Rhyme-Tyme

About Me

Where my ideas come from...

 

Well, I get ideas and thoughts everywhere.  Ideas pop in my head at grocery stores and yes even at Wal-Mart.  My students give me lots of things to write and thinking about.  I even wake up in the middle of the night to write something.

 

I usually write on my computer.  I am dyslexic and can't spell at times.  When I am tired, it's worst.  But, I don't give up and keep trying.  This is what I teach my kids-not to give up and keep trying.

Here is a little about my family and me.

I am married to the best man in the world (most of the time.)   Tony is the greatest.  He was beside me every step of the way when I had the cancer.  He was my rock.  I thank God everyday that he sent him to me.
 
Caitlyn, our daughter is awesome.  She is far beyond her years.  She has a good head on her shoulders.  In fact, she has helped me write books for my kids at school.  When she went there, she would sneak to my room to help them.  I had to run her out and make her go back to her class.  She is 13 now, and she is starting 8th grade in middle school.  It blows my mind. 

We share our home with several cats and dogs.  In addition, we have 4 dogs that are outside and 1 cat.  We live on a farm, so it gives us the opportunity to share our life with our animals.  We have room for them to run, exercise, and have lots of fun.  The reason that we have so many animals is the fact they are dropped on us.  I think my outside dog goes through the neighborhood and tells them to come to our house.  We will feed anything.  All of our pets have been spayed or neutered.

I have 2 cats inside that are ours, but the other 4 are rescued.  Two I took in as kittens so that I could tame and find homes, but I could not find any homes.  There were 3 of them, but one of them ate a can of the poisoned can cat food and died.  She had a tooth problem, so I feed her the can food instead of the dry.  It devastated me; I cried for a month.  She had a distinct odor, so for a while I could smell her, but I have not smelled or sensed her for a while now, so I assume she crossed over.  I know some do not believe that animals go to Heaven, but I have been around so many animals not to believe.  It is not a debate with me; I choose to believe. 

Another cat is a total rescue from the pound.  He was on death row.  I knew the cat and I just could not live with myself if I sat back and did nothing.

Backpacker taking a drink; Size=180 pixels wide
Taking a break from work

What a job!

I am a special education teacher.  I teach kids with special needs.  Sometimes, I get frustrated with all the poltical garbage and paper work that I have to do, but I know the kids need me.  I stay in special ed because of the kids.  I love them, and they love me.

I was diagnosed with cervical cancer on September 7, 2004.  I went to the doctor for regular check ups, and my pap smears were always normal.  I went back and forth to the doctor from May until September.  I asked her if I had cancer and she said "no."  I knew in my heart that I had cancer because I lost a lot of blood during the summer.  The doctor missed it.  It was already Stage 2B and a mass about 5  inches.  I was floored.  I thought that I was going to die.  The doctor told us that it was very aggressive and I would be dead by Christmas.  I had a hard time understanding why me.  I was not permissive.  A virus causes cervical cancer.  I was angry.  I had an 8 year old that I was not sure if I will get to see graduate from high school much less college.

 

I had a D & C and a cone biopsy on September 7, 2004.  I started radiation on September 30.  It made me sick.  I had my first chemo on October 1 and the last one on October 29.  The last 3 made me very sick.  I could not even take my daughter trick or treating.  My last radiation was November 6.

 

I had to have 2 in hospital radiation implants to kill the last of the cancer on November 12-14 and November 29 & 30.  I was in isolation because I was radioactive.  I hated it.  I had to lie on my back, and I have back trouble so that wasn't fun, and I was all alone.  I was in the hospital on Tony's birthday.  He could not take me to the hospital, so his best friend, Brian did.

 

I went to my radiation doctor on December 30, and I am cancer free.  I went to my gynecologist/oncologist on January 17, 2005, and she said that I was cancer free.  I am so much relieved.  I was scared for a while. 

 

My sister Peggy has breast cancer.  She was

diagnosed just before Christmas.

 

I thank everyone that prayed for me, and my husband.  He is the greatest man that I know.  He was there for me every step of the way.  He encouraged me through the rough spots.  I hate the fact that we cannot have any more children, but he said that he had rather have me alive and healthy.  I wanted more children, but I am glad just to be alive.  I only missed 3 Fridays for the chemo, and the in hospital stays.  I worked everyday and did not tell my students that I was sick until it was over. 

