Grandma Fran

She passed away this morning after a courageous bout of lung cancer. She kept her humor to the very end. I am blessed to have known her for the past 4 years. During the past month, I have spent hours sitting with her and swapping stories. This past Sunday, I had the privilege of going to the Festival of Trees with Grandma, Michelle, and Jack. We had a fantastic time and Grandma loved seeing the trees that were being donated to the different ministries for kids. On Monday night, I stopped by to see her and I was going to leave early. I asked her if she wanted me to go or stay and she said that she always enjoyed my company and I was more than welcome to stay. So, stay I did and I'm so grateful. Tuesday night we were conversing and she said she needed a seamstress. I asked what she needed and she said her pajama pants needed some elastic because she couldn't work the drawstring. I told her I would come with a measuring tape the next day to figure it out. Yesterday, I arrived and she was sitting in her chair and she had fuzzy, white gloves on. When I asked what the gloves were for she said, "To keep my hands warm of course!" I said, "That's a good reason. I thought maybe they were something technical." We laughed over that. I told her of my plans to get a cheesecake from the cheesecake factory for Michelle's birthday. She thought it was a good idea and I told her it could be from her. She said, "That's a lie and I don't tell lies." Her friend Jan was there and said that she would still go to heaven even if we told Michelle that. Then I said we could tell Michelle it was Grandma's idea and she liked that. Right before dinner came, we heard a knock on the door. Michelle told them to come in. A man came in the doorway and kneeled down. Then we heard a loud sound and a rip. Then there was another loud sound and a rip. He had applied 2 pieces of duct tape on the floor in the doorway. I immediately turned to Grandma and Michelle and said that we were going to have a contest. Whoever guessed what the tape was for would win a piece of baklava. Grandma Fran immediately spoke up. "It's to keep the bed bugs out. They've sprayed it with DDT and that will kill them." Michelle suggested a barrier to keep the patients in and I said a barrier to keep the nurses out. Then Grandma said, "Well, it doesn't work to well as a sound barrier." (There was a very noisy patient across the hall.)
I am so blessed to have known Grandma Fran and to have spent so much time with her. She will be greatly missed.

Tears, Jokes, and Laughter

I went down to Grammie and Pa's today after work. I was so tired it's amazing I didn't fall asleep reading Harry Potter. When I finished, I took a nap while AJ got Grammie up. Then, AJ and I went over to the market place to get Greek food for dinner. After Pa, AJ, and I had eaten I went down to say good bye to Grammie.
I said, "Good bye. I'm going home and going to bed."
Grammie said, "Good bye. You need to go home. AJ will take care of you when we're no longer able to." At first I thought she thought I still lived with them, but then she started to get teary eyed and I realized she meant when her and Pa had died.
I said, "You've done a good job taking care of me."
"That's a nice compliment." Then she said, "Where's my little elephant?"
We had forgotten to give her animals back after she got up. I gave them back and was getting a little teary eyed myself. My nose started to run and I told her it was her fault.
Her reply was, "You give me Monk and I make your nose run."
She apologized for getting teary eyed and crying, but I told her not to worry.
To lighten the mood a little I decided to tell her a joke. I knew how much she loved the blonde jokes, so I told her about the blonde getting fired from the M & M factory for throwing out all the "W's." Grammie laughed so hard. Then, I started laughing because she couldn't stop. AJ came into the kitchen and wanted to hear the end, so I retold it. AJ stood there with a look on her face that said she clearly didn't get the joke. Grammie was still laughing as I explained to AJ that an upside down M is a W. She still didn't get it which made Grammie and me laugh even harder. Finally, after lots of explaining to AJ and telling Grammie that AJ was still thinking did she get it. Grammie's reaction? "That's choice!" I told 2 more blonde jokes and then I stopped because I was afraid Grammie would hurt herself from laughing so hard. AJ said that Grammie might be up all night thinking about the jokes. I'm so glad I thought of them.
P.S. Wednesday I read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Give a Pig a Pancake. Grammie loved them both. She looked at each picture for quite awhile before I turned the page. Any suggestions as to what little fun book to read next? I was thinking something of Dr. Seuss.

