Hold Me Accountable!

I've decided enough is enough & I need to get in shape! I guess the look on Mr. L's face when I made him feel my heart beat after simply vacuuming my living room made me think about it. Granted, my living room is on the big side, but it's no excuse to become so winded after vacuuming. So I'm talking walks in my neighborhood. Mr. L & I did 2 times in one weekend, about a month ago. Then came the time I had to go ... (gasp!) ... ALONE! Yikes! This is how girls get abducted! I've watched 20/20...I know how it happens! But Mr. L was persistent & made me go. So I'll say the first walk I did alone was for him. The 2nd walk, the very next day, was for ME. I was feeling like I wanted to cry, just being so overwhelmed & frustrated with school & 7th graders. Now, I'm ok to do it. I am not saying I LIKE to, but it's easier. I do wear my ipod, & keep the volume really low so that I can hear if anyone comes running up behind me.

Funny story from my walk today - I was walking down the sidewalk, thinking, what what I do if I saw a snake?! Crap! Then in the song I was listening to, a weird sound was in it & I thought it was a snake I heard on the ground & I actually jumped! Then the sound went in my other ear & I realized what was going on. Dang that house music tricking me like that! But that music, that I've always liked, sure does keep a spring in my step to keep me going, so that is good.

Anyway, I'm realizing this entry is boring so I'll close it out. I just had to put this on here so that I would continue to walk (I'm hoping that will keep me going, at least).

PS-I go to Vegas in 10 more days!!!

Fashion at the Park

Last night Mr. L & I went to Fashion at the Park - it comes once a year to North Park Mall. It's all this week & different stores/designers have fashion shows throughout the week. Mr. L & I attended the Barney's show, plus . . . . . yeah, someone else. It was really cool. This was my 3rd show in my life to see. I always think 'there's no way people will buy these clothes to wear!' Or at least the places I go - people are never this dressed up or wear this crazy of stuff! It's fun when you go in & they have free drinks for you. Last night it was champagne and mojitos. I actually didn't have anything. I was too hungry & I knew we were going to dinner after, so I didn't want to feel weird (or tipsy!) drinking on an empty stomach. Anyway-the bad thing is they are all only 10-15 minutes long!

Last night's show had about 32 different outfits. Check out the heels these girls were wearing! All girls wore the same shoes, just some were in different colors. The first girl that walked out, I was thinking, "wow she is really walking clunky!" Well, once she got to where I could see the entire outfit, I saw why! The soles/platforms of the shoes were about 2-3" high, & then the heel itself was about 5" high! I think those girls still walked better in those shoes than I do in my 1 pair of heels I have!

After the show we stopped at Luna de Noche in the mall to have dinner. He & I both agreed on that: this sucks! I don't think we'll be going back there!

I can't wait to go back to see another show next year! Until then, I'll just keep going to Obar where I can have some wine while watching fashion shows on the TVs!

Surprise!

I knew last night Mr. L was going to cook dinner for me. He asked if he could, & who was I to tell him no? :) I knew we were going to have our favorite salmon & potatoes with salad. He wouldn't let me help at all! I sat at the table & would watch & talk to him & would occasionally do some dishes. Well, there were some nice stargazer lilies on the table that he bought...he bought me a bottle of wine that I was sipping on...and the meal was wonderful, of course. After dinner he took off to a back bedroom & told me I couldn't go back there, I could only stay on the couch and...(get this)...WATCH TV. Wow. I will never argue with that! :) Before going back to the bedroom, behind closed doors, he put dessert in the oven, which he told me to not peek on as well. Wow.

If you know me, you know I love desserts. I have a major sweet tooth! Finally the time had come. I had to close my eyes as I walked into the kitchen. Here's the scenario:
*there was a paper table cloth on the table - it had 'casino' & red & black on it with dice & cards & dollar signs
*there was an apple crisp pie sitting in front of my place on the table
*there was a card that said 'to my miss'

So I realize what kind of pie it is & get really excited. He & I went to a restaurant a few weeks ago & I offered to share my dessert with him (an apple crisp) & it was so good I ate it all! He ate the ice cream & didn't get 1 bite of the apple crisp (I did offer him one - 2 times!). :) Then I open my card & see there is a robot on the front. So I start singing "Mr. Roboto" & doing my great robot dance. Then I open the card & sure enough - that is the song that is playing in the card! lol The card is a Happy Birthday card. Interesting, since my birthday is in February. I wasn't sure if he was making up for my last birthday, where we didn't do anything since we were broken up...or it was an early birthday card. Whatever...I was rollin' with it!

