GEM's June Journal

6-30 - So much for lower humidity. That lasted one day. Back to exercising inside. The youngest is tired of spending most of his day inside; but when he goes out, he has asthma attacks no matter how much medicine is in his system. We did go swimming yesterday and being out on the water seemed to ease his breathing. The current was very strong yesterday and I really tired myself out swimming. I have got to get myself together. It seems like when I exercise, I don't eat right, and when I eat right I don't exercise. Someone help me get my stuff together. Keep the faith ;)

6-28 - The heat and humidity has finally broken. It is 11:21 and it is only 82 degrees. I walked last night and will walk again later on today. It is much nicer being able to walk outside and not have to exercise inside. I start working summer school tomorrow. One of the kids from the primary SED class will be in the group I am working with. The teacher was glad to get me as her aide as I have worked with him before and pretty much know how to handle him. Should be pretty interesting. I have been cutting down pretty heavy on the water with the heat and all. Hope I can keep it up now that it is cooler. Take care and keep the faith ;)

6-26 - Didn't walk today. It was already very hot and humid at 6:30 this morning. I don't like walking when it is 80 degrees at 6:30. It is supposed to get up to 100 with a heat index of 110 today. My youngest two are pretty much house bound today because of their asthma. They have posted a red ozone level which means even healthy people should limit outside activity. At least it is not as hazy out here in the sticks as in Baltimore. It is getting very cloudy and windy now and the weather radar shows heavy storms coming our way. Hopefully they will break some of the humidity. Keep the faith ;)

6-24 - It is 7:36 am and I am feeling great. Just got back from an hours walk. I am sweating like a farmer putting up hay and am cooling down before I get a shower. It is very humid here. So humid that you get wet just walking out the door. Thank God it was only about 72 degrees or I would have died. I have to invest in a bug repellant that doesn't smell like citronella. I got ate up going down the lane to the new development. There are trees and weeds on both sides of the path and the bugs abound. I hope I remember this feeling tomorrow morning when my alarm goes off at 6:00 and get up the gumption to walk again. Keep the faith ;)

6-23 - I finally got into Tripod. It kept telling me it couldn't find Tripod. I have had a most unproductive morning. Remember when I said I had started working on my bedroom; well, that's as far as I got, started. I keep arguing with myself, but myself always wins the battle, not necessarily the self I always would like to win. This is the self that puts everything off. It keeps saying, "But the room will still be there tomorrow." This is also the self that says I can exercise tomorrow; but I have won that battle so far and exercised today. Well, off to do laundry and argue with myself some more. Keep the faith ;)

6-19- I got called yesterday and told they need me for summer school. I am going in at 1:00 for 3 hours to help set up the room. School starts on 29 Jun. I'm not sure what I will be getting paid, but it will help toward my van payments. Only 18 more months to go on that baby; then my DH will need a new car as his is already over 10 years old. I have done real well on my eating and drinking water this week. Even got a green on Dietwatch a couple of days. I mostly get moderates because I don't eat the 2000 calories a day it says I need. Usually keep it down around 1500. Keep the faith ;)

6-17 - Spent most of the day helping my dad. He got a printer for his computer yesterday and I went over to hook it up. He doesn't have a CD ROM drive and I had to come home and make copies of the setup for him. Then went back over and loaded it for him. Showed him how to make copies from MS Works. He was all concerned about color copies. Wanted to know how to let printer know that it needed to print in color. Finally convinced him the printer would know if it needed color by printing a picture from the net. He has only been on the net for about 1 1/2 months and just has so many questions. I also made a major breakthrough in my water drinking. Went shopping yesterday and was thirsty when we got done. Got water from machine instead of coke. Two 16.9 ounce bottles came out. I find it much easier to drink 5 or 6 of them than 2 32 ounce bottles I usually use. Don't know what the difference is; but this seems much more doable. Does that make sense to anyone? Oh well, as long as it works. Keep the faith ;)

