My surprise

Yesterday was mine and Nathan's one and a half year anniversary. I thought that he was out of town because he was going to go visit his family for the week. I'll be honest-I was a little sad because I wanted to do something special for the one and a half, but at the same time I was happy that he was going to go visit his family. He doesn't really get to see them as much as he'd like, so whenever he goes I'm happy about it.

Anyways, today when I got home from school I got a wonderful surprise. Here it is:
I was so surprised. I got a little teary-eyed. Nathan is truly wonderful. This has not been the first time that he surprised me. One time I got home and he had written me a nice little note and left a small box of chocolates next to it. The nice surprise was when I walked into my room. He had bought me a really cool brown leather jacket.

Nathan is so wonderful. He always makes me laugh and he is the only guy that I have felt comfortable around. I can totally be my silly self around him. I truly believe that God has blessed me with him.

Go to this website!

This website is hilarious (if you have the sense of humor that I have)!

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

Catching up

Yes, I am alive-I have just been extremely slack about posting. It's not that I don't have anything going on-it's more like I've been too lazy to write. In fact, I've been lazy about everything lately. I'm in school all day and by the time I get home I don't feel like doing anything. That includes cleaning, working on my thesis (yes, I'm still working on it-thank God that there is not a due date) and exercising.

This weekend I did get a little cleaning done. A friend of mine and I were both born on Christmas and we are having a joint birthday party this weekend. It will be at my house, so I decided to start cleaning early. That way I don't have to go crazy on the day of the party.

School is going alright. I'm already burnt out though. That's pretty sad-it's the middle of the year and I'm already burnt out. I'm not the only one. It's seems like all of the other teachers are feeling the same way as me. Thank goodness we have a two week break coming up. I am planning on resting. I'm also going to work on my thesis some.

Since I last wrote I did a few fun things. I went to Memphis and visited my old roommates. That was fun. I got to go to a baseball game and to a local spot called Huey's. I also went shopping to this cool outdoor mall. I was excited because I got to go to Sephora. I felt like a kid in a candy shop. I wish we had on in Macon (lets face it-they would never open one up in Warner Robins). Maybe they'll have one when they open up that outdoor mall.

I also went to Nathan's family reunion. It was the family reunion on his mom's side. The reunion was at Jelly Stone Park in Northern Florida. I had a great time. I enjoyed meeting some of his other family members.

Last month I went to Atlanta to see The Police. I went with Nathan and my sister Karen. Before the concert we went to the new World of Coke. It was a pretty cool place. I kind of liked it better than the old one. The only thing that sucked about this one was that they no longer had Fanta Lemon to taste. I was so sad about that. After the World of Coke we ate dinner and then we went to the concert. Karen had awesome seats right behind the stage and Nathan and I had seats really high up. Fiction Plane (Sting's son's band)was the opening act. They were pretty good. I have one of their albums and I really enjoy listening to it. The Police were awesome! They sounded great live. They have so much energy. I had such a great time (Nathan and Karen did too).

Thanksgiving was good. I went to my family's Thanksgiving first around 4 and then I went to Nathan's family's Thanksgiving. They were making a fried turkey, but unfortunately it didn't get finished on time so we had the sides instead. The next day I went to my first "Black Friday". I went with Nathan's sister in law and her kids and a friend of hers. I woke up bright and early (at 4 a.m.) and then Nathan took me to her house. First we went to Walmart and them we drove to Athens. I bought a few gifts and a few things for myself.

So what is up next? Mostly Christmas stuff. Parties, parties and more parties. I love this time of year.

Rafting, Camping, Climbing...oh my!

I had a wonderful week! Sunday afternoon Nathan and I headed to Tennessee to meet up with his family to go whitewater rafting and camping. It was a nice trip, except for when we got to the Chattanooga area. We got got in a traffic jam that took us about two hours to get out of. It was horrible. We finally made it to Athens, TN around 9 p.m.

