June 7th, 2010

Summer is in full swing finally! Granted I haven't been able to really relax like I thought I would, but we're getting there I think. Chance's last day of kinder was Friday so I now have a first grader! Still trying to grasp that concept. He doesn't let me forget it either. That and he's six years old now. They did a graduation ceremony for the kinder kids and it was adorable. He had a sash and a graduation cap that they made in class. I'll have to post pictures when I can get them to upload. Facebook hasn't been very cooperative for me uploading pics lately.

I finally got my grades for school and I maintained all A's again this semester so my 4.0 is good for a little while longer.

Chance had his second karate tournament this past weekend and he did great! I am so proud of him. He competed in traditional forms and sparring again. There were four kids in forms and then three in sparring. He placed second in both, so a definite improvement from last time. The next one isn't until August I believe.

John's on another TDY. Which means yet another birthday missed but whatever I suppose. Such is life. He's missed so many already, I'm just to the point where it doesn't really matter anymore. It's annoying, but nothing I can do about it, so I just have to move on. I'm just glad he was here for Chance's. You get so used to putting yourself last for everything, it really comes as no surprise.
He did buy me tickets to see the Goo Goo Dolls tomorrow so Anna and I are going to that. Hopefully it's a good show.

Other than that, not really much going on. After the tournament and the demo the other day, we finished the day off at Steph and JP's. Nice end to the day. Good food, good friends, and some swimming. The day really wore Chance out. We slept until 11am on Sunday. It's time to go be productive. Dishes to be put away and laundry to do. Want to get it done before it hits 100 outside since that's when I do as little as possible and try not to use any energy that will heat up the house more than it already is.

The End is Near!

Well the end of the semester anyway. It has been a very long semester and I am so glad to almost be done with it. We finished up the group project the other week and despite two members giving me a 48 saying I procrastinated on something (and not saying on what), we still got a high grade overall on the project. Actually, I am not sure what the rest of the group gave each other, but I imagine they all did pretty well with the exception of one person. Thankfully I have an "A" in the class, so I don't have to take the final. Then in music, I was pretty certain that I was sitting on the border of an A & B but leaning more towards the B. He had said that today he would give us our averages and if we had an A, we didn't have to take his last two quizzes. He still made everyone take the damn quiz today which I didn't really study for today. I had opted to come home after math, eat lunch with John and watch some CSI instead haha. But I was able to look over my notes briefly and I think I made a 100 or a 90 on it. Crappy thing about having only 10 questions. After that he gave us our grades and I have a 94! Still trying to figure that one out but I will take it. I've never been so glad to be done with a class before! So that's another final I don't have to worry about. It would only be a quiz, but still just one less thing to worry about.

So now I just need to concentrate on math and history. With math, my average right now is like a 103.5 or something so I'd really have to bomb the final to kill my grade. However I still get finals anxiety especially since it's a comprehensive exam and it's hard to remember how to do some of the stuff we learned back in January. History....eh. I did every extra credit assignment she threw our way with the exception of one she gave out when I was in NC, so I apparently have so much extra credit at this point that I could not even take the final, get a 0 and still keep an A. But I'm still going to take it, just try not to stress myself out over it. I believe it's going to be open book as well.

That's all the fun school stuff out of the way. I am looking forward to my summer break and have lots of plans for it. At the beginning of June, we're hoping to go to Phoenix when Nate and the guys are playing Bamboozle to see them. I hate the thought of my best friend being six hours away and not being able to see him, so I think we're gonna pull Chance out of school for a day and go up there. It should be fun. Chance has never gotten to actually see his "Uncle Nafan" play before, but he is forever making me play the CD, so he would love it. Mainly I am just looking forward to actually being able to have a social life again!

Got a stupid court notice in the mail today. The only bright side of this would be that my lawyers are doing their jobs and there isn't a warrant out for my arrest hahah. So I guess I get to get on the phone with them later and make sure they got the notice as well. Then I need to call the property manager since he apparently doesn't know how to return a damn phone call. I called a MONTH AGO to have our air turned on and spoke to the receptionist. I also mentioned that our lease ran out on April 1st and we needed to sign a new one. She said she would have Tom call me and get that taken care of. Well here we are a month later and I'm still waiting on that phone call. Frankly I've been too busy to bother playing phone tag with him, so it will have to wait until next week unless he happens to call before then. Which is as likely as me winning the lottery. Which I don't play.

It's Thursday which means no karate. I could start on my history stuff oooooor I could take a nap. The nap is looking promising except yesterday when I had the same idea, some asshole in typical fashion of when I take a nap, rang the doorbell. I was in a super deep sleep too, with the vivid dreams and everything and then *DING DONG*. Ugh. When I get woken up in a sleep like that, I feel soooo tired afterwards b/c I swear my body knows that I was not even finished with napping yet.

