Welcome Fall

I haven't posted for a while. Frankly, I haven't felt like it for the past while, trying to get over the initial shock and deal with everything. But, I've come to accept things for what they are, at least somewhat. It helps that my dad is doing so much better than the last time I posted. However, the cancer has spread, so he will probably start chemo next week. We don't know what to expect. All we can do is hope for the best and be thankful for each day. On a more positive note, my mom is recovering from her surgery surprisingly well. She had her gallbladder removed last week, and was home a few hours later. When I went over to visit that evening, you'd hardly believe that she had just had surgery that morning. She hasn't been watching Madelynn this week, though, so she can recover, plus she isn't supposed to lift more than 10 pounds this week, and then can add 5 pounds every week for the next while. Fortunately, we've had a lot of volunteers helping to watch Madelynn this week which has been a real blessing.
I went back to work a month ago. It's been a really good year so far, I am really enjoying my assignment. I've got the coolest students to work with and I get a kick out of working with them. They're a lot of fun- I really enjoy working with the middle and high school population. I'm amazed that I can manage to do my caseload of 53 students in 3.5 days and not feel overwhelmed. Perhaps I have mastered the art of time management. Yeah, whatever- if that were true, my house would be spotless, all of my projects I've been wanting to do at home would be done, and I would be fluent in Spanish, German, and ASL. And I wouldn't be scrambling to get out the door in the morning. I don't think I will ever enjoy getting up early in the morning. Why can't the world run on Emily time? Getting up before the sun is out is sick and wrong. And chilly. And each morning just gets a little bit darker. And 7:45 am meetings are wrong, too. I had one last week, and I was so out of it that I couldn't hardly remember where I was. In fact, I actually started driving the wrong way to work and realized it when I was almost to the U of O campus, but somehow still managed to get to the IEP meeting on time, though highly functional I was not. Didn't help that the parents were razzing me about not saying much; they should have just been glad I didn't face plant on the table and start drooling.
Oh yeah, and Nate made chocolate chip cookies tonight. Delicious. I've lost count of how many I ate, although Madelynn did help me. What a great helper.