Train of thought… today

Saturday morning, which is essentially my Sunday morning, filled with coffee, thoughts of the coming year and things I need to do and perusing Craigslist for my home town…

The bathroom in my Texas home is in need of being remodeled. I know what I want (as usual) and am finding it hard to get someone onboard with what I want to do.

So the latest plan, hatched about 2 months ago, is: 

1. research and find the stuff (sink, toilet, accessories, tile, etc) 

2. Source the stuff 

3. Order the stuff to arrive by July 5. 

3.5. Find the guys to do the work, carpenter, plumber, and tile expert and set them up for July. 

4. Fly into Texas in July. 

5. Get a new bathroom created while I am in Texas. 

It should be simple right? 

It is January 31st and I have found the sink online … lol that is as far as I have gotten, and I can't order it until I can have it delivered when I am there, as there is a 30 day return policy. 

So today, rather than perusing FB (trying to par down to no more than 15-30 min a day) I looked at Craigslist to see if I can find some used, period style items for the summer. 

You see, I will need to be able to be in my house during the remodel, in the middle of the summer, and I don't even have a bed in the house… (not buying on on CL, although I am looking for a bedroom suite that is dark cherry, four poster with a chest of drawers and bedside tables…) 

Back to the bathroom and my thought process today. I didn't get far with the bath items needed. 

The items below were some of the things I did look at a bit closer. 

BTW there was one sink for the kitchen I would consider, but the kitchen is the last on the list for when I move into the house. 

There was not anything related to the bathroom I would consider…. 

Now it is time to look at Retrorenovation.com to find some sources to look at online. 

But thanks to CL for a morning of daydreaming. I enjoyed it. 

Beautiful flooring, don't know if I could do the gray, but it is pretty. 

Slabs of marble… I would love to cut it up and use it on a patio… haram

I miss my mom, she had flooring like this Saltillo tile… I don't want it in my house, but I would love to have it somewhere… someday… 

Poor mans swimming pool… would be great to have this summer for an afternoon of relaxation.  

Or this one because then I would know if I wanted one of these (as opposed to an in ground pool) 

Great for my gardens and moving things around but now I need a small tractor to pull it. 

This cherry wood flooring had me using the calculator to see what it would cost for the entire house, even though I wouldn't want but three rooms. 

What a great outdoor fire "pit", not needed for the summer. 

I miss these kinds of heaters. Don't even talk to me about safety or anything else, I loved these heaters and would have one if I could get it installed legally. 

 Hey, I could pull the garden cart with this, and I could drive it down to the Mexican Restaurant 3 blocks away as well (even if not legal). 

Very cool. Great home sauna for relaxation, but the poor man's hot tub would probably be the better choice for me. 

Lived with a swamp cooler most of my childhood, if not all of it. Cheaper electricity use, might need one of these this summer. We will see. 

Life Flies By

29 years ago today, I woke up, sat up in bed and was immediately surrounded by a soaked mattress.
It wasn't a water bed. It wasn't a leaking roof.
I was pregnant with my first born child, and it was, what I thought, was my water breaking.
My husband drove me to the hospital.
He waited while they examined me. I was very excited because I was ready to have my baby. It had been a rough few months in late November, all of December and half of January. Every time I stood up I would get dizzy and my heart would race after a minute or two. It took two days just to decorate the Christmas tree, because of how long I had to sit in between hanging ornaments on the tree.

The nurses then announced my water hadn't broken, I was dilated a little (2 or 3) and I could walk around for days like that, and the monitor didn't show me having any contractions.

So they sent me home.
My husband continued on to work an hour drive away.
I sat down on the couch to watch a little tv and could not get comfortable.
I wasn't comfortable sitting, I wasn't comfortable standing, I was miserable.
I went to the bathroom and was spotting.
I called the doctors' office.

I could be spotting due to the nurses checking to see if I was dilated. If I didn't feel better soon, then come to the office or the hospital.

