One week down and a little deja vu

The first week of school has come and gone, much to my relief. I'm very excited about starting up the new year teaching in some new settings but switching from elementary to middle school is definitely an adjustment! The students have been great and it's nice actually having a classroom of my own again. I love being itinerant but being in the classroom for an extended amount of time is what really makes me happy. I can't wait to see what the rest of the school year brings!

My attempt at growing vegetables has proved to be quite a success! On my deck I have basil, romaine lettuce, and tomatoes in full swing. Here's a great artsy picture the man friend took of some of my veggies...


Tomatoes!!!! From my OWN garden! How fun is that?!?! I love it...

A little bit of deja vu has been going on in the casa for the past couple of days. You remember Copper and her back problems which led to surgery? Well, my older dachshund, Meg, has starting showing some of the same problems. She's been walking around in what seems like a lot of pain with her back extremely arched but will then turn around and walk normal again. My dad, aka vet extraordinaire, confirmed my thoughts: Meg probably has a bulging disk and, depending on what happens over the next few weeks, may have to get surgery if the disk ruptures.
(Meggie on the couch)


Right now, the protocol is to put Meg on prednisone (keeps the inflammation/swelling down), keep her confined to her kennel, and try to give her body time to hopefully heal on its own, sans surgery. Fingers crossed that a lot of diligence and positive vibes will help her pull through.

Thankfully, I have this man to help over the next few weeks....


I've seriously lucked out having him along for the ride! :)

Disappeared

Well, I've allowed summer to go mostly by without posting a single thing. Time to remedy that!

I last posted in April and at that point I was on the fast train of writing IEPs (special paperwork, aka hell), statewide testing, and end-of-year school stuff. I was really looking forward to the end of May and have a low-key summer of working out, gardening, knitting, and hanging out with Adam. I was especially excited about going home to see the folks and to learn a new skill: sewing! Everything was put on a massive back burner when my mother became sick and the doctors didn't know what was causing her illness. Long story short, she is doing better now and I'm wicked grateful. It's heartbreaking to see a loved one's soul under attack...

Pre-planning for another year of teaching has been this week with a curve ball thrown in. Budgets issues have been on the forefront which has now led to a financial decision by our governor to force three furlough days. Our county didn't want to impact the kids with this decision so the board of education peeps took away three of our five planning days. Kind of stinks since the teachers were still going to have to come in to school in order to be ready for the first day. It's not really fun working for free. Now there's talk the state is going to require the teachers to have to take an additional seven days during 2010. My pockets are seriously starting to hurt. Boooo....

Adam will be moving out to Denver in early to mid-December so he can find a place to live before he starts school for the spring semester at Red Rocks Community College. He is going back to get a degree in Renewable Energy/Resources and it makes sense to do Red Rocks right now until he qualifies for in-state residency. Once he has that, then he will transfer to the University of Colorado, Boulder. I will stay back here in Georgia to put my townhome on the market and wrap up the school year. The plan is to be out there by the beginning of July.

Adam and I decided to spend our Christmas together this year in Denver since he was already going to be out there. We both really hope there will be snow. We never have snow on Christmas here and I really miss cold, snowy weather. I should be out there for close to two weeks with Adam so anyone who wants to hang, we would love to meet some Colorado peeps!