On Monday we all woke up bright and early and headed to McCaysville, TN to go rafting on the Ocoee. We used the Rolling Thunder River Company. When we got there we were given a some information on what to expect and what to do. We then got all our gear-a life jacket, a helmet and a paddle and then were given some more information. Everyone loaded up on the buses and then we were taken to where we were going to begin. We got separated into to rafts (there were 11 of us). I was on a raft with Nathan, his mom, and his nephew Jake and a friend of his. We were told some last minute things that we needed to know about and then we carried the raft to the beginning. The rafting was great! I really enjoyed the Ocoee. We went through some class III and IV rapids. I didn't get knocked out of the raft any-I did get knocked in a few times though! Here is a picture from the rafting:

After rafting we ate some Mexican food and headed out to our campsite. It was a nice and scenic route. Before we got there we stopped at Bald River Falls. It was beautiful! Here is a picture:


We camped close to Bald River Falls in a camp ground called Holly Shoals. I got a little nervous riding to the campsite because if you looked out the window there was nothing. We made it to the campsite and set up. We camped for two days with no running water and a gross bathroom. This was my first time camping outdoors in a tent. I shared a tent with three of Nathan's nieces-Erin, Sarah, and Caitlyn. Sleeping in a tent ended up being more comfortable than I thought it was going to be because Nathan's family brought blow up mattresses. I didn't freeze at night (I'm cold natured) thanks to Renee lending me a sleeping bag. Nathan and I brought out bikes, but unfortunately the first night we were there I twisted my knee and it hurt all weekend (it still hurts). I tried riding up and down the hill close to our campsite but the pressure would hurt my knee. Nathan's nieces and nephews enjoyed riding our bikes around the campsite. They all thought that my bike was cool. Nathan and I went walking with his dad, his sister Heidi and her husband. I collected a few rocks as little "souvenirs". It was a nice little walk.

On the 4th of July we took down camp and headed to Heidi's house. I couldn't wait to get there because I hadn't taken a bath in three days. We stopped at the fish hatchery at the bottom of the mountain we were on and saw some trout. We were then on the road again. When we finally made it to Heidi's, Nathan wanted to go climb the small mountain behind her house. I was reluctant about going. We made it about half way up and I was about to give up. I thought that I was going to pass out. We finally made it up to the top.

The mountain

The top of the mountain

After making it back down I finally was able to take my shower. I was so happy. Later that night we all went to see the 4th of July fireworks.

We made it home on Thursday night. I really enjoyed myself in this trip. I can't wait to go camping again!

A recommendation...

I totally love music. I have so many CDs that I have slowly ran out of room for them. For Christmas/my birthday my sister Karen and my parents bought me an iPod. I was always against having one, but last year I finally gave in. It is the bomb-diggity. I've been told that I have such an eclectic taste of music. I can listen to anything-except for country music and rap. There have been so many albums that I have been excited about buying (especially from my favorite band-U2). I have a bad habit of listening to albums or songs over and over again without getting tired of them.

Anyways, I just recently bought the new Paul McCartney album "Memory Almost Full". It is such a great album! I highly recommend it. It has a wonderful combination of when he was with The Beatles, Wings and his other solo albums. It just reminds me of growing up and my parents playing the Beatles or Wings.

Slow Summer

Nothing new to report. Nothing exciting going on. Just a slow summer.

The only "travelling" that I've been doing is when I help my mom with field trips. She is in charge of the Summer Institute that the school at our church offers each summer. She offered me a job but I didn't want to deal with other people's kids over the summer. I do that during the year! So instead, I volunteer and drive her to the field trips. She needs to take her car in case of an emergency and doesn't like to drive long distances because she's afraid that she will fall asleep.

