We spent the weekend over at Black Butte with both my family and Adam’s family. The weekend was filled with hiking, biking, swimming, walking, talking, relaxing, eating and drinking. I could have used a few more days of relaxation…but it’s back to work for us. Adam and I hiked Black Butte, which Adam had never done before. Even though I am not a fan of up hill hikes, it is a gorgeous hike with spectacular views. My ankles held up really well and I was injury free…..until I fell down a few hundred yards from the bottom of the butte. So no broken bones, but a scraped up leg and some sore muscles. Still waiting for the day I can do an athletic task injury free. Oh well!

This past weekend was full of celebrations…so much fun, food and laughter!

Friday was my birthday BBQ. Adam arranged for a wonderful BBQ which included burgers, turkey burgers, chicken and sausages! And if that wasn’t enough, for dessert he got a Sweet Life strawberry cheesecake….mmmm! We ended the night with some telepictionary! It was the perfect birthday evening…even though it was five days early.

Saturday was our “4th of July” celebration on July 3rd. I have come to learn that family makes holidays, not dates on a calendar. Adam and I drove up to Adam’s parents and met my parents, grandmother and aunt there. We snacked on appetizers and played badminton before dinner…watch out, Glen is quite good. Then we had a wonderful BBQ dinner (again, but no complaints here). And if I didn’t eat enough cheesecake the day before, we had a wonderful berry torte! After two days of good eating, I was ready to get back to normal eating.

On Sunday, I headed out to Harrisburg (about 20 minutes outside Eugene) for the morning. The Harrisburg Fire Department helped us out with our benefit breakfast, so I went out to help them with their event. I spent the morning greeting customers and helping out with various tasks. After the breakfast was completed, I hopped on top of our fire truck and was in the 4th of July parade. I was pleased to see many familiar faces from the Santa Clara fire district and from work, including one of my students. I was so amazing to see the expression on little kids faces when they see a fire engine! There is something so magical about a smile from a child.

This was my first time out in Harrisburg during the 4th of July, and I had no idea it was a day long event where the whole town, as well as neighboring towns came out for the celebration. It was so cool to see a community come together like this….and the community being basically the entire community. I think I will be returning to little ol’ Harrisburg in the future to partake in the old fashion 4th of July celebration!

A few weeks ago, Santa Clara Fire District put on an event for one our own battling cancer. I was at the station and bright eyed at 6am ready to help out. My task for the day was to greet people and give balloons to the kiddos…it was a tough job, but some one has to do it. The event was a huge success at we raised about $6500 to help our ‘brother’. My mom was down, so she attended with Adam. And being a good mom, she took pictures of the event.

She also got a private tour my responding station and took pictures in my gear and on my rigs.

Well, it’s the start of summer and I just had my first week off of work, and it was completely packed with things to do! Hopefully the next few weeks will be a little calmer before I start summer school.

School ended but I was not ready for it to end. The past few months of school had been really nice and thankfully, pretty easy for me. I had a great group of kids who were extremely successful in my class as well as the general education setting. Next year, I am fully mainstreaming three of my kiddos into a 3rd grade class. I have had all three of these kids since kindergarten, so I have seen them grow immensely over the past three years. I am having a hard time letting them go…I feel like such a mother bear. I have developed a strong attachment to them, and it’s really hard for me to see them go, even though I know its for the best. Thankfully, their classes will be in the same pod as my class, so I will get to see them off and on!

Probably another reason I didn’t want them to leave was that in the fall I will be having eight kindergartners in my class, in addition to my two returning students. Most years, I only have a few new students so it doesn’t quiet feel overwhelming having to learn the habits of a few students. But eight new students, with eight new sets of a behaviors is feeling like a little much right now. Throughout the past four years, I have been able to keep the same structures, schedules, programs, etc. However, it takes much more effort to run a half day kindergarten program within a full day program for my 1st and 2nd graders. And now I have two kindergarten programs to run. The task is a little daunting, but I know I will be able to accomplish it with some hard work and creativity.

Teaching is often a thankless job, so it is the little things like this that mean the most.

I received a book from one of my students called “Hugs for Teachers”. Inside there was a note from the student and the parent.

From the parent:
You have given us so much over the past few years! We will forever be greatful to you. Thank you for caring so much not just about teaching, but also about the kids and parents. You are truly ‘one of a kind’! We will always love you and hold you close to our hearts. Thank you so much for everything.

From the student:
I love yue because yue are sweet and never meen two me.

Brought lots of tears to my eyes!

