Spring is Here, sorta...

Well, the weather around here doesn't exactly know what it is doing yet.  One day it a glorious 75 and last night there was a freeze warning and my husband very sweetly covered me head to toe in an extra blanket while I was trying to sleep in.  Thank heavens for him :)

I just came back last week from a wonderful conference in Atlanta, Georgia entitled, "The Young Child with Special Needs".  I love a good conference with knowledgeable and interesting speakers and this one had it in spades.  There were were developmental pediatricians, speech pathologists, nurses who specialize in particular areas of special needs and nutritionists.  There were questions and answer sessions.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself and since my husband came with me we were able to spend the evenings going to various restaurants and just spending time in Atlanta.  It was a nice break.  My husband, Chris, decided to once again walk on the wild side and went zip lining.  I'm rather glad I was at the conference when that happened.  I was just as happy to see the film footage and not see it in person.

                                                                           (dinner at "The Spence")

                          

                                               

Now it's back to the real world where there are last minute IEP's to write, transition meetings to attend and the ups and downs that transpire in teaching the children I am happy to be teaching.  Of my 7 students, 5 will be transitioning on to various types of kindergarten classes, only two will stay in preschool another year.  I will miss the others, but it's time for them to be taught by other teachers who will see them as kindergarteners and not young preschoolers.

On the home front, our grandchildren are growing and thriving, thanks to their parents.  The youngest is a happy, chortling child with very expressive eyebrows and the eldest is pretending he is a pirate and causing an uproar in his preschool class by saying, "stinky diaper" and making all the children have to put their heads down on the table because of the ensuing giggles :)

Playing with Videos

Still on Spring Break, getting ready to go back for the last couple of months tomorrow.  Luckily, tomorrow is a teacher workday, which means we get to work on report cards.  This is helpful to me since most of my students needs to have input on their progress reports from at least 2 to 3 therapists besides what I need write.

Today, however, I spent some time working on making a video of our vacation.  I am definitely not the most creative person in the world, but with the programs that are available, it's almost easy :)




                    

Spring Vacation in the Cold

We just got back from a wonderful vacation in the UK.  We spent three days down in Cornwall with my mother-in-law, Jan.  And if someone ever tells you that it feels warm down in Cornwall in the Spring, they are probably lying :).  It's always a pleasure to spend time with Jan.  She is the most amazing woman, turning 70 and enjoying life, keeping busy and getting ready to take a trip to India.

We then spent two nights in Bath in a delightful manor house and went to the Thermae Spa.  We were able to enjoy the hot springs on the top of a building in freezing temps.  We had such a good time in Bath, our lodging was comfortable, beautiful and the food was great!

Lastly we spent a night at an amazing place called Oakley Court in Windsor.  It looked like a castle, sitting alongside the Thames.  It had been used for movies in the past such as the original Dracula and Rocky Horror Picture.  The grounds were beautiful and just like everywhere in this frigid countryside, the grass was green, the daffodils were blooming and the trees were beginning to blossom.  We also took a tour of Windsor Castle.  It is an amazing piece of history and I enjoyed actually seeing works from amazing works of art and an actual working castle.  I am not usually that interested in history, but this was so much better than I had imagined.

Both Chris and I needed this break from work.  It's been tough this year and we were both no feeling our best.  He had a crummy cold and I had to have a molar pulled out the day before we left.  Evidently I have been clenching my teeth so badly at night, I had split a tooth clear in half!  Thank goodness I have an amazing husband who plans the most wonderful vacations and who I love to spend time with.  No one has ever made me laugh the way he does.

And now I get to enjoy spending some time with my beautiful grandsons and their parents on Saturday for Easter.  I am a lucky woman.

Transitions, coughs, sneezes and fevers!

It's that time of year.  Time to decide what children will be having extended year services (services during the summer), transitioning students from preschool to kindergarten and in our case, the time of runny noses, coughing attacks and fevers.  The kids in my room are dropping like flies with the flu.  Unfortunately, they are contagious before they have the fever and are usually at school then, so we are all exposed to the flu.

I am not sure if some parents realize that there may be children in the classroom who can't afford to get illnesses like the flu :(.  Also, I wonder if they think about the quality of teaching their children will be receiving if some or all of the staff are sick at home!  Coming to school with a cold is understandable.  After all, a cold can last from 10 days to 2 weeks.  But viruses like the flu are different.  And then you need to consider the fact that a child with an illness is more susceptible to any other germs or viruses which may be lurking at school.  At the end of this school week, we only had 3 of our 7 students present.

My grandson, Jack, had the flu too :(.  That's to be expected when you start going to school (preschool) for the first time.  Better that than getting every illness in kindergarten!  Luckily little Max is entirely breast fed still and managed to miss the more serious symptoms.  He just keeps getting cuter and fatter :).

