A Special Kid...

My mouth tends to get me in trouble.  Not having my filter anymore makes it even more likely that my mouth will get me in trouble.  This past school year, I had a remarkable student that I want to tell you about.  He said I could write this blog about him, and I promised to keep his name anonymous.  Some of you may know him or have heard me talk about him.  He truly is an amazing young man who has risen above his circumstances.

We had just returned back to school after having two days off after the blizzard in February.  My students weren't in the mood to learn, and I was crabby with having to work extra hard with keeping them on task.  Towards the end of the period, I handed out grade sheets.  When I handed this young man his grade report, his face dropped a little and he made an innocent comment about how his percentage had dropped (it was still above a 100%, though).  Well, it was 7th period, and like I said, I was crabby.  Immediately, I said something dripping with sarcasm (I'm really good at that), and walked away.  A few minutes later I looked back over and the young man was crying.  Oh crap, I said in my head, this is not what I had intended.  Usually after I've been sarcastic with a student, they go back to what they were doing and we are fine.  I walked over and apologized for upsetting him with my words, but I still felt bad- I rarely make kids cry, and to me this did not seem like one of those instances where I would make a kid cry.  I kept going over my words (of course, I don't remember them now) and they didn't seem like they were that sarcastic or hurtful.

My guilty conscience continued to plague me.  I again apologized to him after class before I left for the day.  I could see that something was clearly bothering him, but he wouldn't tell me.  So, I tried one last ditch effort- facebook.  I sent him this email:
"I just wanted to apologize again. I was just giving you a hard time, and I didn't realize that you were feeling so much stress. I won't joke around with you like that anymore in class. I realized that you don't quite get my sarcastic sense of humor and I feel badly. Anyway, I wanted to apologize again. You are one of the brightest and hardest working kids that I have ever met and you have a bright
future ahead of you. I hope you realize how smart you are. You are going to do big things with your life. I believe in you."
I received his response very quickly, and when I read it, I have to say it was quite unexpected.  He told me that it wasn't me he was upset with, and it wasn't me who made him cry, that he would have cried anyway.  He shared with me that right after he graduated junior high, his father murdered his mother (whoa).  He now lives with his aunt who tells him every day what a horrible and selfish kid he is.  She doesn't let him talk about his mother or visit the gravesite when he wants to.

Wow.  That is a lot for a 15 year old kid to have to deal with.  Did I mention that this kid has a 4.5 gpa on a 5.0 scale?  Did I mention that this kid is one of the nicest young men that I have ever met?  Did I mention that this kid has impecable manners?  The day I missed school because Juliana had her seizure, I immediately got an email from him asking how she was doing.

Wait, there's more.  Towards the end of the school year, his aunt's husband (his uncle) was killed in a terrible motorcycle accident.  I know.  How much more does he have to go through?  He and I had many discussions about God after class.  He knows what I believe and where I stand, but he is searching still.  His aunt takes him to a church, but he feels as if he is judged there, because his aunt tells stories about him that aren't true.  I explained to him that all churches are not like that.

The final blow.  The last day of school, he stayed behind after everyone left.  I used to let my students sign their names on my classroom wall.  I didn't this year, because I was informed it was going to be painted over during the summer.  He asked me if he could please write his name on the wall, so it would be like he existed somewhere.  I let him do it, and then he told me that his aunt was sending him to live with his Grandma and his Grandfather (who has terminal cancer) in Florida for the summer or possibly until he turned 18.  I asked him when he would find out if he was coming back.  He told me his aunt told him to pack as if he was never coming back.  I asked him when he was leaving.  He said 2 days.  He was upset because he had wanted to visit his mother's gravesite as her birthday was coming up (as was his- they are 2 days apart), and he wasn't going to have the opportunity to do so.  We said goodbye, and I told him I hoped to see him on the first day of school.

