Laurie's journal - Atkins plan (comments welcome)

[Strings]

CONGRATULATIONS LAURIE!!!

You are really on your way! I think going full time teaching is a great idea. The free lance thing would be a great way to add to your income though. Makes sense not to burn any bridges.

Great job on your walk. How are you feeling? I hope you aren't too sore.

Take care,
Beth

 

[LAinSEA]

Beth & Doreen--thanks so much!

Yes, I'm sore but I mowed the lawn yesterday (it was way too long again and damp!) and then walked this morning, but not the full route. My hips, calves, and hamstrings were very sore. After going up and down the really big hill, I cut the route a bit shorter. The temperature really went up today too--I was really dehydrated by the time I'd gone for 40 minutes.

I had a really good talk with my sister this morning also...we are slowly re-building the relationship we had before she took off for Provo with the girls and the new guy in her life. I think it helps that she is back in school also (I've been doing most of her review and editing of her papers and she is pulling A's). I also promised to look in on the girls this week and get Allysa some blue berries, which are her favorites.

My meals have been primarily on plan...need a bit more veggies on weekends as well as eating more regularly. We've been eating more in the South Beach style than true Atkins...lower fat and more "good" carbs. I'm going to do South Beach induction the next two weeks and see if I can jump start some loss.

My teammates and I are still working through our last project due Monday evening. It is supposed to be an instructional and management plan but is looking more like a paper. We were warned not to make it a lesson plan and it does have to be presented as a paper, but stressing the plan part of it seems to be the most important issue and the more difficult to address. I'm glad we still have another day.

I will have a week off and then begin another 3 credit/6 week course hopefully with a friend I made a couple of classes back. We have been in different sections despite requesting to be in the same section. She lives much closer in proximity to me and is about the same age. We will finally meet in person at the Praxis exam in August.

DH is having to replace (another) hose facet to the outside. They were installed quickly and incorrectly by the builder and have now failed with leaks. He replaced one last summer and now has to do the one in front. So the water is off for now.

 

[LAinSEA]

I just cannot believe my luck! My supervising teacher is absolutely amazing...I'm hoping I'll be the same with experience. I met her and the other two teachers I'll be working with this fall and got a tour and a mountain of books to read and design lesson plans for by September.

I have not yet walked today...I can't believe how sore I am. I was hoping to head to my folks tonight but my teammates have not yet checked in for final approval of our paper. In actually, I'm not real pleased with the effort...I'm a perfectionist, yes. This goes into my own portfolio and no one will know which portion was my own work. I think that portfolio projects should be individual efforts for the most part.

Perhaps when DH gets home (and the plumbing project is completely) he will walk the neighborhood with me. If he's not too embarrassed by my french braids (a little juvenile I'll admit but it has sure kept me cool today after my hair appointment).

So here's to hurry up and wait! Then the course can be over!

 

[LAinSEA]

Didn't get out for a walk on Monday...I had to add to the team paper to try and make it meet the assignment criteria after my teammates agreed it had issues but didn't want to make any more changes as they were fresh out of ideas. I'm burned out too but I really wanted an A. I don't know if we'll get it but the course is now over.

Didn't get out for a walk on Tuesday either...I did get my thank-you notes written and flowers delievered to the teachers I observed the last couple of weeks as well as the HR rep who coordinated the student teaching opportunity. As I was going to get out for a quick 20 minutes it started in with the lightning, thunder, and rain. Thought better of heading outside and we had a really fun stormy afternoon which put us on generator at work for the night.

Really raining this morning - no walk. Tilda wanted to snuggle and sleep in. So we did. I had my one-on-one meeting with the GM this afternoon (he met with all of us one-on-one four years ago when he took over operations). I let him know that I was leaving the end of August after he asked my opinion on why we were "hemoraging talent". I kept it professional, but I gave him an earful. What he does with the information is up to him. We are now looking at off at midnight due the Mariners/Athletics game going into extra innings...late nights are not conducive to early morning walks.

Foodwise - on plan but not on SB induction yet...this weekend DH says as we need to do some planning and prep work. I'm through with half of my reading for the first week of class which begins next Tuesday. I got my Praxis study guide for the test (language arts) I may need to retake and I'm waiting for the social studies guide...Barnes and Noble must not have it in stock. Hopefully it will come before Half Blood Prince arrives. From a quick glance at the study guide, I'm a little disappointed. Its as vague as the exam was and does not include a reading list or list of authors.

I did manage to get through the first book on the list for junior English (Tears on a Tiger), I've read Antigone (senior English) and have begun Beowulf and also reviewed Of Mice and Men. My goal is to have preliminary lesson plans drawn up for all four by Sunday evening. I'm also have at least 2 hours of weeding to maintain the blitz work the gardeners did a few weeks ago.

