Updates! Updates! Plans! Happiness!

What a great week, and a scary week too.

Let's detail the good stuff.  First a little background.

Most people that I consider "friends", who I talk to on a daily basis are women.  Maybe this is because I don't watch sports, don't eat meat, don't care about cars, have no idea how to fix basically anything, don't hunt, don't fish, don't cook meat, don't have a lawn to mow, don't drive motorbikes/snowmobiles/boats, don't have any powertools or basically do anything that 90% of the males in this country focus their energies on.

So, the one guy who I can hang out with for hours and hours and talk movies and all other types of stuff without delay used to work across the hall from me.  Then he had the gall an audacity to move to freaking New Zealand <yea, everything is about me apparently.  :) >.  Anyway, he was back in town and we got to hang out a few times, and saw a movie this week and grabbed dinner afterwards.  That was awesome. < Zero Dark Thirty was the movie, btw.>  Great conversation, a good meal, several tasty beverages, and all on a school night.  It was a great night indeed.

Also, I was given permission to switch my schedule around a little bit for 2nd semester, and I'm going to be teaching the Gifted and Talented Students for 8th grade social studies.  I am BEYOND excited for this switch.  (For those of you who read this whose students are in that group, I hope I will do you proud).

I've really been struggling this year teaching this group of students I had 1st semester.  In all previous years, I taught groups of students who were across the spectrum of ability and interest.  I had the kids who really struggled and were apathetic, and then groups of kids who truly loved learning and were beyond curious about all things.  Dealing with the kids who are bursting with curiosity makes it easier to wage war against apathy.  Also, when you have the full spectrum of kids in class, it offers a peer group who acts as a role model, and often inspires some borderline students to get a bit more connected to class.

I also got to go and have a great lunch with my co-workers yesterday to celebrate the end of the semester, and my successful completion of one year as a middle school teacher.  I must say it was as hard, or harder, than my first year as a high school teacher.  Middle school is definitely harder, without.a.doubt.

So...  there's a bunch more I could write about, but y'all are bored by now.

But there's also some scary stuff too.

Anya was sick last Saturday and Sunday, and we thought it was just a cold.  It got worse into Monday, and we kept her home from school.  Same with Wednesday.  We just figured it was a big old chest cold virus that was kicking her butt. (no use in going to the Doctor, it's just a virus, and we're already keeping her hydrated) The cough got worse on Wednesday, so we took her to the Doctor on Thursday.

Yawp.  She has pneumonia.  Not a baby case either.  Soooooo.....  we've been doing our best to keep the girls from sharing any germs, but with Amelie's decreased immune system, it's bound to jump at some point.  She's coughed a few times this morning already, so I think the gestation of that particular bug is about to come home to roost.

Amie's blood numbers (platelets and red blood) are also really low.  She was supposed to start round 5 of chemotherapy on Wednesday, but that didn't happen.  They checked her numbers on Friday, and say that they are hoping she'll be ready to go by Wednesday, but can't guarantee anything.

They've also scheduled another MRI for Valentines Day (2/14).  Their view is that they want to see if everything is the same after two rounds of Carboplatin and no Vincristine.  If it looks good after round 5 with the current regimen, they'll go ahead and do the 6th round with the stem cell rescue as planned.  If things don't look good, they'll sit down and talk about next steps.

Lots of good stuff, some not so good stuff.

As a co-worker said this week, there's lots of people who have it worse.  :)

Hope all is well with you and yours!