Birthday plans

Maddy is having a "school friends party" this year for her birthday. It's her first, which means it's also my first. I've ducked the responsibility of throwing a "real" birthday party for almost 7 years. I had a good run.

I heard somewhere from some celebrity (which proves that it's sage advice) that the appropriate number of kids to have at a child's birthday party is the age they are turning, plus one. Therefore I allowed her to invite 8 friends. It seemed like a reasonable number at the time. Plus the invites come in packages of 8, which is a clue to the uninformed that 8 is the preferred number of guests. Never mind the fact that if there is only one host that leaves you with an odd number of people. Which makes seating an issue, but that doesn't really apply here. Considering we will be serving pizza from a picnic table that is sitting in wood chips. But moving on...

I didn't consider that 8 kids also means up to 16 parents, plus the possibility of siblings. Yikes. We are talking a major party here. If on average every kid has one sibling we could have 32 guests. But that is assuming everyone comes, which I highly doubt will happen. Right?

Power Rangers is the theme. So girly, I know. But hey, it's what she wanted, who am I to judge? It will be nice to break away from the pink and flowers for a bit. We went to a birthday party this weekend for a little girl in the neighborhood and everything was so perfectly themed. Strawberry Shortcake. We even ate actual strawberry shortcake, on Strawberry Shortcake plates, with Strawberry Shortcake forks. The kids played pin the strawberry on the cake and whacked a strawberry pinata. Maddy came home with a Strawberry Shortcake tatoo on her arm, and a strawberry shaped goodie bag. There were even home made chocolates in the shape of strawberries. The mom talked about how hard it was to find the pinata and how she had to order the forks online. She planned. She researched. She created.

Me? I was planning on swinging by Party City on the way to the park that morning and picking up whatever they happen to have. Is that bad?

Operation Skinny: Week 3

Another week is gone. Wow… They are just flying by right now.

So I ate an average of 1,578 calories per day. It’s the most I’ve eaten since starting Operation Skinny, but I’m ok with it considering I ate less than expected last week. I was pretty hungry early in the week.

I walked 21.5 miles. Wohoo! That’s awesome. I’m thrilled with that number. I think that is my max. 3 miles a day. Apparently one day I walked 3.5, but I really think 3 per day is going to be it for a while.

Here's the bummer. I gained .4 pounds again. Sigh. I know I didn't get fatter... look at those numbers! So I can only assume it's muscle. Hopefully that stops soon since I won't be walking any extra, just sticking to the 21 miles a week.

Totals:
Net weight loss: .8 pounds
Walked: 58 miles

Lost vacations

I am having the worst luck with vacation planning this semester. First off we decided on a week for our Disneyland vacation in December but it turns out I have a group project that week in one of my classes.

Let me take a moment here to explain my feelings about group projects. I hate them. I despise them. I loathe them. You see, I have a small control freak that lives deep within my heart and she goes whirring around at the mere mention of a group project. What's the point? To teach me how to work in a group? You just teach me Accounting... I'll work on my social skills by myself, thank you very much.

So take the fact that I have to rearrange my vacation and add in my hatred for group projects and the whole thing just turns my stomach. Bleck.

Unfortunately that was not the end of it. I also planned a trip to the Grand Canyon during Maddy's fall break. We have hotel rooms and everything. Then last night I realize that I have a Math test on the day we were planning on leaving. GRRR... So tonight I have to go beg for the chance to maybe take the test early. We'll see. But I'm not feeling good about the whole situation, I'm telling you that.

The boy in the tree

There is a boy at the bus stop that always sits off by himself. He kinda dorky, in a black socks with crocs kinda way. (Seriously, he really did wear that.) He never talks to any of the other kids that I can see. But you can also tell that it's not about shyness. This kid seems angry. It isn't just a "I wish someone would talk to me." kind of standing apart. It's more a "I know I'm not welcome over with the other kids and I don't care because I hate them all anyways." kind of separation. Does that make sense?

Anyways, he started climbing a tree at the bus stop and hanging out up there. I didn't like it. I know, boy in tree, what is the problem? But this tree isn't very big. The trunk is only about 6 inches in diameter and the branches really aren't big enough to support a boy. Besides, he doesn't just go up there and sit quietly. He breaks off every single branch he can. I really didn't like him being in the tree but hey, it's not my tree, it's not my kid, it's not my business. But when I was standing there watching branches come down and couldn't keep my mouth shut. I went over and said, "Please stop taking the tree apart. There's no reason for that!" And he stopped. The next day he didn't climb the tree and I thought we were past it. Pretty relieved actually. So then today I went outside and he was up there again. I tried to ignore it. But then I saw the branches down at the bottom. Big branches. So I go over there.

