Monday, May 05, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Self-Portrait by Emily
Friday, April 25, 2008
Whoa
So much for posting every day of my week alone. Now that I can look back on the week, I guess my perspective is better. So I pretty much worked all week, due to a decision that a colleague at the college and I made to move a project up a week (math placement testing). Here are some things I managed to sneak in:
-Made grilled salmon with a ravigote sauce over couscous for some friends for lunch on Sunday
-Sat around a fire pit and shot the breeze with friends
-Went out to dinner with a friend from work and saw a movie (21 - it was pretty good)
-Spent an hour and a half walking around a bog with two little girls of some friends
-Had lunch at a friend's house (Tuna sauteed with a rice vinegar and soy sauce glaze served over a bed of julienned carrots and brocolli with some Asian seasoning and with a little rice vinegar, orange zest and peanuts splashed on top)
-Stayed at work until 10:30 pm working on the aforementioned project
-Stayed up until midnight that night grading and prepping for my classes
-Ate a lot of food grabbed from Panera
-Ran a review session and testing session for the math placement test
-Started physical therapy and found out my right foot had only 50% range of motion
-Spent three hours tutoring students one afternoon
-Held a review session with my stats students the day before their exam
-Attended an all-day conference at work on teaching large classes (over 40 students)
-Graded papers in a coffee house
-Had coffee with a friend at the coffee house
Whew...no wonder I was exhausted.
-Made grilled salmon with a ravigote sauce over couscous for some friends for lunch on Sunday
-Sat around a fire pit and shot the breeze with friends
-Went out to dinner with a friend from work and saw a movie (21 - it was pretty good)
-Spent an hour and a half walking around a bog with two little girls of some friends
-Had lunch at a friend's house (Tuna sauteed with a rice vinegar and soy sauce glaze served over a bed of julienned carrots and brocolli with some Asian seasoning and with a little rice vinegar, orange zest and peanuts splashed on top)
-Stayed at work until 10:30 pm working on the aforementioned project
-Stayed up until midnight that night grading and prepping for my classes
-Ate a lot of food grabbed from Panera
-Ran a review session and testing session for the math placement test
-Started physical therapy and found out my right foot had only 50% range of motion
-Spent three hours tutoring students one afternoon
-Held a review session with my stats students the day before their exam
-Attended an all-day conference at work on teaching large classes (over 40 students)
-Graded papers in a coffee house
-Had coffee with a friend at the coffee house
Whew...no wonder I was exhausted.
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Day One
Well, at the end of the first day, I'm starting to think that this may not be too bad. Today I was able to catch a cat nap in the morning (in the window seat with both cats), go out to lunch with friends, plan meals for the week, go grocery shopping, sweep and mop the entryway, clean up the kitchen, clean up my bedroom, inventory a big pile of clothes to go to Goodwill, and clean the bathroom (including scrubbing the tub, which was horrible). I had a bunch of work, financial, and remodeling things on my to-do list, but I was unable to concentrate with the house not being in order. So now that I have that out of my system, I will move on. The grocery shopping is the thing that I was dreading the most because it makes my foot really hurt to walk around that much. I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow (if the cats don't meow too loudly from the basement where they are safely shut for the night).
A Strange Seven Days
Mike and the kids left for Texas today. They will be returning next Saturday evening. I have mixed feelings about the week. I am glad to have a break from the crazy-busyness of my life of kids and two jobs. The only thing I have this week is the college job, which is in the afternoon, so other than the cats, nobody will wake me up in the morning. I have a list of things to get done, so I'm not going to just lay around all week. I think the weirdest thing will be dinner. I may go over to friends' houses, or invite people here. We'll see. I've started to wonder if I could go all week without going over to anyone's house or having anyone here...and part of me welcomes the solitude, but part of me dreads it.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
One Health Issue to Celebrate
Perhaps because of the on-going struggle with my foot, receiving good news about my low cholesterol levels today from recent bloodwork done as part of a routine physcial was encouraging. Something is going right with my health. Here are the numbers:
Total cholesterol: 163 (under 200 rated desirable by the AHA)
HDL: 56 (50 to 60 is rated average)
LDL: 96 (less than 100 is rated optimal)
Triglycerides: 53 (anything under 150 is rated normal)
Here is a link that describes what the numbers mean.
