Terrible!

WOW I am absolutely terrible at keeping this thing updated and the thing is I think about it quite often but hate typing long long updates to get back up to date, so I avoid it and avoid it and then after that TOO much time has passed. Let's see. The fall went by just fine, I got Michael into boy scouts and that seemed to be going well. He liked playing with the kids, the filed trips, pack meetings and the den meetings. It was only a 2-3 days a month time commitment and something we could handle. 1st grade at school was finally going good too. Mrs. Elder and Michael had a hard start and a slow time settling in, but he finally adjusted and had great days more often then not. She had to move his desk for a bit, make him work alone, enforce some strict boundaries and stick to them for a short period of time, but he got the idea and became a great work.

My relationship with my man is still going on at this point. Some people may think it is hard to have a long distance relationship and have it work, but it works just fine for me (for now). With him far away and gone Mon-Thu. I can do my work thing, do things at home, be with Michael, be home, be mom and not have a distraction, with date nights, company, etc. Then since I have been working on Saturdays he makes the trip into Spokane (3.5 hours) for the weekend and hangs out with us. Friday night is usually just hanging at home. Saturday I work and Michael goes to the sitter as Richard stays around the house, does errands or visits his family. Saturday night is our date night most of the time, where we go do dinner and a movie while Ms. Keri babysits. Sunday is usually church, lunch and time at the park, etc.

