The joys of heartache

Why can't I ever blog about happy news?? Why does everything have to be so negative? Todd and I just need to come to the conclusion that medical woes will always follow us no matter how hard we try! Tonight has been a bad night at the Nord residence. We just received two forms from our insurance company saying they are no longer paying for my gynocological visits because they are under the "fertility" umbrella. According to the insurance company, I owe $625 for two Dr. visits in August. I haven't even received anything for September yet, and I saw him two or three times for ultrasounds for my cysts. It's not so much the money issue because we'll just send the Dr. a monthly payment, but in order to keep up the fertility treatments, I have to pay in full each month--that's probably over $1000 without insurance coverage. We just can't keep that up. I guess we'll go back to trying ourselves, but we know where that has led us in the past. It breaks my heart to think that young girls get pregnant every day (we have a few at school that I see on a regular basis!), yet there are women like myself who want a baby more than anything, and after years of trying to get pregnant, and we all hit is a brick wall. I don't understand it, and while I'm sure I'm not meant to understand it, I wish for once that something would go our way.

Okay, enough of that...Tomorrow is Friday! Most of my kids at school have earned the privilege of having Starbucks (they are paying half) and watching a movie. Luckily for them, I'm so nice!!

Just an update

Not much new to report here, but this will at least give you something new to look at when you pull up my blog. I went back to the doctor on Friday and I still have one of the three cysts still hanging around. I am supposed to stay on the pill for at least another week and a half, then go back for another ultrasound. Maybe I will have some better news then!


On another medical note, my allergies have been really bad this past week! Of course, it doesn't help that we have our house wide open and the attic fan blowing in all the pollen around us. Todd thinks that we can save a bunch of money on our electric bill this way, but I have tried reasoning with him by saying that I would rather be able to breathe and sleep at night than have a cheaper bill. I always lose that argument! Needless to say, I am ready for some much cooler weather to come our way. Not snow or ice by any means, but how about some temps in the upper 60s, lower 70s for a change? Cooler weather also means wearing thicker and longer clothes to work, which means I may need to go shopping! It seems I don't have as much to wear in the colder months like I do in the warmer ones.


I know there is a new scrapbook challenge, one that I would really like to do, but I don't know if I will make it or not. I haven't scrapped in so long--I definitely need a weekend getaway. I don't see one coming this fall, but maybe sometime this winter! I just need to get my stuff together and do it! This is one of the pics I know I want to scrap, but I don't know when!


TTFN!

Bad baby news

I'm sure all of you know that Todd and I have been trying to have a baby for some time now. I have been off the pill since March 2000, but we have only really just been "actively" trying since March 2006. That's when I had surgery to remove several cysts from both ovaries and my uterus. Well, since then, I have been taking daily medication, seeing my GYN about 3-5 times each month for ultrasounds, checkups, get more meds, get my monthly shot, etc. I have been doing all of this in the hopes that someday a baby would come.

Todd and I have had a little setback. I actually don't know how major or minor this setback will be, but it is one nonetheless. Monday night around 1:07 am (I remember the time distinctly!!), I woke up to go to the bathroom. As soon as I stepped out of bed, I doubled over in the most severe pain I have ever felt. I just felt like my ovaries/uterus had just exploded inside! I couldn't walk, lay down, sit, recline, anything. Todd wanted to take me to the emergency room, but I wanted to wait it out. I am tired of paying for all these medical bills--I didn't want to add an ER trip to the total! I did call the Dr.'s office and talked to the on-call nurse. She basically told me to either come into the ER or wait until morning to call the Dr. Thanks lady--I could have figured that out by myself!!

Todd gave me some aleve and it helped the pain go away after 45 min-1 hour. The next morning, I woke up okay, no real cramping, just slightly "like any other time of the month" cramping. I called the Dr. and talked to his nurse. Long story short--I went in today for a check-up and another ultrasound. As soon as he looked at the ultrasound screen, he knew what the problem was. I had 3 "sizeable" cysts on my right ovary. I'm not sure what the numbers really are, but I know they like my follicles to be between 17-20 for ovulation. These cysts were around 44. They were huge!! One took up almost the entire screen! He wants me to take it very easy over the next week or so, then go back on birth control pills until the cysts are back down to a normal size. When he said that, I about cried!! I haven't been on BC in so long.

