Two Posts in a Day... Ambitious!

Lucky you... I'm not done talking!  Shocking, I know...

So as I last reported about a month ago (worst blogger ev!) I'm on the weight loss train.. and since then have, woohooo, lost 15 lbs!!

... and have now been the SAME WEIGHT for the past six days... I'm talking within two tenths of a pound every single day for the past week.  I don't know why that is considering I have been so freaking good.  It's a bit frustrating, but I know something has got to give sooner or later.

All I have wanted was something sweet today...from the moment my feet hit the floor I longed for something rich and decadent and filled with chocolate goodness.

Could have gone for a Bubblecake death by chocolate cupcake if I ruled the world... but alas, I settled for these Emerald Cocoa Roast almonds I bought for these very moments..  OMG they were awesome when you don't get to eat anything like this and they come in portioned 100 cal. bags which is somewhat a necessity for me...I ate each almond individually and savored the flavor.  FML. What a desperate nerd I have become.



XOXO,

Aud

Milestone Events Month?!

Hola, dear friends!  What is up with these past few weeks??  There is abundant happiness everywhere.  And I freaking LOVE it.

Three people I know tied the knot Saturday and I asked my BFF if pregnancy was a communicable disease this morning.

I shit you not I know five people who announced being with child in the past couple weeks... and know of more who are working on it or have already been PG. And also know of a baby who was born today.  Life is so blessed and such a blessing.

Something is in the air!  Or we're just getting to the age where people aren't just getting married everywhere around us, but creating life everywhere around us.

XOXO,

Aud
(whose new profile name is Mrs. O. because I created a classroom blog with my current gmail account rather than making a new gmail account...winning!)

Getting Back in the Saddle...

Hi friends!  Sorry I was M I A last week- we had 1920s weddinging to tend to for my dear friend, Maddie.  Definitely had a great time catching up with old friends.  It always shows me how blessed I am to have them in my life.

However, what has not been a great time for me was reflecting on the photos from said event.  It definitely helps your life to see yourself in pictures, I think.  You get a sense of reality much different than what you construct seeing yourself every day in the mirror.  Holy tightwhiteflapperdressandchinsandjowls, I have GOT to get back in the saddle!

So that, my friends, I am doing... it's day one.  And I feel like crap like all the day ones before...but then you also feel a twinge of hopeful, too.  As a professional dieter, I'm just kinda done having to do a day one.  I've said it before, but for reals...  You get in this place of self-loathing that you are having to back step and lose the same weight all over again.  But then again, if you can do it once, you can do it again.

Away from my Debbie Downer-ness... here is some motivating, feel good tune-age for fresh starts!

1. With My Own Two Hands  Ben Harper
2. Natural Woman  Aretha Franklin
3. Extraordinary  Better Than Ezra
4. I Gotta Feeling Black Eyed Peas
5. The First Day of My Life Bright Eyes (okay I'm being a little schmoozy/gushy/romantic on that one... but God bless my darling husband!)
6. Weight of the World Chantal Kreviazuk
7. Everyday DMB
8. Take it Easy The Eagles
9. Freedom George Michael
10. Don't Stop Til You Get Enough Michael Jackson

So cheers to you friends (raising unsweetened green tea/double-fisting with a liter of water...)!  Have wonderful and safe holiday weekends.

XOXO,

"I've Always Depended on the Kindness of Strangers"

In high school, I can remember studying Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" in both English 9 class with the esteemed Walter Robinson and in theatre class.  I can remember this because I enjoyed it was flat out obsessed with those deep South accents and twisty characters.  I enjoyed TN Wms so much, in fact, that I bring Streetcar up on my blog this very day.  Blanche DuBois, the fragile femme lead featured in the play, has a line she says right before she is taken away to a mental institution that always stuck with me...

"I've always depended on the kindness of strangers."



I believe the obvious interpretation on this line exposes Blanche's many inner weaknesses.  And you may say I am crazy and reaching far to make this connection... but in her largest moment of vulnerability, that is what Blanche DuBois chose to say... so I say...

What if we could all say this when we're at rock bottom?  Wouldn't it be nice if we also could depend on the kindness of strangers?

These are days where people must earn the trust of most people before anyone would let anyone depend of their kindness.  And kindness is not given freely as much as it needs to be.

Over the weekend, there was a car fire at the restaurant.  A severe blaze, really.  A mother and son who were coming to enjoy a Sunday meal at the restaurant, instead, were stunned as their transportation burned before their eyes.

Two twenty-something women were also dining with us Sunday. I should have checked them both for angel wings.  Of their own free choice, they took it upon themselves to stay with this family.  They came in and retrieved lemonades for them while they were dealing with the aftermath.  They walked in and checked them in to eat once the hustle had died down... and they even sat, hours after their own meal, with this mother and son while they had their meal.  These folks were complete strangers to them.  But these women chose to take their Sunday afternoon to comfort them with their company during this incident.  It really got me thinking... would I have taken the time to do that for someone I didn't even know?

These kind women were definitely my age... so you can't tell me it's because they are seasoned and have "life experience" that they stayed.  

It was a selflessness.  A purity of soul... it's what we should want to be.  We should want to provide any and every stranger with that special kindness that comes from within.  It speaks so much more powerfully than a message on the sleeve.

XOXO,

A Long Lost Blogger

Hi friends!

I told some of you I would be back after school let out for summer and I am meaning to tell you I cannot disappoint!  It's my first Monday off and here I am with some random thoughts... shocking.

I have realized I am a terribly inconsistent blogger.  And that's okay because most of the people who follow me are people I know and they understand my spasticness.  Thank goodness. :-)

What's shufflin' Early Summer 2011:
1. Can't Tell Me Nothing                       Kanye West
2. Every Teardrop is a Waterfall            Coldplay
3. Do It For You, Do It For Us             Ben Harper
4. Party Rock Anthem                           LMFAO
5. Knee Deep                                       ZBB and Jimmy Buffett
6. Tonight Tonight                                 Hot Chelle Rae
7. Rumour Has It                                  Adele
8. Tripping Billies                                  DMB
9. Alumni Blues                                     Phish
10. Summertime                                   Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff


Projects in Progress:
1. Walking dogs more frequently
Ivory's apparently overweight... apparently.. and now eating food she barely likes and on an exercise regimen.  Tassel, however, needs to gain weight, but also needs walks for his "separation anxiety and general anxiety issues"
2. Leveling my class library
This is going to be a beast but worth it.  I need to find the reading levels for all the titles I have so far for my classroom and organize the books into bins.
3.Wrapping up research and beginning writing for thesis ****** (Eighty thousand asterisks and emphasis!)
I'm not gonna lie, I'm behind... like possibly a month behind.  My personal goal is to have a first draft turned out by September.
4.Accumulating stuff for my classroom
Nuff said.


Projects Approaching:
1. Menu Planning System
Matt says I wander through the grocery store like a lost child.  He suggested I start being a more thoughtful consumer and plan the week's meals before setting foot in the store.
2. Couponing? (maybe?)
I am so intrigued, yet so intimidated.
3. Cricut Bulletin Board things (once I figure out which subject(s) I am teaching)
4. Painting upstairs bathroom
It needs a facelift.
5. Reading... for pleasure.
I want to read Water for Elephants.

Things I love lately:
1. Dried Mangoes
Yummo!
2. Burnett's Orange Cream Vodka
So classy right now and excellent in Orange Soda.
3. My Cricut
Best birthday gift in awhile from M.
4. Employment
So blessed to have a position for next year in third grade.
5. Where the Heart Is
I Netflixed this the other day and I had forgotten how excellent it is!

XOXO,