The Results Are In....

I once again was able to pull off all A's this semester!!

While being at The University of Houston-Victoria the past 2 1/2 years, I have been able to make all A's except for 2 B's. (Out of 18 courses, I made A's in 16 of them!) Thus, I will be graduating with TOP HONORS.

There are 3 levels of honors a student can get (not everyone graduates with one of these): cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude. I will be graduating summa cum laude, which requires a gpa (grade point average) of at least 3.85 out of 4.0.

Yay for me! My hard work, sleepless nights, messy home and lack of free time have allowed me to obtain this achievement!

What happens...?

What doesn't break you only makes you stronger.

When you've hit rock bottom, there is no where to go but up.

Good things come to those who wait.

Have you every heard these sayings before? What happens if you are broken? What happens if you don't go up? And what if good things don't come?

I am so tired of bad things happening. When will it be my chance to have good luck or have good things happen to me? At what point is it my turn to be happy? At want point does karma come around and reward me for being a good, caring, lovingm hard working person? At what point will I have shed enough tears?

(These are all rhetorical questions, meaning they do not need an answer. This is a journal of my current thoughts and feelings.)

Cookies with Santa

Today our neighborhood hosted a "Cookies with Santa" event. We decided to take the kids because it was close and convenient, as well as free. Using my own camera and getting the pics printed sure does beat the price at the mall.

Tayler wanted nothing to do with Santa. She clung to me as I tried to sit her down. Colton was so excited before we got there and then when it was turn, he was extremely shy. He hid behind my leg, would not talk to Santa and wouldn't even look towards him! He kept his head buried in the opposite shoulder. Luckily I was able to get him to turn his head to be able to get one picture. (I would have been so upset if I had waited in line for an hour and got no pictures!!)



I would also like to add, there is something very disturbing about the fact that we all went to see Santa wearing shorts!!

The Biggest Loser

Are you a fan of The Biggest Loser? I am! It is one of my favorite shows. It is amazing to me how people can lose so much weight just by eating properly and exercising.

Now that school is finished, I won't be super stressed out and exhausted all the time. I can start going to bed at a decent time and even have time to exercise! I feel like my life finally has time to welcome the challenge of losing weight. Even though I will still be in school next semester, things will be a lot different. I won't be sitting at home on my butt all day at the computer and going to sleep at crazy hours of the night. I will have a regular work-type schedule and I will be on my feet all day. I also won't be able to munch whenever I feel like it.

I feel like one of the reasons I have not been successful at losing it weight is because I never learned how to cook. There are a few things I know how to cook, but not much. I already have The Biggest Loser Cookbook but I wanted more options. So, I purchased a few new cheap cookbooks. As I have been looking through the ingredients on a lot of the recipes, I have noticed that a lot of them have similar ingredients and very few ingredients. I didn't know cooking could be so easy! So, I am really excited to start this new journey in my life next week.

Below are the cookbooks that I will be using to start this weight loss journey. (I purchased them from Amazon.com because they were much cheaper and also offered free shipping.)

This is the cookbook that I already had that I will be using:

Most of the recipes in this book (below) are for 4 servings, which is perfect for us. :) (I am going to try and get Kyle to eat healthy too... keyword: try :) )

I am especially excited about this book (below)!!! If you are a sweet eater like me, you can imagine why I am so excited!

I have not looked at this one yet but it is by the same author as The Biggest Loser cookbooks so I am hoping it will be good, and easy as advertised. It says it is for the super busy and that is going to be me in about a month when I start student teaching!

I never thought I would be so excited about cooking and eating healthy, I think because I never knew how to make healthy taste good and not be boring. I am going to try and plan menus for a week at a time and if possible prepare ahead, especially next semester, so that I don't have to do a lot when I get home.

I'm Done!

I'm done! I'm done! I'm done! I am officially done with my course work!!! Now all I have to do is my student teaching and I can graduate! I think I might have to do a happy dance!!! Now I just have to wait to see what my final grades will be...

P.S. Still trying to get my placement for student teaching changed. It is going to be tought, stressful journey getting things changed so please keep me in your thoughts.

Student Teaching

It is with bittersweetness that I am able to announce that I have received my student teaching placement for next semester.

The person over the school district had asked me where I would like to be placed. I had my first choice and also requested to be in any of the schools on this side of the district. The reasoning was because I am having to take out student loans to pay for childcare and gas since I will be basically working for free. Even though student teaching is a 40 hour work week, the class load is (for some odd reason) considered part time, so my aid package was lowered since I will not be a full time student.

Well, today I got my placement and I am not on the side of the district that I live on. In fact, I am on the complete opposite side. It is a little disappointing and frustrating and I am definitely worried about the long drive and the cost of gas, especially since I will not be making a paycheck to compensate for it. I am trying to stay positive and hope that the Lord has good plans for me and that there is a good reason I have been placed so far.

I will be student teaching in 3rd and 5th grade which I am very excited about. :)

UPDATE: I am currently trying to get my placements changed. I am so irritated. They placed me in math-only classes for my 60 days of student teaching. I will have a generalist certification, which means I will be certified to teach ALL subjects, which means I NEED to know how to teach ALL subjects, not just math. This is not going to benefit me and not look good when I try to get a job and I only have experience teaching math. If I wanted a degree in math I would have gotten one. So, I am currently fighting to get it changed. I don't understand how they even thought this would be okay? GRRR

Just Checking In

Hello All,
Words to describe the past week and the upcoming week... stressful, exhausting and crazy.

For the past few nights, I have been up between 2-4:30am trying to get school work done. As I am approaching the end of my semester, so many things are due all at the same time. I am officially in panic mode!! I know that I WILL be graduating with Honors. However, there are 3 levels of honors. In order for me to get the top honor, I have to make all A's this semester. One class is finished and it was an A! So, now I need 4 more. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers that I can have the mental and physical strength to keep pushing hard and get through this next week.

I will update you as soon as I know where my grades stand....

Love,
Tammy