First Week Down!

Well, last Monday marked my 10th first day of school as a teacher.  I still get a little anxious the night before, but not as bad as I used to be.  My schedule has changed again this year (I've never had the same schedule more than 1 year at a time), and so far I really like it.  I hope it works for everyone and we can do it this way again next year.  The main difference from previous years is now I am back to having just 3 classes, so I see around 60 kids each day instead of 80.  Also, I get to begin and end the day with my homeroom which is super nice.  Everyone is teaching their own Social Studies and Science last period, so I feel like I will get to know the kids a little bit better.  All in all it was a great first week.  The kids were well behaved (there's been some years where I have had to correct a student on the very first day!) and they are getting the hang of all the switching of classes they do in 4th grade.  Now I know in a few weeks I may have changed my tune about how good the kids are, once they get more comfortable and start testing their limits.  :)  But I am going to stay optimistic that this will be the best year yet!

That Darn Cat!

This morning I was enjoying my coffee and watching the episode of "Drop Dead Diva" I had DVR'ed last night when I heard a *clunk* in the ceiling.  I kind of shrugged it off and kept watching tv.  A few minutes had passed and I heard another clunk.  Michael's cat was on the floor in front of me and she looked up at the ceiling at the same time I did.  So I went upstairs to investigate and didn't see anything.  Back to the tv.  A few minutes later I hear another clunk.  That's when it hit me.  My own cat was nowhere to be found.  I went into the bathroom and called her name and heard a meowing by the air vent.  Yep.  That darn cat was in the ceiling!

How did she get there you ask?  One of the bedrooms upstairs has an access panel to the bathtub pipes for the adjoining bathroom.  Michael is going to start fixing up that room and for some reason he took the access panel off yesterday and left it off.  There is just enough space for the cat to crawl under the bathtub and down a hole by the drainpipe for her to have free range of the space beneath the floor, or above the ceiling, however you want to look at it.

So the stupid cat was clunking around the ceiling.  After trying a few things, unsuccessfully, she finally finagled her way back up through the hole she went down to begin with.  She only lost a few clumps of fur on the way out.  Dumb cat.

Be Our Guest

This is a picture of the guest room right after we moved in.  Notice above the headboard there is a section of the wall that the previous owners failed to paint.  Classy, eh?

This is the wall with the wallpaper and the paneling.  As I shared in a previous post, it was in pretty horrible shape under that paneling.

This is how the room looks now.

I did all the painting (except for the ceiling, which the husband did) and I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

This is the wall that had the paneling.  I ripped it and the wallpaper off, and the husband patched up the wall.  It looks loads better than before.

3 Weeks and Progress!!!

So, I did my weekly weigh-in this morning and...the number went down 1.6 lbs from last week!  I guess my body was in shock of all the exercise and smaller food portions that it just took it a couple weeks to readjust.  I read a few articles that suggested the initial weight gain could be the body retaining more water for energy use.  Anyway, I feel loads better and if I don't gain any next week (or even have another loss) I will convince myself that I don't have some serious medical condition!  (I've used WebMd to diagnose several possibilities...I hate that website.)

I have been making myself eggs and toast with peanut butter all week to get my protein in the morning.  I also started drinking at least 8 glasses of water of day.  Let me just say, that if you decide to start drinking more water, make sure you are somewhere where you can stop to pee every 30 minutes.  That's all I did the first 2 days.  I even got up twice during the night, and I never do that.  But by the end of the second day, my body seemed to reset itself to the increase in water and I have been back to normal.

Well, I just thought I should give an update since I was so irritated last week. I will report on this again when I have an impressive number to share! I will be sharing pictures from the latest house renovation soon.  :)

Public Works in Action!

I swiped this picture from Michael's facebook page.  He is the head bobbing in the foreground.  Part of his job this summer has included changing out fire hydrants.  Sometimes the water doesn't cooperate and they get to go swimming! (Click on the picture for a larger view.)

2 weeks and frustrated!

Well, I can officially declare myself "frustrated"!  I have an app on my phone that I have diligently been keeping track of my calories on since July 5th.  I have been working out (though had to cut some activity out because of my pesky plantar fasciitis which reared its ugly heel last week).  I have ceased snacking at night for snacking's sake.  I've been doing better than I did at the beginning of the year when I lost the weight.  So why am I gaining weight???  Yep.  I have gained 2 pounds in the last 2 weeks.  Part of me wants to say screw all of this and give up.  The other part thinks I need to just give myself some more time.  The numbers just dropped off so easily before with a little exercise and watching my food intake, I expected the same thing to happen this time.  One thing I am going to change is replacing the low-calorie cereal for breakfast with a protein-packed breakfast.  Obviously the low-calorie cereal is doing absolutely nothing for me and protein was my champion a couple years ago when I lost 60 pounds!  The other thing I am going to change is drinking more water.  I don't drink hardly enough and have read that drinking more water can help the ol' metabolism.  Other than that, I am going to keep on truckin' along. And if I continue to gain weight at 1 pound a week, I am going to the doctor! 

Confessions of a Sugar Addict

Remember way back in January when I was so excited about the Biggest Loser game for my Wii and that I was losing weight?  I did that game religiously and was down 12 pounds by Spring Break!  I was so close to getting the one pair of shorts I was only able to wear one summer zipped back up without a struggle.  Yep.  Those were the good old days.

Spring Break came along and the workouts stopped.  I started eating sugary delicious ice cream again.  The Coca Colas were being guzzled left and right reintroduced into my formerly cola-free world.  The workouts didn't resume.  Before I knew it, Easter was upon us and with Easter comes the most delicious candy!  Starburst Jellybeans and Reese's Eggs, anyone?  And the chocolate bunnies!  Oh, and then there was the clearance candy after Easter.  More Reese's eggs!!! 

I did a workout here and there, but that number on the scale was climbing.  Then came my birthday and Cheesecake Factory.  Oh, and a Butterfinger Blizzard cake from DQ.  Then a couple weeks later it was Memorial Day weekend and we had company and cooked out 3 times in 2 days.  My stomach hurts just thinking about all that food.  Was I working out at all at this point?  NOPE!  To top it all off, it was the end of school, and with that comes donuts and retirement cakes.  Sugarpalooza!

The end result of all of this....I gained all 12 pounds back.  Yep.  Every.  Single.  One.  Those shorts are collecting dust at the top of my closet because there is no way in hell I could squeeze those suckers on.  So, after my last pan of brownies for the 4th of July, I am getting serious again!  No more night time sugar-snacks.  No more Cokes.  We brought the elliptical downstairs where it's cooler and I have access to TV.  I have the Biggest Loser that I still do.  And the newest weapon in my fat-fighting arsenal is Zumba Fitness for the Wii.  It has been a good, sweaty week so far.  And for the first time, I actually laughed during a workout.  Yes, laughed! It was a big change from the usual expletives I scream huff at Bob and Jillian. Today was my second day doing Zumba and it is so much fun.  It's so stinking hard, I get a stitch in my side just after the warm-up, but it is fun.  I know I am not doing any of the moves remotely right, but I have a blast just trying.  There is a lot of hip shaking and shimmying, which was the cause of my laughter.  If I could see myself, I know it would be hilarious.

Anyway, I know for me exercise and cutting back the sugary junk will work on getting the weight off.  Here's hoping I can stick to it for more than 2.5 months this time.