Kontan’s Place

As I struggle with my motivation issues regarding historical analysis I decided to post historical tidbits. Maybe inspiration for further research will result.

It is not difficult for me to decide where to begin. George Washington seems to be a great choice. Known as the Father of His Country, he is the first president to appear on a postage stamp. As with many presidents and American legends there are many myths surrounding Washington. For example, his wooden false teeth. They were actually gold, lead, and ivory. I can’t imagine having false teeth with lead would be very healthy. Parson Mason Weems invented the most associated myth, the cherry tree incident. According to the myth, young George chopped down his father’s cherry tree. When confronted he proclaimed, “I cannot tell a lie, I did it.” Weems intended to create legends for the new country, it stuck.

If you didn’t check out the Family Feud geography post then take a moment, it is well worth the effort to scroll down a bit. Someone needs to make that family a sign. Surely at least ONE could have realized?!?! I’m not so certain that the other family realized.

It is now time for me to repay my hubby dearest for the many times he took care of me. He held my hand through the birth of two children. He made a mad dash for home when I put my foot through the sliding glass door. He took care of me during the days of surgical recovery last year. He works hard to take care of the family, always doing whatever it takes. A great Dad, a great husband, and an all around great guy. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to make up for the times he’s had to look after me and spent today waiting in post-op for his broken arm to be put back into place.

We went back and forth on whether to have the surgery or not. Ultimately, it makes sense that the future use will benefit from having the proper alignment of bone. So the decision was made, and appointments set in place. We went in at 9:30 this morning. His BP was up and remained that way all day. I contribute that to the hustle and bustle of the surgical center, and the stress of the situation. He answered the usually pre-op questions. Then it was time for the IV. Oooops. We left out the part about the other arm not being top notch. I think he was reminded quickly to share this information with the nurse as she is firmly tapping his wrist to get the vain up. She apologized and looked for another area, but Jem assured her that putting the needle in the vein was not the problem. Beating on the hand didn’t feel that great though. The IV went in. BP still elevated so meds administered for that. To pass the time we talked some, practiced breathing calmly, and then messed with the machine a little. I know, bad…but it was funny. If you hold your breath the O2 Sat monitor shows a down arrow and then spikes when you finally breathe. BP does not lower though. I don’t think the nurse appreciated this experiment so we went back to quietly waiting. Eventually it came around to time for him to go back for surgery…Doc dropped by and explained things, checked for questions. Then Jem went back and I waited. A nurse called to let me know he was asleep and all OK. So wait. Grade papers. Nap. Grade. Read. Wait. Evenetually the nurse returned a very groggy and in pain Djembe to me. He looked really good and was talking a little. BP still high. His O2 sats that had been really good going in were now a little low. He would drift off occassionally and it was my job to remind him to take a deep breath. He was aware enough to make joke sometimes. . .my grandmother spent a lot of time in hospitals and there was one time when she really unintentionally messed with her nurses. Her sats would drop, or stop, and a nurse would pop her head in to say “breathe Mizz Jones.” When I would remind Jem to take a deep breath he would repeat that to me. “mmm Breathes Mith Jonths” *drifting*. After a ton of pain meds and another round of BP meds Jem was released to me. He’s been asleep with a few painful awakenings since we returned home. On a scale of 1-10 his pain is about an 8 to 10. I can only imagine what it must be like to have your arm cut open, tendons moved, bones moved and attached together via a metal plate (which btw looks a lot like a three pronged garden tool on the xray), then patched back together with a needle, thread, plaster splint, and stretchy wrap. On the road to recovery now. The xray looked GREAT and recovery time should be a few weeks. Much better experience than our ER one. . . I am now just hoping his pain will ease and he will really feel like he is walking the road to recovery.

*sorry for autoplay, i don’t know how to make it stop*

Seriously inspired to encourage geography awareness now. . .
O-M-G!

Africa or Europe…hmmmmm?
As seen on Break.com

How many Monday’s are actually in a week anyway? No school the first one so went into second Monday feeling like it was first. Well third Monday was just one of those non-stop days. Still didn’t feel like Wednesday. Tomorrow Jem will have surgery on his arm so it will be a non-day, then the next will feel like Monday again.

I spent all day yesterday thinking ouch everytime I moved. I didn’t know what I had done…my legs hurt soooo bad. Overuse? *laugh* doing what? I’m serious, it hurt every single time I got up from my desk or sat down. I mean, it felt like I had actually done a serious workout and done some good to those leg muscles. So I came home, took care of a few things, attempted to solve the case of the missing cell phone, failed…finished a few more things while watching American Idol, and then went blog hopping for a bit. Before bed I decided I needed to practice. I’ve decided I want to learn to juggle. I’ll explain that desire some other time. I gathered Tiki’s tiny tennis balls and begin. Using her tennis balls drives her nuts as she watches each one go up, down, up, down, up..crash to the floor roll across the carpet…her chasing after it…me bending to *whoops* that’s it. That is what did it. While learning how to juggle I am dropping the balls and picking them up over and over again. That’s where the sore legs come from. Who would have thought learning to juggle would be good for my thighs and glutes?

little tiki. so sweet. so cuddly. such a schemer. she sneaks barbies from tweety. steals the bathroom rugs. dashes out the door at first opportunity. pulls out all of her toys to cover the living room floor. this is all before 7AM. if you are familiar with babies you are familiar with her other joy…getting everyone in the house awake…and then crashing for her morning nap. favorite place to sleep? my laptop case.

still a sweety.

