Kathy's Diary: Oct 20 - 26

Wow, these last few weeks are shades of last year. The only difference is that with the lupus, and regular bouts of fatigue it is hard to keep up. And besides that everyone keeps saying, “I thought you were going to change and not be so busy”.

Firstly, I have changed in that the things I am doing are in line with my goals and secondly it is just a coincidence that everything is happening within the same three week period. As of Sunday, I have minimal extra commitments in November and December. So I can deal with it and cope. I also have better coping mechanisms and learning how to set more realistic expectations of myself. I give myself a cut off time and unless I am at the deadline, my chip away at things approach has been working for the most part.

I had Monday and Friday off last week in working two Wednesdays with the Korean teachers. Ah….so on Monday, my plan was to work for four hours and then go visit a friend and get my flu shot. However, the school phoned me and Tate had a monster bleeding nose so I had to go and bring him some new clothes…..it was a good thing I was home. He was so cute waiting there in the office! We changed his clothes and brought him to class and there was Spencer sitting there working hard in his desk. Since I was close to my friend Kris's house I called and asked if I could come early. After a quick stop at Starbucks to grab coffees (decaf for her as she pregnant) and a couple baked goods, I was off. Her 1 _ year old Breanna is quite cute and we had a great visit and catch up. I wish we had more time for each other but life is busy even for her as a stay at home mom who works part time from the home. The best thing is that we are such good friends that no matter how much time has passed between our last visit – that we can just start from where we left off!

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were pretty similar. I picked up the Korean teachers and helped them with their classroom visits. Of course NOW Barney asked to not visit so much and to stop booking him. I had to remind him that he was the one that asked for all of these visits and that I would have been quite happy to have him in my classroom for the seven days. He had chosen Terry, a grade 5 teacher to settle in with for the remaining days. I was thankful to Terry for taking him on – it was very kind. Tuesday night we had Brownies and the boys came – although they were a bit rambunctious this time so I was very happy when Tim dropped by the community centre early from his meeting to pick them up. But of course the boys wanted to stay. Haley is really enjoy Brownies and is in the second year group, while I am in the first year group for part of the night. It is actually good because when we are doing whole group things she just clings to me and doesn't participate as much. When she goes with Leisa and the second year group she lets herself be more engaged. By Wednesday I was getting a cold and got up to work out with Michelle. We had a great work out and talk as usual. It is so neat to have become friends during this whole life makeover. That night after hanging with the kids for 5 hours and getting them off to bed I worked on the AADAC project with my mom, who I have contracted to help me with the formatting of the module. Thursday morning came and I could barely talk – how was I going to teach my public speaking workshops on the weekend. I made it through the day Charlie, the other Korean teacher had stayed with me over the last couple days so he did some of the talking for me – it was very sweet! We had a good bye party for the Korean teachers and I took them to my home for lunch. All in all it was a good experience, even though it was tough the first week, I did enjoy having them. It was more the personality of Barney and his assertiveness combined with his changing needs which was challenging. But I am happy that I was able to think objectively and help him to get the experience that HE wanted while at our school.

Thursday night at University I could barely talk so sat there quietly and listened (well mostly – I am a talker and can't completely zip it up!). Friday was a day off for me and was I ever happy. I worked on a few things for my business website, ran some errands and had a good day catching up on stuff and resting my voice. Friday I got the kids from the bus and then the took me to the airport. Haley was really mad at me cause I bought her a journal and wrote her name in the space, she got extra mad and was pretty beligerant the whole way. Anyways I understood her being mad but told her she doesn't need to treat me that way. For 25 minutes this went on and I kept being understanding but holding my ground. Eventually she calmed down and then gave me a big hug as they dropped me off at the airport for my Saskatchewan weekend.

The two workshops went well. In total 9 athletes were trained in public speaking for the weekend. Michelle, the coordinator and I got along famously and had a real great time and worked well together during the workshops. I was delighted to find out it was day light savings time and get a free extra hour on the plane. I snoozed and then arrived at the airport to see my excited family.