"Please come out of the tree."
"Why?"
"Because you are killing the tree by doing that."
"I'm pruning it."
"No, you're killing it."
"So what?"
"Get down, please."
no response.
"Get down."
no response.
"Get down!"
He comes down one branch. Now the other kids are starting to mill around and see all the broken branches and are actually upset about it.
"Get! Down!" I said firmly.
And he finally does.

Then the bus came and all the kids were still talking about how terrible it is to take a tree apart like that. I actually felt kinda bad. I know this kid already isn't liked and then they are kinda going after him for this. They weren't being mean about it. Just talking amongst themselves saying things like "Who would try to kill a tree?" "Why would someone do that?" But he definitely heard them.

Hopefully we are past it. Hopefully tomorrow when I go outside that tree is boyless.

But I really want to know this boy's story. Something is up. Someone is being mean to him somewhere, probably at home. Which sucks. That's one of the reasons I let the tree thing go for as long as I could possibly stand it. That, and the fact that I knew it wasn't going to be a simple "please stop doing that." kind of thing. There was going to be arguments, disrespect, speaking to parents.

Maybe I'll talk to him tomorrow. If he is sitting by himself I'll go say hi. I'll ask him what his story is, and he will openly tell me everything that is bothering him. And then I will offer some words of wisdom that turn his life around. Yeah, that's how it will go, just like that.

3's make me happy. A mid-term progress report.

We got Maddy's mid term progress report during the week and I'm happy to report she is doing wonderfully. They still don't grade with letter grades. It's a 1,2, 3 thing. 3 being best. So of course she is getting all 3's. :) In fact, out of 20 or 30 assignments she got a 100% on all but 2 of them. She spelled her name wrong on the name writing test. Which I call shenanigans on because they made her write Madison when she has never practiced that before. She has always written Maddy, I've never taught her how to spell Madison. I've honestly never even considered it. No one ever calls her that. Anyways, she spelled it Madisno. Which I teased her about for the rest of the night. Calling her Madisno. Don't worry.... she thought it was funny. As did I.

The only other thing she didn't get a 100% on was her spelling test. Remember how I said they give you 5 words to practice and then the spelling test is 10 words? Well she did perfectly fine on all that, even the mystery words. Apparently they work on the mystery words during class. I didn't know that. But then they had to write sentences too. She missed one of the words in the sentences. She didn't spell it wrong... she just forgot it. I think the sentence was something like "Ben had a big quiz." and Maddy wrote "Ben had a quiz." Ok, a point off.... I can live with that.

I don't want to leave this post talking mostly about the two tiny things that Maddy got points off for in school.... so I would like to remind you again that she got 100% on about 25 other assignments. I couldn't be more proud of her. She's doing better in school than I am! :)

Operation Skinny: Week 2

Alrighty, week 2 is finished. I would say it was another big success. I ate an average of 1,374 calories per day, which is less than last week. I was still aiming for 1,500 so it is actually a little lower than I was expecting. I didn’t go hungry though. I don’t know what the deal is with that. I’ve been super busy, maybe I was just distracted.

I walked a total of 18 miles. Pretty good. Up from last week. So I’m excited about that. I think I might be able to squeeze another mile a day in but that is going to be the most I think I can do. Going twice a day actually makes it easier. For one thing, each shift only takes half the time so it’s easier to motivate. You also get less tired, since you aren’t walking as far all at once. But more than anything when I’m feeling lazy in the morning I make myself go because I don’t want to have to walk twice as far at night. And then at night I don’t want to ruin the good start I have going from the morning. AND the best news ever… I have two friends that are walking with me in the morning. Which is awesome. It makes the morning walk go so fast.

Ok, ok, but this wasn’t all for nothing. I lost 1.6 pounds. Wohoo! We’re on our way!

Grand Totals:
Lost: 1.2 pounds
Walked: 36.5 miles

Where does the day go?

Here is what I did yesterday

7:00 Woke up, threw something on, made bed, woke up Maddy, got Connor out of bed
7:15 Fought with Connor about getting dressed and went downstairs. Made kids breakfast and Maddy's lunch for school.
7:45 Went out to bus stop
8:00 Waved good bye to bus, went for walk.
8:30 Computer time!
9:30 Shower, get dressed.
10:00 Cleaned all the floors, dusted, picked up
10:45 Went out to lunch
12:00 Put Connor down for a nap, hung out with Larry (he stayed home from work)
1:00 Started school work
2:00 Got Connor up, finished school work
3:30 Maddy got home.
4:00 Started cooking dinner
5:00 Ate dinner
5:30 Cleaned up dinner
5:50 Took kids to the park
6:30 Baths
7:30 Put kids to bed
8:15 Another walk
9:00 Bed for me

Phew... And I'll do it all again, and again, and again.

