Another one of my favorite reasons to be a teacher!

Ok today is kicking my butt again today - I need another two weeks off :). But the highlight of my day ... Seeing one of my favorites!!

This student graduated the year that Xman was born and I missed almost the last. Three months of his senior year in AP Bio.

As a freshman he was very impressive and inquisitive and loved biology. We spoke in the hall and he came to visit before and after school during those in between years of chemistry and physics.

During AP Biology just after we were learning about Bryophytes (mosses) he and a friend saw moss growing on a tree branch, broke the branch and brought it into class. Awesome! He actually pouted all of his senior year because I did not allow him to be my teacher's aide. Not because I didn't want him in there, but because he was so super excited about biology I thought he might interrupt class and participate with the freshmen too much, and because I figured I would be distracted by him and talk to him too much too. I felt so bad not having him as my teacher's aide. But I loved having him in my AP Bio class and NHS. He is a quality individual!

He is at A&M and not loving organic Chem but loving college - maybe too much, maybe at the expense of his GPA. I can completely relate to that!

Slacker ... about writing posts! 9 on 10

So I am writing about day 9 on day 10 because 9 kicked my butt. I did the same workout as yesterday and added a 500 yd swim when we took Xman swimming. We were a tired family last night. Today my conference workout was ruined by students who needed help ... and since I teach because I like helping kids, they beat the workout. I will get to it here after bath time and post it then.

A long day

Today was the first day back with kiddos ... I am tired! It doesn't seem like I should have to go back tomorrow. One of the joys of having seniors is they swap classes a lot at semester, so I have a different mix of kids in most of my classes. No problem in the morning ... but in the afternoon ...that is another story. I am sure it will be rectified in the next couple of weeks.

On the upside, I got a gift yesterday! From an ex-student. It was a whatchamacallit! So yummy! He is now my favorite. He is a kid from my first batch of freshmen I taught. I yelled at him in the hallway one day. It is good to see how students change in the four years of high school and after. He has really become an amazing young man, who seems to have excelled and matured into an amazing young man. I was worried he might get trapped in the silliness of his friends, but he has done well. He is my favorite (for a little while:).

Days 7 and 8

Well .... Yesterday was a work day at school, and after climbing on stools and back down the last part of the day, I decided on the 7th day I should ... stretch!!!

Today I completed my little work out during my conference. It took me about 15 minutes which is about 15 minutes more than I like to spend in my room during my conference, but I did feel better and more energized when I was done.

I added 3 sets of 10 bicep curls with a resistance band today.

Day 6

30 air squats (10-10-10)
30 push ups (10-10-10)
3 supermans (15 sec)
10 kicks (15 sec kick, 5sec rest)
70 crunches (20-30-20)

Now the real test - back to work tomorrow!

Crossfit

I have a friend who often posts about her accomplishments in CossFit, but she is very focused on exercise ... We don't have a lot in common. :)

But today I saw a CrossFit competition. It is crazy! Scotty and Chelsea were watching it at Mom's and the competitors were very impressive, and the events were insane.

Apparently it has only been around for about 5 years (or at least the competition), and the competitors do not know the events until they arrive at the competition. The men had to swim, run in sand, do pull ups, push ups, squats and run again in the round I saw. All vey obviously very fit, and all looked like they were going to puke when they finished. Check it out!

Update: I looked at the site for the CrossFit closest to me - $300 for the required Foundations class, then $175 per month!! What? Who has the money to commit to this? Can I have a loan?

New Year Feast

I was raised on ham, cabbage and black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. I like the tradition but I don't really like ham, and I only like black-eyed peas and cabbage if they are prepared using a large amount of bacon. So I decided to switch things up a bit.

I made ham and Swiss melts, with lots of spicy brown mustard (to hide the taste of ham), cole slaw and black-eyed pea dip (thank you pioneer woman). All in all items pretty tasty.

I also wouldn't mind the yummy gumboi had at Mom's for lunch becoming a tradition.