jenniferh

I love fall!  I get such a HIGH from the cooler temperatures, and I’ve got a soundtrack running through my head all day.  Today it’s this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxwIWt9_Uqc 

I fixed the media player on my computer in my room so that I can play music all day in my class - the kids actually don’t mind because it’s all Guns-n-Roses, Aerosmith, Ozzie, Metallica…  I keep my kookier music to myself (Abba, David Bowie, Plain White Tees) but I play my Newsboys, Big Daddy Weave, Third Day, Jars of Clay, etc. out loud during my lunch break so I can dance and sing in Praise while I’m eating lunch and preparing for my afternoon classes - keeps me balanced.  So I’m dancing all day long.

So what do Y’all do to keep your spirits up during the day?

I HAVE MY OWN CLASSROOM!            

You have no idea how exciting this is!  I’ve been sharing a classroom with another teacher for the last 4 weeks, and TODAY we split things up correctly so that we are each in our own rooms for the entire day!  I spent 2 1/2 hours today getting my room organized the way I want it, without having to take another teacher’s style and needs into consideration.  It made for a hectic, stressful day, but the stress was short-term because things are going to be that much easier for the rest of the year.

 what else…. what else…

OH YEAH!  I got my ass out of bed early this morning and went for a speed-walk around my neighborhood before school!

And I ate breakfast AND lunch, and I’m not starving right now!

AND I managed to keep in my mind all day long that the children that I teach are all God’s children and sometimes, bless their little hearts, they just can’t help themselves.  Sometimes I get overwhelmed and frustrated and have to take a break for a minute and regroup so I don’t YELL at them, but I made it through a very challenging day with a smile and a ton of patience (GREAT progress on my part!)

Happy, Happy day!

I had a medical appointment yesterday.

At my house. 

For life insurance. 

Dude came right to my house to take my blood pressure, draw blood, and gave me a cup to pee in.  At my house.  I’m blown away by the concept of a housecall.  I’m used to having to go to a clinic and wait.

and wait.

and wait.

But not yesterday.  I got up, got dressed, took a kid to band, ran to the grocery store, came home and took my shoes off, and “Ding dong!” a little Indian dude wearing scrubs and CARRYING A BLACK BAG (yes!  Like a doctor on a housecall!) showed up to take care of the medical paperwork for my life insurance!

I’m so glad he didn’t ask me to jump on the scale.

I wrote down that I weigh 145 on the paperwork, because I know I can get away with it.  I don’t LOOK like I weigh 173. 

  I lied. 

Yes, I know I shouldn’t have.   However, I’m certainly not the first woman in the history of the world to lie about her weight.

Okay, so I had breakfast every day while on Hurrication, but I haven’t eaten breakfast on a school day since I went back to COLLEGE.  But this morning I had a yogurt before I walked out the door - I actually felt nauseous because I was hungry, and I had to eat something or be sick.

Then I forgot to pack a lunch.

’sAll, good, though.  I had a handful of white-meat microwaved chicken nuggets when I got home, then after picking kids up from football and band practice, I got out my WONDERFUL mp3 player my kids got me for my birthday  and started walking around the neighborhood, pushing the stroller, be-bopping along to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBJVrkRxIJQ

You wouldn’t believe the number of smiles I got - usually people avoid making eye-contact when you’re out walking, but I was just dancing along the road, smiling until my face hurt, marching to my own private Newsboys drummer, and people seemed to enjoy seeing it.  It was kind of fun, actually.

Then tonight, after I got the baby to bed, I realized that I’d made sure everybody had eaten dinner, but I’d had a whole yogurt and a few chicken nuggets all day and 

so I made myself a quick couple of scrambled eggs.   Not a bad day.

Wow.  Life is weird.

My day (so far):

Get a shower, dressed, hair done, brush teeth, slam a cup of coffee, fix the baby’s breakfast and lunch to go, kiss the kids, drive the baby to daycare, go to work.

Teach.

Pick up the baby from daycare, drop a kid off at band practice, drive to another school to watch the last 5 minutes of a junior high football game, drive back to our junior high to pick up the football star, drive back to my highschool for open house.

Teach parents about my job.

