I'm Trying

Celebrations:

• I've been really great about taking my vitamins, medicine, and drinking lots of water every day.
• I've also been good about getting a good amount of sleep each night. And if I don't during the night, I make sure to take a nap during the day.
  

Things to work on:

• I haven't been working out as regularly as I should.
• I haven't been eating as well as I should, although I am still eating veggies and fruits every day.
  

I'm sure this is the case for everyone trying to lose some weight or be healthy, but dinner time and the weekends are the hardest time for me to eat healthy. This past weekend, for instance, I went out to eat twice and got some delicious-not-healthy-at-all meals.

Dinners are hard for me, because 1) I hate grocery shopping for just me so I don't do it much at all, 2) It's much easier to get take out or to-go stuff and 3) I'm just so tired and cooking is usually the last thing I want to do when I get home from a long day.

Again, I'm sure I'm not the only one, so I may be preaching to the choir. Who knows. I just know that I need to change so that I can finally get rid of this extra weight, and start toning up again.

I've started out pretty well today: I took all of my vitamins and medicine, had a banana for breakfast, packed a healthy lunch of fruit and yogurt, and I have only been drinking water all day (no caffeine, soda, or acidic juices). I'm hoping to go to the gym tonight, but it all depends how much I get done on my observation lesson tonight. I have an observation tomorrow, and even though I've been observed several times before, I'm really nervous. I hate being watched for an entire lesson!

Anyways, have a good Monday.

Woo!

It's a good day!

Why?

#1 - Report cards are done!

#2 - It's now 3rd quarter! This year is flying by!

#3 - It's a snow day! I actually went to bed last night at 9pm with a throbbing awful migraine...and thankfully woke up this morning to find out that I had a chance to get some more sleep because school was closed for today!

Have a great day!

I feel violated!

...

I went to the urologist today to have a bunch of tests done, because for the past 6+ months my bladder has been awful to me! I won't get into details, but it's not fun!

The tests were SO uncomfortable and I was unfortunately awake for all of them. "It's not as bad as getting a pap smear," she said. HA! I would have much rather had that! No, seriously. Uncomfortable. A bit painful. Violating. Gross. Just a few words that come to mind... I am uncomfortable just thinking about it!

Well at least it wasn't all for nothing...turns out I'm not crazy. I have IC or interstitial cystitis which is also known as painful bladder syndrome. It has to do with my bladder lining and the pain I'm in when I have to go...which happens to be ALL. THE. TIME.

So I'm on two medicines: one to ease my symptoms (thank goodness) and one to help the initial problem. I meet with my urologist again in 2 months.

Ugh! I swear, the minute I turned 25 I started waking up with creaks and aches in the morning, I started getting shin splints, I'm seeing a urologist...

When I think of going to see a urologist, I think of a patient in their 60's or 70's. Not 25! **

Anyways, on a positive note: the testing is over and hopefully I will start seeing some positive results!

Sorry if that was T.M.I. I was trying my best to leave out all the juicy details. Ha juicy. And we're talking about peeing. Lol. :)

**except for DW :)

It's great to be a teacher...

This week:

Monday: Closed for MLK Jr. Day
Tuesday: Closed for Snow Day
Wednesday: 2 hour delay
Thursday: A full day for the kids, but a half day for me because of a doctor's appointment!
Friday: Scheduled half day for students, but it's supposed to freezing rain on Thursday night...oh boy!


I freakin love being a teacher in Ho Co!

SNOW DAY!

Woo, I woke up this morning hoping to see at least a 2 hour delay alert on my work email, and instead I am pleasantly surprised to find out it's a snow day! Woo no school all day! Yesssssss! 4 day weekend, alllllllll riiiiiiiiiightt!!

I should stick with education for a while, solely for its time-off schedule!

Hope everyone has a lovely day at work. Be careful out there!

I will be in here, sleeping. Muah ha ha ;)

They're baaaaaaaack

To-Do Lists: One of my FAVORITE things EVER and also one of the things that can make my anxiety skyrocket to unbelievable levels!

