Christmas Questions

25 Christmas Questions

I stole this from Liz.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I like to use both, but I'm getting the feeling that I'm the only one.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Real. It's a tradition that we go up to Holmes Tree Farm and chop down our tree. Also, Santa is there and the kids get to see him and sit on his lap (and it doesn't cost anything extra!)

3. When do you put up the tree? First Saturday or Sunday in December! Although, I'd love to get it the weekend of Thanksgiving, but Nik always vetoes that idea.

4. When do you take the tree down? We take it down before I go back to school. Usually New Years...

5. Do you like egg nog? eh. I could live without it.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Is it bad that I can't remember??

7. Hardest person to buy for? Nik's parents! They both have everything and don't need a single thing.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Dougie, fo sho.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Nope. I want one though...the one I want is really expensive. It's the Willow Tree Set.


10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Last year I didn't mail them because I had a baby, and I think because of that I was kicked off everyone's card list. This year they are being mailed TODAY! :-)

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Hmmm....

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Elf.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I usually start in November.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Absolutely!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Apple pie for Breakfast.

16. Lights on the tree? Colored inside, white outside.

17. Favorite Christmas song? "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas"

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I'd like to stay home, but we travel all the way to Eliot.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Yes, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixon, Comit, Cupid, Donner, Blizten and Rudolf.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? An angel.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Nik and I have been opening our stocking and presents at midnight on Christmas Day...I like this tradition because then it's all about the kids on Christmas morning. I'm worried about it this year, because I think Nik is going to be so excited about his present that he wont be able to sleep.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The kids in my classroom.

23. Favorite ornament, theme, or color? My favorite ornaments are the ones that Dougie goes crazy for.

24. Favorite for Christmas Dinner? Anything that ends in apple pie.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? New makeup brushes, a purple iPhone case, a Pandora Bracelet with charms, Black Dansko shoes, White or Black picture frames, prescription sunglasses...I could go on and on...

Amputations, Vaccines and H1N1

I'm getting over what could possibly be, one of the worst weeks in my life.

Wait.

The worst two weeks.

It all started with Election Day and snowballed from there.

Dad had his surgery on his foot at Brigham and Women's in Boston and his surgeon was awesome! Dad was able to keep his foot. Yes, KEEP. His dead toes were removed and his physical therapy is going to make leaps and bounds (yes, I actually hope to see my Dad doing leaps and bounds!) If you don't know the story about why my Dad had to have part of his foot amputated, I'll catch you up to speed by directing you here. Dad's in Dover at the rehab place there. We went to see him in Boston after his surgery, but haven't been over to see him in Dover because...

Nik and the kids had H1N1.

Wait, back up.

Before I tell you about the swine, I have to first tell you about Kate's 1 year well-child check.

I'd been dreading this check up because of two things. The first being that I knew the doctor was going to tell us that we needed to have Kate go to an allergist before we can start weaning her from formula. And, well, that's exactly what they told us. Allergy testing, for those of you who haven't done it before, is not fun. The allergist is going to do a bunch of "prick" tests to see how large the "bump" or reaction is and that will tell us exactly how allergic she is. Hopefully it will be a one time thing. I am not looking forward to it.

The second thing that I knew was coming was her MMR shot. Oh yes, I'm bringing up the dreaded vaccine conversation. It's almost as bad as the gay marriage conversation. Whether you choose to vaccinate or not to vaccinate, it's your choice. I have done a lot of reading on vaccines and vaccination reactions. When Dougie was a baby, I didn't know I had a choice. I figured since my doctor was telling me, this is what we do, that, well, this is what everyone does. Dougie got a lot of ear infections as a baby, and looking back at my calendar, I was able to pin point that each time he had an ear infection, yes, EACH TIME, he was at the doctor just the previous week and received a vaccine. I wanted it to be different for Kate, so I started my research.

Kate is on a delayed vaccination schedule. She doesn't get as many vaccines as the normal baby and I choose to only give her the ones that Nik and I thought were the most important. When she was born, she didn't get the vitamin K shot, the goop in her eyes or the Hep B shot. I mean, come on! Three shots before she even leaves the hospital?!? Welcome to the world Baby girl! Poke, Poke, Smear. Nope. Not my kid.

