T-minus One Week!

Moving Day is happening in exactly 1 week.  Yikes!  I have been packing for months, literally.  It started around Thanksgiving time when I started packing away Halloween/Fall stuff, and I did it in a manner that would make it move-ready.  I did the same thing for Christmas stuff.  Bookshelves, closets, cabinets, and even rooms have slowly gotten packed up in such an organized manner, and despite my preparation, I am feeling so rushed and like I am running out of time!  I'm sure it doesn't help that end-of-school activities have been crazy, the girls are gearing up for dance recitals, the boys just finished soccer, JD's birthday is coming up, and we are down to the jobs that could not be done before this moment.  Fingers crossed the next 7 days go relatively smooth! 

I decided to tackle the toy room today. This is a job I loathe because it is not just a simple "pick up the toys and toss them in a box".  I need them gutted out, organized, placed in bins, and just ready to pick up and transport to the new house.  It is such a huge job. So I posted these pics on FB with a candid comment about keeping me on task-I need this done by tomorrow!  Thankfully, Sara and James have been AMAZING helpers with good attitude to boot.  So glad for helpful kids around now!

 I figured I should take a picture to commemorate how we are going about the packing process.  We moved all the furniture out of the front room and once a box is packed, it goes to the front room.  Very smooth, and it will make it easier for Jared and I to move most of this stuff to the new house on our own.

I did not anticipate catching a stowaway in one of the boxes. ;)

Jordan's Second Grade Celebration

This one is going to make me cry!  This is Janet Cox, Jordan's 2nd grade teacher.

This is the first year we have had Janet as a second grade teacher for one of our kids.  We have always had Mrs. Thede, whom I love.  However, Jordan begged me to have Janet this year as his teacher, and I decided to comply.  I am so grateful I did.  Janet is the kind of teacher I want to be when I grow up.  She absolutely exudes love for her students.  Every word out of her mouth is positive and encouraging.  She balances such a wide array of learning activities and real life experiences into her classroom, and she does it with ease.  She involves her students in every decision that happens in the classroom.  She treats them like adults, and they rise to the occasion.  She is the master of extras, going the extra mile to challenge students at their individual levels. She has high expectations, and I believe that is the very thing that utterly motivated Jordan to excel as much as he did this year.  I could go on and on.  I got to know Janet on a personal level and volunteered in her class every Friday and for several class parties.  She came to Jordan's baptism and only just missed his primary program after falling ill. For some reason, she fawned over me because she knows I work for WGU. She called me "a teacher of teachers", and I kept telling her I would trade my position for her 25 years of experience any day!  I don't think she knows how much I learned from her.  I am so hopeful I can keep in touch even though we won't be at Bush any longer.

A couple of bulletin boards outside Jordan's room....

 Jordan's second grade year was just unbelievably awesome for all the reasons I mentioned above.  His report cards were perfect.  he was the second kiddo in his class to master all his math facts and to move on to multiplication and division--that was way back in September! He got 100% on every single spelling test, and he always had the challenge words.  He told me with confidence that everyone says he and Joshua (his best friend) are the smartest kids in the class-he is so proud of that.  he was the first to finish his 100 book club books, and achieved a reading award in addition to that.  Jordan loves school.  he loves learning, he gets great satisfaction out of being smart, and he had the honor of learning from one of the best teachers I have ever come across (and get this-Janet just completed her gifted certification this year, even after 25 years in the biz!  How amazing to continually challenge oneself!). Jordan is just a wonderful child, we are so proud of his achievements!

 Jordan's reading trophy and his "Believe" art that Janet stitched and framed herself-she did that for each kid!

 Arg, I wish I had checked and snapped another shot to avoid eyes closed!  Oh well-I'm leaving it in!

Sara's First Grade Celebration

Sara had her first grade celebration this afternoon, and it was just so super-sweet, and the first time I really sat down and realized how much i am going to miss Barbara Bush.  Our kids have been here for 6 years now, since Karianna was in 1st grade, and I absolutely love our K-2 teachers.  They pour in so much time, effort, extras, and love for these kids, and as a teacher, I adore them. I worry so much the kids won't have this same environment, experience, and support from a new school.  Thinking about this nearly gives me a panic attack, so lets get back to the celebratory things!

I have spent a lot of time volunteering in Ms. Cawood's room this year, and just love her style and how much she loves Sara.  Sara got her 1st grade scrapbook today, as well as a reading award and her 100 books club award.  Sara has just had an exceptional year.  Nothing ever seemed hard for her in 1st grade.  She made leaps and bounds in kinder, and was in a great place for a young first grader in August, but she absolutely astounded me with her capabilities this year.  She is such a fantastic reader, never flinching with any story she read.  She picked up her math facts quickly, and I never had to help her study for a spelling test-and she always got 100%.  She just excelled with Ms. Cawood's loving and energetic style, and I am just so grateful she had 2 wonderful years at Bush between Mrs. Davis and Ms. Cawood.  I am going to miss these two wonderful educators! 

 Can you see Sara's top tooth just hanging there?  It refuses to come out!

A Compelling Comparison

This pictures says it all.  Jared has been on a journey since around November to lose weight and get healthy.  He has made such huge strides in fitness and eating, it is really incredible: started at 251, now he is just under 180, for a total loss of over 70 pounds.  70.  That number blows my mind.  He essentially lost a Karianna.  He started at size 40-42 pants, and just bought 34's again.  It seemed time for a new swimsuit too, and as you can see, the comparison is drastic.  I am so proud of Jared for all his work.  He would say he is at an interesting time in his "transformation".  He has lost pretty much all the weight he wanted to lose, and now he wants to transition to muscle sculpting.  That's going to take a different regimen, which he is still trying to determine, and that is bound to be tricky with our impending move. Nonethless, his progress and commitment is amazing, and he has been inspirational in my book.

On a slightly different note.  I don't talk much about this, but Jared said I should, so I decided to share here.  I got extremely frustrated with some health issues back in December, mostly connected to daily digestion/stomach issues that I have had since i was a teenager.  I was too embarrassed about it to talk to anyone, and the symptoms I was experiencing have gotten way worse in the last year.  It was affecting numerous aspects of my life.  December 6th,  I hit a huge low in many ways, spent a few weeks extremely depressed, and finally decided enough was enough.  I changed my entire diet.  I carefully determined which foods I was having a weird reaction to-it was a lot.  I was eating essentially four things that didn't upset my stomach.  I went to my primary care doctor, my OB, an allergist, and a gastroenterologist.  I found out my horomones were fine, my bloodwork was fine, I am deficient in vitamin B, I am allergic to corn, and most importantly, I have IBS.  I was afraid of the latter, as I feel like that is such a general umbrella term....but more knowledge is better than none.  I did a lot of research, started taking meds for IBS, further refined my diet to nix all corn, and started trying out some other foods to widen the variety of my diet.  I started working out extremely regularly, and gave up Dr. Pepper (both of those were back in December-haven't had soda of any kind since the end of November actually).  I also started reading books on self-compassion and doing meditations to resolve some other personal issues.

My life changed significantly as a result.  Things are not perfect yet-I still think there is one other issues I need to resolve, which will happen over summer and hopefully fix the problems with my hair falling out.  But overall, I am so happy with what my changes have brought.  I lost 26 pounds I didn't even realize I had to lose.  I have better muscle tone than I have had in a long time, and I can run 3 miles without feeling terribly winded.  I feel better about myself.  I no longer have severe stomach aches every night.  My kids are seeing me eat healthy. Jared and I are working together on this amazing journey towards a healthier lifestyle. I don't have migraines as often, which is amazing because they were getting so bad (I suspect they were related to my IBS). Overall--a better way of living.  I am excited for both Jared and I to continue finding awesome outlets for healthy living.

That is all. :)