I'm back on the wagon

Yes, I'm back on the work out wagon. I know that term is normally used in a different way but what can I say...I AM an admitted "junk food junkie". I worked out last Friday and then today. So because that's two days, I feel like I'm back on the wagon. Maybe that's not the exact definition but I feel great and want to keep going. Not to mention Andy did point out that last month I paid for the gym and went one time. So the fact that I've already gone twice in a week...oh I'm making improvements for sure!

I also realized that I didn't tell you that I decided not to take that weekend job. Besides, I'm still waiting for my dad to let me play golf one of these days.

By the way, did you notice how I made links to previous blogs. I'm getting better at this blogging thing.

Apple Days

Yesterday my parents and I went to Apple Days at Ft.Riley. It was a beautiful day to be out, the sun was shining and there was a wonderful breeze. It was too bad my nephew wasn't there. He would have liked the animals and the big, bouncy toys there.

Me with a big gun. My dad thought I should take a picture with it. He thought Andy would think it was cool. I thought it was heavy and my mom took forever to take the picture!
Then my dad was jealous so he had to take a picture with it too.


After Apple Days, we rested at home for a bit. My mom played her DS.

And my dad dug up his sweet potatoes


Then just like the past few weekends, we had to the golf course. I keep asking my dad to let me play but he has yet to let me.

Well the past few days have been busy. First I must say that the first grade class I am subbing in is making me tired. I have always considered myself as an intermediate (grades 3-5) teacher. And I now know that I was right about that. I'm glad for this experience but holy cow, I've already started counting down the weeks. Five weeks left!

I also have started to go back to the gym. I've actually only went once (yesterday after school). But I intend to keep going. I'm really ready to get healthy and start eating better. And thankfully for Christine, she made me stay on the elliptical for 30 minutes. I felt great afterwards.

Then I went to the high school football game. Before I went to the gym I got myself a new school football t-shirt (I gotta fit in, right?). I also threw in a k-state draw string bag so I can rock the k-state when I get back to Hawaii. The game was good but I watch the people more than the game. I was so glad I went because I saw several of my former students, who by the way are just about as tall as I am. What is that about!?!?

Afterwards we went to the local restaurant and hung out. I laughed so hard and so much my head and stomach was hurting. Probably those couple of drinks I had helped out with that.

Here is Christine...I don't know why she seems to be the only one that ever gets her picture taken.

I didn't stay out very late. I dropped the girls off at the "cowboy bar" and I headed home for the night. Once again I talked to Andy on the way home. We can only stay on the phone for a short time before we get cut off, so we ended up emailing for a while.

One last thing! My sister and her boyfriend (Nina and Matt) might come to Hawaii for the holidays. I'm so excited. We'll see if it works out but I think it would be so cool if it happens.

Oh wait! One more thing. Andy got 2nd place AGAIN in the free-throw contest. He has won a total of $180.00. Isn't that crazy?

Toy Story

My mom got my nephew Toy Story 1 a few weeks ago. He picked the movie out right away. Apparently my sister has been reading the Toy Story book to him which why he was set on getting the movie. It quickly became his favorite and so we got Toy Story 2. I have watched it more times than I can count. What I've noticed in both movies is that there isn't a dad in either movie. Isn't that odd? It was just something I noticed and wanted to mention. Maybe someone out there knows why this is. There are a lot of single parents these days, so maybe they wanted the movie to represent more of current day. Anyway, I was just wondering.

Congrats to Andy

Andy won his three-point contest today! Isn't that wonderful news? I am very proud of him after getting 2nd place twice in his free throw contest. We also found out he will be leaving the base he is currently assigned to. We won't be able to talk and email like we do now. I guess we'll be like all the other couples out there that hardly talk to their deployed spouse. We don't know when he'll have to leave where he is but I am happy to hear that it'll be an even safer place.

What to do, what to do

Today I was told there is an opening on the base at the dining facility where I used to work. If I wanted the position, I could have it. I would only be working weekends and it is a super easy job. I would love to have the extra money but the problem is I would be working every weekend. I enjoy having the weekends to spend with my family and friends. I'll be gone soon and won't have this time with them. But I do tend to spend a lot of money even though I try very hard not to. What am I to do? You might be thinking...what does Andy think of this? Well he thinks it's important to spend the time with the family but he also knows how I like to buy random things all the time. Something always catches my eye and of course I want it. He has pretty much said to do what I want and he'll support any decision I make. Hmmm....

Family Fun Day

Yesterday was a very long day with the family. But when I say LONG, I mean that we left the house at 10:40 in the morning and didn't get back home until 10:40 at night. We went to Kansas City for a Royals baseball game. We first stopped at Prairie Band Casino. I won my dad $33.00. When I won 123 quarters, I knew it was time to cash out!

