Happy Birthday Summer!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sounds like everyone else is having a wonderful week, just like me.......June is coming, right???
And I do get the do-do head award for my flu shot reminder ( I heard the news later about the shortage). Aw, get your Flumist.....that is a domestic company and as I understand there is no shortage of them. Being that all of us are under the age of 50 there should be no problem there....
Sorry to be short. Have lots to do to set up Ds for dinner tonite, so that I can have 3 hours off for good behavior. Mouse, Kerry, Summer and Robyn- have a great day!
Ginny

I'm back. The previous owner of our home left behind many surprises over the years, and we just discovered another...above the drop ceiling in our dining room is really bad mold. DD and I have asthma. This is no joke. DH tore down contaminated ceiling tiles and pieces of sheetrock and is now using mold/mildew cleaner on it. He is two rooms away from me with the windows open and the doors closed, and the fumes are bugging me. :faint:

Well, I had the biopsy today. My boob is killing me, and I probably shouldn't be typing right now, but I'm bored. I had to lie face down on a HARD table with a hole in it for my boob to hang into...pleasant. It was so friggin uncomfortable on that table...a man must have invented it. Anyway, mammograms were performed on me to pinpoint the area, novacaine was injected, and a small incision was made for the biopsy. It hurt a little, but the doctor was good about giving me more novacaine as needed. They put a chip inside me marking the spot in case the tissue will need to be removed. After the biopsy, I had two more mammograms which made me bleed...duh! Besides my boob being SQUEEZED TO DEATH :fr: the worst part was that awful table. I am taking ibuprofen and a good stiff drink for pain, not to mention an ice pack.

Ginny, since I have asthma, flu mist will not be an option for me. I must find a flu shot. I am assuming since I am part of a high risk group, I will be able to get one somewhere. Good for you getting back to WW and the beauty salon!

Kerry, I really hate it when parents drop off a sick kid in the morning and then won't pick them up when we call. Last Friday, we had an awards ceremony...student of the month and perfect attendance. I had a girl getting a perfect attendance award (big deal!). She was really dragging, so my aide took her temperature which was 102! We called mom who said she wouldn't be there till the ceremony...an hour later. We had no nurse (we only have one on Tues. & Thurs.) so we couldn't keep her isolated from the other children. Mom arrived and as her child was hanging her head and clearly ill, she waited to take her home throughout the entire hour long ceremony! The girl left a few minutes before dismissal! Now we've all been exposed and all mom cares about is the stupid friggin computer-generated certificate. :mad: So, I understand how you feel about these parents' priorities...they're all screwed up.

Mousie, don't you just "love" it when the administration comes up with yet another "great" idea?! If they would just let us teach...

Robyn, more often than not, I can't get everything done that I need to over the weekend. I always say that if we had three-day weekends, I could do it. That one more day makes quite a difference. Just think, Columbus Day is Monday. Maybe you will catch up then.

Well my friends, I don't expect my pathology results till the beginning of next week. When I get them, you will have them as well.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, and please keep the prayers coming!

My TA is so on my list of people to do harm to right now. I asked her to help me out by copying the information for the damn green binders. I didn't ask her to MAKE the binders, keep them updated, store them, nothing... just help copy. I had meetings to go to during our half-day after the kids left today. She didn't want to do it, I know that. So what does she do? Goes to our supervisor and asks for clarification as to what she is to do with the binders! I was livid. That was on top of the whole field trip mess, and my supervisor casually suggesting to our development/grant office that I might like (LIKE? IS HE INSANE?!) to take my students to our huge fund-raising event the "Festival of Trees". To price the items, and then later to help tear down. Oh, and I can take them on the LIGHT RAIL/METRO/SUBWAY. Yea. Okay. Just what I want to do! :RRRRR:
I am getting to the point again where I can't eat, because I'm so nauseous all the time, and it HAS to be from stress. So I did go to the gym, but not my entire workout: just 50 minutes or so, swimming and weights. I was going to stay longer, but I was getting a headache from not eating.
:mad: I'm just SO FREAKING MAD at them! Mid-terms are due, and I have that snotty idiot database administrator who is still being a snotty witch to me. My TA is acting like a jerk... GRRR!!!!!!!

Summer: I sympathize. I can't imagine, my only references are the CT scan, the MRI and the hidascan. Those were all hard, narrow tables...definitely designed by men.

:mouse:

Well, I decided to use a sick day today. I'm not in agony, but I am sore and uncomfortable...I certainly don't want anyone running up to me for a hug! If I worked in an office-setting, I could probably handle the discomfort.

I feel like such a friggin cliche': It is Breast Cancer Awareness Month; I've just turned 40 (when the average woman has her first mammogram); and it is the day after my biopsy! Whatever!

I don't want to type too long because the motrin is beginning to wear off, and I'm starting to hurt again. So, I will check in tomorrow.

Take care ladies!

