365 Days of Memories Take Four! - Day 145

 

The invariable mark of wisdom

is to see the miraculous

in the common.

 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson -

365 Days of Memories Take Four! -- Day 137

 

 

It's been a crazy week of getting back to work and making money... YAY! But it's been amazingly wonderful.  I'm thrilled to be back in the swing of things and back to working with 'my' kiddos and co-workers again.  This Calvin and Hobbes quote caught my eye today and it is so true... my life is better than I could have imagined even if it's not quite how I imagined it would be, and I truly do believe that from here things will only get better :)

365 Days of Memories Take Four -- Day 129

Copyright 2013.

All Rights Reserved.

 

*Well, when the path is steep and stony and the night is all around,

And the way that you must take is far away,
When your heart is lost and lonely and the map cannot be found,
Here's a simple little spell that you can say;

 

You've got to face facts, act fast on your own,

Preparation, perspiration, dynamite determination
Pack snacks, make tracks all alone.

Don't be cute. Time to scoot. Head out on your destination,

Chase the future,

Face the great unknown.*

 

-- Fraggle Rock --

 

 



365 Days Take Four! -- Day 126

My homage to last night's amazing episode of How I Met Your Mother... :)

365 Days of Memories Take Four! -- Day 125



*One Hundred Years from now it won't matter
What kind of car I drove,

What kind of house I lived in,
How much money I had in the bank,
Nor what my clothes looked like.
But,
The world may be a little better
because I was important in the life of a child.*

Forest Witcraft

Today marked the end of a long journey as I finally finished my student teaching and turned in all of my paperwork. On Saturday I will 'graduate' (though I'm not participating in the ceremony since this is my second degree) and I will officially have my teaching degree.

There is nothing more fulfilling in life then getting to watch dreams come true, and being a teacher gives me the opportuity to be a part of helping others discover their dreams every single day.  I have worked with children for 15 years beginning when I was 13 and started babysitting for my neighbors.  I have been a Lead Head Start teacher for 3 years now and before that I worked in a day care in infant, toddler and preschool classrooms.  I've worked with every age group from birth-5 and I love it!

Nothing, absolutely nothing compares to working with children who come from at risk and low income populations.  Getting to be a constant in their lives, to show them that people do care about them, that education is a good thing and that they are LOVED beyond measure makes all of the hard stuff completely worth it.  

And it's because of this experience that I look forward to the next chapter of my life and can't wait to get back to working with my kiddos!

365 Days of Memories Take FOUR -- Day 123

 

Nothing big or insightful today...

Just Squidward in sidewalk chalk :)

By my goddaughter, who was five at the time.

 

Pretty impressive stuff.

365 Days of Memories Take FOUR -- Day 120

Awareness.
Warning... some of these images are not for the faint of heart.

 

On March 7th 2011 I was sitting in my bedroom working on sewing a quilt for my nephew and my back itched... that simple itch led to me discovering this;

 

 

This funky looking mole on my back that immediately

left me thinking something wasn't right.

Long story short, the next day I called a dermatologist office in town, a day later they saw me and less than a week after that my back looked like this;

 

 

A five inch incision for the .35 mm Stage I Malignant Melanoma I was incredibly lucky to have caught myself.  Especially considering it was on my back, a place I rarely look.

 

I am lucky.

Stage I Melanoma comes along with a 99% cure rate, though deligence is key since many melanoma survivors have experienced multiple melanomas.  Beyond stage I the survival and cure rates drop dramatically.

 

Since my diagnosis I have had 14 other moles removed.  Only 3 of those moles have been considered 'benign' and 6 of those were considered atypical enough to require additional surgery.  The rest will be monitored for any changes.

 

I've had people tell me that melanoma really isn't as bad as people make it out to be.

Tell me, does this look "not that bad"...

 

 

 

Melanoma isn't something to joke around about.

I'm not a person who spent her teens or young adult years vegging in the tanning bed.

In fact, I probably spent a total of less than 45 minutes of my life in a tanning bed.

I have no family history.

 

One bad burn in your childhood can lead to melanoma.

 

Know the facts that I had no clue about.

 

Melanoma is the leading cancer in young adults.

It is the leading killer of women aged 25-30.

It is also HIGHLY CURABLE when caught in its earliest stages.

 

May is Skin Cancer

and

Melanoma Awareness Month.

Help spread the Awareness.