So yeah. For those who have yet to take finals, best of luck to you! And for those who already have-I hope it turned out the way you wanted it to!

April 13th, 2010

Having one of my "OMG I am soooo overwhelmed, someone out there please just beam me up already!" kind of weeks. And it's only Tuesday. At least I think it's Tuesday, heck I don't even know anymore.
So let's start at the beginning.

Had to make a very last minute (and expensive) trip back to North Carolina the week before last. While the circumstances sucked, and I now have no grandparents left on this earth, it was nice to see family and friends. It had been a year since I had been "home", so to say I was a little homesick, would be an understatement. Got to meet Baby Taylor, Baby Clara, see Molly and the fam, Steph, Nate & Heather, my sister, my aunts and cousins, Mom and Dad, and LULU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I spent the entire week with my big baby Lulu and it was awesome. When I was at the house, she was pretty much always right there with me and following me everywhere. I hated leaving her again. Ate lots of Cook Out milkshakes, had some chips from Ham's, and finished the week off with Sushi Republic. Loved going downtown with Nate, Heather and Steph. It was like old times. The plane ride back was horrible and so long. I realized that I do have a slight issue with my anxiety when I fly. Of course flying down the runway on the verge of taking off and then coming to a stop only to be told there is a "malfunction" that needs to be taken care of before we take off, then sitting on the runway for 20 minutes waiting for the "malfunction" to be resolved, then smelling smoke for the first 10 minutes of the trip will do that to you. Then there was the man who stood up literally the entire flight with the exception of take off and landing. Even when the seatbelt sign was on, he kept standing up. Then his friend played on his CELL PHONE the entire time and the attendants said nothing to him. So yeah, I was just some turbulence away from a full on panic attack. I was so glad to be back on the ground and have my two favorite men in the entire world waiting for me when I got back.

Once I got back, the fun of catching up on everything began. Besides my entire suitcase of laundry to wash, there wasn't anything in the house that needed to be taken care of since John and Chance did a great job with that while I was gone and even washed my truck for me! Along with some Easter goodies and a super sweet card. While it was just one short week, I gained a little insight into how it must feel for John when he's away from us, and it sucks! I did miss my Tuesday and Thursday classes, and then one history class (luckily we had out that wednesday and friday). Came back to an exam in math that I wasn't prepared for. It was supposed to be Thursday but the class decided to move it up to Tuesday. Wasn't expecting that! Bombed it. Made a 70, if not lower. Luckily he said he just looked at a few of the tests and said he had a bad feeling (clearly he saw mine with two questions left blank, another one fubarred and probably another wrong as well) and asked if we would like to take a retest on the following Tuesday. Heck yes! Was able to get him to explain briefly the section I missed (well more like he went over one problem on the exam that I left blank and I pretty much understood how to do it) so I felt more prepared when it came time for the retest. Took that exam today and I am pretty confident about how I did but we'll see. I don't want to get too excited over it. Wish I could say the same for the music test we had on the same day last week. I even studied but it didn't do any good I guess. The highest grade was an 86 if that tells you anything. He had me down as making a 68 (OMG....lowest grade in two semesters!) but he marked one wrong that I actually got right, so whooohooooo...that brought me up to a 78 which is a C! I'm still not overly thrilled about it but a C is better than a D. We have a group project in Educ1300 and well, I am not even going to start down that road tonight. Then today in class, my music teacher informed us that we would have a quiz on Thursday. I am not even kidding when I say that if I went back and looked at it, we would have had a quiz or an exam EVERY.SINGLE.WEEK since the start of school. I remember one week where we had a quiz on Tuesday and then an exam on Thursday. Who does that? Well I can tell you who does that. Figures the one teacher I thought would actually be okay has turned out to be the worst one yet. Seriously. His latest thing is making everyone move as far up to the front of the classroom as possible. Really? Why not just whip out the crayons and give us assigned seats. I can't wait to be done with that class. The performance review paper I had to write, which is also the one I waited to do until after spring break since I refused to so much as pick up a pencil on spring break-wowed him and he commented that it was excellent college writing. I made a 100 on it which is great since that counts as a major exam. I could say that I just BS'd my way through it, which I somewhat did, but I did work pretty hard on it....just in a very short amount of time.

So let's see.
*Chance was sent home early from school Monday with a slight fever and a red throat.
*Spent 4 hours at the ER. He has strep throat (WTF!?) and we convinced him to get the shot. He's feeling so much better and will be back at school on Wednesday.
*Had math retake today, thankfully a great friend offered to watch Chance so I didn't have to miss school since I really can't miss any more classes after my trip the other week
*The jackass told us we'd have a quiz on Thursday
*Have a history test on friday, still working on my terms and need to study the mult choice
*Saturday is Chance's first karate tournament!
*Birthday party on Saturday
*need to work on my educ1300 portfolio. Must get the entire 300 pts that way my grade won't completely go down the toilet thanks to the group project
*have to do the entire power point presentation for said group project and guess who doesn't know how to use power point?
*pretty sure I have an ear infection in my left ear, that's a blast
*my neighbor asked me if I could start taking her son to school when she needs me to, so he's over here right now sleeping over because of her crazy work hours and I'll take him to school in the mornings with Chance
*Chance has regular karate 2 days a week, Team practice 2 or 3 days a week, then weapons 1 day a week and then demo 2 days a week. So on days that I go to watch him practice, I haven't figured out a way to multitask and do homework or study, so I lose that time to get much needed homework done.
*I'm just so incredibly stressed, that I can feel it in my neck and back and it sucks.

