I'm awake!

Right, I'm awake. It is just a little past 3:00 and I have been awake since 1:00. I've been thinking about making things. I started a mitten/hat/scarf set for DGD today. Will check the fit of the mitten tomorrow. I am adapting the patterns I made for myself. I started knitting it in the car on the way to Milwaukee today. At one time I had the four needles all there in front of me (double pointed) and thought about how if we had to stop fast for an accident I could kill myself with those buggers! But then I kept knitting anyway.

My CT scan showed nothing. I have a nasal spray, and I am also getting a new mouth splint from my dentist for wearing at night. I hope that helps, because I don't feel any better. I still have an earache. =-( Both the Dr. and the Dentist told me that it is likely a combination of things causing the problem, because it is all connected. My dentist told me that if this doesn't help he will refer me to an oral surgeon for the TMJ. Ther is another kind of splint that you can wear during a flare up that helps a lot more. Sigh!

I have been so very busy. I've been spending a lot of home time correcting essays for my 8th graders. Many have passed the first time. Some are revising. I have things home to correct this weekend, too, but haven't started yet.

My mom had a pace maker put in. We've been running (well, driving) down there a lot. She wasn't recovering as quickly as she should have been. She is still very weak and her lip quivers a lot. She says it is all nerves. She is trying to keep her life stress free. At least as stress free as possible. She has only gone out to go to the Dr. She didn't even go to my niece's wedding! She is finally starting to feel a little better now. She still looks like she is sick.

We had DH's sister, husband, son and two granddaughters, plus our son and granddaughter here for Thanksgiving. I got up and threw the bird in the oven (well, I did put it in a pan wrapped in foil) and let it cook. DH and I cleaned like crazy that morning so the house was clean by the time they arrived. It needed the cleaning! DH washed the floors this time. Usually I do it but my back was hurting so much it would have been extremely difficult for me to do it. It is the first time he did it since his back surgery. He didn't complain about his back hurting, so hopefully it was OK. Men are pretty big babies when it comes to pain, I think. If they had to give birth Homo sapiens sapiens would have become extinct long ago! Anyhow, we had a nice day with them.

Friday was my niece's wedding. I had gone to a shower for her last Sunday. It was at a wine bar, and my sister had purchased a number of bottles of wine to have served. I didn't take any though. I drank water all night. There was fancy food, which doesn't impress me all that much. I ate a plate full of snacks and felt I hadn't eaten anything. I sat with another sister and we were pretty bored. The high point of the night was going around and telling how we knew the bride and telling a story about her. I *almost* would have rather played the stupid games!

Showers sure have changed since I was married. The kinds of gifts she got were what we would have gotten for a wedding gift. At my shower people chipped in and together they all bought me a blender (avocado green, I might add). The rest of the gifts were a recipe and one of the ingredients for it. We played games and the prizes were things like a glass measuring cup or a kitchen towel. I gave my niece a crystal bowl and that was what I gave her sister for a wedding present 9.5 years ago. This was only a shower gift this time! I got her something she registered for as a wedding gift, and let me tell you, I have never spent that much for a picture frame in my life! I certainly don't have anything like that for myself. Of course, I wouldn't want it, anyway. I'd rather have the "black painted with some rubbed off" look myself.

The wedding was beautiful. The bride sang a song to her husband. It was nice that their minister knew them so well. That made the ceremony very personal. The reception was at a huge resort on a lake. It was really something. Fancy everything. We drove there in a snow storm with the roads being horrible. It stopped snowing for a while, but then started again so we left early. (But first we danced.) It was a long ride home, too. We had our son and DGD in the back seat. They were snoring away before we had gone 5 miles! When we arrived at our house our DGD asked to stay over night. She went to lay on the couch and was asleep again in about 2 seconds. We got her a pillow and blanket and that is where she stayed, in her dress and everything!

This morning she woke DH up telling him, "It's 7:00 already! I only have three hours left to be here, so you have to get up and be with me!" LOL He told her to be quiet and not to wake me, but she had other plans. She let me sleep about another 15 minutes, though! It was DH's "turn" this time and he had to tell her stories.