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=183
Total cholesterol: 163 (under 200 rated desirable by the AHA)
HDL: 56 (50 to 60 is rated average)
LDL: 96 (less than 100 is rated optimal)
Triglycerides: 53 (anything under 150 is rated normal)
Here is a link that describes what the numbers mean.
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=183
Friday, March 28, 2008
Tootie's Kill
I came home one day to find Tootie laying next to this toy snake. She looked pretty smug. (I may have "helped" her pose slightly - OK, OK.)
News from the Pond
It's been 99 days since I tripped on those concrete steps and injured my foot. For the first 4 weeks, I saw improvement. Once I went back to teaching at the college in mid-January (and teaching a night class 4 hours one night a week), it got worse. Then I started wearing the air-cast, and then it improved again for about 3-4 weeks. Unfortunately the progress slowed and then stalled. I have not seen things improve for several weeks now. I was referred to a foot specialist last week, who ordered an MRI to help determine what exactly the injury is. The MRI is this Sunday morning at 7:45. It will take 45 minutes for my ankle and 45 minutes for my foot.
Unfortunately, we now know that Avritt is also allergic to cashews. He ate a peanut (which he isn't allergic to) from a Trail mix that had cashews in it. He had a reaction within minutes, which basically was one side of his mouth swelled, and he threw up. I gave him benedryl, which is a first course of action, and waited to see if I would need to administer the Epi-pen. Thankfully, his symptoms did not worsen. I will definitely need to be very careful about screening his food. No nuts other than peanuts from here on out - and then just peanuts that aren't in a mix, like peanut butter or a jar of honey roasted peanuts.
Isaac and I went to Book Bingo at his school tonight. Everybody brought a book, and then we put them all together in a pot. When someone got Bingo, they picked a book from the pot. It was a lot of fun and Isaac came home with five books.
Four more days until Spring Break (at least for one of my jobs).
Unfortunately, we now know that Avritt is also allergic to cashews. He ate a peanut (which he isn't allergic to) from a Trail mix that had cashews in it. He had a reaction within minutes, which basically was one side of his mouth swelled, and he threw up. I gave him benedryl, which is a first course of action, and waited to see if I would need to administer the Epi-pen. Thankfully, his symptoms did not worsen. I will definitely need to be very careful about screening his food. No nuts other than peanuts from here on out - and then just peanuts that aren't in a mix, like peanut butter or a jar of honey roasted peanuts.
Isaac and I went to Book Bingo at his school tonight. Everybody brought a book, and then we put them all together in a pot. When someone got Bingo, they picked a book from the pot. It was a lot of fun and Isaac came home with five books.
Four more days until Spring Break (at least for one of my jobs).
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Spring Break (1/2 time)
I am on spring break from my college job this week. Unfortunately, I still have to teach in the mornings at the high school, but I am enjoying the lighter schedule. I have one more batch of papers that I am going to grade today from my college stats class, and then a little planning ahead for next Monday, but then I will put that job to rest for the week. The half-time spring break will happen again in April when the high school has a break, but the college doesn't. I think Mike is going to take the kids down to Texas that week, so I will be by myself at home, with only an afternoon job. It will be a very strange week, as I don't think that I have ever been home by myself for that length of time. Ever. In my whole life.
I haven't been sleeping very well for several days. I keep waking up in the middle of the night with very intense dreams. Usually the first time is between 3:30 and 4:30 am. Then I wake up every 30 to 45 minutes after that until my alarm goes off at 6:08. Grrrr! I have been trying to go to bed at 10:00 to get more sleep, but then I just have more time to dream. I must have some unresolved issue that I'm trying to work out in my sleep, or I'm stressed. Not much has changed in my life in the last few weeks, so I'm stumped as to why now. Last night I tried earplugs, because I have been wondering whether the cats are making noise and waking me up. I don't hear them after I wake up, but I am a light sleeper and maybe I'm hearing them make a noise, which wakes me up. They have been given free roam again at night because they have stopped scratching on our door at 5:00 am. However, the earplugs didn't prevent me from waking up last night, which I did at 3:38am. The earplugs are hard to get used to - they hurt my ears for a few weeks until I acclimate to them. So they came out. I don't think it's something external, but something internal. Strange dreams last night, too. Very strange.