All that is just the immediate stuff. Thankfully today our educ teacher said we would have another week to finish our projects since there was an issue with the room she wanted to use for the presentation. Which is good since it's been difficult to get stuff done.

May really can't get here soon enough. I have plans to do as little as possible during the summer and I am scaling back my classes in the fall since it's really hard to keep up with four classes and life at home. John is also starting in the fall, so that's exciting! He has taken his placement test and placed in the same math class that I took last semester. He has his orientation next week and then he can finally be a step closer to registering. I have already registered for fall and signed up for three classes, but I think I may drop one. I sighed up for another math (ugh! but as much as I hate it, I know if I take more time off between math classes, all the info I have already learned will go right out the window) I might try to take Frank's class since even though I didn't see eye to eye with him in the beginning of the semester, he's turned out to be okay afterall. Plus he lets us use note cards on the exams. Signed up for a geology class and then an American gov't class which if I do drop-will probably be the one I drop. Right now I think i'm set to go MWF, but if possible, I would love to have it to where I just go on Tues and Thurs. But we'll see. I need to get the financial part figured out first, then I'll figure out if I will go half or 3/4 time.


Anyways, so that's my monthly blog. The next blog I make will probably be the "hot dog, it's summer vacation!!!!!!!!!!!!" blog. Time to go to bed and get some much needed sleep. History in the morning, then coming home to do HISTORY! Haha, imagine that!

Spring break!

Finally! I've been waiting for spring break since Christmas pretty much. Took my final midterm today and it went so so. I know I probably got all of the multiple choice/true false right, but just as I suspected she would-she put the essay question I was the most unsure about despite spending the most time working on it. Last time she let us choose between doing an essay question or identifying a few terms. I chose the terms. This time I was hoping for the same thing since there were eighteen terms on the study guide to learn (more than the last time) and I made up a huge study guide of them and really studied them. And guess what? They weren't on the test at all. Figures she would do something like that. Oh well, it's over now and I just hope I made higher than a 70 since the essay portion was worth 30%. Usually I look forward to getting my exam grades back but not really so much in this case and in the case of my music exam.

Other than the exam, it was a nice day today. The weather was terrific. No wind and it was up into the high 60's. Knocked out grocery shopping and got a text saying that there would be no Team Fresh practice or dodge ball party later since they are doing construction on the karate school. I knew Chance would be bummed out about it but I was kind of relieved to have a night off. I was looking forward to dinner out with John, but they are going to reschedule the dodge ball party. It's been a long time since we got to stay home on a Friday night. We let Chance pick out a video game and movie at Blockbuster and actually had dinner at the table together. It's been a hectic week so I haven't really cooked much in the last seven days. Granted I didn't cook tonight either, Albertson's did-but those are just details. We watched Planet 51 and of course Chance passed out before it was over with.

Tomorrow night it's out with friends (whoohoo!) and then Tuesday we're going to a concert. So nice to think about the week ahead but already dreading going back to class.

One more to go!

I have just one more exam tomorrow morning and helloooo spring break! On the downside though, I will be working on this stupid performance paper for my music class over spring break which sucks big time. My music teacher has comfortably positioned himself in the same category as my history teacher and I don't have much else to say about that.

The exam today was bad. I knew the songs he played and I got them all in the right spots, but I didn't even get close to getting all of the information he wanted. Then he decided to be an even bigger a-hole about the whole thing and since the composer and his birth/death dates were extra credit, he said that we had to spell everything right to the letter to get the extra credit. So yeah, doubt I got the extra credit on some of the names. He's so unreasonable! Considering he didn't even spell some of the stuff right on the review sheet, not to mention he abbreviated all of the names, but yet we weren't allowed to. Nothing I love more than a hypocrite! Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now. I did my best and I wasn't cheating like the little shits behind me. She was straining so hard to read my paper, I could almost feel her breathing on me. I'm interested to see if anyone makes a perfect grade on it.

Math test went well. I hope anyway. I don't want to say it did and then get an unwelcome surprise, so I hope I did well on it.

Made a 112 on my education exam, so at least I know I won't be failing that class.

