Breaking Twenty

I finally did it! I finally broke through to the first 20-pound loss! It's never taken this long before, but better late than never.

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This week I lost 2.6 lbs, for a total of 22.3 lbs. gone in 9 weeks. I'm feeling pretty good about that!

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I didn't even face too many temptations this week. There were those little bags of plain M&Ms all over the table at our department chair meeting on Monday. (Chuck, are you trying to kill me?)

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You all know by now that M&Ms are my favorite candies. But I was strong.

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After school Friday we had a very stressful staff meeting. The kind you don't invite administrators to.

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The failing economy hit Arizona hard. Our state legislature decided to balance the budget by cutting education. Deep cuts.

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They hit us with a $33 million cut for the last 4 months of 2008-09.

It's going to be worse for 2009-10. Much worse.

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Right now the district proposes we all take a 5% salary cut. Plus 3-4 teachers and 11 staff (aides, secretaries, custodians) will be let go from the high school alone. Class sizes will go from about 35 to 45 or more students.

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Our district is administratively top-heavy. The state, the superintendent, and our principal have all said so openly. Yet there is no proposal to cut even one administrator.

This should give you some idea of the tone of this meeting. Everyone is afraid of losing their job or wondering how they can live on less money when they're barely making it on their current salary. Very emotional.

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So of course they served comfort foods: Texas sheet cake, pink-frosted cupcakes, and devil's food cake with whipped cream topping. Oh, I do love that Texas sheet cake!

But still I stood strong! I figure in this economy I'm going to need my health more than ever! Besides, who needs junk food when you can nervously nibble away all your fingernails during a meeting like this?

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I'm glad to say I never cheated this week. I only ate wholesome, nutrition-rich foods, and despite the stress, I feel good!

For those who may be wondering: my job is fairly safe. I've been with the district for 19 years and my evaluations are always good. And no matter how deep the cuts may be, Special Education isn't going away.

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I fall into the "How can I live on less money when I'm barely making it now" group. However, many of my good friends have been with the district less than 3 years and face the very real possibility of being one of the 3-4 teachers cut. They are understandably worried.

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The real victims, of course, will be the students whose quality of education will be severely impacted by these cuts.

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Only our faith will carry us through these dark times. Please pray for us all.

Strawberry Blonde

Jacob was my little green-eyed blondie.

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I admit I was a little surprised when my firstborn, Sarah, arrived with brown hair. Being one of 5 tow-heads myself, I'd always sort of envisioned my children as blonde. However, she inherited her father's beautiful golden-brown curls, so it's all good.

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Then Jacob came along, with the same thick, almost-white hair that my siblings and I grew up with. I couldn't bring myself to cut it.

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This is Jacob about a month before his 2nd birthday, 21 May 1993.

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When he was two-and-a-half I finally gave in to my dad's grumblings that his grandson looked like a girl, and I allowed my mom to give him his first haircut. However, I had her leave a cute little curly tail at the very back.

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A few months after he turned 3, I came home from work one day to find strands of long blonde hair strewn all over the couch. Then I found the scissors and realized my baby had cut off that little tail. It seems silly now, but I broke down and cried.

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I really did not want my babies to grow up. But they have, like it or not.

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Over the years, Jacob's hair became dark blonde. Recently he's been talking about dying his hair to a less "boring" color. His word, not mine.

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I think God is smart enough to give us the hair color that's right for us. I've toyed with the thought of lightening mine to the bright blonde it used to be, but I've never actually gone there. Now I'm ridiculously proud of the silver hairs that are finally starting to appear.

On the other hand, dye is temporary, so I feel it's one way kids can express themselves freely without long-lasting damage. I gave Jacob permission to let his friend Chelsea (above) be creative with his hair. I only asked that she give him a haircut at the same time.

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When I arrived at Chelsea's house to pick up Jacob for Mutual (photo at right) his hair wasn't much shorter--Chelsea only gave him "a trim," she said--but it sported these streaks of bleached blonde and copper.

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"Well, it's interesting but not too shocking," I said as diplomatically as I could.

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Jacob was happy with the color that night--while it was dark! Most people at Mutual (they were having a movie night) didn't say much about it.

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Then he went to school yesterday. After school he came to my classroom and announced that he hated his hair and his friend Bryce was going to shave his head for him, because no way was he going to work looking like that!

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Apparently several people gave him a hard time about his new 'do. Some folks don't handle change well. One person said he looked like a racoon. High schoolers, gotta love 'em.