After a while I was in pain and I drove myself to the hospital.
It was beginning to snow.
Again the nurses smiled and acted like I was being silly. It could be days before I had the baby, just because I was dilated a little meant nothing. The contraction monitor was not picking up any contractions.

The doctor ordered some pain meds and my mother showed up  (I guess I called her, but I don't remember it).
Mother sat in the chair next to the bed and was stroking the back of my hand and I was in so much pain that i concentrated on the soothing stroke of my mothers hand on mine.

The nurses continued to treat me as if I was not having a baby that day.
I emphatically told them "I am having this baby today!"

I asked for more pain meds, they laughed and said I had been given too much already, especially since no contractions were registering on the machine.
My mother got up to do something or just sit back and she stopped stroking my hand and I asked her to come back… she poopoo-ed me and shushed me and told me she was tired of holding my hand.

Then Dr. Mary came in. A small woman, probably of Indian or Native American descent (I never asked but her last name was Birdsong), and checked me. I was fully dilated.

I WAS having a baby.

They whisked me into the delivery room, I started pushing, in dire pain and agony. My husband showed up and after a while (I don't remember how long, I just remember my mother telling me the harder I pushed the sooner I would have the baby. So… I PUSHED) the baby was here.
He was a boy.

Then my mom was silent, and my husband was silent and they were watching the doctor. I was just relieved to be finished with pushing and was unaware anything was out of the ordinary.

The baby needed an incubator to warm him up they told me. I didn't hold him right away, I don't think anyone else did either. When I saw him, he was grey, not bright pink or creamy.

They checked me for after birth and sewed up my episiotomy, pushing on my stomach many times. Then they took me to a hospital room.

Nurses came in and out and pushed on my stomach and took my vitals for quite some time, while Mother and my husband made small talk (I was pretty out of it). Each time they pushed on my stomach, I gushed blood all over the bed and they had to put pads and sheets to soak it up. Finally Dr. Mary came in and took me to an operating room and reached up into me to try to get all of the placenta that didn't break loose when I had the baby.

We hoped we had it all out. But we didn't.

They ended up calling a doctor in to give me a DNC. He came in the room to meet me. I was so low on blood I couldn't hardly hear anything he said, but I asked him what his credentials were and how many DNC's he had done before. My mother scolded me.

So, a baby boy, 10 inches of snow and a DNC later, I was in my hospital room recovering and receiving a total of 5 pints of blood.

Joshua was fine as well with few complications. Come to find out, the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck 7 times and his apgar test (newborn test) was a 3. Not a good score.

However, I am happy to say, it had no bearing on his development to this day.

I am very proud of him and all he has accomplished. He had the high score of 99 on a standardized test they give in Kindergarten to show he was always at the top of the class (even if his grades in high school didn't reflect it).
He was brave enough to leave home and move thousands of miles away with no family members living close by.
He broke the cycle of what is carried from generation to generation on my mother's side of the family in so many ways (and I am extremely proud of this accomplishment) by learning how to deal with people calmly and gently.
He followed his passion and became a game tester for many different companies that make video games. I love telling people because they think of it as a dream job.

But the things that make me the proudest is when the people in his life now, his friends, his wife or her family members comment on what a good man he is.

He turned out ok, and we are both here to tell the tale. It could have gone a completely different way, and I am so thankful it didn't. Dr. Mary and all the hospital staff received my thanks over and over.

Life flies by. I wish I had spent more time with my children when they were little and enjoyed them more. When you are a young parent and working so hard to make life easier for your kids by working or doing things. I hope you will stop and just play with them. Spend the time, so you are glad you did later…. when they are nearly 30 years old.

Developing Skills

As part of my PDP (professional development plan) at work,  I am to give staff development sessions on how to implement or ways we could use materials in our class in centers. 

Disclaimer: Yes, this post is written from the professional side of my life and yes, we do more paperwork that has nothing to do with teaching than you can imagine. 

