Still Alive, Still Kick'n

Greetings:

It's been quite some time since I've stared at my blog.  A lot of wonderful things have taken place and luckily I only have two biggies that have been less than positive.   First of all, my ISU class ended, my DMACC class ended, and the summer program ended.   Of those three, I was most grateful for the children's program conclusion.  I always have a ton of energy and enthusiasm for that part of my job in May and most of June.   By July it's stressful and I start to "check out".   It's not the most professional thing to admit but I do really start to count down the days.   The staff and employees involved with the program this summer were great so it was awesome  to not deal with personnel problems.   Even the children were well behaved for the most part, we only had a few issues with the participants.   I still need to write a thank-you to the staff and a separate one for my program assistant.

I'm working on preparations for the fall semesters.    I teach three classes for ISU and they all take place on MWF.    My only obligation on Tuesdays and Thursdays will be occasional visits to student teachers and Swim & Gym in the afternoons.    I'm filling-in for a professor for one of the courses.   I've never taught the course before but she was willing to let me use her materials since I'm a substitute.   I'm also fairly prepared for the graduate student orientation too.   Coordinating the event in the past years has made prep pretty easy.   I make notes on what didn't work well or what should be included.    It's easy to create an agenda in June and it falls together rather easily.

We were fortunate to take a vacation to South Dakota the last week of July.    I had never been that far west therefore Gavin had not ventured that direction either.   Jon had been to the state and its attractions before but it had been years.   We had places to visit and hotel reservations made but didn't have a strict plan.   We took off on a Saturday and planned to drive 4.5-5 hours to the northwest to stay in Sioux Falls, SD.   I made a reservation and a Ramada with an indoor swimming facility.   Most of it was geared toward young kids but they did have a pool, water basketball area, water slide, and decent hot tubs.   I wanted to swim on this trip so that was accomplished the first night.   We stopped at the falls the next day before we left to head west.    They were pretty.    We were able to have a picnic near by (great money saver).  

 

 

 

We headed toward Rapid City the next day.    The first stop along the way was the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.    The art on the building was pretty cool and was neat to see the history behind the public attraction.

We went onward toward Wall, SD to visit the Wall Drug Store as the roadways are plastered with advertisements for the tourist trap.   Jon got his free class of ice water.    I got my $0.05 cup of coffee and we both had a freshly made donut.    I bought some taffy and fudge.   It was a healthy stop but a cool place to see.

We pressed on and made our way to Rapid City so we could find our next hotel and find a place to eat.   The amount of open space in South Dakota is amazing.    It blows Iowa out of the water.   The restaurant we visited used to be the city's fire house so it was a pretty neat setting.    We used the pool again and braced ourselves for the next day.

We went to Wind Cave National Park the next morning.    We took the long way through the Black Hills and drove through a part of Custer State Park too.   We didn't see a ton of wildlife but the open terrain was beautiful.   We took a tour of the cave that was about 1/2 a mile in length.    We tried to visit another local cave but the tours were sold out for the day when we arrived.    We drove by Hill City and found a Flintstone campground that Jon remembered from his childhood.   We also drove by the site for Crazy Horse.   They aren't working on the sculpture so we weren't about to pay a fee to get closer to it.   You could see it very well from the highway.    We went to Mount Rushmore later in the evening so we could see the night ceremony for the site.    A park ranger speaks to the crowd about the national part and a movie is shown about the presidents.   They also turn the spotlights on the monument.   At the very end they have all current military personnel and retired come down to the stage to retire the flag for the night.    It was really cool to see so much patrioism (spelling)?

We also visited a drive-thru zoo before Rushmore.   It's called Bear Country USA.   Some animals cooperated and walked around or moved as we drove through.   Some weren't visible or were napping.    I was shocked by how much it cost but I suppose it's not cheap to run the place, buy food for the animals, etc.  


The negative aspects that I'll mention are the dieting and exericse.    I'm not eating very well and I'm eating out too often.    Not being as active as I should be either.   Two things I can easily start to fix though.    I'm making a salad for supper tonight so that should help keep us home to eat.    I'll save my brainstorming for another blog entry.     Still pondering ideas and plans. 

And the weightloss restarts...

Greetings!

Stepped on the scale at Weight Watchers last night and have lost 5.4 pounds!   I knew I had lost weight but was slightly concerned as I'm still overeating at night but I've really curbed it.   I'm eating wholesome stuff at night at least but it still adds up to extra calories.   I've basically lost half of what I've gained since January.   I'm sure next week's loss won't be so substantial but only losing 1-1.5 lbs is the way to go. 

