Hey!
I am sitting here trying to make myself want o cook dinenr. I laid out pork chops and have no desire to cook them. Ughh. Day was ok I guess. I woke up with the intention of doing a 1 mile watp tape and couldn't find it.....Only the three not enough time for that. Guess I could have done 1 of the three miles, but it pissed me off, and I wasted so much time looking that I ran out of time. I don't know where it could be. It was on top of my tv....

Robyn: I have had many many experiences in my ten years as a teacher. Grabbed by the ponytail and thrown to a ground trying to stop a boy from beating up a girl. Called a mfer.Had a desk thrown at me. Knocked on my butt last year trying to break up a fight. Had a gun brought to school two years ago with the intention of someone shooting me until someone turned the guy in....(Must truly admit that it scared the %%#$@@#@#!out of me.)..I could go on and on. However, for some sick reason, I manage to drag my butt out of bed every day and go to work with a smile on my face.
Cause everyday is a new day. That's what is truly great about this job. Or, I'm crazy. Ok, well that too but I do love what I do. My first year of teaching, I taught in an inner city school and I learned a lot that year. It definitely taught me a lot. They called me golden gloves after that year. The assistant principal did..)

Kerry: Yes, I was inspired last night too. Wow, I wish BOB could be my personal trainer...Ha! He's a trip. I think Jillian would be a little too much for me. We can do it girl.

Mouse: My, weren't you productive.....I try to take care of all my stuff at night too...Packing lunch, shower, clothes. If I don't it is hard to get out the door in the morning. Plus, that allows me to snooze a couple of times before I drag my butt up.

Hey everyone else. It's six twelve and I guess I must go cook. I DON'T WANT TO COOK. I VOTE FOR CEREAL NIGHT.......

Oh, weighed myself this morning, I was down to 91 pounds until the scale turned pale and a great big E appeared. Then the battery died.
I must get a new battery.

Talk to you later.
Pam

Another day done! Just got back from the skating rink where my boys take lessons after school! They are having fries for supper with their roast beef while I have a slice of whole wheat toast! The funny thing is.... i really don't want the fries, I'm fine with the toast! Something very strange has come over me this time....I don't want to eat things that are bad for me.....Never would I ever have imagined saying no to rink fries....
On another note, we're going to my mother's house on Sunday for dinner. The plan is to order Chinese food. My sister and her family will be there and i'm trying to figure out how not to blow my diet without having them notice i've changed my eating habits....I can say no to the fries, but can I say no to copious amounts of Chinese Food? Maybe I could fake a stomach ache or something......

Missed a day and look at all the posts................me one big burn out. Mid terms week, lots of quality time in my big yellow bus, not any time to myself.
Sorry not to get personal tonite, I just wanted to say hello. Did get to WW yesterday (last day before mid terms started) and lost 1.4#. That made up for the .8 I gained last week.

guess I'd better go study spelling and math with Dd. See ya tomorrow!
Ginny

Good evening everyone..... Hope you all had an uneventful day at school. I wonder why it is that the principals are always picking on the teachers that come to school each day. I got reprimanded today because I made kids complete their math before I sent them to lunch. Plus, when I sent them they were not escorted nor did they have a pass. Kids are punching other kids in the face, 12 teachers are out of work and I am in trouble for attempting to illustrate the importance of completing your work. Oh well, what can I say....I was so angry. Then they had the gall to ask me to create a professional development piece for tomorrow. If I didnt know better, I would guess that they were pumping drugs into the principal's office.

Kerry-- I made sure that I bundled up for the walk, but found that once I hit the pavement at a good pace I wasn't really cold at all. It was nice to get out. Plus, my bf went with me so I had someone to talk to besides Jake. I think people think I am crazy when I vent on a walk to my dog, but it just feels better to get it out.

Susie-- Here is a little tip that I used for enjoying Chinese food when I was on the LA weight loss plan-- I always ordered the beef with broccoli (with extra broccoli). The rice is really the killer so if you can avoid that then you will be in pretty good shape. Just an idea... hope it helps. I love chinese so I had to find a way to work it into my plan.

