Deadline is getting closer...eek

May 1st, tomorrow ALL of my IEP paperwork is due. I will make it...I will make it...I will make it...this mantra will work.

Here's my positive face...


Do you like my outfit? I wore it to work. Just kidding.

John is optimistic I'll meet my deadline too...



Thanks for all of the positive energy you guys.

Bad Buns...

Yesterday the Ballet Folklorico performed at our school and since I help out with that I was there to help the girls get ready. One thing I did was to help put their hair in buns. The buns themselves looked kind of like this one...



I'm not so good at the bun making thing.

Mourning, deadline and dreaming...

Mourning...well, I'm not exactly in mourning, but I was pretty sad to find out that Bea Arthur died. I shed a couple of tears for the second golden girl to leave this world. The Golden Girls is a very comforting show for me and I have loved those four ladies since I was like 8.




Deadline...I have to have all of my IEP paperwork turned in by Friday. Let's just say, I'm not quite there yet. Please send positive energy my way.

Dreaming...or daydreaming would be more accurate. To keep me going right now I just think about all the things I have coming up this summer...

1. An appointment with a dermatologist at the end of May...botox maybe? Don't worry, it's just maybe.

2. Texas on the day after my dermatologist appointment to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. My brother, sister and their families will be there too. I couldn't even tell you the last time we've all been together.

3. Are you ready for this one? Hawaii in July. We're going to spend a week in Maui.

Isn't she pretty...



Sooooooo I can handle some work stress for a little longer.

I had taken a picture of us from last night but the angle made me look like Christina Ricci in Penelope so I decided not to post that picture.

Instead, here's a picture of John's latest method of keeping birds out of our fountain...

Top 10 Monday...

Yesterday I had a lot of paperwork I had to work on (ewww). So I listened to Pandora radio. I wrote down my ten favorite for you...

10. Iron and Wine, Bird Stealing Bread

9. Damien Rice, Loneilly

8. Joshua Radin, Winter

7. Ben Folds, Brick

6. Counting Crows, Round Here

5. Coldplay, Yellow

4. Alexi Murdoch, Orange Sky

3. Counting Crows, Colorblind

2. Modest Mouse, Missed the Boat

1. The Format, On Your Porch

As you can probably tell, I was in a very mellow mood.

What are your favorites you've been listening to lately?

The Wave

Here's our wave experience from last night...

Night at the ball game...

John and I went to the Diamondbacks game last night. They played the San Francisco Giants. It was my first game since we've moved here in 2005.

The guy in front of us had lost his shirt...



We got there early enough to get a free bobble head. Upton was our bobble head. All night I'd hear things like,"That's our bobble head!" and "Goooooooo bobble head!"



I missed my photo opportunity when this guy was bending over. Yes, we saw his underwear but we also saw his tattoo on his lower back right above his buttocks. I didn't know men did that...



This is what happens when there was a home run...



This is the pool where the water would spray into. I want to swim in this pool...



Aw...the fans...



Here I am with my new date...the biggest bag of cotton candy in the world...



Our bobble head in action...

Fit Friday

Somewhere in my readings about effective weight loss (works for maintenance too) was a goal for 80% of the time to make healthy choices rather than 100%.

The thinking here is that if you strive for 100% you're setting yourself up for failure. It's unrealistic to expect that you're never going to eat fried food again or indulge on a big piece of cake...chocolate cake...with chocolate chip ice cream...mmmmmm...cake. It's also unrealistic to expect that you're never going to miss a workout again.

My suggestion is to work the 80% into your personal plan. (As suggested to me probably on the Biggest Loser Club site).

My plan:
Mon-Sat: Workout
Sun-Fri: Healthy, portion controlled meals.
Saturday: Indulgent day. We don't go crazy-we just eat how we used to...whatever we feel like and however much we feel like.

John's plan:
Same as mine except he works out Mon-Fri.

Our version of the 80-20 has worked pretty well for us and has kept temptations on the other days pretty low. There's lots of ways you can do the 80-20, it's just whatever works best for you and your lifestyle.

Motivational pic...



She looks AMAZING. In two weeks I'm hoping Tara will be the next Biggest Loser.

I hope you're all having a fun, happy and healthy Friday.

