I can't believe it but I'm just 20 days away from my last day of school....ever!!!!!!!! This has just been one of the worst possible weeks when it comes to looking back on the days of teaching. Without the support and the love from Jim and also from my teammates I do not imagine that I would have been able to make it through all of the crumminess. I'd rather not even discuss it so let me just pass on it and hope that it will not rear up any more this month of May.

Jim, Dennis, June, Lynda, Cole, and I just watched one of the yuckiest movies I've ever seen: SNAKES ON A PLANE!!! I can not believe we actually sat through the whole thing...talk about an unreal story. Probably most funny of all was the fact that we all yelled out, screamed, and jumped and hid our faces throughout most of the story.

I have friends in NYC this weekend for the annual UNITY WALK, I'm proud of them and their efforts to raise money for the purpose of finding a cure for the PD. Way to go, Becci, Judy, and Annie! Looking forward to seeing you in July at the YOPN in Chicago.

What else? Just looking forward to my Retirement Reception which will be at the school on Thursday, May 17th. I came up with quite a list of people who I enjoyed teaching and/or teaching with these past 25 years. Now I'm hoping that at least half of them will find the time to come on over to Ditto to gather the "old friends" for some great celebrating that day!

the pictures at the end of the last post...

...are of the latest weather related loss that we have had happen to us... It certainly seems that trees are often lost from our yard. We have one half of a tree left now in the back yard and Jim is trying to find someone who can take this one out of the pool for us...Wish us luck!

What a Day!

Here is a little bit about yesterday and what we did...I did not go to work as I was supposed to be at the Texas Institute for Surgery at 11:00 am to be ready for the replacement of my stimulator at noon. So we woke up and got ready to go by 10:15 am. When we arrived we filled out the paperwork (not much) and then we waited and waited . Luckily we were expecting to be late because Dr. Desaloms had told us yesterday that he had a major brain surgery to earlier that day. We had not yet been taken back until about 2:15 or so.

My friend, Lark, came over and sat with us in the waiting room and then in the small room where I went to wait until taken to the operating room. Lark and I enjoyed laughing and talking together. Then after about an hour of surgery time (of which I remember nothing) I woke up to the nurse telling me that she was going to "turn me on." They finally let us leave there at about 4:45 or so and we stopped by the Sonic next door to get a smoothie which sounded so good for my throat which was so sore. That was really the only symptom from the surgery that was bothersome...and that was due to a tube that they put down my throat during surgery. The actual spot where the stimulator is is sore and heavy feeling.

When we got home we had very little time to get ready for the arrival of the Sunday School Bunko group. While we were trying to get ready (Jim was cooking up the chicken sauce for the main dish (snow on the mountain) the bad weather siren started going off...The next thing we knew it was over but when I walked in the living room and looked out the windows we had a pool with a tree in it...one of the big pear trees left in the back yard had been broken off and thrown into the pool...Not a fun prospect. People began arriving soon after that...

After eating...I went to sleep while the bunko players began the game...I woke up when Jim woke me up to get up off the bed to get into the covers ...again...no pain but just a very dry sore throat. Didn't wake up until 6 this morning...Now I'm waiting to go get a haircut at 10 after missing my appt last week.

Here you can see a picture of the tree/

just hoping that yesterday is not a clue about the way things will go on Friday...

Yesterday was not a good day for me! First of all, when I was outside at afternoon recess I noticed that the diamond solitaire from my wedding ring was missing! I was just sick...:( The playground is not at all the place to lose a diamond...much sand, gravel and even some grass out there... none of which make it easy to spot something small. I had the first graders out there searching for me but no one found it and then we searched inside too...but there was really no way for me to know when it fell out...I hadn't bumped my hand on anything that I could remember.

AND THEN, adding more yucky stuff--my period began and is rather heavy--especially since it's been over a year that I've had one! I felt sure I was in menopause...this is not something I wanted to deal with this week especially since I'll be having surgery Friday to replace my stimulator battery.

If I was a supertstitious person I might be concerned since Friday is Friday the 13th...but not being superstitious, I'm expecting it to go well and probably be back at work by Tuesday...Can't be out too many days anymore since I'm buying one more year of service with the 50 state days of personal leave that I have left.

Woo-hoo! My remote actually does work!

I know...it's most likely very odd to be cheering the slow death of the battery in the stimulator that is controlling my brain--the pacemaker like device that is a life-saver for me. With all that we have planned for ourselves for the next 3-4 months this is the best time to find out that the older battery (the one that has not been replaced yet) is getting low. My remote says so! Of course, it just so happens that Jim and I went to Dr, Stewart's office last Friday to get him to check on the setting of that battery because Daniel (at the Human Performance Lab) had said that it was lower than most. It was registering at a 3.6 back on March 22 when checked while going through the "tests" that they put me through at the HPL. Friday it registered at 3.2 and Dr. Stewart decided that I should go see Dr. Desaloms to set up a date for the exchange (new battery for old one). Dr. Desaloms' office wasn't open that day so I will be calling them tomorrow to set it all up...Last time we did this we were in on a Monday and by Wednesday morning we were in the hospital as an outpatient. I don't know if things can happen that fast this time but we shall see...

Back to the remote--I am happy to see that the remote is working as it is supposed to FLASH when the battery gets low...it is doing that now. Last time it didn't ever do that -- or maybe I just never checked it until it was completely gone but it is nice to know that it works this time.

Easter memories -- pictures of friends and their family

Easter afternoon - 1986

This is James and Patrick in 1986 - Easter attire - These outfits were one of my favorites that I remember that the boys wore. Turquoise is absolutely a beautiful color and aren't they cute? James has missing teeth on top and Patrick has his hair combed just right.