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.