3-D is the Only Way to Watch a Flick...

We went to watch Monsters vs. Aliens last night in 3-D. For the first ten minutes or so all you could hear from John were things like,"That's awesome", "Cool", "Whoa", "This is a life changing experience". I totally made that last one up.

It was a fun movie and now we have 3-D glasses. We have it all.

Lester Update...

I guess Lester is still hanging around...woohoo. I won't really know his status until my appointment on the 7th but it seems as if he's still here.

One annoying part of Lester is what he's doing to my exercise routine. He's really really slowing me down. How rude.

I'm still keeping up with my schedule but I've had to significantly modify what I do. Yesterday I was walking on the treadmill at 3.2 miles per hour...turtle speed. I started feeling a SHARP PAIN in Lester's area so I slowed down until I didn't feel any pain...that was at a wonderful 2.6 miles per hour. Sweet.

I know that since I'm not burning as many calories as I was pre-Lester then I should probably adjust my calorie in-take. I haven't done that yet.

Random photo time...




Oh, and did anyone watch the Biggest Loser last night? I was shocked at how Mike and Ron played it last night. I'm definitely rooting for Tara to be the Biggest Loser.

Um, yeah, that's really sweet?

I have this one student who is just sweet. He's a little 4th grader and he's always saying such nice things to everybody. A few weeks ago out of the blue he thanked me for helping him with his learning. Just precious.

Yesterday when we were finishing up Math so they could go back to class (I'm a Resource teacher), he says to me that if I'm still alive when he grows up he's going to visit me. I smiled and said that would be wonderful. I didn't want to make him feel bad.

I better still be ALIVE when he's all grown up...I'll only be in my 40's.

Check out the swimsuit I put in the mail yesterday for my little niece's birthday...



I'd love a tankini for big people in that pattern.

Top 10 Monday

Today's top ten list...my favorite junk foods. Mmmmmm. This list would probably change on any given day but currently these are the ones I'm feeling the most.

10. Coca cola-I love a big glass of soda with ice. Sooooooo good. I probably have like three cokes a year. Maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration but I definitely don't have them often.

9. Chef Boyardee Ravioli



8. Blue cheese cheeseburger

7. Snickers-Regular and the ice cream version.

6. Nachos

5. Orange Chicken at Panda Express




4. Nerds



3. Pizza

2. Ice cream-I do not discriminate here, I include all flavors.

1. All things fried-mushrooms, potatoes, cheese, zucchini...all dipped in Ranch dressing.

Soooooooo, please tell. I know you all are very healthy eaters (I read your grocery lists from last week) but what are your favorite junk foods?

The Epitome of Bravery...or Stupidity...

IKEA on a Saturday. Whose smart idea was that one? Mine and John's. We willingly went there with about 3 billion other people yesterday.



We decided to put our agoraphobia on hold and take some pictures as if IKEA was our house. That's what normal people do right? I think the kitchen was my favorite...



I love this idea for behind our sofa...



Ok, so this is a totally unnatural picture of me napping. I just wasn't brave enough to get under the covers like we saw this little girl do in a bottom bunk bed...



Um....this picture was definitely John's idea. I was supposed to be making a face like I was saying,"Hey! Get out of here!"



I didn't want to end our "house" tour in the bathroom...



I would LOVE a room with hot pink walls.

I hope you liked our "house". Now get out of here! Isn't that what they would say on MTV Cribs at the end of the tour?

Fit Friday on Saturday

Hi you guys. Thank you so much for the sweet comments yesterday. You all are so nice.

I decided to do Fit Friday today so here we go...

The Biggest Loser Club...I wrote last week that it changed my life and it so did. Let me give you the story on that.

On a Sunday in December of 2007 John was playing a computer game and I was mindlessly surfing the internet. Then I started googling weight loss. I had been wanting to lose the extra lovin on my body I had accumulated over the years for awhile. I had great starts but my efforts wouldn't last very long.

I came across the Biggest Loser Club website. I wanted to join but it cost $20 a month. I called out to John that I wanted to join but I wasn't going to because of the cost. He encouraged me to go ahead and do it. It's funny, when it would come to something like Netflix I wouldn't hesitate at all to pay $20 a month.