2nd Day of School

School has started. I am at a local junior high. It's different from where I was and not just different in location; but culture, attitude, and acceptance of others. Here is what my day looked like. I truly hope it's not like this all 175 days of school. :-)

5:00 Alarm goes off
5:15 Roll out of bed and get into shower
5:45 Start computer and pull bread for sandwiches out of freezer
6:00 Start studying
6:20 Stop studying and make lunch (remember to make a lot because I will be hungry)
6:45 Eat breakfast
7:00 Mom calls
7:05 Brush teeth and fill water bottle
7:10 Put on jacket and remember it needs to be ironed
7:12 Pull out iron and quickly iron while talking to Mom
7:15 Get ready to leave and remember windows are open- quickly shut them
7:32 Arrive at school to find a schedule for the day of which classes I need to go to
Start coping schedule when Reading teacher comes in and tells us we have a meeting for the first 2 periods of the day
7:50 Go to meeting after collecting paper and pen for note taking
9:30 Leave meeting for break- Eat 3/4 of an apple
9:45 Go to third period and get ready to give a reading test
10:45 Give a second reading test
11:30 Go to fifth period
12:05 Leave fifth period early for lunch
12:07 Find out I have 5 minutes for lunch before I work lunch duty
12:09-12:15 Find sandwich and eat half
12:18 Report for lunch duty
12:54 Leave lunch duty and go to 2 different History classes
2:30 Schools over-Why do I have a headache? Oh Right, I haven't had lunch.
2:50 Leave school and head to church for 3:00 meeting
Eat other half of sandwich in the car
3:10 Get to church hungry, hot, and tired
3:30 Finish lunch
5:30 Leave church and go to Home Depot
5:55 Get home
6:00 Type this post
6:15 Read a book and go to bed

I have a feeling that tomorrow might be a close repeat to today. Hopefully there won't be a surprise meeting in the morning and I'll head to Grammie and Pa's after work, but it will be similar just the same.
P.S. I have homework for Reading class, but I'll wait til the morning.

Honestly! I Know Better

I have just been sewing for 45-60. I have been chain sewing (not cutting each time you finish a piece.) I cut 2 of the chain sewn piece apart to sew them together and discovered that my bobbin tension is off. Not only on those 2 pieces, but EVERYTHING I've sewed in the last hour. I could scream. I really need a new machine. I've priced them out and know exactly what I want. However, I'm not buying it until I have the cash and that will be next Feb or March. In the meantime; I need to do what I've been telling myself and that is checking the pieces as I sew and not assuming everything is working out fine.

Decisions

After emailing my doctor and talking to Mom and Dennis, I've come to some decisions about the food issue. I will be cutting out dairy. The yeast is going to stay because as the doctor said, it would be very difficult to cut that out and there aren't any issues in my body to suggest I need to cut it out. The sugar will also stay. The doctor says to cut dairy for 6 months and see how I'm doing. I have felt a lot better when I'm not consuming dairy, so we'll see. Thanks for all your support.

Food testing

I had a food test done about 2 weeks ago. I went to the lab and had blood drawn, then I sent the blood to Seattle. The results came to me in the mail today.
Corn and wheat didn't show up on the test because it hasn't been in my system. So, they stay out of my diet. I know get to remove all dairy from my diet and I can have yeast and cane sugar every 4th day. I'll keep you updated. Right now I'm too overwhelmed to say much more. I just want to cry a lot. I have found out that Kosher food is OK.

3 Years

On May 15, 2008 Grammie was taken to the hospital. She was close to dying and to the hospital she went. The doctor drained fluid off her lungs and said she was as good as new. Five days later she was brought home to a hospital bed in her sun room and she's been there ever since. This week I asked her about polishing the silver and she said, "I have no ambition."

I thought I could list some of the things that I've done or experienced in these past 3 years.
~Stopped working at Franklin because the building closed
~Started working at a junior high in Special Ed.
~Sewed 30+ quilts
~Read 4 Harry Potter books out loud to Grammie
~Spent lots of time at Grammie's (some with laughter and some with tears)
~Finished my first crossword puzzle (back when Grammie could give me the answers to 1/2
the questions)
~Gained more control of my headaches
~Learned I can't eat wheat/gluten or corn
~Learned how to bake bread
~Learned how to make most of my food
~Left the junior high and moved back down to elementary
~Decided to get my teacher certification
~Walked a 1/2 marathon (13/1 miles)
~Went to Portland for a couple of days
~Spent lots of time in Denver
~Went to Michigan to ride the boat one last time
~Watched Audie graduate with a Masters
~Watched Eli and Spencer graduate from high school
~Moved into my own apartment

These are things I can think of off the top of my head. What have you done is the past couple of years?