I'm actually excited for a doctor's appointment on Monday.   I'm getting my hearing checked.   It's much overdue.   I've needed it to be checked for years.   Gavin's voice is lowering and I have noticed I'm having a hard time hearing him most days too.   Blah.   Jon hates how often he has to repeat himself.    Hopefully Monday resolves these issues or puts me on the right path for resolving them.

The class I teach at ISU starts on Monday.   I'm excited in the sense it's a cool class and the class size is small.   I'm not excited as it's going to force me to be more organized in the morning and I'll have to wake up earlier.   It's been nice sleeping in and lollygagging in the mornings.   I won't have to get up at the crack of dawn but I do need to be on the road by 8:30am.   I'll be doing more laundry too as I'll have to be somewhat dressy in the morning and dressed comfortably in the afternoons.   Thursdays will be a treat as I need to be dressy in the morning, causal in the afternoon, and dressy in the evening for my DMACC class.   Wee!!   Thank God I enjoy doing laundry. 

Jon is off enjoying himself this weekend in Chicago so Gavin and I have the house to ourselves.   I will work a little bit to prepare further for the ISU class but I'm also going to visit Lane Bryant and use my Real Woman dollars earned from an online order.   I need to order some more nice tops and maybe some black capris for work.   I only want to visit one Lane Bryant in Des Moines but I'll go to more than one if I can't find my sizes.  

I'm starting the preliminary planning for our vacation in August.  I'm trying to pinpoint the starting date as we want to chunk up the driving.   It's like 9 hours to get to west South Dakota.   A hotel on the east side of South Dakota has an indoor water park so I'm going to have us stay on the first day of travel so we can do some swimming and relax poolside.   We may actually camp in some areas along the way too.   The main attractions will be Mount Rushmore and Bear Country.  Apparently there is a Corn Palace place too that we might visit even though it's all about tourism.   

Well that's enough for now, I should probably work a little bit before the kid's program starts.   I need to place our t-shirt order today.   I'm not very creative.   Same shirts as last year with the date changed.  

Hello Again....Weight Watchers

 

 

Greetings!   After a reminder about blogging, I figured I'd write this and do some work afterwards.   I should probably switch that order but nah.   I decided to be more visual and proclaim my love for salmon.    It's amazing I was so afraid to try that wonderful fish for years.   I've been eating it a lot lately and I really enjoy it.    Even took the plunge and bought some from Schwan's this week.   Here's hoping I can successfully bake it and enjoy it at home as it's not always the cheapest meals at local restaurants. 

 

Jon and I jumped back on that horse called "Weight Watchers" this past week.   I've gained weight since the winter due to my apathy towards weight loss.   I'm pleased that I haven't gained an immense amount and it will be somewhat easy to drop what I've gained and keep working toward my major goals.   The start of the ISU summer camp has really boosted my activity levels.   I'm on my feet a lot and it's allowing me to reach my activity goals most days.   I set foot in the gym again this past week too.    Using the elliptical wasn't as pleasant as I remembered but I completed a 45 minute workout.  

 

My evening DMACC class started at the end of May.   It's primarily online (which is what I need to work on after this blog).   We meet only once a week on Thursdays.   It's been interesting as the students aren't very peppy and excited about the content.   Most sit there like they are attending a funeral.   It doesn't help my motivation for class prep but luckily the class will be done at the end of July.

 

The ISU summer camp started off very well this week.   The week prior to the start of the week sucked.  S-U-C-K-E-D.   The Office of Risk Management really, REALLY needs to get their act together.  I can sympathize they are short staffed but the hell they put me through before June 3 was ridiculous.   Essentially the were very much behind with running the background checks for those employed by the program.   I was told I couldn't start the program on June 3.   They didn't realize the kids were to start attending on June 3.   (Which is confusing as I have to fill out paperwork through their office to get permission to even offer the program...they initially gave me permission to start on June 3.)   Anyway...my boss stepped up and ripped them a new one and things were worked out.   It was an awkward situation as I don't want to burn bridges with the folks at Risk Management but what they did was soooo unprofessional.   Grr.   I honestly would love running the youth programs if I didn't have to deal with the politics and the ever-changing rules.   I can appreciate there needs to be rules and regulations but the fact they are constantly changing or updating is frustrating.   The patterns of communication need much improvement.

