3 year old's bday party

this is isadora right after she opened her presents from dominic and i...she loved the dinosaur and the cars...
there was some dress up time...we were surrounded by butterflies and princesses...
isadora and a couple of her friends chilling with their juice boxes...
it was a great day for a birthday party!!

outdoor classroom

a huge part of the 3/4 curriculum is called outdoor classroom...you have seen some of the pictures of the river where we were collecting macroinvertebres...we are studying the northern woods this year...this includes learning about everything from the leaves on the trees to the decomposers and the animals that live in the forest...the past 2 days we have been collecting leaves and using dichotomous keys to identify which tree they came from...here are some pictures of the area that we were in...
i am learning so much about nature...i love it...vermont is so amazing...it truly is a magical place...i don't know how else to describe it?
if you haven't been here you need to visit...if you have been here then come back soon...

latest on lyme

well...i went back to the dr. yesterday for a follow up appointment...i have still not been feeling well...and i've had more symptoms that have started...difficulty reading outloud to my students and trouble writing things correctly on the board...scary to me! i am on 2 new medications now for 30 days...one of the medications is pretty strong...actually turns my urine and tears an orange/red color...yikes...and will make me feel like crap for a bit...not fun...but if it makes me better...fine...
i left feeling frustrated, scared, helpless and tired...
this afternoon i went to a dr in chinese medicine to discuss what other things i can do to boost my immune system and keep my body as healthy and strong as possible while dealing with the lyme and all the meds that my body is having to deal with...it was good and very informational..i felt good leaving there because i felt as if i finally had some control to be able to do something to help my body fight!!
we'll see how things go...thanks so much for all your well wishes and thoughts and prayers...

monday fun

monday turned out to be a great day...the weather was perfect...sunny and about 80...after a quick day at school...i spent an hour coaching kindergartners soccer...there are 9-12 of them depending on the day...they are so cute but very busy...after the practice dominic and i hiked up to sunset ledge (the hike i went on with the kids from school)...it was beautiful...def. a reason they call it sunset ledge...
after the hike we came home and had some of dominic's homemade chili...it is amazing!!

all school hike day

this is a new concept to me...the entire school went on different hikes...the 3-6th graders got to pick what hike they went on...i went on the hike to sunset ledge...the views are more amazing then my photos will be able to show you!
we stopped on the way down at a lean-to that one of the parents had built 17 years ago...this is a few from there...
here is another from the ledge...
it was so much fun and an amazing experience...once i know that i have permission from all my parents i will put some pics on my classwebsite and send a link...the kids are so cute and fun...

lincoln community school

this is the school that i teach at...it houses grades k-6 which is about 120 kids...i love it...
this is a picture of the school's greenhouse and garden...the second grade plants and cares for this as part of their curriculum...we just had a big garden harvest festival on friday...
this is where both 3/4 classes have spent every thursday and friday afternoon...we've been collecting macroinvertebrates...like water scorpions, dragonfly nymphs and other fun bugs...everyday i am so amazed that i am surrounded by such beauty and get to go out into and enjoy it with my students...

great way to start the week

woke up this morning and it was freezing...well in the 30's and lincoln (where i teach 5 miles away) had frost...crazy...but the day turned out beautiful...i am coaching the kindergarten kids in soccer every monday after school for an hour....it keeps me on my toes...it has been awhile since i have coached such young kids...
found out today that dominic is coming home this friday which is awesome...but has to leave on monday or tuesday for chicago...he will be working there until about thanksgiving...might get a break? might not then back to the chicago area til christmas...
i am excited to see him this weekend!!! miss him...
i should be doing some school work or cleaning the apartment but i am soooooo tired...it is about 8:45 at night and i am going to go to bed...night