I Did It

In the last 2 1/2 weeks I have accomplished two huge things that I was working toward. On April 29th, I went and took the 1st of three tests to become a teacher. God started working on my heart right before Christmas and after researching the best program, I enrolled in the ABCTE program. This program is for people who have a college degree and have been in the professional world. The studying is all done online and there are no classes or papers. I just study for the test and take it. After much prayer and discussion with others, I have chosen to be certified in K-8 regular Ed. and K-12 Special Ed. I may eventually go back and get a Reading Endorsement or Early Childhood, but that's in the future. The first test that I took was the multiple subject test consisting of Reading, Math, History, and Science. I will start studying for the Professional test next week if all goes well.

The past Sat. on the 14th, I finally completed my 1/2 marathon. That is 13.1 miles. I walked with two teachers from school and we had a great time. The weather was perfect and it is great to say that I have walked from the Reservoir to Ann Morrison park. During the walk I was telling myself that people who do this regularly are crazy. When Mon. rolled around, the three of us decided we will train for the one next year and beat our time. This time we made the walk in 3 hrs and 54 min. We can definitely beat that next year, especially if we train.

more conversations

I have the privileged to work with children who have many disabilities. My favorite children to work with are those with autism. They are so smart and I have to continually stay one step ahead of them.

A few weeks back I was working with my afternoon kindergarten boys and I was letting one draw while the other one finished his work. The child drew a stick figure of himself and his mom. Then I heard, "This is my mom. She is big and fat." As I was trying not to laugh, the other boy looked up and said, "I wouldn't say that about your mom! She might get mad. Unless, she is going to have a baby." The artist never missed a beat, "Oh, this was before I was born."

Yesterday, I went down to kindergarten to get my little "artist." The kids were eating a banana for snack, but I noticed my little guy didn't have one and I had seen him eating a banana the day before, so I knew he liked them. As we were walking in the hall I asked him why he didn't have a banana. "Oh, they have seeds." "Really? I watched you eat one yesterday." "Yes, but it didn't have seeds." I said that bananas don't have seeds and this is the reply. "Well, you have to put seeds in the ground to grow a banana, so they have to have seeds." What could I say. "So you don't like foods with seeds, you must like vegetables." "Oh no. They have seeds too," he told me. I said, "Carrots and celery don't have seeds." "How do they plant them?" he asked. At this point I gave up the conversation because he was right.

Today, we were writing words and the word was pit. He wrote the word and then said, "There are lots of these in the graveyard." I about fell out of my chair. I calmly looked up and said, "Yes, but the other word for pit is hole and it is a much nicer word." "Oh, I wasn't talking about pit. I see lots of "t's" in the graveyard." It dawned on me what he was talking about. I said, "Some people call those crosses." "Yeah, there are lots of those in the graveyard across the street. I have one on my grave." As I am processing, trying not to laugh, and taking a deep breath I say, "You have a grave?" "Oh no, there is a cross in my graveyard." I have to say that I ended the conversation and tried not to just start laughing. As I was walking him back to class, we worked on walking down the right-hand side of the hallway. When he got to the 3rd grade door he hopped. I said, "How come you hopped right there." He said, "There was a door stop in the way and I'm supposed to be walking on this side of the hall." Again, he outsmarted me!
Forty-five minutes later I was sitting in the Kindergarten classroom helping out like I do every day. Some kids were sitting on the floor reading to the teacher, some kids were sitting at the tables doing work, and others were in the back with the AmeriCorps person. The ones with the AmeriCorps person were planting flower seeds to put in the garden that our school will be building. My little guy comes back to me and tells me that he has planted a seed and is now growing a flower. I reminded him that the flower has not started growing quite yet because it had just been planted. He looked at me and said, "We watered it and when it grows I will take it home." I knew we were in trouble. First, the plant is for the garden. Second, all the "pots" look the same and no names were placed on them. So I said, "Did you write your name on the pot so you know which one is yours?" He looked at me and said, "There weren't any pencils on the table, so I couldn't write my name. I took my finger and poked it into the dirt to make a hole, so I know which one is mine!" I immediately looked at the teacher and told her we had an "i-s-s-u-e." I proceeded to spell out what I had been told. She looked at me with complete horror. I have a feeling one of the pots might not end up in the garden after all. Although, it seemed that maybe we will plant flowers for Mother's Day and then take them home.