Each visit after that I had to remind them that we were delaying and waiting and choosing to not be so aggressive in vaccinating. Hey, I KNOW that the MMR shot is important. I get it. But during my research I read about kids that had SEIZURES after that got that shot. and I was scared. I knew they were going to push it on me and I knew I wanted to wait...but, I didn't push it, I let them give it to her.

Fast forward 29 hours and I'm driving Kate to the ER because her fever is so high, guess what? She's having SEIZURES. I'm so mad at myself that I'm crying on the way and I was stuck behind a car that thought it would be fun to go 35 on Route 4, when the speed limit is clearly 55. We get there, and they don't really fuck around with babies, so we went right back to the Ped room and within 45 minutes Kate's fever was down and she was sleeping in my arms. But, man, that was scary. She's tested for pneumonia, the flu and a whole bunch of other crap, but two hours later, her fever is down and we're being discharged with a diagnosis of "fever". I'm so tired I want to cry.

I came home and was relieved to put Kate to sleep in her own crib with no more fever and I walk into my room and surprise! Dougie is in my bed because he can't sleep. He's got a cough and a fever. I lean over to talk to Nik, and you know what? HE has a cough and a fever. Welcome to the H1N1 part of this post.

You know that old saying, "God doesn't give you more than he thinks you can handle"? Yeah? Well, I was almost at my breaking point last week. Nik, Dougie and Kate came down with H1N1. On top of it all, Kate got an ear infection (see paragraph in which I describe that my children get ear infections from vaccines) So, I wasn't sleeping (Kate, ear infection, coughing, needing meds every 4 hours, Nik and Dougie, coughing and needing meds every 4 hours...), I was still working because, somehow, someway, I did NOT get H1N1.

There is a God.

and he is Good.

and H1N1 isn't as bad as eveyone says it is. I mean, yeah, it sucks, but everyone survived and no one had to go to the ER again. Yeah, their fevers were high and they didn't eat and some of them, I'm not saying who, had diarrhea, and I wouldn't want to do it again, but it wasn't any worse than the regular flu.

Did I mention that I didn't get it? Thank you, God.

So, after ten days of being home and life being a little abnormal, life returns to normal tomorrow.

Whatever my normal is.

No longer a baby...

My daughter is no longer a baby, even if we continue to call her "Baby Kate". She doesn't walk, she RUNS. She doesn't babble, she screams. She's not an infant, she's a toddler. Sigh.

My Best Friend's Wedding

Tom Cruise tried to ruin the day, but in the end, The Connors came out married, again! :-)





Liz, anytime you need a personal assistant, I have experience and a great resume. LOVE YOU!

10 more days...

until my baby girl is ONE. The last 12 months have flown by. I can't believe that a year ago this week, I was still working, very pregnant and would cry at school every time someone would say "Oh, are you still here?"

My friend Ross took Kate's pictures for her first birthday and they came out so good! Here are a few of my favorites...

Time to make a quilt...

Okay, so I'm starting to really enjoy sewing. I mean, I love it. I love to pick out colors, pick out patterns and be able to say, YES, I made that. I MADE THAT. I've been making my pillows for about a year now, started making dresses for Kate this spring and now I'm entering the world of quilting. I'm so excited about my first project, which was inspired by this blog.

Hayley met me at JoAnns to get the quilting supplies that I needed...I can't believe I was sewing for a YEAR without a rotary cutter! My god! This is amazing! AND it's PINK! Hayley showed me a couple different ones, but I chose this one because of the safety features. The blade pops out and pops back in with the press of a button. With small ones around, I knew this was the best choice.

I had read about a technique for sewing together the pieces where you just keep sewing and leave a small amount of thread in between each set, and it worked great! You can see my pieces behind the machine here...

Here are my pieces (22 rectangles) all sewn together. This was before I went upstairs to iron them. I think the colors look great! Last night I sewed together two more lenghts of 22 rectangles and I have two more to go. Then I just have to piece together with white in between. Also, I have no idea what it means to baste, quilt and bind, but that's what google is for!

