Happy Year End 2011

Dear family and friends, dear ones far and near

Come listen to my story (If you would like to hear):

This year began and ended in a state with lots of snow—

Yes, here I am writing from Colorado.

More snow indeed than I had in V-A,

And more of many other things soon came my way.

Early on found me in my ward’s primary

But now with my own class, of 4-5 year olds, extraordinary

My French work, too, continued, but in a different way.

Yes, to preschoolers I taught lots of new words to say

But soon came the time when other goals arose

And I had another opp to teach college English prose

So those are all the bland details--

The things you always ask

But of more than this my life entails

So now I’ll these unmask

I’ve 26 nephews and nieces now alive,

With ten of them near home,

But for Easter we had here 20.5

Yes, we were far from being alone

With that and other visits, I’ve had

Lots of fun being the favorite auntie,

In fact we had so much fun when clad

As princesses for my bday party!

In June I got to be niece again as well

When I rode out to Utah to stay for a spell

In Orem I saw Grandma W., Aunt Gayle, Uncle Al

And cousins, their kids, and a few old pals

Then on down to Ferron to share Adam’s baptism day

I did also do some hiking, and yes, even played.

And so the year has passed with many things sublime

Though I had my troubles too, just some from time to time

But these, the Lord Jesus has made me pass more happily  

Through His servants in the Church, friends, good doctors, and my family,

Now, I hope the rhythm of this poem hasn’t lulled you all to sleep

Or worse, driven you off the deep

But since you’re apparently still here, I’ll wish you all the peace

My Savior brings to me,

In this season of happiness, joy, and good memories.

                                                   Love,

                                                   Heidi Q.

20 years!

Yes, I graduated from high school 20 years ago. Am I really that old? Yes, I really am. And this weekend, my peer and I celebrated the landmark. I actually missed the biggest attended event, Saturday night, because I couldn't justify the money for a restaurant where I couldn't eat anything. But I went today to the park and was able to see some old friends and get a tour of the old stomping grounds, or uh, splashing grounds.

  Seriously, we toured just about the whole building, except the most important room--the newspaper room.
But since Chad and I were the only old newsies there, I guess we can forgive. I'm sure much, much has changed about how the put out the Insight anyway. We used lightboards where we literally cut and pasted our articles that we printed from the computer lab, which was in another hallway. The newspaper room itself had one solitary computer in the tiny office where some people were able to begin messing around with publishing software, but if any, only our last edition was published with it.

I wish I could have had pictures with more old friends, but if I had only one, I'm glad it was Chad. He was a great editor-in-chief to work with, and more importantly, a great friend.

Princess Birthday Party

For my birthday this week, I had the best theme ever, even since my own childhood. Early in the week, my mom called local family to see if they would like to come over and help me celebrate on Friday. (My actual birthday was Thursday, but that was a fun-filled day of work with stories for another time.) Well, as it turned out, my brother David and his son were going to go camping and so my niece was feeling sad and wanted to do something fun too. So, she and her mom had come up with the idea to have a princess party.  As a result, when my mom called, Sariah said, "Would it be all right if it were a princess party?" Well, of course! Mom actually called me to verify, since I was at work at that time. But that sounded fun to me. How many grown women get away with having a princess birthday party? Happily, mom called the other locals, and John's family were able to come, too. In fact, their little girl loves to dress up, as I thought she would.

On Friday night, as I was between sleep and awake from my nap, I decided I needed to dress up pretty fancy myself, and so I showered and pulled out an old bride's maid dress I had from 1999. I even put make up on, which I very rarely do, and capped off the costume with an actual cap--a tiara. Before long, my ladies arrived, almost all dressed very prettily. One, however, had to borrow a dress from Grandma, but it turned out to be an excellent opportunity to let us have an Indian princess amongst us. It's not often we get an Indian princess at great princess parties, you know.

Of course, it wouldn't be much of a party without princes. We were quite happy to have the young men join us, too!

 And, of course, the King and Queen must be included as they threw the party for us all!

First Wednesday in June 2011

After two and a half months of intense weeks teaching four nights a week at Kaplan and two days at Montessori, I have the month of June off from Kaplan, leaving an interesting hole in my life. With the regular school year over for the summer, several of the Montessori kids are gone, and this week, quite a few more kids were gone on vacation, so even my Tuesdays and Thursdays had a bit of a hole. While I do feel relieved of some of the stresses, I'm also kind of missing the busyness, and more significantly, the kids. I found myself even sad about losing some of the more difficult children.  In any case, on Wednesday of this week, I had to do some finish-up paperwork at Kaplan, so I took advantage of the drive down to Denver and went to the temple, and then on the way home stopped by the lost ponds that my mom had mentioned to me last week. Then, in the mood, even took some more pictures in my own front yard. Going to the temple and enjoying the great outdoors really lifted my spirits, so here are some photos that might lift yours :). 

