Health AND an ipod! Wooo!

So, I'm feeling pretty good. I will take the last of my prescription pills tonight, and I gotta say, I'm feeling pretty darn good right about now. And that's saying something, since I've been majorly sick and pretty much crappy overall for the past... two months? It hasn't been pleasant. But the past few days have been mostly phlegm free, my sinuses are cleared out and the pressure in my head has abated. It's... well it's pretty awesome. I'm still on the tired side, but I think that's mostly because it's been so long since I got a good nights sleep, and having to be on my feet all day at work just tires me out. And then there's all the running around with my calling at church, grocery shopping, cleaning the house, going to the gym, etc. So I'm just a sleepy kid. SOOOOO not only am I on the rebound health-wise, but I got an ipod Nano tonight! Hooray! My old mp3 player just quit on me after having it for two years, so Mike comes out and says, "lets just get you an ipod". And then I said, "are you sure ok let's do it!" And I'm converting all my files to itunes as we speak. Hooray I'm excited. Except they didn't have any accessory packages for the new shape of the nano. They only had accessories for the old shape, and that doesn't help me a lot. I mostly use my mp3 player for the gym and working out, because going to the gym is mind-numbing without some sort of distraction. So I need an armband thingy, and they didn't have one. Soooo yeah that's all I need and I'll be set. Hooray! And thanks to pops-in-law who I think inspired Mike to get me an ipod, by getting my moms-in-law one of those crazy amazing 80GB ipods for Christmas. This ipod is dedicated to you!

On another note, my new semester started Tuesday. I don't have high hopes. My first two classes are somewhat ok, they are just really big which makes any group of kids somewhat unmanageable. But my 6th period class... oh boy. Three minutes into the first period class I was already yelling at the top of my lungs and had to send a kid to the office. Let me set the scene for you...

As soon as class starts, I attempt to put the students in their seating chart. Mutiny ensues. I'm thinking, "who exactly do these kids think they are, refusing to be put into assigned seats?" And yet they whine complain, refuse to be quiet, refuse to move, and just completely ignore my instructions. One kid, when he found out that he had to sit next to a noticeably shy and embarrassed girl, yells "This is B.S. I ain't sittin' here no way". So I sent him into the hall while I laid it all out for the rest of the class. I instructed them that class could go two ways this semester: a) we take notes all period (86 minutes) everyday and have absolutely no freedom, privileges or independence, or b) we behave like mature people, have fun activities, work independently and have a good semester. Luckily, I had Jon in this class. He had my class last year. He was in my class from Hell. The class that did nothing but take notes every single day, because I couldn't turn my back on them without a fight breaking out, or someone pulling down their pants. So, I asked Jon if he liked me class the last time he took it. He told the class no. I asked him to tell the class what we did every day. He said notes. I asked him why class was like that. He said, and I quote "because we were horrible and did bad stuff all the time". As I turned to the rest of the class, I realized that my point was made and no one gave me any guff the rest of the period. However, they have been incredibly difficult to control all week. Loud. Obnoxious. Inattentive. Disruptive. Disrespectful. And it's just one of those classes that is going to drive me nuts, I can tell. Sam and K, you can sympathize with me, I'm sure. In that one class alone, I have 9 IEP students, Four 504 students, 1 that failed my class last year, 2 that failed the class with a different teacher LAST SEMESTER who are incredibly bitter, and 2 emotional support kids. All in one class. I think the guidance counselors think it's funny to watch teachers suffer. Seriously. I hate them. Literally.

Anyway, that's all for now:)

UPDATE

8:30 last night, finally prepared myself for bed after forcing myself to stay awake until a somewhat reasonable bed time. 8:50, had my shot of Nyquil, and Chloraseptic spray. I was definitely asleep by 9:30. And then I was awake at 1, drugs having worn off, coughing, nose running, tossing and turning. Continued until about 3:30 when I decided to go get a drink of water, only to find that I couldn't keep my balance, I was really lightheaded, and slightly nauseas. Back to bed for me. 4:15, head to the couch so I don't keep Mike awake any longer. 5:30, realize that there's no way I'm making it to work today. 9:00, call the doctors office to see if they can squeeze me in. 10:50, leave with Mike for my 11:15 doctors appointment. 11:45 leave with a prescription to hopefully knock out this severe sinus infection, bronchitis and fever of 103... Ok so yesterday really WAS a bad day, despite the fact that I may have been hallucinating at points... it all happened... so I'm just glad I was able to lay on the couch all day. And wear my Nittany Lions hat to keep me warm. And my mucklucks. Hopefully when this prescription is done in 10 days, I'll finally feel somewhat healthy. Hmmm... I wonder what that feels like?? It's been so long!!!