Pick up a kid from band, run to McDonalds because it’s 9pm and nobody has had anything to eat, go home, get the baby ready for bed, check my school email and deal with the issue that “they” are dissolving one of my classes altogether and building a new one from scratch. Tomorrow.

THAT, friends, is the bare bones.  SOMEWHERE in there, I had a yogurt 7th period that was supposed to be breakfast, I got called “SEXY” by a busful of junior high football players (thank GOD my son didn’t hear it!) and I LOST MY KEYS!

Yes, folks, the last 17 minutes of Open House, I was having a full-blown panic attack complete with hyperventilation because I lost my car keys.  I had 3 teachers in my room looking EVERYWHERE for them, when Mr. M found them ON my desk, covered by a piece of paper. 

Dear God, Bless Mr. M extravagantly, for me, pretty please?

And then, when we got home, I found a mysterious bag tied to my front doorknob.   It had a note taped to it, from the church we visited this Sunday.  It was a loaf of bread, with a label that said “Give us this day our daily bread… Thank you for blessing us with your company.”

What a rollercoaster ride.

Oh, I pray that tomorrow is boring!

I don’t know if my son has practice or a game today because everybody’s schedules got messed up by the hurricane - I told him I would figure it out if I went to pick him up from practice and there wasn’t anybody there (in which case, I’ll drive over to where his game was scheduled to be).

My kids had school today but Rachel missed.  I had work today but no students - they come back tomorrow, and our district didn’t reschedule open house which is tomorrow night, so I’ve got to go do open house after not seeing any kids for over a week. 

I got a yogurt today.  One.  at lunch.  because another teacher brought one.  I didn’t have time for breakfast, didn’t have time to pack lunch this morning, and I didn’t have time to run somewhere to grab lunch because our cafeteria isn’t open yet, and I had too much to do to take an hour to go through traffic and find somewhere to eat.  so, Rachel is sick.  Don’t know if it is a virus or strep - if she’s got a fever when the tylenol wears off this evening, I guess we’ll run to the urgent care clinic and pay out the wazoo to have them look at her.

I don’t want to work tomorrow.  I don’t want to be the mom tonight.  I want to go to bed - not just early, but RIGHT NOW. 

Well I “gone and done it.”  I stuck a few pictures of me up there.  There’s me in the corner - and on my homepage I’ve got links to a few more.  The one with the whole fam is at the San Antonio Zoo about a year ago, and the one with Riley was about the same time - I weighed 10 pounds more, then.  I feel safe enough here to not be so totally anonymous.  I seriously doubt anybody here is going to point out my flaws (as if I couldn’t see them, myself) so, there you go. 

I’ve been cleaning and commenting all day - I’ll clean a while, take 5 to read a blog and post, clean some more, post some more, etc.  and now I feel like my house is clean enough to take a few minutes for me, again.

I want to set some fitness goals and have a reward in mind when  I reach them, besides the reward of being 5 pounds lighter at a time.  I don’t want to get so far ahead of myself that I feel disappointed if I don’t reach all my goals IMMEDIATELY.  So I’m just going to set one little mini-goal with one little mini-reward to go with it.

I chose to buy the Jeff Dunham comedy videos for my birthday rather than buy music.  So I’m at 176 right now.  I’m going to work out twice a day and eat right and drink water, and when I reach my mini-goal of 171 I’m going to download 5 new songs from itunes.  I have in mind:

Big Daddy Weave “Let it Rise,” 

Newsboys  “He Reigns” and “Million Pieces (Kissin’ Your Cares Goodbye)”

Third Day “Cry Out to Jesus” and “Your Love Oh Lord”

 My overall goal is to reach 135 pounds - if I buy one song per pound (if 5 pound increments), I’ll have spent $40 - all on music that helps me dance and sing in Praise (money well spent, IMHO).

We’ll see.

It’s Friday of my weeklong hurrication, and the house certainly looks like a family took a vacation in it.  I figure 4 hours of cleaning ought to just about do it.  I need an MP3 player - it would be so much easier to get up and start if I was rocking out (although my version of rocking out is more like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek6FWAHjyPM ).  Too bad I can’t hear my computer throughout the house.  Maybe I’ll get working on burning that CD I wanted and pop it in the DVD player later… yes LATER, AFTER I’ve cleaned the house because if I don’t wait until later, I’ll sit here and play with my computer for 4 hours, instead!

