Contest on Chocolate-Covered Katie
Check it out. Although, if you do that lowers my chances of winning. 
Oh, well, my chances are slim anyway with all the folks heading over there!
Swiffer here I come!!
Wednesday I ended up not going into the office. Tuesday while I was out grocery shopping I got a call from K saying that K2 had started puking. I hurried and finished up and came home just in time for K2 to puke twice more. Had to shampoo carpet, change his bedding, and leave him in his diaper for a while as a precaution.
He seemed to feel fine after losing all his food, but we were careful for the rest of the evening with what we fed him. K continued to moan and groan – I swear he pulled muscles when he puked and that’s why he’s still sore tonight – 2 days later. K2 is also fine, and has been since Tuesday afternoon.
But just as a precaution, I kept P home from school yesterday and didn’t go into the office myself. We spent most of the day installing more laminate, though K was so tired and cranky by the end of the day that he was starting fights with me, which is usually my role. We got it almost completed, just a few more square feet. It looks amazing and is such a huge step up from particle board floors!!
I will run on my treadmill tonight for the first time since last week. I’m nervous about how it will be on the laminate, but I went and bought a new treadmill mat (my old one stuck to the garage floor and then ripped when I tried to pull it up to use it). So hopefully the mat will both keep me in place and sufficiently protect the floor from my pounding. We’re in the process of moving the entire living room around, so its all kind of make-shift right now until we finish up the last of the laminate tomorrow. I’m super-excited to have everything in place and to fully be able to enjoy the flooring. Swiffering, here I come!!!
I went to work today, and it was pretty productive. Got a lot of work lined up, so I have basically as many hours of work there as I want. I’m excited about the money, and not so excited about being sucked back into them depending on me. I’m going to have a to full on quit again and I wonder how long it will be before I do it for real. Perhaps when the next baby comes along. Goodness knows I don’t have maternity leave now that I’m flex with no benefits.
Weighed in at 186 this morning. Even though I haven’t been working out much the past few days, I’ve tried to shut myself down at night for eating. I got my fill of Halloween candy this weekend and now I’m staying out of it. Had a little too much to eat at the office today, but I also didn’t have my afternoon snack. So hoping to have 186 again tomorrow and hoping for 185 soon. Of course, I’m barely post-peri0d and this is when I feel most in control. Hope to keep up the good work.
Oh, and I’m in love with pomegranate arils. Bummed though that I bought 4 for $7.88 at Sams only to find out they are a dollar each at Walmart. Hope to stock up - I have a feeling I’m going to be looking forward to pomegranate season from now on.
How do you deal with Halloween Candy??????
Ok, so I went to all the trouble of helping my kids collect candy. They actually collected candy two nights in a row. I literally have a small rubbermaid storage container full of candy. It is on top of the fridge. I combined their two bags into it and have been digging in ever since. Last night I finally decided there was nothing else in there that I really want, but I know when it comes down to munchy, crunchy, I-want-sugar time, that won’t hold.
So, what should I do? My 2-year old won’t care if the candy disappears. Sure, he’ll ask for some and he’ll get told no, but he’ll get over it. My 5-year old will know. And question. And maybe cry. But we’ve all been getting way more than our quota of sugar for the last few days, her included. Its not good for her teeth, her bones, her health, or…. well, anything. Do I throw away candy that I purposely brought into my home? Is that wasteful? Should I have her pick a few things that she really wants and set them aside for rationing a couple a week? Should I throw away all the candy that is even MAYBE going to tempt me?
I don’t know what to do with it. But I know I have to do something, because having a huge case of candy at arms length is not helping me or my health, or my family’s health. If we’re going to snack, there are so many better options. Of course, we don’t have a lot of those options in the house right now.
