This DVD is hard!! I could make it through the 30 day shred in one piece today, but no, I had to pick this one. I have only tried it once before, and I only made it about halfway through. Of course, a difficult cardio workout is probably not the best idea when you had too much sangria last night and have only had coffee, deadly cream cheese bars, and a little water so far today.

There are 7 brief circuits, which is nice because you won't ever be doing any one thing for too long. I just made it through 2 circuits and nearly died of nausea and sharp pains in my side. I have never seen the end of this DVD. So, I'm taking a break, gonna start it again in a few minutes and make it through another few circuits, take a break again if I need to, and FINISH it. I have to set a good precedent for the year. But doing 180 squats is a bit much. I won't lie...I was doing 90 degree squat jumps and I still nearly died. LOL

OK, back to it!

Update: made it through the next 3 circuits. Just two more left after this break. WHEW. :-)

Update: Finished! Need a shower. Wonder how long it will take before I can do the whole thing in one shot. Think I'll do the Shred tomorrow and alternate between the two.

It was the best of years, it was the worst of years, but I am glad to see it go!

Since I last blogged, my niece came to visit and I really enjoyed it. The coolest thing we did was go to the Ice exhibit at the Gaylord in Grapevine. I do recommend it, but try to go in a non-peak time, I'd say midday on a weekday, NOT the week of Christmas like we did. It was so crowded! And we waited in like a 20 minute line just to go down the ice slide once. I thought it was a lot of fun though, and I think Miranda enjoyed it.

Today, we're snacking on stuffed jalapenos, cheese fondue, chips, salsa, and guacamole, and sangria. I'm making cream cheese squares, which are just the worst thing you can possibly eat if you want to avoid junk, but they are AMAZING. It's essentially this recipe, although this isn't where I got it originally. The difference is, the original recipe I used called for a stick of melted butter to be poured over the top before sprinkling it with cinnamon and sugar and baking it. It. is. so. good.

Greg is coming over tonight, and we'll crack open a bottle of bubbly for midnight. Greg's year was even worse than ours - not only did he have to deal with Tom's accident, but his dad in Florida suffered a terrible stroke Father's Day weekend and wasn't found for a couple of days. He went to Florida to help him out and is in the process now of fighting for his dad's Medicare, which was declined for some reason (I don't know all the details), so he can move him to a facility in Texas. Unfortunately, it looks like he will need 24/7 care for the rest of his life. So, I know Greg's ready for a new year as well and I'm glad he's coming over. :-(

It was like rush hour traffic at noon today when I went out for groceries, so I'm glad to be staying in tonight. I would like to do that Big D NYE thing at Victory Park someday, but not until I can get a night at the W hotel, which was $500 for NYE when I checked. Another year!

My New Year's resolution is to keep a journal. This blog is great but it doesn't really provide much in the way of self-reflection. I am careful about how much of my guts I spill. I used to journal ALL the time, up until a few years ago. So I picked up a spiral notebook yesterday and I'm going to try again. Of course, eating better and exercising more are always on my mind, so I won't really call it new. :-)

I hope everyone has a safe, happy new year's eve!!!

My parents came in Friday night. We put Goku in our bedroom so he wouldn't harass my dad on the pull-out sofa. That stinkin' cat kept us up all night. Tom flung him off the bed at 4:30am and he landed on Sasha, and Sasha yelped. That was the end of sleeping for me! I got up, turned on the coffee pot, and played on the PC for a bit until my dad finally woke up.

We left at 7:30 so I could be there by 8am. It was a long hour before the 9am ceremony started. Once we all lined up, we just stood around waiting. Bleh.

And here are the pictures. This one would've been great if it weren't fuzzy! This is me getting my flower - apparently they don't want to shake hands during flu season.




I am really focused on NOT falling. LOL







Me and Jessica - finally done!!



Me and Danyelle


Me and Jessica again!


Tom taking a picture of us while my mom is taking a picture.


Me and my parents.


So, after graduation, we put my enchiladas in the oven and had a delicious tex-mex lunch before exchanging some Christmas gifts. My mom brought me a graduation cake and a beautiful dozen red roses. :-) I'll post more pictures when I get them!

It was a good time! I slept like a baby last night, and now my niece and I are off to spend a little of my graduation and Christmas gift cards.

Oh wow, I haven't read this since high school, but I just looked it up. Isn't it great?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh,_the_Places_You%27ll_Go!

Got a wonderful week lined up.

Tomorrow: Work and study. Tom starts school again taking a wintermester class at NCTC. I need to wrap SOME presents and get my Christmas cards ready to be sent.

Tuesday: 1st final exam. Work on a final report for another class, and buy groceries

Wednesday: Work and study.

Thursday: 2nd and final final exam. Turn in report for the other classes. Get my hair cut, and finish cleaning!

Friday: Cook in preparation for family’s early Christmas party on Saturday. Parents coming to spend the night.

Saturday: Graduation. Lunch and Christmas shindig with my immediate family.

