It's All About the Karma . . .

Karma. Are you a believer that what comes around goes around? I always have been. And now that my children are in school that karma has come to bite me in the behind. All of those years of me being a teacher and completely "not getting it" have come back to HAUNT ME with a vengeance. Remember all of those mission projects, book reports/book projects, decorate the (fill in the blank) . . . that I thought were so cool assigning to my students or in many cases parents of my students? This weekend we were slammed with TWO projects. Actually, Sarah's project was supposed to be turned in on Friday. But it so WAS.NOT. And Mateo's was a weekend project.

Sarah had to do a "I am thankful for . . ." collage. Sarah is thankful for lots of things. I would be thankful if I could learn how to upload/download and/or print off the hundreds and hundreds of pictures that live inside of my digital camera and/or memory card. It would make projects like this a whole lot easier. Mateo had to do a "Decorate/disguise the turkey so it doesn't get eaten for Thanksgiving" project. Do you realize we wandered aimlessly . . . AIMLESSLY . . . up and down the aisles of Joann's for a good 1 1/2 hours this morning? (And yes, you read that right . . . this morning . . . which means one child may or may not have been taken out of school 1 hour early and one child may or may not have gone to school at all). I know that Joann's has one million and one great project ideas and crafty things to do said projects. BUT, if you are not a project doer, Joann's to me is what Home Depot, Costco, or Magic Kingdom is to Sarah . . . hell on earth. Anyway, I just spent $20 on a bunch of nothing. But Mateo and Sarah are in the other room entertaining themselves and working on their family projects. Family= Sarah and Mateo right? And since I was the one that drove them to Joann's and Cristian is the one that is at work right now earning the money we just finished spending and since Tino is about as crafty as me so why even bother . . . This is a family project right? O.K. Thanks. Now I can cross that off my list. WHEW!

Now I can gear up towards making a board game for English Language Learners. I get to look forward to that tonight at school. Terrific! Can I get any more excited? We were told to bring supplies and materials we might need to create our board game. We won't know until we get to class who is in our group and which theory our game has to represent (constructivism, nativism, cognitivism, or behaviorism). Do you wish you were me right now or WHAT?

Back to the karma. For the last month I have had major swelling from the left knee down to my ankle. It doesn't matter if I elevate, hydrate, stay off of it or continue with my normal everyday routines. Cristian gave me the "will you please go to the doctor and find out what is going on" speech the other day because he was getting really worried about me. (Or maybe he is just embarrassed hanging out with his wife that is waddling around like a 90 year old woman). Just for the record, DO NOT . . . I repeat . . . DO NOT consult with WEB MD on a weekend. You will most certainly diagnosis yourself with the deadliest disease out there. What I thought was some kind of cardiovascular issue or diabetes . . . was not. I've got some major ligament damage in my knee and all the fluid is pooling there instead of properly going where it needs to go. Why is this karma? Well it's the same knee that I messed up when I went skydiving 20 years ago. It's the same knee that when I went to the BYU Health Center I told a little lie and said that I messed up my knee by tripping down the stairs at the dorm. (My health insurance at the time did not cover skydiving . . . and my parents did NOT approve of my skydiving activities. O.K. actually I think I waited until AFTER the fact to tell them I had jumped out of an airplane AND messed my knee up). So there it is. Maybe if I would have just come clean 20 years ago and told the 99 year old doctor working at the health center that I was clumsy because I didn't know how to properly land after jumping out of a plane instead of clumsy because I don't know how to walk up or down stairs . . . I might not have been cursed with this problem today.

So those are my two stories for the day. Now I better get back to what I was supposed to be doing . . . finishing up my homework for tonight's class.