Avett Brothers Quote

Weekend Recap

Friday:

We had a community luncheon for volunteers in the area.  HH made these haystacks for me to bring in.  Super easy....semi-sweet chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, melt, add peanuts and chow mien noodles.  Put them in clumps and chill in the fridge.  I normally don't like butterscotch, but the chocolate provides just the right balance.

My day was made super bright by seeing Dominc and Jyail!  They are sixth graders now, and I was so happy to see them!  This is the second time Jyail has come to see me this year. 

We went to see my sister and my BIL in the hospital.  My sister told me not to look in the rooms, because it was very depressing.  As we walked down the hall, I fixed my eyes on an exit sign until we got to Matt's room.

I had HH be silly, and pretend like he needed to use the compass to find out where we were going.  I'm not sure why I have a Compass app (other than it is free), but it does rock.

Afterwards, we went to Marriage Rocks.  It was awesome!  They had two awesome skits:



They also did their version of Glee.  They performed "Small Town Girl"....but had changed all the words to tell the Christmas story.  Someone put a lot of time and effort into it, and it was awesome!  (I haven't found a Youtube link yet.)

Our picture in front of the tree:

We went out to look at Christmas lights in a nice subdivision where many people decorate for the holidays.  We started out listening to Christmas music, but that was short lived.  I wanted to play different music on my IPAD.  I only have one really good picture:

Saturday:

We started off with B-Ball in the hood.  It was early, and it was nice to have HH and Starbucks to combat the earliness.  I love elementary hoops.  At one point, the ref stopped the game and had everyone tie their shoes.  Four kids didn't have them tied.  Then, one kid got a three pointer by the grace of God, and the next ten shots were students trying to make a "Hail Mary" (blending football with basketball here) three pointer.

My two favorite players!  :)  Love my students!

In a rare turn of events, I felt like my stomach could handle Buffalo Wild Wings.  HH was thrilled, since this is one of his favorites.  It had been awhile since he had been, and his tolerance to the "Blazin Sauce" had weakened.  I took this picture as he was eating:

We met our friends Beau and Alex for Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 3D.  It was awesome.  My husband has the most amazing memory.  We both read the books as children, yet he remembers specific details from this (and many other books).  He even remembers the first line of the book.  I read a ton growing up, and I can tell you that I enjoyed certain books, or tell you something very small about it...I don't have his memory for a good story.

I took another picture of HH:

Dinner with good friends:

I am really slow and pretty guarded about trusting people.  When I first met Alex, I was a little intimidated by her seemingly aggressive personality.  I'm glad that I gave her another chance, we are a lot more like than I realized.  We have gone out three times as a couple, and spent many other times together in larger group settings.

Sunday:

It was debated about church because of the weather...I got up Sunday morning and read several messages about black ice.  I decided that we were not going to church.  I am glad that we didn't.  My sister called, and it was bad.  Matt has been leaking spinal fluid.  They slightly rotate him on the bed every few hours using wedges to help prevent bedsores.  There was a puddle about the size of a paper plate where he had leaked spinal fluid from his nose.  (I learned that your body has a set amount of spinal fluid, and once it is gone, there is no more.)  In five hours, the doctor had not gotten back to her about this.  She decides that she is going to sign him out herself, call an ambulance, and take him back to University Hospital.  She calls the doctors there in ICU.  A lady who was on his decision making team (but never treated him personally) basically said they would not accept him.  Without mincing words told her that they sent him there to die. 

My sister told me that morning that she knew he was most likely going to pass, but she still wanted to do everything she could for him.  Hearing this from the doctor was devastating.  He had a fever of 102.6.  My parents were there, and HH and I got up to head over.  We thought today was it. 

He did end up stabilizing.  My sister went out to eat with my parents, and HH and I stayed at the hospital later on in the day.  Another sign that my sister is accepting what is happening: She asked my mom to make her a hair appointment to get her hair cut and highlighted.  HH didn't see the significance in that, but I explained it is a point of pride for women to have nice hair, especially when something big is coming up. 

The hospital used to be owned by the Catholic Church, and my sister took us to the chapel.  I only took three shots, but couldn't believe what a chapel it had.

Last night we watched some holiday specials and chilled out.  I found out a little bit after 9:00 that we didn't have school on Monday.  Our district has been consistent on never announcing until 4:30 am, so this was a huge surprise.  My sister called back to tell me that Matt has something else wrong.  He is urinating too much.  Fluid should not be leaving his body as frequently as it is.  At this point, we are anticipating he will make it to the end of the week.

TGIF

We are inching our way toward Friday, and one more week until break! 

I am ready for the break.  I was pretty snarky with a girl at church who asked if I was getting ready for my nice break.  I replied with, "I worked 73 hours last week, so I think I am pretty ready for it."  I tried to temper the rest of my comments after that....realizing I went

On Tuesday at faculty meeting we watched this video:



Our principal was talking about how we speak to children and our expressions.  All forty of us had to watch this when it was really a message to three of our staff.  Of course the three who needed to get this were nodding like they got it...can't see the forest for the trees some people!