Miranda is staying with us starting Saturday thru Christmas eve. I am so excited about graduation, having my family over for a reason that has nothing to do with hospitals and surgeries, and having my niece visit without me having to go to work! That’s right, I’m off starting Thursday and not going back til January 13th. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??

We have been cleaning like maniacs, even wiping down the baseboards, steam cleaning the couch, and scrubbing the blades on the blinds, stuff that never makes it into our typical “vacuum and do the dishes” housecleaning routine. I had planned to do a deep cleaning on the house during my time off work, but since we decided to do our Christmas shindig at our house since everyone will already be at my house anyway, the cleaning will be done early and I will be free to tackle some serious organization projects. The early cleaning would not have been possible without Tom, who has spent at least part of every weekday since Thanksgiving scrubbing on something. You should see our guest bathroom. I thought it looked good already, but Tom made it sparkle. I am going to take a huge load of books to donate, or to Half Price Books and be free of them. I also need to reorganize our pantry and kitchen cabinets. I haven’t had this much (voluntary) time off since I can’t remember, and I can’t wait!

I was accepted this week into the Educational Research doctoral program at UNT starting next spring, which is sweet. One weird example of why it’s awesome that may only make sense to me: I can FINALLY tell people I’m working on my Ph.D. This is so much simpler than telling people I am applying for this or that, or waiting to hear, or wanting to get my Ph.D. but may be getting into a masters degree program first, or whatever. There aren’t any ifs, ands, or buts about this. I AM a grad student. That is a big relief! It is officially much easier to answer that question I always get when people find out I’m graduating, “What are you going to do now?” Well, I’m going to grad school! LOL

So, I hope everyone enjoys their THIRD week in December. I’m sure I’ll make time to post graduation pictures soon. If not, please enjoy your Christmas as best as you can!!

Upgraded to Windows 7 today, and haven’t noticed a whole lot new except for this neato program, Live Writer.  Supposedly, I can use this program to compose blogs that will publish to my existing blog site.  If it works, it will be awesome!  Already, I notice that adding a picture is much easier.  This is a picture from a tour bus in Valencia.

 

So, I’ll tell you what we’ve done this weekend using some of the features I see on Live Writer.  Here is where live.  Weird, huh?  I just clicked on “add a map”, and there you have it.

 

I rearranged my classroom observation hours so I could have Friday off.  It was a good time to take off because we had a grant due Thursday.  I stayed up late finishing up some grading Wednesday, got up early to work on grant stuff Thursday, then went to the Stars game Thursday night.  And since it’s so easy to add a picture, here is a picture!   The picture links to an article.  Neato.

It was good to have Friday off because we undertook a little renovation project this weekend.  We decided to merge our offices so we’d have an extra bedroom to put the old bedroom furniture that has been in our dining room for (seriously) since last January.  So, Friday, we slept in a bit since we were out late for the Stars game, went to wal-mart to get supplies and groceries, then moved all the furniture out of Tom’s office and prepped the room for painting (tape, newspaper, dropcloth, etc). 

Saturday morning, we primed the room with Kilz.  OK, that stuff is serious!  Tom was laughing saying, “I’m starting to get high!” and I thought he was just being silly until the room started spinning for me (who had been with the Kilz for 45 minutes longer than Tom) and I started stumbling backwards.  I decided it was time for a break!  We had the window open and the fan running, but it wasn’t enough.  We decided to stop and eat for a minute, enjoyed our 30 minutes worth of giggles (Tom walked in when Ina Garten said “doughball” on TV, and he thought it was hilarious), then got back to work. 

Long story short about Kilz – it gets on your skin, and it stays on your skin until your skin comes off.  For real.  I had it all over my hands from trying to clean off our equipment, and I had to scrape my skin raw to get it off.  Whew.

Use Kilz, get stoned and end up with super soft exfoliated skin!

Painted the room a warm, darkish beige called Gaucho.  Then, we left for Danyelle and Reade’s house to watch the UFC fights.  What a great set of fights!  Each one was exciting.  I made Pioneer Woman’s chicken enchiladas, and they were to-die-for. 

Today, we slept in since we didn’t get home til 1am, then we discovered that we really needed to touch up our paint job (unexpectedly), so out came the rollers again.  It was worth the extra hour’s worth of work, though.  Here are some pics of the finished product.  It’s hard to get a good picture since the room is teeny tiny, but you can get the idea.  And if you have seen this room BEFORE, prepare to be shocked.  It’s nothing special, but a tremendous accomplishment based on how it was!

Look past the computer chair, and it’s my glider (minus the ottoman, which I’ve been using at my desk…LOL) and my bookcase.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my desk corner, complete with tools of the day.  We put our robots on a shelf…love it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom’s computer desk with the TV.  Anyway, nothing special, but if only you knew what an improvement.  I love the wall color, all warm instead of the cold stark WHITE that was in here before (and still lurks all throughout the house.)

 

And now we are relaxing, celebrating our accomplishment with some Shiner Holiday Cheer.

