Saturday, January 24, 2009

What a crazy week! It's a LONG one!

Let me just start by saying that this week has been insane. What was supposed to start out as a normal week has ended up being quite crazy. It started when G & I got home from his parents' house late Sunday night (after watching the football games). There were two messages on the answering machine. One was from my co-worker and one was from my boss, both telling me that due to a malfunction with the sprinkler system at the church (where I work), the daycare had to close on Monday & therefore, I wasn't needed at work. WOOO-FREAKING-HOOO! The best part of that news was that I was supposed to be working daycare all morning on Monday since, being MLK Day, my preschoolers didn't have school. That meant that I would spend six hours harping on K-6th graders instead of loving my little guys...so the unexpected day off (when G also had the day off) was a welcomed surprise! We ended up going out to lunch, running errands, and getting a few things done around the house (like catching up on some Big Bang Theory episodes on Tivo).

Tuesday went off without a hitch & that was the day of my meeting with the pastor, which I already blogged about! Coincidentally, I was up in the church office on Thursday and I got to see our donor request printed on the Prayer Needs list. I wanted to steal a copy from the office, but I figured I would wait until Sunday at church...since, you know, stealing from a church didn't really seem like the right thing to do! LOL :)

Wednesday was my "tough child's" observation at the local special services facility (place for special services & early intervention). It was supposed to take place at the beginning of the month, but due to weather, was cancelled and rescheduled for Wednesday. Before my 4-year-olds had even left for the day, my boss had received a call from the special services facility, asking if they could come and observe THE NEXT DAY!

Now, for those of you who don't work in education, you probably don't/won't understand the significance of this. Let me try to make you understand...I referred this child for special services in October. Well, actually, I asked his mom in October if she would be willing to have him evaluated. She agreed, but took a bit of time filling out the paperwork, getting doctor's signatures, etc. Once the paperwork is in, the special services facility has (I believe) something like 60 days to schedule their initial observation. They are overwhelmed with applications and, being free services, everyone wants them. So it took from that time (probably November) until January to get the observation set. After the first observation, they have another 60-or-so days to do their in-classroom observation & then another 60-or-so days after that to begin rendering services. So you can understandably see why I wanted him to be referred ASAP at the beginning of the year & why I was SO surprised to hear that they wanted to come in immediately for the in-classroom observation. This told me that they saw a number of things to cause them alarm.

Then, of course on Thursday, I was a mess. I was so worried (as teachers often are) that A) the child-in-question would have a great day & not show them anything they needed to see in order to qualilfy him for special services (this has happened to me before, I kid you not!) or B) they would be observing ME & find something wrong with what I was doing in the classroom that would cause him to act the way he was. I know that B) sounds really absurd, but after being observed by administrators in the past who have NO idea how to teach elementary kids, and then try to instruct you precisely on that which they have no personal experience, you tend to be very self-critical.

Let's just say that I needn't have worried. My kiddo came in doing a great job & really demonstrating that he got our routine (hung up his coat & backpack on his chair & then gave me his folder from his backpack all w/o assistance), but after that, she pretty much got to see him all in action. I won't go into detail, but I will just say that it wasn't so much behavior issues that she got to see as much as behaviors that has that sent up the red flags everywhere. She was really a great lady and knew what she was looking for & I was grateful to hear a lot of reassurance that the things she was seeing were the exact things that I have been seeing these past few months...and that it's not just me, but that there ARE real issues at hand. And his brother even helped me out by throwing an all-out I'm-4-but-I-act-like-I'm-2 temper tantrum, which I'm sure she made note of. I thought that was a nice touch.

When the observer left, she stressed over and over that she was going to send us paperwork and could I PLEASE send it in ASAP! WOW! So I am sure I will be filling out tons of paperwork (on top of my 14 report cards that I have to squeeze in somehow) next week.

And finally, yesterday, Friday. I got the day off of work because I had to go for ultrasound and bloodwork for my prep cycle. In my true my-body-is-a-piece-of-crap fashion, the bloodwork came back with my estrogen elevated, which showed that I ended up ovulating right through the birth control pills and the lupron. I am such a freak! Go me! So, now I have to double my dosage of lupron & come back in another week to see if my E2 is down low enough to start the Estrace & progesterone meds. I am now starting to worry that this cycle will overlap with our Presidents' Day weekend trip, but there's nothing I can do about it now...so we wait. And I emailed the nurse to find out about my TSH level and how it looked this time, so I'm waiting on that one, too.

Wow...what complete craziness...and oh yeah, the new blog makeover is awesome, and coming soon to an infertility blog near you!

4 comments:

Kara said...

Wow! Crazy indeed! I hate observations. I'm like you- I always feel like I'm a crappy teacher when they come in. And if they are observing a particular student, my luck is ALWAYS that they have a great day!! So I hear you. And I'm glad your student was in fine form that day. :) (His brother too!) :)

Ter said...

I *LOVE* your new bloggy makeover!! WOW!! Beautiful!!!

Sure sounds like you had a crazybusy week. Not all bad, either, yay for unexpected days off (and not because you're sick!)

And I was thinking that you will have to keep that Church Bulletin for your scrapbook to capture your journey!

Anonymous said...

Wow, you did have a crazy week! I LOVE YOUR NEW BLOG DESIGN! It's amazing! So glad you won! Have a great weekend!

Stockpiling Mom said...

Love your new look!