Pumpkin painting

We painted pumpkins yesterday. I know it's not exactly Halloween time yet, but it's pretty close and I want to do it every year and I always put it off til I just don't care anymore. So this year, I just did it. I'm a rebel like that.

Connor was hilarious. Apparently he's never painted before. I didn't realize that. We all sat down at the kitchen table and I put a pumpkin on a paper plate in front of everyone. Connor thought we were going to eat them. He kept saying "Don't want pumpkin, Momma" "Momma. Don't want pumpkin!" lol. So we talk him into putting some paint on it. He put a big glob of yellow paint on his pumpkin and then leaned forward and licked it. lol. Totally gross. He didn't like that very much. But it finally convinced him that it's not for eating. Once we were over that hurdle everything went pretty well. After it was all done Maddy said, "I should have just painted it orange." LOL... that would have been pretty funny.

I made the kids take off their shirts cause I figured they would both be covered in paint. The kids came out clean as a whistle, but me and Larry both got paint on our shirts. Go figure. Topless painting around here from now on. It's a family rule. lol.

Oh! and Maddy has her first test today. A spelling test. They do it weird. The test is on 10 words but they only give them five to study. So five of the words are words they've never seen before. It's supposed to see if they picked up on the pattern and can figure out how to spell the others. Ok, I can see that I guess. I thought the words would be like "cat" "bat" "sat" and then the mystery words would be like "mat" or something, you know an obvious pattern. No. The spelling words they sent home were "the" "a" "of" "to" and "and". Ummm... where's the pattern in that? Seriously? So I'm curious to see how that is going to work out. Here's my secret hope: That this new program fails horribly and they go back to the old fashioned way of actually letting the kids study their spelling words. But I guess I'm just "old school". Literally.

Layin' at the pool

I have to walk by the pool during my twice daily walks. Torturous I'm tellin' ya. When you are all hot and sweaty, lounging in that cool water is seems soo nice. But I was walking by there yesterday and there was this guy laying out with a big full size bag of chips next to him. That might not seem like a big deal, but think about it. You have to have pretty much no body issues to do that. Not only to wear a bathing suit in public, but also to sit there looking at your half naked self in the full sunlight and still polish off that bag of Lays. That takes some guts. (or lack there of!) I'm just sayin', I don't think I could do it.

Operation Skinny: Week 1

Ok as promised, here is my first update on my weight loss.

I ate an average of 1,501 calories per day and walked a total of 16.5 miles. I would say that is a roaring success. I was aiming for 1,500 calories so, obviously, I am very pleased with the actual number. I didn't have a goal for the walking, but I am very happy with 16.5. If I were to set a goal I would have probably set it at 4 miles 4 times a week. So yay!!

The bad news: I gained .4 lbs. I know my legs and hips and stuff are stronger from walking. And my obsessively critical eye can tell I have lost fat. So I'm confident it's muscle gain. I kinda cheated and weighted myself during the week and at about Wed. I had gained a full pound. So hopefully next week will show some weight loss.

Totals:
Weight loss: Up .4 lbs
Distance walked: 18.5 miles (I had walked 2 miles last week.)

I've never done an exercise based diet before. I like it very much. When you realize how hard it is to burn those calories we eat it makes you really not want to over eat. With a food based diet a difference of 100 calories doesn't really seem like a big deal. But when you know it means 30 minutes of walking around the block, it makes you think twice. Also, it's nice to attempt to meet my goals by doing something, rather than by not doing something. Much more motivating!

Neighborhood drama

First off we have some awful neighbor's in our cul-de-sac. We used to have very nice neighbors in that house. A mom and dad, I can't even remember how many kids they had. Just bunches. They were always outside riding bikes, playing catch, what have you. And then the dad got transferred and they sold the house and moved away. I miss them!

The guy who bought the house has two teenagers. A boy and a girl. He used to be around. We would see him every once in a while getting the mail. But his car was around every day. Then he started bringing this hoe-bag girlfriend around. Seriously she was almost twice my age and dressed like she was half my age. Then they both disappeared and left these two teenagers alone in this big ole' house. ALONE. I've only seen their dad like once in the past year. And that was when they broke two windows in the house and he was there with the repair guy getting them fixed. The windows weren't next to each other either. One upstairs and one down stairs. What the heck happened??

So you can imagine what two teenagers do when they are living free and unsupervised. Parties every single night of the week. Idiot drivers all hours of the day and night tearing past our house, almost hitting our cars and kids. Everyone hates them. Whenever there is any kind of conversations among the neighbors it always turns to this house and our collective hatred. "Did you hear the party last night?" "No but they drove in our grass and their dog pooped on our porch." Like that...