 

Got a busy few weeks ahead.  We are going to see Christmas Carol in 3D tomorrow night (finally!), then to see the One O’Clock Jazz band Tuesday night, then of course lots of baking in preparation for Thanksgiving on Thursday, then a little light Black Friday shopping (Tom wants a toolbox from Sears, and there is a comforter there I will pick up, but nothing crazy like years past!)  Saturday, I’ll put up the Christmas tree.  The following Thursday and Friday, I have a conference in Houston to attend.  Then I gotta grade the rest of the weekend, then it’s the last week of classes.  Officially less than 1 month from graduation!

And now, I’ll try to submit this blog.  If you are reading this, it has worked, and I call it a glowing success.

Well, I have been fighting this allergy stuff for a couple of weeks and it has been NO fun. Finally, I I resigned myself to my snotty, eye running fate, and I have been feeling better all week! I attributed it to my new antihistamine eye drops, my 24 hour zyrtec, and good ol' time. Yesterday, my throat started hurting a little but got much worse REALLY fast, like by the time I got home from watching the fights at Danyelle's house, I was achy and pretty sure I was dying. Took some ibuprofen, slept pretty good, feel awful this morning. Fever and sore throat with occasional coughing attack. And naturally, it's the worst timing ever. My niece and nephew have their joint birthday party today, next week is a big week at work with a grant due on Thursday, and I have a TON of grading to do (which I will try to tackle today from bed!)

But alas, I'm going to the doctor tomorrow, and I guess I'll try a new family doctor. I haven't picked one out - been going to the health center at school when I'm sick ever since I've been at UNT, but I want to pick one of the family doctors here in Corinth or Lake Dallas. Plus, I'm a little leery of the health center ever since they diagnosed me with flu last March and gave me antibiotics.

We went to St. Louis last weekend for the NAGC Conference. I had a wonderful time! I enjoyed the conference, my presentation Saturday morning was really good, and Tom and I got to see some of the sights and eat some really good barbecue. Here are a few of the highlights:

From outside our hotel, we had a good view of the courthouse and the Arch.


We went to the St. Louis zoo one evening - here are the tigers.


Here's a big ol' grizzly bear.


To get to the top of the arch, you have to get into this little pod elevator that supposedly holds 5 people.


One view from the arch, overlooking the park below. :-)


My favorite thing about St. Louis was Forest Park. I guess it was like NYC's Central Park, although I have never been! Forest Park had a free art museum, history museum, science center, and zoo, among several other things. We got to peek inside the history museum and spend a little time at the zoo, but we could've spent a few days just exploring the museums. I think St. Louis would be a great place for a family vacation. We used their rail system to get around town with no problem.

Coming up after I get better is THANKSGIVING next week! I can't believe it. Then, another conference the following week, this time in Houston. We're doing some work around the house this week and next weekend, too. Everyone, have a great week!

Things are calming down a bit over here. I have a good handle on my to-do list (or so I think!)

Last Friday, I surprised Tom with tickets to see Star Wars in Concert at the new Cowboys Stadium. We also went with my SIL Amanda. My car broke down on the way to pick her up, which kinda put a damper on the evening, but we still had a good time!

OK, this picture will not upload correctly. So pick up your monitor and lay it on its side.






Sunday, my friend Jessica and I went to have some "graduation pictures" done around campus. It was a lot of fun! Funny story of the day, though. I got what I thought was some pretty lip gloss at the store, a little brighter than what I normally wear, and put it on. Turns out it was like super stick never go away lipstick, so when I wasn't really comfortable with the BRIGHTNESS, I tried to wipe it off, and nothing. I tried scrubbing it with soap and water, and nothing! I was stuck with my ruby red lips all day. And it turned out OK even though NOT in my comfort zone...LOL! It took using my eye makeup remover at home before it finally came off!




Oh what am I going to do without Jessica? I mean, I know I'll still see her here and there. We don't have any classes together this semester, but I still see her every couple of weeks or more. I hope she ends up back at UNT for grad school! That would be convenient for me, and it's all about me, you know.



Then Tuesday, we had our "family" pictures taken. Oh yeah, all of them are by Jessica's husband at sixfourteenphotography.com. :-) There are more pictures there, but I'll post all my favs once I get the DVD!



Made it through the week, even took Friday off and got a TON done at the house. Cleaned out the closet and did a ton of laundry. I have been fighting allergies all week. :-(

Yesterday was Halloween at Amanda's house. We relocated the shenanigans this year thinking there would be more trick or treaters. And there were, but they weren't as fun as our trick or treaters. Some of them wouldn't even say trick or treat! :-(

Amanda's scrubbed in to finish the chili pie.


He doesn't believe a word I'm saying.


Emma and Alex...LOL


I'd like to see YOU get 3 costumed kids to stand still for a picture. Emma tried. Thanks Emma!


The Ellisons. Did my in-laws take the cake with costumes or what? Emma can't even tear her eyes away from Don. LOL


It was a good time. And now it's November and time for it to get dark at 5pm! :-( We're headed to St. Louis next weekend, but not before I tackle 2 exams. Should be a good week, and the weather is looking awesome!! Hope everyone's enjoying this gorgeous fall weekend!