Then we had to go to Bass Pro Shop. My dad is a fisherman (I'll show you a picture of fish he caught). About this time I was feeling very queasy. I get car sick sometimes and yesterday I did. So I bought a pair of sweat pants so I could be more comfy. For some reason, whenever I feel sick I gotta put sweats on.

The game was so much fun. It was Davids first game and enjoyed it but as soon as the game was about to start he said "lets go bye-bye". We were prepared though. I took my portable DVD player and his favorite movies, Toy Story 1 and 2. Here some pics from my phone I took. My sister Kristina has most of them on her camera. Hope you like them.

The view from our seats before the game.

David eating...which he did a lot of! Nachos, beef jerkey, peanuts, icee, cotton candy, hot dog, and french fries

My dad

David watching his movie "tory". He can't say the "S" in story very well yet.

Here is my dad and David with the big fish my dad caught the other night.

Wake up call

Friday morning started off simple enough. I hung out in bed, happy to be sleeping in on a weekday. And a surprise call from Andy was nice. When we got off the phone I had a voice mail message. What do you know! A call from the school that I'll be doing my long term subbing. The teacher I'll be subbing for looked and felt awful, so I needed to get there as soon as possible. Of course I jumped up and within half hour I was out the door. This is where the things get a little rough for me. Due to the students only being in school half a day, the teacher leaving, K-State football players at the school, and the schedule being disrupted...the kids were very, umm...(thinking of a nice word) crazed. First graders need consistency and they didn't have that today. We managed but I was very thankful for 11:40 to roll around. I am very excited to hopefully be in the same classroom everyday because darn it, I need consistency too. =) I am not sure if she did have the baby but I guess I'll know soon enough.


The afternoon was wonderful though. I had lunch with my friend Shauna and talked about my car! Let's not talk about that anymore. It was nice to chat with someone that has known me for while. Then my mom and I went to the golf course with my dad. He golfed and I drove the cart. It was such a beautiful day that I felt lucky to be outside to enjoy it. Here are some pictures of the afternoon.



Me in my dad's golf cart. He recently repainted it, made the seats K-State purple, and put decals on it.


My dad waiting to tee off. He realized later that he wasn't wearing his golf sandals. He blamed this on how bad he played. Yeah right! It's the player not the shoes haha!



My dad took our picture. He just likes to look at his golf cart.



Remember when Andy and I played golf and our view was the ocean. Here is my water view....kind of =)

Oh My!

I finally got my car back from Honda. They had it for three days! Driving my dad's truck wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. But I didn't drive it anywhere I didn't have to. The problem with my car was the whole power steering got messed up somehow. Something about a pully, a belt, and a shaft. And all that added up to a very pretty penny. So pretty in fact that I think I'll be spending a lot of time at home for the next couple of weeks. Thankfully in the middle of me freaking out, Andy calmed me down and made me realize that it is something that had to be done and that's the way life is. And that may be how life is, but lately I feel like a bunch of stuff has been happening that hasn't been making my life very easy. Maybe its the trade off for all the good stuff.

It was a Monday for sure

Sometimes in your life when something goes wrong, everything goes wrong.

I would first like to say how much I miss my Eisenhower friends. I miss having a group of friends at my work that I can go to about work and personal stuff. I have cried and laughed with them and at my new place I feel very out of the loop. Here is the crazy thing. Three of the ladies there don't really have good friends. Talking with them during lunch, they admitted that they have never had good girl friends that they would hang out with. I can't imagine that. I have always had such good friends that I've made so many wonderful memories with. So now in the school I am at, I'm with people who aren't interested in making "friends". Oh well I guess. I just keep thinking this is only temporary.

Sooo...this afternoon I get in my car after work and everything feels normal. All of a sudden my steering wheel is hard to turn and my car is making a rattling noise. I get home and of course call my dad to see what's going on. When he gets home he looks under the hood and underneath it. Then we get in the car and turns it on. All of sudden things have gotten worse. My dad says that I shouldn't drive it and that I need to have it towed to the Honda place in Manhattan to get it looked at. Can I please have a collective "poor Daisie"? I will now be driving my dad's truck which is huge. But I am very lucky to have that as an option.

Okay then, no more whining. Bye for now.

Happy Sunday!

Wow am I tired. I met up with Christine and some others to hang out. We went to a restaurant for appetizers and drinks and then went to a local bar. I enjoyed being with everyone so much and laughed a lot. I was out very late but the best part of the night was being able to talk to Andy on my way home.

