Seattle

I went to Seattle yesterday for my doctor appointment and MRI. I swear Dr. Vlcek is gettin' skinner each time I see him... anyways he said that we're going to try and increase my Keppra and if that doesn't work we're going to go a new medication that starts with a T and ends with an l and if that doesn't work we'll go back to keppra and Tegretol. I wonder if it's possible to get through all that by August. I guess we'll find out, eh?
Now on to the MRI. It was interesting. I went into a tunnel thing and a machine made lound beepy and clicky noises. Oh and I had to lye perfectly still. It wasn't too hard though. I just closed my eyes and pretended I was in bed. I got to have those squishy ear plugs in so that my hearing wouldn't be damaged more than it already is. It only took half an hour.
After we were done at the Swedish Medical Center we went to Nordstroms! I got two pais of sandles:) Tevas and Keens. I'm totally excited! They're the only store that lets me get my two different sizes for the price of one. They kept the left foot 10 and the right foot 8 1/2 for the Keens and the left foot 9 and the right foot 7 for the Tevas:)
That was my day in a nutshell. Yep.

YESYESYESYESYES!!!

I got accepted to WSU fall semester 2006! Yay! I'm soooooo excited!

Fun with the Martinez Kids :)

Yesterday I got to hang out with Danny-8th grade, Maudi-7th grade and Pablo-4th grade.
Background: I was Pablo's mentor @ Orcas summer of '03. He and his siblings mentioned above attend/attended the after school program at WPC. They are Trailseekers. Their older brother Jesse raised them (he's 19), their dad is long gone and their mom is hooked on drugs. As a family they were locked in a bad cycle for a long time. They would live in an apartment/house for 3-4 months and then get evicted for not paying rent. The last time it happened in late January their mom abandanded them so they called Greg. For about a month they were living with a family member-I think. Then there was a hearing 'cause the kids are now a part of the system. When Greg showed up he was met by about 6 people from WPC who offered support/whatever he needed. The kids were going to be split up so the Chronisters volunteered to become their foster parents. (Jesse lives on his own & works fulltime.) Because they are now foster parents they have to go to two day long classes. Yesterday was one of them. So we took the kids for the day. I taught 'em how to play Apples to Apples, we watched Harry Potter #4, they played on the computer and we went to Randall Park to feed the ducks and ended up playing tag. My dad played too:) It's a miracle from heaven that these kids are so normal, smart, funny etc! Seriously, if you saw them you'd never guess. It's so awesome that they have a safe place to live now. Plus they have all kinds of new clothes and they get to shower regularly... stuff we take for granted. It makes me so happy to see them at church because they're finally getting what they deserve-a regular family life with all the fringe benefits.

And the news gets better. . .

Interject sarcasm.
This evening-like an hour and a halfish ago I listened to a message from Dr. Vlcek's receptionist that stated no driving for 6 months. Not really unexpected, but still sad. Just before that I talked to my boss (Roberta) who I called on Sunday so she could take my shift on Monday and not expect me on Tuesday, called my back. She said that she'd talked with her boss Shelly and they agreed that I need Dr. Vlcek to sign a paper to say that I can work by myself again. Roberta also said that she won't be telling the moms about my seizure. Does anyone else see a problem? So if you went into the future and you left your kids in a daycare while you worked (you too Margaret-I have a bet to win), you'd want to know if the employee taking care of your kids had had a seizure recently right? Of course. That's a no duh. So tomorrow I'm calling both Shelly and Roberta. I know the Chalet can't fire me, but if I can't work the hours Roberta needs me because the moms don't want me working alone with their kids, which is understandable- I'll quit so she can find someone else who can work the hours.
Just so everybody knows: no sad faces etc etc 'cause although I'm sad and this sucks majorly, it's all for my good. Okay so it isn't convincing quite yet. . . it will be. . . evenually:)
If you look on the upside I won't be wasting money on gas and maybe there will be interesting people on the Yakima bus. I've only ridden the bus in Yakima once to Kid's Castle this past summer with the kids at work and Roberta. It was actually kind of fun. Plus I could get a pass for the 6 months.

