First Day at Woodland Elementary

If anyone has been on Facebook, you've seen my most recent status:

Today was my first day of subbing in Michigan and I was assigned to be a half-day "floater" to fill in for teachers in meetings.  I started off my day in Kindergarten (24 of them!!) and had an absolute blast. I was impressed by how attentive they were and was sad I had to leave after an hour to go to fifth grade.  

...Which surprisingly turned out to be excellent.  I had never subbed higher than fourth grade (well, with the exception being high school) and was a little nervous. They were working on learning about the end of the Revolutionary War and how it led to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  In Paul Revere style, we read by lantern light and then I shared the poem "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I was able to make the connection that he was a Maine poet and that I am from Maine, which they thought (or at least pretended) was pretty cool.  

Their teacher arrived early, so I had about fifteen minutes before I needed to be in second grade. In teacher-style, I took the opportunity for the bathroom break.  It was a single stall women's bathroom in the fifth grade wing so it seemed safe for staff use.  I grabbed my things and entered, locking the door behind me. After washing my hands, I went to exit the bathroom. Uh uh. The lock wouldn't budge. At that point, I couldn't remember which way I had turned the lock in the first place. I kept trying every which way and jiggling the lock, feeling like the hugest idiot in the world.   I'm not claustrophobic, but I was starting to sweat and panic a little. After about five minutes of struggling, I came to the conclusion that I could not help myself and would need to have someone unlock it from the outside. Thankfully I had all of my things with me so I was able to call the office and have the most awkward conversation that went a little something like, "Hi, this is really strange, but this is Alyssa and I'm subbing today.  I somehow locked myself in the single stall bathroom near the fifth grade classrooms and I can't get out."

When I was eventually rescued, all of the fifth grade teachers were standing outside to make sure I was okay. Apparently this kind of this happens a lot.  You need to pull up and towards you on the knob for the lock to unstick. They were planning on printing off directions of how to exit, but hadn't gotten to it yet.  Moral of the story, when in a new place, just hold it.

Update! 4/29

Recertification finalized (finally!) and my first substitute teaching gig in Michigan is tomorrow at the elementary school in Kingsford. So excited! All this free time is making me go a little crazy.

The last week we've been running with Jack at the Fumee Lake Natural Area in Norway, Michigan.  

It's about 15 minutes away from our house.  There are miles and miles of trails that circle Little Fumee Lake, Big Fumee Lake, and a mountainous area nearby.  

Jack has been enjoying the freedom of being back in the woods - and swimming every chance he gets. 

The water is absolutely freezing (the lakes are still mostly frozen) but we almost have to drag him away when it's time to go. He was still pretty little at the end of last summer and would only swim to go after a tennis ball.   It's nice to see him just dive right in and swim around without any coaxing. 

This weekend we are going to the Wisconsin Dells - the Waterpark Capital of the World! The town is about four hours away and has over sixty water parks, amusement parks, and attractions. So far the weather is looking like it will be nice for us, but the BEST part is that there are indoor water and theme parks just in case! For example, the Mt. Olympus Indoor Water Park has a water slide that is ten stories tall. The building that houses Kalahari Indoor Theme Park is over 100,000 square feet and contains a full-size Ferris wheel that is six stories tall! It also has laser tag, go karts, and ziplining.  There will definitely be pictures to come. :)

Video Issues

Apparently YouTube videos do not show up on the mobile version of my blog (accessed via phone or tablet). I'm not sure if there's anything I can do about this because I'm sure it has to do with the fact that most devices do not support Flash Player.  So, if you follow me via iPad or mobile phone, you've probably seen a few blank spaces where a video should be!

Gabbie and Alice from Waterville, ME on Ellen

This is so heartwarming! What generous and well-spoken second graders! Read more about their story here.

First Pasty! 4/16

Today was the day where I experienced my first pasty.  I brought Jack for another visit with the lovely owners of Shear Happiness (the kennel that will be his home away from home while Jesse are away this weekend) and met up with Jesse for lunch at The Pasty Oven in Quinnesec.  There are a few different ways to have a pasty here: Traditional (ground pork/beef, potatoes, and onions), Traditional with rutabaga, Chicken and Cheese, Veggie and Cheese, and Spinach and Cheese. They also carry pizza pastys. We figured it only made sense to start out with the traditional.

