It's the Weekend...

Saturday.  That means yard sales!  Not having one, but going to as many as I can find and looking for treasures or things I want/need but don't like to pay full price for.  I went out with my friend Donna this morning.  After making the ritual Starbuck's stop (the new salted caramel Mocha is do die for!), we headed out to start looking.  Our first stop was a good one.  Found some clothes that were super clean and nice!  The next few stops produced some nice picture frames that will go in the extra room (I have a plan!).  After the frames, I didn't find much other than a faux Gucci purse that looks very real.  $14 later, I had several frames, a few cute clothes, and a travel bowl for the dogs.  I've already painted a couple of the frames and have the others ready for painting.  Not sure what color for those yet.  I got more paint for the cute table I started last week, but forgot to get more painter's tape.  Boo.

I had a lot of plans for this weekend, but I have a feeling that some of those plans are going to get moved to another day.  I got some yard trash in the dumpster, did some cleaning of the chicken condos, did some watering, and so far, that's about it.  I'm thinking that a nap might be in order.

Here are a couple of things that I'm going to try to work on tomorrow...provided nothing else comes up (like a another nap).  I found a couple of things on Pinterest, that I must try.  There's a pin for cleaning a microfiber couch and one for getting your porcelain sink back to white. I put the links below just in case:

Microfiber couch cleaning
Porcelain sink cleaning

Both of those items in my house NEED a good cleaning!  The temperature is going to be pretty ridiculous again tomorrow (102 by Monday), so it might be a good day to turn on the AC and clean.  Or it might be a good day to hang out on the couch and watch football.  I do need to work on a baby beanie for a friend and some new headbands for the headband business.

So much to do, but so little time.  I miss summer!!!!  Okay, off to try to get something done.  Or nap.  I'll let you know how that turned out later.

Friday at last!!  All I'm looking forward to is 5 o'clock.  Going fishing with Husband!!  Hopefully we'll catch that fatty lunk lunk we've been looking for.  Tomorrow is a yard sale day and a furniture reform day.  Pretty sure the giant basket of school work to correct is going to go for yet another ride in my car.  Oh well...that's what Monday is for!

What a crock!

What a good little Thursday I'm having!  Got up early, worked out with some ab exercises, got ready for school, and threw some stuff in the crock pot.  I really feel like the crock pot should be included with the other Wonders of the World.  I literally dumped two pounds of frozen beef stew meat, the contents of an au jus mix packet, a packet of ranch seasoning, a can of diced peeled tomatoes, some leftover chopped onion, and a package of sliced mushrooms into the crock portion of the crock pot, turned it on low and left for work.  Husband went home around lunch time to meet the "Safelite repair, Safelite replace" guy to replace my car windshield and said the house smelled delicious!  A quick stir, and dinner will be awaiting our return later this afternoon.  Yum!!!

Pictures of the completed meal will be posted later.  I wish it was later already.

Speaking of pictures, it was Picture Day at school today.  All the girls had curly hair, and all the boys were fairly clean and neat.  All bets are off on all of that now, since it is now after lunch recess.  Doesn't take 6th graders long to become unpleasant to view and smell.  Something new happened today though. The kids were waiting in line to take their pictures and the picture taker was collecting payments, which typically are in the form of cash or bad checks.  One of my students pulls out an American Express to pay for her pictures.  What???!!!!  So, what parent thinks this is a good idea???  Obviously, hers, but seriously?  Mind bottling!! I guess that's just life these days, or an awesome show of stupidity.  I'm leaning toward the latter.

Well, lunch is over and the children will be filing back in shortly.  Stay tuned for the photo of my crocked dinner.  :)

** I wish I could say that the photo would be here now, but I completely forgot to take a picture of the stuff and when I remembered, it was all gone!  I guess that's a testament as to how good it was.  The dogs got the juices leftover poured over their kibble this morning and they thought it was the best thing they'd ever gotten in their dishes!  Jetta pushed her bowl all over the place trying to lick every last bit.

Yesterday was a horrendously stupid day.  Tara's team won against Hoover High, but the game was the most frustrating and stressful game I've ever watched.   Know how I know it was a stupid day???  Nothing in my agenda was completed.  Other than making copies, which my classroom aide did and going to watch volleyball, nothing else got completed.  Ugh.  I don't want to relive any of the events of yesterday, so mum's the word on the rest of the day.