Then it was time to open the present. Inside this huge gift bag was a purple box. I open it & see shreds of tissue paper in it. I actually asked him if a kitten was in it! At the bottom of the box is a piece of paper. I thought to myself "aww how sweet! He got me a gift certificate for a massage!" Nope - it was an itinerary from American Airlines - he & I are going to the greatest city in the world....for Halloween! Everyone that knows me knows I love Vegas. & Mr. L's favorite holiday is Halloween. So, we are leaving for Vegas on the 30th of October (Thurs) & will come back on that Sunday. I can't wait! I'm really excited! We are staying at New York, New York (his favorite city in the world, I think!) & are going to see KA that Thurs. night. Friday will be Halloween, so we will find a Halloween party to go to. He's mentioned going to Rain or Ghostbar in the Palms, but that hasn't been decided yet. I guess today he & I will be looking for Halloween costumes! What does one wear to a Halloween party in VEGAS?!?! I can't wait... So...this will be the best birthday and Christmas gift ever!

It's Been a Long Time

Where do I start? What do I talk about? I am in the 4th week of school. On the first day I kept 3 boys after the bell, from my first class of the year (!), to give them a 'talkin' to' & to tell them I was starting a discipline sheet on them, & this was their warning! I gave out a detention the next week (can you imagine getting a detention the 2nd week of school?!). Last Friday a boy told me to shut up as he was walking out of my classroom (b/c I had already told him to get his things & get out after he threw a temper tantrum for not liking his seat in the new seating chart). Seriously though, so far anyway, this group of 7th graders seem ok. There are about 5-8 students I could do without. Yes, it's still early in the year, but that's what I'm sticking with, for now. I pray for myself that I can remain as calm throughout the year in tough situations as I did when the boy told me to shut up.

Olga, my student from last year, has been released from the hospital. There has been 2 good matches found on the international database for her. They are in the process of checking to see if these people are still able to donate bone marrow. I hope it works out for her! I pray that it works out for Olga & the match they've found will work in her body.

Scotty, my brother-in-law, is currently in New Jersey, training & getting ready to leave for Afghanistan. He's been there once already, a few years ago. He reinlisted about 1.5 years ago. He will fly out for Afghanistan at the beginning of January. I pray he comes home safely & I of course pray for Kimmie as she learns to live alone, with their 4 (!) cats.

I'm excited to see the season finale of Big Brother tomorrow night! I hope that Dan wins (what do you think, Lindley?). I'm really loving the new 90210 (of course it can't be as great as the original but I still like it!). Gossip Girl is freakin' awesome. I still love The Hills & sometimes wear black nail polish. You can thank L.C. for showing me that it's cool to do that sometimes. After all that, even MORE shows start in a week (or is it 2 weeks?).

Currently my dad & Mr. L are at the Cowboys game together. That's kind of cool. I know they are having fun. They are major fans. (Are you jealous, Bethy?). :) Me, I barely know who they are talking about when they say "Cowboy game".

So...I've had a long day & it's only Monday & I have a long week ahead of me so I'm going to close this out & start getting ready for bed. It's 9:20, after all! :)

Once I get back in the swing of things I will write more often.

PS-Leave comments on here so I know you are reading!

I'm an Apple Owner!

Remeber one of my first (?) posts, about being so thankful for extended warranties, because it seems I ALWAYS use them?? Well, here's another story! As my friend Yong would say, "Lord & behold"...my laptop stopped working last week! I had to pay Best Buy $60 to tell me it is not fixable. Oh yeah - & of course I bought a 2 year extended warranty on it, but too bad it expired 3 months (almost to the day) before. I go through computers every 2-3 years, for unknown reasons. I decide to go a different route, when buying a new computer. I decided to be one of those "other" people - the ones that own Apple computers. I had 2 reasons for this. One is - why not try a supposed 'better' brand of computer, since I go through them so much?? The other reason is there were 2 'free' things (after rebate, of course!) that came with a computer. So I bought an Apple laptop & got a free ipod nano PLUS a free printer! I decided that made the purchase worth it. :) Spend money to save money, right??

Too bad I now have to learn how to operate it. :( It all seems backwards from what I've ever known about computers. You think you close something out, yet it is still open, according to the toolbar at the top. You think you can right click on something - nope! There's no "ok" to confirm that is what you want to do; you simply choose it & close out that window & it's done!

I've never heard anything bad about these computers, & I'm really excited to learn how to work it & all the fun things I can do using it!

That's all I've been doing lately: playing with my new toy.