So far the field trips have been great. Last week we went to the Hay House. It was so beautiful-the way it was decorated reminded me of some of the palaces in Spain. Yesterday we went to Dauset Trails. The only part that I've ever seen is the bike riding part, but yesterday I saw the animal part. The kids had a great time looking at all the animals. I want to go back sometime this summer and ride the trail again. I haven't done that in a while. The field trip next week should be good-we're going to The Telegraph. My sister and some of my friends work there. I know that I won't run into my sister, but I may run into some of my friends.

I'm hoping that my summer vacation does not end up like Spring Break-stuck at home. I'd like to go somewhere. The summer is not over yet!

SCHOOLS OUT!!!

School has actually been out for a week. I've been too busy or just plain lazy to post anything until now. So what has been going on lately? Here is a small run down...

I've been tackling things that I did not get to get done when school was going on-namely home improvement things. I finally painted one of the guest rooms and made it into an office/bike room. Nathan came over and helped me paint. He mixed up three different colors of paint and came up with a nice blueish-greenish color. We painted two of the walls with that and painted the other two walls the original light beige that they were. The color part of the room I made into the office and the other part into the bike part.

I also did some yard work. I cut the front and the back yard. I also finally sprinkled the weed and feed around the yard. I did that today because I heard it was supposed to rain. I still have more things that I have to do. I still need to trim bushes, trim the crepe myrtles, get rid of an ugly bush that is in my back yard, trim the rosemary bushes, and landscape a little "island" area on the side of my front yard. I also hope to do some pretty things in my backyard because right now it is just plain looking and ugly.

I also started exercising some more. I've gone to the little gym at Nathan's apartment complex and walked on the tread mill and also used the stair master. Soon we'll be joining the YMCA and working out there. I've also gone riding some too. We've gone riding around my neighborhood and found a small trail over where they are building some houses. It's nothing too difficult. There are a few hills that I am still trying to get up. There is a part with a steady climb that was hell, but Nathan basically pushed me up it so that I would not give up and walk it. It helped, but I was still feeling the burn. It didn't help that it was hot as hell outside too. We hope to go riding a little more this summer.

So that is my summer vacation so far-home improvement and self-improvement. I hope to get a little vacationing in there too. I still have another month and a half to do that. :)

Pardon the non-progress...

I know that I have not updated much lately. School is slowly drawing to a close (THANK GOD) and I have been busy grading papers, entering grades, updating finals, making final study sheets and many other things. As soon as things calm down and I regain my sanity I will be able to write more.

Finally!!!!

After four months I finally have my Spanish passport. Back in January, Karen and I went to sign the paper work for it on the same day so you would have thought that we would receive it on the same day. Nope-didn't happen. Karen got hers toward the end of March. My mom called the consulate in Miami to see why I hadn't received mine and they said that they had not received my paper work. They were wanting me to pay more money and take another passport picture. My mom explained to them how my sister and I had gone on the same day and that maybe my paper work was in her file. They said that there was no way that that could have happened. She told them to check anyways. Guess what-it was in my sister's file. Then when they sent me some paperwork I noticed that they misspelled my last name. Luckily, my mom was able to get them to correct it before they sent the paperwork that they had in Miami to Spain.

So yesterday I went to the post office to pick up the passport. I couldn't wait to get in my car an tear the envelope to look at it. It was so exciting. I know that I'm a little too excited about finally getting the passport, but to me it represents the four years that I have spent trying to get my double citizenship. I now know that it is all over and I am officially a Spaniard in addition to being American.

¡Olé!

I feel like I spent the weekend in Spain! My family and I went to to a "quedada" this weekend for Spaniards. A "quedada" is a get together. The Association of Spain from Florida and the one from Georgia got together at Altamaha State Park in Reidsville this weekend. It was a lot of fun!

My parents, my sister Karen and I all rode together to Alatamaha on Saturday morning. It was an interesting ride. My family is crazy-a fun kind of crazy. Karen drove her brand spanking new Toyota Rav 4 (which I'm going to steal, by the way). I think that my dad might have been driving her a little insane with the "you are going over the speed limit" comments. Then my mom was being totally obnoxious. She was hilarious and very loud. After a while I had to take a Tylenol because of all the noise. All the craziness was giving me a headache.

