Crossing the Caring Bridge

Here I am blogging as there are four, yes four baskets of laundry to be folded; I tend to procrastinate. However, I have gotten all of the Christmas put up and away, and now my spare bedroom door can stay open! My hubby mounted the shelves I got for Christmas! They need a few more touches then I will post before/after pics for that wall. Now I just need to finish my thank you notes.

I finally sent a link to my blog to friends and family that have been using Caring Bridge to keep up with my progress. I have around a hundred subscribers over there and will still continue to post small updates there as well. By the way, you can subscribe to updates on this blog just as you did over there through RSS and Google by going to my box down there that says followers. Please do; I would love that! Oh yeah and I love comments, too! The more the merrier - they make my day!

I am just loving the blogging community right now much better than Caring Bridge. It was great while I was in the hospital, but now I need more. Blogging gives me more: more flexibility, more freedom, more options, and more audience. In searching sites and blogs for heart transplant patients I was very disappointed to find, well, not too many at all or at least not any focused on young women. In creating this blog and writing about complete randomness I have found such a great support group of amazing women, those with lives like mine, those with lives the opposite of mine, and those whose lives I wish were mine. Haha. So for you new readers who are curious about my story over the past five months you can check out my journals and the ones posted by my mother-in-law, who wrote when I couldn’t. You can also go here to just to get an idea of the whirlwind. Plus, my blog post labeled “Finally Time” on January 9th will give a little more insight into what I generally want to do here and probably even repeat some of this.

All day long I see things, and I think, “Oh, I’ve got to remember to blog about this.” Then I forget all about it. I do want to take a minute to brag about how beautiful it was here on Friday. About the time I got everything out on the porch that I wanted to be able chill out and write with, Finn woke up. I figured, “Hey, he’s a boy; he’ll love the outside thing.” I pulled his exisaucer out onto the porch with me snapped a couple of pics with my phone, sat on the swing and enjoyed the pleasant 70 degree weather. Ahhh. However, I never got around to writing due to a couple of phone calls, oh well. But watching Finn yap at the ducks was hilarious. Maybe that’s what we need to keep them from coming on the porch and using it as their own personal litter box.

I have so many things I want to accomplish or at least begin work on while I have this gift of extended time away from work: 

1. To begin writing a book. A couple of doctors and nurses have begged me to write a book on several occasions. Whoa, I don’t know that I can make that sort of commitment, but there is such a need for something like that to give comfort to those awaiting transplant and those adjusting to their new life after transplant. It may be easier just to go visit them like Jamie and Toni did for me. Love you forever, girls!!!
2. To start some work on my National Board certification since I am always wanting to improve my classes, and an annual $5,000.00 check doesn’t hurt either. Plus, I have heard it is nearly suicide to do it during the school year, but you do not have a choice for the majority of it requires classroom observation, videos, and student samples. I know it is huge and will nearly break me, but I want it so bad. I want to be THAT teacher the kids remember because they remembered the material that I made fun and interesting and not just because I was funny or nice, which many will beg to differ.
3. To freshen-up nearly every room in my house and create cozier spaces. My walls need help! They are nearly barren. I want to take pictures from Country Living and Coastal Living and poof them into my house, especially the painting part. ;)
4. To get the office and all our books and paperwork organized and accessible. I did this earlier in the year, so this should only take a couple of days.
5. To organize my massive collection of resources for class. Over the past couple of years I have amassed tons of activities and presentations for my kids, and I am always wanting to tweak it, then I spend my whole planning period creating new stuff for them rather than getting real work done. There were pretty much no resources for ninth grade  English when I first started and now I have so much that I need to organize, weed-out, and update to where all that I have to do is grade with more detail. Plus, I love when I can pass it on and give it to another teacher to use when they are running around like crazy looking for an activity.
6. To read more. Since I started teaching, when I am at home the last thing I want to do is read one more thing. In the past few months I have been reading and completing more books than I have in the past few years, and I love it. I have joined a blog called Girls With Books. This is a large group of women who read and review books, so I will now be reading and reviewing adolescent and adult literature on that blog. I will post links here as I do. I am so excited about this little project.
7. To become active and involved with the American Heart Association. I have signed up to help raise money for National Wear Red Day, Friday February 5, to raise awareness of women’s heart health. I posted a small goal of $500. If you would like to donate you can go to my donation page by clicking the Go Red button on the top right of my blog.

Thank you all for your love and support during this crazy, bizarre, and interesting time in our lives. Zac, Finn, and I will never be able to repay you for all that you have done, but we hope you can feel the deep gratitude we are sending your way every single morning as we get to wake up in our own home.