It's a boy!

Sorry I haven't posted a "real" update in months, but really, are you surprised?

Here's what's happening, pregnancy wise:

I'm currently just a couple days shy of 20 weeks, otherwise known as the halfway point. I definitely look pregnant to those that know me, although I suspect that I may very well just look fat to those that don't know. Not that I'm crying myself to sleep over it. I'm just stating the facts as I believe them.

In general, I've been feeling good. Never had any major nausea or anything like that. It's been pretty much smooth sailing thus far. I'm just now getting to where I notice some discomfort... attempting to roll over from my left side to my right side in bed this morning was enough of a production that I gave up. Not because of my size, but because the action of rolling over caused me to engage some lower abdomen muscles that made me wince in pain. No bueno.

Spoiler alert, I did eventually roll over. I am not currently typing this from my left side in bed.

Last Thursday we had "The Big Sonogram" where they measure everything they can think of. From this, they determined first and foremost that the baby seems healthy and on track! Yay! Further, they determined that it's a boy! So, mark your calendars, kids - baby James coming in August! We got several pictures from this appointment, most of which are posted on facebook... but here's the main one for your viewing pleasure:

What a cutie, right????? OK, so maybe you have to be his mother to find it cute.

Let's see, in non-pregnancy related news:

Andrew is inching closer and closer to graduation! May 14th is the big day for that.

School choir stuff is good for me. We have UIL (our big annual competition) this week, so it'll be good to have that checked off the list.

There are lots and lots of budget cuts going down in my district and in districts throughout Texas. As the head and only choir teacher on my campus, I assume I'm pretty safe, but there are definitely lots of wonderful teachers at nearly every campus who will be out of a job. Anyone who will be out of a job for next year is supposed to know by tomorrow. So, keep your fingers crossed for me and for the many, many nervous teachers out there.

That's it for now!

Terri

A little thought I posted on facebook...

So, I am not typically one to post any kind of "deep thought" or "devotional" on facebook, but every now and then I'll come home from church with a thought in my head that it helps to get out. In this case, I wrote this one out and posted on facebook. In doing so, I hoped I might initiate a little discussion. In the end, I got more comments along the lines of "thanks for posting" and "I needed to hear that" and that sort of thing. So, that's great... but if anyone is inclined to respond/engage in conversation, I'm down for that too. So, here's a repost:

At teacher inservice a few weeks ago, one of the points made by a guest speaker that stuck with me was essentially this:

When we as teachers say things like "I know it's Monday, but let's try and have a good rehearsal today!" or "I can tell you're tired, but I need you to sit up!" or "I know it's Friday, but I need you to focus!" - what we're doing is validating the idea that tiredness, or Monday-ness, or Friday-ness, or whatever-ness is an obstacle to our success. The guest made the point that these small comments have a way of causing us to lower the bar or the expectation for our students without us even realizing it - just as we thought we were trying to raise the bar.

I wonder if we're not the same in other parts of our lives. An easy example (for me, anyway): fitness.

Isn't it easy to say:

"I'll never run a marathon, but I can try to jog a 5K."

"I can't jog a 5K, but I could maybe walk a mile each day."

"I couldn't possibly walk a mile Every Day, but I can do it twice a week."

"I can't find time to go for a walk..."

Isn't this all just a nice little way of saying - "I'm not going to expect myself to be fit."

Now, this is definitely a little bit of the pot calling the kettle black. I am not a fitness guru. But I was able to prove to myself in 2010 that certain things I had never thought I could do were just as simple as changing my mind and my viewpoint. I'm betting that most people that have made fitness a real part of their lives would tell you that the activity itself is not always as hard as just deciding, over and over again. Making the decision each day to get up and get it done.

