Monday, August 31, 2009

Ramblings and News

One of the bad things about moving is leaving all your good friends behind.

I left my friends a year ago. Then I spent several months in transition and most recently have been trying to get my own home decorated and in order. Basically, I haven't had much time for socializing. I've met many wonderful women, but I haven't made that "great" friend yet. Hold on. Let me rephrase that. I probably have met the great friend, I just haven't had time to develop a "great" friendship yet.

Alright, so what does this have to do with my blog? Well, since I don't yet have that great friend to share all my good news, funny stories, weird experiences, etc. with, I've decided to share them here. I've been brimming over with a few good news items and if I don't let them out soon, I am likely to explode and spill my guts to some random stranger in the grocery store who casually asks How I Am. So, to avoid the embarrassment and awkwardness that would surely follow such an explosion, I will instead spill my guts here, where I know a few of the friends I left behind still visit me.





Good News!



1. I earned my Teaching Certificate this summer! Yahoo! I am now certified to teach K - 12 Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS). For those who don't know, FACS covers eight areas:


a. Human Development

b. Family and Human Relations

c. Clothing, Textiles, and Fashion Merchandising

d. Nutrition and Food Preparation

e. Facility Management, Housing, and Interior Design

f. Consumer Economics, Family Resources, Personal Finance, and Family Financial Management

g. Food Production and Culinary Arts

h. Child Development



I could teach any of these subjects. It's very exciting. I was sorely tempted to apply for two open positions in our High School District. One was Culinary Arts and the other was Fashion Design. Fortunately, my good sense (Hubby) kicked in and reminded me that I had already committed to other projects that would interfere with a full-time teaching position. Whatever. I'm just super-excited that I finally have the certificate in my hands!



2. What commitments do I have? Children? A house to run? Psh. Those are easy! No, my commitment is to JoAnn's. I was hired on as an Independent Contractor to teach Sewing and Quilting Classes. Aaaaah!!! Can you believe it?!?! I'm going to be teaching sewing and quilting. And I'll get paid for it! I'm on their calendar starting November 1. In the meantime, I am working on sewing up samples for display in the store. I'm also trying to time myself-how long each step takes to complete, figure out the order I'll teach the sewing steps in, what items should be sent home as homework, and all that fun stuff.



Sewing Classes I will be teaching in November & December:

a. Kid's Sewing 101 - Pillow Case

b. Teen Sewing 101 - Wristlet (a little handbag)

c. Sewing 101 - Pillow Case

d. Sewing 102 - Reusable Gifts Bags

e. Sewing 201- Fleece Vest

f. Sewing 201 - Fleece Robe



Quilting Classes I will be teaching in November & December:

a. Quilting 101 - Hole in the Barn Door Block

b. Quilting 201 - Mini-Quilt Coaster Set

c. Quilting 202 - Steps Through My Garden Quilt



The January/February Calendar will include different items, sent down by the JoAnn bigwigs. In addition to whatever classes they want taught, I will be adding a Trend class of my own...A Stack-and-Slash Baby Quilt. Again, it's very exciting because I LOVE sewing and quilting.


If you live in my town and want to sign up for one of the classes I'll be teaching, call me up and I'll let you know which classes on the schedule are mine. :) OH! And once a month, at JoAnn's Open House, classes are Half-Price! Next open house is September 12.

3. Hubby and I are officially Licensed as Foster Parents. We finished all the paperwork and home inspections in June, by late July we were Licensed, and on Saturday, August 8 we welcomed a 16-year old girl into our home. That's Right! I am now the Mother of a Teenage Girl! Hahaha! Can you believe it?

Last week I went to her High School to meet with a few of her teachers. Funniest thing happened. As Miss Q (our new girl's pseudonym) introduced me as her Mom, one of the female teacher's eyes opened big as saucers and her jaw fell open. Awkward! Female teacher, trying to cover for herself, then said "It's just that you look so young to have a teenage daughter." Haha! I didn't tell her that Miss Q was our Foster Daughter because 1. It's none of her business (I'm not being rude, it's a matter of confidentiality) and 2. If Miss Q wants to introduce me as Mom, then that's who I am. I told Hubby about it later and we figured for us to biological parents to a 16-year old, he would have been 18 and I would have been 15 when that child was born. Yowser!

