Sigh

The drama never ends when you are student teaching.

I am not a perfect person. I am far from it. And, I am not a real teacher yet-I'm still a college student.

Today I was teaching a spelling lesson and I made a mistake.

[My CT introduces spelling words by first giving the students the word pattern for the week, then letting them know the number of letters in the spelling word, and giving students the definition of the word. It gets their little brains going.]

The word was "quarreled" and I mean to say the word meant "argued" but I accidentally said quarreled. Big freakin' deal. I told the kids, "Whoops! I accidentally gave you the word. The final word is quarrel." I was getting ready to move on when this kid says, under his breath:

"Great job, Dum-dum."

Okay, I like "Night at the Museum" as much as the next person but that was just plain disrespectful. I turned and asked who the perp was. All his peers ratted him out. I wanted to laugh for a sec. The truth is, these kids are smart. They know when they go too far. I gave him a check and he'll be walking at least one lap for me tomorrow during recess. I am also going to send his parents a note.

I have a pet peeve about disrespectful kids. Am I going too far? Is the lap enough? If it were my kid, I'd want to know....

Positive Motivation

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

This is the mantra by which I try to live my life. It's hard to try to keep my focus. We live in such fast paced times, and it seems like everyday just blows by. There is much we could all do to better ourselves but we get caught up in setting up a perfect situation prior to beginning something new. Why do this? Why not start making a better choice today? Why not change your life today? If you want to make a positive change, why no do it immediately. I am going to make a positive change beginning today. This is how my very busy day has gone and will go:


7:30 am Wake up, get dressed fix kids breakfast. We slept late
8:30 Astronaut and Squirrel to the ped for well child appointments
10:00 Big kids to school, stop by book fair and buy each kid a book
10:40 Drop Squirrel off at school and read her class "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Lily Brown Paints"
12:00 Home to toss in a load of laundry and fix Side Salad some lunch
1:00 Homework
2:30 Bus stop, to meet kids
3:15 Back home
3:20 Blog-I mean, help kids with homework, cook dinner
5:00 Take Lettuce to work
5:30 Pick up the mommy-mobile from the shop
6:30 Leave for class
7:00-9:30 Class
9:45-10:45 Gym...

It's a lot. But the very last item for the today is one of the most significat. I haven't been in the gym for ever and at my annual check up, my NP told me that I could stand to lose a few pounds. I haven't gone to the gym in months. So, today, I will begin anew. I will go Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and either Saturday or Sunday. I need to do this for me and for my kiddos. I may even take a class. The point is, I don't have to wait until the first of the year, the first of the month, the first of the week, any special time to begin. I can begin today.

Because today is the first day of the rest of my life.

Day 1: Morning

Well, I started my diet today. I am in phase 1, or the attack phase. I am debating whether I want to go 3 days as I originally planned or 5 days. Five days seems like a long time. I've only had breakfast, 2 eggs (one fried and one scrambled) and a cup of tea-Constant Comment. I love this tea. It's yummy. I have Splenda, but I am too lazy to go get it. Therefore, I am drinking unsweet tea.

I am only going to say this once so listen up. I currently weigh 192 pounds. This is the most I've ever weighed. Pre-ducklings, I weighed 127. By no means am I trying to weight that little. I would look emaciated. I honestly have very heavy bones (thanks, Dad!) so 127 on me looks like 110. After two babies, I weighed 145-155. That was my best weight. I was comfy and looked good. So basically, I need to lose approximately 40 lbs. I need to stay in attack phase for 5 days to lose that much. I am thinking that I will plan on 3, then see how I feel about going longer when I get there. I really think 4 or 5 days would be better.

Oh, about the food. I went grocery shopping last night and I got salmon, tilapia, shrimp, cage free vegetarian eggs, and tea. I already had basa and lotst of steak in the freezer. I will be having meat for lunch and a salmon filet for dinner.

Checkin' in

Hello, all!

I've been busy with midterms and first birthdays. That's right! Our side salad is now one years old. We celebrated in style at the local Mickey Ds. I think it's okay to have a McNugget or two on your birthday-you only live once...

School is...school. I am just exhausted. If I could figure out a way to pay off my student loans and have some sort of stable income, I'd say screw it and just be a SAHM.

