Olympics!

I very much enjoy watching the Olympics. Summer, winter, who cares I love to watch it. There's something about watching a high performing athlete compete at their very best and knowing that I can't even TOUCH how good they are. So far I've been watching gymnastics, volleyball - indoor and beach, water polo (which is where the hot guys are ;-) ), swimming and other random sports like rowing (which for some reason they call skulls) and kayaking. Of course Colby still wants to watch cartoons so I've been watching Olympics in the bedroom...but when I go in the bedroom Colby follows me, but if I change the station in the living room I get huge tantrums...sigh. I think that Colby and I have spent WAY too much time together because we're getting on each others nerves. School starting will hopefull fix that :-)

Carter has started sleeping for longer streches. That makes me happy because I like to sleep and I feel less of a need for napping...though maybe not carrying around all this extra weight is giving me extra energy!

Pumped for Coming School Year

I'm really starting to look forward to the coming school year. I checked my class load and I'm teaching 2 honors classes and 4 academic classes. I think this will be a really good year because I'm not taking any college classes, I'm not trying to finish an internship and I don't have foster kids and I'm not planning on having any until the next calader year. Plus I'm going to continue to lose weight and get some of my energy back! I feel like I can put my best foot forward and try out some new ideas especially in the area of writing. I also want to do more things online so that I won't have to grade as many things by hand. I only have a couple of concerns for this year - my class sizes range from about 21 to 26. 26 will be the most students I've ever had in one room. I'll need some more desks, that's for sure. Also, for the first time ever, I have third block planning, which is when all the lunches are. Last year they did away with lunch duty, but I fear this year they will reinstate it and I'll be stuck hanging in the lunch room for 25 minutes during my planning - boo! I mean seriously...I'm on a diet! The only food I need to be near is the food I'm allowed to eat! :-) But on a more serious note, I think this year is going to go well. Our principal was new last year and some things didn't work out well, but now I think he'll have a handle on things and get things moving better. He already hired an excellent SPED coordinator and kicked a nuisance back to the schoolboard office, so I think we're heading in a great direction!

Patio Facelift

Today I made good progress on the patio area. A while ago Brandon put up a picket fence to keep the dogs off the patio and away from the house. This created a nice area where we could spend some time when the weather is nice without being slobbered on. I love reading Better Homes and Gardens and I would love for my patio to look like something out of the magazine, but it's not going to happen...the things in those pictures are a lot of work and take a lot of money! So here's what I did on a small budget: I bought a triangular shade sail (basically a big piece of canvas) instead of building a permanent structure and mounted it on four by fours from another project that Brandon took apart when he moved the shed. I already had two chairs, so I bought two more and a small table (we had a large table that the dogs destroyed and didn't have the money to buy a new one) so now I have a nice sitting area under the shade. I ordered seat cushions from Amazon (still waiting for those) and I put a plant on the table and between two of the chairs. It looks great! I have some plants along the edge of the fence, but my goal will be to get more along with some candles to set around to keep the bugs away. I'm also thinking of stringing up some Christmas lights as a finishing touch. Now if only the inside of the house looked as good!

Fussy Yesterday, Fine Today, Go Figure

Yesterday I didn't make a blog post because Carter was far too fussy for me to have time. For some reason he had his diaper in a twist (not litterally!) and would not go to sleep for any length of time beyond a doze yesterday. He would cry, I would feed him, he would doze and then start crying again. I'm not sure why this was the case, but today he seems fine. He slept a bunch this morning and is taking a good nap as I type (quickly!). Maybe he was having a little growth spurt and just wanted to eat. Who knows?!

I got this itch lately to rearrange the living room. It's a super small room, so there's not many options, but I want to. I'm thinking of dismanteling the pack-and-play to move the loveseat around and moving the coffee table out of the middle of the floor so Colby can be his rambunctious self without kicking it half the day. I don't know, though...rearranging requires cleaning :-) I think once I get started I can do it and do it well...sort of like me tackling the front flower bed earlier this week. Once I got going, I pulled out all sorts of dead and dying flowers and weeds. Speaking of flowers - I went to Lowes yesterday and bought some plants for the back patio area, but I also discovered they are having a summer sale and I want to go back today or tomorrow for some plants for the front. All the perennials they are selling have already bloomed or are looking rather peaked, but they'll look fine next year!

Exercise!

So one of the things I need to do better at is exercising. Back when I was in high school I took dance lessons and played softball so much that I barely had and time for anything else. Now I chase kids around the house, clean and garden, which is a big difference and part of the reason why I need to lose weight. I feel like I don't have time to exercise because of the kids, but I think I'm just making excuses, but not today - today I loaded up Colby's bike and we went to one of the local trails and he rode his bike while I pushed Carter in the stroller. It was pretty sticky and hot (next time I'll bring water!) but it was pleasant and it was good for getting rid of some of Colby's endless supply of energy. I think on evenings after dinner if the weather is good, we'll do this again. It's not hard, I just need to DO it.

