I am not the most coordinated person in the world. I have taken the occasional tumble, spill, head bonk, toe jab among various other injuries. Those who know me find this highly amusing. I however find it highly annoying, both that I hurt myself and am the source of others amusement through my own pain. Yesterday there were no less than three tragedies in our household. During my hosting a houseful of crumb crunchers or shall we call it playgroup, UPS arrived at the door. While trying to hold back a pack of wild hyenas small children I managed to kick my big toe into the edge of the door and against something sharp taking not only a chunk of flesh off my toe but also a chunk of nail polish—I am not sure which was the greater tragedy. (I’m kidding, it’s the nail polish.) Later in the day when Grandma arrived for a visit the little guy was doing his usual “I know you want to hug me so I’m going to run” routine when he stumbled and fell hitting his forehead on the floor. The hardwood floor. So, we applied ice and snuggles and despite the boo boo he was all better within a short time. Then not ten minutes later we all went out to the car to go to dinner and I manage to open the car door on my head creating an almost duplicate boo boo on my own forehead. This is somehow hilarious to the hubby. The next time he’s in a grumpy mood and displaying some “hub ‘tude” I think I may just have to trip over the ottoman or slam my thumb in a door. My talents are limitless.
Apparently it Runs in the Family
Birthday party, a couple raccoons and a tricycle
It sure feels like a Monday. I'm dragging today thanks to a 3am wake up. The dog heard a cat squabbling with two raccoons who he then chased up a tree. The hubby woke up and went out to investigate dressed in Hawaiian print boxers (because what else do you wear when looking for raccoons at 3am?) I wish I had video footage of this whole thing (well, maybe just the raccoons up the tree part) to share with you.
What I can share with you is a few sho
ts from the baby's birthday party. Okay, okay, technically now he is not a "baby". He just turned two. That's 24 months for a mommy-in-denial. We had a cute Classic Pooh theme complete with Pooh ears instead of birthday hats.
I found a darling Pooh & Piglet with a 2 figurine to use both as a cake decor and a keepsake but I underestimated how heavy the thing was. After putting it on the cake it fell backwards so I was forced to prop up Pooh's bum with a few Altoids. [In thinking about it, that might have made a better title for this post.]
As the little guy was opening gifts we saw this little entertaining sequence of events.....
The big birthday gift was a tricycle. Daddy has been very busy lately and did not have a chance to assemble it, so right after the party teenager assembled the whole thing himself for his little brother. We are all impressed. After nap time, the little guy hopped on. He doesn't have the hang of it quite yet but he sure loves being pushed around on it!
Math skills and an update
So, I want to announce that we are now on day four of Operation Fit [back into my pants] and it's going quite well! I'll have you know that not only have I managed to stay on track with my WW points but hubby and I have been getting up at 5:45-ish to go power walking four days in a row. Yea us! Here's the thing about this whole eating plan: not only does it all boil down to choices and planning (Planning people! I tell you it's necessary for nearly everything!) but some mathematical calculations as well. I'm anal about these things because I've learned I have to be.
"If there's one thing I've learned about weight loss it's that it requires planning. If I fly by the seat of my pants it means I'll need bigger pants."
The continuing Weight Loss saga
If there’s anything I know from years helping people organize and simplify home and life it’s the need for plans and routines. You really do need some sort of a routine/strategy/plan for basic daily tasks and it's necessary for things like diet and exercise as well. Our previous weight loss and exercise routine clearly needs to be revamped. In a nutshell, here’s what’s happened; I was doing Weight Watcher’s pretty faithfully though I’d been struggling with my loss of points/food when baby stopped nursing (i.e. I was still eating too much) and I had stopped going to meetings because baby-cranky-pants was not cooperating. As far as exercise, I had been getting up to do the elliptical while baby slept then trying to hurry and get a shower before hubby left for work. I have to admit that I’ve let it all fall apart over the last few weeks and have done nothing towards a healthy, weight loss oriented eating plan and exercise routine. Basically, it’s all pretty much went to he** in a hand basket at this point. I’ve now learned precisely what happens when I allow this to occur; I gain a bunch of weight, don’t feel good and the husband has to hear me say “Honey, I don’t have any pants that fit!” on a regular basis. (Oh, and the hubby also accuses me of “shrinking his clothes in the dryer”, but that’s another story.) So, it’s time for some action around here. I figure maybe if I actually post this for all the world to see I can hold myself accountable more so than just keeping my intentions to myself. So here’s what I’m doing: I’m going back to Weight Watchers tomorrow (wish me luck on keeping the little one happy during the meeting!) I’m pulling out my handy-dandy menu board the hubby and I created to plan dinners, and the hubs and I are planning to get up early, put baby in the baby jogger with his sippy cup of milk, and head out walking/jogging most mornings before he has to go to work. In addition, as the weather starts to cool off we are going to get out for more weekend morning bike rides as well as weekday afternoon bike rides when the Fall weather hits. (It’s just been too hot for this lately.) In all honesty when I am sticking to the WW plan it is doable and does leave room for splurging without blowing it and that’s why I like the program. But on a daily basis, it does take discipline and a lot of creative food planning to eat healthy, feel satisfied and not go over the points allotment. It’s frustrating that it is in fact