Dr. Lew Gardner

After my last post, I am a little afraid of posting.  There were so many strong reactions on Facebook, that I am hesitant.  But yet, here I am.  I want to focus this post on the stress teachers are facing.  Here's hoping that people will understand what I am trying to get across.

Being a teacher has its ups and downs.  I truly love teaching.  I could do without the negativity and criticism that I face daily.  I know I am not alone in this matter.

I worked in the SLCSD from 1995-2007 before I came back to the district last year.  Back them I had my teaching degree, but worked as a Family Support Specialist working as a liaison between families and Government programs.  I remember a specific principal that everyone praised.  He was being moved to a position at the district and everyone was ecstatic.  We were going to have someone at the district that had been down in the trenches with the best of them and knew what it was like.  I am being non-specific for a reason, as I still work for the district.

Fast forward to today.  This is my seventh year of teaching.  I have worked with some great principals and some terrible principals.  The great ones have always been positive and focused on what I was doing right and how to get better.  The terrible principals were negative and found only negative things to say, squelching my enthusiasm.  I have always been a better teacher the years that I have supportive principals. 

Of the seven years I have taught, I have had a great principal for two years.  One year my principal was okay.  Four of the years, I have worked with terrible, mean people.  This year is one of the great years.  So I have nothing but praises for Dr. Lew Gardner. 

Ogden Temple

We went to the Ogden Temple open house today.  We were pleasantly surprised after the fiasco at the Brigham City Temple.  It was a perfect day and a good time to spend time with my family.

When we went to the Brigham City one it was poorly planned.  They had the line go through a parking garage and showed the video there in the boiling garage.  There was a girl in front of us that actually passed out.  Then it was very crowded in the temple itself.  So many people came back from that open house with the stories of great experiences, but not my family.

The Ogden Temple open house was much better.  They had the video in the Conference Center.  Then there was plenty of room for people to walk through the temple.  I was able to take my family though vaguely explaining each room.  I love the Celestial Room.  Zander wanted to touch the water in the baptismal font.  Don wanted to talk to the temple recorder.  Kyath asked questions.  Porter is at scout camp, so he missed it.  Dresden just wanted to keep the booties afterwards.  They even had a spot in the visitors tent where we were able to take a picture of our family in front of a huge picture. 

Washington D.C.

Washington D.C. was an enlightening experience for me.  It was easy to get stressed out by all the crowds and things to see.  That was one of the best things about being there with my mom.  We didn't feel like we had to see everything.  It was our vacation and we could do as we pleased.

Our hotel was within walking distance of a Safeway.  We were able to go there and buy food items and keep them in the hotel.  We expected it to be expensive, but they were priced pretty similar to the prices we see at home.  They had a huge breakfast bar every morning and the lobby was crowded with people each morning.  I don't think mom and I ate one breakfast together because according to her, I slept in.  She was an early riser and was downstairs by 6:30 most mornings.  I usually went down around 8:30.  

Mom and I spent the first day taking the Big Bus Tour.  Is is a bus that goes throughout the city and has stops along the way.  They gave out headphones and rain ponchos.  There are four different routes it takes.  We went on the yellow route into Georgetown.  We stopped to find somewhere to use a bathroom and ended up walking down a hill.  My mom reminded me that there was no way we could get back up the hill.  I panicked when I couldn't find another Big Bus to get on.  After I looked and looked, one finally came by and we flagged it down.  Pheew! 

We also went on the red bus which led us to the Ford Theater among other things.  We found a cute little diner right across from it.  We were surprised when we ordered Coke and they brought us a can with a cup and ice.

It was really hard to find fountain drinks in D.C.  I drove my mom crazy by going on a wild goose chase in the evening looking for my daily Coke.  One night I walked all the way to Walgreens because I was assured by a mail carrier that they had one.  I pulled out a cup and went to fill it.  All of the Coke products were gone.  I think they only thing left was Sprite.  I couldn't believe it. Another day I walked and walked and never did find one.  The last night I thought about going to Safeway.  I almost kicked myself when I saw that they had Coke and it was right by our hotel.  All those nights I spent searching and I could have just gone to Safeway. 

We had an appointment to see the Capitol on Sunday.  A Big Bus operator told us that the capitol is never open on a Sunday and so we didn't end up going.  We figured she would know better than we did and that they had made the appointment by mistake.  Later we found out the Capitol was open and we could have gone.  I was not happy.  We went to the Capital the next day and went through the visitors center.  I really wish we could have seen inside. 