After work tomorrow we are going to the hospital to see my BIL, Date Night, and Christmas Light watching.  It is my goal to post lots of pictures.

BIL

Matt, my BIL, has been moved to a pallative care hospital as of today.  It is amazing that he can go from the ICU to that type of setting.  His condition is unchanging, but they say "stable" (enough to merit the move).  My sister said it is really depressing.  The room is old, and just looks sad.  Maybe on Saturday I can help her decorate it some.  She had brought in a bunch of photos at the other hospital, and made a nice collage with them.

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers.

The Post I Didn't Want to Write

I've tried to write this post several times. 

I just couldn't. 

Things are really not looking that good for my BIL.  It has been 63 days since the accident. He has MRSA, phenomena (that has been ongoing), and meningitis.  My sister told my mom the other night that she knew she couldn't let him go on forever like this and that she knew at some point she would have to make some decisions.  She also acknowledged that by the rigid position of his arms that is a sign of severe brain damage.  The kids mother wants them to see him, and she told me she said to her, "Do you want their last memories of their father to be with tubes running out of him and him being unresponsive?"  Her status messages on facebook have started to shift.  Up until about a week ago, she talked about how proud she was of her husband and what a fighter he was.  Now they are factual about how his day has been, but have been more thanking specific people around her that have been very supportive.  The hospital he is going to is for pallative care, which is essentially a holding house to die. 

I guess my biggest prayer now is that one of his many complications will take his life if he must die.  I would much rather it be that way, than for my sister to have to sign the papers saying to stop all medications, food, and fluids.

My mom has held it together in front of my sister until today.  She cried in front of her.  She balled while my sister was asleep and HH and I were visiting with her in the waiting room.  The one doctor we all hate was really a butt to my mom and sister today, and it was more than mom could take.

Way to Go Amos!

After watching A Christmas Carol with HH, I flipped over to CMT to see my favorite singer Amos Lee perform with the Zac Brown Band.  I could not find the performance they did together yet on Youtube, but here is the song he sang with him:



NPR also did a concert featuring his new album Mission Bell.  You can listen to it here:
Amos Lee: Recorded in Concert

Student Teacher Party

Yesterday was my student teacher's last day.  We gave her the best fifteen minute party you can have.  Here are some shots from it:

HH picked out this cupcake wreath:

This is one of my favorite pictures:

I am a total cupcake snob.  The kids got the cheap cupcakes, but Natalie and I got gourmet ones.  :)

I let Dierra be the photographer for the party:

The leftovers:

I am a sucker for the thumbs up pose...I have tons of pictures with it:

Another thumbs up pose:

I just thought this last picture was funny, but now I know that I took it JUST for Chitown Girl!!!  :)  Yes, that is my cat making himself at home right by our cookie cake box on the stove.

Baby It's Cold Outside...

We are going to have a great date IN tonight.  It has been a long week, and I am looking forward to some down time with my HH.

Here is what he will shortly see.  (It has killed me to keep this a surprise all week long.)

A Christmas Carol is one of HH's favorites.  He acted in the play several times (in several roles) over the years.  Last year we went to see it at the theater, and it was very impressed with Disney's version of it.  He said it was very true to the book. 

I scored the cake from a Groupon last week.  What a sweet deal!  I love Groupon!

I got this date idea from Darling Dating Divas....Baby It's Cold Outside

I am really looking forward to tonight!  I'm happy I made it through this week.  This week was the toughest of the three before break.  One down, two more to go.

You Tube and a Laugh

After our morning meeting, we are walking down to class.  Pretty normal.  I start talking with Tyrell about music and I tell him about a funny song I wrote in college.  To which he replies, "Did you put it on You Tube?"

"No Tyrell, they didn't have You Tube when I was in college," I say.

"Oh," thoughtful pause by Tyrell...."You don't look a day over 21 Mrs. F!"

I love this kid!!!

(He remembered the "You don't look a day over 21" from the second or third week of school when I was telling them it was not considered polite to ask a woman her age, and if she told you that should be your reply.)

Note: There will be an update on my BIL tomorrow morning.

Dream Crusher

Tyrell is one of my favorite students.  This boy rocks!  I love his questions (he has a million of them), and his persistence through a task.  Tyrell is not living with his parents, but extended family.  For the past three years he has had a wonderful home situation with very supportive relatives/caregivers.  He is super sharp in Math, and is making huge leaps in Reading.  I was telling him on Monday how I thought he should be an engineer.  I told him about several types of engineers and what possible jobs he might be able to do.  He was getting pretty pumped about it.  I even told him I thought he should go to Purdue, and let him look at the website a few minutes before lunch.  He asks our principal about being an engineer, who also eagerly encouraged him to pursue that field. 

Yesterday he tells me that he asked his bus driver what he thought about him becoming an engineer.  His bus driver said he thought he could become a truck driver.  (I know truck driving is an honest and honorable way to provide for your family, so please don't miss the point of my post.)  This driver crushed Tyrell's dream.  He sees him for 30 minutes a day, and made an assumption.  Now, I've got to work on recreating this dream and his self esteem.