Let's Get this Snow on the Road....

And headed in some other direction!

It's nearly March and although I know the saying about March coming in like a Lion, I'm not really wanting there to be much truth to that old saying this year. I could be quite content with a March that does not change it's persona. I very much like lambs - heck, I like sheep, too. My dear friend S can attest to that - as can my Irish cousins who took me out into the fields to chase after (and attempt to photograph up-close and personal) a bunch of their flock. That was when I was visiting during my exchange year to Denmark and a few weeks after I returned to Denmark I received a note from my cousin, Eugene. In it was a picture of one of the sheep lounging on a hillside and staring off into the distance. The inscription on the back read "Geraldine misses you very much." Smartass. But, a cute Irish smartass, so he is forgiven.

So where was I? Oh yeah, March. Spring is supposedly not far away. But, this week we are seeing more snow than we have all the rest of the winter combined. At least it feels that way and I'm probably not too far off the mark on that one since it's been a rather boring winter when it comes to snow. Not that I'm complaining much mind you. I just wish that since the snow decided not to make an appearance this year that it would just mosey along to some other clime and leave us alone until next year. I mean, really. What's the point of getting snow now? The stuff doesn't last long this time of year and just serves as a general nuisance. Yup. I'd like to tell that snow where to go right about now. And let's not even talk about the ice/sleet prediction for Friday. I am just hoping that the weathermen are dead wrong (as usual) and we get plain Jane rain that will just clear away the rest of this white stuff and allow us to move right along into spring.

Is that too much to ask?

Blah. Blah. Blah. (hands over ears to avoid hearing your smart alec response)

Besides this snow is really starting to cramp my style. I've been getting my workouts in by doing my exercise videos and getting on my dreadmill but I really enjoy the morning walks with Lauri. It's nice to have a workout buddy to talk to and to help keep up the pace when you are feeling draggy. And it's great for some adult conversation before I begin my day with the kiddos. But, the weather has, of late, been a deterrent to our morning walk schedule. We are hoping to get out tomorrow morning for the first time this week. Of course with that dratted weather forecast we will likely be snow/sleeted out of our walk again by Friday. So, it'll be back to the grind with the dreadmill or the videos in that case.

And not only is the snow/sleet creating issues for my exercise schedule but it may also put a cramp in my travel plans. A few days ago I had the brilliant idea (shut up. I am capable of a brilliant idea...even two on a really good day!) of taking a family road trip somewhere on Saturday. My initial thoughts were to drive into Boston for the day and go to the Museum of Science or the Children's Museum. But, if we get hit with a sizable storm on Friday the travel may or may not be pleasant on Saturday morning. Only time will tell. In the meantime, this "planner" has to sit back and wait to find out if the weathermen are just making up a bunch of hooey or not. I am, shall we say, not pleased. But, I'll live. And maybe we can still get out to Boston on Saturday. Either way - life will go on and I know we'll find something to do to amuse ourselves this weekend. Barring any head injuries we could always try for a trip to the indoor pool again.

High School Revisited

If you would like to get a recap of Friday evening - in which I got together with three lovely ladies that I have known since HS - check out Vexed in the City. It was a fabulous night. Great food, plenty of alcohol, scads of laughter, and hanging with some truly wonderful friends.

Note to self (and to those who were present that night): WE MUST DO THAT AGAIN SOON!

So. Much. Fun.

Here are a few of my pics from the night to add to those posted by Karyn...


The Fab Four!




As you can see - it was such a high-school-girl-giggle-fest that only the likes of the four of us together could pull off. If laughter were outlawed our asses would be in the slammer! And we'd still be CHUCKling and guffawing as if we were high on some illicit substance (like WEED or something...) - but really we'd just be high on life and happy to still be hanging out together. Cuz you know none of us really want to get back to real life that soon!

Honestly. Someone got it right when they said "A good friend will come bail you out of jail, but a true friend will be sitting next to you saying...'Damn, that was fun!'

Yes indeed. That was fun.

Best Laid Plans

The plan for today was to go over to the indoor pool at the Middle School and swim for an hour or so this afternoon. It's school vacation week so every day from 2-4 this week they are having "open swim" time in case people are looking for something to do with their kids to burn off some energy and pass away some time.

My MIL was going to come over at about 1:30 and watch E so I could bring the older two to the pool.

However, just about a half an hour ago R was playing the living room and I heard a thud followed by a blood-curdling scream. This in itself is nothing to be concerned about because it is a scenario that is repeated often in this house whenever the Drama Queen Extraordinnaire is present. So I checked in with her and she complained vehemently - as she is wont to do on such an occasion. She was holding her head and explained that she backed up to sit on the couch but it was not where she thought it was. She landed on her behind and in the process smacked her head on the dresser. I sighed and thought to myself "Yep....like mother, like daughter. Both so graceful." I asked her if she was going to live because she was carrying on, I thought, way too much given the situation. She gave me an annoyed look and said "yes" and then pulled her hand away from her head to reveal a finger covered in blood to the first digit.

Surprise, surprise! I did not expect that she had actually managed a head wound in the fall and merely thought that she was being her usually over-dramatic self! I trotted her off to the bathroom where I attempted to clean the wound and assess the damage. It is a small wound, but a head wound nonetheless so there was no shortage of blood. She actually maintained better compsure than I would have expected given her track record and she let me clean the area well enough to see what we were dealing with. I determined that it was not worthy of stitches and once I cleaned off the blood that had already accumulated I found that the flow had pretty much stopped already. Phew. No rushed trip to the ER for us today (as I spit thrice and throw some salt to ward off the evil eye).

