Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving kids!  I hope you got to enjoy some good food and some good company.  In true fatty fashion, I celebrated not just once, but twice.  My whole family got together at my sister's new house on Thursday.  She just bought the house a few months ago and was stoked to be able to host her first big thing.  Besides the food being disgusting and the drinks being weak, it was a good time. 

I KID, I KID. 

The food was so good and the drinks were plentiful.  My faves from the night were the caramel apple pie and the spiked hot apple cider.  My job was to make the mashed potatoes and the green beans (with bacon, obvi).  Both were slammin'. It was a good time had by all.

I could totally go for some of that pie right now. 

The next morning, we loaded up the car and embarked on our very first family car trip.  4 and a half hours of Ty playing I Spy with himself, CJ asking if we were there yet and the Husband rolling his eyes and mumbling about the boys talking too much.  It was a good time had by all. 

 If you know me even a little, you know that I have some serious anxiety.  So preparing for this trip was just amazing.  I was all kinds of stressed out.  Sleeping away from my house stresses me out.  Having my kids off their schedule stresses me out.  Being out of my comfort zone stresses me out.  Brushing my hair stresses me out.  (Just kidding on that last one, but I think you get my point.  I'm one big stress ball). 

But all of that flew out the window the second we got out of the car at my sister-in-law's house.  My kids adored playing with their cousins and the four of us adults all got to enjoy each other's company.  Plus, my SIL made a whole Thanksgiving dinner. Homemade mac 'n cheese, corn pudding, the works.  I stuffed myself silly.  To that one, I brought some peppermint meltaway cookies and a pumpkin roll.  (Thank you, Pinterest.)

 

So, what are you thankful for this year?  I have been blessed with so many amazing things.  When we went around the table at my sister's before we ate, I said that I was thankful for my kids. I am.  They are funny, charismatic, caring, sensitive, smart, loving, athletic little boys who love their mama.  I'm also thankful that I've decided not to have any more.

 

I'm thankful for my husband who works so hard so that I can have options.  I'm thankful for having my family so close to me.  I'm thankful for my work schedule, for my health, for free memberships at two gyms.  For caller ID (yes, I will screen your call), Pandora Christmas stations, and universal nap time.

 

The list could go on forever.  I live a great life.  And for that I am thankful. 

 

Have a healthy day,

 

J

 

PS- Are you a Follower of this blog yet?  You should be.  All you have to do is click where it says "Follow me". All that will happen is that I'll show up on your Blog roll.  Please do it.

Prom Date Fail

When I was a second year teacher, I taught high school Biology.  (Yeah, it was a complete joke. I'm an English teacher, people.) Anyway, I was 22 and my students were 17 and 18.  One day, and I'll never forget this as long as I live, a (smart, college-bound, had lots of friends) kid pulled me aside and asked me to the prom.  I absolutely thought he was kidding until I realized he wasn't.  I think he was offended when I laughed.

Now, I am a twelfth-year teacher. I am (kind of) old enough to be my students' moms.  I no longer teach Biology. 

I got some papers delivered to my desk the other day and when I looked at them, I realized they were old assignments that a kid was supposed to have done about a month ago in ISS.  However, instead of completed work, do you wanna know what was written all over the papers?

I love my English teacher.

Ms. Wheaton is so beautiful.

My English teacher has a hot booty.

I wanna skin.  (ummmm, skin?????)


I threw up in my mouth and walked the papers across the hall, and then the kid got thrown out of my class for the rest of his life.  (Or until his 5-day suspension is over, whichever). 

Later that night, the husband told me that I'm hot so of course any teenage boy would have a crush on me. 

Moral of the story:  Mama's still got it going on.  Boo-yah.

Cast Your Vote

Happy Election Day!  I'm nervous.  I'm usually not in to politics at all.  I mean, I try to stay informed and up to date with things that are going on in the country. I watched both National Conventions and all of the debates.  But that's about as involved as I get- just enough to make an informed decision.  This year I feel pretty strongly about my choice for President.  I woke up with all kinds of anxiety (shocking, I know).  For the candidates, for the results, for the future of our country.  Did you vote?


Oh, and I have a question:  why did we get rid of the booth voting?  We now vote on heavy paper and stick it in a machine.  Each ballot comes with an even heavier paper privacy screen. Am I the only one who thinks that's a huge waste of paper?  Way to go green, America. 

