I is aliiiiiiive!

Just in case you were worried, I have not, in, fact expired. I have just been really busy and not feeling very bloggy. Sorry. :(

So let me sum up the excitement that is my life...

1. I finished teaching for the year...the last weeks were a whirlwind of insanity and that's with NO KIDS AROUND. I couldn't believe how busy and stressed I was! Fuck that noise. I just wanna sit in my room and slowly start to put shit away and half-assedly start planning for next year. Is that too much to ask!?!

2. I played golf. Again. For the fourth time ever. Each year the staff do a social thing, and we always pay golf. What saves it from being a boring crapfest is I get to do it with cool people (hey Asha and Kim!), wear costumes and best of all, DRINK! We decided to dress up as "Ladies Who Lunch" and wear nice dresses. It was pretty hilarious to see us golfing all dressed up.

Hottest. Golfers. Ever.

 Practicing...boy do I need it!

 Love these girls!

3.  I started summer school...teaching gr. 8 and 9 ESL beginners. So far, so good, but spent a LOT of time planning for this shit, and now we have to reign it in big time 'cause there are some really weak kids in the group. Le sigh.

4. I have continued to run in a begrudging manner. Still not enjoyable...nope not even a little. Oh, ok I will admit it feels really darn good when I STOP.

5. I have not lost or gained any weight in oh, um....let's see....hmm...SIX MONTHS. 

6. I am gearing up for my Underwear Affair run on Saturday. AHHHHH! First run! AHHHHH again! People dress up in crazy outfits- mostly undergarments with varying degrees of coverage, so I need an outfit! I am leaning towards fishnets, black boyshorts, and my sports bra all covered with this teddy-type thing with a front closing bra trimmed in pink. It's semi-transparent but still covers a lot, so even though my stomach is kind of exposed, it's kind of not. Yes...that makes much sense.

7.  I am going to Mexico in a month! All inclusive, natch. :) Very exciting! Plus, the fact that I must wear a bathing suit for extended periods has me a bit freaked out.

8. Hubby and I are trying to get our asses out of this tiny condo and into a bigger, better, faster, stronger domicile. Most likely a 1600+ sq. ft. townhouse with a yard of some sort. That means we are getting off our lazy asses to do the 500 things that need doing before we can list. Yay...I love painting, de-cluttering and tiling! But, if it gets me my new home, where I may actually have enough space to have PEOPLE over...and hey, maybe a GUEST room...I will bloody well do it!

9. I almost forgot! We went to Whistler for a quick getaway after school was finished. It happened to be Canada Day as well, so we had some free entertainment! Love the hotel we were in, too. It was right on the Village Stroll (main walkway through Whistler Village), and we could even watch the Canada Day parade from our balcony! Cooool.

Jason missed the giant heave graceful leap onto the bed.

We likey balcony!

Jason's ready to get his patriotism on!

True North Strong and Free! (so say the boobs, so say I)

Last pic to commemorate our lovely, relaxing mini-vacay.

10. Oh, for the weight-loss thing I am going to start working out every day again. The increased exercise seems to work best for me. I am thinking running on day, then doing shred or bike the other. I also want to do weights in my building's crapass "gym" after my runs. Gotta keep the arm boobies nice and toned (right Cory?).  ;)

Hope y'all can forgive me for being MIA for so long. I have been peeking in on you from time to time. :)

Later!

A bad case of the Ishoulds

Yup, I've got it pretty bad. It's a terrible disease the Ishoulds. Really,  it's just another manifestation of lazyassery.

I sit around and say:

I should go run. 

I should do some sit ups before I lose my lil' two pack.

I should go to the gym in the building and use the weights there. 

I should face Jillian and do the 30 Day Shred again. 

I should try to eat something healthy.

I should drink some more water. 

I should, I should, I should.  Blah diddy blah blah blah. Talk is cheap, lady!

The terrible thing about the Ishoulds, is that it rarely translates into any action. There is no will in a should. No determination. And it almost makes the lazyassery worse because I know what I should be doing!

