Resoluting

Is resoluting not a word?!   Spell check seems to think it is not a real word.  But I am making it one.  Resoluting - the act of following your resolutions, New Year's or not.

My one true resolution this year was to cook more.  I decided on this goal because currently, I pretty much never cook.  I don't know when or why I gave up on preparing meals of any sort, but it's a slump I've been in for a few months now.  This means all of the following:

a) Dinner around here pretty much is whatever Mark or I find to eat on our own.  He might take the time to prepare a sandwich or nachos, or even cook up some chicken or chili, but me?  I just eat whatever is quick and easy.  I am not a patient in the kitchen.  When I am hungry, I want to eat NOW, so it usually means I'll make a Lean Cuisine in the microwave or eat cereal.

b) I never have anything to eat for lunch, so I end up bringing things to work like granola bars, bags of goldfish and a tortilla.  Some days I come to school with nothing at all to eat, and then I have to scavenge around for snacks. (I have zero time to run out and get lunch).  This makes for a hungry afternoon.

c) The above make it pretty obvious: my eating habits are dreadful and far from healthy.

So I am resoluting to COOK MORE and eat less crap.  Following along this same line, I want to be healthy this year.  I have actually lost weight since August {turns out running around all day and having zero break time means that I eat less during the day, who would have thought} but I have not done any type of excercise since this summer, when my work hours were later and I could go for a run before work.  So I headed over to the YMCA last weekend and signed up for a free week's pass.  If I feel like I can actually work trips to the Y into my routine, thus making the membership dues worthwhile, then I'll officially join when my week is up.  So far, so good.  The Y is literally next door to my school (read: SUPER EASY to go to after work) and less than five minutes from my house (read: SUPER EASY to go to all the time), so I'm hoping I can get back in the groove of working out.  Plus, this Y is way nice with fancy TV's on the cardio machines and an indoor {and outdoor} swimming pool.  Way more perks than the McKinney YMCA.

Besides cooking in the kitchen and kicking booty at the gym, I am also back in school again, taking my last two classes this spring {yay!}.  So far, I like them both, but LOVE one of them - a class on Children and Young Adult Literature.  I get to read lots of books and blog about them, which hello, are two of my favorite things to do!  I'm going to have zero free time until May, but hey, I like it that way.  Or at least I am telling myself that now!

Dear Monday

Dear Monday,

So we meet again.

The temps fell substantially today, making it actually feel like Thanksgiving is just days away. {Also, wow, when did that happen?!}  Mark made the first fire in our fireplace tonight.  This is my first time having a wood burning fireplace and I was thinking I wouldn't like it, because I assumed it was going to smell like a camp fire.  But it actually doesn't smell at all!  Everything just wisps right up into the chimney like it's supposed to.  And since the homeowner before us left more firewood stacked up in the backyard than we could ever possibly use, we have some "free heat" for the cold weather.  Gus seems to like it too, even if he is a bit wary of the crackling flames.

I am really over grad school right now.  It's just something else I have to do every night, so I'm looking forward to the break during December.  If everything pans out right, this Spring will be my last semester of classes (yay!) and I will be a full-fledged, real teacher next fall. {But isn't that what I already am??}  I am really just trusting God that things will fall together (like they always seem to do) and I'll have a place next year.  Be where I'm supposed to be.  In the meantime, I try not to freak out about it all and really take it one day at a time.  Don't think about the paper due next week or the lesson plans for Thursday or the degree plan I need to get signed by my (mostly absent) advisor.  I just focus on what I have to do today, what I have to do right now.  I wonder, will life always be this busy?

Something else that happened - my birthday.  It was a nice day and a nice weekend with friends and family.  But then it came and went, and it was back to the regular days.  I'm trying hard not to stress out about... life.  Work and school, mainly.  I hate that feeling of always feeling like there's something you should be doing.  Reading. Homework. Studying. Paperwork for grad school. Figuring out where I'll be next year.  Taking state tests.  Signing up for them.  Reviewing for them.  Passing them.  Planning for school tomorrow.  Making everything I need at school.  Replying to emails.  Sleeping.  Treading water.. staying afloat.  One of the other teacher's put it well... you fake it 'til you make it.  Even if you don't know what the heck you're doing... fly by the seat of your pants.  Pretend you do.  Odds are, no one will notice.  Right?

