Subbing along...and a normal schedule

Kyle is no longer on funky shifts anymore!!! He started on Tuesday with a normal, first shift job. He had applied for another job within Micron to get off these insane 4 month shifts and had to wait almost a month to even hear anything about it. He finally got the word last week and they gave him the job. He goes into work now from about 7am-5pm (ish). The earlier he goes in, the earlier he can leave and vice versa. Today he went in super early because he woke up super early...we're talkin' 4am. He couldn't sleep. His body thinks this is a trick and all night he really didn't sleep well so he just got up around 4am and got ready for the day. Anyway, we're really happy that he's got a normal person shift and won't be a vampire any longer (although, I've got a soft place in my heart for vampires--i.e. Edward Cullen in the Twilight stories <3 ).


I'm still subbing. It's been slow but oh well. I've actually not minded that (although, less subbing=less extra money). I'm just so tired of this crap. I hate subbing. I hate being a slave to my phone (anticipating it ringing and whatnot) and a slave to the computer, constantly checking in online to see if there's a job waiting for me. I used to be compulsive and check all day, every day but now I don't care. It's almost as if I'm rebelling and not wanting to work. Maybe that's true. I'm tired of it all. I just want a constant job that gives me no choice of whether to get up for the day or not. When I was working last year, yeah, it hurt to get up early but I knew that I was having fun (most of the time) and there was a nice, constant paycheck coming for me at the end of the month. Now, my paychecks are a mere fraction of what I got--I think my effort in the subbing has lessened as well. I figure, what the heck. I don't care. I get paid peanuts now for a job well done. Why should I go above and beyond now? Most teachers don't even really care what goes on when they're not there--I know I didn't unless a major behavior problem constituted a write-up to the office. Other than that, I'd get back to my room the next day and just throw away the sub notes. I know in elementary school it's different though. Teacher has to know how far the kids got in the assignments and the progress that they made. That's a little different so I make sure to concentrate more on those assignments since I'm trapped in the classroom all day with the same kids. Gotta keep the sanity, ya know? ;) Anyway, it's just exhausting doing this day in, day out. Some substitutes do this as a retirement thing to keep them active. With as much as I've done subbing these past oh, 2.5 years or so, I don't think I'd do it again even when I'm gray. I might be willing to help out in classrooms and do the busy work but not subbing.

Don't I feel like a donkey's rear?

Yesterday I was subbing at an elementary school and the morning went a little rough because the kids were SO ACTIVE and talkative! They were being so rowdy when we had a guest speaker. I told them that I was disappointed in their behavior and that the rest of the day had better improve so that I don't have to keep writing "bad" notes to the teacher. They got better. As good as they could get, anyway. So, after library time, we had 10 minutes before lunch and it was their silent reading time. I told them as they entered the room, that they needed to continue reading silently until I called them to line up for lunch. THEY DID IT. So I was happy about that and took a mental note. During lunch, I took the little Way To Go Wagon rewards and filled them out to give to each student to show my appreciation. I decided I would give them to the students when they came in from lunch/recess. Well, after everyone came in, I gave them each one explaining why I was doing so. No sooner had I passed out most of the rewards, the people who monitor the playgrounds (school support personnel, SSP for now) came into the classroom and gave everyone a lecture about name calling and disrespect out on the playground. I felt like a donkey's rear because I had just given them a reward for respecting rules and whatnot. As the SSP were leaving, I asked the kids whether I needed to take back the rewards or not. I felt SO DUMB. But I rationalized that I was not rewarding playground behavior but the classroom behavior I had witnessed just before lunch. Ugh. I hate when stuff like that happens. Also, what's ironic is they had JUST had a lesson in the morning from the counselor about bullying and emotional safety and name calling. Guess some people weren't taking that advice to heart.

Nostalgia hits hard

I'm feeling homesick sorta and nostalgic. I can't wait to come home for a few days to see Chris and Mom and Dad.

I want to hire painters.

I really want to hire painters to finish the job I started (baseboards in our bedroom, as well as painting all the rooms a really nice, neutral color). Too bad that requires having a lot of extra money. We also want new flooring because our carpet gets more and more disgusting each week. We tried doing the Rug Doctor thing and it seemed to do the trick for a little while. The only bad thing is you have to keep the windows open to let the carpet dry out or it starts smelling kinda musty. I don't mind keeping the windows open if the temperature's just right though. I also want some crown moulding in the bedrooms. I think it would give the rooms a finished/polished look. Again, this all requires tons of money. :( Even if I had a job, we'd have to take all this one step at a time but it'd be a lot easier anyway.

*Random side note that's totally not related to this: I've set a goal for myself and my weight loss. I'm winding down the loss (been battling a plateau as of lately--a really rough one) and I've decided that my last weight loss goal is to lose 15 pounds by Christmas. I realize this is going to be a difficult task BUT I'm ready for it. Bring it on. That makes me losing about a pound each week (15 weeks from now until Christmas). This is a pretty realistic and healthy goal. Healthy weight loss is about a pound or two per week. I realize I'm gonna hit some challenges along the way but I'm ready to face them. I'm just ready to get the rest of this weight OFF!!!! I want to feel comfortable in all of my clothes. I have some pants that I bought earlier this summer because I was doing pretty good for a couple of weeks and dropped down in weight but the couple of pounds that I had lost came back on and so now those pants are kinda pushed to the back of my pant collection. I want to bring those up the front soon. :) I also want to feel comfortable during the holidays that I can indulge some without feeling like I'm going to pay for it later and hate myself and feel really huge. I don't want to feel like I'm constantly pushing the weight limit (according to the Weightwatchers goal weight I had set for myself). I hate stressing when I step on the scale at the meetings and freaking out if I go over the goal. Once I hit this new weight (and stay at it for awhile), I'm going to adjust the WW goal weight to a lower one but not too low so that I have a cushion for myself. Lately I've been doing really well with my eating and not feeling deprived. I usually include a lot of fiber in my diet and water. I think that's my trick. Fiber and water. I do get protein and veggies, as well. I also found a great tea that I can drink called Guayaki Yerba Mate. It's a caffeinated tea that helps motivate me and aids weight loss plans. Whenever I feel the uncontrollable munchy feeling, I brew some of that and have a couple of cups of tea to help refocus my brain. I also just keep a ton of fruit on hand so that if I still can't shake the munchies, I can eat that and not feel too bad. :)

That's my goal for myself so far. I know sometimes I'll stray. I probably won't hit exactly 15 pounds but as long as it's somewhere in the neighborhood, I'll be happy.

Zumba video, again.

http://www.youtube.com/user/zumbahilla (go to the one that is titled "It's Alright" by Pitbull, although it should be already cued up. I'm in the poiple tanktop in the back corner on the left of the screen.

Here is another video of me doing Zumba in another class. See, Aunt Judy?? There are older women that do this class so you don't have to feel like you're "the oldest" in the class. It's for all ages and ability levels. You just have to find the right instructor. :) I like the faster pace of Marcela's classes though.

Well, dagnabbit

I just got the rejection email from the GEAR UP people. It's a no-go. :( Still nothing from Idaho State though...

Well my subbing experiences started off with a bang. Let's just say that my first day back on the job was complete BEDLAM. It was a 7th grade lower level math class. I've never really had any problems with middle school subbing (I know that sounds strange-- middle school=chaos usually) but really, I haven't had much trouble in the past. This was quite a different outcome. HOLY COW. I wanted to drink margaritas the minute I got home. But I didn't. I just retreated into my bedroom, turned off all the lights and crawled under the covers and slept. I can't even begin to describe how crazy those kids were, except for the term: bedlam. Needless to say, I more than likely will NOT be subbing for that lady's class--EVER AGAIN.

The rest of the experiences were heaven so far compared to this one.

Curb Cup 2010

Last Sunday was a long afternoon of shakin' our booties. Curb Cup is an event that takes place all over downtown Boise. All the artists that ever existed come out to be seen. Marcela asked me a couple of weeks ago if I wanted to participate with her and I said sure!! So, this past Sunday we did just that in front of about 27,000 people in a period of about 2.5 hours. It was so much fun!! We had a snafu though because we got there and realized that we didn't have a big speaker to play the music from and all we ended up using was a cd boombox, which if you heard the noise level at that event, you'd know that the boombox probably wasn't going to quite cut it. But we used it anyway. I could hear it pretty good but it was a little difficult for some of the songs to hear a few of the cues to know when to do a different part of the routine. No worries though! We just made the best of it. There was this one point where Marcela and Vivi had walked off to go get some voting tokens for our exhibit and I got back first. Well, when I got back, there were people just standing in front of our exhibit waiting to see what we had to offer. Soooooo.....with some encouraging and some nudging, I turned on a song that I knew all the moves to and performed for the crowd. By myself. Crazy, huh? But the people loved watching the dancing! Oh, I was so embarrassed but it was a great time! :) I ended up dancing Zumba for 2.5 hours at that Curb Cup and then when it was all over, Marcela still had to teach Zumba at the gym at 4:30. Kyle and I had carpooled with them, so we had to go. I danced Zumba for another hour. Making me Zumba for about a total of 3.5-3.75 hours. 3263 calories burned. Whoa. Surprisingly, the next day I wasn't as sore as I thought I would be. However, today my knee isn't liking me too much because yesterday I added onto the intensity of my weekly workouts and did a Body Combat class (basically kickboxing) and a Corefit class (30 minutes straight of ab work--although that doesn't affect my knees). I don't think I'll be making it to Zumba tomorrow morning with Zumba at 10:30. I need to let my knee relax and not put any hard pressure on it for a little bit. I'll probably still go to the Sunday afternoon class still. I can't go a whole weekend and not do that. Otherwise, I feel all out of whack.

Anyway, just ya'll would like to see what I do with my newfound free time. ;) Could you see me as a future Zumba instructor? ;) Probably not because what they pay Zumba instructors doesn't nearly cover the cost of registration for a training program and the membership fees that you have to pay in order to become one. Oh well, for now, I'll just be an overly-enthusiastic student!