Today is a better day.  Today is still hot, but it is a minimum day as far as work is concerned.  Every Wednesday, the kids go home shortly after lunch and aside from a meeting or two, the day is pretty low key.    Husband is out early as well, so we are going to go home, make dinner, sit on the couch, watch crime, and have a nice quiet evening.  We've become fans of the show Criminal Minds and have dvr'd every episode available.  We probably should have just bought the dvds and watched them in order, but where's the fun in that?  The characters are pretty entertaining.  Fish is in love with Dr. Spencer Reed, who is the super smart, super social retard, super nerdy guy who looks like he is 12.  She has plans to marry him someday.  Why not?  He probably has a lot of money.

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  My day just got stupid again.  Seems there is a rodent that was inhabiting the classroom next door.  I just found evidence that the beast has been to my room as well. If you read yesterday's blog, you know that mice are on my "Negative Nancy" list.  Hopefully, the rest of the day will go better with less creepy animal life.  We'll see...

Negative Nancy

I'm feeling a little annoyed today, so I'm going to visit my negative side and write a list about things that I don't like.

1.  No ice cubes in the ice cube tray.
2.  Replacement refs in the NFL.
3.  Hot weather.
4.  Stations that play songs on an endless loop.  Love you T. Swift, but tired of your new song already!
5.  Remembering what I forgot earlier when it's too late.
6.  Snot...especially kid snot.
7.  Mice, rats, or other rodents that have invited themselves into my classroom or other personal areas.
8.  Children who do not have manners.
9.  Adults who don't have manners.
10. California Fish & Game rules that make Husband grouchy.
11. Hummers, unless they are manned by U.S. Military.
12. Facebook posts about how happy you are with your spouse (they are probably cheating).
13. Spiders, snakes, and maggots.
14. Things I don't get done, so they keep moving to a new page in my notebook.
15. People who think they are smarter than me...and employ elaborate vocabulary to no avail.
16. Mean people.
17. Freeway traffic...any traffic for that matter.
18. Cashiers who don't pay attention to you when you are right in front of them.
19. Sweet potatoes with the marshmallow stuff on top.
20. Paper torn out of a spiral notebook with all the fuzzy things still attached to the side.

I could go on, I suppose, but then that would make me look very negative!  Ha ha.  Maybe tomorrow, I'll do a list of things I like.  Depends on how the day goes, I guess.

Monday Monday...

It's Monday.  And it's going to be hot.  Again.  Seriously, this is the longest hot spell that I can remember in a very long time.  Yesterday, it was supposed to be cooler, but when I went to get us dinner around 4:30 pm, this is what my car told me:

2nd day of fall

They (not sure who these "they" people are) claim that the temperature will be 7 to 9 degrees cooler today than yesterday.  I'm not holding my breath on this.  I think that in my next career, I would like to be a weather forecaster.  Very few jobs allow their employees to have such a high error rate and still remain employed.  Truly amazing.

Yesterday ended up being a bit more productive than originally anticipated.  I started working on the small table that I wasn't sure I'd keep or sell.  Looks as though I am going to keep it after all.  Husband went to the local Ace Hardware to get some eye bolts for his duck blind that he installed on his boat.  I perused the spray paint aisle, since the paint aisle is always a favorite place of mine.  I found an Ace brand paint called "Mechnical Gray" and fell in love!  So, it came home with me.  I started painting a couple of picture frames with it and the color is gorgeous!!  It comes out like a steel blue/gray which I am currently in love with.  I am going to paint the top of the table a satin black and leave the rest the gray color.  Can't wait until it is done!  It's going to go in the Nina/Tyler/Tara's old room/Luke/spare room/extra closet/junk/catch-all/hunting/fishing room, which I am redoing from top to bottom.  Here it is in progress.

I really like the gray with the wood tone.  On a future piece perhaps.  There's always a future piece.....ha ha. The frames are looking good too, so when those are finished, I will post a picture of them too.  

I also started the plans for the birdhouse, but realized I didn't have any colors other than white.  I want it to have  a worn rustic look, so I was trying to decide how to accomplish that.  I think I have a plan, so more on that piece later too.  

Today, I had to go to work, so no time for fun projects.  Next weekend is looking promising though.  Nothing planned, so far.  Yeah!!  Tonight I get to do more laundry (never ends in our house, especially with this stupid heat) and plan some meals for the rest of the week.  Boom!  Exciting life I lead.  Oh, I'm going to go work out after school.  Figure I will already be hot, miserable, and sweaty.  Might as well make that load of laundry worth it.  Ha ha!  So, to close, I leave you with this quote I saw on a t-shirt at Fish's volleyball tournament last weekend.  

I'm going to be a champion!