Sooooo I totally feel like crap and have, since December 28th, approximately 2 hours after departing from Casa Kilgore in Lebanon, PA, when I started puking up mom's Christmas dinner, and couldn't stop. Oh... right for those of you with weak stomaches, perhaps you should stop reading now. It only gets worse. Sooo anyway I've been dealing with a variety of symptoms for nearly four weeks, and its getting slightly absurd. I've ingested more Nyquil than I think the FDA allows. However, I'm pretty sure that Mike and I have paid the way to college for at LEAST one Vick's employees' child, by now, seeing as he was sick for a while there too. Anyway, I digress. Today was one of those awful, horrible, no-good, terrible days. I usually set out my clothes the night before, so that I can hit my snooze button 9 times, instead of only 5 times. I don't know why, but I am addicted to the Snooze. So Sunday night, I'm feeling pretty crappy and think to myself, "I should dress nice tomorrow... they say when you look good, you feel good." So I set out my nice slacks and put my wrinkled, thrice worn khakis back in the closet. I set out my hose and heels to go with my sexy slacks and didn't even think twice. Then I say to myself, "the weather is supposed to be chilly, so I'll wear layers". And I set out my nice white button down, with my cute little red sweater to wear over top. And then I say to myself, "You just bought that hair dryer on Saturday after your 6-year old blow dryer quit on you, and you just bought that new straightener last week after your 2-year old straightener lost all the coating on its heating plates and started ripping the hair out of your head... why not do my hair all nice and sexy and test these new bad boys out?" You see, this happens to me about once a semester, when for some unbeknownst reason, I feel the need to look like a professional, and not a bum, when I go to work. So today was that day. And it didn't go exactly as planned.

Alarm goes off at 5:14. And then again at 5:21. And then again at 5:28. And then again at 5:35. And then again at 5:42. And then again, finally at 5:49. I FINALLY roll out of bed and amble to the bathroom, when I have to rush back into the bedroom, pants around ankles, to turn off my cell phone alarm that I had set for 5:50 just in case my real alarm didn't wake me. See, I usually don't do that, except today was MLK day. Which means, snow make up day for me, stay in bed all day for Mike. His alarm is usually my back up. So, feeling awful that I was waking up my husband who RARELY gets to sleep past 6:30 am, even on weekends, of course I had to dash to the bedroom to turn off my phone.

5:53 I'm in the shower at last, knowing that I am running SUPER late. So I take the fastest shower I can (10 minutes... it's a kilgore thing, we take long, hot showers) brush my teeth, stab myself in the eye attempting to put my contacts with the woefully outdated prescription in, and and clean my ears.

6:07. Mike is usually awake by now, so the house feels lonely and dark. So I turn on the tv, turn on my straightener, put my cold pack in my lunch pail, pack my back pack for the day, and brush my hair. 6:13. Time to blow dry. Man, oh man. That new blow dryer kicks my old blow dryers butt. It is seriously so powerful and awesome. So I'm in the living room, no mirror, just my head flipped upside down letting the glorious jet stream from my blow dryer do its thing... and then it was dry, and I lifted my head up and looked in the mirror. And I looked like a Lion. My hair was seriously in a gigantic puff atop my head. "Oh boy, " I thought, "this straightener better be good". And it was. 6:27 hair dry, straightened and looking rather decent.

6:30, pants and hose are on, as are heels. Attempting to fit my sweater over my button down. It wasn't happening. So, I took the button down off, inserted it into the sweater and put them on at the same time. Worked like a charm! Except, I look in the mirror and BOOM afro mania. I'm a very static-y person, and taking those shirts off and on did not help my look at all. Sooooo back on went the straightener while I ran to the bathroom to do my "makeup". I put it in quotation marks, because I only really wear make up when my face is so hideously pocked with enormous pimples that I frighten my students. And it consists of a dab or two of foundation, powder, and sometimes mascara. Well, you already know I was trying to look good today, so I went ahead and added the mascara. Fixed my hair, grabbed my bag, kissed Mike goodbye, grabbed a banana, and was out the door at 6:44.