God Fearing

I was reading a mommy-blog this morning and she was talking about her sister. I don't have a sister, nor do I have what I would call a very close relationship with my older brother and my my younger brother is still in college and we don't see him much, but man, I love that kid. Her post intrigued me, until she described her sister and I couldn't stop thinking about it after that. She described her sister as, "one of the nicest, most understanding and forgiving, God fearing, relaxed people I know." The "God Fearing" part just struck a chord with me.

I was raised catholic and have baptised my children in the catholic faith, but I wouldn't be what you would call a "good catholic girl." I had pre-marital sex (oh my!), lie and swear quite frequently (no, shit?) , don't take my children to church (gasp!), don't say grace before dinner (Rubba, dub, dub, thanks for the grub!), don't have my children say prayers before bed (now you want me to read a book and say a prayer? I've got to watch Glee at some point here.) and take the Lord's name in vain (Jesus!). But, let's get back to the God Fearing thing.

God Fearing...why is this considered a positive trait? Should I fear God, my creator? Should I live my life thinking that my choices are going to anger God to the point where he's going to be mad at me and I should fear his reaction?

I make thousands of choices and decisions per day. As a teacher alone, I answer 1,500 questions. It's not as simple as it sounds. For example, "Can I go to the bathroom?" The answer to this question is a simple yes or no, but the impact on the child is far from simple. I have to take into account, did I just let this person leave the room for something? Will they miss something important while they are gone? Did a friend of their's from another classroom walk by and that's why they want to go? Thousands of choices and decisions that I am held accountable by myself, my students, their parents, my principal and now also God? Should I fear that God wanted me to let little Johnny use the bathroom during his math test??

If I am God fearing, should I be authority fearing? Since God is seen as an authority figure, should I fear all authoritative figures? When I first began teaching, I was fearful of my principal. She was not supportive and caring. When she walked into my classroom, I froze, got beat-red and by the end of my two years there would break out in hives whenever she would talk to me, look at me or email me. Is this the kind of fear I should have for God?

As a catholic we are taught to fear authority. Do what the priest says, or you'll go to hell. Vote how the Bishop tells you to vote, or you'll GO TO HELL. Pray everyday, go to church every week, get married only once, don't have sex before you're married, read the bible, respect your elders, Go to CCD, give money to the church out of your paycheck even if you're on food stamps, be pro-life, don't use contraceptives, don't use the Lord's name in vain, don't ask questions or YOU'LL GO TO HELL.

What kind of God is like that?

Not my God.

I am a very spiritual and religious person, but I don't fear God. Do you?

glee

This makes me want to go back to high school, start a glee club and sing my heart out.

Last Week (in pictures)

My best friend came to visit from Ireland last week and she planned her visit perfectly! (I think that because her plan included three days in Maine with ME!) hehe.

She arrived Tuesday, her mom brought her up, and stayed until Thursday. Thursday night was her surprise bridal shower/pizza party and it was my job to get her there on time (I failed). The drive down was quite hilarious, and after quite a few laughs we decided to take out the camera. We were stuck in traffic most of the time, so don't worry, I wasn't driving very fast while taking these pictures. When you're stuck in traffic, you see quite a few strange things. It may only for funny to us, but I'm going to share them with you anyway.

Here's a car we saw. Do you think they could fit any more bikes on the back? No? Maybe that's why they decided to put one on the roof.

Seriously, guy. It's August and we're in a heat wave, or did you not notice? It was so hot this week that my eye lids were sweaty, yet this guy had a plow on the front of his truck. He's ready for a blizzard!

Justin Timberlake cures everything. Here we are making the iPod dock work in Nik's car. We had to stuff Nik's work id behind the iPod so that it wouldn't make this God-awful noise. Or right, and we didn't break Nik's speaker either. It was already broken. I said, IT WAS ALREADY BROKEN. Right???