It's Sunday, which in some circles equals a day of rest.  I'm partially in that circle.  Other than a few loads of laundry, and some random watering, my plans are to camp out on our couch and watch some football with Husband.  I'll probably get a little school work done, paint my toes and nails,  and might even break out the headband/beanie crocheting.  None of which requires leaving the couch area.

Oh, I did take a few pictures of the project pieces I have lined up for October.  Here they are:

Side table...I have a table addiction.
Not sure if this will be a keep or sell item yet.

The plan is red, white, and blue like the barn on Ave. 12.

My new bedside table.

Headboard?  Photo holder?
I haven't decided.

I will post after pictures when I'm done!  Off to begin my relaxing day on the couch!  :)

Happy Fall!

One of my favorite views...

First day of fall...Husband is off to run the clock at football and I'm going to watch the girl play volleyball.  Happy Fall!!

I've arrived at home to an air conditioned house.  Aaaaaahhhh, thanks Husband!

I watched 8 hours of volleyball, graded several stacks of papers, recorded them, and the mercury has reached 98 (at least that's what my car said).  This is how I spent my first day of Fall.  For the record, I'm so over the  hot weather.  There is a reprieve coming according to Accuweather.com, but until I see something other than 9 in the tens place, I will not be happy.

As far as volleyball went, I had fun watching the girls play.  They were undefeated until their last match, where they played a team from Bakersfield that had the most ridiculous hitter.  This girl defied gravity as far as vertical jumps went.  Good grief.  The girls fought hard, but ended the two day tournament in second place.  Not too shabby though.

Tomorrow I think I will try to get a run in (provided the weather cooperates) and Husband and I are going to take the boat out and do a little fishing.  Now, to sign off and watch some mindless television.

Almost fall...huh.

This morning when I woke up, the air felt a touch cooler, and I thought maybe fall was really going to be here soon.  I even stopped at Starbucks and got a Pumpkin Spice Latte...the official drink of fall.  Ha ha.  

Tomorrow is the official first day of fall.  The  projected high tomorrow?  Wait for it...100 degrees!!!!!  Are you #$%$#@! kidding me?  I should have gotten that coffee iced. Ugh...hopefully the temperatures will drop by next week.  I made a deal with myself that as soon as the temperatures hit 89 degrees, I will go out for a run.  Hopefully that will be before October!  Ha ha...we'll see...

Happy Birthday Baby!

I was going to spend this post writing about my fantastic workout I did yesterday, but first of all, I didn't work out yesterday, and more importantly, it's the boy's birthday today!!!!! Exercise will wait...

<3

This little guy is 19 today!!  I really can't believe how fast the years have gone by.  I remember the day he was born.  Vividly, in fact.  I won't go into the graphic birth details, because no one, but me really cares about those.  Actually, I don't care about them either.  What I do like to remember are all those little growing up moments that I've had with this kid.  

Tyler was always a crabby baby...turned out, he had a lot of gas...ha ha ha.  Truthfully, there were days that I just wanted him to go live with his nana and papaw.  That not being an option, I did lots of things to help him be comfortable.  I read somewhere that one should out the baby on the floor and run the vaccum around them.  Tried that.  It sort of worked, but I don't think a cement foundation floor provided enough vibration.  What finally worked?  I put him on his blankie on top of the dryer.  Turned it on "fluff" and sat there for many minutes while he vibrated to sleep.  Worked every time!  And, I'm happy to report, he never fell off of the dryer.

When Tyler was about 18 months old or so, I was pregnant with his sister.  I would take walks every day around our neighborhood.  Tyler LOVED the stroller!!  He thought that was the best thing ever...so much stuff to see!  He never slept in the stroller and was always peeking around the roof thingie to see his surroundings!  He was always properly secured in the stroller, but sometimes I got a little nervous watching his little head like an owl, looking at everything.  One day, I was about a block from home, and he managed to catapult himself right on out of the stroller onto the pavement.  Head first onto the asphalt in the middle of a crosswalk.  I was 8 months pregnant, but I scooped him up, threw him back in the stroller and sprinted for home.  After an out of breath phone call to the "advice nurse" at the pediatrician's, several hours of trying to keep him awake to watch for signs of trauma, staying awake all night watching him for signs of death, I realized that I had one tough little guy on my hands.  Thank God, as this would not be his last collision with pavement!

