Prayer Needed

Please remember my Uncle Ken in your prayers. This is the short version of everything... He had a mild heart attack Monday, had a heart cath. Tuesday, major bypass surgery Wednesday (replaced 5 veins/valves, if I am not mistaken), had another heart attack Thursday while in ICU due to a replacement valve collapsing and is now finally slowly recovering. The doctors were able to take him off of the ventilator today (they have been trying all weekend to wean him off but his blood-ox level has been too low) and he should move out of CVICU tomorrow if everything continues to progress. He is now awake and alert. The doctors have stopped most of his pain medication due to the fact that the medications are raising his blood pressure. The recovery progress will be slow and he will need much prayer.

Back to School--One Week Down!

Last week was my first official week back at work. I had three days of "planning" prior and then the children came on Monday. Due to privacy issues and what is acceptable to write in a blog and what isn't, I cannot go into a lot of detail. The children in my class are very sweet. They have a very wide range of abilities and I already know I will need to put in a lot of time to make sure that I am meeting the needs of such a diverse group of kids. So far, I also have a great group of parents. I know I have three stay at home moms who really want to help out. Last week, one mother came in on Wednesday to get my Wonderful Wednesday Work folders in order to send home and she came again on Friday to empty the folders and begin to get them ready for next week. I had a different parent tear out all of the math homework pages from the workbook and sort them by lesson. She did this for the entire school year! I have never had parents come and help out so much, I hope this continues throughout the school year. My principal dropped in to do an observation on Thursday and it went well. We were also supposed to have a fire drill Friday and it was cancelled because of the rain. :) I understand the need for them, but I really hate those things! I really believe this will be a good year. I made it through the fist week and every day was better than the one before it.

Owen has been a good boy at his school. Tuesday, though, I went to dress him and he ran from me. When I caught him I told him that he had to get dressed for school. His response was "bye-bye, no!" I dressed him anyway and continued to get myself ready. A little while later Austin told Owen it was time for him to put on his shoes to go to school and he told Austin, "bye-bye, no, no!" His tone was one of I have already said I wasn't going to go and I mean it. Well.. he went. He cried a little when I dropped him off, but ended up having a good day. I really can't blame him, there are some mornings I just don't want to get up and go either but, Owen has to learn that we have to whether we want to or not. I just got tickled at the fact that he told us that he wasn't going.

Good News

I spoke with the doctor today. He told me that my MRI came back good. There is nothing to worry or be alarmed about. He still does not understand what could have caused the Tinnitus, but does know that the Tinnitus is causing the hearing loss. I go back in 6 mo. for a recheck. :)

Yokoso

Yesterday, I came home from work to a clean house and a husband who wanted to go out to eat! My bucket was filled to say the least. :) Austin met me in the drive way ready to go. He suggested that we go to a Japanese Steak House. We haven't been in a long time and thought Owen would enjoy it. He had a blast! He was so fascinated by the chef and the grill/griddle (I am not sure what it is called). It was fun to watch him take it all in. His eyes were huge the entire time we were there. When the chef first started to cook, Owen told him that the grill was hot. There were a few other children at our table and he did everything the big kids did. Owen played with chopsticks when the other children were trying to use them and when the other children put theirs down he put his on his plate. He liked the Miso soup and the rice, but didn't care for the salad, veggies or steak. He was very well behaved and I am very proud.

I See You

Austin and I went shopping Monday after my MRI. It just made me feel better to get out and get my mind off of things. While we were out Austin found this figurine. It is titled "I See You" and is in a gift line, similar to Willow Tree, called Forever in Blue Jeans. This is Owen through and through. He actually does this! He will spread his feet apart and place his hands on the ground so that his head is resting on the ground. Next, he will look between his legs, say "hi" and then laugh. It is so funny! We had to get this! :)

tinaecmusic

I had to share this! :)

It has been a little over a week since I wrote my last blog, but it feels like it has been longer. We have been staying busy and so much is going on right now.

Last Saturday, we went to visit the Murphy's at their house at the beach. We had a blast! Austin was able to visit with Barry and I think the visit did him good. They talked non-stop. We had not taken Owen to the beach this summer. I will say, he had a much better experience this year then he did last year. He had fun playing in the water and got quite upset when the seagulls few away. He was fascinated by them and would run up to them saying "mine." Owen made friends with some people who had their chairs in the shallow water. He decided he wanted to sit with them for a while. He walked right up to them, sat in one of their chairs and said "hi." He was so well behaved and we all enjoyed our day.

Austin and Owen

Owen visiting with Barry

Q.T.I.P.--Quit Taking It Personally is the motto for our new school year. Tuesday and Wednesday I attended a retreat for work where we learned all about QTIP. This is all part of PBIS Year 2. PBIS is our school's discipline policy. In a nutshell, the program teaches us to teach the children how to behave because we cannot assume that their parents will. It is a good program, but that is a topic for a new blog on a new day. Back to our retreat, it was held at Camp St. Christopher on Seabrook Island. It is a really pretty place and we were able to take a little time for ourselves. We spent the majority of Tuesday working. We began work at 3:00, ate dinner at 6:30 and finished up working around 8:30. That evening we took a walk on the beach. The beach there is extremely secluded. You can see all sorts of beach wildlife that you rarely see at the local beaches. My friend Sandie snuck out and took some wonderful pictures and I hope that she doesn't mind that I borrowed a few.

Tonight, I went to a movie with my mom. We haven't gone to a movie together in a really long time and it was nice. We saw Pineapple Express. Now, with this movie being in the theater's right now I will not say much about it. I will tell you that the message from the movie is that drugs are bad. We all know that. The movie was hilarious! It is not my "type" of movie, but I laughed so hard I had to pee. I am so glad that I went.