Tomorrow is my history exam and I need to get busy with studying for that. it's been hard with having four exams this week and keeping up with Chance and his busy schedule. Last night John was stuck working late and Chance was in karate until almost 5pm, so that really cut my study time more than half. It's about time to go pick him up and then it's straight to Team Fresh practice. Not sure if he will want to stay for regular class afterward, but I doubt he will.

This weekend will hopefully be relaxing and fun! Friday night Chance has a karate party thing to go to for a couple of hours so John and I will probably go out to dinner. Then Saturday we are supposed to go out with friends.

I am just looking forward to 10am tomorrow morning when my spring break officially begins!

Another reason I strongly dislike people

So I just got back from history class, which is always the highlight of my Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Before class started, I was looking over my notes to hopefully commit some of the information into my long term memory before our exam on Friday and I hear the ever so familiar "Excuse me" coming from behind me.
I generally try to ignore this as I know where it's going to lead, but she is relentless. So again, "Excuse me"
You would think if this is going to happen so often, maybe-juuuuust maybe the person in question would think to ask what your name is since I damn sure don't go by "excuse me", but no such luck yet.
Finally I turn around and ask the girl what she wanted, knowing full well what it is since we just had a conversation starting out just like this last Friday. Here's the conversation in a nutshell.

Her: "what did you get for number 1 on the true/false?"
Me: "False"
Her: "what did you get for number 2 on the true/false"

I see the game she is trying to play here and I am not about to go down that road.

Me: "ummmm, which ones didn't you get?"
Her: "well, all of them. I didn't understand them"

I'm thinking at this point...it's true or effing false, what's not to understand? You have a 50/50 chance at getting it right.

Me: "you know they are in the book and in the notes right?"
Her: "I didn't buy the book"

Seriously. What the hell is the matter with people? I should have told her to ask the guy who sits in front of her since he's trying pretty hard to get in her pants, it's pretty funny. Telling her how he's going to go to Dallas and join the SWAT team and asking her if she has a boyfriend. Lord knows he would bend over backwards to give her the answers assuming he has them (which I'm going with the fact that he probably doesn't). I'm working my ass off in that class and probably gaining an ulcer in the process and this twat can't even be bothered to buy the book!?! Then expects to just collect all the answers for the study guide from everyone else so she can pass the exam.

I think I need to pick a new seat b/c if I have to hear "excuse me" one more bloody time, I might just snap. I think next time I will just give her all the wrong answers.

And another thing. This is dedicated to the guy who comes in late for EVERY-SINGLE-CLASS. Listen up dude. I get to school on MWF, generally around 8:30am. Class doesn't start until 9am. I also know that I park in the same lot as you. You are there BEFORE me, every single MWF. When going to get a paper before class starts, I have also noticed you in the lobby playing on your laptop. And on another occasion, the day of the last exam....I actually sat a table over from you studying for said exam while you played a game on your computer. I got up and went to class, and you stayed behind on the computer. Yet even still, you are late for EVERY SINGLE CLASS. Do you know how many times I have wanted to call you out on this crap when you come bustling in with your bulky computer bag, rustling around in your backpack for paper and notes, getting your recorder ready while we are all trying to listen and take notes, but it's kind of difficult to do so when you are making so much damn noise. This pisses me off to no end. I am surprised the teacher doesn't do anything for constant tardiness. I need to go back and check my syllabus but it's so annoying. I mean literally every class! It's like "dude, I know your ass is here well before 9am, so wtf?" Too bad he isn't in my music class. My teacher is a nazi when it comes to tardiness. Hell, he's passing the sign in sheet around 5 mins before class even starts and he'll bitch people out and tell them they are late when it's 1 minute BEFORE class starts.

So anyways, that's my annoyance for the day. I should also mention that neither of these annoying a-holes in my class are "children". They are probably around my age, with the guy being older I think? So their dumbassness can't be blamed on age.

With that said-I'm going to go eat lunch with my kid, come home and study, study, study....pick up the kid, take him to team practice...study, study, study some more. Eat dinner and then study, study, study some more.

Friday can't get here soon enough!

How we were outsmarted by an 8 year old.

So today we went to the bookstore and Chance had said he wanted the next book in the Wimpy kid series. We found the table and were trying to figure out which book came next. A young boy was also looking at the books and after a couple of minutes of back and forth trying to decide which was next after the red one-I asked the little boy if he happened to know which came next. He said "the blue one is next, but the number is also right on the side". Then proceeded to show us the clear as day number 2 on the side of the book. Yep, here's your sign idiot! So yeah. John and I got owned by an 8 year old. I found it to be rather amusing. I read a bunch of series' books and I sure wish the authors would put the numbers on the side! It would make life so much easier. (you would think anyway, surely didn't help us much today).

