I Miss Her

July 9th, early in the morning, my grandmother took her last breath. My uncle Steve, who had been staying with her, was able to be there with her. Many people felt relief, as she had been suffering from enphazyma for some time, but the truth is I wanted more time.

Eliza and I were lucky enough to be there the evening before, and although my grandmother could not talk very well, or open her eyes, her face lite up when she heard Eliza come in the room. It meant a lot to me that they had such a close relationship.

With the passing of my grandmother, Eliza's migranes that had started the month before, went away. It was the anxiety of losing her that was causing the headaches. And although th headaches have not been back since, there has been a lot of tears from the both of us.

She was a great lady, and I hope to be a grand-daughter that brings her honor.

Barbara Joan Freed Rusk

11.29.1930 - 07.09.2010

Proverbs 31

June 2010

June is recital month for our family. This year, it was extra special for a few reasons. First, the owner of the studio that Eliza dances for, was moving. Many people thought that the studio would be closing, but we were all pleasantly surprised when it was announced that another family member would be taking it over. Although we will all miss Amy and her family I am personally very excited for them, and excited to see what the changes will consist of.

Even more sad to me, was that it was going to be my nephew Reid's last year of dance. He had danced for the studio for 10 years, or which I was there for them all. He is getting older however, and wanting to try new things, and dance did not allow him time to do so. It is still hard to not have him a part of the studio, but I do enjoy going to the games. He is in Football, Basketball and Baseball. That is a lot of yelling.

Eliza did great in the recital and was able to be in the finale this year, as she is now a part of the team. She did so good!!! I cannot believe she learned the dance in only a few practices. Dawn and I both did the mommy dance again, and that was kind of weird to think that it would be the last time we would be doing that together as well. Another thing we were having to get ready to let go of was my Grandma Rusk. She was the last of our living grandparents, and probably the one that I was closest with. As the month continued it became more and more obvious that she was in her final days. We were over there a lot that month.

As the month finished off we made our annual trip to Minnesota. It was gorgeous weather of course, and so refreshing. While we were there, Eliza decided to experiment with the idea of being a hair stylist. She ended up with a new hair cut and pink hair!!! According to my dad, I need to "let the child express herself". I think my dad was shocked at the amount of expression I allowed when he saw the magenta hair! (LOL) Although he should know by now I have  a tendency to be all or nothing about things.

May 2010

This month flew by! I had a class, Middle Level Instructional Strategies, that was only three weeks long. And yes, we were expected to do all of the work for a 16 week course in the three week time frame. Interesting enough, I learned more from this class than some of the longer ones. Of course I lost a lot of sleep as I was up until 3AM most nights, just trying to get all of my homework done. 

For this class I chose to focus on my other area of concentration, Science. I created a mini unit on Environmental Science. Each lesson consisted of a PowerPoint and included the required instructional strategy that we were learning at the time. I feel like a nerd sometimes when I think of how much I enjoy this stuff!!! :)

April 2010

Eliza had her last competition in the month of April. It was in Omaha again, and needless to say, we stayed in a different hotel. Reid and Grandma Nancy came with us again, so that we could spend all of Sunday at the Omaha Zoo, before heading back home. It was a fun day, and we loved looking at all the different animals. The gorillas have always been a favorite of mine, but there was a peacock there who gave us his little dance. he managed to leave quite the impression on all of us.

April I spent a lot of time wrapping up the end of the semester of school. Most of my time was spent on a UNI class, Middle Level Curriculum, where I was required to do more field experience in the classroom. I was fortunate to be able to work with sixth graders at Norwalk Middle School. It was a Social Studies class, and I was able spend a few days teaching a lesson on Iowa History. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! I cannot wait to get my own classroom!!

March 2010

The month of March is always a good one. The ground, and all of us who live on it, begin to defrost. There is green and new signs of life all around us. 

I spent most of the month working on school work. I was able to take two classes that have to deal with my favorite subject, Social Studies. The first was a class on Geography. Many may think that this is a boring, this is here and that is there type of class. This is not all that there is to Geography, though my love of maps does lead for this part to intrigue me. There are also all of the cultural and economic realities involved. 

This was helpful as I worked on another class, American Government. I have taken this class before. I took it during 9/11, and the professor had a nervous breakdown. Being that I am more of an audio learner, and all he did was rant and rave, I did not get an acceptable grade in the class. This time when I took it, I learned A LOT!! It was a fun class that actually taught me many things that I had been having problems learning prior. 

Eliza had yet another competition. This one was in Davenport. We ere able to stay at the house of family and traveled with Eliza's teammate Heidi and her mom Cynthia. They have become good friends and made the trip that much more fun!!!

February 2010

This month was COLD!!!!! For some reason I never have a very god attitude this month. It is almost as if I have endured all that I can endure, and am just done with the cold and the snow. If any of you remember this last February, you would remember that the cold and snow was not really done with us. Nothing much else happened that much....just hibernating with my little princess.

Eliza's month consisted her first dance competition. It was a rather small one, which was a good way to start. She amazes me how she can get on that stage and dance in front of hundreds of people. I am not sure I would have had that amount of courage at her age.

For her second competition we were in Omaha. Dawn, Reid and of course grandma Nancy went with us. it was fun to get away for the weekend. Unfortunately the night we left, there was a little girl who lost her life in the pool of the hotel we were staying at. It really hurt all of those who were involved and left quit the sting in my own heart.  I am still not sure how such a thing can happen, and it the images still haunt me today. It may be closer to my heart since the girl was so close to my own daughter's age. What a waste.

Here is a link to some of that story. http://www.ketv.com/news/24456265/detail.html