Thanksgiving and a Weekend Away

The short week at school was quite enjoyable. Only 2 days of classes, and I gave tests in every class so it made for a very easy week. It did make for a couple late nights grading, just so I wouldn't have to do too much at my parents house over the weekend, but I'd rather plan and grade at school/home than when surrounded by family.

Wednesday morning I drove to my parents place and made it in just about 3 hours which was quite nice. There wasn't too much traffic, just a normal amount of congestion to keep everything steady. By the time I got to my parents place my Mom's parents were there already, they had gotten in Tuesday from Georgia. My Dad and grandfather were at the airport picking up my brother but my Mom and grandma were at home so I hung out with them for a bit. Once all the boys got home we had lunch. It was good to see everyone. I hadn't seen my grandparents in a few years, and it had been a few months since I had seen my brother. After lunch I got my hair cut at the place where my mom gets hers done. Once we got home after that we had dinner with some of my parents friends, and after dinner my aunt and uncle got in. We had a full house for sure.

Thursday was busy. My grandparents get up early (3am early) so we were lucky to sleep in until 7:30-8. We had "Grandma's Waffles" which is our family tradition of homemade waffles with vanilla ice cream and strawberries on top, for breakfast. They are delicious and my brother and I would try to make anything a holiday just in order to have them for breakfast. Once we all ate more than we should just for breakfast, we got dressed and relaxed around the house. In the afternoon my Dad's parents and brother came over as well. So the house was even fuller for dinner. We had both sets of grandparents, 2 uncles (both named Mike), an aunt, plus my parents and brother. Dinner was amazing!! My parents make some of the best food ever! I may be biased, but my Mom makes gluten free food that tastes delicious, and I've always tried to cook like my parents! We had all of the regular Thanksgiving foods, and my Mom even made gluten free stuffing! My favorite!! We have gluten free pies and carrot cake too! I always gain weight when I go to parents place just because they feed me so well. We spent the rest of the night just vegging out watching football! It was wonderful!

Friday my grandparents left in the morning to go back to Georgia. After my parents left to bring them back to the airport, I got some grading done and the rest of us got breakfast and ready for the day. Once my parents got back, my mom, brother, aunt, uncle, and I went out shopping. We found a bunch of stuff with some great sales. We had another great dinner and just vegged out again at night. It was a relaxing day.

Saturday my aunt and uncle left, and then my brother and dad went to the casino with my grandfather for a little while before my brother flew out. My Mom and I did a little more shopping and relaxing around the house. It was a good day, nice to be out and about and not have a lot of structure.

Today I drove home, made it in 3 hours again which was a little surprising given that it was a holiday weekend, but the traffic wasn't too bad at any point. I got home and was super productive. I did lots of laundry, finished planning for tomorrow, did dishes, and cleaned up around my apartment a bit. I even did a little bit to get ready for Christmas (making my card list, and decorating). It felt like a very productive afternoon which was helpful after not getting a lot done personally this weekend.

This week I've got a decent amount of planning to still do and will have to do some grading as well. I think the principal at the other school wants to observe me at some point this week, so I'll have that to contend with. We have a meeting/conference for new teachers this week which should be interesting. Another busy week as always, but hopefully a good one!

Busy Week, Wonderful Weekend, Reflecting on being Thankful

This week had a lot going on. I planned ahead a little bit for school and then towards the end of the week certain classes were further ahead than others so there were multiple plans in my head. On top of that I found out that my first formal observation by the principal was going to be Friday during my team taught class, when my team teacher was going to be out. The lesson ended up going well, my students were almost silent, not even answering some of my questions which was weird because I knew they knew the answers. When they did an activity they were a bit more rambunctious which was good and bad. We'll see, I'll find out soon what the principal thought of it all.

This weekend was full of shenanigans. It was awesome!! I really did have a blast! Friday I went out with a few people and then some of them came back here to play a board game called Quelf and just hang out. Saturday afternoon I had to take another certification exam. Since it was on the computer I found out my score immediately. I passed with plenty of room so that was very nice. That night I went to a friends birthday party. It was a long night, but a great time!

This coming week is only 2 days of school and then I'm heading to my parents place in NJ for Thanksgiving. Both school days are full of giving tests, which means a lot of grading for me, but it also means that there is less work during those days specifically.

Thanksgiving always makes me quite reflective and with all of the changes in my life lately (well the past few months) there are so many things I am thankful for.
- My job here is awesome! As much as switching between the two schools is tricky and it is a learning curve, I truly love what I'm doing. The kids are great and they teach me a lot. My coworkers and new friends are wonderful, honestly I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing without all of their help!
- My new friends here! My biggest fear moving was about making friends and meeting people. I've gotten really lucky. I have met some truly wonderful, amazing people and I haven't felt so loved in a very long time. I feel safe, happy and emotionally healthy.
-My friends far away. I miss you all, but the fact that we are able to try to stay in touch makes me very happy. It is hard but cards, emails, and texts are always a plus!
- Family! Now that I live a little bit closer to my parents and one set of my grandparents its nice to be closer with them. Not to mention I can have real conversations with my parents now instead of just being lectured about life. It's great.
- This move in general. I am so thankful for this change. It is nice to finally have a grown up job, but to have escaped some of the drama from home has been good. Not to mention I've matured and actually grown up and allowed myself to stop feeling guilty for acting like that.
-I'm very thankful for my health. Even with my b12 level being screwed up and my headaches being worse than usual lately, I'm still a lot better than I could be and I have been in the past. All of these struggles have taught me a lot and I'm hoping to keep learning and to stop being so frustrated about the constant pain. That is a hard thing to do, and I'm working on it, but for now I just need to be thankful for what I do have.
- I'm thankful for the life I live. I hope to keep growing and learning from everything and everyone around me.