I sent her to relax on the couch and gave her some magazines to take her mind off the pain and then came to the computer to research other afternoon possibilities. I decided the pool idea was no longer a good one given the head wound! She recently reported that her head no longer hurts (yay!) and I managed to find a local theater that is showing 70 minutes of Looney Tunes Cartoons this afternoon.

The afternoon is once again looking promising!

Grease Lightning!

I just got caught up on the last two episodes of the NBC show Grease: You're the One that I Want. Things had been busy around here so I had actually kind of forgotten about the show for a while and realized that two Sundays had gone by and I hadn't watched. So, I acquired (ahem.) a copy from a "friend" and finished watching this week's episode this morning.

I had posted some first impressions a while back and I'm happy to report that some of my favorites are still in the running! I'm still very much enamored of Derek - especially after last week's performance where he did the song Footloose with a bunch of backup dancers. He'd get my vote after that one - if I were actually doing this real-time and able to call in my vote! But, this week. Eh. Not so much. It was duet week and I was not thrilled with who they paired him with (I think it was Kate? See....so unimpressed that I can't even remember a short 30 minutes after watching it). I also think the song was not right for him and his voice did warble and crack in the first few notes...never a good thing. So, I'm hoping he'll make a big comeback for me next week.

As for the women, Laura was a favorite of mine from the get-go and she's doing great! She did a FABULOUS job singing "Jesus Christ, Superstar" last week and this week she was paired with Austin. I don't much care for Austin, in general, but they made for a decent pairing and they set the scene for the song nicely.

This past week, however, I had to agree with a couple of the judges and say that Chad and Allie together with their rendition of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" were SMOKIN'! I have not been much impressed with Allie in the past and was not surprised when she received a low vote count in the first elimination (she was spared by the judges in the sing-off) but this week she pulled it off and gave a great performance. Likewise with Chad. He was never much on my radar but I loved his performance in the duet.

I also really loved Max and Ashley in their duet "It Takes Two" - they seemed so at ease and let a lot of humor come through in that performance. Ashley was another one I've liked since the beginning, so I'm happy to see that Laura and Ashley are still hanging in there.

But, that said, it is really a tough call. They are all doing such great work and wowing the audiences every week. I am sure that I would be happy to see ANY of them playing the parts of Sandy and Danny on stage. Unfortunately, I do have to wonder if I could ever possibly get tickets! I'm assuming that this show will create a ticket frenzy and the prices will be too rich for my blood. Sigh... I plan to get down to NYC some time this year, but perhaps a little too early to see Grease...and it is highly doubtful that discount tickets will be available at the TKTS booth anyway. Ah well, it's still fun to watch and I'll be tuning in and watching until the final Sandy and Danny are on their way to NYC!

In Which I Prove My Dorkiness...

I am really a first-class dork. Today I have a couple of prime examples to add to my litany of dorkdom.

Example #1

We have a vacuum cleaner that we bought from Sears at least a dozen years ago...perhaps even longer. It has started to have some issues - the biggest one being the hole that formed in the hose near where it connects to the wand part. I've still been using it because the hole is located in a place where I can mostly hold it closed and it worked well enough to get at least the big crumbs up off the carpet. There was also an issue with the power cord which would randomly flake out and shut off power to the vacuum until I went back and wiggled it until the wires magically reconnected and I could resume vacuuming. It was getting a bit annoying. So, it was time for a new vacuum. I loathe the thought of spending money on a vacuum but I must say that the dork side of me was a bit excited about actually owning a shiny, new model. See? I told ya!

Yesterday I dragged all three girls down to the mall (I promised them lunch at Wendy's to make the deal a little sweeter for them) to buy a new vacuum. Rick and I had done some online research and found that Sears had a decent model that was a recommended "best buy." It was essentially their newest version of the vacuum we currently have. We looked into all those fancy purple and bright yellow models that everyone raves about but decided that we didn't want to have to mortgage the house to buy a vacuum. We wanted to spend a reasonable amount for a vacuum cleaner that does a reasonable job at picking up the grit and dust - I really don't need one that can lift a sixteen-pound bowling ball. I mean really - how often do you need to deal with that scenario while going about your vacuuming chores? So, off to Sears we went. While browsing the vacuum aisle I found the model I was looking for and the price was the same as the online price - good thing otherwise the sales guy might've gotten an even harder time than he was already about the get. There was a model that cost $50 more and the differences between the models were pretty minimal...or at least the more expensive model had features that Rick and I decided were ones that were not worth spending the extra dough. I checked out the more expensive model just to be sure that "in person" those features were still not a big deal. As I was looking things over the sales guy appeared and asked if I needed help. I won't go into the ridiculous details but suffice it to say that he tried to sell me on the more expensive model and I kept shooting him down at every turn. I think he was annoyed with me because I kept getting that nervous-annoyed chuckle out of him when I said things like "I've been vacuuming since you were in diapers" (ok, so not in so many words, but he was a young kid and I was not going to fall for his sales pitch and let him know that in no uncertain terms). He kept extolling the virtues of the "regular" length hose and telescoping wand - because, as he put it, the model I wanted had a sub-standard length hose that I would probably not be happy with. Turns out the hose on the model I wanted (and bought after telling off the sales guy more than once - I am Vacuum-Queen, hear my dull roar with sounds of grit being sucked from the floor) has a hose that is about 6 inches longer than my current vacuum! So, I'm more than satisfied with this "sub-standard" hose length on the model I bought. Gotta love giving salesmen a hard time when you've done your research and know what you want and won't let them work their pitch on you. It was actually kind of fun giving him such a hard time.