I just feel like Todd and I back to square one--even worse that square one! Even thinking about it just makes me want to give up, but I am not a quitter. I may quit other things--diets, for one, but I will not quit on this! Just keep your fingers crossed (and if you want to say a little prayer) that these will come back down and not get any worse. Sorry for rambling--once I started, I couldn't stop.

I've Been Tagged!

I have been tagged by Kodi (of course!)! She tagged a while back, but I just haven't had time to get online to do anything *fun* since school started. I am sure all you teachers out there can sympathize! Since I have been tagged, I will try my best.

Here are the rules:
1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had. ***IF you have already done your middle name than do the State that you live in with new adjectives!*****
3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts. ***Or state if you have already been tagged before!***
4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Here is mine:
K--Kind--I try to be nice to everyone I meet. Usually I am too nice and it ends up biting me in the rear. I have this one student this year that I am trying to kill with kindness. He is so angry and depressed all the time. I know he had a horrible middle school experience, so I am trying to make up for that. We'll see how far my kindness will go with him!
R--Robin--I miss my dear friend Robin probably more than she knows. She moved to California not too long after she got married back in 1998. I have only seen her 2-3 times since then. Every time we talk on the phone, we both just end up bawling like babies! I hope to see her soon--maybe this Christmas!
I--Ignorance--Todd always tells me that for someone with lots of "book smarts", I don't have any "street smarts" or common sense. I guess that's true! I have horrible observation skills. I will drive by something a hundred times before noticing that it's there. My mother is the exact same way! I guess that's where I get it from!
S--Sassy--I would love to be more sassy in my everyday life. I wish I could be more aggressive and assertive, but again, it all goes back to my K word--Kind. I am too nice to be sassy!
T--Travel--I love to travel! Although I enjoy staying home on the weekends during the school year, I love to travel during the summer! One of my goals is to see all 50 states before I die. I would also love to go to London, Paris, Rome and Moscow. Todd and I are hoping to go on a cruise next summer for our 10-year anniversary. We have also talked about going back to Hawaii instead. I have a feeling we will go to whichever place is cheaper!
I--(another I?) Inventive--At school I have to be inventive with my curriculum. I didn't even have a Reading curriculum until just about a week before school started. Because these kids usually hate to read, and they are in my class to learn how to be better readers, I have to invent ways of making reading fun. I try my best, and sometimes things I think are fun don't turn out that way at all in the classroom, but other times, my kids surprise me! We'll see how their textbook presentations go this week!
N--No--I am slowly learning to say "No" to people when they ask if I would do something. For example, when asked if I would continue to sponsor Key Club this year, I politely said, "No." It's not that I don't like the Key Club kids, but I would have to be at every after school meeting, before school meeting, conventions, etc. When asked if I would teach an English III class on my Conference hour, I politely said, "Oh Dear God, No!" Yes, I would be paid for it, but my conference time is the only time I have to work on SRI (reading test across grades 9-11) stuff. If I gave that up, I would be at school until 8-9 pm most nights! No way!! Uh-uh! Not going to happen!

Well, that's my tagged post. I am supposed people with the letters of my middle name, but I'm not sure I know people who read my blog with those letters, so here ya go:
You've been tagged--Mom, Robin, Haley
If you don't have blog, you can do your list as a comment on my blog.

Have fun!

Day 1 down, 176 or so more to go

The first day of school is now behind me and I am exhausted!! I never sleep very well the night before the first day, and last night was no different. I woke up this morning nervous and excited to see all of my new students. Although I have small classes because I am teaching Reading, I can already tell they will be a handful. I think they will be fun to teach, though, because they actually interact with each other and with me. So far, so good!


I had to give my presentation on Tuesday, and you all know that I was SCARED TO DEATH!! I literally thought the audience of my peers would be able to hear my heart beating through the microphone, but I guess they couldn't. I had created a Powerpoint slideshow of facts, statistics, and just some things that a classroom teacher could do to help his/her students with reading. My presentation took just a little over an hour, and by the time I was finished, I wasn't nervous at all! Everyone was very kind, and gave me glorious reviews! I even had people saying that I need to be presenting professionally. I don't think so!! I may have been okay on Tuesday, but I don't think my heart or my stomach could handle it on a daily basis! Overall, I was very proud of myself when all was said and done. I am just so glad it's done!!