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I managed to calm him and avoid his drastic plan. I had to stay after school for a meeting, but I pulled scissors out of my desk and quickly trimmed away the parts that bothered him most before he went home.

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I promised to take him to a professional first thing Saturday morning (today). He wanted to have them dye it all one color, but I said no more dye for now. Too damaging.

Besides, sometimes the best lessons are the ones we have to live with for awhile.

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So the cosmetologist cut off what she could, trimmed the rest to blend together the best she could, and gave him a mineral soak to hopefully mute the colors a bit.

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Is this the face of hair-style regret or what!?

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The solution isn't perfect, but he can live with it for now.

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For me, it worked out pretty well. He finally got that haircut I've been pestering him to get for months now!

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After all this, I drove him straight to his job at the restaurant and took this picture before he went inside. One thing I never imagined was having a red-headed child!

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But that's okay. For now he's my green-eyed strawberry blonde, and I'll love him forever!

The Stalkers

Ever since the school year began, these cold germs have been stalking me. Twelve days ago they finally took me down.

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These little buggers are the reason I didn't blog about my weight loss last week. On Monday evening I started swallowing sandpaper (at least, that's what it felt like) and the next morning I was 2 lbs. heavier.

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Two pounds of swollen glands, extra mucous, and retained water? Whatever. I was displeased to have aother hurdle placed in my path!

I survived the cold despite the horrible cough that came with it. The chest-burning, rib-splitting, back-aching, eyes-bugging, head-exploding, stomach muscle-bulging, pee-your-pants cough.

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I didn't sleep much for about 10 nights, but last night I finally slept like the proverbial log. I'm still a little raspy, but definitely on the mend.

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The big question is, did my diet survive intact?

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Yes, it did. Mostly. And overall I consider it another challenge met and overcome.

My friends will tell you the quickest way to make me give up on eating right is to be sick for more than a few days. As I get worn down, it's just easier to grab quick, junky food.

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Plus, colds are like the opposite of stomach flu for me: I want to eat constantly. Eating soothes my throat, clears my head, eases the cough, sometimes for up to an hour afterward. It must release massive amounts of endorphins!

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I crave Lay's potato chips like crazy when I have a sore throat. I can eat a family size bag in 2 days all by myself. I nearly went for it 4 days ago, but Wyndie talked me down.

This time I made it through my cold almost unscathed. Not perfectly, but for once I did not give in or give up.

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I'm proud to say I never ate anything with processed sugar in it. My biggest test was when Wyndie sent over these peanut butter-Hershey's Kiss cookies. After a lengthy inner struggle I handed them all to my kids. That was tough because I love those kisses!

I did eat more fruit than usual. During my cold I had 2 oranges and a banana dipped in peanut butter, as well as a bowl of fruit salad Jacob made Thursday night: apples, oranges, bananas, pineapple, and walnuts. Yum!

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Fruit carbs are healthy but tend to stop my weight loss. Mostly I stick to low-carb berries, but I figured I needed the extra vitamin C for now.

Another hurdle to cross was the monthly East Campus pot luck. Nicole and I planned ahead and brought salad with tomato, cucumber, cheese, and shredded beef toppings.

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Good thing! As you can see, there weren't many other low-carb items. I said yes to the spinach-artichoke salad and beef-and-black bean soup, and NO to the brownies, pizza, grapes, ravioli, and Girl Scout cookies.

The lady on the right is my friend Nicole, with the gorgeous silver hair. At left is English teacher Gwen, another of my favorite people.

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Then, after 2 days of AIMS testing (state requirement), administrator Dave brought Mexican food for the proctors. I ate half of a chicken enchilada. Still, I never ate just HALF an enchilada before!

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To sum it up, the past 12 days were a challenge, but I feel good about hanging in there in spite of all. It took 9 days to take those 2 lbs. back off, but they came off.

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Better yet, I've already lost 2 more, for a total loss of 19.7 lbs in 8 weeks. Thank goodness for this blog, which has helped motivate me, and thank goodness for the many friends who encourage me and rejoice with me! The journey continues . . .

Jacob's New Job

Last night I finally got over to the restaurant where Jacob has been working for the past week. Everyone there seems to be pleasant and determined to make the restaurant a success.

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The all-you-can-eat buffet was tempting. The food looked and smelled delicious. It even had some low-carb items. Here is Jacob replenishing the buffet's fresh grapes.