We made sure to see all the monuments.  There was a green bus that actually drove us around to all of them.  They are farther apart than you would think.  As we were driving to the Pentagon I took some pictures.  Then the recording on the bus told everyone that is is against the law to take pictures of the Pentagon.  I quickly put my camera away.  The recording said it was for security purposes.  Mom and I thought it was interesting that when you look at the Pentagon you can't really tell that it is in the shape of the Pentagon.  By the time they announced it, it was too late to look at the shape.  I wished the bus would have driven by the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon, but instead the recording just mentioned it as we drove away.

The last day we went to the National Archives and the Air and Space Museum.  Mom and I actually went in the back and registered with the National Archives.  We spent some time researching on the computer and were issued identification cards.  There were links to genealogy sites that are open to the public.  I really think mom enjoyed our visit there. 

In case you were wondering, the other bus was the blue bus.  We took that as well.  I couldn't leave you hanging.

The thing that amazed me most was seeing so many Government buildings in one area.  It put my vision of the United States of America in a different light.  Washington D.C. is so much smaller than I thought it would be.  But at the same time, I didn't feel like I was among Government officials until we were by the Capitol.  It makes all the Presidential scandals seem so hard to believe, but so real at the same time.  On the bus tour they would point to a hotel and explain how this was the hotel where President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky would meet.  They pointed to another and said Martin Luther King Jr. stayed there the night before he delivered the "I Have a Dream" speech.  One of the hotels was where Lincoln stayed.  Washington D.C.  is such a historical hotspot.  It was a life changing experience to actually be there.

I will add pictures in a few days.

Williamsburg, Virginia

In June I had the honor of going with my mom to Washington D.C.  I have always wanted to go and was actually planning on going when I found out my mom was planning a trip as well.  We went together and I will always hold on to the memory because it was so special.

My mom and I flew into Williamsburg, Virginia.  We spent three days there with my niece and nephew Cami and Derrick Struksma and their daughter Zoe.  My brother Dan was nice enough to let us use three nights of his timeshare.  It was five minutes away from Cami and Derrick and was like a studio apartment with two bedrooms.  Our back patio looked out into a field.

I was excited to spend time with Cami because she is so fun and easy to get along with.  Cami and Derrick have a fun relationship that entails a lot of teasing and sarcasm.  They are both highly intelligent, sociable, and amazing people.  When it comes right down to it, Cami and Derrick are truly meant for each other.  

We spent our time in Virginia visiting Williamsburg, Jamestown, and William and Mary College.

Williamsburg was full of historical buildings and enchanting town actors.  I was excited to buy a whistle that was handmade there in Williamsburg.  I plan to use it to call my students attention in school.  There was a lot of walking there and I made mom walk further than she should have so that I could send a postcard to my family right from the Williamsburg post office.  There were shoe maker shops, seamstress shops,  and gardens.  Cami explained that all of the people actually make things how they were made back in colonial Williamsburg times.  They used antiquated tools, out of date technology, and historic methods.  Cami and I went off to find a bathroom.  That was about the time she told Zoe there was a frog in the grass next to her and Zoe started to run for her life.  There is a story about Cami, Zoe, and a frog from earlier in the month that you just have to hear Cami tell because it is hysterical.

Mom and I took a train from Williamsburg to Washington D.C.  It was difficult boarding the train, finding seats, and stowing our luggage.  I really thought someone would take pity on us and help us out, but it was a fend for yourself type atmosphere.  A kind lady offered to change seats so that mom and I could sit together.  When we arrived at the D.C. train station we were more than overwhelmed.  We did not know where our hotel was or the best way to get there.  We decided on taking a taxi and were relived when he loaded and unloaded the luggage for us.

Next post will be about Washington D.C.

Recuperating

My family has had and evil virus since the first week of June. Kyath was hit first.  He had a fever, chills, cough, and was just plain tired.  To be honest, I thought he was over exaggerating his case because he still had school.  So I gave him a limited amount of sympathy.

Zander was hit next.  He had all the same symptoms and just sat on the couch all day.  I had more sympathy for him because he is a tough kid and who plays sick during summer vacation?

What I haven't touched on is that both Kyath's and Zander's sicknesses lasted two weeks.  It is a pretty nasty case of the flu.  I kept thinking that they would be feeling better the next day, and each day they just became progressively worse.  Zander's started the two weeks after Kyath was sick, so I thought we were out of the woods as far as the rest of the family getting it. 

Around the time Zander started to get better, Dresden caught the flu.  She wanted to be held and taken care of every minute of the day for the entire two weeks.  I took her in to Instacare.  I had kept asking Kyath if he wanted to go to Instacare when he was sick and he kept saying he wasn't sure. Then I thought Zander could get through it if Kyath could.  I probably took her in because she was so needy.  That sounds awful, but it is probably true.