I finally finished my history terms. The only thing I need to do is answer the essay questions but uggggggggggggggh. I will probably end up doing that Thursday night. Now I really need to work on my education class stuff since that exam is Tuesday. I woke up this morning...oops....afternoon I mean, and looked at the corner of the bedroom where I have my table and my little corner....saw the mess of books everywhere and the very thought of opening a textbook made me want to hurl. So rather than spend the day studying, I opted for a day out with John and Chance. Had a good time. Went to Pei Wei for lunch then walked over to Marble Slab since we haven't had ice cream in forever. Chance wasn't lying when he said he saved room for ice cream since he finished his entire cone I think. Then by the time we made it to the bookstore, just a few miles down the road-he was asking if we were going to get a snack in the bookstore. I think he is going to take after my dad with his bottomless pit appetite and manage not to gain a pound. The child already has a little washboard stomach.

Definitely contributed to the economic growth of Barnes and Noble. Lots of good bargain books this week. Even found some graphic novels that John likes in the bargain bin section. Rue McClanahan's book My First Five Husbands.....And the Ones Who Got Away was in the bargain section so of course I couldn't say no to that! Managed to grab a normally $40 25th anniversary edition of Trivial Pursuit for under $9 as it was 75% off. One of these days, we will actually have the time to invite people over to play some of these games we've acquired.

So after the bookstore, we fought the fun traffic on the gateway and I flew into a blinding rage when this stupid little bastard got OUT of the line of traffic knowing full well everyone in the right lane had to merge left, drove as far as he could in the right lane and forced himself over. I tried everything to keep from letting him in and the Mexican cowboy in front of me, who was polite enough to ask if I would let him in earlier, so I did and he even said thank you-nearly ran the little shit into the orange barrels which was hilarious. I liked that Mexican cowboy, that's my kind of people. So anyways, he didn't let him in and yet somehow the a-hole managed to get in front of me which set me off big time. I had a case of the shakes for the next ten minutes, I was so pissed off. I need to figure out a way to get a handle on it but ugh. If you know the lane is ending, don't be an asshole. Considering he was already in the correct lane and just wanted to make a little better time, it was the biggest a-hole move ever, to get out of the line of traffic to try and bypass everyone. I should have just ran him the hell over. He was in a little POS import that I could probably pick up and throw if I wanted to. Mr. Mexican Cowboy with his Chihuahua plates obviously had nothing to lose and was fully prepared to let the guy hit him and peel off his paint. Didn't look like it phased him one bit. He just stood his ground and chewed on his toothpick with one arm out the window and it was the most awesome sight ever. Not that it matters, but the a-hole in question had New Mexico plates, before anyone jumps to the conclusion of it being someone with Chihuahua plates.

Made it home without getting my knife out (even though the thought did cross my mind, and it's just a arms reach away at all times), ate some Pei Wei leftovers, worked on some phonics with Chance, did some crossword puzzles (trying to make myself smarter you know?) then read some Diary of a Wimpy Kid with the kiddo. We've had the first book for months now but just keep forgetting to read it. So we started on it tonight. It's pretty funny stuff. Chance can't wait to see the movie.

Also washed my truck today. John came home from getting milk at the store laughing and when I asked him what was so funny he said "it's raining outside". Figures. Ah well. The inside needs it more than the outside anyway really.

I think rather than start on my educ stuff, I'm just going to go to bed. I hope I manage to sleep tonight since Chance has this dry, awful cough. Spring has arrived in El Paso! I felt it big time the other day when John and I walked to pick up Chance. The wind was blowing just a little but I could taste the dust, feel it in my throat and had having a hard time breathing. The tree pollen count is at a moderate range right now, so that's probably why he's had the runny nose and cough like he has had for awhile now. It just hasn't been so dry like it's been today. Hopefully the meds we gave him will help. I'll have to look for something at Sun Harvest next time I go too and see if they have something for him. I don't want to go the doctor route with it.

