Dedication

A twofer! I meant to add this to the end of the post I made earlier today..but I forgot once I started writing and then once I remembered I decided to just make a completely new post.

It's no secret that I've been on a weight loss journey for the past year. I've lost around 45 pounds and I'm so incredibly proud of how far I've come. I fell off of the wagon a little during the first few weeks of school (adjusting from a summer schedule to waking up at 5:15am and then dealing with 24 little bodies all day took a lot out of me!). I'm back on track and am LOVING every minute of it. Friday morning at 4:30am, I'll start week 9 of the Couch to 5K program. I cannot believe that after 3 more runs..I'll be a C25K graduate! I'm so proud of myself.

I also recently purchased a Polar FT7 heart rate monitor and I'm beginning to kick myself for waiting so long to get one. It's so incredibly gratifying to know EXACTLY how many calories I'm burning (as opposed to just estimating like I had been with MyFitnessPal) and it's also done a great job of motivating me to workout longer and harder to try to burn more calories than I did the day before.

This was from my very first run with my heart rate monitor (which was the beginning of week 8 in C25K). I had no idea I was working that hard during each run and was definitely underestimating my caloric burn. 

I really can't believe I'm on the downward side of this whole weight loss thing. When I started this journey, I know I was just as skeptical as everyone else. It's incredibly shocking to look back at pictures of myself from even a year ago and remember how pretty I thought I was. I definitely look better 40 pounds lighter! This week I'm going to sample some Shakeology shakes to see if I like them and as soon as I finish C25K I'm going to start running for DISTANCE and not just time..so I'll be able to go (hopefully) go faster. Who'd have thought I'd turn into a runner?!

So much has changed and I'm excited to see what else will change in the future. LIVING HEALTHY! 

Insane

It is TRULY insane that we're already in the middle of October, that I've been a teacher for more than 6 weeks, and that Grady and I have officially been together for over a year. So much has happened in the past few weeks and I haven't done a very good job (at all!) of keeping this thing updated.

When the school year started, the three English kindergarten classrooms at my school (mine included) had 24 and 25 students in them. It was complete chaos! Making sure everyone had a chance to go to the bathroom, managing centers and teacher groups, keeping hands to self when sitting on the carpet, walking down the hall - EVERYTHING was a huge production. Thankfully, our campus was given permission to hire a new kindergarten teacher and the process didn't take very long at all. My classroom shrank from 24 to 22 (two kids moved away the week we heard we'd be getting a new teacher) to 17! I went from having 6 kids at every table to having 4 kids at every table (one table has 5). We all got new spots on the carpet and we actually have some wiggle room! I went from doing 6 centers for ELAR to only doing 5 and still having no more than 4 kids in each center. I do miss the kids that went to the other class, but it's completely amazing how much our classroom dynamic changed once there were fewer bodies in the room.

On the subject of teaching..it's amazing to see how much my sweet kinder babies have changed in just 6 weeks. I still have 11 kids that tested in Tier 3 (that labels them all as "at risk"), but even those friends have improved SO MUCH! We do lots and lots of singing and dancing and moving in my room. I'm sure the people across the hall and next door thing we're loud and crazy - but we're learning so much more than we ever would if we sat still and stayed quiet. Our new favorite thing is to learn a new Koo Koo Kangaroo (you can look them up on Youtube!) song once a week. It's like Zumba for kids and they LOVE it. It's a great way to get energy out since we don't always have time for recess.

I really can't believe that we're already halfway through October. Next month I'll turn 24 and then the holiday season will be here! I'm also counting down the days until May (NKOTB cruise part two...woohoo!) and until June when my very best friend in the entire world comes to stay with Kayla and I for the entire summer. For those that don't know, my best friend's name is Emma and she lives all the way in Belgium! We talk non-stop all day, every day (thanks, iMessage) but we only get to see one another once a year. It totally doesn't seem like it's been 4 months since she was last here, but I suppose it's a good thing that time is flying!

And for my last bit of exciting information..Grady and I have officially been together for 1 year (and 4 days)! I still remember our first date and how quickly we fell for one another. It all seems so long ago. I'm truly blessed to have him in my life and even on my worst days - believe me, there are plenty - he loves me. I could go on and on about him like I have before, but I won't. Everyone that knows me knows how much happier I've been since he and I started dating and I think it's pretty evident that he's my soulmate. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him. :)

This is the first picture that I can find of us. It's from New Years Eve 2011. We'd been dating for just about 2.5 months at this point.

This one was taken right before Valentine's Day 2012 - almost 4 months together!

This was my very favorite picture of us until recently. We took it out at Ransom Canyon in May (6 months!). I kind of hate taking pictures, so it took us about 50 shots to get one that I liked, haha.

And this one is from last week! Right before we went out to dinner to celebrate our first anniversary. :)

And that's all she wrote! Life isn't exactly exciting - but I'm loving every minute of it.