Well, I finally made it through this week, so I’m feeling pretty happy. There have been a lot of challenges, and a lot more ahead, but the fact that I am still here with my sanity and teaching (though Jared may argue a little with the sanity part with the frequent breakdowns that have occurred randomly the past couple of nights with out any warning! Thanks for putting up with me and loving me anyway, dear!) is something that I am really proud of.

I am really excited about making progress with my headaches and taking these pills. I do think they are working slightly. I’ve been taking them for a week and a half and didn’t notice anything the first week, but have been noticing things when I upped the dosage to the 25 mgs in the morning and at night. With taking the pills, I HAVE noticed that caffeinated drinks actually DO help my headaches, which is kind of cool, as long as I’m not having them every day. Of course, there are weird side affects like diet sodas tasting funny and my fingers tingle occasionally, but the doctor did warn me that it might happen and not to worry.

This next week should be a lot of fun! My mom, dad, and youngest brother Jacob will be coming to visit us here in Austin for Thanksgiving! I’m nervous and excited to show off our home to them. We absolutely love it here though, and so it will be fun to show them around and hopefully they will love it too. We spent today cleaning things up to make things nicer today for them… I let things get a little messier the past couple of weeks due to the stressful stuff and headaches. Anyways… time to finish cleaning and do our lesson for the primary kids tomorrow (you’d think I’d get a break from kids on the weekend, but apparently somebody else decided otherwise. At least they moved us from the 6 year olds to the 9 year olds!!!).

Well helloooooo.

I should be grading the mountains of papers that are facing me right now, but I can’t make myself do it. End of the 2nd 6 week grading period is tomorrow, and grades are due Tuesday morning. It’s been a tough period for me. I’m struggling with getting the kids to be more accountable and responsible for their learning, and I’m not supposed to penalize their grades or anything if they turn it in late or something like that, which isn’t doing them any favors.

Anyways, so I finally made it to the doctor yesterday. I actually was supposed to go last Monday, but they cancelled my appointment. When they called, they weren’t too nice about it and it was pretty last minute (my appointment was at 2:45 and they called me earlier that day… I had work off so I could go…) I also tried to get in when I was sick (the last time I posted) and figured while I was checking out my cough/cold issues, they could check out my head too, but they didn’t want to schedule any appointments past four.

Well, I decided that I didn’t need to deal with that. I looked more carefully at the doctors that we had access to through Jared’s insurance, and then looked at their “recommended” list and then researched them online. I found one that sounded hopeful, and isn’t too far from where we live and from the area we’re hoping to buy a home in in the not to far future.

It was a good decision. I felt like she was very respectful of my concerns and listened, and was really surprised that nobody had taken a serious look at migraines anymore. She said that my symptoms and having headaches every day were fairly classic symptoms of somebody who had not had migraine headaches treated properly. A normal person can take so much noise or triggers that cause a headache. For me, my tolerance has become so low that the smallest things are affecting me right now, or that’s what she thinks. So we are going to try a preventative treatment with a drug called Topamax. We’ll see how it goes. Another thing that we may explore in a month when I go back is the WNV that I was worried about earlier. I am also going to call the original doctor that I did a blood test with to see if they tested for Lyme Disease at that time. All of these aren’t exciting prospects, but I am just happy that I’m moving along with getting results and having people take this seriously, and not all in my head (ha, ha!).

Anyways, really, I should get started on grading. It’s taken me way too long to try and make this post.

So after my early morning post yesterday, I tried going to school. I made it through first period and decided it just wasn’t worth it. My head was incredibly stuffy, my nose incredibly runny, and my throat hurt incredibly badly. Then to top it all off, when 3rd period began, they had a fire drill. Needless to say, I was happy to go home after lunch and just lie like a useless blob on the couch. I have decided that I would much rather be healthy teaching classes with my kids than home sick. Blech!

About 9:00 last night I had Jared give me a blessing, and decided that because I wasn’t feeling well still, I should take today off. I’m glad I did. I slept better last night, but this morning my cold had lessened slightly, but I had definitely developed a cough. I called the doctors office and the nurse wasn’t very helpful. Just told me to do the same things I had been doing: Dayquil/Niquil, resting, lots of fluids, and such. No magic fix for my lame head/chest cold!

It’s actually been kind of nice to relax. I didn’t realize how stressed out I’ve been about school until I was forced by my silly body to slow down. I’m counting on because I’ve chilled out yesterday and today, body will get better and let me go back to school on Monday. 🙂 However, it also has just shown me that I am really enjoying my job and teaching, and I really care about how my students are doing (and not just in my classroom). I know I’m not that great of a teacher yet, but I hope that next year I’ll start off a lot more strongly for the students.