Well, I just got an email from him.  He won't be coming back.  He told me he will be living with a cousin, and he is no longer under stress.  No one is telling him that he is a bad kid anymore and no one is telling him that he is a horrible human being anymore.  I hope that he continues to shine where he is now.  This kid is special.  He works so hard and it doesn't come easy for him.  He doesn't have the best life, but he doesn't let it get to him and bring him down.  He's rising above it.  I'll keep praying for him, and I hope you pray for him too.  I'm going to miss seeing him when school starts up again.  This is one of the reasons I became a teacher, to experience something like this.  Keep your chin up, anonymous, I believe in you!

"Back" to Normal...Well, almost...

Last Tuesday, I woke up early for some unknown reason.  So, I decided that it was a sign that it was time to test out the old hip and go for a run.  I haven't run since the Warrior Dash, I've kept it just to roller blading and swimming.  I went for my run, did a little over 2 miles and then came home, because I didn't want to push my luck since my hip wasn't hurting at all.  I got in the shower, ate some breakfast and then watched the news, waiting for the kids to wake up.  Eventually, they did, and when I got up to get them, I noticed a dull ache in my back that hadn't been there before.  For the rest of the day the ache got a bit worse.  Fortunately we had our weekly session at the chiropractor that afternoon.  After being interrogated on whether or not I had stretched (the answer was yes) and if I had done any heavy lifting or turned weird or fallen in the shower (all no's), Dr. Rich concluded that I had definitely done a number on my low back (hooray for me).  He spent a good 15 minutes adjusting me.  Then he told me to ice it- no heat, and to come back on Thursday.

Wednesday morning, I woke up at 4 AM and I tried to move.  The pain had gotten incredibly worse and I couldn't figure out how to get out of the bed without making it hurt more.  I had felt this pain before, and I remember it well.  My junior year at Bethel, I had torn my psoas muscle in my hip/back and had spent all summer recovering from that.  Somehow I got myself on my stomach and slid out of bed onto my knees and crawled (literally) to the bathroom.  At this point, the room was spinning and I was sweating from the pain, so I stopped and laid down on the bathroom floor, which was a bad decision, because then I had to get back up on my hands and knees.  I thought about yelling for Ryan to help, but then I remembered that he could sleep through a heavy metal rock concert in our bedroom.  I eventually got my business done and made it back to bed.  When Ryan got up for work, I had him help me get up and get downstairs.  By the time he left for work, I had figured out that standing was the best and as long as I kept an ice pack on my back and tried not to move, I could get through the day.  Unfortunately, with kids, you can't be still, so that wasn't going to work.  I called the chiropractor and they got me in for a morning adjustment.  It was a pain filled drive to the office but the adjustment helped and I was able to stand up when I left.  I was told to come back in the afternoon, and that was a smart decision on his part, because a few hours after the adjustment the pain was back in full force.  I was biting my lip and cheeks with any movement and trying not to cry when I took any steps or made any type of movement.

As the week went on and I continued with my "2 a day" adjustments, my back got better.  Ice packs were still my best friend, and I traveled everywhere with them.  By Sunday I was feeling really good and contemplated going to the gym for a swim, but Ryan wouldn't let me saying that it probably wasn't a good idea to push myself after hurting my back so badly.  Monday I felt even better, but then I had a little setback.  Chili Dawg had to have surgery on his ear, and when I went to pick him up, he was still a bit loopy from the anesthetic which if you have 4 legs isn't such a big deal, but when you only have 3 legs it's a bit harder to walk.  He fell a couple times leaving the vet, and I had to pick him up and get him back on his 3 legs, which irritated my back.  I'm sure you're asking why didn't I send Ryan to do that?  Because, Chili is my dog.  I didn't get to be with him for his amputation since that doctor was much closer to Ryan's work, so I was going to make sure he knew I was there for him for this surgery.  Plus, look at how pathetic he looks in this picture.

