/sigh

So, things have been sort of weird lately.

Thursday was of course weird in a predictable way- something strange always happens on Thursday. If it's not the bus (which is was last week) then its the kids. Bus was fine this week so... I noticed one of the teachers get on the bus ahead of me to talk to the students- I know he's has some issues with behavior lately so i thought nothing of it until I pulled up. She didn't come up, but she did warn me- they were bouncing off the walls today and she wished me good luck with them with a sigh of relief to get rid of them, I'm pretty sure. They were really hyper, and I spent the entire trip constantly using the PA and my raised voice to remind individuals sit sit up out of the aisle, sit DOWN all the way, use the inside voice and quit screaming at each other. This last one is their favorite. They sit right next to each other and scream over each other so they can be the one to have their story heard over the one who was trying to talk first, or who was talking, but purposely won't shut up and let the others have their turn. The back of the bus I don't mind so much, but the ones up front next to my head- those I mind a lot. If my radio has to be turned up all the way so I don't miss a transmission- we've got some problems. But I was in a good mood and had been warned, so other than having to yell more than usual, it was a decent trip. Friday was so much better. And I'm glad my bus didn't break.

So that's one weird thing.

The other involves food.
Hubby has found the absolutely most awesome mexican restaurant in the entire world to date. It's called Peppers and its wonderful. The weird thing- I ordered water as I usually do now. I hardly miss soda anymore plus I drink diet when I do crave it- at home. I don't like diet Coke or Pepsi, so I just get water. It always comes with lemon- I always give it to Hubby for his water or tea. I don't like lemon. Well he ordered soda. So I get the lemon slice off the side of my glass and set it aside, and get juice on my fingers. I was too lazy to unwrap my silverware yet, so I licked it off, prepared to make a pucker face. Instead, it was sweet and tangy and delicious, and I proceeded to surprise Hubby and myself by getting the lemon and squeezing it into my water, getting more juice on my fingers, which I licked off. Then I ATE the lemon off the rind and enjoyed it very much.
?????  What's going on here?? I don't know, but that was some of the best water I ever had, and I drank most of the glass- I never drink much at meals. Don't drink much at all during the day, really.
I ordered Mole Poblano, which is chicken in what is now my favorite sauce. It has all the elements of sauce and flavor that I love- its sweet with just enough spice to be interesting but not burn, its smoky and like teriyaki, its thick to stick to the chicken... I have never had anything like it. The meal also came with incredibly yummy mexican rice, and mashed-up refried beans with a little bit of cheese on top. Tortillas too, but I didn't use them. I didn't see the point. I ate a bunch of the chicken and tasted bits of rice and beans, but I had already eaten my carb and knew i'd be taking some home with me. Plus they had a desert I could not pass up...
Banana burritos. It's a whole banana wrapped in a soft shell and I guess fried to be crispy- but its not bubbly, just firm enough to hold nicely. There is a bit of melted chocolate in there, a tiny stripe with the banana- but it was solid chocolate at one point, because the texture said it was. Then they cut the burrito at a steep angle so you have two sections with pretty points and they stand them on end and put some neopolitan ice cream on the plate and zigzag some chocolate syrup for decoration. Whipped cream and a cherry to top off the ice cream. Oh! I love bananas. This was so yummy. I ate some ice cream with it, but I focused mainly on the banana. The cherry mysteriously disappeared, hehe, I think hubby got it.
So there was Peppers, and it was such a wonderful dinner.

Then this morning, er, afternoon, Hubby cooks sausage. It's ground up sausage, and it smells delicious like always, but I don't like sausage. It's a texture thing mostly, but a lot of times I don't care for the flavors either. So this smells delicious, and he has me nuke some eggs to go with it, and he makes a tomatoey gravy too. He makes his breakfast and I taste the sausage, and initially, I like the flavor and the texture is so-so. After he makes his I get my half of the eggs and I'm thinking about making an egg cheese bagel. While my bagel is toasting, I pick out some other bits of sausage to try. I end up eating quite a bit and I like it, so I made a sausage egg and cheese bagel. I made two, but I only had room for one.
I'm not supposed to like sausage... I'm confused.
I made the nutcracker tea for something else flavored to drink and its slightly better (without sugar mind you) than I remembered too.

