Fun Times

Oh buddy....what whirlwind life has been lately. 

First off,  Brian has been cleared with a full bill of health!!! YEAH!!! He has had his followup with the surgeon and the pulmonologist and they both cleared him of any fluid left in his chest cavity! We were very thrilled. 

School has been going great.  I started a new educational system with my freshmen (check it out here) and it has been so successful!! I am a huge fan of how it is working out and it has not only made my life easier with less grading to do at home, but i really feel like I have been working more with my kids and they are comprehending more than just the normal set up of a classroom.  If you are interested in what I do in my classroom, keep an eye on that blog for updates. 

As for today - HAPPY EASTER every one!  I hope everyone is enjoying a day filled with fun with your families.  We on the other hand are being productive today.  (ish) Brian is doing work around the house - which he hasn't done in over a month!  I finished up my last post in my master's current master's class and am doing chores while updating both of my blogs.  We did bring in the holiday with some great fun with friends. 

Friday I was able to have lunch with Brian and his work buddies and I finally got to see his office!  Holy crap, my husband is a grown up dude!  He has a cubicle (with no personality!) and he works in a huge building that has its own cafeteria, gym and heath center! Its nuts.  But it was cool to see him in his daily environment.

Then we had some old friends come over and hang out friday night.  This pretty much summarizes the night. 

Oh - and going on a walk with the puppies at midnight and Jack getting loose and then watching/laughing at Brian while he chased the get away puppy.  No worries, we got him back safe and sound.

So that led to Saturday where we slept on the couch and were complete and utter BUMS all day!  It was fabulous. 

Saturday night we went over to Taryn & Andrew's for our mostly-sometimes-depends-on-the-season-weekly game night.  We played Quelf.  Now, if you have never played this game - you need to.  It is so freaking hilarious and we almost die laughing everytime.  Basically - this is what to expect. 

Yes - that is a piece of paper taped to my forehead and that is aluminum foil over my hand.  Its entertaining to say the least.

Well Andrew went to bed a like a normal person and we stayed up and started talking about educational technology...transitioned into educational reform....transitioned into politics......transitioned into religion.....transitioned back to politics.....transitioned into personal beliefs....transitioned into what is wrong with society...(this is where I couldn't keep my eyes open any more and fell asleep on the couch)...but Taryn and Brian kept talking and needless to say - we didn't get home until 6:30 this morning.  So we slept - until 2pm when we finally got out of bed to face the world. 

Everyone wish us luck in our coming days to help us get back on a normal sleep schedule and to have a great coming week.  I hope every one else has a great day with family and that sets you up for a fantastic and productive week as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update and THANK YOU!!!

So Brian and I are finally home from the hospital! We were discharged yesterday morning and were home just after noon. It was incredibly nice to be home!

The puppies obviously missed us, they were very hyper to see us, which is really odd because they normally don't freak out over us; just strangers. We had to hold them back from Brian because of his wounds from surgery but ally was quite determined to get some full body contact with him. (See picture below)

As for an update on Brian, he is doing pretty good. To catch you up..he did have surgery on Tuesday morning. They gave him an epideral for the pain before surgery and then he went in. They put him under anesthesia and tried to use the scope but it wasn't enough so they had to do the thorocotomy to get out the fluid. Then they "power-washed" (doctors exact words) his chest cavity to clean it out...then put 3 chest tubes in to drain all the excess fluid. The surgery took about 3hrs and then we still didnt see him for another 3 hrs because they were waiting for him to wake from anesthesia and trying to get the pain under control in the recovery room. When we finally saw him I was very relieved, it was nerve racking waiting!!! He got to keep the epideral in until Friday and he also got the chest tubes taken out too. So he was tube free on Friday and in good spirits. The only issues we had were managing the pain and the nausea caused by the pain meds.

