Thanksgiving

I wrote a whole post and then of course the internet messed up.

In short- Thanksgiving was great. We went to Will and Manda's house and I got to spend some quality time with my extremely intelligent nephew, James. He and I share corn pudding as our favorite Thanksgiving food :) I'm so proud.

He looks extremely scared in the following picture...I do apologize, I promise we were having a blast on the swing set!

I love spending time with my family! I am so proud of how independent and smart my 2 year old nephew is. He can push with his feet and pull with his hands on this swing all by himself. And he climbs the slide and goes down all by himself! Oh, and he can spell his name and recognize all of the letters in the alphabet. He is so wonderful :)

Okay, well I'm off. Brandon and I are going to Athens in the morning for the Georgia vs. Georgia Tech game.

Over a year!

So, I have decided to start posting again. I love reading other peoples blogs...and since I'm always reading someones blog, maybe they would like to know about me...Not that I'm extremely interesting, but hey!

I guess I will start from where I left off...last year I was trying to lose weight and I did a great job- I lost about 20lbs. This year I joined the gym and I have gained weight...oh joy! But I have been really busy as well so more fast food- YUCK! My friend Crystal and I have come up with a new resolution. We're going to take pictures of ourselves on Jan. 3 (The day we go back to work). Our goals are a little different- mine is 5lbs by the end of January and her goal is 10lbs by the end of January. Each month we will take pictures of our progress. I think it will be fun.

Brandon has no interest in losing weight, but he is very supportive. Although, like any good boyfriend should, he tells me I'm beautiful and that I'm not fat...which the latter is a little fib, but it's okay.

The holidays are here again! But enough about losing weight- on to family! My mom and dad will be in the U.S. in about 24 hours. I'm very excited to see them. They are going to be staying at a missions house in Alabama, about an hour from Chattanooga (where my brother is).

This year our family has been through a lot. William and Amanda found out in July that there was a problem with their baby. This past week Amanda gave birth and the baby only lived for about an hour.

In the time where I feel family should be together most, Whitney has decided to vanish. I know it's really hard for her to face this, but I think it's very hurtful that our parents live so far away, and are here to help us...yet she chooses to not spend the holidays with family. I know our whole family is hurt by her decision. I wish the people encouraging her to not spend Thanksgiving with us would take a second look at what has gone on in our lives this year.

Anyways- enough for now. Brandon and I are off to celebrate a family birthday!

Life and Diet

So, I have made comments on facebook about my new boyfriend, but haven't told many of you living far away anything about him. I will not be posting anything to tell all about him on facebook, because that's weird.

Anyways, he is a fellow teacher. We've known each other for a while, and by that I mean since Tyler and I were together. So we started hanging out a few weeks ago and really getting to know each other. We both decided to pray about being together since we both try to live Christ centered lives. I think he does better than I do on that front, but I'm trying and it's hard.

He coaches football, basketball and baseball for our school and a middle school and he really enjoys that. He grew up a little over an hour away from here and he enjoys being close to home.

Last Sunday we decided to start officially dating, so that's where we are right now. He is out of town for the weekend, so I'm just doing my own thing.

In other news, I have now lost 16 lbs from this crazy grapefruit diet that I've been doing. Next Friday is one of my cheat days and I can hardly wait! I think this is probably my last 2 week cycle of this thing, because it's not easy to do. I'll be going back to weight watchers to hopefully lose a few more pounds and then just maintain where I am.

Daniel and I have been trying to walk every day, but we've been a little busy so we haven't been able to go EVERY day. We've been several days. I guess I should go jog today by myself since he's not here.

Oh, my mom wanted me to post this diet on here. It's the Mayo Clinic Diet. You can look it up, but here are the basic guidlines:

Drink 8 ounces of grapefruit juice, or eat 1/2 a grapefruit before EVERY meal.

Breakfast- 2 eggs how ever you want them, and 2 pieces of bacon. (I actually add cheese to my eggs and I don't think it has made much difference)

Lunch- Salad with whatever meat and toppings you want, but little to no carbs in the toppings. Also, few carbs (I try to stay under 5) for whatever dressing you choose. You can have as much as you want.

Dinner- As much protein and veggies (lower in carbs, but they do allow peas) as you want.

Snack- if you are hungry after dinner or before bed, you may have a small glass of fat free milk.

They key is never forgetting your grapefruit. This is not meant to be a long term diet.

Great things!

This week I really got back to running, and I am so proud of myself! I did 2 miles running and 1 mile walking the other day. Today I'm about to go to the track to get some exercise before it either rains or gets too hot.

This week was also homecoming week for our school. It was a lot of fun, but there were also a lot of things that had to be done this week. Anyways, instead of weight watchers, I've been on this sort of power diet, and I still have plenty of energy. Great news is- I have now, since I started losing weight in August, lost 20 pounds :) I am so thrilled with this and can now remove my Gap jeans without even unbuttoning them! It's great!

I just have to say that last night I fought anger the hardest I have in a very long time. I'm really not sure when I was last that angry. Anyways, I did a good job and I'm very proud of myself for not snapping even though I really wanted to speak my mind. I held my tongue, and that is not something I can always do.

In other news, I have been asked to join a woman's bible study so I'm going to do that.

That's all for now!

Stay Positive!

So, I have not had a voice since 2 days before school started. That was 32 days ago. I'm trying to be positive, but it doesn't seem to be getting any better. I have a voice, it is just not completely back. I have only gone 2 complete days without any voice at all.

Anyways, since this whole getting sick thing, it has been hard to exercise. Every time I get sick or congested I wheeze when I exercise, so it's not a good thing. I have been maintaining the 12 pounds that I have lost, but I have not lost any more weight no matter how healthy I eat.

This week I'm back to running and walking every day and when I get paid I'm joining the gym. It's so boring to exercise alone! Hopefully joining the gym will help add some variety to my exercise routine.

I do have to say that my students have continued to be great and I'm really enjoying them as always.

There really isn't much to say. I have been exhausted, but today I do believe I have caught up on any lack of sleep. I stayed in bed until 2pm and then got back in bed for two more hours. So, really I've only spent about two and a half hours out of bed today and I'm still in my pajamas. I love days like today!

Alright, hope everyone has a great week!!!

First days :)

I would just like to say, I had an amazing first two days of school! Thank you for anyone who prayed for me.

I do have to say, I was scared to death because I didn't have rosters before school. If I had stuck to the good ole' teach those who come, I would have been teaching everyone from last year, because apparently they all wanted me...

Our school separates 9th grade from the rest of the highschool, so my first period was a class full of 10th graders that were on their very best behavior. Some of them were still half asleep, and others were scared to death at the thought of learning a new language. All in all I think they were very excited and you could really tell their enthusiasm yesterday when we started learning how to say lots of things in Spanish.

I was slightly concerned about my 2nd period class, because although I did not have a roster, the students had their schedules. At open house one of my students mentioned to me that he and half the football team were all in my class together. These are football players that all play baseball together as well...so they are all really good friends. BUT...as it turns out, they were actually fairly well behaved. I taught the majority of them last year, so they are all familiar with my rules.

The rest of the day was great. My last class of the day was a little wild Thursday, but they were on their best behavior yesterday.

I did manage to make it to the track on Thursday, which was great! My feet hurt so bad from standing all day and then doing about 3 miles...but it's all good. I did treat myself to some ice cream when i finished :)

Yesterday I went out to eat and then to see a friend that had back surgery, so I didn't get to run at all, but I'll make up for it today.

Open House!

So, tomorrow is open house :) I'm excited! I also got a sneak peak at some kids that I taught last year and I'm super excited that I get some of the same kids that I really enjoyed having for Spanish I.

I have to make my little sign in the morning that says "Ms. McMahan, Spanish I & II".

I'll have to take pictures of my classroom so everyone can see my bright colored bulletin board...it's orange background with all kinds of multi-colored borders.

Last year I taught the same thing 5 times a day (Spanish I) and this year and I am teaching Spanish I and II. I'm so happy to not have the same thing all day. Also, I'm teaching 6 classes instead of 5.

So how's the running going? It's going...It's harder now that I'm busy, but I'm sticking with it. There are a lot of people at work preparing for marathons/5k's apparently, so I'm going to do this! I haven't weighed myself. I walked 3.5 miles yesterday and 3.5 today, but no running. I'm going running in the morning. We don't have to be at school until 11, so if I go around 7:30 I'll be fine. I'm going to be at school at 9, because I'm an over achiever and I want to get everything done.

Still eating very healthy food though! Tonight we had a grilled chicken breast, a little rice, and a nice salad...at lunch I had a bunch of veggies and some roast beef at some restaurant...But I'm happy with how everything is going!