absent

Maybe you’ve noticed that I haven’t posted for awhile. Maybe you haven’t. Maybe you don’t care. No matter which “maybe” you fall under, I’m going to fill you in.

I’ve been exercising. Yes…as lame as that sounds…exercise and working out has taken over my life. Sounds crazy, right? Well let me back up a little and fill you in with the rest of the story.

Last year I was in a competition to lose weight. We were awarded points for pounds lost and minutes of exercise. I came in second place, but I lost over 20 pounds. Then gradually, I exercised less and I ate more. And then I ate more. And guess what…the weight all came back! I was so disappointed in myself.

Then a friend approached me about doing a weight loss challenge again (same kind of rules) only this time we would have a partner to combine points with. (I think I’m seeing a pattern in my friends and me…classic yo-yo dieters!!!) I found myself a competitive partner. We teach together and I’m pretty sure some day you’ll see us on The Amazing Race. That’s our dream, anyway.

Well, these are some pretty tough competitors I’m dealing with. They are exercising about 2 1/2 – 3 hours a day. There’s no way I can keep up with that, but I’m trying to do as much as I can. The pounds are shedding and I’ve dropped a size in my pants (woot woot!) But my house is a wreck. I’m exercising late at night after Delaney goes to bed so I can try to spend a little time with my family. And I’m exhausted! So as you can see, there’s really no time for blogging.

On a funnier note, I’ve taken some interesting classes at the Y recently. Last Sunday I took a new class called “Fierce” and wowzers…it was killer!! Seriously, I could barely walk for the next 2 days. And forget about trying to sit down. I went with a couple of friends and one of them was trying to step out of the tub after showering the next morning. She was struggling to lift her leg over the edge of the tub and slipped. She grabbed her faucet to catch herself and broke it off! No joke! Then on Wednesday, when I could finally move again, I took a class that focused on abs. Toward the end, the instructor had us get on a pilates ball on our sides with our feet planted against the base of the wall. Well, my friend and I didn’t have enough balance to do this, so we were rolling all over on that stupid ball…on our backs and our stomachs, but never in the correct position, and could not stop laughing. We were quite a site, I’m sure!

So there you have it. My big excuse! I’ll let you know the final verdict at the end of October. I’m hoping for a win…but I’m not counting on it. However, if the weight continues to drop, that will definitely be a win!

650 feet under

We spent Saturday evening (and rather late into the night) helping our good friend Melissa celebrate her upcoming birthday. Now, this was not your ordinary birthday party venue. We traveled 650 feet below ground into the Salt Museum in Hutchinson, KS. We could see how salt is mined and transported out of the mine. The salt at this location is used for livestock and road treatment. The salt mine is also used as a storage facility for movie reels and memorabilia. At the mine, it was more cost effective to leave everything down there than transport it back up. So there is a pile of trash that has been completely preserved, thanks to the conditions in the mine, for over 60 years!

This is the costume worn by George Clooney.

This was a shuttle system used to transport employees around the mine (back in the 50’s or 60’s, I believe).

We had to wear hard hats and rescue breathers in the mine. It’s a good look, don’t you think?

After we had toured the galleries and learned all about salt, we headed to the event center for a murder mystery dinner theater. Dinner was delicious and the show was hilarious (with audience participation). Melissa’s husband Ryan had a small impromptu part and ended up stealing the show. He was a great sport!!

  

Ryan played the part of Sir Groom and had to marry the lovely Princess Cactus Blossom.

Happy Birthday, Melissa! Thanks for including us in such a fun evening!

family photos

For Christmas I vainly decided to give my in-laws a ginormous canvas of our family. As soon as I placed the order, I started to feel weird about giving them such a large picture of just our family. Well, several months later, all is well. We had another photo with my hubby’s family, so now they can order matching canvases to include the rest of the family. And now it won’t look like we’re the favorites!

our second week of school

After an exhausting first week of school, I wanted to start off the second week with some fun and excitement.

The kids came in Monday morning to a little treat. They were thrilled. I got this idea from a friend who teaches in California.

For Science and “team building” we did an activity called “Save Fred”. The students were told that Fred (a gummy worm) is stranded on top of his boat (a plastic cup) and his life preserver (gummy life saver) is trapped under the boat. They had to work with a partner to get the life saver around the gummy worm using only 4 paper clips (no hands can touch the worm, cup or life saver).

 

They also can’t injure Fred in any way (like stab him with a paper clip to pick him up).

They had so much fun with this activity. I was very impressed with their problem solving skills! My teaching partner found this idea on a teacher blog and it’s definitely a keeper!!

I ended the day by sending home a bag of gummy worms along with their reading logs. As a school, we are participating in a Million Minute Challenge. The students keep track of the minutes they read at home and we hope to have a cumulative total of 1,000,000 minutes by the end of the year. We are also having monthly celebrations if we reach certain milestones. Just one more fun and exciting activity to promote reading!!

Now I need to think of some more little incentives for the coming weeks. All ideas are welcome!

soccer

Saturday was Delaney’s first soccer game. I don’t know if you know this, but Jeremy is a pretty great soccer player. So we have been hopeful that she would inherit some of his skills.

She did an amazing job waving to her fans on the sidelines every time she got in the game. And she tried her very hardest to not touch the ball. The whole game. And I must say…she succeeded in that!

She did however, love drinking water from her special water bottle. And seeing her new friends. And waving to her fans.

They don’t technically keep score at this age. They don’t. But I do. We tied 2-2. No thanks to our little non-soccer player.