He is still very sore and it's hard to move around but the pain meds they prescribed help. Before we left yesterday (was it really only yesterday?!?!?) they changed his dressing to a clear one that he could take off in 48hrs, they said by then it would be closed enough for showers/soap/water wouldn't cause any damage...but with the clear, that meant I could see his wounds. Now....don't get me wrong; I am not a squeamish person. Heck, I dissect cats in A&P and have no issues! But when it comes to Brian, I get all grossed out by the smallest cut that causes him any pain. So when I went to wash him down with the washcloths I saw the damage and was instantly freaked. He has a 5inch line on his shoulder blade from the thorocotomy...but he also had 3 HOLES (yes, literally HOLES, as in I CAN SEE INSIDE MY HUSBAND HOLES) in his side from the chest tubes. Of course I freak out and his first reaction is "I wanna see!!" So he went over to the mirror and was like "ewww" ya, don't have to tell me twice. And to make it worse, I had to change the dressing tonight and actually wash the nastiness. He better freaking love me for the gross things I do for him! Ha.

But this blog is not just for an update on Mr. Sickly...it is to thank everyone for the love and support that we received during out stint in the hospital.

First off, hats off to the people who came to the rooms and visited us, kept our bellies full of real food, spirits lifted and boredom levels low!

Mom and Dad, i cannot thank you enough. you have been there through the whole process and keeping me positive. You gave up your week off from school to hang out with me and keep my anxiety levels down. thanks for making me smile even when i felt like crying when he was under the needle. i love you mostest. I know Brian was grateful too because without you, he would have died from malnutrition from not eating nasty hospital food.

Charlene, thank you for risking the bad weather and staying in a hotel to be with us. I know Brian was incredibly grateful for you giving up your time to be there. You helped keep conversation positive and not focused on the "what-ifs" we really appreciate it.

Dave, thank you for coming up to visit. Even though it was short your cookies and card brought a sense of normalcy to the crazy week. :) I know Brian was excited because he told be about 500 times that you were planning on coming. The small gesture meant a lot.

A special thanks to Johnathan and Ashley for not only bringing us food at the hospital, visiting with him after the surgery, but most of all for staying at our place and watching our dogs. You are absolutely amazing and we are so grateful. Thank you for saving us money and keeping the dogs stress level manageable while we were gone. You have also fed us the past few nights and not having to worry about grocery shopping has made our lives so much easier.

To Mother Nature for allowing me to have snow days for Tuesday-Friday and allowing me the stress free environment to focus on my husband and not have to worry about what is happening at school. Also, thanks to Cassie Miller for helping me with sub plans Monday when we went to the emergency room. I really appreciate it.

Also to the countless friends and family who have showed their support via phone calls, texts and on Facebook. I couldn't possibly name you all but I hope you know that each "like" or "comment" really helped keep our spirits up. I promise I read them all to Brian so that he knew just how much he is loved.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

now, time to get back to some sense of normalcy and a regular life. I hope everyone has a good week and know that our gratefulness of your efforts to show your love and support can never be expressed by a simple "thank you"

The Full Story

I know a lot of family has been following Brian's sickness on Facebook and I wanted to let everyone know the whole story about what is happening from the beginning.

It started about a month ago when Brian had the flu. We didn't take him to the doctor because we thought it was just a virus he had to ride out. He was home sick from work Monday-Thursday and went to work on Friday. Friday he came home and was completely drained and it was hard to breathe, this continued into Saturday. We decided it was time to take him to urgent care. At urgent care they did a chest X-ray and diagnosed him with a severe case of pneumonia. They gave him a z-pack, steroids, antibiotic shot and a breathing machine. He felt better but after all the meds were gone he still had back pain and trouble breathing (this was about 2 weeks after the appt with urgent care).

He had already scheduled a general yearly check up with his primary care physician (PCP) just over a week ago. Told him about the recurring symptoms and they did a CT scan. Then they called us the Monday after (last Monday) really early and told us to come in ASAP to review the results of the CT scan. The said they found fluid in is right lung but they were stumped because he wasn't "sick" with a fever or any other symptoms. Along with the fluid in his lung, they found enlarged lymph nodes and an enlarged spleen which told the doctors that there was some kind of inflammation but they didn't know what was causing the reaction. They took lots of blood to test and had him do another CT, but this time with contrast. They also set us up with an appt with a pulmonologist for Thursday.