Lettuce and I had a talk about breastfeeding. I know his family are pretty anti-breastfeeding so I wanted to gauge his feelings on me continuing to do so. He was totally fine with it. He can see the benefits in the health of the ducklings. Astronaut sleeps in his undies only, year round. Literally. The boy walks around in just underwear when it's snowing outside. He never gets sick. Lettuce and I have been together since he was 3 1/2 and he'll be 9 this year and he has never been sick. I breastfed him until he was 13 months old. The girls on the other hand, weren't so lucky. Princess was only breastfed 4 months. She immediatly stopped growing. She had tons of earaches and her tonsils removed at 4 years old. Squirrel was EBF until 6 months, though we started solids at 4 months. She had a combo until she was about 7 or 8 months. The ear infections were constant and she got tubes at 9 months. Whoa!! I've gotten a bit off topic. Anywho, Side Salad will be getting the good stuff indefinitely, that's the point. And here's a pic of us nursing in public to celebrate.


Ciao!

Haven't been blogging much lately

because I have been busy in real life. This semester, I am taking a full class load, including a field experience in a real classroom where I have to teach lessons to real kids-psychadelic, I know. It's a pretty heavy classload. Plus, I have to be Mommy, which is a full time job. And I try to squeeze a little gym in there sometimes, too. I haven't had much time to blog. I really miss ya'll. Spring break is coming soon, so I'll inundate you with blogs and pics then :)

I NIP because I am close-minded

Yep, that's what one of my friends said to me on Monday. Let me explain.

Tris will be one in a few weeks. Over the weekend, my SO and I were discussing his continuing to BF and SO is staunchly on my side. This is surprising, given his family's opinion and I am so proud of him.

So my friend calls me Monday. Here is the basic gist of the conversation.

Her: Tris is about to be one. Are you going to wean him?

Me: Naw. Me and Romaine just finished talking about that and we are gonna keep going. The kid is teething anyways. Why make him more miserable.

Her: They say breastmilk doesn't have any nutritional value past a year or two.

Me: It's good for at least two years. Kids need it. That's why WIC gives 1 year olds full fat milk. They need it for their brain growth. But Tris is fine. He's happy, his mama is happy, his daddy is happy. We've decided that we won't be making any changes.

Her: Well, I just heard about that woman in Walmart. They are making laws about it because it really bothers some people.

Me: Actually, you have it backwards-the laws protect the babies and the moms from being harassed. They don't limit babies and mothers rights.

Her: I don't know why. Nobody wants to see that. People need to use blankets. They should be discreet.

Me: I don't use blankets but I am still discreet. Tris doesn't like. He'll pull it off. People rarely notice unless they are staring right at your breasts. And most people are intellegent enough to respect a child eating.

Her: I saw a woman use a blanket. Her baby was about 6 months old and didn't pull the blanket off.

Me: Well, my kids never liked blankets and all that fumbling around is aggravating.

Her: You have to teach them to use the blanket. Who is the parent and who is the child.

[at this point, i'm like wtf?]

Me: [speaking slowly] We are talking about small babies. All they know is that they are hungry

Her: That's why you should just use a bottle.

Me: Naw, I'm good. I will just feed my child when he's hungry. If people don't like it, they can eat in the bathrooom or put blankets over their heads.

Her: That's not fair to other people. Why should they be disturbe.

Me: They dont' have to look at my breasts. It's not like I stand on the table, do a strip tease and shake my boobs at peoples husbands and teenaged sons. We are not talking about sex. We are talking about babies eating. I will not put my child's needs aside for someone's comfort. A grown person should act accordingly.

This conversation went on for nearly an hour. i made several requests that she just drop it because we obviously felt different about this issue.

Her main contentions were that:

* Others might be offended. I don't care.

* Some one might say something to me. I don't care.

* People will talk about me. I don't care.

She could not understand why I wouldn't cater to a bunch of strangers that I'll never see again. She asked me if I would BF in front of my BFF Stacy (ssnelson26)'s hubby. I said that I had already, all four kids. She asked if I'd be offended if Stacy breastfed in front of my SO. She has. My SO and Stacy's hubby are not pedophiles so they are not aroused by babies eating.

She also said that she worked in restaurants and she knew how people talked. Ironically, I've worked in more restaurants than she had, and breastfed my kids in every single one.

She said what if someone came up to me and said "Excuse me, my hubby and I are on a date. Could you please cover up?" I told her that I don't breastfeed topless so I am not uncovered, but I would say "Sure, as soon as my child finishes eating." She seems to think that this will be the beginnig of WWIII. Um, I guess so.

