Some days are just like that.