Monday Madness

What a fun fall weekend!  On Saturday, we took the boys to this place that's filled with gigantic inflatable bounce houses.  They lost their minds for a couple hours, and every 10 minutes or so I thought I was going to go in to cardiac arrest.  They love that place, but it totally freaks me out.  Once they enter these things, they're gone.  I can't hear a thing because of the air pumps that are keeping them all inflated; and they're all filled with blown up things to navigate through, climb up, and slide down.  I basically watch them go in and keep my fingers crossed that they don't get either stuck or crushed before they come back out.  The highlight of the trip was watching my son sprint from house to house and get told to slow down and walk.  Instead of just complying and walking away like I imagine any normal 3-year-old would do, my child stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the guy for a solid 10 seconds. He then busted out his most elaborate ninja moves complete with sound effects and proceeded to *sprint* away from him.  It's amazing that I actually held it together long enough to get him to actually walk before I just about peed myself from laughing so hard.  My kid is so naughty. I pity his middle school teachers. 

That's just about all I have time for today, you guys.  I am already stressed out with trying to get our new routine in place.  And Im starting to feel bad for my poor lucky gym members- I definitely took all of my stress out on them tonight.  I just got home about 10 minutes and already I can't really feel my shoulders.  Oops, maybe it was a bit harsh.  But I still managed to lift my shoulders high enough to reach my mouth.  I made some stuffed zucchin for dinner and couldn't wait to get home to eat.  It may have just undone all of the work I just put in at the gym, but whoa- amazeballs.

Ok, I'm off to make some school lunch, clean my dirty kitchen and go to bed so I can do it all again tomorrow.  My littlest man starts school (well, for an hour preview) tomorrow.  Pray that he keeps his ninja moves to himself. 

Have a healthy day,

J

Random Ramblings

I never really get why a bunch of stay-at-home-mom bloggers all rejoice at the fact that it's Friday.  I mean, for real. You stay home every day.  Your chores don't change just because it's the weekend.  You still have to wake up early and make a bunch of breakfasts and clean up toys and yell at kids for being too rowdy and plan dinner and run errands and the list goes on and on.  So if you are a stay-at-home-mom can you please explain the excitement about Fridays?  Thank you.

And while I'm a stay-at-home-mom most of the time, I am a teacher for a little part of each day as well.  But you already knew that.  What you didn't know is that each Friday, my students write a Friday Freewrite journal entry.  (That means they can write about whatever they want).  Since today was their first Friday with me as their teacher, most of them were shy to share.  One boy agreed to share his, but wanted me to be the one to read it to the class.  So I did.  And guess what?  The entire thing was about how much he already hates my class.  And yes, in case you were wondering, he hates me too.  Don't worry, he went on to say that he hates everything about this school.   I asked him afterwards if he would at least give it an honest try, and he told me he "doubts it".  Over all, it was a really wonderful pick-me-up.

My family attended three different parties over the three day weekend. My children got to run around and be crazy with their same-age cousins from Pennsylvania (they had so much fun and were insanely cute together) on Saturday. On Sunday, we went to a BBQ at our friends' house. There were so many kids there who all loved playing and swimming and eating together. And on Monday, we were at my parents' house celebrating my baby brother's 27th birthday. And since I'm an All-Star Blogger and Documenter of Memories, I didn't have my camera. (And apparently, I have also decided to hang on to my old school cell phone that's worth approximately 50 cents for EVER). I am so cool like that. This is literally the only picture (that got emailed to me) from our entire fun weekend:

 

 

I worked out once this entire week.  I didn't get to teach on Monday because of the holiday, and trying to get in to our new routine has me all messed up.  I did a workout from Exercise On Demand the other night.  It was alright, and I was a very sweaty mess, but I despise working out at home.  For one, I have, like, 3 square feet in which to mover around; and two, I can never hear the freaking music in those shows.  So I have to stare at the TV to try to keep up with their beat.  It's usually a disaster and I look like a freak show.  I set my alarm to go to the gym before work today, and then just didn't get up.  I'm a mess. 

 

So there ya have it.  Cheers to the freakin weekend.  (remember that song?) I hope it's a good one.  I'm off to get my KINDERGARTNER.  (I'll probably stop talking about that soon, but I'm making no promises.)

 

Have a healthy day,

 

J



Fill in the Blank Friday (A Link Up)

 

Hi!  Happy almost weekend.  And a three day weekend at that.  I'll bet all of you 9-to-5ers are psyched today, huh?  Me-well, not so much.  I'm one day closer to sending my baby off to become a big school kid.  (Are you sick of hearing about that yet?  Too bad.  My kid is going to kindergarten and I'm freaking out.  Get over it.) 