6:46, I'm on Derry Street, praying that I don't get stuck behind "HI 2 K2", my arch nemesis who feels the need to drive five miles BELOW the speed limit, regardless of what it is. And wouldn't you know it, here comes HI 2 K2, pulling out right in front of me from the 7/11. Not feeling particularly charitable, I honk and yell to no avail. Grrrr. So, I decide to take a risk and take the bridge, go behind Wal-Mart and get on 322 above Sam's Club. Luckily, that panned out for me.

7:07 pull into the PHS parking lot to find my spot taken. Grrr. Park somewhere else. Put on my Nittany Lion cap and march right into that school. Did I mention that by this time my DayQuil had kicked in, and my nose was running dangerously close to drip point. So I got to my room as quickly as possible, running with my nostrils slightly flared and nose pointed upward. I'd like to see that on the security camera. Luckily, I got INSIDE my room before drippage occurred, unluckily drippage occurred shortly before "Mission: Find Tissue" was accomplished. So I cleaned that up, and got on with my day.

7:30, I prepare my LCD projector for the powerpoint presentations that students have been working on for their presentations today and tomorrow. LCD projector is rebelling, and I manage not to throw it against the wall. Tech- savvy student enters at 7:44, and helps me fix my projector. Ah Tim, my hero. At this point, the bell rings and I'm rushing around trying to get myself together, open up my powergrade and pull up my attendance web log. 7:50, bell rings, announcements start, we say the pledge, and I'm sweating like a pig, my nose is running like crazy and I can't stop hacking up my lungs. Hmmmm... Am I having a hot flash, or is it REALLY just hot in here? 7:54 I check the thermostat and it's 79.8 degrees. It bit warmer than I usually set it. I figure maybe someone just bumped into it, so I reset it to 70. Unfortunately, we've been having issues with our heating and cooling systems since they started our renovation project 18 months ago. My room, this year, has been free from problems until today.

8:54, 81 degrees. So much for all that work I put into layering, I'm ready to rip my clothes off. Why did I wear hose today? So most of period one was spent in a daze at my desk, trying to focus on what my presenters were mumbling about Glide Bombs, Victory Gardnes, Internment Camps and Submarines.

9:15, period 1 ends, 9:20 period 2 begins. 4 students (in a class of 24 - Honors kids) did not have their projects to present. I was livid. We've spent the better part of a month preparing for this project, and they had ALL of last week in the library to wrap it up... Grrrr. So at this point DayQuil is wearing off, I can feel the crap in my ear canals hardening and causing me to go deaf (ask mom, it really does happen). My eyes start to burn, my nose is chapped and burning. My lips are chapped and burning. And I look like crap. Despite my best efforts, the heat and humidity in my room turned my hair back to afro status, I was showing visible signs of sweating, and I was sitting at my desk with my pants legs hiked up to the knee because I was so hot.

10:45. Planning period begins. Classroom empties. Temperature in room drops to 76 degrees. What a minor relief. I contemplate running to wal-mart to find a different shirt to wear. Then I remember that it's -12 degrees out with the wind chill, and that I had to park far, far away because someone was in my spot. After the walk from the school to car, and car to wal-mart, I put money that I would forget I was trying to find a shirt that would make me cooler, and by a sweater. So I nixed that idea. I decided instead to go and stand in the lobby, open the door for a second to let the cool air blast in, then shut it and relish the cool air, and repeat until I was cooled down. Unfortunately, I didn't think to bring tissues, so by the third time I'd opened the door and then let it warm up again, I was at critical drippage point again. Run back to room. Forgot I was wearing heels. Fall on butt outside of cafeteria. Hear jeering and laughing (remember I'm mostly deaf at this point, so I'm assuming the laughter was quite loud). Take off shoes. Run away.

11:30. Lunch Duty in the Cafeteria. My most hated time of the day. I literally stand against a post in the cafeteria and make sure no one is using a cell phone or anything like that. For 30 minutes I just stand there and think about how much I hate lunch Duty. And how much I hate the fact that I have it AGAIN next semester. And how I hate it even more that they told us that the ones who had lunch duty wouldn't have morning duty or afternoon duty, and yet I have both. So back to the cafeteria, my nose is running again and for some reason I'm an idiot and haven't thought to bring tissues with me. And I look like I've been in a sauna all day. And I FEEL like I've been in a sauna all day. So I walk gingerly to the faculty bathroom, blow my nose, and rub my eyes which are totally dry. Oops. Mascara today, idiot! So I spent 5 frantic minutes trying to undo the "Goth" look I'd given myself. Finally got it off and realized that when putting the paper towels under the spigot, I'd splashed water all over the front of my pants. Nice move.