Ok, now let's talk about my children.  CJ wrote everyone's name with pen on the walls outside of our bedroom doors.  If Ty hadn't pointed it out to me, I never would have noticed.  CJ told me he didn't do it.  Then he started crying. Then he said he did it 3 years ago. (At the ripe old age of TWO.)  Then he said he didn't care if I told his dad because they already had an argument about it.  Then he said that Dada probably wouldn't remember having the argument because it was so long ago, but it really did happen, so just don't even remind him. 

I love being a mother.

And on that note, I need to cut it short tonight.  I have a load of laundry to do, a kitchen to clean, a lunch to make, and election results to watch. 

Have a healthy day,

J

PS- Have you been working out this week?  I taught for a sweaty hour last night, but had to cut it short tonight.  Only got in about 20 minutes of cardio and some weights.  But hey, better than nothing, right?

Cutest Kids Ever

Feel free to go ahead and tell me how freaking adorbs my kids looked last night.  I won't be mad about it, I promise.

Last year, being the super awesome teacher that I am, I wore a flourescent orange wig to school on Halloween.  My co-teacher wore this hot pink one and we told everyone we were Nicki and Ricki Minaj. Well, one of my students ended up stealing my wig and my co-teacher ended up leaving me for a new job. This year I skipped the wig at work and settled on a Halloween shirt. (And yes, I still embraced the holiday more than any other teacher on staff.  Duds.) So you better believe I slipped the wig on the second I felt it was appropriate. CJ told me about 50 thousand times that he liked my costume.  If you ever need a confidence boost, I highly suggest you hang out with a 5-year-old.

And check out these pumpkin carving skills:

I'm pretty sure I've consumed at least 37 candy bars in the past 24 hours.  And we have an entire salad bowl full of leftovers.  A fatty's dream come true. 

Hope your Halloween was a happy one!  (Thankfully it's the one holiday that doesn't require electricity. We're continuously praying for our family members in PA who are still without electricity 5 days after Hurricane Sandy...)

Have a healthy day,

J

I'm Baaaaaccckkk!!!

Well, well, well, can you believe it's been a month since my last post?  Sheesh, time sure does fly when you're having fun.  And I don't even have any sort of good explanation of why I haven't been writing.  I've just been focusing on other things. And it just felt right to take a break.  But now that I've had some time to do some reflecting, I'm ready to come back.  I hope you'll come back with me. 

One thing that I've realized revently is that I've been comparing myself wayyyyy too much to other bloggers.  I like blogging.  But I don't like technology. I realize that most bloggers decorate their posts with all kinds of pictures and links and giveaways.  Well guess what? It's basically a miracle if I remember to empty my pictures off of my camera in any sort of appropriate time frame.  And half the time, I don't even think to take pictures of half the s*#t that most bloggers think is interesting. So here's the deal:  I vow to do a better job of updating the blog.  However, don't get your hopes up for pictures of what I ate for dinner (I mean, seriously, who cares?) Or run results.  I hate running. Or giveaways.  I'm not nearly organized enough for that.  Not now, anyway.  ( I know, what the heck kind of blogger are you then??) Get over it.

I'll try to be funny. Sometimes it'll happen and sometimes it won't.  Whatever. I'm not gonna stress about that anymore.  It's my blog, and that's what you'll get- ME. The funny, the sad, the boring, the REAL.  My hope is that you'll be able to relate at one point or another.  And I would really love it if you would tell me about it.  Because sometimes it's nice to hear that you're not alone.  Hence the reason for sharing my life with every person who has access to a computer. 

So here we go.

My kids are going to be really freaking cute tomorrow (obvi). I'll be sure to post a pic.

 I've found a way to get emotionally-charged teenagers to calm the freak down (at least temporarily)- buy a class pet.  We now have two little turtles in our room. They are really cute and the kids love them.  I'll try to remember to post a pic.

I have been horrible with trying to keep up any kind of regular workout routine.  I hate being chubby, but apparently I don't quite hate it enough yet to really do anything about it.  I love eating Halloween candy.  A lot.  I'm too fat to post a pic.

I ate butternut squash soup for dinner that I made from scratch.  It was really good.  I won't post a pic.

I've now officially been married for 7 years.  That's a long time and there were times we weren't quite sure we were going to make it.  But as much as irritate each other, we've decided that we actually do like each other enough to stick it out.  Here's hoping we make it to year 8! Here's a pic:

Us on our anniversary a couple of weeks ago.  Look at the hubs- what a good looking guy!

It's good to be back! 

Have a healthy day,

J

Your turn:  can you relate to anything in this post?  Leave me a love note and tell me about it. 