When we got to the park we found my aunt and uncle's RV. It was set up nicely with the Spanish flag. We met up with my aunt and then helped the rest of the Spanish ladies fix some of the food. I mostly peeled shrimp. After a while my aunt wasn't feeling well, so we all went back to the RV. We ate some barbecue sandwiches and some bagel chips. This was the beginning of me eating horribly this weekend.

The rest of the day consisted of eating food and drinking Sangria. There was all sorts of Spanish food-paella (yum), fried sardines (yum), Spanish tortilla (yum yum) and queso manchego (yum yum yum). There was even dessert! I had a madalena (kind of like a muffin) and something that resembled ice cream. My mom brought me more dessert and I had to tell her to take it away because I was full.

Karen and I even met some people our age. They were very nice. They were part of a program where they some to the United States to teach. Two of them had been here for three years and are going back at the end of June. Another one of them has been here for 9 months and will be staying for another two years. It was really cool to meet them.

Saturday night was more talking and more eating. I went to sleep earlier than my family and woke up later than them. I slept like a log. I slept so well that I was having a hard time waking up.

On Sunday we packed up and went home. The ride home was a lot of fun. I had a great time spending the weekend with my family.

The rest of the day a did a little yard work (mostly cutting grass). This week I'll be watching what I eat. I need to try and squeeze a little exercising in too.

Busy times...

This part of the year gets pretty busy for me. School is just about over (18 more days) and it seems like everything is getting thrown at myself and other teachers.

First off we had End of Course Tests last week. There is no EOCT in Spanish, but I did have to be an examiner for some two tests. Due to the EOCT, I was not able to teach very much last week. Luckily, I have managed to stay up to date on where I need to be in the textbook.

I had to help administer an AP test. I mostly had to help out with the technology aspect of the test (we have a hi tech language lab)-playing the listening section and recording the students when they get to the speaking section. I'm the only one in my department that has recorded students in the past, so I was asked to help out. Because of the AP testing, I missed my Spanish 1 classes today. They will not be very happy to see me tomorrow because I left them with a lot of translating (hehe). I had a vocabulary quiz planned for Spanish 2, but I have not had a chance to make it. Then I was going to give them a cultural lesson today. I'm was excited about it. They were going to watch a video on Gaudi and then they were going to have fun with arts and crafts. I was going to have them make mosaics out of construction paper. Well, the testing will ran into 4th period, so they had watch a video on bullfighting. That ended up being the plan for the rest of the day. With having to record everything on 10 separate discs, I didn't get to my class until the middle of 6th period. Let me tell you, today was a totally hectic day!

In the next few weeks I have to make sure that I cover what ever else is left. I need to try to leave at least two days for reviewing before finals. Speaking of finals, I still need to make my finals. That is always a fun task. This year I'm going to stay on top of things and finish mine early.

I am so looking forward for the end of school. I'll miss the students (believe it or not), but I will be so happy to take a break!

How I Spent My Weekend

This weekend was pretty much uneventful. I was going to go riding on Saturday, but my hair appointment took a little longer than I had hoped. My hair looks nice though! :)

I did mangage to get on the trainer for about 10 minutes. That's about all that I can do at the moment. My goal for next time is to stay on for 15 minutes. Little by little I'm going to increase the time.

Saturday night I went to La Cabana with my parents and my sister Karen to eat Mexican food. My other sister Erika works there, so in a way the whole family was there. I enjoyed spending time with them.

I got to spend some more time with my parents on Sunday. After church we went to Middle Georgia College in Cochran to see Erika's last recital there. She thinks that she did not do so well, but I think that she was fabulous. Afterwards, the parents and I drove back to Warner Robins and ate dinner. We had some Captain D's. I only had one piece of fish, one hush puppie, two pieces of shrimp and some cole slaw. I tried to be careful since the food was fried, but then I ate a little more of the french fried than I should have. I finally asked my parents if I could move the box AWAY from me. Luckily when I weighed myself the next day I was not gained anything (thank goodness).

