New Day!

I don't know what it was about yesterday, but it was a long and tough day for whatever reason. There were no students. We had a half professional day. Friday, my classroom was painted, so all my things were in the center of the room and there wasn't anything on the walls. It's sure nice to have a newly painted room, but I spent the rest of yesterday putting everything back. I don't know what the deal was with my mood, but it kind of stunk. Poor Kelly. It wasn't so great by the time I saw him last night. He was a great sport, though, and helped me put everything back up on the walls. Maybe part of it was I knew this week was going to be a long one. Wednesday and Thursday are 12 hour days with parent/teacher conferences after school. I always love meeting with the parents and it always goes well, but it just takes something out of you to be on your A-game for quite that long.

Well, today is a new day, and I just love teaching!!! I didn't mind not having kids yesterday. Sometimes, it's rather nice to have a little break. However, the short weeks somehow end up being or feeling longer than the regular weeks. Today was great, though. It was so good to see my kids. I'm really enjoying our writing time. . . and for the first year, I started my science rotation with my own class on the day it was planned to start. You see, the first rotation is our own class and if it doesn't go right on schedule, that's okay. It's my time. However, I'm all about routines this year and being better about staying on my schedule, etc. So, yay for me! Also, Friday is a field trip, which are so much fun, but are very exhausting!!! We are going to Thanksgiving Point to Farm Country. It's fun because they also do something on plants, which we learn in 1st grade. They make wheat necklaces. They have a little tube on the necklace where they can put in dirt, water, and some seeds to grow some wheat, I think it is.

I came home from work today in a much better mood! Kelly already noticed when I called him. :)

Montana Trip - August 2009 - Meet Kelly's family for the first time!

HCG

Kelly and I started HCG on Sept 12th and I have been keeping up with it faithfully. I've lost over 10 pounds and feel so much better! I'm hoping to continue to lose and finally get to my original weight goal I had from when I was doing LA weight loss a few years ago. I lost over 50 pounds over a year or so. I completely changed my activity rate and lifestyle and eating habits. It's one of the best things I have ever done. Since Kelly and I have been dating, I have started back up with emotional eating with the roller coaster of dating. HCG is helping me to get over that and get back motivation, determination, and control over that part of my life. Health is so important and it is a priority in my life. This last week, I was on a plateau, but I seemed to have broken that the last few days. I'm so glad. All that I'm doing isn't worth it, if it's not having results. Yay for good health and healthy eating. I can't really exercise on HCG, and look forward to getting that back into my routine as well as having more food to choose from and being able to really good again and come up with healthy meals. Right now I can only eat certain foods and certain combinations.

Journals

This last month Kelly and I started writing in our journals on a daily basis. It has been the best thing. I wish we would have started sooner. We decided to use ldsjournal and I love the online journal. It's so fast and easy. Sometimes, I write myself an email if the internet is too slow and I'm away from my computer and then copy it into my journal. I've been successful at writing every single day since Sept. 6th. Yay for me and my posterity! Hopefully, I can keep it up!

School!

I'm still teaching 1st grade and loving it. Last year, I loved my kids, but had such a hard group. This year, I love my kids and am having such fun. They are really such a great group!!! I think my teaching is a little different this year with my experiences with Kelly and his kids and the thought of being a step-mom. My perspective has definitely changed and my teaching along with it for the good!

Today we were moved into a different classroom while our classroom was being painted. It's exciting to have newly painted walls, but a pain to get it ready and my room is a mess. Everything is off the walls and everything else is away from the walls stacked and piled on desks in the middle of my room. I am excited, though, because they decided to paint our window wall a green color. It will be nice to break up white walls only. It gives the room a little more character. Now I don't need to put up posters to cover up paint taken off from past occupants.

This next week includes a half day professional development, 2 evenings of parent/teacher conferences and a field trip to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. It will be a long week, but a good week. I always enjoy meeting with parents, but they are such long days and I get exhausted.

I'm so glad I'm teaching this year!!! I'm truly having a delightful year and loving it. I'm also loving my team that I work with. This is our second year having the exact same team. I don't know that I'm so good as team leader, but they manage to put up with it and me. I imagine it's partly because they'd rather not be the team leader themselves. :) It's also been fun car pooling with the ladies. It's a great chance to talk about life and school, when we want, to and from school.

Getting Married!

I haven't blogged for a super long time! I've been so busy with school and life with my fiance and his kids and my family, etc. Kelly and I got engaged on July 17th, our 6 month anniversary and we are getting married on January 16th, 2010. Yay!!!

I'm really excited. It seems like so far away, but I know the time will go quickly, especially as I keep busy with school and the holiday season is coming fast!

We have also put in some offers on short sale houses. We haven't heard anything yet, but they definitely aren't short time frames. We know the Lord will help us find the house we can spend our life in with the right ward for us. I look forward to that. It'll be so exciting to have enough room for all my things and a place to put it all. Yay! I'm also exciting to decorate a place of my own.

I love my niece!

I have tons of catch up to do and pictures of trips, etc., but tonight I just want to share a funny. We had my nephew's 13th birthday party tonight. It was lots of fun. My niece asked me how old I am. I asked her, "How old do you think I am?" She answered, "19". Sounds good to me. :) That sure gave me a lot of years. She tried to guess again and said, "29". I thought that sounded pretty good, too. I gave her a hint, "I'm 4 years younger than your dad." She said, "28". "How old do you think your dad is?", I asked. She said, "32". We all had a great chuckle on that one! "He's 39", I told her. I think my nephew said my age, but she finally figured out 35. I was feeling pretty good! :) I love my niece, Lily! She's great! I love spending time with my family. This time of the year is fun, because we have so many birthdays and get together lots.