Dylan pleaded to stay and have dinner there. I might have done it if I could afford it. The cost for the buffet last night was $14 per person. Jacob says the buffet varies every night. The cost for a seafood buffet on the weekend was $11.

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Jacob has become their jack-of-all-trades, dabbling in all the tasks. Every night he comes home with a pocket full of tips which are quickly adding up. His favorite part!

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I practically had to force him to take off 2 nights this week. He didn't realize how much work and school were taking out of him. Even a job you love is better with an occasional break!

The first night he was home he went to "rest" on his bed and woke up at 6:30 the next morning!

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This is his 2nd restaurant job. In the summer of 2006 he was a waiter and host at Mama Bear's, in Arizona's oldest log lodge.

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The past 2 summers he worked in the Trading Post at Camp Geronimo. He planned to return this summer; now he's not so sure.

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On another note, the Valentine's Dance pictures came back today. I thought theirs came out well.

The kids made the background themselves. Morp is "Prom" spelled backwards because the girls ask the guys. When I was in high school in California we called it the Sadie Hawkins Dance. I doubt kids today even have a clue who Sadie Hawkins was!

Long Awaited!

I'm excited to announce a new arrival in the family: my niece Genevieve has started a blog!
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Actually, she and Scott got married 4 years ago and are now the parents of 2 cute little girls. I just thought it would be fun to introduce them to you with one of their wedding photos.

Scott has even joined in on the blogging experience! So feel free to look in on this little family at:

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http://sganderson.blogspot.com

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Or you can click on their link with the rest of my blogger buddies in the left column.

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We're still working on recruiting Genevieve's mom, my sister Karla, but she's tenacious! We'll keep at it, though!

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Welcome to our blogger family, Genevieve and Scott!

Surprise Visit

My children got a surprise visit from their dad this weekend. He called early yesterday to announce he was in town and would be over "in a few." Aargh! A little notice, please!

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The kids were ecstatic, of course. They hadn't seen him since August. He actually spent some real time with them, and it makes me happy to see my kids so thrilled.

They went over to swim in the indoor pool at the Hampton Inn, where Mark and Diane were staying. My kids think they're fish and love the water.

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Jacob had a church youth activity all that morning, tubing on the slopes near Sunrise Ski Resort, so he missed out on the swimming.

Last night Mark and Diane came over to visit for a couple of hours. Actually, Mark fell asleep on the couch (that seemed so very familiar!) while Diane and I talked.

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We got to meet Knox, Diane's new service dog-in-training. Diane has a bad back injury and increasingly has trouble getting around.

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Diego and Knox found each other to be quite fascinating!

Jacob was gone all evening, working at his new job, so he missed out on the visiting.

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Then after church today Mark, Sarah, and Dylan took a hike along the Mogollon Rim Trail about half a mile from our house.

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Again, Jacob missed out on the hike because he had to go to work.

Recently a new restaurant called Kelley's opened within walking distance of our house. Jacob happened to go there with a friend last weekend, and by the time he left he'd been offered a job.

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Apparently he's training to work as a chef while also bussing, waiting tables, and washing dishes. I'm not too sure how this will work out, especially since this is a really bad time to start up a small business, but we'll see. For now it's a little extra money to put away for that dream car.

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It's just too bad he had to miss out on the fun.

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After the hike, their dad headed back down the mountain to Mesa. But they made some happy memories.

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It's very beautiful along the Rim, which is the southwest edge of the Colorado Plateau. It's often a sheer drop with striking views.

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Sarah and Dylan took some great shots on today's hike, so I thought I'd share. Sit back and enjoy!

I'm Ready for My Close-up

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We finally have all of this year's school pictures. Yes, they were all shot in September, but somehow Dylan's packet was misplaced by the photographer. It was December before I realized I'd never received it and January before I contacted the photographer and asked him to locate the photos.

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Dylan finally brought them home this week. Now we'll see how long it takes me to label the pictures and then replace the old ones on the living room wall with these new ones! I can be a little slow sometimes at these tasks...

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So here they are, the 2008-09 school pictures!

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Dylan's picture features kind of a different pose, but he is always photogenic (age 11).

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Jacob, on the other hand, sometimes opts for retakes. This year was no exception. He never shows his teeth in pictures because he dislikes them (he has great teeth, says his mom). I do think he is handsome in this shot (age 17). I told him he looks like a college student!