I was going to go grocery shopping today, and then K started installing the laminate flooring yesterday with plans to finish it today. So I was going to dedicate myself to making sure I helped him with that this afternoon. But he woke up this morning at 5:30 and started puking by 6. He’s had diarrhea and more puking since then, and he’s in a lot of abdominal pain. He had me look up appendicitis symptoms – I hope that’s not it. Its probably callous of me to say, but I hope we don’t have to take him to the hospital; we still haven’t paid off the bill from June when he went in from dehydration and diarrhea.
This makes me want to get my family healthy. I feel like even though I’m still overweight and could be stronger, that I’m healthy. And strong. I try to give my children good things to eat, to bolster their immune systems with whole foods, etc. But I feel like I’m not doing a good enough job. And its even harder to make my husband eat healthily. Do I need to start making 3 meals a day for him, too? Perhaps I should. Perhaps I should make him eat what I eat. And like it dangit. So that he’ll be not just strong in physical strength, but strong in his immune system, and internal workings. I dunno if that makes sense.
The floor situation and the candy situation helped me develop some kind of excuse for not working out last night. Not cool. I want to be motivated again, and I’m struggling. Again. Sheesh. Well, its a new day.
Happy Halloween!!
Food adventures over the last couple days:
Whole wheat spinach pumpkins this morning for myself and the kids. Used enough red food coloring to turn them mostly pink, though they were kind of brownish pink when cooked. I had greek nonfat yogurt and berries on my pancakes.
Yesterday had an egg & shredded zuchinni burrito for lunch w/ some sharp cheddar cheese. Delicious.
Last night went to Olive Garden with a couple friends. Ordered a shrimp and cheese tortillini dish that came SWIMMING in butter and grease from the cheese. I ate most of the tortellinis and all of the shrimp, but I definitely wished it hadn’t come with so much grease on it. I had a pumpkin cheesecake for dessert that was super-rich but super-yummy. But I didn’t finish it because I was stuffed. Don’t get me wrong, I almost finished it. But I was proud of myself for leaving those last 6 bites or so – and of my favorite part no less: the crust. While waiting to meet up with my friends, I walked around Borders and then the mall a bit and ended up buying a snickerdoodle and a brownie at this new place that is in the location where Mrs. Field’s used to be. Yeah, I had a couple bites of each and they just didn’t compare to Mrs. Field’s. I left them in the car while at the restaurant, and then when I went to get the kids at my parents’ house, I left them with my mom for them to eat or throw away. I was happy with myself about this, too, because with the mood I was in when I got home I definitely would have eaten both.
Dinner was pleasant, the conversation flowed. But it just wasn’t as fun as it used to be for us to go out. I don’t know if its because they’ve changed or because I have – I’m inclined to think its me. Strangely enough, I don’t feel like I have anything in common with either of these two girls anymore. I say strange because we all have small children, we’re around the same age, we’re all LDS. But other than that, I don’t think there’s any common factors anymore as far as interests go. More and more, I’m enjoying my strange food adventures. I like talking about them. I like to talk about working out. I would love to have a conversation with someone that had some ideas for me! Some new takes, stuff to try. Or that just didn’t mind talking about my strange food intake without making faces and getting kind of grossed out. This might be too much to ask. And other than that, I don’t really have any hobbies. Which probably makes me the person that isn’t very interesting. Point is, I didn’t have a blast. It was a pleasant evening but the highlight of it was the time I spent with my mom after handing over the kids and the time I spent at their house picking up the kids and laminating my two ‘ideas’.
The kids had fun at grandma and grandpa’s last night. They dressed up and got some candy, which they thankfully haven’t asked for yet today. This evening they’ll get to dress up again and we’ll go to our ward’s Halloween party. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to go to the building in a few hours and help decorate. I’m looking forward to going to an activity with my husband; its been so long since K has been able to go due to work. He’s going to need to get started on his chili soon, so I’m glad to hear that he’s up upstairs.
Ate too much candy and sugar last night – too late into the night. Didn’t weigh myself this morning. Going to work out tonight. I didn’t last night when we got home after 9 PM and found Daisy had poo’d all over the laundry room (small room) and then spread it….. everywhere. I cleaned up some of it, but left the rest for K. I didn’t sign up for full-room wipedowns with getting dogs. This is his domain. If our kids spread poop on the walls, I’ll clean that up. But I’m not cleaning up dog poop.
