Weekend Wrap Up!

Happy Monday! 

I hope you all had a great weekend.

Our was full of... puhp. 

Chrissy had some sort of stomach bug so there was a puhp issue in our house this weekend. 

See, he is a Maine Coon, which means he has long butt hair... which means when he has diarrhea, it can get caught in his butt hair... which means he needs a bath. Jelly had a non diarrhea related puhp clump in his butt hair this weekend too, which means in total, our cats got 5 baths over the course of 2 days. 

It was traumatic, but they still love us.

It was rough getting out of bed due to being up late the night before at a Bob Saget show. I managed to lift in the sun room before work. I ate a pork chop and Greek yogurt on the way to work because... protein.

At school I put the finishing touches on my classroom and lesson plans. The highlight of my day was going to my SIL's for lunch and hanging out with her and my nieces and nephew.

After work, Paul and I binge watched some Big Brother. For us, binge watching equals about three episodes. That's pretty much the longest our attention spans are good for!

I fell asleep in my bed with my lap top. It felt like summer. Ah!

I slept until almost 11am! It felt divine!

Since my ITB didn't hurt in the morning, I went for a very enjoyable 5 miler. It was scorching hot and I was a little pokey, but I still enjoyed the run. My ITB/knee felt fine the rest of the day. It's so confusing. The two days I took off running (Thursday and Friday) were the WORST days pain wise. The day I run, it feels fine. WTF?

That evening we went to our friend Freddy's house to celebrate his birthday! A fun time was had by all!

 Rachel is a BEAST!

I went for another run, because, why not? It seems like lately I am so achy when I don't run. I did 5 miles and right when I finished it started POURING!

Then Paul and I headed to Randy and Michael's house to play some games. Again, a good time was had by all!

I only had to suggest this once and they were game!

Then we all headed for the mall near our house because an H&M store just opened. I could hear the music from a mile away. WHY IS THAT STORE SO LOUD???? Nothing makes me feel more old than when I go into a store and the music is so loud that I can't even focus.

I almost bought a cute shirt but the line for the dressing room was so long. I eyed up the shirt and figured it would fit and I didn't need to try it on. Unfortunately, the line to check out was twice as long as the fitting room! It was crowded, the music was making me slightly crazy, and I knew there was no way I could wait in line. I threw the shirt on the nearest rack and got the hell out of there as fast as possible.

I may go back when it is less crowded. We'll see.

When we got home, we chilled on the couch and watched Big Brother and Samantha Bee.

Normally I don't like Sundays, but this Sunday didn't feel like a Sunday! I think that is thanks to Randy and Michael having us over. Thanks guys!

Before I went to bed, I quickly laid out Flat Mrs. Cooney so I would be ready for my first day of school with students!

Ready or not, here they come...

Are there any stores that make you feel old?
Have you ever given your cat a bath?
Do you like Sundays? What do you normally do?

Welcome to my classroom!

 HELLO! WELCOME TO MY CLASSROOM!

PLEASE COME IN AND LOOK AROUND...

A friend/colleague made this for me last year! I love it!

Outside my door to welcome students.

Do I have enough cat pictures on my door or do I need more?

Voila!

Music room!

Yes, my desk is always this clean! (No seriously, I am very organized.)

It is soooooo humid. Look.

This is where I will be sitting for the next 21 years. (Except for 10 weeks in the summer.)

This is a bulletin board behind my desk of just things I like, things that inspire me, or things that make me laugh.

I run a tight ship. For real.

CYMBALS! NEW!

WOODBLOCKS! NEW!

TRIANGLES! NEW! (I had to throw out some rusty ones.)

#Truth

I have been wanting to hang this for awhile and I finally made room.

Reward chart!

This arrived on Wednesday and it is going to be LIFE CHANGING for me and my classroom!

That's my Chrissy boy!

Behavior chart. Required.

 Recorder Karate bulletin board outside my room. Soon it will be filled with names of students achieving their belts!

I am always proud of how my bulletin boards look until I walk around the school and see everyone else's bulletin boards. That's when I realize I should definitely stick to MUSIC as I am not artistic in the least! Also, I know a lot of those teachers spend a lot of time designing their bulletin boards and probably spend a lot of their own money on supplies too! I just grab whatever paper and boarders I can find in my cupboards... which is usually old and leftover from the person who held my position before me!

Well anyway, thanks for taking this little tour of my classroom! I hope you're having a great weekend!

Are you artistic?
Is your work space usually messy or organized?

