Maggie's Garden at Mission High

Maggie roses in the box. Note tag.

We planted the Maggie roses at Mission High last Friday. The plot we were given is in an internal courtyard that could be an absolutely fantastic place. It's a bit overgrown and not very well managed, but that will change. In the space of a little over an hour our group transformed two rows and planted the roses and had lunch. it was a great day, best told in pictures.

Mr. C", an aide in Maggie's class (and someone she adored) made all the arrangements and explained what we were to do. We were to clear these two beds but leave a few flowers for color.

Before

Mr. C showing us what to do.

So everyone just got to work

 

It didn't take long to clear with all that help. Then we could prepare to plant

Joe Bender (Teacher Joe) and Nurse Janice

Steve digging the hole

Ms. Laura planting the rose

Time to water

Tyre approving the plaque

Steve setting the plaque

plaque in place

Posing for pictures, Grandma Carmel, Steve Eddie and Me (Tim had to work)

father son American Gothic

Food for everyone!

after. bed is clear, roses planted, and watered and straw in place

Now Maggie's garden can take off and add more lovely color to the courtyard. Hopefully more groups will adopt a little part of that courtyard and the transformation will be wonderful. Mission High is in the banana belt of San Francisco - the best weather in the city. The courtyard is protected from the wind, so it is really ideal.

Eva, Duane, Cesar, Rosa and Janice standing in front of  Maggie's bulletin board

I have to thank everyone at Mission High, and especially the staff of room 223, Miss Rosa, Mr. C., Eva, Duane and Nurse Janice for making this happen. (And Nurse Yasmine who is not in the picture) These people gave Maggie a great year in school and a wonderful sendoff. Her teachers and staff from earlier years, Ms. Taylor, Ms. Derkash and Mr. G (Garrido) and all the paras who helped her get so far and do so well.  Thanks also to Mr. Guthertz,  Joe Bender, Mark Erickson, Ms. Laura, Theresa and everyone else who made this garden day possible.

Most of all, thanks to the students, special ed and others who made Maggie want to come to school everyday. You were her peeps.

I will miss Mission High but will always appreciate Maggie's time there.

Swapping Recipes with a 6 year old

Is there anything better than a six year old view of the world? I don't think so. At six they are old enough to be smart and clever, but young enough to be innocent and sweet.

Maggie's school nurse has six year old twins, K & B, and they are such fun. They adore Maggie and love to ask her question to get her to say yes or no and marvel every time she does. The "no" sends them into peals of laughter, and Maggie laughs right along with them.

K & B are in the first grade and have discovered the wonders of Junie B. Jones, Maggie's favorite fictional heroine. B told his mom that he liked those books and she told him Maggie has the entire collection. I offered to let him use any he wanted and he neatly wrote out a list of five books he wanted to borrow. Maggie and I went through the collection, pulled out those five and several others. If Maggie had more than one copy of a book, she just gave the duplicates to K & B. Three of the five were duplicates and we had about five additional duplicates. We actually had three copies of Aloha-ha-ha so Maggie could give a copy each to K & B.

I sent those books home with Nurse Janice along with a recipe she requested for Apple Hill cake. B was delighted with the books but also fascinated by the recipe. He was amazed that his mom was going to make this cake that I told her about. He wrote a thank you note for the books and, unbeknownst to his mother,  copied a recipe for pumpkin bread that he brought home from school. She could not figure out why the note was taking him so long until he asked for help finishing it. It seems recipes have lots of words and fitting it all on the page in his six year old printing was difficult. Seems he never considered the photocopy option.

You may be able to tell from the scanned picture of the note where his mom took over.

I think my heart grew three sizes when I saw this note. 

I am going to try his Pumpkin bread tonight. How can I not?

______________________________

And here's the Apple Hill cake recipe. It is simple and delicious. (If you use sweeter apples like Fuji's (I do) cut the sugar a bit). 

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
4 cups granny smith apples, peeled, cored and diced
2 cups flour 
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
Directions:
Combine: Sugar, oil, eggs and apples. Sift in flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda. Mix until combined. Pour into a 9x13 greased pan and bake for 1 hour in a preheated 350 degree oven. Serve hot or cold with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Morning was Broken

The title is a take off of an old Cat Stevens song, Morning Has Broken.  It was a lovely song about a lovely morning in Spring and recognizing the beauty of all of it. Well, it ain't Spring and everything I recognized today warranted a different kind of song. It was a comedy of errors this morning.