On my end, I have completed day three of cabbage land. I havent weighed myself yet, but I do feel better already. I am not weighing until Tuesday (or at least that is my intention), but the scale keeps beckoning to me. I just don't want to get discouraged already. I mean come on-- it is only day three.... Going to try and attempt the gym tomorrow since my bf has a bball game. It is better to go there then to take a nap, but that is always so nice on a Friday..... Have a great day tomorrow.

Evening, all.

I did get my swim in (and a 2nd shower; I'm one clean mouse!)... for just over an hour. I was really surprised because its the first time I've done that long down here. I hate sharing lanes, and I always wind up sharing which makes it harder for me to get into the groove. I hate to admit it, but the ankle support helps! I am still going to let my PCP know that I'm willing to go somewhere to get it looked at again. My endocrinologist and I was playing phone tag again; She called me last night on my cell phone around 8, but I didn't get to the phone in time. My cell phone was in the charger on the kitchen counter. Then, because I had kids all morning, I didn't get to call her. I did have a 20 minute break when the kids go to the cafeteria for a snack and break, but I've chosen to do lunch duty everyday this week just to help out because the whole school goes to lunch/break at the same time this week. I called on my way to my evening activities and they were already gone, which is unusual. I left a message but felt like saying, "TAG!!! YOU'RE IT!".
Not much else is going on here.
Kerry: Sounds like you had a good evening. I've been cooking for pot-lucks pretty much since I started having issues. Before that, I'd cook too, but it was usually pasta salad or brownies. I have adapted my pasta salad recipe for the low-carb Dreamfields pasta, and made that the last two pot-lucks. It was well-liked, and people had no idea that it was low-fat, low-carb, and HEALTHY! (Or at least, I was told it was well liked, and I never saw any leftovers!). And I, too, was just the victim of poor communication and processing on the part of a financial institution, Kerry! I was so ANNOYED!!
Jake: Somebody in my college dorm did the cabbage soup diet when I was in undergraduate. It was definitely an interesting eating plan. As for your principal: Uhm, YEA! Most principals are smoking something. I just wish they'd share it with us so we could all have the same world-view.
Susie: You could order steamed vegetables with chicken or beef and sauce on the side. That'd be okay. Don't eat the fried stuff and don't eat too much rice. If you get white rice, that's better unless you're watching carbs too. I was successful in getting a local chinese restaurant to give me a half-order of rice noodles intead of the rice tonight. I have a tough time with rice most days, but rice noodles are better for some reason. Didn't work tonight, though. Oh well... won't be the first time most of the dinner wound up in the trash.
Ginny: I'm with you! We're doing mid-terms this week too and have a similar schedule. Two of my kids are going batty because they don't have a structured schedule this week. One of them is my ED kiddo who was doing so much better after break. Today he refused to get his point sheet at all. The other is my child who speaks mostly Spanish. He's been in chill time this week more than he was the whole first part of the year. Mostly because he refuses to wear his glasses without EXCESSIVE insistance on my part. He's also adept at reading body language and is using that to figure out answers to classrwork. My TA and I spent 45 minutes trying to get him to do the weahter on the calendar today. He kept holding up one weather picture after another and saying our names! I kept saying, "I don't know." or ignoring him.
Well, this mouse is going to bed.

gonna try the rice noodles! Thanks! I can't eat brocoli, but snow peas would work I guess or other veggies! I will stay away from the rice and be a good girl....god I hope there's no cake! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Hello All...finally made it back. You guys have been burnin' the net up with posts.

Has been a really hectic week. Can't even believe that we were out Monday. Some of my kids have been absolutely loopy-loo. I had a school event tonight (Bed and Books--everyone in their jammies--guest readers--storyteller--good treats---free book) that was ENORMOUS. Twice the crowd of last year. I was in charge of the food and I swear the families were coming in SWARMS. Best turn-out we've had for anything yet, which is exciting. Our prek-5 school is primarily at-risk students--80+% free/red. price lunch--, went through a huge staff and focus change-over 1 1/2 years ago and re-vamped the whole place.