 

[DoeWDW]

Laurie, you are busy, busy, busy as usual! This pace is tough but fortunately it won't be that way forever. When will you be finished with all your classes?

Hang in there. You'll get time to walk eventually.

 

[LAinSEA]

This weekend was quite hectic but mostly productive, just not in the way I'd planned. Saturday was beautiful--so I opted to get some gardening done, weeding and planting some flowers in the garden. DH had mowed the lawn on Friday evening because we were due for rain all weekend, so Saturday was a bonus. Healthy eating, smoked ribs for a snack and caesar salad with smoked chicken for dinner.

Sunday it was pouring! We decided to scour the neglected house and I vacuumed under beds, scrubbed bathrooms, did mountains of laundry, etc. I was achy all over from two days of bending and stretching during chores.

Monday I picked up youngest niece early and we headed up to my folks house so that she could have some time with them. We went to the zoo and walked and walked and walked. Allysa got to stay the night with her grandparents and she was supposed to see her sister briefly today (but I haven't heard if she actually did).

I got logged into my new course this morning and I'm one day ahead on answering discussion questions. It is quite a large group and thankfully, the gal who lives closest to me got into this class section as well. I feel much better to have someone both close in location and in age for this course--I hope that we will be put on the same learning team as we work very well together.

Still not getting my morning walk in. The rain isn't helping. I know I won't melt but it is difficult to be up so late and then try and get up to walk in the rain. Send willpower!

 

[Strings]

Sending Willpower your way.

I'm glad that you have a jumpstart for the class. I hope your friend is in your group.

I am glad that you got to see your neice. A trip to the zoo sounds like fun.

Take care,
Beth

 

[LAinSEA]

I'm so tired! I don't understand why...I'm not staying up past 2am doing school work and I quit reading in bed. We have not been late with a late game all week (knock on something that resembles wood for tonight), and I'm caught up with my school work. So why am I exhausted?

Foodwise, on-plan. No walks but at least I've done some stretching.

I lucked out and my friend and I are on the same learning team with another two great, motivated classmates. We are the team of four, the other two teams have 5 students each. There are only three team projects for this course and I'm liking that a great deal. The portfolio project is an individual one this time and I'm happy for that.

We are expecting rain for the 4th (so what is new for this summer). I can't talk DH into coming with me to Gasworks for the fireworks as he'd rather stay and keep the kitties company. I'll make some cash and watch the fireworks from inside the HD production truck again. (someone remind me that I still haven't been paid for the training work I did for KING5 a while ago...)

My parents left for the cabin with my grandmother this morning. I hope that grandma is less argumentative once she is in very familiar surroundings. Her short term memory is almost non-existent now and she seems to get stuck in negative memories more often. I wish I could have gone along. She always seems to be on her best behavior with me and we seem to have conversations where she is much more "with it" than with other family members. My nieces are both camping this weekend with their dads so we can't see them. Summer school begins on Tuesday and I need to get in some more observation and assisting time before the school year begins.

I did hear from my supervising teacher and I put in for the dates for orientation and retreat. Someone blabbed to the executive producer about me leaving before I put in my notice and now I'll have to use vacation time instead of sick leave for these dates. (I have 60 hours of sick leave that will be unpaid if I don't use it and 126 hours of vacation time that should be paid out.) I did manage to get my dentist appointment and OBGYN appointment moved to August to make sure they are covered under my insurance before I lose it too. I was really hoping to wait a month before putting in my notice. What bothered me was that Tom made a comment that he felt dissappointed in me that I did not share my plans with him as I've obviously been working on this "a long time." I haven't keep my Masters program a secret and I did mention to him that I'd earned another "A" two classes ago. So when I emailed him back, I reminded him of the conversation about my GPA being a 3.93...and now its a 3.95. Disappointed in not being able to control my destiny he is...and his short-term memory does not seem any better than my grandmothers.

 

[LAinSEA]

I'm still bording on exhaustion. The fireworks going off until 2:15 am this morning didn't help matters. I actually found a faster way out of the park after the fireworks job last night but then got caught behind some bad wrecks on the freeway on the way home. DH kept the cats from climbing the drapes...Tilda just hates the booms and Niko hates them because they upset Tilda.

The executive producer admits that me working on my degree "slipped his mind" but is demanding a letter of resignation ASAP. I'm pissed that the HR rep (our finance manager) didn't keep his mouth shut a little while longer. "Oh, that's right, that's why you need to have your schedule changed because your school schedule changed." Duh!, this is the same guy who is required to do our performance reviews and he never sets foot outside of his office.

Foodwise--not as low carb as I'd like last night due to what was offered by the caterer at the fireworks, but I did keep the portions extremely small.
Exercise--I mowed the lawn before leaving for the fireworks yesterday afternoon. Otherwise, nothing.

I need to do more observing during summer school classes. Classwork is caught up and I turned in my first paper this morning. That first paper is always very scarey for me...never know how a facilitator will be grading.

