Happy New Year blog entry - a new rendition of the Christmas/end of year letter.

As the year winds down, there are so many things that we can reflect on...

This year started out very good with alot of planning and hard work to create the best Science Fair ever at Villa Augustina. The kids outdid themselves with amazing projects, which included the Marble Roller Coaster challenge by the 8th grade,

Also at the Science Fair was the Stop the Invasion - disease and cancer projects by the 7th grade, and an extremely large scale model of the human body showing all of the different body systems by the 6th grade.
The Villa kids excelled with all of these projects and presentations.

Over the winter and spring, I had a blast snowshoeing on Thursdays with the PE class and then coaching spring track with Carl Foley and Dee Angwin. We had a great track team this year and all who participated made huge improvements in their overall track abilities and self confidence, me included. I even started running about two miles a day, or every other day during track season and after. Toots came with me on my runs, and occasionally Blue, but he is a bit crazy running so not as often.

All of the different schools that we went to for track meets were wonderful and very supportive of all of the kids, regardless of school or school size. I will say that Amherst wins the award for the coldest track meets, even into late May, we brought our warm winter jackets to keep muscles warmed up between events. I was impressed by the perseverance of our students to jump higher, longer and to run faster at each event, some records were made and some personal bests were achieved at each meet.


The end of the school year met with sadness at the closing of the Villa Augustina School 97 years of Catholic education in Goffstown. All of the kids went on to new schools both private/Catholic or public and the teachers and staff to new positions. We are still in contact with everyone, and maintain our weekly email chat, check up and check in, which helps keep our Villa family close.

Below are two photos from the top of the tower on the last day of school. The first one is facing the back of the school, the second the front with the cross at the top of the tower on the left margin.
 

The week after school got out, I went in for an ICD replacement since my generator battery had finally reached the point where it needed to be replaced.  The surgery was quick since my cardiologist checked my lead, and only the generator needed to be replaced.  At that time I received a new wireless monitor, that would download from the ICD all of the information that I had previously had to download through the phone every month or so. The new monitor downloads overnight, no more sitting next to the phone waiting for the download to end, while the dog sniffs the monitor or the cat walks all  over it. The new monitor just sits on the night stand and does its thing whenever, no need to touch or mess with it. We did have to cover the 'power on' light, since it lit up the bedroom in an eery green glow, but that is all. The surgery healed up quickly and I was back to running in the evenings with in a few weeks.

Weather wise this summer, it was cooler than usual, but barely rained all summer. Watering the garden and plants became a common occurrence, and even the dog stopped digging holes in the yard because the ground became hard and compact due to lack of moisture in the top layer. This didn't stop Blue from being a crazy outdoor all day dog, for most of the summer. He just loves to talk to the neighbors and to get the local dogs all wound up...woof, woof, woof.
Blue won his GRC this year racing with his siblings and other greyhound buddies.

During the summer I attended the Constructing Modern Knowledge 2014, summer institute on project based learning and using different developing technologies. This was my second summer at this conference that takes place right in Manchester, NH and is attended by people from all over the world.

This year I wanted to make something on then 3-D printer, and spent the four days making some wheels and gears to create a wind up toy. I eventually got something made that worked for a bit, and was pretty successful for my efforts. The wind-up toy worked for a bit, next time I may try to build my own vehicle and all of the parts. What I really need is a donor who would fund a nice Cube 3-D printer for me to use with my classes.

During July Mark and I but the dogs in the greyhound kennel for a week and drove up to Bar Harbor for our vacation away from home. We had a great time biking, hiking and visiting the shops in town. One thing that we did was to climb The Behive, one of the hills on the island. For future reference, when the sign says in essence 'not for those who have height issues, nor those who may have trouble on narrow iron rungs', it should not be taken lightly. This was  probably one of the most grueling short hikes I have ever done, including the major adrenal rush. Below are a few photos, but only the experience will let you know how this really is.          

    

Another place we went to on the island was the Thuya Gardens, this spot is a little out of the way but well worth the hunt and walk to find. The gardens were in full bloom and the old 'cottage' is well maintained. Makes one appreciate how rich the folks were who built these gardens and houses.

After this, the summer went fast, I started work at St John's Regional School in Concord on Aug. 20th for a two day retreat and workshop. School started on Aug. 25th with a full week of science introduction and chrome book practice using some scienc articles and activities. The kids did really well with this, then we broke for the long labor day weekend.

After I returned home from school the Tuesday after labor day, I had a phone call from the New England Heart Institute to call as soon as possible. I called and they told me that the download from my ICD a monitor was reading a faulty lead and that I needed to come in right away to have it checked, including being prepared to stay to have it replaced. They wanted me to come in that day, but I said, wait, let me go to work tomorrow, set up lesson plans for the week, and come in tomorrow afternoon. So I called my principal and gave him the information, and he said that he would take care of the substitute since I was so new to the school, and to leave the lesson plans with him the next day.

I did all of that, rushed around and completed everything for the substitute as well as taught my six classes for the day. Then I drove to Manchester, to CMC where the New England Heart institute is and saw the ICD technician. She also had the rep. Form St. Jude medical there as well since I have a St. Jude device. Within a few minutes the device rep. saw the flaw in my lead and was able to have me reproduce it by pushing my hands together. She let the tech know that I needed to stay for a replacement and she called upstairs for a room for me. I had to stay overnight because they were turning off the ICD and had to put a monitor and external defibrillator on until surgery the next day.

I had to call school and let them know, and Mark too. He came in after work and taking the dogs out,and stayed while the doctor said what they would do for surgery the next day. He said that since they had seen some arrhythmia on the monitor that it would be best if I not only got a new lead but also a new device with a second lead to pace with. He said the second lead would go in the atrium since that is the natural pacing of the heart with then ICD lead in the ventrical as back up or for defibrillating if needed.

So I spent the night in the hospital waiting for surgery. The next morning I got up early enough to wash up before surgery, and when Mark arrived to visit before work, the surgery team showed up and took me for the first surgery of the day. All went well, I had six hours of bed rest after surgery, then they let me get up and use the facilities, but I had to stay overnight so the hospital could monitor the first 24 hours as the leads settled in. The next morning I was able to go home with orders to go back to work in seven days.

After a small issue with a reaction to the surgical glue, all has healed up well. Now I am paced at 60 bpm, and rarely drop below that. In the past I would drop down into the 40s hence the arrhythmia issues and need for the pacing.  

With a week away from school which just started, I decided to send in lesson plans using the school Google network. This ended up working very well, I was able to keep daily contact with all of the kids, give them feedback on what they were working on, and answer questions. Not that I would prefer to work from outside the classroom, but it was a great tool for an unplanned and unexpected time away.

When I returned to school the following week we got into full gear, finishing cell projects and the first round of physical and earth science projects.

And for some reason I can not up load more of my photos here, so I will keep writing.

We continued with many differnt science activities including a giant periodic table of elements, geologic timelines and some very interesting and creative stories of meiosis and the rock cycle.

At home we are in the middle of some home improvement activies. We put in new windows in the front of the house. First we took out the large picture window in the living room and put in three windows for more air in the summer and easier cleaning. I the other front room, a bedroom/office, we added a window and then the same at the basement level to match. 

Currently we are in the process of making a large window between the kitchen and living room though the adjoining wall. We had to reinforce the floor below, and then move a bit of wiring. This is our project for the new year weekend. Followed by a visit from the building inspector in the new year.

Here's to 2014, a great adventure..... Happy New Year 2015, with better things to come... Alons-y