Anyway, Pam and Robyn, I totally can identify with the physical neediness of this job. Teaching is such a demanding profession in about every way that there is. I've been kicked, hit, pinched, tackled, and bitten (sometimes all on the same day from one kid!) And I can deal with that, as long as we deal with the behavior and teach new strategies to help alleviate it. My BIGGEST frustration right now is a little "friend" of mine who is so layered with issues (Opp-defiant, attention-seeking, impulsive, intense need for control...) and his mom basically blames all of these things on a variety of sources...none of them that she can control or are really her responsibility, she thinks. Basically, when he's at school he's "not her problem..." She absolutely refuses to even consider meds, even though the pediatrician strongly suggested them (and i am not usually a huge advocate for meds at age 5, but this child is extreme). We are working so hard and to help her see that now is the time to get these issues addressed--not in kindergarten where he will be in a sea of other kids with one teacher. THe plans that we have in-place now will not work for him next year unless he has outside support. I'm pretty sure he'll be suspended the first week of kdgn. and will have an ED diagnosis in no time...not a label that you want to hang on a 5 year old. (he has no other issues that need addressing through special ed, so of course that makes it harder..)

Enough ranting and raving.

Mousie, I will try the rice noodles! I had chinese today and tried to be moderate (ate child portion), but I still had to totally try to guess the points for the main dish. I guess the scale will let me know in a couple days (water water water until then...try to flush out the extra sodium)

Jake--good for you with your follow through. Making them finish this time will make the dinking-around group smaller next time (hopefully!

Gotta go...laundry beckons. Fran

TGIF!!!!!! Need I say anymore ladies. It sure has been one of those weeks from you know where. My kids in my reg. class and my afterschool kids have either been hyper or just down right mean towards others. I made two of the afterschool kids cry last night because I don't them to straighten up and stop being such a baby. So nexty week should be intereting.
I weighed in this morning for our contest here at I was down 4 pounds from last week. So I am hoping that I can keep this up and continue to lose more. My team came in last out of 8 teams in the percentage of weight lost. But I know that we can hopefully win one of our weigh-ins in the next 12 weeks.
Fran glad to hear from you. We missed you! Sorry you are having a problem with one little guy in your room. Don't hate it when the parents don't see or want to do what is best for their child. I hope the mother realizes soon that she is only harming her child more by not getting him the much needed help that he deserves.
Mydogjakerocks, sounds like you are doing great on your jumpstart to your diet. I hope things are going well for you. You will have a nice suprise the next time you step on the scales. Glad you enjoyed your walk the other night. I used to walk in the wintertime, just bundled up real good. But here lately I haven't had the time too walk outside. So I do it in my living room along with Leslie and friends.
Susie, when I eat Chinese, I am able to order off the Special Diet menu. The only difference is really that they use white rice and a different kind of sauce for the topping. You could get chicken and broccoli without the brown sauce. As for the fries that your boys ate last night and you said that you didn't even want any. I am the same way with my stepkids. They can eat things that I dearly loved before I decided to change my lifestyle and I am not one bit tempted to eat it. Like french fries (fair or festival ones), cookies, snack cakes, elephant ears. I all can think about is the empty calories in those foods.
Hi to everyone else. I just looked at my watch and saw that I have recess duty in 5 minutes. I still need to go use the restroom and check my mailbox. So I will chat with you all later. Either tonight or tomorrow. Going to a high school basketball game tonight.
Have a wonderful afternoon.
Kerry

TGIF!!!!!!!!!!!!
Did this seem like a long week or what? The sad thing is it was only three days for us with the kids. Kids were kind of loopy. I didn't end up getting out of there until four today because of having to call a parent and we are getting ready to start remediation during our planning period! (Not fair!)for the kids who didn't score well enough on our standardized test last year. I don't mind tutoring, but it's the same ones who will do absolutely nothing during class. Oh well, can't worry about that.

Mouse: Can I get your pasta salad recipe? Pasta salad is one of my favorite things. I absolutely love it. Haven't had it in soooooooo long.

