I'm Spoiled

I was not looking forward to my birthday this year because I was spending half the day at a job fair at BYU. I would rather be teaching my class. Now if I would have stopped complaining and looked for silver linings I would have realized this was the best way to spend my birthday.

The first half of the day was spent at the job fair. Sounds boring, right? That's what I thought. It turned out to be very informative and exciting to talk to school districts from all over Utah and a whole bunch from out of state. I was worried there would be no rural districts and it would be a waste of time. However, half the districts there were exactly what I was looking for! I interviewed with Duchesne, Page (Arizona), and Jefferson (Rigby, ID). Afterwards I was able to leisurely make my way up the canyon back to school and enjoy the fabulous weather.

I couldn't have asked for a better day at school. Really. Quite seriously. I got there 45 minutes before my kids would be back from computers so I ran to Smith's next door to grab a healthy birthday treat (remember the sugar fast?) I got bananas and oranges. :) As luck would have it I ran into the mother of one of my students. How embarrassing! What could she possibly be thinking as she sees her son's teacher during school hours at the grocery store. I couldn't ignore her so I went over to say hello and explain myself. "I promise I didn't ditch my class in the middle of the day. I am on my way back from Provo and stopped real quick to get a birthday treat for my class. Promise." She responded by laughing and telling me we were there for the same purpose. Can you believe it? She was shopping for a treat to bring my class for my birthday. (I seriously work with the best bunch of parents ever!) We collaborated. She brought cupcakes and I brought the fruit.

I got back to school to find my desk covered in birthday mayhem. I panicked only for a second about having a mess on my desk and then enjoyed the sight of so many birthday wishes from the people that mean the most to me: my students. There were bouquets of flowers, muffins, cupcakes, chocolates, balloons, and cards. Cards, cards, cards, and cards. They were everywhere!

I snapped a few pictures of a couple to show you just how lucky I am to be teaching such a great group...

(Dear Miss Wood, Happy birthday! I hope you have a good day today. Sincerely, Matthew)

I love that my students are always asking about Mailani.

The previous three were favorites seeing as we just finished a unit on how to write/format letters.

This is from my artsy student. I don't think I even have the brain power to figure out how to make a pop-up cake and have the chairs pop up at the right place. Ingenious I tell ya!

I loved how excited they were to give me the cards, this girl in particular.

As if all the cards, goodies, and birthday treat weren't enough the second my students walked in from computer class I was attacked by 23 pairs of arms. All my students came running up to give me a hug, including the one boy who I am sure is determined to make my life as hard as possible. That right there was the best birthday present ever! The rest of the day was relaxed as we watched the Disney assembly put on by the third grade and returned to class to enjoy our treats. (They surprisingly gobbled up all the bananas and oranges that I purchased, and I bought a lot!) An enjoyable day at school and I didn't have to teach a single lesson!

I can't forget to mention the extreme thoughtfulness of my family. I didn't want to do cake and ice cream for this reason so my family indulged me in a birthday breakfast. Everyone woke up extra early and gathered around the old folk's kitchen table for my mother's scrumptious breakfast casserole (which had been bedazzled with candles).

All in all the day left me feeling like the luckiest girl alive.

Sugar-Free

A few years ago, I tried to stop eating sweets and desserts for a month. Steff (my roommate at the time) did it with me and it was pretty tough. You can read more about it here and here. At the approach of this new year, I decided to try it again.

Last time I did it, I struggled in the beginning but it got easy quite quickly. This time was so different. Three weeks into it I was still struggling and having bad cravings but pushed forward. I told myself I would do it until it was no longer hard to do. It worked! It got easy and I stopped just in time for V-Day. It worked so well that I was having a hard time making myself eat all the sweets I got from my lovely kiddos.

During this time back on sugar, my face broke out more than it has in a loooooong time and I felt so yucky. I was not happy, so I'm back on again. Let's see how long I can make it last this time. Who knows, maybe forever!

Limited sweets has brought about so many unexpected benefits. A cleared-up face is just the start!

Typically when I over eat salty foods I counteract it with sweets. Without sweets, my appeal for salty foods has diminished and I crave good, healthy foods! Also, those impulse buys at the grocery store have ceased. Seeing as I can't eat the food I typically impulsively buy, I don't buy them and I''m saving money. I lost three pounds the first two weeks I did this. What a fast way to lose a couple pounds!