Saturday was so nice. Jem let me sleep in a little and I managed to get a few things done around the house. Instead of fixing lunch we opted for Chick-fil-a and a clean (enclosed) play place. The girls were able to eat a little and play off some of their boundless energy while Jem and I got to talk. After getting home I curled on the couch for a quick nap. Tiki insisted on curling up on my head. Odd I know. but as my head is propped on the arm of the couch, Tiki likes to sleep on the arm using my head as her support. Go figure. Earlier in the day I texted our sitter to see if she was available that night. She called just after I drifted and woohoo! We set up an arrival time and Jem and I got to have a kidless evening. Ahhhh. It was so nice to just get away. We chose to go to one of the nicer places around town, deciding to have appetizers, drinks, and dessert. I never make it to dessert and was determined so…they seated us in a quiet area of the restaurant. We begin scanning the menu and then hear the whimper of an infant. omg, no. no. NO. I’m sorry, maybe you do this, I certainly hope not, but maybe you do…a nice restaurant on a Saturday evening is not a place for an infant! PLEASE! I went out to get away from my children for the evening I do not want to listen to someone else’s! If it wasn’t an issue that evening I would have chosen somewhere much less expensive…Logan’s, Chili’s, Outback, McDonalds. . . anywhere! I wanted a quiet evening with my husband…sans kids! So our server comes back, I apologize and explain…requesting to be moved. She understood and we were moved to an area with a little more activity, but adults, not children were around. Ahhh. much better. The wine was wonderful, the appetizers were tasty and filling, and the company..perfect. It was a much needed break from the stress of the last two weeks.

Now for tonight…if my children will sleep I think a good movie is in order.

Do you ever go through those periods when you do not have squat to say? That’s where I’ve been this week. Well, actually, I have had a lot to say just not the motivation to type it out I guess. We have decisions to make regarding Jem’s wrist. Surgery or not? A little back and forth on it, no definites which makes it harder to decide. Outside of that I have had one of those work weeks that just blows your mind. Apparently my new students (my old too) are instructionally challenged. They are currently in training. Come in, read the board, get started. It is rather simple. I have everything written out for them. They should always know what is coming next, what assignment to do, what is expected of them. But no. NO. I have a few who have not yet clued in to the concept of reading and . . . here’s the kicker, brace yourself…ready? LISTENING! This too shall pass. We are also going through a documentation nightmare! TY NCLB & GWB. I am all about teacher accountability. We all know “that” or “those” teachers who make the rest of us look bad…who make the rest of us have to document, chart, graph, etc. . . every move we make. Yet we do not target those. The rest of us have to pick up their slack rather than them being held accountable. More of my week is spent documenting and creating interventions. It seems that teaching falls down on the list of things we do. Furthermore, there is a failure to hold students and parents accountable too. The majority of my failures failed b/c they absolutely REFUSE to do anything. Flat refusal. Well call the parents and /or they should be sent to an administrator some say (teacher bloggers laugh with me here). It is not that simple! This could get long if I went off on that tangent. Frankly, I increasingly run into parents who are helpless, or unwilling, to get involved in their child’s successful education. Or worse, some blame teachers for their childs misbehavior or failure. Why is the community not held accountable? Why are parents not held accountable for attendance, behavior, participation? They can not control their child 100%, I’m realistic and know this. But they could get involved. The more involved EVERYONE is the better the school is, and the better the students do. If parents care, students start to care more. Instead, the burden is solely on the backs of the already overextended teachers. I want to teach! We have been back in school for 9 days now and I have not spent a single planning period planning my class material, reinforcing my information, or creating new methods of inspiration. I have spent it in meetings, grading and plotting, working on an extracurricular competition that I am responsible for. Teacher bloggers, how many of you get to really plan during your plan periods? Do you feel like teaching is way down on the list of things you do? Parents, are you involved in your childs education? Are you aware of the NCLB guidelines and requirements that districts are struggling to implement? Is your community supportive of your schools? What do you think would improve the educational system in America?

well, apparently manic monday turned into manic week.lo siento mi blogger amigos.

decisions to make regarding jems arm. tests to grade, tests to make. life goes on, tomorrow is another day.

so just out of curiousity…

What is your favorite quote?

here’s mine:

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

Why bother blogging? We all have a reason for starting a blog. Was it curiousity for you? Did you have something amazing you wanted to say? Do you merely need a place to rant and rave, spill your thoughts?

I chose to blog for several reasons. It is rather therapeutic to vent my thoughts and frustrations, or to just clear my head so that I can move on to something else. I have another blog, Comprehensive Chaos, that I created for graduate studying. There I analyze everything I had to read during the two year graduate study marathon. Some of my favorite works were Albion’s Seed, The Diary of Martha Ballard, Sherman’s Other War, and various topics of research. It was VERY helpful to organize my thoughts and studying by blogging. Kontan Jou was created for a vent session. Miscellanseous ramblings of a wife, mother, teacher, and student. However, I liked to travel and many of my travel topics didn’t seem appropriate for a study blog or a rambling blog, I realize now that if I want to put them here it really doesn’t matter. At the time Kontan Kote seemed like a good idea. It is actually my favorite template of the three blogs, but I never post there anymore.

Some people blog and they are all about the traffic, stats, and comments. I think everyone likes comments, and likes to feel like people enjoy their blog. I certainly hope you are not bored to tears here. Lately though, I realize that I blog for my own peace and if if it helps then I am meeting my original goals.

Why do you blog? What do you hope to get out of blogging, or hope others get from your blog?

kontan jou!