Jake: It's really not too bad walking in the cold once you convince yourself to get out there. BUt, that has been the hardest thing for me this year. I can't manage to make myself go out that door. Like Kerry, I have been walking with Leslie...Or was, until my tape disappeared. I think my friend was talking about the cabbage soup diet the other day. Hope your weigh in turns out great.

Susie: I'm with you on the CHinese food. Oh man, want some right now.........I usually just try and eat half of what I've ordered. There is an awesome chinese buffet down the street. I have to avoid it because I don't quite have the self control to eat properly there. Good luck!

GInny: Poor thing...Well, atleast it's Friday. You can get a couple of peaceful days....

Kerry: Wow! FOur pounds. I'm impressed. Doesn't it feel good? I told you that my battery died in the scale yesterday. So, I went out and got a new battery, and when I weighed this am, I was two pounds heavier than yesterday. Really pissed me off. I have been on target with my points and excercising every single day. I hope that the scale will be my friend tomorrow because that is my official weigh in day. But, I am starting to be able to tell a difference in my body since working out on this total gym. Like, I could actually feel my hip bones yesterday. I was like wow, where did those come from? Far from being able to see them, but it feels like my waist is toning up a little. I am just gonna keep at it, and eventually those numbers will get to where I want them to be.

Robyn: Happy Friday! Hope you have a great weekend.

Fran: Sorry about the student in your class. It's rough. Especially when parents don't seem to either see the problem, or make excuses for it.

Hey to anyone I missed!

Pam


You've come too far to take an order from a cookie!

Nothing tastes as good as thin feels....

Found those two quotes in prevention...

Good evening, all!

Let me agree with the TGIF statements!!!! Oh, geez. My ED kiddo started off the day with all these off-the-wall statements and I had to get on him before the bell even rang. We are making progress though, and I can see it, even if it is half-baby steps. Earlier in the year, when I would suggest a self-help so he could get himself cooled down and focused, he'd refuse me. Now, he went right away and sat there for 25 minutes and then talked to me and came out and did his work. He stayed out of chill time for the rest of the day except for a brief 5 minute journey when he lied to me about having finished his classwork. But he even apologized for that one! As trying as it was, I see improvement. I did some of the shopping for the vocational curriculum and got quite a bit of the stuff at BigLots and the dollar store... My TA is going to ask the girls on his basketball team for shoeboxes for it, and the industrial tech teacher for nuts, bolts and such that we need. He asked me why I didn't have shoeboxes like most women, and I just pointed at my shoes. Then said, "You don't have shoe boxes when you're only allowed to wear one pair of shoes!" I actually have 2 pairs of high shoes, but one pair I use for dress because they have steel shanks that make them really uncomfortable to walk in for long. And they are all leather, so look nicer. I'm not supposed to wear my sneakers without my anklebrace, and I'm not supposed to wear my sandles at all.