Yesterday, my back felt good.  I was tired of not getting to be active, so I put the kids in the jogger, strapped on my back brace (ugh!), and put on my skates.  We only did 1.2 miles, because I didn't want to hurt myself.  Then, I iced my back for a while.  When we saw the chiropractor that afternoon, he was pleased with how my back had done after several days of no adjustments, and even more impressed that I went roller blading.  I went skating again with the kids this morning, the same distance and my back still feels decent.  I still have the ache, but the sharp pains I felt on Wednesday and Thursday are now gone.   I don't think I'll go for a run for quite a while, because whatever I did to my back was not quite worth it.  For now I'll stick with rollerblading and swimming, it seems to be my new thing.

Finchy & Juliana...

Auntie Jenny passed on some squeaky toys to Finchy and Chili Dawg recently.  Ryan and I immediately labeled them as "outside" toys.  Finchy has a habit of squeaking the squeaky toys over and over and over and over and over and, well you get the point.  Even with the heat this week, Finchy has wanted to spend lots of time outside with his squeaky toys, so we have had to make a few exceptions with the squeakies so that he doesn't suffer from heat exhaustion.  Every day for a couple hours, I let him bring one squeaky into the house and squeak it to his hearts' content until it drives me nuts and I have to send it back outside. 


One of the reasons we love Finchy is because of his gentleness with our kids.  Boxers are known as good family dogs, and I think the video below with Juliana will prove that as well.  He's a sweet boy, even if he couldn't learn a new name when we rescued him.

Arizona Vacation...

A few weeks ago we got to visit my in-laws in Arizona.  We had a great time out there, and got to do a lot of fun things!

Ryan and his dad were smart.  Since we flew into Phoenix, they decided that it would probably work better for the kids for us to spend the night in Phoenix before driving to Tucson.  They were right- Juliana screamed for the last 30 minutes of the plane ride (it was magical).  After we ate lunch, we went to the SEA Life aquarium.  It was really cool!  The kids loved it!  It was set up kind of in a maze format so you moved from room to room, and some of the aquariums had "bubbles" so that you could stick your head up into the fish tank and look in on the fish.  One of the rooms allowed you to put your hands in the tanks and touch anemones, starfish, sea cucumbers.  I wasn't sure if Juliana would do it, with her sensory issues, but she put her hands and arms all the way into the tank and didn't want to leave that room.  The favorite room for the kids was this HUGE fishbowl and swimming in the fishbowl were all sorts of stingrays that would splash the water.  You could view them from up high, and crawl into a bubble and look into the tank- that was Noah's favorite part. 

After we left the aquarium, we went to the Squaw Peak Resort to check in.  Fortunately, all of Ryan's traveling had paid off and we stayed there on some of his Hilton Points (I finally found an upside for him being out of town).  We quickly got the kids into their swimsuits and sunscreened them up, and then met Grandma, Grandpa, and Auntie Diane and went to the pool.  I seriously think that if Noah was a dog he would be a Portuguese Water Dog, because that kid loves the water!  The kids finally crashed (they did really well, since we had to get them up at 4 AM to go to the airport) and we got them dinner and put them to bed before Ryan and I crashed.  We were sure they would get up early the next day, but we were wrong- they were tired!  Noah slept 13 hours and Juliana slept 15.5 hours!  Wow!  After breakfast, we spent the rest of the morning at the pool before we checked out and made the drive to Tucson.



One of the things Noah told Grandpa that he wanted to do while we were there was to "run up a mountain".  So, Grandpa found us a smaller mountain that he thought Noah could hike up.  We didn't end up running up the mountain, but Noah hiked his way all the way to the top!  We only had to stop once, because his shoe came off when his foot got stuck, but he walked all the way with very little help from me.  Juliana tried to walk, but Ryan ended up carrying her most of the way up.  She tried to walk down too, but I ended up carrying her down (Ryan had the easier job on the way up).  One thing we did learn on this day, was that Juliana still overheats very quickly, so this was about all time she could be outside for when it's really hot.