Anyways, they have a pit bull and he was loose this morning when Larry went to go to work. The dog charged at him several times as he was trying to get to the car, and was barking and growling and just generally being aggressive. Then my brother in law showed up (they car pool) and the dog charged at him. So they make it to the car and were just going to leave but then Larry decided to call the cops because the bus stop is right in front of our house and he didn't want a bunch of elementary school kids sitting out there with an aggressive pit bull. So he called and he said within two minutes a cop showed up. So the cop goes to get out of the car and the pit bull charged at him before he could even get fully out of the car. So the cop tazered the dog but didn't get him fully. So the dog is freaking out now. Trying to jump the fence to get back into the back yard and trying to attack the cop. So he tazered him again and got him good this time. Just then another cop car comes flying around the corner. Larry said he was going like 40 miles an hour. It comes skidding to a stop and two cops jump out. The dog was behind the car so the new cops couldn't see anything but the cop standing there with his tazer, but they couldn't see what he was tazing. So they get out of their car, guns drawn, and come around the front of the car. When they see it's a dog one of them goes and gets one of those collar things on a stick they use. They put that thing around the dog's neck and put it in the back of one of the cop cars.

CRAZY!!

The cops knocked at the "bad" house but no one would come to the door. The cops came and talked to Larry and he was telling them about how much trouble this house is, and another neighbor came over and was chiming in. We've called the cops on them twice now and other neighbor's I know have called too. I know of at least 6 times. I'm assuming there must be others. I obviously don't talk to every single one of our neighbors. I just wish they would move away.... or grow up!

Riddle me this.

I have a riddle for you.....





What gets dirtier the more you clean it?





Think about it. I'll wait.



Ready....



Your lunch!

Connor dusted my lunch for me with the feather duster. Wasn't that nice of him! Such a sweetie. I guess he didn't want me eating any dust bunnies, so he thought he would wipe my sandwich with the dustiest thing in the whole house.

Fat no more

Ok, ya'll.... I'm going to lose some weight and you guys are going to keep me accountable. Got it?

I have 5 pounds that are my current enemy and that is what I'm focusing on first. I'm 5 pounds heavier than the maximum I allow myself to be. If I swing that, I'll go for another 5 which is my comfort zone. I can maintain that farily easily. If that goes well, I'll go for another 5 which is the skinniest I can be without being hungry or getting off the couch. If I'm still motivated at that point I will go for the rest... but that's pretty far away, so let's not go there. First I have to work on the unacceptable 5.

Here's the plan. Every Saturday (maybe Sunday if I forget or don't get a chance) I'm going to post my average daily caloric intake for the week and how far I walked in total, and my weight change. For example, I might say.... This week I ate an average of 1593 calories, walked 10 miles, and lost 1.2 pounds. I might even give a running total for the miles walked and pounds lost. That would be cool. I'm sure I'll also give some commentary on how the week went, troubles, successes, frustrations, milestones... what have you. I was going to do it daily but how boring would that be? Once a week should be good.

Wish me luck!!

Such a boy

Connor has lost the ability to carry things. Instead he pushes a dump truck everywhere he goes and in the bed of the truck is whatever needs transporting at that time. I felt some hard plastic hit my leg just above my ankle, look down and there is his dump truck with his cup inside. "More milk, please!" he says. I refill his cup and hand it to him. He puts it in his truck and off he goes again. The truck used to make a clicking sound as it went. It was supposed to be the motor I guess. But that part has mercifully worn out.

I got him some new shoes today. Size 9 1/2. Apparently he has inherited his father's feet. Whenever I buy him shoes I'm just amazed at how big they are. And then in a few months they look so small, as I buy the next size and again marvel at how big they are.

I've always heard that buying clothes for boys is less fun. And it's true. The girls shoes are so cute. For boys you have black, brown, or a character. That's it. Nothing cute. I went to 5 stores and there wasn't anything I was just fawning over. Btw, I got black.

Your tween is showing

Hello hello! Ummm nothing really new to report. Pretty much status quo around here. I'm catching up on my school work so I may actually have a moment here soon. If I play my cards right I should have this whole weekend with no homework hanging over my head. I was going to say that that will be extra nice since we don't have Maddy this weekend... so it should make for a very relaxing weekend. But that boat has so sailed. It just doesn't matter anymore. Every weekend is chaos. Getting rid of a kid doesn't calm that beast when you have a potty training two year old in your bathroom. He has learned that "I have to go pee potty." are the most powerful words a toddler can utter.

So my soon-to-be-tween is starting to show. She's been just going right up to her room after school and not coming down til dinner. Uh oh. That's how it starts isn't it? I can't say I haven't been using this to my advantage. On those, very rare of course, occasions where she is just beyond herself with annoyance at her little brother, I might find some random thing lying around that needs to be brought up stairs right this very instant. "Sweetie? Could you bring this to your room, please?" Knowing full well that the draw of her Nintendo DS or endless supply of art supplies will be too hard to resist.