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Greetings!

I'm happy that I held off on blogging until this afternoon.  I was sooo tired this morning and my writing would have been very blah.   I stayed up way too late so getting up in a timely manner presented a problem.   Gavin still got to school on time but I was zoned out all the way to Ames.  Luckily I got back into the needed groove before my 10am class.   I got a lot of work done last night though...so I felt justified to stay up until 3am.  I have about an hour left at work until I need to head south to pick up Gavin from school.   Then I get to come right back to Ames to take him to his dentist appointment.  Yippee!  Having his dentist and orthodontist in Ames is a pain in the butt once in awhile but I like them both and didn't want to switch him.   Especially his orthodontist, his life with braces will be done soon. 

The break was very nice and I think I had a nice balance of downtime and work.   I knew that avoiding work all week was impossible but I didn't want to bury myself in tasks.   Monday and Tuesday were spent with work activities for the most part.   Email took up some time on other days of the work.  My health studies students had a major unit plan due today and some of the obviously procrastinated as I got urgent questions from them this past weekend.   I was so tempted to write "You should have asked this question prior to break, I'm not wasting my break answering it for you."  But alas I'm too nice. 

It was fun seeing family for a bit during the break.   I was able to partake in the Thanksgiving-Eve party and have some slush.   I had not drank a lot in a very long time and I think it was the cause of my feeling very ill at 3am when I was trying to sleep.  Luckily I woke up feeling fine and whipped up a large batch of meatballs for the Thanksgiving meal.   I was disappointed about the lack of green bean casserole but made some this weekend for Jon and myself.   Horrible in regards to Weight Watchers points but ever so tasty.   It was fun to goof off with some of the cousins.   My ability to catch and throw a football has become poor.   My PE teacher peers would be horrified.  

Jon wanted to buy a certain item that was on sale for Black Friday so we ventured out Thursday night.   I guess he made a Gray Thursday purchase rather than Black Friday.   It wasn't too crazy at Target as we arrived late after the 8pm opening of the store.   Luckily the item was still available and in stock for purchase.   Gavin went to a friend's house Friday through Saturday so Jon took the opportunity to try a new grocery store in Des Moines called Trader Joe's.   It's organic and natural food at a supposed affordable price.   Some of the items were quite expensive.   The store proved that an item can be labeled "natural" or "organic" and still be fairly unhealthy for you.   I looked at some things and calculated Weight Watchers points.   Many things were put back on the shelf.   I was hoping they would have satisfactory hummus to buy as I've recently fallen in love with a garlic hummus from a natural food store in Ames.   It's kind of expensive and difficult to not indulge in.  I couldn't find a hummus at Trader Joe's that explicitly stated it was garlic in nature.   Several of the plain hummus options have garlic as an ingredient but I wasn't sure if that would meet my expectations.   I should just learn to make the stuff on my own.   Jon found reasonably priced salmon and I tried it for the first time.   It's not too bad but not my favorite fish. 

I was able to make it to Weight Watchers last Wednesday prior to leaving town and lost 3.8 lbs.   It will be interesting to see what the holiday food intake has done to that total weight loss.   I'm still wearing my ActiveLink.   It finished my 8 day assessment.   I wasn't surprised to learn that I'm not a very active person.   I sit a lot in my car now.   I sit a lot at my desk at work.   Definitely need to get up and walk more often.   One thing I learned during the 8 day assessment was that placing the accelerometer on my waist band was a poor choice.   It stayed on if I wore jeans but if I wore athletic pants or dress pants, the stupid thing fell off a lot.   I had to save it from a dive into the toilet a few times.   Luckily you can pick different locations to wear it so I switched to keeping it in my pocket.   I may end up keeping it attached to my bra as I feel it would be more accurate closer to my body.   It seems for it to be loose in my pocket and not secured. 

I need to lose about 7 more pounds to have lost 10% of my total body weight.   It irritates me that I've been so close and I keep motivation.   Jon's been going back and forth too but he has reached the 10% loss.  He' also skipped less meetings and got an award for attending for 16 weeks.  Just another case of knowing what I need to do and putting it into practice diligently.   Sigh. 

Alright, it's time to get myself organized so I can be on the road soon to provide taxi services for Gavin.   Blogging was a lot more fun than grading some of those projects.  

Break is Here...Woohoo!

The end of Friday could not come soon enough this week.   My students were anxious and I tried to not seem too eager for next week's break Thanksgiving holiday.   I still have plenty of work to do while at home so I stay sane the week after T-Day.   A lot of major projects need to be assessed in the upcoming weeks so I'm trying to get the "other" stuff taken care of (grading less-major assignments, prepping final exams,  etc.)   Sadly I have to go into work on Tuesday for a little bit. 