So I joined.

What I found when I joined:

• Meal plan
• Eating schedule
  
• Calorie tracker
• Fitness tracker
  
• Goal tracker
• Countless articles on weight loss, fitness tips, motivation
• Recipes
• Fitness plan based on your preferences
• Daily calorie intake based on your height, current weight and activity level
• Discussion forums
  

The BLC was extremely labor intensive for me for the first few weeks. It really would take me a while to plan my meals on there. They do have a meal plan but if you really just ate what had suggested for each day your grocery bill would be HUGE because you would need a million things from the grocery store.

Even though the site took a lot of my time it was the best thing I've ever done for myself and John. After the first week of following it, I lost 4 pounds. That was motivation enough for me. The second week I lost 4 more pounds. After that I lost 1 or 2 pounds every week except for two weeks. Two weeks I hit a wall and didn't lose anything.

I'm not on the BLC anymore. I stayed on it awhile after I met my goal though. It was like my Linus blanket. I credit it for finally taking care of myself. I know I did the work and am continuing to do the work but it was definitely my guide.

Now that I'm off the site I print off calendars for John and me each month. Each day has two smiley faces. One is for fitness and one is for nutrition (I found this online). We write on the calendar what our fitness and nutrition goals are. At the end of the day if we met our fitness goal we circle the smiley face. We do the same thing for the nutrition goal. If we get both smiley faces circled then that day gets a check mark (and a sticker, ha ha). We do this so we can easily keep track of what we're doing for ourselves. The stickers aren't the reward for us but they are fun because we have funny stickers. The reward is healthy bodies.

No matter what you do for your quest for health your efforts are definitely worth it.

I love all things Biggest Loser. I hope they don't mind but I was soooooooooooooo excited to see Curtis and Mallory from season five. This was in October at the Walk for the Cure in Phoenix. Ali Vincent's (season 5 winner) mom was there too but I didn't get her picture.

Fit Friday Curbed for Now...

I'm not up to writing two posts today so I'm not going to write about health and fitness. Instead I'm going to write about my dad. Today is his birthday. He would have been 69.

Would have been...that's still crazy for me to believe sometimes. My dad passed away from a stroke in August of 1999. I won't be blogging about it on that day. Instead, I decided to write about him today.

I don't only think about my dad on his birthday or the day he died but of course I ALWAYS think about him on those days.

This year has made me feel pretty sad. Ten years is a long time.

I realized the other day that I can't really picture him anymore. I mean, I don't really know what he'd look like as a 69 year old. I wonder if he would have grown his beard back or if his hair would be completely silver by now and he'd have a big grandpa belly. He will always just look 59 to me to when I picture him.

I also don't know what he'd be doing. I hope he'd be retired and he and my mom would be living at least part time in the mountains. He'd definitely have t-shirts and mugs with things like,"Number One Grandpa" and "Grandpa's my name...spoilin's my game" written on them.

I am thankful though for all the time we did have with him.

Some of my favorite things to think about my dad...

how he was like a kid at Christmas and would spoil all of us...

making himself laugh while playing Scategories...

playing in the pool like he was one of the kids...

playing hide and go seek-he was the best hider...

teaching us to think of other people...

always being a team with my mom...

laughing at me when I was saying something crazy...

saying things like,"Don't talk about my daughter that way" when I was being negative about myself...

cooking enough spaghetti to feed us for an entire week...

There's so much more. Of course I'm sad at the thoughts of things my family and I missed out on with him but I'm so thankful for the things we didn't. He was pretty cool.

Picture of boredom...

My mind is like jello right now. I've been sitting here trying to think of something to write about and I've got nothing. I guess I'm just tired from participating in a tea party yesterday to protest the federal gov...just kidding. I didn't want to participate in any tea bagging.

But seriously, I've got nothing today. So I decided to look through the pictures on our computer.

This is a self portrait taken last summer...



For my teaching certificate I had to take Arizona Constitution. I took it online. Since I'm a big ol' procrastinator I had to take it pretty fast because my certification was going to expire in August. It's about as exciting as you think it would be...not very.

I took that picture of myself working on my class and then emailed it to John at work so he could feel sorry for me.