  

Teacher Work Days, Normal Classes, and Girls Night

This week was short for the kids, but a full week for teachers. It was nice to have two days to get work done. Monday was full of parent teacher conferences at both schools. I started at one school early, and met with a few parents and then went straight to the other school where I met with a handful of other parents and trying to get some work done at the same time. Most of my meetings with parents went well, only one was a little confrontational. Tuesday were a few more meetings in the morning and then almost a whole day of grading and planning. I got a decent amount done, planned almost through this coming week, which felt good.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. My head was still "attacking" me most of the week. It wasn't getting back to a normal pain level for more than a few hours at a time which made it a difficult week to get through. Most of my classes were taking a test so the week was pretty easy overall.

Friday night I went out to dinner with a friend and just had a lazy night. I was in a severe amount of pain and wanted to curl up in a ball for most of the afternoon. On my way home from school my back car windows decided to go down and not come back up and I couldn't pull them up all the way. It was a complete mess! Saturday was girls night with my friends. I did almost nothing during the day. I made brownies, did laundry and cleaned up around my house a little before taking an unintentional nap on my couch. Then I went over to my friends house and met up with the girls for dinner, drinks and board games! We played Quelf, and a game where you had to answer the questions wrong in order to win. It was a really fun night and thankfully I was feeling a little bit better compared to the past few days.

Today I made up for my laziness and had a very productive day. We got up at 7, got breakfast, and fixed my car windows (or at least made it so I can drive with them), and then I came home around 10:30. I studied for my next certification exam which is weekend, and then ran a bunch of errands, finished up some school work and planning, and then had a good dinner and talked to a friend from home for a while. Then I just crashed and vegged out. I got most of the things on my immediate to do list done and it felt quite productive. My head is still bothering me more than I'd like it to. I really wish it would just go back to "normal" pain. Eventually I'm going to need to find a doctor here, I was just hoping I'd have some time. Oh well, life happens.

This week should be pretty normal. Just school as normal and then my certification exam on Saturday afternoon and hopefully something fun with friends that weekend as well.

Short, Full, Painful Week/Weekend

So much happened! Even though we only had a 3 day week at school because of Sandy, everything felt off all week! Each day was pretty typical, reviewing material and then taking pretty comprehensive quizzes on lots of material. Friday was the end of the first quarter for there was a lot for the students to finish up.

I was starting to stress out a bit with my test on Saturday, and figuring out grades for the end of the quarter, especially with there being a decent amount of differences between the two schools that I'm still trying to keep straight.

Then I woke up at 3am Friday with a horrible migraine. I immediately took all of my medicine and tried to sleep again. Which of course didn't really work. I eventually fell back asleep and got a few more hours before getting up to go to school. Usually teaching with my normal headache isn't a big deal. With a migraine is doable, not enjoyable, but I can handle it. Friday was miserable! My medicine was still wearing off when I was coming into work so I felt groggy, but being sensitive to light and sound is not helpful in a high school, not to mention extreme pain. I ended up skipping the pep rally at the end of the day and just helped out another teacher by watching one of her students take a quiz. I wasn't going to be able to handle sitting in the gym with all of the students. I felt horrible for not being able to fully do my job, but it was as much as I could. I was hoping that if I had a good dinner, took some more medicine, and slept well it would go away and I'd feel better in the morning. I did all of that, woke up in the middle of the night to take more medicine, and lost a few hours of sleep in the middle of the night, and then woke up to take my exam. And I was still in significantly more pain than I would wish on anyone. Taking an exam in that much pain is never fun!

Holy moly that exam was difficult!! I walked in feeling pretty confident with what I knew. I walked out not being sure if I passed or not. There were a few questions that I had absolutely no clue how to answer at all. At the end I ran out of time to even fill bubbles in on the answer sheet. We'll see, it's going to be close.

After the exam I ran errands and then came home and just vegged out on the couch. One of my friends came over and we watched a few movies and played a game and had dinner, drinks, and dessert, and just enjoyed our night. We both wanted a low key night, and it's exactly what we had! I was hoping that maybe the drinks would help my head instead of my medicine for the night, and it took the edge off enough that I could sleep, but I woke up still in a massive amount of pain.

So I gave in. I did a little bit of grading this morning and realized that I was in too much pain to function and that if this continued (like it has before for weeks on end) that I wouldn't be able to make it through the busy week. I broke down and took the really strong medicine I have. I don't like it because of how strong it is, and how much it effects me, but it has been the only thing to break week long migraines in the past for me. So far I've been in significantly less pain today. I spent most of the day on the couch not able to do much of anything. Hopefully by the time I wake up tomorrow it'll be back to "normal" pain.

This week is going to be busy. We have teacher work days Monday and Tuesday to do parent teacher conferences and get report cards and grading done.Then it is a normal three days of class. I just have a lot of back and forth to do between the two schools and a lot of policies and differences to keep straight. If I can keep it all together until Wednesday I should be good.