Smilebox

This was another project I did for a class. This one was for Technology in the Classroom. I think it would be neat to do these for the students and have them playing when the parents come in for teacher conferences. Smilebox has a ton of different templates you can use, this one is more scrapbook like, but they have slide shows and other themes. Its a really neat site if you want to check it out, click here.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Got Funny??

My dad sent me this through e-mail... I don't know if its made the rounds before or not but I thought it was funny! Enjoy!!

The first man married a woman from North Carolina . He told her that she was to do the dishes and house cleaning. It took a couple of days, but on the third day, he came home to see a clean house and dishes washed and put away.

The second man married a woman from South Carolina . He gave his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes and the cooking. The first day he didn't see any results, but the next day he saw it was better. By the third day, he saw his house was clean, the dishes were done and there was a huge dinner on the table.

The third man married a girl from Michigan . He ordered her to keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry washed, and hot meals on the table for every meal. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything but by the third day, some of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye, and his arm was healed enough that he could fix himself a sandwich and load the dishwasher.

He still has some difficulty when he pees.

Random Bits About Me.....

1. I am an adrenaline junky, just don't make me wait for an hour and a half before the thrill. The wait kills me, but once its time my game face is on and I'm ready to roll.

2. I am a sap. I already knew this, but I have embraced it. I mean geesh, what is so wrong with crying during WallE? Or Up? Or Pride and Prejudice? Or, whatever other movie I happen to be watching? All it says about me is that I get sucked in to a story and am able to empathize with the characters. It happens in real life too... I hate to see people in pain and would much rather bare that burden for them.

3. I am spontaneous. I am a make a decision and live with the consequences kind of girl. I do not like hemming & hawing (are those real words?) about anything. Just make a decision and go with it.

4. I want to live life fully. I do not want to sit at home on my sofa and watch it pass me by. I have been given this one life, this amazing gift and I am not going to squander it. I am dreaming big dreams and I am moving toward them.

5. I like to be organized. I like to have a place for everything and everything in its place. Chaos and I do not mix well. It stresses me out and makes me grumpy (yes, I get grumpy *gasp*).

6. I like being active, and I like being active with other people. I am much more likely to go for a walk, rollerblading, bike riding, running, or whatever if I have someone to do it with. So, if you like to do those things and you want a partner, give me a call!

7. I have a lot of interests. I can't even name them all... but I love learning about and doing different things. In fact, one of the things I am studying in my Human Biology are bones and I LOVE IT! There are something like 265 bones in the human body. I only have to learn and be able to identify 50, which is why I have a pelvic bone and a scapula in my school bag right now.

8. I really like lip gloss, toenail polish, 4 inch heels and jeans that fit juuussssttt right. I like to feel pretty.

9. I am strong and I can overcome. These are huge for me. I have always been a start the project, feel overwhelmed by project, quit the project person. It was all about feeling insecure in my ability to accomplish the task. But, this year I learned that I am strong, physically and mentally. I can do what I set my mind to I learned this during my lifting workouts. I pushed myself harder than I thought was possible and ya know what? I was successful every time. That doesn't mean it was easy, not at all. But I CAN became my favorite phrase and it has carried over to every part of my life.

Healthy Chicken Nachos by Chalene Johnson

Part of living a healthy lifestyle is find ways to incorporate healthy choices into some of our favorite foods. This recipe is one I found on Chalene Johnson's blog and I love it!! There are a couple of things I do differently. First, when it comes to cooking the chicken, I like to have it done ahead of time so I can just throw the rest of the stuff together and have dinner ready in 15 minutes.... I don't like to cook, I want OUT of the kitchen as soon as possible. So, I usually put my chicken breasts (about 4-8 pounds) in a Crock pot and cook over night with only a little salt and pepper, no water. I end up with super tender chicken which I shred. I freeze half and put the other half in the fridge. We use it on salads, nachos (as this recipe calls for), barbecue chicken sandwiches, etc. But its already cooked and ready to go.

I plan on posting more healthy recipes. Some of them will be my own, but mostly ones I steal from other people. I will do my best to tell you where I get them from. Enjoy!!

Ingredients

A bag of Multi Grain Chips

1 can Black Beans

½ can of sweet corn

1 cup of chopped tomatoes

1 large Avocado diced

3 pieces of Chicken breasts

1 bag of low fat shredded cheese (4 Cheese Mexican Cheese blend)

Salsa of your choice homemade or store bought

Preparation

Grill the chicken breast pieces on both sides until cooked (no pink in the middle), juice 1 lime fresh and add while grilling and season to taste (salt & pepper)

Dice the chicken after grilling

First empty the chips into the serving dish,

Mix black beans, sweet corn, tomatoes, and avocado, season to taste (salt & pepper), add ¾ of the cheese and pour over the chips

Pour the remainder of the cheese on top to cover the rest of the ingredients and serve (if you prefer you can melt the cheese).

Serves 4 people

Hello, This is Me....

Every year just before Christmas when the new year is looming I start thinking about what I want to accomplish during the next year and I write those goals down.  Last year I wanted to get into better physical shape, which included losing some weight and learning how to eat better and I was successful with that goal.

The other BIG goal I had last year was to be more real.  I don't know about you, but putting the "real me" out there has been difficult to say the least.  For some reason or another I started tempering who I am.  I don't know if that is something you can relate to or not but it was where I found myself, and I had been doing it for a very long time.  Last fall I started having a heaviness on my chest, constant jitters, not sleeping, that sort of thing.  My mom thought I was going through a midlife crisis. I though maybe my thyroid medication was off.  But, when you aren't sleeping at night you tend to do a whole lot of thinking, and some of what I thought about had to do with life dreams and being real.  I realized that somewhere along the line I stopped living the life I was born to live and started living the life I thought was expected of me.  And I got lost in the shuffle and ended up feeling trapped.