I sent him this one when I had finished my last assignment for the class...

Wordless Wednesday...

Fancy Toes

I told you that on Friday my friend and I got pedicures so we could get fancy feet. Here's our fancy feet (and a piece of popcorn). My little piggies are the ones on the feet that are side by side. As you can see we both said no to the question,"Do you want flower?"




I love getting pedicures. This last pedicure experience was pretty successful. We had to wait FOOOORRRREEEEVVVVVEEEERRRR but other than that it was incident free. The pedicure people were very focused and quiet which means I wasn't nervous they were making fun of me in Korean.

The man doing my pedicure punched the bottom of my feet. Is that normal?

Top 10 Monday

Today's Top 10 list is brought to you by GVZ. Thanks for the great suggestions. I decided to go with this one because I love food.

The top 10 things I buy at the grocery store every week...

10. Bags of salads-These are great for us because we feel like we're getting our veggies in. A lot of times we add to the salads to make them more delicious and nutritious...a lot of times we don't.

9. Apples-The only preparation is washing them. Sold.

8. Frozen veggies-Our favorites are the ones you steam...and have roasted potatoes. I know that makes it more carbo-licious for us but they're the only frozen veggies I can get John to eat.

7. Chicken




6. Sweet and salty bars

5. Individual cheese snacks-Who doesn't love a cheese snack?

4. Individual salads-John LOVES these for lunch. Loves might be too strong in this case...he sure does like them.

3. Oatmeal-Boooooorrrrrriiiinnnngggg but it does the trick.

2. Yogurt-We pair it with our boring oatmeal.

1. Splenda-Does everyone go through a big bag of Splenda a week?

What are the top 10 things on your grocery list every week?

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everybody. I hope you're able to celebrate today in just the way you want to. We sure are.

Currently I'm giving my daily shout out to you guys while sitting next to John on the couch. We're both on our laptops with the movie Yes Man on the tv. How's that for a visual?

After my internet shout out I'm going to give a verbal one to my family. Jenny, you better answer your phone =).

I think I'll make us an Easter lunch and then later we're going to the movies with our friends to watch Adventureland.

I'm super excited about that movie. It's set in 1987. Awesome. I hope they play a lot of 80's music. I'm an 80's girl.

Hey Jen, are you going to make bunnies hop into large pitchers of orange juice today?

Easter humor...

Easter Weekend...

I didn't have to work yesterday since it was Good Friday so my friend and I went shoe shopping and got pedicures. My little piggies look fancy.

During our shopping she asked me what John and I usually do for Easter. I said,"Well, we usually get up early for sunrise service..." She was already laughing.




Even though sunrise services will most likely not be a part of our Easter Sunday, I definitely want to do something Eastery tomorrow...

Fit Friday

I feel that even though I'm in "maintenance mode" it is still important that I keep up everything I did during weight loss. The only difference is that I can eat bigger portions than when I was losing weight. Which leads me to today's tip...

Whether you're trying to lose or wanting to maintain, find out how many calories you need to take in to make that happen. I was able to do that on the Biggest Loser Club website ($20 a month). Seriously you guys, this site changed my life. I'll talk more about that on another Friday.

I'm going to try to find a free place online for you to determine your calorie needs...

Here's some options:

Calorie Calculator

Daily calorie calculator on Prevention's website

Determine your healthy weight. (It gives you an idea at least of where you should be.)

As far as free sites go, I love Prevention's site. I still go there a lot. I love to read the success stories.

The biggest thing I've learned in weight loss and maintenance is that there's no one magic cure. I think that we need to take in information we learn about health and tweak it to meet our personal needs.

I'd like Fit Friday to eventually become a discussion about maintaining a healthy lifestyle since that is something that's important for everybody. So if you're reading this I'd love to get your input on the topic.

I'll end my post with one of my favorite men on the planet...



Have a great Friday.

Meet Lester...

I'm pointing to Lester (my cyst). My cousin suggested that I name it Lester or Harold. I liked Lester best. It seems like a good name for a cyst. Lester needs to start behaving and decide to shrink.

Wow, I really make quite the sad face...



Here's a much happier me...