Here I am waiting in traffic with baited breath to find the one Robert Pattinson, aka Edward Cullen. That's right! We saw him while we were stuck in traffic in a very nice Toyota Camry. We decided to stalk him and try to take his picture...

Success!

Oh wait, maybe that wasn't him...here's a closer look.

Part Two coming soon...

So Funny!

Worthy of a post, I think.

You know when you are just up to your ears in sh*t that every little thing bothers you? I'm at that point. I got this email today from a custodian, and it makes me want to scream.

Hi Ladys,

It has come to my attention that you removed the staples from your bulletin boards and left the mess on your floors. I would appreciate it if you do this again that you clean the mess up. Thank you

Let's start with the obvious. Ladys? Try Ladies. and OMG I removed staples from a BULLETIN BOARD. Say what? You didn't know that you use staples on a bulletin board? Well you do. They hold up the paper and other things (boarders and such) that go on a bulletin board. And then I had the nerve to not pick up each individual staple? GET OUT!! I thought we had custodians who would sweep up the staples, or perhaps, even vacuum them up. How was I supposed to know that now, on top of EVERYTHING ELSE a teacher has to do, I also have to PICK UP F-ING STAPLES.

End of rant.

Summer? What Summer?

I'm sorry I've been neglecting my blog lately, things have not been good.  My last post was about my family being sick, we were all sick (except the baby!) and it took a good two weeks to get over it.  We've finally, just Monday, finished all of Dougie's meds and are on the mend.  

Saturday, July 25th, was Sharon's wedding.  She was beautiful!  Nik and I were so excited to have a night out.  Nik's mom came over, with a book and was ready to watch the kids and stay until we returned.  I saw some of my most favorite people there and was having such a good time...

Got a call that my father was being rushed into surgery. Now, for those of you who don't know, my father does not take care of himself.  He's had 7, yes SEVEN heart attacks.  My first reaction was to be angry.  Of course.  Of course my father is having surgery TONIGHT, because I'm having fun and with friends and I don't have a care in the world, TONIGHT. Then I started crying, because, well, what if this is the time he doesn't make it and my last thoughts of him were that of anger?  There were a lot of emotions in that 45 minute car ride.

So, LONG story short.

My Dad had emergency surgery to remove a blood clot that had formed by his right kidney, in the aorta. Blood flow was cut off to his legs for hours and at the time of surgery he couldn't feel them or move them. The doctors were able to save his legs, and his right foot, but his left foot doesn't look good.  The tops of his toes have started to turn black and he will probably lose some of his toes on that foot.  Saturday/Sunday we stayed at the hospital until 4 am. The surgery took that long.  Marc, Mom and I were able to see him, once they finally got him to his room in ICU, he was asleep, but looked peaceful.

He stayed asleep for 7 days.

They couldn't wake him up.  If they did wake him up, he probably would have died.

His kidneys became the new problem.  Since there was lack of blood flow to his kidneys, the numbers (I love doctor talk, don't you?) that were supposed to be around 1 were up to 4.2.  They had to keep him asleep until those numbers came down, and they didn't come down enough until Saturday, August 1.  

He's awake now, but doesn't remember much from the last week or so and his short term memory is good either. (Plus, he keeps telling us that he wants icecream, and that Marc has brought it, but there is no icecream and he's not allowed to eat at all).  

I've spent a lot of time in his room, but took the last couple of days off...since I don't want my kids to remember they spend their summer vacation in the Portsmouth Hopital ICU waiting room.

Now, it's August. I haven't been to school to work in my room at all, haven't been shopping for school, haven't even thought about the first day.  I just want to enjoy the last two weeks of summer before they are gone and the leaves start to change color and it's over. 

Sorry I've been gone...

Our whole house has been under quarantine...it started with me last Tuesday...I had a cough that developed into bronchitus and pneumonia.  Soon after I had a diagnosis, Nik was feeling ill and was told he had pneumonia.  Through the weekend we had helpers come help us with the kids, as we were fevering, coughing and really were in no shape to tend to small children.  Monday of this week, I thought we were in the clear and then Dougie started with a low-grade fever.  The Dr. didn't even request an xray, she just put him on anti-biotics.

