Donor's Choose

This year, I've decided to begin my Master's degree. An amazing opportunity came up last spring that allowed me to attend professional development all summer and for the next school year on incorporating Engineering, Math and Science into my curriculum. Through this grant project, I am also able to receive college credits towards my Master's degree, so along with three of my co-workers, I'm on track to have that finished in the Spring of 2019.

This summer I spent over 80 hours working with my colleagues to develop Engineering Learning Cycles for my students. So far, I have an entire unit on Force and Motion that allows students to create and arrange their own playground to consider predicting future motion and avoiding student collisions. I also have an entire unit on Weather, Climate and Hazardous weather where students will build a house, following certain constraints, to withstand wind (simulating hazardous weather).

I've completed the Force and Motion learning cycle with both my class and my partners' class so far this year. Both classes loved it and grasped the science concepts, while doing a Tug of War, exploring playground equipment, and building their very own playground out of Legos.


Anyway, I've been having a really fun year with my students and I know that they're ready to do more projects like these. Unfortunately, with teaching, my Masters, raising a family and a newborn on the way, another 80 hours of my own time to create more of these units seems unattainable right now. Thankfully, I was able to attend the National Science Teacher Association Conference in November and learned of a book for teachers that already has several lessons like these created! I fell in love with this book after attending an hour session about it and immediately went to purchase it from the bookstore at the conference.

It's called Picture Perfect STEM Lessons for grades 3-5. It incorporates all subjects (math, science, reading, writing and social studies) into units that fit our grade level standards. It starts by introducing the topics through picture books for the students. It has lessons, activities and projects all mapped out
for teachers. The only problem is....I need the picture books. My school district does not pay for materials like these for teachers. This is something I'd have to buy out of pocket - over $300 in pictures books for my students.

This is where I'm asking for help, which is hard for me to do. I've filled out a project on Donor's Choose (a website that helps teachers get their projects funded by donations). This week only, Donor's Choose will match any donation up to $50 towards my project. I would LOVE for this project to get funded so I can better the learning environment for my students. They loved Science this last semester and have been begging to do more. I would love to incorporate this learning style throughout my day, not just in Science. If you click on the link above (or here), it'll take you to my project information on Donor's Choose. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! You're welcome to share my link with anyone who would like to help out a public school teacher looking to get more resources for her classroom.

Thank you so much for always being awesome readers!!! :-)

2017

Wow, what a year! Just when I think things can't possibly be tougher than the year before, I am proven wrong.

We began this year excited for and anticipating the arrival of our twin little boys. We just purchased a larger vehicle to accommodate three car seats and slowly started discussing nursery plans. Unfortunately, this opportunity was ripped away from us in the early morning hours of February 5th, when little Baby A decided to make his arrival (and Baby B just a couple hours later) at just 19 weeks and 4 days. It was absolutely one of the hardest things I have ever been through, truly awful. But we very thankfully had wonderful family, friends, and work-family supporting us and are able to look back on our little guys, now 10 months later and remember their sweet little faces. Some days/moments have been harder than others, but I think that Tim and I are healing well.

This tragedy was not going to stop us from expanding our family, in March we continued the discussion with our fertility doctor about trying to get get pregnant again, this time making sure there was just one little baby when the time came. At the same time, I was learning how to cope and deal with my mixed emotions about losing two babies in such a tragic way.

April was a very memorable month for me because my sister-in-law, Katrina, and I decided to get tattoos to remember the children we've lost. I still am so grateful to have my boys' little footprints on me every single day. It reminds me what we've been through and what I'm so lucky to have now.

May was filled with fertility treatments, shots, appointments and ended with our first IVF transfer and four frozen embryos. It was an emotional month because I was also wrapping up a school year with several coworkers who would not be returning the following year.

In June we found out our IVF was successful, and the worry set in immediately. I was terrified of losing the baby again; I was afraid to get attached to the pregnancy only to see if fail; each doctor appointment was more stressful than the one before as I anticipated bad news each time.