So, last year I decided to let myself out of the box I had put myself in.  And you know what?  Most of the time it feels great.  There are days when I still want to stifle who I am because I am afraid that if someone truly knows me, and all the little quirks that make me, they won't like me... But, I'm working on it.  And I am trying to remember that if they don't like who I truly am then they really aren't worth wasting my time on.  Because there are people who love all of me, quirks included, and those are the people that I want in my life. They are the people that won't ditch out when things get hard or messy.

I made a new list of goals for this year.  Some of them are big, life experience sort of goals.  Others are more along the lines of the "get the basement cleaned and organized" sort.  They are all written down in a journal and also kept on my phone.  I look at them often and that helps me to stay on track and working towards them every day, sometimes in big ways and other times by taking a small step.  But each step is one step taken.... one moment lived.... one touch of success....

Booty... Oh yea! I'm Gettin' Me One!!

Many of you know that over the last year I have lost 30plus pounds doing the Beachbody workouts Turbo Jam and ChaLean Extreme.  It has been a great process and I have loved every step of it.  But, one of the things that I (and apparently, others) have noticed is that I do not have a butt.  At some point after having kids it just went away.  And you know what?  I want my butt back.  I want it to be the good 'ol round booty it used to be.  So, this morning I added a new workout program to my routine. 

Now, I know you have all seen pictures of the beautiful ladies in Brazil on the beach with their cute little behinds.  I mean, geesh, they even have their own style of bathing suit.  What better workout could I do for my Bum Bum (pronounced boom boom) than The BRAZIL BUTT LIFT.  I mean really... if anything is gonna bring this whimpy booty to life its gonna be that...

I took before pics last night.  I don't think I am brave enough to post them on my blog.  I mean, I have lost 30 pounds, but still, I'm no supermodel...  Maybe after I go through the program and see some amazing results (which I don't doubt for a minute because all of Beachbody's products deliver) I will post the befores with the afters.... maybe.  I am not committing to that at all.

If you are interested in any of the workouts that I've talked about, just click on the name.  It will take you right to the information.  If you want to know more about The Brazil Butt Lift watch the video below...



All of the workouts are available through Beachbody.  If you are interested in placing an order either click on the picture on the sidebar under "Visit My Beachbody Site" or go to TurboKristy.com

Here's to a New Year and a New Booty!!

Most Influential Educator

A couple of weeks ago I was assigned an essay, my first in about 10 years.  It was for my Ed 401 class, otherwise known as Elementary Methods.  It is a class that gets us thinking about what works and doesn't work in a classroom and how to make our classrooms successful, and also about our career as students and what impacted us the most.  The essay we were asked to write was a reflection on which of our teachers was most influential in our life.  This is what I wrote:

    Trying to pick one educator that has influenced me is a difficult task at best.  I’ve had so many people in my life that have “educated” me, not all of them professional teachers.  My grandfather lived with my family from the time I was 10 until I married and moved away at 19, and during those 9 years, he taught me truths that I will carry with me into eternity, and gave me personal lessons in American history.  My step dad taught me that love isn’t something than can be earned, only given and received, and that sharing blood has nothing to do with being family.  My kids have taught me diligence and patience and most of all, how to put others first.  These are all life lessons I‘ve learned, not taught by a professional.  But this paper is about a classroom teacher, and although I’ve had many through grade school, high school, and college that have impacted my quest for knowledge, there was one that truly impacted my life.  Her name was Mrs. Munger.
    Mrs. Munger was my third and fourth grade teacher.  I attended a very small elementary school located approximately a world away from town and smack dab in between two corn fields.  Of course, at the time I didn’t realize just how different our school was from town schools.  Forget about city schools, I didn’t even know they existed.  Our class was a combination classroom, third and fourth graders all together and there was no such thing as a “teacher’s aide.” During my third grade year I was in awe of Mrs. Munger.  She wasn’t mean or anything, she just demanded and held the respect of her students.  I tended to be somewhat of a social butterfly, something that hasn’t changed much, or so I’ve been told, and therefore had been moved as close to the teacher’s desk as possible.  I had also received countless “looks” and may have even been put into the hallway a time or two, but it was a long time ago, so who’s to say?  That was also the year my older sister was diagnosed with cancer.  My parents did the best they could to keep my life the same, but one or the other traveled across the country to be with her at the hospital in Seattle.  There were good days and sad days and days I wanted so badly to be with my sister.  Unfortunately, she passed away in April of that year and I didn’t have the chance to see her after Christmas.  Mrs. Munger helped me with my grief and some days she allowed me to stay inside her classroom during recess, she held me while I cried, and she loved me.
    My fourth grade year, well…things weren’t looking up.  My parents were talking about divorce and I asked Mrs. Munger what that was.  She called my parents and helped me understand.  Just before the year ended I had been packed up and moved to a new city, but I was allowed to finish out the year in Mrs. Munger’s class.  Somehow during those two years, despite the grief and the changes, she taught me.  She was able to prepare me with the knowledge I needed to succeed in school.  By the end of the year I was ready to move on to fifth grade in the city, I was able to laugh, I was excited for the adventure a new school would bring and ready to learn.  The last day I was in Mrs. Munger’s class she let me stay inside her classroom during recess, she held me while I cried, and she loved me.
    When I was in high school I went back to my old elementary school and Mrs. Munger was still in the same classroom.  She saw me pass her door and although it had been almost 8 years since I had last seen her she remembered me.  I will never forget the look on her face or the tears in her eyes.  Mrs. Munger wasn’t just a teacher that taught lessons about spelling or math.  She was a teacher that loved her students, including the social butterflies.