My Life as of Recently

Lots has been going on recently and summer break is finally here. I'll start with the weight loss stuff first and then get into what has been going on in my life. I started using Lose It! to track my food and exercise. I don't have a smart phone, so I use it on my computer. I like the program and I have a couple of family members using it, so it is nice to have some support. I spent two weeks maintaining and trying to get back on track. This past week I know that I have been eating too much and don't even want to step on the scale. Now that I am not working, I'm going to come up with a plan for the summer for weight loss and exercise. In fact, that is one of the things on my to-do list today.

Like I said, lots has been going on recently. We (my St. Joe friends) had a going away party for two of my friends that are moving to Detroit. It wasn't all that long ago that we had a going away party for one of my friends in this group that moved to Knoxville. Even though I didn't live close enough to Lafayette to be there all the time to do stuff, it was nice knowing that in an hour and a half I could be there and see everyone. One got a master's degree and the other a PhD, so I am proud of them for their achievements and first jobs with those degrees.

This is most of our group my freshman year at St. Joe.
 

Here is a pic of us from our group that graduated the same year. Notice how I'm the only BA in the group with the white tassel.

Another exciting thing (at least in the life of a homeowner) is that we got our 70's brown gutters and soffits replaces with some nice white new ones. It is the first thing that we dropped a pretty penny on for the house, but it makes such a difference. I still would like to paint the shutters and sides of the house that are still 70's brown (maybe a nice gray to tie in with the color of the roof), but to be honest, the brown shutters aren't bothering me so much since the white gutters/soffit are up.

The house when we got it.

The house now (please ignore the fact that I need to edge the yard and do some weeding - I'm injured and have bad allergies).

I had a great school year at work and it came to a whirlwind end like usual. This year is the first year that I had students from kindergarten all the way through fourth grade. After five years, you do have an attachment to the students. I was emotional on the last day of school due to that and some of the other changes that will be happening at work. Heck, even seeing my classroom emptied out felt kind of sad. I know that this is no excuse, but it did play a role in why I haven't done as well this past week in the weight loss department.

On last Thursday, my last day at work (teacher work day), we were able to leave early. On the way home, I found some garage sales to check out. I love a good garage sale, because you never know what kind of goodies you can find for a good price. I only ended up buying stuff at one of them, but it was a great find for me. I found a bunch of jeans, shorts, and capris in my current size and most of them were 25 or 50 cents. I also got two t-shirts and a nice pair of size 12 jeans (for that someday in the future when I'm a 12). I spent around $5.75 for all of this stuff:

After that fun, I loaded up all my stuff that I was taking to the garage sale that my mom, sister, and I were having at my mom's house. My mom and sister had furniture and appliances to sell along with their smaller stuff. All I had was smaller household items and a few odd and end items. I helped my sister set up and price this stuff, so it was ready to go on Friday morning. I hope that next year I have lost so much weight that I have a mini clothing store at the garage sale.

This weekend I have done a few things around the house and started my homework for next week. I'm taking two summer classes- Intro to Mental Health Counseling and Counseling Diverse and Multicultural clients. I'm liking the multicultural book so far (two chapters in), but I've always liked learning about culture. Music is an aspect of culture and that is what I teach. I always though it would be cool to be an enthnomusicologist or get a master's in music history.

I know that you are all jealous of my summer reading!

As for around the house, I mowed the front lawn (really regret- my allergies are still killing me two days later), did some dishes, did some laundry, and started grooming the dogs. I also got most of my sickly plants into the ground now. They have been sitting outside in their containers for two weeks now. I'm lucky that they didn't die, but I'm hoping that they turn around now that I have them in the ground.

 

My husband has done a much better job with his garden. This is a whopper strawberry.

 

I'll close this really long post with some total randomness. The doxies like to lie on this sunken in spot in the futon. Lilly is small enough her whole body fits into this spot that we call "the groove." I just caught her napping there and she looks so cute.

Easter 2013

I know, an actual real post. It is finally spring break at work, so I'm not panicking about getting ready for the week right now. I plan on having a very productive break with lots of homework for grad school, some concert prep for work, and getting a few things done around the house.

My family had Easter dinner yesterday, so today doesn't feel much like Easter to me. The warm weather is nice and I took the dog for a walk and then went back out on a second walk just for myself. I hope that the warmer weather is here to stay!