Just found out I’m going to get picked up to help decorate at 2:30. Trying to decide if I shower before or after. I’m thinking after, before the party.
Hope I ruined someone’s day
That sounds mean, but I really mean it. And if I could only know who’s day I ruined, or be there to see their chagrin and scrambling that would have made it even better.
So, let me explain. Its not really that big a deal, and there’s no way to know if I ruined someone’s day or not. Without going into a blow-by-blow of how this came about…… Our internet has acted squirrelly for a while now. Usually, we just keep closing the browser and starting over until we get one that “works” for some unknown reason. We’d get a ‘working’ browser window open, only to click on a link that opened a new window and have that window be a non-working one (white screen, thinking, thinking, thinking forever). Today for the first time in a long time I did some work from home. I had 3 TMs to edit and some website work to do, and the white screen, thinking forever with nothing coming up was driving me CRAZY today. And it seemed much worse than usual. So I called my dad after doing everything I knew how to do (clearing out cookies, running my virus and spyware scanner, etc.). And after some chattering on my part about symptoms we discovered that the Wireless light on my modem was blinking. As it usually was. Wait a minute!!! We don’t use the wireless!!! ……..
So, we shut the wireless off. And I hope the turd-butt that’s been using my bandwidth for who-knows-how-long had a HORRIBLE day after that! But who knows, really. That’s just me hoping. And I haven’t had a white-non-working browser window since. Blissful. I guess I just took for granted that people are honest and upstanding. And so many of them aren’t. I knew what that blinking wireless light meant – I should have thought of that much sooner. So I guess its my fault, too. Anyway, someone out there is all of the sudden left without their free internet. Whoohooo!! And mine works right!!!
In other, less vindictive news, I put pumpkin in my green blended oats this morning!! And it was super-yummy. I put in spinach as usual but there wasn’t a lot left of my pre-steamed spinach, so I put in a spoonful of pumpkin puree, and ate it all in the almost-empty peanut butter jar. Nom nom, as the bloggers say.
I also dehydrated some canned pineapple rings yesterday and they are also tasty. Nice little snack for exercising your jaw.
K started pulling floorboards off the walls today in preparation for trying to get as much of the laminate flooring down tomorrow as possible. I don’t know how that will go because I have a pretty packed today planned tomorrow and K doesn’t seem to do very well when I have a lot going on – even if my stuff shouldn’t interfere with his stuff. Is that mean to say? Well, its true.
On the books for tomorrow:
- Conference call at 1:00 for work, its looking like I will be picking up some more hours as the person that does a lot of our website support is switching jobs to HR department as of Monday. Probably at least one more afternoon a week and some working at home. We need the money, so I’m trying to be cheerful about it. I’m hoping this will help me have some money for Christmas shopping.
- Parent-teacher conference at 2:40 for P’s kindergarten 1st quarter. Excited to talk about my daughter and be told she’s wonderful. Oh, that might not happen you say? Well, I can hope.
- Leaving the house by 3:20 to meet my mom at the south gate of the AFA to send the kids off with her, packing their Halloween costumes so they can attend her ward’s trunk-or-treat with her.
- Go over to the mall or some other place I can hang out reading books, browsing through stuff I can’t buy, etc. Kill time up on the north end of town until I meet the girls (2 women from my ward) at 5:30 at Olive Garden for girls’ night out dinner.
- After dinner and some fun chatting and catching up (probably around 7:30 or so), drive north to Monument to pick up kids
So I’ll need to be ready and dressed for dinner basically by my 1:00 conference call, since there isn’t a break anywhere in there with sufficient time to get ready. We shall see how the floor installation goes considering he hasn’t got his butt in gear as early as he’d have to to have my help in a while. But it’ll be a good day! I’m excited, even if the flooring doesn’t go in. There’s always next week.
