Starting the new year

I've started the new school year off with a bang. I'm loving my job right now and I'm hoping to learn all the kids' names within the next week. There's more than one hundred to get to know!

I had my Tysabri infusion this afternoon on the second day of school. I felt bad leaving the kids when I was having such a great teaching day. I'm hoping for another super day tomorrow and then comes Friday.

It's good to be in a routine again. It's good to be doing something I am good at in a place where I am surrounded by friends. Some days it's just good to be me. :)

August Schmaugust

A few people have asked what happened to me. Well, I was card making and reading and napping. Then I also had to go in to work for some professional development and I needed to get my classroom ready. It's ready!

I am very excited to go back to work even though it means the end of sleeping in and summer. It's been cooler lately and I have been loving it. Life, in short, is good.

I'm still working on getting the diabetes under control but I am taking all my meds and checking my blood sugar.

I have had some tough times with the loss of a co-worker/friend who passed away unexpectedly. I got through it, though. It reminded me of the recent loss of my Dad and that brought up a lot of different feelings.

On a completely other plane, I splurged and got myself a Miche classic base and six shells. I am also having a Miche purse party at the end of the month at my house. Call me crazy...

My birthday is coming at the end of the month and I will be 41. That seems like an old number but I still feel young so I am going with that.

Back to school on Tuesday with kiddos and resting, relaxing, and maybe a manicure and a movie in there before we start back up again. Again, life is GOOD!

I will survive, hey hey...

We made it through last week's tremendously hot, hot, hot Tastefully Simple party. I earned $65 worth of free product so that was a nice bonus to seeing my friends gathered in my little sweatbox apartment.

Today I started taking insulin for my diabetes. I am still taking all my other diabetes meds so now I am doing two shots a day: one of Victoza and one of insulin. My A1C was up from 6.7 to 8.3 and my glucose numbers are way too high.

I am also dealing with the stress of a work friend who is very ill and in the hospital again. He has been sick for many, many months and hospitalized for almost that whole time. He was improving but now has had quite a setback. I am sending up many prayers for him and his family.

In my free time I am working on making cards and a scrapbook page for upcoming events. I feel like I am slowly making progress with my business although I am not pushing it very hard. It is mostly about me right now and I am okay with that. I am just enjoying the crafting and pure joy of making beautiful things.

Oh, and on the MS front, I was the number one individual fundraiser for my local work and the 39th highest fundraiser in the state. Other than that, I am doing my monthly Tysabri and doing well.

The biggest hurdle I need to clear is the diabetes and obesity issue. Move more, eat better, take my meds, and test, test, test. I'll make it!

In the saddle

Guess what?

I exercised two days in a row. I dusted off my Just Dance games and put new batteries in the controller and away I went. 30 minutes one day and for an hour today.

Tomorrow it's going to be 100 and I am having my Tastefully Simple party. Oh vey, I have three fans at the ready so we don't swelter to death.

Just thought I'd post something more positive.

Time to skeedaddle now...

This isn't my first rodeo...

It's been almost a week since I last posted. What have I been up to?

Well, on the diabetes front I am basically testing twice a day like I was told to do. I have started eating better with more fruits and veggies.

Exercise? Well, something's gotta give and it's been that. I have only exercised once, partially because I am lazy and don't think about it until about eight o'clock and it's hot and humid then. I have been more active than usual because I have been cleaning and organizing and hauling things out to the dumpster. I am having a Tastefully Simple party on Thursday with a bunch of friends coming over to my place.

Having a party like that once a year is a good thing because I see my friends, we have a great time, and I clean my place up! The bad thing is it's supposed to be about 100 degrees that day which is just ridiculous. It never gets that hot here and I only have air conditioning in my bedroom. Sigh, I'll figure something out with the fans to keep people alive and ungrumpy.

My brother is still home which is nice. I met his new girlfriend the other day and she seems to have redeeming qualities beyond the fact that she is attracted to my dork of a brother. Hehehe...

Tomorrow will be the continuation of some cleaning and organizing and making the beer bread and the chocolate pound cake. I also have to make a strawberry cheeseball. Everything else is made already.

Now I just need to start moving my body!

Back in the saddle again ...

Today was a day of reckoning as I drove myself out to the diabetes nurse educator's office. First off, we stopped at the scale and blessedly my weight really hasn't changed any. I was scared to death that it had gone ever higher as I approach a rather large number that I don't want to surpass.

Then we took my blood for my A1C level (piece of cake after Tysabri yesterday) and we tested my glucose level. It was 221 five hours after I had eaten. Not good. Really not good.

I came out with the truth about my lackadaisical testing regimen and my recent high blood sugar numbers. I told her that I was getting no exercise. Shame, your name is Weeble!

So, what am I going to do about this and where does she plan to go?

It looks like I will be starting insulin once a day at the end of the month. If we do that then I no longer have to be on the pills. If it works better then I am all for it as I am already doing a Victoza shot daily.

On my end, I have to check my glucose levels twice a day and report those numbers in two weeks to her. That, coupled with the A1C level, will be the insulin clincher.

I also started exercising again tonight. It was 27 minutes of very low intensity walking but it was something. I am making a real effort from this point on to build up my exercising to 3-4 days a week. I am also charting my blood sugars online along with my exercise at a health site. I really enjoy spending time online so why not use that to my advantage?