Baking

I have been in a baking mode. It is really quite scary to think of all the baking that has been happening in my little kitchen. Every time I turn around, I'm washing another bowl or measuring cup to bake. Last week, I made sweet potato muffins. Well, they were suppose to be muffins, but they didn't have enough liquid, so they were sort of like scones. Grammie has devoured them. Then, I made lasagna for dinner at Grammie and Pa's on Friday night. I came home with a clean pan. Grammie loved that as well. This weekend I baked bread, made biscotti, a double batch of cookies, and made calzones.
The bread was for my sandwiches. The biscotti was for a review of a new recipe, but I bowed out of the group and made the treat anyway. It was a pain to make and I'm glad that's not my treat. The peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies are for Grammie. She asks me often if I've brought cookies and when given a store bought one proclaims, "These don't taste as good as Katie's." So, cookies were in order before Spring Break. The calzones turned out to be delicious. I'll definitely be making those again.
Maybe next week I'll make a pie. :-)

Conversations I've had lately

...With the kids at school:
I was working with four students on reading and we talk a lot about vocabulary. One of the words was pigment, so I asked what it meant. Noone knew so I said it meant color. One of the boys looked at me and said, "Miss Black is a pigment." "What?" I replied. He laughed and said, "That was a joke." Well, the joke was on me when I finally got it 15 minutes later.

I was teaching math to a bunch of 4th and 5th graders when I made a comment about what they would be doing later in the day. Six heads looked up from the table and said, "How'd you know that?" I said, "I'm a teacher, that's how." Two of them said, "Are you a mom too?" I said, "No," but after thinking a second I replied, "Would I be a good one?" One boy said, "Oh, yeah!" I guess the requirement for being a mom is knowing what will happen in four hours.

I have two kindergarteners in afternoon that are just adorable. A couple of weeks ago everyone is school was sick, so kids were gone a lot. When one of them was gone, the other one just kept asking for him. He couldn't quite learn without the other person. Then the next day the one who was sick came to school and the other one stayed home. "Where is John?" he asked. I said he was probably home sick. I heard, "You know the one I mean? The one with the blind eye." Right, cause there are so many kids in my group. I couldn't help but laugh. Last week, they were both in group and one called the other by name. The little boy looked at his friend and said, "How do you know my name?" Really?! We've only been in school 112 days. They are so funny.

...with Grammie
I took her peanut butter cookies and the next time I went she had eaten them all and wanted to know if I had brought more. I told her I would make Valentine cookies and asked if she would help me make them. "No, but I will eat them," was her response.

Our school has a program for deaf children, so I am slowly picking up more sign language. I learned the other day that the sign for stubborn in the same as the sign for mule. I was telling Grammie and she thought it was pretty funny. This led her to remember the fact that John bet a friend he could take his mule into the hospital and show it to his newborn twins. He won the bet much to the chagrin of the nurses who were working. Anyway, I told Grammie that I got my stubbornness from her and she agreed. Then I told her I hadn't really had a chance since my other grandmother is German. Grammie agreed. She said that I got double the stubbornness and didn't stand a chance.

Desperate...?

Not this much.
I have wanted to take a community ed. class for awhile now. The problem is, I don't want to take one that lasts 8 weeks. Each time classes are offered, I look for something exciting that I might want to take. I found one that is only one night and looked fairly interesting and useful. It is an online dating class. The object of the class is to help a person choose a website, create a profile, and to be careful in the meantime. There is only one problem with this class...it is being offered on Valentine's Day! I mean, really!! There is a possibility of going to the class and meeting someone there, but I think not. This year I will sit at home and enjoy the quiet of my humble abode. Oh wait, I think I did the same thing last year too. :-) At least I'm good at it.

Ignored??