I also wanted to tell you about an experience on my face. I have some dark spots on my face that I got from when I broke out while I was in Hawaii. One day when I was reading one of my girlie magazines I saw an ad from Clinique. Its a serum that "erases" those dark spots. So I went to Clinique to find out about this serum. I hardly ever wear make up on my face so I want these dark spots gone. The lady said to use if for a month and I should see some changes. I'll let you know if it works. I wanted to share this with all of you that read the blog so that if you have this problem, there might be a solution.

One last thing. Andy was in a free throw contest yesterday and got 2nd place out of 13 guys. He said he's going to practice everyday because he wants 1st place. He won a gift certificate so he got a massage. He wasted no time using it.

Talk with you soon and please keep in touch everyone!

9-11

Today is the anniversary of 9-11. Seven years has passed and I still get sad when I see the images from that day. I am brought back to the day all over again and remember seeing the first plane crashing. I don't have a lot to say on the subject because I would only say what all of you know and feel. But I did want to acknowledge the day because it was a life changing day in America.

It was a great day!

Today has been a great day. I taught this morning and again had to teach reading. I am excited to say that I thought I did a wonderful job today! Is that bragging? But I must say, after the last two days teaching reading and them being disasters...I don't care if it's bragging, I did great! I only worked a half day and I was perfectly fine with that. It was an ugly and cloudy day. I was fine sitting on the couch watching a Harry Potter DVD and playing my DS. Tonight I had dinner with 2 friends (LaToyia and Lindsey) and then Christine and Abby showed up. So I hung out with them after my dinner was done with Toyia and Lindsey. It was so nice that I got to catch up with some of my friends.

Andy took his test and it will be a couple of months before we find out how he did. I'm not worried. I'll love him no matter what his score is.

Oh one last thing. I only had to repair the tire and not get a new one. I was very happy with that. I have the worst luck with tires!

The day just kept getting worse

The day started last night for me (as odd as that sounds) when I could not fall asleep. I honestly feel like I don't sleep well if Andy isn't the last person I talk to at night (when I say talk, I mean email). Finally at midnight I took a Tylenol PM. As the alarm went off 3 times and I pushed snooze 3 times, I thought maybe the Tylenol wasn't the best idea. I rolled myself out of bed and started my morning routine and the time passed quickly. I noticed that I was running pretty late. I finally walked out the door with my breakfast in hand (peanut butter and jelly sandwich) and got in the car. As I crept slowly to the corner I heard a thump, thump, thump. I got out of the car and what do you know...FLAT TIRE! Luckily my mother is still out of work from her surgery and I used her van to head of to work. I made it right on time. When that happens first thing in the morning, we all know that there is often a spiral effect. Needless to say, my teaching was completely off. Teaching a reading program that is new to me is very hard. I muddled through it and made it to lunch. Then at lunch I found out I had to stay in the current classroom and get through math. While I would normally be very excited for this, the plan in the book was about exploration and I didn't have the tools for the kids to explore with. It turned out okay because we reviewed for their test that is coming up on Friday but I felt completely lost. The last hour of the day I was with 4th graders and did math. I at least ended the school day well.

When I got home I had to figure out how to take care of my flat tire. Thank goodness for my friend Marcie! She had a air compressor and she came by the house and we aired up the tire. I took it over to Wal-Mart to get fixed. I'm still waiting for them to call to see if they can repair it or I have to get a new one.

I was supposed to go to the movies with Christine tonight, so it bums me out that I have to deal with this and not enjoy my evening after a very long day.

Probably not politically correct but whatever

I'm going to start off by saying that I must have an ego because this subbing thing makes me mad to no end. I'll also say that I'm guilty of doing this also. That being said, I would hardly ever leave my classroom to a sub and when I did have a sub they weren't normally a certified teacher. So here I go. I'm a teacher not a warm body to have in a room to babysit. I go and sub and I've been babysitting. I don't want to teach a new concept, but I don't want to give worksheets all day and then watch them play games. When I had a sub, depending on who it was I let them "teach" or "babysit". But they know I'm a teacher! They act like I'm dumb or don't know anything. What is that about? I have been in the district since Jan. '04 and a lot of them know that. Is that awful that I feel that way? I just think that I deserve to be treated with some sort of respect. Also, people have often talked about Eisenhower (my old school) not being very friendly. Well I've been in several schools and I don't know that any of the schools are friendly to subs. I did talk to the subs that would sit in the teachers lounge when I was teaching, but there are times where no one spoke to me. Okay, there's my rant for the day.

On to better things! Today I was so excited to buy a new portable DVD player. I have always been a traveler and I want to do more. I've often thought about a portable DVD player but I never bought one. I'm so excited!