The appt Thursday got postponed due to the winter storm to Friday...when we met with the doctor we actually got to see the CT an found out that it was not fluid in his lung, but actually fluid in between the linings of his lung and his chest cavity. A lot of fluid. This is what was causing him to have difficultly breathing because it wouldn't allow his right lung to expand fully. She was also stumped because he wasn't "sick" like he should have been. She finally put a name to the fluid, it's called an empiema. It normally happens with the elderly and when they come in to get diagnosed they are practically on their deathbed...and Brian was odd because he felt fine. Her and his PCP said that if his oxygen levels were lower or if he had a fever they would have admitted him to the hospital right then...but since he was fine he got to stay home but we had to watch him carefully for changes. Assuming nothing changed, we had an appt scheduled with the cardio thoracic surgeon Monday (today) at 3:30

Then he changed Sunday night, he was very fatigued and spiked a fever so we brought him to the emergency room to be safe. The ER looked him over and admitted him to the hospital. By the time we got in our room upstairs and out of the ER, it was about 3am this morning. Then he got the run down of questions, nurses, more questions, IV's of fluids and antibiotics, more nurses and more people checking him out. He's been pretty good all day and we finally got to meet with the surgeon About an hour ago (he has been doing a valve replacement all day)

The surgeon has scheduled surgery for 8:30 tomorrow morning. He plans on trying to get out the fluid as minimally evasive as possible by starting with a scope but he is highly doubtful it will work since the fluid has been in for 3 weeks and is probably very stringy and thick. So if the scope doesn't work, they will open him up for a thorocotomy (the same surgery they do to remove part of a lung) and will have to scrape out the gunk. So depending on how the surgery goes, that will determine how long he is in the hospital. They said to expect being here for the rest of the week.

Well, that's all we know for now...please everyone keep him in your positive thoughts for a good surgery and a healthy recovery. I will try to keep Facebook updated as we know more.

Thanks to all who have given us support during this we truly appreciate all the help and love.

Lately

So I know haven't updated in a really long time (remember how school rules my life??)...well here are the updates from the past few weeks....

First, we celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary in November!  I can't believe that we have been married that long!!  I know it seems like a short amount of time compared to 50 years that my grandparents celebrated...but STILL! Four years!  The time has just flown by and it has had its ups and downs, but i wouldn't trade a minute of it.  Everything we have been through and accomplished has made our relationship stronger.  I love him.

 Then Mr. Handsome celebrated his 25th birthday!  I am officially married to a man who gets an insurance discount because of his age! haha! For his birthday we went to Carrabbas (no surprise there right??) and I did a project where blew up 25 balloons with 25 memories attached to them.  It was super fun to watch him read them all.  Take a look on facebook to see them all. :)

We also went to TransSiberian Orchestra with Brian's parents for christmas.  It was super fun to watch all the lights and hear the music.  I love christmas music - especially when its so loud that I can't hear Brian complain about it (like in the car). 

As for school, we got granted Christmas break early!  After the snow storm early Thursday, school was canceled Thursday and Friday! YAY!  I don't know how it will all work out with finals, but we will figure it out in January!  For now, I get to just relax and enjoy a break!  Thank goodness.  I am ready for a couple of days of just relaxing and reading.  I already got ahead start on the reading, I finished a book yesterday and started/finished another one in the same day!  Totally worth staying up reading until 2 am!

I have also finished my first class in my masters degree!  YAY!  I won't start another one until January, but so far I am very grateful that I decided to get the process done with now and not put it off any longer! And compared to my Mom's program - I have it EASY! Yet, I am still learning a lot every class!

