Why can't vegetables taste good to me? Why was I not blessed with the palate of a Top Chef so I could enjoy what the produce aisle has to offer me?

Blegh.

This week I decided it was time to get back on track to being a healthier person, a blog that I follow, Bits & Pieces called for a challenge to 'move more and eat less.' Easier said than done. For 2 days now I have done my best to make healthier decisions and I feel like I am starving myself when in all reality I am eating a very reasonable 1500 calories a day with no added activity because of my RA (yep, still giving me trouble.)

I. Love. Food. I want to be eating all the time. Today, I didn't even have a soda for lunch! I 'saved' it for dinner and it was heavenly...it was like having dessert before the meal.

I know I will feel better eventually and the road will get easier but for now I am just waiting for the hunger pangs to subside and padlocking my refrigerator.

Only the second time Clover had been out today, she took every step with extra precaution.

I will try to make this a non-yuck inducing post but I just have to gripe about my ridiculous body. I have psoriasis which essentially is really, really, really, dry skin, like no amount of lotion will ever cure this sh*t dry. I have it on my elbows, legs, hands, back, and scalp. The spots where I am affected are called plaques, which can peel, itch, and crack, pretty much the most unpleasant thing ever.

Since Thanksgiving I have been plaque free due to the new medication I am on which was supposed to treat both psoriasis and arthritis, but based on my previous post from Saturday, that didn't go so well. This medication was supposed  to treat my psoriasis for at least 8 weeks...until the middle of February, here I am in the middle of January with scale-y elbows and redness coming back to the spots on my leg. UGH! The next step in medication game would be injections of a drug called Methotrexate which I currently take orally, but guess what that doesn't work either! By the way, Methotrexate also treats cancer, I have probably fried my insides by now.

Usually I can deal with my many pains, aches, and skin that falls off, but some days, when I struggle to take off my shirt because my elbows hurt too bad and then watch as the skin flakes fly out of the sleeves like confetti I just want to crawl into my bed and stay until the warmth of spring comes my way. Speaking of spring...another 6 inches of snow is forecasted to hit the area on Thursday. Snow day? Perhaps...I am not teaching this week because of a special program so really I am indifferent.

Off to bed, so hopefully I won't eat anything else. Tonight's menu consisted of two slices of Pizza Hut, a bowl of Lucky Charms, and Lion's Choice...and I could still eat.

So I made a promise to myself to work on Chris and I's four year scrapbook today because it is WAY behind! (The 5th year scrapbook is supposed to be due in just 5 months...oops!) I put together a two page layout for our outing to Flamingo Bowl down off Washington St. during Spring Break.

Here's the whole spread. Apologies on the photo quality. It was dark, I was lazy, so this is what I get. The letters were cut from the Lyrical Letters cartridge at 2 1/2", the "BOWL" part was cut at real dial size.

Close up of page 1. We went with our good friends the Alvarezes

Close up of page 2. A highlight of Chris' excitement to bowl.

I tried my best to make this look filmstrip-ish, cutting each of the pictures the same size and lining them up with minimal space between each.

This flamingo was cut at 4" from the Life's a Beach cartridge.

As mentioned above, I used Lyrical Letters for this page...does anyone have trouble with this cartridge cutting cleanly? I had to cut my letters at least twice on medium speed and medium pressure and that still did not produce desired results. Maybe I just need some more practice...

I am still feeling really blah, so I am not as excited as I should be about the creation of this page. But it turned out nicely for the time spent on it. When I was in my craft space today I noticed I had quite a few pages done that I hadn't posted. So hopefully I will get those up rather soon.

Back to school tomorrow!

Just checking out what I can do with my new AndroBlogger app. I'm writing this from my phone...technology is just great! And check out my new header, pretty cute. Head on over to shabbyblogs.com for your own!

Oh what a lazy weekend, unfortunately it was more of a forced lazy weekend. My arthritis has taken a turn for the worst with the new medication I am on. Everything aches, my fingers are the size of sausages, and my toes do not bend anymore. I thought I could tough it out but I threw in the towel last night and called my doctor's exchange number, now I am on lovely Prednisone which makes me want to eat EVERYTHING! But I do feel slightly better and I am getting to go back on my old medication, which worked beautifully but did nothing for my psoriasis. So back to the drawing board for fixing what ails me.

I did have a snow day last week but since I felt so awful I didn't do much scrapbooking. But I did make some awesome baked potato soup, it was delicious! My school is getting ready to start its' Biggest Loser competition so I am loading up on my favorite goodies and fast food before I commit.

Tomorrow is another day off for MLK, Jr. Day, and then I really don't teach all this week because of a special program in my class, hopefully I will be able to get ahead this week. My grad school class starts this week, #2 of 10, "Technology to Enhance Learning" I looked at the syllabus and it seems like a repeat of the course I took in the fall. Boo. Also on the to-do list is my summer school course proposal. I can't believe how quickly things are moving, already thinking about summertime.

My goal is scrap a page for Chris and I's book, so pictures to come!

It is so hard to be productive when there is a possible snow day looming. The forecast is calling for 3-6" in the metro area. I am prepared to go to school tomorrow, my lesson is planned, my outfit picked out, and my bag all packed but I did not come home and do a smidgen of the work I planned. Instead I planned my snow day itinerary which looks a little like this:

• Sleep in til 9am
• Delicious breakfast of oatmeal while catching up on Perez Hilton
• A warm shower
• Making homemade baked potato soup for lunch
• A leisurely trip to Michael's 
• Scrapbooking and cardmaking all afternoon!

 Here's hoping to a day off!

Thank goodness it's the weekend! I have to say as a teacher I feel pretty spoiled sometimes with my scheduled breaks and days off, it is definitely is a perk but after going back to school on Wednesday I feel like I didn't even have any time off. All the stress came right back, there is something going on with me lately that I just can't put my finger on. I am feeling a lot of anxiety over things I really can't control, especially before bed. I keep thinking about accidents that could happen or what things could go wrong. When I sleep my eyes are closed but my brain is still on, I feel like I am having super vivid dreams. This could be attributed to trying to quit smoking. I didn't set out to quit but it has turned into seeing how long I can go. I haven't smoked since December 28th and it has NOT been easy. My car is where I smoke, where I have my ME time. Getting in the car after a day at school and not being able to unwind with my cigarette has been hard, sometimes I feel like I am going to rip the steering wheel off the column because I am so antsy. So far I haven't even reached for the secret stash I have in the console, haven't even peeked. But I get a slight bit of excitement thinking about them. I probably look like a crazy person in my car because most likely I am arguing with myself out loud about smoking or not smoking. I have heard of some crazy things happening when you try to quit smoking, a gal I am Facebook friends with just had to go to the ER because she quit cold turkey and was having severe dizzy spells. Ok, enough about the smoke sticks on to brighter things.

Today I am going with my GF Elyse to try on her wedding dress, yay! She is getting married in May and I am a bridesmaid. It should be super fun! In fact I need to go get ready, back with more soon!

1/1/11.

I love when the date is special.

My new year so far has been pretty uneventful. Chris and I went to our friends' house last night for a NYE celebration and it was quite the party despite me still being (way) under the weather. I just haven't been able to feel any better, although today is the first day my head doesn't feel like it is going to explode when I bend over. Still no taste or smell...you would think I would not want to eat since I can't really enjoy it, but nope, still shoveling it in. Damn.

Here are some pictures from last night's festivities: