LapBand

So I'm considering LapBand surgery.

At the moment I'm reading up on people's experiences. One of my favorite blogs is Once Upon a Time in the Land of Cheese and Sunkist Amy writes in a humorous, down to earth manner and often makes me smile.

She jokes about having a reverse body dysmorphic disorder.  Until she wrote about that, I thought I was alone in the weirdness of it. Basically, I'm fatter than I really think I am. Don't get me wrong, I know I'm fluffy. I've no illusions of being a stick thin model. But I do have a tendency to sideswipe things- posts, doorways, garage door locks, because my mental image of myself and the reality don't match.

I'm a sexy babe, fluffy or not. I don't bemoan a lack of life due to weight. I have a boyfriend, I own a condo, love my dog, have a side business in henna, as well as love to dance.  In fact, one of my African American students once told her mom (during a conversation what being black means) that I was black, because I could dance good :D Interesting what kids think, no?

I've had belly dancing lessons, boudoir photo shoots, and I don't get freaked out at the thought of myself in a swimsuit.

So why LapBand?  I'm 5'4" and at the beginning of 2010 weighed 261 lbs. I'm down a bit thanks to Nutrisystem food, the diabetic plan that is full of protein.  I am considering that the band might be a tool that can help me where sheer willpower cannot. In 2003 I was on weight watchers, and the lowest I got down to was around 217. I haven't been under 200 since the early '90s.

I don't like the way clothes look on me currently. I don't like the effort it takes to physically get out of bed in the morning, or off the couch at night. I have sleep apnea, and use a CPAP machine while I sleep.

I turned 40 last year. For me this is the new beginning of the rest of my life. When I turn 50 I don't want to be the same or worse weight. I don't want to be someone that needs a motorized cart to get around because weight is too much of a strain.

I'm going to see if my insurance will cover LapBand.  If I go ahead with the surgery, it would probably be this summer.

I'm not considering this lightly. The idea of PB (productive burps, or partial barfs), fills, and all manner of intestinal issues is not appealing to me. This is not "an easy way out". But honestly, there is no easy way out of obesity.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer?

Warning: gross-out photo ahead

I wrote before a bit about my foot surgery, and how I had a "bone accessory" on the bottom of my big toe. (Yes I love to accessorize- apparently even my bones!)  The students in my class wanted to see it, but I wasn't about to unwrap and expose the stitches to any of the germs swirling around. So when I was at the podiatrist, I snapped a photo of it with my trusty iPhone. The nurse laughed at me....sure it's crazy, but there's some need in me to document my life and the things that happen.

I showed my students the photo, and one boy remarked "It looks like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"

Now of course, dear reader, I'm sure you're looking at that and thinking it doesn't look like Rudolph.  but I have to say, I could see what he meant. The top left part might be the antlers of a reindeer, and the part that trails down to the right could be 18 tiny reindeer winding their way through the sky of my Big Toe. Big Toe Sky... bahhaha.  Anyway, maybe I'm a little whacked, but I'd like to think that the ability to see what children see helps me to be a better teacher.

Henna Tree of Life and Really Really Weird Coincidences

A client came over yesterday to get henna done. While talking, we discovered really weird coincidences.

Like, BOTH our fathers worked for United Space Alliance (Cape Canaveral FL). We BOTH used to live on Merritt Island. We told each other our streets, and we each knew them. We went to the same high school, albeit years apart.

Anyhoo, she really liked this belly pic:

But wanted something on her shoulder, with maybe the flowers turning into birds as they fell off the tree.
This is what I came up with:

 

She loved it, which is the best part of this job. 

When we last left our hero...

She was dealing with a broken ankle.

The ankle healed and I was walking by mid to late March.

March also marked the first meeting with a counselor at NACA (naca.com) Naca helps people with good payment histories get a home without a down payment or closing fees. I got approved for a mortgage, and by May had found my condo. B was the one who spurred me on to get a place of my own. We went to the first workshop in January.

After a lot of delays, re-inspections, and general nail biting, I closed on the condo on June 29th. I love it! It's in a town home style, 3 bedrooms, 2 and half bath, with a garage and the kitchen of my dreams.


In early July Rose was over at M's with Emma (M's dog) when she got bit by a venomous snake. The bite was on her muzzle. M cleaned it right away, and call me and we met at the vet. She was in a TON of pain that night, and she swelled up something awful. I'm very lucky she lived.


Late July my youngest brother and his wife came to see my new place. We also went to the GA Aquarium. I'd never been there before. We got to see the Titanic exhibit as well.

