So, Happy New Year! Here we are, 2012. Less than a year from when the world is supposed to end, if you listen to those darned Mayans, anyway. I suspect they either ran out of room on the calendar or got tired of chiseling and said, "Hey, surely someone will add on to this later."

Anyway, just an update on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

First of all, weight: 217.4 as of this morning. This is a little surprising to be because, second of all, I'm three months pregnant. Yep, having kidlet #2 in mid June. So the weight thing is surprising, because the 20 lbs I've lost have been since I found out I was pregnant. Just haven't felt like eating much. Haven't necessarily been morning sick, just not hungry and nothing sounds good. I wasn't surprised to see weight loss in the first weeks, but now that I'm into my 16th week of pregnancy, I really would have thought that the weight loss would have stopped. Don't know if it's a problem. Anyway, I have my first appointment with my OB in two weeks, so I'll discuss it with her if things haven't changed by then. I really hope everything is going OK. This pregnancy seems much more of an "afterthought" than the last one did, and I just haven't paid as much attention to it. We'll just have to wait and see.

Work is plodding along. I really haven't bonded with the kids this year, not like I have in previous years at St. Agnes. There are a few I'm fond of, but there are a lot more that I am ambivalent towards, and more than a few that I would be happy to never see in my classroom again. I've never experienced such a dislike for any of my students before. It makes me very disappointed in myself, because I'm sure it has to do with me and whatever impractical expectations I may have had for these students at the beginning of the year. In any case, we've got two weeks left of the semester, and then I won't have most of them second semester. Sadly, a few of the ones I most wish I wouldn't have again I will have, and the ones I like best (my sophomores) I won't have at all because I'm teaching juniors second semester. It should be fun, science fiction literature, but at the same time I'll miss the sophomores. They have been a bright spot in my day on most days.

Brendan is a wild and crazy 14-month-old. He had a great time at Christmas. This Christmas wasn't his first, of course, but it was the first one he could participate in since he was so little last time. He helped open some presents and played with all of his toys (and some of his cousins'). He loved all the attention he got from the whole family. We didn't decorate much this year because it is so hard to keep Brendan out of things--he's very curious and extremely determined. Next year will be better; he'll be old enough to understand that he needs to not touch things, and the baby will be little enough that he or she won't be getting into anything yet.

Anyway, that's the state of things currently. We're just preparing ourselves for the new little bundle o' joy in June, by going through all of Brendan's things to see what we can reuse and what will need to be replaced and by planning the completion of our basement. Half of it is finished, a family room type space, but the two other rooms and the bathroom are unfinished. Both of our kids will be housed upstairs with us, so any guests who visit will need a place to sleep. One room down there will be a guest bedroom, while the other will be an office with the potential to be used as a guest room. We have two queen beds to deal with, one in one room and I guess the other will go in the office unless we figure out something else to do with it. We'll move our office furniture and computer in there, and we'd like to build some kind of storage unit along one wall. Then we can use the space freed up in the family room to put Brendan's toys and turn it into a play area. But we really can't use the spaces for any of that until we get the bathroom down there finished. Otherwise it's a long walk to the bathroom upstairs.

So cross your fingers that things continue to go well and that we can get our basement finished off. It will make things so much easier!

I'm going to be stereotyping here, so just a warning. Don't want to get anyone's knickers in a twist.

Preface: Some of my favorite people are interested in the Japanese culture and language. Several have lived in Japan for a period of time. Several of them teach, either English to Japanese people or Japanese to American people. I do dearly love and respect these people that I know. Just wanted to get that out there.

That said, Americans who are deeply interested in Japanese culture tend to be...weird. Case in point: I have "adopted" the Japan Club at the high school where I teach, since the teacher I replaced is living in Japan for the year himself. They needed a sponsor, and I was the logical choice. I don't have to do anything for the club; they are basically using my room as their meeting ground twice each week, and if they need a teacher to sign for something, I'll do it. But two seniors are responsible for the running of the meetings and the preparation and delivery of all the material. And they are...weird. They come to my room wearing pink and black and ruffles and army boots and giant fuzzy hats on their heads, hats which resemble my old Cookie Monster stuffed animal (which is 35 years old and not in the best condition anymore, as their hats also seem to be). Their meetings, while informative, are also punctuated with discussion about anime, and how to cuss in Japanese, and anime, and their favorite comedy routines, and anime, and (today) whether they themselves, and their favorite anime characters, would survive a zombie apocalypse.

Really?

How much anime is there? And why does it all end up looking the same?

The rest of the club is as eccentric as their fearless leaders. They're all very nice; they're just...weird.

I don't know why I felt like mentioning this. Just did. Weird.

Winter is arriving. We had our first official snow flurries yesterday, although nothing stuck to the ground. And today was pretty chilly, maybe only up to about 40, with a lot of wind. It's funny, but I'm sort of looking forward to winter. Winters here aren't bad. Billings is in what the locals call the "Banana Belt", meaning our weather is surprisingly temperate for as far north as we are, and at 3000+ ft altitude to boot. Most of our winter days will be between 30-45 degrees. Oh, sure, we'll have enough 20 degree days to make it wintry, and we'll have a week or two of -0. But really it's not bad. Also, we don't have a lot of snow that hangs around. It'll snow, then melt, then snow, then melt, and over and over. In sheltered, shady areas, the snow might not ever melt off, but in most places it will. So it really shouldn't be too bad.

And of course we can go skiing and snowboarding. Gotta be careful that I don't hurt myself, of course. I really need new ski boots. After the pregnancy last year, my feet grew, and my boots no longer fit. Good excuse to buy new stuff, anyway!

Apparently I'm going to have to do something about my blog: recent changes to Blogger have affected the template I've been using. The picture I had as a background to the title of my blog has somehow disappeared. And sadly, I probably don't have the picture available anymore, so I guess I will have to find something else. Oh well.

I'm also needing to do something about myself. We're now into a new month, October, with all the assorted milestone imminently approaching. I will be 37 years old in a few weeks, and my son will turn 1 a few days later. And I am not appreciably lighter nor in any better shape than I was at this point last year, although I was pregnant at the time and am not now. I've basically wasted the whole year "recovering" from pregnancy, with nothing to show for it.

I need to start working out. I'm going to start small; this week I am going to walk or ride my bike to work (except Friday--I have an eye doctor's appointment after school). I'll try walking on Monday. The weather should still be nice (although probably cool in the morning), and I don't have any after-school obligations. Tuesday and Thursday I'll definitely ride my bike; I'm helping sponsor the newspaper, and we meet after school so I'll need to be able to get home more quickly. We'll see about Wednesday; if Monday goes well, maybe I'll walk again.

Let's see if I can get it started.

I continue to fail. We're four full weeks into the school year, and the best weigh-in I've had yet is 232. I have not ridden my bike or walked to school once, despite living less than a mile away. I don't feel like I'm eating that much (I generally have a Healthy Choice meal of 350 calories or less for lunch, and maybe an apple and a handful of nuts or a granola bar as a snack at work; I only have instant cappuccino for breakfast, and I have nothing too impressive or unusual for dinner). I guess I'm still taking in more calories than I should, but it doesn't seem like it. Guess I need to scale back.

And I am going to force myself, starting on Monday, to walk or ride my bike at least a few days a week. Some days I may have something after school (I work with the newspaper kids on Tuesdays and Thursdays), or I may have to run to the store or the ATM, and that tends to be why I have been driving. I need to get stuff like that done on weekends so I have my afternoons open.

Here goes nothing...well, I guess nothing is what I've already been doing, so hopefully here goes something...

I must admit to being somewhat disillusioned with my job right now. While I am really glad to be back in the classroom full time, I can't help but long for the "good old days" at my old school. I was pretty spoiled and sheltered by the all-female, generally upper-middle-class students and their higher achievement abilities. I just don't know that I'm cut out for public school. The kids are much less inclined to put much effort into anything; they'd rather do the minimum available. While my previous students clamored for extra credit assignments, these kids are hardly interested in completing the assignments they are required to do. I've got several students who occasionally miss class to meet with probation officers, I've got one who is a runaway and hasn't been to school since the fourth day of the school year, and I've got one who is in some program that entails his missing my class (I'm guessing it is drug or behavior-related, but I don't know for sure). I would have expected the counseling center to have given the teachers some kind of update or information on these students, so we are aware of any issues that might affect our classes, but we receive nothing. I'm just used to the higher level of communication I seemed to receive from the administration and counselors at my old school. While these kids are nice, I just don't feel like I'm forming the kind of bonds with them that I did with my former students.

I don't know; maybe I'm just being silly. Maybe this is what school is supposed to be like, and my old school was an anomaly. But it was an anomaly that made me comfortable. Maybe that comfort will come with time.

Or maybe I need a day off.

Quick post (since I'm at work)

Today's weigh-in: 234.0

That means I've lost three pounds since...was it Sunday? Or Monday? Don't remember. I could look, but I'm too lazy.

It's all because I can't snack as often at work. I don't have much food with me, basically one snack (nuts, an apple, a granola bar) and my lunch (an under-300-calorie Healthy Choice dry pasta/rice dealio) and that's it.

Still no exercise yet. Just haven't had a chance to get into the routine. I'm working my way towards getting up before 5--right now my alarm goes off at 5:10. But even getting up that early (I was getting up at 5:30) isn't getting me much of a headstart on my daily routine. I'm afraid it's going to end up being 4:30 in order to get a work out in. Urgh.