a quest to be better people. and hotter, too. does that make us selfish?

the 30 week challenge. that is what missy and i are calling it. we both have quite a few things in our lives that we want to change . . . some physical, some mental, some spiritual, some financial, and all of the rest. but daily life gets overwhelming sometimes.

now. sometime later this week ima gonna write me a gratitude post. or maybe a couple. but one of those posts is definitely going to explain why i am so thankful for a friendship like the one i share with missy. and trust me. it involves a lot more than my fascination with her ability to throw the term "titty baby" around like it's nothing, although, if i am being honest that might just be why i decided she had to be my friend!

last january at missy's shower for benjamin!

she - obvs pregnant. and supercute pregnant!

me - about 20 pounds ago. still a ways to go!

for tonight, though, let me just take some time and explain the 30 week challenge. because like it starts now.

the purpose is multifaceted, yo. weekly goals don't seem so daunting. obviously there are some things each of us want for ourselves and the people around us by the time this "quest" is over, so yes. there is a BIG PICTURE. but you've got to take smaller steps to get there sometimes, right? right?!

um, we are teachers. we totally believe in rules. duh. but since we are GOOD teachers, we totally believe in as few rules as possible wherein we can still get our point across and don't have to have an entire wall filled with poster board stating said rules. (sorry. just had a flashback to my first classroom.) so. as good ol' harry wong suggests....here are our fast five.

________________________________

FAST FIVE OF THE 30 WEEK CHALLENGE

1. every sunday, post 3 to 5 goals for the week. 1 goal MUST have to do with getting physical. 1 goal MUST have to do with eating habits. the rest can be as deep and philosophical as we want. or they can be totally shallow.

2. at the end of the week, if all goals are met, deposit 10 bucks in the piggy bank.

3. when it comes to eating habits, we are allowed one cheat day a week, if needed.

4. if a cheat day is not used, deposit 2 to 3 extra dollars in the piggy bank.

5. communicate and be reflective. we will be doing that publicly on this here blog, as well as lots of email and chatter between the two of us on a daily basis....which is really nothing new, now we've just got more to talk about!

________________________________

yeah. so there is money involved here. the ultimate goal is that by the week of june 7th - the end of this 3o week challenge - the two of us will have saved enough money to reward ourselves with a fun girls weekend. just in time to celebrate being out of school.

and our new hotness.

the before!

forgive me missy, but this picture always cracks me up

and now i actually have a reason to post it!

normally, goals will be posted each sunday....this week we'll post monday!

yeah so seriously

i totally suck at blogging anymore. there was a bit of time there where i thought i was kind of getting good at this.......and then the job search became an excuse to take a break and then the summer of insanity began and then i posted OVER A MONTH AGO about how i was back and was going to write and yeah. not so much.

but it's saturday afternoon. and for like the first time in three months it is actually quiet and still and there's not a lot going on. which of course means, i have used my time wisely and been productive, i.e., i've spent the afternoon roaming the internet. well. not really the ENTIRE internet. instead, the majority of my time has been spent on this crockpot cooking blog. because HOLY COW - there's a lot you can do with a crockpot.

and i have one.

and only work a block from my house.

um. what?

yeah. in MY mind that makes perfect sense. because in case you were not aware, i can be a little neurotic about things. and by "things" i mean absolutely nothing that really has bearing or importance. for example, i spent 25 minutes the other day working on a powerpoint trying to make the orange in my pistol pete clip art match the orange of the text. because, you know, 6th-7th-8th graders TOTALLY care about shit like that. also, there's a chance i drove back to my house three different times the other day to make sure i had closed my garage door....and there's a chance those drivebys all happened within 5 minutes of each other. and don't even get me started talking about my straightener. (by the way, thanks mom, for this genetic trait you've passed down to me! ;p SMOOCHES!)

anyway. what was i talking about?

i've always been amazed by the crockpot, but also a little afraid of it because it is an appliance - that is hot - that you leave plugged in. all day. unattended!!!! um. hello? that could be DANGEROUS. so. in the past. i have done the crock pot cooking. but usually, i am home all day. or, in the rare instances where i've put something in in the morning and then gone to work, i have worried about it all day long. ask anyone who has worked with me.

yeah. i know. my brain is annoying.

so. now that i live a block away, i come home for lunch every day. which means, i can check to make sure all is well and secure and not scorching. so YEAH!!!! crock pot cooking will DEFINITELY happen a lot this fall/winter. (which by the way, be prepared for a lot of me writing about how freaking cold oklahoma is. all starting here in about 4 weeks. don't say you haven't been warned.) (wait. that means i am intending to do some actual writing, i guess. huh. funny.)

okay. so. those of you who've known me for a while might be curious about this thing called "cooking" that i seem to have discovered. and trust me. i'm just as weirded out that i am participating in it as well. like on purpose. and with regularity.

but that's another ramble-y, ADD blog for another slow saturday.

and don't worry. one of those won't be here until after christmas.

let's try this again.....

so here’s the deal.  taking a break from the blogging stuff - way back in, oh what was it?  april? – seeeeeeeeeeeeeeemed like a fabulous idea at the time.  but now it’s, um, turning september in less than 8 hours and there’s hardly been a blip on the screen from me.

i’d make some excuses here, but really?  i just didn’t want to write.  no offense to anyone who cares that much.  (and yeah, if you do, chill, plz?  ‘k.  thx.)  A LOT happened this summer.  some spectacular stuff, some funny stuff, and some pretty stressful stuff.  and it’s all stored somewhere deep and comfortable in the caverns of my brain.  and maybe someday i’ll write about some of it and bore you with my ramblings then.  but for now….i’m just going to start with today.

because today i got to analyze testing data.  all.  day.  long.  after i spent the entire week last week doing the same thing (on my own, mind you.  who says i ain’t a self-starter?).  i finally had to laugh to myself because who knew that looking at numbers and state reading objectives could make a girl soooooo incredibly homesick.  because that is what happened.  and those of you from the life i just moved away from will get a kick out of this: i missed data groups.  and continuous improvement.  and, dare I say it?  okay.  i'll whisper it...taks.  (if you are reading this and suddenly feel clueless, please don’t fret.  your justifiable ignorance - a word i use with only the most POSITIVE connotation - really is a strong indicator that i should have a life away from those three things.  because seriously?  they should not be the topics of 94.6% of my conversations.)

please laugh now.

trust me…..this nostalgic feeling will fade very quickly.  as in, just because i got all misty-eyed at how much easier all of this use to be for me, it doesn’t mean it’s worth it to come back to. 

and maybe…..maybe it was just easier today to admit that i missed the “easiness” of the Texas numbers game (seriously.  i heart the okies, but they need to get some of their shit together when it comes to this) instead of the people.  because somedays it’s harder to explain why i left them.

to them... 

...and to myself.

i be back

okay.  it's summer.  i have a job for the fall.  i am more than 3/4 of the way through the entire moving process.  i'm on vacation.  no more "i be busy" types of arguments.

so, i guess, i'll come back to blogging.

oh.  and one other thing.....there is now a house.  a house that will involve renovations.  a house that will bring sarah (me!) closer together with john and karen (the 'rents!)  because oh yeaaaaaaaahhhh.  WE are doing the renovations.  and guess who gets to read about it?  yep. yall.

before i do much writing, let me show you the photographic evidence of day one.  i'm sure there will be stories to tell as we get further along, but right now the newness is still a-shimmer and the cynicism, i mean, story-telling will commence later.

picture 1 - living room from the dining room.  still attached: beverly's (previous owner) jcpenney's drapes from 1979.  oh.  and the carpet.

picture 2: karen and lucy getting ready to check out what the heck is underneath the carpet.  (also from 1979).  look how handy my mom is.

picture 3: LOOK WHAT WE FOUND!!!  and can i get a hallelujah???  the floors freakin' rock!  

picture 4: we got so excited about the floors that we just decided to rip up all of the carpet up. because seriously.  can you see those floors?  the only issue.  can you see the line up the middle?  those are all tacks.  and there are a lot of them because there is a lot of floor.  so pretty much?  if you come to visit me the next couple of weeks?  yep.  you're going to be assigned tack duty....

picture 5: trash.  leftover from all of the carpet pulling up.  and this was after one room.  ick.

picture 6: john.  he was awfully excited to mow that grass.  i have promised him that will not become his job.  just gotta find me a mower.  (hint, hint lissa and jerms.)

picture 7: and me.  like a super sexy hot picture of me.  wouldn't you agree?  this is after the battle with the carpet AND combating the 1979 drapery machinations that were everywhere.  new annoyance: window treatments.

picture 8: and you too can achieve super sexy hotness.  just move into a house with a broken a/c and then decided to rip out all of the carpet.  oh.  and remember.  it's summer.

picture 9: my first house-warming gift.  it's there as a beacon of what will come when everything is finished.  unfortunately, that probably won't be until football season.  that's aiiiight.  margaritas and football?  i think that has a nice ring...

who knew, pt. 2 and current events via 14 y/o's

so thanks for participating in the voting in round 1 - if you did.  if you didn't, um, i kind of think you suck.  :)  but not really.  

it looks like choice A won out.  it also looks like i will never be able to share a SECRET with my SISTER without FEAR of her announcing it on the internet.  FOR THE WORLD (i.e., our mother) to see.  there is no tattoo.  she is mistaken.  i was just TALKING.  geez.

round 2: shiny stuff

(vote in the comment section, again!)

A

B

C

_______________________

so the paranoia in texas is annoying this week.  such paranoia has found its ways into the halls of my school.  lemmejustsay, the best part of teaching 8th graders when anything MAJOR happens in the news is that i get to hear them wax prophetic about the state of world affairs . . . 

over the last few days i've been told these gems:

- i need to be careful not to get slime disease.

- you can only get slime disease from eating pork.

- the world needs to be helping mexico because the flu is in their water and we need to help them stop all of the diseases that regularly inhabit their country.  (which lemmejustsay, poor mexico.  they are taking the brunt of this.  which REALLY sucks.)

- the euro is the mexican dollar.  

- the government should just print more money and the depression or whatever or recession or whatever would just stop.

and i laugh at my kids and find them charming and tryyyyyyyyyyyy to set them strait.  which, lemmejustsay (is that annoying yet?  i'm hoping it is!) trying to convince a 14 y/o of anything if you are over the age of 19 is pretty much damn near impossible.  that isn't obnoxious AT ALL.  but also.  i bet if we look at that list of information up there most of you could find someone in your life - friend or no - who pretty much has the same line of thinking.  

yeah.  sad.

26 more days until summer.

not sad.

who knew, pt. 1 - VOTE!

my sister laughed at me yesterday when i made a comment about wearing a watch.  she said - to quote her exactly - "since when have you ever worn a watch."  and it was like that.  a statement.  not a question.  ica is very specific in her speech.  

anyway.  as any good taurus would do, i took that as a challenge.  (yeah.  i don't really know if "tauri" take things as challenges.  there's a chance i am making up any knowledge of astrology and sign characteristics.  but.  whatever.)  yes, a CHALLENGE!  so maybe i will get a watch.  but if i am going to get something that my inner sarah will rage against and if i am going to wear something that will surely cause a rash on my left wrist, then it's gonna be, well, fab.u.lous.

round 1:  leath-uh

(vote in the comment section!)

A

B

C

the irony in the images above . . . i whittled away a good chunk of, ahem, time looking them up when i could have been doing something more productive.  but that's the charm of me, right?  a watch wouldn't change that.  

surely.

while you were out . . .

in case you didn't know, i took a break from blogging while i was searching for a job.  (what?  yep.  totally did.  i haven't blogged since march 1.)  i think there was some sort of professional reason i did, but i'm gonna pretend it was for the betterment of humanity and say i totally saved you from having to read my constant fretting about not knowing WHAT ON EARTH WAS HAPPENING IN MY LIFE.  but now i've got more of a clue.  about at least one thing.  so that's nice.  you don't have to read my whining.

here's a run down of things i probably would have blogged about if i had been blogging . . . 

1.  i am on probation now.  like for serious.  i turned right on red. got a ticket.  paid the ticket.  and am now on probation because it keeps the ticket off my record (i.e. won't up my insurance for something INCREDIBLY STUPID) as long as i don't get another ticket between now and july 1.  but c'mon.  i sound incredibly tuff (that's right.  i spelled it wrong.  and what?) saying i'm on probation, right?  grrrr.

2.  same police department.  different officer - pulled out of the police station right into me.  seriously.  right in front of him.  the result: i got to drive around in a dodge charger for about 2 weeks, which totally upped the whole tuffness thing mentioned above as i generally drive around in my sexy civic.  also, the body shop that dealt with my car has magic skills in vacuuming dog hair out of said sexy civic.

3.  lucy lived in oklahoma for the last month.  life was empty.  (and not as a hairy.)

4.  why to number 3?  because since spring break, i have driven back and forth between dfw and okc 7 times.  7 times.  on i-35.  ON I-35.  dude.  if you don't get why this is awfulness defined - feel blessed.

5.  went to austin.  stuffed my face.  here, here and here.  spent some money.  here and here.  bought the shoes below.  um, yeah.  LOVE them.  and hung out with my girls cody, erin, and ica.  (plus new friend holly from canada who has never had a corn dog.  crazy.)

6.  held baby ben.  but not as much as i'd like.

7.  got a mullet.  not intentionally.  i've kind of adjusted to looking like billy ray before miley came along.

8.  have learned how to function with limited mobility in my left knee.  dr. lissa (my friend the pediatrician whom i may or may not use for free medical advice) is now refusing to diagnose me since i told her i referred to her as "my doctor" when explaining to the school nurse why i kept sending students down to get ice for me one day.  apparently i am too old for a pediatrician?  discrimination, right?

9.  talked about how amazing i am to lots of people who pretended to care.  :)  i kid, i kid.  but holy crap.  this job application/interview thing is killer.  the other day during an interview i almost said "no shit!" in response to a statement.  i think that means i've hit a disturbing comfort level with the whole interview process, don't you?

10.  so it's probably good that i got a job today.  especially good since i resigned from my current job 3 days ago.  faith yall.  i try to have it.  but yeah.  job.  YAY.  doing what i want to do.  even more of a YAY.  

and now my 6-week intimate relationship with cardboard boxes and packing tape is set to begin.  i will of course be sharing that hotness with yall.