Two is Better than One

I had two right-on days this past week.

I needed a second eye surgery so had to postpone swimming daily. But I can start swimming this week. Plus I started the Weight Watchers Walking Challenge. Just walking 15 minutes a day as I build up. The "training" is for eight weeks, building up to a marathon sometime in June. Vancouver has a Solstice Walk in the evening that Doug can join me--a 5k walk. They also have a Discovery Walk, also 5k. I can get there. One step at a time.

Weekly Update Pics is here: pics! pics! pics!

Up half a pound, but I had two right-on days.
Life can't get much better than that, can it?

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So What Is Going On?

I have been having a real struggle these last few weeks. My anxiety and stress level have been high. I thought a week off at Spring Break would help me calm down, but it really only increased the anxiety. I haven't weighed in since March 20, adding to my stress level.

In teaching half my classes online, I found I was working 24/7, with no time to relax. I would work my regular hours on campus and then go home and work my online class. I became so exhausted and cranky...which increased my anxiety level to the point of having a full-blown anxiety attack some days. I was eating just fine during these last few weeks, but when Friday came around to weigh in, I was holding 10+ pounds of fluid. I did not want to go in and have that in my face...even though I knew it wasn't me. It was discouraging.

Another discouraging thing is that even with losing 45 pounds, I don't have any new clothes to wear. I went shopping to get a new few things and found that everything fits the EXACT same way it fit before. And looks just as...hmmm....crappy. Doug doesn't agree; he thinks there are noticable changes, but he is not the one noticing the SAME SIZE still fits the SAME WAY. *sigh*

Then I went on break. The first few days I still did work, only not in the office. Phone calls from the dean. Phone calls and email from the Admin Assistant (I once called her "secretary" and she reacted as if I had called her a racial derogatory name. She would not speak to me for two days. It took me that long to figure out what was her problem). Finishing touches on my online classes. Hiring someone at the last minute to teach a newly added class. But I didn't want to stay up all night peeing the night before weigh in days and didn't want to weigh in with a 13 or more pound gain. So I didn't.

Instead I took myself and my fella to the coast. Perfect for relaxing. But that didn't happen. It was not meant to be! And I know this truth...it is very easy to slide down that slippery slop of eating whatever once you decide not to weigh in. I didn't do it the next Friday, either.

Last night I dropped over 8 pounds during the night, but my system really wants this fluid right now. So by the time I weighed in, I had regained a couple of those peed-out pounds. I was 6.5 pounds up. I would say I had a real gain of about two, two and a half pounds. The rest...protection against stress I guess.

One good thing I did during the week off is I began swimming every morning. I found if I use swim fins I can move, even though my knee doesn't bend well. I will continue to swim every morning at school (once my eye recovers--I had to have a second surgery on my eye this week. Everything fine if not a bit more uncomfortable that the first surgery).

No new pictures. Nothing to see. But I made a promise to myself so I will get one taken this weekend. I also made a promise to see this through. Struggle or not, I am in this for the long haul. See you soon.

Peace~~
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Catchin' Up is Hard to Do

I'm thinking spring is here--or at least the idea of spring is here. I have daffodils with their perky yellow faces smiling at the world. I have heather looking beautifully pink. And I found this rhododendron starting to bloom two weeks ago. The rhodie gave me hope :)

It has been over two weeks since I have been here. My life has been too busy to do anything except finish the term--I still have 20 finals to grade. I needed to get the next term classes ready--I still have a bit of tweaking to do on my online course. I needed to get the next term adjusted--I finally found an instructor who can take my second class so I can open another section of my online class. I needed to create Summer term--I still need a few instructors for summer. I needed to hire a new fulltime dance instructor--we had interviews for the past few days. And I needed to sleep at some point. Most everything has been accomplished.

Gawd Winter term is the shortest term of the year and I feel it is the longest!

Over the past two weeks I hit the 45 pound mark. In fact, I have now lost 46.5 pounds. This week I have partied hardy. I have grabbed things on my run and some of them have not been the best choices. But I also gave myself permission to just relax this aspect. I think I needed something to help me breathe because I wasn't able to breathe on the past few weeks schedule. But now it is back to keep on keepin' on. Life is good.

Peace~~
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And the Beat Goes On

It's been an interesting week.

All week I have been hounded by a student who believes she deserves an "A" and I graded her with a "C." I applaud her persistence but every time I see email or hear her voice I have to take a deep breath and try to be patient. It doesn't matter that I am basing her assignment by national standards, she still believes I am being subjective. I have shown her the criteria; she has rejected it. And on top of this, she has decided I am too rigid with students and not flexible. She has continued with the idea that I am not thinking about the needs of the students but am making things easy for me.

You have to laugh :)

Now on top of this, I have a student who has plagiarized two essay exam questions, plagiarized to the point of simply cut and pasted the information from websites. When I told her she would not receive credit for the test questions, she tried to put it back on me, that I was not clear when I said to use the textbook and the Internet to support her answers. She did not plagiarize, she said, because she changed the words into her own. So I had to take both her work and the websites I found and paste them side-by-side, with all language and thoughts the same in red. Both the articles and her answers had little that was not red. A word here and there. I sent this to her. She said she understands why I might think it was plagiarism, but she just forgot to cite her references. One of these "references" was a t-shirt ad...she liked how they talked about a certain motif on the t-shirt... When I referred her to the student handbook, she asked if she could at least get credit for researching the questions.

You have to laugh :)

I lost 3.5 pounds this week, only a breath away from that magic 45 number. I asked Doug to take me out of town for the weekend as I have been feeling anxious and nervous. Probably waiting to hear back from one student of another... So we went to a hotel out of town. We relaxed. I still did school work but relaxed while I did it. The kitties were happy to see us this evening :)

Weekly pics are up. Things are not moving as quickly so I don't notice much change. Still worth seeing since I spent the weekend looking at myself with a whole different set of mirrors. Not a fun thing, seeing yourself from different angles and realizing how much you have to lose. I forget at home. I am just keepin' on keepin' here at home...go out and things look different.

But, between students and an unmanageable workload, I think I will, as Dory says in Finding Nemo just keep on swimming.
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You are Looking at a Winner!

I have some great friends who blog here. Many of them are quilting friends. My friend Debi loves to hold contests and challenges. No matter what the season, Debi has something fun going on--challenges, giveaways, new blocks--something fun all the time. This week she is participating on another blogger's OP Challenge and weekend blog hop. The fabric in the challenge is orange. I love orange :)

Debi said, "Saturday, I am hosting a giveaway as part of the OP Challenge. My giveaway is this 19 piece set of Millefleur by P & B Textiles fat quarters." So who gets an email last evening that says, "Congratulations...You are the winner of my blog giveaway....." Yes! You are so right! ME! Look at those gorgeous fat quarters! Thank you thank you thank you so much, Debi!

I'm a winner! I'm a winner! I never win stuff! And I'm a winner! YippeeSkippee!!!!
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