Teri Parris Ford's Blog

Pain

Balt is in a lot of pain. We ended up taking him earlier than his appointment because the pain was so bad. He has back issues. 2 Xrays indicated a slipped disc. He has pain meds to help but if healing doesn't come by next week, then an MRI is in order to see deeper tissue and to find out if he has a tumor in his spine. Because of the cancer in his eye, the thought was that it might spread to his brain, but the vet said the spine is also a possibility and would be a reason for his pain. I think if that were the case, I would just let him go (send him to dog heaven). It is a terrible thing to be with an animal in pain.

I woke up this morning, no dog walk, and went to Anytime Fitness for a work out. I'm trying to decide if I'm going pay for this or just end it after my free month. I waver back and forth from I need it, to I can do this on my own and don't have to pay for it. I have all the components at home to make it work for free, but will I do it!? That is the question. The problem is I might not do it even if I pay for it but I'm much more likely to. 

I had a 12 hour work day with parent teacher conferences that kicked off at 8am. I got in and no other art teachers were in the studio. I guess I was the only one with eager parents. I went non stop for about 1/2 hour and then the rest of the day was off and on with times available to deal with Balt. I was exhausted when I got home but was able to catch This Is Us before bed! 

Work Week

I'm in for a long week. Today was a regular long Monday without any meetings. My students were all in work mode. They get tomorrow off while I get 12 hours of Parent Teacher conferences. It's going to be tough but I have a lot of gaps in my schedule. I made an appointment for Balt to see a vet tomorrow during one of those gaps because he has been acting weird lately-- crying out in pain, easily startled, trembling and very lethargic. I'm hoping it isn't anything serious or expensive! I came home and made Erika homestyle mac and cheese for dinner. It came out surprisingly great. I decided to take the day off of any working out, take it easy and get to bed early tonight.

Birthday Celebrations

It's birthday season! Today I got up early and went to a 7am workout at Anytime Fitness. I finally got my heart rate up to a zone 4, 142. I have a very hard time getting my heart up past 120. After working out, I went to yoga and grocery shopping. Now that Monika is gone, I only need about $20 worth of items; some 1/2 & 1/2 and a few vegetables. Erika mostly eats out or buys her own groceries. I often eat her leftovers. For lunch today I took Erika and Kelly out to lunch to celebrate her birthday at the Nitty Gritty. I splurged and had a hamburger and onion rings. It was quite a celebration. I can't believe she's 28 today. She's works hard M-F and enjoys her weekends. I'm very proud of the adult she has become. The fact that of my 3 daughters, she and I are the only two that live together makes our relationship a bit different, a bit special. We have to respect each other's space and allow for our differences a bit more carefully. When it is just the two of us, I tend to blame every missing item or mess on her. When her stuff is missing, she knows I'm the one who moved it. Neither of us are confrontational, so frustration is usually unspoken. As much as she looks like me, she is a very different personality, reminding me more of my brother or mother than myself. She's family but I'm glad she's my friend too.

Saturday Workouts

Balt got me up at 5AM. We went for a very short walk with the hope of getting out again once the day warmed up. Well, the day never warmed up. At 9am I went to Anytime Fitness for a Team Training workout. I've only done a couple of small group (4 max) workouts, so this was my first team training (10 max). It was good but I sometimes feel foolish, not being able to do push ups, but I'm there working out and that is what matters. I went to a yoga class at 11am and I have to say, yoga has never been so wonderful. My body is so sore all the time. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night stiff with pain. I'm not sure I can keep it up. 

The rest of my day was just relaxing. I worked on an animation for most of the afternoon. I made a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch and ate Erika's leftovers for dinner. I had a big fire going most of the day and the temperatures outside never got out of the 20's.

 

I can't believe she's 24

Every year since Jessi graduated from high school, I make Jessi a collage on instagram and wish her a happy birthday. This year I sent her a couple of boxes as well. I'm excited to see her over Thanksgiving. Monika is now in California with my mom and in 1 1/2 weeks Erika and I will join them, but first I have lots to do.

It was a great Friday with not a lot going on. My yearbook kids wore their new t-shirts. My 4th hour took a photo but by 7th hour more than 1/2 my class were absent so we did not take a photo. After school I went to hot yoga and spent the rest of my evening taking it easy.

We have to sell ourselves

One of the surprising aspects of my job is the fact that my allocation is directly associated with my willingness to sell my classes to kids! As a department we have annually put on snazzy presentations to 8th graders and their parents trying to make sure they sign up for an art class. I make sure they are so impressed that even if they don't take an art class their freshman year, they come to Memorial wanting to make sure they take an art class at some point in their high school career. We are jumping in to being a part of the school's 2nd pathway. So now we have to sell this pathway, with the hope that we will grow our digital program. I started working on the slide show yesterday. Today our department met at lunch and then Joe and I worked on the presentation all afternoon. Joe is a perfectionist, I'm not, together we make a pretty good team! I think our part of the presentation is almost ready to do. 