I came home with my new vacuum, unpacked it from it box, admired it's unscuffed, bright and shiny exterior and then got to work vacuuming more than half the house. It was a little difficult to get used to at first because it's lighter than my old model but once I got the feel for it I was quite happy with the results. Oh, and it's a lot quieter than my old model so that I can actually hear the blood-curdling screams coming from the playroom while I am vacuuming. Hmmmm.... maybe that's not such a good feature...

I'm so excited to have a new vacuum. And I'm such a dork.


Example #2

I received a coupon in the mail for a children's clothing store that I go to anytime I go to the "big mall" where Sears is located. So, I grabbed said coupon on my way out the door yesterday and planned to look for some spring clothes for the girls. The coupon was 20% off your entire order and the regular prices at this particular establishment are usually reasonable to begin with so I figured I could get some great deals! I got in the car and threw the coupon on the front seat - bad idea - I should have put it directly in my purse so it would not be left behind. Dork that I am, I of course left it sitting on the seat when we went into the mall. After we dealt, not so kindly, with the vacuum salesman, we headed off to The Children's Place to use that handy-dandy coupon. You know. The one still sitting IN THE CAR! But, it didn't even dawn on me until we were looking around at clothing and I was so annoyed with myself. I checked with the sales lady to see if she would honor the coupon (which they did, ever so nicely, the last time I was there) and she said that she absolutely needed the code on the back. Bitch. So, I dragged the girls back to Sears and we picked up the vacuum at the merchandise pick-up area. I had them wait with the delivery guy while I ran the vacuum out to the car and retrieved the coupon from the front seat. Then we went all the way back to The Children's Place where I had them try on some ADORABLE dresses that I decided to get them for Easter (R wanted the blue one, A wanted the brown one, and E got the pink one...so cute!). I laid the dresses out on the counter and put the coupon next to them. The woman took one look at the coupon and said "I'm sorry, this is Children's Place" to which I gave her a confused look as if to say "duh, lady, I know where I am" and she held up the GYMBOREE coupon that I had retrieved from the car. Yep. I was in the wrong freakin' store for the damn 20% off your entire purchase coupon. I AM SUCH A DORK! In my defense the glossy flyers that both stores send out look very similar and we don't even have a Gymboree in our mall anymore so why the heck should I be expecting to get Gymboree coupons in the mail? But, really, I'm just a dork who can't bother to read the name of the store on the stupid coupon. Argh. So, the Easter outfits were going to cost me much more than I bargained for. As I stood there I noticed the 10% off sign that is commonplace in such establishments if you sign your life away and agree to receive even more junk mail in your mailbox and your email inbox. I fell for it. I figured that my purchases today would make "signing on the dotted line" worth it this time and I could always get rid of the card in a few months if I found it to be annoying or useless. Lo and behold, the 'bitch' does a 180 and decides to give me their current 15% off promotion - without my needing any kind of code or physical coupon in hand. Gee, maybe she's not such a bitch after all. Now I like her. Funny how that works. I was suddenly much nicer to her than I was to the sales dork in Sears who wanted me to spend even MORE money on some dumb vacuum "features." I even congratulated her on her upcoming wedding - the one she mentioned to someone else in the store a few minutes earlier. After all, she finds out I'm completely dork-o-rific and she still wants to be my friend and give me an extra 15%!

So even though I'm a complete dork, I still managed to get the dresses as a great price and the girls are going to look so cute on Easter in their matchy-matchy dresses, cute shrug sweaters and fancy white shoes. You know - so they can go tearing off across the (hopefully not wet and muddy) town green in the mad dash that is our church's annual Easter egg "hunt"! Pray for some nice DRY weather in the week leading up to Easter this year....and for a warm, sunny day so that they don't freeze in their springy Easter togs.

Sincerely,
Queen Jeanne
Monarch of Dorkdom

It Felt Like a Hangover....

Good Lord! I think I've shied away from the sugary treats a bit too long! (If that is, in fact, possible). Either that, or my body is indicating in a rather unfortunate way that I'm getting old.

I went a bit overboard on the sweets yesterday at Rebecca's party. There were all kinds of tempting junk foods and plenty of sugary sweets hanging around and I figured I would take one afternoon to indulge a bit. Apparently, my body has decided that sugar is the enemy and it was not going to take nicely to a bit of chocolate, or cake, or frosting passing my lips to travel straight to my hips. It decided to revolt. A couple of hours after the candles were blown out on the cake and the kiddies had all been sent home my head started to ache...then it started to pound and my muscles were doing their fair share of aching (lest the head have all the fun) and I felt like crap all evening. I tried ibuprofen and it dulled it enough to take R out for a birthday dinner but after dinner the headache came back with a vengence and I had it went I went to sleep. No fun at all.