March 5, 2010

It's been way too long since I've taken the time to blog. I've been wanting to write for so long, but there never seems to be enough time. School is really doing me in. I feel like that's all I have time for lately and that sucks. I thought this would be an easy semester but wow was I ever wrong! The fact that I haven't blogged really since school started should tell you something. I have a full course load yet again. Twelve hours, four classes. History since 1865, Algebra, Music Appreciation, and Mastering Academic Excellence. Doing great in my Academic class. It's easy but we have outside assignments and things to do which are easy enough. Just hard to muster up the motivation to do them. Which is funny since they are usually about motivation, procrastination, concentration, etc. Have our first big project due on Tuesday but I actually finished it last week, so that's one thing I haven't had to worry about.
Doing pretty good in algebra. Made a 91 on the first test, and a 98 on the last one. Had the highest grade in the class on the second. Since the majority did so bad I guess, he let everyone go back and correct the problems they missed for extra credit. I only missed one and he only took off partial credit, so it brought my grade up to a 99. Have an exam Thursday but I think I should do okay since he's allowing us to have a note card which helps soooooo much!
I thought music would be a pretty easy class and the instructor seemed pretty laid back at the beginning of the semester but he's gradually became much more uptight. I knew we had to attend a performance and do a paper on it, but at first there wasn't a due date for the paper. Well, he went back and completely redid his syllabus and now the stupid paper is due as soon as we come back off of spring break. I went to a performance last week and recorded it, but b/c of midterms next week, writing a paper has been the absolute last thing on my mind. So it looks like I'll be writing the damn paper on spring break. Wonderful! Next week, we have a listening exam in there as well and he only gave us the songs yesterday. So one week to memorize 20 tracks, who composed them, when, from what period, when they were born and when they died. Can we say whiskey tango foxtrot!? So much for that whole "I'm here to help you" line of crap.
History....oh history. I don't even know where to begin on that one. Really it's just a hope and a prayer with that class. I did consider dropping but I'm going to stick it out. I'm doing all of the extra credit that comes my way. Even confronted the needle phobia to give blood the other day which has left me with a lovely bruise in the name of 10 extra points. Had one exam in her class already and did surprisingly well. Made a 94 but she made the multiple choice worth 80% and the essay/terms worth 20%. The exam coming up in a week has more terms to memorize, more multiple choice questions, and now true/false. I haven't even finished the study guide because she gave us an assignment on Monday to turn in by today. I knocked the assignment out on Monday but then started on the multiple choice part of the study guide. The rest of my day/weekend is dedicated to the terms and essay part of the study guide. Sucks ass. Then I need to start listening to the tracks for music, going over all of the chapters for my Education midterm on Tuesday and making up my notecard for my algebra exam next week. So four exams next week.
Needless to say, my hair is coming out in handfuls, my face is a broken out mess, and I am pretty sure I've lost a few pounds. (the poundage isn't due to not eating, I've cut out a good bit of meat from my diet, so I think that is helping with the weight loss, so this is actually a good thing!)

The weather here has been gorgeous this week but I haven't even gotten to enjoy it since i've been chained to homework. Chance was supposed to have his first tournament tomorrow on the eastside, but for some reason it was canceled. Which is actually a good thing for me so I can try to get some of this crap accomplished.
I should be doing it now but I've wanted to blog for awhile and figured I'd post something. I haven't even really blogged about anything I wanted to really blog about which is not surprising. Maybe that's how I will reward myself for finishing this stupid study guide. So much has gone on lately that I have to write about. But all that will have to wait. History awaits!

No bueno!

Ugh I am miserable! Since I've been a bum for the last two days and skipped out on any activity, I knew I had to get moving on Monday. I was supposed to start Week 2 of Running Mate on Sunday but skipped it altogether b/c my right knee was bothering me which is often does. It wasn't too bad today really until I walked downstairs to the garage to start my workout. It's had all damn day to act up and yet it of course waits until it's time for me to work out. I decided to just ignore it and truck on.
Bad. Bad. Idea. Now it just feels as if someone bashed me on the inside of my knee with a sledgehammer. And that's after icing it, an 800 of motrin, and wrapping it with a heating pad. Stairs are just pure hell. I had been downstairs watching some TV and elevating it with heat, decided to come back upstairs to get ready for bed, only to realize when I got up here, that I left my blanket downstairs. It's the blanket John got me for Christmas and seriously the warmest thing ever! I don't use anything else anymore and no matter how cold it gets-this blanket keeps me toasty warm! I think it's the reason I fell asleep on the couch last night watching a movie I usually love (Shooter). I was wrapped up in that thing like a Snuggie and the next thing I know, I'm nearly coming off the couch when John broke out the Magic Bullet to make a smoothie. For about a milisecond, I almost said to hell with it and it can just stay downstairs but I know how I am with blankets and things of the sort and once I get attached to one-I have to have it in order to sleep. So back downstairs I went, one painful step at a time. Sleeping on the couch crossed my mind momentarily, but of course I left my phone (aka-the alarm clock) back upstairs. Clearly I just can't win.

On the bright side of things, I did manage to finish my workout. The breathing wasn't the biggest issue really, which ordinarily I would have been excited about if I wasn't reminded every time my right foot hit the treadmill about that nagging little knee issue. Week 2 of Running Mate is:

5 minute warm up walk (according to the time on my treadmill, it was more like 4:30?)
2.30 min jog
2.30 min walk
2.30 min jog
2.30 min walk
2.30 min jog
2.30 min walk
2.30 min jog
5 min cool down walk

I've noticed when looking over my log that I do much better when I follow the plan to my own music. So I think I'll write it out and plug in the times to start each jog and walk, and tape it to the treadmill. I definitely need to print out some motivational pictures to tape up to put on the wall in front of the treadmill. I stare at the same blank space every single time. Boooooooooooring. I actually did print out a lovely little collage of Mr. Henry Rollins (there's nothing more motivating than that fine fine work of art of a man!) but the printer decided to rebel and spit out the photo paper, not printing anything on it-and print it out on regular paper. Which in turn used up my magenta ink and I just haven't replaced the cartridge yet. On my list for Tuesday's activities!