4. All the rooms in my home are painted, except the Master Bedroom, Master Bath, Hallway, and Laundry Room. The good news is that Hubby, now free from "Into the Woods", has agreed to paint them himself.

5. After much searching and long debates with myself, I have finally decided which quilt pattern to use for my Sister-In-Law's quilt. It's called "Making History". I found it in the Fall/Winter 2008 Quilt Sampler magazine. It uses a Martha Washington star block and a sawtooth star block. Of course, I have to finish my JoAnn samples before I can start on SIL's quilt. Oh, and I need to make Miss Q a quilt and finish BabyCakes quilt. But at least I have the pattern for SIL's quilt figured out. ;)
6. My Sister V came to visit me and she brought her fancy hair cutting scissors. V was nice enough to give myself and all five kids a nice haircut. Hooray!



Bad News

1. The summer heat has killed my apricot tree and white hibiscus plant. I tried to save them, but they just couldn't stand the heat. :( The other fruit trees, hibiscus, and citrus seem to be coping alright. They just have to last another month then the weather will start to cool off.

2. I have been fighting a seriously debilitating ear infection. It has made my whole face, head, and neck ache and pound. It has made me dizzy and nauseous. And it has thrown off my already-shaky balance. As a result, I have many bumps and bruises all over my body from running into walls, posts, doors, or just plain falling down. I see my ENT for an eval tomorrow. Hopefully, he can get everything figured out. :(

3. Can tops hate me. I have a heavy-duty can opener for my year supply. It is fantastic opening #10 cans. It is stinky at opening regular grocery sized cans. It always skips and leaves two spots unopened. In my attempt to open one such can, I sliced my right thumb top clean open. It was awful. It sliced down into my nail. The length of the cut was about 1 1/2 inches, the depth about 1/4 inch...thankfully. Any deeper and I would have needed some heavy stitching. Yuck! As it was, I just lost a lot of blood as the wound spurted all over my kitchen. Later I had a lovely gaping hole on the top of my thumb that stung like the dickens whenever air touched it. I procured this wound just in time to fill out all the registration papers for my kids to attend school. Yay!

The next can-hating incident occurred only a few days later. I was being extra careful, trying to avoid injuring myself again. Psh. Totally didn't work! This time I sliced my right palm directly under my index finger. The can lid sliced clear through the skin...in part. It was nasty and did cause me great pain. Hubby has volunteered to open all my cans from now on. That would be a nice offer, if he wasn't gone so much working. I can't wait for him to open cans for me. Joe said he would open them, but there is no way! I'm too paranoid now to let my sweet innocent five-year old son battle cans for me. I need to buy a different can opener, but that would involve driving and what with my dizziness from the ear infection, I am avoiding driving at all costs. :(

4. I did injure my tailbone...AGAIN!!! It's not the same bone I broke in December 2007. That bone was at the very end of the spine. No, this one is a few bones higher. I injured it while trying to distract BabyCakes during his haircut. Cakes was swinging his arms about and accidentally got my chin. Well, that was pretty funny, so he swung for me again. Ouch. My face must have been hilarious, because he decided to use both fists to get my chin again. I was sitting on a little stool at the time. I shoved the stool back and planned on plopping my buns onto it, out of Cakes' reach, but I slid the stool too far back. Instead of sitting, I slammed the top part of my bum down HARD onto the tile bathroom floor. It was awful!! The pain shot all the way down to my ankles and up to my neck. And not just pain. There were also weird tinglings and then a kind of numbness settled over my body, so that I was still in a ton of pain but completely unable to move any part of my body. That lasted for several minutes. Finally I was able to move, so I crawled out of the bathroom and tried to lay down. That hurt even worse.