I started using a new piece of technology this week to hopefully help with the weight loss process.   It's called ActiveLink.   It's an acceleromter that helps to assess physical activity.   (Looks like a pedometer but lights up.)  It evaluates all dimensions of movement and intensity of movement too.  You can wear it on  four places on the body:  the waistline, in your pocket, in your bra, or on a necklace.   I've been wearing it on my waistline and I'm considering switching to my bra soon.   Works well for jeans....however the contraption comes off easy with my dress pants and athletic wear.  I'm hoping it's survived the number of times it was dropped in the last couple days.   It about took a swim in a toilet today but that tragedy was averted thanks to physics. 

I'm wearing it for a week for a baseline assessment.  After this week, it will start presenting weekly challenges to me.   The accelerometer will light up throughout the day showing my progress.   When all green lights turn on eventually and flash, it means I've met my daily goal.   The leader had a good way of explaining it as many of the Weight Watchers participants were skeptical.    The leader says we all do some amount of activity each day.   She told us to visualize filling a bucket with all the activity.   The acceleromter helps measure what a person needs to do to make the bucket overflow and lead to consistent weight loss.  Anyway, Jon was cool and bought it for me (I was going to save money and buy one in December).   I'm very interested to see what goals are set for me. 

Gavin and I finally made it to the public library and got cards.  It's considerably smaller than the library in Ames.   Neither Gavin and I could find the books we wanted and I randomly found books by Garrison Keillor so I decided to dive in and try one.  I'm currently reading A Christmas Blizzard,  It's very short and has been an easy read.  Mr. Keillor has a somewhat eccentric style of writing.   Not sure what I'll read after that. 

My taxi duties are needed now so I'll have to write another blog later this weekend. 

I dislike getting older....

No worries, this isn't a rant or a huge complaint about the approaching 3-0.  I didn't feel as wowed or excited about Halloween this year and I blame my age.  I've barely watched any horror movies (luckily I can watch those year-round).   My decorating was limited due to the remodel of the house so I'm hoping that next year I can really spruce up the front yard with some spooky stuff.   Is it bad that a motivating factor for having another child is strongly associated to being able to dress up a little kiddo and Trick-or-Treat regularly for several more years?  I'm hoping I feel more of the Christmas spirit and the holiday doesn't just slip by like Halloween did.  I guess I feel old because life is all work, work, work and I'm not enjoying the fun little pleasures.  

Gavin didn't trick-or-treat in Ankeny.  He helped Jon and I hand out candy on Tuesday night.  He did trick-or-treat on Wednesday night as he came up to Ames (thanks to my taxi service) and hung out with his friends.   Due to his height, I believe this may be his last year of participation.  I didn't take pictures or anything.   I was in a rush to get to DMACC so I wasn't late for work.

The weight loss process has hit a nice mental bump.   It always seems to happen around 20 lbs too.   I'm lazy and complacent when it comes to tracking my food intake.   I'm eating too much every day and I can tell I've gained some weight back.  Blah!  Work kept me from Weight Watchers last week.   My taxi service kept me away yesterday.   I need to just go in Saturday and get my weight so I know what's changed.   I also need to make more of an effort to work out more regularly.   My treadmill is covered with a comforter (needed to dry more after a ride in the dryer) and I think other blankets are sitting on the actual track.   I'm seriously thinking of using the interval running program I got years ago from a friend to start back up with running.   In a perfect world, I would wake up at 6am, run for 20-30 minutes, hit the shower, get all purdy for work, drive Gavin to school, and be on the road for Ames by 8:15am.   It's amazing how difficult it is for me to get up that early.   I'm even going to bed earlier most evenings. 

Anyway, I really want to be close to a 30 lb loss by the end of the year.   It will be tough considering that Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up quick.   Here's the deal though....why do I get so worked up about the food related to those holidays?   I can have turkey at any time.   Same with mashed potatoes, green beans, etc.   I'm actually not a fan of pumpkin desserts.   I'm also not a big fan of cookies and stuff associated with Christmas.   Yet I get around people and I feel the need to stuff my face.   The psychology of eating really rears its ugly head around the holidays.  I really want to go to Taki for my birthday meal too but I am willing to postpone that for an early 2013 venture if need be.   I know I'll end up eating too much at that venue because it's so delicious.   Thank God I don't live closer to that restaurant.

And to end this blog entry...here is a before picture of the house:

Here is an after picture.   They completed the stone work yesterday. 

We still have a ton of work to do....well the contractor has a ton of work to do.  They still need to paint the trim on the house, put the gutters back on, paint the front door red (ISU red), insulate the windows, stain wooden part of the window frames, put trim around the windows on the inside, attach the storm doors, do the trim on the garage, etc.  It will be interesting to see how much they get finished before the snow is flying.   I just want the work done so we can do some major cleaning on the inside and outside.

I'm sure I'll be blogging again soon as I need to get my butt to Weight Watchers to weigh in and see what the damage is.