For Easter I didn't take a bunch of pictures like I usually do, but just focused on having a good time. My mom made a ton of food with the main dish being chicken stir fry. I also had some salad, cheesy noodles, potatoes, and a roll. For dessert I had some homemade apple pie and these very addictive cookies that my sister made. My niece loved looking for eggs and I do regret not having pictures of that. She is so cute! I had some small Easter presents for my family and they did for me as well. Here is a picture of all the gifts I got:

My mom gave me the tank tops and glasses case. My sister gave me the candy, cookies, and lip gloss. My aunt gave me the cool pot with a flower from her garden that I can later put in my garden.

In the evening, the hubs and I had some of friends over. Two of them are from out of town, so it was nice to get a chance to see them. There ended up being five of us total and we went to Don Pablo's for dinner. The hubs and I split an order of chicken fajitas and I filled up on salsa and chips. I love salsa and probably would've been happy with just eating that for dinner. The rest of the evening was spent at our house catching up. I ended up wimping out a little after nine. The sleep schedule of a teacher!

I hope to get some posts up later this week about the workout I've been doing at the gym and my goals for the rest of this school year as related to weight loss. I figure spring break is a good time to take some time for blogging.

First Days of Grad School

This week is my first week of going back to school, so it has been a little busier than I'm used to being. That is my reason for the lack of posting. I'm still doing well on losing weight and working out though. Since it has been a while, I'll try to go through the highlights of each day this week and then post some pictures of what I've been eating.

Monday: This was my first day of class and the class was ethics in counseling. After work I ran home to take the dogs out, eat a quick dinner, and gather up my stuff for class. I left about an hour before class to have some extra time to find the classroom since I've never been there before. I was there 15 minutes early and there were quite a few people there before me. I found one of the people that interviewed with me back in November and sat by her. I also talked to the girl sitting behind me and she is also a teacher and lives in the same town as me.

I felt a little weird being a student again after working for six years. I'm used to being the one in front of the room and in charge. After I got over that and the fact that I had to sit in an uncomfortable old-fashioned little wooden desk with the chair attached, I was happy to be there. I wasn't able to get onto the online system for our classes which left me with no syllabus. Luckily I wasn't the only one having this issue and the professor had some extra copies for us. The first night was spent going over the syllabus and class schedule, a PowerPoint about chapter one, and a group activity.

And, as a side note, I finally got on 80/94 going the right direction to go home. I always end up screwing that up. I learned the hard way to make sure to get it right. The last I messed up, I just got off on the next exit and took 173rd back to Indianapolis to get on going the right direction. The part of town I drove through felt a little bit scary and dangerous.

Tuesday: After work I went to the gym and had a good workout. Then I ran home to take the dogs out, freshen up, and go back to work for a PTO meeting.

Wednesday: I had an asthma attack in the afternoon while at work. I still felt bad when I left, so I didn't get to go to the gym.

Thursday: It was my first night in my measurement/testing class. Since we have professional development until 3:15 on Thursdays, I just stayed after work and ate dinner in my office. I left early again to make sure to find my classroom in time. I found it in two minutes and was there way early. The classroom was a lecture hall with no windows, so I wasn't sure if it would be okay to walk in so early. I sat outside the lecture hall on a bench and decided to wait a while and see if anyone else in the class came by. A guy that had interviewed for the program back in November with me came and sat down next to me and we talked for a bit about going back to school after being out for so long. Eventually a girl in the class came and was waiting next to us and decided to peek in and see if it was okay to go in. And it was.

I was grateful for the seats in the lecture hall being much more comfortable. I was also able to get into the online system for the classes to see and print the syllabus before class. It ends up that the third edition book that my hubby ordered for me won't work with the class (the tests/methodology is outdated), so that night after class my hubby ordered me a 4th edition. Other than that, the class went well. We pretty much followed the same kind of order as we did on Monday (the same professor teaches both classes). For the group activity we had to find a partner and do a made up type of "test" where we had to choose one of two items that fit us and explain why. I ended up sitting next to another teacher (yay for finding people I have things in common with) and we did the "test" together.

Friday: Not too much to say about Friday. I went to the gym after work and got a good workout in. I came home and printed out some stuff for classes, but didn't do too terribly much.