I need a title don't I. . .

On Valentine's Day I got this hilarious card from Banana girl! It has a REALLY ugly old man in a tutu on the front. He's standing on a trampline. On the inside it says ". . . and the search for Mr. Right continues." Heeheehee! Isn't that funny? I showed it to Aaron who said he should never see anything like it ever again. Later I had a conversation with Josh. He tried to tell me that all girls hate Valentine's Day if they're boyfriendless. I never got that. It's like those girls think that being miserable will do something. . . or telling everyone they hate Valentine's Day will get them a boyfriend somehow. Oh and I was talking to some other people who called it singles awareness day which spells SAD. How is that better? Personally I think people over play Valentine's Day. You get candy no matter what so I don't see what the problem is. It's just a day like any other really with the added bonus of candy. How can that make it a horrible day? I guess I'll just never get it.

Puzzeled

Today at 11:30-12:00 a gay couple & a lesbian couple got "married" in YVC's HUB. I'm puzzeled as to why YVC. I mean out of all the places in Yakima to get "married" they chose YVC. Anyway that was just weird and unexpected. It's not the first thing you'd expect to see upon walking into the HUB for Bible Study.
Otherwise life is regular & ordinary as usual. At work today I managed to break the phone. Don't ask me how I did it. I'm talented. I believe I pressed a button I wasn't suppose to on accident. Don't ask me how that broke the phone; it just did. It's the story of my life. :D
I get to write a paper this weekend, do summary questions & practice my presentation for nutrition.
It's Josh's b-day on Sunday. Anna & I made him a party in a box along with a little help from Aaron. :) We had a good time as usual:D
I was going to go visit my cousin, his wife & their two & a half month old baby next weekend with mi familia but I have to work Monday:(

Group Projects... grrrrr

I happen to REALLY dislike group projects in which the teacher chooses your group members. Mostly because I've never ever been in a group where someone besides me does any of the work! This time is no different. For nutrition we're doing a research project on different issues according to what group you're in. My group is doing Weight Issues/Energy Metabolism with vitamin B somewhere in there. It wouldn't be so hard except that we must get all of our research materials from scientific journals (which are next to impossible to understand), and they have to be studies of large numbers of people. Why doesn't Sarah just shoot me now and end my misery? I don't mind group projects when you can pick your group. That way you know if your group members are going to actually do any work so if they don't you dig your own grave. Unfortunately teachers have never seen it that way. They have extreme tunnel vision because all they see is that you'll meet/interact with classmates you otherwise wouldn't. But as a precaution they tell you that you get to grade your group members at the end. How 'bout in the mean time when I'm doing all the work?! Bet they never thought of that! It's like they blocked out their own group project experiences. (I refuse to believe that they all had great experiences because it's Murphy's Law that that'll never happen.) To top it off we have to write abstracts & summaries on the studies we find and then present it infront of the class. . . I HATE talking infront of groups of people!

ordinary as usual

Not a lot has happened since the beginning of the quarter, but then my life is pretty boring like that:)
On the 6th at work 4 yr old Mark told me that I can't do anthing right 'cause I'm just a woman. From the mouths of babes. . .
In math we gets points for easy things. . . like sending Mr. Jenck our email address and going to the bank and getting info on their different loan options:)
I babysat for an 18 month old this past Wednesday. He slept most of the time so I read.
Yesterday I filled out a paper and paid money so I can graduate after summer quarter.
I have my first big project in nutrition due on Thursday so I've been working on that a lot.
Tomorrow we're having a party for our minister of worship who's moving to Colorado at the end of the month:( In case people don't know my church is falling apart over the issue of divorce. I'm abandoning ship once college is over.

Back to School. . .

