Hot hot summer!

Oh my goodness it's been a hot one!!!!
I am happy to report that we do have the modern convenience of Air Conditioning to keep the house at a comfortable temperature.  It was not without a week or so of sleepless nights and a stupid amount of money, but the house is now a much more comfortable place to live.  On a note on the house, we also have ceilings!  I know we're getting pretty uppity with our construction, but ceilings are one of those luxuries that I think everyone should have.  Along with somewhat level floors, but we'll get to that stage later.

Since the summer started I feel like we've been going nonstop.  L started summer school on the 13th of June, he'll be done with that a few weeks before school starts in August.  He loves being able to ride the bus again and I'm a little worried that he's going to be bummed when school starts and he doesn't get to ride the bus anymore.  Maybe he'll like walking.  I think Q has been enjoying having Mommy to herself in the mornings while L is at school.  We've run lots of errands and gone to the gym and played outside, and had a mani-pedi morning!  We have also had a lot of great time with the Grandparents! Grandma K was here for almost a month and Grandpa and Grandma Ve have visited a couple times as well as a trip to Michigan to meet up with Uncle Steve and Aunt Tiff and Mia.  I also got the biggest vacation I've had since we had kids.  DH had a conference in San Antonio and we decided that it would be a good time for a Mommy Get Away!!!  Gma Ve and Gpa were nice enough to keep the kids for the 5 days of the conference so that DH and I could hang out together on his off hours.  To be honest, it was fabulous!!!!  It's not that I don't love my kids, because I do, but every good Mom will tell you that every once in a while you need some time to reboot and get stuff back together.  My sister and I hung out together during the day most of the week.  It was great to explore that part of Texas, I'd never been there before.  Word to the wise, the food trucks in Austin are awesome!

The week after we got back from Texas was crazy busy, I think it always takes more time to get back into the swing of everyday than it does to relax on vacation.  I thought I was about to get everything together when I got a great surprise, my brother was coming to town a moth early!  It took a few hours on the phone and a bit of running around but we got him here for a few days before he headed off on his Great American Roadtrip.  The poor kid did have a hard time adjusting to the time change but he'll figure it out.  I was glad to see him and I know the kids had a good time hanging out with him- his story reading skills are sooooo much better than everyone else!  A few days after that, just as we were leaving Church, it looked like it was going to storm.  By the time we got home, Chris describes it as driving in a video game.  This crazy storm blew through in about 30 minutes and in it's wake our neighborhood looked like a hurricane had gone through.  We are on the luckier side of the block, we lost power for about a day and a half, the other side was out for more than 4 days; not to mention the houses that have major damages from trees falling on them and the power lines.  L's summer school ended up being out for the whole week because the school did not have power.

On the upsides, along with AC, Mom and I finished our Half Marathon on June 9th!  I was really happy with the fact that we both finished, to spite the temp being 90 by the time we finished; our time was just under 3 hrs.  Next up is the full marathon in October!  I'm a bit worried about it but I know if I keep up my training I'll be able to finish.  All I want to do is finish.

100 Days gone. . .What I've learned

So my 100 days of overhaul have gone by and soooo many things have happened.  We found a house, packed everything up, moved, and have taken about half of our house apart.

I have learned a few things since this whole thing has started.  One of them is that choosing the right time for a life overhaul is important.  It's not the best idea to try and overhaul yourself in the middle of moving you life to a new location and trying to settle everything, especially when you purchase a super fixer.  The other thing is that it is very hard to change.  Changing one's life and way of thinking does not happen over night.  With those things being said, I would not call this whole thing a failure.

I have not lost as much weight as I wanted to but I can now jog 8+ miles at a time.  I still treat myself sometimes but I am trying to separate when I just want a treat from when I'm just in a bad mood.  I am learning that chocolate does not fix things, and eating a box of chocolates will give you a stomach ache (and has a negative effect on the wellness plan).  I guess in short what I'm saying is that this is just a work in progress.  Eventually I want to get to a point where a friend of mine is.  She doesn't eat sugar. No sugar unless it's in fruit.  I know she treats herself to ice cream or a shake every once in a while, but I've been out places with her when everyone is eating yummy things and she's able to say no.  This will power is amazing to me, given that I have the will power of a gnat.

As always, I conclude that I am (and probably will forever be) a work in progress.

In connection to a Facebook post that I put up this morning, I want to clear something about my thinking.  I know that different people have different ideas of what being 'moral' consists of.  I think sometimes people confuse knowing their beliefs and the changing values of our culture.  Reading our scriptures can teach us a lot of things; who we are supposed to value, how we're supposed to build our families and (one of the most important in my mind) how we are supposed to treat other people.  Disagreeing with someones life choices does not mean that I hate them.  It does not mean that I think that they are going to hell.  Christ treated everyone equally and told us all to love one another, that message is simple.

Now I've got a funny story from yesterday.  Given that we are on such a tight time schedule during the day right now, I've gotten really good taking fast showers and getting my self out the door in time to pick up L from school.  While running out the door yesterday I was running late and therefore not checking everything as closely as I should have.  I managed to lock my self out of the house, while at the same time locking my keys, and Q, inside the car.  Long story short, I got my keys back and got L from school on time.
Ah, the adventures in parenting!

