It's That Time of Year Again!

Yup! It's back to school season. I hope to get a little bit of school shopping done before I go back to work. I don't normally buy new clothes for the beginning of the year but my work clothes are B.E.A.T. I'm not sure if it was the lack of a dryer and/or it didn't help the water stained my clothes in the last place we moved to in Virginia.. Yea lovely, little stains that can't/won't allow me to Shout them out. My sister and sister-in-law scored me some shopping coupons so that will help :)

This year I am grateful for the opportunity to have a job in a great school district with tons of support from the top down. Like the students, I have first day jitters. New school, new district, new coworkers, new students, new expectations, and back in a state education system that I have been wanting to get back into since I left! I will be teaching 8th grade Language Arts and have three periods of inclusion classes (most are language arts and one is science). I enjoy middle school, no I'm not drinking or taking anything, it's a fun atmosphere to be working in. I'll explain those reasons throughout the school year.

I squeezed in a 3 mile run today but running during moving week did not happen. I cannot focus on anything else while our stuff is in boxes and not put away. It didn't help that work (in service) started for me too. And let's not forget that I did the Mayor's Cup 10K the day we moved. I still picked up boxes and helped :) Once I don't have to blog from my phone I will be telling you all about my first 10K!!!

Tuesday I will be connected to the world again with cable, Internet, and a house phone. Seriously who has one of those anymore? Well we need one. Cell phone service in the new place is hit and miss. So I'll be surprised if this post makes it through :)

Happy Saturday!!! 

Finding the New Norm

A week ago today I was getting ready to blog about what was happening in my world of fitness and training for an upcoming 10K. Life was pretty normal, if I do say so..

Instead, life decided to throw my family a curve ball, a wicked kind, my sister, Tanya passed away. 

My sister was very sick three years ago, she had Guillain-Barre  & Miller-Fisher Syndromes. Two very complicated and unknown syndromes that many doctors don't know much about because they are so rare and the origin is unknown. It affects 1-2 people out of 100,000. Treatment was like trial and error. The ICU doctor was fantastic he always had a backup plan and was completely honest and sympathetic to our needs. We had three months of preparing for the inevitable because she couldn't just get better she had many ups and downs. There were countless nights we had the two hour trip back to the hospital because she took a turn for the worse. This time it was completely unexpected... 

In true Tanya nature, she didn't just have a slight case of this syndrome she had the worse case of it and for three months she was the sickest person in ICU.  She had to be a pain in the ass for both her family and doctors lives. She was always good about that... My family's lives were put on hold I cancelled my trip to Italy, my brother and sister barely worked, our parents barely worked because we needed to be there. My sister and I did our online course work in the family waiting room. Coffee really was our best friend during that summer. Tanya slowly started to get better and when the doctor decided to wake her up out of a coma, we could see the light and the worse was over. 

Tanya hadn't known the heartache we felt during that time. We prayed and wished many things for her recovery. She did lose three months of her life in a coma and I'll never know how that made her feel. It was a rough road to recover and she was taking it at her pace. If anyone knew Tanya, she did EVERYTHING her way.  But she was on the mend and we were okay with that.

A couple weeks ago, she started to get sick again, it was a bad cold. An infection started the syndrome the last time. Maybe Tanya knew what was happening to her body again or she was ready to understand it more. I believe she was finally ready to know, so when she called me two weeks ago to have me research information on those syndromes I should have known it was because she was doubting her treatment. 

Sadly, I hadn't gotten around to it because she said I had time to do it before I came home to see everyone this month. Maybe she knew this was coming and she was trying to comfort us with the information she wanted me to search. She didn't die from the syndromes, she was choking and couldn't help herself with the trachea, which she had obtained during the sickness. 

I don't understand why and I know I never will. We are trying to move forward as she wants us to.  She was the type of person who NEVER judged you by your looks, your friends, and your aspirations. She knew there was good in everyone and that is what she encouraged within them. She was a great friend, a great sister, and a great daughter. We may not have loved how she was exceptionally well rehearsed in telling us how it was with the dirty, hard facts of the situation but we loved her any way. You always knew how to keep us on our toes. 

Now a week later, we are trying to move forward....slowly... Looking for the new norm. We have a new hole in us and I try very much to fill it with memories. It's not always easy but I know you  want the very best for us. As a family we love and miss you very much but we know you are at peace and will be looking over us. 

I will make that trip to Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany for us and take plenty of pictures of the architect and craziness that you read about :) 

Thanks for being a wonderful sister that always encouraged me to be a better person. Thanks for being with us as we said our goodbyes!!