It's Thanksgiving!

Remember in the last post I said I'd be glad that it was almost Thanksgiving?? Well you'd never guess how difficult it was to get our family through to Thanksgiving. Remember I said I'd be glad to have Doug home for a few days?? Well he's been "home" but getting him here was quite a roller coaster ride? Let me give you some of the details.

Sunday night Doug called and said he'd had a stomach ache since Thursday. I said it was about 10:00 pm on Sunday night when he called, didn't I? Well he described the pain, I found a "kids health" page on the appendix and we basically diagnosed that probably had appendicitis and I told him to get up early and get to the clinic first thing Monday morning. So I give him a wake up call and our Monday starts rolling. On the way to work, I call our pediatrician to find out "my son is 18 but in college will you still see him" details. Then I called my mom to let her know what was going on and to see if he needed picked up immediately if she could go since Don and I were 45 minutes further east from her house. So by 9:00 Doug called and said it was appendicitis so we moved into action. Mom went to go get Doug, although the clinic didn't want him to go any further than the local hospital. We wanted him home closer to us. I started making plans to leave school early. I met them at the hospital at 11:30.

Once at the hospital we waited for a while although he'd already been diagnosed. He had to drink some contrast for a cat scan and that took 2.5 hours before he could have the test. Then it was confirmed so we had to wait for the surgeon. So finally at 6:30 he went into surgery. We got word he was doing well at 8:30 and he would be going up to the peds floor. We were the only people up there, then things got crazy for them.

Finally we were resigned to the fact that the doctor was pretty adamit about 3-5 days and he was really firm about 5 days. Well Doug was progressing pretty well and we had the nurses on our side ;) The surgeon today was not the operating surgeon and he gladly released us to come home today. What a great day to be home. We had a little turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie or as much as you can call it that. I've felt ill after each time I ate the "meat" from the hospital so who knows what they cook it in. I'm just so thankful we're all home today.

There won't be any home cooking here today. No turkey and all the fixins. It's not about the food anyway, it's about all the things you have to be thankful for, and today there is a lot to be thankful for. The appendix didn't rupture, but it leaked, but Doug's on the mend and we were able to get him home.

I hope you've enjoyed your family and friends. I hope you've reflected upon what you are thankful for. I hope you've checked the sale ads and wish you luck in getting to the big deals early tomorrow. I think we'll be heading to Northern so that we can pick up some things for Doug. I am not sure when he'll be going back to school so we need his computer for him to finish that term paper that was due Tuesday. I'll also be washing his laundry he couldn't get together to bring home either.

Enjoy your weekend!

I'm a blog slacker

or am I a poser blogger? That is one of Brian's favorite words...poser. Somehow it's starting to slip into my vocabulary too.

I'm so glad Thanksgiving is almost here. I'm looking forward to having Doug home for a few days. I'm also looking forward to having 5 days off. I do need a little bit of a break and I think that will be just enough time. I'm actually in a bit of a Christmas spirit this year. Last year I just wanted to get away. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to go back up to that cabin again this year but Doug needs to work over break and we're trying to save some money. I am in the mood to start some simple decorating. Our house is really small and putting up our old Christmas tree is out of the question. I'd have to move large furniture and block my front door and I'm choosing not to do that.

I'm trying to think of some "winter" decorations that will last a bit longer than just through Christmas. I'm thinking of getting some star lights and icicle lights to hang from my front curtain rod. I'm going to use a smaller tree and I think it's going to have star decorations. I've been trying to collect star ornaments for a few years now to collect in a basket and have my family put on a smaller tree as we all do thoughtful things for one another. I know I don't nearly have enough star ornaments to cover a tree, but I think with a few simple ornaments, a few of my favorites, and the star ornaments I do have it should be a very special tree.

I'm also looking for some other simple but interesting ideas. I found these white birch decorations at crate and barrel They are way too expensive for me to buy but I'd really like to find something similiar. I'm also looking for some little dorm sized decorations to throw into a care package to send off and have there when Doug goes back to school.

I saw these really cool button trees on Ali Edwards' blog and now I'm kicking myself because I gave a ton of buttons away to the art teacher at school, otherwise I'd try to make one of these myself.

I'm really interested in seeing what cool holiday decorations you are making. Give me some cool inspiration! I'm in a creative mood!

Caio!

A Big Ole Pat on the Back

Today is the day that I can get my unofficial certification test results. These were the two tests I needed to take and pass to get my full state credentials to get my Reading Specialist teaching certificate. T.his will be my second teaching certificate. It is a specialized certificate that will piggy-back onto my K-9 certificate that allows me to teach and do more administrative jobs in a K-12 setting. Now if I want to move up to the big money...I'll have to go into the high school.

I'd been having dreams that were waking me up each morning that I had failed one or both. Usually it was a big time failure, sometimes by one point or two. These dreams really freaked me out. I don't know how I could have dealt with having to take one or both of these tests again. They cost me a good hunk of money to register and a big hunk of time. That day the first test took 3 hours and the second test took me 4 hours. That Saturday was emotionally draining. I don't know how you are about taking tests, but I complete all the problems I can and flag the ones I skip that I don't have a quick answer or need deeper thought and more intricate detailed thinking. The second test had a 2 essay writing component and very little room. It had to contain about 7 different requirements in the one constructed answer.

Well anyway I went online and got the test scores. I was sweating bullets and wasn't sure I wanted to look. How could I not look after those dreams??? Well I looked. I have to say, not perfect scores, which everyone seems to think I strive for, but really I don't. I didn't even want perfect scores, I knew I wouldn't get perfect scores, I just wanted to pass.

Well I PASSED BOTH TESTS!!! I wasn't even close to the failing score. Minimum passing scores were 240 and I both my scores were over 275. Hey...passing is passing, right???? Now I have a bit more leg work to do. I have to send some documentation into the university, then they have to send some things to the state, then I have to officially apply for my second certificate. Oh all of that and dishing out a bit more money for the new certificate.

So with that great news I'll end this post. A little happy dance and a big sigh of relief! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Updates

This post is all about updates!

Big update is about my son. He miracleously got rid of the headache as mysteriously as he got it. He went home (his home, the dorm room) on Sunday night. After having such heavy doses of pain meds all day Saturday, he took only 2 Advil on Sunday.
He will follow up with the doctor but as of now we (mom, dad, grandma, etc) are figuring it was the smell he smelled or a migraine. He's got a history with headaches now so getting migraine meds should be easily attainable.

Weight Watchers update. As of this past Monday I've lost 5 pounds. I'm so proud to be a LOSER! It is getting easier to judge portion sizes, and the good vs. bad foods. I'm really becoming a label reader. I still struggle, especially today with Brian's Halloween candy sitting there glaring me in the face. I've had some candies but I logged them in and counted their points and I still have 1.5 points left for today. I think I'll just forget that I didn't eat them.

Speaking of updates, I saw my good friend Angelina came by and left me a message. I wish she'd update her bloggy so we know what's going on in her neck of the woods. I also wish she's drop by the message board and give us the 411! Ange if you read this...girl get over there and give us a proper update!

Continuing on the update train...today I updated my hair! I went with a cute and very short easy style. I also updated the color to all one color again. I'm not a bi-color any longer.

I think I'll end my updates here.

Oh one more thing, I've finished Stargirl and have moved on to Love, Stargirl! Great young adult books by Jerry Spinelli! The sequal doesn't seem quite as good but a new book club I'm in is reading it.