Weekend time!

Hello there on this happy Sunday! I am currently geeking out watching the show Star Talk with Neal DeGrasse Tyson. If you haven't seen it, you should. It is amazingly good. It is this amazing talk show where Neal DeGrasse Tyson brings in people from popular culture and the scientific community to talk about scientific and political issues. So good.
Anyway I spent most of the day yesterday shopping for items for my kid's 12th birthday. I think I found some good things to wrap up for him. I found a Halo shirt, PewDiePie's book, and a necklace that is the Skyrim logo. I also bought him these Star Wars mini machines that he really wants. Nothing huge. I also am going to provide him with the opportunity to go to the movies, bowling, or anything he wants with a friend. His birthday is Friday and that night he will be with his father. So, his dad's side of the family can celebrate with him then. The next day, he will go to the U of A basketball game with his grandpa, while my mom and I are going to go to a Gabriel Ayala concert at the Sea of Glass off of 4th avenue. Then on Sunday we are going to get together with my friend Tanya and her daughter Julianna. We will be going someplace that Clayton picks to hang out. I think that right now he is leaning towards going to Old Tucson. All in all it will be a busy weekend, but a good one. It will be good that we will have Monday off afterwards for MLK Day!
Also, I haven't mentioned this before, but I am on a quest to lose weight and be healthier. Since September I have lost a total of 28 pounds. I was successful in not gaining any weight during the holidays, but I didn't lose any either. So, I am restarting the process of truly getting back to healthy eating and losing more weight. I can say that 28 pounds has made a huge difference in how I feel. I am able to do more and for a longer period of time. Take yesterday for example... I was out shopping all day. Before my weight loss, I would have had to stop after a couple of hours because my feet, hips and back would have bothered me. Now I can be out all day with no issue. My ultimate goal is to lose a total of 50 pounds. I can't imagine life at 160 pounds! I started at 215, so a total loss of 50 would take me to 165. I, as of today, am down to 187. So that leaves me with 22 pounds to go. I hope that I can reach this goal. However the basis for this diet was my dad's heart issues this time last year. He had to have a triple bypass. This was a complete wake up call to me. My grandmother, grandfather, uncle, and my grandfather on my mother's side all had heart problems. My aunts and uncles are almost all on cholesterol reducing drugs and blood pressure meds. I am now 35 and have no issues, yet. I want to stay that way. So, I decided that I really had to focus on what I was eating. Soon, with enough weight loss, I will begin the adventure into working out. Hopefully with 50 pounds off my joints it will be easier for me to do so without aggravating my knees and ankles. So, here is to not gaining weight through the holidays and now getting back on track to lose more!
Well I am off to meet my ex-husband, his fiance and my son to go bowling. See ya'll later!

Getting back to the grind

This has been a long week. It is funny when you go back to work because the first week is almost the hardest. It is hard to re establish your routines and schedules. It has been really tough this week to convince my body that I really need to go to sleep before 10 pm. It is even harder to get up at 4:45 am. Ug. Add that to trying to convince my son that he needs to go to bed and do homework, and I feel like winter break was six weeks ago already.
Speaking of homework, the worst habit my son has is putting things off. I know this is normal behavior for 11 year old boys, but it still irks me. Tonight while going through his binder he found a spelling worksheet that he got earlier in the week that he was supposed to do during the week. Did he? No. So tonight he found it and started whining about having to do it. I have a really really hard time with whining. He was sighing and trying to make the homework harder than it was. Silly child. I forced him to do half of it tonight and tomorrow he can finish it in his study hall class. He had the same problem getting started with his science fair project as well. His biggest problem is his laziness. At some point I will just have to let him fail at something. If he does that enough, hopefully he will get the message. I am not looking forward to teaching this lesson. Hopefully I can keep a handle on my patience. That will be the hardest thing. There are good things and bad things to working in a school. I spend a whole lot of time with kids my son's age. Therefore I know what is normal and have several different techniques to use. However I am constantly surrounded by pre-teen and teenage angst. It gets super annoying after awhile.
I am looking forward to sleeping in this weekend and not having to get up early in the cold. This week has been exceedingly rainy and cold. Today was the worst day. It was raining and cold all afternoon. The upside to all of it? The mountains look amazing. They are covered with snow. It also feels like winter. It would be better if it was just cold. I don't do wet and cold well.
Well instead of absentmindedly blogging while watching the U of A vs UCLA basketball game, I will put an end to this and enjoy the game. Have a good night all!

1st day back... ug training....

So I had my first day back at work today from Winter Break. Ug. The first day back is always the toughest. Today was tough because we had our big District Training. The good news about them starting the semester with training is that we then don't have our MLK holiday messed up like we normally do. Today was mostly BS. Talking about things that I already knew. The problem with staying in a District over 5 years is that you know most of what they are going to say before they say it. I pretty much know everything that I need to know. That is mostly because I pay attention! Most of the ladies that work the Front Office at the other sites couldn't find their head with a flashlight and a map. It always amazes me that more people don't take their jobs are seriously as I do. It is a double edged sword because I am very good at what I do, but it sucks because I do more work than most of the other Front Offices. The good news is that I was recognized today for my hard work. I was recognized as the best front office person in the District. I even got this nifty certificate below. I wish it had come with a check, but I will take what I can get. The first day back with the students is tomorrow. I am looking forward to seeing them again.

Clayton started his first day back today too. My parents were out of town with my brother, his wife and his kids. So, I really felt the pressure of a single mom this morning when I looked at the weather forecast. Today was supposed to be Clayton's first day to ride the bus home, but it was predicted that we would get hit with rain storms today. When I looked at the hour by hour forecast, it predicted an 80% chance of rain right at the time that he would be walking home from the bus stop. So I called several different people to try and see if they could pick Clayton up from school. My friend, who also happens to be my dad's business partner was more than willing to pick him up. I was so grateful! I had this picture in my mind of the boy walking home in the rain with his huge backpack and his trumpet. It was a sad image that I was ever so grateful not to have to worry about. Thankfully my mom and dad will be back tomorrow and will be able to pick him up and drop him off. The weather is supposed to be rainy and cold all week. I will try to get him to ride the bus starting the second week back. Hopefully if we get him to ride the bus, it will totally eliminate the need for my mom to pick him up. I would prefer to us to operate completely on our own without the need to depend on others. Hopefully next week we can start that.
Well I am exhausted and I have a very looooong day ahead of me tomorrow. So see ya later!

Sabino Canyon

We had a great day today. Started off the day by sleeping in. Best thing to do on your last day off before going back to work right? We then were just hanging out here at the house, I was doing laundry, and getting some work done and Clayton was playing video games until noon. Then the basketball game started. U of A vs. ASU. Now you know I am going to watch that! It was a well played game on both ends. The Cats won by 12. Wahoo!
Then I loaded the boy up in the car and we headed for Sabino Canyon. I wanted to spend some time outside of the house today. It is too easy to just sit here and not participate in the world around us. The weather was beautiful today. Crystal clear skies and 70 degrees. Way too nice to spend the whole day inside. Particularly because it is supposed to be rainy and cold all week this next week. So for $20 Clayton and I could go to Sabino Canyon and ride a tram all the way into the Canyon. It is a lovely ride. I should let the pictures do the talking!

All in all it was a great way to spend our last day off before going back to work and school. Tomorrow I have a big district training at SSA Tucson. Clayton is going to ride the bus home from school for the first time. Should be interesting to see if he can do it without any issues. Well that is the end of Winter Break. Only 12 days until Clayton's 12th birthday. We are discussing what we are going to try and do for it. I am game to do pretty much anything he wants to. Well, I am off to cook some delicious looking salmon!

Hanging with friends and new water heater

I am super sad that my winter break is coming to a close. I wish I could have one more week. However I have had a bunch of time to catch up with friends and hang out with my family. All in all, it was a good break. I just wish I had more time to sleep in! Hahaha. Don't we all?
So I woke up this morning all excited cause I was going to hang out with my buddy Ro. I got up, made coffee as always, caught up on the internet and then went to take a shower. When I turned on the hot water, there was none. Crap. My water heater is old and hasn't been functioning quite like it needed to for awhile. My nice long hot showers have been getting shorter and shorter. So I knew when no hot water was coming out that the water heater had finally kicked the bucket. So one extremely short cold shower later, I called the plumber. They said they could come out to replace the water heater in about two to three hours. At that point I was like crap! I really wanted to hang with Ro today. So I called her and let her know what was up. Clayton and I rushed around, got ready and left to pick her up. At least that way I could spend some time with her and at least I could run the errand we needed to get her yarn for blankets that she needed to make. So we picked her up and went directly to Michaels to get the yarn. I was grateful that Clayton was with us because I am not quite sure how we would have navigated the store, a cart full of yarn and me helping Ro navigate without his help. Any who, we finished with the shopping and started off for our usual IHOP lunch. Right as I was about to turn into the IHOP parking lot the repairman called. Ro said that she wouldn't mind hanging out at my house while the repair guy replaced the water heater. Sweet! So an hour or so later I had a new water heater and we were off again to IHOP. This time we went to the IHOP on Grant that both Ro and I used to work at. Man that IHOP is much better than the one on Oracle. The food was delicious, although I totally cheated and got French Toast, and the company was awesome. After that we stopped by Starbucks so that Ro could try the Peppermint Mocha that one of her online friends had told her to try. Then we dropped Ro off at home.
After dropping Ro off at home, Clayton wanted to go spend a Walmart gift card that he had gotten for Christmas. Since neither Clayton or I like to shop at Walmart, we decided to get it over with. We stopped by the newer Walmart at El Con. Man was that a waste of time. The toy section was practically empty. We checked out the video game section and there was nothing there either that he wanted. So we decided to give the Walmart out by our house a try. At least there he was able to get new Chicago Bears and U of A baseball hats and we were able to pick up the game Yatzee too. He is finally to the point were we can play board games without fighting. Thank God for medication!!
Tomorrow is my last day off work. I think that Clayton and I will head out somewhere like Mount Lemmon or hit the tram at Sabino Canyon. I would like to get out on the last day and not just spend the whole day inside. We to do much of that anyway. If we go somewhere tomorrow I will try to take some pictures to show off our adventures!
I am really apprehensive about going back to work. I love the kids, but do no like my co-workers. There are a couple that I don't mind, but they are the quiet ones! The loud, obnoxious ones are the ones I see most often. Ug. I am going to try and hang on till the end of the school year. Then I have to start the whole process of finding a new job. I am not looking forward to that either. I really hate starting new jobs. It is time for me to go, I just hate having to learn new stupid rules and getting my feet under me. I am hoping to stay in schools, but I don't know if that will be an option. Will see what I can find. If I can't stay with schools, I will look at non-profits or to organizations that help people. I really enjoy helping people get what they need. Hopefully I can find something.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!
My party last night was a great success. A good time was had by all! Jim Freeh came by with two of his friends from Seattle, Michelle and Noe Parces came with a friend from Noe's work, Ingrid, Pearl, Keaton and Amariah, and James and Patti Racina were all here. I had quite the full house! The conversation was great. Then we broke out the card game Cards Against Humanity and we all almost died of laughter. I am so lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life. It was a really good way to start the New Year!
I am still waiting for my ex-husband to bring my boy back home. I miss him a lot. I don't think that my ex husband understands that a week without Clayton is really weird for me. I have him almost everyday. I know that it is good for me to create a bit of separation and that Clayton have time without me. I just miss him when he is gone. I guess that is to be expected.
Well on to a new year and a new outlook on life. Hahaha. I do kind of laugh at the whole resolution thing. However, it is never bad to take a look at life and try to make commitments to be better. I am going to try to be present. To really take time and live the life in front of me. Time goes by to quickly, and often I find myself wrapped up in all of the little pesky things. I am going to make an effort not to do that. I want to spend as much time enjoying life as possible. In that vein, I decided last night that Clayton and I should take a trip together this summer. Just the two of us. I don't know where we will go or what I can afford. I think I will start to look at San Diego. Clayton loves it there. Maybe we can hit the San Diego Zoo. He has always wanted to get back there. I might try to find a small condo to rent from homeaway.com. I think it is a good place to start looking.
I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year. Here is to 2016 being a good year.