Besides the strange food thing, I've felt bad the last half of this week. I think it might have been hormonal-type funky though. I fell asleep watching a movie last night, then got up this morning and felt like doing nothing, watched some of George Carlin that Hubby put on for me, and promptly went back to sleep on the couch and woke up at I think 3pm. I've missed exercise a few times this week, which makes me guilty, but I did one a little while ago and I might do two tomorrow. Have to make sure I eat right for it though, because today wasn't enough and I definitely wasn't doing well in what ought to have been a fairly easy workout. I wasn't even feeling up to it earlier- but I flossed and brushed my teeth, took a super long hot shower, then I even at there and filed my nails and painted them with a neat shade of green I'd been meaning to try out. Hubby picked it out and its pretty. I did my toes too, but I can't see them as well, even with my glasses, the nails are small and the shade is light and shiny.

After the self-pampering I felt a little better and did the workout, then took my other shower to rinse off and here I am, sharing everything.

Chocolate milk is yummy.

I found out how to make my font here all pretty. I picked one called schoolbell, I thought it looked the most like my handwriting.

Tomorrow I guess I have to do laundry, I need to give the puppies baths too, and I want to finish the couch, which I ignored last weekend. It's almost done, I'm sure I can do it in one afternoon, if I don't sleep too late. I need to fix my sleep habit for school on Monday, so I'll set an alarm to get me up at the right time.

Happy Saturday.

stuff

So things have been good with the bus. The kids have gradually been handing in personalized decorated index cards for their name tags. We have a big twilight fan and several cat owners, so its starting to look really cute in there. I took time today while I was sweeping and we have several good artists in the group, and a lot of the cards reflect the people they are labeling so very well it made me smile. I have a new teacher aide who rides with the highschoolers, and she got a kick out of the name tags.

Exercise is going well, I feel good most days with this diet, and in a week I finally get to drop one protein serving for a carb serving instead. Yay bread!! I really hope the 30 day photos show a difference, because I don't really see one. Of course, I've been looking down at myself every day, so gradual changes wouldn't get noticed I suppose. The scale is less, but of course it goes up an down a little each day. I actually really like the scale we bought. It's digital so no fudging numbers, and you tap it to turn it on, wait a second for it to zero itself out, and then step on. Doesn't take a full minute even. So of course, it's in the middle of the floor behind the couch in the living room, so you can step on anytime. It's a great toy, hehe.

And the biggest thing to concern me lately- we're probably going to be moving. Not immediately or anything, but the idea has gotten so strong that I'm fairly we won't be in Florida for the next school year start. Who is we? Me, Hubby, his mom and her man- the immediate family I live with. Why are we moving? Why not? The idea of living somewhere besides Florida has always been in the back of my mind ever since we left Maryland and the seasons and the snow. I know my sisters have both wanted to go back to visit at one point or another. Hubby and his mom hate the hot humid weather here, even though she loves the beach. If she's not at the beach, she's said she doesn't want to be in Florida. Well that's easy. We have families here, sure, but as often stated, I don't see mine much, and we could still come back for holidays. Hubby's family is mostly deceased now, also. Part of his remaining family (that doesn't live with me) also is enthralled with non-florida states. I know I say I hate cold, but honestly I remember loving snow, and this cold here in Florida lately is worst than snow-memory for the sheer penetrating factor of the humidity, I guess. I will say that I LOVE my windbreaker, as that tiny little layer of rip-stop and mesh has solved so much of my outdoor uncomfortableness. Is that a word?

So where are we moving?

Oregon. We have friends there. Photos of the area are absolutely gorgeous. I'm casually looking for jobs out there, and have emailed a school district there to see if they have any opening so maybe I could drive up there next year. We've been thinking about it for about a month now seriously. I wasn't sure I should say anything, because I'm sure everyone will say something to effect of "Huh?" "Why way out there?" and "That's so far away!" Well, little sister is going to colorado. Why can't I go to Oregon? I don't have any real-life friends here at all. Mom was thinking of a trailer-house-thing anyway to travel, which she's always wanted to do. Dad drives a truck (ok maybe not to Oregon?). Jamie and I have no plans to have children yet- Jessie is sure to be first in the grandbaby department, considering she's announced a time to start trying and we aren't even thinking of trying at all. Anyway, the more I think about it, the more it sounds like such a good idea, and everyone here is super excited thinking of it.