We also visited the International Wildlife Museum, which was pretty cool too.  It had animals from all over the world.  The kids liked it alot.  One of their favorite parts was this tunnel that let them pretend they were ferrets and they crawled through it multiple times.  Juliana's favorite was walking under the giraffe.  Noah's favorite was the Gila Monster- at Grandma and Grandpa's, there was a lizard that Noah named Coco and would leave water out- it wasn't a Gila Monster, but that's Noah's favorite lizard now.  That night Grandpa broke out the Karaoke machine and Noah and Juliana "sang" to us on the microphone and danced for us as well.

One of my favorite places to visit when we are in Tucson is the Desert Museum.  Since we learned early on that Juliana overheats quickly, we kept her "cool" by soaking her shirt in the icy cold water fountains that they have throughout the museum.  I also would take her hat and fill it up with water and dump it on her head.  This way we were able to see more of the museum without her "melting" and we didn't have to worry about her body temperature rising quickly.  She wouldn't even shudder when we put the icy cold shirt back on her.  The kids really liked the museum, especially the hummingbird habitat, the raccoon (because he ran right up to them), the squirrel (because again he ran right up to them), and the cave.

Another part of the Desert Museum that the kids really liked was the digging for fossils area.  I think Noah could have spent the rest of the day there with Grandpa just digging in the sand for the hidden fossils, but after uncovering 3 of them, we had to move on- it was getting close to lunch and if you know Ryan, you know how he gets when he's hungry.

As we left the Desert Museum, Auntie Diane surprised the kids with Prickly Pear Punch.  It was this pretty pink color.  Both kids LOVED it, and Noah is still talking about how he drank it and how it comes from a cactus.  The flight home from Phoenix was a bit more magical than the flight to Phoenix with Juliana screaming for about AN HOUR after the MEAN stewardess FORCED me to buckle her into her seat when she was mostly asleep in my lap because we hit turbulence.  If she had just listened to me and let me continue to hold the mostly sleeping child, everyone would have had a much more peaceful flight, but I'm just a mom, so what would I know?

Forgetting about the plane rides, we had an awesome time out west!  Thank you Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie for showing us such a nice time!  We love you and miss you!

Warrior Dash 2011...

Back in December, Ryan, myself, my sister Jaime, brother in law Bill, and his brother, Todd, all signed up for the Warrior Dash in Channahon.  Jaime, Ryan, and I started getting "serious" about it around February/March with our workouts.  Towards the end of March, my hip started to bother me after I would run, but I didn't give it much thought and just started taking glucosamine supplements.  At the end of April, I mentioned it to my chiropractor, and he took some x-rays.

Here's how our conversation went: "Your x-rays show that you have early onset hip degeneration in your right hip.  Basically it's a form of arthritis, and if you don't stop running it's going to get worse."  Me: "Yeah, I'm 34 years old, how can I have hip degeneration?"  "Your right leg is shorter then your left (nice, I'm a gimp) so when you run, your gait is putting more strain on your right hip.  Even if we give you a lift to put in your shoe, it won't be enough to make up the difference in length."  "Well, I can't stop running yet.  I'm doing the Warrior Dash in June, and I'm not missing that!"  "Well you need to find other ways to train like swimming or biking that don't put that repetitive stress on your hip."

Needless to say, I was not pleased with the results of my x-ray, and there was no way I was going to give up doing the Warrior Dash.  So, I continued to train and run, but the pain in my hip got worse, and soon I wasn't able to do more than a 1.5 miles before the pain and tears would force me to stop & hobble home.  I figured my chiropractor was right, I needed to find a new way to train, so I began to swim and rollerblade and then once school ended I started pushing the kids in the jogger while I rollerbladed.

That brings us to Warrior Dash Saturday.  I woke up extremely excited for the day.  I taped my ankles up (yeah, I taped my ankles- I blew one of them playing roller hockey when I was a college freshman & it was a smart decision too), and put on my knee brace.  My parents arrived to watch Noah and Juliana, and then Jaime, Bill, Todd and his wife, Mary Lou (who is 7 months pregnant) arrived.  We took our pre-dash picture and got in the van and drove to Channahon.