After his sister was born, Tyler thought she was a pretty cool toy.  She was something to beat on, push down, run over in the yard with Big Jake (a motorized dump truck), etc.  He tortured that girl for the first few years of her life.  One incident that always stands out was driving home from work one day.  I worked in Riverdale, which is about 40 minutes from home.  On the way home, Tyler kept annoying his sister, which of course means that he was annoying me.  Once I reached the point of nearly no return, I said, "If you do that one more time, I'm going to pull this car over and you are going to walk home!"  What a silly thing to say to a  4 year old, but I had had enough!!  Being the wonderful child he is, he promptly did whatever it was he was doing to her again.  So, momma, what now?  With a slight tinge of guilt, I pulled my mini-van over on the freeway, opened the door and told him to get out.  You would have thought I had taken his favorite blankie and burned it in front of him.  His eyes were the size of large dinner plates and the pleading that came out of his mouth was something I had never heard from any human child!  Mom of the year (I felt like the worst mommy ever...making my kid get out of the car on the freeway!!!) got Tyler back in his seat and secure and away we went.  Good news?  He never did THAT again.  In fact, he started playing a little nicer with his sister after that.  

Playing "nice" with his sister.

So many more little stories, but too many to share without making this entry something that would take nearly 19 years to read.  So, fast forward a bunch of years and that cute little guy has grown up to be a pretty amazing adult (gulp, sniff, sniff).  Here are some of my favorite recent photos:

Senior Night for Varsity Wrestling
Clovis East High School

Duck hunting with Husband

All grown up & graduated.
Class of 2011

Just Tyler

When did he get so tall???

This sums up Tyler's obsession with the
creamy hazelnut spread!  

As you can see, I haven't mastered photo positioning yet.  Anyway, a little press for the birthday boy!!  Lucky duck is having lunch with the grandparents today up in Santa Rosa.  He'll be home in a few weeks for a visit. I can't wait!!!!  

Happy birthday to my boy!! 

xoxo  

Mom

Exercise Schmexercise!

First of all, I have to admit, I don't really like to exercise.  I do it mostly because I don't want pteradactyl arms when I wave good-bye and I don't want a saggy butt.  Rumor has it that I will live longer if I do some occasional exercise too.  Well, that being said, I exercise when the mood strikes and it has struck.  It might be the fact that I got on the scale yesterday morning, and saw that I had managed to get up to 148.6 pounds.  That is a net gain of 5.6 pounds in the last four weeks.  Boo!  Yesterday, I went back to low calorie eating and massive water drinking, and despite the fact that I ate 2 1/2 of the most delicious egg rolls I have ever had, I was down to 146.8 this morning.  So, back to exercise...

So, what do I do for exercise, you ask?  I run sometimes.  No, not because I'm being chased by a ferocious dog (although that has always been my most compelling reason to consider running), but because it's good for me.  Do I love to run?  Nope.  Do I like it?  Sometimes.  Sometimes before I run, I try to come up with many excuses not to.  For example:  it's too hot, too cold, too far, nowhere to run, I have no friends to run with, too many friends want to run with me (and they are faster and go farther), I didn't eat a good pre-run meal, I ate too much, I'm not a good runner, and the list goes on.  I really like the "idea" of running, but I have a hard time getting motivated to do it.  The good news is that once I get out there and put in a couple of miles (which is about all I can do), I feel great!  I feel motivated to do it again.  And this poster sums up how I feel afterward......because I have often been the one on the couch!

One of my biggest motivators is running in an organized event, for which I have paid good American dollars!  I hate wasting money, and I feel obligated to run when I pay for a race.  I've done a few races/runs and had the idea of doing one a month.  Then I remembered that I live in a place that has a climate similar to Hades.  I realize that I can go to cooler climates, but I can't see traveling many hours and paying lots of dollars to run a 5K elsewhere, so the summer months have been mostly run-less.  This might be called being cheap and lazy, but I did get to the fitness room at school a few times. I did do the super fun Color Run in San Francisco with the Fish and my good friend Val in July!  We froze our tushies off since it took place at Candlestick Park, which is notorious for being cold and windy.  It was both of those.  Nice change from Hades though.   If you haven't heard about these shenanigans, it is a 5K run, where at various locations on the course, they pelt you with colored cornstarch.  You leave there covered in many neon colors!  Well worth the money paid.  When I was finished, I didn't feel as though I had run just over three miles.  Here are a few photos from the run: 

Outfits designed for warmth & color!  

Purple cows ready to run!

Color cloud!

Done!! 

Me & the Fish!

I think after some "training" on my part, our next run will be the Susan Komen 5K run to benefit breast cancer.  It's in October and gives me a few weeks to get my running legs back in shape.    Fish has her running legs in great shape because of volleyball.  Guess I have some catching up to do!  