camping out for real

well over labor day weekend dominic and i decided to go camping...we didn't have to travel very far to find a very secluded place...we camped out in lincoln, the town next to us, in a blackberry patch in the middle of a pasture...we were surround by mountains...it was so amazingly beautiful...i know the idea of camping might sound really strange after contracting lyme's disease but i can't stop living so i just made sure i did a lot of tick checks on myself...haaaaa
we drove the car to the bottom of the trail that led up to the campsite...it was about a half mile or so hike up to where we had decided to camp...so it took a couple of trips to get all of our stuff up there but it was a good workout...on friday we walked down to a friend's place for some drinks...after awhile we walked back up, made a fire and cooked dinner...it got very cold that night...down into the 40's...but the next day was beautiful...we decided to hike up mt. abe...
this was a great climb with some tricky parts but we had a good time...the view from the top was amazing!!!
i love this place...so amazing and beautiful...we were exhausted after the hike that we made a ton of food had some drinks and went to bed...
we got up monday, packed up came home and vegged out on the couch all day...we were spent...it was so fun to be able to spend some good quality time together before we both get busy with work...

beautiful morning of wiffle

this morning marked the official opening of the HST wiffle field in bristol, at seth and jen beck's house...i joined the wives of the other wifflers in watching...it is a beautiful day here in bristol, vermont...65-70 sky full of sun...it was a great morning of chatting, watching the kids, eating pizza and drinking high life (the unofficial beer of wiffle) :-) www.lowballwiffle.org the official site for around here
i am back home watching sunday football and avoiding grading papers...
on another strange note...my dad and sharon are in minnesota visiting and this is the first time that they have come to visit and im not there to get together for the big family gathering...little odd...really looking forward to nov. (for those of you who don't know...jake is coming home from iraq in nov!!!!) the whole fam is going to go out and greet him!!!
love hearing from all of you!!

link to lyme article

http://www.lymediseaseassociation.org/drbguide200509.pdf

life with lyme

well...right now...i have lyme's disease...ill start back at the beginning...
the last day we were in baltimore in august i woke up with a red sore bug bite...i thought it was a spider bite...over the next 5 days it got bigger and the redness spread until it was about 3 inches in diameter...it was so tender that even having my t-shirt touch it was painful...it started to get a white ring around where the bite mark was...
dominic suggested that i have a dr. look at it...so i went with him to the er to have his stitches out (long wiffle ball story)...i showed the dr. my bite and without hesitation he says 'yep, you're got lyme disease' dom and i just stood there shocked...we had no idea what that meant other then the fact that i would start an antibiotic treatment that would last 21 days...
needless to say we went home and started doing research...i will post the article that dominic found that seems to be the best we have seen out there...
it has been a rough road for both of us...i am not and have not felt like myself for about a month and a half...dominic is so amazing and patient with me and all the symptoms that i have been experiencing...
the latest is that after 21 days on meds i was still not feeling well so went to the lyme specialist in vermont...he is great and thinks that the meds didn't work for one of two reasons...1. i have a strain of lyme that didn't react to the first medication or more likely 2. that i have a co-infection...meaning that the tick gave me lyme and another bacteria which didn't allow the first round of meds to do their job.....so all that said...i am on 2 meds now for 25 days...one for the lyme and one for the co-infection...
feel free to send me questions about it or if you find any information out there about it please send my way...

long time no write...

hello to all...wow it has been awhile since i have been on here...i think the last time i wrote was just after the 4th of july...ill do a quick summary of the rest of the summer...
after the 4th of july we went to minnesota and started packing up my house...we left to go to MO for courtney's (dom's sister) wedding...it was amazing and beautiful and a blast...have a few pics and will post later...
from the wedding we went back to minnesota finished packing and saying my goodbyes...we packed up the 26 foot moving truck that towed my car on a carrier to chicago...we spent a couple days there adding dominic's things to the truck...we realized that he had more then we thought so we packed up his car and i drove that...it took us 20 hours but we finally made it to bristol vermont...home...it took 2 days to unpack both cars and the truck...crazy...we were in bristol for about a week before we headed to baltimore for a GE work conference for dominic...we spent 3 days there and then traveled down to south carolina to visit dominic's dad and family...spent a few days there and headed back to vermont...
i started some workshops for school the second week in august...
i love the school i work at...i love the staff...the kids...it is so great!!!