I did so well, yesterday, for it being a day with a good excuse to eat junk.  I only had the one slice of cheesecake (pardon me while I say it again: CHEEEEEESECAAAAAAKE ) but for dinner we had hotdogs.  Oh well.  My oldest was cooking for me, and she also made sweet-potato fries and those were AWESOME.

I’ve started small teaching my kids to cook, and we’re about to amp it up this weekend.  Each kid gets to pick one thing each weekend they want to learn to cook.  Rachel already bakes all kinds of desserts from scratch and can follow directions on a box, but I’ve got a feeling she’s going to request how to make chicken-fried steak.  It’s her favorite.  My son Sean wants to learn how to make lasagna.  Rebecca hasn’t made a request so I’m going to drag her out of bed tomorrow morning to help me make breakfast tacos.  My plan is to get the kids proficient enough in the kitchen that I can get the hell out of there and they can take over the cooking for the few years before they go their own way.  It’s not just pure laziness on my part; I want them to be able to take care of themselves when they don’t have me around to do it for them anymore.  The girls are already doing their own laundry, and I’m working on Sean.  I’ve just been reluctant to let him near my beautiful washer and dryer. 

And we’re ALL teaching the baby how to clean up after herself, which is HILARIOUS.  Warning: do NOT take a mouthful of coffee before you read this part or you’ll spray it everywhere.   You know that Barney song: “Clean up, Clean up, Everybody, Everywhere, Clean up, Clean up, Everybody do your share…”  well, as little Riley is picking up her toys, she sings the garbled, mangled Toddler version that sounds like this: “Keen up, Keen up, Ebbybody’s DOOMED!”   

*happy, contented sigh*

I love my life.

What a good time to take stock of who I am.  Pardon me if the thoughts today are random and disconnected. 

I’m sitting here with a head full of “Revlon: Medium Golden Brown” not because it is my birthday and I’m feeling my age, but because I’ve been coloring my hair every couple of months since I was 21 and started going grey (don’t you just love genetics) and it was time. 

I just read a blog from someone who is hurting so much, because they want all the things I have: a houseful of children.  I’ve never, ever complained about becoming a mom at the young age I did.  I’ve never, ever felt like I missed out on anything because my children fill me up so completely that there is nothing to miss.  High-school Graduation?  Pfft.  Rinky-dink ceremony on a rickety stage at a football field surrounded by a townful of people who honestly didn’t give a crap about anything but themselves.  Prom?  Please.  High school dances are more painful than childbirth.  Partying my way through college?  WHY?  I was busy doing something MEANINGFUL!  I was entrusted with the care of the most beautiful little souls ever to grace this planet!  How could I waste my precious time with those precious people on stupid adolescent selfishness? 

And now: I’m so glad.  I’m so glad that I grew up when I did, I’m so blessed to have this houseful of spectacular people around me every single day. 

Getting through college, becoming a teacher - yeah, those were accomplishments.  But the biggest, best thing I’ve ever done is to be a mom, to wear myself out to take care of my kids.  They make all the work and the stress WORTHWHILE every day - they are growing up so fast and becoming such brilliant humans! 

So now I’m 34.  Obviously I joined this site because there are things I’d like to change about myself, but mostly those are just physical things.  The really important things sit in a journal in a folder on my desktop labeled “goals.”  I started at the beginning of September following Benjamin Franklin’s good example of choosing one character flaw at a time to work on.   Right now I’m working on my temper.  I need to learn how to short-circuit that adrenaline response that gets me seeing red when something doesn’t go right.  I don’t scream or throw things or hit, but I cry.  I hate crying when I’m mad because people see that and think I’m looking for PITY, and I can’t stand it.  So I’m working on just being still, breathing, and listening to what God is trying to tell me when I get that angry.  Once I can get that mess under control, I’ll think about whatever character flaw is bugging me the most and begin working on that.

I’m not planning on doing anything special for my birthday.  I may buy $25 worth of music online so I can make a couple of CD’s of my favorites to take to school. 

My husband wants to take me clothes shopping this weekend, but I kind of don’t want to!  I want to lose some more weight before I buy new stuff!

Time’s up: gotta go wash that gray right outta my hair.