Fifty-Five Phy Ed Teachers!

Today I co-taught CPR for fifty-five phy ed teachers in the Apple Valley School District.  We had two classes - professional rescuer for the middle school/high school teachers and lay rescuer for the elementary teachers.  If I had to give a preference of who I'd like to have teach my phy ed classes, I'd go with the elementary school teachers - they were a lot more fun and much better at CPR!  Just saying . . .

Like a Hangnail . . .

There are days that I'm just plain tired of having a concussion.  Like yesterday when I was already stuttering by 10:00 a.m. after a full night's sleep.  Or in church today where I was wearing sunglasses for like the 12th Sunday in a row because of the lights.  So this afternoon I gathered perspective.  Annie and I stopped on our walk at my friend Jana's house.  Jana has a brain tumor.  She's had it operated on three times.  She needs another operation.  The doctors won't schedule it "until" . . . and "until" is a very scary word because that means something has gone very wrong.

We sat in Jana's living room and went over the shared symptoms:  "TIred?"  Check.  "Stuttering?"  Check.  "Missing words?"  Check.  "Worse by Friday?"  Always.  "Light sensitive?"  Mmmhmmm.  "Memory?"  Sometimes.  Empathy was established.

Then Jana began to share what radiation has done to her eyesight.  She used to be my lending library and we read all the same books.  Only I can still read.  And she has more diagnosis than I have toes.  Her body no longer functions as it once did.  Nothing in mine is broken.  And she takes more pills in a day than I take in a week and one of them is bigger than all my pills put together.  And yet her faith does not waver.  She serves a big God. 

She has a brain tumor.  Really, I just have a hangnail . . . 

The Word Left Out . . .

This concussion still sends me for a loop.  There was one big life-changing word I left out of last week - simply because I didn't remember it until this morning!  The word?  Egypt!  We were asked by Sam's brother Steve to consider co-leading a group from International Messengers with he and his wife next summer.  While waiting for the details, we've tossed various thoughts around including, "Well, Egypt IS in Africa" . . . stay tuned!

A Word a Day . . .

I thought a "word a day" might be the best way to describe this week.  Let's see if I can do it!

Sunday - LUNCH - Matt and I went out for lunch at Five Guys because we could!  And we ate all the peanuts we could while we were there simply because we could!  We could never bring Micah there with her peanut allergies, but she and Sam were on the farm . . .

Monday - COLLEGE - Matt started college at Normandale today!  Where did those years go?

Tuesday - GAGE - is a three-year old who came over for dinner with his family.  Wow!  What a live wire!  But the high light of the night was definitely when we walked outside to discover Matt playing soccer with four-year-old Lucy!

Wednesday - RICH - Two years ago I was rear-ended on 35W and the insurance company of the man who nailed me thought I was due money for bodily injury.  Who was I to argue?  I told Sam if it was $50.00, we were going out for dinner; $1000.00 meant a new couch; and anything more was a new car.  We're thinking we'll be going car shopping whenever my car dies or next summer - whatever comes first! - because the amount was definitely over $1000.00!

Thursday - WORK - Micah joined Matt working at Applewood Apple Orchard and said she had fun!

Friday - GOPHER - as in the "Gopher Sports" Purchasing Department joined me at Sand Creek today.  I took them through the low ropes, sent them up the high ropes and let them fly across the zip line!

Saturday - FIRST - that would be Sam helping me for the first time ever (in over 24 years of teaching!) put up a bulletin board!  And he's much more of a perfectionist than I am - go ahead, read between the lines!  

Courage Kenny Rehab Institute

Sam and I arrived at the Courage Kenny Rehab Institute at 7:35 a.m. this morning and begin with paperwork for both of us.  By 8:10 a.m., we were in visiting with the neuropsychologist.  At 9:30 a.m. I started my testing with Kelly.  We finished at 2:30 p.m. after taking a half hour lunch break.  I've drawn pictures, read, remembered, didn't remember, did math, failed at math and got exceedingly more tired.  I mean, really, how many words are there that start with "S" that you can list in a minute?  Sam and I'll go back on September 4 at 1:00 p.m. to get the results of my testing and from there, determine if there is rehab for me.  One can hope . . . 

Maretta

Maretta joined my Water Safety Aid Class for First Aid today.  When I mentioned yesterday that an "outsider" would be joining us today, we had some fun trying to decide what a Maretta would look like.  Fast forward to the end of class today.  Laura turned to Maretta and said, "When we heard your name yesterday we thought you would be like sixty years old, but you're not.  You're very nice!  We're glad you could come today." 

It's all in the name . . .