So I wrote an email in November to my principal saying something to the effect that I am available for giving SDS (Staff Development Sessions) for the other teachers and if given the opportunity, I would, but if I wasn't given the opportunity, I would expect to not be "marked down" for not doing it. 

So she gave me an opportunity. The week of Professional Development in the first week of January, before students return the next week. 

It went very well. Teachers seemed to really enjoy it and the feedback was very positive. 

I enjoyed it. I remembered how much I enjoy doing presentations as a facilitator and "expert" within my classroom. I honestly may choose to do something similar when I move back to Texas. 

What I learned? Putting together 5 or more provocations (centers, materials, etc.) take a long time to set up and and break down and put up. I was exhausted the day I set up and the day I presented for our staff and packed up all the materials. 

I was exhausted setting up, presenting to a neighboring school, and packing up the materials again. 

I may need more practice…lol 

I had a great time. I enjoyed sharing what I have experienced and talking to other teachers. 

Next time, at least here, I will have a helper I hope. 

What makes it worth it? The positive response by a coworker I respect and admire. That's right, just one person made it all worthwhile. Your peers are always the hardest to present information or stand up and speak in front of. 

Sometimes, Europe really Impresses Me

Today I am exhausted from a very busy day of facilitating two workshops at a neighboring school. So here is a picture I took while in Prague. We went on The Naked Tour, which was named for the honesty of the history they shared about the city of Prague. 

Wikipedia says it best: 

A stolperstein (German pronunciation: [ˈʃtɔlpəʁˌʃtaɪn] from German, literally "stumbling block") is a type of monument created by artist Gunter Demnig to commemorate victims of Nazi oppression, including the Holocaust. Stolpersteins are small, cobblestone-sized memorials for individual victims of Nazism. They commemorate individuals – both those who died and survivors – who were consigned by the Nazis to prisons, euthanasia facilities, sterilization clinics, concentration camps, and extermination camps, as well as those who responded to persecution by emigrating or committing suicide.

While the vast majority of stolpersteins commemorate Jewish victims of the Holocaust, others have been placed for Sinti and Romani people (also called gypsies), homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, black people, Christians (both Protestants and Catholics) opposed to the Nazis, members of the Communist Party and the anti-Nazi Resistance, military deserters, and the physically and mentally disabled.

The list of places that have stolpersteins now extends to several countries and hundreds of cities and towns. As of 20 August 2014, over 48,000 stolpersteins have been laid in 18 countries in Europe,^[1] making the project the world's largest memorial.

Our tour guide told us about them too. Of course, the geocacher in me wondered if these are virtual caches. 

#Spoiled Rotten in the Sand Box

What is the first thing you do when you return from a vacation? I mean, after you sleep in your own bed, take a shower and put on some clean clothes you haven't been wearing for the last two weeks and unpack your bag enough to get down to your pajamas.

Go grocery shopping. 

If you are in the sandpit I am in, going to the grocery store can be torturous. So you have to find a way to make it as painless as possible. 

Why is it tortuous? 

Well, first of all, most of them are attached to a mall and the entrance is in the mall. Most of the locals go to the mall for entertainment, so the parking lots are C.R.A.Z.Y. FULL anytime after 2 pm on ANY. GIVEN.DAY, but especially on the weekends. 

So last night, some friends and I were going out for dinner at a great restaurant that just happens to be in my favorite mall in the Emerald City. 

The rub is: My favorite Mall is also a nightmare for parking if you don't get there at 8am on Friday (your equivalent of Sunday). 

After dinner the plan was to do a bit of grocery shopping to stock up on a few staples for them, for me and for my pets. 

So we decided to try out …. 

the VALET PARKING at the Mall.
BUT Parking was D.I.V.I.N.E!!!! and it is very close to the entrance to the grocery store. I will use it again, especially so I don't have to traipse around a parking garage with a grocery cart full of groceries and I will have someone else who will load my groceries in the car for me. (Now if they will follow me home and haul them up to the 7th floor and put them away.

Yeah, I am spoiled now. 

