Yesterday

My teaching partner and I went to Starbucks to meet during our planning time (which is allowed) We arrived back to see the entire school returning from a fire drill (which was BAD) and oops, we didn't sign out (I guess we're suppose to sign out when we leave campus for this very reason). For fire drills during electives, the kids still go to their home room teachers, which doesn't make since for this very reason.

The ironic thing is that I had just warned both sets of kids that we would have a fire drill in the next two days, and likely yesterday. They have to do them once a month.

Another week down

Well, time is just flying by. I can't believe the weekend is half over. I stayed after school yesterday and had a "fun Friday" with my kids. Sooooo stressful. I didn't feel like I could really watch ALL the kids and I didn't want them getting into trouble. I seriously just got an upset stomach as I re-lived those 3 hours. I'm glad they had fun, but I'm wondering if I'm going to get a phone call on Monday. During the last 1/2 hour the boys all decided it would be fun to chase the girls into the girls bathroom. Ugh, they just don't get it.

I also finally got THE email from my vice-principal. The one every new teacher will get, but dreads it still the same. "When you have time today I'd like to meet with you to discuss a phone call I received from Johnny's father." Oh crap...what happened. It was so cryptic.
Turns out that Johnny told his Dad I gave all the kids lunch detention. ummm...didn't happen. Earlier in the week during the last period of the day my teaching partner opened our wall and read to the kids. She finished early and we let them have ten minutes of free time. BIG mistake. We immediately had 4 boys slapping each other (a new game) and another boy was chasing a girl around the room with scissors. We immediately close the doors and I let the crazy boys have it . I have SERIOUSLY talked with them 20 or more times about their horse play. My rule is simple - NO TOUCHING...EVER. I told the 5 boys they had just earned lunch detention and told them to go to my phone and call their parents (I was pissed and I wanted Mom and Dad to know what they'd done). I apologized to the rest of the class and said I couldn't give free time at the end of the day, because certain kids just couldn't handle it. I guess the one boy (who is a great kid by the way) thought I was giving the whole class lunch detention...

I've discovered one thing I don't like about 6th graders. Their height. Did you know that the average 6th grader's face is pretty much boob high for me? That's very awkward- as they still like to hug.

I received3 invitations today for Thanksgiving. Still mulling over what to do.

Yes, believe it or not I am still sick. I actually have felt a little worse the last couple of days, like I'm fighting off a cold. Oh to be healthy again.

Next weekend I'm headed to the beach. Even if I sit in the room by the fireplace all day...that will be O.K. with me. Well, Declan may have a problem with that. I'm going with a friend and her 3 kids, so it should be fun.

Can't Sleep

figured it would be a good time to update.

It's nice to be back at school. I'm pretty much caught up. Have I said lately how much I love my job? The last two weeks has flown by. We're home at 4 and in bed at 7. I have not been sleeping well, so I go to bed early since I never know when and for how long I'll be up in the middle of the night.

I'm still not healthy. Sickest I've been as an adult. Although the formal test was negative (and not very accurate) I'm pretty sure, as is my Dr. that I have Pertussis. I went to check in with my Dr. a week ago. Mainly because I'm still wheezing every night. I'm still coughing...but not much can be done about that. I was/am having rib pain for about 10 days now. He believed I sprained my ribs. Took X-rays, pneumonia is still there. Since I'm feeling better he was on the fence about more antibiotics. I opted for the wait and see approach. 3 antibiotics in two months seems a bit much.

One week later, I'm STILL wheezing. I also feel like I haven't been able to cough and clear my lungs very well due to the pain in my ribs. Earlier tonight I was trying to decide if I was going to go to urgency care this weekend or try to get in early next week. THEN I was laying in bed and had a coughing spell and felt/heard a "snap" in my ribs. Intense burning pain!!! Now I can barely walk, or get out of a chair. This is INSANE. I've been sleeping only on my right side for almost two weeks and right now I can hardly do that. Guess I'll go in tomorrow.

I'm also thinking I need to just break down and hire someone to clean my house. I've just done the minimum for 2 months now and I can't take it anymore. Obviously I'm in no shape to do any cleaning.

Did I already mention that you should all get your DTaP booster? Yeah, take care of that.

I'm off to cruise the Internet in hopes of finding a cleaning service that works on the weekend.

