On Friday my long term substitute came in to meet with me and go over a bunch of things. Funny thing, she’s coming in to take my leave, and I was the person who took her job when she left. Why did she leave? She decided to go to pharmacy school . . . you know where I went before I left and followed my dream of teaching!

Anyway, I asked one of the other homeroom teachers if she could watch my kids so we could look at some things in my classroom. She looked me in the face and told me – NO! She then explained that I was needed in the cafeteria at Flex time. Ah-ha! Light bulb went off in my head and I recalled one of the room parents whispering once after a meeting about something and making sure I was not near them.

Finally R explained to me that the girls had planned a surprise Baby shower for me on Wednesday. You know, the day I couldn’t walk and wasn’t in school. The kids (8th graders) were bummed and worried at that point that I would come back. Now I know why they were so glad I was in Friday. So they all apologized about the food being gone, but as I walked in an entire cafeteria table was filled with baby gifts!

So I stood there with all 32 girls, the two cafeteria workers, and 4 teachers watching me open the gifts. The notes from the girls are more priceless than the gifts in a lot of cases. One of them actually said to call her any time to babysit.

The baby got a bunch more clothes, several toys, a hand made blanket from one of the mother’s that said “Class of 2007”, and something very different that we never had when NHL was little. One of those little gyms for the floor called the Giddy Up & Go Gym. It’s really cute!

So now I have 21+ thank you notes to get my butt in gear and write. I am likely going to wait until next weekend and after when I am officially done with school. This weekend we are working hard at moving things and cleaning up the 3rd bedroom and making NHL’s room into a room for both boys. Today we actually went out and got carpets and curtains. Noah had fun helping us pick them out.

Now for the sad news. My grandfather was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease probably 15-20 years ago. The last 6 years since my wedding have been pretty rough. I think just before or after NHL was born in 2003 my grandmother finally realized she could not take care of him and he was put into a nursing home. This week my parents told me that things were getting MUCH worse. They didn’t think it was going to be long before he was finally done suffering. He’s refusing to eat, take his medication and drink. He’s actually biting nurses and others that try to force the issue. Since we are Jewish it also means that we may reconsider name possibilities IF anything were to happen to him before the baby is born.*sigh*

It’s so sad, but he’s suffered for so long. Today we met my aunt, uncle, grandmother, grandfather and father outside of the nursing home. I can’t go in there with everything that is going on there illness wise. Since it was 70+ degrees we stayed outside with him for a short time. It was so depressing. He can barely communicate with gestures and is so thin. When my grandmother told him to blow Noah a kiss I swear it looked like he was going to cry because he was struggling so much. He barely was able to put his hand up to his face to do it. It’s actually to the point where you wonder if he’s just waiting to hear people (specifically my grandmother) tell him it’s okay to go since he won’t be in pain and we’ll be okay. I just don’t think my grandmother can do that just yet. She isn’t ready and I don’t think she can imagine a life without him here to see every day since they have been married almost 62 years.

On that note I am off to dry my eyes and check on the boys outside.

C’est Moi