Tonight, I did something though. No, not Jillian...though I still have her on my horizon. I decided to ride the bike for a change. I haven't done that since I started running, so really it's been MONTHS since my ass was in that seat. When I bike I always use free weights to work my upper body at the same time. I started out last year with 2.5 lbs, then 5, and now I am using 8s. I will get 10s sometime as well. I could tell biking uses different muscles than running, 'cause my legs were sore! But then my knee started to bug me...and then it started to hurt. That scared me. I don't want anything to interfere with my running. I am already struggling with a pulled muscled just below my butt that throws off my stride and makes me feel totally gimpy. My run for charity is July 10th-- rapidly approaching! I will post again about that soon.

Mostly I need to get rid of the Ishoulds and get my ass moving more. Just do it, don't freaking sit around at talk about it!

Close on the heals of the dreaded Ishoulds is a little what was I thinking? This past weekend was one of a bit of excess. I went to this acoustic show with some friends, and ended up not having a chance to eat dinner until 9. Did that stop me from consuming, oh...let's say 5 drinks? Nope! Am I new here? Do I think drinking a crapload of booze on an empty stomach is a good idea? Apparently the wild and woolly ways of my twenties are so far behind me that I've forgotten the hard-earned lessons of drunken nights and hung-over days. What's worse is I ordered a drink AT the bar to continue to put myself into the booze soaked hole I was digging. It was half-way through my second, and when I was mostly finished with my food (1/2 of which I gave away) and I started to feel really inebriated. The group of us then left to hit a different bar...happened to be a peeler bar. On the way I kinda sorta had to well...you know...um...yes. That. Ick. The rest of the time at the bar was spent admiring the bathroom and wanting to die. The peeps kinda hung out in the parking lot to chat with some girls that came from the other bar, and I just sorta crashed in the jeep. And wanted to die.

I was basically a write-off for the entire evening, and I have no one to blame but myself. I KNOW drinking on an empty stomach is a bad idea. I have no idea what possessed me. Stupidity, mostly.

So I'm going to be mindful of that kind of action in the future. At 36, I'm just too old for that shit.

While I was out that night, my friend Chrystie offered for me to try on her gorgeous corset. I've never worn one before, so I was curious to see what it would look like. Here are some pics. She said she coulda gone in tighter, but her corset was a bit big for me, though I think it fit nicely...plus I need to breathe! I think I am in love with corsets now! The only prob is the sitting down is sooo uncomfortable. But here it is, please forgive my inability to pose. It's just...wow. Sad.

If I were a bit braver, I woulda tried it sans brassier. ;) Maybe next time!

So off I go, running tomorrow, and Friday I "play golf" for my staff year-end social. We usually dress up in costumes for the event ('cause we take this shit seriously!), and this year we are trying "Ladies Who Lunch"...so nice dresses, some costume jewelry, and maybe a floppy hat or two. On a golf course. Should be fun! I will take more pictures than anyone would ever want to see, don't worry.

Later!

Pride, pranks and purchases, oh my!

Could it be? No...it can't. It's unthinkable...it's beyond thought. Really the human brain doesn't have the synapses to wrap around this idea. It's impossible....improbable....and some other im/in word I just don't know. But...still there it is. I think it's official. I have completed my last three 30 minute runs of the Couch to 5k program. I AM DONE!

This non-running girl...the same one who has avoided running at every turn in her life. This girl who would rather do anything than run, who thinks people who run in the rain are bat-shit crazy. THIS girl can now run thirty freakin' minutes without dying, collapsing, puking or generally melting into a big mushy pile of UGH. For reals?

Yup.

So I guess I have to say, the Couch to 5k works. If I can do it...anyone can. Well, barring any physical impediments, like bad knees and flat feet like the poor hubman. :(

I am still trying to eat less, and am running every other day, but haven't lost any more weight yet. Damn. It. I also haven't added any Jillian flava to my workouts, which I really need to gather up the balls to do. I know even if it hurts the first few days, it will go away. Running on Jillianized legs scares me though.