Today was the first day of school. . . sadness. It seemed like Christmas Break was just going to keep going on, but alas it didn't. Mr. Jenck for Math 102 is funny and interesting. He reminds me of Mr. Walker:) Mrs. Harrelson for Chicana/o art & culture should be teaching high school 'cause that's her teaching style. On the upside we get to read interesting books:) I read three chapters of one of the books already 'cause it was a real good read:) Too bad we have to write a paper on it later. . . oh well. Sarah in Nutrition is really nice:) Both Chicana/o & Nutrition are going to be a lot of work reading, nightly homework, papers, projects and weekly quizes/tests. (Definitely different from last quarter.)
It's snowing as I write this and my car's gas gauge is broken, the steering wheel is tight and it doesn't excellerate smoothly. . . so a trip to an auto shop will hopefully be in the near future. I gotta talk to my Daddy tonight. Oh and do a significant amount of homework:(

Only one more final to go. . .

Yes! I'm sooo ready to be done! I had my speech final today which I'm sure I did well on because the class is so easy and if you don't do well you belong back in junior high. (This class was high school all over again.) We had a group final for heaven's sake. Now I get to buckle down and prepare for the math final which is Wednesday. And then I get to tell Mr. Lopez goodbye forever and ever!!!!! He is such a HORRIBLE math teacher! I think he's worse than Berube was for the WV grads who might remember him. That's saying something.
In other news, my cousin Kate (pronounced Katie) got married this past Saturday. My new cousin-in-law is pretty awesome. Plus I actually "danced" at the reception:) And I got to know my cousin Ellie's fiance. Cory's a real nice guy:)
It is soooooo cold here in Yakavegas! I think it's too cold to snow. This morning I discovered much to my dismay that when it gets REALLY cold outside the water in my car door freezes and the driver's door doesn't latch when shut. That made for an interesting start to the day to say the least. Plus as I was trying to shut it one of the many times, I slammed my pointer finger on my right hand in it. So it hurts and is a nice purpleypink color.

Hospital rooms are REALLY small. . .

just in case you didn't know;) So as most of you know I went to Seattle's Swedish Medical Hospital for an EEG. I don't really know what that stands for. It means they monitor your brain activity to see if you're having seizures. I've had two EEGs before but they were short 20 minute ones. This one was 48 hours to the minute. I was stuck in a regular size hospital room (Hence the title), attached to the wall by a cord or as I called it a leash. It wasn't all bad. the leash was long enough to walk the length of the room and to the bathroom. And my mom was with me most of the time. We played cards, read and watch tv. . . plus my dad got me a portable dvd player so I watched Shrek 2 and Lois & Clark the Advertures of Superman season one. Oh and I did homework. :D The nurses were nice especially Audree-Rose, Criss and Janet. Oh and Colleen, but she's not a nurse. I forget what she is. . . no matter. And Greg the IV guy. He had a good sense of humor:) Anyways, I had wires stuck to my head via glue stuff that's water soluable which I'm still trying to get out of my hair after three washes. . . Oh and I was video taped for the entire 48 hours so I mostly had to stay on my bed so I was on film. . . my 15 minutes plus of fame ;) And the diagenoses is. . . the dead weight feeling is not caused by seizure but by my cerebral palsy. Translation-they can't really do anything for me. Strangely that doesn't bug me too much. As I was lying in bed Monday night I realized that this really isn't in my control 'cause whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen. End of story. It's going to be okay. My doc is going to decrease my baclofen and get me some physical therapy. I went to physical therapy at Memorial through 4th grade and at school through 7th grade, but this kind will be do it yourself 5 minutes in the morning 5 minutes at night stuff I can do in the comfort of my own home or wherever which is definitly better:)

And I Left the Teens Behind

Yep, it's my birthday! Twenty on the twentieth. I don't feel or look any older but what else is new?
I know everyone elses birthday too-
Steve- January 25
Josh-February 12
Jen N.-February 17
Andy-April 17
Kim-April 18
Margaret-June 22
Bonnie-June 26
Aaron-July 9
Dan-July 23
Annie-August 12
Cherize-December 18

This & That

I got my first birthday present today. Val got me these awesome lounge around the house pants. They're fleece and. . .RED! Yea!
Today I'm home because it's advising day! Kudos to YVC for having them:) I was going to do some errands but decided I didn't really want to go anywhere:)
On a totally different subject, last night we had salmon and this rice stuff which tasted really good! (This coming from a girl who had an intense dislike for the above two foods.) Who knows, maybe someday I'll try tomatos and decide to like them too;)

and life goes on while standing still

Yesterday my mom told me that the testing in Seattle will take place the 28th, 29th and the 30th of this month. The actual testing will be only the 28th & 29th. We'll be driving over on the 27th and home on the 30th. Life goes on because everyday until I leave will be a regular day-school, work, church stuff like always. Pretty soon I'll be registering for winter quarter classes. But it really stands still because whatever the testing does or doesn't find will define what the rest of this school year and beyond brings.