I stopped making to-do lists a long time ago, because they added to stress level. Instead of sticking with general to-dos, or just to-dos for one day, my lists would stretch for pages and pages and suddenly crossing things off didn't seem as exciting among the 50 other things I still had to accomplish. So with the advice of my therapist and some of my own common sense, I stopped making them.

Well, I'm in a better less-anxious place now, and I think that since I am more aware of the kind of listing that makes me more stressed, I am ready to list again. THANK GOD!

How much do I love listing? Here, let me LIST the ways...

*I love it so much that I enjoy picking different bullets to list with.
*I used to have an entire journal JUST for to-do lists.
*I always keep a regular pen or pencil near by for listing...but ALSO a colored pen to highlight important words or phrases
*I keep drawers full of notepads and post-its for just this sort of thing
*Every single year, for both my birthday and Christmas, I always ask for notepads and post-its. I can never have enough!

So excited! I've already made several, and have crossed off a few as well! Woo!

I don't know what it is...the organizing, the scheduling/time management, the thrill of crossing it off, or the use of bullets and colored ink...but it's all just so invigorating to me!

Go ahead, make fun of me! But hey, whatever makes me happy, right?

Right. :)

Turning My Day Around

This post will sound strange right after the one right below this which is all lovey about teaching...but oh well. It's my blog. I do what I want.


This is week has been the longest week all year! No joke! It has just dragged on! Yesterday I had an observation so the night before I was up late typing a 6 page paper describing every part of my lesson plan, information about the students I work with, etc. Then I find out we may have a delay on Friday. So I email my principal and give her alternate times to come and observe just in case...I was not about to do all that work for nothing and not get observed!

So despite the lack of snow (literally there was NOTHING on my car at all when I came outside Friday morning), we had a 2 hour delay. Great, more sleep! Just what I needed. Also more time to stress about my observation. OH and even though I shouldn't for another 2 months and I haven't skipped anything, I started my period yesterday as well. Throw in some cramps and a nasty headache, and my morning was not starting off so well!

I got to school, got some water and excedrin, got my stuff ready, and just took some deep breaths. The nice thing about observations is that there are only two options: satisfactory and not satisfactory. So I'm fine. It's still annerving nonetheless, but I try and remind myself of that fact to come my nerves a bit.

So the observation went really well, and I felt really great about it. :) After the observation, my day turned for the better :) The day was short thanks to the delay, and I got to pronounce the words for the Spelling Bee. Most people would shy away from that job, but I jumped towards it!! I am SOOO excited about it, being the big dork that I am! I asked about doing it months in advance (I had helped out for one of the practice days last year). So that made my day. I ended it with a fun going away party for a work friend at work and then a happy hour following it. Then I went and got my hair cut which is always great because I love it when people play with my hair.

After all that, I drove over to Docco's for a movie and champagne night which was a lot of fun.

It was nice that my day had started so awful and then turned around by the end of it. :)

"So, do you have any kids?"

Why am I always tempted to answer,"Yes. I have 25. 14 boys and 11 girls."

I feel as though being a teacher is something that constantly tests you.

It feels like every day my patience is tested, my love for them is tested, my devotion and passion for the job is tested...

But every time I'm "tested," the answer is the same every time.

When I am away from my students, I miss them terribly. When I am with them, I love them unconditionally, despite how they can try my ability to endure their whining, complaining, and moaning. When I see any of them get upset in the least or show any sign of discomfort on their face, I am literally by their side in a second, just hoping I can help rescue them in some way.

It's amazing to me that I can feel this away about a group of children that are not mine, and yet they feel like they are nothing but mine. When I read the words for the spelling bee today out loud as the pronouncer, I couldn't help but feel their anxiety and nervousness as each one of my students got on stage. Almost all at once, I wanted to hug the ones that didn't get the word right, and high-five the ones that did.

Maybe I'm not a mother by exact definition...but it sure feels like it sometimes.

If I can feel this much emotion and feeling with children who I will only see for 10 short months of one year of our lives, than I can only imagine how incredible it will be to be a mother to my own children.

I am in no means ready to be a mother right now or anytime soon. But it's nice to think that I do have a chance to be one right now, in a different sort of way.