It had the flaky crust of a pot pie and the yummy filling similar to a French Canadian Tourtière (meat pie). I was surprised that the potatoes were not mashed and minced in with the ground meat like in Tourtière, but in fairly good sized chunks. I started off eating mine with a fork (what a Princess) but quickly remembered (after some strange glances from Jesse) that this was a food meant to be eaten with your hands. So as to not disrespect the coal miners, I grabbed mine with two hands and dug in. 

You can order pastys from The Pasty Oven on their website!!

Getting on Track Tuesday 4/15

Today is Day Nine of the journey to a healthier lifestyle.  Woo! It seems like every time I start a new diet or workout plan I can hardly get past Day Two, let alone an entire week. Pretty impressed with myself thus far.
It all started when Jesse's company adopted the Virgin Pulse program put on by Virgin Mobile to encourage employees to be more healthy and active.  Using a pedometer, he has been tracking his day-to-day steps along with tracking "active minutes" when he is running.  There are also challenges he can accept or challenge other coworkers to do. For example, he's been doing a push-up challenge to do a minimum of ten push-ups everyday.  Nothing back breaking, just little things to encourage physical activity and overall health.  In doing so, he is earning points according to the amount of activity/steps and challenges completed. In addition to all this, he started using "My Fitness Pal", a FREE app and website that tracks your caloric intake and burn off from exercise.

After a few days of Jesse doing this on his own, I decided I would try it out just using "My Fitness Pal".  Never in my life have I counted calories, even when I was "dieting". It's so easy to use.  When you set it up, you select if you are looking to gain weight, lose weight, or maintain your weight. I selected lose weight and then it asked about my activity level, height, weight, my goal weight, etc.  It then sets you up with a goal daily caloric intake.  Using the diary, you input what you eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.  The app even has a barcode scanner so you can make sure the calories perfectly coincide with what you ate, or you can search their database if you are eating a food without a label. You can even save your own recipes or meals if it's something you eat frequently to save time. You also input the cardiovascular or strength workouts to "add back calories".

It is the perfect amount of accountability that I needed to get started on the right foot.  It made me realize areas of a "healthy meal" that really aren't as low calorie as you would think. It has encouraged me to be a Nutrition Facts label checker in the grocery store and find low calorie alternatives of the same foods.  So far, I have lost 6 pounds. That's 6 pounds in 9 days! Just eating better, less, and exercising for at least 30 minutes a day. Also, I feel full. I'm not starving myself or working myself to the bone. It feels good.

Last week, we bought a smoothie maker and have been having fun experimenting with different ingredients like various fruit, berries, and juices, almond milk, veggies, flax seeds, nuts, etc. Smoothies are breakfast and can be anywhere from 150-400 calories depending on the ingredients. Instead of yogurt, we have been using Light Vanilla Silk Almond milk because we prefer a thinner smoothie and it is much lower in calories. (And still so good!)

Today, I got a little adventurous and tried some spinach.  My smoothie was:
1/2 cup frozen blackberries
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup baby spinach

We have the Cuisinart CPB-300 SmartPower 15-Piece Compact Portable Blending/Chopping System and I highly recommend it! (Got it off Amazon.) It completely liquefied the spinach much better than the Magic Bullet. Best part, I couldn't even taste the spinach.  It's just the beginning of a wonderful, healthy relationship.

Before & after!

Wordy Wednesday 4/9

My top ten things that make the Upper Peninsula unique:

1. Residents of the U.P. are referred to as "Yoopers" and they have a pretty cool accent, eh?

2. Their police cars look like oversized toy cars. The light on top looks like the one below on all of the ones I've seen in this area - state and local.

Michigan State Police

3. There are separate lanes (usually separated from the road by a strip of grass or a guard rail) for bicycles and pedestrians on most main roads. 

4. The Michigan State Forest system covers over 3.8 million acres.  There are over 20 in the Upper Peninsula alone.  

The State Forest Land is colored in green

5. I STILL HAVEN'T HAD A PASTY, but they're kind of a thing here. (Pronounced: PAST-ee) From what I hear, they are essentially a meat pastry that became a popular staple among miners because of their convenience. There are six places in our town alone that specialize in pasties. 

Pasty from Dobber's Pasties in Iron Mountain

6. Only four of the 15 counties in the Upper Peninsula are on Central Time.  These counties (Gogebic, Iron, Dickinson - where we are, and Menominee) are those that border Wisconsin.

7. This area originally became populous because of the mining opportunities. The Chapin Mine closed in 1932, but from its discovery in 1880 to its closing, 27,506,868 tons of iron ore were produced. The ground in this area has a reddish color due to the iron. 