Anyways, I need to get ready for the evening. Jared is kind of hosting/helping out a guy who is interviewing for NI, and he has a fiancee so I am going to try to help answer any questions they may have. 🙂 NI is taking us all out to County Line tonight for some delicious barbeque, and as I can finally taste a little again, I am excited!!!

It’s about 2:15 am Thursday morning. Why am I up? I have some sort of nasty disgusting cold that hasn’t really allowed me to sleep very well, and I have been up for the past 45 minutes anyways because it hurts my head less to sit up. 🙂 I had heard 1 year teachers have to deal with getting sick a lot as we acclimate to the schools, but I didn’t believe it. 🙁

Anyways, things have been going pretty well overall. The kids amaze me with their different levels of maturity. Some students have me wondering, “Was I ever that smart when I was their age?” Probably not. And then there’s the opposite level- “Was I ever that immature and annoying?!” Some of the kids are just so responsible and mature, and I can hardly believe that they are only 12 years old. Other ones act more like they are 6. And as Jared and I taught the 6 year old primary class on Sunday, I feel justified in saying that. some of the 6 year olds were able to sit more quietly and still than my 7th graders!

Speaking of that particular adventure, Primary isn’t really my favorite thing. I do think that little kids are really really cute… but that’s from far away or for 5 minute intervals. (Depending on the level of cleanliness and whiny-ness, I can like them for up to a couple of hours at a time even.) But despite my convictions, this is the second time I’ve been put in primary at church. (At least Jared got dragged along with me this time!) And really, yes, the kids were pretty good, pretty cute… they all immediately wanted to sit next to me and Jared (or on my lap, or at least hold my hand as they went on various bathroom excursions), which surprised me. I expected at least a little “Getting used to the new teacher” phase, but nope.

I think the biggest problem was with my headaches and my overall pathetic sensitivity to chaotic noise. Since the kids did so well on their primary program at church, the chorister thought that it would be a great idea to start passing out kazoos. Small, plastic, brightly colored, and they make obnoxious noises! Who can resist? Certainly nobody between the ages of 4-8. As you could guess, without any directions with the kazoos, mayhem ensued during the “Sharing Time” of church. As long as that doesn’t happen again, I’d probably survive those 2 hours every Sunday.

Anyways, I think I am going to attempt sleep again, as my head feels slightly better from some of the medicine I took 45 minutes ago, and I have to at least try to teach later on today. 🙂 Cheerio for now!

So, this summer Jared and I got all excited about the show, America’s Got Talent. For some reason, we think it’s pretty awesome. We got hooked last year when we saw Terry Fator the singer/ventriloquist (if you have NOT seen Terry Fator, you are really missing out! Last year, we went to Utah’s State Fair where he performed for a hour and a half and it was absolutely AWESOME.) But I digress.

So Jared and I were hopeful that this year would be as promising as last year, and all in all, it has been. There’s always a few choices that the judges make that make me go “HOW DID YOU GET THE POSITION OF JUDGE?! COME ON!” but there was a surprising lack of that. And so then it got to the point where America votes. And they did a pretty good job… up til tonight.

The options were Queen Emily (awesome Diva singer), Eli Mattson (talented singer/piano player), Neal E. Boyd the crybaby, Donald Braswell the musical theatre guy, and Nuttin But Stringz, the amazing R&B violin playing brother duo. Straight out, I wanted Nuttin But Stringz to win. They were so creative, and so talented, and I absolutely loved the music they played. I was absolutely shocked by the results… Queen Emily left first, followed by Donald, then Nuttin But Stringz. I thought “Well, Eli’s got to have this in the bag!” But no. When they announced that Neal won first place, I thought I might just die.

My faith in the American Public has been officially broken. HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?! Seriously- he can’t even go 10 seconds without crying. I didn’t let Jared watch Neal’s finale song… let’s face it, he would be crying to hard to be any good anyway. I have nothing against opera; he has a pretty decent voice, but America made a big mistake tonight. Maybe there was a fluke with the voting system… or something.

I know I’m not the only one feeling this way. Right afterwards, Jared found this blog link, which made me feel a little better:
http://blog.zap2it.com/ithappenedlastnight/2008/10/americas-got-ta.html

Okay. Well, I think I can go back to grading again… now that I’m calmed down a bit. 🙂 Thanks for listening to my rant about stupid shows and the crazy people who vote for them. lol.