Me and M at the aquarium.


Painting in progress for my wall

In August I had my housewarming / blessing. M cooked and was a great co-host.

Over Labor Day Weekend we went to DragonCon, as per our usual. What fun :) My uber loot was a photo of me and Felicia Day, which she autographed the next day!


In October I got to see my best friend from high school, Shannon. It was the first time in 20 years we'd seen each other, and we picked back up where we left off. She and her family took me to Wakulla Springs in Florida. We saw manatees, gators, birds, turtles and so on.

Shannon on left, me in middle- my High School graduation

For Halloween M and I went to two parties. He went as Billy Mays, and I went as the Fairy Goth Mother.



In November my father passed away. He'd been ill for a long time. Suffice to say that the cancer didn't kill him, but the cure sure didn't make him healthy. I'm a daddy's girl, and took the loss harder than I thought I would. I went to Mom's in Florida for the funeral, and then over Thanksgiving stayed in Atlanta. Christmas was different of course, but the hardest thing for me was seeing my mom mourn.

I was actually glad to get back to Atlanta, to my home, and to the familiar things I know. My high school town was great to grow up in - 5 minutes from the beach, 45 from Disney! But as an adult, the highlight of my days there was taking Rose to the dog park to play. Once back in town, M and I went out for sushi.. probably our favorite type of meal out.

December 29th I had foot surgery. Since the summer I'd had a sore swollen place on the bottom of my left big toe. Podiatrist said it was a "bone accessory". Kind of like a spur, but not attached. It was just sitting there in a tendon. Every time the tendon stretched, it rubbed against the bone. Six months later it was getting worse. A small white circle showed up. Doc lanced it, it was pus filled. We decided then to take it out.

Surgery- I've never had surgery before. I was very very nervous about it. Turns out it was easy. All I did was sleep, and I don't remember being told that it was going to happen. One minute I'm in the O.R., getting prepped, the next minute I'm waking up, feeling my toes tingling as they dress the area.

Well, that's enough for tonight. Will update with more another day.

Haiti

The devastation is so awful, so all encompassing. :(

Makes me realize just exactly how lucky I, and most of us, truly are.

Where Is The Creativity?

It's been almost a year since I wrote on this blog regularly. A lot has happened since then, and I will do a big "catch you up to date" post, but this isn't it.

This is about the changes in education coming down the pike. Changes that are happening now, that fill me with stress and dread.

The way teachers in GA are being evaluated is changing. Rather than be observed on what and how we teach, we are now also being measured by how well our students can respond to questions by administrators as to what they are learning.

I teach kindergarten. Over the past 5 years there has been a shift from theme-based creative, exploratory, social interacting, dramatic play type kindergarten, to 2 hours of English Language Arts, 1 Hour of Math, as well as blocks of science and social studies.

What I view as WRONG with this approach, is that children at this age learn many things all at once. For instance, in thematic teaching, we might be learning about Winter. The letter might be "S" for snow, writing about winter, creating art that shows what happens to trees, measuring and graphing the temperature each day, learning about why the Earth gets colder in Winter, in addition to learning what holidays people celebrate during the dark months.

The current approach has us teaching Language Arts for two hours with no Math, no science, no social studies topics. Rather than learn about their world, they "need" to learn that print has 3 functions- it can inform, entertain, or persuade. Children must be able to tell you that a sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark. That there are spaces between words. EVERY thing we teach must be identifiably measurable in its results, as the "only" worthy instructional goal is that which is measurable.

The sad thing is, I see all this change as a result to improve standardized state test scores in 3rd and 5th grades. In order for a third grade student to know the correct information about how to write a sentence, and what a complete sentence is, the state thinking is that they need to start learning this in kindergarten.

The other day the Art teacher was lamenting the fact that third grade students could not tear pieces of paper to create pieces of a body. IE- a head, arms, trunk, legs, feet, hands, etc. He said they looked at him like he'd asked them to cure cancer.

WHERE is the creativity, people?? If this country is to reach long term success in terms of becoming an economy where we create items for other countries to buy, an economy that hires people to MAKE things again, we have to not squash our children's creativity in the first place.

I have more on my mind than just this, like the fact our county superintendent was just voted a $15,000 raise by the school board because A) he wasn't being paid what other heads in our area are, and B) they didn't want him to leave. HELLO!!?? TEACHERS have not recieved step increases or cost of living increases. BUS DRIVERS have taken pay cuts... and he gets a raise? UGH.

Oh The Times, They are a Channnngin'

So is this blog, which looks like it'll be used again. Stay tuned for more.