Ouch

Ugh, I'm in pain.

It hurts.

I worked out yesterday.

For the first in, well, let's just say a long time.

And I used muscles that I haven't used in well over a year.

I used muscles that I'm not sure I even knew existed in my body.

But I felt good for doing it.

But then I experienced more pain this morning.

No, not the good soreness that you feel the morning after a good workout.

The kind of pain you experience when you are walking in a very slick and snow-covered parking lot, go to step on the sidewalk, and do a cartoon-feet-flying-out-from-under-you fall right onto your entire left side.

It hurt.

I didn't even have a millisecond for my mind to register the fact that I was falling. I was up one millisecond and down the next.

I scrambled to get up since I had landed in a pile of snow that was the aftermath of the snow plow going through the parking lot.

I pushed myself to my feet and briefly looked around to see if anyone saw me.

No one did.

I think.

My next thought was panic as I looked to see if my white winter coat was dirty.

It wasn't.

I then proceeded to walk to the door with my ego bruised, brushing snow off myself from my left shoulder down to my left knee.

Needless to say, the combination of the two has left me in some pain.

But like they say, no pain, no gain.

But I think I'll wear more sensible shoes in the snow from now on.

Happy Birthday to...ME!

Today I turn the big 2-6. In honor of my birthday, Mt. Vernon closed school for the second day in a row. OK...maybe the snow had something to do with it. Nonetheless, I've had an awesome two days off with Justin since his regular days off are Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

I've spend my unexpected days off working on school stuff, so nothing fancy. But sometimes I think teachers enjoy a snow day just as much as the kids do. I was reassured of this as myself and two other teachers poured over the radar on Monday during SRT (student resource time) to see just exactly when the snow would hit so we knew the likelihood of a snow day yesterday. I would have been OK with just that one, but they threw in another one today, and well, I'm not complaining.

However, I do hope to go to school tomorrow without even a delay. We have a speaker coming in the afternoon that I do not want to miss. His name is Sam Childers and the work he has done to help African children that have been affected by the war in northern Uganda and southern Sudan is extremely commendable. I am currently reading his book and you can find more information about his mission and organization here and here. I taught a class this past quarter that included reading the book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah about his experience as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. It's hard to imagine that children are still going through experiences like this in 2010.

On a much, much lighter note (and what seems somewhat trivial after writing the last paragraph) Justin has made this birthday fun even though we haven't been anywhere since we didn't want to brave the weather. In fact, he just got done making me the best birthday cake...Funfetti, of course!


And later he is making my favorite dinner of cubed steak with mushroom gravy, homemade mashed potatoes, and white corn. Good for you? No. But delicious and completely acceptable to eat on your birthday? Yes.

Well, back to working on things for school.

Paw Prints

Someone went out into the snow for the first time today.

She's seen snow from the window, but she's never been in it.

She didn't go far. I think it was too cold for her paws.

And now she's back to her usual Saturday afternoon activity: napping.

Another successful adventure for Maggie.