Just call me "hop along"

Today I got many sympathetic glances and a few inquiries from the other coaches all wondering what had happened, all I could say was that PE was tough on the teacher. :)

The father of one of the girls on my team is a physical therapist, so he examined my knee this afternoon. He didn't think there were any torn tendons, but that swelling wasn't good (it may be related to a weak quad muscle) so I should see my doctor this week and that they may recommend an MRI. (Just what I need to try to squeeze in before I go home for Easter!)

Please keep me in your prayers: my knee, my step-moms health, and my important phone call on Monday evening.

Don't play with the teachers- they're fragile!

Ok, our fourth grade teacher broke both of her wrists playing dodgeball in PE with her class. The first grade teacher rolled her ankle. And now I've got a swollen right knee from playing lightning at recess and soccer in PE.

My knee was sore this morning, but I didn't notice anything funny. Then at recess is started getting a little more achy after a round of lightning with the third and fifth graders. So I quit playing at recess. In PE it was feeling a little better so I joined in the 3-way soccer game. It felt fine until I tried to trap a soccer ball with my right knee. Then it sort of fell apart from there. My knee got really achy and I had to hobble around. I decided to strap an ice pack onto my knee and after PE I elevated it for the rest of the day.

Well, it started swelling and was very puffy by 2:30 and it hurt to move my leg. At 3:00 I was limping to the playground with my students, still with ice on my knee. I kept ice on my knee all evening at the volleyball tournament, as well as trying to keep it elevated as much as I could.

I'm finally home, my knee is propped up and I'm going to take some ibuprofen, grab an ice pack, and head to bed with some extra pillows for under my knee. I don't know if I'll be able to sleep on my back all night, but at least I can fall asleep that way, even if I do roll to my side later in the night.

And the strangest thing about all of this trouble is that I don't recall a specific incident where I did something to my knee. It never went pop or snap or twisted. It just started swelling this afternoon. And yes, I know, I should go to a doctor and get it looked at, but when? I have to leave for a volleyball tournament tomorrow morning at 8 am and won't be home till later in the evening. It may have to wait until next week. Grrrr....

Thank you Lord for ...

Praise the Lord!

Thank you God for:

• rain
• sunshine
• pets
• children
• volleball
• doctors
• prescription medication!

I finally got in to see a doctor after school today and got a refill on my allergy medicines! I only got it refilled an hour ago, so maybe this is all in my head, but I am feeling better already! My allergies were making my eyes burn, throat itch, nose run, and my nose was runny and stuffy simultaneously!

Three cheers for medication!

When in a muddle...

A great line from my mom: when in a muddle....

She said when you are in a muddle, go to God and don't seek the answer, just seek Him!

So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to seek God. Tonight I'm going to get down on my knees and pray and seek Him, not an answer to the question about my future.

3 cheers for eHarmony!

I'm likin' eHarmony! I've met an awesome guy through eHarmony and everytime I check my email I'm hoping that he's written. And when he does I get excited because he always has something funny and profound to say. And, not onl y is he fun to talk to he's tall, Lutheran, educated, he has good taste in women (cause he's talking to me!). And he lives about an hour away so maybe in the near future we will connect and have a date! That would be fun!

So three cheers for eHarmony! I highly recommend it!

it's almost the weekend!!!

I've slept so much this week and yet I'm still tired. I went to bed early at 10 pm on Sunday night. 9 pm on Monday night. And 8 pm on Tuesday night! I'm just pooped!

I can't wait for Saturday so that I can sleep in! Hooray for a half day of work tomorrow!

Our doorbell is possessed!

We don't have a door knocker or doorbell at our apartment, so it is practically impossible to tell if someone is at the door unless you are on the first floor. Since our apartment has an upstairs and a basement this posed a problem when Heather and I moved in. We went to Lowe's and got a wireless doorbell system. It has two doorbells and one receiver. We put one doorbell on the front door and one on the other door and positioned the reciever so that we could hear it anywhere in the apartment.

We thought we were so clever! I still think we are, BUT.... (it's the BIG BUT!) our doorbell rings when no one is at the door! At first I thought it was the neighborhood kids playing pranks. The good ol' ring and run gag. But it's not. It just rings on its own. I thought maybe it was bad batteries, so I changed the batteries, but it still rings spontaneously. So I've taken out the batteries completely. It still rings!

