Patent Pending

Almost. This week, I may have mentioned, is early release at my school so we can have parent conferences. The kiddos go home at 12:15 and the rest of the day is spend conferencing with their parents. Although I have yet to figure out why kids get so uptight about us conferencing with their parents. They are always shocked to find out if I have bad news to share, I am going to tell said parents way ahead of time so they will have time to digest it, not when I am alone with them in my classroom when there may or may not be administrative back-up in the office. Kids...

But yesterday I woke up not feeling well. Since I have determined that my vertigo is stress-induced, I thought I was just getting another bout with the dreaded disease since parent conferences stress me out anyway. Either that, or the lasagna I ate at church on Wednesday night didn't settle so well on my stomach. I kept telling myself I was going to be fine. I was trying my best to be fine.

It wasn't until I had to go running out of my classroom carrying a trash can praying I would make it to the restroom, that I realized maybe I wasn't so fine. Luckily there was a parapro in my room who could take over for me. Because then I had to go lie in the clinic to see if it was just a one-time deal or if I had lost the battle and I was truly sick. Just as the kids were leaving for the day, I finally admitted to myself that I wasn't Superwoman and I really was sick and needed to go home. Just in time for all my kids to write notes in their agendas, "DO NOT come to parent conference, Teacher is SICK!" I was in my room after all the kids left getting phone numbers of today's conferences just in case I was sicker that I originally thought when my neighbor teacher and the nurse came and took everything away from me so they could handle it, and sent me home.

I was so sick, I even called my dear, sweet neighbors to come pick me up; I didn't even trust myself to drive the short 7 minutes it takes me to get home. So while I was trying to think of what kind of bowl I had in my classroom I could take home, just in case I got sick again, I couldn't find anything. As someone who threw up for six of the nine months it took to bring Oldest Child into the world. I definitely didn't want to throw up in my truck. So I got a gallon size Ziplock baggie, stuffed 3-4 paper towels in the bottom, and presto, a puke-bag-to-go. Now, if I could only find the number to the patent people

You will be happy to know that I dodged the flu; it was only a 24-hour bug. I didn't go teach today, but I did go in for conferences. The thought of rescheduling 20 conferences made me feel even sicker. Unfortunately, I did miss Youngest Child's birthday dinner at the local Mexican restaurant, but she forgave me; she even saved me a slice of the Bruster's Ice Cream Cake for when I feel like eating it!