6-16 - Alone at last. Hubbie and kiddies went out on boat and I stayed home to do laundry. A few precious moments of me time. Don't get many of them during the summer. I am feeling really good about myself right about now. We went grocery shopping. Hubbie got pistacheos and I didn't east any on the way home. Got some bottled water out of a machine and drank a quart of that on the way home. Then had a low fat lunch. I hope I can get my walk in tonight. Hopefully the thunderstorms will hold off. We have had storms every day four about a week. I am getting really tired of them. Well, off to fold laundry. Keep the faith ;)

6-15 - Another walk washed out. Thunderstorms again. I am getting very tired of this. They are calling for this kind of weather for the next 3 days. Will it never end? On the brighter side, I did eat well today. I am learning to slow down when I eat and am often able to leave food on my plate. Had spaghetti tonight for dinner, and for the first time ever I don't feel overstuffed. I still haven't heard if they need me for summer school. I could use the extra money, but really don't care one way or the other. Had a nice chat with Gail and several others last night in ICQ. We all pledged to lose one pound this week. Keep the faith ;)

6-14 - Just a quick note. Still working on getting house in shape. Eating has been okay. Need to get cracking on the exercise. Kinda hard what with the thunderstorms just about daily here lately and supposed to happen for the next 3 days. My treadmill is broken. I get pretty tired of walking up and down the stairs (my own version of a stair stepper). I have been moving furniture around and lifting stuff and throwing stuff (most of it away). Have a whole bunch of stuff for Good Will. Keep the faith ;)

6-12 - I have started on my bedroom. I tied a rope to the door knob so I could find my way back out. The only trouble is, it now looks worse than when I first started. I have a lot of work to do. Just taking a few moments out to fix lunch and catch my breath. I never knew there was so much junk in my room. I hate to think what the rest of the house holds when I get to it. Oh well, back to work. Keep the faith ;)

6-11 - I have had a most exciting start to my summer vacation. I have folded clothes, put clothes in the washer and then in the dryer, washed dishes, fixed breakfast and lunch, and vacuumed the living room rug. The excitement is almost killing me! The next big project will be my bedroom. That should only take about 3 - 4 weeks. Why is it that all the clothes the kids clean out of their dressers seems to gravitate to my side of my bedroom? My hubsand's side is so nice and neat; meanwhile, my side looks like a tornado touched down there. I have asked for volunteers to come on a search and rescue mission if they don't hear from me in a few days. I doubt that it will take that long. As soon as they get hungry and can't figure out what to fix, they will come looking. Sometimes I wish I had never learned to cook, then I wouldn't be chief cook and bottle washer of this little kingdom I like to call home. Off to weed my garden (again) before it rains (again). Can you believe it is the 11th of June and only in the 60s here? Remind me of this when I am complaining because it is in the 80s and 90s. Keep the faith ;)

6-10 - Just got back from my last day of work. I collect frogs and got a couple of nice ones. One of the ladies gave me one and the faculty and staff gave me one for the good job I did long-term subbing as the librarian. I told the principal to keep me in mind for a permanent job; but that I wouldn't be subbing next year. We want to buy a new house and we can't do that with me not knowing how much I will be making from week to week. I hope I get something; but am not counting on it. Please keep me in your prayers as I really enjoy working with the children and would really like a permanent job in the school system. Now I can concentrate on giving my house a real good cleaning. It is so hard to keep up when you work outside the house all the time. I sure don't want to spend my whole weekend cleaning. Right now I have 5 baskets of laundry that need to be folded and put away. Had 3 kids home today and they did nothing. The laundry is still sitting here and the sink is full of dishes. What a drag. Enough complaining for now. Keep the faith ;)

6-8 - Only two more days of work. Yippee!! Never did get my walk in yesterday. I don't mind walking in the rain; but the thunder and lightning kinda turn me off. I have no desire to fast food. I did my own version of a stair-stepper, though. I have a flight of 14 stairs between the upstairs and downstairs. Went up and down them as fast as I could 15 times. The dogs thought I was nuts. I probably would have done it a few more times, but the dogs were running up and down with me at the end. Thye stop and play and I was afraid of falling and getting a broken neck or something like that. Gotta go fix dinner and then go for a walk. Keep the faith ;)