While we waited in the long line of cars to get to the parking lot, we watched the people who were currently "dashing".  We saw that some people were walking, and wondered why (later we discovered why).  Excitement in the car built, and finally we were parked.  We grabbed our gear bags and walked in to register.  Then, we took our pre-race picture, and jumped in to the 10:30 wave (we were registered for the 11:00 wave, but they didn't care).

The first part of the race started with no obstacles, and had some hills, mud and a bit of water.  We were doing well and passing people.  My hip was actually feeling good and only hurt a small bit.  We got to the spot where we had wondered why people were walking, it was a hill covered in mud.  I had read that a tip was to stay on the outside of the trail, so Jaime and I were doing that, when my footing gave way and I bit it HARD.  I landed hard on my right hip and knee and I wanted to cry as this intense pain shot through my leg.  Jaime was able to step over me so that I didn't take her out with me.  I scrambled back up and we got up the hill, but I was basically done running at that point.  I managed to do a pathetic jog here and there, but I was the group's handicap for the remainder of the dash.  I'm sure Ryan and Bill would have liked to have run on ahead, but they were nice and stayed with me (Jaime and I had made a pact to stay together no matter what- that's what sister's do). 

Stick together, that's what sisters do!

The obstacles weren't too bad, although they required a lot of upper body strength which I didn't think I possessed, but I surprised myself and did.  We did learn that my T-Rex arms did slow me at climbing (have you ever looked at a T-Rex? They have really short arms- well, so do I- Ryan is always making fun of me for them), but I was still able to do it.  My sister was a BEAST and overcame her fear of heights.  She really scaled those obstacles quickly, and I'm so proud of her!

The last part of the dash involved jumping over fire and then jumping into a giant vat of mud and "swimming" through it under barbed wire.  I think that was my favorite part.  After you climbed out of the mud you were given a medal and were greeted with a table full of cups of water and bananas (which is why I have one in the picture below- I was hungry!).

Once we took our "mud" picture, we headed to the water truck where we were "hosed" down by a fire hose with ICE COLD water.  I'm talking FREEZING cold water.  It was so cold, it took your breath away.  I don't know how he did it, but Ryan emerged from the cluster of muddy people virtually clean, as you can see in the picture below, and he was the muddiest of us all.

The whole reason we did it, the hats of course!

I'm not going to lie, I was sore the next day, and my right leg is an array of various bumps and bruises and there is skin missing in places.  Will I do this again?  In a heart beat!  We are all doing this next year, and are planning to dress as superheroes.  We are also recruiting for next year, and we may be coming for you (yes, Dennis, that means you).

Toothless...

No, I'm not talking about the dragon from the movie, "How To Train Your Dragon".  I am talking about my two year old daughter and her latest activity.  On Saturday, I was at the Wilton Tent Sale with my sister and 2 friends and my cell phone went off.  It was Ryan.  "Juliana faceplanted in the grass and her mouth is bleeding.  I pushed her lip down and her gum is torn a bit.  I think she is okay.  What should I do?"  In the background I can hear Juliana screaming.  Now, Juliana is not your typical child.  She fell down the steps (all the way from the top to the ceramic tile at the bottom) and did not cry.  When she falls and skins her knees outside, she doesn't even whimper.  My response, "Call the dentist and see what they want you to do."  10 minutes later my phone goes off again, and Ryan tells me that he and Juliana are on their way to Lombard, because our dentist is closed this weekend but the Lombard office is open and they want to see her. 

The next time I hear from Ryan, he is calling because they are on their way home.  "One of her bottom teeth is very loose.  The dentist wanted to pull it right then, but because they couldn't get ahold of her cardiologist to see if she needed to be pre-treated they couldn't pull it."  "So what are they going to do?"  "They are sending us home with a prescription for antibiotics to start today and she can only eat soft foods.  On Monday we have to call and get her into the normal office so they can re-evaluate her and have time to talk to her cardiologist."