Anyway, I've never done anything like this before, but today I'm linking up with Lauren from The Little Things We Do. She posted this thing called "Fill in the Blank Friday", and now a whole ton of bloggers are doing it.  So since I love a good bandwagon, I've decided to jump on.  Here we go:

 

 

 

1. Over this Labor Day weekend I will be   crying my eyes out about Kindergarten starting in approximately 3 seconds, eating too much at our friends' BBQ, and celebrating my baby brother's 27th birthday.  Oh shoot, I really need to get him a present...

2. With the political debates going on right now, my thoughts are, "Can these people please stop slamming each other and just tell me how they are going to make things better? Whoever is going to realize that public school kids need to be educated as whole people and not just as standardized test-takers will get my vote".

3. Today  the boys and I had an awesome playdate with a group of friends we started playing with when the oldest ones were 1 and the babies couldn't even sit up.  That's a long time, and we were all sad when we said goodbye. 

4. The best thing I've cooked recently was   some buffalo chicken in the crockpot.  Just one more example of why I am in love with Pinterest.  Holy Man that stuff was good.

5. The last thing I bought was  2 backpacks, some Sharpie markers, and a pack of pens.  Boring with a capital B. It's really great that my students don't even bring a pen to school with them.  I love supplying them with stuff.

6. The best movie I saw this summer was ummmm.... did I even see any movies this summer? I watched this movie on Netflix the other night about this girl who found out at the very beginning that she had cancer.  It was horribly sad and I did that awful shaking cry through the whole thing.  I think I may have even wiped my nose on my shirt. 

7. The best book I read this summer was   50 Shades of Grey.  HaHa, just kidding. I am an English teacher, true.  But I don't think it takes an English teacher to realize that the writing in that book was ridiculously bad.  But if you're looking for a GOOD book, then you should read Room by Emma Donoghue. Trust me on this one.

 

 

Have a healthy day,

 

 

J



So Long, Summer

I went back to work yesterday.  A full day, and I about died.  Meeting after meeting after meeting.  I'm pretty sure that the highlight of my day was walking in to my classroom after having set up the desks exactly how I wanted them last week, only to find that someone went in there and took all but 5 desks out.  Those 5 were arranged in a neat little row down the center of the room.  Um, bring me back my effing desks.  And thanks, but rows? C'mon.  Everyone knows that rows are SO uncool. So I decided to actually get on top of things for once in my life and make a poster I want for my first day activity.  A very special shout-out goes to whomever took ALL of the supplies out of the supply cupboard.  I'm really looking forward to going out and buying ALL new stuff, breaking a sweat while moving furniture down a hallway, and oh yeah, meeting all of my parents tonight.  Good times. 

On another note, my kid had Kindergarten screening this morning. I'm not exactly sure what they were screening for, especially since his tiny school only has one Kindergarten class, so it's not like there's a lot of options.  He was super excited to go, but definitely started crying when I was about leave.  I was totally unprepared for the tears and it sucked.  And what sucked even more is that when I went back an hour later to get him, the teacher said that for the last ten minutes he kept saying he just wanted to play with his brother. They are gonna die without eachother this year. Poor Ty has to wait for 2 more freaking years before he gets to go.  Horrible planning on my part.  He totally should have been born 3 months earlier than he was. 

Much to their dismay, they are NOT actually twins.

So that's what's happening over here.  On a different note, I did a double workout session on Monday (ran and did free weights in the morning; taught Power Body at night), and then tried a new class last night.  It was a series of one-minute intervals (I'm certain she was lying about them only being 60 seconds) of cardio and strength.  The whole thing was done while holding a medicine ball.  It literally kicked my booty.  As in, my butt is so friggin sore today that going up the stairs is actually a chore.  It's looking like today may need to be a rest day, unless I can squeeze something in before I go to Open House tonight. 

 

Have a healthy day,

 

J

 

 

5 Boys And A Cat

Yep, that was my life a couple of days ago- I had 5 boys and a cat.  In my house.  And miraculously, everyone got along.  I had two five-year-olds, two three-year-olds, and the chubbiest, happiest 9-month-old I've ever seen.  We've known these guys since CJ was a baby, and I can't believe they still get along.  But they do, and for a split second while they were here, I contemplated quitting my job and opening a home-daycare.  And then I remembered that my own children drive me bat-shit crazy half the time, so there's no chance that would work out in anyone's favor. So alas, I will return to work next week...