Saturday the only things going on that I know of is K making his chili for the cook-off and our Halloween party for our ward. I might go to the church earlier in the day and help decorate one of the rooms. Other than that it shouldn’t be too stress-inducing. Then, Sunday, I teach.
Hoping for a good workout tonight. Later!!
A First for our Family
This afternoon after picking P up from kindergarten, we went in search of Halloween supplies. Costumes, candy, goodie bags (instead of plastic pumpkins). P is going to be Cinderella, K2 is going to be Buzz Lightyear in some Buzz pajamas (we couldn’t find actual costumes for his age group!). We got them some Halloween bags with handles instead of plastic containers, though I think using a pillow case like I did so many times would have been fine. We got plenty of candy to contribute to the party Saturday night.
Then we came home and had lunch in preparation for the pumpkin carving, or Garving as P kept calling it.
I spread plastic bags over the table, in lieu of newspaper, we drew some faces for patterns on our two squashes, and commenced cutting. Then we told the kids to put their hands in there and get the guts out. They did, and were both so grossed out that they basically didn’t help much for the rest of the experiment. K and I pretty much did the rest of the work ourselves. To give her credit, once I’d given her a plastic glove (ill-fitting), P did try and help a little by pulling out a few seeds and innards. I think our pumpkins turned out fine, if amateurish looking. K is going to get some tea candles while he’s out this afternoon so we can light them up for the kids, even though we won’t light them on the night of Halloween since we won’t be here.
It was enjoyable, I guess. Really not sure. But it was the first time we’ve ever carved pumpkins as a family here at the house, just us, so I’m glad we did it. I took some pictures. We kept the seeds and are going to dry them out and bake them for snacks. And now we’ve got this one under our family belt. I hope that in years to come the kids will contribute a bit more!
Another first this afternoon was K and I cracking open a fresh pomegranate. It took us a while, and a bit of a mess, but we ended up with a nice collection of arils. K kept saying it was like eating corn and that he wasn’t sure he liked them, but he kept popping them in his mouth one after the other. The kids ate a few, P more enthusiastically than K2. I finally asked K why he was still eating them if he wasn’t sure he liked them, and he said it was just to get the juice, which he does really like. He finally stopped trying to get pomegranate juice small bites at at time and I’ll probably have the rest of the arils to myself. I had about a 1/4 cup of them on some pomegranate Chobani for my afternoon snack. Delicious.
Should be interesting to see how much like corn they really are. I mean, are they digestable, or are they coming out much as they went in the way corn does? Sorry if that’s gross, but I’m just wondering….
Pumpkin Shake – feeling brave
I finally followed through on my desire to try a pumpkin shake this morning for breakfast. It contained the following:
bunch of steamed spinach (I swear you don’t taste this!)
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 T vanilla pudding powder
1/2 scoop french vanilla egg white protein powder
1/2 frozen banana
1 square graham cracker
sprinkle of cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice
I was nervous – what if I didn’t like it and I’d wasted all those supplies? IT WAS SO GOOD!!!! Yummo! It was a little excessive with the sweetness, so when I make it again (and I WILL), I will cut it down to 1/2 T of vanilla pudding powder. If that is still too sweet, I’ll cut the vanilla pudding powder out all together. But I’m going to do it a little at a time because I hate it when my shakes aren’t sweet enough.
I told my mom and K about it, and they both thought I was nuts. But they’re missing out, and they just don’t realize it. A lot of the things I eat these days sound gross to most people, but I don’t really care. Because they taste great and I’m getting tons of great vitamins, fiber, minerals and TASTE!
I had some of the leftovers from last night’s dinner for lunch. Black bean, chicken, minced brocolli w/ taco seasoning all wrapped up in a low-carb tortilla w/ some cheese and lots of lettuce.
K2 and P – Great kids
I want to write down some of the stuff that K2 is currently doing, so that I’ll remember better later.