Oh, and I won't go into the gory details but suffice it to say that at one point my intestines decided to join in on the fun of reminding me that I am not a kid anymore and that sugar is now my sworn enemy.

It was evil.

And it was all because of a little bit of birthday fun - and way less fun that I normally would've indulged in! My body is just not used to eating that way and it wanted to let me know in no uncertain terms that it was not pleased with my choices.

Tonight was the dinnertime birthday celebration with my in-laws (yeah, it somehow ends up being a birthday "weekend" around here! LOL) and my MIL brought along the cake. I did not want to be completely left out of the celebration so I took a tiny sliver of cake and about a quarter-scoop of ice cream. So far my body is not in meltdown mode and I'm trying to decide if I can muster up the energy to do my workout (that was neglected the last two nights - Friday because of party prep and Saturday because of the killer headache). It's probably the evil sugar talking, but I'm thinking I'd better pass for today and plan for a healthy tomorrow that does not include cake or ice cream and that does involve some level of sweating and cursing (at the too-chipper wench lady on the exercise video. Not at the kids...I hope...).

Sugar and I used to be this || close - what happened?

Anatomy of a Birthday Party

My baby - this one...


...had a birthday today.


Baby?...yeah...not so much anymore. Sigh. She'll be my 'baby' forever, though. How the heck did the last SEVEN years fly by so quickly? I honestly cannot recall life without my kids - it's as if that life belongs to someone else entirely. I was putting the balloons in place today and the smell of the latex reminded me of the time - long, long ago - when I worked for "The Balloon Lady" (and babysat for her two boys). I was just a teen in high school at the time and the memory just seemed to belong to another life! How can I be the mom to a seven-year-old?

Happy Birthday, 'baby' girl!! (well, officially at 11:10pm tonight...)

As I said before R wanted to have a "frog" themed party this year. So, of course I went all out with the theme...and well...here are the pictures to show you how things went.

Hoppy Birthday cake...


Presents galore (and special request "Gorilla Munch" cereal for birthday breakfast)

Decorations (including frog faces on the green party plates!)


Sign for the front door to greet the guests.

Plenty of friends to help celebrate the day!

Can't have a party without silly hats (which served as a fun craft activity to boot!)

More presents (opened while still wearing the silly hats!)

The Party Planner...

...and her Trusty Assistant!

I think she enjoyed her special day - and it's not quite over. We are off to have a special birthday dinner at Friendly's (her choice!).

Have a good one!

Sorry to Blog and Run...

It's been a busy week...and it's not quite over yet. We had a snow day on Wednesday so the girls (and Rick) were home on Valentine's Day. I wish I could say it was a nice, happy, calm day but it seemed like the girls were on edge all day - might've had something to do with seeing all that snow (that we have been deprived of so far this year) and yet not being able to go out and play in it because it was so FREAKIN' cold! It was windy as all get out and at times the "snow" was actually coming down in sheets of SLEET so it was not a pleasant day to go out and play in the white stuff. Bummer. And it means that we do not have packing snow AT ALL (it's actually so hard the girls can pretty much walk on it and not break through very often at all) so we can't even go make a snowman now that the storm has passed. Blah. So, basically things were a bit rough on Valentine's Day because the girls could not play well together - ugh. In the afternoon I popped some popcorn and then we all went downstairs and watched "Dreamer" together - cute movie. Not one the girls would have picked to watch on their own but it was a nice to watch it together as a family and they did enjoy it.

Yesterday was the delayed Valentine's Celebrations at school and the girls brought home plenty of cute Valentine's cards as well as the usual slew of candy that goes along with that. They've been on quite the sugar high! In the afternoon, I got to baking the cupcakes for R to bring into school for her birthday celebration. Since she has requested a frog themed party for Saturday I decided to make the classroom cupcakes in the same theme. Here's the birthday girl with mom's froggy creations!


In case anyone was wondering - the eyes are made with those white candies that they sell for melting and pouring into molds and a chocolate chip for the center and then I used shoestring licorice for the mouth.

Tomorrow is R's 7th birthday - SEVENTH? Yikes. That means she is more than half-way to becoming a teenager?! Oy. And I'm already seeing signs of teenaged attitude...maybe she's getting it out of her system early? (Shut up. Leave me to my delusions.) She has invited some friends from her class for an afternoon froggy party. I just pulled the cake out of the oven and once it's cooled I can get to the frosting and decorating part. A is off on a playdate with a friend and she actually has a Valentine party to attend this afternoon (postponed due to that dratted snow). So, it's just me and E for today and I'm busy with party prep and getting this house cleaned. (Why do I bother? It will be ransacked by a bunch of 6- and 7-year-olds tomorrow anyway...). I'll be happy when tomorrow afternoon is over and done with. I know R will have fun but I'm already getting party burnout from the last couple of weeks of gathering all the "stuff" and making all the preparations.

And speaking of burning out....I have been keeping up with my exercising this week and the eating has been going pretty well. I did Burn it Up on Monday and Tuesday but on Wendesday I tried to do the workout and practically fell flat on my face. I could NOT. Move. My. Muscles. No way, no how. I was in burn out mode, I think. I stopped the workout after 15 minutes then went to bed early and CRASHED mightily. I guess my body was saying "ENOUGH!" But, I jumped back in last night and it went MUCH better, so I feel like I'm still on track. I just need to give my body more breaks and not follow the schedule that comes with the workout program - they do say "listen to your body" so I'll go at my own pace and I'm sure I'll still see the results. It will just take a little longer and that is fine.

