• I woke up this morning to my daughter’s phone going off at 5:45. A.M. Most Fridays, that would be quite all right with me, but today, I’m ready to fling it (and her) out the window. Last night, we made the trek to Minneapolis, Minnesota for our daughter, as she’ll be job shadowing a former student of mine in the communications field. We did this because we did not want to be on the road early. The plan to sleep in until 7:00 A.M. is now shot in the rear, so here I write. And who sleeps in until 7:00 A.M.? My dad! Good grief I feel old.
  • Last Tuesday was the first Tuesday in almost three months that I did not blog to the Two Writing Teacher’s “Slice of Life” page. I felt bad about missing this day because not only do I love the comments that come in (yes, I’m old, yet act like a middle schooler!), but I enjoy reading the brief snippets of life around me. I did have good reason, though. It’s been six months since my first visit with the neurologist after my stroke. Our first visit was awful as he had zero bedside manner and we walked out of the office feeling like the rug had been pulled out from under us. This time, while I have still had a stroke, we felt much more positive going forward as we talked to his nurse practitioner first. She showed us the MRI and we could see the little spots of brain injury. We were told it was “vessel specific”, caused more than likely by plaque in that vessel flaking off and lodging in the vessel. So they upped my meds to firm up the plaque, telling me the longer I go without an event, the lower my chances of an event happening again become. It’s a brain injury, so my brain is healing itself, making new pathways, so I should feel tired and that’s ok. I wish I’d known this stuff six months ago instead of feeling guilty about being so run down and blah! Ugh!! But, like I said, we feel better going forward knowing what we know now.
  • After today, we have nine days of school left. Not much more I can write about that other than whoo hoo! 🙂
  • Driving to class on Wednesday, it was 85 degrees at 5:15 P.M. Driving into Minnesota last night at 5:15, it was 55 degrees. It’s time for spring to be done so we stop these ridiculous temperature changes! Life in Iowa I suppose.
  • My daughter is finding that choosing a college is tough. The difference between the college she wants and the college she should go to: $8000 of the course of four years. We’ve put aside money in a 529 college savings account, but it won’t pay for four years, so she knows if she picks the more expensive college, her debt will be higher. I’m supporting either choice as they both have positives to them, but we’ll see where she’ll land. At the financial aid presentation we went to on Monday, the statement “getting the biggest bang for your buck” was said out loud.
  • And finally, we move our oldest daughter tomorrow back out of the house. She’s been with us about three weeks since finishing her first year at Iowa State. Her journey will continue as she applied for and was accepted into a “co-op experience” at Rockwell Collins. She’ll start Monday and will finish up in December, which is so cool. She’s getting paid for on the job training, which is awesome!

Now suppose other professions paid you to be trained before you entered the workforce, like if you got out into the classroom before you became a teacher? Wouldn’t that idea of “student teaching” and being paid for it be a revolutionary idea?

Naw, that would never work! 🙂