I pretty much had a great weekend. I got to spend it with my family.

Loosing it

The title of this blog makes it seem like I am losing my mind. On the contrary-my mind is in great shape. What I am losing is weight. At the beginning of the year I was doing great and had lost about 10 pounds. I was so happy because I even went down a dress size. Something happened on Easter Weekend-I gained a few pounds. That weekend was horrible. I didn't really have much to do that weekend since my sister and my mom where in Spain and Nathan was visiting family, so I stayed home and vegged out on the couch and watched some movies. Then I started craving junk food. I did the evil thing and went to the store and bought some junk food-mostly ice cream. Shame on me! The sad thing was that this continued into the rest of the week. Only instead of ice cream I made daily visits to the snack machine in the teacher's lounge. I drank lots of soda also. I even was horrible enough to stop by Burger King on the way to school and buy breakfast.

About a week later my mom and my sister came back from Spain. A few days later my sister and I where hanging out and she asked me if I had gained weight. That is when what I was doing hit me. I decided to stop the insanity. I stay away from the junk food or any other food that is not good for me. I reserve Sunday for eating the bad food-but in moderation. I also exercise at least three times a week.

So my goal for the next month is to go down another dress size (or two). I also want to increase days of exercise to four. So far I believe that I am on the right path. I just have to keep it up.

Finally!!!

I have been wanting to get a bike for about a year and a half now. Well, Friday was the day that I finally got one! I am now a proud owner of a Trek 3700 women's specific bike. It was in the price range that I wanted to start out on. Unfortunately I don't have a digital camera and I'm having problems accessing the pictures that I took on my camera phone, so here is a picture courtesy of the Trek website:

Isn't it pretty? Nathan helped me name it. It is now known as Polka Dot, but I like to call it "Ol' Polky".

Nathan and I went riding around my neighborhood on Friday. We rode about 5 miles. Surprisingly I felt like I could have gone more, but it was getting dark.

On Saturday we decided we were going to hit the trail. I was hoping to go on the Pig Trail because that is the one that I always ride because I totally love it. Well, Nathan took me to Thomson. I got discouraged at first because he took me around the hard part and I walked the majority of it. I guess that now I know what I can eventually try and do. After the hard part, he took me to an easier part. I barely got off the bike at that part. There was one hill that I wasn't comfortable going down and then there was another one that I almost made up if it weren't for a root that was sticking out of the ground and caught my pedal. I also had my first crash on the bike. I saw a big root and thought that it would be better to stay to the left, but there ended up being a tree and I headed right for it. I ended up walking/riding 3 miles. I think that I can end up liking Thomson some.

So now I'm not as scared any more. I did get a little whiny with fear at some points, but I'm just going to have to suck it up. Also, Nathan really helps me because he is always encouraging me. He's really been helping me out and helping me stay positive. He told me that he was very proud of me on Saturday.

At the Tour...

On Sunday I went to the Tour de Georgia with Nathan, Karen and Renee. Karen and Renee were determined to stalk-I mean-to meet some cyclists. They got to meet David Millar, Freddy Rodriguez, Ryder Hesjedal and Tyler Hamilton. Karen even got to take a quick picture with George Hincapie. They took some awesome pictures with these guys. Check out Renee's blog to see them. My goal was to get a picture of Dave Zabriskie. Did I meet that goal? No. I did what I do best-I chickened out. What is sad is that I chickened out for the second year in a row. Last year I was determined. I had my sister Karen walk up to where Dave was signing autographs and taking pictures with me. I got next to Dave and just stood there. As he was going back into the RV to get ready for the race, my sister had to get his attention and ask him to take a picture with me.

