A Meme

Saw this on Athena's Melting and thought I'd share my answers

1.What time did you get up this morning?
4:13am

2. How do you like your steak?
medium

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Avatar 3D

4. What is your favorite TV show?
It was Doctor Who with David Tennant- won't know if still is till I see the new Doctor in action. I record Castle, Ghost Hunters, Project Runway, Top Chef, Heroes. I LOVED Defying Gravity and wish it hadn't been canceled.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
I'd have to travel to a lot of places to decide that... can I start with Italy?

6. What did you have for breakfast?
Chicken Tikka Masala leftovers

7. What is your favorite cuisine?
hmm sushi, Indian, pizza

8. What foods do you dislike?
Veggies most of the time... I'll eat if others fix it, but rarely fix for myself.

9. Favorite place to eat?
Cafe Bombay

10. Favorite dressing?
honey mustard

11. What kind of vehicle do you drive?
VW Jetta

12. What are your favorite clothes?
my comfy fleece pajamas

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?
I'd love to go back to Japan with friends

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full?
full

15. Where would you want to retire?
someplace warm

16. Favorite time of day?
bedtime

17. Where were you born?
Maryland

18. What is your favorite sport to watch?
hot dog eating

19. Bird watcher?
Nope.

20. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Depends on time of year.. I have to be a morning person for school, but I love sleeping in and staying up late.

21. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share?
I'm going to be an Aunt any day now.

22. What did you want to be when you were little?
A teacher, or a go-go dancer

23. What is your best childhood memory?
climbing trees

24. Are you a cat or dog person?
dog.

25. Are you married?
Not for the last 6 years.

26. Always wear your seat belt?
Yes.

27. Been in a car accident?
Yes. I was a passenger.

28. Any pet peeves?
People in a position of authority who cannot communicate well in emails (all caps, more than one ! etc).

29. Favorite Pizza Toppings?

black olives, artichoke hearts

30. Favorite Flower?
Roses but not the hot house kind- has to have a scent

31. Favorite ice cream?
Breyer's mint choc chip.

32. Favorite fast food restaurant?
Wendy's.

33. How many times did you fail your driver's test?
Once- I didn't stop at a stop sign- never made it out of the parking lot.

34. From whom did you get your last email?
Facebook

35. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?
American Signature Furniture- I need bedroom items for 2 rooms

36. Do anything spontaneous lately?
I broke out into a Michael Jackson-esque dance in the hall at school as kids were returning to class

37. Broccoli?
yep

38. What was your favorite vacation?
One to Seattle where I got to take a ferry to Vashon Island to see a fabulous artist.

39. Last person you went out to dinner with?
B

40. What are you listening to right now?
Oprah on DVR

41. What is your favorite color?
Red is my power color, Yellow is my happy color, Green is my Calm color

42. How many tattoos do you have?
One, but want to add 2 things to it soon

43. Coffee drinker?
Sometimes.

Protein Packed Pancakes

I was wanting pancakes this morning, so I looked up a recipe and tweaked it to include protein:

1/2 cup flour
1egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup almond milk (or your milk of choice)
1 scoop whey protein powder (I used chocolate flavored)
1tsp Splenda
1 Tsp cinnamon

Apple sauce instead of syrup. YUM! Made 4 pancakes.

A Weird Thing

I spent the hour afterschool with my first meeting of Japanese club. Kids in grades 2-5 meet on Monday afternoons to have me teach them beginning Japanese Language and Culture.

When I got home, I realized I felt a weird thing.

Calm.

It was the first time in...weeks I hadn't come home too tired, stressed, or angry. The first time I didn't immediately crave food of some sort. I didn't crave pizza, or Chinese or Indian. I actually sat and had to think... what do I want to eat?  Understand that I'm usually driven by my brain-tummy impulses. I had none today. It was like being free. I could choose to eat, or not.

I waited a bit, until my tummy was saying it was hungry. I fixed a Nutrisystem "Cheesy Homestyle potatoes with Broccoli"  Well, not much broccoli, but it has 10g protein and 4.5g fat.  200 calories.

Later while watching TV, I began to be aware of my brain searching for more... I had a half-urge to go to Wendy's for a chocolate frosty. Instead though of going, I got some strawberry banana Kefir from the fridge, and put it in my ice cream maker. YUM  It did the trick.

I don't know why it's happened, but I really hope I have another day like this.

Also- my feet and ankles ache from the trampoline work. They hurt like when I was a kid and would ice skate for an hour. Kinda good in a way, but sucks when I'm on my feet at work all day hehe.

Cute Top

This is my favorite top from my shopping spree Saturday. It's a soft grey that feels like silk. Top was $29, cami was $14, necklace and 2 sets of earrings were $20. My splurge for ME.

Weigh-In

Today's weight- 257.8

That's a small bit of a loss, I think I was 258.4 last time I weighed, but didn't record it accurately.  Guess I should start.

Did 10 minutes on the trampoline last night, and another just now before I get ready for work.  Three minutes into it, I'm watching the clock, aware of how hot and uncomfortable I am, the heavy breathing. That voice that strives to work against me, I'll call her Alice.  Alice told me this was crazy, see how awful I felt and that I should just give up. Is it any wonder that I never exercised she said. Feeling like this was for disturbed people.

I heard her but didn't stop. I'd like to get to the point where I can do 15 minutes regularly, and I'll only get to that if I keep up at the 10 minutes.  However, I may need to go back to doing it in front of music videos. The morning news isn't motivating enough :P

Rainy Sunday

So I'm feeling down today.

Last night we went to some friends' home for dinner and Diablo2.  We stopped at the store on the way there, and I went a little crazy with gaming food. Mostly cookies, and Sour Skittles. I ate a lot of these that night. Dinner itself was good. M did the chicken and spinach/broccoli, and our friend Lynn did the quinoa with mushrooms.

After dinner we played, and I ate handfuls of the sour skittles. An hour or so later, I was experiencing a "sleepy crash" where I literally just wanted to go lay down and sleep. I did lay down on their spare bed a little, but Rose kept me awake. So I ended up going home. The upside to that is I left before the caramel brownies and ice cream - which I didn't really want but probably would have had some if I'd have stayed.

B has been asking me what I wanted for my birthday next month. I told him Nutrisystem. I was hoping he'd help with it through to the summer, but said he feels comfortable for 2 months of it. And that's reasonable. But I think I feel down because I'm interpreting it as "I really think this is just another thing you won't stick to more than 2 months".  And that's depressing. So I want to crawl back into bed and sleep the day away.

On the good side, I got a lot done yesterday during the day. I went back to Avenue and spent my holiday gift  card, and then some. I just woke up thinking, "Damn! I need some new clothes!" Will try to post a photo later this week. Got 4 cute tops, and no jeans because they weren't comfortable.

After shopping I had other errands to do, and discovered that my front left tire was really low. I took it to get filled, and the guy suggested I get it checked for a nail. Sure enough, it was a nail in the side. $120.00  and hour n half later, and I have a brand new tire. While that's not great, it beats having the tire go out on the interstate on the way to work.

Serenity

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference. 

Yesterday was a hard day at work. It seems like every time I do something to try and help a child, I end up with more paperwork and less support.  Perhaps the path is quiet helping without looking to administration for support.


I feel as though I'm caught in a downpour.


The best I can hope for is serenity with things I cannot change, rather than rage against the machine. 


I chose comfort last night in beer and Chinese Take Out, rather than exercise and a Nutrisystem dinner. I'm ashamed to say it on here, but the truth is what it is.