lots to do

• My sister-in-law’s wedding is this Saturday. I finally found someone to alter my dress and hopefully it will fit and even more hopefully it will be ready by Friday. We are taking Jules to the rehearsal tomorrow night so that should be interesting...
• My sister is supposed to close on her house tomorrow. There's been a lot of complications so I don't know if it's going to actually happen this week or not, but if so then I'll be helping her move some of her stuff this weekend.
• I also need to run twice before Sunday. I guess I'd better get moving.
• I'm also officially proclaiming that today I have to get back to eating better. Valentine's Day is certainly over and although there's still a half dozen Krispy Kreme Doughnuts sitting in my kitchen, I am going to ignore them. That being said, I need to get to the grocery store and buy some healthy food.
• My parents are out of town so I have to go feed their cat sometime today.
• Since I have today and tomorrow off work I should actually take advantage of it and get some lesson plans done and some papers graded while I have the extra time.
• I should also do some cleaning since my house is starting to look like it came from the set of the movie Twister.

So I think that's about it. We'll see how much actually gets done.

a visit to the children's museum

You may have noticed that I was absent a lot last week. It mostly because I thought Jules had an ear infection. I took a sick day last Thursday to take her to the doctor and the doctor said she must just have a cold, no ear infection - thank God.

Friday she was feeling better and since they were showing mom and dad’s house they took her to the local Children’s Museum. Here are some of the cute pictures. My favorite is Julianna in the J.

random thoughts on valentine's day

I used to have this calendar. It was one of those free things you got in the bags of stuff they gave you when you moved into the dorms in college. You know what I’m talking about, right? Those bags of coupons and free razors and deodorant and stuff? Well at our school they (the calendars, not the free deodorant samples) were called “Wolfwise.” It had sections of weekly planning areas and it was covered with important campus information like maps and phone numbers as well as important dates, etc.

My Wolfwise was like my journal. It was my life. I was (and still am) so Type-A that I wrote EVERYTHING in that darn little spiral notebook. Going out to eat with friends? Write it in the Wolfwise. Home for the weekend? Write it in the Wolfwise. Psychology test? Put it in the Wolfwise. Big ACC basketball game? Of course that would go in the Wolfwise. Period coming up? Make sure you get that down, too. Everything from work schedules to class registration dates went in that thing. I even got to the point where I would write down the silliest of events or phone calls in the Wolfwise. It became like a journal of sorts. And I kept the past years editions for reference. You could look back in those things and find out anything you needed to about my silly little life.

My then boyfriend (now husband) would occasionally pick the thing up and write tiny little notes in it. He would pick dates far out in the future and write something sweet on it like JWT loves CLM or whatever.

I still keep a calendar (I couldn’t live without keeping a calendar) but most of it is online through google. You really should see my running spreadsheet, but I guess that’s a whole other story. This blog has sort of turned in to my “Wolfwise.” As it should be, it is my journal and my way of documenting important events and feelings.

But I still get such a nostalgic feeling sometimes when I think of those dumb little spiral notebooks and all of those sweet nothings from my CTO. Sigh.

drooly julie

Jules cut her first molar on Saturday. I knew it was coming because her gums were swollen beyond belief. That and the fact that she had excess drool and diarrhea the few days before it. Luckily, there was really only about one night that she didn’t sleep well because of it and she only cried once or twice when she bit down on her sippy cup or spoon. I didn’t know that 10 ½ month olds would cut molars, but my mom looked it up and sent me the link and sure enough, they do.

At least at the rate little J is going she should be done cutting teeth by the time she’s two.

who do you appreciate?

Teacher appreciation week this week. It’s going to be rough on my waistline I fear. I had gotten as low as one pound above my pre-baby weight. Then I started this little cycle I’m currently in, you know the one where I don’t stick to my diet that well? Yeah, that one. And now I’m back up to only 14.5 pounds down and 2.5 pounds above pre-baby weight.

We have a short work week because Thursday and Friday we are out for winter break. For teacher appreciation week on Monday the parents had set up a huge room full of goodies for us to snack on all day. Tuesday they are taking our classes to lunch for us while we go have a buffet meal with our coworkers. Wednesday is a special chapel service honoring all of the teachers as well as Krispy Kreme doughnuts and coffee/hot chocolate all morning long in the break room. Then to top it all off we can stop by and pick up a homemade dinner to take home to our families on Wednesday afternoon. Is my school wonderful or what?!

Fabulous Weekend Recap

I had a fabulous weekend.