We can't have it BOTH ways.

As I'm sitting here listening to the storm that is rolling it outside, and the noise of Mom and DH positioning things to jack up the floor in the basement, I keep thinking about a news story that was on the local news a couple days ago.  A number of nurses were headed down to Springfield to protest and talk to the legislature about not cutting things from Medicare.  They were saying that they were going down there to speak up for the needs of their patients and against cuts that the state is talking about making to the system to keep itself solvent.

On the surface this is a really good and noble idea.  Those who care for others giving them a voice against those in power taking advantage of those who are vulnerable.  But if you look at the issue on more than just a surface level, you can see many layers of a very complicated issue.  Companies are "retiring" people earlier and earlier these days, in many cases people who are very good at their jobs are being "retired" out so that the company will not have to pay them retirement benefits.  They are making the argument that they can hire someone younger to do the same job for less money.  In the short term I can see the business case.  But what about the cost to the rest of us, outside the business world.  What happens when all the aging Babyboomers, who were "retired" out of their jobs before they qualified for retirement benefits, when they become older and need more care?  Right now most of them are healthy, my Mom and In-Laws included, but so many of them are starting to suffer the diseases of old age and are working at jobs that they may lose at any time.  Do the powers that be understand or care what happens to the bill for their care once they are kicked out of the private sector???  Maybe it's because I already lost one parent that I have a pretty consuming worry for the well being of my remaining parent.  She is one of the lucky few who are able to purchase private healthcare, for the time being.  When she's not able to do this anymore the burden of bills will go to the tax payers; the rest of us.  The nurses idea is still a good one.

But.

One of the major political arguments that is bound to come up in this election year is this issue of taxes.  Now in case anyone has not made this connection before, its our tax dollars that fund things like Medicare.  I know it's part of Social Security and all that but it all comes from the same accounts.  Now while we argue that no funding should be cut to seniors and other Medicare recipients, it occurs to me that there is no way of doing this without raising or freezing the amount of taxes that we pay.  No one wants this.  So it occurs to me that we can't have it both ways.  We can't be an entitlement society and not be taxed very heavily (and unfortunately we are moving more and more toward an entitlement system).  If those who have worked most of their lives are not able to take care of them selves we should have something in place to help them and at least provide adequate medical care.  In the case of those who are NOT willing to put in the work, I'm sorry but my policy would be, no job (or proof that you are looking as hard as you can) and your benefits need to have a time limit on them.  I know this will get me flamed but I'm going to say it anyway: Just because you are born into bad circumstances does not mean that you automatically get benefits or help.  Sometimes peoples bad situations are not their fault, sometime they are no ones fault but their own, but bad situations should not entitle you to free healthcare on my dime.  We just can't have it both ways.
So either we tax up, or we get off the entitlement bandwagon. What is fair is not always equal. 

I'll get off my soapbox now. . .
Have a good night everyone!

H o u s e

So, I thought I'd post about the last 2 weeks of insanity.

To start we are now totally moved into our new (to us) house.  The house it's self is by no means new and shows it's age in new ways almost every day.  It also shows the bad decisions by the former owners, both in design tastes (brown paisley wallpaper going all the way up the stairs), and in the planning of the house.  It was someones brilliant idea to take out/move a stairway that was weight bearing and not bother to replace it with any other load bearing system.  Someone later attempted to fix that issue by putting in some floor jacks.  Too bad they didn't put them in the correct place.  And then they later allowed someone to re-plumb parts of the house and cut (yes, cut) through a couple floor joists, without really putting anymore supports down there. . .  Needless to say someone payed some idiot to make part of the house look better, 40 years ago, and the person did that while weakening some of the structure of the house.  Making a problem that the inspector should have noticed but failed to do so.  This is the reason that one side of my living room floor is 1 1/4" lower than the other side of the room.  So before we can put the ceilings back in we have to jack up the floor so that it's at least kind of level.  This is the point where having friends who also buy crazy houses that others think are tear downs comes in handy.  My Mom was able to bring us a number of floor jacks, but we'll need a few more in order to totally get the job done right.

But, while we've found a number of problems we have also made some progress in terms of making the house more liveable.  With the help of DH's parents we painted the kitchen ceiling, making it look much less like a mine and more like an actual kitchen.  Our couch, which turned out to be more broken than we though, has been fixed by my awesome Mom.  The brown paisley wallpaper that made the stairway feel like a black hole is now in garbage bags waiting to go out to the curb.  AND we successfully painted and reorganized L's room so that instead of the pealing wallpaper that was there when we moved in (along with VERY BADLY patched walls) it is now a very nice shade of blue and most of his things are organized into the closet to make the room bigger.  The upside of the floor jack problem is that we now KNOW what the problem really is and can therefore take the needed steps to fix it.  So the overall result is a positive one!

And for the last week while we figured out some of this mess, DH was in Baltimore for a conference.  Good thing my Mom was here to save my sanity! (Or whats left of it.)

