Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Well hi there, how are you?  Glad you are still here!

I've been thinking about the blog lately and realizing that it is still something I want to keep up with.  The focus, like my life, is shifting.  So what have I been up to?  Well, here ya go.

Birthday Dog

Ernie turned 15 two weeks ago, and I think he might have gotten more birthday greetings than I did.  I'm not jealous, just love my remarkable friends and family for loving my pup.  He is certainly showing his age more and more.  While we were visiting Shac's family at Passover, he had some sort of accident.  After loosing two teeth, spending several weeks in a cone for an eye ulcer and on pain meds for a spine injury, he is still with us.  We love this little old man, and feel fortunate for the time we continue to have with him.

Current Kitchen Progress

Betty

All summer Shac and I worked with designers to remodel our kitchen.  After blueprints, weekly meetings, picking out finishes, and several refrigerators on Tuesday they started demolishing the kitchen that has been in our house since 1944.  It comes with mixed emotions.  We are excited for the enlarged floor plan combining our kitchen and laundry room into one and also our dishwasher.  At the same time my heart sinks at the thought that I kicked out a beautiful 1940's O'Keefe and Merritt stove, still in working order.  Betty, as I call her, is beautiful and large, getting a more spatially conscious stove allows us to have a more modern kitchen.  So until November, we have no kitchen.  Which means no baking.  I bet I loose a few pounds.

We didn't travel this summer.  This means I had time to rest and recuperate.  Though I finished chemo about 10 months ago, I really only started feeling like I had all of my stamina back around fourth of July.  That is when I started going for walks every day.  I'm up to three miles a day now!  I feel great, ready for these second graders in two weeks, or at least I hope.

My Second Grade Teaching Team!

Speaking of those second graders, here is the work update!  Four years ago I started working at an amazing school.  I had been hired as a long term substitute in October and ended up finishing out the school year.  The following year, I was going to be coming back, but ended up with the cancer diagnosis.  Last winter, after finishing chemo I started back as a substitute and ended up filling a maternity leave.  On Wednesday, September second, I will have my very first FIRST day of school on campus.  This group of people have seen me at my best and worst, and helped me through the most challenging crisis I can ever imagine.  I am thrilled to have a continuing position with them, and I cannot wait to meet my students!  I've been preparing for them all summer.

Back to School is like my New Years, a time for reflection and goal setting.  I was inspired by a friends Facebook post a few months back when she posted a list of ten things she was grateful for.  Over the past two years I have had a lot to complain about, and yet I tried to stay positive and be thankful for what I still had in life.  

So expect to see gratitude in the coming blog posts.  Maybe The Year of Yes leads into The Year of Grateful.