What a week!

Hi Everybody!

Kelsey was telling me the other day about how she had written another post for our blog. Then she paused and said, "You know, it's really my blog. It's not like you ever post on it." Well here I am, ladies and gentlemen--taking possession of my half of our blog. :)

This week has been an adventure--I seem to be saying that more and more often. Apparently real life is complicated, even without children! So here's the list of grievances from this week:

Monday: Neck Injury and Doctor's Visit

So, this one requires a bit of background. About 15 years ago, when I was a sophomore in high school, I had a severe muscle spasm in my neck. At the time I was taking "zero hour" classes, which meant that I started school every morning at 6:30. My bus ride was about an hour long, and I usually slept on the bus. For some reason, that morning the bus hit a bump, and my slumbering neck muscles seized up hard. I went to the doctor, who gave me 800mg ibuprofen tablets, but didn't want to prescribe a muscle relaxant because I was going to school so early. So my neck never really got all the way better and has bugged me ever since.

This past Monday, out of the blue, it happened again. I was just about to leave for school, and felt a sharp twinge in my neck and sudden pain. I recognized it from when it happened before, and immediately took 800mg of ibuprofen. I was okay for the first half of the day, but after lunch I couldn't hold my head up straight without being in severe pain. I had to keep my head at about a 10 degree angle forward and to the right in order to not be in pain. To make a long story short, Kelsey called about 20 different doctor's offices to get me an appointment. When we arrived for my appointment, they weren't able to see me, because my health insurance provider hasn't managed to get us our insurance cards since they started covering us in September. So we ended up going to an urgent care which is also a regular doctor's office. They saw us as a regular appointment rather than as urgent care, which saved us some money. They gave me a shot of steroids and a shot for pain and prescribed me 800mg of ibuprofen and a muscle relaxant. I'm feeling much better now, but that basically shot our whole day Monday.

Tuesday: Another Doctor's Visit and School District Frustration

During my recuperation on Monday, I left my ($500) glasses sitting on the coffee table. Silly me. Apparently the dog has a taste for polycarbonate and titanium.

So Kelsey spent much of the afternoon on Tuesday finding me an open appointment with an optometrist to get me a new prescription and some contacts (that was cheaper than getting glasses).

Worse than that, however, was the e-mail I got from my assistant principal at school. Out of the clear blue sky, he tells me that Kelsey can no longer come to school during the "instructional day". The reasons are varied and complex (and mostly based on misunderstanding), but suffice it to say, we were upset.

Wednesday: Another Investigatory Conference

After being told that Kelsey was no longer at school on Tuesday, my assistant principal told me that we'd have a chance to talk about it at another time. Being totally baffled, I replied and said "The sooner the better", meaning only to communicate that I was anxious for the chance to talk to him about it. He e-mailed me back, saying that my request for a timeline was "dangerously close" to being unprofessional. Then on Wednesday morning he came to my office to notify me that we'd be having an investigatory conference Thursday afternoon to discuss "unprofessional conduct". I was baffled and worried, especially since the last time I was involved in an investigatory conference it was because a student complained that I had touched her on the shoulder, and it resulted in a formal, written warning which remains on my file for three years. (That's a story for another post, which I probably won't write because it makes me so angry and I just want to forget about it.) So I was left to wonder what Thursday would bring.

Thursday: The Conference

If nothing else, the week definitely got better as it went on. When I had my conference with my assistant principal, he was very open and understanding. He had a series of questions for me, most of which exhibited a misunderstanding on the part of various school and district officials of a variety of things that had gone on in the past month or so. He seemed to understand and agree with my perspective, although he couldn't tell me the outcome of the "investigation" without conferencing with my principal first. (Gotta love bureaucracy.) So it remains to be seen whether they're going to try to punish me for this, but if they do, I'll have a few things to say about it.

Friday: Run away!

Friday was a pretty normal day at school, and after school Kelsey and I drove up to Mt. Charleston Lodge for dessert and hot chocolate. We also stopped by to visit the scouts from our ward, who were having a winter camp-out on the mountain. In all, an enjoyable evening.

And on top of all of this, Kelsey's parents are getting a divorce.

We really can't complain too much. We have so much to be grateful for, and Heavenly Father takes care of us when we're facing challenges. But that doesn't mean the challenges aren't challenging!