 

[Strings]

Hi Laurie,

I hope that you are headed to bed early tonight. We had rain, so all the neighbors are having their parties tonight. I certainly hope they end before 2AM. I am glad to hear that your friends are in your group. That hould make things easier. Great job keeping up with the school work. I am sorry about the notice thing. I did worry when you said you had told a few coworkers. Someone always seems to blab. Ugh.
Take care of yourself and get some sleep.

Beth

 

[DoeWDW]

Coworkers and their big mouths! Sorry things didn't go the way you wanted at work. Take comfort in knowing that you won't be there too much longer.

Sounds like this class will be a lighter load as far as team projects - yay!! 3.95 GPA??? WOW!!! Way to go!! Keep plugging away and soon you'll be in your dream job!

 

[LAinSEA]

I'm up-to-my neck again in too much school work, work projects, and the growing pile of books (you'd think that they would be diminishing by now as I've gotten through several...re-reading Joy Luck Club presently, a great book by the way.) Reading for pleasure and reading to build lesson plans is totally different. How to relate the books to my students' daily lives and make them relevant is a challenge. I'm doing much better for the junior English list than the senior and still have not begun making notes for the journalism course yet.

I'm trying to get ahead in my school assignments because I anticipate that Harry Potter will arrive on Saturday and I'm dropping everything for him!

I did find out that I passed my Praxis Language Arts content exam - Yay! I needed a 158 and scored a 181. I'm happy and also now preparing for the social studies exam on Aug. 6th...but I'm still not sure how I managed to pass. Perhaps I should try out for Jeopardy! Yes, these tests are that random.

Foodwise, on plan and trying to make portions smaller overall.
Exercise - what is that? other than mowing or walking the mall with my niece before she left for camp. Oh, and I'm making an effort to pull in my abs while I sit at work.

I spoke with a friend who is an attorney and he said that I should not be pressured to turn in an official letter of resignation until 2 week out. First reason, if they terminate me after I turn in the letter, I have no recourse for unemployment because I had turned in notice. Second, I worked for 3 months in an "on-call" mode before receiving benefits because the full-time position was not approved. Giving notice will not help the process and they already mentioned sometime ago that my fulltime position would not be filled with a fulltime employee. Besides, the evil EP can just wait and if he fires me for giving "unofficial" notice and not "official" notice, I have a great big case. Our GM is still on vacation so I have not been able to let him no that I am being pressured by the EP. So in response to the EP asking where my letter is, I just told him today that I'd been advised not to submit it until 2 weeks before my last day. I emphasized the word "advised" and I think he got the message that I'd talked to someone and to back off (hopefully).

 

[DoeWDW]

WOO HOO!! ONE PRAXIS DONE!!

Congrats for passing that evil PRAXIS LA exam!! I'll be crossing my fingers for the next one in August. You keep getting closer, step by step, to being a full-fledged certified . Have I mentioned that I'm so proud of you??!! This hasn't been easy but you've been persistent and you're doing it! So many people just dream and never follow through - you should be very proud of you too!

Good for you for talking to an attorney friend and for putting that exec. producer in his place! Sometimes they think they are God!

I'll be devouring Harry Potter this weekend also. Thank goodness for Amazon - it will just "magically" show up on my doorstep! In preparation I've reread the first and second books. Tonight I'll tear the house apart looking for the third one that is "missing", so I have something to keep me going until Saturday.

Good luck with lesson plans, school work, job and home! Hang in there, sweetie!!

 

[LAinSEA]

I got an 11 out of 10 on the CNN Harry Potter quiz - does that count for something. I'm going to try to get my weekend assignment completed before I see the UPS truck arrive--can't crack that book until I've got my school work done. I'm also trying to get through another short novel (Night) while at work today - devoured another yesterday (Their eyes were watching God). I'm really trying to take good notes along the way and figure out ways to relate the series of books to each other. I also grabbed a "No Fear Shakespear" of MacBeth and I'm giggling my way through it before bed. Only my eyes have become really very tired. I think I've gotten use to less sleep.

Foodwise, on plan (except for two microwave s'mores while waiting to see if my group got our assignment posted by midnight last night...I finally did it at the stroke of 12). Exercise---none. Niko reminded me that we need to play circus cat, bouncey ball, fetch with frog, and any other number of games this morning while I was trying to get out the door. He and Tilda have a conspiracy to keep me in bed much longer than I should be every morning. I made the mistake of picking up my work phone on speaker last night and DH put Niko on the phone. Now my coworkers know that we are crazy...it is just not a rumor. Yes, I had a conversation with the cat and everyone listened in. He'd caught 2 flies and went on in great detail about the chase...