harder to take weight off the older you are. Yet another reason why we need to step it up with the exercise. For those of you who’ve been reading a while you may recall this idea of mine which never really got off the ground. I’m sure you also recall me previously mentioning my attempts at weight loss and falling off the wagon before in more than a couple of posts. As I’ve said, I would truly love to be one of those “results not typical” cases where I can proudly boast about my successful weight loss efforts and exercise payoffs. And frankly, having recently turned forty I would also love to “look good for forty” and feel like it, too. So, you are all welcome to follow along with me on my journey with weight loss, exercise and self improvement. I have a few goals in mind I’ll share with you; in addition to getting back down to a healthy weight for me [I’m not going to pin down an exact number, but somewhere in the 130’s-140’s range is realistic] and losing inches around the “widest” parts of me, I’d like to also feel comfortable enough to wear two things I’ve not worn in quite some time, namely, a skirt that does not look like I just stepped off the prairie and white or beige colored pants [for next summer, of course!] They say dark colors are slimming and it stands to reason that light colors do the opposite because I’ve always felt like I looked wider than the broad side of barn in light pants. And frankly, if I wear khaki color pants I resemble “Pat” from SNL. Not a good look for me. Feel free to join me on this journey and share your own insights and experiences. Stay tuned for updates!
Just another Morning of Mayhem
This morning while I'm getting a screaming baby out of bed the teenager tells me its picture day. The notice the school sent home said it was suppose to be tomorrow, but he informs me that it’s according to when their schedule has a free period and it’s today! Yikes! (And thanks for letting me know at the last possible second.) Luckily, we’d already picked out the shirt he’d be wearing and I'd already started filling out the order form but still had to go online to pay (or find the checkbook and I wasn't about to attempt that). So, after changing a poopy diaper I hurriedly hop online to pay for school pictures. At this moment I’m thinking, what on earth would I do with more kids?! Thank heavens hubby is relatively self sufficient because frankly if I had him yelling from the other room; “Honey, where are my brown socks?!” that would be it. So, while getting the little one in his highchair and putting together a “breakfast on the go” for teenager who has no time to sit down I notice that once again he’s gotten up too late get everything done that he's supposed to which irritates me to no end so I have to nag at him about this for a while. Teenagers love that. While trying to get breakfast ready for baby, I say goodbye to hubby heading out the front door and to teenager heading out the back who at this point is full of TT [teenage ‘tude]. It’s very interesting to have this age spread between kids; on the one hand I’ve got a little one who I can’t reason with and on the other hand I’ve got one plenty old enough to reason with, however, he’s a teenager! Need I say more? (Not to those of you with teens, I’m sure.) To be fair, part of his ‘tude came from his mother refusing to let him take his skateboard because it’s picture day—of course this wasn’t obvious to teenager but the equation goes a little something like this: skateboard+helmut=flat hair which means we paid forty-six bucks for “teenage helmet head hair” to be displayed on the wall for years. No thanks.
Wherein I liken a Grocery Store to Disneyland
After baby’s playgroup this morning I decided to stop by a new grocery store that recently opened. Wow, what a store! Yeah, it was so good that I have to write a blog post about it. I wish I had photos to show you, however, whipping out my camera to snap pictures in a grocery store and in fact of a grocery store would have been reaching a height of geek-dom I was just not comfortable with. Even for the blog- sorry folks. Frankly, I didn’t know that that level of excitement existed in a mere grocery store. I’ll be honest, I like my full–service stores for the selection, service, amenities and overall appeal and this one exceeded all my expectations. As a SAHM to a high maintenance little one, often the few times we make it out of the house during the week is to go the grocery store, so I have to “make the most” of it. After I stared in amazement at the awesome selection of baked goods, gourmet cupcakes, etc, I noticed next to the coffee bar that they actually had a Gelato Bar—a Gelato Bar! There were other various food bars with just about everything you can name. There was even fresh baked pizza and freshly made sushi (one of my favorites). We strolled by the hot foods section so I could get baby a little portion of macaroni and cheese for his in-store lunch. I sat down with him to eat my bagel and of course that’s what he wanted. So after sharing half my bagel and getting the idea that he’ll only eat what he sees me eating I start to eat his mac & cheese. Big mistake. This was the best macaroni and cheese I’ve ever eaten. I finally get him to eat most of it and gladly help him finish the rest—besides the fact that it was delicious, it was also $6.99 lb. After lunch we start heading up and down the aisles and I was amazed at the selection. One of my biggest complaints about grocery shopping is going to a store and ending up with several things on my list that they don’t carry. Not only did this store have numerous specialty and gourmet items but also lots of natural foods items and organic, which we purchase quite a bit of. It was a bonus to find a local organic milk which was much cheaper than the national brands carried by my usual store. There was even a whole section with supplements, natural health and beauty items, etc. The grand finale to our trip was baby getting a balloon that actually had a clip on the end, thus avoiding the usual balloon-chase-down-in-the-parking-lot fiasco. This store was so great in fact, that I’ve got to go with the hubby so he can see it too. This sounds like a “date night” just waiting to happen.