Talking – He started to string a couple words together quite recently. Usually “peas (please) cootoons” or “peas, ewus (else)” meaning “something else”. He also likes to say “now” after a word to signify when he wants it. He figured out how to say “no” about 3 weeks ago, and that is almost all we hear, for everything. Whether he means no or yes. And he says it in this contemplative tone, like, ummm…nooo. Yesterday he started saying Yes. What a relief!! At least now I know if the answer is No, he means No. So today he’s been saying Yes and Yeah, and it helps a lot with the communications around here. P helps so much with interpretation since she often knows what he’s saying when we don’t . He knows all of his cartoons by name, and he loves them all. Dora (he calls that Boots), Boos Coos (Blues Clues), ackans (Backyardigans), Wow Wow (Wow Wow Wubbzy). These are the current favorites. Yes, I know my kids watch too much TV. I’m working on it. I also know I’ve been saying that for about four years.
He’s very independent with walking, climbing, running, coloring, eating. He still needs help with all of the above sometimes, but you have to ask his permission to help him and have it granted before you a move, or mayhem ensues. He got a haircut from his dad a couple weeks ago, and it makes him look so grown up instead of like a baby. He still likes to carry a “banket” with him everywhere, but it is usually a handtowel so that his real blanket doesn’t get too filthy. His real blanket with Mickey Mouse on it is still the preferred comfort, though. He also likes to use the dogs’ heads to scrub his fingernails in while his other thumb is in his mouth. Cloud likes it, until he decides to sit or lay on her, then she gets up and walks away and he follows her to scratch her head some more.
K2’s kind of a wimp when it comes to walking anywhere. He almost instantly wants to be carried. We’re going to have to work on his endurance. He loves to be outside, though, and doesn’t seem to care if he has shoes on. Even if its cold out. He loves nursery at church, getting up in my face as soon as the last song starts to grab my cheeks and say “urtsry, now?” As soon as we set him loose, he walks out of the chapel, down the hall, and into nursery all by himself. He also knows to head straight to the Bishop’s office when we pick him up for candy, usually getting there before a line of kids can form. Good thing since he’s not so great with lines.
Something that he’s been doing for a while, but that never seems to get old is calling attention to stuff. With “WOOK!!” for “Look”. The other day in the car, he was doing it for everything. “WOOK, big mountain” “WOOK, BIIG twuck!”, and repeat. Its awesome and we crack up pretty much every time he says it in his big-man toddler voice. He has only recently starting using it for showing people things that he didn’t used to remember, such has his “pattoo” or tattoo on his arm (temporary, Transformers), the stamp on his hand from the craft fair he went to, or some piece of artwork or a trick he wants to show us.
He’s a ham, and loves for everyone to be looking and laughing at or with him. He doesn’t sit still for anything but cartoons or books.
I’ll write about P tomorrow.
What a Force
It is surprising to me what a force PMS can be. Not until it subsides do I often realize it is even happening. But the weight of it lifting is obvious. Now, I don’t think it is an excuse to be crazy, moody, and gluttonous. But the little black cloud can be real. And when it is gone, the sun is radiant.
Today hasn’t been much out of the ordinary. I allowed myself the luxury of buying a whole bunch of yogurt, Chobani even. I went to lunch with some friends from work. I spent some time on the computer this morning making a new collage of photos of our family for my Desktop, changing the background color that surrounds it. And making a blank table with Sunday-Monday at the top of the columns, and Breakfast, Lunch, Snack, Dinner, Snack, Notes as the Row headings on the left. I made it with fun fonts and a pretty border, and my plan is to print and laminate it. I will make a week’s worth of dinner menus on Sunday or Saturday night, and I’ll fill in the rest of the meals for myself and the kids the night before each day. And its laminated!! So I won’t continue to waste a post-it every day with my menus. I’m also going to make one for TO-DO, though smaller than a whole page.