My mom bought her a silver Nintendo DS after I told on her (on this blog) that she pretty much stole mine from me. I told her I always tell the truth on the blog and I had to tell the truth about her as well. It's all in fun but she really enjoys doing the word search and mah jong games I have.

And last but not least, Andy is doing well. He and I continue to talk through email and web cam. Having a blackberry phone is great for this because he can get a hold of me anytime. The email goes directly to my phone and we just email each other back and forth. He is going to take his E5 test tomorrow and I am very nervous for him. He isn't exactly in an ideal testing situation. Keep your fingers crossed for him!

Talk with you soon!

It really is a small world

Last week I was talking to lady who subs in the district. I have known her through the years and we chat when we see each other. The big question everyone asks me when they see me subbing is "why are you subbing?". In the process of telling the story a light bulb went off in my head. I knew that her family was involved with the Catholic Church. So I though I would just see if she knew who Andy was. Sure enough, she sure did. She said she taught his older brother Jim at St. Xavier School. Then today, I was subbing in a different school and one of the teachers told me she heard about me getting married. She also told me that she taught Andy in the 4th grade. Everyone wants to know if he still has the same blue eyes. I show them a picture of us together; yes he still has "those same blue eyes".

I'm tired from the day and my feet hurt. Fall is arriving slowly here in Kansas. It has been raining for the last 3 days and cold to top it off. You can't help but feeling lazy. So that's all for now.

I thought it was supposed to get easier.

I have been getting a lot of grief because I don't update my blog as often as I used to while I was in Hawaii. I could blame it on being busy, but the truth is I'm sad many days and I don't want to write. My friend Shauna said maybe I should use this as a journal to get my feelings out. I like the idea but do I really want to put all that out there? So I think I'll just do it this once so you can understand where I am coming from emotionally and then I will really will try to get better. I really thought as time passed things would get easier emotionally. Time does heal all wounds and I guess I need to give things time. I'm so impatient. So here I go, something I haven't discussed ever on this blog, the miscarriage.

When I had the miscarriage, all I wanted to do was be with Andy in Hawaii. Two weeks later I was with him but then I was so happy to be with him I buried my feelings about the loss of the baby (I'm thinking this is what happened). I say this because now that I'm back home, I feel like I'm grieving again where I left off. I think that's odd but I know everything has a process and I need to go through the process completely before I feel better. You can only run away from things for so long before it catches up with you.

I also think I'm super sad to be away from Andy. I know that we are lucky and I need to get over it. That being said, its hard just the same.

Lastly, I'm having a hard time not having my own classroom and my own kiddos to teach. I often feel like I'm just baby-sitting when I'm subbing. I hope when I start the long-term sub position I will feel better about things and I'll feel worth something.

So there you have it. I'm bummed out. Lets hope things get better soon. I'm so very lucky that I can talk to Andy about things and he is always so supportive.

I'm so embarrassed!

So I have to tell you what happened today before I tell you what I've been up to. I was subbing in the 3rd grade at my beloved Eisenhower Elementary (where I used to teach). We were outside on the concrete playing a game. All the kids were in a circle and I was walking around the circle and all of a sudden (how embarrassing!), I was on the ground. Oh my gosh, yes, I fell in front of the whole class! I apparently tripped over my own feet and fell, really hard. I even skinned my knee. Thank goodness I didn't rip a hole in my new pants. And I hurt my hand when I tried to catch my fall. My hand hurts more as the day goes on. How dumb though! I can't believe I fell! At least the kids didn't laugh at me and were only concerned. I find it really funny now. It was all in slow motion. The worst of it was that I broke my new bracelet that I got. Dang it!

Now for the updates: It has been a busy time around our (my parents) house. My mom had surgery last week and my dad and I have been busy helping her. When you get older, you just don't recover that easy. Last week, everyday after school I went to visit her at the hospital and then I'd come home and get ready for bed. Pathetic I know, but I was with kindergarten and first grade and they make me so tired! I was ready for the long weekend so I could rest up and I was excited because two of my aunts (my mom's sisters) and cousin came to visit. My dad cooked up a feast for them and they cooked too. My Aunt Lil made my favorite food. Actually I had all my favorite foods this weekend. Yet another reason why my pants don't fit!


So, since my mom has been home she has been obsessed with my Nintendo DS. She got it for me as a Christmas gift and thought I didn't really need it. I play it all the time, but since I've been home she's had it in her possession. What's up with that!?!? I do have to say that I think the DS is the best thing ever. My newest game is crosswords/word searches. I love it and apparently so does my mother.