Do you feel ignored because I haven't written in 2 months? I'm sorry if you do. I was busy making Christmas presents and settling into my new job. The job is going wonderfully well. The people are so kind and loving. For Christmas, most people got handmade gifts, so I will tell you what I did. I made 6 quilts ( 2 were finished when I left CO in August and I made 4 more.) I knitted 7 hats (One was too small, so it's at Grammie's on a stuffed animal, 4 were for siblings and 2 were for my nephews [these were started on 12/19 and finished on 12/31]). I also knitted3 scarves for people. There were some gifts that got bought, but a majority were handmade. (I put together a book for Mom and Dennis' anniversary in Nov. and that took awhile.)
Now that the holidays are over I plan on writing more. You might see more of my food creations or hear more about the kids at school.

Food creations- I have found great recipe for rolls, flatbread, and I made a recipe for pie (I put 3 diff. recipes together for this one).
--I hope to make "Nig Fewtons" soon (see Kindergarten post for story).
--Grammie thought Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip Cookies sounded good, so that's what I'll make for my birthday. I asked her about the chocolate cake and the cookies and she thought the cookies sounded "wonderful".
--I plan on making Lasagna for dinner this week.

Kindergarten

I have been helping with the kindergarten classes. (Our school has an abundance of boys. There are double the boys than girls in almost all of the lower grades.) They are absolutely adorable. They say the funniest things and don't hesitate when they think something. The teacher is amazing with them and it has been fun to see all the lessons. On Thurs. they got to make snow storms. This involved a blue sheet of paper in a tray and then they kids rolled a marble dipped in white paint on the paper. The "snow storms" turned out great. The morning class was told to write their last names on the back of their paper before painting. At lunch time the teacher hung up the projects. I was sitting in the room eating my lunch as the teacher attempted to read the last names. One of the last names was written "bblb". The teacher looked very confused and set that one aside. Then she got to another one and said, "I don't have a child with this last name in my class." As she pick up another paper, she figured it out. The child copies what their neighbor writes, so, this child had written the first letter of their last name and the complete last of the child sitting next to them. Needless to say, the afternoon class wrote their first names on the papers instead of their last names.
Yesterday, I was helping the teacher assess the children for report cards. I was taking them into the hall one at a time and having them read different things. I asked one of the children when his birthday was and he said, "far, far away." Then I asked what his phone number was and he said, "I don't have a phone." (He didn't know his mom's phone #) I took another kid into the hall and asked his phone number. I got "1,2,3." Then I asked for his address and got, "8,9,10" I took one of the refugee boys into the hall. (Now, this little one is hysterical. He can get really mad and shout at you in his broken English. One day he looked at me, shook his finger and said, "That's it! That's it! Stop following me!") I asked him to identify the letters and that went ok. (He doesn't know the names, but he does know most of the sounds.) I then asked him to identify the sounds. By this point he was done working and he started grunting, "uuuuuu, eeeee, ggggggg, iiiiiii, oooooooo, uuuuuuu." You can get the picture. When I went in and told the teacher, she just laughed.
Yesterday, the kids had library and it was runny exceptionally late. Three of us that help out in Reading groups were helping the teacher put sorting trays together for the kids. Keep in mind that one is a Title 1 tutor and then me (special ed. assistant). The two of us were given rhyming cards and asked to put them together and then put a few in each tray for the children. I was having a horrible time finding the 3 cards that went together. Then when we had to count our sets the other gal couldn't count. The teacher loved it. She said it was so fun listening us try to do something the Kindergartners are being asked to do. Later, when the kids came back to class, the teacher was reviewing their "ig" words ie. pig, wig, fig. She had gotten some dried figs at the store and wanted the kids to eat them. She told them the fig tastes sweet and is like a raisin. When she set the tray down in front of me, I just looked at them. They look funky and I wasn't really sure I wanted to try one. I did and really like it. Then the AmeriCorps girl who helps out said to me, "Do you eat Fig Newtons?" I said, "Oh, I love them, but Grammie and I always called them 'Nig Fewtons' so I didn't think about the fig part." She just kind of looked at me funny, but I was serious. Now I know where the crunchy part of the cookie comes from-the fig. Then I remembered I can't have Fig Newtons anymore. Today, I realized I could make my own, so I got online and found a recipe. I will report back when I make them.
I am learning a lot in kindergarten too. Just not the same things the kids are. ☺