OK, so I've gotta run now. I will be back after the party with pictures of the festivities to share!

Have a good one!

Happy Valentine's Day.... A Few Days Early!

Wednesdays are particularly busy days around here so we know that a romantic dinner for just the two of us is not going to happen ON Valentine's Day. I asked my sweet MIL if she would be willing to babysit on Sunday night so Rick and I could have a date night. She agreed and we arranged to drop the kids off around 3:30 or 4:00 so we could hit an early movie. After looking at local listings we decided to head to a new (well, newly renovated), small movie theater downtown that plays a lot of indie and foreign films. We went to see Pan's Labyrinth - a dark and disturbing fairy tale (aren't all the good ones really dark and disturbing if you really think about it? Cinderella? Snow White? Sleeping Beauty? If you read them they are not the light-hearted and happy-go-lucky stories that Disney wants to make them) about a girl who is supposed to be the reincarnated soul of the daughter of the king of the Underworld. She must pass three tests to be allowed to return to her rightful position as Princess of the Underworld. Anyway - the film, which was in Spanish with English subtitles, was excellent. It was a bit intense in places and I literally had to cover my eyes because I did not want to watch some of the more violent scenes (her step-father is a masochistic Captain of the Spanish Army and he is fighting some insurgents who are hiding out in the hills). Just go see it - and cover your eyes at the gory parts like I did if you must - it's a great film!

After the movie (which, by the way, was interrupted for a few minutes right at very end by a young college-aged woman who was having some kind of attack in the back - diabetic attack? panic attack? it was hard to be certain - and had to be taken out on a stretcher!), Rick and I went out to dinner at a brewery down the street from the theater. I allowed myself a little splurge and ordered a beer. How could I not order a local brew?! I must say that I've really been missing my wine and beer since I cut that out of my diet...so it was a splurge that I thoroughly enjoyed. For dinner I had the Tequila-Lime Chicken and Shrimp with garlic mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. All very yummy. And I can tell that my stomach has "shrunk" of late - I'm used to eating so much less food that I could not finish that meal. I left more than half the potatoes and the roll and focused on the grilled chicken and shrimp (the best part!) and the vegetables. Rick ordered the Southwestern Chicken Cordon Bleu and rice pilaf. He liked it but thought it was a bit too salty.

Date night was great and the whole "early Valentine's" treat included an early Valentine's gift from Rick to me! He decided not to wait until Wednesday to give it to me since he had it finished early and since we were celebrating early anyway. I did not know that he had been busy working on a gift for me in his basement workshop while I've been doing my evening workouts. He can be so sneaky! I took a picture so you can see it in all it's glory...

I had told him not long ago that I would love to have a way to organize my jewelry so I can see what I actually have. I have two small jewelry boxes on my dresser and the jewelry was just sort of thrown into them willy-nilly so it always took a while to find a matched pair of earrings and my necklaces were getting all snarled and knotted together. Now I have everything all organized on a jewelry holder that Rick made and that he stained to match the bedroom set. How cool is that? I am THRILLED! Isn't he the best? And so clever?

Happy Valentine's Day to ME! And thank you, Rick, for making my (early) Valentine's Day so very special. I love you more than words can say!

In Which I Manage to Get Off My Lazy Ass...

Today was pretty slothful overall, but I did get some cupcakes baked for the bake sale at church (cookies just seemed too time consuming - what with the multiple batches to go in and out of the oven...). I frosted them after the kids were in bed and drew little hearts on each one with that gel-writer-frosting-stuff that comes in a tube.

After I finished the cupcake chore I went downstairs and forced myself to do day 6 of the Slim in 6 program (still working on the 'phase 2' workout called "Ramp it Up"). Tomorrow is my rest day - which is a good thing because I won't find much time to exercise given the fact that it's church day and Rick and I have date-night scheduled. I am finding that the evenings are the easiest time to get the exercise chore completed. And even when I'm tired and don't feel like it I find that once I get it over and done with I feel so much better. Funny how that works. ;-) So, I completed my first full week of "Ramp it Up" and if I follow the recommended schedule I am supposed to do another full week of that workout. However, I'm finding that I am actually getting through that 45-minute workout without too much difficulty at this point. After my rest day tomorrow I'm going to jump right into "Burn it Up" on Monday. It's a 60-minute program, which may very well burn my ass to smithereens, but I'm willing to give it a shot anyway. I can always revert back to "Ramp it Up" on Tuesday if I feel like it's too much, too soon.

Time to go relax on the couch with Rick and work on my knitting (still working on a pair of socks that seems to be taking forever because I am not finding much time to knit these days...).

The Fourth Deadly Sin

I'm feeling very slothful today.

I don't know why....maybe I can still blame it on yesterday's sugar high.

OK, maybe not.

I didn't get dressed until almost 11am. And I decided not to take another shower this morning. I took one last night after exercising so I didn't really need one, but my hair is just hanging limp and lifeless because I did not feel it necessary to style it after my shower last night. I don't plan on going anywhere today so I'm not too worrried about the lack of style to my hair.

E is taking her nap right now and I feel like crawling back to bed myself.

The older girls are being left to their own devices and seem to be playing together fairly well. For that I am thankful because, like I said, I'm not feeling very energetic today. I'm not feeling very creative or inspired to do much so it's good that they are finding something to amuse themselves.