Kindergarten 2007

I'm back

See...no time for blogging now that I'm working:) It is soooo good to be back, can I tell you again how much I love my kids? Really. Also, many teachers say dealing with parents is the worst part of the job. It is one of my favorite parts of the job. I make an effort to call a few parents every week...just to tell them how great their kids are. Those phone calls are so much fun. Yes it takes time, but it's also worth it because it sets me up to have good relationships with the families, even when I need to call because Johnny is mis-behaving. Let me tell you, in 6th grade those call are rare.



On to other things. I had a Chocolate...Hated it. I mean Hated it. (should have listened to the review (and you Christy), but no...couldn't resist it's seductive design) One month after buying my Chocolate, I just gave up and bought a new phone..which I love (Samsung). I soon realized how spoiled I was by the Chocolate MP3 player, it was sooo sad to loose that feature. I decided it was time to break down and purchase a music player (I use it everyday in my classroom). Now that I am employed, I figured I could by the easiest to use (KEY POINT) and best product on the market (brand-wise). You know what that means- iPod. I went shopping, came back with a Nano...those are cheap! I loved it- son loved it because now he can watch the Jetsons in the car, in bed :) 24 hours later I decided to just bit the bullet and upgrade to the iTouch. I was very interested in the wifi feature and I don't know why but I'm just not good with the dial type button you find on iPods and most MP3's. I carefully spin the dial and then go to press the enter button and accidentally spin the dial and select something else. It was a BIG problem with my Chocolate (gurrr) The button was much larger on the Nano, but I still found it to be a problem.



All I can say is the iTouch is AMAZING:

IF I could use AT&T at my house...I would have cancelled my Verizon Wireless and just bought the iPhone. Maybe their service will improve in a few years.

It's really not as bad

as it seems. I mean I AM feeling better. It just sucks dealing with Sleep Interruptis...and knowing it could go on for 2 more months - yuk. So I'll just nap when I can and go to bed early knowing that I may wake to coughing fits anytime early in the morning.

Today went pretty well. Very tired still, but I did make it through the day. Still not enough energy left in the evening for Declan. And it doesn't help matters that I pick him up and take him to an early dinner where he cried for 15 minutes because he left his art work at school. Holy Crap! It's hard to take that on a good day. Then he has regressed to randomly demanding "I need water!" What the .... and of course Grandma gets it for him. My take? He is FIVE and he can get his own water whenever he needs it. Weird dynamics as my parents are leaving in 4 more days so they're already missing him and they haven't even left...which explains why she gets water for him I guess. As for me, I'm a working Mom with Whooping Cough...I just don't have the energy, I don't think that makes me a bad parent.

Also, Nicole commented that I've been blogging a lot lately. I think it's mainly due to the fact I've been home for so long...with not much energy to do much else.

Looking forward to the weekend.

up since 2:30

I decided about 3:30 that I had no further doubt about whether or not I have Whooping Cough.

Tired

that pretty much sums up my day. The first 1/2 was O.K. then exhaustion set in. Came home and slept from 4-7. Tomorrow I'm only working 1/2 a day. It's just too much after having been off work for 2 weeks. Still getting my strength / stamina back.

Love the kids. How many jobs can you return from sick leave and get hugs?

"Cough worse after...

3 a.m. and when lying down". I just googled 'Whooping Cough lying down' and found a ton of hits. Apparently it is common to have the worse attacks when lying down. Yep, that's me. I've been up since 4 and can't go back to sleep. My coughing is sooo bad first thing in the morning. I just have no choice but to get up out of bed. I really wish I could sleep in a recliner.

So here I am, up two hours early, on my first day back to work. Not a great start.

Still sick...but

I'm getting better. And the best news is that I've met a new Dr. during the course of this fiasco who has agreed to be my PCP even though he isn't taking on new patients (according to the website). I've opted not to stay with my current PCP who told me I couldn't get Pertusis due to the fact I was immunized as a child...I know Dr.'s don't know everything, but you think they'd know how long immunizations last.

So...interesting development. I went in Friday for the Pertusis test. I took a peak at my lab results from Thursday. My liver tests went from 2 previous tests of 12 and 20 to 127. The result was flagged. I asked the Dr. about it and she said not to worry that my Dr. would just follow up when I was healthy. Sounded reasonable to me.

Then on Saturday I received an email from my Thurs. Dr. (the one i really like) he said to go in ASAP for more labs re the liver tests. He ordered 7 more tests. Interesting to have such different opinions. I obviously like the guy who is being thorough when I've been sick for 3 weeks now. Somehow I think some of these Dr.'s just don't get how sick I've been.

Hopefully I'll have enough energy to get through the day tomorrow.