Crooked Necks and Days Off

The hubster was sick all weekend.  Poor guy.  He literally never gets sick, but when he does, it really kicks his butt.  So he stayed home from work on Friday and slept most of the day.  And then he chilled out most of Saturday too.  By Sunday, he was starting to feel better. When he went to get out of bed, something happened to his neck.  Don't you know this guy came down the stairs with his head tilted to one side because he literally couldn't straighten it?  But being the tough guy he is, he still went outside to put the cover on the pool.  By dinner time, he was in labor.  As in, screaming out in pain and ripping the couch cushions apart every two minutes as his muscles went in to spasms.  When he told me I would never be able to fathom what his body was doing (Ummm, au contraire, mon ami), I decided to pack the troops in to the Envoy and head to urgent care.  4 hours, 2 Vicodin, 3 Tylenol, and 1 neck brace later, he was sent home, good as gold. I totally want to post the picture he sent to my phone while he was all hopped up on drugs, but I gotta go with my gut on this one.  My gut is telling me that doing that wouldn't be nice.  So here's a nice picture of us.  With our heads on straight. 

 

I totally tried to score some drugs from him, and he just laughed.  What's up with that?  I thought we were a team here.  

 

In other news, my pants are totally way too tight.  I am starting to notice that my legs are turning a nice shade of blue from the lack of blood that is able to circulate past my waistline.  While it's pretty and all, I'm guessing I should try hitting the gym a little more seriously.  And regularly gorging on chips is probably not advised, is it?   

 

I do have a glorious random day off tomorrow, so that's exactly what I'll be doing. (Hitting the gym, geeks, NOT gorging on chips.) And that's right after I spend some time with some pretty cool kindergartners.  Yes, that's correct.  I am going to  to stop focusing on alternative ed high schoolers, and remember that there is actually a whole bunch of kids who actually ENJOY school (and life in general).  And bonus- my kid is one of them.  I'm super excited!

 

Have a healthy day,

 

J

 



I Want To Retire

My job is officially consuming my life.  And the sad thing is that I only get paid to be there until 10:30 every morning.

So far this week I've had two full days of training on new State regulations I have to learn. I was on the phone with a colleague until 10:00 the other night, and on the phone with one of my administrators again last night after I put the kids to bed.  I was then up until 11 creating a 2-day lesson, and at work this morning for a 7:15 staff meeting. 

Meanwhile, I have no groceries in the refrigerator. I still have my second job at the gym to be at, school lunches to make, a house to clean, a new-parent meeting at CJ's school,  and apparently I have entered the contest for World's Largest Laundry Pile.

I know, cry me a river, right?  There are millions of mothers out there who work 9 hours every single day and still manage their kids and their household.  I'm not exactly sure how they do that, but I've heard it happens. 

You see, I have this horrible tendency (as I'm sure tons of mothers do) to want to do everything.  And by everything, I mean that I seriously want to have my little hands involved in every single thing that I'm interested in.  I want to be respected at work. I want to be creative and innovative and make a name for myself. I want to be a crazy fun fitness instructor who volunteers in both of her kids' classrooms and also helps out with Religious Ed on Sundays.  I want to blog my little heart out while making 50 frosted cupcakes and winning an award for being the Coolest Mother Ever. I want to go out with my husband every single weekend and remember what it's like to have fun. I want to make big, healthy meals that everyone eats. I want to plan fun outings for every single weekend yet I want my house to be clean and organized.  I want, I want, I want....

I want to retire.

Yes. I went to college for 6 long years and owe more in student loans than some people owe on their homes.  Yes. I am unwilling at this point to sacrifice any portion of my lifestyle, and therefore will talk about quitting my job all the time but will never do it.  Yes.  I really do think I'm in the right career, and for the most part, I enjoy what I do. 

But duh, work sure is getting in the way. 

In other news, I am still trying to get used to this new crazy schedule we are on.  I think we've finally figured something out that will work for everyone, and it involves making sure the boys are in bed by 7 every night.  Awesome if you've got a bunch of stuff to do around the house. Not so great if you've got a bunch of stuff to do anywhere else.  Like, say, go to the gym. 

So we're compromising.

Monday night was my night, last night was the husband's.  Tonight we're back to me.  I'm gonna try to get to Zumba if he gets home in time, but otherwise I'll get in some treadmill/weights action. 


That's about it.  CJ got out of school early today and both of them are taking a nap.  I'm actually going to try to be productive and get dinner started. That's right- just call me  a hot-mess Supermom. 

Have a healthy day,

J