Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Flattery Will Get You Everywhere...Or The Dean's Office



I have one class of freshmen, and 4 classes of SENIORS this year. I cannot even begin to describe how much I love them. My seniors brighten my day and crack me up all day long. They are awesome. Several of them I taught when they were in tenth grade so that might be why I feel a little more connected.

Last year I was super pregnant all year long.

This year I've come back to compliments galore.

"Mrs. Friday, you look great!"
"Mrs. Friday, you've lost a lot of weight!"
"Mrs. Friday, you're so skinny!"
"Mrs. Friday, there is no way you've had TWO kids!"

I've also gotten a lot of comments from my 18-year-old boys.

"Mrs. Friday, you look NIIIIIIICE today!"
"Mrs. Friday, I'm legal now, you know?"
"Mrs. Friday, you can't come in the classroom. You look too pretty today. We won't learn anything."
"Mrs. Friday, those eyes, you can't look at me with those eyes."
"Mrs. Friday, you can't get glasses. Angels don't need glasses."

These kids are harmless and they say ridiculous things to me (such as suggesting I should quit teaching and be a Victoria's Secret model) mostly just to get a rise out of me, and partially because they have no filters on their mouths and no understanding of what is appropriate and inappropriate.

I appreciate a kid telling me how nice I look or how thin I am just like the next girl, but I'm working on teaching these young gentlemen that being married means something, and if/when they go into the work field, they can't treat their bosses this way. They are reminding me to be VERY cautious in how I dress, not bending over, where I position myself when I'm helping a student, etc.

And just to be clear, I'm not the only teacher that gets hit on. Pretty much if you teach and aren't 85 years old, you'll get hit on. I am not writing this to let people know how hot kids think I am or how popular I am at school. I realize I am not the only one that this happens to. My point is, these kids have really made me feel good about myself and when they say this stuff to me, I can't help but laugh at them because they are so funny when they say it.

I've decided to keep a log of all the insane things they say to me so that one day when I'm fat, and old, and ugly, I can read it and remember all these things and laugh.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Tell It Like It Is...

I'm a tell-it-like-it-is kind of a girl so here is what's up with me:

I have found it harder to keep up with all my workouts and running since I've gone back to work.

I completely stopped the 30 day shred about a week before I went back to work because I found that running and doing that was putting too much stress on my body (well maybe not too much, but a LOT more than I could handle at the time and I was starting to get injured).

I've still been running. I completed the Couch to 5K training and just ran to run for a couple of weeks. I find it difficult to do that--to just run without anyone telling me what to do. Then I started the Couch to 13.1 training program. I'm a week into it, but instead of running 3 days a week and being done, it has me (well I'm supposed to be) running one day, cross training one day, running one day, cross training one day for all seven days a week. Yikes!

Fitting in the time for running is harder now that I work all day outside of the home. Life is back, full-swing, and it seems like there is something every night of the week. I can't run (outside) on Mondays because Ansleigh has dance class on Monday nights and homework EVERY NIGHT (the kid is in pre-kindergarten and has homework EVERY night!) and dinner and bath. I can't run (outside) Tuesday nights my husband plays church league softball unless it is pouring rain. If it is raining that much, I can't run outside and if he's gone, I have both kids to feed, bath, etc. and don't forget the homework. Wednesday nights is church dinner, kids choir, and my mom's bible study. When I get home with the girls (Hubs has praise team and choir practice), we still have to do homework, bath, and tiny tot needs her bottle. Thursdays I can run outside. We actually have nothing those days. Fridays I could run outside too but by then, I'm just so dang tired.

My goal has been to run Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturday mornings. I usually have to do Tuesday nights on the treadmill my mom gave me (Thanks, Mom!!!). Thursdays and Saturdays I like to run outside, but the weather often dictates if it is outdoors or on the screened-in porch on the treadmill.

I like to run outside, but I've recently run into some interesting "experiences" that have made me question running near my home. When I run outside I'm almost always spotted by one of my students (they are seniors who drive and where we live is zoned for the school I teach at). Two weeks ago, I had a guy (not a student!) literally hanging out his truck window whistling at me, while another guy raced by on a bike and said, "I bet you get that all the time." Just a few days ago, I had a guy ride alongside of me for half a mile asking me strange questions like how often I jog and can he jog with me.

Yes, my husband could run with me, but that implies that he wants to go run three days a week. If he did, we'd have to take both of the kids with us, just so I could be safe while I'm running. Yes, I could run with a friend, but I don't have many friends who live in my area of town who would want to run with me and could run on my schedule. Where does that leave me? I don't know.

On the other side, I have found that it is easier to control what I eat when I'm working all day and don't have time to think about how hungry I am. Plus, even if I do get hungry, I don't have anything to eat there aside from what I bring with me from home. I bring a morning snack (granola bar) and my lunch (sandwich and chocolate pudding). You can't eat what you don't have. :) I have eaten a little too much pasta lately on the weekends and then I've had to work it off.

I'm still losing weight, but it is slower than when I could kill myself this summer. I find myself longing for the summer days of waiting for my husband to get home so I could fly out the door running. In my mind, I thought that since I'm not coaching anymore, I'd be able to come home and work out or run before the kids came home but that hasn't happened one single time since I went back to work. I've found that I stay later at work trying to get papers graded and things prepared for the next day, working hard not to get behind. When I do get home, it is time to start dinner, or go pick up the kids and then start dinner. Or go pick up the kids and get to ballet or church.

I keep telling myself that I'm going to start getting up at 5:15 (YIKES!) in the morning to run once the time changes and it is daylight then. I'm not a morning person and I LOVE to sleep so we'll see if that actually happens. Plus, I could still get abducted at 5:30 in the morning just like I can at 7:30 at night.

I have the Mickey's Jingle Run (or whatever it is called) November 10th coming up and I am going to do the Color Run in December. February is the Princess 1/2 Marathon. I am committed. I haven't registered yet because it costs money, lots of money, but I will as soon as I get a few more pay checks.


Anyone want to run with me? Anyone have any tips on how to stay safe running alone? Anyone have any motivating thoughts/advice for me?