2016: A Recap

2016 has been a year of ups and downs. January was uneventful. (That’s a first.) I enjoyed spending quality time with Will and Brian. February brought two birthday celebrations; one for my son and one for my nephew. Will had an amazing park birthday with his friends. He turned 11. My nephew, Zander, had an awesome Peter Piper Pizza Transformer themed birthday. March began a new journey in finding a house for me and Brian to purchase. April was full of stress and I tried to balance all of my activities. I continued to advocate for mental health through my International Bipolar Foundation Blog. The Mighty also picked up a few of my writings as well. May was when we finally found a house. We bought at a good price and our monthly mortgage was what we were paying for rent. We moved at the end of May with the help of Brian’s parents. June was busy with visits with family and teaching summer school. My car broke for the millionth time. I wish I wasn’t so loyal to Chrysler products. It was engrained in my head from an early age by my father so I really can’t help it. We began the process of unpacking and organizing the house. July brought more visits with family and friends as we had a housewarming party. Brian adopted two kittens that he found orphaned outside. I finally become a certified recovery support specialist. August is always busy with the start of school but this year was even harder as we dealt with things we hadn’t dealt with before. Will injured himself in Baseball. We thought it was just his knee but it turned out to be much worse. At the end of the month, I took him to the ER and found that he had slipped capital femoral epiphysis on the left side. He had immediate surgery and thankfully I knew an anesthesiologist who worked at the hospital. She made sure everything went smoothly for him and was in the OR when he went under. We were blessed for him to be able to see a familiar face right before going under. After a few days of us living in the hospital, we went home to focus on his recovery. A day later, he couldn’t keep anything down and had a fever. Back to the hospital we went. He had kidney stones (likely from the anesthesia) and was admitted to the hospital for another two days. We went home for the second time and there were no more issues. September was a complete struggle as Will was in a wheelchair for the entire month. We tried to keep our spirits up with Pokemon Go and movies. I turned into a helicopter mom and was very anxious about everything in regards to Will. I entered a personal narrative writing contest at the beginning of the month. I celebrated my 34th birthday on the 12th. October was looking bright as Will was finally released from the wheelchair by the doctor. Hurt my back with all the heavy lifting of the wheelchair in and out of the car. I went to the chiropractor and was told that my X-rays had abnormalities equivalent to cancer. Ended my Fall Break with a bout of depression. I threw a Halloween Party for Will and his friends celebrating Will’s release from the wheelchair. The chiropractor called the next week saying that his X-Ray machine was broken which explained the abnormalities. I started going to a different chiropractor who got rid of my back pain and was much more competent than the previous one. We ended the month quietly with no additional problems. November was stressful as I started a pre-candidacy class for National Board Certification on top of teaching full-time, teaching the 21st century program four days a week, and private tutoring four days a week. I volunteered to be the school representative for the Vote for Education movement and discovered that I would be in a video for the entire district. It was a very interesting experience and I got my five seconds of fame through TUSD and Expect More Arizona. December is always stressful as the holidays approach and anxiety about everything increases. I took on way too many tasks this month and pushed myself to the limit as school did not get out until the 22nd and I was required to be at work on the 23rd. Drove up to Phoenix the weekend of the 16th and visited some family and friends. It was an awesome visit. I desperately missed seeing my nephews but hope to see them soon. I pushed myself too hard the week of the 19th and ended up in the hospital for a few short hours that weekend. The holiday was merry and bright as we celebrated with family. It was some of the best times and I couldn’t have asked for better times spent with family. Carrie Fisher’s death hit me hard as she was a mental health advocate living with Bipolar and was one of my idols. We celebrated Brian’s 35th birthday. Will and I embarked on a trip to visit my Aunt Maggie in Prescott. I learned even more about my family from my Aunt and hope to be able to start writing more stories about our family before my winter break is over. I found out that the International Bipolar Foundation won’t be accepting any more blogs until they hire another person which means my goal to help people through my writing has ended, for the moment (hopefully). My reflection on the good and bad times: The good revolved mainly around times spent with family and friends. The very good was becoming a homeowner once again. The best was the pride in the good things I was doing as a teacher and being able to write to help people with mental illnesses succeed in life. The very best was all the support I received during the bad times. We are nothing without the support of our family and friends. The bad involved health issues, infertility frustrations, house mishaps, and no time for myself. Steps have been taken to fix these things. I will be changing the medication that I have taken for the past four years and replace it with one with fewer side effects. I will be pursuing assistance with our fertility issues. I will be prioritizing all of my activities and the rest will be tackled at another time. In this new year, I plan to be more mindful of self-care. This past year, I’ve been trying to take care of everything and everybody and not thinking about myself. In order to be the best version of myself, I need to take care of myself better. In 2016, I was burning the candle at both ends but this year will not be one of goals, but one of relaxation. Sometimes you need to slow down and this is the kind of year I plan on having. To put it into one word, chill. My 2017 will be chill. I hope 2017 holds joy and happiness for you and yours.