After our DS came to get her we finished cleaning ourselves up and left for the big city. There is a craft and gift sale at State Fair Park every year and we have gone to it numerous times with some friends we have known for over 30 years. We had arranged to meet them there today. We walked around, mostly just talking, but I did buy a few things for myself. I got a picture with a house and willow trees to put in my bathroom. I got a sign for the laundry room that says, "Laundry Room. Drop your pants here." =-) I also got a Jim Shore Snowman which was incredibly inexpensive compared to Halmark. DH bought some Chai tea. DH picked out a snowman picture he liked and we got that, too. After we were finished going through the sale we went out to eat supper. Then we drove home. By the time we got home it was 9:00. I got ready for bed and read a few minutes and fell asleep. But here I am, awake in the middle of the night. Probably due to caffeine. I had a big soda today. Not used to all that caffeine!

We will be getting boxes out of the attic to start decorating for Cmas tomorrow. It is supposed to be in the 50's tomorrow so we will get the outside lights up. Then we'll start inside. I doubt that the tree will go up until next weekend though, since DH is the one who puts it together. He has been carving, and still intends to make one more batch of larger Santas. He turned away two big buyers this year. Big in the sense that they purchase a lot. He felt really bad because they have been such loyal good customers for years, but he just didn't have that much time to do it this year, and he has decided that it was becoming more a a "job." He wants to take the time to carve more of the things that he wants to carve instead of production carving. That's fine with me!

Since he won't have to start carving right after Cmas for next year already, he is actually going to wire the basement! After it is wired and insulated, we will have someone put in wall board. Once it is finished, along with storage cabinets all along one wall, that will become my sewing room. I will have a lot more room, but it still will be crowded with all my things! Especially if I buy a quilting machine. I would buy a hobby size, but it will still take up space. I am eager to move down there. DH and I will both be down there then, instead of in two separate places in the house. The present sewing room will become a TV room, and the present TV room will become a guest room again. We'll put our old bed in there with a new box spring and mattress set.

I hope that the Cmas season goes well for me this year. I would really like to enjoy Cmas again. I haven't enjoyed it for quite a few years now. It just feels like work. We don't have that many gifts to buy any more. I already have some done and will get things out in the mail soon. Sons are done and we just have our DGD and a few smaller items to get. We don't know what to get each other, so we are going to go buy our own present and give it to each other to give to each other! LOL I don't think we'll need to wrap the presents. We will always get a little something that will be a surprise, too, though. I don't even know what I want. I have so much already. I will probably go to a store with things for my house and buy something without having to feel guilty about it. LOL (Actually, I rarely feel guilt. Usually I feel I deserve it!)

Last weekend we had gone to the community theater play. We have season tickets. They are so inexpensive that we bought 4 tickets this year. This time we asked some friends to go along as our guests. We had a great time, even went to Perkins for pie afterwards. =-) This play was called "Ethan Claymore," and it was very good. We laughed and laughed, which is ALWAYS a good thing!

Well, I have been writing for over an hour now. I'm sure that this is "more than you really wanted to know!" But, it helps me sort out my thoughts. I don't dare put every thought down though! At least you, my friends, get to find out what I have been doing that keeps me from writing to you individually as often!!!! I am also starting to get cold! The heat is way down for the night time. I have a hooded sweatshirt on, but am still cold. Oh, how I dread winter coming!

Hugs for now!

I love my home computer!

I just spent over 3 hours putting an order in for supplies at school. I got home at 8:30 PM. It is one of the new duties I have with being the new department head. I was trained a few weeks ago, and haven't found the time to order, so I finally decided to stay until I had it done. Now, part of the three hours was due to my inexperience, but most of the problem was how S...L...O...W... my school computer is! Seriously, I was waiting 30-40 seconds after each thing I put in, and each item required me to put in 5 things. I actually was reading a book while I waited. My computer is so noisy when it is doing something, that all I had to do was half listen so when it was ready (the noise stopped) I could look up and put in the next thing. I REALLY appreciate my fast computer at home! I came home and I am drinking whiskey and diet coke. Pretty bad when a chore drives you to drink! I need to RELAX!