We're keeping our doctor and our small town pharmacy in business this week.  Anti-biotics, inhalers, cough drops, cough syrup and anything else you can imagine we might need to feel better around here.

I believe we are almost in the clear...just waiting for Kate to start fevering...if she does, we know the drill. 

Happy 4th of July!

This is what life is all about...

This morning I let Nik sleep in (okay, really - he won at rock, paper, scissors for the opportunity to sleep in) and when he woke up I informed him that IT WAS NOT RAINING. I packed up the kids and some lunch and we drove to York Beach (Short Sands) to check out the new playground they put in. The smile on my kids faces, that's what life is about!

We're trying to teach Dougie how to swing himself, he LOVES the swings!

It was bright for Kate, she needs some sun glasses!

The slide was really tall!

Playin' in the ocean.

We had such a good morning! Playground, lunch on the beach, walk on the beach, the arcade, and then we each got a special treat at The Goldenrod. Came home, before the rain and the kids everyone had a nap!

Our new swing set comes next week!

Corinne's Tree

I don't think a lot of people know about my mentor, Corinne Devlin.  She was a wonderful woman, who taught me more in 6 months than I learned in my two years at UNE.  Corinne was my mentor and my friend.  She died in 2005, just a year after I finished my internship.  I never got to say goodbye, she went too quickly. The last time I spoke with her, I went to visit and told her I was pregnant with Dougie.  She came to my classroom once after that at the Junior High, but I had already left for the day.  She left me a note, telling me how proud she was and how great my classroom look.  I wish I would have kept it. 

This tree is planted at the school I currently work in, in her honor.  Most days I don't see it.  When I do, I always think of her.  I took this picture on Field Day this year.  I miss her.

Inside the cake...and my kids students.

I told the kids students that the cake was a surprise and that there was also a surprise inside the cake.  They were so excited (mind you, they had also just pigged out on pizza) that they really wanted me to cut it.  They were yelling out ideas of what they thought was in it (pudding! chocolate! M&Ms! pudding! pudding! I bet it's pudding!) Yeah, they really thought it was pudding.

The first slice looked AWESOME!  Exactly the look I was hoping for!

Birthday boy got the first slice...

The food coloring had some side effects.

but in the end, the cake was GONE.

This picture is just to show you that something went wrong with the yellow layer...why is it so much smaller?

A Baker...who me?

Tomorrow marks the last Monday that I will have to work until September 7th....so, I'm throwing my kids students a party to celebrate. (I'm trying to get better at calling my kids in my class, my students and my kids, well, my kids.)

I saw this cake on this website and thought I'd give it a try. My kids students have been through a lot more than the typical class this year and I wanted to reward them.  My long-term sub and I are buying them pizza for lunch and I made the dessert.  

Let's set the record straight.  I'm not a baker.  I wish I was. I can follow a recipe very well, but I am not a baker.  A baker tries to create their own recipes. A baker understands how ingredients will react with one another.  MckMama is a baker.  Her recipes always seem to work.  I am not a baker.  

I was very nervous to try this cake.

I bought two white cake mixes and had everything else I needed at home.  I started the night before by mixing the cake mix, making the colored layers and cooking the cakes.  I think I mis-measured the yellow layer, it was a bit smaller than the others!

I made butter cream frosting and then folded in a tub of cool whip to make it a little less sweet and also to help cover the cake...the cake is 6 layers!

I put a little bit of frosting on the cake platter to make the cake stick...

Trimmed the purple layer (it's purple...but looks like black in the picture.)

More trimming...more frosting.

All 6 layers! Looks good enough to eat! (But my red layer looks more like pink!)

The cake and the trimmings...

Started to frost...hmmm, the trimmings are dissapearing!

I found the culprit!

Nik likes the extra frosting!

The cake looks delicious!  I can't wait until my kids students cut into it tomorrow!

This picture just shows you how tall this cake is!  I had to take a shelf out of my fridge!

I'll post pictures of the cake tomorrow with the kids...I can't wait to see their faces when we cut it!

 

I opened a shop...