I feel this way about many of our financial decisions. Is it hard to live without credit cards, to save up and pay for stuff in cash, to tithe to our church? I mean, I guess it's hard... or at least it might have been hard when we started. But once you decide, and you keep deciding... it's less hard. Almost a non-issue. Technically, Andrew and I now give about 12% each month to the church... because last year my income went up, being partially assigned to a high school position, and we began tithing on that amount. My income went back down this school year, but we kept giving the same amount to the church each month. Never really even thought twice about it. Non issue.

All this leads me to... how do we lower our expectations of ourselves as Christians? I feel like I so often hear that lessons taught in scripture were great for an earlier time, a less stressful world, a more primitive society, but that in this day and age, you couldn't possibly expect someone to live in that way. "It's hard to balance our faith with our real lives." "It's hard to focus on God's will for our lives." "It's hard to allow our faith to influence the decisions we make."

Is it really?

A Change is Gonna Come

Well, up until this point, I suppose this blog would probably have fit best into the category of "weight loss blog" as I've chronicled my success with Weight Watchers and my love-hate-love relationship with the treadmill.

Well. No more.

Because while my journey to better health certainly continues, "weight loss" is no longer the goal. At least now right now - seeing as I'm pregnant!

Yup!

Most anyone that I imagine could be reading this probably already knows about my new status as "expectant mother". Here are the details as we know them:

I'm due August 17th, which puts me at 9 weeks and 3 days at this moment. Supposedly the baby is about the size of an olive right now.

I haven't had any sickness to speak of. A bit of cramping at first, the teensiest touch of nausea once or twice, but nothing compared to what I hear about others dealing with. (Our Sunday School class is in the midst of a pregnancy outbreak right now, in which I am the current tail end of what will end up being seven babies born to six moms between August 2009 and August 2011.)

I am constantly tired. That's been my main symptom. Most days I feel like I need a nap immediately after school, and whether I get one or not, I tend to conk out on the couch by about 9:00pm. At this moment, I'm watching the Miss America pageant, which is keeping me up until at least 10.

I'm going to try to update the blog a bit more frequently as this pregnancy progresses. But then again, I feel as though I may have made that promise (minus the pregnancy part) before. So, we'll see. Here's hoping!

Light at the end of the tunnel...

Well, it's been a busy semester, as is so often the case. But, we're almost to the end, which means we get to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with family and lots of rest and relaxation.
Andrew has had a successful semester, and with three out of four grades currently posted online, he's got three A's thus far. He has just one semester left on his Master's and is scheduled to graduate on May 14th, 2011! I guess time flies when you're having fun. He really enjoyed his classes this semester, especially the two classes he had with a particular professor that he really admires. I'm so glad he's found a profession that he truly has a passion for. I know I couldn't spend hours and hours reading this type of material - but for him, it's basically his favorite thing ever. So, yay for that!
For me, choir is winding down for the season. It's been a good year and I feel like now that I'm just at one campus, I'm doing a pretty decent job of building a choir program that is a good strong program for kids and everything, and yet isn't a program that takes over my life or prevents me from having a life at all. I'm typically able to leave school at a reasonable hour, say 60-90 minutes after student dismissal, so that's not bad at all.
Right now, I'm really looking forward to the break. Most of the time, I'm fairly "OK" with having family so far flung and only seeing my parents and brothers a handful of times each year... but somehow it's now, when I know I'm going to see them soon, that I miss them most. I guess it's just the anticipation.

last update at 28

Sorry for falling off the face of the earth yet again. It's been a good school year thus far - concerts, as mentioned in the previous post, as well as a musical (Once Upon a Mattress, Jr.), and a few social events. I kind of stalled out and even backtracked on WeightWatchers and only this week returned to "losing". I weighed in at a meeting this afternoon at 167.4, down 1.6 lbs from the previous week.

At the end of this week I turn 29.

I don't have any great big thoughts about being 29. I am among the youngest of all my friends... particularly those that I have known for a long time, since I was ahead a year in school. So, being surrounded by people turing 30, turning 29 isn't bad at all.