I am also making a true concerted effort to eat better and choose better meals and snacks. I even made a big salad tonight and enjoyed it. I'm not saying I will be perfect because I won't be but I have the time and energy to focus on this. It is summer vacation, after all.

Consider me back in the saddle again. My horse may not be moving anywhere but I am ready if it does!

Vacation, baby

It's finally here, summer vacation. The last time I wrote I was sharing my send-off message to my homeroom and now there are all gone, tossed to the wind in all directions on vacations, some moving, some staying home and (gasp) actually missing school.

I am missing the routine and my work friends but I am loving sleeping in and I'm doing a rather spectacular job of it, if I say so myself. Last night I logged about twelve hours and then I still squeezed in a few more naps.

So what is on my agenda? I did go to a card making extravaganza on Monday and got my hair cut and coiffed today. I am thinking about maybe getting a pedicure tomorrow and I have an hour massage scheduled for Thursday. Not bad for the first week off, huh?

I have made a dent in the kitchen cleaning needs area but there is still much more to be done there and everywhere else in my place. I also need to get my flex plan stuff all set to be mailed in. I have a few copies yet to be made and then I will have a little more summer money in my pocket. Extra money is always good...

One thing I need to do more of is check my glucose levels and get serious about my diabetes. My MS seems to be well under control but I just checked my glucose level and it was 364! That is way too high for anyone, let alone a diabetic.

I also need to do some more writing (and lots of reading for complete pleasure). Ah vacation is a wondrous time, filled with endless possibilities and time for cleaning my humble abode.

A message to my students: 2011

Many years I take the time to write something and then read it to my students at the end of the year. It is my way of saying goodbye and good luck. Believe it or not, there is something inside of each one of you that I like. It is what makes you, you.

I like it when you support one another and work together as a team. I like it when you do your work well and turn it in on time. I like it when you laugh at my jokes or carry my chair in from outside or you tell me something funny, that is school appropriate, of course. I like to see your smiles and hear your laughter.

There are many things that changed throughout this past year. First of all, I am going to tell you a big secret. Listen closely as I say this: I was scared to come and teach sixth grade. It was something new to me after having taught fifth grade for so long and knowing exactly what I was supposed to do and working with people who were my close friends. I was very comfortable doing what I had been doing for several years.

I was so angry when I learned that I had to make a change to come teach sixth grade. But, and this is big, I learned and adapted and eventually thrived.

You did, too.

I made new friends and so did some of you.

I learned new things and so did you.

I learned that some times the thing that scares you the most turns out to be one of the best experiences of your life. It's when you are forced to stretch past your regular boundaries that you find out how far you can really go.

I am going to miss you, yes all of you, even those of you that I yell at a lot. I yell because I care. After you leave on Thursday I will come back to my room and it will seem empty because all of you will be gone. There will be no more basketball or bouncy balls. There will just be silence and all the things left out that I need to pack away.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for summer vacation. I just hope that when you return next year that you will sometimes say hello or smile at me in the hallway. Teachers like that sort of thing. It makes them feel special.

Teachers care about their students, no matter how old or big they get. I remember when I student taught in sixth grade at this very school. Mr. Burridge was a student in that sixth grade class. Now he is all grown up, reeeeeally grown up, and we are colleagues and friends.

It's unusual how life works. You plan to do one thing and sometimes something entirely different happens.

My advice to you is this:

1.) Be kind to one another, even when you don't want to be. You never know how much your smile or kind word or deed will affect someone else.

2.) Take advantage of your time in school to join sports or band and learn new things to the best of your ability. Life is so much easier with a good educational background.

3.) When you leave today try and think of one good time you had with me this year, whether it was watching a movie, reading a novel, practicing and practicing for the state math test, playing Scattegories or another math game, or something else; because, listen closely again, I will be thinking of each one of you and how lucky I was to be your teacher.

The half days are a-coming....

I did it! I put on my big girl panties and went to work and stood outside in the sun and cheered my little championship homeroom kickball team on. I climbed (rather awkwardly) through the fire window to get inside like all the other adults, except that I am much shorter, much wider, and much less physically capable.

I did it, though.

I have a sunburn on my cheeks and my nose but I made it through the day.

I even stopped and picked up a sweet tea from McDonald's after work.

All in all, it wasn't so bad.

Two half days left with kiddos...

And then there were four...

Four more days until two months of freedom. Four more days, people.

Tomorrow is the last full day with kiddos and we will be outside all day in the hot sun. I am so NOT looking forward to that. In the summer I enjoy the sun early in the morning waking me up, but I am not a sun worshipper. I am more of a close the drapes and turn up the fan kind of girl. Yessiree, that is me to a T!

I have a hat packed and sunscreen and water and a chair to sit outside in so I can watch the little urchins play the hearts out at kickball.

I do NOT want to sit outside all day tomorrow; did I mention that already?

It is going to be hot and there is no shade.

We are going to be out there all day.

I even have to eat lunch with them and I just want that time so I can sit at a table inside, away from the sun. Away from the sun!!!!

I will, however, suck it up and do it. Why? Because I am the teacher and that is what I do.