So now Heather and I just ignore the doorbell, which has suited us just fine. I guess if we are ignoring it, then what's the point of having it at all. I don't know. But moving on with the story...

Monday night I was sitting on the couch checking papers and Heather was in the shower. The doorbell rang and I kept on grading papers. Then it rang again a moment later, which was weird because it didn't usually do that. So I decided to check the door. And to my surprise, there was a guy on the front steps there to pick up Heather to go out! I felt so embarassed for not answering the door. I know he knew I was in there because he could hear the TV on. I tried to explain about our doorbell, but he probably brushed it off.

Now as I'm sitting here typing it has rung again. Heather's in bed so it can't be for her and I'm getting ready to crawl into bed too. I think this weekend I'll disassemble the doorbells or put in fresh batteries to give it one more chance.

finding harmony on eHarmony

Ok, I don't know if I've found harmony yet, but I am happy with some of the matches again. I think I went through an initial high and I was excited about being matched with guys. Then I hit a lull and started realizing that maybe some of the guys I was being matched with I wasn't really excited about. But now I'm letting myself be even a little more selective. Now I'm not feeling guilty about closing matches right off the bat if I don't like what I read on their profile or what I see in their picture.

And something cool has started popping up on my eHarmony matches. I get to give eHarmony feedback and rate the matches they give me on how intersted I am from not, to somewhat, to very. It's supposed to help them match me better. I'm not sure how it will work, but here's hoping!

And my friend Kam who I was supposed to be doing this with has not started eHarmony yet. But I did get a message from her that she is going to try speed dating. Wow! That sounds fun and scary at the same time. I hope that her roommate Jen takes her shopping for a date outfit first! :) Sorry Kam, love ya, but I know you agree with me!

Let's get out there and get men!

living the crazy life

No habla espanol- but what was it Ricky Martin sings? Living la vida loca?
Yah, that's me. Crazy BUSY life!

I had four volleyball games this week, church, bible study, and regular work responsibilities.... no wait, I take that back. My work reponsibilities weren't regular because the quarter is ending next week, I gave a butt-load of tests this week, which I now have to grade, and I spent the first part of the week catching up on paper work from last week because I didn't get much done this weekend because of my volleyball tournament all day Saturday.

I'm exhausted and I hope I don't come down with the crud that's going around the lower grades of the school. First grade had 7 kids out every day this and third grade had 6 kids out! My students have siblings in those grades so I fear it's just a matter of time before it spreads to my wing of the school. Yikes!

So to my friends that I have been terrible at keeping in touch with: I'm sorry. I haven't forgotten you. I've just been so busy and now I'm incredibly tired. I'm staying in this weekend to catch up on work and I'm not having a life right now. I love you all!

online dating

I've had a lot of matches on eHarmony, which is kind of exciting. There's guys all over the country that I'm meeting and some are definate hotties. Some are "average" looking. I don't want to think that I'm totally superficial, but I do believe that I need to feel some kind of physical attraction. It may not happen at first, but it should develop over time.

On eHarmony there are 4 stages of communication. The first three are very controlled by the service, which is good, I like it that way. But the fourth level is open communication. Right now I seem to be either on level one with a bunch of guys or on level four (open) with a few.

I don't know if the novelty of this is wearing off, or so far I haven't met "the one." I closed one relationship that I was on the open level with. I just wasn't feeling any kind of connection. Oh well. There are two other guys that I'm in open communication with. And many guys that I'm opening relationships with. And it seems like a new one is added every day.

Anyways, I guess I'll just keep checking it out. It's kind of fun and exciting. I think it's better than awkward first dates and blind dates. It feels safer because we don't have to trade any information that's too personal and yet I'm still putting myself out there on the "dating market." (Cause dating stinks!)

What a crazy week!

