Thought I would give a quick update. Things here are doing pretty good, actually! Alex is doing well with his job, he just got a small raise. His division did very well but not all divisions hit their goals so it was a bit smaller than prior years had been. It's his first raise since he started and we were excited to get it! Our budget is balanced, we are getting ready to move to a larger apartment and are selling out all that we can from the storage unit. Not that it's necessary, this apa
I did not pass the test to do the second job from home. There is another project on that site that would only allow an hour a day of work, it would still be an extra $200-300 a month and is worth it to try. My friend said it was easier, probably more suited to my frazzled and tired brain at the end of the day.
So, we keep trucking. I was so happy to send that snowball payment, I will have to update numbers soon. For now, breakfast... I'm starving and need to start my day!
I'm dealing with a lot of health stuff right now. I HAVE to have gluten to find out if what is going on with my body is also Celiac. It isn't just a question of whether not eating it made me feel better but the doctors and I need to know what is really happening to me so I might actually start healing properly. So, I've got headaches and awful dry skin again... my stomach hurts every day again as well but luckily that side effect hasn't been as harsh as I thought it would because the lactose
So, now that I've been gluten free for several months, it is time to eat gluten again! I went to Vanderbilt University today and met with the team that will be taking care of me at the IBD Center. The GI will be doing another colonosopy with an endoscopy right before Thanksgiving, she needs to see if the gluten has an effect on me so I have to eat it again. I'm munching on REAL pretzels right now! The kind that cost $2 for a big bag, not $4 for a tiny bag. They're stale and delicious to me!
I have never felt worse as a parent than I did today having to hold Hope down for blood work. Why did it make me feel so guilty? She's being checked for inflammation markers in her blood as well as Celiac. I don't know how to handle my baby being sick like I am.
I hear from so many people with IBD that they chose not to have biological children for fear of passing it on. I wasn't diagnosed when I had Naomi but with the twins it was so well controlled I didn't worry about things like that. I
I know, you all said to stop taking them. My coworker said she had another box of uniform clothes, since Naomi stained so much of her stuff I went ahead and took it. The last box of clothes much of it went to donate, I took some clothing for the girls and a good amount of uniform clothes. Then, I sold most of the uniform clothes that were the wrong style for our school. I only had to do 5 minutes of extra work to sell it and my sweet coworker had car trouble this week so I was happy to surprise
The Head of School at Naomi's school was chatting with me about how she wished the school had the Junior Kindergarten class back. Then she offhandedly asked me if I would like to teach it if they got it back! It took me by surprise, I didn't know what to say. I told her I didn't have a teaching degree, I had a degree in Religious Studies. She said she would check to find out if for that age I needed a degree or a license would work.
So, now I have this in the back of my mind at all times, ha
A very close friend passed away. It was the mother in a mother/daughter family I have been close to for about 14 years. I hadn't been in touch in a long time and I feel awful about that, I didn't know her cancer had come back because I had been so sick the last couple of months that I hadn't called and they didn't want to stress me out. They know stress aggravates my disease. They assumed she would beat it again. Instead I got a call on Saturday that she had passed away. I didn't know what
The new medicine I fought so hard for isn't helping me yet. My doctor tested me, yet again, for c diff, they are checking for a vitamin B12 deficiency and checking for signs my pancreas isn't processing stool.
In the meantime, he is worried I may have developed celiac. I've been negative for it before but as my mother has it and I haven't had an endoscopy in a few years it is possible. So, he doesn't want to do another test on me right now and he said I should just try going gluten free.
Naomi leaves tomorrow for a one week sleep away camp! I can't believe we are actually doing this, she wanted it so badly we paid for it out of her savings. It is a Girl Scout camp and it is just 45 minutes from home.
She also appeared to have had a growth spurt, her shorts are too small! I ran over to Goodwill and get her some to bring, her size range was half off today and her cousin and her are in the same size now so no hand me downs. The other cousin was going through a dress phase at th
I finally made it to the rheumatologist today. She didn't even need to finish the exam to diagnose me with fibromyalgia. It's no surprise, I went there to get diagnosed because the symptoms fit me to a T. Here's hoping adding the Cymbalta in to my regimen will help calm my body pain and let me relax so my bowels can heal!!!