My folks are picking up Charly from horse camp and then she has to go back to her dad's - but will be off to church girls camp on Tuesday-Saturday. Allysa's father has not been very cooperative about letting us see much of her this summer. I need to try and set up an afternoon to go school shopping with her - crossing my fiingers.

Back to my school work, lesson planning, reading - oh, anything but productive work work. (Only two late shows tonight anyway.)

 

[LAinSEA]

It took the USPS until nearly 7:30pm to deliver my HP book that was guaranteed to come by 6pm (our mail usually comes on Saturday at about 10am). UPS apparently contracted out deliveries to USPS instead. Big mistake!

Yes, I got my school work done and turned in before I began reading. I got halfway through before bed (at midnight) and then started again Sunday at 2pm and finished before dinnertime. I'm so sad! Extremely good story but a very sad ending! I only wish I could write as well as J.K. Rowling. (something to work on) I've decided after I'm done with my Masters and get a real teaching position, the next summer will be for writing that novel I've had floating around in my head for years and years.

Foodwise - too many sweets but otherwise on plan.
Exercise - mowing the lawn and a little weeding. Too hot for much else.

Cats have been so good in staying on the back patio without problems. My neighbors don't understand how or why they behave so well.

I did get my official Praxis results so that I can fax them to my academic advisor (the school should have received them through the mail also but she seems to think that this is the only way she'll get them). I have to follow up on whether or not she received the info from my principal and supervising teacher also.

Now, I'm back to school work and the reading lists for junior and senior English - not as interesting as HP.

 

[Castillo Mom]

Hi Laurie, just catching up a bit on everyone's (or one's I can remember) journals. Good to see a few familiar "faces" around. Looks like you've been a very busy bee as always these last few months that I've been away. I just wanted to drop in and say hi and say that I'm back in the game. Take care!

Lisa

 

[Castillo Mom]

So nice to hear from you Laurie! Well, hopefully you'll get out to CA sometime soon. I just bought 4 day Disneyland hoppers. Hopefully we'll be going in a couple weeks.

Wow, you seem to be making a career change, at least if I remember correctly. Teaching is a wondeful profession and I wish you well in your endeavors!

Yes, the size 12s are tight but I refuse to buy a larger size. I got rid of all my "big" clothes so that I wouldn't be tempted to have the attitude that it's ok to gain a little.

Well, it's getting late. Have a good evening and take care!

Lisa

 

[LAinSEA]

Life's little frustrations really get to me sometimes...

DH has been fighting the battle of the mice under the house (yes, we have cats but Tilda refused to go in the crawl space which we have added a large door to store patio furniture etc. and help her daddy "mouse"). He's been baiting traps and catching mice, good, then he's been disposing of them in the garbage can. I suppose that would be fine except that I open up the lid on the can, smell and see the bodies and wake up the neighborhood with my screams! We live on the edge of the woods for Pete's sake! Throw the bodies to the owls, coyotes, bobcat! He also trapped a mole and apparently the trap only got the shoulder. But before he could remove the trap something actually dug it up and hauled both trap and mole under the trees. Oooh yuck! Whatever did it bit the head of the mole and had to pretty big cause the trap weighs about 3 lbs.

I have cousins in London and we've been corresponding since the bombings two weeks ago--I called today. Thankfully their routes to and from work have not been effected (yet). They are so brave about just going on...like what can they do?

Foodwise, mostly on plan but I've got to drop all carbs down to a minimum again. Exercise...nada. School and reading list on track. I do have to begin organizing my lesson plans. I've been trying to follow up with the advisor to make sure I'm good to really put in my notice at work.

-Laurie

 

[DoeWDW]

I would NOT be happy with critters under my house and DH would definitely be the one responsible for taking care of the problem! I spent 6 years as a lifeguard for a pool that was rural and surrounded by woods. Can't tell you how many dead animals I fished out of that pool early in the mornings. I always used the skimming net (on a long pole!) and pitched the bodies deep into the woods. Worked like a charm! Hope the little buggers find a new place to hang out soon!

So glad to hear your cousins are fine in London. I work in a 10 story building next to the state capitol building. I also live near the famed Three Mile Island nuclear power plant (tried to melt down in 1979). We were warned that we were targeted for attacks right after 9/11. There were days that it took all of my willpower to show up to work, remain calm and do my job. Best wishes to your cousins and the added stress they are undoubtedly feeling, even if they are keeping that traditional British stiff upper lip.

On a happier note, you are moving step by step toward that teaching job and away from TV production! How exciting for you!! Just keep swimming, just keep swimming ..... you're closer than ever, Laurie!!

 

[Cruise04]

Good job at staying on with your food and working on your exercise.

Mice=ick in my book. We had a cat that was an indoor/outdoor cat, mostly outdoor, and we had a mouse inside once. So I brought him in and he wanted nothing to do with it. But if it would have been outside, he would have been all over it!!! Darned cats

Keep on
Chris