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It's so odd not to have a picture of Sarah this year, but I guess colleges don't do school pictures!

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We teachers receive a courtesy packet since the school needs our pictures to make photo IDs each year.
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I shrunk this one down so I wouldn't scare anyone too badly. Some years my picture is tolerable, sometimes it makes me want to cry. This one falls somewhere in between. Hey, I can't complain--it was free!

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Now that I'm thinking about it, I guess I'll go pull those old pictures out of their frames and replace them with these. The kids will be so surprised when they get home . . .

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PS Okay, I did it! Here is my proof:

The 8x10s on top are pictures of Sarah, Dylan, and Jacob on their 4th birthdays. The 5x7s below are their current pictures. How can anyone look at their children and not believe that families ARE forever?

Chocolate Rush!

The week before Valentines Day was a challenge and I must finally confess to cheating a little! It's so hard to resist those chocolate candies coming at me from every direction!

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Nonetheless, I still made some progress. For one thing, I didn't allow my cheats to convince me give up and believe I'm too weak to be successful. I got right back to eating right, which has never happened before. I tend to have an all-or-nothing personality.

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For another thing, I managed to lose another 2.4 lbs, making it a total of 17.7 lbs. gone in 6 weeks. And I don't want it back!

At Monday's department chair meeting the table was laden with bowls of pretzels and Cheez-its, but the real temptation was bags of peanut M&Ms strewn about. I love M&Ms, but I was able to resist.

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Wednesday night Jacob baked 2 pans of from-scratch brownies. (He took one next-door to say thanks for plowing our driveway.) The heavenly aroma filled the house and made my mouth water, but I stood strong.

On Thursday in the teachers' workroom I found 12 hand-dipped candies (see above photo) in my box. It was left for me by our church Relief Society presidency. My friend Nicole and I were sorely tempted, but she broke out her Atkins peanut butter cups and we managed to resist.

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But then I took the candies home to give my kids. Before I knew it, I'd eaten 3 delicious chocolate-covered cherries myself. Hey, it just seemed rude to give away all 12 candies when someone worked so hard on them!

Last night our home teacher brought us a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies, another of my favorites. I could hardly bear it, so I ate half a cookie before I handed the plate off to my children.

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So yes, I did cheat, but they were "controlled" cheats like I've never managed before. I can honestly say I've never stopped at just half a cookie in my entire life!
As for the chocolate cherries, in the past I would have said, "Okay, I blew it," then gone on to have spaghetti and garlic bread or something equally carb-loaded for dinner, telling myself I'd start again in a week or so.

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So I do consider these to be small victories that I hope will help me do better as I approach my goals.

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Besides, I lasted an entire month before I weakened, and it took a chocolate-centic holiday to make me do it. I think that's not too bad!

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Now I am back on the horse--at least until Easter!

Valentines Dance

The good news is: Jacob's hair is still its natural dark blond color! (Although I'm a bit disappointed his date didn't at least give him a haircut!)

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The bad news is: Only about 30 students came to the dance. (But they had fun!)

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The good news is: The dance ended at 10pm due to low attendance, so I got home an hour earlier than expected!

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This is Jacob and his date Chelsea.
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There was a stake youth Valentines Dance at our church less than half a mile from the school. Since many of our students are LDS, that probably explains a lot about our low numbers.

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Almost everyone who left our dance at 10pm went to the stake dance for the rest of the night, even the kids who aren't LDS.

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Here are some of Jacob's friends: Jacob and Chelsea; Bryce and Monique; and Tony and Jamie.

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Don't ask me--this shot was the girls' idea!

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You would think my son and his friends would be embarrassed to have his mom--a teacher, no less!--hanging around and taking pictures all night, but instead the girls kept hugging me and asking for advice.

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The guys even came to me for instructions on how to slow dance correctly!

I really did keep a low profile for most of the night, though, allowing the kids to do their own thing without interference. I stood against the wall and chatted with the other teachers like a good chaperone should.

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Here's almost half the crowd doing the Funky Monkey, some new-fangled hip-hop line dance thingy.

This is why I teach high school. Teens are always so interesting and entertaining. They put on a show of coolness, but inside they have big hearts and a great desire to be good people.

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One day I will miss these years of high school dances and clubs. Someday I may even miss the intricacies of steering my teenage son through his first dating experiences!

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And so we survived the Valentines Dance. Next stop: Junior/Senior Prom!