Here we go, Up and Down and Around and Around

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile. I actually wrote one but then found too soon after that what I was thinking was happening wasn't permanent. Long story. Anyway, so what has happened in the last five-six weeks? Some good, some bad.

First the good news: I was hired to teach a freshman composition class at NOVA, the nearest community college. And it's six credits, so kind of like two classes, but with only one group of students. Okay, technically it is two classes, but they're back to back and it's still the same students. But it's a three hour block twice a week. Fortunately, my other job, the temp job at NAHB, was willing to work with my schedule, so now I'm there on M,T,Th, and at NOVA on W,F. Pretty nice, huh? Classes started two weeks ago, so we've met four times now. And I have a pretty good group of students. Some better than others, and some better in different ways than others.

Now, there is bad news associated with that. Should I talk about that now or give you other good news first? Mm, let's stick to one subject at a time.

So maybe some more background. The students are mostly ESOL, immigrants from other countries, and English is not their first language.

(Guess I never finished this, might as well publish though it's a few months old. I guess the old date doesn't show up after I publish, but it was written in September.)

News from Colorado

So, you were thinking I'd given up on blogging. Well, you weren't far from the truth. I get the hankering from time to time, but I'm not even as good with my journal as I used to be.

Life has been pretty busy for the past couple months. Mostly good busy. At the end of January I got a job teaching French again, this time at a Montessori, to kids from 2 to 5. Quite, quite different from my last French-teaching experience. And also quite different from my last daycare/preschool experience. Fortunately I had a few songs up my sleeve, but it's been fun to try to find new French songs for children, as well as to learn new vocabulary. I've been translating picture books, putting my collection to good use, as well as translating some things already in the classroom. I guess I never thought I'd need to know the names of tools in French, but I'm sure it'll come in handy some day. I guess I can't escape the feeling that I'm still being prepared from later French needs. But in the meantime, I'm glad to keep my life filled with some variety as well as keeping up these talents tat I enjoy.

But the good news doesn't end there. On President's Day I was invited to an audition after I applied to teach Composition at Kaplan College. The audition consisted of a five-minute spiel on the five-paragraph essay. With three other competitors for this position, I was happily pleased to pass. The following night I was invited to an interview, and after I passed that, I had four weeks of training to pass (which involved more "audition"-type exercises, but using their actual curriculum) once per week, as well as some other training material. Then, on March 23, I began teaching composition again! This time I have two legitimate classes with different students in each (as opposed to NOVA's two classes which were the same students in both). However, the combined enrollment still is less than what I had at NOVA, so the stress of grading papers will be lessened. Also, their curriculum is set up to not have as many papers--only one full paper, actually, with assignments that build up to it. Pretty interesting, but I can definitely see the value to it.

So, with the preparing for teaching two different comp classes as well as some mini French lessons, and yes, even primary at Church, you can imagine I'm already a bit tired. But add to this that the Montessori is in Greeley, Kaplan is in Thornton, I live in Loveland, and I've not been able to kick a cold/flu/ not-so-good feeling since the end of January (shortly after I was hired at Montessori). Of course it's much better than when I originally got sick, but I've had a perpetual cough that didn't go away before I caught a cold that's been keeping me down. Now, add that I have family nearby, and you can see why I haven't been writing as much.

Let's not focus on the negative though. There are many good things going on. And I'm actually very glad to be close to my family. I get to see David's and John's families somewhat regularly, since they're in town. And a couple weeks ago I got to see a bit more of Nancy's family as she had her second baby! Yeah, and welcome to Dean to the world and the Quist, or Merkley family! Nancy had to have a C-section again, though, so she's needed a bit more help since Tessa's only 2, but I was glad my schedule permitted me to be in Ft. Lupton with her for a couple days to help out. I really felt a lot of peace being in her home helping.

Then, last weekend, Thom brought up his family since he had spring break. I even got to have Tailynne in my primary class! Technically, she's a Sunbeam, and I teach the CTR-4s, but it worked out easier that way. And even though she wasn't that much younger than my students, they were happy to caudal her like a baby. It made for a fun class. I felt the Spirit with them that day too.

And now, well, soon, I'll be heading over to spend some time with David's family as his birthday is coming up and it's time to celebrate!

There's a little catch up for you. Maybe pictures will follow. We'll see!

The Vast West Awaits

It doesn't look as much of a tongue twister as it is until you try to say it ten times fast.

Tongue twisters aside, it's the truth, too. After eight and a half years of living on the East Coast, I'm packing my bags and returning to Colorado. It was a very hard decision, but after the year I've had, kind of inevitable. External logic aside, though, I fortunately also have felt good about it. I waffled for a bit, wondering about what I was feeling and sometimes feeling better about staying out here, but once I made a few steps to make the move and telling more people, it started feeling better.