I returned to work at ISD 196 on Monday, teaching the water safety aide class.  It was my first time back since June 18 and the first co-worker I ran into asked, "Why are you still wearing the shades?"  I told him I was just not healing very fast from my concussion and in fact, I was going to a brain injury clinic on Friday.  His response?  "Well, Scarecrow . . ."  and that has been my name ever since! 

 

FIfty-six Fathers

Or maybe that should be fifty-six FUTURE Fathers - of the Catholic persuasion!  We had a group from St. John's today who were studying for the priesthood.  They were just a blast - from the young man who sang opera as he zipped across Sand Creek to the group of young men who sang "Zippety Doo Dah" to the twelve-year-old birthday boy not in their group.  As always, it was another great day at Sand Creek!

VACA!

We spent last week in a little cabin (built in 1932!) on the North Shore.  Here are just a few fun shots from the week.

 

 

We climbed the highest peak in Minnesota - all 2301 feet!  Matt and I called it "Revenge on Mt. Tiede" as it was three years ago that we tried to climb the highest peak in Spain and I got violently ill. 

Annie had a blast!  She was barking at waves and biting waves and chasing waves and swimming until she was a mass of shivering fur!

We enjoyed the breaking waves and late night campfires. Micah and Sam found some awesome agates.  Matt and Sam did some serious mountain biking while Micah and I hit a lot of gift shops - and never bought a thing!

The day we left, Matt dropped his dirty clothes on Annie (note: those are boxers!) and she was so exhausted she didn't move!

No longer . . . at a loss!

On August 1, I was at a loss regarding thirty-four half-siblings who came together at Sand Creek, but today I am not.  I get it!  Why would families whose children came via a sperm donor named Dave want to get together?  For the same reason I chat with Matt and Micah's birth mom and she texts me with questions - we need each other because we share somewhat the same children and I might know something that she needs to know and she might know something I need to know or we might just be able to help each other with silly little questions - because we ARE family!  No matter how it came to pass, we ARE family and that's my answer - they ARE family.

Wanted: A Brain

I only had four in my CPR-PR class at the Y this morning so I knew when I was cleaning I should have four adult manikin faces to clean.  I had three.  I back out to the classroom to look for missing face number four.  No face.  I went back into the cleaning area.  No face.  I cleaned everything up and then went back to look one last time.  I mean - really!  How could I have lost a manikin face?  Trust me when I say, I did not lose it.  I just never took it off the manikin!  And it was only 11:00 a.m.  August 21 can not come soon enough! 

Someone turned 10 today!

Happy Birthday, Annie!

GIve . . .

My dad had been giving blood for years, but had to stop one pint short of ten gallons because he was put on warfarin, a blood thinner.

Following Dad's example, I started giving blood in college, but haven't been able to give for the last ten years because I've been on malarial medication.  

That all changed today when, three years and one month after my last malaria pill, I was able to give my first pint since who knows when.  I contacted the American Red Cross and my pint was given in the name of my dad, Lyle Heuer.  The Red Cross will be mailing him his ten gallon pin soon!  Yay!

Neighborhood Chatter

I ran into my neighbor Rich while we were walking our dogs today.  He said he and his wife Jen had seen Matt biking by their house the other day.  Their conversation went like this:

R:  "Matt's biking without a helmet."
J:  "He couldn't fit one on that hair anyway!"

At a loss . . .

"Where do you begin . . . How do you describe . . ." are words in one of my favorite songs and they're my words for our second group at Sand Creek this morning.

A mom and her two daughters hopped out of their car and said they were there for a family reunion, but it wasn't your "normal" family reunion because all of the kids were half-siblings.  Note: there were 34 kids.

It turns out that these children all had the same sperm donor.  Some were being raised by just a mom, others had two mothers and our first family there actually had a mom and a dad.  

As I put the kids up the high ropes course, it was amazing how much they all looked alike.  I mean, really looked alike.  And it was interesting to hear their stories . . .They all knew how they were conceived . . . They had all had supper with Donor Dave last night . . . They thought he was a lot of fun . . . They lived all over the United States . . . This was their third get together . . . There were like two sets of kids - the just-finishing-high-school-starting-college age group and the middle-school group . . . They knew Dave was chosen because he was tall - 6'5" - and brilliant and that he was chosen without a picture . . . They knew he was a sperm donor while he was an undergrad and a grad student . . . He's now married and he has four children of his own . . . They've met those children, too . . . They all had crooked toes . . . And there might be more - children, that is.  This group had met through a donor web site and didn't know how many more children were out there.

I have no idea where to go with this except to say that Dave is no longer donating sperm and I'm good with that.  And they really were a neat bunch of kids who all looked very much alike.  Feel free to share your thoughts . . .