Back in the Saddle(bags) Again

So, here I am, back in that annoying place I have been so many times before - climbing the hill on the rollercoaster of dieting. Last January (2009), my friend Keri and I started Weight Watchers together. I also joined Curves and really stuck with counting/tracking my points. By September I had lost 40 lbs. I went to the doctor last week, and as always, they kindly welcomed me by showing me my growing weight (Nice to see you, too...ya jerks). Since September, I have gained back about 15 pounds. I have lots of excuses for why that is (football season, holidays, stress, cream cheese whispering my name until I caved and re-united with my old friend), but none of them are worthy of gaining back any of those pounds I worked so hard to lose.
I have started and re-started Weight Watchers approximately 37 times since January. Many Sunday nights have been deemed "The Last Supper" as I loaded up on a buffet of cheese, butter, chocolate, etc. in a last attempt to enjoy myself. The weeks have gone well, but I usually blow it over the weekend, which would be okay if I wanted to maintain my current weight, but I DON'T. So, here we go again.
Weight loss is not easy for me because of several reasons:
1) I LOVE food. I find small joy in a perfect cupcake or cheese dip or lasagna. The great thing about Weight Watchers, is I can still have all of those things, but I have to recondition my mind about what appropriate portions are. Apparently a whole basket of chips with cheese dip is slightly excessive.
2) I have little self control when it comes to food, especially sweets. If you offer me a donut or a brownie, I have a very hard time saying, "No thanks, I will have this delicious fat-free, sugar-free, taste-free chocolate pudding instead."
3) I do not enjoy exercise. One might say that I actually hate it. Okay, so that one would be me, but whatever. I do not like to sweat and I am lazy, so physical exercise ranks right up there with a trip to the gyno.
Basically, I can keep using these excuses until I am right back to where I started, or I can get serious this time and start losing again. I am choosing the latter. Over the next few weeks I will let you know how it's going and hopefully have some success to share with all of you. I am hereby officially stating that I am putting on my big girl panties and dealin' with it!

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

Here are a few things I am loving right now:
1) Music: I love Kari Jobe. She is a Christian singer with one of the most beautiful voices. Her songs are amazing. I also love Rita Springer. She is another Christian singer who has some great songs of praise and worship.
2) TV: YAY!!! Glee has finally returned! Oh how I have missed Sue Sylvester and her completely inappropriate comments that kinda make me cringe. I have also developed an obsession with Alias. Yes, I know it came on long ago, but my friend Julie has gotten me hooked on it. She owns the first 3 seasons, so we have watched all of those and just finished the fourth season (which has been my favorite so far).
3) Books: I have been reading lots lately. I just finished The Help, which I loved. I am now reading House Rules, which is Jodi Picoult's latest. If you have not read any of her books, you need to start now! They are soooo good. I have also started reading Janet Evanovich's series about Stephanie Plum, the world's worst bounty hunter. These books are good, quick reads between the more intense books on my list.
4) Food: Yesterday I went to Auburn for A-Day with Ashley and Carson. Our road trip of course called for snacks, so I made "the world's best trail mix" (if I do say so myself). Yogurt covered pretzles, M&M's, goldfish crackers, mixed nuts, and chocoalte Cheerios.
5) Fashion: I am so glad it is warm again and I can wear capris, sandals, and shorts. I also love that my hair has finally gotten long enough to pull up in a wee ponytail. I have LOTS of thick hair, so it feels so great to pull it up off my neck. I tried scrunching it up last week. It actually held the curl pretty well, but some of my family members were not feelin' it. "What did you do to your hair? You look like you have jheri curl." "Whoa, what happened to your hair?" Of course all of these comments came from men. What do they know??

What are you loving right now?? Do tell.

F-Bombs Away

Times, they are a changin'... Each year I am more and more amazed at what 5th graders say. The things they know at this age blows me away. I am pretty sure when I was in 5th grade I still thought boys had cooties and the worst word I knew was "butt".
One year I asked my kids what some of their favorite movies were and I got everything from Scary Movie to Saw. Most of the movies they named were rated R. The first rated R movie I saw was Pretty Woman (which now a days would probably be rated PG). Sidenote: Pretty sure that using the phrase "now a days" makes me old.
This year many of my boys have an obsession with WWF (wrestling). In the past month I have taken up 2 wrestling magazines that are full of scantily clad women. Pretty sure they didn't check that out from our school library.
The biggest shocker to me, though has been the 3 F-bombs that have been dropped in my classroom in the past 2 years. Last year I had a student singing a song using words that rhymed with luck (duck, buck, f***). Of course the kids that heard him reacted with lots of giggles, which only made him sing it again and again until finally one child came and told me he was saying "the F word". I pulled him in the hallway and asked him what he was saying. He said the word and asked what the big deal was. After I picked my jaw up off the ground I explained to him that the word he said was a very very very bad word that he should never ever use again.
This year as we were lining up for lunch I had a child simply ask (in front of the whole class), "Ms. Meadows is f*** a bad word?" In my shock I said, "What did you just say?" which of course caused him to repeat the word. I gave him the same speech I had given the student the previous year.
Just a few weeks ago I had the 3rd student yell out the word in a moment of frustration because he had not completed his work. Needless to say, seeing as he used the word knowing full and well what it meant, his consequences were a little more severe.
Disclaimer: I assure you that these students are not repeating ANYTHING they have heard me say, unless they are mind-readers (just kidding).

