Monday, June 25, 2007

Comfort in numbers

No - not the scale kind of numbers... that beast continues to torment me, showing me nothing other than my ability to maintain my overweightedness quite well. I am still exactly where I was before Thanksgiving.

I mean working with others brings you comfort, motivation, encouragement... The FF gals have started another summer challenge - how physically active you can be over a specific timeframe to increase one's overall health (and hey - if I shed either pounds or seconds off my 5K time, I will be thrilled!)

What is comforting is knowing that if I slack off, my team will suffer. It gives me that little push I need to get my sorry behind out of this desk-chair and to the gym, where it belongs!! For some reason, its just not enough to do it on my own...

The kicker will be if I can continue this pace once school starts again. It is my goal to get at least 20 points per week. (A point is earned through 15 minutes of activity, every mile walked or run, and/or reaching 10K steps in a day. My max so far was 6 points in a day) So far, I have met that goal 2 of the last 3 weeks. I'm on track to make it again this week.

At the end of this challenge, I sure do hope to be celebrating by wearing my happy size!! It's closer than its been in years.... I'm just not quite there yet...

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

What is old is new again!

We may have had the upper-most seats in the entire arena, but Steve and I were THERE last night . . . The Police!! I've been trying to remember if I saw them live back in high school, and I know I wanted to, but can't remember if we even got tickets. I remember seeing The Cars, U2, Journey, and Rush all "back in the day".

For a trio of grey-haired fellas pushing 60, Man, can they still ROCK!! The concert was wonderful. It was a fun visit with old friends, and the band played with some ad-libbing solos that are woefully lost at a concert with many of today's bands. (If I wanted to hear the music exactly as it appears on the album, I would simply play the album really loud)! Its funny to see Steward Copeland with a mass of grey hair, and age spots covering the hands of Andy Summer, but they sounded just as fantastic now as they did then.

What a great date night! While it was fun to relive my youth, my constant yawning at the late hour and the earplugs I brought to protect my hearing were proof that while Sting still looks hotter than ever and can glide around the stage with the age and stamina of a teenager, I am fiercely distant from my "stay up all night, loud as you can get it" youth.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Peaceable Kingdom

Today was the first full day of what will be about 8 weeks of summer vacation. I have had to break up three fights so far, although really, I could have probably stayed out of it. There was no blood, no broken bones, just lost of screaming and two very red faces. Had they not been making such a racket while Christopher was trying to sleep, I would have been more apt to just let them wear themselves out. I'm assuming today was a glimpse into the future for the remainder of our time off.

Last night was an exercise in both frustration and disgust. The original plan was for the whole family to go out to dinner to celebrate the end of the school year. Steve called around 5:45 and was still over 200 miles away, so we went for Plan B. My first mistake was asking the boys where they wanted to go. Hoping against hope they would choose something like Applebees, you can imagine the look on my face when they both sprang to life with "Chuck E Cheese!!!".

I did a quick mental inventory - games, safe place for Chris to run around, decent enough food - "Ok -sure! Let's Go!"

That was my first mistake. Under normal circumstances, CEC is not my favorite place to spend time, but the kids do like it so we parents just put up and shut up. In hindsight, however, my sensibilities should have gotten the better of me and put an end to the idea before it took root.

The first night of summer vacation? Really? I agreed to this?

It was crowded. Given. The service was horrible. Not surprising. The whole experience terrified Christopher to the point of him literally trying to climb inside my shirt and refusing to remove his face from its spot, firmly implanted into my neck.

And the bug that attacked us last weekend? Well, evidently it is making the rounds across the Valley, because there was "evidence" literally all over the floors.

I let the kids play out their tokens, get their prizes, we boxed up the cardboard pizza in a cardboard box and went home. Chris finally came up for air, the kids had fun and I guess in the end it was not so horrific. It was just not exactly how I had invisioned the first night of summer to be.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Sing it with me....

"No More Homework...
No More Books...
No More Teacher's Dirty Looks...

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER"...

Need I say more?

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Road to Recovery

Wouldn't it figure that everyone but the Mom is doing just fine today? I went to work, and felt pretty good this morning, but by lunch time I was fading fast. I knew I put a small sofa in my classroom for a reason - it made for a nice napping spot after lunch.

Tomorrow is the last day of school. I've been counting toward this day for the last 178 days of school. I honestly think the teachers need summer more than the kids at this point. I know I said it last year, but this has been a particularly tough year. Even our veteran teachers are looking peaked and haggard.

I have packed up my room with the hope that I find a better job over the summer. I won't move everything home, as that would ensure to the gods of fate that I would certainly return to my school.... but if I do "have" to move classrooms, at least its just a pick-up-and-go situation.

Monday, June 04, 2007

The ICKS have hit the family

It started with Chris on Thursday night (ok, and me too). Major gastrointestinal distress. Chris was visited by the lovely Puke Fairy. I stayed home with him Friday.

Weekend progressed well, till yesterday. The rest of us got hit with the bug Chris had Thursday. I've been doing laundry like a madwoman during those few times I've been able to drag my own sorry self out of bed.

I think this is the exact same bug we all had about a year and a half ago. Excpet then Matt did not get it then. He wasn't so lucky this time around.