10 lb. Club!

Well, well, well... I have lost a total of 12.5 lbs in a matter of three weeks! Pretty proud of that accomplishment! My first week I lost 5 lbs, the 2nd week I lost 6 lbs, and this last week I only lost 1.5 lbs.  I have not deprived myself of anything.  I have been watching what I eat and going to the gym for four days a week!  I can get on the elliptical and burn 1,050 calories in 1 hour!  I love doing water aerobics on Tuesday nights!  Who knew you could sweat in water!?  Heheh!

  I'm doing good!  It is well!  That is 12.5 lbs lost for good!  Excited about my journey!  The only place that I can see a difference in my body is my face!  Physically and figuratively!  People are so supportive!  When they tell me they can tell a difference, it just makes me leap for joy!  God is soo good!  He is helping me through this all and I can't wait for the finished product!!! Wahoo!!! 

Please if you would like to join me on my journey, go to www.loseit.com and add me as a friend!  I'd love to see your progress too!!!

Weigh In 2/Trunk or Treat

Well I have two things I wanted to post about today!  First of all, the first week that I've been working out I have lost 5 POUNDS!! Whoo hoo!  Hard working pounds!  Strenuous workouts on the ellyptical five pounds.  Watching what I ate five pounds.  Gone forever five pounds.  I'm super excited although, when you watch the biggest loser and see how much weight they lose in one week, it makes mine seem not so much.  But I think about how much time they spend working out and figure how much time I work out and I think I did pretty good!  I will keep it up!

On the 2nd note... I went last night to my cousin Jada's Trunk or Treat in Baxley.  Oh my, it was soo much fun!  Several people from the community were there and I got to see some old friends that I haven't seen in a while!  Most of all though, I got to see my sweet Nephews, Braxton and Wren!  They were the cutest little Batman and puppy dog I've ever seen!   I got to see my brother in law Ryan and spend time with my whole family!  It was great!  Happy Fall Y'all!

 Wrenster was a puppy dog!!!

 Me and Batman Braxton

He was soo cute last night gigglin' at Pop B Bill!  So cute!!!

Weigh In!

Well, I really hate to do this kind of thing because that means I have to be held accountable... BUT IT'S TIME!  I am 27 years old and I MUST lose weight.  For the following 10 reasons:
1. my health
2. my future kids
3. to wake up withOUT my feet hurting
4. to feel accomplished for mastering this obstacle in my life for the past 20 years
5. to become self-motivated
6. to fly in planes withOUT having to ask for an extender for my seat belt.
7. to stop my procrastination in all areas in my life
8. so I can be as good looking as my husband (lol)
9. so I can go to Fairs and Theme Parks and ride the rides that I most desperately want to, but don't because I'm scared I won't fit
10.  so I can be an effective witness for Jesus Christ, and share with someone things that God wants them to do in their life without thinking, "Why should they listen to me?  I'm overweight and can't do things he wants me to do either."

I know what you are thinking... why did she put all that stuff on here?  Well.. I have to be honest with myself and with you.  These are things that I face all the time. My weight has caused me to have FEAR.  I absolutely LOVE riding rides that make me feel that I'm gonna just fly off in the air and make my stomach jump to my throat.  But I won't ride them because I'm afraid of standing in line for an hour and getting to that moment when I try to squeeze into the seat and realize I don't fit or the seat belt won't buckle.  It's HORRIFYING! My feet are killing me and quite frankly, I'm tired of feeling the way I feel! 

This is me at Easter this year.  It's not a really good weight loss picture to start with, but I NEVER take full body shots.. Sorry!  Lol!  Guess I will have to take one this week and post.  Maybe....


I WILL do this!  A great friend of mine has started going to the gym with me and we are going 3-4 days a week.  We started last week and I feel a lot better already!  I have been counting calories and I am not moving from this part in my life. Our school is starting the biggest loser too, so that will keep me motivated! It's time to get serious and It's time to start now!  Pray that I can make it and keep my confidence!  I will keep you posted!  If some of you are having the same kind of issues I am, a friend told me about a website called lose it and you can track your calories and it will give you a goal date of when to lose your weight!
 www.loseit.com
We are looking at March 14, 2014 as my Finish Line!

Back to reality!

No pictures to add today but started back at work this morning.  Wore my  new shoes and before 8:00 had a blister the size of Texas on my little toe from my new shoes!  Great!  So I taught with no shoes today! Shhh.. don't tell anyone!   It was fun to get back in to the grind of things, but could have had a few more days to relax!  My students were ready to see me... well... some of them were!  How many more weeks until Thanksgiving Break? 5 weeks?  I can do this! Lol!

Scenic Route!

I just wanted to quickly share what me and Scotty did on our way back from Myrtle Beach.  We stopped at exit 33 off I-95 and went about 8 miles North toward Charleston.  If you take a left in Sheldon you will come to an amazing historical site.  It's called the Old Sheldon Church Ruins.  We stopped there because 10 years ago my mom and dad said they would take me anywhere I wanted to go before school got back in my senior year.  I wanted to visit my cousin Earl in North Carolina.  Well, my dad is a truck driver and he took us the scenic route which passed by this site.  I fell in love with it and wanted to go back and take Scotty. It's a beautiful place!  So pretty in fact, that they were setting up for a wedding!

