Sunday Sound-Off v.1

Shared it:

1. The Militant Baker shows off some amazing portrait photography of plus-sized women in nothing but a pair of white underwear in The Body Image(s) Revisited with News! Although this likely qualifies as NSFW, these photos are tastefully done!

2. School marginalizes boys. (Let boys play video games.) by Penelope Trunk. Those of you who have been following a while know that I am a HUGE Penelope Trunk fan, and her take on homeschooling is every bit as interesting as her take on careers.

3. The Washington Post carried a piece recently titled Young GED test-takers miss out on high school experience which implies that the high school experience is good for everyone (NOT) and that getting high-school-age teens take the GED encourages dropouts. Apparently a quarter of GED test-takers are 16 to 18 years old and the concern is not in fixing public schools, but in raising the age requirement for taking the GED *shakes head*

4. Plan Your Free Online Education at Lifehacker U: Summer Semester 2013

5. Since landing smack dab in the middle of juvenile justice issues this year, I've taken an interest in making changes to a system that sends kids down the wrong path. Mistakes Kids Make is an organization that is trying to change this.

I was out and about Saturday morning and needed to pick up something to eat. I stopped in at McDonald's and tried one of their new Egg White Delight McMuffins (sans the actual English Muffin). It was surprisingly good!

Appreciated it:
1. Getting my hairs did at the expensive salon where they do a GREAT job
2. Shopping at Old Navy
3. Being an hour from home when my neighbor called me looking for help moving her sofa
4. An opportunity for Cam to take an "Alive At 25" class to get a moving violation off his record
5. Warm Spring Weather
6. Feeling less invisible as I get physically smaller
7. A coupon for a free package of Wholly Guacamole®
8. Buying a pair of size 16 pants
9. The balance that Mike brings to my life
10. Chibi Jeebs giving me permission to steal her Sunday Sound-Off concept. Next time I hope to actually get it up on Sunday!!

10 Things Thursday

1. I spent my morning at the County Juvenile Justice Center. The two skirmishes (and that's being generous - they were little more than 15-second, non-injury, shoving matches) my son was involved in at school - one in May 2012 (yes, a year ago) and one in December 2012 - were referred to the States Attorney's Office for prosecution. He is being charged with 2 counts of misdemeanor Battery and 2 counts of misdemeanor Disorderly Conduct. Today he was appointed a public defender and the case was continued until June 6th. I cannot begin to tell you how ignorant I think this is.
2. According to my scale, I am now down a total of 51 lbs since weight-loss surgery 6 weeks ago. 51 lbs in 6 weeks is just plain CRAY-CRAY!! Every week that I get on the scale I expect it to suddenly scream back at me "HA! Fooled you! Here are those 51 lbs you thought you lost."
3. It's been a month since Cam's IEP meeting with all of the attorney's present. I am still angry ... no ... IRATE ... that it cost just under $9000 to get Cam exactly what I asked for before filing Due Process. On Sunday afternoon, I have a meeting with the parents who funded Cam's legal fees. I offered to pay them back for a portion of the costs, and my guess is they are going to take me up on that. It's going to take me a LONG time to pay it back at $50/month, but I am beyond grateful for everything they did.
4. Cam has traffic school (4-hour) on Saturday morning. This is to get the speeding ticket (6-14 mph over the limit) off of his record and keep his insurance rates from skyrocketing.
5. You know, when I look back on the last 6 months, it's been a shit-show! How was I not boring you all by blogging about all of that?
6. One of the things I've discovered since surgery is that I miss eating - enjoying flavors and textures - filling up on sweet and savory goodness. Oh! And I miss BREAD. I haven't had a slice of bread in 2 months, although I did sneak a few bites of a soft pretzel (and no, that is not a euphemism) one night at the bowling alley.
7. There is discontent among the Music Parents group. Fine! I am irritated as fuck with the Music Parents group. Is that better?? We seem to have a few executive board members who are score keepers. They must log the number of volunteer hours for every other executive board member, and guess what? I come up short! Why? Because much of what I do is behind the scenes - keeping up our social media presence - designing, maintaining, and posting to our web site. And those two surgeries in April made it quite difficult for me to volunteer at the year-end event. It's okay though ... the snide, passive-aggressive comments were circulated throughout email so I paid my penance for being such a shitty volunteer. Remember when I said I thought this organization was a better place for my time? I'm rethinking that.
8. Mike and I are going to start our 2-month free membership at the fitness center (a perk of weight-loss surgery) next week. I'm actually quite excited about this!
9. I had to purchase a smaller bra. I guess you can't lose weight and maintain the 40DDDs ... or even the DDDs ... sad panda ...
10. The current drama in my family is due to my mom's decision to move back to Las Vegas ... again. This is the third time she's moved back there in the last 15(?) years. She moves down there, decides she misses her sisters, moves back to Washington to be with her family, decides the family doesn't understand her, then moves back to Las Vegas again. I should run bets on how long she'll stay down there this time. I'm guessing 3 years. Anyone want the over/under on this one?

Losing It

If you're not doing anything this morning/afternoon, I'll be on IWS Radio at 12 noon ET, talking about my recent weight loss surgery, what led me to decide to have the surgery, and my outlook going forward.

Knowing Jay and Matt, it might have been a BIG mistake to agree to this interview, but I have no doubt it will be entertaining ... hopefully not at my expense!