My only real regret (I'll miss family of course, but this is a different kind) would be my job. I just got hired here, after substituting. I honestly had been thinking long-term here. While I would still be completely happy being here, I could be happier in another climate doing the same thing. I won't know until I try. I could always come back and start over. I really love my job.

Curiously, I reread my personality profile from college, the one that suggests career choices (too little too late in that regard- high school would have been good!). It specifically lists school bus driver as number 7 in the least popular occupations for INFPs. Probably because of the routine and such. But I focus more on the students, so maybe that's why I like it so much? City bus route driving might be bad, but again, I bet I'd get to meet interesting people. Number one most popular INFP job? Fine artist. sounds like starving artist to me :P

But anyway, I might be in Oregon late this year. Ideally if I can straight transfer during a summer break, that would be best, which means moving sometime between July 21st and the end of August. Even though school releases early June, Hubby could benefit from waiting until July.

It's a huge distance away, and will require lots of saving and specific careful planning, and likely downsizing in belongings to some extent. But so far we don't really see any reason why we can't or shouldn't try this. 

So that's what is happening with me lately, or what's been on my mind. Probably this post will spawn some reply emails this time!

Oh my god Tony has killed me! Chocolate milk is totally not worth that torture.

 ....

 ....

....ok nevermind it is worth it and I feel better. But I thought I was crawling to the shower there for a minute. Ugh.

So yesterday was Yoga, and I think I like yoga. I'm getting better at it. Curiously, I wasn't the same better as last week. For instance, on the right angle under-butt grab one, my right side which was so much better at keeping me upright in the lunge was now weak and couldn't accomplish it. My left side was as good as the right one was last week. I actually got into crane (like a tripod headstand we did as kids, only you don't put your head down- you try to look like a flamingo with your hands being the flamingo legs. balancing. its HARD) for several seconds at a time. I couldn't hold it, but just that little bit is a major accomplishment. I did a push-up on every single transition from plank to downward dog! They got sloppy at times, and much shallower at points, but I did them. And when we did the seated stretch like in gym class where one leg is bent with your foot at your thigh and the other is straight ahead and you reach for toes, Tony asks the kids "who's got their heel?" I was so surprised to realize that I did that I almost said it out loud. 

I wonder if a recovery drink, needing to be consumed within a certain timeframe after a workout (15-30 minutes) should be something I need to drink right after the movement phase of Yoga- because after that is 45 minutes of balancing and stretching that seems very relaxed.

Anyway, this week was a decent one. It didn't get too cold here, which was nice. It's raining today, and foggy. The farmer's market set up right on the corner of the highway drives me up the wall. There are parking spaces right across from it- on the main road besides the beach road- where everybody who lives there is trying to turn to go home. Only you have old geisers in their giant stupid SUVs who don't know how to drive trying to park and/or get out of their parking spaces clogging everything up. Walk a little bit! It's good for you! Or maybe you can get one of those little tiny smart cars and actually see what you're doing. People bother me. Big stupid SUVs bother me. 

People say you aught to have a license to breed. Why bother? Look how well that system works for the motorists out there. Didn't prevent any of those idiots from getting behind a wheel, what makes you think a license to breed would keep the idiot population down? Look at how many marriages work out, and you need a license to do that! 

The power just flickered out. Yay for laptops and batteries in them.

And I got up and got distracted and can think of nothing else to say now. Happy friday!

We ate out again last night. Seems like an addictive trend in the family. Go out one night, like the company and companionship and make excuses to do it more. Outback steakhouse last night (we had a gift card to use up). I was so good! I did have a small slice of that little pumpernickel roll they bring out, and even a tiny section of awesome blossom to taste (and not appear to be snubbing everything in favor of the potato I would order.) I had the 6oz special steak (2 proteins, yay), a baked potato, and veggies. I couldn't finish it! Granted, I did eat lunch too late and I went straight from lunch to dinner, maybe I really needed that extra time to digest. So I am still very proud of maintaining the diet despite the temptation around me.

It's amazing the amount of soda I saw being drunk. I hear its bad for you, and I love soda, but I've been converted to diet. I am not a big drinker at all in general- one glass lasts my whole meal, and I've made it a point to order water anyway. But man! Knowing how many calories are in them, I can see why just cutting out soda has been reported to help people lose weight.


I'm hurt today, and not in the good Tony Horton way.
I did NOT finish chest and back. We got to heavy pants and I did those. Then we started lawnmowers, and my lawnmower cable snapped! My band had had a small tear in it that I'd forgotten about since last week- I had been very worried about it then. Well, at the top of a lawnmower pull, it snapped and made a horrible loud noise, and suddenly my hand was in major pain. It dulled quickly and just as quickly I had a large vivid purple/blue lump on my index finger on the middle knuckle(joint?). Hubby immediately looked at it and got me ice water to dip it in. It already stopped hurting at that point and I figured it was just a bruise. He was worried it might be a bone bruise, and something about liquid between the joint, and doing pullups might stretch that out and hurt it more. He's been injured and seen way more injuries than me, so we stopped. I soaked it for a bit until it looked nearly normal, and I did do ab-ripper. This morning it has a more normal bruise blue/gray and the slight extra poof in the middle is pinker than regular. But it only hurts if I bend it a lot, like to make a fist. I have to go get a new band!

I feel light our chin-up bar is really working. While doing it I feel like the angle is too odd to work, or that the shoulders and arm muscles are way is being worked (they seem to be what's getting too shaky to keep pulling up, anyway) but this morning I felt it back near my shoulder blades. We have a $7 clearance pull-up bar from gold's gym. It has hexagons at either end and you mount the brackets with five screws into the door facing. When the bar is not there, you don't even notice them. It is rated up to 400 lbs I think? enough for Hubby's 300, which was the major concern. It even has four mounting brackets, supposedly for you to mount the bar just off the floor to stick your feet under for sit-ups, but with ab-ripper, we don't need no stinkin' sissy bar! right now we have the bar mounted about hip-high on me, and we lay under it like a zig-zagged table, and pull up from there.

My equilibrium was shot last night too- kept getting dizzy for no reason. And I'm pretty sure it was only ear imbalances because I had plenty of food, even though I didn't have a snack. Just interesting to note.
I don't see any major ground-breaking body changes, and my scale has me fluctuating just like always. It is cool that one dip was all the way down to 120 in my workout clothes, but that's all. I'll trust that the pictures will show me something for all this work.

-------------

I am THIS close to finishing the ornery couch cover. So close I was considering the best way to clean the couch before I put it on. Vaccum and Febreeze it? Grunt has made hair-oil skid marks on one side and I wasn't sure how to deal with that. He may very well be getting a bath today, since the weather warmed. But then, catastrophe! I have run out of upholstery thread. In hindsight, I could have been overcasting the seams in a weaker thread probably.... But I had three used spools of it, and now all three are done. I still need to do the cushions. BUT, going out, perhaps I could get black zippers to go down the back. That would really be the best way to close it up. I was also trying to figure out ways to keep the sag out under the cushions. Velcro in the back? Small ties? Hmmm. Maybe Buttons.

Also, I hate myself. I was being SO careful when cutting not to nick the rest of the fabric. You know an unstuffed couch gets pretty voluminous. But I nicked it! A tiny V right in the front. I was so sad. I have nothing extra to replace that long piece with, and a patch would be obvious. I improvised so far with interfacing the wrong side. I was thinking maybe fabric glue on the front would keep it from raveling? I'll have to get some, but I plan to ask grandma first.

Now I have to tackle all these eggs I just made for breakfast.

bleh

So, I slept for 12 straight hours. Didn't have to get up to pee, the dogs slept with us, I never got hot. I do remember once having to wake up enough to move, because I'd gotten on my back with my arm up under my pillow. Either my head weighed too much or maybe Hubby rolled over and helped, but it went to sleep and I had to yank it out, I remember. I rolled over and accidentally hit Jackjack with it instead of hugged him. He didn't much care. It felt so good to sleep that long.

Played the game some today, and that was nice. Then I sort of just poked around online. Didn't feel like doing anything else. I've gotten some laundry done. I found the making of P90X, and watched all the parts of that. Some of it was really funny, and it was neat to see how in-depth these people had to go to create this.

It is incredibly annoying to deal with junk email. My poor old hotmail account is just lost forever I think. Everyday I block more addresses- like 10 every time I log in. They never end. I don't want to even try to look for unsubscribe or Do Not Message links for fear they are paths to a virus or something. So I block them. But I have the new email and it is so far as clean as a whistle (how clean exactly is a whistle, being spit into all the time??). Which is cool because I like my new email and would be very sad to lose it. I keep the old one for anything weird, like forums.

I'm finding it more and more irritating that things are not easy regarding food. WHY does fast food have to be greasy full of fat and bad for you? WHY does healthy food have to be expensive? For that matter, why is it cheaper to go out and buy a ready-made piece of clothing from a store than it is to buy plain fabric and spend the time and energy to make your own? Fabric should be dirt cheap. But it's not.

I would think it would be very easy to make a "healthy fast food" restaurant. We as a family eat very cheaply, but we've been doing it especially healthy for the past two weeks- meat veggies, dairy all like the guide tells us to. WHY does an egg white cost more than an egg? Well that one makes sense to me. The egg comes from the chicken that way, it takes time and energy to separate it.

Grocery stores sell meats already seasoned and ready to grill/bake/whatever. Why is that a less attractive option than fried chicken, or a fast food hamburger, or even some old-fashioned cooking with tons of bacon grease? Its not hard to eat right even if you do have to cook. I hate cooking, but I wouldn't mind throwing meat into an oven and doing something else for an hour or however long. Baking is easy, you can even google cooking times! I know because I've done it.

I read how white pasta and bread is bad for you, but why? How did we ever get to that point then? If soda is so bad for you, why is it sold? Didn't it start out as a cure? I suppose a lot of things used to be considered cures, such as all manner of nasty and incorrect things. Nevermind.

I read on the soda thing a bit. I read that they have or are considering putting a tax on sodas and sugar-added drinks. What? Why? If you want to encourage healthy drinking habits, how about going ahead and reducing the cost of the healthy ones? Why is the answer always to charge more for the bad stuff? That's not fair. How about if you're going to make soda more expensive, you take that extra little bit to pay the healthy drink companies for production cots and they reduce their prices? The only reason we personally didn't eat super healthy is because its TOO EXPENSIVE. It's cheaper to buy the bad meat and cut off the fat, it cheaper to buy in bulk and separate the portions ourselves, for Hubby to season it himself. It's cheaper to eat unhealthy. A good tuna sandwich cost like 6 bucks by itself from a popular resaurant here- that's for cheap tuna salad and sliced bread. A hamburger cost 69 cents for a fatty meat patty and a formed bun plus condiments and cheese. Why??? Tuna is cheaper than beef isn't it? Cheese versus no cheese, and pickle and onion? The world is stupid and money-grubbing.

Maybe I should start a garden. I wonder if you can even support a tiny family on a garden, or if it would have to be monstrous to do that. Maybe you'd have to have friendly neighbors like up north was.  Apples from my tree for squash from your field? Borrow some milk or sugar? I wouldn't go to my neighbor for that right now. Don't know or like them much. I know their dogs are annoying, and they don't respect property boundaries.

Wonder what grows here in this state. Maybe we could put a cow in with Grandad's friend's herds. Like Macky. We had that meat so long it freezer-burned and no longer was edible. I would love a huge freezer. We should get one. But then we would and a hurricane would come and knock out power for another week and all our stuff would go bad, unless we got a generator too. They cost a fortune.

I bet I could make a real electric car.

If I tried.

They make flashlights that you crank and that makes a charge to run the light. Something similar could be made maybe so that a car's wheels turning would make the energy to power it to keep going. Maybe if you had a really tiny car. And heck, people already buy those roller skate two-person cute cars. Wouldn't be too hard to sell them.

And solar panels should be free. Say, give me a solar panel and instead of the power company, I'll pay you that much for a year. Thanks a bunch.

Anyway, nothing is logical, so all of that only makes sense in Me-land and not the real world. Everybody has to make a buck, so they'd go "well why should we do this just to help someone else. Sure it doesn't cost me any extra time/effort/money, but I like doing it this way so screw you unless you pay up".

I meant to get off this thought track.

Two days off is nice. I'll get a chance to finish up the couch. I was almost there before school started back up, but not quite. I hope it gets warm so I can wash the dog at the same time I put the new cover on. He's making the couch itself really dirty. He found out the arm is just low enough for him to walk under it and scratch his back, and he'll get in it and lean against the back to chew or scratch, or even just sleep, but he's left skid marks or I guess hair oils. I suppose I should bathe him more, but he doesn't look dirty, and its been cold. I want to get his nails clipped. I hate doing it. I make him bleed and I don't like that. His nails are dark and hard to tell when they are short enough. Least Jackjack's are white and see-through.

happy friday

If I never see another piece of sliced turkey deli meat, I would not be saddened. Eating it 4 slices at a time makes it a chore in a hurry. I cannot wait until phase 2 when I don't have to eat as much protein. I'm considering going to just veggies for lunch and the protein powder as a drink. Dinner is usually fine- Jamie cooks and he makes things tasty and mixed with tasty veggies and I get a bread or rice or something. But finding something for lunch that is 2 proteins, a veggie, and maybe a dairy is getting old.

And this blog with its autosave while I'm trying to type is annoying!

Anyway, the workout thing is going well overall. Hubby is happy that he is dropping weight. I'm just happy in general with it. I feel like it can't fail now that I figured out the diet. I am REALLY looking forward to the next phases so we'll phase out all the meat and add back in the carbs. I find it a curious thing that I could go all day without one now- I'm not craving bread or anything. Actually Hubby has been eating his carb earlier in the day and I've had to look for something to add to the meal! Usually its a double handful of oyster crackers (yes, I am actually counting out 44 of the little things still). We don't actually have any bread in the house.

Last night was planned for spaghetti night- I wanted spaghetti. And so we had it with a meat sauce and it was delicious.

I've pretty much given up most beverages like my fruit juice. I missed that a lot at first too, but that's also gone away. I'll have water, but even the little bit I drink (not nearly what I should be) made me visit the bathroom so much more often I was getting seriously annoyed. I kind of LIKE not having to worry about it 'cept for a few times a day. But I guess the drastic diet change- really the considerable reduction of sodium from what I already thought was a pretty good salt-free diet, was more than I thought. I am very glad that it seems to be evening out again, because 3 times a night from 0 previously was getting problematic when I really need my sleep to be good.

I've been fully converted to diet sodas, too. I hear they aren't that great for you, but I feel compared to a regular soda- I don't give a care. I don't even have one a day- it's maybe two a week. It helps that the others drink all forms of diet soda also, so usually they disappear by the time I want a second one. One soda lasts all day long. I don't like Coca-Cola in general, and Diet Coke is to me a vile nastiness. But Diet Mountain Dew is great, and root beer Dr Pepper, and Cherry Coke, though I pour it into a glass to reduce the bubbles.

(I've just decided that being overly concerned about offending people by being specific in public with regarding to brand names and such is dumb. Its my opinion and I don't plan to go about defaming anybody, just sometimes mentioning them. I'll still try to keep other people anonymous, though.)

My students this week were decent. I think the cold weather is affecting them, maybe because they aren't going outside as usual. Without snow, what's the point, you know? I heard we are currently the only state in the whole country without snow. But the kids have been hyper, anyway. One day they were ignoring the lights so badly (the signal for quiet- lights on means silence at railroads and any other time) that the names I was calling for role weren't being heard. I realized this, of course, and after I quieted them down using the PA, I asked if I had missed anybody just like always. Half the bus seemed like they raised their hand, and I cut loose. I had started out offering the lights off early for a quick roll-call, but that was reversed and they had an entirely silent bus ride that afternoon. I allowed note-passing.

My bus has decided that a 4 day weekend is simply not good enough, and it did not start this morning- its going for 5 days off I guess. I was so mad at it I kicked it in the door. Useless, of course, but I felt better. Now, I know cold weather makes them seriously sluggish and reluctant to start, but I had thought I finally figured out my bus' particular quirks, and this wasn't the same. It sounds....off. I couldn't describe why, but something isn't normal. I wrote up a work order. Which was good, because I'd been forgetting to write up the silly windshield washers for a while. The tubies are disconnected. I put them back and they pop off again, so maybe the connector was damaged. I use the washers so often, you know :)

Several of the kids have returned their new decorated name tags. One has googly eyes, and a lot have Sesame Street characters on them, courtesy of one of the boys who can draw them very well. One has a few stickers, and we've got a Twilight fan. 

This week is a week for tiny animals, I guess. Several kids have brought in itty-bitty stuffed things like an elephant and a monkey. One brought it a funky storybook character and there was a debate on whether it was hairy or furry. It looked like a person and she said it talked, so my vote was hairy (versus furry for an animal, in my opinion).

Back to the exercise, I had wanted to add some about Yoga last night. 

I'd been meaning to write a little every day as thought occur to me, but usually its very bad timing, such as when I don't feel like sitting down and rambling for an hour when I should take my shower and go to bed.

Yoga I was very proud of myself over. I personally dislike it, I think, but its so much better than before. Every time we put it in it feels as though he's going through the moves faster, and that is totally fine by me. 

There is one move which I was thinking impossible to do- I think its called right angle pose. You start in a warrior stance- a forward lunge with the back heel down, and arms out in the same directions on the same side. Then you lean forward as far as you can and then put that forward arm to the ground, causing you to bend down and now your arms are up and down while you're lunging. They go to extended right angle pose, where you attempt to make your lunge into a straight line by taking that top arm and angling with your body over your head. That's hard, my shoulder doesn't want to put my arm where I feel the line should be. Then you return it back vertical. 

Next is the "impossible" part. You drop the arm behind your back. You take the one that was on the ground (helping support you in that forever-lunge) and it now goes UNDER your pretzel-self and you try to touch hands. This move was ridiculous- my hip was on fire unable to support me. Like whatever is in there was being squashed and lit aflame.

Well last night I actually stayed up! On the right side, I could almost do the whole time with the video. The left wasn't as strong, but I stayed up a little bit! I could also do some of the sideways portion where your body stays stick-straight and you hold yourself up on one arm and your feet. Hubby actually said look at me go, yoga-master. I was so happy. The first day my arm just shook like crazy and wouldn't lock to hold me up.

Rawr!

There are some new country songs that I absolutely love. Thompson Square made my current favorite- "Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not". This is good because nothing had struck me lately as a "me" song like Fireflies, Love Story or Jump Rope or Bubbly. Sounds that I especially like and end up becoming my songs. Hubby has a really great knack at finding them on the radio so I can listen to them. Anyway, that's a new one I heard.

I guess that's enough for one sitting, so Happy Friday to me and all who read this :)

Happy Saturday

It was good to come back to work this week, though I was operating on slightly less sleep than I was supposed to get all week. So when Friday rolled around, I was ready to sleep pretty much as soon as my route was over. Hubby ended up working late, but came and got me, and I had a short nap in the car. We actually went to midnight bowling with my dad, and I was feeling much better after the nap, so we I didn't get to bed until 4am. We went shopping after bowling.

The kids were decent all week too. I know I lost my temper and snapped at a girl one morning. Her mom called me to make sure I was alright. This was Thursday- everything funky happens on Thursday and of course my bus just had to have something go wrong- a light on my rear stop sign was not working. Mechanics aren't in that early, so can't fix it. The girl saw the weird bus and asked where she could sit after I told her to hurry and sit down- being 10 minutes late and having traffic behind me. Well they know already to sit where they normally do, and that she wanted to stall and ask that made me very mad, so I told her to sit do what I tell her to do. I apologized later before we even got to school, but the mom didn't see that, she just knew I wasn't normally snappy and was concerned. I like this mom. Anyway, that was about it for the week. I passed out blank cards so they can decorate their own name tags. New year, new name tags for the seating.

That's about it for work.

Our exercise is going sort of well. We've missed days, but we've got the eating part this time, so I don't think its as serious. Its not too hard once you figure out how it works. I can have 5 protein, and each serving is supposed to be 100 calories. Easy. Actually, its really hard for me to eat that much protein at once. Breakfast is 6 egg whites. I don't think I've ever eaten 6 eggs at once in my entire life. I learned you can microwave them, which makes breakfast easier. I'm all for the quick options, and a few minutes is fine. I even used the pie plate this morning to make an omelet :)

I need to keep better track of things through the day. I had one where I completely forgot my dairy. Some snacks can be a dairy product, like yogurt or string cheese or cottage cheese, and I must have accidentally counted them as a dairy too. Or maybe I forgot what I ate and put it in wrong. I'm inclined to think I really did miss them. I haven't had a perfect day yet- its a lot of food. I also confuse my numbers. I confused dairy and fruit- had too many of one and not enough of the other. I should write it down as I go so I don't forget.

I'm hoping next week will be perfect for the exercise part- I really want these 90 days to work the way they are supposed to.

I regret dinner. I'm feeling queasy now, wish it would all sit right in there. Plus I'm hit with a wave of sleepy. I wonder if a nap before exercise would be good, or if I need to stay awake to help motivation.

I got the Christmas things put away today. It took extra long because I repacked it in a plastic tub instead of the cardboard it was in. Yay for more durability and weather-proofing.  I was doing laundry too, and its nearly all done. I do think that its dumb that my fake tree was shedding needles like a real one. I had to sweep up after I closed the bin, hehe. I wish it smelled nice like a pine tree.