Well, we had our Dream Dinners date on Friday night. It went OK. I was a little bummed because we couldn’t really work side by side for any part of the time because none of the recipes we were putting together were at the same station*. Anyway, I’m glad we went and the best part was that we got home in time to put the little girl to bed and have a good dinner from Panera with my MIL. I’m so grateful for their willingness to participate in my shenanigans. Now for the next month we’ll be eating some yummy
CHICKEN WITH TOMATO, LEMON & HERB SAUCE,
CHICKEN WITH TEX-MEX RED CHILE SAUCE ,
STEAKS SOUTHWEST ,
BEEF KABOBS WITH TOMATO-THAI GINGER SAUCE ,
CARIBBEAN PORK ROAST WITH HONEY-MUSTARD SAUCE ,
DIJON & HERB MARINATED PRAWNS , and
HERB CRUSTED FLANK STEAK.

Saturday big J kept little J while I went shopping for a short bit. I went to a giant children’s consignment sale. It was really cool. Opening day for the sale was Saturday at 9 am. I’d never been before but I’d read that the line always starts forming early on opening day so I planned ahead a little and got there about 8:40 am. When I got there the line was wrapped all the way down the center of the mall and back (it was in an old mall department store area that is no longer used anymore) probably a mile total. They were only letting in so many people at a time so the place wouldn’t be too crowded (which I actually thought was really smart) and I was so far back in line that I thought I wouldn’t make it in. Luckily I made it in the first round. A friend I saw there was only about ten people behind me in line and she said that they waited almost an hour after nine just to be let in the doors.

Anyway, I got a bunch of stuff (pictures soon). I got some great clothes and five pairs of shoes for little J. Plus I got a boppy pillow (I’ll explain later) and some play food for the tiny little kitchen I bought her for only…

wait for it…

THREE dollars!

Yes that’s only three bucks, as in 300 pennies. I also got her a little desk and chair for when she’s a little bigger. I’m saving most of this stuff to give to her next month when she’s…. sniff, sniff…. turning…. sniffle, sniff, sniff… ONE YEAR OLD!

Then later Saturday I kept little J while big J helped his sister move for a couple of hours. Next he put up the bird house that we got for Christmas and the rest of the day we pretty much did nothing until dinner when we went to my favorite restaurant with some friends. We also watched some old Friends episodes and ate a lot of junk.

We have sort of made it routine that we watch Friends on Sunday nights and it has really become such a fun thing for me to look forward to each weekend. We decided to watch on Saturday night this weekend and we are almost through Season 1 of the boxed set I got for Christmas. Love that show.

ANYWAY

That brings me to Sunday. Church, lunch, attempt at a nap while the little girl was sleeping (but of course that fell through), then did I mention I ran FOUR MILES!!!??? After I ran on Sunday I got to indulge in a fun treat and the husband and I took a trip to Target and I picked up some Rubbermaid storage bins for the clothes that the little girl has outgrown. Oh such fun! I had a great weekend!

*And I’m way too impatient for us to have worked together on the same meal and - heaven forbid - waste time.

Please tell me why I was so afraid

I had this stunning realization yesterday. See I was supposed to run four miles on Saturday and sometimes I do put off my Saturday runs until Sunday, but Saturday I just couldn’t make myself do it. I ate poorly on Friday and Saturday and then Saturday was just a lazy day for me and I was completely unmotivated to exercise. So I waited until yesterday. Then we went to church and came home and had lunch while the little girl napped and before I knew it it was already 3something and I still hadn’t run my four miles.

I realized that I was not only procrastinating I was also seriously fretting over it. I was stressing out big time thinking that I just couldn’t do it. I realized that I was afraid of failing and afraid of beating myself up after I realized that I couldn't complete the run. I kept remembering all of those times recently where I’d run what I was supposed to run and felt awesome about myself. That feeling of pride that you get when you actually do something that you never thought you could do is certainly worth keeping around, but yesterday I just thought that there was no way I was going to be able to make it up to four miles without stopping and walking at some point. So I just didn't want to run.

Finally, I decided that I had to just try it because if I didn’t then the fear of possibly not being able to do it would be too overwhelming and I would just quit. (I know. Ridiculous, right? It's always easier to quit than to try.) Anyway, I just got on the treadmill and did it.

It really wasn’t that bad and I ran the whole. four. miles. Without stopping. FOUR. MILES. In about 49 minutes. I’m awesome. So proud of myself. So thankful for family that helps me do it. And so totally motivated again. Can you see me dancing?

April 10K here I come!