 

I was happy to spend today at home for the most part.   We've decided to abandon Wal-Mart and try to use other stores more often for our needs.   The ability to get the food/items we need at Wal-Mart has sucked lately, not to mention the courtesy of the employees.   Gavin and I hit up Target today and it was a much better experience.   I was able to transplant some of my indoor plants.    I should have transplanted them years ago.   Both are in the original pots/dirt I received them in years ago.   I also bought a couple more tomato plants as several perished in my garden.   I put them in pots though and plan to grow them on the deck.    I added another cucumber plant too as my seeds didn't germinate.   I also replanted some onions as I wasn't impressed by how many were appearing.  

 

The other interesting event today was the consumption of duck eggs.   My program assistant raises ducks and has been selling the eggs to some of the faculty.   She asked if I wanted to try them so I got a complementary dozen.  I made omelettes this morning.   The egg whites are very clear and the yokes are much bigger.   In general the eggs are bigger in size.  They taste like chicken eggs.    I don't think I'll go out of my way to buy them regularly but they weren't as scary as I anticipated. 

 

Hopefully I can blog next week and report a weight loss after I weigh-in at Weight Watchers.   Need to get back on track!!   A couple of women that started at the same time as Jon and I were awarded recently.   One of them has lost 75 lbs already!    She lost more than 1 lb a week obviously and it does make me kick myself for not staying on track.  

Just Another Blog Entry

I don't really have anything earth shattering to discuss but it's a low key night so I thought I'd write my Grandma a letter and create another entry for the blog.   I thought it would be an easy going week but I've been quite busy at work with summer camp tasks and CPR training.   The custodians decided that my floor needed to be waxed this week too so I spent a lot of time clearing out things that were moveable.   It was inconvenient but also nice because it forced me to clean and toss a lot of stuff in my office.   I am working from home tomorrow as I won't be able to set foot in my office.   My boss at DMACC changed the textbook for my summer class so I need to review my upcoming presentations and make sure they fit the chapters.  I'm still a little puzzled as to why the book was changed without talking with the instructor. 

The Midwest is obviously reeling from the crazy weather in the past days.   Iowa is lucky to not have been hit as hard as Oklahoma.   I usually love stormy weather but even I will admit the weather on Sunday was a little scary.   I think our garden will bounce back minus a few plants that will need to be replaced.   It's Murphy's Law that things get crazy when Jon leaves the state and isn't here to help with his Emergency Management crew. 

I have been able to read for pleasure.   I started with some books that LeAnn let me borrow.   I read "The Weird Sisters" when I was traveling to and from Michigan.   It was OK but I wasn't in love with the story line.   I read "Sarah's Key" next and really liked the story.   It is associated with World War II and the Holocust and those topics trip my trigger.   I am reading "The Paris Wife" next.   I may try to read "The Girl with the Draggon Tattoo" after that.   I have a hankering to read some Stephen King too so I'll have to work that in.

I'm planning to attend Weight Watchers tomorrow as I've not officially weighed-in forever.   Well it seems like forever.  I have no clue what I weigh right now.  Sigh.

Here are some things I need to change to get back on track:

• drinking less soda as I'm being too indulgent
• eating breakfast regularly as well as eating a nutrient dense lunch
• controlling how much I eat night with supper and late night snacking
• including purposeful exercise/physical activity at least three days a week

I also spent a lot of time today (more time than I thought was needed) trying to schedule a hearing test.   It was confusing as the office in Ames was telling me information that conflicted with my primary physican's office.   Sadly I cannot have the test until June 17.   I'm interested to see what my results are because I can tell that something is "off" whether I'm at work or at home. 

Ok, time to create a letter for my Grandma!

Summer Transition

Greetings:

I've been at my mechanic for 2.5 hours so I'm sure they will wrap-up and finish now that I've started blogging.   I got a decent amount of work done today while I sat here as keeping up with my email is a struggle.  Summer Youth Fitness starts on June 3 so I have emails from parents, interested families, employees, etc. flowing in regularly.  I believe that everyone I need to hire has been hired.   Only had one employee back out due to finding a job with full time hours.  I have my mandatory orientation meeting on Thursday.   First meeting is at 1pm and a second option is in the evening.   I'm not at full capacity with enrollment yet but I predict a few parents panicking as they look at the calendar.   I think I can still enroll 15-20 kids and abide by my ratio rules. 