K I'm done. Nap time. So sleepy.

First!

I just made a blog!

I've been accused of not communicating well (by telephone). This is true. It just never occurs to me that I can pick up a phone and call someone to chat. I usually don't feel like chatting, maybe. Or its inconvenient. Right now my cellular carrier really is not very good.

I started collecting email addresses one year at the christmas family gathering, and I mass blind-carbon-copy emails weekly to them, with whatever thoughts and ramblings occur to me as I'm typing it. I try to share what's going on in my life. Usually I don't get any replies. Sometimes I get one.

I've seen a movie about a girl who was learning to cook and created a blog, and it seemed like an interesting idea. I've also been told I should write books. This is a great idea, and something I've aspired to since I was little. But I don't know what to write. I have a few story ideas, but they fizzle out and go nowhere. I've often thought that maybe I could make money selling a synopsis of my past to a soap-opera writer. "Here is material for at least a few seasons. There you go, have fun with it."

I lost my train of thought.

Anyway, I was killing time online because I forgot to bring my book with me to work, and I found really neat ways to make a dress form for sewing. Something I saw was about blogs and that reminded me of the movie, and so I googled blogs, and here I am.

/bow

I figured this would be a neat place to easily keep track of whatever I wanted to write about, and could be done from anywhere, instead of carryng around a flash drive that noone will ever see, or starting something on my laptop only to wish I had it with me somewhere to add to a thought or record one. I think this thing said I could even post from my phone.
If I have service :P

I guess I'm done for now. No wait! I had a thought of something I felt like talking about.

I'm doing an exercise program with my husband and maybe his mom, who we live with. It has a nutrition plan with it, and so we're trying to follow one approach that uses portions to control it. I'm level 1 based on my weight, and that means I anm supposed to have 5 protein servings, 2 vegetable servings, 1 dairy, etc. 3 snacks.
It occurred to me that eating right is not rocket science. But it is- because it is made hopelessly confusing.

Let me explain. I can have 5 protein servings, and a serving is a 3oz serving, or 100 calories. Easy right? One for breakfast, two for lunch and dinner is five. No. It's only easy if you get the separate portion of meat. 6 eggs easy. A can of soup, with meat mixed with veggies and broth and probably a carb like potatos or rice- not so easy. I've been doing ok because I've stuck with the basics.
Salad: 2 cups lettuce, 4 slices turkey, 2 tbsp dressing. I'd have cheese if I hadn't already eaten my dairy with breakfast (vanilla protein powder in milk). That's 1 veggie, 1 protein, and 1 condiment from my allowed servings. Easy!

I went to the store to browse and kill time, and I was looking at the different in egg whites and just regular eggs. It's cheaper to get eggs and throw the yolk out :(
We saw hotdogs on sale and I picked up the package, thinking that's an easy protein to start with- we still have a lot from the last sale. NO! Hotdogs have corn syrup in them. (This was when we were shopping without having really looked at the guide- we had remembered that we were allowed no carbs.) Corn syrup adds carbs to what should rightfully be a sheath or whatever with nothing but meat- protein only.

And why on earth is there so much junk in our food?? This is the age of fancy-schmancy refrigerators with special crispers and whatever, and we have freezers and even HUGE freezers. We have electricity and even generators to power things when that fails. We can keep some food. In the olden days they had what, salt? Barrels of vinegar? No ice, really, but cellars? Why is it that they ate purer food than we can? We do we have all these fancy methods of keeping food fresh longer, and yet there are still chemicals being used to keep them even LONGER? If you don't eat it shortly after you buy it, throw it away! You're going to anyway, after you shove it to the back of the monstrous fridge and keep way beyond even enhanced preserved shelf-life.

No wonder there are special sections at the stores now for "organic" food. It's not organic, its un-messed-with food!

And why can't people post information of the proportions of their creations? I'm sure the information on the cans is completely useful to everyone.... I don't know. You learn about the food pyramid in little school, but no one ever follows it. A hamburger is meat, toppings, bread, cheese. But if you eat one from a fast food place, its about the most unhealthy food out there. Even just one! I don't get it.

But it's nearly time to go drive the bus, so I have to stop my rant. But that was what I was ticked off about earlier while trying to shop for healthy food. It's very difficult.