8. The mascot for all the schools in Kingsford is the "Flivver".  A Flivver is another word for an old car that doesn't ride smoothly - most often referring to a Model T Ford. 

Flivver Field, Kingsford High's football stadium

Kingford's mascot in their colors, blue and maize

9. The snowfall record in the Upper Peninsula is 355.9 inches....almost 30 feet! This winter, the record was only 186.25 inches, which is still over 15 feet.  The snowfall record in Caribou, Maine is 197 inches during the winter of 2007-2008. This year, Caribou had about 100 inches of snow.

10.  "The Big Ten" is a big deal in this area. There is even a sports bar in Quinnesec called The Big Ten. The Big Ten is the area's college sports conference that includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, and Wisconsin. Much to my dismay (and yours too if you counted correctly) there are actually TWELVE schools affiliated with the Big Ten and has been this way since 2011.

Meltdown Monday 4/7

This morning, we woke up to tap water looking something like this:

Of course, this revelation wasn't made until Jesse went to fill his waterbottle before leaving work...after I put a full load of laundry into the washing machine, hit start, and shut the lid. 

My (new) washer at home has this cool cancel button where you hold it for 3 seconds and then it automatically drains the water.  (However, this feature is NOT helpful when you find out your septic system is plugged, so you cancel the washer, and then water starts coming up through the tub drain. But that's a story for another day.)  

This washer is the model where you crank the knob and pull it to start the load; pretty standard. There are three settings: fill, rinse, and spin. After about two hours, I came to the conclusion that there was no way I was going to get the water out of the machine naturally...and the machine was refusing to restart.

I then grabbed small handfuls of laundry out of the machine, wrung them out, put them in a hamper, and then dumped them out into the shower.

Since the clothes were still saturated with murky water, once the water returned to semi-clear, I turned the shower on and rinsed the clothes for about 20 minutes. There they will remain until we can fix the washer or someone needs to take a shower - whichever comes first.

I'm Alive, I Promise!

Sorry I have been M.I.A. the last few days! Getting settled in and working on getting re-certified to substitute in Michigan has taken up a great deal of my time. (Also, I was VERY behind on my TV shows so thanks to finally getting Wi-Fi along with Hulu Plus I was able to get caught up this weekend.)  Now that I'm all up to speed pop culturally, it's about time for a blog update.

Jesse and I (but mostly Jesse) were able to get Jack's runner set up in the backyard over the weekend. He is still struggling (Jack, that is) with how to occasionally untangle himself, but we're working on it.

The major problem that led to the runner was having to use the leash every time he needed to go out.  Jack, at over 80 lbs. by now, is very strong.  That being said, he is still only 9 months old and still as "SQUIRREL!" as ever when it comes to pedestrians, birds, runaway trash, etc. Don't get me wrong, Jack is really well-trained, about 95% of the time off leash he is completely obedient, but it only takes that 5% to make me nervous. SO when out on the leash, if he has a "SQUIRREL!" moment, he will nearly dislocate the shoulder of whomever is unlucky enough to be on the other end of the leash. Runner = shoulder saver.

On the other hand, we knew we really needed to leash train Jack.  In Orrington, we were able to walk him off leash which made him a great listener in that regard, but the minute you put a leash on him it's an immediate game of tug-of-war.  We had talked about getting a leader for him when he was a lot younger, but we never came around to it.  A leader is a collar that has a rope (for lack of a better term) around it that lays across the top of his snout.  The other side of the rope has a loop that attaches to the leash.  When the dog pulls, the rope mechanism will gently pull their head down.

This weekend we picked one up at the local pet store and tried it on him.  At first, he went completely nuts.  He was rolling around rubbing his face in the dirt trying to get it off of him.

Since the weather was so nice on Sunday, we decided to try the leader again and take Jack for a walk around the neighborhood.  Once he found out that exercise and treats were involved, he stopped focusing on trying to get the strap off his snout and just starting trotting at a good pace right between us.

It seriously worked like magic! I would recommend this to anyone that is struggling to get their dog to walk well on a leash.  It's not a muzzle, the strap just goes over the top part of his snout and is lined with a suede-like material where it lays against his snout.  As you can see in the pictures, he even let me put it on him and take pictures without freaking out. :)

That's all for now! If anyone has any questions about the U.P. or requests for blog topics, email me at alyssaouellette@gmail.com :)