Boooooooooooooob Saget!

Paul turned 33 in July, and for his birthday present, I got us tickets to see Bob Saget in Hagerstown, MD! This past Thursday, the night finally arrived! Yes, I went out on a school night. Can you believe it!?

The drive to the venue was a little stressful since we decided to leave at 5pm- rush hour! But we made it to The Maryland Theater with plenty of time to spare. We were in the fifth row, so we were right up close!

A comedian named Mike Bloom opened the show. I didn't really like him a whole lot, but Paul did. Luckily Mike Bloom was only on for about 20 minutes, and then Bob Saget came out!

I am sure you are aware that Bob's stand-up is nothing like his squeaky clean image on Full House. He is FILTHY I tell you! Actually, the only comedian I have ever seen who was filthier than Bob Saget was Mitch Fatel. I don't mind filth and vulgar language as long as the jokes are smart and funny, which I thought they were. It definitely is not everyone's cup of tea, though. So if you ever decide to go see Bob Saget: BEWARE!!!!

Bob interacted with the audience, sang funny songs, told hilarious stories... You could tell he really enjoyed himself up there and he wasn't just going through the motions or anything like that. He was a pro and he was having fun. He performed for a solid 1 hour and 45 minutes! It was well worth the ticket price if you ask me!

One of his funniest stories was about John Stamos and the 8x10. If you are curious to hear that story, just Google it and you will find it! Make sure you are not at work and there are no kids around, though!

So, that was our fun Thursday night! I will need the entire weekend to recover...

Have you ever seen any famous comedians? We saw Mitch Fatel last year and Jerry Seinfeld. Both were excellent!

Are you a Bob Saget fan? I wouldn't call myself a fan but 
I grew up watching Full House and America's Funniest Home Videos.

Do you like dirty comedy or clean? I do not mind dirty at all as long as it is funny.

Friday 5! (FIRST DAYS BACK!)

I'M GOING ROGUE AGAIN!!!!

Today's Friday 5 is all about my first couple days back at work... without students. Students come Monday.

1. FREAKING-A... I CAN'T SLEEP!!! On Tuesday morning (my first day back), I woke up at 4:30am and could not fall back asleep. I started to think about work, which pissed me off, so I got up at 4:50am... 55 minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off. This better not become a THING.

2. FUN FACT: IT'S HOT AS BALLS AT 5:30AM!  Due to my early alarms, I thought I would enjoy some cooler running. Not so. The real feel at 5:30am was 80 degrees with 97% humidity. Now I'm glad I didn't bother to get up early this summer. It wouldn't have mattered!

3. I LOVE CHRISSY. Paul sent me this picture of Christmas while I was at work. I immediately made it my desktop background.

4. LOOK WHAT I GOT FOR MY CLASSROOM!!! Guys, this is life changing.

5. I HAVE THE BEST HUSBAND IN THE WORLD. When I got home from work, I saw that Paul cleaned the whole house! Be still, my heart! Man, what a guy!

Do you ever send fur baby pics to your partner while they are at work?
Do you own a 3-hole punch?
What are you up to this weekend?

Summer Running! (And a GIVEAWAY!)

GIVEAWAY!

First thing's first. I'm giving away my Hansons Marathon Method book! I have no more use for it as I don't think I will ever use this training plan again. It's in MINT condition. 

This plan did not work for me, but it works for lots of people. If you are curious about it and want my copy, all you have to do is be the first to comment on my blog and say that you want it!

Besides that, all you have to do is be willing to email me the address you would like me to send the book to and I will stick it in the mail

SUMMER RUNNING!

Over the past couple weeks, I have been trying to figure out if there has been anything I gained by my training this summer. It's no secret that the Hansons training plan did not seem to help me at all. I kept waiting to get faster and stronger but those feelings never came.

But surely I have gained something from plugging away this summer, right?

The answer came to me while I was on the treadmill at Planet Fitness on Monday. As I ran an 8 minute mile pace effortlessly in the A/C, I realized the thing I am most proud about my running this summer is that 99.99999999% of my runs were done outside in the scorching heat and humidity. I believe I ran on the treadmill twice this summer and ran early in the morning once. The rest of my runs were done between 10am-2pm. PRIME HEAT/HUMIDITY TIME!

So I am proud that I acclimated and was able to run in the heat. I wasn't fast by any means, but my body was able to regulate it's temperature and I adapted in that aspect to the conditions.

Don't forget to be the first to comment if you want my Hansons book!