Life is busy, but it's also really good.  Really, really good.  I try to remind myself everyday that I'm lucky to be where I am.  To not get swept up in the little things.  To not feel guilty when I just want to watch TV without also working on homework.  Or to read a book for fun, not because I have to for class or school.  Or to sleep late on the weekends.  Not do the laundry.  Leave the dirty dishes in the sink (cause really, that's where they always are!).

So Monday, I'll see you again next week.  And by the time you roll around, I'll have finished the homework that's due, turned in the paperwork, sent in the emails, even taken another one of those pesky state tests.  And I'll be one week closer to having it all figured out... for now.

A tale of a tooth that traveled across the globe, via drain pipe

Losing teeth in first grade is a big deal.  No, a huge deal.  I regularly have kids trying to yank their teeth out, even when they are just the tiniest bit wiggly.  We have a 'Tooth Tally' where we log how many teeth are lost each month, and we've already lost 7, with the lucky seventh tooth lost today!  The kiddos like to talk about how many teeth they've lost {and embellish about it} constantly.  The other day while we were waiting in line to go to P.E. the conversation turned to - what else - teeth.

One girl told me that she'd already lost a few teeth and that one of them she had pulled out, but didn't even know she had it in her hand (umm.. ok?).  She was brushing her teeth, pulled it out and then {gasp} accidentally dropped it down the sink drain.  I figured this would be pretty devastating, since hello losing a tooth is monumental, but she didn't seem that phased by having lost it.  I made some sort of comment along the lines of "oh yeah, sometimes teeth just fall down the drain," to which she replied, "yeah, so it's in Paris now."  Oh. Of course.

so long sweet summer

Time did that thing it always does: fly. And here I am staring fall in the face, while still sweating in the 100 degree temps.  This weekend was a good chance to stop and put things on hold for a bit and I really tried not to worry about all the work I need to do for my classroom (we have parent night on Thursday, eek), all the reading I need to do for grad school (yeah, that started back up this week) and all the ‘stuff’ I always feel like I need to be doing (keeping the house clean, laundry, eating a halfway decent meal).  Mark and I went separate ways for the long weekend - he went to visit college friends at the lake, while I stayed home and hosted college friends who were visiting Dallas.  Two of my best girlfriends stayed with me for a night, and we got to all get ready for the night together {just like in the DG house}, catching up while we curled our hair and did our makeup, wondering aloud who would get married next, have kids next, or just stay the same.  On Saturday, we got to meet baby Hadley, and then watch the Texas game together on a {hot} patio.  But the best part was when we all stayed up until one in the morning, sipping wine, eating bon bons (literally) and just being together.  Times with friends like that are harder to come by these days, when we all live in different cities and have to, you know, go to work every day.

Now I have the Sunday Blues on a Monday night, anxious about a paper I need to write for grad school and a presentation I need to put together for parent night, and it reminds me of the same anxieties I would have at UT, when I was juggling classes and jobs and the social calendar of a college student.  It’s not that I’m worried I won’t get it all accomplished - I know it will all get done - but I still have that little nagging feeling that I should be reading or studying right now, not watching a game on TV or going out to dinner with Mark.  If I’m awake, I should be being productive, right?  At least folding some laundry or unloading the dishwasher?  But I tell myself it can wait until tomorrow.  For now, it’s all on hold.

First Day of School

It’s the first day of school!

I haven’t been this excited {slash nervous} for the first day since I was in elementary school.  Today our little first graders come to school for our first day together.  Yesterday was Meet the Teacher, so I got to meet almost all of them and their parents, and I can tell we are going to have a great bunch.

For example, a conversation I had today with two little Firsties:

Me: So, what did you do this summer?

#1: I went to Orlando.  We went to four different places at Disney World: Downtown Disney, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and Blizzard Beach.

Me: Wow, that sounds fun! What about you, {#2}?

#2: I went to Paris.  But we couldn’t go all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower because the elevators were broken.

Me. Oh. That’s a bummer!

Clearly, they had way cooler summers than I did! 

To celebrate my first First Day, here’s yours truly in first grade:

My mom made that dress :)

And, the First Day of School, through the years:

Heading off to second grade, sixth grade, senior year and college!