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.