Back in Nov. 09 I was still subbing and quite regularly too, busy schedule and filled up many of my days. Then one night I said HECK WITH IT! Why do I have to be "stuck" in Spokane? What is really keeping me here. And so out of the blue I talked to my friend Tracie M online and we were talking about teaching jobs, etc. How she found and got hers, etc. She told me of 1 website that I immediately checked out and found 6 jobs that were elem. ed and only 1 I was qualified for (the others were SLP, PE, PT, etc). The job was for a Spec. Ed. Life Skills teacher at Oroville Elem. in Oroville, WA (where the heck was that?!)I copied the description to her and asked “how about this one?” It was all meant to be. She just happened to be meeting with the teachers at that same school the next day (a math meeting of some sort). She said she would mention my name.. yeah right. I thought she would forget or it wouldn't work out etc. But nope. She came back the next day with a contact name and number which I called right away. After a few days of phone tag, I got a hold the special ed director at the school. She gave me a very true and accurate picture of the job (explaining that one kid was even 185 lbs, 5th grade and violet, etc). I was determined not to let that scare me away. I filled out my app, got my letters and file sent over, etc. Then I hounded them via email and phone calls for the next 1.5-2 weeks. She said she wanted to get the interviews set up by next week. Well I stayed on them, Thanksgiving week came up and that was a hard week to get anything done. Finally the week after Thanksgiving, I called again on Monday and was told the director was sick for the past few days and hadn’t gotten to the interviews yet, but she would be soon. I got a call the next morning bright and early asking me to come down the following week to Oroville, to interview for the job. I was soo nervous! I studied terms and programs, gathered material, prepped, prayed and nervously awaited for the following Monday. I happened to be out of town in Yakima that coming weekend for Richard’s Cmas part. Michael was staying in Spokane with Grandma and I was to have a weekend alone with my man. Friday night Dec. 4th was awesome.. candle light dinner, music, fire just the 2 of us. etc. Saturday night was a fun day with errands, lunch, his buddy, etc. Then the Cmas party 12-5-09. Fun times. Church on Sunday which was the first time I had been there with him in Yakima and met everyone there. It was great o be introduced as the "huckleberry girl" that he had talked about for months that everyone would finally meet. Sunday after church we went to Target so I could find a nice shirt, etc to wear for my interview. I had decided it was not worth going all the way back home to Spokane Sunday night, just to wake up bright and early, do a short shift at Target, then drive 4 hours to Oroville from Spokane, when I could just go 4.5 hours from Yakima there Monday morning. I would save a tank of gas, 3.5 hours of driving and would only lose $30 or something. But save $45 in gas... so it was the best option. I left Monday morning after Richard left for work and drove to Oroville. It was a very nice, peaceful drive that went by quickly. I got into town a bit early, so grabbed a bite to eat at a gas station (yep couldn't find a fast food rest. anywhere in town), called Richard and then headed to my interview. The first part was 20min of filling out a sample, blank IEP. OMG I hadn’t done this in years and years since my SPED masters schooling. I failed it, I bombed it. I didn't even want to do the next part of the interview, what was the point. I would never get this job. But I went ahead and met with the principal, the spec. ed director and another spec. ed. teacher. The interview didn’t go as well either. All the things I had "studied" up on and had expected to wow them with.. never came up. I felt as if I was giving the same vague answer over and over for everything they asked me. I left feeling not so confident. They said they were going to call the next day and announce who had it, since they wanted to give the new teacher plenty of time to make the move during the rest of the month of Dec and over winter break and ready to start Jan. 4. The next day came and went, then Wed. came and went. I never called to see if I got it or not, no call, meant no job :( I was very depressed the rest of the week and weekend :( sad sad days. Then the next Tue. I received a call and a message on my cell phone from the SPED director asking me to call her. She left her work number and her call number but no real message. I called and left a message, called a few hours later and left a message. I was thinking if she was just going to say I didn’t get it, she could have left a message.. maybe this is good news. Finally just before 6pm on Dec. 15, she called back and I GOT THE JOB! WOOHOO! I was on the phone much of the next few days (even while subbing in music classes, etc the rest of the week) trying to get details of how this would all work. I know that I only had this weekend coming up to do anything. This Sat. would be the 18th, the next one would be the 26th (day after Cmas), the next weekend I had already planned to be in Yakima for New Years and so I needed to be moved.. since school started that Monday. Oh my.. what a timeline. I called and got a hold of a few agents to show us houses on Saturday and mom, Tracie and I got up early and took off. Around 6am I think. Looked at houses for 3-4 hours, had lunch, etc and then drove back to Spokane all in one day. Mom and I even had our family Cmas party to go to that night and we rolled back in town just in time. We saw 3 houses that would "work". But in the long run, one was too small, one was being rented that same weekend (dang it too it was $200 LESS and was in better condition then the house we were left with). So we took the one that was left. Still a bunch cheaper then rent in Spokane, but HIGH for this area. I mean I could have had the other one for $200 less a month. Anyway I had 5 days to pack. Th, Fri, Sun, Tue and Wed. On Monday I didn't pack cause I was in court all day long trying to fight to be able to move with Michael with such short notice. Well $600 bucks, many calls to my lawyer and a mess latter. I was cleared to go. I finished doing all the packing I was going to do Wed. night and called it good.. I was done! Thursday- Cmas Eve.. I rested from packing but I worked Target that day, finished up Cmas things, got the house ready for Richard who would be arriving that night, etc. He showed up at 5:30, an hour earlier then expected YAY and that was the beginning of yet another mess. We went to the candle light service at church at 6:30, came home put Michael to bed, relaxed, got things ready for the next day etc and went to bed.