This week began my official first week of being an EMS responder. I spent two Saturdays ago in an all day training to learn to be an EMS assistant. On Wednesday, I got my radio/pager….go 1990s! The first couple times my pager went off it was a little… alarming (insert stupid laugh about my pun here). After awhile I got used to the sound of it going off, although it always startles me a bit.

On Friday, there were two calls I was not able to go on because one happened when I was going to work, and another happened as I was leaving for the school carnival. I pouted and wined that I couldn’t go on the calls…yes, I know I’m not three years old! Since I was itching to go on a call, I was determined to go on the next call. With the weekend ahead of me, I was okay if I got a call in the middle of the night…which is exactly what happened. I went on my first you-are-sound-asleep-then-startled-awake-by-your-pager call at 2:30am. It took me a while to realize what was going on. I came back after the call and was still wide awake, I hope that in time my body will learn to settle down after a call. Of course I was up early the next morning, as usual, and as I was about to leave for the gym. My pager went off again. Two calls in about five hours of each other…I wanted calls and I got them. I had satisfied my fill for the day. But now being Monday, I am antsy to go on more calls. I went on a call tonight, but the medics and another rescue were already there, so there was no reason for us to stay. I know I will go on plenty of calls during my time, however, I my impatience for going on calls has become that of a three year old. Hopefully I am not regressing with this volunteer position. Oh well…

Today during math, one of my students made a barricade out of patterns blocks. He said he hoped it would help the oil spill.

I love the compassion of children.

This past weekend was a weekend filled with ‘medicalness’ for me. I took the day off on Friday to accompany my mom to her minor surgery to remove part of her thyroid. Everything went well in the surgery and she will be back to normal soon. I got to go into the pre-op room with her so I can see how patients prep for surgery. This was a great learning opportunity for me as I start to volunteer into the medical field. The pre-op nurse, who was a former paramedic, walked me through how to insert an IV and other little medical details (of course she was the one who did the IV, I just handed her a towel). After surgery, I spent the afternoon through evening with my mom helping her at the hospital. Even though my mom thought she was very boring, I enjoyed spending with her and observing what goes on in a hospital from a new perspective.

While I wanted to stay for the weekend to help my mom, I had to head back to Eugene for my EMS assistant training on Saturday. From 8am-5pm, I was at the station learning how to assist EMTs out in the field. I learned how to take blood pressures, start oxygen, take basic vitals, learned policies, got familiar with the rigs, learned how to fill out paperwork, etc. It was 8 full hours of lots of information and got me really excited to start out on the field. I will pick up my pager this week, and I can start going on calls.

Speaking of calls…

Right as I was about to leave to head home, we got a call. So freshly being trained, myself and another ‘newbie’ hopped into the rig and rode code 3 (lights and sirens) to a medical call. We were both super excited to go and our adrenaline was pumping….we both admitted we were big dorks for being so excited and our captains couldn’t help but laugh at us. I scribed while other assistant took vitals. We were only there about 10 minutes, then the patient was transported to the hospital. So it was a very mild call, however, we were sweating and buzzing from the first call (again, we are dorks). The call went very smooth until the last minute….we forgot the large bag with all the airway stuff in it at the patient’s home. Luckily, we were able to get it back without a problem. So my first call was very successful, except for the last part. I look forward to more calls…and hopefully we will remember to grab everything!

The long weekend brought a trip up to Portland to spend some time with my family. On Saturday night, my cousin Alyssa got married to her now husband Josh. They are both teachers who spent the weekend getting married are now back at school teaching for a few more weeks. It was a wonderful wedding with a great family focus. The day after, we had a post wedding celebration BBQ where I spent more time with my extended family. The weekend was filled with good food, great conversations, lots of laughter and lots of time playing with kids!

On Sunday evening, my mom and I went to see Cirque Dreams Illumination. It was basically circus acts set to a Broadway play. It was definitely not your typical musical, but the acts were amazing. We sat through the whole show in awe!

It was a good weekend with the fam!

May has been an extremely busy month. I feel like I have barely had time for myself. So here is a quick run down, before May is over…

-Finished coaching 4th/5th track at work
-Volunteered at the Eugene Marathon
-Had a garage sale
-Had two weekends filled with friends, BBQs and kickball games
-Work meetings almost every day
-Got cleared from the orthopedist to resume all physical activity

Probably the highlight of the month is that I am now officially a volunteer with the Santa Clara Fire District. I spend every Thursday night with other medical and fire personnel learning about how to keep everyone safe and healthy. Next month, I will be attending an EMS assistant classes to learn how to assist medical personnel while in the field. Once that is completed, I will be starting to head out on calls in the evenings. The plan for next year is to start my EMT classes. Words can’t describe how excited I am to start this new endeavor!