I am looking forward to this weekend. No big plans, but I want to re-read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I am beginning it tomorrow during class (during SSR time), and hopefully will continue it next week. I am also looking forward to planning my first big Reading lessons for next week. I will try to get those done tomorrow. Can you believe the projector in my room actually works? Now I can show my computer screen to the entire class! I even made up an SSR Powerpoint to show the kids tomorrow. I am moving on up!!


P.S. I had to share this picture. This one was taken two years ago during a student/faculty basketball game. I was a part of the cheerleading squad!

Back to School...

Next week brings the close of my summer vacation, and I'll be back at school every day. I have already been up there for a week and a half (give or take a day) setting up my new room, having meetings about upcoming school year events and changes, and just trying to get ready for the new year. If you didn't already know, Kickapoo is trying a new program for incoming Freshmen. These are 9th graders who have already been targeted as potential dropouts if something doesn't change for them. Well, that change is me and two other freshmen teachers. I will have these guys for 1st Block Reading, then I will travel with them to their Science class. I will also have them 2nd semester for English, and they will be together for Social Studies class as well. Other schools have tried similar programs and have been very successful, so we are trying it out. I am a little nervous, but I like that the class is relatively small. I think there are 20 kids registered in the program, but I'm not sure how many will show on the first day. We'll have to wait and see!

I meant to take pictures of my new room this week, but I forgot to take the camera to school. I will post pics when I can. This is my 5th move in 8 years. I DO NOT WANT TO MOVE AGAIN!! I know I will have to move when the construction is finished, but that may be a couple of years away. This is my first time having a full-size classroom of my own though. I have always had either a special ed room (former closet) or shared a bigger room with another teacher. I will miss Hayley this year, but we each get our own room! YEAH!!

Good luck to all of my teacher friends who start school this week or who have already began. Pretty soon we will be back to our Christmas vacation, Spring Break, and then summer vacation again!

Had a blast, plan to go back for more!

It seems as if it has been FOREVER since I have posted on my blog, and by the look of my previous post, it has been (wink-wink:)! If you are reading this now, you may want to go grab some food or a drink or go to the bathroom because this will be probably be a LONG post. After all, I need to tell you all about our trip to the House of Mouse!

Day 1: I did not sleep at all the night before up in KC because we had to be up at 4 am to catch our flight out at 6 am. Needless to say, I was exhausted that morning. At one point, I even fell asleep while sitting up in my aisle seat on the plane leaning out toward the window (wow--that's a lot of prepositional phrases!!). Once we arrived in Orlando, we got our rental car, a blue Ford Taurus (not Todd's first choice, but cheap), and went to our hotel. We were pleasantly surprised by this hotel. We were paying a very cheap rate (roughly $40/night), but the hotel itself and room were very nice by our standards. We had a fridge and microwave in our room, plus we didn't have to walk up any stairs with our (my) heavy luggage! That first day we went to Downtown Disney and spent some souvenir money. We also ate dinner at Planet Hollywood before seeing the Cirque de Soliel show. For anyone who has not seen this type of show before, RUN to the nearest show and see it people!! This was our second time, and it felt like I was seeing a brand new show for the first time. There is so much to see and take in that you have to see it more than once. I know we will go see this show again and again!

Day 2: We arrived at Magic Kingdom by 9 am just in time for the opening. We went straight to Adventureland to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. This was Todd's first time (my second--hee hee!) to see this ride since they updated it from the movie. Jack looks so real in this ride! We knew we wanted to go over to Tom Sawyer's Island because this was something we had never done in all of our trips to Disney World. I had read about finding paintbrushes from the DisBoard (Thanks!), and since we were on the first raft over to the island, we found 2 right away. We had no idea what they were used for, but we picked them up and held them proudly! We eventually gave one to a little girl because we knew we didn't need both of them. Once we got back to the "mainland", our entire raft was choses for "A Year of a Million Dreams" Fastpasses!!!! We were so excited! This meant that we had fastpasses (skip to the head of the line for you non-Disney folk) for most of the major rides at Magic Kingdom. We could only use them once, but that was plenty! We also found out that the paintbrushes meant we had unlimited fastpasses to both Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain!! We were in seventh heaven! You would have thought we had just won a million-dollar lottery!

