One at a Time... Except for after Thanksgiving

Exactly 364 days ago, I went under the knife to repair my hip. It's been a long road to recovery, but I'm back... Mostly. 

Yesterday started out like any old regular weekend day. Grocery store for meatball fixins and the usual weekly grub. 

On the way home, we were idling in the turning lane waiting for the light to turn green when a black car decided to drive between our lane and the turning lane next to us. Ever been in a state such as CA where the motorcycles speed between the idling cars? That's what this car decided to do. The driver must have been in a super hurry (or drunk or had illegal drugs or something) as he decided to play bumper cars to move us out of the way. The car behind us was pretty banged up, we were scratched up, and the driver drove off. 

A nice lady started snapping pictures whe she heard the crunching. See that black car? He's a hitter and runner. 

Shaking like a leaf, Josh and I waited with the other families for the police. Happy Saturday morning. 

That's one thing. Remember one at a time is all I can handle. 

Thursday... Harry Potter Studios!

Excitement builds! 

Potions Classroom!

Entering Hogwarts! For real!!

The Great Hall

The full scale model of Hogwarts.

Matilda the Musical in London (and some other stuff)

Matilda!

Royal Horses leading the Royal Car

See the little red crown on top of the car. Palace Car

A neat building I saw from the bus. 

 

"2nd star to the right and straight on til morning!"

Harry Potter in the UK Class 2014

Roald Dahl (England, Day 4)

A picture/painting of Dahl in his writing hut. He wrote 4 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The museum has all of RD drafts and notes.

"Chocolate" door to one of the exhibits.

Benches inside the RD Museum

RD's writing hut

Gates to the museum

 

 

RD played a prank on the local sweet shop lady. 

 

 

 

England Day 3: Oxford (Part 2)

 

The above street and I are NOT friends. They are all over Oxford, and while they are beautiful, they are are extremely difficult to walk on gracefully. We traveled down one of these cobbled streets for quite a ways to get to the "lodge" of Oriel College of Oxford. "Lodge" is the name for the entrance to college; carried over from centuries ago. This is the arch with crests over the lodge door.

Upon entering the quad, you see

This is as far as most people get to see of the many colleges in Cambridge and Oxford. However, we got the insiders tour with a professor named Bill Woods. We got to see the chapel,

 the dining hall, where 6 nights a week there is a formal dinner, and

 the faculty meeting room. In this room, there are a couple of boxes from the 1600s, which we in the USA would think is really remarkable and need to treasured. However, At Oriel College, these engraved and ornate boxes hold scrap paper and extra pencils.

After the tour ended, several of us went to The Turf Tavern. This tavern is a fairly famous tavern where Oxford students do some silly things, including the Rhodes Scholar, Bill Clinton, who smoked but didn't inhale.

England Day 3: Oxford (Part 1)

Sheep Pasture traveling from Cambridge to Oxford

We started the day on a 2 hour bus ride from Cambridge to Oxford. I kind of wanted to stop and stroll through the pastures. By the time we got to Oxford all the rain had disappeared, and we were able to enjoy a great afternoon out and about.

The Eagle and Child (or Bird and Baby as the Inklings called it) is the local Oxford pub where Tolkien and C.S. Lewis met weekly to write and share drafts of their stories and scholarly writings. After Tolkien shared The Hobbit with Lewis, Lewis decided to try to write a children's story. From that decision, he wrote The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. The room shown below is where Tolkien told Lewis that Narnia stories would never sell because they were undeveloped and too hastily written.

I took lots of photos inside the pub and will gladly share them with you at some point.

Next up was the 127 steep step climb to the top of the St. Mary's Chapel Tower.

King's College Chapel Service: England day 2

Anglican Church Services was a unique experience. This morning's service was theme was a Sung Eucharist.  For a description of the Sung Eucharist, you can click here. An all male choir sang beautiful songs in Latin as we followed along in the service booklet. Apparently, my no rhythm also applies to reading aloud during Anglican church services. I wanted to pause in all the wrong places, and some of the phrases were said quickly, almost slurred.

After the services, we went to lunch at the Anchor Pub where we ended up meeting all the students for our first book discussion. We read The Wind in Willows before traveling to England and had great literature discussions under a riverside willow tree and inside a warm pub.

At 2:20, we hopped a tour bus to travel around Cambridge. The first stop was the American War Cemetery, which is actually American soil way across the pond. We learned about intricacies of the Cambridge University System. I tried to go into the Geology Museum; however, it is closed on Sundays. So I wandered around an outdoor market where I purchased a pair of fleece-lined leggings to wear under my clothes! 48 degrees in the UK certainly is not 48 degrees in TN.

 Dinner was vegetarian Turkish at:

They had beautiful light fixtures.

Cambridge, UK Day 1

After 12 hours of fantastic sleep, I started the day with a brisk walk to the Fitzwilliam Museum. On the way there I passed this church:

The name of the church is awesome: "The Catholic Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs." Seriously, we need to reconsider some of the church names in America.

The ceilings at the Fitzwilliam were gorgeous.

Additionally, I really liked this posset pot from Staffordshire c1600.

I also really enjoyed the paintings of John Lindley.

 

After the Fitzwilliam, we strolled toward King's College Chapel, but got sidetracked by a street market complete with a Cheese Man Stall. 

After wandering through the vendors, we made it to King's College. We were pretty lucky in that the choir and orchestra were rehearsing while we toured. I love stained glass. I think it is incredible that the glass was removed during WWII and stored in cellars to protect the intricate glass. It was not returned until 1948.