I have also taught myself some new information about using technology in my classroom!  Using my Ipad, I was able to hook it up to my projector and use it in class!  I can't wait to see how it actually works with kids in the room, but so far my trial run with my A&P kids, it went really well.  Cross your fingers that I can make it as useful and effective as I hope. As you can see, I think its awesome!

We are very excited for the  holidays and for spending time with family.  We get to host Christmas for my side of the family and can't wait for everyone to be here and see all our Christmas decorations!  It will be the last Christmas together where we don't have a little one running around!  If you didn't know yet....we will be an Aunt and Uncle yet again!  But this time my brother and his girlfriend are expecting in June!  I can't wait to spoil the little one like crazy! 

Happy Holidays to every one!  I hope you spend it safe and with the ones you love!

I'll try and keep more updated next spring.....but no promises :)

When Science Teachers are Stumped...

So today I was inspired to make a blog educating the people of the world on the fact that just because my job title says I am a science teacher; doesn't mean I know everything!  :)

Now, don't get me wrong - if you want to think that I am some super, amazing, extraordinary, crazy intelligent person......go right ahead!!! I will not stop you.  But the truth is that I know a lot about what I have been educated over; but if no one has ever taught me the information or I have not been so inclined to learn it on my own...I probably have little knowledge on a given subject.  My lessons this week have really been an mind opener that I need to be more curious.

This week in physical science we are learning about the States of Matter and Phase Changes.  Now, when I took physical science in high school; we learned about three states of matter - solid, liquid and gas.  The teacher mentioned a fourth state of matter, plasma, but did not go into any great detail on what it was or how it worked.  Well....just like Pluto is not a planet anymore...states of matter change too.  We now know of FIVE states of matter!!! (wouldn't have guessed it would ya??)  They are solid, liquid, gas, plasma and the bose-einstien condensate.  Most kids know the basics of solids, liquids and gases but are really curious about the other two.

So here is what I know and what I tell them.  Plasma is a very high energy state of matter.  It is what all of the stars in the universe are comprised of.  The bose-einstien condensate (BEC) is a type of matter that only occurs near absolute zero (roughly -453oF) and is where a group of atoms will behave as one.  I tell them it is like the school of fish in Finding Nemo - there is lots of little fishies that all act as one single object.  That's it - that is literally all I know about these two states of matter.  Last year when I taught it, I didn't have much time and so I couldn't look up new information and this year I again ran out of time.  (I swear that teaching makes time go by faster than the rest of the world!)  Needless to say, my kids are always curious and I have to try and analyze their questions quickly and think of a logical response but they seem to always get me with a question that I literally have no idea how to answer it.  So I have two responses stored in my back pocket.

1. That is a great question!  I appreciate your curiosity, but I do not know the answer...which makes this a great opportunity for you to go home and do some of your own research!  When you figure it out...let me know the what you found out!
2. That is a great question!  I appreciate your curiosity, but I do not know the correct answer...would you like me to make something up so that I can give you an answer?

Both of these responses normally get a few laughs out of the kids and they like that I don't know everything.  I mean, who likes a know-it-all?  I am only human you know....but I can't let the kids see me at the grocery store or gas station - knowing that I do the same daily routine things as them really freaks them out!

Anyways....back on topic.  This whole situation really got me thinking that I need to be more curious!  I need to go back to the basics and ask the questions that the kids will have so that I can be better prepared to answer their questions.  Its been a good reality check that I don't have all the answers and I can always learn more.  Which is actually in really good timing because I start school again next week!

If you did not see my facebook status yesterday; I have signed up for grad school!  It is a cohort program through William Woods University and I will be done the beginning of June 2014.  I will be getting my Masters in Administration.  Even though I am not sure I ever want to be on that side of the desk, I think I will learn a lot and moving horizontally on the pay scale won't be too shabby either!

I hope everyone has a fan-freaky-tastic halloween!!!!!  And don't forget - its never to late to learn something new!

Life in a Nutshell

So..............................Yes, I realize it has been a while since my last post................but I have reasons for that.