6-7 - Twenty-four years ago today my hubbie and I graduated from Aberdeen High School. I can't believe it has been that long. We are watching the Iron Man competition on ESPN. Those guys must be nuts. I feel much better than I did yesterday. Still have a residual migraine; but don't feel so lightheaded and weak as yesterday. Plan on going for a walk with my girlfriend if the thunderstorms hold off. I got myself a new walkman so I have my music back. The Beatles tapes and an ABBA tape I have are great to walk to. I need to tape a copy of the Footloose record I have. It is good to walk to also. I wore my last one out; so I have to retape it. Keep the faith ;)

6-6 - Have had an absolutely horrible day. Excuse me being so blunt, but I have been bleeding like a stuck pig. It has left me feeling very weak and light headed. Didn't get a thing done but to lie on the couch. It is 11:17 p.m. and I feel some better. Had so much to do; now must try to squeeze it all into tomorrow. Tons of cleaning and laundry to do. Only three more days of work and then all my housework won't have to wait til the weekend to get done. I do some cleaning during the week; but save a real thorough job til the weekend. I may work summer school; but that is only 4 mornings a week for 4 weeks. They will let me know sometime this week if they are going to need me. We are taking our vacation during the second week of summer school and they like people to work the whole time and not have to take off any. However, they are having a hard time getting people to work at all, much less the whole four weeks. There is a lot of stuff going on down at the school and morale is real low. It is showing. They usually have to turn people away from working summer school. That's enough grumbling for now; seems like that is all I have done lately. Things will look up. Keep the faith ;)

6-5 - Another headache. This one is from work. We have a wand scanner to use at school just like the public libraries. Well, ours has broken and we are trying to do inventory. We have to personally read the numbers under each barcode and type them into the computer. To top matters off, there is a T before each 5-digit number and we have to type T 21465 (or whatever the number is). We will never get done. After 6 hours of either reading the numbers or typing them in, anyone would have a headache. That is on top of the other end of year stuff I have to get done before next Wednesday is over. Oh well, next year it is someone else's problem. Enough complaining for now. Keep the faith ;)

6-4 - Just got back from my birthday dinner with the girls. It was the Olive Tree, not the Olive Garden. I had the chicken caccitore(?). It was delicious, I brought half of it home for my lunch tomorrow. I forgot to tell everyone that we went over my sister's house for a cookout on Sunday and met my dad's girlfriend. She was very nice. She even brought my sister a hostess gift. I have heard of that; but that is the first time someone has done it. She looks a lot like my mom's mother. I wonder if that was the initial attraction for my dad. It was very weird. Only 4 more days of work and then I am off for the summer. Don't know what I will do next year. I'm not gonna sub any more because we want to buy a new house and I need a steady income to do that. Keep the faith ;)

6-3 - Won't write much tonight. I have a killer migraine. That should ease up some tomorrow. I have to give media awards tomorrow morning. I hate doing this. Oh well, I don't have much choice. Keep the faith ;)

6-2 - No weight again. I feel like I have gained a ton and don't want to weigh. My clothes fit the same, if not a little looser, just feel really huge right now. Maybe because it is almost that time. They had the big rocket launch for the fifth grade today. It is the culmination of the space unit they study in science. Tomorrow they all have a news report due based on a synopsis of news stories they have read or seen or television about space and/or space travel over the last couple of weeks. Punk is writing his as we speak (or should I say as I type). Gotta cut this short as a storm is blowing up. We are under a tornado watch. Keep the faith ;)

6-1 - The start to another month. I didn't weight this morning because I didn't have time. Had to go to work and leave almost right away for oldest son's ARD. He is doing real well and they will continue to carry him as level one intensity special education. He is in tenth grade. Next year he starts at the technical center for what they call trade cluster. Had a good day today. Ate within reason and drank water. Most of this has been drunk since I got home. It is so cold in the library that I can't stand to drink cold water. I just get too cold if I am cold inside and out. I can't stand to drink warm water; so just drink most of my water before and after work. Keep the faith ;)