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Dressed for Diwali

I've been trying to figure out an appropriate time to wear my Indian outfit. Cultural appropriation is not cool. When I realized that Diwali might be a good day to dress up, I asked a few of my students if they'd up for and one student in my yearbook class got very excited. He even offered to bring outfits for his friends. We made sure to take a photo in class. 

As for my Wednesday? We are dipping into the 20's tonight and a bit of snow is in the forecast. The cold makes dog walks a little less fun, but it helps get me to hot yoga. Tonight I had my first evening Anytime Fitness weight lifting session. I think I like morning workouts better. Tonight's session was not fun, but I come home even more eager for bed!

He's older than me now!

I forgot it was Balt's birthday yesterday! He is now 56 in dog years, which means he's older than me now. He's my buddy and even more mellow as he ages. This morning he absolutely would not go for a walk. He just wanted to sniff around the front yard but no matter how much I pulled, he wouldn't get going. I left home early to go vote. I was #16 in line. I got in about 10 minutes before the polls opened and there was already a bit of a line. I heard poll workers talking that the crowd was bigger than the presidential election.

I had a great day, lot of work done. After school I signed up for a google certification class. As I look at the future of teaching, technology is playing a bigger part, but as a digital art teacher, I am utilizing more technology to teach technology because it makes sense. Technology really is help me with differentiation and scaffolding.

I didn't get home until after 8pm and then turned on the news right away. Tammy Baldwin won her race but lots of others are still up in the air so I'll just wait until the morning to find out how it all panned out.

So Monday

;Balt woke me up at 4am, eager for breakfast. I yelled him to go back to bed several times but I finally gave in at 4:45am. I took him for an early walk and then went to Anytime Fitness at 6am for a workout session that was killer. I came home feeling like I could vomit. I'm not sure if I can keep it up, but I should. My Monday flew by with the shortened schedule and PCT with both the art and business dept to talk about a new pathway for incoming freshmen. It was a productive meeting but as you can see from Josh's photo, it wasn't necessarily fun.

I went home and backed pumpkin bread, watched the news, build a fire, listened to the rain and vegged out, deciding I was too tired to go to yoga. Below: Monika is in Denver!

Rainy Autumn Sunday

With this morning's time change, I had to yell at Balt to go back to sleep when he started asking for breakfast at 3:45am this morning. With the pouring rain, even once we got up this morning, we did not go for a walk. Instead I spent the morning installing my new closet doors finally. It's a project I've wanted to do for years. At 10am I met up with Joe, Josh and Grace for a department brunch. Grace decided we needed a month Sunday brunch club and I thoroughly concur! We enjoyed chatting it up, mostly about politics. I went home and started working on an animation idea I've had for a bit. What a time suck! I spent over 2 hours on less than 2 seconds of animation and I'm not sure it's even usable, but it's work I'm going to have to figure out by next year, as I'll be teaching animation. I had a fire going and with rain outside, it made for a nice afternoon regardless. I went to a 4pm hot yoga class and then went grocery shopping this evening. 

Double it up...

Today was my first day of training at Anytime Fitness. Only an hour class with a coach and 2 participants, me and another younger woman. We were supposed to do 4 sets of 10 of most exercises but I usually just did 8 since I went slower and was not counting. I wore a heart monitor which indicated my heart rate was not rising even though I was sweating profusely and winded. I ran some errands, did a bit of housework and then went to yoga. For the next two weeks I'm going to try to double up my work outs to adding weight training to my yoga regime. We'll see how it goes. I won't be able to do it every day but I'm going to give it a shot.

I made some lunch, watched a movie, talked to my mom, talked to Jim, gave Balt a late walk, made a big fire and purchased new closet doors for my bedroom but was not able to install them. By 8pm I was ready for bed... 

Chicago!

I spent the day in Chicago, at Navy Peer. Joe and I shared a bus full of video, yearbook and photo students. Our department took 3 buses, not quite full but still lots of kids (about 150 kids) to see the SOFA show. It is nice to get away but I find it interesting that we spend more time on a bus then in Chicago. The kids don't mind because they would rather be in a bus than at school!

November is here!