In July, I was grateful to see my pregnancy progress normally and was so anxious to spill the beans! Anna and I spent lots of time together, doing fun things and soaking up the joys of summer.

August brought mixed emotions and back to the grind of busy schedules - six months since delivering the twins, Anna turned three, we shared the news of our Rainbow Baby & a new baby cousin due only weeks apart, Anna started preschool, we found out Rainbow Baby is a BOY, and I started my Master's.

In September, the MFM team began to monitor my cervix to make sure it was staying strong (no issues, thank goodness!) and I began my appointments every two weeks. We also went on our annual family camping trip which was really warm this year, but as always, so much fun!

October was Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month. Tim, Anna, Katrina, Isaac and I attended the SHARE Walk in Missouri to remember our boys. Their support has meant the world to me this year! To end the month, I started insulin and was officially diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

November was fairly uneventful. I was super busy keeping up with teaching and Master's homework, but also had the opportunity to attend a National Science Teacher Conference in Milwaukee with a few of my awesome coworkers. We Daddy also got started on Brother's room!

December was busy with end of the semester projects and homework, but it was worth it because I passed both classes with an A! We continued to make some progress on Brother's room in between all of our family Christmases.


This is a year that we will never forget. Tim & I's lives were forever changed this year after losing two of our children. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful, supportive husband who helped get me through this awful time. I'm also super thankful to be ending this year on a positive note. Brother is now 33+5 weeks along and developing beautifully. Anna is thriving in school, growing and maturing right before our eyes. We are very lucky! I hope that our biggest challenge this upcoming year is raising two kids while working full time and while I continue my Master's -- that sounds like enough for me! Every year for the last four years, I've had to report the death of a loved one on my annual review, and I'm hoping that this year will bring health and happiness to all of those around us!

Great Strides, Great Strides and More Great Strides

Did I mention it's Great Strides season?! This spring was filled with three Great Strides events for me and it was so awesome!!

DeKalb

Our first event was in DeKalb in April. This one is very special to me because I helped create this walk when we lived there five years ago. It also takes place at the same park where Tim and I got married, so it has lots of sentimental value to me. I loved having Anna there this year and am excited to continuously attend as the years go by and as our family grows and changes. Its fun visiting the town where it all started.

We typically have a smaller team at this event - a few of our friends, my family and Tim's aunt & uncle who live nearby. Even though our team was small, we still raised $450!

Parsons
My second event was actually held at my school. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to speak to all classrooms about what CF is and how I keep myself healthy on a daily basis.

We did two fundraisers as a school and finished with our own Great Strides Walk on the path around our playground. Each class collected money, but then we also did a school-wide change collection that was much more popular. We had a "Cutest Baby Contest" where I displayed 26 different baby pictures that belonged to different staff members throughout the building. The students put change (some put cash) in the jug of the baby they thought was the cutest. It was so fun and the kids loved it!
The combined total from classroom donations and the Cutest Baby Contest was $597.63! My students brought in the most money to our class so we were able to lead the school in our Great Strides walk. As an entire school, we walked one mile outside. The local newspaper was there to report on our event, and there was also a former student (now in her early 40s) who has CF and has had a double lung transplant who walked with us. (Extra pictures from the paper)

It was an amazing event to bring awareness to the kids about CF and I'm excited to see it hopefully grow into the community over the years.


Bloomington

Our final Great Strides event was in Bloomington which is now our team's biggest location. I even had a few Parsons people come out to support me! Last minute, I was asked to speak before the walk, which I always enjoy doing because I hope to spread some positives about CF and how it is possible to live a 'normal' life despite having a disease. This year, I brought Anna up with me during my speech.

We enjoyed a nice walk with friends and family, then hung out at the park for a little while before leaving to celebrate our nephew's second birthday.

Our team raised a total of $1,695 at this sight!!

