School Cafeteria! YUK!

This week . . . Holy Cow . . . I'm helping with the new Lunch/Recess program. (FYI . . . do you know how much food is thrown away?! That stuff is nasty!) The old schedule was to have half the school on the playground . . . while the other half was eating. Then switch it around. The lines are long and the kids have an incredible short time . . . sometimes 10 minutes . . . if that . . . to eat. They are trying a new system where we are doing it in thirds . . . giving the kids a LOT more time to eat. It also helps with the chaos and there is more control over the kids! I have also learned a deeper appreciation for the staff . . . especially the Lunch Hour Supervisors. I've only done this for two days . . . getting there by 11:15am and leaving after 1pm . . . and I'm beat!

Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week

One of my very favorite things at the end of each school year is our Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week. I have been very blessed these past two years to be a major part of it.

I am also blessed to be able to volunteer at Matthew's school. One day a week I get to enjoy the kids in the Library. Other times I get to do fun and games with Matthew's class.

But, I don't even do 1% of what the staff at Matthew's school does. The teachers and our staff put up with a lot of stuff and work extremely hard. This story sums it all up:

"If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job."

Donald D. Quinn


Here's some pictures of our GREAT week!


MONDAY:

Doughnuts were on the menu . . . my neighbor Michelle helped out this day!



Handout:



Gift Basket Door Prize: School Supplies! We filled a SpongeBob backpack with TONS of school supplies. That pack was extremely heavy! We also included a $50 Gift Card from Meijers.




TUESDAY:

Panera Bagels . . . YOOHOO!



Handout:



Gift Basket Door Prize: Cooking! All the stuff below that included a $25 Gift Card from Panera and a $25 Gift Card from The Fresh Market.




WEDNESDAY:

Pastries . . . with help from my friend Jennifer.

Yipes! I forgot to take a picture!!

Handout:



Gift Basket Door Prize: Spa! All these great items and a $150 Gift Certifcate for a Manicure, Pedicure and Massage!




THURSDAY:

Great Harvest Bread!



Handout:



Gift Basket Door Prize: Fun & Games! All the items below that included $30 Gift Bucks for the Normal Theater, $10 Gift Card from iTunes and $5 Gift Card from Family Video.




FRIDAY:

Sam's Club Muffins were on the menu and I had a special helper!



Handout:



Gift Basket Door Prize: Sports! It also included a $25 Gift Card from Dick's Sporting Goods, a $25 Gift Card from Golf Learning Center and a free haircut from Great Clips.



WE LOVE OUR STAFF AT OAKDALE!!

Cemetery Walk

The Third Grade at Matthew's school does a "Cemetery Walk" each year about distinguished people from Illinois. The kids line up in the small gymnasium and as you stand in front of them . . . they give a little speech about who they are. Matthew chose Ward Hill Lamon . . . one of Abraham Lincoln's bodyguards.

Matthew and David did a great job! The shape of the tombstone is a medal.





Here's Matthew in costume . . . I'm sure they didn't have these kind of sunglasses back then, but he said a bodyguard always wears sunglasses:



Here's Matthew and some of his classmates at the actual walk:

Go USA!!

Update . . .

The big ball was rolling . . . I had lost seven pounds in less than a week. Okay, I probably pee'd seven pounds! Then I got a virus! Aaaarrrrggghhhh! We had to cut back on some medications and stop taking others.

Today is the first day I have felt n-o-r-m-a-l. No coughing, hacking, wheezing, etc. Yahoo!

Went to visit Dr. M and things are looking good and we're back on the meds 100%! So, my next big challenge is weight loss . . . and lots of it. I'm on a strict diet and might bet a little cranky at times.

I'm looking forward to my new adventure in life . . . getting healthy!! I feel incredibly blessed to find out what's wrong . . . and that it can be fixed!!

Here's to a better me!

My New Friend

This is my glucose monitor . . . took me awhile to not be terrified of it. I couldn't do it the first day . . . chicken, chicken, chicken!

The second day . . . had to call my neighbor Michelle to do it for me . . . she's a nurse.

The next couple of days . . . hit or miss.

I had to learn that if the needle wasn't sharp enough . . . it didn't poke a good hole . . . and I had a couple of holes in some fingers.

I am getting better at it . . . and by the way, my blood sugars are doing good too.

Do You Do You Want To Hear The Good News or the Bad News First?

Dr. M's office has poked me, plugged me, prodded me, attached me, etc., to see what is going on with me. I didn't know you could run so many tests on so little blood . . . okay, it was about three vials full. So, I went this week to get the results of all the tests.

Driving to Peoria I was anxious, excited, nervous and scared. I wanted answers, but was I strong enough to accept what he was going to tell me. What if it was like all the other answers . . . we don't know. My stomach was in knots.

Before I share the results . . . I want to take a few steps back. I have had a hard couple of years with my health. I tended to blame it on premenopause, then menopause and now postmenopause. A lot of things were going on and I was going to a lot of doctors to try and fix things. Frustrated and angry due to lack of results . . . I decided to take things into my own hands. Enter Dr. M . . . my new Endocrinologist.

Can I tell you the relief I felt when Dr. M told me what was going on? Can I tell you how I felt a couple of hours later when reality hit in?! Two major and different feelings. I'm kind of in a fog . . . but very hopeful.

I have diabetes . . . it is mild and can be controlled with oral medication and diet. My thyroid is inflammed and my metabolism is very sluggish. Many of the problems that I have been having over the years is due to my diagnosis. A part of me is really upset because I've asked my doctors to check me for diabetes, etc., and none were concerned about it.

What have I learned from this . . . you have to take charge of your own health and don't wait for doctors. You bring it to them and push them to do what is necessary. I complain about something and they send me to a specialist. I complain about another thing and they send me to another specialist. No one looked at me as a whole person, I was being treated in pieces and they seemed only to be concerned with that piece. I cannot begin to tell you how much money we have spent to get no relief and no answers.

So, I've got a new cool device to check my blood sugars every morning -- the positive attitude keeps me from being terrified! I'm on medications for my diabetes, thyroid and metabolism and I'll be on a very strict diet regiment for awhile.

I am very happy and relieved to finally know what is going on and why my body has been doing what it has been doing. I'm very happy to know that I can get better. But, I would be lying if I told you I wasn't scared too.

We NEED A Growth Spurt!!

Matthew with Zane
(Zane turned 10 in December and is in the 4th Grade)

Matthew with Gavin
(Gavin turned 9 in February and is in the same grade as Matthew)

Matthew with Jonathan
(Jonathan just turned 6 and is in Kindergarten
But J is the size of a first grader!)