My mom was transferred to St. Luke's Hospital in Milwaukee today. Tomorrow she is having a pacemaker put in. She will stay overnight, and then Dad will take her home on Thursday. Two of my sisters will be there, so I won't go. We are doing WKCE tests tomorrow so it would freak out my principal if I couldn't be there. My sister will call tomorrow and let me know what is going on. I have a long day tomorrow, too. School all day and then I will go to Curves and then I have book club tomorrow night.

This morning I went in and had a CT scan done of my sinuses. I have been having problems since July. It is doing a thing to my ear, where I can hear my heart beating. It hurts, too, sometimes. I was on antibiotics for a month. Didn't work. Then I was on sinus rinses and a nasal spray. That didn't do it either. So now it was time for CT scan and we will see if they can see infection. If they can, I go back on antibiotics. If not...??? It could be from my TMJ. It could be from allergies. Guess I'll wait to hear what the Dr. says. Hopefully he will call tomorrow.

The CT scan was interesting. I had one in '99 and this was so different. It was a machine where I lay on my back and it moved me into a chamber and took the scan. Then it took me out again. I went into the machine twice, but it isn't as close as an MRI where you feel claustrophobic. I just relaxed and kept my eyes shut. It was over in less than 5 minutes. So now I wait.

and wait...

Too tired to move...

All last week I was going, going, going. We're giving WKCE tests (Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam). I give to a group of 23 8th graders, about half of whom are my students. The tests go all morning, so I lose my one planning period of the day. I have been taking work home and doing it at home at night. One night I stayed up almost until midnight correcting papers. I have a sack full home this weekend, too. The weeks before were parent teacher conferences so I had 12 hour days and also having to prepare for the conferences. All under a very stressful deadline since we find out who is coming the same day as they are coming after school. I had some parents angry at me because their children didn't do all of their work and I didn't notify them immediately. Right, I have about 175 students every day and I have time to call every parent of every student who decides not to do an assignment. uh huh. When does it start to be the child's responsibility? I always tell the parents that it is part of my job to get these kids ready for high school, and in high school the teachers will not be calling home. In fact, when I worked in high school I remember standing next to a teacher in the hall while his class was coming in and a student asked to go back to his locker to get his assignment for the day and the teacher told him, "No. You will get a zero today, and maybe next time you will be more responsible."

That all sounds a bit negative, and I guess in a way it is, but I am tired of being the scapegoat for everything that goes wrong in the world. When do teachers get to be respected again?

New subject.

I had my yearly mammogram on Friday. I was supposed to go the week before when we had off from school, but they called to tell me the doctor was going to a conference and I had to reschedule. (When I actually went in, his medical assisstant told me they were on vacation so I guess that "a conference" is a euphemism for a vacation.) At any rate, I had to change it so I had to take a day off of school on Friday to get my physical, lab work and the dreaded mammogram.

I did the lab work first, then the physical. I'll get the results of the lab work early next week. We get the results of the mammogram before we leave the hospital though. So I went in for my mammogram, and came out with my poor smashed, but normal, boobs. I always worry I will pass out during the test, and have visions of myself hanging from the machine by my boob while I am unconcious!

Off that subject. In better times....

This weekend I have been knitting like crazy. In fact, my shoulders are really sore. I must hunch them, hold them up, while I knit because my shoulders were killing me last night when I went to bed. But... I have a pair of mittens and a hat finished, and a scarf started (See photos). These are done on size 15 knitting needles. I got the pattern and the double pointed size 15 needles from a friend after she made a pair of the mittens. She made a pair that were Packers colors. She thought there was enough yarn for me to make a pair, too. I made one mitten and ran out of two of the yarns (you use four strands together). I might go to the store she bought the yarn at and see if I can find the yarns, but I'll bet they are long gone since she gave me the yarn from last winter. So I sit here with one Packers mitten! Anyway, I loved the thick warm pretty mitten, so I went and bought yarn on Friday and I knitted Friday night and all yesterday, not even getting dressed. Then I went to sleep early. Today I am catching up on e-mail, and I think we will head down to see my parents. My mom went into the hospital yesterday afternoon with her heart in fibrillations again. She might have to get a pace maker. I don't know if she will still be in the hospital or home, but we will go down to see her. As soon as I get off of the computer and take a shower. Hey, I can maybe finish the scarf on the way down in the car. I'll have to push my shoulders down while I knit!