So, next Friday, my wonderful, loving daddy-o will fly to DCA and then together we'll drive across the USA. We'll stop for a couple nights at my cousin Jenny's in Ohio, which will be fun. I haven't seen Jenny for a very long time, so I'm looking forward to catching up with her and meeting her kids. After that, we'll probably find hotels--or hopefully just one, but depending on how fast we go, it might be two.  Really hopefully not more than that.

One blessing, among many, that has come with this, was finding a moving company that will load my boxes and furniture for me, and drive my stuff out to CO, for a very reasonable price--after gas is calculated in, it's less even than U-Hauling, where I'd have to pack and drive. Of course, there still will be gas, since we'll drive my car instead of towing, but, my car gets better gas mileage than U-Haul trucks, so it's still better.

Another blessing came last night when my roommate Carrie hosted a farewell party for me so I got to see many of my dear friends from the area. Most were from the Belle Haven ward, where I've been for the last three 1/2 years, but also some singles from different wards, and I think the only exception to that is my friend Justin and his wife Diana and new baby boy, whom I got to hold. Very cute kid.

It's actually significant to mention Justin for another reason. Although it's been a few years--since I don't think he was dating Diana quite yet, but he actually gave me a blessing in which I was told I would feel good about wherever I moved. Based on my graduating from Hollins and struggle with employment, I had thought I'd move earlier, but I've waited for the right feeling, and now I have it.

I'm glad I've stayed these couple of years, though, as I've been blessed with the friendships of a number of people since that time. And I've gained some experiences in other areas in my life, as well. But it will be interesting, now, to see what the Lord has in store for me back in Colorado!

Am I really getting better?

Not long after I posted last, things, well, crashed.

It had been a bit of a hard day, physically. I sang as part of a trio in Relief Society, which proved an ordeal on my stomach. To add to that, there was no AC in the RS room, so as I soon as I was done singing, the stress on my gut and the no cool air shot me straight out of there and back to the primary room. (I was just called as Sharing Time leader, Yea! though I didn't have sharing time that day.) Being in the primary room was better, but not a whole lot. Even sitting down, singing any of the songs proved very hard to get enough air. So once I got home, I ate some lunch and made my way to my bed where I put my feet up and made plans to stay there for the rest of the evening, as much as I would have liked to attend a patriotic musical fireside going on that night.

I eventually pulled together some strength and got on the computer, posted that last one, and did some health research, since my stomach was hurting more and more. And laying down wasn't helping. Then, finally, after trying to get to sleep, around 11:00, after saying  my prayers, I just couldn't get comfortable, so I stood up and before I knew it, I was hyperventilating and doubled over in pain, and gasping for air while I searched the house for a roommate. Fortunately, Sarah was just outside and she rushed me to the emergency room. They weren't able to find anything, but at least they gave me some drugs. Well, the better part of it was that Sarah called some friends in my phone so I was able to have the priesthood come and give me a blessing, which brought a peace and a lot of comfort.

For the proceeding two weeks, things got only slightly better. I wasn't always doubled over, but my stomach really hurt and I had a very hard time standing for very long, or carrying anything. To get to the point quickly, after an ultrasound and a CT scan, a doctor who thought I was low on electrolytes so recommended Gatorade (which didn't help), the GI doctor, for my follow-up, asked me, curiously, if I didn't think the stomach pains were a side effect of the Prilosec. Well, no actually. It hadn't occurred to me that some drug that was supposed to make my stomach feel better would have a side effect of making it worse. Call me crazy. So I asked what the side effects of Prilosec were, and he tilted his head to the side and said, "stomach pains." Oh brother.

Well, as I noted in that last post, I did have a number of other questions, and he answered some and some he deflected--the most irritating was when I asked if there was anything I could take for inflammation since acetaminophen, his previous recommendation to replace ibuprofen, is not anti-inflammatory. In response, he told me to ask my family doctor. What? So you're a doctor who diagnoses diseases that involve inflammation, and you don't know what a person can do for inflammation? I didn't actually ask him that. Instead, I named a couple that I'd found online and at Whole Foods--a turmeric-based supplement and the standard fish oil--and asked what he thought of them. The turmeric only puzzled him, but he did chime in that fish oil was good. Oh dear. I don't think I'll be seeing that doctor again.

Fortunately, his comment about the side effects got me a little curious about what the other side effects were of Prilosec, and so I did a little Google search and found the FDA site where it lists a bunch of things under a heading "for the professional" or something like that. I'm not a professional, but at least I can read and do Google searches for terms I don't know, which is exactly what I had to do. And quite fortunately one other person had had this particular side effect that I needed to know about--I don't remember and don't feel like looking it up again, but it started with an m and had to do with muscles weakening (which I did have to do a Google search on the term to learn), and for this other person, it went away when they went off Prilosec. Guess what I did next?

