A Party!

Well, folks! I'm hosting a make-up party on November 16th at our house! It's make-up from the Body Shop. Tonight I went to a foot party at a friend's house and we pampered our feet with stuff from the Body Shop and it was so much fun. The consultant asked all of us if we wanted to host a party and I decided I would so that I could get a chance to know these ladies a little more. I think I'm gonna have a potluck Thanksgiving theme for the food. It'll be pretty easy to prepare that because I won't have to prepare much! It'll be so much fun I think. Plus, Kyle will be gone to work that night so he won't have to be surrounded by make-up and girls. Anyway, guess I'll talk more about this later. It's late.

Some more pictures from the Campbell visit

Old Idaho Penitentiary cell blocks
The prison grounds.
Boise River. (Again, I have no idea how I keep putting these pics out of order...sorry!)
Shelly and me by the river.

Cruisin' around the prison exhibit rooms.
This is supposed to be the barber shop cell. There was a sign saying that they needed more supervision for the barbers and so they eventually moved the barber shop to the Bishop's house. (I think it was the Bishop's house--either that or the guard's house--I forget exactly).

We went into the death row cell block...yeah...creepy.
I didn't do it!

Success again!

I've lost 7.6 pounds so far in my 4th week of Weightwatchers! I probably would've lost a little more had I went to a later meeting last week. I gained one pound last week, but I think it's because I went to the Tuesday meeting when I usually go to the Thursday or Friday meeting (in order to get all my exercise activity in before the weigh-in time. Next week should be good too! Maybe another 4 lbs? or more? We'll see! I'm super-motivated to keep at this weight-loss thing because it's making me feel really good about myself and plus, I feel really good in my clothing now!! I can't wait until I have to start buying new clothes because the stuff that I have is too big for me!! I don't wanna be like that lady on the WW commercial running to the elevator and trips on her skirt and makes it fall down around her ankles!

The Campbell Family from GA visits Idaho!

Kyle and I are enjoying the train ride despite the cold.
It was a good thing they provided blankets!
This is way out of order because this is after the ride.

Sitting in the train waiting for it to depart from Horseshoe Bend, ID.
It was a very scenic ride between the mountains on the way to Banks, ID.
Here's the evidence of wildfires--yes, they did happen, folks!
The train.
Enjoying the ride in the cold wind and rain droplets.

The Campbell family came to visit us this week. They arrived in Boise on Wednesday at around 10:40pm. I picked them up from the airport and we went straight back to the house so they could get sleep and try to recover from the long day of flight.

Thursday, we got up at our leisure and basically just lazed around. I did, however, take them driving around town and around Boise. I showed them where our temporary apartment was and I also took them to the greenbelt/Boise river. They also got to see the Boise State campus complete with smurf turf. That evening, I took Shelly to my gym dance class. She had a good time despite feeling lost on a lot of the moves.

Friday, we went to the Old Penitentiary. I'll put pictures up later of it. It was an interesting exhibit! Kinda creepy though.

Saturday, we took our train ride from Horseshoe Bend to Banks. It was a 2.5 hour ride. The high for the day was to only be in the upper 60s and possibly even cooler where we were in the mountains! It was predicting Tstorms, but luckily it only sprinkled off and on. The ride was so much fun! I hadn't done something like that in a very long time.

Sunday, we went to church here in Meridian. We found a Methodist church that is only 5 minutes from our house. It seems like a cute and quaint church. It has a lot of children in it, though. I felt comfortable in it, however. Everyone was so nice to us and were very friendly and curious as to where we came from and what brought us out here. Maybe we'll go again.

Monday (today) is our last day with them. We didn't do much. Kyle took his parents to Idaho City. while Shelly and I went out for the day to some stores. I had already seen the city and Shelly wasn't too keen on the long ride. She gets car sick easily. Plus, we weren't sure that we would get back in time for us to go the gym class this afternoon. So, we stayed here. Tomorrow is the day they leave early in the morning. Their flight is at 7am. Early morning we have ahead of us! I guess I better get to bed then. Gotta get up and leave at around 5:30am! Ick!

First day

Today was my first day of subbing for a school and of course, it was a middle school! I got to sub for a 7th grade English class. It was really fun, I think. I had minor problems with the students, but it didn't frazzle me at all. I just kept letting the trouble makers/talkers know that I was not impressed with their behavior and neither was anyone else and that pretty much kept them at bay. I was firm but friendly and I think the kids realized that. Here's some of what went on today:

First thing during Advisory (homeroom) period, we had a fire drill. I forgot the attendance sheet, but it turned out to be no big deal because I wasn't missing anyone--I figure 25 is a good number to be safe in assuming that nobody is missing. I also had a kid that wanted to do a little show and tell to the class because he wanted to share his story about catching a baby cougar in the wilderness--he had pictures. We got back into the building after the drill for 1st period and that class was awesome. They were kinda my guinea pig class because I wasn't sure of which order to go in for some of the activities and what all I should ask the students to get out for me from their binders. They helped me though.

2nd period was prep time for the teacher, so it was a free 50 minutes for me. Then, 3rd period began. They were also pretty good but I had a few troublemakers--mainly boys being silly like they always are...and I never realized how stupid 7th grade boys are and how much they don't make sense. One boy came up to me and started saying, "I'm gonna be going on a 3 day hunting trip on Thursday...." (pauses, and stands there). I just look at him and say, "Oh yeah? And so...?" I thought he was trying to get out of something, which I had no control of....
"Yeah, my dad and I are gonna go shoot some cows...."
"Cows???!"
"Yeah, like elk cows--female elks..."
"OOOhhh...okay, I thought you meant like dairy cows....I was thinkin' those would be too easy of a target!"
"Haha...yeah...." (he walks away)

4th period begins and I have some supposed troublemakers according to the teacher's notes...I had no problems with them.

5th period started and I definitely had some problem children. I ended up separating 2 boys and then the one that didn't get moved kept talking incessantly....I told him, "Who do you think you're impressing?? Because nobody here is laughing, so get quiet!" I said all this in a firm but calm voice and the rest of the class time was pretty decent.

6th period was lunch and 7th period was another prep time.

8th period was the IEP class (basically the class where more than 2 kids need some extra help). I tried to go at a slower pace and actually the class wasn't so bad--they were just a little talkative. And there were times when people were a little overly eager to read grammar book pages--I think it was to just be silly. I ignored it. Then, the day was over!

All in all, I had a good experience there at Sawtooth Middle School and I definitely wouldn't mind going back there again. Not to mention, it took under 10 minutes to get there! Nice....

Success!

My first week doing Weightwatchers and I've already lost 4.2 pounds! Yay! I like the points system! I don't have to really worry about calories, just the points and that makes eating well easier. Plus, so far I've been going to aerobic classes 4 days a week. Hopefully I can keep that up once I start getting sub jobs. Most of the classes, though, are in the evening so I probably won't have any problems keeping my activity up. Oh, by the way, just in case you didn't get the message--my cell phone number changed. I had to do this because the Sub office called me to tell me that I was clear for working, but I needed to get a local number or else the subfinder machine wouldn't call me if a teacher requested me. So, if you want my new cell number, email me because I'm not sure I want to just broadcast it over my blog.

Lately, it's been hard for me to go to sleep since Kyle isn't here at night. Once I get to sleep, however, I'm fine. It's just difficult at first because my mind plays tricks on me and I keep thinkin' that I hear noises like a tv is on or something. *sigh* My remedy for now is to put in earplugs and that seems to help because it just makes everything quiet. Maybe I'm just crazy. Who knows? I've met our backyard neighbors, Nickie and Chris. Nickie's very nice and likes to talk a lot--which is good. She invited me to come over anytime at night when I was feeling uncomfortable at the house alone. Her husband also works night shift at the hospital in Boise. He's a nurse and he works every other weekend, plus every Monday and Tuesday night. He's been doing that for the past 6 years, so she's used to it now. She understands though that it's tough. She also said that there's another lady in our stretch of houses that is alone at night because of the same thing and that lady calls her sometime and asks if she can come over for a little bit. I still feel kinda weird calling someone to see if I can come over--I feel like I'm inviting myself. Oh well...I think I'll take Dad's advice and bring over some kind of goodie for the family as a peace offering or a thank you for being so hospitable to me. Maybe I'll make a cheesecake again.

*YAWN* guess I better go to bed now...wish me luck. :) Good night.