Update

I know, it's a very cliche title:)
As of yesterday afternoon I am now going to go to Seattle for the two day monitoring of my brain to hopefully find out what the problem is and how/if they can fix it. It'll probably take place next month sometime. I will have to miss two days of school :( This comes after me telling my mom the increased Baclofen was/is making the dead weight feeling worse instead of better plus an added bonus of random acts of dizyness where I lose the ability to see out of my left eye for a few seconds and sway on my feet. This two day testing will cost lots of money (we're talking in the thousands per day) and none of it's covered by insurance unfortunitly. I'd much rather they spend that money on paying for school but it seems I don't have a choice.

The main reason I'd didn't go hang out with you all at Margaret's house last night is that after sitting in a car for threeish straight hours, the dead weight feeling on the left side of my body was magnified much more than usual. I needed me time to pray and such. (That's a good excuse right Steve?) Although I was tired and hadn't had any real food since breakfast. . .

On a much happier note, tomorrow at work we'll possibly be taking the kids to Thirftway or Safeway to get pumpkins! I've never take a four, three and two year old to get pumpkins so it'll be interesting. We might be taking our 1 year old too if his mom says okay. On the actual Halloween day we have a party where the kids parade around the clinic in costume and the employees give them candy. All the staff dresses up. How cool is that? The dental hygentists are going to be hoola dancers:)
I have my three month evaluation on Wednesday. I'm kind of worried 'cause I have to rate myself in a packet my boss gave me which leaves so much room for error. If you go too high or too low. . . it's bad. But if I pass muster I get a raise! If not I'll get one at Christmastime :) So either way I win if I look at it like that. *shrug*
Had a fun time with Anna on Friday night! Kudos to chocolate milk, orange juice, popcorn and Evelyn!

Untitled

I'm not in math class right now because one of my classmates had a seizure. My first thought was that could just have easily been me. I was scared. Her seizure looked just like the ones I used to get. I know it wasn't me, but in that moment the past came rushing back. An ambulance was called. I've ridden in an ambulance because I had a seizure. Remember Margaret? If that did happen my life would be put on hold just as hers is going to be. I feel for her even though I don't even know her name. She won't be able to drive for 6 months to a year which might also mean she can't work or go to school. That's what could happen to me. This is the first time I've ever felt empathy quite so clearly. If I had been older when the seizures started for me, that would most definitly been me. I'm so unbelievingly thankful but at the same time so sad for her. As I sit here in the YVC computer lab I think about the fact that we didn't have to have the weekly math quiz and no homework for the weekend, but I would gladly trade it in for that girl not having a seizure. (We're talking in a heartbeat.) I have a need to call my mom and talk to her about it but I don't want to worry her so I'll wait until I get home from work.

Life's Ups and Downs

Well after the recent let down of my medication not working, I have exceptionally good news! I know in my last post I said I was going to switch majors and do early childhood education. Yesterday I went to the advising center to find out about it and we got to talking. I still want to do social work plus early childhood education so the really nice women at the advising center introduced me to a major I'd never heard of before. My new major as of today is Human Development. Yea!!!! It combines social work and early childhood education! The best of both worlds! So with this degree I could switch careers without going back to school! Chaching! I can work in head start, domestic violence, family support, childcare, residential treatment, elderly, juvenile corrections, and youth programs. It's only through WSU but they have a campus in Spokane! (Nothing against Pullman, I've just wanted to go to Eastern since I was 16 years old and if I can still got to school in Spokane, that's awesome. And my sis lives there.) Plus I can do distance through YVC. I really do want to go away to school though. So today I went to the WSU/CWU center at YVC and talked with Robin who knows all there is to know about the degree I want. After we were done talking she told me to go see my counselor Bob Chavez about my AA and junk. He told me I can get finiancial support from the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation place in Yakima because I have cerebral palsy! Chaching! (I knew it'd come in handy someday;) He also had CP until that left arm got caught in machinery and amputated so he knows. Talk about a good day! Gotta go eat lunch, so hope everyone else had an awesome day!

