Traumatized by worms

 I had worms in my classroom! Big, long, fat, icky ones! 

We had a couple days in a row of heavy rain (an atmospheric river, as the weather people say), and it was on one of those mornings that I came into my classroom at 7am and saw what I thought, at first, was a snake but turned out to be a very large worm. It had it's head up off the ground and was wiggling around. Eew! I shrieked and ran out of the room. Liz, a coworker down the hall heard my scream and came and took care of the worm. She scooped it up with a piece of paper and took it outside. It totally freaked me out. Then just as first period was starting, I saw another one, a shorter one but still just as icky! My assistant principal was in the room at the time (I had been telling her about my worm situation), and she took care of that one and tossed it outside to join the other. And then, during 3rd period, while students were quietly doing their state testing, I saw another one! Actually, I stepped on it, and I shrieked again, which scared and totally interrupted the students. Thankfully, there were only about 8 minutes left in class. This worm was also huge and gross, even grosser because I had squished part of it. Blood, guts, bleh! With a bit of drama and squeaking, I scooped it onto a piece of paper and tossed it outside, too, and then had to clean up the nasty guts on my floor. By that point, I was completely grossed out and very worried I was going to be finding worms all day long. The door that goes to the outside has a small space at the bottom where, apparently, they were able to come in. I've worried about that crack and the fact that I can see daylight through it, but it was spiders and mice I was worried about before. Worms were new. I took some cleaning cloths and covered up the crack at the bottom of my door, and I didn't have any more worm visitors. Nature belongs in nature, NOT in inside spaces, and definitely not in my classroom or home. I emailed the head custodian, and he put in a work ticket to see if we could get this issue resolved, so I don't have any more creatures or critters in my room. 

Mr. Steward, my coworker across the hall with a quirky sense of humor, emailed me this image later that day. Too funny. And so gross! He's also the one who made me the nametag for our training that next week. 

My Bruin Bites lunch that Friday, made by the culinary students, was chicken yakisoba. I had a hard time eating it, not because it tasted bad--it was good--but because it resembled, a little too closely, the slimy creatures in my room earlier that week. 

School Happenings

Jana's dad got a juicer for Christmas, and she's been going over and "juicing" with him. They've been experimenting with these "immunity shots" that have fruits, veggies, ginger, and turmeric. She's been bringing them to lunch, and we've been testing out her concoctions. She's keeping us healthy! 

I love my lunch crew. It's often the best part of my day, getting to have lunch with my friends. The guys sit around the coffee table on the couches and chairs, and us ladies sit at a round table next to them. Jana, Tiffany, and I are there every day, and Amanda and Anita join us when they can. I can't imagine life at Barlow without them. I also really enjoy the people in my department. I'm thankful for great people to work with and share the teacher burdens and frustrations, along with the "wins" and joys. 

I lost my work-life balance a bit at the turn of the semester. I had to rework my plans and switch things around due to state testing changes, and I worked really hard to change things surrounding state testing, and it all made life stressful for a while. I was working long hours and bringing work home, something I hadn't been doing for quite some time. I got sick and missed a couple days, and then was gone two weekends in a row. There were several difficult student situations that were making me lose sleep, too. Greg told me at one point that I need to "care less" and then amended his statement to "care a little less." That became my new mantra, and it became a joke around the lunch table, too, so when it came time to wear our Bruins Care t-shirts at work one week, I added a little piece of blue tape under the hem that said "a little less." That hidden piece of tape brought me so much joy that day. It was a good reminder that work is work, and while important, it's not worth losing sleep over and not worth stressing myself out so much. 

have to sprinkle pepper in it to help with absorption (or something like that)

leadership brought in a llama to spread joy the week before finals

 

Greg's Birthday

I think this Jazzy Bagel lunch was actually for my birthday, but it was closer to Greg's so I put it here. Aubs, Grant, Greg, and I went to Lolo's Pizza in Troutdale on Greg's birthday, and we had wacky cake and ice cream for dessert. We went to Elmer's with Mom and Dad M. the next day while Aubrey was working and Grant was at drivers ed. 

Greg and Eric got a bunch of guys together to go play pickleball the next week, as a birthday celebration. They had a blast. Their dad and Trent joined for the social time. 

Instagram Post:

Happy birthday to Greg today! We’re finally the same age again! (He really enjoys reminding me that he’s married to an older woman during those 40 days between Jan 25th and Mar 6th). I am married to a funny guy! He happens to be a servant-hearted man, too, devoted to his God and to us, his family. He takes great care of all of us, works hard at his job and at home, and keeps us laughing daily. Happy 47th bday, Greg! I love you! 