So, today was the first day they were able to get us in.  I was able to leave Noah with Theresa, and she told me to bring his swim stuff since it's so hot out.  Dr. Chung looked in Juliana's mouth and noted that the tooth had stabilized a tiny bit and said that we could continue the soft food diet for a few more weeks and then re-evaluate again or we could just pull it today and be done with it.  I made the decision to pull it, because since we started the soft food diet, Juliana has barely eaten anything, and we've been pulling out the "big guns" to bribe her to eat: ice cream, pudding, yogurt, milk shakes, but she has wanted nothing to do with it and instead has wanted to eat the "forbidden" food.  I weighed her this morning and she was already down in weight, so even though I didn't want to pull one of her teeth, I didn't want to go through another few weeks of her not eating when it's hard enough to get her to want to eat.

They brought us back into a room and closed the doors so that her screaming wouldn't be as loud to the other patients.  I got into the chair with her and she knew something was up and began to whimper a bit.  I started praying hard.  First they needed to numb her, so they had me lay back and wrap my legs around her legs and my arms around her to restrain her.  Then a tech held her head down while Dr. Chung numbed her.  Juliana screamed through that.  Then we had to let that kick in a little bit, and Juliana settled down.  Then, Dr. Chung came back in.  I resumed my position, and Juliana started to scream again.  It didn't take long to remove her tooth, and as soon as they were done Juliana stopped screaming.  I think it was more traumatic for me than it was for her (since it seems like I'm always the one doing the restraining).  Dr. Chung said that this won't affect anything, she will just have a gap there until her adult tooth comes in several years from now (all this from falling in the grass!).

After we picked up Noah, he made sure to let me know that I need to put Juliana's tooth somewhere so the Tooth Fairy will find it and bring Juli something special.  What a day!  But Juliana came through it like a champ.  I'm so proud of her!

Juli's tooth!  This big thing came out of her mouth!  Nasty, eh?



Heart Of A Lion...

It takes a special person to work in special education.  I couldn't do it.  I have known a lot of awesome special education teachers, Emily, the Heathers, Rhonda, etc.  Last year was my first year teaching REI Chemistry (REI stands for Regular Education Initiative), and I met my collaborative special ed teacher, Lisa. 

Lisa is a tiny lady with a big voice, an infectious laugh, and the heart of a lion.  You always know where she is because you can hear her coming down the hallway if she's yelling or if she's laughing.  Lisa is a no-nonsense lady who doesn't take anything from any of the kids, but once they break through her outer shell, they see that she is just a teddy bear inside (hee hee).  She has several black belts and almost made the Olympic team when she was younger- how cool is that?!? 

Lisa helps me stay sane, and sometimes our classes think we are nuts (sometimes they think we are the devil as well).  No matter what they think, I couldn't teach my REI classes without her help.  We feed off of each other and when one of us is having a bad day we carry each other.  This year was a tough year for both of us, emotionally and physically.  I know that if I didn't have her support, I would have crumbled halfway through the school year.

Last week we invited Lisa over for dinner (her husband was out of town or we would have invited him as well).  Juliana LOVED her!  Ryan and I have never seen her eat so well, and we think that it had something to do with our dinner guest.  We grilled burgers for dinner, and Juliana sat across from Lisa.  First she ate her part of Noah's burger.  Then Ryan cut her some more of Noah's burger and she finished that.  Then, she ate the rest of Noah's burger that he didn't finish!- Unheard of.  At bedtime, she gave Lisa a big hug, which she doesn't usually do to people she meets the first time.  While she was going to bed, Noah put Lisa to work helping him peel stickers to decorate a paper he was making.  Noah wants to know when she's going to come back over and help him with his art projects.

So, thank you, Lisa, for all that you do.  I look forward to working with you for many more years!



Lisa refused to let me take her picture so I had to get it while she was coming out of another classroom (I know, almost stalker-like)