We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon just walking around and taking in all of the Magic Kingdom. We met Brer Bear and Brer Fox in Frontierland. We waited a good 45 minutes to meet Ariel, then waited at least 30 minutes more to meet Snow White (or Snow Tan to us), Cinderella, Aurora, and Belle. We also found Chip, Dale and Goofy.

That night we had reservations at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary Resort. We met and sat next to a really cool family from Illinois. We took pictures for each other during our meal. At this character dinner, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, and Goofy all came by to say hello and pose for some pictures. The food was good, but the atmosphere was just that much better!

Once we got back from dinner, we rode more rides and took in more attractions, but the highlight of the night was still yet to come. We watched "Wishes", the fireworks show, from behind the castle for the first time. It was a PERFECT spot to see the fireworks, even though we didn't have the castle in our view. We got to sit for a while and just take in the view. Once the fireworks were over, tons of people left the park, but many stayed to see the second parade of "SpectroMagic". Seeing this parade was the highlight of our day. Actually, what a man said behind us during the parade made our day! A VERY southern Hick man and his kids were standing behind us, and he gave us a play-by-play of each and every float that went by. Imagine in your very best Hick, southern accent: "Hey, look! It's Mary Poppins! Hey, look! It's Mickey Mouse! I got him, I got him gooooooooood!" The best moment came though, when he shouted out, "Hey look! It's the three little pigs!" (This was correct...) "Hey look! It's the three blind mice!" (This was NOT correct...it was the mice from Cinderella!!!!!) Todd and I laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed so hard we both had tears streaming down our faces. I don't think I even took pictures for 3-4 floats because I was laughing so hard! This made our day and we still just crack up every time one of shouts out "3 blind mice"!

Day 3: Not as much to report for Epcot this day. We arrived at the opening and fastpassed Soarin'. We rode Nemo and Friends for the first time while we waited for our fastpass time to arrive. We spent the morning in the Future World part of Epcot, riding Living with the Land, Mission Space, Test Track, Ellen's Energy Adventure (good napping ride), and taking in Crush's Turtle Talk, Journey with Figment, and Honey I Shrunk the Audience (a classic favorite of mine). While we were waiting in line for Test Track, the ride broke down again! We have not been to Epcot yet when Test Track has not broken down. We were in the middle of the line, so we decided to stick it out. I sat down and actually fell asleep on the floor!!!

After doing everything we wanted to do in Future World, we walked over to World Showcase. This time we started on the right side over by England and walked around right to left. In the World Showcase, we met Mary Poppins for the first time, but we were also on the lookout for Aladdin. Alas, he was not to be found. He is one character that we want to meet, but he keeps disappearing on us!

We actually left early that night before Illuminations, the night show, even began. My feet were absolutely killing me, and we were both just so tired that we knew we would do a lot better the rest of the vacation if we just went back to the hotel and got some sleep. My feet hurt so badly that I felt like you could have chopped off my feet and I would have felt a lot better. I took off my sandals and wore my Crocs (ugly, but Disney!) the rest of the trip. My feet never hurt again after that!!! I am a believer!

Day 4: This was an easier day as it was spent at Animal Kingdom. While AK is the biggest park square miles-wise, it is probably the smallest walking-wise because the biggest part is spent on a Jeep during the Safari. After we did the Safari, we rode Expedition Everest. This is not a scary rollercoaster by any means, but it just a cool ride! I was actually brave enough to carry my camera with me and get some pictures while on the ride. I think they turned out pretty cool! That afternoon we took in the new "Finding Nemo" Musical. I LOVED LOVED LOVED this show!!! Todd only tolerated it for me (thank you honey!), but now this show is my new favorite! The show is made up of larger-than-life puppets and singers/dancers/puppeteers. Just awesome! We ate lunch at Rainforest Cafe, then went back to the hotel to rest. This was the first time we have ever done this while on vacation. We never go back to the hotel during the day, but we were just tired, and we had literally done everything at AK we wanted to. After our 3-hour nap, we went over to Citywalk at Universal to eat dinner at Bubba Gump's. This dinner was fantastic! We both had four different kinds of shrimp, and they were all delicious!!