Enough of all that. Hopefully with some rest tonight, I can manage to do some walking at the track on Tuesday. We shall see.

Chance got his report card Monday. I'm very proud of him! Last time he had all S and S+'s for behavior. This time he even got some O's! Which are "outstanding", so that was awesome to see. Really didn't see much of a change with his academic stuff, but he had already completed pretty much everything in Stage 1 and Stage 2 when Mrs Lawson did his first report card. So looking at it now, it's like he hasn't progressed nearly at all from last time which came as a bit of a shock to me, so it makes me wonder how thorough she was when she did the report cards this time around. Some of the things on there that were unmarked, I know he can do. On the physical education section-he's completed everything in Stage 1, 2, 3, and 4! Why am I not surprised?
His teacher is sending homework home now. You would think hearing me complain about all the homework I had last semester and how much time I spent as a slave to schoolwork-he would hate it, but he was literally jumping up and down excited today when we picked him up from school telling us about his homework. Of course when I made him do over a good portion of it for being sloppy-he might have changed his tune a little but he'll get over it. He'll thank me later when his table in class racks up points for good homework.

Alright, it's off to bed I go. Not really sure what's on the Tuesday agenda. I need to go to school and scout out my books and get the isbn's but ugh. It would be nice if the financial aid would hurry itself up and make it's way into my account so I can buy said books. Since Monday is a holiday, I would imagine it would go in there Friday? I'm really hoping so. I would rather not use our personal funds to have to buy the stupid things like last time.

Activity Log for Jan 3rd-Jan10th

While I am keeping track of my food as well, I think for now I'll just put in my activity.

Sunday, Jan 3rd-
Week 1 of Running Mate, 35 mins on treadmill 1.5 mi

Monday, Jan 4th
3 mile walk at the track

Tuesday, Jan 5th
3 mile walk at the track
Week 1 of Running Mate, 30 mins on treadmill 1.5 mi

Wednesday, Jan 6th
1 mile walk on treadmill
6 miles on bike

Thursday, Jan 7th
Week 1 Running Mate, 31 mins on treadmill 1.75 mi

Friday, Jan 8th
Week 1 Running Mate, 28 mins on treadmill 1.5 mi

Saturday, Jan 9th
No activity as we went out and made it home too late

Sunday, Jan 10th
No activity

Thursday Jan, 7th

Another day down. Haven't touched a scale. Proud of myself for that. It's actually a good feeling knowing that I am doing this a reason other than weight loss. Managed to keep up some form of exercise every day this week. Yesterday I met up with Anna at the gym on post to do mainly weights. However, we walked around the gym looking for the weight machines and only saw free weights. So we ended up doing 1 mile on the treadmill and 6 miles on the bike, and a whole lot of talking lol. It wasn't until we were sitting in the lobby area enjoying a smoothie and what did I see? The weight machine room. Imagine that! Oh well. At least now I know.

I don't know if it's a detox thing since i'm not eating crap or what but good lord I feel like I have a case of roid rage. The first person to even ask if I could be pregnant will end up stabbed. Chance has had a really horrible attitude since he started back to school on Monday. He does fine at school and karate, but he comes home so whiny and I just can't deal with him. He actually drove me to the point of going to bed at 6pm the other night.
So glad we're going to go out Saturday without him. It's much needed.

Tonight they are calling for snow. Of course it will probably be a good snow since Chance is back at school but hopefully it's not too good to keep us from going out Saturday. That's about how my luck works.

Tuition was paid today. Which means my lovely vacation from school will be coming to an end in just about a week and a half. Damn, damn, damn! This full time school business is no joke and I'm just going to a community college. I mean maybe if I didn't feel the need to overachieve, I wouldn't feel so overwhelmed-but I know the minute I start letting myself slip the tiniest bit...helloooooooo snowball effect!
Hopefully I can handle it all while keeping up the workout schedule. I have an hour and a half between two of my classes on Tues and Thurs, so I am hoping to use that time to walk oooooooor maybe even run? Although I am not sure the people in my last two classes wouldn't appreciate that very much. I only have one class on MWF and it's early in the morning so my plan on those days is to hit the gym as soon as class is over for a couple of hours which would leave me plenty of time to walk the track hopefully and pick up Chance on time. That's the plan anyway.

I talked to my mom tonight and she told me she was going to the doctor tomorrow to get help to quit smoking. This is a huge thing. My dad quit after his heart attack which I had hoped would be the motivation for her to stop as well but she hasn't. So I am really really hoping this helps her. It's been a hot button issue between her and I for YEARS. So we'll see how that goes. I know it's hard for her, but she's never made an honest effort and that's all I have been begging her to do for years is to just TRY.

