Bright and Cheer

Okay, so I'm the stake Primary president which means I have two amazing counselors and one secretary. These three incredible women keep me afloat! They do so many things for me and in place of me and that's how we manage to accomplish our assignments/duties/responsibilities in seven congregations!

They are all lovely. My secretary anticipates my next step and when I ask her to do something for me, she tells me it's already done. It's almost freaky how zoned in she is on my thoughts--a mind reader. I am impressed.

What really puts a little grin on my face is the words I type when I send emails to my counselors. One of them has the word BRIGHT in her email address. The other has the word CHEER. Those words are a true reflection of their characters. Anyone who happens to be the president of an organization should be so lucky as to have a couple of sidekicks named Bright and Cheer!

"I'm gonna turn you loose!"

My wonderful physical therapist, Quin, told me I graduated yesterday! This is wonderful news because those $40 copays add up so quickly. I stopped exercising when my doctors told me to and I did all of the PT homework Quin gave me and just like that...after 3 amazing visits, I am done. D-O-N-E, Done! But I can still call if I have questions.

The agony was being sidelined for 6 weeks. Once I got in to the PT my cheer level moved up quickly right along with my exercise minutes. I will actually miss doing squats on The Total Gym (sliding equipment). We don't have one of those at my fitness center. And I will miss those amazing massages on my leg!

Here's to more snowshoeing!

My Boy's Birthday and Our Play Date

Skipped school today to celebrate with K. Received special permission from my PT to try snowshoeing. After that we went to Harmon's to choose cake, ice cream, specialty cheese, and other splurges. Went off to BBQ for lunch, saw Unbroken at the theatre, made lasagna at home, and loved spending time together. K enjoyed his book...thanks to all who sent greetings!

My Experience with Physical Therapy

I went to be evaluated by a physcial therapist on Wednesday. I couldn't get in until then! One of the questions I was asked was my emotional reaction to my injury...on a scale of one to ten...with ten being "devastating." I said, "9." Tears leaked out and the male therapist started scrambling for tissue with this look on his face like, "Oh no, I have a crier on my hands."

I chuckled and told him I had tissue and that I was actually so HAPPY to be there on my way to recovery. Being grounded from exercise has been such a trial but I promised him I would do everything he said in order to heal as well as possible. He told me I will make a hundred percent recovery!

I had been warned about the pain inflicted by physical therapists. I had also been warned that I wouldn't get everything back after the injury. Well, my therapy session was more like a spa treatment. I was THRILLED to pedal the exercise bike and surprised that they cut me off at 10 minutes. I LOVED the leg massage and that went on for 10 minutes as well, with lotion! No pain--just lovely stretches, light exercise, and a MASSAGE!

My cheer level has gone up a few notches since I met my physical therapist. I have kept my promise with doing all of my exercises. I am so much happier to be moving more!

I am deeply grateful that there are people in the world who study this stuff to assist people like me.

Close Reading

Close Reading is a current buzzword in Education. In a nutshell, Close Reading involves teaching children how to interact in a meaningful way with text in order to promote comprehension and all of those sorts of things. So this week, we tore apart the Preamble to the Constitution. I learned a lot.

I split the Preamble into ten phrases and had my students walk around the classroom for about 20 minutes with sticky notes, conversing with their peers about what they thought certain words meant, and stuff like that. We're not finished yet, but this segment of the process was oh, so enlightening!

I heard one girl say, "I think 'promote the general welfare' means we have to take care of the general of the army first, because if he's doing okay then the whole army is doing okay which means our country is doing okay."

There's more to accomplish!

In other news, a quiet-ish boy left school yesterday for the weekend and stopped just outside of the classroom door and said, "You know Mrs. Kyburz, I've only had two teachers that ever made me want to come to school. One was my fourth grade teacher and the other one is you." I nearly died! I gave him a side-armed hug and told him it was people like him (and the website he's developing) that made we want to come to school everyday.

And that, my friends, was better than a paycheck!

Berries and Ice

Red berries in the snow are always picture-worthy. Those poor leaves on the shrub--literally entombed in ice!

A lot of people gave us a lot of junk food for Christmas. You can only see about a fourth of what's really stuffed up there in that cupboard. K thought it was just fine spread out over the counter. I, clearly, did not.

Time for Reading Today

I've loved the opportunity to read more over the break. That is all.

34566

I went to the library today and picked up a book they were holding for me. The nice lady asked to see my card, so I handed it over. Then she told me they were issuing new cards.

I froze.

"Do I get to keep my same number?" I asked.

No.

You see, my old number was SO EASY to remember: 34566. It no longer works. I tried it online and everything. Dead.

My new number has 14 digits! And yes, I am required to type in ALL 14 digits when I access my account online. Life is now ruined.

I got that lucky card as a newlywed and felt it was such a good omen that we had chosen this city in which to live.

Obviously, it's time to move.

Pajamas and Naps Kind of Day

The humidifier may have helped, but it certainly wasn't the magic bullet we were looking for last night. Thus, today was a naps and pajamas kind of day. K enjoyed football and I enjoyed reading. I'm still wheezing like a boss. I know I napped well, meaning it was a medicinal nap, because I remember having a dream.

In my dream, people kept telling me my car had dents and broken headlights and that the police wanted to speak with me. I was living in some sort of boarding house, so I was gathering my purse and phone and jacket to go outside when suddenly the smoke detectors and fire alarms started beeping. I knew I should go outside, but for some reason I went to the basement to find the source of the fire and it was the washing machine. Someone had put a load in and stuffed it WAY too full and the spin cycle just couldn't spin, so the motor was burning up and the thing was on fire. Knowing I would likely get chewed out by fire fighters, I went ahead and turned the machine off before vacating the area.

Anaylyze that.

When I woke up this morning I opened the fridge to see what I could possibly have for breakfast and I found this little soda can sitting in there. You see, I am a slob when I am exhausted. First, a disclaimer. I never drink soda. I don't really like it. But after days and days and days of sickness and water and more water, my husband offered me this cute little can on New Year's Eve, so I went for it. I put a straw in it, to be festive of course, and sipped away throughout the evening. I needed to take another Mucinex before bed, so rather than dirty another dish, I just put tap water into my soda can and swallowed the medication, promptly leaving the partially full can sitting on the counter before ushering myself to bed.

Well, K thought it still had soda in it so sometime before he joined me he thoughtfully put it in the fridge for me. I smiled when I opened that door this morning because I knew it was all because of his kindness.

I asked him about it and his first words were, "Wow, you couldn't even finish that little can of soda last night?" I explained everything and thanked him for looking out for my best interests. And that's how we dance in our tiny apartment, limping along, trying to do something nice for the other when we're up to it. Love him.

So then he gets all ambitious and makes potato soup from scratch tonight. No recipe, just memory. Just the way his mom does it. It was, in a word, perfect. It was just perfect. He put little smokies with it. I wish you could all have a taste. Happy New year to us. And to you.