Blah.  Next week already.  I'm so not ready to face the fire.  But I am ready to get back in to the routine of things.  Even though the thought of Kindergarten (already?!?) is making me sick, I'm psyched about the school he got in to, and even though I complain about my job a lot, I've got a pretty sick schedule. (Like that double entendre?  Wait, it is called a double entendre, right?) I'll get to pick both of the boys up from their respective schools every day, and that makes the control freak in me ecstatic. 

I've got some good ideas (well, at least I think they're good) for my classroom, and I'm excited to get in there and set it up.  Should the ideas in my head actually come to fruition, I'll post a pic or two.  Because after all, I know that you are obsessed with seeing and understanding ALL aspects of my life, right?

On the workout front, I am probably going to have to switch up the schedule again once September hits.  But that's really okay because my routine has been all over the place this summer.  So I'm looking forward to locking something in.  Maybe I'll actually stick to it this time around.

One would think that with all this control freakishness in me that my house would be immaculate. And yet it's just not.  Whatevs.  Summer's almost over and we've got way more important stuff to squeeze in before it's gone for good.  It's gonna be looking like this all too soon.





Olympic Depression

Anyone else going through withdrawals today? 

I'm so freaking sad that the Olympics are over.  You'd think that I was an elite athlete or something. 

(I'm so not.) 

Which sport left the greatest impression on you? 

Was it Women's Soccer?



 Abby Wambach and I went to high school together.  She was a year behind me.
We weren't friends, but she was friends with all of my sporty friends.
She is the only celebrity that I even kinda-know.

Was it Men's Swimming? 

Ryan Lochte is from here too.
I did not go to high school with him.
I do not even kinda know him.

Some of you know and some of you may not know that back in the day, my husband was a nasty runner.  (As in, had he focused a little more in college, he could have competed at the Olympic trials nasty.) So although we had the Games on every single night, he was really waiting for the track stuff to start.  And for the first time, I got completely sucked in. I was enthralled with the athleticism of these sprinters. Not only did I want to be friends with these people, but I started wondering if there's still time to start training for Rio 2016. (Oh wait, you have to be incredibly talented and driven in order to do something of that caliber, and it's not actually as easy as they make it look?  Boo.)



You, Usain, are the fastest known person in the entire universe.
Therefore, you are allowed to be arrogant.

Of all of the Olympians by whom I am now enthralled, one has become my all-time favorite.  So Gabby Douglas- I think you are phenomenal.  Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh- outstanding and amazing to watch; and all of the Rhythmic Gymnasts whose names I cannot pronounce- I highly enjoy watching you even though some people may think that you belong in Cirque Du Soleil insted of the Olympics.  But my award for personal favorite Olympian of the London 2012 Games goes to this girl: 

Sanya Richards-Ross. 

As I'm sure is totally normal in any household, our children love watching their father and me compete at stuff.  Last weekend, they insisted that we race in the pool.  In a brutal attempt to win, he slammped his hand in to the side and thought he broke his finger.  It swelled up instantly and was throbbing, but he demanded we go again. (Yes, it was that close.  And yes, it's that important to him that he beat me.)  So that got me thinking about my Number One Olympian. 

She is married to an NFL star (so now they have both Olympic gold medals and Super Bowl rings in their house.  How awesome is that?!) They have twin boys.  (Yet another reason I LOVE her- she had two babies at once, and still has those hot abs and the drive to compete internationally.) I want to be there when their boys make them race.



Things That Make Me Happy

Miniature shoe boxes: I mean, how could this not make you happy?



He can now jump off the diving board and swim to the shallow end by himself.
He *will* make you call him Michael Phelps.

He *will* walk around the entire edge of the pool drawing X's in a line, and then
wrap up and pretend he was swimming.  He's not dramatic at all, as noted in the
"I'm not smiling" face.



Healthy dinners: some egg casserole, a quesadilla with salsa, and some chips.
 It happened. And it was good.





Awkwardfamilyphotos.com
I may or may not have the paperback version sitting on my nightstand.







Doing something I never thought possible





Watching a pre-soccer practice pep talk.
 The guy in blue is a great dad.  Lucky for me, we're married. 



family time

Date night. Martinis.

Just kidding. Creepy guys in bootleg superhero costumes do not make me happy.
But it's kinda funny, right?

My life.  I get to work a little, play a lot, and spend time doing stuff I love. I complain sometimes, but I need to knock it off.  My life makes me happy.  I am a lucky gal. 

Have a healthy day,

J