Dinner was great. 

Grocery store was a nightmare full of people and long lines and it was only Tuesday, which was one of our considerations before we made a decision of where to go. 

Role Reversal

I ran across this cartoon on the internet and it is so true. I think it is hilarious how coloring books for adults have taken off in the last few years. I have known for years the healing features of coloring, and as a kindergarten teacher, I color as often as I can. I also know technology is moving so fast that I am starting to have trouble keeping up (some may say I have been having trouble for years). I am one of those middle aged people (not so young I know all the ins and outs of the latest techno do dads and not so old that I can't even maneuver through FB or shop online) who has used enough technology to find it helpful and intriguing and fun, yet also remembers the simplicity of a world with out it. I miss some things about that world and yet I enjoy the convenience of connectivity. 

Gotta go now, I have some coloring to do. When you can show me how to use my iPhone more efficiently, just let me know…. 

Writing

Off and on all my life I have written down notes or stories, not like a true writer but one who aspires to document, share, keep things written to remember them for myself and sometimes a poor audience who has to deal with my style and imperfections (writing ones of course).
As I reflected this holiday, on my life and what is in it and what isn't, I thought of a story of a table and chairs I have in storage in Texas. It has a nice story as to how it became mine, as do most items I hold near and dear to my heart.
A few more items can be added to the list now that I traveled to Prague, Czech Republic (was once Czechoslovakia), Budapest Hungary and Vienna, Austria. Each has a short but sweet story of how I came to acquire them and why.
Then they remind me of the stories I do not have.
Like the story of the bells.
My mother owned a set of bells that was a big bell (size of an orange), with 4 smaller bells attached around the middle. So if you were looking from above, the main bell sat flat on the table and you saw the handle in the middle, with each of the four others at a slant out from the main one in an X or cross fashion. She bought them in Mexico in a border town on one of our many trips there.
When she died, my brother walked through the house, not really recognizing or having a sentimental connection to much there, because he hadn't visited much in the last several years. He saw the bells, recognized them and wanted them. I was fine with it as I had no real sentimental connection to them other than the fact they were always there since I was small and they had a nice sound. I don't know what prompted my mother to buy them or exactly where it was, Piedras Negras or Ciudad Acuna , or if they had a value I couldn't fathom.  I cannot for the life of me find a picture on Google that looks anything like them. I clearly don't know my bells. My brother may know the story, I haven't asked him yet.  But mostly my mom didn't share many stories with us and there were some we all experienced that we would like to forget.
Anyway, one of the things I hope to do this year is write. I intend to write the story of the antiques and other trinkets I hold near and dear to my heart that I have carried along through life and it's ups and downs. So whoever ends up with them will know where they came from, the story that makes them dear to me and hopefully will endear them to the next person who has them in their lives.
I also hope to write a bit of a reflection here several times a week. Or at least post a picture.

Happy January the Second

I feel like I missed New Years Day.
I was traveling all day. Which brings me to my latest AHA.

I love traveling by train.
During the last two weeks I was able to travel from Prague to Budapest in a sleeping car on an international train. Actually it wasn't a sleeping car, it was a "couchette" with 6 mini beds and 5 other people to go in them. Actually we were lucky and there was only 5 of us in the car so we had a place for our luggage. It could have been a bit more cushiony, but I have to admit, I slept great.

I also traveled from Budapest to Vienna, where I learned a very important lesson. When you book a train, make sure you also RESERVE a seat. I was caught without a place to sit and sat on the steps by the door for most of the ride. Not the best but certainly not the worst… which brings me to…
The best experience was a First Class ticket from Vienna to Prague. I actually wished the ride wasn't over yet when it was time to get off the train.

So I don't remember the last time I DID NOT eat black eyed peas for luck on New Years, but I didn't have them this year. I may start a new tradition of riding a train on New Years day. Or I may just call a day in the next week my New Years Day and make a pot of them.

#1 Resolution- write blog post more often (goal is daily).