I made quesadillas for dinner, and they were tasty and the kids actually ate them. I LOVE it when that happens, especially since I’d finely chopped some brocolli and put it in the black bean/chicken mixture that was the “meat” of the quesadillas. Hidden veggies!! They had mandarin oranges for dessert. I had an open-faced quesadilla with sliced summer squash lining the top of mine.
Anyway, feeling better. My signs all over the place today have helped me stay in a better frame of mind, and I’m planning to have a nice run after the kids go to bed. And enjoy it.
Okay, Not Better.
To sum up. Lots of night-time eating. No workouts since Friday. Friday I ran outside. Went for a mile run with Cloud, which didn’t go very well due to her not liking her new nose-lead and me not having run outside for over a month. Then, I brought her home and went back out for more run/walking. Walking because I couldn’t seem to keep running. But I probably went about 2.5 miles total. When I got home, the kids were raring to go on a walk and I convinced K to come with us. We were out for about 30 minutes, most of which K2 was on K’s shoulders or being carried by me. Or crying because we were making him walk a block. What a little wuss, obviously needs some toughening up.
Anyway, I still ate a lot Friday night. Saturday, K2 and I met up with Mom to go to a craft fair. They wouldn’t let us take the stroller in, so K2 got to walk. Again, he wasn’t all about the walking most of the time, but I got him to walk more than I expected. He wanted to touch everything, of course, but he did well with being gentle and not touching when I asked him not to. After the craft fair, we went to Walmart to get some pumpkins and then back to Mom’s for lunch after we visited my Aunt D to see the renovations on her house. I hadn’t seen her in a while, so it was nice to chat for a while. I always enjoy my conversations with D.
After lunch, K2 and I hung out for a while with Mom and Dad and then headed back home, getting here around 4:30. K and P had gone fishing, literally. And they had a blast – coming home looking like mountain folk about an hour after K2 and I got there. They brought Taco Bell for dinner. Yeah, really healthy.
The evening went quickly and then K was off to work and the kids were in bed and I was alone. Watching TV and eating. Actually, I think Iwatched a movie, and it sucked. But I ate.
Sunday was normal church and dinner in Monument with M&D. Then we made brownies for dessert. After dessert we high-tailed it out of there right after Dad used the snowblower on the driveway because the snow was coming down pretty fast. But the drive home wasn’t too bad, and K is always confident behind the wheel in all weather.
And then yesterday at work in the afternoon. Lots of chocolate. Continued eating after dinner at home. Feeling in a funk because of my lack of motivation, my lack of drive, no desire to work out, no desire to stop eating. Even though there wasn’t anything the house that I REALLY wanted to eat. I still ate.
So, after making a list of Pros and Cons for continuing to stay in this funk, I realized what I already knew. That staying in this funk has no Pros. Not really. Its all Cons. Cons that turn to Pros if I’m making a list about why I should flip back to the other side of controlled eating and exercise. Productivity.
Which led to Signs. Signs all over my kitchen, taped to the outside and inside of the cupboards that hold the food I have been munching on. A sign over my treadmill. Signs that say “Go upstairs!” and “You never regret working out.” and “Is that scheduled?” or “Are you eating mindlessly?” Etc. Signs.
I’m writing on the calendar when I put them up so that I can take them down and replace them in a month – we all know that when you look at something every day it eventually ceases to have as much meaning. Or maybe that’s just me.
I’m going to make a laminated food calendar that I can put up for planned dinners for a week and each night I can add the rest of the meals for the next day in dry-erase marker.
I’ve gotta snap out of it. I’m pretty sure my TOM is starting, so I’m not pregnant. Which means that my time is not up for improving this body before I have to let it gain some weight. And I’m obviously not in the right frame of mind to have a healthy attitude and food intake when I DO get pregnant, if the possibility sends me back into binge-land.
Snapping out of it…. please, let me be snapping out of it. But I know that tonight it is going to be super-easy to once again convince myself not to work out. To eat too much. So tonight is like night #1 all over again. I will have to talk myself down, probably multiple times. Hopefully, the signs will help.