Rick has already been out running errands this morning and now he's back and working on a project in his workshop - something to do with making brackets for a mounting system for his Jeep. He often needs to buy extra long things - conduit and the like - that doesn't fit in the Jeep and needs to be attached to the roof to get it home. So, he is constructing something that will make that an easy task, I guess. Don't ask me. I'm clueless. And he gave up his project blog long ago so you won't be finding any answers there either.

I have things I should or could be doing - entering receipts into Quicken, baking cookies for tomorrow's bake sale at church, knitting, reading the book for book club meeting on Monday (except that I never picked up a copy of it - oops), etc.... I'm just not feeling any drive to do any of it. Where the heck is my motivation?

Kickin' Ass

It is nearly time to get my ass to bed, but I thought I'd give a brief update.

I've been doing my workout program faithfully all week. Just finished my fifth consecutive day of "phase 2" in this workout program that I'm using. I am finding that it is a little easier each time and tonight I actually did not work up as much of a sweat as I did when I first hit that "play" button earlier this week. I am building endurance and muscle! And the scale is indicating that I'm doing something right! Tomorrow is my last workout day of the week before my schedule "rest day" and I think next week I might try out the "phase 3" video since I'm doing fairly well on "phase 2". There are still a couple of spots that burn my butt a bit, but overall I'm finding it much more do-able.

Today was an "off" day as far as food was concerned. I went to church for a "crafty ladies" luncheon and of course the lunch that was provided was homemade, super yummy, and not at all diet-friendly. Gotta love the little old church ladies and their delicious recipes! But, it meant that my calorie count was a bit on the high side for today. Nothing too disasterous, though, and I'm glad I still got in my workout to counteract some of the calories. I also learned that my body is adjusting to a diet without much refined sugar. I have not had much in the way of sweets since I started tracking my food and I definitely notice that I am not craving them quite as much. Today, however, I had a cookie mid-morning (had to try one - warm from the oven, no less - while baking some oatmeal raisin cookies for a memorial service at church tomorrow...you know - just to be sure they tasted all right), and about an hour later I was literally falling asleep on the couch! But, I couldn't understand why. Then, later at church I had some dessert and again I was feeling logy and out of sorts this afternoon. It was not until much later that I put two and two together and realized that I was likely experiencing a sugar crash. Doh. Amazing how quickly the body adapts and equally amazing how crappy refined sugar can make me feel now that I've decreased my exposure to it over the course of a few weeks.

Rick and I have a date night planned for Sunday - a little pre-Valentine's dinner and a movie date. I need to plan ahead that day to try to keep the calories at a decent level. I know they are going to be high - I just hope I can keep them from being SUPER high. Plus, it's my 'rest day' so I won't be working off those extra calories. Maybe I won't want to step on that scale on Monday morning...

As for the girls - a quick update: E never puked again and so far I've only taken her for brief 10-minute or less car rides. So far, so good. We can hope that she is slowly acclimating to her new perspective and that the lower, more reclined car seat is aiding in her comfort level. R just brought home her mid-year report card and she received glowing reviews! She is above grade level in reading and her math and writing skills are comparable to a 1st grader at the end of the year - so she's a good 6 months ahead in those skills as well. Her teacher noted that she has made excellent progress so far this year and indicated that we would receive more detailed notes on her progress soon (her teacher was out of school for a short while because of a death in her family so she's trying to play some catch up on some of the administrative tasks). As for little Miss A - she is continuing to love her preschool program and today she came with me to the luncheon at church. She was not thrilled about going but once we got there she settled in and was so excited that one of the women at the luncheon is a teacher who often substitutes at her preschool. She sat next to "Ann" at lunch and enjoyed chatting it up with all the ladies who asked her about preschool and about the things she likes to do.

Alright - time to go to bed! I need my beauty sleep...you know...it is not easy being this beautiful and glamorous. It really takes a lot of work...and plenty of sleep. Trust me.

In Which a Theory is Still Mostly Unproven

OK, so the stomach bug theory (unless it was a very, very, VERY short-lived one....highly doubtful) did not pan out. E was fine all day yesterday - ate well, no further eruptions, and slept well last night. The other two girls were fine - no stomach upsets, no signs of illness. Thus, I don't think it was a stomach ailment that caused the vomiting yesterday.

The car seat/new perspective theory seems to be the winner. And after trying to clean the stupid car seat out and also not being happy with it's completely upright orientation in the car, I decided to switch her to a different seat. We have a seat that used to be A's when she was still using a 5-point harness. It seems to fit in our car much better in the forward-facing position than the other one - and as a bonus it is easier to remove the cover and to clean! I also like the fact that this older car seat can be installed at a bit of a recline. E is used to being reclined rear-facing, so maybe by keeping a slight recline in the forward-facing position she'll fare better. We can hope! Today's trip to school was much shorter - I didn't forget to bring A's lunch because she is not actually staying for lunch today! So, on the short rides to and from school she did fine. Thankfully. I did not want to be dealing with another pukey load of laundry and another car seat to clean and sanitize. That might have sent me over the edge. OK, well, not really, but it might have made me cry a little and you would have had to listen to another whole venty post. Not fun.