12:45. Period 6 begins. Half the students don't have projects ready to present. Me Angry. Me rant. Me rave. Students look scared. Me feel bad and cave cause I feel so crappy already. Half of students present. Other half are slackers and had zeros put into the grade book immediately. Then they got to see what that did to their grades. Then they all promised to bring them in tomorrow.

2:20 Flex starts, which means my first period class is back for 30 minutes of purely wasted time. It's more useless than study hall. We have no authority to make them do anything, so we just babysit for that time. Whatever. So I load my class lists for next semester, which starts a week from tomorrow.

2:34 I realize that I have a student next semester who failed my class last year. School policy is that when you fail a class you must retake within a year, and it should be with another teacher (for obvious reasons of cheating, and access to materials already given). Sooooo I email guidance, because I'm sure this must be a mistake. It must be a coincidence that this kid who thought it was funny to torment me and who made me want to quit my job on a daily basis, is in my class AGAIN!

2:46. Kids are done for the day, reply from guidance. "Well, we think he has the best chance of passing the class and moving onto 10th grade if he has you for World History." Gee, ya think? Might that be because he already has all my notes? Yes, I change tests from semester to semester, and yes I change activities and projects regularly, BUT HE'S ALREADY HAD MY CLASS!! DON'T YOU THINK THAT'S AN UNFAIR ADVANTAGE?? DOESN'T THAT MAKE SCHOOL KIND OF POINTLESS?

Yes, but we'd like him to pass the class, you see with PSSA's and No Child Left Behind...
Oh yes, I get it now. Shall I just give him an A and send him to the nurse to sleep everyday?? Suuuuure! Why not!

3:00. I pull out Harry Potter 7 to just chill the last 15 minutes of my day.
3:15 I'm out the door. It's freezing, but I don't care because I've been sweating all day. Then I remember that its like... really really cold. And then I'm freezing the entire drive home. And as I am trying to drive with the sun in my face, I'm trying to focus but I have to squint because of my severely outdated contacts... my head starts to pound. My throat is raw. My lips and nose are raw. And I'd like just for a moment to separate my head from my body to just be rid of the misery, you know kind of like "floating head doctor" from Scrubs.

3:50. I get home. I feel terrible. My head hurts. My body aches. Thank goodness Mike had off work today and was there to greet me with a giant hug. And he immediately placed me on the couch. Gave me my blankets. And my heat pack. And then he went out to the store to by me some more Nyquil, since I killed our last bottle last night. And he got me Chloraseptic, which is so nasty but has delightfully numbed my aching throat. And he got me maple sugar mini-wheats so I could pour warm milk over them and having something to eat for dinner. And then he cuddled with me. And picked up my dirty tissues. And told me I was pretty, even though I looked like those people on the NyQuil commercials (talk about truth in advertising).

7:00. Wanted to check my email and see if Dad replied, regarding mail that I had picked up for him, and bills he might potentially need.
7:10, checked the blog circuit. Saw that Sophie was in the ER, looked up RSV on Google. Hopefully she'll be ok.
7:15, saw Christy's comment that she was glad I was back. Thought to myself, "Hey, maybe if I blog about my day it will pass some time and take my mind off my miseries and frustrations".
7:52. Ended Blog.
7:53. Actually ended blog with the comment, "Man, this is a long blog. Sorry Bird, I know you hate that!"

Coming Around...

Well, what can I say. I feel like it's been forever since I blogged, and I honestly can't really think of what exactly it is we've been doing. Oh right, Christmas. Um yes that was a wonderful time, when we weren't puking or hacking up lungs (both of which occurred AFTER the 25th, thank goodness)! We had a great time having the family around. Christmas Eve was the traditional get together at mom and dad's which was fun. Highlights included Gaby attempting a flip in the living room unsuccessfully, which left her in pain for much of the time BEFORE and AFTER it was time to open presents (oddly, the pain subsided long enough for her to unwrap:). Other highlights included lots of food, bling bling and a Coach purse for mom, great food, cool toys and clothes for all the kids, lots of chocolate and pies, and the MOST AMAZING HAT EVER THAT I NEVER THOUGHT I'D EVER GET. It's a winter hat that looks like a PSU football helmet with nittany lion ears sticking out of it. Amazing... Mike had to work in cahoots with Bird to get it, and I was well pleased.