The next day, I still slept in a long time, but my legs were feeling much, much better off that drug. I was actually feeling quite good. The Prilosec had helped with the esophagitis so my chest was feeling good, and I had strength in my legs. Of course I expected the positive effects to wear off not long after the negative. And based on the stomach pains only, the GI doctor had actually given me Nexium samples to try. But I was reluctant to start those since two other drugs had already proven bad for me, and I had read that Nexium also had a side effect of stomach pains. I don't really want that, thank you.

And indeed, as the days have worn on, the effects of esophagitis have come back, and my chest and eating have those problems again, but I have also found a new source or direction for hope. In God's infinite mercy, he gave me a great supervisor at work, with whom I've been in touch throughout the ordeal and who has been a great blessing. It turns out, her husband sees this doctor in Alexandria who takes a more wholistic approach and uses more natural methods.

I'll confess that I've known herbalists and homeopathic believers, and I have been skeptical of their theories, but I think I must repent of that now. The more I learn about the way modern standard medical practices work, the more I'm disinclined to trust their approach of separating the body into segments that can't possibly have anything to do with each other, and chemical solutions that treat symptoms rather than problems. So Monday morning I went to see this new wholistic doctor, or one of the three in the office I should say, and I was very pleased with the attention they paid to me, listening to all of my conditions and concerns, and the friendliness of the entire staff. I don't have a whole lot of experience with their recommended solutions yet, but I'm appreciating the approach, so here's to taking a step in strange and unfamiliar medical territory.

Questions Answered, some anyway

So, last I wrote I had a handful of questions and complaints. And, well, as time passes, I'm taming the complaints, and getting some answers. I still have a number of questions, though, but I'm trying to patient about those until I see my doc for the follow-up next week.

But, I will sure some good news/answers that I have received. My biggest complaint, you will recall, had to do with ibuprofen. And, admittedly, I am still lamenting its loss from my diet. However, I have found that acetaminophen actually helps more than I'd expected. I'm glad for something to help with pain in any case, even if something to reduce inflammation would be better. To that end, though, I have also found help and am grateful for the internet and friends for the answers to these prayers. I found a web page with an article that listed a number of pretty common things that help with inflammation, namely ginger, turmeric, and rosemary; fish oil, Vit. C and Vit. E, and a few less common things as well. But these I'd heard of and figured it wouldn't be too heard to implement them into my diet, especially since my primary doctor wants me eating more fish anyway.

So, initially I planned just incorporate them naturally into my diet and just bought some of the herbs and actual fish to eat. But as the week has worn on and I come to recognize the difficult of incorporating these things into the quick diet of a breakfast on the run and lunch munched on at my desk through the afternoon, I've realized that only having these things for dinner and not even always at that, is probably not going to cut it. I hadn't made any definite resolutions with this realization, but with it in mind, when my friend B... told me about a time when she'd had an inflamed thyroid and was encouraged to take 6 fish oil capsule-things a day, I realize I should probably by some of those fat pills rather than relying on just eating fish for dinner.

The immediate results of these changes, of course, have yet to make themselves as apparent as I would like, but I have confidence they will prove for positive changes in my diet. And I'm already loving the taste of turmeric mixed with thyme. I'd heard of turmeric before, and had of course tasted it in foods before without knowing it, but I'm glad now to discover it more completely. I found, but didn't buy, a supplement that is entirely turmeric and am now wondering if that might be better than fish oil--it will probably taste better in any case, just not sure if it's as effective.

I also have to give Kudos to my mom for realizing that I was not getting sufficient vitamins and minerals in my diet, which I was kind of realizing before though not able to put all the pieces together. And well, she recommended first a Multi-Vit supplement, which I'd recently read was completely ineffective, but then she suggested Ensure and so I've started drinking that pretty regularly and found a good increase in my energy level. Way to go, Mom!

And so, now I should apologize to any of you who thought you were following a great blog about books, because it hasn't really gone in that direction, has it? Obviously, my dietary dilemmas are top on my mind at the time, and reading about these things has been my most interesting study. However, never fret, because I still love fiction, and have continued to read a healthy dose of it. In fact, if you're looking for something good, I've just finished the trilogy of the Mysterious Benedict Society and would very highly recommend it. I actually listened to the whole thing rather than reading it, and really love Del Roy's voice for it. It kind of reminds me of Pres. Monson. He has his own unique voice--you would never mistake them--but the rhythm and pacing of his inflections are very similar, as well as his having a very kind old man's voice.

Cool Apron Give-Away

Since food is on the mind, this is an appropriate, "on a lighter note" follow-up. My cool cousin Malauney is giving away an apron to followers of her blog. Check it out.

http://thewoodchips.blogspot.com/2010/06/giveaway-from-aprons-by-julie.html