I opened my own shop on Etsy...finally!  I debated back and forth if I wanted to sell my pillows on Etsy and I decided to give it a try this summer while I'm home with the kids.  

My shop is called, "Sleep On It!" and its web address is www.sleeponit.etsy.com.  I have some pillows listed and lots of pictures...but my shop looks lonley with just three items for sale!  I'm going to play around with some things next week when school is out.  

Spread the news!

I'm down one useless organ

Yesterday I allowed my brother in-law to cut me up and take out my gall bladder, and I couldn't be happier. I don't remember anything about surgery, except all the pre-op (pre-drug) stuff in the beginning.  I remember being wheeled into the OR and seeing David in the corner by his computer and then I woke up in the recovery room. 

Let me tell you about life with my gall bladder.  The last couple months have not been that fun.  I've been to the emergency room twice with severe pain.  I had an ultrasound which showed that I had many stones and also that my gall bladder was very contorted. After my first visit to the ER, I scheduled surgery for June 19th, the day after the last day of school.  After my second attack, we moved the surgery up to June 3rd.  I couldn't live in fear of pain anymore. 

Yesterday, the pain after surgery was pretty bad (but you have to remember that I've never had surgery or really ever been hurt). Most of the pain was gas pain, since they fill you up with gas so they can see all around. Most of the gas pain is gone today and I haven't needed to take any pain meds. I'm off from school until Monday, then we have step-up day and I just have to be there, I don't really have to do much!

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to feeling better and not worrying about everything that goes into my mouth and whether or not I'll be spending the night at the ER. Hooray for being gall bladder free!

My class made the news...

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20090527-NEWS-90527032

It's JAMES!

Cam Gigandet vs. Twilight Fans from Cam Gigandet

Not Me! Monday

This is my first "Not Me! Monday" post. I've been reading the MckMama blog for a few weeks and I'm going to give it a try.

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

And away we go!

This week I certainly did not put my 7 month-old in the backpack and clean my house. Nope, not me! I did not find it to be the only way I could get things done around the house without her screaming to be picked up or played with.  Nope! Not me! I also did not then wear the backpack outside to play with the dog and hit her on the back of the head with the ChuckIt, which did not then give her a bruise on the back of her perfectly shaped head. Nope!

At work, I did not figure out that I could use Tweetie to update Twitter and my Facebook status from work.  Nope! Not me! I did not tweet multiple times from work updating the world on silly things my students said (Like, "Old Fashioned is like, two days ago") or tweet what I was teaching in math, (which happens to be plotting number pairs on a coordinate grid).  Not me! I also did not video chat with my best friend's mother while my kids were at special.

Sunday, I did not ignore my daughter, who was babbling in her crib for 45 minutes (or longer) after her nap.  I did not let her stay and play in her crib while I continued to nap.  Nope!  Not me! And I certainly did not find her completely turned around in her crib playing with the two dolls and personalized name pillow that were at the opposite end of her crib (I certainly would not have toys in her crib either, since they are dangerous!).

And finaly, I did not write this blog entry from my desk at work, while my kids were silent reading.  Nope!  Not me!

Baby vs. Shoes

The battle began months ago. Kate will not keep shoes on her feet. The girl hates shoes. I bought her a really cute pair of Robeez. You know, the shoe that says, "Barefoot is best, choose Robezz next"? Yeah, how about, "Barefoot is best, your daughter can take these off in 2 seconds flat and trying to find them will be a pest."

The website even says "They stay on too, with elasticized ankles to ensure a perfectly snug fit!". Ha! I laugh in your general direction.

Dougie lived in his Robeez and couldn't get them off. I told all my friends about them, I raved about them! I think I was even a little depressed when he got old enough for regular shoes.

Kate can take these shoes off in 2 seconds. I literally put one on and she takes it off before I can put the other one on her other foot! We could play that game all day.

I've been on the search for some really nice, girlie any GD shoes that she will leave on her feet!! Today, my Mom suggested these:

I liked them. They were cute and girlie. So, $26.99 later they were ours. I tried them on her feet (in her excersaucer, where she can't reach her feet, so therefore, can't take them off!