Day 5: This was another exhausting, long day, but one of our favorites! This was the day we always save for last because MGM/Disney Studios is Todd's favorite park and my second favorite (MK being the first, of course!). During the morning we rode Aerosmith's Rockin' Roller Coaster two times, with the first time being when we were chosen as "A Year of a Magical Dreams" winners again! This time we each won a Magical Dreams lanyard and pins. Not as cool as the first winning, but still cool to win again! We also rode Tower of Terror (my favorite ride in the park!) a few times. We saw the Beauty and the Beast show. Again, I love it, Todd tolerates it. We also rode the Great Movie Ride. Todd swears we had ridden this ride before, but I didn't remember it at all. I even looked in old scrapbooks and couldn't find pictures of it at all. We ate lunch at the 50's Prime Time Cafe. I was scolded for having my elbows on the table, and Todd was scolded for not taking off his hat. We shared a lunch but then each had our own dessert! I ordered something I had not had in years--S'mores! Later that day, we rode Star Tours twice, took in the Muppets 3D show, the Backlot Tour, and walked through Walt Disney-One Man and a Dream exhibit. This was a really cool walking tour of Walt's life as a small boy to his vision and dream of Disney World. We got to see his second grade desk with his initials carved into it, plus replicas of his drawing table and office. We also did the Animation Tour basically just so we could meet the Incredibles, but they were off taking care of Jack-Jack. We only were able to meet Frozone. We wanted to meet Ratatouille since he was a new character, but he was leaving in 5 minutes and we knew we couldn't get up to the front of the line by then. That night we ate dinner at Hollywood and Vine (not impressed), and saw the night show "Fantasmic". That is exactly how I would describe that show as well. It's so good and one that I hope they never get rid of!

Day 6: Our last day of the Disney vacation and we had one more day of parks left on our tickets. Since they were going to expire within 14 days, we decided to go back to MGM/Disney Studios. We rode Aerosmith and Tower of Terror again, then saw the Indiana Jones stunt show. We had great seats for this, probably the best seats for any show we saw this week. We rode Star Tours again, plus the Great Movie Ride again. Todd wanted to make sure I remembered riding it this time! I also stood outside the big hat to watch the "High School Musical Pep Rally". Yes, I am 29 years old, and I love "High School Musical"!! This live show was cute, but the best part was two other girls about my age who didn't speak much English and I danced and sang to all the songs! Since this was our last day, and we had had incredible luck with the weather, it was bound to rain sometime. Well, it did today. Luckily, it only rained our last 20-30 minutes of actually being in the park, and then we had to head to the airport to catch our flight home. We were both very sad to be leaving, but we know we will be back again someday, hopefully soon!

We spent the rest of the week at Todd's parents' house in KC. They had a houseful! We were there, plus two of Todd's cousins and their families were there. We all had such a wonderful time, though. We never get to spend time with that side of the family, so it was nice to actually get to know them a little bit. In fact, I hadn't seen Rusty and Michelle since our wedding almost 9 years ago!

After being away from home for two weeks, Todd and I were both glad to come home to our doggy, Soze. She missed us so much and was so happy when we got home. We couldn't even go to the bathroom (seperately) without her coming with us to make sure we weren't leaving her again. Thankfully, we won't be leaving again for a long time, so Soze should have nothing to worry about. At least, not until I go back to school in 2 weeks.

TOP 11 THINGS WE LEARNED WHILE ON VACATION: (It was 10, but we had to add 1 more important point!)

11--Behind the castle is the best place to view just the fireworks at Magic Kingdom because it's not nearly as crowded and we could sit down!

10--Credit cards, loose change, and theme parks can mess up our room keys--we had to get new ones made twice!

9--Crocs are my new best friend.

8--Don't buy the pre-paid full tank of gas from the car rental company. We paid for a full tank at $2.87/gal, and we only used less than 1/2 the tank. We could have filled up for $2.79/gal.

7--We found 27 hidden Mickeys out of possible hundreds. We will buy the book next time to help us!

6--We discovered what happens when we find paintbrushes on Tom Sawyer's Island--free stuff!

5--Space Mountain, Star Tours, Aerosmith, Test Track, and Dinosaur are all as bumpy as ever.

4--Princesses are the most difficult to find and time-consuming to meet.

3--Disney takes great pride in the quality of their live shows and caters to kids of all ages (some more than others).

2--We want to stay on-site the next time we go. Yes, it's more expensive, but the details make up for it--Magical Express, put all charges on the room key, Extra Magic Hours, etc.

1--Disney is just as magical as ever, no matter which trip number we are on!

Now I just can't wait to scrapbook all of this!!