Today was the last day of classes at my school...bittersweet time. I am glad I don't have to teach for a while (once again, yay summer school!),  but I am sad to see them go for two months, and even sadder to say goodbye to the students not returning next year. Boo. It was a bit funny to see the second grad prank this morning though:

They actually guarded the stairway to make sure no one took it down before class changed and everyone could get a good look at their masterpiece. They did clean it up after..awww sweet grads. This was number two, as I said. Prank number one was a bit odd. A bunch of gr. 12 girls. all dressed in black sweats,  kidnapped some boys out of their beds, dressed them in shorts and bras, put panties over their heads and wrapped feather boas around them, then zip-tied their hands to a fence and made them stand at a bus stop while all the kids rolled into school. Oh and there was a blow-up doll in there somewhere, too. Sweet gals. The best part is that they called the boys' parents first to arrange the kidnapping. Thanks mom, for the mortal humiliation.

Here's one of my favourite classes- English 10:

And a bit sillier. :)

And one of me in the cute dress...this is my classroom door. We one a prize for decorating it with POWER, our school code of conduct acronym.

And finally, after all the goodbyes I got off work early and did what I do best...shopped! I scored this top I had eyeballed online at my favourite store, Ricki's. In the same complex, another store was having a sale, and I got a cute vest for $15, and a skirt for the same. The skirt I'll show ya another time.

The vest:

I think vests are super-slimming!

The back is cool, too.

Gotta see the side view...

Hee hee, nice face! 

Hey, whassup?

 And the top:

Girl needs a new pose!

Tired of my blurry self-portraits. Made the man take this one. 

And yes, I know you LOVE my shower curtain!

Hope everyone is having a good week. And THANK YOU for all the lovely compliments on my side-by-side pic. :) Loves you!

d

A cool side-by-side look at my shrinkage.

My sister and I tried to re-create the picture on the right, taken at my stagette party. When I saw this picture, I almost fainted. Did I really look like that? Wow. I felt this one had to go on my blog sidebar as a reminder of where I once was, and where I never want to be again. I think there's a pretty noticeable difference! Check out how my stomach no longer hits my upper thighs. Also, you can see my entire face, even with the hair there. Don't even get me started on the fat rolls. Oyyy. So glad to see they are gone! 

My measurements have changed a LOT. 

Chest 48---40

Ribcage 39---34

Waist 42----32.5

Hips 45----37.5

Arms- 15.5---11.5

Upper Thigh 32----23.5

Calf 17----15

In other news, I won an award! Yayyy for me! :) The smoking hot Jessica at Jessica's Jaunt bestowed upon me the Beautiful Blogger award. Thank you Jessica! As with most of these, there's a catch beyond glowing in the bask of the glorious award winning.

The rules: pass the award on to 7 bloggers and write 7 things about myself that you did not know!

First, 7 things you do not know about me. This is kinda hard, because I've overshared so much with you all! So forgive if I repeat. :)

1.  I was in an episode of 21 Jump Street when I was in high school (after Johnny Depp left...booo) .

2. My cat tried to swallow a needle once and it cost $1000 to get it out.  Technically not about me, but it tells ya I'm a sucker for kitty cats! But now that bitch owes me.

3. I've always kind of resented being tall. Makes it a pain in the ass to find pants long enough (let alone PLUS-SIZED pants long enough), and I was taller than, like EVERYONE in elementary school. It's not so bad now, but man, it messed with my head!

4. I. Hate. Spiders. 

5. Horror movies with ghosts, ghoulies and buckets of blood make me very happy. 

6. I'm a horribly picky eater. It's kind of embarassing. I blame my parents.

7. Even though I have spent a year living a healthy lifestyle, I am so very afraid that I will slip back into old habits and gain the weight back. 

So there ya go! Sadly, that's all I have in me. I will pass this award onto anyone who follows me and wishes to claim it! I know, lame. But if there was an 8, it would be:

8. I am very, very lazy.  

So it looks like I am done with trainer-girl for the year. I will take her out for lunch on Thursday, but there are no classes after the 16th. No more teenagers?! Nooooo! I will miss them, but I am glad to have a break from 'em. I get kind of short-tempered and grumpy this time of year. I wish I could say I get a long break from them, but it's off to teach summer school July 5th! Whoo! But, before that I get to go to Whistler and stay here to relax a bit with hubby. 

That's all I gots for you today! Take it easy my fine friends.