Saturday/Sunday: I meal planned for the week, made a grocery list, and went shopping in the morning. I spent the afternoon cleaning the house and making food for game night. And, of course, I went to game night in the evening. It was with some of my St. Joe friends and their friends. I finally got to try out Sing Party with people instead of by myself. I have to figure out all the modes in the game before the next time, so we can try more things out. I had a good time, but took no pictures as per usual. I don't know if everyone would really want to be posted on my blog doing what they were doing last night anyway... I ended up staying the night along with a couple of other people. We had some Cinnamon rolls (I know I shouldn't be eating them.) this morning and they were about to watch a movie when I left. I came back home and got one chapter of reading done for one of my classes and a few chores done around the house.

Our "nice" bedding for the king size bed which I'm loving. It was my first time having the set on the bed, so I had to take a picture.

Weekly Eats

Breakfast

I had fruit bites instead of yogurt.

Snack

Snack

Lunch

I had two pieces and a half cup of applesauce.

Snack

Dinner

Other stuff

 

This was the worst thing I ate all week, but it tasted so good. Costco cake...

 

Post Christmas Party and Meal Planning

I'm feeling pretty good about things overall right now. I've lost close to four pounds this week! Friday was a great eating day and I made it to the gym for a good workout.

Saturday I meal planned and went shopping in the morning. I also made some food for a post Christmas party that I went to with my college friends. I made a veggie tray and some pumpkin muffins.

Recycled picture alert! I used the same veggies this time too.

Another recycled picture. I used yellow cake mix and pumpkin this time. These are chocolate cake mix and pumpkin.

My plan of attack once I saw all of the food was to try a little bit of everything that I wanted. I had a turkey sandwich with some cheese, some veggies off of my tray, cheesy mashed potatoes, some kind of salad (don't know what it is called), and some green beans. For dessert I had a couple of rice crispy squares, a muffin, and a gluten free brownie. I stuck to Dt. Mountain Dew for my drink of choice.

After eating we played a white elephant game. We randomly handed out the gifts and the host read a story where we had to follow the directional words in the story (right, left, across). Two of my friends that live together ended up with each other's gifts, so they went home with the same "crap" that they found in the garage. I thought that was pretty funny. I ended up with the first gift that was handed to me. It was a small box that rattled, so I assumed it was jewelry and was right. I got this bracelet that I'm sure I'll end up wearing to work many times.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing games on the Wii and talking. It was the perfect bit of fun and relaxation I needed before school starts next week.

Sunday has so far been spent getting chores/errands done. After my usual breakfast (which I'll be eating again this week), I made my food for the week. For lunches I'm having pizza and applesauce.

For dinner I'm having sloppy joes with sweet potato puffs (basically the sweet potato version of tater tots).

I'm also having the same snacks as last week. I know that sounds boring, but I don't mind eating the same things for breakfasts and snacks for a long time before switching. I was still craving strawberry "pumpkin" muffins, so I made some again.

Here is what my meal and snack boards say for this week's meal/snack plan.

I have even been organizing sections of the fridge with my different meals/snacks for the day, so all I have to do is grab from the right part of the fridge and enjoy.

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Snacks

I also found these today, and they are pretty good. I love Skinny Cow candy!

 

I'm off to do some cleaning around the house, get stuff ready for work and class tomorrow, and spend some time with the hubs.

Beginning of November Update

October was such a busy month for me at work and personally. When things finally slowed down, I crashed into being lazy. I actually watched more than just The Voice, surfed the Internet a lot, and slept in or got extra sleep whenever possible. I haven't lost sight of my goal of losing weight, and have started to get back into some of my good habits again. I'm using this post to catch everyone up on all of my news, so here it goes...

On the 3rd I got lunch and went antiquing with my retired teacher friend Chris. She asked me to stop by K-Mart and pick up a cute Cheshire Cat hat and she would pay me back for it. I decided to just give it to her as an early Christmas present. She was really happy with it and end up buying me a ring that I liked while we were antiquing.

I also now have my own dedicated, new-to-me computer set up in my office. Since I will hopefully being going to grad school this winter, my husband thought it would be a good idea for me to have a fully functional computer. He was going to buy me one as a birthday/Christmas present, but I didn't really have need of a fancy computer. He found one on sale that fits his computing needs, so I got his old one with a new keyboard and mouse. I can now blog whenever I want since I'm not sharing a computer anymore!

Speaking of grad school, I have a group interview with the other potential candidates and faculty in the department on the 19th. When I got the e-mail about it I was really excited and happy, so I think that I have made the right choice on this. I'm still quite nervous and a little bit scared about working and going to school for so long, but I guess I won't worry about that until I have been accepted.