Wish for Today: That things that taste so good - ice cream, cake, pizza, chocolate - weren't so bad for you :-)

Carter's Two-month Check-up

Today I took Carter to his two month doctor's appointment. He had to get three shots and an oral vaccine :-( The poor guy cried and cried and when we got home we had to give him some tylenol to make him feel better. Other than that, the doctor said he looked good. He had some dry skin on his scalp and forehead that the doctor said was excema (no wonder since I have it) so I've been using some hydrocorizone and baby oil to make it look and feel better. I hope it goes away soon - I've been thinking people would look at it and think we weren't bathing the kid, but I assure you we have been!

Yesterday I went to the Homeplace to celebrate my mother-in-laws birthday (Happy Birthday Elaine!). If you've ever been to the Homeplace, you know this is not a good place to stay on a diet - any diet. It is a family style restaurant where the bring huge bowls of mashed potatoes, green beens, fried chicken, roast beef, country ham, apples and buiscits followed by a dessert of fruit cobbler a-la-mode. I could eat a whole bowl of mashed potatoes by myself on a normal day! But I restrained myself. I had green beans (which are very tastey!), roast beef and skinless chicken. Plus I brought a salad and strawberries to go with it (yes, I know it's tacky, but necessary since you can't ORDER a salad). As a reward, I was down three pounds this morning and still in ketosis! So far I have lost nine pounds and I haven't even made it a week! Yay me! I have to say that it's also getting easier. I'm more focused on what I CAN have and less focused on what I CAN'T have. I say this now, but I have a feeling that when school starts, this is going to be a lot more difficult...

No Wonder...

I occasionally read articles about why poor people don't eat very healthfully and today I found my answer - eating fresh foods is expensive! I went to walmart and spent approximately $90 on healthy fruits, veggies, and chicken, got less bulk than I normally do, and spent more! Heck yes it's cheaper to eat at McDonalds and probably tastier too unless one knows how to cook said fruits and veggies properly. At any rate I hope that the money I spent will keep me on track to lose more weight. When I weighed this morning, I had lost four pounds, though, I think it was mostly water weight from retaining fluids from eating badly early this week. Tomorrow I'm going to try my hand at making home-made whipped cream with diet-approved sweeteners so that I'll feel like I'm satisfying my sweet tooth just a little :-)

Getting Started is the Hardest Part

So, I started my diet today. And wouldn't you know, I've been starving all day! But I spent $150 to get started so I'm damn well going to get started. The thing about the Weigh Station is that it works really well AFTER those first couple of days. Those first couple of days are like running a marathon up-hill. The first couple of days all you can eat is protein and water. I had eggs and turkey bacon for breakfast, a hamburger (no bun or veggies) for lunch, and marinaded chicken (no sides) for dinner. That's it. Once I get into ketosis (the process during which your body burns fat) I can add in some fruits and veggies, but it's adios to bread, sugar, and dairy products for the forseeable future. I think I'll be eating a LOT of salad because I can have unlimited quantities of it. I just have to be careful about dressing!

In other news, Brandon took that day off today...I was glad because I miss having him around. I got spoiled after Carter was born having Brandon around 24/7. It's much easier to not get stressed out when there's another adult in the house. Plus he makes me smile :-) Plus, Colby has gotten into this crazy habit of talking non-stop. And he repeats himself unless you reply so I'm stuck having these crazy, long conversations with a four year old. I love him dearly, but I don't want to spend my whole day telling him what various animals eat. "Momma, what do alligators eat? What do whales eat? What do..."

Diet Starts Tomorrow - Pray for Me!

Tomorrow I start going to the weigh station. My goal is to lose about 80 pounds, which may take a while. I hope to lose over half of it by Thanksgiving. This means I won't be able to eat a lot of the foods I love - bread, desserts, chocolate, etc. So the last couple of days, I've eaten...mmm...not very healthfully. But I'm geared up to start my diet tomorrow. I'm excited. Really. And if I'm going to spend $100 on the first visit and $50 for every other visit, then I'm going to stick with it or it would be a HUGE waste of money. I've already decided to go ahead and start my diet with breakfast BEFORE my appointment. Go me! So wish me luck and eat a piece of cake for me! I'll post updates regularly so that you'll know how I'm doing :-)

