Sunday, January 31, 2010

Mom aka Monica

Hello Everyone,

Believe it or not I was able to log on; my first attempt to remember my password.....

Mom's health is declining rapidly. She is not eating and is losing a lot of weight. She is down to 98 lbs. Her doctor believes that she does not have dementia but infact alzheimer's. This hit the family pretty hard. She has a very hard time with her short term memory. Some days she can not remember anything new. She fell at her condo in Treasure Island a few weeks back and injured herself pretty badly. I called to check up on her a few Mondays ago and she sounded extremely week. I asked her if she had eaten and she said no, that htere wasn't any food in the condo. I knew that this was not true becuase Debbie had just left there a few days before this and had taken mom grocery shopping. I immediately called Kim and she started heading to mom's condo. (This is a 2 1/2 hour drive for us) In the meantime Debbie called the office at the condo and asked the lady, Monique in the office to go and check on mom. When Monique got into the condo she called Debbie and informed her that mom had an accident somehow and fell and that there was blood everywhere. When she fell she must have hit her left hand and all the skin had separated from her bones. She to this day is still healing. It is taking a long time for the hand to heal, but the doctor said it is looking good and not infected.

Mom has not been back to the condo since. We have talked her into moving closer to us and we found an assisted living facility in Clermont, close to Kim. It is about 10 min from Kim's house and 15min from mine. What a relief. She will be moving in this weekend coming up. She is very excited. They have a lot of activities and hopefully this will get mom back in touch with people. She was all alone in her condo and did not communicate very often.

I will post as often as I can.

Love to all,
Kris

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Good news. Bad News

Well, I have mixed emotions about today!!!! I received word that I have been accepted into Kaplan University for their Master's in Education program and I begin July 29th (not the 27th). YEA!!!! However, tomorrow is the birthday of twins that are EXTREMELY close to me. When I was 12, I started babysitting for a lady, Mariette, down the street from my parents house. She had a 6 year old son, Chris, and was pregnant with twins. After she gave birth, I pretty much spent all of my free time with her and helped out with Chris and the twins, Jimmy and Timmy. Gosh that was in 1985. I did my best to stay in touch with them after I began figure skating and college.... Unfortunately, I let life keep me away from them for many years.

In September, 2006 I received a call that Timmy, one of the twins, was killed in a motorcycle accident right near their home. I am still grieving over this loss........ This is the hardest death I have had to handle other than the death of my father in 1994 (I was 20 at the time of his death). Chris and Jimmy have pictures of me and them posted in their albums and call me their "babysitter". Our love for each other is greater than I could have ever imagined being a "babysitter" and am to this day touched by those boys. It is just unfortunate that I am missing one of "my boys" I love "my boys".....

The one thing that makes me smile the biggest is when I hear Mariette, their mother, say that Timmy always loved children and wanted many when he grew older. She said that she strongly believes that every time a child is sent to Heaven, Timmy is there to guide that child. She had a dream and also many strange, for lack of a better word, things told to her by strangers before they knew she had lost a child, and I myself have witnessed this, and I believe that this is exactly Timmy's way of protecting children in his life after death.

"Timmy, I love and miss you!"

Kris

Friday, July 3, 2009

Going Back To School

Most of you know that last year I began teaching and absolutely fell in love with it. I teach Technology and Journalism to 1st -12th grade. I also teach Yearbook and am the yearbook advisor. Currently, I am on my summer break and go back to school August 3rd. I am excited to start my 2nd school year. For the past few months I have been looking into a Masters degree in Education and found a school that will allow me to take all my classes online. It is Kaplan University. I will be beginning their Masters of Education emphasizing in Teaching Technology on July 27th. I am excited and nervous. It has been a long time since I have been in school.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

SUMMER!!! YEA!!! :) and :(

I AM BACK! (Forgot my user name and password)

Wow!

What a year.... I just ended my first year teaching as the Technology/ Journalism teacher at a Central Florida Prep. If anyone would have asked me this exact day last year what I thought I would be doing once I found a job, since I was on unemployment, it would have never been teaching, BUT I wouldn't trade it for the world! I enjoyed it SOO much. I cannot wait for school to start in August. However, I am mentally exhausted! Kids are so inquisitive and unpredictable, to say the least; but for the most part, FUN AND FUNNY! The questions they would have; the comments they would make are out of this world. Just when you think you are having the worst day in your life a 1st grader will see you in the hall and run up to you (knowing she/he is going to get in trouble for getting out of line) and just say, "I love you!" and give you the biggest hug you could ever imagine. I tought 156 children a week so my time with each of them was once a week for an hour and I must say, there was this one 1st grader, her name was Madison. I NEVER saw her without a smile from ear to ear and I would always hear her yelling my name, Mrs. Slechta, down the long halls and if she got her teacher's permission, she would run down the hall and give me the BIGGEST hug and tell me "I was her favorite teacher" Of course I did not tell her teacher what she said! HAHA. I have been serching the internet looking for better lesson plans. Since I teach 1st - 9th it is really hard to come up with ALL those lesson plans.



Another huge change for us. Daymond moved out a few weeks ago...... I am actually having a harder time with this than I thought. He is 20 and in college, but I just didn't ever think he would move. I know it sounds stupid, but I imagined him being here for a lot longer. However, he moved out, his stuff has not. I am on the fence on this one. Our house is not his storage unit nor am I his laundry service. He has mastered a way to get me to do his laundry. He comes home, puts his laundry into the wash, leaves and then doesn't return for about a week. Well, I have to do laundry so of course, I have to put his load in the dryer and then take it out of the dryer and fold it. I can't let it get wrinkled!! Smart Kid! This weekend Doug and I took the workout equipment out of our room and made Daymond's 13x24 bedroom with a bathroom a workout room...... Daymond is coming home, I mean over, for dinner tonight and I am sure he will go in his room to get clothes. I imagine this will be a painful for him as it was for me to see the first time I went back home and Mom had turned my room into an office.... Don't get me wrong she should have. It still is a shock that "we" do move on.



Sarah finally gets her cast off on Wednesday. Some of you may not know, Sarh, my 8 yr. old daughter, broke her ankle 4 weeks ago at a Carnival at the local Charter school. She broke it on a Saturday morning, continued to play on it all weekend; even going swimming. The following Monday morning I took her to her pediatrician and he sent me to a specialist and she did infact brake the small bone on the outside of her left ankle. When the specialist told Sarah and I that she would need a cast up to her knee and to pick out a color, Sarah was SOOOOO happy. She was so excited that she was getting a cast. She was running down the hall at the docs office telling everyone that was getting their cast sawed off that she was getting a green cast. And since she got the cast, she has been running ever since. They did not require her to use crutches they put her in a walking boot..... Well, Wednesday we shall see if it is healed. It better be. We leave for Longboat Key in two weeks. A week at the beach..... I am ready! Sarah is too! When I told her this morning that if her ankle isn't healed the doctor will not take the cast off and she will not be able to get wet at the beach for a week, she has now started being careful with that foot. A little to late!
I am back! Hope to hear from you soon. I will post often, I promise!