One month later....

    I am so not good at keeping up with a blog :(.  I think it's been the combination of illness  (trigeminal neuralgia and colds) and changes in my class.  I know you can't keep a child home just because they have a cold, but unfortunately that means we end up having to get subs for our sick staff and that always disturbs the flow of the class.
     Luckily today we have a day off, icing on the roads, so I have some more time to recover from this nasty cold, but unfortunately one of my wonderful paraprofessionals will be out sick tomorrow with a 2 day fever not related to the flu :(.
     Enough kvetching :) being home means I get to spend some time online shopping for my two wonderful grandchildren.  There is nothing much better than buying little boy and baby clothes.  Our youngest grandchild, Max is growing so fast it's not funny.  At 2 months of age he weighs 13lbs. 8 ounces!  Which means he is now into 6 month clothes :).  He is completely breast fed and sleeps like a champ unlike his brother who still fights to stay up at night and gets up early in the morning.  I always find it amazing that siblings are so different, right from the start of their lives.
                   

Smiling Max

And look at poor Jack! :(  This is what being a daredevil on the couch does, a major meeting between face and coffee table.  Poor buddy :(
                                               

Long time no see.... again :(

I need to begin with an apology.  If anyone, besides some members of my family are reading this blog, it's been a long time coming.  A couple of reasons why, some ups and downs in the classroom, which have made me stressed and sometimes unhappy.  I have never been good at change, even when it is a good change.  I just don't have a good history with change.  Another reason is my now 2 month bout with trigeminal neuralgia.  I have had it travel from one side of my face to the other and it has made my mouth and teeth so sore that it was hard to enjoy all the wonderful Christmas treats my daughter helped me make this year.  I have just been too depressed to write I think.

On the other hand, though, we did have a great Christmas.  Both my daughters, their husbands and my two beautiful grandsons were here on Christmas Eve to celebrate Christmas with us.  My wonderful husband made eggplant lasagna for the vegetarians in the house and a glazed spiral cut ham for us meat eaters :).  He also made potatoes and parsnips and corn.  He tried to make a loaf of home made bread in the bread machine, but it didn't rise, so I tried to whip up some biscuits that never rose or browned because they were baked in the oven, under the lasagna :).  We all laughed about it, though, and my son-in-law even used them as a conveyance to eat the delicious preserves given to me by my wonderful Paraprofessional :) .  Isn't that part of the fun of Christmas?

So, I guess I am in a better mood now, the pain has abated, thanks to a timely call back from my neurologist's P.A.(gotta love that) who put me on some good medication and a lovely Christmas with my family which includes some snow and a nice long break with my wonderful husband.  Poor guy is suffering with a cold along with my daughter and her two sons.  I blame it on going to the pre-school Christmas program, which we of course would not miss for the world.  I am hoping I have been around enough school children to miss it altogether :)

Some pictures: :)

Thanksgiving Joy :)

Well, we missed our Thanksgiving dinner at our house, but it happened to be for a very good reason!  We sat at the hospital all day waiting the arrival of our new grandson.  Early in the evening he arrived, Maxwell Edward Utley weighing in at a grand total of 9lbs. 12 oz. and measuring at 22 inches!  As one of my friends said "he is as big as our turkey!"

Late that night we took a tired little Jack home with us after having a late dinner at Ruby Tuesday's (thank you Ruby Tuesday for being open and for that nice young waitress, who waited on our table until at least 9:00 and was unfailingly sweet to us) By the way this was at the Ruby Tuesday's nearest the Inova Birthing Inn :).

The next day we took Jack to Monkey Joe's, in Winchester VA, where he received a free Icee from the Manager for "being a new big brother" and we stopped at Martins to make a bouquet of flowers from Jack to his Momma.  We had to get pink and purple as Jack requested, instead of the standard blue for a boy, because Jack knows his Mommy's favorite colors :)

Of course all weekend I bragged on my new grandson and my wonderful daughter and of course I heard the standard "well as long as he is healthy, that's all that matters" at least 2 or 3 times.  After the third time, I really thought about it.  What if he wasn't healthy?  What if he had Down Syndrome or a congenital malformation or a heart problem?  Would I be just as happy?  Would I still be bragging and/or would I share that with strangers?  I know I wouldn't love him any less, if he was ill, of course I would be worried and if he had a chromosomal difference such as Down Syndrome I would be a little sad only because I know it's a harder row to hoe for his family. With greater difference comes more adjustment.

I am pretty sure I would share this information with strangers if only because as I have gotten older, I have become more outspoken.  And because I know, like many others don't, the joy of being with children who seem different to others. 

Of course this is not the story with Max, so I didn't have to think about it at the time I was sharing my news.  Maybe next time though, I will say something like, "The most important thing isn't that he is healthy, it's that he is here and we have one more person to love in this family."