Maybe my next post will be a bit longer.... :)

Bar Scars

I think this is a first for me. I decided to take a picture as proof & put on my blog, mainly for my entertainment purposes. My last blog entry talked about going out last Sat. night & then almost being hungover on Day 1 of school. That Sat. night I was in a little accident.

Picture it: a bar called Lift, Dallas, 2007....I'm standing at the bar, resting on my elbow, facing my cutie-pie Mr. L, talking his ear off like the Band Camp Chick. Suddenly I hear a glass break & I get pushed into Mr. L & kicked in my calves! What the #$&@#! (It wasn't a fight-I think someone lost their balance & dropped a drink). Whatever that chain-reaction was...ended up with my calves looking like this:

Isn't this adorable how Chloe got her wittle paw in the pic??? :) She's such a ham!
Yes, by the way, I took these pics myself!

In the "happy" state I was in when this happened, I distinctly remember thinking "WOW that really HURTS! REALLY!!! I'm glad I'm not sober!" Seriously-I don't know how the guy behind me got his feet up to kick my calves, but it really hurt! Anyway-I thought it was funny the next day & then I forgot about it, until I happened to look at my legs on Tuesday. That's when I saw the bar scars. And by the way - the bruises are darker in person than in the pics. Yes, feel very sorry for me.

The end.

First Day of School

Maybe I should back up a bit, to the Saturday-night-before-the-Monday-the-kids-started-school. I had a bit too much wine & the next day (Sunday) I stay on my couch all day long. Finally at 7:45 p.m. (yes, that evening) I pause Big Brother so that I can go puke (thank you, Chef Boy Ardee!). Blah blah...hangover, schmangover. Ok, now this brings us to 5:15 this morning, the first day of school! I wake up feeling so nice & refreshed (thank you, Tylenol PM!) & decide to eat some oatmeal to get something healthy in my system before going to school. After that I am straightening my hair, thinking "wow the plates feel really hot I could hurt my neck or ear with the heat!". Of course I burn my ear right after that. :- After getting 1/2 of my hair done I let down the other 1/2 of my hair & just like that, the bam straightener wasn't hot anymore! So here I am with 1/2 of my hair straight & the other 1/2 frizzy & wavy & curly in sections (the night before, being hungover, I didn't feel like drying my hair all the way). Bam hangover. So I used my blow dryer to do the best I could with my hair. Oh well. So driving to school at 6:15 a.m. this morning, I realize: I didn't brush my teeth! Crap! I decided to wait to brush my teeth, since I was eating oatmeal, but after I ate it, I forgot about brushing them! All I could do was laugh about it. I drank some coffee at school & ate my granola bar on my conference & it was only after lunch that my tongue felt really nasty.

On my conference, the VP came & got me & said she needed me in the office...NOW. Wow. That was scary! I'm thinking it has something to do with the reading dept. gone wrong. I follow her to the Principal's office (yikes!) & there is a whole group of teachers in there, some very upset. Now I'm really nervous thinking "am I about to get fired like all of these other people??" Well, it wasn't that, thank goodness, but it was terrible news. A girl I had in class 2 years ago had died in a car wreck last Friday night. Her parents had just gone up to the school to tell the administration so her old teachers could know. They had called in her 8th grade teachers, & one of the teachers knew I was close to her the year I had her, so they called me in too. She was in my 7th period, where I didn't have enough desks for all the kids in there, so I let her sit at my desk. She was my assistant & I called her that in front of everyone, too. She answered my phone, kept me organized, reminded me to check roll if I forgot, etc. She even did NOT steal anything from me, while using my desk. She was a teacher's dream! Very very sad. . .This makes 3 of my past students who have passed away (car wreck, suicide, & shot-gang related, I think). Wow. :(

I had to skip Yoga tonight to take back my straightener. Would you believe I had the box & all the papers that came with it, minus (of course) the receipt. No worries! They had me in the system & proved that I had bought it less than 3 months ago. I got a new one that was $10 cheaper. So at least I made extra money today! :)

So far my classes are great. EXCEPT...3rd period. Yuck. There are 30 kids in there (no, I don't have enough desks for them!) & GANGSTER wanna be's in there! When I mentioned they'd be getting reading logs this Friday, one boy cussed & said "bam!" & I looked at him evily & said "you don't have to cuss about it, just deal with it!" Funny (not really) that I know the boy from when he was in 6th grade & I had morning breakfast duty. He wasn't good in the cafeteria, either! Jerk! I will have to really be strict with that class. I do have 2 honors classes, which is cool. My 1st period only has 14 kids. My 7th period has 29 in it but they seem decent.

I'll keep you updated. . .