Figures that I would start things off talking about work.   I should have started things off by talking about my brief but wonderful get-away this past weekend.   I jetted off to Michigan to visit Nicole.   It was nice going off by myself without many worries.   I do have to admit that I'm still not a fan of flying, even at the ripe age of 30.   The security requirements at airports continue to suck too.   I did have some anxiety beyond the basic fact I was flying.   I am always so nervous about cramming my butt into an airline seat and using the seat belt.   I would be so embarassed if I needed a belt extender or something like that.   Fortunately I could sit pretty comfortably and the seatbeat fit...barely.   It was still comfortable though.  I was lucky on my way to Detroit as no one had the seat next to me.    I did have a lady next to me on the way back.  

Nicole and I had a fun, laxidasical weekend.   I went to a Botanical Center for the first time in my life.   I saw pineapples, Swiss Cheese plants, grapefruits, a room of cacti, a solar house, hens/chickens (plants not animals), etc.   I was also pleased to get a pedicure for my poor toes.   It had been months...2012 since I had gotten my feet worked on.    Thanks for letting me crash with you for a weekend Nicole!

In my head I thought I had more of a break before things got hectic again but time is slipping away fast.   My DMACC summer class starts next week (Thursday nights).   I've already mentioned my SYF meetings and that prep.   My ISU summer class starts in the middle of June.    June 17 to be exact.   I shouldn't have oodles of planning for that as I just taught it this spring but I need to merge content together to fill more time each day since it's shrunk down into 6 weeks.  

Jon and I bopped around town last night to buy dirt and plants.   I plan to do some planting today.    We bought bags of dirt to try and fill a corner of our garden that is low.    Water likes to sit there when it rains and I'm hoping to remedy that.   It's supposed to be 95 here today so I just want to be outside in the sun.    Yes, sunscreen will be applied as I'll be burnt in like 10 seconds.  

I got ballsy yesterday and cut my hair.   We'll I finally went in for a hair cut and had her go to town.    She took off two inches but the amount of layering she did made my hair look much shorter and it thinned it out a lot.   She used a straightener yesterday and I wasn't too thrilled with the look.   I don't even own a straightener so I was confused as to why she went that route.   I washed it last night and it looks really good this morning with it's natural body and wave.   She cut off a lot of my blonde though and I think I look odd with primarily brown hair.   Odd but more professional.   I think the cut itself looks more professional.  

I found out today that I've been named as a chair for a search committee for our department.    We are hiring a new martial arts person and the boss thought it would be logical that I lead the search considering I'm the Physical Activity Coordinator for the department.   I'm rather nervous though as I've never chaired anything my life...including a search for a new faculty member.    I hope the boss or someone else is willing to show me the ropes or deal with a lot of questions.  

I made a new recipe last night (the chicken salad recipe Nicole!).    I'm usually not a spicy food person but hot sauce is starting to grow on me for some foods.   It was essentially a salad with the basic ingredients:  lettuce, green pepper, red pepper, tomatoes, etc.   I added avocado, black beans, and corn.   Instead of using chicken breast, I used turkey breast that was left over from last week's crock pot experiment.   It shredded nicely into the salad.    The Bolthouse salad dressings in this area do not include the Salsa Ranch we used in Michigan.   I grabbed Wishbone Buffalo Ranch and it worked well.   I added a little more of the hot sauce and it was well balanced.   Jon wasn't wowed but I'll definitely make it for myself again.  

Ok...they have to be done with my car soon.   I'm sick of staring at my computer.   I'll blog again soon when I have pictures of my garden and flower pots ready.   Adios!

Middle of April!!

I have time to kill but not enough to dive into any major work so I thought I'd try to crack out a blog entry before departing from Ames.   (I have to teach for DMACC tonight in the grand city of Perry.)

Life has been fairly hectic so I think I'm going to use the random, non-organized method for writing my thoughts down.