She asked what I'd do if an employee told me I couldn't breastfeed. I told her I'd ask for the manager and pray they said the same because I love litigation. That's when she called me close minded.

Her: So all you care about is your child? You don't care about how other people feel?

Me: Exactly.

Her: You are being very close minded.

Me: It's close minded to raise my child according to what I feel is best for them, and respecting the rights of others to do the same?

Keep in mind, she breastfed her child. But she was ashamed, hiding in back rooms and what not. She only lasted a couple of months. Her family didn't support her and she stopped. The converastion finally reached a boiling point when I brought up a situation in which a stranger questioned her mothering in public. She was using foul and profane language and somebody told her she should have more respect for herself and her child than that. She was offended [I think, embarassed] that someone would say something to her. I told her that some people found cursing to be disgusting and that they don't want their children exposed to that.

I must have hit a nerve. People don't like having their parenting criticized or questioned.

She got all mad saying no one found bottles disgusting and breastfeeding mothers should use them. I finally gave up being nice and slipped into extreme lactavist and told her I found formula disgusting and it made me sick to my stomach that people would give their helpless babies the milk of another species that was pumped full of sugar and chemically modified in an attempt to be more like breastmilk instead of being unselfish. Mind you, I had to give both of my daughters formula due to life circumstances. I don't really feel that way.

I felt bad for saying that, but you have to fight fire with fire, ya know?

I am a slack mama.

The Astronaut, my second grader, is participating in his school's Inaugural Ball. It's basically a big fundraiser/pageant thing. I have raised absolutely no money. I am really disappointed in me because I worked so hard to get him to be a part of this. We joined late and I am thinking that I wasn't sent all of the information. Then Lettuce got sick and had to have what was supposed to be outpatient surgery. Except it wasn't outpatient and they kept him in the hospital. It's just been so stressful that the Inaugural Ball slipped my mind. Now this thing is Friday, and I just feel so bad. I am going to send out a last minute call for donations but I don't know what will happen. Then all of a sudden the school sends something about business sponsors. I had no idea we were supposed to solicit businesses. I hate asking the people I know for money, much less strangers. I feel so bad. I wanted him to do this to get out of his box. He is kind of a shy kid and I thought it would be good for him. And I totally fail.

I talked to Astronaut and he still wants to do it, so Mommy is going to have to make a last minute miracle.

If the kid only has a hundred bucks-donated by me, I will be there clapping for him. And taking pictures.

I am very disappointed in me today.

New year, new me? I'm game.

I joined a gym yesterday. That's right, I am going to be a gym rat. My friend K and I visited our local gym and liked what we saw. Plus, they gave us the teacher discount even though we are still students. Hey, we WILL be teachers in a year and a half. Plus their hours are awesome. They open about an before and close about an hour later than all the other gyms here, and they have free child care. They have a crapload of free classes-Zumba, pilates, yoga, yogalates, step, spinning, so on. Best of all, they are only 1.9 miles from my house. I no longer have any excuses.

Today I got up and put that Christmas crockpot to use. I tossed in some chicken and roasted garlic pasta sauce. When it's done, I'll toss some feta in and serve it over couscous or pasta and put some Mediterranean veggies on the side.

Then I dressed Squirrel and headed for the gym. K and I had a fitness evaluation at 10. We got weighed and measured and put through the paces by our cute, yet strangely sadistic trainer Antony. That's AnTONY, not AnTHONY. Get it right.

Antony first humbled us with his evil scale. By evil I mean it told how much I really weigh, not how much my drivers license says I weigh. A pox up on that scale. Then he measured all the parts of me that have "cute" nicknames: badonkadonk, muffin top, and wings. All those special parts. Then Antony had the nerve to-brace yourself for this one-write this information down. WTF? He says it's for posterity.

Next, Antony led us to the chamber of horrors. They call it the "Weight Training" area. I call it the seventh circle of Hell. The first thing he subjected us to was this device that was obviously designed to kill. It consisted of a little bench that you laid on and this slab of metal that you had to press up with your feet. I am absolutely certain that if failed to press it up sufficiently, I would be smashed flat. What better motivation to to complete one more rep than your immediate demise otherwise.

Moving along, we did squats. More like squeals....of pain! Because that's what my thigh muscles were doing. Squealing from the pain.

