Sunday, March 1, 2009

February 22 - 28, 2009

Sunday I hosted Scanfest with a new platform. It had its kinks, but I think it will work out pretty well.

Missy had a bad headache and wasn't feeling well most of the week. She only attended school on Monday. I finally got her in to the doctor, who said she had one of the worst sinus headaches he'd seen in a while. She got on antibiotics and is feeling better, finally.

Monday I came home from work to find Norm home with some bad news. General Dynamix-Itronix is shutting down the plant in about 60 days to outsource overseas. It is a hard blow to take, but we have survived three other layoffs in the past 14 years. I know we can survive this.

Tuesday was the beginning of my six-week course, Intermediate Online Genealogy. This is only the second time I've taught this course, and I was amazed at how much I had to update on my syllabus and presentation. The amount of online military resources has magnified greatly in the past year!

On Wednesday, I attended a three-hour course after work on Trauma Training. This was the second of two parts, the first which I attended a month ago. This course taught us what tramau is, how to recognize the signs that students may be undergoing traumatic events in their lives, how trauma interferes with the learning/memorization/retention processes in the brain, and how to refer students to the necessary resources when needed. The presenter is a counselor for our school district, who has an amazing list of national credentials. She was a very dynamic and charismatic speaker and we were all very much engaged in her presentation.

After two evenings away from home, I spent a lot of time on Thursday evening just doing some necessary housework. It felt good to get my house back, so to speak! By Friday, I was just crashed and ready for the weekend!

Saturday, I got together with three other co-workers and we stayed overnight at a hotel downtown, where one of the gals had won a free room. We enjoyed the hot tub, going out to several places, and coming back to our room for refreshments and Apples to Apples (a great game that I highly recommend). It was

February 15 - 21, 2009

My parents dropped by Sunday evening after spending the day in town for a train show (my dad collects, repairs, and sells Marx toy trains and other Marx toys). We had an enjoyable visit with them.

Monday was Presidents Day, so the kids and I did not have school, although Norm had to work. I love three-day weekends, because there's enough time to rest up, get needed work done around the house/yard/home office AND have some time to plan.

The work week was kind of a rough one, however. The former husband of an acquaintance of mine passed away unexpectedly at his home the previous Saturday and one of my other co-workers was the one who found him and called the police. It put a damper on the whole week, as they were planning the funeral. Then, to top it off, the deceased man's mother passed away Wednesday. In the midst of it all, we tried to celebrate the birthday of the teacher I assist on Thursday with a mini-potluck lunch, but we had a lot of interruptions that kind of took away what little festivity we were feeling.

A physical therapist who is a colleague of the one I'm seeing came to assess the dynamics of my workplace. The tables and chairs of the room are all a good 25 - 30 years old (terrible ergodynamics). He suggested that I purchase a slanted foot rest which will help support me, since my feet don't touch the floor completely when I sit in adult-sized chairs. He also said I should use a gel wrist guard for any computer keyboard I use.

Saturday, I made two presentations for my genealogical society's computer class at the local library's computer lab. The topic was "Using Mailing Lists to Find Your Ancestors." I always enjoy doing these, because of the collaborative effect that it has among the attendees and the presenter.

February 8 - 14, 2009

On Monday, I went to see my surgeon about the shoulder pain and loss of range of motion I've been experiencing. He examined me and told me I did not have frozen shoulder, which was a relief, and that he agreed with my physical therapist that I should have the ergodynamics of my work place evaluated to see if they were the cause. He also prescribed a week's worth of steroids. I was a little hesitant to use them, because one of the side effects is weight gain, but they did the trick by bringing down the inflammation and relieving the pain. I had another physical therapy appointment on Wednesday, and got my shoulder taped again, which also helped tremendously.

On Friday, I met with the rest of the members of the Washington State Genealogical Society's state conference committee. Our local society, the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society, is hosting the state conference in September, and my responsibilities on the committee include finding vendors for the conference.

Saturday, Valentine's Day, Norm and I went to see "New Girl in Town." It was a cute chick-flick movie that we both enjoyed; however, Renee Zellweger did not look so great. I believe she is younger than I am, and although her body is in great shape, her face looked quite aged. I normally don't remark on actors' appearances, but it was so markedly different from the way I remember her from previous movies. We went to the matinee showing, then went to a candy store in the mall. Norm's niece and nephew-in-law had gotten us a gift certificate to that store for Christmas, and we hadn't used it yet. So we picked up some chocolates and red hots for all four of us to enjoy. That evening, we watched "Fireproof" on DVD at home.

February 1 - 7, 2009

I went to physical therapy on Monday, still in terrible pain. Nancy, my PT, was very worried about me and my shoulder and how I've regressed since I've returned to work. She suggested that I see my surgeon and theorized that perhaps the ergodynamics of my classroom were causing me to have so many problems. I was told to stay off the computer as much as possible. I saw her again on Thursday, and she taped my shoulder, which really helped stabilize it.

Monday was also the start of the new semester, which was hard to believe. Tuesday night was Groovy Shoes, a long-standing annual basketball and spirit competition between the two high schools that my teens attend. My daughter's school won the boys' and the girls' basketball games, but my son's school won the spirit competition, which is what really counts!

I taught the last Basic Online Genealogy class at the Spokane County Library District, and invited my students to take my Intermediate course through the Community Colleges of Spokane's Community Ed program.

Saturday was the February general meeting of the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society. Rose Kraus of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture spoke on how to research the history of your house, a topic near and dear to me.