Susie: The rice noodles aren't necessarily less calories (they are, but its only 30 or so per cup as near as I can tell; it may be more because the rice noodles in my tracker are the wide chow-fun noodles, and I eat the mei-fun which are narrower... like angel hair). They work for me because they have less carbs. My endocrine disorder makes it hard for my body to process carbohydrates, so I'm on a pretty-much permanent low-carb diet. For about a year and a half, I was throwing up everything I ate and not able to eat much because my body was reacting to the processed and sugar carbs I was eating. It took a long time to figure out what was going on. I do still get sick sometimes (like last night), even with things that are "safe foods" for me, but its not as bad or as often. My body's other reaction to lots of carbs is to produce WAY too much insulin, which isn't good. I was doing really well with that for awhile, but it went up again recently, so I've been on a medication for that for a week. They'd tried glucophage when I was first diagnosed and it was an awful experience.
Pam: I'll PM the recipe to you. Unless others here want it, and then I'll post it after.
Fran: Hi! Welcome back! I understand the ED kiddo... I've got a lot of those. I had a surprise phone call at 3:25 this afternoon (and I was still in the building, which was pretty amazing since a lot of staff took half-days today since the kids left early!) from the mother of one of my students. The surprise wasn't just that she called but that the child HAD a mother! The mother hasn't been mentioned all year long, so you can imagine my surprise! I was only aware that Mom existed because I had to go spelunking in the child's records earlier in the school year and found her name with the guidance counselor.
Let's see... Chinese... I love chinese food. It is, quite seriously, my favorite food and I could eat it daily. I used to always get chicken dishes, and hardly ever get fried foods. I can't eat the chicken now, which is disappointing. My favorite dish is shrimp with lobster sauce. I used to be perfectly happy to have some steamed broccoli and bok choy (I LOVE bok choy!!!!) along with some white rice and the lobster sauce. Of course, I can't do that now, and I have to be very careful where I get the shrimp with lobster sauce from because some of the cheaper restaurants use chicken broth instead of vegetable broth or seafood broth. But, I always talk my mom into Chinese when I go home, and we've been going to the same restaurant for 15 years. I watched the owner's kids grow up... and so he will cook special for me or get his chef to do it. He always throws in extra vegetables for us too. There are only two places that I've been able to successfully eat chinese food locally, and that is a buffet near the school, and the little place at Wegman's. I usually hit the buffet once a week... but I always do it take-out. It costs about the same as if I ate there, or is sometimes cheaper, because I don't eat much. It doesn't pay for me to pay $10 to eat at the buffet and only eat one plate of food. This way, I can get what I want, and put what I can't eat in the fridge. I get some eel sushi, vegetable spring rolls, and one or two dumplings (again, have to make sure they are pork and not chicken). But, that is one way to handle portion control: if you do take out, you can't eat it all! You can only eat what fits in the box! I usually get 2 boxes (just in case I want a LITTLE bit of chicken!), so I can put the appetizer stuff in one and the main meal in the other... and that is usually 3 meals for me. Which just leads me to wonder, again, why so many physicians think that gastric bypass surgery would benefit me... hmm...

We had the potluck today: I had the taco meat that we made (half extra-lean ground beef, half ground turkey!), with some cheese and sour cream. Some celery sticks, and 5 tortilla chips. I like the lime ones from Tostados, and they had those. I was STUFFED until just now, when I decided to get a salad from a pizza place for dinner. Its a gyro salad.
Later, all!

Well, it sounds as though this was a week of torture for all of us. I am SO glad it is over.....Had a mess of kids (about 6) trash the back of the bus- spit balls and pieces of erasers all over the place....so the seating chart from h*** will be made out this weekend. Don't care if I have 5th graders sitting in row 1. (the oldest on that part of the route). I am so disappointed in them, really thought that they knew better than this. Oh well....after a firm discussion with them about who was "boss" things should quiet down, I hope.

Sorry not getting personal with anyone tonite.......gotta go detox from this miserable week. See ya tomorrow.
Ginny

My husband is making sushi tomorrow for supper so I can save points there because i just know i'll blow it on sunday....Had a really great dinner tonight of chicken and veggies in tomato sauce with chick peas! yum! I'm saving some points for a nice big glass of wine when my two year old goes to bed! Beleive me i'll need it because we're weaning him off the pacifier (cold turkey actually because we can't find it)!
Had a great day at school! I'm busy planning an exchange trip with my tourism class in the spring! I also convinced my principal that we should buy DDR for school so the kids coul workout at lunch time to that baby! oh yeah! I"m good!

When the going gets tough, I disappear! Sorry 'bout that! ...... But I'm back!

It is Saturday! (Whoooo Hoooo!)
He got a job yesterday! (Whoooo Hooo!)
I lost 2.6 pounds! (Whoooo Hooo!)
I saw a beautiful rainbow on the way home from WW this morning! (Everyone *has* to love a January rainbow!)

I'm have got to make my plans for the week.... School, food, and the rest of our week! DH begins his new job on Monday. It is TOTALLY out of his field. He will be an apprentice...with very low hourly wages for a few months.... but, DH is so excited! He has smiled more since yesterday than he has in literally MONTHS! I'm nervous.... but low wages is better than what he was making yesterday! At this point anything is better than nuffin! I am hopeful that this will work out! ...and also that some GREAT, in his field, Zillion$ job doesn't somehow appear out of no where .......cause THAT would really stink!