It was a beautiful Autumn. I had the garage door open all afternoon. I have been overheating in the photo lab lately. The combination of a warm room and my having constant hot flashes. At the end of the day my hair is wet from sweat. Luckily I'm sweating mostly only on my head, face and neck for some reason, so my clothes stay somewhat dry. After school I like to take a photo of the kids who are still in the room so I can get them treats. We are all going to Chicago tomorrow, so I promised them iced cream. There's no way I could remember without a photo!

I went to yoga and then had a consultation at Anytime Fitness. My BMI and body fat percentage was taken (27.8kg/m2 and 38.4%). I was asked about my goals. I just want to be healthy. I no longer worry about numbers so much. I just want to feel good. I've decided to take the month to see if going to a new gym will be better or not. Both Jim and Monika have been members at Anytime Fitness and love it, so I'll find out what the difference is this month.

All Hallows' Eve

I try to go all out for Halloween and then year was no exception. I came up with the idea of Wonder Woman last week and got the tshirt and pants on Amazon and then went shopping over the weekend for accessories. I wore the leggings with a red tank for yoga on Saturday which was billed as a dress up day at the studio. I spent $50 on the tiara, wrist bands, skirt and lasso at Party City after spending $30 on Amazon for the original outfit. I got tons of compliments and the kids love it. Usually Josh dresses up but he actually forgot, so it was just Grace, Geof and I. I stayed late after school working on the yearbook trying to get the senior section in order, then afterward to went to a old friends for a Halloween gathering. It was lots of fun but a late night for me!

Halloween's Eve

Jessi had her first solo flight on a T6 Texan! She posted this photo on social media. I am, of course, pretty darn proud of her! Other than her huge accomplishment, it was pretty uneventful for me-- just a work day. After school I went to a hot yoga class and then after that I went to Anytime Fitness for a consultation. I'm thinking of joining since Jim is out of town for the year, Monika is leaving and I don't want to spend the winter moping around at home. I got home just in time for This Is Us!

Club Monday

Mondays can be crazy busy when we have the shortened schedule. I have newspaper club at lunch and a department meeting after school. The good thing is that the day kind of flies by. I get home exhausted. I wanted to go to hot yoga but I was too tired. I took a nap and then ran to the store and then to a late yoga class. I'm in bed early, even though I had a nap! I thought about trying to start a big project, like a quilt or something, but it's going to have to wait until after the holidays, I think.

Brunch Out

We are celebrating Monika's last week in Wisconsin for a while, maybe forever. After a nice morning of dog walking, coffee, news and a hot yoga class, I took the girls out to breakfast along with Kelly, Erika's boyfriend. It was really lunch time but since the girls had slept in, it was their breakfast time and it was a very pleasant time. I went all out, eating real pecan pancakes for the first time in very long time. We all ate tons and went home ready for a nap. I watched a couple of my shows on HBO with a big fire. I did some laundry, washed dishes but mostly just took it easy. I'll be in bed early tonight.

A Bath for Balt

Balt got me up at 5am like normal. I wanted to sleep in but to no avail. I took Balt out for a very short walk and watched some news. I went grocery shopping early and I had to go to the bank for the condo association. I went to a late morning yoga class and then came home to shower. That was the perfect time to get Balt in shower with me! I lather him up and boy, does he shed tons of hair as I rinse him down. He seemed genuinely happy to be bathed. I took him out after for a bit of some Halloween shopping time. We took a long walk late in the afternoon once it warmed up (mid 40's). I baked cookies, made a big fire and spent the rest of the evening on my computer, eager to go to bed early.

Done with the week!

Friday was a PD day. I went into work somewhat nervous about the day as I had to lead a circle time and the head principal is in my circle. I also had to lead a break out session. While I had thoroughly prepared, I ended up forgetting to say things I wanted to say and throwing in a few things I have no idea why I said what I said. BUT in the end it was all good, at least Joe assured me it was good. I relieved it was over.

After school I went to Costco and then got home with barely enough time to get to my hot yoga class. I struggled a bit in yoga but glad to be in the heat, thinking about nothing but my body. I got home for the evening and went to bed early-- chatting with Jim on the phone. Balt was in bed with me and it was quite evident he needs a bath. I guess I have something important to do tomorrow now!

Publishing

We published a second Podcast. I'm not sure it's any good but the kids love doing it. I started this new project with my 7th hour kids but I've a few others that want in so I've started a new club! I guess I'm the media supervisor. Between the yearbook, newspaper, the paper's website and now the podcast, I've got a lot of kids pushing media. 

Today was busy. We had visitors from the UW-- future art teachers who came to observe. The nice thing about a busy day is that it goes by fast. I had newspaper kids stay late afterschool, so I didn't get home until almost 8pm. There's no school tomorrow, but I have a presentation to prep for tomorrow. I'm a bit nervous and eager for it to be over so I can enjoy my weekend.