Around 11:30pm Richard screamed out in pain.. over and over.. never ending. His neck was in severe severe pain, like he had thrown it out, it was out of place, it hurt. He was hot, cold, sweaty, freezing, sick, puking, it was bad. I couldn't fix it, I tried, I had no idea what to do. No Chiropractor was open and I was clueless of how to help. I couldn't handle the puke so went downstairs for a bit and ended up falling asleep. With all I had been through that week, with the job, house hunting, court, packing, etc. I had to sleep. Plus the last 2 days I had to be AT WORK at 3am, so up by 1:45 and I was just beat. So I slept on and off, but kept checking on him. Still in pain, resting a bit, not as sick, but in major pain. The morning came.. Cmas morning.. yep all ruined. Mom and Gary still came and we did stockings and presents without Richard, leaving things to and from him alone hoping he would get to them soon. Mom made breakfast of biskets and gravy, that Richard was going to do.. and we just carried on. Finally at around 8am I called the Dr. explained what was going on and got our options. Urgent Care or ER. She said if he was numb and tingly it would have to be ER so they could do a cat scan, he was not, so we planned to do Urgent Care. But the only one that was open was the main clinic. After taking 30min or so to get into the car and on our way, he opted for whatever was closer..so that meant ER at Valley. The people there were not very nice at all at first. It took forever to get him meds and some serious attention. Finally they got him pain meds and ordered a CT scan. Then the action started. We began getting tons of attention and very sympatric doctors. The news was broken to us.. bleeding in the brain. I had to call Jeremiah earlier in the day and say we were at the ER and being that it usually takes forever there, we would not be seeing them that morning like we had planned. I called back a bit later and then called Al and Pat (R's mom and dad) to say that they had to come right away and explained what was going on. The doctors had decided to send R in an ambulance to Sacred Heart, mom and Gary came to pick up Michael and Rs family met us at Sac. Heart. After another Cat scan and lots of waiting and decisions. R was found to have had a brain aneurism, so lucky it was leaking and not rupturing. It was decided R would go into surgery that next morning and have it clamped off. Surgery was done Sat the day I was supposed to move the day after Cmas. Uhuals were returned, plans changed and we waited at the hosp. for hours instead. I was not allowed to see him anymore as I was not immediate family. His surgery went fine, just a lot of recoup time to come. I quickly assembled plan B, a great team of friends and family and church members helped me finish packing and did a quick move up to Oroville and back Mon and Tue. I stayed in town for the rest of that week and over the weekend, waiting on any phone call from the hosp. with news on how he was doing. Finally a week after his surgery, R spoke up enough (out loud and not just in his head) to demand I be let in. AWE WOW I was finally able to see him again. It was what I needed before I started my new job. He was in ICU for a total of 11-12 days and then released to go home to his parents’ house where he was for another 2 weeks or so and then back at home. He started his job again on light duty Feb 1 and is still on the mend.

My job started here in Jan. and with some rough days and some very busy days trying to get things in order and things figured out.. I am beginning to like it. I love my paras and all their help. I am in a SPED Life Skills room with 5 kiddos on my case load. It is supposed to be a continuing position so that will help me get some experience under my belt. I had thought I would move back to Spokane or on to another position after 1-2 years here, but with all the budget cuts in schools I will be "new" on the totem pole again for each new School District I move too and will be one of the firsts to be cut. Yes I am SPED and those rarely get cut, since they can't really fill it with the HS teacher they cut, or the PE teacher they cut, etc. It is a specialized position, but still nervous to move and have to start all over again and lose what I did here. We'll see.. things change so much and so fast with us, who knows where I will be.

Right now I am still paying for BOTH house payments and heat bills, etc. It is HARD. I have yet to sell the house in Spokane, but is has only been on the market since the beginning of the month, so I got to give it time. My salary sounded fine at the beginning of the job, but BOY do they take a big chunk out for health care, retirement, etc. Oh well something we all experience, just first time since I have had a full time teaching job and was not expecting that much.

I got my taxes done and got my refund back already ... woohoo that really helped. Although I got none of it for fun things. I paid a big chunk to my mom, but no where near paying her off and then the rest went to my credit card for a zero balance there again (for now)

Let's see.. lol what else. Michael is doing fine. We have our rough weeks of auguring and slow to obedience, which makes a long slow drawn out week. But then the next week he seems to be overly obedient. "yes ma'am" to everything, so pleasant, etc. Wish I could find the secret to keep him that way, but we are working on it. I have yet to get him signed back up for scouts here, but it is on my list of things to do. Baseball also starts next month, so maybe that or soccer.. shrug, who knows.

Well I guess that about does it for now. I need to get on here 1-2 times a month and not skip months and months like I seem to always do. Something is better then nothing. Least I feel as if I caught up some now and ready to move on. This will be good for looking back at someday in the future. Thanks for sticking with me.