Summer Slimdown

So this post will need to be short and sweet because I am way overwhelmed with grad work.


I (unfortunately) have gained weight ever since I started teaching. Yes I do walk around the classroom a lot and am on my feet, but I am a stress eater. Kids are frustrating me, grab some Hershey Kisses. Too much to do, too little time, here come the Cheez-its. Not enough time or energy to cook, hello Whataburger. On top of that, I rarely have time or energy to work out in the evening and I am NOT a morning person. I know these are a bunch of excuses but they are my excuses.

I also have migraines (I forget if I have mentioned this on my blog or not). Part of my migraine triggers is that I need to eat enough food and eat every few hours. If I go a long time without eating or don't eat enough, I get a migraine.

Some more background info. I am 5'2'' on a good day. This means I should weigh anywhere from 102-130 (according to some website). In high school, I weighed anywhere from 105-110 (thank you high school metabolism and dancing all the time). In college, I was anywhere from 110-120. Not bad I think. Then I started working :) My heaviest I think has been 135 (I am not sharing this info so people can be like, 135, that's nothing, I weigh such and such. I am doing it so I can document my (hopeful) weight loss. Also remember, I am 5'2''! 135 on me probably doesn't look the same on someone who is taller). The summer I got married, I was able to get down to 118 for my wedding. I am now back in the 130-135 range. The past 2 years have been VERY stressful (and not because of my marriage, because of my work). Last summer I tried working out but I was taking my first grad classes (excuses again, I know).

This summer, I am determined to lose weight! I am still taking 9 hours of grad school (more on that in a later post) but I feel like I have a better handle on then. Plus I'm tired of the excuses and it is now or never. A couple years of go, I downloaded an app called My Fitness Pal. It tracks your calories and then subtracts how much you work out. I have it set for me to lose 1 pound a week. I would like to lose more but I figure I'll start slow. I have been doing it for a whopping 3 days now. :) It has been interesting to track my calories and really think about the food I am putting into my body. My workout has consisted of Just Dance 2. :) I don't know exactly how many calories I burn but there someone who weighs about the same as me put on a calorie counter and burned 190 calories in 30 minutes! This game is a huge plus for me because I am not good a traditional workouts unless I have a trainer kicking my butt. When I am dancing, it is fun and I forget that I am working out. Just Dance 2 really gets your heart beating and is exhausting.

So speaking of, I am off to work out. This week will probably be the easiest because it is my only week this summer where I have nothing to do besides grad work. Hopefully I will start seeing results soon!

Typical School Year Sunday

Today was my first "typical school year Sunday" which goes like this...

- sleep until I am pretty well rested and recovered (until 9sh)
- wake up (that takes about an hour)
- work on lesson plans
- grade papers
- laundry
- put grades in gradebook
- church
- grad work
- bed

Doesn't that sound fun?! If I'm lucky, my parents will call us and invite us to lunch (on them) but that doesn't happen to much anymore but I still enjoy it when it does (hint hint) :)

I'm now a football widow since the season started. Blake spends most of his Saturdays watching NCAA and Sundays watching NFL. I will say that he did go into work Saturday morning and still mows the lawn, etc. Don't want you to think he is a complete bum. :) P.S. He totally walked behind me twice while I was typing this and did not notice I was talking about him. :) :)

So yesterday I applied to be an official grad student :) So far I have been a "non-degree seeking student" because I missed the deadline for the application. I was able to apply to be a non-degree seeking student and take up to 12 hours. That is how I was able to take 9 hours over the summer (which was CRAZY) and 3 hours right now this fall. 

Yesterday, I also worked in the yard. 

This is the bane of my existence right now.

 

 

 

Originally there were four of the bushes

Those plants end up really big with feathery things on top and I really really didn't like them. I managed to take three of them out and just have this last one to yank out of the ground. 

There were also all these little rocks all around the area.

 They are also really annoying! Grass and weeds would grow between them and I just think they look ugly. So I started taking them out and putting them in gallon bags. Why gallon bags? Because these rocks are HEAVY even in gallon bags. Several hours later, this is how far I've gotten.

See how much better it looks!!

 Now being the packrat/not wanting to waste anything person that I am, we now have tons of rocks. This is what the side of the garage looks like. Keep in mind I'm only about 1/5 of the way through since these rocks are ALL over our flowerbeds...

Does anyone need any rocks?

 Like I said before, there is still a ton of work left to be done but I'm pleasantly surprised to find how much I'm enjoying working on the yard. I just wish I had more time and the weather was cooler. :)

Ok, time to stop procrastinating and finish up my lesson plans. Even though it occurred to me today that I'm going to end up changing all of them the night before because it never goes as planned and so I have to change everything up. :)

We are making progress!

So Blake and I moved into our house a little over a year ago. We closed on the house the first Friday of school last year so needless to say, the progress has been slow going. I anticipated working on it more in the summer but then I decided to take 9 hours of grad school so again, not much got done. Now that I am in my 4th year of teaching, I have been able to manage my time a BIT better and am finding more time get our house the way we want it.

Our two big projects are our study  and our lawn. When we moved in, the study became the "catch all" for all the stuff we did not know where to put. Over the last year, it also became the room we shoved everything into whenever anyone would come over. :)

When we first moved in.

This is what it turned into by the end of the summer :(

Today, Blake worked really hard and we can finally see the floor!!! A lot of the papers and stuff were put into boxes that were put into the closet, but I can go through those later (maybe next summer).

YAY!

Way to go Blake!

You do NOT want to see inside the closet ;)

Our yard has also been a big problem. We try to keep up with it but it is expensive to buy all the equipment and we have been slowly but surely acquiring them. I know we could hire a landscaper but we are really trying hard to avoid that and honestly, I don't mind working on the yard, I just wish I had more time.:)

One of the biggest problems is that Blake bought a "cheap" (not really that cheap though) edger and our yard is too big for it. Our HOA keeps sending us letters about our yard so Saturday (in an effort to avoid working) I went outside to work on the weeds. Our neighbor stopped by and offered to loan us his edger. We got talking and it turns out his daughter needs some help with school work so he offered to edge our lawn if I would work with his daughter. DONE! After 3 plus hours and 4 wasp stings, our front yard started looking decent. It still needs a LOT more work since I'm not really a fan of what the previous owners did with the landscaping, I'm working on taking out there stuff and figuring out what I want. 

Current status of the front yard. Blah!!

Well, I guess I should get back to my grad paper. I am taking Children's Literature and Literacy this semesters from one of my favorite undergrad profs. Our first assignment is to write a reading autobiography which is actually somewhat fun. It was interesting hearing from my parents about my early reading experiences. Apparently, when I started reading in Kindergarten, I expected my brother (who was 3 at the time) to be able to read also. I used to get mad at him for not reading and accused him of lying when he said he couldn't read. Anyone who knows me shouldn't be shocked by this revelation. :)