I thought it would quit hurting after a day, but no. So I went to the ER to have it checked out. The ER wasn't super busy, but was still a long wait. I had to be at the bus stop by Noon to meet Joe and the treatment for a broken tailbone is the same for a bruised one...ice it and take some Tylenol. (There's really not much they can do when you're stupid enough to hurt your bum. :-( ) Anyhoo, since the treatment would be the same and I needed to get out of the ER pronto, I opted not to have the x-rays done. So I don't know the exact extent of the damage I caused nor the exact bone I injured. But after living with the pain and discomfort for the last week and a half, I'm pretty sure I broke it. Hmm. Maybe I can go to the local imaging place and have them take an x-ray. They're pretty quick...

Funny thing about the injured bum: We have a young gal called in our ward to play piano each Sunday. A couple hours before Church started the Sunday after my accident, she called to say she was sick and could I please fill in. I explained my predicament, she said "Ah" in understanding, then asked if I could still play. I guess I didn't explain well enough. Haha! I did play for her, but it was a killer getting up and down off that hard wooden bench.

Luckily for me, it was healed enough by this past Sunday that I could still do nursery all right. Although, there were a few times I thought about walking out and begging someone to take over for me. But I stuck to it and we all had fun.

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And that is the end of my news. Well, at least what I can remember. I was going to write about something weird that happened to me, but cannot remember what it was. Probably because I've been sitting down to long and can't concentrate when my bum is aching.

FYI I'm going to start posting my Good and Bad News occasionally. I need to get this stuff out so I don't explode to some random stranger and bore them with my life story. ;)

10 comments:

Lisa Love said...

Sarah, I love your ramblings!! :) Yeah for your Teaching Certificate!! You would be such a great teacher. I have no sewing ability whatsoever - seriously. Sewing machines run from me. But maybe I'll sign up for a class. Sorry about your owies. Despite all of your hurts you still cooked artichokes and other food for our RS dinner last week. You are amazing! Bless you for being a foster mom - I think that was a great compliment that a teenage girl would choose to call you mom. Once again, you are amazing. :) I look forward to more good/bad news.

Christina said...

Congratulations on the teaching certificate, the new job, and the new addition to the family. How lucky she is to get put in such a fun, loving home!

Crunchyconmommy said...

So glad to hear all of your news! We miss you, too! As for the can opener, that's what amazon.com is for!

Congratulations about all of the teaching goodness going on in your neck of the woods. I am completely jealous and wish I could take your sewing classes. I've decided that I want to start sewing again. And then I don't. So if we were closer, you could teach me sewing and I could teach you knitting!

BTW, did I tell you that I also have done some teacher training recently? I am now trained to teach yoga! I'm not a registered yoga teacher yet (that's about 200 instruction hours, and I have... 18) but I'm qualified to teach beginning classes! I'm doing an enrichment class, one at Wood Valley and two kids' classes at school!

Also, congratulations on the newest member of your family. I so admire your willingness, ability and everything else involved in doing that! She is definitely lucky to have your great family.

Tina said...

Wow...I am impressed by all your good news...especially in spite of your bad news. You don't let a little pain, or a lot of it, get in the way of your progress :) (Someone else could have played the piano!)

Brenda said...

Cheers to your teaching certificate! I think it is wonderful that you are teaching classes at Joanns! We are all so lucky to have your talents among us!

Caroline C. Bingham said...

Um, hai. You COULD have called any one of your sisters. Specifically, MOI. I like good news and bad news is my specialty.

Kimmy said...

Hooray on your teaching certificate! And your new job! And getting your house repainted, and for defending your home from the birds and on the new teenager in the house!
So sorry about your behind, and ear infection and your trees.

Michelle Johnston said...

You are hillarious!!!! I am so proud of you for getting your teaching certificate! Thats awesome. And guess what, I got the EXACT cut on my hand right under my index finger too! It stunk. Anyway, miss you guys! Glad to hear so many things are going well. Keep in touch.

Laura Dunaway said...

Sarah! I've just caught up on your blog. Things sound like they're going well, minus the tailbone. :( We miss you here in Topeka, it isn't the same without you. Can you believe we are now on our last year of law school here? Crazy how time flies! I will always be appreciative to you and Jeremy for taking us under your wing here. It helped us sooo much! You guys are awesome.
Hey, are you going to see the Time Travelers Wife movie? I remember our fun discussions on the book. :)
Keep in touch!

mce said...

Sounds very hectic. Enjoy the classes, it sounds fun.