WHAT are you drinking?

So I may or may not have mentioned this to you ...but I've recently lost 30 lbs. It's pretty exciting. I'm finally at a size where I feel healthier, alert, and like being active. So the weightloss has tapered off, and I'd really like to keep it off. One of the many blogs I read recently did a review of the Documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead". So yesterday, I watched it. (on Hulu) It actually kept my attention. I began thinking I may be down 30lbs, but I still don't eat like I should. I almost never eat breakfast (unless you count my 4+cups of coffee) and I rarely eat veggies or fruit that aren't covered in grease or sugar. So I thought about it yesterday and I figure if I cut out some of that coffee, and add some veggie/fruit juice at breakfast my body will be getting more of what it does need, and less of what it doesn't.

I'm not going all crazy and only drinking fruit and vegetable juice for 60 days, I'm just going to have it once a day at breakfast. My goal is not to lose more weight, but to eat cleaner. So today, I went to 4 different stores in search of a juicer that doesn't break the 'Teacher and Pharmacy student" budget. I found a black and decker juicer for 30 dollars that had really good reviews. After my first cup o green stuff, I'm happy with it.

Oh, and just to finalize the 'Beth has gone crazy' in your mind. I quit caffeine cold turkey yesterday. Yes my head hurts. No I'm not sure how I'm going to survive tomorrow.

Oh Gosh

It's testing season. Well it's the season before testing season. The season where you aren't yet worn to the quick, but still trying to politely shove all the necessary information into 75 heads.

The season that comes next is the 'I've done all I can'

but that won't hit until mid-March.

When I took this 5th grade job, I knew that I would be responsible for all the fifth grade math scores, and it didn't seem nearly as scary in August. Now..well... I'm feeling a bit more pressure as 75 faces stare blankly at me as I describe for the 4th (today) time that you always start labeling numbers from the decimals. every. single. time. no. matter. what.

I sing songs, I do dances, I make up rhymes, and try my best to get some of it to stick in their minds. Then I'm hard on myself when they don't remember. I have to remind myself that students who come with no background knowledge, little home support, and a plethora of other issues have to learn and be taught differently.

So tomorrow, I'll keep at it again. I forgot to mention it's praying season too!!

States and Capitols...

when you teach 5th grade and the test is tomorrow.... you listen to this all day...because you love your students.

all things medical...

Oh 2012... I wonder what you will be the year of?? If you ask my students they will loudly resound that 2012 is the year of 'NO EXCUSES'!!! (I might have told them it was law made by the President.) Opps.

It's been going well, anytime I hear an excuse, I say 'oh...what was that... maybe you forgot that it's 2012... that's the year of ...what students? what's 2012 the year of??? .... and then they shout "No EXCUSES" and then we carry on with our day.

So since I'm owning this year of no excuses, I made a dr's appointment. First off, I hate paying for a doctor to tell me what I already know.

So I made a doctors appointment because the whiter patches of my skin have recently started getting little red blisters or bumps on them...but they itch like the dickens! So I couldn't put it off any longer. I knew my doc was going to have to send me to a dermatologist. Which is exactly what he said, 'yep it's worse, I'll refer you'. He was probably in my room a total of 4 minutes. There when $25.

So on Monday I'll be scheduling my appointment with the dermatologist. Wonder what they will tell me. It's weird to me this 'virus' I have only affects my right side, only really affects my ribcage up, and until now didn't bother me. But my parents have been bugging me to get it taken care of...so there it is...no excuses.

My pinkie is also all messed up from a moving accident a year ago...I'll see an orthopedic surgeon after I get my skin taken care of.

A positive point of the doctor's office is I got a new official weight on my profile. The nurse was walking me right past the scale and I demanded to be weighed. (She looked at me like I'd lost my mind) This was the only fun part of the whole visit. I climbed on that scale and let er rip. 142lb! That is 25 pounds less than I weighed the last time I was there. When the nurse muttered the old number, Trevor almost passed out.... he said the best thing 'where were you hiding all that?'

I'm pretty sure I'm almost down 30lbs from my heaviest, (when I didn't weigh myself) I went through yesterday and got rid of some of the clothes I've had around since high school. I'm loving my size 7 jeans...now if I can just enjoy it a bit and not end up pregnant...I'll be happy. So here's the most recent picture I've been in.

Ezra's second birthday. That's his pupcake. I can tell my face and stomach are smaller. I think my upper arms are too.

Here's a side by side of 2 pictures taken of me and my cousin VRUM. The black and white one is from mid 2011 and the color one is from about a week ago.

Hope you're new year is blessed!