Ovarian Cyst

Nice title huh? I thought so. I've been sitting here trying to think of a good title to address this topic and I came up with nada. I decided to let you know what you're getting into instead of coming up with a cute name for it. So, the story...

Two weeks ago I went to the doctor because things just weren't right. I was told I have a 6 inch ovarian cyst. Nice. The technician saw it on the screen and told me about it as if she was telling me that she was going to have pork chops for dinner.

In the same casual manner she told me not to bounce or twist because I could cause ovarian torsion and have to have emergency surgery. What?

So until May 7 (my next appointment) the only exercise I'm allowed to do is fast walking. Boring, but I'm doing it. Darn cyst. It's caused...

pain...

5 pound weight gain...

extremely long time of the month...(sorry, it's true though)

shift in exercise plan...

stomach protrusion...

the question,"Are we expecting?" Someone asked me that yesterday. I hope that's not a common thought when people see me.

I hope it goes away by May or at least gets smaller. I miss bouncing and twisting.

News...

Sorry to be such a tease in my earlier post. If I tell you the news I'll embarrass my hubby so I can't say.

John and I are writing this post together to tell you what the big news isn't:

• John did not die in the emergency room only to meet Gandhi in the afterlife and receive the following instruction as to the meaning of life..."Go get some cheesecake."

• John did not get a call from President Obama requesting that he join his cabinet in the newly appointed position of White House House Band...
  

• We didn't win a Hawaiian vacation for two...

• We did not find a treasure map leading us to a remote part of the jungle in the interior of Brazil in a cave where lives a troll like demon who we had to slay with a golden spork to get to another clue which lead us across the Atlantic to a village in Portugal where we met a blind woman who took out her glass eye and showed us an inscription on the back which read,"Eat more cheesecake."
  

• Just so there's no confusion because of the vagary in my previous post, we are definitely not with child...we promise.
  

Cheesecake Factory

We got very good news yesterday so we decided that a meal of chicken and beans while watching tv on the couch wouldn't do. Nope. So we went to The Cheesecake Factory. Great decision.

I'm being purposely vague about our good news...definitely not expecting a little bambino though.


I know a lot of people think this about their husbands/life partners but mine is pretty incredible.

Top 10 Monday

I'm not so good about cleaning out my old text messages. Here's my ten favorite that are still in my phone:

10. Your word of the day is opiniatry. It means mental obstinacy or inflexibility.
I got roped into a cell phone scam. I had taken an IQ test online where I had to give my cell phone number to get my results. Nothing good came out of it. I found out that I'm not so smart and they send me multiple text messages a day to boost my IQ. It costs $10 a month. I don't know how to remove it.

9. Yeah!!!

8. Man, you're right. These are exceptionally good apples.

7. Part of Mare in my family is being played by NatNat...Nicole is being a little obnoxious. She comes to me does something bad and goes back to Nat who giggles.

6. How old is the queso in the fridge?

5. Don't like to-makes me feel sad so I say talk to u later.
This was texted to me after I had texted to this person that they never say good bye when we're finished talking.

4. Back at ya Boo Face!!!

3. Can't find the Doritos.

2. What do you say to me picking up some dinner?
My answer to this question is always,"I like it."

1. You were my friend when no one else wanted to be.
This one makes me cry.

Opposite of Wedding Weekend

Last weekend was the three days worth of wedding related activities for our friends. Great times but we decided to have an extremely relaxing weekend. Here's a little taste of it...

Saturday is our "calorie day". We started our day at the grocery store so we could get our supplies.

After this picture was taken I told John that someone should tell them (the deli people) that the bell peppers in the display should be replaced. They weren't looking so good.


I most likely told them myself. I have a volume control issue. My fancy shirt you see says, "Where my Peeps At?"

After the deli section we hit the donuts. We almost bought an icecream cake too but we didn't want to be too crazy. We did get our mochas though. Mmmmmmm mochas.

Hope you all are enjoying your weekends. Yesterday we watched Dr. T and the Women. You can skip it if you haven't seen it. John thought it would be better if it were Mr. T and the Women. I agree.

Cute Kid Quote

Yesterday I was doing my fabulous lunch duty at school where I monitor the 4th graders at recess. I sometimes do this holding an umbrella. Since it hardly ever rains here, the umbrella is to shield me from the sun.

A little girl who I always call "Kiddo" wanted to hold my umbrella.

After I gave it to her she said,"I'm Mrs. M." I said,"Hello, Mrs. M." She said,"Hello, Kiddo."

I thought that was funny and really cute. She made me laugh.

So it's the weekend and I'm really happy about that. Our big plans are NOTHING and I couldn't be happier. Last weekend was great but a weekend of movie watching and napping sounds pretty great too. I may throw in a little reading.

Just because I think it's funny...



So my friends, cousin(s), sister and mom, I hope you have a fabulous weekend and that it's starting out as active or chilled out as you want. Mine definitely is. I see a mocha in my future...a big one.

Fit Friday

My cousin suggested that I do a weekly blog about diet/fitness and maintenance tips. I thought that would be fun and it could be my Friday topic...Fitness Friday. So now my Mondays and Fridays are both themed. How exciting.

So here's my first tip which works for weight loss and maintenance:
(This is from an article I read on the Biggest Loser Club website...I think)

Today's Tip(In my own words)
If you've ever tried to lose weight or maintain weight loss before and you weren't able to sustain your efforts, figure out what went wrong then work out solutions to the problem.

When I read this I thought,"If I knew what the problem was then there wouldn't be a problem." I thought about it anyway and I actually was able to pinpoint two reasons why I was unsuccessful in the past.

#1 I would start to let other things become more important than exercising.
Old solution: I'll exercise tomorrow.

New solution: Exercise is now my number one priority of the day (well, six days a week-Sunday is my rest day).

#2 We would buy a bunch of healthy food and eat it all up until "uh oh" there's nothing to eat.
Old solution:Order pizza and we'll be "good" tomorrow.

New solution: Making sure we have healthful food for today and tomorrow is my second highest priority of the day.

I hope some day that eating well and exercising will be as natural for me as brushing my teeth but until then I'll take in all the advice I can get on the topic. I like living this way...I want to always live this way.

So please leave your tips on what has worked for you on keeping you on the wagon or funny stories about what hasn't worked in the past. A few years ago to keep me motivated I went to Target and bought myself a whole bunch of presents then asked John to hide them from me. Every time I exercised I'd get something I liked. That worked out pretty well until I ran out of stuff...

One year of maintenance mode down...

April officially marks for me one year of maintaining a healthy weight(Dec/Jan was my healthy lifestyle anniversary).

I know that I finished losing weight in the end of March of last year but I don't know the actual date. So that's why I made April my anniversary since I know it was all gone by then.

I thought to commemorate my maintenance mode anniversary I'd take you down a picture walk.

Before I start I want to say that my goal to lose weight was always about being healthy. I felt good about the way I looked. I just knew that the habits John and I had would lead to a lot of trouble down the road.

Christmas 2007 (-6 pounds)...



New Year's 2008 (-8 pounds)...



February 2008 (-14 pounds)



Beginning of March 2008 (-19 pounds)



End of March 2008 (goal met)



Last year as I got closer to my goal weight I actually got very nervous. I had been reading about maintenance tips and "they" said that maintaining weight loss was actually harder than losing it because the big goal would be gone.

Well, it's been a year now and I've maintained a healthy weight. Yay.



This is not the most form flattering outfit but I look very excited in this picture.

Out on a Tuesday Night

It was our friend's birthday last night so we went out with him (Carlos) and his wife Alicia to celebrate. He's very old (34) so we did what he wanted to do.

First we ate some barbecue at Famous Dave's. Very good stuff. It was our first time there.



We wanted to embarrass Carlos so before they got there we told our waitress it was his birthday. They don't embarrass people. They bring out ice cream with a very exciting candle (Carlos wouldn't put his finger in the flame as I had suggested)and they take your picture. They email it to you later. That's pretty cool.



After dinner Carlos wanted to go to this outdoorsy shop in the same shopping center. It was amazing. John and I felt like we were in Disney Land except there weren't rides. There were some pretty fun things to do there though. Carlos and John seemed to enjoy the shooting game the best.



We had a really fun time but I was very tired on the way home. So I did what anyone would do and I snapped a picture of myself "sleeping".