After the evening's festivities we headed home to wait for Santa. In the morning Mike and I opened presents from each other. He got me some bling earrings, and I got him (with his parents, my parents, his sister and Bird all contributing as well...) a set of the Calloway Big Bertha irons he's been wanting for years!! He's a big guy, and so he's always wanted a set of their steel shaft irons so he can "feel the club in his hands when he swings it". Soooo he was pretty happy about that. The picture of his reaction is just... priceless!

So after that we headed to his parents house to see them, as well as his Sister Amanda from Texas. We exchanged presents (they went overboard and got us lots of good loot including a really handy foodsaver!!) and ate a huge, delicious meal. I think we played some cards, yahtzee or scrabble... I can't really remember because I think I was in a food coma. So, later that evening we headed to Matt and Deb's for the traditional Christmas Night gathering. More food. More food... Dominoes. Popcorn. It's all a blur. I think at some point I was wearing Taylor's boots, hobo gloves and vest. I don't remember why...

The next couple of days were spent chilling. Mike had to work, so I just hung out at mom and dad's. The 28th was a nice chance for Ta-May-May and Shaniqua (aka, me) to hang out, as she joined me on my youth temple trip. It was an early morning, but we toughed it out and watched HP:5 the night before. We were both dragging by the time we met up with my crew at the church at 5:30 am. I think Taylor and I both thought we were going to die as we at times were driving over 90 mph trying to keep up with Brother Findling, who was, for some unknown and bewildering reason, leading our caravan of five cars down 695 during rush hour on a Friday morning. It was a traumatic event, and I've tried to block it from memory.

The temple experience itself was neat, though! It was cool to hang out with Tay. She's my homie, fer sheezy. Hmmmm that night was mom's "Christmas Dinner", which she unfortunately couldn't eat herself because she was nauseas all night. It was also that night that I went home and puked. Not the best way to end the day. The following day I spent on the couch, unfortunately. However, it allowed me to be rested up enough to go to Matt and Deb's to watch PSU beat Texas A&M (that's who they played, right?) in the Alamo Bowl. It made Mike a happy boy...

Let's see... New Years Eve we didn't really do anything. We were both just totally demolished from all the running around, and feeling sick. So we were losers and fell asleep shortly after the new year began. A couple days later we were able to gather for dinner with Jean, Bird, Steve and his wife Holly, and Brad and his wife Dani. It was a nice chance to get together with my friends from high school (ok, well Bird's my sister and I can't say we got along when I was actually in high school, but I like her now... ya know she's kind of cool. And she's got massage skills... she's a total playa... how can you not love her??) while they were home for the break.

Other than that, we've been enjoying having Chrysta and her boys around. They'd made somewhat of a habit of coming over after church on Sundays and having a meal with us and hanging out before heading back to Lebanon. It was great getting to spend time with "Thomas", who affectionately referred to Mike and I as Percy and James. And when he saw our house, he recognized it as "Percy's Shed", so that was pretty awesome. It was also great to see Cannon walking around the house, even if uncle Mike did manipulate him into saying that Mike was "cool".

All in all, the holidays were a delight. So much so, that I hate being back at school. I really, REALLY wish our semesters coincided with this break. It's impossible to get the kids back into the swing of things when they know they only have my class for three more weeks after we get back from break. They've been pretty miserable and impossible to motivate. I really like them as a group, but lesson planning has become a huge pain, because they throw me 'tude anytime I try to make them do something other than sit on their butts. Oh well. I'll be getting a new crew in about 1.5 weeks, and I'm hoping they're as well-tempered as my current group.

I can honestly say I'm coming out of my funk. I've been rather funkalicious the past two months or so, and feeling downright awful at times. Meltdowns were a regular occurrence, and I'm glad to say that I'm coming around. So thanks to all who sent cards and well-wishes and prayers. Mike and I are doing much better these days, and we'll hopefully have more good news for you in the coming months! Till then we'll keep you updated on all the goings on and what nots. Love to all:)