Book Review - Dies the Fire

For the first time ever I read the same book twice. Several years ago I read Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling and this summer I decided to read it again because I enjoyed it so much. At first glance it is labeled a Science Fiction/Fantasy book, but it's rather low on that sort of material. There is an element of the supernatural in the premise of the story: on March 17, 1998 all electricity and guns stop working for no apparent reason, though there are hints that it has something to do with an event in Nantucket. From there it follows three people on their journey through a world where cars don't run, tractors don't plow, and people must grown their own food or starve. There are a lot of excellent characters including a wiccan preistess, an ex-marine, a history professor, and a Lord of the Rings-obsessed teenager. It's fun to see how they make it in this world that none of us can really comprehend. Of course there are your good guys and one REALLY bad guy, so it ends up being a story of good vs. evil, but I never minded. If you like post-apocalypse literature, or if you just like to get attached to good characters, this is a good book. Dies the Fire is the first in the "Change" series followed by The Protectors War (which I just finished and includes some details on how the rest of the world fared in the change) and A Meeting at Corvallis. These three books I feel are excellent. The saga continues when the wiccan preistesses son goes on a cross country travel in an epic quest for a magical sword while dodging the craziness of a cult obesessed with stoping him. While I enjoyed this spin-off series as well, I didn't like it as much as the first three book - Rudi seems to have fifty million lives, it takes TOO DAG-GONE LONG to get across the United States, and the magical elements are much more pronounced and likely to turn some people off. But, if you're looking for an interesting read for the end of summer, get Dies the Fire!

Projects - Not the Housing Kind

Today I started a new project. Nick's girlfriend asked me if I could take her old tee shirts and turn them into a quilt. Well, I'm pretty handy with a sewing machine so after I asked for some pointers from my mom, I started cutting up the shirts. I think cutting the shirts will be the most time consuming part because I have to be really careful...I don't get a redo. I cut up three shirts tonight and will continue tomorrow when I'm not so pooped. I'll post a pic when I'm done...I think it will look really awesome with all the tie-dye!

My other project is to clean my house...this is the never-ending project. The quilt will eventually be done, but the house-cleaning never will...sigh. However I think if I can get the house clean, I might...just might...be able to keep it that way...for a week or so :-) I think when I win the lottery I'll just hire a maid!

Disaster Averted

A couple of days ago I was standing in the kitchen and heard water dripping in the laundry room over head. We live in a one story house, so it wasn't an upstairs bathroom or anything. I looked and realized that, that spot was where the AC comes into the house and where the air intake is. I freaked - all I could think of was that there was something wrong with the AC and I'm going to have to call someone and spend lots of money. I called Brandon when I noticed a slight wet spot in the ceiling, which caused more heart palpatations. He told me to turn the AC off (no big deal because it was night-time) and when he got home...you wanna know what was wrong...the drain pipe on the drain pan was clogged...Brandon fixed it...and replaced the air intake filter...I felt stupid...but glad it didn't cost anything :-)

Today I took Colby to his first movie at the movie theater. First, Brave was a really good movie and Colby did a pretty good job of sitting still and paying attention. He's a four year old, so there was the expected fidgeting, but he did okay. The movie was cute. Geared more toward girls, but with the bears and such, it was okay for boys. I just want to say that I nearly choked when I shelled out $15 for the two of us to watch this movie at 12:40 on a Saturday. $15!!! For a kid and an adult!!! WTH!!! These prices are exorbitant!!! Talk about price gouging! At any rate, Colby and I had fun. Maybe Brandon can take him to see the new Ice Age movie...but maybe at a different movie theater!

Summer Continues

So my summer continues :-)

We went to the beach back at the beginning of June. We had a good time just hanging out as a family. We hit the sound-side beach near our house where the waves were tiny and the beach was filled with lots of other families with kids around Colby's age. Colby built sandcastles with Brandon and his new friends while I read an Carter slept. We hope that next year some other friends will be able to go with us, but it was plenty relaxing with just us.

After the beach we came home and Brandon went back to work and I settled down to enjoy my summer with Colby and Carter. I've been taking Colby to the park, pool, and library along with bike riding, playing in the pool, and hitting baseballs around the yard at home. There's been a couple of times when we've gotten on each other's nerves, but so far it's been a pretty good summer with Colby, though I think he'll be glad to get back to school and see his friends.

Hanging out with Carter has been pretty good too, but we've been having to deal with the unpleasant side-effects of his PKU formula. It doesn't really agree with his stomach and was causing lots of fussiness. I took him to the doctor and they said there wasn't anything they could do because it was the formula that was messing him up. Carter's nutritionist suggested prune juice, so I've been giving him one ounce of water mixed with one ounce of prunce juice every day. It seems to help him not be so constipated, but I have to say that the consistencey of prunce juice is NASTY and I think it makes his poos extra stinky! But as long as he's not crying inconsolibly, that's ok!

In other news I decided to make good on a promise I made to myself a long time ago. I promised myself that after I got pregnant and had a baby and was done breastfeeding, I would go to the weigh station and lose some weight for good. Today I made an appointment for next Thursday. I'm looking forward to looking in the mirror and liking what I see because all I see now is an out of shape woman who has CLEARLY been through two c-sections. Wish me luck!