Ginny, thanks for the card! ;)

I'm really trying not to panic...OKAY, I'M PANICKING!!! I called my doctor today to see if he is giving flu shots to high risk patients since I have asthma. The very rude receptionist said, "We will not be offering them this year." When I asked, "Even for high risk patients?" She answered. "We will not be offering them this year," and promptly disconnected me. I then called my allergy/asthma specialist. They won't be giving the shots either, but at least the nurse was very apologetic and understanding. Next I called the hospital. They don't have them either!!! I called a clinic, and they told me to call at the end of the month.

I don't mean to overreact, but a cold totally knocks me out. I always get bronchitis, and many times get pneumonia. My asthma gets really bad, and it is really scary. Since I was diagnosed with asthma, my doctors always made me get a flu shot...and now they are telling me that they can't help me. What the f*ck is happening to our healthcare system when there is a way to prevent a serious illness, and the richest country in the world can't get its hands on the vaccine for it?! AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am SOOOOO glad its Friday. This was a horrendous week. I've written more resource referals and lunch detentions that Carter has peanuts. I swear a wrote a lunch detention today because a kid kept saying the word Fifteen in a sing-song voice, and I told him if he did it again (he was doing it to tease another kid who couldn't spell the word) he was going to write the word 100 times in lunch detention. Damn if the kid didn't say the word again, just to see what I'd do!
Another one wound up in in-school suspension from my class because he threw a magnet across the room and scratched up a full-page magnifyer that a visually impaired student uses.
And then we get to my friend, the database administrator. I was told that I needed to go to one program's mid-term review during 1st period. So I went and dropped my grades off with that person. She brought them back down to me. I fixed the errors she found, and reprinted. 5th period, I'm upstairs buying a sandwich (which I later regret doing!) and I get paged. So I called the room... I'm supposed to be at ANOTHER team (the Industry team I'm part of) grade review. But I'd already done it! So, I told the database administrator that. I was very nice about it. I just said, "Your email list said I was assigned to Ms. X." And she said, "I'll talk to you later, but you need to understand me this year!" So I went right to my supervisor, and told him that I'm just not doing this again with her all year long. I've done it with her for the last 2 years, and I've been nothing but polite. I've never reported her to her supervisor, and until last year I never complained about her to anybody. Other staff have complained to administration on my behalf because she's been so unprofessional toward me.

As for health care, Summer: I figured it out a few months ago. My insurance company would rather pay for ultrasounds, MRIs, blood tests, CT scans, 6x yearly visits to an endocrinologist, plus all my medications.... when if they'd approve the damn surgery to remove the pannus, I wouldn't need all of that as often!

:mouse:

Update: I just received word that the hospital I work for is only going to provide flu shots to those people who do direct patient care. I kind of doubt that means the school employees, because I don't think that they consider what we do to be patient care.
I might be wrong, though. My guess would be they'll do people who are actually AT the hospital first.
Which leaves me in a similar position to Summer: I don't have asthma, but I do get bronchitis any time I get a cold; and I have this whole endocrine disorder. I'm not sure that counts as a serious chronic disease though. In the past, prior to my being diagnosed, I was always required to have the flu shot by my employer because so many of my students are medically fragile. Lots of them need to be suctioned or have oxygen if they get colds.
:mouse:

BENIGN!!!!!!!!

:cp: :dance: :hat: :flow1: :flow2: :dancer: :dance: :cp:

WOW! GREAT NEWS SUMMER!!! HUZZAH! CHEERS!

And, of course, a special batch of brownies just for you (they taste much better when celebrating than they do when used for cheering up!)

:mouse:

HOT DAMN and HALLELUJAH!

I'll be back.......WHAT A WEEK THIS HAS BEEN....
one of my kids (AT THE NEW school!) brought a knife to school.

WHEW! Today is baseball, cleaning house and laundry and homework and
for SOME reason I said I'd be in charge of the BoyScout fundraiser...what the helllllll was I thinking????

take care ya'll!

