Up and Down and All Around

Per usual, I’ve been gone the last few days because I’ve been a mess busy.  On Weds. I stayed late at school working on a reward for the not emotionally disturbed to the point of need a vest good kids with the newbies, and then we all went out to dinner 🙂  And Thursday I just sort of hated life needed a break.

And today has had it’s shares of ups and downs.  I’ll state the downers now, to get them out of the way, and move on to the ups.  Downage in short: by the time I left school today I was sobbing because my kids were so frickin crazy and I feel like a terrible teacher.  I know that I am a good teacher (fun/effective ideas, good handouts, nice breakdown of materials, I care, etc), but if you can’t actually teach your lesson it kind of doesn’t matter. Blah.

Anywoo, this morning for breakfast I packed a go cup (I totes rinse out Starbucks cups whenever I get them) of Cappuccino Lowfat Kefir.

I left for school before A today and while I was walking to my train, I had up numero uno – I came upon a tiny little polar bear toy/x-mas decoration laying on the sidewalk.  My nickname for A is Bear (he calls me mouse).  A speaks German, and teaches me random bits, and now I call him Ice-Bear (pronounced eyes bar), German for Polar Bear.

Um, I was so frickin excited when I saw that toy!  I actually sprinted back to the apartment (with my drink, in a dress) so I could set him up on the steps to greet A.

(A was super excited when he found him, and now Ulrick lives on our mantle)

Amid stupidness at school, I tried a new product for lunch.

I’ve been eying the Rachael’s products for a while, but I decided to try a cottage cheese first.  Delish!  I would love to try more but they are a little pricey for me right now.  It was nice and filling for today though, and fit great with the rest of my lunch.

A chocolate soy milkbox and a minneola.

I headed promptly home from school (of course!) and my sweet husband surprised me with a smooshed cupcake from Sugar, Sweet, Sunshine because he knew how much I enjoyed my last one.

Devoured it.  We don’t “do” Valentine’s Day, so this will be it for the lovey-doveyness.  I made him a homemade card (my family does not do storebought) stating that he can buy the cactus he’s been eyeing at the grocery store for the last month.  Woot.

As I organized some stuff and printed our tickets (we are going to Boston tomorrow!) I snacked on about 1/3 of this thing of grapes.

 

Later on I drank a big mug of Folgers Creme Brulee.

I needed coffee while I set up this guy!

My parents bought me a new i-pod (mine old one has been broken for months) for Hanukkah, but I couldn’t decide between regular and nano and then I wanted it engraved so it’s taken a while.  Did you have your i-pod engraved?  What does it say?  Mine is -it goes on- from this Robert Frost quote: “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.”

Now that my 1439 songs have uploaded, we are heading to dinner.  I have a coupon from a local restaurant and we only have one meals worth of food here (which we want to save for when we get back from Boston so we don’t have to shop right away).  Be back later!

What songs are you currently rocking repeat on?  For me it’s “Paper Planes,” M.I.A; “Heartbreaker,” Kanye West; and “New Slang,” The Shins.

Ups and Downs

An update!  an update!  Per usual this week has been crazy; I’m going to do a quick recap of some of the high/low points instead of a full-on retelling.

1. The other night I had big plans for the gym, but being a good wife, I waited for A to get home.  We set out with not much time to spare, pretty close to closing.  5 steps down the block A realized he had a splinter in his toe and we had to stop and do minor roadside surgery, so no gym 😦  We did at least head to the grocery store where I got to buy more Soy Silk Eggnog!

2. My principal (wigged the f out) and decided there can be no more teacher microwaves in classrooms.  We can only use microwaves in the lounge.  We had to sign a memo Weds. morning.  a) there are no microwaves in the lounge, b) a good 70% of the staff is thinking about quitting because the kids are pretty much running the school and you’re sending out memos about microwaves?!?  I don’t even use the microwaves (as you, occasionally, see I usually bring yogurt and fruit for lunch), but it’s the principle of the thing.

3. We cooked A’s birthday dessert finally – Smores Pie!  No pictures but I’ll post the super simple delish recipe if anyone wants it; it’s basically a giganto smore!

4.  A student had a major freak out in class yesterday and slammed me into a wall.  That’s all I’m saying about this one.

5. When I got home yesterday, from a particularly soul-crushing day, I had two holiday packages!  Look at how pretty my aunt’s wrapping was:

She sent A and I each an Under Armour sweatshirt for winter runs!

The jewelry on the side was the package from my mommy.  My mom is a children’s librarian, but she’s also a fantastic jewelry maker, almost all of my earrings and necklaces are from her!  These were my favorite.

This morning for breakfast stuck with tradition and was running late, so I ate a Lemon Lara Bar on the train.

Um, yum!  Laras aren’t my absolute favorite but this flavor was great!  I need to keep trying new flavors.

For lunch I mixed things up and packed a salad.

I used a European blend of lettuce as a base topped with peppitas, blackberries, and 1/2 a raw yellow squash.  On the side was lowfat poppy seed dressing.

I also packed some Kashi cheddar crackers and 3 candy cane taffies.

I didn’t eat the crackers or candy until after school though, I stayed until 5:30 to catch up on workbook grading.  I still have a ton to do, I really need to haul my ass out of bed tomorrow morning!  I had a really great day today though – My all girls class was perfect – so hopefully I’ll be feeling 5am-motivated!

When I got home I had some snacks while I made dinner; a slice of extra-sharp cheddar,

and the last of the nonfat cottage cheese (1/2C) topped with the last of the blackberries and a dollop of homemade strawberry jam.

For dinner I made Semi-Homemade Spagetti (not Sandra Lee s.h. though, I hate that freakin’ show – butter is practically an orgasmic experience over there!).  I made most of the components myself, but used this sauce.

“recipe”

• cook 1lb whole wheat angel hair according to the directions on the box, and drain
• roast 1pint cherry tomatos, 25minutes in the oven on a foiled sheet at 450*
• saute a smallish onion in 1.5T evoo and then brown .5lbs extra-lean ground turkey in the same pan
• pour tomatos, turkey, and sauce into the pasta pot and stir to combine
• consume!

 

This should be 2.5-3 nights of meals for A and I.  I had my serving alongside roasted veggies; the other half of the yellow squash and half a zuccini.  Look at the tomato-y goodness.

My eyes were a bit bigger than my stomach, this is what A ended up eating off my plate:

I did have room for dessert though, Smores Pie is so frickin’ good!

We are watching (the original) “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” so I’ve got to get back to the couch!  What is your favorite holiday movie?  You’ll see mine later this weekend.

Fresh

So last night was a success – A now has a snazzy looking suit for his interview this week, hopefully it will bring him luck.  I’ve spent most of my life being ulta-organized and always planning ahead, but the last few years have definitely cured me of that.  I literally have no idea what part of the country I’ll be living in, or even what my job will be next year.  We are letting the admissions process decide for us!  It’s a little nerve-wracking, but almost nice because I really don’t know whether or not I want to keep teacher and it’s making that decision less pressured.

After we went shopping we walked around Bryant Park and Times Square – I love New York City in the winter!  We ended up going to see “Nothing Like the Holidays.”  It was ok, parts of it were a little stilted, but Jay Hernandez is such a hottie!  A likes chick flicks more than I do so he liked it more than I.

We had a quick dinner at Chevy’s Fresh Mex before the movie.  Everything looked yummy, and it was very fresh, but most of the menu was 1200calories+.  Of course they had chips on the table,

I snacked on five and then concentrated on my diet pepsi.

For dinner I ordered the only under 1000calorie item (390), chicken tortilla soup.

It was yummy, but our meal took so long we were going to be late to our movie so I didn’t get to eat all of it.  The restrunt was so nice about it; we were getting worried, but hadn’t said anything to the waiter, when he apologized for the wait and had the manager comp. 50% of our bill!  A loved his food, and I’d go back and order soup again because the service was so nice.

During the movie A felt bad that I was hungry and surpised me with popcorn and gummybears.  It was sweet, but kind of defeated the purpose of ordering a healthy dinner!

This morning we got up and got started on our to-dos.  I have a ton of school work to do and some cooking, but first and foremost was laundry!  We got a tall nonfat eggnog latte from Starbucks while we waited.  I also hiked over to Barnes and Nobels and picked up some great looking books.  We will be doing a lot of traveling over Christmas so I wanted to be prepared.

When I got home I knew I had to break into the fresh berries I found on sale at the grocery store the other day.  I used one of our “Christmas bowls” my mommy gave us.

This bowl is 1/2C nonfat cottage cheese topped with 1.5teaspoon ground flax, 1t homemade strawberry jam, and raspberries and blackberries.  Yummy yummy yummy.  Blackberries are my favorite berry.

I’ve got to get back to the grindstone, but I’ll be back with a lunch/dinner update later.  What is your favorite berry?