So, I posted about possibly changing classes in the fall. I did end up talking to my director and assistant director and got the position teaching the 4 year old class in the fall. Well, exactly 4 days later the current 4's teacher put in her two weeks notice! So, instead of staying in the infant class until after our big STARS assessment I was moved immediately over to the 4 year old room. I'm working off of my own lesson plan, they were happy with what I put on it and she said my lesson pl
So, I was just offered the chance to teach my own four year old class in the fall. It starts August but it might actually start mid-July. I am going to be in a classroom by myself but it is going to be a very large class so I will be able to really use the space well and let the kids learn through play. I'm really excited about it, I had so much fun in that age group when I was there for a week recently. I worked really hard to give them a week of fun and learning because their teacher is a
I'm pretty sure I had energy because I spent the first 3 hours of my day awake in bed. That's refreshing when I'm not feeling well. So, today I enlisted Alex's help and we have been rearranging the furniture and decluttering. We had piles of boxes and bags in the living room that needed to be sold, stored (some hand me down clothing) or donated. We've already sent one load of stuff to Goodwill, I've posted a ton of stuff for sale and have lots more to post as well as consign and there is some cl
i was officially made an infant teacher a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, they haven't had the chance to let me train the other floaters to go into the older classes and follow a lesson plan properly. They can effectively be in there for a few hours if it is mostly free time or something like that, but more than a day and the children are missin out on their learning time.
This week the 4 year old teacher is out. In our school this is a basic pre-k with another year of more formal pre-k
It took us awhile to get things under control with our money. Mostly due to dealing with a new budget, new job, business travel which is new to us and my not feeling well. Well, just like they say, 3 months and our new budget is solidified!
It is also the first month we are going back to cash for groceries. It was fun! We took the girls, Naomi had control of the list and she helped me keep track of what we were spending to stay under budget. It was her first lesson in sales tax as well. She
I just need to get this out. I am so frustrated with my life right now. I have been dealing with my colitis bothering me more and more the last 3 years. I can't get it to calm down for anything! I'm getting so worn down, so tired every day. I'm constantly dehydrated because my colon can't absorb water being so inflamed.
Alex keeps mentioning disability, he is really worried about me working so hard and pushing beyond my limits. It doesn't help that so many other people have taken time off t
tomorrow I go in to get the results of Naomi's speech, OT and PT evaluations. Even though she is seeing improvement from medication there are still areas where she needs help. Especially in speech!
Also, I could use prayers for my health. My ulcerative colitis is not under control at all. When I'm in a flare I have trouble with fatigue and since I can't slack at work I tend to crash at home. I am going for another colonoscopy next week, hopefully they will either see something that provides
i would pay someone to switch bodies with me right now. My coteacher (who is also one of my best friends) is really sick. She is at the ER right now with hopefully kidney stones or something like that and not a tumor or something worse. I am so worried that my stomach is feeling it. Please pray for my friend!!!
Oh, Naomi started ADHD medication and is already seeing a big improvement in focus at school! That's my good news of the day.
Sorry I disappeared for a couple of weeks! I wasn't feeling well and couldn't figure out why. Then last Friday I suddenly had an awful toothache. Our insurance didn't start on day 1 like it was supposed to because the ice storm delayed our paperwork... It started Sunday. So, I have a bill for $101 for an emergency Saturday dental visit with the parent of a toddler at school. But, the infection is getting better and I now have dental insurance again so I will be going in for her to explore the da
Poor Alex spent 4 hours in the car yesterday just so he could get his laptop and get set up on the server. He did what he could training-wise at home today. Hopefully he can get in tomorrow!
Our vacuum died and a neighbor offered up hers. She is about a mile from me so I drove and it was not pleasant. Then I missed the dry area of my driveway and tried to park on black ice... on a hill. It's scary to have your car be sliding down and have no control over it! Luckily it hit some traction befo
Metro schools are going to assess her for developmental delays, OT needs and speech. I also got an email from the social worker at Akiva that she observed Naomi today and was suggesting we get her checked by a pediatric neurologist. Sigh... My poor peanut!
This is frustrating because with this, plus the bankruptcy and Alex starting a new job things are going to be hard to juggle. I hope we can get it all done!
I'm exhausted but can't sleep. I'm so worried about Naomi. We have a meeting this week to talk about her behavior issues and speech issues. She's been pushing us beyond our patience level a lot lately and today she started crying and said she feels like we don't care about her because we yell so much.
Guys... This is my baby. I am supposed to make sure that no matter what she knows we love her always. She didn't feel that way today and I can't get the sad look on her face out of my head.
I do NOT handle anticipation well! It has been less than 12 hours since Alex's interview ended and I'm losing my mind with anticipation. I hate the waiting part...
However, being antsy like this does make me silly. We are definitely laughing tonight!
Alex had the interview yesterday. He thought it went very well based on how everyone was treating him but was waiting to hear from the recruiter.
So, this morning the HR manager called his recruiter first thing this morning. She said he did very well with the round of interviews yesterday. They want him to meet with the manager in Lewisburg that he would be reporting to. This position does not give him anyone to manage but because he is new to the industry it is the better fit that way. So,