Swim Season

First swim team season in the books for Grant, on varsity as a freshman. He did really well! He’s been swimming since he was tiny and diving since he was 4 years old but hadn’t had any experience with the specific strokes since swim lessons when he was little. He swam the 100 butterfly, the 500, and the 200 relay at districts and got to experience the state meet as an alternate. He's a good swimmer, and it was a lot of fun watching him. I learned that swim meets go much quicker and are more exciting if you time for them. It's a bonus that you get to be over with the swimmers and don't have to sit on those un-comfy bleachers. 

Grant was very sick, fever and all, the week before districts and missed three days of school. We were afraid he wasn't going to be well enough to swim, but he rallied. He wasn't 100%, but he made it through! 

Aubs' 18th Birthday

We got pad thai for Aubrey's birthday dinner and had a little celebration on her actual birthday. Then she had a bunch of friends over the next weekend for a party. We had snacks and cheesecake with berry sauce. They played games and just hung out together. Aubrey has a great group of friends!

flowers from Grandpa

 

CBU Visit

I flew down to visit Kari and Joel over Presidents Day weekend and had the best time! Parents Weekend is always the same weekend as the state water polo tournament in November, so we’ve never been able to go. Had to make my own “parent weekend” before Kari graduates. The weekend it worked out was the same weekend as swim districts, so Greg took over swim district duty and kept me updated on how Grant and the team did.

Friday night Kari picked me up from the airport and took me to her apartment, and then we met Joel and Rebecca for dinner at Chick Fil A on campus. There was a softball tournament going on, and there were lots of people out and about. I got to meet Joel's friend, James, while we were finishing dinner. We walked over to Joel's apartment to see Drew and Jake, too, and I met their other roommate, Dawson. He was not as thrilled to meet me, as I was to meet him. He's not very social.

I got to see Joel's room and where he's been living this year. The boys' apartment is not nearly as cozy and cute as the girls'! We walked over to Rebecca's apartment and spent a while there chatting with Morgan and Maggie (Eleison wasn't there that night).

Before I went to my hotel for the night, Kari and I had to clean up a mess in the trunk of her car. The DampRid bag exploded/leaked all over the trunk and all over my luggage and backpack. My backpack was already wet from a water bottle leaking incident on the airplane (my waterbottle was full when I boarded the plane and totally empty when I went to take a drink from it towards the end of the flight--oops!), and then with the DampRid grunk, it was now also very sticky. We got a lot of it soaked up with a roll of paper towel, and I headed back to the hotel where I watched some Olympics before falling asleep. I woke up early the next morning, worried about my backpack and work computer. The computer was fine, but the backpack was a sticky mess. I did some internet research and discovered it was a saline solution and just needed to be diluted with lots of warm water to get rid of it. So, I filled the bathtub with hot water and plunged the backpack and the other sticky things from Kari's trunk (first aid kit box and an umbrella) into the tub. I wrung it all out and set it on towels and chairs in the room to dry. I filled a big ziplock bag with warm water--reinforced my thinking that ziplock bags are a must when you travel--and soaked a hand towel in it and snuck it out in my purse to the parking lot where I doused the trunk liner of Kari's car, trying to dilute the saline solution there, too. It worked! I brought it all back into the room and used lots of towels, trying to dry everything out, and ran the hair dryer on my bag for a while, too. Housekeeping probably thought I was crazy with things hanging all over the room, an umbrella open, and all the towels I used in the process. 

I drove across the street to Walmart and then over to Costco and got some snacks and food for Joel and Kari. Joel's pantry shelf was sad and empty when I saw it the night before. They were both very happy when they saw the food I brought for them. Joel was especially excited. :-)

After my morning clean up and store runs, I drove back to Kari's apartment, picked up Joel, and then Kari drove us to Laguna Beach. The kids showed me around some of their favorite spots. We ate pizza, got gelato in this cute little shopping area, and then drove to a beach they really like further south. They went in the water (and terrified me!), and I soaked up the sun and enjoyed watching them have fun (when I wasn't freaking out about the big waves). It was just a beautiful day and a sweet time with our two oldest.

That Saturday was Valentine's Day, and Joel and Rebecca had dinner plans, and Julia and her boyfriend had dinner plans back at her apartment, so Kari and I decided to go to Downtown Disney for the evening. It wasn't the best experience (super crowded!), but it served the purpose of getting us out. We

The next morning we went to Joel's church, Pathways and then out to lunch at a BBQ place near the church that Maggie's boyfriend recommended. It was really tasty (even had banana pudding), and getting to have lunch with all the kids was great. I enjoyed meeting Sam's girlfriend, Maddie, too. She seemed very sweet. 

I loved getting to see a bit of the kids life down there and loved the time I got to spend with them. I left feeling so thankful for the blessing of CBU and for kids who are growing in their faith while away…and who were willing to spend a weekend with their mom.