Which brings Parsons Owls and Colleen's Friends and Family grand total to:

$2,907.63!!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who shared information about CF, donated and walked with us this year! I am so lucky to have such amazing people in my life. :-)  

CF Awareness Month Blog #29 - My Wish For CF

"My wish for you

Is that this life becomes all that you want it to

Your dreams stay big

Your worries stay small 

You never need to carry more than you can hold

And while you're out there getting where you're getting to

I hope you know somebody loves you

And wants the same things too

Yeah this, is my wish." 

~Rascal Flatts~

I love this song by Rascal Flatts (one of my favorite groups), and I really think it applies to this blog topic as well. Of course we're all wishing for a cure to be found for Cystic Fibrosis! That's the whole point of spreading awareness, donations, Great Strides, etc.

But in the meantime, I feel it's very important for those of us affected by this disease to stay as positive and hopeful as possible. I know that it's not easy everyday, but we cannot let this disease define who we are or negatively take control of our lives. Look into your future and plan for it, live your life!!! Who says that you can't do what other people do? CFers do it all the time!

And remember that there are so many people that love and support you!! Whether it's your family, friends, co-workers, or members of the CF community, we're all in this together! So until we reach that day that CF does stand for Cure Found, we need to remain positive, strong, happy, grateful for the life we have, and keep spreading awareness and raising money to find that CURE!

3rd Annual DeKalb Great Strides

As I have been posting for several weeks now, this past Saturday was my first Great Strides walk of the season. I was really looking forward to this one because for the past two years I've been very involved with the planning and organization, and this year I was able to just be a guest. I'm not going to lie, I was a little sad that someone else planned "my" walk this year, but there would have been no way for me to do it living three hours away. Overall, I felt we had a pretty good turn out...considering the wind chill was about 30 degrees and there were a little bit of flurries the night before and the morning of the event. Here are some pictures from the walk:

Everyone bundled up

And we're off!

NIU Drumline pumping everyone up as they walked
through the balloon arch to start :)

Part of Colleen's Cortland Crew! Smiling despite being freezing! :-)

The coldest part of the route! Nothing to block the wind.
If you enlarge the picture, you can see how many people are
walking ahead on the sidewalk!

Raffle prizes - $1 for 1 ticket, $5 for 6, or $10 for a wingspan
I chose a wingspan of my giant friend and got 41 tickets....still didn't win anything though!
Oh well, it's for a good cause, right?!

Most of Colleen's Cortland Crew! :-)

As of Friday, the day before the walk, the walk site had raised almost $15,000. The goal this year was $37,000....I really hope the weather didn't impact the donations that may have been turned in that day! As soon as I know the grand total I'll be sure to update.

A huge THANK YOU to all of my friends who braved the cold & wind to show your support for me and all others with Cystic Fibrosis! Your dedication means SO much to me!!!

Great Strides 2012!

Let me start off by saying THANK YOU to everyone who came out yesterday to the second annual Great Strides in DeKalb!

All week the weather looked terrible for Saturday -- the weathermen were saying how we were supposed to get a ton of storms and a month's worth of rain Friday through Monday, but I was determined not to let a little (or a lot) of rain stop me! We didn't get any rain Friday and when I woke up Saturday morning, it was completely dry. I checked the weather and it looked like we were going to luck out with the rain holding off until late afternoon/evening. I was so excited because I knew less people would come out if it was raining, so I was really hoping we'd have a great turn out....and we did!

I'm not sure how many people were there, but my guess would be maybe 125-150ish. There was a sea of purple with my Friends & Family team and a sea of gray for my Cortland Crew team, and there was also another big team from a near by town. It was so great to see so many people out there supporting CF.

Colleen's Cortland Crew

Colleen's Cortland Crew and Colleen's Friends & Family

Colleen's Friends & Family

This year we held a raffle for the first time with several gift certificates to local restaurants and hang outs. Unfortunately I didn't win anything, but Tim's dad did win a "breakfast for two". Amazingly, we raised $500 just from our raffle!!!