Isaac had his first concert at school last night. He was not happy about dressing up. He hated all the shirts (oxfords) because he said they felt like they were choking his neck. He hated the pattern of the plaid shirt (he said it was too square-ey). He didn't want to wear the sweater because it was boring. He hated the belt because he can't unbuckle it himself. He was having a moody day (lack of sleep, I think, from the time change). He didn't want me to video-tape the performance because he said that the songs were boring and stupid, and singing them made his palms sweat (which he said he knew because it happened during the dress rehearsal earlier that day at school). Wow. That's Isaac at his grumpiest. It was almost so over-the-top that Emily and I were trying not to chuckle. Emily was helping me convince Isaac that plaid is a very common thing for boys to wear (he thought it looked too girl-ley in addition to being too square-ey).
All that after helping Isaac practice addition and subtraction facts (and teach him some multiplication, which he wants to know because Avritt does), help Avritt split a square into eighths 4 different ways for his homework, making sure the boys read 20 and 30 minutes, respectively (it's March, which is reading month), trying to convince Emily she shouldn't have unrestricted access to the new Guitar Hero III game Avritt bought with his own money last week, going through Avritt's piano lesson material with him for his lessons today, shooing the cat off the counter 4 times, cooking breakfast burritos for dinner, and convincing Emily and Avritt that they need to attend a first and second grade concert to support their brother, who didn't want to go, either.
No wonder I'm having bad dreams.
I haven't been sleeping very well for several days. I keep waking up in the middle of the night with very intense dreams. Usually the first time is between 3:30 and 4:30 am. Then I wake up every 30 to 45 minutes after that until my alarm goes off at 6:08. Grrrr! I have been trying to go to bed at 10:00 to get more sleep, but then I just have more time to dream. I must have some unresolved issue that I'm trying to work out in my sleep, or I'm stressed. Not much has changed in my life in the last few weeks, so I'm stumped as to why now. Last night I tried earplugs, because I have been wondering whether the cats are making noise and waking me up. I don't hear them after I wake up, but I am a light sleeper and maybe I'm hearing them make a noise, which wakes me up. They have been given free roam again at night because they have stopped scratching on our door at 5:00 am. However, the earplugs didn't prevent me from waking up last night, which I did at 3:38am. The earplugs are hard to get used to - they hurt my ears for a few weeks until I acclimate to them. So they came out. I don't think it's something external, but something internal. Strange dreams last night, too. Very strange.
Isaac had his first concert at school last night. He was not happy about dressing up. He hated all the shirts (oxfords) because he said they felt like they were choking his neck. He hated the pattern of the plaid shirt (he said it was too square-ey). He didn't want to wear the sweater because it was boring. He hated the belt because he can't unbuckle it himself. He was having a moody day (lack of sleep, I think, from the time change). He didn't want me to video-tape the performance because he said that the songs were boring and stupid, and singing them made his palms sweat (which he said he knew because it happened during the dress rehearsal earlier that day at school). Wow. That's Isaac at his grumpiest. It was almost so over-the-top that Emily and I were trying not to chuckle. Emily was helping me convince Isaac that plaid is a very common thing for boys to wear (he thought it looked too girl-ley in addition to being too square-ey).
All that after helping Isaac practice addition and subtraction facts (and teach him some multiplication, which he wants to know because Avritt does), help Avritt split a square into eighths 4 different ways for his homework, making sure the boys read 20 and 30 minutes, respectively (it's March, which is reading month), trying to convince Emily she shouldn't have unrestricted access to the new Guitar Hero III game Avritt bought with his own money last week, going through Avritt's piano lesson material with him for his lessons today, shooing the cat off the counter 4 times, cooking breakfast burritos for dinner, and convincing Emily and Avritt that they need to attend a first and second grade concert to support their brother, who didn't want to go, either.
No wonder I'm having bad dreams.
Friday, March 07, 2008
Winter Activities
Since the snow and cold doesn't seem to be going away, Mike and the boys have decided to embrace the weather and go skiing and snowboarding at a local place. Avritt took 3 snowboarding lessons and is now carving up the slopes (or down, I guess). Isaac took a skiing lesson and figured it out pretty quickly. They have both been very excited about going with Mike on weekends, although the picture doesn't capture that (I made them pose in front of the ski place, which they didn't like). We need to get Emily out there, too. She has never been skiing. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to go because of the lingering foot injury. Next winter.
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