Next me moved up to our abdominals. We did sit ups but not normal sit ups. These were special sit ups. We did them on an exercise ball. Yay. Fun. Whee. It was at this point that the meatheads started working out behind us. They held a distracting conversation about some chick who had "the face of a Dallas cheerleader." I tried to focus, and luckily, just trying not to topple off the ball. By the time I completed my reps, they were gone. Plus, cutie Antony was supporting my back to make sure I didn't maim myself.

Next, we did something like sit ups, but it was done on another medieval torture device. In addition to lifting my upper body, this contraption had some sort of weight that we had to lift simultaneously.

By then, our free session was about done. Antony tried to escape us, but he made the mistake of asking if we had any other questions. Heck yeah we had more questions. He'd addressed some of the cute parts, but not those wings I have hanging from my upper arms. He directed us to the tricep press. It was definitely my favorite. It'd didn't frighten me or cause me pain.

K and I roamed about the gym for a while, considered getting on some cardio machines, which we decided no to as our legs and thigh muscles were so shaky we could barely stand and instead headed to the smoothie bar. There I got a smoothie and we chatted with Christie, the first vegan I have ever met in real life-though she does indulge in sushi from time to time. She gave us a lot of info so we headed to Publix to get our own smoothie ingredients. I even got organic stuff.

All jests aside, I had a wonderful time at the gym. I feel really good. Even though I hurt, it's a good kind of hurt. It's meaningful. I am doing something good for me and for my kids. I'll keep ya posted on the results.

While you are online, please head on over to Andrea's Classy Closet and vote for Renee @ Cutie Booty Cakes for the co-host! Thanks a ton!

Places I want to go

Have I ever told you that I love to travel?

I don't get to do it much and I haven't really been anywhere that far, but I love it. When I was young, we used to go to Florida every year-Daytona Beach, Kissimmee, or Orlando. My grandparents used to take us to Atlanta ever summer, too. I have so many fun memories. I love short, impromptu trips, too. We used to dash off to Charleston, Folly Beach, and Spartanburg when the mood would strike my mom.

The furthest away from home that I have been would be New Orleans, back in 2002. I had so much fun, even though my car nearly got stolen in Gretna. It acutally turned out to be a plus as we got to stay nearly a week extra with insurance remimbursing the stay and meals. I will never forget eating at The Court of the Two Sisters. It was hands down the most beautiful place I have ever eaten in. It was also there I met the love of my life, crawfish. Mmmm, I drool just thinking about it. I also love to eat and isn't that the purpose any vacation-to eat?

(Photo by Terry Thibeau)

But there are so many places I would love to visit. Greece is at the top of the list becasue of the food, weather, culture, food, art work, and food. And the food. I would also like to go to Egypt. Again, the history and the culture attract me. I don't know much about Egyptian food, but I am sure that it is delicious. I want to go to Spain. Food again, and I love the culture and language. And the food. And the siestas. I want to visit Japan because I love the culture. The food is interesting. I actually just ordered bento boxes for the kids and me. I'll save that for another post though-I just wanted to whet your appetite. China has so much culture (and food). It would be amazing to go there. I think I'd like to go to Kenya, also, and take the kids on a safari. Finally, I would love to go to Brazil. It seems like such an exciting place. Acutally, I'd like to hit Peru, too, while I am down there.

And Israel. I definitely would like to eat there. I mean, visit.

Where have you been? And where would you like to go?

Oh, and I joined a gym today. More on that tomorrow.

Things I Want

I want my children to have a beautiful and memorable childhood. If I won the lottery, I'd buy me some land in Irmo (the 'burbs, but still close to civilization). It would have trees and a pond. We'd have dogs and there'd be a few ducks or geese on the pond. The pond would have fish, bream or something else that we can eat. Maybe even get some chickents so that we can have fresh eggs. If I was feeling really fancy we might get a cow or two for fresh milk. I don't know about all that upkeep though. I love some goats, though. I'd have a huge garden with yummy tomatoes. I'd grow cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, apples, muscadines, oranges, pears, pecans, and all sorts of things.

My kids would run barefoot and do chores. I'd homeschool them. We'd go on trips to other countries and immerese ourselves in the food, the arts and the culture-Greece, Spain, Japan, Morocco. It would be a beautiful life.

I need a Powerball ticket.