Middle Schoolers

There is a reason that I work in the education of adults in a community college and with high school kids. Elementary school kids cry and throw up on the floor and totally gross me out. Hence, I only worked with them for a couple of years. There was a couple of years that I taught a mixture of classes, one of which had 6th and 7th graders in it. That age group is just insane. Puberty does some awful things to their personalities during this time period. I don't even think I knew what I was thinking at that age. Everything was so important. Everything was the high light of your life or the end of the world depending on whether it is good or bad.

My youngest, who varies between being my sweet angel and the spawn of satan these days, is in the 7th grade. She used to be so relaxed and easy going. She could go with the flow. She still is relaxed on the outside compared to most of her friends, but when she's at home we find out what was the highlight of her life and how her life was utterly ruined that day.

Friday was an interesting day. I met with Marcella the trainer. I came in walking fine and she asked me about the knee. I said it was fine. Then she said, "So, it's ok if I kill you today?" Strange as it seems, I said, "Yes, I guess you can kill me today." Who gives people permission to kill them? Who says, "Yes, I believe that today is as good a day as any other is to die." She did push me pretty hard. This is Sunday and my butt and shoulders still hurt. I haven't actually been doing much at the gym now that my knee is feeling better and my schedule is crazy. It takes less time to jog, so that is what I mainly do now. I never use free weights other than bar bells. But we used them on Friday. It takes more coordination than you might think to use them right. Marcella didn't laugh at me too hard, but I did remind her once that I was sure that she wasn't supposed to laugh at her clients. :) There is this machine that helps you do pull ups by using weights to counter act your weight. If you want to do pull ups of 50 lbs, you subtract 50 lbs from your weight and set the machine to that. Marcella asked me how much I weighed. I still refuse to have a scale in my house to drive me nuts so I didn't know. So she took me to the computer and the scale. She hadn't done this since August and I haven't reminded her to, because I'm not trying to lose weight any more, I'm just trying to get in good enough shape to run 5Ks with other people. She was shocked. I had lost 30 lbs since the first day that she informed me that my body was 50 years old. (Which means I've lost 38 lbs in a year.) I was at the optimal weight and body fat %. She wants to do the whole body age thing again soon. She was way more excited about it than I was. She asked how my husband likes it and then remembered he was a pastor and would only be but so crazy. (Whistling is not that crazy.) I'm still not quite in the shape that I was 5 years ago in some aspects and weight was never my primary goal...I didn't even know for sure how heavy I was when I started this saga. I just knew that I needed to change...get healthier and fit into my old fat jeans. It was pretty cool though. I did leave the gym feeling a sense of accomplishment.
I took my angel to the mall to meet some friends. I call her angel because she had cleaned the front room and asked sooo sweetly to do something that I had not let her do before. I don't think I let the older two hang out at the mall until they were in high school, but Chrissie seems to have a better head on her shoulders than they did at her age (for now, until I knock it off that is).
When I went to pick her up, she was sitting with her back to me at a table with her friends waiting for me. When I got closer, her friend said. "What's your mom look like? Is she fat?" (Who, but middle schoolers say stuff like that?) My sweet child said, "No, not any more. She used to be, but she's lost a lot of weight. She's still fluffy around the middle though." I'm glad that I am no longer a source of being the end of the world for her, however, I guess I have a little ways to go if I'm still "fluffy around the middle." What does that mean any ways? My momentary sense of accomplishment was squelched by a middle schooler. At least she wasn't doing jumping jacks around me for a mile. Imagine being in middle school again, just for a day. That is the whole reason that if I could live my life over again and do it right, I wouldn't. I don't think its possible to live through middle school right.