Reason #1: My life is controlled by school.
Reason #2: My life is owned by school.
Reason #3: My life is dominated by school.
Reason #4: My life is utterly wrapped around my school life.
Reason #5: The tiny bit of time left over after school is reserved for my husband and family/friend interactions.

So now you ask; well if your life is so completely surrounded by school stuff - how did you you find time to write this blog?

You see, Brian needed to put in some overtime at work this weekend to get caught up on the never ending list of new projects to draw...I really didn't feel like sitting at home alone - so I came with him. My original plan was to work on school stuff the whole time to get ahead for this week...but when we got down here i realized my flash drive is safely stored in my drawer at school.  Figures.  I did the small tasks of what I could do from memory and then I have some glorified, amazing, no thinking involved FREE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I was shocked too. 

Any normal person would think that its a great oppertunity to just relax, sleep or do absolutely nothing....I never said I was normal did I?? I spent a lovely four hours on pinterest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have not been on there since school started  up (have I mentioned that school rules my life?) and I have missed the crafty inspiring website!!!!!!!!!!!! So if you get on pinterest today and your homepage is dominated by my pins, i will not appologize.  It made me happy. :)

As I wait for Brian to finish doing his drafty thingy (aka moving between 5000 screens on his computer in warp speed that would be hell for an epileptic) I will fill you all in on what we have been up to lately.....

If you keep up on my blog (and I don't blame you if you don't....its mainly a journal for me anyways)...you know that our basement is finished!!!!!!!!!!! We love it.  We have had friends over to enjoy it and I couldn't be happier.  We still have small things we need to do for the house...but we seem to be amazing at avoiding them!  I think we had our fill for a while and now enjoy being complete bums on the weekend.

We have tried to go to the OGHS football games...but we have utterly failed.  We have only made it to one so far this year.  (pathetic right??)  I blame Brian; he gets off work too late to make it on time and they are always packed so there is not point in going if you aren't super de duper early.  But this past friday we even drove all the way to harrisonville to watch the game - got there - realized i washed/ruined my get in for free pass because i teach these crazy kiddos and then we had no cash.  The closest ATM was clear across town...and by the time we would have gotten back - we would have been at half time already.  So we drove home empty handed. A bit ridiculous if you ask me.

We also have spent our time taking the dogs to the dog park at super late hours in the evening when it is really dark out....but the problem is that you can't see them run off!!! So we attached lights to their collars - so now we walk the track and watch the lights bound up and down all over the place as the puppies freak out.  Its quite entertaining - they look like freaky fireflies :)

Hmmmmm.....the rest of my life.....SCHOOL.

This year has been going well so far.  My freshmen are all backwards (they like notes and don't respond very enthusiastically to activities) but they are all kids and I wouldn't teach unless I truely did love going to work every day - even when they drive me to my wits end. :)

Well.....I think that's about it.....until next time.

Remodel Junkie Bliss...For Now

Anyone who knows me knows that I am someone who likes to make plans.  Now, if you know anything about my life - my plans never pan out the way I want them to.

So plan #1 - Brian and I decided a long time ago that we would rent our apartments/duplexes/houses for a while until we were ready (and had the money saved) to build our dream house. I never wanted to buy a house before then because I knew that I wouldn't like parts of it and I would have to do some major remodeling.  I grew up around remodeling and knew how much of a pain it is to remodel a house while we live in it.

Change of Plans to Plan #1 - Brian and I bought our first house this past March.  Now, the reason for buying the house is because we wanted to move to Lee's Summit to get closer to Brian's new job and still keep me somewhat close to Oak Grove.  Well the houses/duplexes that are for rent around here are crazy expensive for what you get with it.  Also - no landlord really wants an 85 lb lab/rot mix in their place. Way to go Jack for being so big. So we started looking into buying a house - a month and a half later we signed the papers for a 4 bedroom, 3 bath house.  Here's some pictures of what it looked like then:

Front of house

The back of the house with the deck.

When you first walk in the front door, you have the dining room all the way back and the formal living room is closer.