I love it when our kids surprise the heck out of us. Really. A kid I don't even teach swimming to tried to kick another kid in the locker rooms yesterday. I stopped him, and his mom was NOT happy with me. I told the lead instructor that the kid, from what I've observed over the last 4 weeks of lessons, is headed straight for my school and one of our more restrictive progams. The kid kicked the teacher last night too.
And I see what happens when these dysfunctional kids become adults... I'm dispatcher this weekend, so ... I had one client who needed a hotel, and we can't use our usual one that we use downtown because the manager pitched a hissy fit on me Friday night and hung up on me. He's upset because we're doing payment different, and none of the hotels seem able to follow a simple direction: DO NOT SWIPE THE PAYMENT CARD UNTIL CHECK OUT! Its not hard. Take the card from the client. Attach it to their folio. Swipe it at checkout. If it doesn't work, call the Red Cross. Its not like the Red Cross is going to disappear off the face of the planet! Better yet, read the Merchant Instructions sheet that we send with the card!
ARRRRGH! Anyway, this lady was sent to the Econolodge near our chapter. She said she didn't work and had no transportation. I was pretty pleased: I got her right on a major bus route, and 2 miles from chapter. 2 miles with sidewalks and set-up for pedestrians... near a large grocery store and lots of fast-food choices. That EconoLodge doesn't always have rooms... they're usually full.
She called me 3 hours after my team left her to go to the hotel, asking if we could put her somewhere else. I'd tried other hotels, but for whatever reason, lots of the hotels were full. Apparently, she called one of them and they told her they had a room, but the hotel didn't understand she was a Red Cross client... we get a discounted rate (really, really discounted...like $52/night instead of $79!). When they understood that,t hey didn't have any rooms available because the regular rooms were sold out. So last night, I go off to teach swimming (dealt with the kicker), and I'm driving home and the pager goes off... its this woman again. She's in ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY...near BWI Airport... at least 10 miles from the city, and a good 15-20 miles from the hotel that she said was too far away for her since she had no money and no transportation... wanting to stay at the Motel 6 near the airport! For pity's sake! Hotels near airports cost a lot more, and now this woman without transportation isn't even in the same County or City as where she needs to be on Monday morning when she checks out of the hotel and needs to get services!
And she picked a hotel that we don't even have a contract with, so of course, they had no idea how to use the card. She has two teenage boys, doesn't work... :shrug:
I feel badly for lots of them, but sometimes they just do things and its so clear they didn't THINK before they did them! How the heck is she going to get from Anne Arundel County to the City housing office or the Red Cross office to do what she needs to do on Monday?
:mouse:

Yesterday I went shopping with birthday gift certificates. I got DD a couple more birthday presents. After trying on multitudes of tops, I found a sweater that is actually up-to-date, in style this season, fits my body, and looks good!!! So I bought three of them...black, burgundy, and periwinkle blue!!! I have such a hard time finding something in my size that is fashionable and fits me, that when I do, I try to buy more than one color. My body is tough because I have a short stubby neck, huge boobs, I'm short-waisted, have wide hips, a big belly, very long legs, and wide feet. So, no matter what I wear, it has to be in a "special" size...plus sized, 42 DDD, tall, 8 wide. So, as I'm sure you can imagine, shopping for clothing is a royal challenge. I used to be a junior 9/10, 36 C, tall, 7 medium width. So, the only issue was the length of my pants. I used to check out Vogue and Mademoiselle and follow the fashion trends. Now I look for something that will cover my body without embarrassing me. I have actually skipped church because I had nothing to wear that I looked attractive in. How screwed up is that?! I look forward to losing weight and having an easier time dressing.

Yesterday I passed the Estee Lauder counter and the saleslady stopped me to give me a pink ribbon. Apparently Estee Lauder had breast cancer. Well, I told her that I had a biopsy a few days ago and the tumor was benign. The saleslady just moments before a total stranger to me gave me a hug and congratulated me. We were both crying. Isn't it amazing how women can relate to each other on such a personal level when it is about life and death?

Mousie, I give you a lot of credit for putting up with all the bullsh*t you put up with. I don't know if I would have the patience. The Red Cross is lucky to have you. I hope that the "powers that be" know that. Thanks for the brownies...they were delicious!!!

Robyn, thanks for celebrating with me.

Ginny & Kerry, I hope your long weekend is relaxing.

Oh, one more thing. 40 isn't looking so bad to me anymore. You see, I have a new perspective. I'm alive, and I plan on being a very old woman one day...wrinkles and all. But, I will NEVER act my age...I never have...why should I start now? ;)

Compared to the school that I work at, dealing with the clients at the Red Cross is a piece of cake!
The database administrator got me again today. I swear, if that lady doesn't leave me alone... I told my supervisor that if he didn't do something about her that I'd go the director of the school or the database admin's supervisor or I'd quit...and I'd make sure my grades weren't done when I left! She is REALLY getting on my nerves with nit-picky crapola.
I accidentally filed one kid's report in his twin brother's folder. They're identical twins, I have both boys, and one is in 3rd period, the other is in 4th. Sue me, I made a mistake and didn't realize it. They found the report, it was NOT a major deal that needed to be CC'd to my supervisor.
Also... and I'm throwing this question out to ALL of you teachers or parents...
Our mid-term ended last Wednesday, 10/6/04. I entered grades last on 10/4/04.
I put grades in one time per week, and the only daily grade students get in my classroom is 50 points for appropriate work-place behavior. Therefore, there was no grade for me to enter after 10/1/04, as the grades entered on 10/4 were for the previous week. She's telling me I should have been putting grades in the electronic gradebook up to and through 10/6/04. I think that's insane...
Why would I rush or enter grades for assignments that are to come in the future?
How do you gals that use electronic gradebooks do it?
As it happens, there were no grades for any specific assignments on Monday or Tuesday. I only see half my kids on Wednesdays, and they work on their portfolios then. Their portfolios won't get a grade until the end of 2nd quarter because there isn't enough IN there to grade!
Now they want me to go back and put in grades for the 4th, 5th and 6th so that "I have grades through 10/6/04." That's just flat out stupid, IMO.

:mouse:

Oh, and Summer, I forgot this. A good friend of mine says that (and I know he gets it from somebody else, just don't remember who) if you don't grow up by 40 (50?) you don't have to.

:mouse: