Well....I made it to summer!

Yes...it's true.  

Hellooooo summer! At the beginning of the school year, the thought of summer seemed like years away and I couldn't even think about it.  This year was full of first-year teacher eye openers, tears, laughs, and celebrations.  I held my first IEP meeting by myself less than a month into the school year, and I managed to get through 11 more.  My first IEP lasted way too long because I was so detailed and I learned how to shorten them down by the last one. Student teaching taught me a lot...but nothing could have prepared me for what I had to experience and learn this past year.  Never before did I have to work with 5-6 instructional aides, let alone do my best to manage jobs and create a positive environment for them.  About a month before school got out, I found myself  balancing work and life SO much better.  I learned that it was OKAY to not get to school at 7am when school starts at 8:30.  Instead, I found myself getting to school around 7:25 - and that allowed me to sleep a bit more and get ready with Cody in the morning.  I found myself leaving earlier than when I was leaving.  Rarely would I leave work at 6pm.  It was a really good day if I left at 4:15...most days I lefts between 4:30 and 5:30.  My days turned from 11 hour days to 9 hour days...that made a huge difference in my stress levels.  ALSO, I found myself bringing less work home and I wasn't doing work till I go to bed. A big reason for this was that I developed a routine for my class, and I had been able to prep for multiple weeks in advance - which saved so much time.  Hopefully, I can use some of what I used this past year for this next year.

What's in store for this summer?  Well...I need to do lots of this.  Many 1st year teachers loose weight due to not eating because of so much work.  That did happen to me around the first couple months...but as of right now,  I am no longer at my wedding weight and that makes me sad.  I've gained some and I want to get rid of it.  That means exercise and eating better.  Eating is my downfall...I really need to find a way to be accountable.  Cheese-its...ice cream...chips... they're all the death of me if they get into my hands. 

Since I just cleaned my place, I feel like I should be exercising all day. 

I started tracking my steps a couple months ago and my typical step count at the end of the school day was betweek 10k and 15k.  I MUST maintain that...and I'd really like to do more since I have the time.  However, at work I'm walking around all day long because I have to.  It's much harder than I thought to exercise or go walking just for the purpose of getting steps.  One teacher I know walks 20-25k steps a day... THAT is some major stepping.  Perhaps I can get to that over the summer.  Yesterday I did really good and got to 16k by the end of the day.  Right now it's 1:30pm and I'm at 9,527 steps...that's pretty good.  I think if I go to the gym later or do some walking around my place, I'll get to 16k again.  16k is better than most of my days at work too!  

What else do I have planned for this summer?  

Take a guess....

Cody and I are going to Texas! Unfortunately, we not going to see this pool...but we are going to be flying to Dallas and doing some mini roadtripping down south to Austin. This was planned pretty recently - even though we were hoping to do this over this past Spring Break. We are SO SO excited about this. We're going to meet up with some of Cody's friends in Dallas too.  I've been to Texas before (Austin, Houstin, and San Antonio), but Cody has never been.  Why are we going? Lots of people have asked me that.  Honestly, we want to go to just check it out.  We love what we see when we watch HGTV and from what we know of it, Texas living seems pretty nice.  Not only do we want to see the major sites of the cities we're visiting, but we also want to check out what the locals do too.  I have no idea how I'll feel about Texas when we get back, but I'm jut excited to travel somewhere new with my hubby.  It's our first vacation since our honeymoon last July! 

That's basically the major plans for the summer!  Our 1 year anniversary is in about a month (I can't believe it!), and we'll just be around here for that.  This past year has just been a whirlwind since we got back from our honeymoon.  I honestly feel like we never stopped moving.  Our Texas trip will be an awesome break for us to just relax...and melt in the heat. 

I am hoping to do make some small posts about my cheap finds over the summer (I am all into finding crazy drug store make up deals) and maybe things that I'm obsessing over at home.  I have a few to share with you...but I'll just show your in picture form because I'm feeling the urge to go outside and get some more steps on my tracker :) 

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Strawberry huller b-day gift - I like strawberries..hated prepping them. Now life is easy-peasy.

Bath and Body Works sale....I bought a couple sprays for 3:50 each (reg $14).  I want to go back and get MORE!!

This is the BEST polish (amazing brush...goes on smooth)...and it's CHEAP!  I have 4 colors and I want more. I don't do buy 1, get one 50% off deals... but if I see 40% off or BOGO on these in the near future, I'm buying!

 
 This stuff is amazing!  I haven't drank Diet Pepsi/Coke since I bought these at Costco. YUM!