Bottom line is training begins today.  I need to work out, whether I run, walk, or do something else, I need to get started again!  Tomorrow morning, back to core exercises.  No more snooze button.  I'll report tomorrow as to how it went.

And begin...

Post number one of the new blog!  Why the new blog?  My previous blogging had to do with prolific gardening.  Apparently, I did not have green thumbs when it came to vegetable gardening this summer.  In fact, my efforts and results could be compared to the making of the Edsel.  Epic fail.  I wish I could blame it on a scourge of grasshoppers, or a drought that brought inevitable death to my garden.  Unfortunately, I can only blame myself.  That being said, I had nothing to write about except dead plants, weeds that managed to defy odds and flourish, and chickens that do the same thing day in and day out.  Boring.

So, what was successful this summer?  Losing a bunch of weight!!  Husband and I were quite successful in that area...although lately, I have managed to slip into some old and bad habits.  Maybe if I write about it all, I can get back on track.  The lure of easy (ridiculously delicious) food and using the excuse of "stupid" days at work (unavoidable in my line of work) have made me lazy and eager to put bad things in my belly again.

When I started the weight loss adventure this summer, I had tipped (broken) the scale at 173 pounds.  The only time I had even gotten close to that weight was nearly 19 years ago with the impending birth of Tyler.  No excuse for that sort of poundage now.  Other than I LOVE food!!  And calorie packed wine and other alcoholic beverages.  What finally put me over the edge was the idea that at some point this summer, I was going to have to put on a bathing suit.  Well, I wouldn't have to, but how silly would I look on a boat up at the Delta with our skinny friends wearing sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt??  Vain?  Perhaps, but also on my mind was the fact that I sounded like a freight train after I took the garbage out to the dumpster, getting up from the couch to get water from the kitchen was a chore, meals at the local fast food joint were costing as much as a nice pair of shoes, and I'm pretty sure my shin splints came from my largeness taxing my little legs.  Time for a change!!  Husband was in...he wants to be in great shape for rugby season and really, our weight just wasn't healthy for us.  

We decided to start recording the number of calories we put in our bodies.  We started with a low number to get things started...increasing calories as we reached weight goals.  Man, I was not a nice person that first week!!  Eating few calories and drinking a plethora of water makes for an uncomfortable existence when you are used to eating 3,000+ calories a day!  I could not have done it without summer school and Husband's help.  Summer school made it so that day long grazing was not an option.  Nor was going out for something fast (also known as full of empty calories).  Also, I had quick access to the staff bathroom, which made the water drinking so much easier!  Husband and I sat down and planned our meals, down to the last sprig of cilantro!  It truly is amazing how much you can eat, even with limited calories!  For example, eggs are amazing and delicious......1 whole egg, plus 3 egg whites, mixed in with various nearly calorie free vegetables,onion and cilantro for flavor,  some ham and low fat cheese, make for a large looking meal!  Drink a bottle of water with a Crystal Light packet in it and you haven't gone over 250 calories for what we felt was a satisfying meal.  Snacks were okay as long as they were fruit, veggies, or a few pretzel sticks.  Reading packages made me open my eyes as well.  Who knew that all this time, I was having 6 servings of cereal????  Cereal really is not a good "diet" food, no matter what Special K would like you to believe.  A serving of cereal and milk is really disappointing, especially when there is milk left, and my modus operandi has always been to not let that milk go to waste.  Add MORE cereal!!!!  I don't eat cereal anymore.

So, we got through the summer like that.  It's actually pretty easy to eat like that when the temperatures are close to 100 every day......too hot to eat!  By the time school was getting ready to start, Husband and I had lost a combined total weight of nearly 80 pounds!  Did we exercise like fiends?  Nope...some exercise, but really, who's out running in 100+ degree weather.  Not this girl!  I worked more on toning and strengthening my core muscles.  The really cool part of this all, was that never, ever have I enjoyed shopping.  At least not recently.  I got to go out and buy almost a whole new wardrobe!!  Yes, I made it from a size 12 to a size 8!!  I have found a whole new "like" for shopping!  My shopping habits will be addressed in a future blog, because that in itself is a post of epic proportions.

So, why a new blog?  Isn't that where I started this?  I like to write.  I have stuff other than growing dumb vegetables that I can share.  (I'm still bitter about the garden situation).  I need to keep myself accountable.  My fans (thank you Mom, Dad, Husband, and Cousin) might see some entertainment value and I don't clog up Facebook with stupid posts that no one except the aforementioned people even care about.  :)  Tomorrow, I discuss my new exercise regimen!  Or the plans I plan to make.........