This year was classic. I found out where team CSC was and was determined that I would not do a repeat of next year. It was worse this year. I walked toward a group of three riders-among them Dave, and I stopped and turned back around. My boyfriend even offered to go up there with me. I just couldn't do it. Pretty sad.

Other than that, the day was good. We walked around the Live Healthy Georgia Expo. They had lots of neat things. I got sunburnt-but that was my fault for being stubborn and not wanting to put on any sunscreen. Overall it was a fun day!

Fear

I have a few friends who are cyclists. Every now and then I would go riding with them and my sister Karen. I had a weird pattern-I would so totally be into it and then I would get lazy and not go. I was doing so well around September-October about riding. My boyfriend and I would go to the Pig Trail and ride or we would ride around my neighborhood. I was doing so much better on the trail. In the past I had to walk the trail a bunch of times because I couldn't do some of the climbs and then I started getting better to where I wouldn't have to get off as much. I loved going down the hills and riding over roots. Then something weird happened-I got scared. I just cannot think of why. I fell twice (in one fall I went over the handle bars), but I thought that it was the coolest thing and kept riding. I tried to overcome that fear about two months ago. Nathan and I went to the trail behind the church by the Russell Parkway extension. I mostly walked the course. I was even scared of going down the hills.

Now that the weather is getting nicer I have decided that I need to beat that fear. I am going to beat it one step at a time. I'm going to start with a little bit of riding around my neighborhood and then I'm going to try and get back to the trail. I will not let the fear get to me. I need to conquer this.

The Tour is Here!!!

I always look forward to this time of year. The Tour de Georgia has officially begun! The last several years I've gone to see the last three stages. This year I'll only get to see two.

Today Nathan (my boyfriend) and I went to see Stage 1 end in Macon. I left school today the minute the bell rang. I was able to beat the traffic from the kids leaving. I wanted to leave the school the quickest that I could because I determined to get to Macon at a decent time. I was also paranoid about finding parking when we got there. Luckily, that was not an issue. I parked at a bank and we walked to where they had the finish line. We got there just in time because the riders were already starting on the circuit part. We were able to get a good place to stand and watch. It's always a problem for me to find a good spot because it never fails that someone taller than me decides to stand in front of me and then I can't see. I did not have that problem today. Here is the best picture that a took:
After the race was finished Nathan and I walked around a little. I got to see Dave Zabriskie, which was awesome. He's my favorite rider that is on the tour. He was riding away with his teammates. I tried to take a picture, but I was too late. Oh well-another time.

On our way back to the car, Nathan and I walked through where they have the Live Healthy Expo. They were already packing when we got there. I was able to go to the Jittery Joes display where I bought a travel mug and some coffee. The coffee is excellent might I add. I wasn't too worried about not seeing the rest of the stuff at the Live Healthy Expo. I'll be headed to Atlanta on Sunday to catch the end of the Tour with Nathan, my sister Karen and my friend Renee so I'll be able to see more then.

Burnt out

I am so glad that it's the weekend! I'm in that stage in my job where I start going through "burn out". I teach Spanish in a high school, which I totally enjoy. I've been teaching for about 6 years now. The beginning of the school year is an exciting time-new students, I'm all rested from Summer vacation and new teaching stuff to try out. Mid-year through I'm doing alright. I'm still trying out new things, the students have gotten used to me and I have my little system so that I can get organized. Around this time of year all hell breaks loose. I'm tired, I have no motivation to teach, the students are driving me crazy, and I take forever to grade things. Also, my organization system is totally forgotten. Now its to where I just stick papers wherever.

The count down to summer vacation has officially begun! At the moment there are 34 more days of school left (not counting weekends). Wish me luck so that I can make it!

My mind went blank...

I've been reading some blogs and found them interesting, so I thought to myself "self, why don't you start one too?". So here I am-starting a blog. The sad thing is that right now I'm just sitting here thinking about what to write. I had all these things to write about before and now I cannot think of a thing. Go figure. My first post and I have a brain fart. :)