So, today is much calmer. Still very cold out there. I did not walk again this morning. But, last night I did another 45-minute workout video. That one kicks my butt - literally. There is this one sequence where she has you on your elbows and knees and you do these leg exercises and she goes from one move, to another, to a third - all in quick succession - and MAN, does it burn my butt. Ouch. I generally don't get through the whole sequence without at least three breaks because it just hurts too much. And then the sadistic wench lady on the video says something like "If it's burning, that's good! It means it's working! So, push it a little!" in this way-too-cheery kind of voice. Makes me want to smack her. But, instead, I just push it as much as I can and grumble to myself since smacking the TV will do no good. And who am I kidding, I'm the one torturing myself anyway... But, the good news is that as of this morning I'm down 4.5 pounds since mid-January. And recently my clothes have started to feel a little looser. So, the torture is not all in vain. Still a ways to go but it's nice to have made some progress of late!

Time to get going. E just walked by and I smell something suspicious...

A Bit of a Catch-22, or How My Morning Sucked...

This morning feels more like winter. Temps hovered around zero when I woke up. No early walk for me this morning.

The girls woke up and I got breakfast on the table. E was in her highchair and had eaten most of the cheerios strewn about the tray but left her milk untouched. Somewhat unusual for her normal routine. R and A ate their breakfast without complaint and A asked for another half of an english muffin with peanut butter. So, their appetites (and thus their stomachs) seemed fine. Can you guess where I'm going with this one?

I ate my breakfast and sent the girls off to get dressed. E wanted down from her chair so I closed the gate and sent her loose in the living room. She came back a while later begging for the bottle of milk still on her tray and I gave it to her but later found it on the floor still mostly full. I got dressed and then it was time to get R ready for the bus. Once she was on her way to school I got E dressed and proceeded to get everyone ready for the trek to drop A off to preschool. So far, a pretty typical morning, right?

Oh, and I should mention that it would seem I had a premonition of things to come. Call it motherly instinct (but, mostly I just didn't want to go out in the bitter cold and drag E in and out of preschool this morning...). I joked with Rick a few times about having him do the preschool drop-off this morning. I made it sound like a great idea - one that would be beneificial to him as well because his office was likely to be freezing cold if he got into work too early! (They have a heating duct issue that can't be fixed until spring and even when the heat has been on for a while the temps only get into the low 60s). He didn't fall for my feminine charm or my logical thinking however and left at his usual time - which meant I still had to do the drop-off. Damn. Guess I need to work on my wily and persuasive side.

The trip to school takes about 10 minutes. I got the kids bundled into the car, got my coffee, diaper bag (which I didn't *really* need for that quick trip - but again, call it a premonition...something made me decide to grab it on my way out the door), purse, and keys. We drive to school and it's not until I'm in the parking lot that I have the sinking realization that we left A's backpack at home. You know - the one with her lunch and her gymnastics clothes that she needs right after school so she can go to her gymnastics class. Oh crap. So, rather than drag E in and out of the building twice I decide to just turn right around and go home for the necessary items and then haul ass back to school. Given what happens next I'm not sure which was the wiser choice.

It is now 9:05 and we've been in the car for about 20 minutes. I drive home and grab the backpack, making a mental note to do a morning checklist before pulling out of the driveway. "Ok, it's Monday. What do we need? Lunch! Check. Gymnastics clothes! Check. Hairbrush! Check." You get the idea. Ugh. This is the second time in less than a week that I've left her lunch at home on a "lunch bunch" day. I get back in the car and we head to school. E has been making a few noises of protest but I figure she is just annoyed by being in the car for so long. Oh, and I should mention one other little piece of noteworthy information. E is in her car seat forward-facing for the first time. I decided it was time to move her car seat around now that she is 16-months-old and her head was getting close to being within an inch of the top of the car seat. So, it was time to do the big switch. I figured she'd enjoy the new view out the front of the car. I think she did.

Until she threw up.

Yeah. You knew that was coming, didn't you?

I was very close to school and wasn't sure what to do. I had two theories going on in my head. Either she has a bit of a bug (remember that still mostly full bottle of milk from breakfast...) which would mean that A and/or R and/or Rick and/or I might be the next in line for some stomach expulsions or she is reacting poorly to being in her car seat facing forward and had a touch of car sickness. After all, we had now been in the car for more than half an hour because of dear old mom who might forget her head at home if it wasn't so firmly attached. Either way, I'm feeling not very happy at that moment. The smell is permeating the car and I'm wondering whether I'll be dealing with a bug that is going to take one or more of us down for the count over the course of the next few days....or weeks even...or if I am dealing with a baby who is going to be throwing up on herself every time we get in the car for a while. A bit of a catch-22, wouldn't you say? I ended up calling the school and asking one of the teachers to come and meet A (and her errant backpack) at the parking lot for me so I could work on cleaning off E and get her back home pronto. I had decided to go with the car sickness theory until further puking (by E or someone else...) proved otherwise.

We have been home for a while now. I cleaned off the car seat as best I could (and was glad that I had the diaper bag along for the ride so I had wipes and cloth diapers handy for a quick clean-up before we started back home!). Some fool designed the car seat in such a way that I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the cover off - it is one of those seats that does not require unthreading and rethreading of the straps to adjust the harness height - which seemed like a perk at the time...not so much now. I hosed the cover down as best I could, in situ, and then I discovered that there are far too many tight, hard-to-clean crevices in the damn seat for post-consumption shrapnel to imbed itself. Obviously, the person who designed the seat never tried cleaning it up after a child exploded all over it. Sigh...

