Surgery--a holiday tradition?

The bottom picture is of his bone tumor--COOL! (its the white blob in the bottom left corner)

Jake has made an annual tradition this time of year for hospital visits. Last year around this time he had lithotripsy for a kidney stone. Yesterday he went under the knife to fix his nose. He had four procedures altogether, and I can't remember the official procedure names, but he had his nasal passage(deviated septum) straightened out, a bone tumor (not as scary as it sounds) in his sinus removed, a tonsillectomy for his tonsils that were growing back, and some reconstruction on his nose done.

Jake's Medication Schedule

Drugs!

He is certainly in a world of hurt. Jake is currently on 8 medications for recovery. I made him a spreadsheet of times to take each one with directions. His nose was cauterized, so there isn't much bleeding, but he has a little bandage under his nose that makes him look very cute. He won't let me post a picture of it though.

Our wonderful neighbors brought us dinner last night, so we haven't had to leave the house since we came home. It has been great. Thank heavens for Netflix!

I am the kind of person that lives for downtime like this. I am so glad I get to be here with him just hanging out. And he shares his pudding with me.

What I learned on my summer vacation

1. Life is not like Mario Kart, and I have the destroyed fender and headlight to prove it.

2. When you have a wii, your spare time plans itself.

3. Zuchinni is a crazy plant. One day it is dying, the next it is exploding.

4. Boise deserves to be the capitol of Idaho, simply because it is where my awesome 3 year old niece lives. And they have a pretty good zoo.

5. When you go on 11 road trips to see family in one summer, you gain an appreciation for audiobooks. We had a lot of fun listening to Fablehaven, Harry Potter, and the Da Vinci Code.

6. My cousin Trevor is going to be an amazing missionary in New Zealand. We are going to miss him so much, but we are excited for him.

7. You can fit 9 people in a 2 bedroom house, as long as someone is willing to sleep on the kitchen floor with their head under the table. We loved having the Beckstead Family visit us!

8. Being married to Jake is just as fun as it was 2 years ago.

9. Camping is the best when you have a crazy Uncle Nick as your camp host! Blow Out camp ground in Palisades is one of the most beautiful places in Idaho. And ice cream really does taste better when it is in a square shape.

10. Jake is a girl's camp hero--he carried a heavy 13 year old girl up a big hill "princess style" when she "twisted" her ankle.

11. Sometimes hubcaps like to stay at girls camp after you leave.

12. We have all sorts of cool distant relatives around here that we got to meet an a Reynold's fmaily reunion in Ashton, Idaho.

13. I prefer my regular students to the ones I had in summer school who have the "My daddy can buy my grade" mentality.

14. Cub scouts are FUN!

15. Blogging should happen more often. As much as I snoop and read, I should be doing more of it.

Back to school!

Somehow, the Lord will always make sure you are on the right path. Even if that means he surprises you extra money to get you where you need to be. I have been receiving impressions that I needed to continue on with my schooling, and wasn't quite sure how to go about it. A few weeks ago we received a check in the exact amount needed to pay for school and go out to dinner. So we did just that. After a lovely trip to the salad bar, I enrolled in an online program to pursue two teaching certificates. At the same time, a coworker of mine did as well. And I found out another of my coworkers had recently finished the program. So not only did the Lord provide me with the means to go to school, but he also gave me a study buddy and a mentor! 

Well I certainly have my testimony of paying tithing now!!!!

This program is super exciting. I work at my own pace, but I know that I can finish this by August.

When I finish this program, I will be certified to teach special education at any grade level, as well as any exceptional student. I will also receive my elementary education teaching certificate.

I have had a really rough time lately. I am so glad to see 2009 go. I know that sometimes everyone has to experience adversity, but I think I forgot that.  I was so prideful and angry that I had trials that many people go through. And my suffering helped no one because I was bitter. Only when I realized that did things start to get better.  I have always been given what I need, and that is so much better than what I wanted.

I am a lucky girl. I love my family. I love my husband. I love my job. I love my students. I love my friends (even those I seemed to have lost touch with.) I love the gospel! What else could matter in life?

New Job

A few days before Christmas, I started to feel a little burned out as a sub. For anyone who was unaware, I have been enjoying the footloose and fancy free occupation as a substitute teacher since September.  I got to meet so many neat people who I have learned a lot from, and I loved teaching and getting to know so many students. My favorite aspect of being a sub was the fact that I was often requested to sub at Jake's school! I even got to work directly with him on a few days.

Anyways, as much as I liked it, I didn't have health insurance, nor did I love dealing with some of the nastiest school secretaries to walk this planet. I got to meet some really nice ones, but some were demons. That is what really made me feel burned out. Day after day of working with the glittery eyed beasts who sit behind the front desk just waiting to make you feel like you are less than a human being tends to make a girl tired.

So I have been applying for any openings in the school district where I could settle down and have a little mailbox in the teacher's room of my own. That's all I wanted.

I have interviewed far and wide without much luck (the teaching market is glutted with new, fresh faced college graduates) and a few days after new years, I got an unexpected job offer for a job that I had really wanted.  So, the first week of January I started training at Lincoln alternative high school to work in a new program for students who can't quite handle normal high school. I work in a computer lab with a program that offers about 100 different high school classes, all completely online. I work with three other amazing teachers and we are quite the team. My responsibility lies over creating and evaluating the effectiveness of each class. So when things are quiet I will go through a few lessons of Art, or U.S. history, or P.E., or anything. Just yesterday I created an economics class.  I am also in charge of community service. Some kids have the chance to earn an elective credit through doing hours of community service and I get to help set that up.  It is fun to see them excited about serving others.

The kids I teach are not what others would consider bright stars of this generation. There are students who have parole officers I keep in constant contact with. There are teenage parents who attend around babysitting schedules. There are students just months younger than I who have not been to school since they were 14. And you know what? I adore them. A few days ago we had our  first group of students finish a class. I am so proud of each and every one of them and I know they are brilliant. I am honored to be their teacher.  I will fight for them, and I will make sure that I help them go as far as they want to. Yesterday a kid asked me to help him start looking at college requirements. My heart is full. I am fulfilled. 

They recently did a news story on this new program. http://www.kidk.com/news/82003832.html