But it does make me think... what is my Before-I-Turn-Thirty wish list? To be honest, I don't really know. Some things that come to mind:

• I'd like to see us finish up Baby Step 3 (3-6 months of expenses in savings)
• I'd like to continue Weight Watchers... I've lost about 40 pounds this first year. If I lost another 40, that would put me at 124, which would be within the "healthy weight" range for my height. That could be cool.
• I want to keep up with this running situation. I've done three 5Ks this year. Maybe a 10K is in my future.

Incidentally, for those that are interested or so inclined, you will now find a wish list to the right of the page. A little bit of everything there.

Concert Season

Well, it's the seventh week of school, which means that it's about time for the first round of concerts, and things have gotten decidedly busy. My first concert is Cluster Concert this Thursday, followed by a sixth grade concert next Wednesday that I'm actually really excited about. My sixth grade kids are really sweet this year and sound pretty good, I think.

In life outside of school.... well... oops. Was I supposed to still have a life outside of school? My bad.

Well, I am teaching/facilitating Financial Peace University Sunday afternoons at church again this fall, and I'm singing in a group called the New Collection on Monday nights. Wednesdays, I've made my triumphant return to Chancel Choir, which I'm actually really enjoying. I'm also still trying to do a little running when I can.

I've made a lot of progress since I first started on the treadmill back in July. I can now jog a mile or more at 4.5 mph with 2-3 minute sprints up to 6.0 mph.

The last two weeks at WeightWatchers, I've had the same weigh-in result: 166.2 lbs. I don't want to get into a plateau like I did last spring so this week I've been really working on kicking it into gear. I've been under points every day since Saturday, and both Saturday and Sunday I went jogging. Saturday, I did a little over 4 miles on the treadmill in about 70 minutes. There was a pretty significant amount of walking ,but when I walked, I did so with a 7% incline. Sunday I ran two miles on the treadmill and then walked 2 miles outside because it was BEAUTIFUL! Yesterday was New Collection, so no time for such things. Tonight, we had rehearsal for Thursday's Cluster Concert. But, as I sit here typing, I can't help but think... if I've got time to blog.... I've got time to jog!

See ya.

Another week, another loss

First off, a weight loss update. I have now entered the 160's for the first time in recent memory. I'm not sure when I was last in the 160's - maybe high school or possibly college. This morning at WeightWatchers I weighed in at 167.8. Thats a grand total loss thus far of 36.2 pounds.

I kind of love this chart. Makes me feel very accomplished.

Since breaking out of the plateau of the mid 170's, I'm now finally getting to a point where I feel like I can see the weight loss in more places than just my face. After just 10 pounds, I could see it there, but elsewhere, not as much. Yes, I did go from a size 16 to a 14 in jeans somewhere along the way... but I guess one assumes that if you lose 10 or 25 pounds, you're going to see a HUGE difference. After all, if one has lost 25 pounds, they've basically lost a two-year old person. I would like to think that having lost the equivalent, there would be a dramatic difference.

Having lost 36.2 pounds, I've apparently lost:

• a mid-sized microwave
• a four year old
• about seven reams of copy paper

That's when it starts to hit that I must be doing really good things for my health. My poor body, carrying around a microwave every day.

Anyway, I'm now getting to where I walk past a mirror or other reflective thing (the practice room doors in the music hall at school, mainly) and I don't do a "double take" per se, but I do see a difference. So, that's good.

In non-weight loss news, the second week of school was another success. We had auditions for the upcoming musical, and we start rehearsals this coming week. I've been doing a good job (for the first time in my teaching career, sad to say) of really planning ahead and having a goal of what I want to accomplish with each class each day. This has led to a happier me and a more well organized and well behaved classroom. At least so far. Maybe in a future post I'll go into more detail about the changes I've made in my teaching.

I guess it all goes to show, once you start changing stuff, you don't ever stop... or so it seems.