Alright time to wrap this up and get my azz on the treadmill. I only have today and Saturday to do Week 1 on the Running Mate program and then on Sunday I am *supposed* to start Week 2. Eeek! Tuesday it did seem easier but I was still happy to be finished, we'll see how today goes.

The week so far

It's only Tuesday but I am feeling like I have accomplished something. Thanks to the help of awesome friends, I've found some motivation finally. I'm keeping a journal of my eating habits and working out. It's not one of those things where I count every calorie by any means, but I just list what I had for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks etc. John's doing the six small meals a day thing which I have a hard time keeping up with. I know it's the best way to boost your metabolism but I feel like I am eating every time I turn around. So I am sticking to three meals for now and if I think about it, I'll grab a snack here and there. I think the hardest thing for me is not eating after 7pm. I'm such a late night kind of person, that this part just sucks big time. But luckily the downstairs stays so much colder than upstairs, I've just moved my comp up stairs and I try to hang out more in the bedroom to keep some distance between myself and the kitchen. So far I haven't eaten after 7pm but I was having the urge to the other night. I knew I wasn't hungry, but just wanted something anyway. Managed to ignore it by staying upstairs and reading.
Sunday I started back on the Running Mate program. I did it for the 27 minutes it has you do and then an extra 8 minutes just walking. So 35 mins total on the treadmill. Monday I walked 3 miles with Lisa. Didn't have the energy to run last night plus I wanted to put a day in between my runs per the suggestion of the Running Mate creator. So today I am due to run which I plan on doing as soon as I finish this. Did another 3 mile walk this morning with Lisa and her friend. Hopefully by the end of the day, I will be up to 10 miles just since Sunday. Tomorrow I am starting back to the gym! Should be interesting.

Hi-ho-hi-ho, it's off to the garage I go!

Workout Playlist!

Yeah! I made up a nice playlist today to help me keep trucking along in the fitness department. Notice how I said "fitness" there instead of "weight loss"? Yes well that is because I have finally decided that I don't give two shits anymore if I lose weight. I don't even want to think about all of the time I have spent stressing myself out over the size of my ass, how my jeans no longer fit, blah blah blah. So instead I am taking a page from the Nike ads and I'm gonna "just do it". No this is not a New Years Resolution. I haven't weighed myself in a few months so I guess I'll record my weight on the Wii, not look at it when it does it and just have it in there. I'll let my clothes do the talking and not the stupid scale. I used to get scale obsessed and that's not a good obsession to have. So no scale for me. If I decide to weigh myself, it will be monthly.

Anyways, the key to working out for me is a reliable gym partner and MUSIC!!!! Rather than have to keep the Zune in hand at all times and skip over the more lame, not workout friendly songs-I made up a playlist.

Here it is and I'm open to suggestions:

Punkb*tch-3OH!3
Don't Trust Me-3OH!3
Chokechain-3OH!3
I'm not your Boyfriend Baby-3OH!3
I can't do it Alone-3OH!3
Starstrukk-3OH!3
Richman-3OH!3
Photofinish-3OH!3
Holler Til You Pass Out-3OH!3
Electroshock-3OH!3
War, What is it Good For- Bone Thugs w/Henry Rollins
Lose it-Cartel
Champagne-Cavo
Go Away-Cold
Busy Child-The Crystal Method
Trip Like I Do-The Crystal Method
Mother-Danzig
My Own Summer-Deftones
Be Quiet and Drive -Deftones
Voices-Disturbed
Stupify-Disturbed
Down with the Sickness-Disturbed
Move it-Dope
Debonaire-Dope
B*tch-Dope
Quicksand-Finger Eleven
Lollipop-Framing Hanley
I Get Off-Halestorm
Uprising-Muse
Your Signs-Nonpoint
Backup-Nonpoint
Gone Away-Offspring
Gotta Get Away-Offspring
Self Esteem-Offspring
All We Know-Paramore
That's what You Get-Paramore
Smack my B*tch Up-Prodigy
Psycho-Puddle of Mudd
Bulls on Parade-RATM
Down Rodeo-RATM
Mexican Rap-Rehab
Wht do u wnt frm me-Rehab
Bump-Rehab
Saviour-Rise Against
Ass Shaker-RJA
Starve-Rollins Band
Liar-Rollins Band
Home-Sevendust
Denial-Sevendust
Licking Cream-Sevendust
Bender-Sevendust
Devour-Shinedown
Sound Of Madness-Shinedown
Matter of Faith-Sick Speed
Here I Stand-Sick Speed
Get 'em out of Here-Sprung Monkey
Down and Out-Tantric
Pain-Three Days Grace
Riot-Three Days Grace
Laughing Man-Tony Iommi w/Henry Rollins
Stinkfist-Tool
Forty six & 2-Tool
Moses-entire album
Get Back-Zebrahead


More will be added I'm sure, but I threw that together in about 10 minutes. Alright, time to shower and then settle down to finish this book I'm reading.