Halfway!

Today was day 17 out of 33, so I am halfway through my radiation treatments. Hooray! Each day I go now, I have more behind me than ahead of me. My skin is starting to look a little sunburned, but I keep putting on the aloe vera. So far, not too bad. I don't know if it's because I am so excited to be returning to teaching or what, but I'm not experiencing the overwhelming fatigue I was warned about. I have been busy all day every day and am handling it very well. I am pretty tired by the evening though.

Tomorrow is my first official day back at school and the kids start on Monday. I'm jumping out of my skin, I'm so excited! Pam has been helping me get the classroom ready and it looks great if I do say so myself. This is one of my favorite times of the school year. I love imagining what each of my students will be like and what experiences we will have together over the coming school year. Thursday is Meet the Teacher night and I can't wait.

Yesterday was my official birthday, but because we traveled up to Flagstaff over the weekend to visit Joey and watch the Cardinals practice, it feels like we celebrated for three days. Joe got me a Larry Fitzgerald jersey. Then, he was at some kind of business group meeting and was talking to Tim Bidwell. He told him I was going to take the jersey to Flagstaff with us and try to get Larry to sign it. Well, Tim, who I've never met, told Joe he would make sure it got signed. He came and found us on Saturday and took my jersey into the locker room and got it signed. I was so excited. Tim was very nice and I really appreciated his going out of his way to do something nice for someone he didn't even know.


This is a picture of me in my jersey.

Watching practice was a lot of fun. It was awesome having players that I've only seen on TV just a few feet away. Curt Warner was the most awesome. He came over to the sideline and got the whole crowd to do the wave. Then, after practice he spent a long time signing autographs and focused almost exclusively on signing for the kids.

It was great to see Joey. He was working so much he just had time to have dinner on Saturday and breakfast on Sunday with us. He works at the NAU dome and was part of the Cardinal crew. He was given two t-shirts that say Cardinal's Crew with the team logo on the front and Cardinal's security on the back. Pretty cool! He is working really long days with the training camp going on and with only his final exam to go has a high B in his statistics class. Have I mentioned lately how proud we are of him?

Janaya is also finishing up a summer school class and is looking forward to going to Las Vegas. She gave me an awesome present for my birthday. We both love to watch So You Think You Can Dance. Last year, I bought tickets for the two of us to go to the concert. This year, when they went on sale, I told her I would look into getting the tickets again. But then, when I went to order them, I was hesitant about spending the money. Between the medical expenses and money I've spent on my classroom it just didn't seem like a good idea. She was completely understanding. Guess what she got me?! Tickets to the show. I'm really excited about getting to see the show, but am mostly thrilled about going with Janaya. It is so fun that she is at the age where we can do things together like this.

Michael is back from a great trip to NJ and is trying to make the most of the few days he has left before school starts. He's not quite as excited as I am. :>) He is a senior this year!

Well, that is it for now from the Hitzel household.

Lots of love to everyone!
Martha