A whole new world

So my blogs are pretty much going to go back to the way they were before summer, not many pictures, and more just writing! The summer was all about going and doing, so it was mostly pics. But now life is back to a more scheduled, regular routine. It's funny how easily we seem to transition into the different ways of life, how it just seems normal to go with the flow and not think about how different it was just a few weeks ago.

So far student teaching is going well. My mentor teacher has been a teacher at JGI for 24 years, so she is a very traditional teacher. Which is not a bad thing, but not what they teach us to be at UCO. However she's not a terrible teacher either, she seems very concerned with helping the students and wanting them to do their best. But they do alot of worksheet pages and not much else yet. But it is the first week of school and I have only been there for 3 hours in the morning each day, maybe it will get better. I was very excited that I was able to learn all of thier names within the first 3 hours of the first day! I have always been horrible at names, and just knew that when I got a class of my own I would have to make them wear nametags for weeks, lol. But I managed to learn them all and even remember them the next day, so I was proud. I've worked in lots of classes along the way, but I've never seen the first few days of school, which was very interesting and fun to me. We have 23 kids in the class. It's been fun getting to know them, learning their strengths and weaknesses, etc. And crazy enough, I already have my favorites and not-so-favorites, lol, which I'm not sure is good!! I can't wait until it's actually my classroom though, so I can make the decisions! :) My mentor teacher has some wonderful ideas and ways to manage the classroom to make things run smoothly, no doubt from her trials and errors over the last 24 years, so I am very thankful to learn them. She gives me a copy of every worksheet that she hands out in class to keep for my own files, and I already have a ton and it's only the 4th day of school! Lol. I am going to try not to use so many worksheets, but we shall see. I think learning should be active and engaging, not so much sitting at a desk and being quiet as you fill out a worksheet. That's not to say that she's not a great teacher though, just different than I want to be. After this week I have 2 more weeks of my afternoon class at UCO, and then I get to go to full days at JGI, so I am looking forward to that. Then for 2 weeks, I get to take over her class and be the teacher all day, so that will be exciting!

*Disclaimer* This next section may have TMI, especially if you are a male, you have been warned* :)

So I had my surgery on my cervix a week ago today. It went ok, Jamie came and stayed with me thursday & friday and took care of me, and some wonderful friends brought me meals for several days, which helped immensely. I think they busted my vein when they gave me the IV, I still have this giant purple bruise on the inside of my forearm that makes me look like a junkie that doesn't have the sense to keep their track marks hidden, lol. Something I found amusing too was the nurse who helped me at the surgery center, when I woke up, she said "Your going to be sore probably, that's just from all the different positions they had to put you in back there." Hmmmm, that never sounds good when you are waking up from surgery. What kinds of positions would they need to put me in?! lol. I've been cramping since they did it though, which is never fun. And it took me FOREVER to get my energy level back up, I was just sooo tired, and seemed like I just got drained when I did anything. But it felt like I was just getting back to "normal" (although the healing time frame for it is like 4-6 weeks)when I started bleeding on tuesday. I hadn't bled at all, and they said I probably wouldn't. So I called and talked to the nurse tuesday evening, and she said it was probably ok, but to call if I felt like it was getting excessive. Well this morning when I woke up, it was excessive, at least to me. I won't share the gory details, but I have never bled so much like that in my entire life. I didn't want to miss any of my student teaching (all missed time has to be made up after the end of the semester, it is a big no-no to miss time!) and I figured I shouldn't answer my cell phone during my time either, so there was no point in calling the Dr's until after I left at 11am (I get there at 8am). The 3 hours flew by as it always does, and I left the school and called the Dr's and left a message to have the nurse call me back. I was getting more and more tired, light headed even, as the day progressed. My head started hurting, and I was cramping, and just bleeding like crazy. I was convinced I was going to just pass out during my class at UCO, lol. I told my friend Krystina who sits next to me what was going on just in case I actually did pass out, someone would know what was going on!! But they hadn't called back by the time my class started at 1pm. Missing class time is also a big no-no, there are strict rules to not make any appointments or any other engagements for these 3 weeks. So between not wanting to miss any time, and not having insurance (paying for the surgery and for my tuition this semester has wiped us out financially, but that's a whole different story!) kept me from wanting to just run to the ER to find out it was nothing and then end up with a huge bill and missed class time. Because maybe it was just excessive bleeding to me, what does "excessive" mean really? But I told my Proffesor that I was waiting on a call from my Dr. and that if they called I would be stepping out to answer it, and quite possibly just leaving after they called. She just nodded and said ok, so I left it at that. They called at 2pm, I explained, and the nurse said I needed to come in right then if at all possible. We were just about to do class presentations of our assigned teaching philosophy, which was our homework last night to research, so the professor asked if I could stay at least to do our presentation, but I was already freaked out, and started to get a bit upset about it all, my eyes started welling up, freaked out that I probably should have gone in hours ago, and she noticed and said to just go. I didn't even really explain anything, I just left, teary eyed and trying not to get upset because there was no point in it! But of course, all my wonderful co-students (kinda like co-workers, hee hee) most of whom I have known for several semesters and have made great relationships with, noticed and I started getting texts and e-mails as soon as I was out the door, hoping that everything was ok. Ah, how sweet. :) Anyways, I drove to my Dr's, who wasn't even there, another Dr. took a look at me. They said the bloodclot that covers the wound as it heals had been dislodged which was causing it to bleed. They said this usually happens when the patient is doing "too much" and need to take it easy. They had to pack my cervix with this awful smelling (I know, TMI, lol) goopy, thick medicine to stop the bleeding and allow it to heal properly. This HURT like a **&*%^%&^%&^%. I was in so much pain by the time I left, I thought I was dying!! I was crying like a baby by the time I made it home! They told me to keep my feet up tonight and to take it easy for the next several weeks. The intense pain subsided within an hour, and the cramping is now back to a dull ache, except when I stand up. I don't know how in the heck I am supposed to take it easy with 3 kids, a house to keep clean and running, student teaching, and a class that has homework ever night for 3 weeks, not to mention the parking at UCO is ridiculous and I have to park way across campus and walk a mile to and from my car. It's just frustrating. I tried to get this surgery done during the summer so I would't have to worry about this, but of course that didn't work out with the Dr & the surgery center schedules.

I could write forever, it is my thing. But I figure I've written enough of a novel and I can write another day. Especially if I have any hope of anyone actually reading it, lol.