New things for the house, part II

Tiger loves our new front loading washer because now he can watch the action!
Here's our new coffee table that came today! I'm so excited!
And here's the end table that matches!

In other news, Kyle got his very first Idaho speeding ticket. It was a pretty petty ticket though because he was only going 11 mph over the limit on the interstate. That would've never happened in ATL. Regardless, I had been telling him to slow his speed down on various occasions and this time it caught up with him. People in Idaho drive a little (okay, a lot) slower than the people there in ATL and it's probably because the police are so rigorous in giving out the tickets here. Maybe that's the reason or the people are just slower in general and so Kyle and his ATL driving habits just happened to stick out like a sore thumb. Who knows? Anyway, he called me yesterday after it happened and said, "You were right..." (music to any woman's ear). Hehehe...Oh well, I guess I won't hold it over him for too long ;).

Kitty playtime

Kyle got a package today and Tiger had a hay day with the bubble wrap.
Peek-a-boo! Where are you??

There you are!
Okay, this looks like he's suffocating, but he's not.

Bless his little kitten heart....he's tired and sleepy, complete with tongue sticking out.
A training experiment gone wrong--he thought it was a toy to bat around with his paws.
Ready, set....POUNCE!

Today was Kyle's 25th birthday! I cooked a Lemon pepper Tilapia with corn on the cob and salad. It was tasty! And upon Kyle's request, I baked him a cheesecake last night and we ate some tonight--omigosh! It was to DIE for!! I had been saving my weekly allowance points from Weightwatchers just for tonight!

Oh, and guess what? One of life's speedbumps got our way today. We were out in the living room and all of the sudden, we heard a BAM, BUMP, BUMP!! We ran to the laundry room and the washing machine was dead. The bin had come undone and was no longer attached or whatever. So, we need a new washer. Kyle ran to RCWilley and bought one so we will be getting a new one tomorrow. It was a good thing that the jeans in the washer were on the last spin cycle and didn't have soap in them!

Kyle started his night shift this week. It's gonna take some getting used to for both of us. It's kinda weird going to sleep by myself in the house. Also, Kyle's biological clock is getting all switched around too. He calls dinner breakfast because he wakes up late afternoon from sleeping and so he calls it breakfast. It's all good though, I guess....we'll work it out.

I started Weightwatchers this week. So far, so good. Today was the first day of actually recording what I'm eating and how much. I really hope it works out well for me. I just bought some of that Progresso soup that has zero points so that if I feel like eating something with not so many points, there we have it. I think as long as I keep going to the gym classes 4 days a week, it'll definitely show.

I finally got to actually have a nice, long conversation with our backyard neighbor. Her name is Nicki (I guess that's how you spell it) and she has 2 kids, London (girl) and Ethan (boy). They are cute kids. She's very friendly and we found out we had some things in common such as what we liked to watch on TV and some of the movies. Her husband, Chris, works night shifts at the hospital so at least I'm not the only one. She told me to come over sometimes whenever I'm feeling lonely at night. She also said we all should get together for dinner. I can't wait. I think they'll be good neighbors!

Alrighty, that's my update for now.

New things for the house!

Well, we succeeded in spending some more money on the house. I had been wanting a new coffee table and perhaps an end table for the living room. I had kept my eyes peeled for tables at every store we went to that had house furnishings. Finally, I found the perfect one! We found it at a store called RCWilley (the same place we got our $69 mattresses). The table has a dark wood trim with slate on the top of it and then it also has a glass table top. It's really nice and the end table is the same style. We get them in a week, so I'll take pictures and post them. We're getting closer to having the place like we want it. The coffee table was $150 and it was the best looking table that I saw in that whole place and that place was HUGE! The table was also on sale, so I think it was a good purchase. The end table was $99 (also on sale). I'm happy. Now all we need are the 2 chairs for the library and a table, and we need a nicer entertainment center and then I'll consider us pretty much finished for awhile. I do think we need a big piece of wall art for our hallway wall because it's really empty. Once I start working and getting some money, maybe this purchasing process will end a little quicker. We have to pace ourselves since only one of us is working. :)

Anyway, I haven't been feeling so well today...I think I may go lie down for a while and see if I can sleep it off. Ick...