E seems to be doing fine at the moment so the car sickness theory is still viable. I have not given her anything else to eat or drink and she is not begging to be fed so the stomach bug theory is also still viable. I have not yet received a call from R's or A's school asking to come pick up a sick kid. So, things are good on that front so far.

Which theory would you be hoping for?

Yeah, it's a tough call...

A quiet moment...

The older girls are watching an "Arthur" dvd and the youngest was acting psychotic so I plunked her in her crib with her paci and she is happy to play in there....go figure. Guess we all need a few moments of solitude now and again. I know I do.

Rick is being the good husband and is off doing the grocery shopping. (Thanks, hon!) My hip is still being irksome and so he's trying to help me rest it for now. I did well all morning at church but by lunchtime it had started to twinge and then it was aching up a storm by early afternoon. I took some ibuprofen and stuck a heat pack on it to warm up the muscle and one or both took the edge off for now. Here's hoping I don't need to go for another adjustment before this bout of sciatica clears up. I'm so sick of dealing with the damn hip at random intervals!! It is so frustrating, particularly when I tried something new like the workout video I did before this recent flare up and then I get sidelined because my hip can't handle it. It really makes a body feel old, ya know?

Speaking of feeling old, I have been doing some internet searches to try to find other "old folks" like myself who apparently have an evil milestone fast approaching. I managed to find a couple of fellow grads and passed along whatever information I could glean from websites and online articles to the appropriate coordinators. I think I've tracked down about three people and we now have about 50 graduates that have been "found"....out of over 400. There's lots more work to do, obviously. One of the coordinators emailed me her current list of "finds" and I saw a name I recognized on the list and asked her to forward that person my email. A short while later I got an email from "Sue" and got caught up on the basics of her life over the last 15 or so years since we last spoke. It was great to hear from her and I hope we can reconnect and perhaps get together when I am visiting my hometown again. (I could even invite her to join Karyn and me when we have breakfast at our usual hangout!)

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. We won't be watching the "big game" tonight - heck, the only reason that I even know it's Superbowl weekend is because the Youth Group held their annual "Soup-er Bowl Sunday" fundraiser. The youth collect money in big soup pots as people are leaving church and they decide where to send the money. They collected over $300 this morning ($100 more than they collected last year!) and will be sending it to a local shelter.

Rick just got home from the grocery store and the girls movie just ended so my quiet time has come to an end. Time to go figure out what's for dinner and get the girls started on their evening clean-up routine. Have a good one!

A Pain in the Ass

Literally.

I suffer from sciatica pain now and again. It started a number of years ago when I had an injury to my hip and the pain has come and gone over the years since. It got a lot worse during each of my pregnancies. I lived through the pain with R's pregnancy but once I was pregnant with A and had to also chase after 2-year-old R I realized I had to do something because I was never going to survive if I didn't! The pain varies from a constant dull ache, to a sharp pain that feels like someone jabbed me inside the butt/hip joint with a hot electrified poker. The pain radiates down as far as my calf muscle at times and often stops me in my tracks. Not fun. So, I found a chiropractor at that point and now I see him every so often for a readjustment when the pain flares up. Usually not more than a few times a year and sometimes I go as long as a year between visits.

I tried a new workout video a few days ago and sure enough my damn hip started to ache. I was annoyed because I've gotten into a good mindset and routine with my daily exercise and I hated the thought of being sidelined!!! So, yesterday I called my insurance company to get pre-approved and then called the chiropractor to make an appointment. Luckily, he was able to fit me in this morning. In the meantime, I was doing some research online to see what it said about exercise and sciatica and I happened to find some stretches for the hip that are supposed to help when the problem is caused by a tightening of a particular muscle in the hip that irritates the sciatic nerve. I decided to give the stretches a try to see if they helped at all. I also figured I'd keep the appointment so that he could work out any kinks since my last visit in the fall.

The stretching exercises seemed to help as the pain was gone this morning - but then again, when I have the flare ups the mornings are usually better and the pain gets worse as the day progresses. I went to my appointment this morning and my back most definitely needed some adjusting because he easily got a number of lovely-sounding cracks out of it! Of course, now my sciatic nerve is irritated by the adjustment so the pain is back and a bit worse than yesterday (that seems to be the usual course of things - it gets temporarily worse and then it goes away...for a while anyway). I'm going to take some ibuprofen and hope that things improve considerably by tomorrow. I also plan to keep up with the stretches a couple of times a day to see if that will help the muscle stay a bit looser. One can hope.

I'm not sure how often Lauri and I will get to walk this coming week - the weather forecast is calling for frigid morning temps (at or below zero) all week long. Ugh. I thought that it was bad when we walked one 8-degree morning recently - I don't care to walk when it's any colder than that, thank you very much! So, I want to be able to mix up my boring treadmill and hand weight workouts with some of the exercise videos I just got.

I've been at the diet/exercise thing for over three weeks now and I feel like I'm finally getting better control over the eating. This week I've done much better in keeping at or below my daily calorie goal and the weight loss I reportedly recently has stuck! Definitely good motivation when the numbers drop and stay down!

Time to grab some lunch and then R needs to be dropped off at a birthday party at a local indoor pool. Have a great day!