I'm glad to see that everyone has survived the week! I will spare you the details of the reasons for my withdrawl! It was a tough week.... the next two weeks will also be very difficult....... end of term issues! Also, I will mention that both of our sons needed BOOTS to the BUTT ........ serious crap with our oldest... that resulted in an early morning meeting... and will result in my request (on Monday!) for a formal IEP meeting... His OT has refused to meet with me in person.... "her schedule doesn't allow her to meet parents" is her excuse.... I've HAD IT UP TO HERE and I've told DS's educational advocate that I'm finished waiting and being calm! Monday, monday, monday! I'm sorry that I have to be "THAT mother" but D#$% it!

...........
Mouse: Yahoooo! Progress with your student! Gotta love it!

Kerry: Yahooooo! What a great personal weight loss you had this week for your school challenge! Keep up the great work!

Susie: Yahoooo! DDR at school! ...purchased BY the school! You *are* good! How did the no pacifier go? Hope you enjoyed the wine...without having to deal with his whine! (Poor guy! Cold turkey! But perhaps that will be the best way to go!)

Gin: ARGGGH! Sorry to hear that the looneybirds messed up your bus! They deserve a seating chart...and well, you know that it will help them make appropriate behavior choices! ...as well as save them from being choked by you! Hang in there!

Pam: Your message regarding reaching your goal of 98 pounds.... for a second until the battery died had me hooting! I DO know how exciting it is to see those freakly LOW numbers! Hope your WI goes well in spite of your new battery! Remember MUSCLE weighs more! BUT it takes up less space! So, as you are building muscle you might not see a change on the scale BUT you will see changes with measurements and clothing. This is why it is important to measure not only weigh! (Long ago...and so farrr farrr away, I used to lift and have hip bones and such! I actually had an AB... notice it wasn't ABS...but it was an AB! Who knew that stuff was actually there! I do miss that sort of exercise! Perhaps you have inspired me to go dust off the old dumbbells and DO SOMETHING with them!)

MydogJake: Sooooo, did you do the staff development thing?! I also have similar opinions regarding Principals! I've had 2 that I adored.... in nearly 2 decades! ...and the one I have now is NOT one of those 2! Yuck! Sighhhh!

Hello to everyone else that I've missed! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! I've got to get some breakfast and my water started ...... and that planning done!

ya'll take care,
Robyn

Hello everyone... well I was lucky that a little threatening of detention kept my kids in check enough that I could plan my professional development. They pretty much sat at their desks and did what they were supposed to do. I was so pleased, but still annoyed with the principals. I ended up doing my training on successful testing prep. It went pretty well, but of course the wireless internet was down so that busted some of my groove. Oh well. It is over and so is the week. I do not know how I will survive a five day week next weekl. It was hard to get through these 4. Well at least I dont have to think about it for another 36 hours. AHHHH....

The diet seems to be going well. I am enjoying the fact that I get to have so meat today. I think that is pretty exciting. And I learned to make a delicious shake that basically had no fat for my banana day yesterday. I just have to hold out until Tuesday before I get on the scale. My pants already feel a bit looser, which makes me so happy. I really want to be able to get to the 145 by this summer. My boyfriend started talking about marriage this morning and he wants to get married this December. That kind of put me into a bit of a tizzy. But no planning for me until I have a ring on my finger. But I would really like to be at a good and comfortable weight and be there for awhile before I have to wear the big white dress. Oh well, I am going to have some cabbage soup and then take Jake for a walk. Have a great Sat. Talk later.

The "no pacifier" went pretty well! A few screams of protest at the beginning but fell asleep in no time! We really should have done this long ago! Did some DDR last night and woke up this morning hurting like a son of a moose! Maybe i'm too old for that much grooving! lol

Scraped up enough energy to make a double batch of brownies, 5 loaves of bread and some biscotti! I can't tell you how good it smells in my house right about now!

I have to ask a really stupid question..... I see the letters DH a lot around here and I just want to be clear on what that means? Husband?

Have a great day everyone- I have marking to do....grrrrrrrr