Pig Pen

No, not the Charlie Brown character with the dirt swirling around his head! The kind for guinea pigs! It actually has taken me 2 weeks to post this because I couldn't find the picture on my computer! Anyway, this beautiful cage was accomplished with the masterful help of my father. He came up to school and I invited all my students who had no missing work for the 2nd 6 weeks to come help build Chew-Bacca a new cage. (He's the gray lump at the very front of the cage. He was being camera shy.) Anyway, turns out that if my father had not come as overly prepared as always we would have had to scrap the project for another day. The little plastic parts that hold the sections of his cage together had this big round bottom that was making the cage fall off the counter and making the pan for the litter not fit. Dad had fortuitously packed a small power saw and we were able to cut our problems down to size. Chewy has since gotten several new toys to fill of some of the space, but love doing laps around the outside. The kids bring him carrots and papertowel tubes on a regular basis and he is simply in guinea pig heaven. By the way, Dad, the kids told me several times to say "Thank you!" Who knew 11 year olds even knew that word?? :)

Kissing 70

Well, leave it to me to make things complicated. I was 0.8 lbs. from my 70 pound star last Monday. After a full week of procrastinating about exercise and eating more of my points in sugar than can possibly be good for me, I'm 0.8 lbs. from my 70 pound star. ARRRGGHHH! Now, being that I'm always overly ambitious when I shouldn't be, my goal is to make it through Thanksgiving and get my star on the other side of it. I'm hoping that the days off will lead to extra activity that will boost my metabolism and Thanksgiving is at my house this year for the Vaughn family so there is A LOT of sweaty cleaning in my very near future! The other thing I realized is that I'm only 20 - 30 pounds from my ultimate goal. I give it as a range because I'm not really sure where my body will feel comfortable. I haven't been below 160 since middle school so I'm not really familiar with how those weights feel. Anyway, the good thing is that I'm about to get to update the ticker at the top of this blog with a lower goal! I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanskgiving full of family and love!

He's such a PIG!

What? Who did you think I was talking about?? :) This is my new class pet. He is a 3 pound gray guinea pig. I really feel like the "pig" part of that name really fits him considering he's so big he looks like he's part rabbit! The kids voted on what name to give him and my Dad's offering of "Chew-bacca" won by a landslide. He tries to eat my buttons and clothes everytime I hold him! He's really sweet. He was rescued by a friend of my Mom's who found him being totally abused by two other pigs. One of his back legs was so chewed on that he couldn't even use it. She rescued him and nursed him back to health, but when her grandson's parents wouldn't let the pig move to their house she needed to find him a new home. She gave me a really great deal for him, a cage, food, litter, and medicine (he's kind of prone to upset tummies). I passed out field trip permission slips and guinea pig permission slips (just for my own legal safety) on the same day. I got back 30 field trip permission slips and 100 guinea pig permission slips the next day! I have kids begging to clean his cage everyday. Considering that he's a giant rodent, I really don't mind the kids doing the nasty work since I'll have to do it all summer. I've already got volunteers to keep him for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring Break. I'm hoping I can continue to use him as a bribe to get the kids to behave. :) I'll keep you updated on his antics!

Back in the saddle again

Well, now that I'm cast-free, I was able to work out this week. I went on Wednesday to the gym for the first time and did 30 minutes on the elliptical. It was so ridiculously hard! It seemed to last forever. Then, on Thursday, the lock on the gym door was broken and I couldn't get in. I went back home and then went for a walk. I decided to skip some and ended up walking for a full hour. It wasn't even CLOSE to as hard at those 30 minutes at the gym (although, my legs and buns were burning pretty good the next day! :) ). Then, on Sunday, I went again and did 50 minutes and it wasn't any big deal. I think maybe that at that first workout my body was just shocked that I was finally working out again after 5 weeks. Hopefully, I'll be able to work back up to an hour a day at least 4 times a week like I was at before. I made it into the 180's today and it feels so weird to be so close to my first goal! In less than 10 pounds I will be at my first goal. I'm hoping that I can do it in the next 5 or 6 weeks. Wish me luck! :)

Third time's the charm?

Well, I'm going to see the orthopedist again today and we're gonna see if he lets me out of this cast. My arm feels mostly good at this point, but I'm about ready to cut this cast off myself! It's making me bonkers with how tight it is and frankly I just feel gross and dirty having it on at this point. My co-workers have recently (playfully of course) accused me of carrying plague on my cast. Not that I can blame them...hot pink does not age well! :) I did have a very good WW week despite still not working out. Sally completed her first week of maintenance. What's funny was that she said that working out less was the hardest part! :) I'll update if the orthopedist makes me keep the cast, but I'm praying he won't! Wish me luck!

The Universe may not hate me after all!

Ever had one of those weeks? Last week had me believing that everything, including my hair, was conspiring together to irritate, frustrate, and just plain make me miserable. It started when they re-cast my arm. I was really looking forward to NOT being a clumsy buffoon with a flourescent cast. When they re-cast it, I truly was depressed about the whole thing. Then, I was frustrated at home because I felt like it was a mess and I had no time to clean it. Also, I was very frustrated with a friend that's been staying with us. I was trying to grow my hair out and it was at this akward stage where it looked really bad and mullett-y. One of my co-workers was wigging out on me and making work really stressful. Anyway, it just added up to where I couldn't stop crying by Friday. I was rediculously stressed out and frazzled and it was also showing up in my eating. I was having a real hard time focusing on eating right when that was the only thing that I was enjoying. It was the first time since I started WW that I didn't want to go. I was almost in tears about it Sunday and my sweet MIL told me that I didn't have to go if I didn't want to. I told her that no, I would go if only because I wanted to stay responsible for my actions. I will tell you that Monday almost sent me into tears again, but in a good way. I had spent the day getting the house mostly clean. I caught up all the laundry. I got the grading done that I had brought home. I cut my ugly hair into a very cute shorter style (that's not the best picture of it, but you get the idea). Then, when time came for WW, I walked up to the scale and lo and behold, I was down 1.8lbs! That was just enough to push me to my 60 lb star. I really almost lost it because I was steeling myself for the opposite result. I guess it just goes to show that things can work out even when they seem to all be moving the wrong direction. On a note of things working in my favor, it would also be appreciated it you would pray for my arm to heal. I'm still having pain which I fear means that they will say it's not healed next Tuesday. I really don't think I can stand to be in a cast any longer than my current sentence. Please say a prayer that God will heal it quickly so that I can get the cast off for good this time!

Stupid Orthopedist!

Apparently, something that all humans do naturally, I suck at. I suck at healing. I went to the orthopedist's office yesterday and was scheduled to get my cast taken off and get a temporary splint. However, when I said it still hurt they made a face at me. Then, after the X-ray, they said I hadn't healed as quickly as a "normal" person. (Really, I don't think the name calling was necessary! :) ) Anyway, they said I had to get a new cast. To ease my depression over this, I decided on hot pink for my new cast color. The chick put it on kind of tight and it's a little uncomfortable (You can scroll down to the purple one and see that it's bigger looking). Then, when I got to school the next day, all my kids wanted to sign my 'new' cast. Because I didn't want to listen to that over and over for the next two weeks, I decided to decorate my cast. I got a dark Sharpie and drew swirls all over the front and back so that there was no room to sign on it (*Mwah hahahahaha!* >:) ). I guess now I just need to convince my body I'm 'normal' for two weeks so I can get this ding-dang cast off for good next time!