Guest Post from The Cat
My owners have now required me to live outside. It happened around the time that new little person arrived, after my owner’s tummy got slightly smaller. [Funny though, her butt stayed the same size.] Anyway, this is the same time the dog was also given the old heave-ho out back. I’m not sure about him, but I think the reason I’m here is because of the numerous mice I’ve brought in, both dead and alive. Or maybe it was the bird whose feathers I coughed all over the dining room. Perhaps it was the many lizards who I’ve played with casually in the living room. But in thinking about it, it was more likely the snakes---the live ones, slithering down the hall at 2 AM. Yeah, it had to have been the snakes. I just don’t think they appreciate my friends. I also don’t think they realize that referring to me as the d*** cat hurts my kitty feelings. I’ve now had to resort to sleeping with the dog. They went out and bought him a house…can you believe it, a house!! Nothing for the cat, but a fully furnished, shingled roof, weather protected, window opening house with a skylight for the stupid dog! So, I’ve taken over. Yeah, I let the big furry guy in though, but only because he’s warm and frankly, I like to cuddle. Don’t tell anyone – I’ll deny it.
Oh no, Mom bought a hair clipper!
Since my family consists of a houseful of males who need frequent haircuts I recently had the brilliant idea to buy one of those hair clipper things [not to be confused with the hubby's mini hair trimmer, mind you]. So, I figured with boys who wear their hair short, how hard could it be? My first victim customer was teenager who thankfully likes his hair really short because when I got done with him he looked like he was ready to don some camouflage and ship out. Next up was baby, who'd had couple haircuts already and since I didn't think they did that great of a job I figured I probably couldn't do much worse--and hey, I was saving money! Okay, in all fairness, baby has a double cowlick and his hair pretty much sticks up no matter what you do to it. I have gotten better with practice; teenager's most recent cut looks every bit as good as the paid cuts he usually gets and even baby's hasn't been too terrible lately. I figured there was little chance I'd ever be allowed anywhere near hubby's hair since he's super picky about it (let's just say I spend less time on my hair!) But he's been griping lately about needing a haircut (it grows like crazy) so I "suggested" he let me try. I felt like I had enough experience that it might not be such a bad idea. I think it turned out pretty good there was just one little problem--apparently I held the ear tapering guide upside down and this resulted in a section getting a little shorter than I'd planned. Hoping it would blend on I didn't say anything. When hubby took a look he said something about a "patch of hair missing" so I had to confess and do some more blending. All in all, not so bad. Frankly, he's had worse haircuts that he had to pay for. Of course, we'll be using our haircut savings on a hat for hubby, but still.
Oops I did it again!
Please forgive the title, I just couldn't help myself.
So, the hubby and I are busily involved in Summer of Fun 2008 (which loosely translates into doing a boatload of crap around the house that needs to be done or I am going to scream) and I ask the him to find me a particular organizational item from the garage to send to the lucky winner of the SAHM Giveaway (congrats Meagan! I know you were probably shocked to win, what with those odds and all!) when I noticed he'd been gone quite some time. So I ventured out to the garage to see what was going on and he tells me that he can't find the thing I'm looking for and he's looked everywhere. When a man says he's looked everywhere what he means is that he looked in all the places that jumped out in front of him and completely ignored anything that might be behind or under something else because apparently those places simply don't exist. Or at least they don't qualify as "everywhere". So within seconds I spot the box that was sitting right there on a shelf behind something and said; "Right there, that's it!" He got it down and handed it to me and I went in the house while he stayed out in the garage to organize a few more things. Meanwhile back in the house I'm busy sweeping up Cheerios and crackers off the floor when the phone rings. It's the hubby. He says he'd like to me to unlock the door and let him in. Sadly, this is not the first time I've done this.
Conversation outside our bathroom
Me: “Hey, you know that mini-shaver/trimmer thing you use on your beard?”
Hubby: “Yeah, what about it?”
Me: “Well, it’s the rechargeable kind right? I didn’t see a charging unit anywhere.”
Hubby: “Yeah, it’s rechargeable, I just haven’t found a good place to set up the charger, it’s under the cabinet. Why, does it need to be charged?”
Me: “Yeah, it’s pretty dead.”
Hubby: *Giggling a little, then laughing out loud.*
Me: “What’s so funny?”
Hubby: “Well, I’m just wondering how you know this.”
Me: “Just go charge your shaver.”
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