Monday, August 31, 2009

Curriculum Night

I have two curriculum nights this week. One at each of the schools I teach at. So I get to hang out untl about 7 pm both nights at school. Wonderful fun.

I also stupidly scheduled my first observation with Tara for TOMORROW. I kind of know what I am doing but still am unsure. I kind of switched things around...but I think I will still do the notes for optical illusions and try and color theory/ optical illusion mini group quiz. Ill review with them how to do it today after the notes. Then If there is time after that quiz thing, I'll demo how to do the optical illusion project then let them start. I think this will work!

I took another step toward adulthood this past Saturday. Evan and I opened a joint checking account. Now we are in a committed relationship! We had been talking about how to split the bills and groceries and it just hasn't seemed like it had been working well so we came to the conclusion of doing this. We are in this for the long haul and it just seemed like a logical progression anyways. He is switching all of his bank stuff to mine. I am happy about that because if I had to switch it would be a major pain. All he has to do is go tell someone at work. I would have to drive to the district office, wait for the right person to come out and see me, fill out the paperwork, have the paperwork approved, and then I would be okay.

Ya, I don't really think so.

So, Evan and I also made ice cream yesterday..and by ice cream I mean a milkless and soyless cream-like dessert. We bought an Ice cream maker and substituted a lot of ingredients. It made a ton so it will last us awhile. It's not half bad but it is sooo not ice cream.

Well, busy days ahead. I hope this week goes uber fast. I have next Monday off...yay veterans!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Google Reader

Rss Feeds and Google Reader are the greatest inventions ever.
I check a lot of online stuff and everyday I was going to each site (sometimes more than once!) to check to see if it updated.

No more!

I subscribed to what I could and now I have a nice little Google Reader Gadget on my Igoogle account and it pops up little links whenever something is updated. It is FANTASTIC.

I am saving so much time by doing this. I need to figure out a few more things with it, but it's awesome and I highly suggest it!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Rollerblading

So I started learning how to rollerblade lately. Evan had been wanting to go and awhile back I was at this used clothing store and I found a pink and black pair of really nice rollerblades in size 8's that came with wrist pads.

It was fate really.

So we practiced around the apartment a few times..the apartment is scary all the sidewalks are short and hilly. Not exactly the best for a noob.

So finlly I went and bought some knee and elbow pads because just the wrist pads were not going to cut it. Just practicing with only the wrist guards was like courting knee death.

So it is finally cooling down in this desert and we went to this long sidewalk area right by the expressway. It was perfect and I FINALLY started to get the hang of it.

We went again tonight but it was way more difficult because Evan made me skate all the way to the long sidewalk which included me crossing a street and several business driveways. The sidewalks in this state has these bumpy things where it meets the road so I basically had this obstacle course to go through to even get to my blessed skate area.

I made it there in one piece. Thank goodness.

Evan had me practice some more moves and I ended up crashing down. Thank goodness for those pads! I would have been torn to pieces.

Had to go back through the obstacle course again to even get back home and this was made more difficult because I kept getting toe cramps and had to sit and take my boot off for a bit. Evan ended up pushing me down the sidewalk for a bit so we could actually get home.

Then we capped the evening by playing some wii Resort Sports.

Good times.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Diet and Weight Loss

In my last blog, I wrote a lot about diet and exercise regimen...which I won't all the time with this one but I do feel the need to talk about since it is such an important part of my life right now.
When I moved across the the country I gained weight...now I had already been gaining weight but moving and the stress of being a first year teacher became a catalyst for some major gaining. I was FIFTY pounds over weight.

Fifty.

ugh.

My parents brought me a Wii Fit for Christmas which I did after they left pretty religiously and I dropped 10 pounds. But due to a housing situation which I like to block from my memory completely I had to stop.

Moving eventually, I actually dropped another 5 lbs because I was hauling things every day for a couple weeks up 3 flights of stairs over and over. It jumped started my weight loss program again. I was excited to lose another 5 lbs...I thought I had gained everything back but I hadn't.

Then I met Evan, who has CHANGED my life forever. He has been such a positive influence on my life, I don't even know how it happened and it all happened soooo quickly. But I have never been happier.

Evan is a very conscientious eater, he has to be. He has a lot of allergies to food that cause him discomfort. So I started making meals that the both of us could eat. Which, he is pretty much allergic to unhealthy things that this made me eat a lot better. We went on a trip to celebrate our one month anniversary and I ended up gaining a bunch of weight during that ridiculously fun weekend. But it also woke me up. I couldn't keep doing this to my body. I was dating a very attractive, skinny, active, healthy eating boyfriend. I didn't want to be this round ball standing next to him.

So I became active with him. I do love being active on my own and I had been hiking and running and whatnot off and on. But I started going to the gym with him, we went on walks, did yoga, the wii fit more, my apartment gym, swimming, volleyball, badminton, etc. Just doing SOMETHING.

I also started paying attention to my diet. After a few issues I found out that I am lactose intolerant. Most of the dairy things that I like are bad for me anyway so I don't eat them anymore. I know I could if I got lactaid or something, but I just avoid it. Soy is another problem. It affects my moods, scarily so. I think actually it helped put me into a more severe depression back when I was in college. So I avoid foods with any soy in them now as well.

Evan and I moved in together too, at my apartments. We push each other now when we feel lazy. With school starting I've been doing my exercise in the morning, but a few times I've done some in the evening with him as well. We are really watching what we eat too and how much. We were both chowing down on things just because they were healthy and we were eating too much.

So with all of this in mind I now only have a mere 20 lbs left. I am halfway to my goal. Every day I weigh myself on my Wii Fit and everyday it's been going down ever so slightly. Sometimes it's up but then it goes back down. And I know I am doing things right.

I have this bin of clothing that I've kept over the past few years. Pants, shorts, t-shirts, and some bathing suits that I couldn't fit in because I had gained weight and I swore to myself that some day I would get back into them so I kept them in this small bin in the back of my closet. I had freed just a few things from the bin and I tried on the rest of my clothes and got rid of things that were too big and binned anything else that was too small.

Last night I decided to try things on from the bin, because it's been over a month since I tried things on. I freed up a bunch of stuff last night!

Two pairs of dress pants
Two pairs of shorts
Three t-shirts

I still have a bunch of stuff left, but some of the stuff I only need to lose 5 more pounds to fit into. Some things I was actually able to pry up my legs and buckle (even thought I looked stuffed into them like a sausage) but the fact remains, I used to not even be able to get them up my thighs. I now can pull them up and buckle them.

Next month I am going to try on the contents of my closet again...there should be a few things that I shouldn't even bother wearing anymore because they'll be way too big. There are also a few things that I love and would be willing to get tailored to let me keep wearing them.

I have about a month and a half before my parents come to visit me. They haven't seen me in person since March and that was before I met Evan. I want to be 10-12 lbs less by the time they get here. I want them to see how healthy and active I've become and I want them to be proud of me.

Because I am proud of me.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Ah, blogging...

So after giving up hope for a while on creating my own website and blog I have broken down and decided to get a blogger account so I can at least post my thoughts and art and what not. This blog is personal and business all in one. I think of my life as one whole piece so this blog will be too.