I found a wonderful and easy recipe on Pinterest to help with the sweets cravings. Instead of brownie mix and pumpkin, cake mix and pumpkin. I guess if you use regular cake mix and a can of pumpkin (no eggs or oil), it is two Weight Watchers points per cupcake. A can of pumpkin with sugar free cake mix is also yummy! In fact, I've been eating too many of these, so I'm going to take a break for a few days before I make any more.

The weight loss has been good and bad this week. The good news is that I lost two pounds this week. The bad news is that I'm only down 20 pounds total (instead of the 35 that I was last spring). I got to use my other poundpuncher bracelet for 12-20 pounds lost. I'm hoping to lose around 8 pounds by my birthday by the end of the month. If I can keep up around 2 pounds down a week, I can be around 35 pounds down by the new year.

A bead for another ten pounds gone for my jar and future bracelet.

You can see the peace sign bead in the jar.

I've also found some fun, comfy, and warm clothes for around the house.

Pink and black zebra striped sockasins.

Beatles sweatpants!

My Four Day Fall Break Weekend of 2012

I had Friday and Monday off, so last weekend was a four day weekend. I was much busier than I thought that I would be, but it was still a lot of fun.

Friday I went out to eat at Olive Garden with some friends from work. I didn't know about taking pictures for the blog in front of them, so I didn't. I got the soup, salad, and bread sticks which was a mostly healthy and very filling meal. Afterwards we went to the mall and did some shopping. Well everyone in the group except me bought something. It was fun to hang out and see them buy stuff, but I just don't have the money to buy frivolous stuff right now. It really shocked me to see how much money people are willing to pay for things. I would rather have savings and investments. I guess that makes me a "weird girl" which I kinda already knew that I was!

What I wore out with my friends on Friday.

The black painted stripes are starting to wear off, but I love these earrings!

Saturday was spent running some errands, doing a little cleaning around the house, and having fun with my St. Joe friends at a Halloween party that night. One of my friends has a house in Rensselaer (which is were St. Joe is and that makes a halfway point from my house and Lafayette) with the perfect yard to throw a party. In the back yard there is a small "shack" or "shed" with a kitchen in it and an an open space on the other side which has a booth, tables, chairs, and just enough room for a TV and karaoke machine. There was tons of tasty foods and drinks such as chili, sandwiches with apple butter, chips, dips, desserts, a punch with a "brain" in it, and mixed drinks with fun names such as purple people eater.

Our entertainment was a scavenger hunt, a costume contest, and karaoke. My costume didn't turn out like I planned, because my pink flared jeans were too tight to wear and I couldn't get my pink feathers to stay in my hair. That would've made my hippie costume be more costume-y and less like a modern day hippie wannabe. Oh well, I've already got an idea for next year as long as I lose some weight!

Sunday I spent getting some organization and cleaning done around the house. I went through all the stuff I took out of the linen closet in the bathroom and either reorganized back into the linen closet or tossed it because I didn't need/want it anymore.

I finally picked up the guest bedroom and reorganized my "motivation" closet.

I also got rid of clothes in my "everyday" closet that didn't make me feel or look good. I don't have much left that fits now, so I really need to get back on track this week now that my stress is lightening up.

Monday was spent running errands, doing more cleaning around the house, and getting ready for the workweek. I first went out to Wanatah to my parents house to pick up some of my old "bigger" pants from my sister that she didn't need right now. How embarrassing to gain back enough weight to ask for your bigger clothes you gave away back. Now if that isn't motivation, I don't know what is! Anyway, I felt like taking pictures so here are some pictures from my drive out there:

There are lots of farm and country pictures. I grew up in the country and am kinda starting to feel like more like a "town person." I still miss the country though.

This picture and the one below are the Porter County Fairgrounds. I was a nine year 4-Her and am kinda missing it. I think it would be fun to be a group leader.

This is a doggie spa I passed on the way to Valpo. I bet my dogs would love to run free in there!

I stopped to see if there was anything interesting, but I took a picture and included it to share a little fact. I used to work at this Wal-Mart for about six months after I graduated college.

This isn't a good picture, but that car in the distance is awesome!

That afternoon I had a dentist appointment for a check-up and cleaning. Everything is okay this time which is nice.

Clean teeth before I eat and ruin it. They used key lime flavor to clean my teeth which was tasty yet kinda weird.

I spent the evening cooking some food for healthy lunches, watching The Voice, and typing up lesson plans. Here is to a fresh start on eating well this week!