• I'm not loving the taste of spring and nice weather followed by a reminder of winter weather.   It did snow in Ames yesterday when I was leaving town.  I really want the weather to shape up so we can enjoy our parade next weekend and not shiver to death.  I also have a strong hankering to clean up the yard.   We need to rake along the fence line and pick up sticks.   I also need to finish my plan for the garden so we can get someone over to till up more of the lawn for our expansion project.   We are also installing a gutter system to collect water to hopefully lower our water bill.   I'm still afraid that the drought situation will be problematic again this summer.   Everyone is so happy about our current rainfalls but we are severely behind in needed precipitation to fix the soil and ground water from last year's situation.   If we have a water ban, it's basically going to cause death for the garden which is a lot of wasted money and effort.  
• The weight loss process has hit a major hitch due to poor eating, impulsive eating, and a lack of working out.   Sad thing is that I knew I'd be very busy so I could have planned better for these weeks but I didn't.   I'm going to try and prep some food this weekend so we can throw meals into the oven and have a plan for supper.   It's too easy to decide to eat out when we get home.   
• Impulsive eating:  it's been bizarre lately.   I don't understand why some foods jump into my brain.  Usually these foods are not appealing and when I do eat them, I don't feel so hot afterwards.   I can tell lately that my energy levels are lower and I don't feel fantastic most of the time.   I do think it's my diet lately and the amount of pop I've been drinking.   
• I had a fun experience in the last week with a recent graduate of our department.   He was asked to come down to Texas to interview and show a sample lesson plan to a school district.   He visited with me and asked me for a lot of advice.   Yes it took a lot of time but it was nice to be appreciated and viewed as an expert. 
• We received notice last week that the City of Ankeny is redoing the sewer system on our street.   We don't have an exact start date but our street will be unusable for a big chunk of the summer.  We'll have to park 1-2 blocks away (not fun with three vehicles) and during part of the process we'll be able to park at the city park across the street.   (This may cause the planned garage sale to be early in June!!)
• I'm very excited for next weekend.   I love attending the VEISHEA parade.   It sounds like we may go to Taki Japanese Steakhouse too.   I hope the weather is decent.   It will be a nice break from the monotony of grading.  I'll have quite a pile for ISU and DMACC.   I say this every semester, but I'm really going to try and stay ahead of it...we'll see if that happens.   The unit plan projects are so easy to pile up and ignore but I hate grading so many at once in the last week or so.  

I guess that's it for now.   I thought I had more profound things to say but nope!!

April!

It's almost midnight and I should be in a deep slumber.   I had a half day with ISU today and took a nap earlier today so it's thrown off my fatigue-level.   My health ed prep class provided a Health Fair for a local elementary school.   It went fairly well and I was impressed with the majority of my students.   Some of the groups could have put a little more effort and enthusiasm into their displays but the school was pleased with our performance.  

My grading duties will greatly increase soon due to the amount of teaching taking place in my classes and the fact that all of my ISU students will turn in a unit plan soon.   I'm treasuring my down time while I have it. 

My Wednesday DMACC class is going ok...many students are behind on a class project but that always happens.   I can remind them until I'm blue in the face but it doesn't help much.   The project is an easy 50 points so it's frustrating when some choose to do 1/2 of it or barely any of it.   My online DMACC class is even more depressing and so many of my students are missing due dates and appear to have mentally "checked out".   I'm not sure if some have simply accepted the fact they have an F or if they are going to plead and beg toward the end of the month.  

I have to say that I'm pleased with my activity levels.   I've been on my feet a lot and my actvity tracker is reflecting the fact that I'm burning extra calories most days.   My food choices are below par though.    I need to cook more at home!   I plan to try some new recipes this weekend and try to plan for meals for next week.   I haven't been to Weight Watchers in quite awhile.  I'm avoiding it because I know I've gained and I just don't want to hear it.   Sad.  I have to say the spring weather is making outside activities more appealing.  I'm going to clean up the yard later this week.   Gavin has actually requested that we go somewhere and play tennis.  Heck yes!

I'm very excited about my Michigan venture in May.  It will be nice to wrap up my ISU/DMACC duties and take a quick jaunt to see Nicole.   I'm sure the weekend will seem short and go by quickly but it's well worth it.  

My organization for my summer program started and I'll be hiring my staff soon.  I did already hire my program assistant and my swimming director.   The motivation for PE majors to work sucks though.  I'm curious to see how many even apply to work for the program.   I may need to hire elementary ed majors to help fill voids.   Considering Gavin's usual camp is closed, I'm curious to see if I see more families show interest in my program.   I don't really have much room for expansion but we may be able to increase from 120 to 140 children....maybe.

Time to fold one more batch of laundry and hit the hay.   Get to attend an early morning meeting right off the bat in the morning which means I have to be on my way to Ames by 7:15pm.