 

I wrote a book from Caitlyn perspective and made it an AR book for students at my school to read and take a test on.  I wrote it on the 5th grade level so anyone in the 4th and 5th grade could be able to read it.  Students would come up to me and tell me about a member in their family that had the cancer. 

 

Sometimes students do not understand that teachers face the same problems that everyone else has.  It helps them to relate with us.

 

I went back to Vanderbilt Medical Center.  Everything is still looking good.  I am 6 months and still cancer free.  I will feel better when I reach the year mark and even better, when I reach the 2-year mark.  October 2005

 

My sister is cancer free, too.  I am doing fine.  I have to go to doctor every 3 months.  I am one year free now Yeah!  February 2006

 

It has been almost 3 years since I was diagnosed with cancer.  I still have some rough days.  I still get tired easy at times, but I am still hanging in there.  I am healthy for the most part, but if something does not seem right, I make the doctor order some tests.  I do not mean to be rude, but what I went through with the cancer and it was all because of a doctor's negligence, and I decide never again.  I will not sit back and allow a doctor to influence me that it is all nothing.  Yeah, cancer was nothing.  Let them go through it and see that it is nothing.  They will be changing their tune.  I am still a little bitter with it, but I live with the side effects everyday with hot flashes, tiredness, and know that I will never be the same again.  It still hurts now, but I know in ten or twenty years from now, it will not matter.

July 29, 2007

 

June 2007, I went back to Vanderbilt.  I am doing fine.  Tony is having a rough summer.  He tore his bicep off his elbow in March.  Doctors fool around and he had to have a

Cadaver’s bicep.  He had surgury June 4.  He has had a rough time with it. 

 

July 2008, I am doing fine.  Tony and I both went back to the doctors at Vanderbilt.  His arm still hurts him.  I am doing fine.  Hot flashes are still nasty.

 

I went back to the doctor at Vanderbilt on June 17, 2009.  Everything lookded great.  I will be cancer free for 5 years in December.  I am so excited.  I do not have to go back to Vanderbilt.  Now if something comes up, I will not hestitate to go back.  I don't have the anger that I had.  I am thankful to be healty and alive.  Caitlyn is 13 years old now.  We are as close as ever and hope to remain so.  There is no need for me to stay angry because she will need me during her teenage years and if I stay angry then I can't be what she needs the most - her mother.

Favorites

Here's a list of some of my favorite TV Shows:

Most of my favorite shows have been cancelled. 
Passions, Battlestar Galactica,, 3400, The Dead Zone
 
I do like these when I can see them.
Bones, One Tree Hill, So you think you can dance, Ghost Whisperer, House

Here's a list of some of my favorite music:

Toby Keith, Chris Cagle, Keith Urban, Martina McBride, Hillary Duff,  Maroon 5, Green Day,  Journey, Bon Jovi, the 80's music
 
My favorite musical:  Don't laugh because it really is a musical.
Buffy--"Once More With Feeling"

Hello everyone,

 

School is out.  Caitlyn helped me for two weeks of summer school.  I did not want to do four weeks but agreed to do two weeks.  I love the kids but I am glad to be out for a little while.  In July, I am going to Athens TN for a week long class to get certified for Pre-K.  This fall, I hope to start classes for an endorsement in ELL (English Language Learners).  

 

In July, I going to do a one day poetry workshop at the county's library.  Money has been cut, so I will not be able to do a week long writing workshop like I have done in the past.  The Children's Librarian told me several kids have asked when I was going to do one.  I agreed to do a one day

 

 

This summer,  I am going to try to send some more query letters out to agents to try to get my book published.  I will write more when I find something out.   My book is about magic with faeries and elves.  I had a hard time writing the evil parts.  It was a stretch of my imagination.

 

Home | If I Could... | Don't Cry For Me... | A Teacher's Touch | About Me | A Mother's Love | Angel Poems | Cats | Contact Me | Daily Quotes | Do Remember Me | Emergency Numbers | Family Poems | Favorite Links | Forever in Our Hearts | More Than Words Can Say | Do You Know? | For the Teacher | Teachers | Friendship, Family & Friends | Love and Peace | Mask | Ms. Patsy Goatz | My Pets | Pets Page 2 | More Pets | Poems for Friends | Poems for My Uncle Frank | Special Poems From My Heart | Special Friends | The Storm | Time | Thankful for friends and co-workers | Valentine | A Walk through Life | When You Thought I Wasn't Looking | Writer's Workshop