Maggie was really frantic about something and I don't know what. She was freaking out in her bed, but nothing seemed to hurt or anything. I proceeded to program her dynavox for the day and fill the oxygen tank while trying to calm her down. Nothing was helping.

She still needed to be fed but she was so upset, there was no way the food would go in. I just kept getting her ready. She ripped her diaper but there was no time to change it, so I just taped it back together. I tried to put her in her chair for but she was arching and really upset. Occasionally I called for Steve to help me. He couldn't hear me and I would just keep trying. Finally after about 10 minutes of wrestling with her I thought I was going to drop her and I REALLY YELLED and he came running. I have never had to call for help to get her in her chair before. It is disconcerting.

Time was passing and I needed to get her downstairs. I decided to feed her downstairs while we waited for the bus, but I glanced at the clock and wondered if we would have time. Just then the doorbell rang and there was Nurse Janice coming up to tell us the bus was already here. Of COURSE they were here already.

Maggie was now safely in her chair and no longer crying, but she looked completely worn out and mad. (This picture is actually from the other day, there was no time for pics today, but you never get to see her mad face.) We got into the elevator for our  S L O W ride down and I realized I hadn't combed her hair or put a scarf over her trach. And she still hadn't eaten. She was only half ready.

It is really foggy and drippy today.When we arrived in the backyard, the door to the basement was swollen shut from all the dampness and we were locked in the yard for a moment. Steve had opened the garage door and Janice could see us trying to get in the back door. She was pushing from her end and it was not moving. I told her to yell for Steve. He came down to the basement and just then I got it opened.

I handed Maggie over to Janice and grabbed a couple of scarves off the top of the dryer. I told Janice what happened and that Maggie did not get her feeding. All the while Ms. Maggie scowled at us. Janice just said "Oh my." in her very sweet way. The bus driver was great, he graciously said he was early, which he might have been, but I think he saw my face and figured I had enough for one morning.

Not sure what all that was about and I half expect a call from school today.

The bus pulled away and I had to leave immediately for my physical therapy appointment.  The therapist asked how I was doing and I told her that my bad shoulder was really getting better, but for some reason it really hurt after this morning.

I cannot imaging what's causing that.

Dripping with goodies

Another drippy day in paradise. We are on that line between very heavy fog and actual rain. It doesn't really matter what you call it, you still get wet.

Maggie wants an explanation of this thing we call SUMMER when she's bundled up waiting for a SCHOOL BUS in the RAIN. But as you can see, it doesn't really bother her too much.

The drippy day improved when Nurse Janice arrived. She had stopped at a Chinese bakery en route to our house and bought a box of warm pork buns. She gave me one which I enjoyed with my coffee.  

I guess a rainy day could be worse.

Sweet Melissa

Nurse Janice called from school yesterday. Generally these calls are to discuss some troubling symptoms. Janice and I put our heads together to figure things out. Yesterday, though, Maggie was physically fine; her behavior, however was something else again. She was scratching, pulling at her trach and disrupting the class.

It seems Melissa went to school yesterday instead of Maggie. Melissa is Maggie's evil twin and she shows up every now and then. She's a pain in the rear.

I asked Janice to put the phone next to Maggie/Melissa's ear.She did and I put on my best mom voice and told her to cut the crap. Of course she can't respond to me verbally so I have no ideas how she's reacting. I just keep on lecture mode - it's second nature to me after 23 years of raising kids - and told her she would "NOT BE HAPPY if I had to come to school to get your. Do you understand me young lady?" Janice came back on the phone and said Maggie just signed "yes" with a very serious look on her face.

It's nice to know I've still got it.

When she came home from school Maggie slept for over 2 hours. Hopefully Melissa made an appearance because Maggie was so tired. We will see today. This morning Maggie had a bit of an evil grin as Janice and I discussed her behavior while we waited for the bus.

Maggie got ON the bus. Hopefully Melissa didn't get off

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