Kitchen

Breakfast Nook right off the kitchen

Standing in the breakfast nook...looking at the actual living room and the stairs that go up to the main master bedroom/stairs that go down to the basement.

Hall Bathroom

Bedroom #1 (there is another that looks pretty identical but we didn't take a picture of it.)

2nd Master Bedroom

Bathroom for the 2nd Master

Upstairs Master bedroom

Attic access from the upstairs master - EVENTUALLY this will become a big walk in closet

Bathroom for upstairs master.

So these areas are still pretty much the same - just now filled with our stuff.  Now for the good part - the basement.  The basement was originally divided into two sides.  The finished side and the semi-finshed side.

The finished side

The semi-finished side (divided into three rooms)

Now, when we bought the house - I knew i wanted to make some changes the the basement....

Basement Remodel Changes Plan #1:  On the finished side, take down all the mini walls they put up because they made the space seem smaller.  Open it up and patch in the carpet (the sellers left us extra).  On the semi-finished side, take down all their mini shelves. Then put a door on the farthest room and tile it to make it the dogs room.  Then get rid of the walls separating the other 2 parts of that room and it is now one big storage/laundry room. Bada Bing Bada Boom  - easy right?? So we get our keys to the house and head up that night to start some demolition.

Basement Remodel Problem #1:  It just so happens that these walls are here for a reason.  Reason being - there is a beam support column hidden in that wall. Oh shit.  Well by the time we had found this out - we had taken off all the trim and put some major damage in the walls.  Well that led to...

Basement Remodel Changes Plan #2:  Still knock out all the stupid walls in the finished side and just have a column in the middle of the room.  So we continued demolition.

Basement Remodel Changes #2: We decided we didn't like the idea of the column.  It would look dumb.  So my Dad gives us some advice - he says...why don't you just open up the whole room?  Yeah, you will still have a column, but it will give you a lot more space.  Now - if you don't know, my Dad owned his own construction company for years...and he remodeled our house over and over again for the majority of my childhood.  As Brian would say, "when your Dad says it will be simple, easy, no problem, or will take no time at all,  that actually means that we are in for a ridiculously long process that the rest of the world normally wouldn't attempt unless they are on some serious mind control meds." This time - Brian was right. But being naive and hopefully for a freaking awesome basement...we replied "SIGN US UP!!!"  So we continued the demolition....

Now, to get the full picture here - you need to realize that as we were making all these decisions - we were moving in at the same time.  Now our move wasn't planned for 2 more weekends but as impulsive as we are, we decided we wanted to move in that same weekend we started demolition.  So as my mom helped me pack up our place in Grain Valley, my Dad, Brian and Brian's Parents were at the house setting up the fence for the dogs and moving the washer/dryer connections into the basement so we could wash our clothes.

Needless to say, when my mom's facebook status stated that she was "past exhausted"  after that weekend, we couldn't have agreed more.  But that's when the real work started.  Here are some progress pictures.

Building the new walls for the future laundry room

Adding Drywall

Mudding and Taping = WORST THING EVER

Painting the Laundry Room

Tiling the Laundry Room

More tile = INSANELY PAINFUL TO THE BACK AND KNEES

Adding the washer and dryer and the cabinets (dogs kennels are now on the opposite wall)

Painting the downstairs living room.

 Getting closer to the end..........................................

CARPET!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now this looks like a very simple process...it wasn't even close.  But it was totally worth the work.  It may have not been our original plan or close to it.  It may have taken much longer than we planned but now we are finally enjoying the benefits of our hard work in our new awesome laundry room and basement fun room. :)

So the only thing left to do is refinish the ping pong table and fooseball table to make them black - but that can wait.  We need a break from finishing off things. So very minimal things to do in the basement. 

Next project - the closet in the upstairs master so we can move in up there and then have a guest bedroom.

Bottom line - we love our house and love the time we have gotten to spend together changing it. This remodel junkie has had her fill of remodels for a few weeks. Now we get to enjoy the payoff of our hard work.