The rest of the afternoon, we explored up and down alleys, across bridges, and through the arcades. All of the students arrived late this afternoon, and we went to dinner as a group.

39 Days Post Hip Repair

Breaking my own rules…complaining on social media BUT my hip hurts. sigh. :(

I need patience. I know my hip is not that strong right now. I've only been weight bearing for 10 days and walking without assistance from crutches maybe 3 or 4 days. I know that these things take time, but I'm tired of the pain. I'm tired of sitting and hurting, walking and hurting, sleeping and hurting. My only comfortable position is standing still with little weight on my surgical side. And that's about it. Sad, right?

I will get stronger, it will stop hurting, but sooner is better than later. It's just an injury. It's just a long and slow recovery.

I will survive. I will run again. Baby steps.

Christmas Card 2013

Click here:
Christmas Card 2013

A Tough Decision

Sitting in the mailbox waiting for the mailman to collect and deliver is an application to St. Bernard Academy. 

I know this might surprise some of you, BUT I LOVE school and learning. I love almost everything about school. I love to see student work displayed in the halls. I love the smiles and hugs of children. I love that I have to tell kids to "walk in the hall" as they are so excited to get to the library. I love helping  students find books that change their lives. I love when a student finally gets something after lots of hard work. I love how the laminating machine makes decorations shiny and last for a long time. I love the scissors, glue, and markers. I love to create bulletin boards that show off how smart the students are. I love all the misspelled love notes children give teachers that teachers proudly display on the wall by their desks. I love exploring, inquiring, and learning alongside students. I LOVE school and learning. 

I even love public schools. I work in lots of great schools alongside great teachers every week. Yet, some parts of public schools hurt my soul. I know that is way dramatic, but it is so true. Why can't all schools be fabulous? Why does policy trump learning? Why do we take the joy of learning away from kids? They are KIDS-- school should be awesome! School should not be about a testing. Testing is a cheap trick -- most of the kids that pass would probably pass without a teacher, and the kids that don't pass -- fight like hell and still fail -- then they quit fighting and schools/policymakers get all bent out of shape. 

So all this being said, we made a tough decision this week. Kat will change schools to where the focus is on learning to live productively and living to learn. She will be challenged, and she will grow. I will continue to advocate for and work in public schools. I will continue to work alongside teachers who navigate the rocky terrain in and around policy and their personal teaching/learning beliefs. 

Two words: Hip Surgery

I need to write. There are times when I despise writing and there are times when I need to write. Why, you might ask? Writing seems to be cathartic for me. I am able to pour words onto a page and think things through without having to talk to anyone.

But why do I need to write today?

2 words: hip surgery (the link is a video---ignore the "lesion" part--the surgeon doesn't think he will have to deal with the bone, but he won't know for sure until he is able to see it.)

On Friday, a hip specialist will remove the torn labrum from inside the ball and socket joint of my hip. In a nutshell--this is going to suck. I will be on crutches for 4 weeks. Therefore, we sprung for some fancy, ergonomic crutches.

Won't I look really cool? The downside to the whole thing is that I won't be able to run for 6 months. Yep, you heard right---6 months. And then only for 1 minute at a time for up to 10 minutes, which is probably all I will be able to run after sitting for so long. Sigh. 

The good news: 

The hip is not broken--though maybe I wish there was a break… don't breaks heal faster? There is 0 sign of any kind of arthritis. The hip joint looks "incredibly healthy" except for the tear. So this really is just an injury. I will be back to running by my birthday (June), I will run the Women's half marathon is September, and I will run the Nashville Full Marathon in November, 2014. 

Poster at Litton

The more you read,
the more you know.

The more you know,
the smarter you grow.

The smarter you grow,
the stronger your voice,

when speaking your mind 
or making a choice. 

Too bad it's not Halloween

Tuesday, I was stretching the last bungee over a load of boxes in the back of the truck. Easy, right? I've done it a hundred times. While fumbling for the hook near the bottom of the truck bed, the cord slipped right out of hand sailing directly into my left eye.

Here's a picture of my eye once it had been cleaned up at the emergency room. Lots of random tests that I didn't understand because I know nothing about eyes except that you see out of them (this comes from my stellar 20/20 vision therefore a lack of eye appointments). I did know that the letter on top of the eye chart was an "E" though it was more a black blur off in the distance.

ER Diagnosis: bruises, lacerations, cornea abrasions/scratches.
ER Directions: Narcotic for pain, antibiotic to prevent infection, rest, avoid bright lights, keep the stitches dry, and see a eye specialist.

Wednesday
1:40pm -3:30pm The most painful eye exam of all time.

Diagnosis: Everything you would expect of a trauma injury
       1. Blood pooling in retina/back of eye.
       2. Fiber tears and stretches of the iris.
       3. "Stunned" pupil in the upper left quadrant. (this means that the
            top left portion of my pupil was not dilating properly and
            evenly... king of like when you get hit in the arm and then you can't move your arm as well as
            before).
      4. Swelling in and around the eye.
      5. I feel like there was something else, but who can remember all the details.

Oh, and my 20/20 vision is now 20/80ish (in the injured eye, which is way better than the "E" smudge I saw yesterday) with "as the swelling decreases and fibers heal, vision will likely return to normal."

Here's what I look like today:

Hahahahaha! Thanks, Lindsey, for the emergency run to Target for some extra large sunglasses to hide my scary eye from the world.

Out of the mouth's of babes: Kat said, "Mom, your eye is ugly." I agreed and said, "too bad it's not Halloween this would be great makeup."


P.S. Please do not judge or hold me responsible for typos and such. Remember eye trauma + dilation = blurry eyesight!