Saturday: Up early- 7:00 am- and back at school by 8:15 for our invitational volleyball tournament. My team played back-to-back-to-back for about 6 games until we finished the championship game and took second place. Hooray for us!
After our tournament the 7th/8th grade teams played their tournament. So while I sat in the bleachers cheering, I was also frantically knitting my scarf that I had submitted for the school auction. I was knitting from noon until 5:30 when I was casting off and then adding tassels. I was so relieved to be finished with that thing! I hope that it did well at the auction. I missed going to a movie with my friends in order to finish the scarf and cheer on the varsity. I felt like such a heel! But I was able to meet up with them at Outback for dinner. (2 words- mmmm steak!)
Sunday: I slept in until 1 pm (because of the time change). I was so exhausted from my busy Saturday. I started cleaning my bedroom. It had been driving me crazy for several weeks. I had clothes all over my floor, piled on my bed, and papers piled all over. I got the clothes put away and then I started cleaning out old clothes that didn't fit and I didn't want to wear any more (these are different from clothes that don't fit that I want to be able to wear again). I filled up three huge bags with clothes and another with shoes. Goodwill here I come!
I took a break from spring cleaning to get outside in the sunshine. Cold weather is going and warmer weather is on its way! My friend Georgia called to invite me to walk in the arboretum with her. We had a great time outside in the sunshine and muck!
Afterwards, I finished some putting away in my bedroom, but left the papers for another weekend. Instead I tackled the paperwork from school that I had brought home. I got a lot done but was up late working on it.
Monday: Sunny and warm at school! It was fabulous! The school day went well, but I had another late night with paperwork after our volleyball game in the boonies. We drove out to the middle of the country to I don't know where and played a little school with mostly 4th graders on their team. We won and had fun. One of my girls got her first two serves of the season, and she got a hit too!
Today: It was even warmer outside and we didn't need coats today! It was fabulous! My class started a new book in our literature book club and I'm really excited about it. After school we drove out into the country again for another volleyball game. We finally played a team that we were equally matched with, if not better than. We should have won, but since this school has a reputation for being really tough we had psyched ourselves out and lost. The girls were disappointed, but we get to face them again on Friday and we'll have another chance to beat them.
But the weather... I am just so excited that warmer weather is here! And today it was in the upper 60's/70's after being in the 20's and 30's for the longest time. But I just can't believe that this morning the Weather Channel said that we are supposed to get snow showers on Saturday! Ugh! Snow was fun, but I am ready for it to be spring! Bring it on Puxatawny Phil! Bring it on!

reLENTless Lent

Have you even tried to give something up for Lent? I thought I would use Lent to help me curb my appetite for sweets, so I gave up cookies, cakes, cupcakes, and other dessert type sweets, etc. and candy. I was doing so well for a while and then a stubling block. I ate some blueberry cobbler without thinking while visiting Kam. Then on Monday night during our PTL potluck I munched away on some desserts knowing that I shouldn't be eating them. What has happened to my resolve!? I had been doing very well.
So do I give up and just say "oh well, I messed up. Maybe I'll do better next year"? Or do I strengthen my resolve and try even harder? Do I add a day on the end for every day I mess up or do I start my 40 days all over again?
How do I strengthen my resolve when at Lent supper tonight one of the best bakers ever is making dinner and sure to make some divine desserts as well! I will have to get there early so that there is plenty of food available. That way I can fill up on salad and lasagna, and there will be plenty of open seats, where I can seat my self far away and facing away from the dessert table! Yes! That's what I'll do! And I'll take my knitting to keep my fingers busy after I eat! That's the plan... check back with me tomorrow to see if it worked!

Lost and Found!

I think I may have been wrong about the losing friends bit. My girl friend who I hadn't heard from since before Christmas finally wrote back to me! I am so excited to hear from her. I've missed her so much and hope she doesn't go anywhere again! Good friends are worth more than any amount of money and I am very rich!

ice storm- so much for Puxatawny Phil!

Is the groundhog in Pennsylvania often wrong? I'm starting to wonder about his accuracy. He said that we were supposed to have only 2 more weeks of winter, but after today's ice storm and my class's prayer for an ice/snow day tomorrow, I'm starting to wonder when spring will come. It's up several degrees above zero but it's still so flippin' cold! We had sleet, freezing rain, snow, and all sorts of other crappy precipitation today, and thunder and lightning to top it off! What an icky day!