Did you embrace the heat this summer or soak up the a/c? A little of both?

Workout Recaps

I know I was supposed to move my Weekly Workouts to Saturday but this week I am putting it on Wednesday. Also, it's more than a week! Bear with me while I figure this whole thing out!

These past 9 days of workouts have been pretty boring...

Monday- 6 mile Running Treasure Hunt! Thanks for the link up, Wendy!

Tuesday- Rest. We traveled to Cape May for a little beach trip. Oh, we did get about 3 minutes of cardio when we walked up 190 steps to the top of the Cape May lighthouse. My calves were sore for the next three days!

Wednesday- 6 miles at the beach while Paul rode a jet ski. My calves were sore. It was so freaking hot. I hate running at the beach. But it gave me some much needed endorphins so that's a plus.

Thursday- Another rest day... but it was very active. Paul and I TORE UP Raging Waters water park. Seriously, we were going fast and hard.

Friday- Lifting at Planet Fitness. I did my normal back workout. Lots of pull ups, rows, etc. I was so hungry for the rest of the day!

Saturday- Rest! But I did kayak and swim.

Sunday- 6 miler. Scorching hot! Super slow. Nothing to report!

Monday- 4 miles on the treadmill + Lifting at Planet Fitness. Guys, can I just tell you it is SO MUCH EASIER RUNNING IN THE A/C THAN IT IS OUTSIDE!!!??? So lately it has been a slog just to run a 9 minute pace outside. On the treadmill? I did a mile @ 8:34. Then I did two miles @ 8:12. I finished it off with a mile @ 8:00. EFFORTLESS, I tell you. I felt so good!!!! I felt like I used to feel when I ran. I think I underestimated how much the heat and humidity affected me, because you know damn well I only got up early like once this summer to run! All of my other runs were done in the scorching heat!

Tuesday- My first day back to work had me running 6 miles @ 5:30 in the morning. I was looking forward to a cooler run, and it sort of was. The real feel was only 80 degrees but the humidity was 97%! I was feeling FAST AND FIERCE and ran an average 8:13 pace.

That's it, friends. Not much more to report over here. Just doing what feels good.

28 miles in 9 days... That's a little better than last week when I did 12 miles in 7 days hahahaha!

Running in general is *starting* to feel better.

How were your workouts this week?

I was definitely lazy this summer!

Today, I go back to work after 10 weeks off. I am not going to complain about it because I realize not everyone gets 10 weeks off! But I am going to say that I never, ever get bored during the summer, and enjoy every minute of it!

Whenever my summer comes to an end, I always look back at my glorious time off and try to decide if I made the most of it.

I think this summer can best be compared to my garden. Oh, my garden. It has sucked this year. I'm not trying to say my summer sucked... just hear me out.

This is the third year for my garden. The first year, it flourished effortlessly. Seriously, it just grew and grew and I had tons of tomatoes and peppers.

The second year, it didn't go so well, but I blamed it on being away on vacation for 12 days. Even though our cat sitter watered it, there was no one "tending" to it, which I think makes a big difference.

This year, I thought things would go better since I wasn't going to be on vacation very long and I could tend to it.

Nope.

It looks like something has been eating all of my plants!

I have gotten a few nice tomatoes, some peppers, one butternut squash and one zuke. Everything else is ROTTEN!

So how does my crappy garden compare to my summer?

Well, I have had some really great days this summer (the shiny red tomatoes!). But the other days were just BLAH (the rotten tomatoes!).

I'm not complaining. I CHERISH my BLAH days.

Here are just some of the things I did on my BLAH days:

• Laid on the couch.
• Wrote on message boards for Big Brother and The View.
• Researched true crime.
• Watched Jodi Arias interviews.
• Systematically read through solvingjonbenet.blogspot.com
• Overdosed on CNN.
• Read books.
• Did puzzles.
• Colored.
• Slept in really late and stayed up really late.
• Watched bad TV.
• Pet my cats.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the activities I did that represent the shiny red tomatoes in my garden! So here are my shiny red activities:

• Colorado for 6 days with Paul.
• The beach for 3 days with Paul.
• Swimming at the pool.
• Lots and lots of family time!
• Running with my brother.
• Meeting famous bloggers.

I was definitely lazy this summer! But all in all, I had a great summer! I am so thankful for my time off so I can go back to school RECHARGED.

How is you garden doing?
What do you like to do on your BLAH days?
Teachers, when do you go back to school?