The Final Countdown...

I cannot believe it is already April! It seems like just last week I was packing up all my Christmas decorations. Now, here we are with 80 degree weather, flip flop feet, and the overwhelming anxiety that comes with the arrival of swimsuits in all department stores. (By the way, I have often wondered why Spanx doesn't make swimsuits. Well, now they do!). So, my toes are polished, my legs are finally shaved above my knees again, and I am loving sitting outside in this brief window of time before it becomes stifling.

This is my fourth year teaching and it really does feel like each year goes by a little faster. I am very ready for summer, but I will be sad to see this class leave. So, here we are with 37 school days left until summer... but who's counting? I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!

April Fools

On my way to school this past Thursday I was planning out a great April Fools' joke to do on my class. I was going to convince them that I did not feel like they had done their best on all of the SAT tests they had taken so far, so I had asked for special permission to have them re-take them all. I was going to pass out their #2 pencils, scratch paper, etc. and then loudly declare, "April Fools... hahahaha... Gotcha... Booyah!" Apparently ALL of their parents had already been pulling pranks on them because they all came in that morning telling me I had something on my shirt (which I stupidly fell for too many times). So, basically they were already on to me, so I knew I would not be able to pull off my great prank.
Also, apparently some students thought that April Fools' day is a free opportunity to hit other kids without getting in trouble. One boy told someone they had a spider on their head and then offered to get it off by smacking them on the head as hard as possible. Needless to say, his theory about not getting in trouble was untrue.

The Torture of Testing

We started our standardized testing this past Wednesday. Some days we test for only an hour or so, but other days we will test for half the day. While the students are testing I am required to walk around and make sure they are bubbling correctly, staying on the correct test, looking at their own paper, not sleeping, etc. This is BORING! Not only is it boring, but it is FRUSTRATING! We have worked all year on the information that they are tested on, so it is pure torture to see them making very careless/ridiculous mistakes. The real torture, though is that I cannot say anything to them, much less whack them on the back of the head and say "Are you kidding me?!?!"
On Thursday they took one of the math tests. As I was walking around and checking to make sure they were writing their answers correctly I noticed that hardly any of them had the same answers. Is that a problem?? If they ask a question, all I can do is re-read the test question to them. And the questions I was getting made me want to borrow one of their freshly sharpened #2 pencils and gouge my eyes out. Two days of testing down, 5 more to go... should be fun!

Wants vs. Needs

So, God and I have been having lots of meaningful discussions lately on wants vs. needs. He is really showing me that there is indeed a difference between the two. For example, things that I want = husband, to be a mother, rock-hard body, just to name a few. Are "wants" bad things? Not necesarily. Are "wants" what we always "need"? Not necessarily. A want is something that would be nice to have, a wish, a desire. A need is something that is necessary or required for our well-being. So, when using the definition of a need and looking at my "wants" I quickly see that they are not things that I will die without, which is a tough pill to swallow, because it sure feels that way sometimes. Does this mean that I should not pray for these things? Absolutely not! But I think that I tend to go to God like Veruca Salt in my most whiny voice, proclaiming, "But, Daddddyy, I want a ____________ nowwwww!" Sometimes the things we want are just not what God has for us at that time, and that takes some major faith in His perfect timing, which is also hard for me to do, because let's face it... my plan always seems great to me. Trusting that God knows what is up ahead can be so hard at times, especially since I am slightly OCD about planning things. It is very hard for me to let go and relinquish control, but that is exactly what He demands of me... Trust, Faith, Surrender.

God has really spoken to me through the Bible study I am doing right now. The other day I saw a translation of Psalm 23:1 that I had never seen before. It really emphasized that in Christ, I have all I need. The NIV version says, "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.", but this translation said, "The Lord is my Shepherd; I have everything I need." The author of this study went further to translate this verse by saying, "What I have in God is greater than what I don't have in life." WOW! Chew on that for a while!

Here are some of the verses God has shown me to encourage me in this area:
"No, the Lord is all I need. He takes care of me." - Psalm 16:5
"Depend on the Lord, trust Him, and He will take care of you." - Psalm 37:5
"Do not worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks. And God's peace, which is so great we cannot understand it, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." - Philippians 4:6-7
"My God will use his wonderful riches in Christ Jesus to give you everything you need." - Philippians 4:19