 We had a nice couple take our picture for us! 

I told you they were setting up for a wedding!  Isn't it beautiful?

 This is me in front of the ruins!

 Aww!! He's so handsome!  This is one of VERY FEW pictures that my husband takes withOUT his eyes closed!  Lol!   I still love him though!

 Some of the graves dated back to the 1700's! 

I have become a person who loves history and loves looking at stuff like this!  So cool!

Fall Break at the beach!

This has been a great relaxing break at the beach.  My parents-in-law, me and Scotty all went away for a much needed fall break in Myrtle Beach.  We have had the best time!  No agenda, no alarms, no students.... nothing!  Just going to bed late, waking up late.  Every morning I woke up and had toast with PB&J!  Very good!  Then Scotty and his dad went and played Golf and me and his mom went shopping!  What did you expect?  We're women and we had money to spend! But what happens when you have money to spend?  YOU CAN'T FIND ANYTHING!  That wasn't the case for me!  Lol!  Gotcha!  I found three new outfits!  I had two coupons for Lane Bryant and I was in hog heaven!  Everywhere we went there was a Lane Bryant!  Got some new jewelry and fall outfits!  Now, the saying above about you can't find anything WAS the case for my mother in law!  But she went shopping today in Wilmington and found her some things!

Then at night we would find good places to eat!  We ate IHOP the first night, Giant Crab the next, Olive Garden, Outback and California Dreamin!  Have to give it to IHOP and Olive Garden!  They were the best!
Today I had to work on plans (yuck) but then my husband took me out on a date since this was kind of our anniversary trip (5 years).  I wore one of my new outfits and got all pretty for him since I have to keep up with his good looks!

 Then we went to California Dreamin!  It was ok!  After that we stopped by this place called Frutti's that we had been looking at all week! It had yogurt of every flavor that you put in a cup and then you added the toppings yourself!  It was 39 cents per ounce.  I had a white chocolate mousse yogurt and I couldn't resist the fruity pebble toppings!   So so so so good!

We ended our vacation at the beach with me and Scotty FINALLY stepping foot ON THE BEACH... I know it's crazy but that's just how we roll!  I can't believe it's over, but back to the real world!

Classroom Creations

I have been a teacher 5 years now and I have had to make a LOT of stuff!  Again, I don't like to buy it if I can make it!  So... I research and browse the internet and here are some of what  I came up with. (Some are my own, and some I borrowed from someone else's creative juices!)

 This was when I taught Kindergarten.  This was my reading nook.  The tree was made from half of a carpet roll and an umbrella covered in bulletin board paper leaves.  Pretty simple.

 This was part of my room.

 This wall is where I would display anchor papers or excellent work!

 Word wall!

 I decorated my door with this track because our school was building a new track that year and we always strive for excellence with technology, higher order thinking, self assessment, etc.  My classroom was bees, so here ya go!

 Some of the pictures I put up on my standards wall to help students.

 I really liked this honeycomb.  It was used for AR.  We would set A.R. g(along with my help) would set their goal and then after the 4 1/2 weeks came, I would allow them to go circle "Yes" if they met their goal or "No" if they didn't.

Birthday months made out of Beehives.

 I used this beehive as a reference for Bloom's Taxonomy.  I color coded it to go along with MOST of his charts so that it was easy enough for students in Kindergarten and 1st grade to understand.  They knew that by the time we got to the yellow level questions that we all had to put on our "Thinking caps!"

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 I used these to check my students' hallway behavior.  Every time we got a compliment in the hallway for good behavior, being quiet, straight lines etc. I would put up a bee hive and write down the name of the staff member that gave us the compliment.  When we earned 20 compliments (I think)  we would have a special treat (popcorn party, ice cream sundaes, cupcakes or you get the point.)  They loved it!  If the principal saw them and gave them a compliment that was automatically 3 BEEHIVES!  Boy would they get straight real quick!  Also, after we earned our treat I would send candy to the person that gave us a compliment and write a little note that said, "Thanks for helping our class earn __________ by giving us a compliment in the hall."  That showed them appreciation and it also made them want to give more compliments!  Lol!

 This is a bridge Thinking Map. 

 A tree map that the class and I made together on the first day.  I had the labels printed already but they told me what each word meant in their own words and we wrote it down.

 Little bee clips I made using yellow pom-pom balls and black pipe cleaners.  I used left over lamination to make the wings and glued wiggly eyes on the front. 

 This is a multi-flow thinking map that showed students a cause and effect of their own behavior.  Everyone wanted to stay on green!

 This is if you got in trouble once.

 This was pretty bad.  No one likes being on Red!

 A flow map thinking map of our morning procedures!

 My autobiography outside my door for parents to see who I am!  You can tell I like to scrapbook!

 This is too funny!  I had this windmill hanger and the windmill part broke.  Well I was gonna throw it away until I noticed the hole would fit over the face of my clock.  You never know what you can make!

Drawers to keep supplies in in case students run out or need something.