The doctor at Instacare diagnosed Dresden with "Walking Pneumonia."   She was prescribed an antibiotic.  That was about the time I felt like a terrible mom.  Here I had two other kids that had walking pneumonia and I just let them suffer through it.

As Dresden started feeling better, Porter came down with it.  I loaded him up with cough drops and decongestant.  After a week I took him in and he was diagnosed with Walking Pneumonia.  He was giving antibiotics and started to get better with the antibiotics.  He is still coughing throughout the day and is a little tired. as well.

You can guess what happened next.  I came down with it.  I had all the same symptoms of chills, fever, cough, headache, and low energy.  I went to Instacare.  The doctor came in the room laughing and apologized.  He wondered if I had heard him make fun of me to the nurses for calling it Walking Pneumonia.  He said, "They don't use that term anymore and I wondered if there was a 60 year old women in here."  That's when I knew I was in trouble.  I decided to hold back the snotty remark hanging on my tongue that it was the doctors at Instacare that had diagnosed my two children with the antiquated term Walking Pneumonia.

He listened to my lungs, looked in the mouth and ears, and checked my thyroid.  He told me I had the flu.  He gave me cough medicine and told me to suffer through it.  He told me to come back if the symptoms worsen.  I was upset.   I expected to get antibiotics like Dresden and Porter.

So here we are half way through summer vacation and I feel like I haven't even had a summer.  Besides the trip to D.C. (Way amazing by the way) I have been living in a sick ward.  I am so tired and am still fighting the flu.  I slept ten hours last night.  Then I took a two hour nap this afternoon.  Dresden begged and begged to go to the parade tonight, so I finally gave in and took her.  It took all my energy.  It is just crazy.  I hope no one else gets this because it is just terrible. 

Meanwhile I feel like I have neglected my brother Dex and my sister-in-law Robin for not calling and acknowledging the birth of their sweet girl.  I of course can 't visit because I wouldn't want to pass this on with their new born in the NICU.

I have also neglected my foster brother Travis and sister-in-law Kari with their newborn as well.  He is five weeks old and I haven't even given them a call.  They probably feel like I don't even care.  That's not the case.

Then there is Shelley who just has a hysterectomy.  I would have loved to visit her in her time of need.  I am thrilled that the operation went well and that the prognosis is good.  I love her and hope to make it up to her.

I wish I could help Debbie.  I know she is getting ready for Avery's farewell and as yet still doesn't have a kitchen.  I wish I could take part of her load.

There are so many people that I should be helping or at least visiting and I am just not to that point yet.  I wish I could just get this virus over and done with and get on with my life.  My fingers are still crossed that Don doesn't get it. 

New Outlook

So I realized just how important it is to have a digital footprint. Crazy you say? Let me explain. My friend Jordan Fowles died two weeks ago. The first thing I did was spend hours reading all the entries of his on Facebook. Then I went to all and any relatives' Facebook accounts to read as much as I could. It hit me that I needed to know what was going on in his life even though I had kept contact with him through the years.

I did the very same thing when my mission companion Susan Candland Bromley died. I had to know about her family. I needed to know more about what was going on to cause her tragedy.

So I am thus compelled to make a record of me and my family. It is not a matter of vanity or being self absorbed. It is just a drawing force in my life right now that I can't explain. There is a cute saying that I saw once at Kneaders. It says, "May your life be as happy as you pretend it is on Facebook." I am not out to show off or try to make anyone like me better. I just need to do this for me.

Today my oldest son, Ky, did something that brings tears to my eyes. I was out with Don and my second oldest, Porter, when he called. He said he felt like he needed to give some money to a neighbor. I told him that if he felt he should, then he should. He has been working a concrete construction job this summer. It is hard work, but it has taught him amazing things. His payday was Friday, so he had some money to spare.

When I came home, he couldn't wait to tell me how good it felt. He said he went to the neighbor and was tongue tied. He explained that he couldn't get his words out so that they made sense. Then he pulled out the money and explained to her that she has done so much for him and he felt inspired that he needed to bring her the money. She wouldn't take the money, but my son insisted. They both were in tears. She told him that she needed the exact amount he had just given her because her tires were bald and she was going out of town.

My payoff is that my oldest son has learned to listen to the still small voice and recognizes its promptings. He is only 15 and he has become such a man just these last two months. I can't thank Ben, his boss enough for giving this difficult job. It has helped Ky learn important life lessons life persistence and charity. I sure love that boy.

One little comment

It's funny how one little comment can ruin you day.  To everyone who's day was ruined by any of my comments during their lifetime, "I'm sorry."