Now for the real test. I took her and put her on the floor to play. And ten minutes later...



They are still on her feet! Hooray!

Pedipeds fo-evah.

Wow.

"Did you say it? I love you. I don't ever want to live without you. You changed my life. Did you say it?"

Nik and I watched the Grey's season finale last night and it left me speechless. Speechless.

The show was so good, I wonder if when the writer's finished they all high fived each other.

Speechless.

Wordless Wednesday: This is how we roll.

Ugh.

Last year when I was pregnant with Kate, I got very sick the last three days of school. When I say sick, I mean, I wanted to die sick. The last three days were torture, but who calls in sick the last week of school? I was so sick that I slept in the corner for about 15 minutes while I had my kids watch a movie. Finally, the last day of school came and I went home to recuperate. That night I ended up in the ER with two things; dehydration and a gall bladder attack. The gall bladder attach was so painful, I thought I was going into early labor. I was scared, Nik was scared, and so were the people in the ER and Birth Center. No one quite knew what to do with me. They pumped me full of fluids and sent me home. They told me my gall bladder had sludge and that it was probably pregnancy related and wouldn't give me any more problems after I had the baby.

They were wrong.

Last Monday I woke out of a deep sleep (well, as deep as I can get since I'm still nursing Kate) in a lot of pain. I knew exactly what it was. I didn't wake Nik right away, hoping that it would pass. It didn't.

I ended up back in the ER. This time, since I wasn't pregnant, they pumped me full of pain meds instead of fluid. The pain went away and I slept like a baby. That stuff they gave me was awesome!

Long story short, my gall bladder and I don't get along anymore, and I'd like a divorce. We have irreconcilable differences and I want him out. So, my mother in-law and brother in-law have scheduled my court date surgery for the day after school gets out, Friday June 19th.

I'm very nervous.

I've never been under general anesthesia before and the two things I am most scared of is the damn tube in my throat and blood clots.

I trust my mother in-law and brother in-law with my life. Good thing they are the two doing the surgery.

Somebody has a case of the Mondays!

This morning was a bit rough on me. My class headed out on a three day field trip to Pinkham Notch and I stayed behind. So many people asked me why I wasn't going, I'm starting to wonder if anyone really pays attention to what goes on during a school year.

"Well, I had a baby in October and I'm still nursing, so..."
"She doesn't take a bottle?"
"She takes a bottle very well, but I'd be gone for three days, so..."
"She wont drink formula?"
"She could drink formula, but I choose to breast feed, so..."
"You couldn't just give it up for a few days?"
"No, it doesn't work like that..."

After I got my kids, chaperones and the teacher who is taking my place on the bus, I went back into my room to gather my things. I'm teaching art while the art teacher is being me on the trip. She gave me a DVD to show the classes while she's away.
I lost the DVD this morning...turned my room UPSIDE down to find it. Recruited help to find it and still couldn't Taught three classes without any formal training in art. Gave the kids 6 paints and then said, "You can't use paintbrushes, only your fingertips. GO!" It was a disaster. Awful. I hate every minute of it.

I went back to my room after three classes hoping to find it. It was right there! Sitting on a desk. I know we couldn't have missed it. Someone took it or found it....and then put it there. Otherwise, I'm losing my mind.

The last three classes of the day got to watch it.

It's interesting, but it doesn't really hold the attention of the kids...and, he swears twice. Thanks for heads up, Gale.

Remember this? I didn't worry about it then, and I'm not worrying about the "Swine" flu now...

April Vacation

Recently, we traveled to Ireland to visit my best friend. Although traveling with children might be hard, it was worth it to experience Ireland through the eyes of a three year old and a 6 month old. Our host did a wonderful job finding places for Dougie to play in between adult things like shopping and bus tours. As I think about my children, I hope that this is an experience that they will look back on and feel extremely lucky to have such awesome parents. Parents that took them on vacation to Ireland, not Gettysburg (Kidding, Grays! I've got nothing but love for ya! hehe).

Here are some of my favorite shots of our trip...for more, check out my facebook.