Here's my dad selling raffle tickets -- $1 per ticket, $5 for 6, or $10 for a wingspan!

Here's my friend Chris' wingspan...and a few extras

I think people really had a lot of fun with the wingspan part because they could use anyone's wingspan, so several people wandered around to find the tallest person they could!

We also had a demonstration by the DeKalb County K-9 Unit which was very interesting and entertaining.

Just yesterday we brought in about $14,000 in donations! Plus, the $500 from the raffle. Plus the over $6,000 already donated online before the event. Which means we raised at least $21,000 so far!!! Not too bad for a second year location! Our goal is to hit $25,000 and  I'll get the final amount on Monday when they add everything together and count the last minute donations that were given online. 

Oh, and for those who are waiting to hear the results of our school fundraiser...in one week of change collecting at a K-5 school, the students collected: $783.87!!! I am so proud of them! Since they raised over $500, they have earned a lunch served to them by the principals while watching cartoons in the cafeteria! 

I am so thankful to have so much support by everyone: family, friends, co-workers. I felt so much love and support yesterday, it was amazing! I really hope everyone had as much fun as I did and I can't wait to see how much this walk site grows each year! Here are several more pictures of the event: 

Registration table

Raffle

Part of the Cortland Crew

Love all the lungs!

Back of Cortland Crew t-shirts

Love this picture! Tim's uncle and cousin

Chris & Tim

30 Days of Blogging: Day 24

Day 24 - A photo of something that means a lot to you

My support system:

2007 - This was probably one of the coldest Great Strides
I've ever walked! 

2008 - Friends & Family in Chicago! That was a cold year!

2009 - Friends & Family in Chicago - at least the sun was
out this time!

2010 - Our friends Chris and Allie, me and Tim at the Chicago
Walk - it was gorgeous that day!

2011 - All of my family that drove an hour or two
just to walk with us in DeKalb! :-)

2011 - Friends & Co-workers!

Thank you to everyone who's ever attended a Great Strides walk with me! It really means a lot to me to see each and everyone of you out there walking with me.They've always been a great time and I hope that our groups continue to grow each year! I can't wait to post a picture of the HUGE group we're going to have this year!!!

30 Days of Blogging: Day 22

Day 22 - A letter to someone who has hurt OR made you happy recently


To: Every one of my blog readers, every person who's ever donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, all of my family, friends and co-workers:

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, for all of your love, support, and encouragement! Without each and everyone of you in my life, I'd be a different person and I wouldn't be where I am today. To my blog readers: thanks for all of the comments/encouragement throughout the past year of my blog - it definitely keeps me going to know there are people out there reading (and enjoying) my posts. To anyone who's ever donated to the CFF - you are making my life wonderful! Thanks to all of your donations, I now have Kalydeco as a treatment option for myself (I'll go more into detail about that in another post)! To my family, friends and co-workers: Thank you for listening to me when I complain about my CF, supporting me in my recently goal to be able to start exercising and run a 5K (I think I found one in the summer I want to run! - More about that later, too). Thank you for the continuous encouragement to do my treatments and keep myself healthy, and giving me a reason to live!

From,
A very healthy, thankful, Cyster! :-)

Support

I have the best support system ever of friends, family and co-workers, but especially my new in-laws! Over the past couple of months, I've been trying to get everyone to register for the Great Strides Walk in DeKalb. Now that we're getting closer, I've seen a lot of people step up and step out to register and to get other people they know to join; it's fantastic! I've been doing this walk for years and I know that I've had our families' support every time, but this year I really feel like people are going above and beyond to try to raise money for CF through Great Strides. I really appreciate it!!! All of the money that you raise is going to research to keep me healthy and living a long life! I also know several other great people affected by this disease, so you're helping them, too! So, I quickly just wanted to say...

THANK YOU!!!!

Keep up the good work! :) Can't wait to see how much the DeKalb Great Strides raises for the first time! You guys are awesome!!