I Have News!

No my doctor didn't call. That wouldn't just be news. It'd be better. Anyways, I have decided to change my major. Early Childhood Education with a possible minor in social work.
My other news is TOTALLY awesome because it's a personal achievement. (The best kind.) Being unable to use my left hand, I could never tie shoes. Well, on the 23rd of last month I was at work. As usual one of the moms came down to tie shoes after naptime was over. Then we all went outside to play. Everything was fine and dandy until 2 year old Devin's shoe came untied. The first three times I tried to repair it. That didn't work. So I just untied it all the way and tied it. I believe I did it the way you all do it. *shrug* So yea! I told my mommy but she wasn't overly excited 'cause she believes I can do anything I decide I want to. The same goes for dad, Julie and Val. Last Tuesday Devin got up from nap early and Roberta was busy with our new baby so I tied his shoes. It took a freaking long time! I also tied 4 year old Mark's when he got up. Markie was really excited for me 'cause we had a talk about a month ago about how God made me different so I can't tie shoes. Devin just gave me his sweet smile and ran off to play. As of right now I can't tie my own shoes because of the different vantage point. But I'll work on it.

I don't really have a title for this so. . .

ummm yeah. On Friday of last week the stupid spastisity thing from last spring came back. I've been taking medicine for it since May. But it stopped working. That's bad in case nobody could tell;) So I went about my day with the nice feeling of a dead weight being pressed on my left side all of last Friday. Then on Saturday on my way to Shopko to get refills of Keppra & Baclofen, it happened again. Since then it's kind of a 24/7 thing. I told my mom Saturday and we talked about my options. First off, I don't like any of them. And the options are . . . drop one or more classes this quarter, take next quarter off, take this quarter off. And the winner is. . . drum roll please. . . drop one class this quarter! (cheering) All kidding aside, this totally sucks! I wanted more than anything to be done with YVC by the end of spring quarter. Now I'll be lucky if I'm done by the time summer quarter's over. The reason for all this is because last May my doctor said if this medicine didn't work the best next option would be for me to be stuck in a room for 2-5 days while they monitor my brain activity to see what's actually causing this. It also sucks because now I get to play a rousing game of phone tag with Dr. Vlcek's secretary and evenually get to go to Seattle to see him. (The testing would be at a different date/time after he sees me.) Another option is that he'll put me back on Tegretol which causes ostioprosis in women. So Saturday I was majoring pissed at God. I got over it during the service at church on Sunday. How ironic;) Right about now I wish I could see the reasoning behind his plan. That'd sure be swell. On the upside, the class I dropped had a boy in it that likes me. Don't like him. Enough said. There's always an upside;) So today I told my boss somewhere in the future I'm going to need some time off to go to Seattle and that works out great 'cause she's in the final process of hiring a new daycare attendant that could take my hours. Anyways, prayer would be nice. I was REALLY upset Saturday. All I want is a normal life. I guess I can give it up if God has something better planned :)
PS-if anyone is a little lost about last May and junk go read my post from May 21, 2005 called A History on Me.

Shock

I just got off the phone with Molly Morano. She called to tell me there's a really good chance she might have brain cancer. She goes in for a CAT scan next week which is just to be extra sure. The doctor has already told her about the different treatments she'll be going through. Now I feel bad for always saying and thinking the worst about her. She may be annoying most of the time, but she already had enough medical and family problems. I told her God has a plan. God never gives you more than you can handle is what I should have told her. Anyway, I'm asking for prayer for her. (For those that might not know Molly has been trying to be just like me for the last two years 'cause apparently my life is easier/better than hers. Who knew?)