An Update...Finally

I've just spent the last 5 minutes trying to come up with a good title for this post.  Then I decided that if I spent much longer staring at that little space coming up with nothing that I might not ever finally update this thing.  There's really not a lot to tell, but I'll fill you in and then some.

On avoiding getting sick so far this school year...we haven't.  However, I'm counting us lucky that we've avoided the stomach bug so far (knock on wood).  Luke and I have both had colds/respiratory junk that just lingered long after we felt better.  Seriously, Kleenex owes us big after all of their product that we went through during the month of November.  I think we've finally made it through, but the season is still early, so I'm sure we'll meet up again before March.  I went through 2 bouts.  The first was in my chest and I completely lost my voice at one point.  By the time I lost my voice, I was actually feeling better, so I still went to work, despite being able to speak in a voice no louder than a whisper.  I knew it would be a challenge to keep my 7th graders in line when they would have to be quieter than usual in order to hear me.  Surprisingly, it was no challenge at all...in fact, I joked with my team members that I should permanently lose my voice.  My usually rowdiest class, which somehow has 16 boys and only 7 girls, was actually my very best class of the day.  I was completely shocked.  You just never know with middle schoolers.

Ginger has been on the disabled list lately too.  At some point a few weeks ago, she tore her ACL...yes, apparently dogs have them too.  We had noticed she was limping on and off for a few days, but one day, she yelped several times when getting up, so we knew something was really wrong, and it wasn't just her old age catching up with her.  She was on "bed rest" for a few days...as much as a dog can be on bed rest.  She can't do stairs or her normal walk.  If you've been to our house, you know we're in a split front/back, so anytime she needs to go out, there are stairs.  She's gotten by us a few times, but for the last 3 weeks...and more to come...we've been toting her up and down the steps anytime she needs to go.  And, she now has a physical therapist that she sees each week.  We have to do exercises, or as we call them - pilates - each day to re-strengthen the muscles in her leg that she stopped using when she injured herself.  Her physical therapist thinks she's made great progress in the last 3 weeks, but she informed Brandon that we'll likely be doing these exercises with her the rest of her life in order to try to avoid re-injury.

How's your Christmas shopping going?  Mine is nonexistent.  I am no shopper even for myself, really, but I am terrible at trying to come up with gift ideas.  We do have a few things for Luke, but none of them are actually fun and I really don't have any good ideas for a fun gift - or gifts, really, since Santa must provide too.  I signed up to fill a shoebox for a 6-9 year old at church and I'm wondering what I was thinking since I don't even know what to get my own 6-9 year old!  And Brandon...don't even get me started.  I have NO ideas for him whatsoever.  He is a really good gift giver too, which makes me feel even worse about it!  In my world, Christmas would be a lot merrier if there were no gifts involved.

And since I haven't done a book blog in forever, I'll include a bit about my 2 favorite books I've read recently.  The first is called After Ever After, by Jordan Sonnenblick.  This book follows Jeff, an 8th grader, who has survived a bout with cancer.  Jeff has attention problems because of his chemo and he's just found out that he must pass a standardized test in math, which is his worst subject, to move on to high school.  Add to that, a new girl, Lindsey, is showing some interest in him and it makes for a great story.  Jeff's narration was spot-on as a teenage boy (at least from this teacher's perspective).  I laughed out loud throughout this book...loved it from beginning to end, though it isn't all butterflies and rainbows.  I highly recommend this book to any age reader.  I haven't had a chance to read it's companion book, Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie, but it's on my list.  It's actually told from Jeff's brother's perspective 4 years earlier when Jeff was actually going through cancer.  One of my student's borrowed my copy, but as soon as she turns it in, I'm on it.

Another favorite that I just read last weekend is called Okay For Now, by Gary D. Schmidt. First of all, you've just got to love the cover.  This story takes place in 1968 and is about Doug, the youngest kid in a family of, well, basically, losers.  His dad is abusive, his older brother is a thug, and his oldest brother was a jerk too, but he's fighting in Vietnam.  His dad loses his job and a "friend" helps him get a job in a new town, which Doug hates.  Doug gets judged unfairly by other kids, by his teachers, and other people in town, because of his brother's bad behavior. Doug also has some secrets that he doesn't want anyone to learn.  However, as Doug begins to settle in, he makes a friend and gains some much-needed adult support to help him begin to change and grow into something more than he might have been.  This story has a lot of ups and downs, but it just left me feeling good at the end.  It had some sad parts, but some laugh out loud parts too.  I'm really considering reading this one out loud to my students 2nd semester.  I've never done the whole reading aloud thing, but this book has made me consider it.

Well, I still haven't figured out a title for this thing, but at least I've made an update.  Now...off to other sites seeking inspiration for Christmas gifts for a 7 year old boy and a 30-something year old man.  Wish me luck!