Gid~

Ummmm...is there just a general Microsoft Office certification?  I think something like that would be it, but I'm not really sure.  I'm really proud of her, though.  I think she feels like a loser a lot of the time, and she really needed this boost of confidence.

LW~

The scale, unfortunately, doesn't show that I've lost weight.  I think I've gained muscle, and my body looks different, but the scale hasn't changed that much.  I'm still eating too much, and that's an issue.  I have a real psychological thing with food, and it doesn't make sense.  I've certainly never gone hungry a day in my life, but I've realized how much it controls my life, instead of ME controlling food.  I'm trying to change the mindset of "living to eat" to "eating to live."  It's been a challenge.  I'm grateful it's finally NICE outside, because I love to walk.  If I've got the Nikes, the cheap-o MP3 player, I can go for miles.  And I do!  The weekend before last was a five mile hike!  (Oh...I think in the rafting pictures I might look thinner because I'm wearing a very tight wetsuit...lol...it sucked in all the rolls.)

You would LOVE rafting.  The lower Truckee doesn't have a whole lot of scariness to it.  I was going to try kayaking, but I was a little scared, so the guides put me in a raft instead.  I went with a really neat couple from Bakersfield, California.  They kayaked, and the guide, Ted, and I were in the raft ahead of them.  With the inflatable kayaks and the raft you don't really have to steer unless there's obstacles in the river or you want to de-raft.  Otherwise you just paddle.  I want to go to Fort Collins, Colorado to do another trip, this time along with Ry.  It's much cheaper, and it seems like more of a challenge.  I don't know that I'd want to go and do something like that without a guide.  The driver was supposed to take our picture as we came back into town, but he didn't.  It's okay...I know I did it.  I wouldn't get into a nasty rubber, fat-sucking suit for nothing.

TW~

Now that you're back stateside, hopefully you and the whole fam damily can do some traveling (not that anyone can afford it...ugh).  I'm trying to figure out if it will be cheaper to fly or drive home to Minnesota this summer.  My guess is it will be much cheaper to stay home. lol

Hope you and Adrian and the kidlets are doing well, baby cakes!

Thanks, S.  I appreciate that. 

I think I've been making better food choices.  My Hemoglobin A1C (the long-term blood sugar test) last time was below 7%--like 6%.  And I'm hoping it's even lower this time (if I can find time to get into the clinic to take it...they open so late!).  I know I still eat too much, though.  It's a crutch, it really is.  I have a hard time eating slow and listening to my body say "stop, moron, you are fuller than you need to be!"  It's something I need to work on.  I'm hoping it will be easier this summer, because I won't have to eat on a timetable like I do during school hours.  i can eat when I'm hungry (although part of the problem is that I'm not hungry in the morning and I need to eat breakfast).  I've been eating alot more fruit than I did in the past, and I've been trying more veggies, even though I don't think I've liked any I've tried.  I keep trying them over and over again, hoping they'll become less repulsive...lol.

And I think you're right--it should be about fitness rather than being skinny.  I take weights most of the times I walk--I started out with 2 lbs in each hand.  I think I'm ready to bump that up, though.  I also have a medicine ball that I use, too, and one of those big huge inflatable exercise balls that's really fun to use but with our limited space it's a little difficult (I think I can rearrange some stuff in the apt. this summer, though). 

I forgot to ask the doctor if I could take the fish oil with my Tricor.  My triglycerides are sky-high, even though my cholesterol isn't too bad.  I feel like a moron, though, not even being thirty and having all these problems...

This year has been a whole different ball of wax.  Since we figured out that it's diabetes making me have headaches, and that's taken care of, I've hardly been sick at all this school year.  Last year I used ALL of my sick days.  This year I maybe used 3?  The work environment I'm in is a whole new world, too.  When your coworkers get along and you get along with your boss okay, too, it makes a big difference in stress levels.  I have a crazy class this year, but it wasn't nearly as nuts as last year when I only worked with small groups.  I just know everything's going to be okay, and I try to leave work at work as much as I can, because my marriage is important to me and I think there needs to be a division.  I can't ALWAYS do that--today I took some grading along with me while I went with Ry to do his route.  But for the most part, I just don't even bring a bag home.  I never do it anyway.  lol

We're even poorer this year than we were last year, but I'm so much more happy.

Thanks, Sabrina.  I'm gaining some confidence, and I'm learning that I'm not a superhuman, and I'm going to make mistakes, and a lot of them.  I try to teach that to my students, too.  I make mistakes inside and out of the classroom, so i do what I can to make things right, and tuck away the learning, and move on.  Life is way too short.  I want them to take away those lessons, too.  I know they're going to have to learn lots of them over for themselves, but hopefully someday when they've screwed up royally they'll remember when their second grade teacher laughed at herself for doing something dumb, and realize they can do that too.

I still need to see a counselor.  Or maybe a lobotomy would work, too.

Does that mean I'm REALLY muscular underneath all this fat?   lol