In the midst of all this chaos, we had an IEP meeting with L's teachers and therapists.  The meeting went really well and all the reports that we were given definitely sound like my kid.  The only thing that was a little bit concerning was that he's been having some coping issues at school, something like the same type of issues he's been having at home.  The going theory is that since February, when L had his tonsils taken out, the little guys world has not really slowed down to the pace that he's been accustomed to it moving at.  For a kid who has a really hard time with change this end result is a little predictable.  We have seen some improvement since we changed his allergy meds, but I think when things slow down he will do better.  He is on pace academically but he is still having a lot of communication issues and because of that his teachers recommended that he be put into some kind of full day kindergarten with a normal class in part of the day and therapy classes the rest of the day.  While I'm a little torn on the idea of full day kindergarten, I think it's probably the best idea.  It would also make the transition to 1st grade a whole lot easier.  Good thing the elementary school is right around the corner! 

I know that usually I have some sort of witty/snarky comment about current events or some talking head saying something I don't like in the news. . .a the moment though my brain is a little too full of plaster dust and paint fumes to come up with anything really good!

An open letter to Hilary Rosen

Dear Ms. Rosen,

I understand that you have a few things to say about the opinions of stay-at-home Mothers. I get where you are coming from. You, like some other women who don't have children (or pawn them off on someone else), probably think that those of us who chose to raise our own children are somehow out of the loop. You seem to be convinced that we don't really leave our houses or that when we do we are just going to the gym, salon or spa. And that while we're home we are sitting with our feet up, watching soap operas and drinking our hot chocolate, oblivious to the struggles of "real women".

Let me tell you what a "real women" thinks about all the things that you presume about my lifestyle. While you go home from you job everyday, I wake up to mine, usually a bit earlier than anyone would choose to. My job does not end until I go to bed at night. If I want some time off I usually have to pay someone to cover it for me, there is no paid time off. You seem to be under the impression that only those who are part of the 1% decide to stay home with their kids. I am not part of the 1%, DH and I have simply made the decision that it's more important that our children be raised by their parents than that we have a larger house or better cars. I'm sure we could have bought a larger home (or one that does not need 5 yrs of work) and we could buy new cars if I were to go back to work. You are also assuming that I have nothing to do with our finances. That I don't notice the rising prices in food, gas and just about everything else. That I don't notice that the cost of a college education will be enormously expensive and that I have to find some way of saving or my kids will have student loan payments bigger than mortgage payments. If you want to hear about how the economy is effecting people, you should be talking to us stay-at-home Moms. We are on the front lines of this whole thing, we shop, pay the bills and then have to find a way to make it all come out in the wash. I think that your ideas come out of a true ignorance of other women's situations, and an absolute disrespect for women's choices.

The assumption that those who choose to make unpopular decisions, particularly those with conservative morals, are somehow out of touch with what is going on with the entire country is ridiculous. Frankly, if you are a pundit who is supposed to represent the interests of women, any women, I would prefer if you didn't speak for me.
Sincerely,
Kari Anton

Where's the cinnamon bears?!!

Looking at the calendar I see that we are about 5 days away from closing on the house. To be honest I am totally freaking out!!!! Granted it's kind of what I do in these situations. DH is really good at making the overall plan and letting me know where things need to be and when they need to be ready, but that usually leaves all the logistics to me. Normally not a bad thing as I do the planning thing well. But dealing with the number of people that one has to deal with and the amount of information that is required to get a house to the closing stage it seems like there is always a half dozen things that need to be taken care of. On top of all the regular things that need to be taken care of in a household of 4. . . I know people who would probably handle this much better than me and have their kids totally organized, but I think this is why I'm only supposed to have 2 kids.

On the exercise front I'm doing good. I signed up for a half marathon on the 9th of June in downtown. I'm really excited about it but I'm also nervous because I have a TON of training to do before I will feel close to ready for that. But my mileage is going up weekly and with the weight training I've been doing I feel like I'm getting fitter overall than I have been in a long time. I'll just have to plan a really cute outfit to run in! (New outfits make everything better). I've also lost 5.5 lbs so far. The food side of things is still where I struggle. I feel better since giving up all the flour, pasta and rice, but I still love candy. I am very picky about the candy I eat, I am head-over-heals for chewy candy; gummy bears, cinnamon bears, etc., those are my favorites! If I could break myself away from those I think I'd be doing a bit better. Not that I like to make excuses, but it does get harder to train when you've been technically sick for the last 7 weeks or so. . .

In the middle of January I went to the Dr. after being sick since before Christmas and found out that I was sicker than I though I was. She gave me a couple weeks of antibiotics and said that she hoped it would take care of everything. I'm not sure whether it did or didn't but a few weeks ago I was sick again (not sure if it was the initial infection that was not cleared up or another issue), have another sinus infection and am about to finish a 3 week course of antibiotics. I think that this infection was caused by my allergies, thank you early summer! I really do love this warm weather but this issues that it creates with my immune system are just ridiculous. Unfortunately it's not just my immune system that is going berserk. A couple weeks ago L started acting out really bad, through trial and error we figured out that he was having asthma issues and needed his inhaler a couple times a day. After a week of that his eyes were turning so red by the end of the day that he looked like he'd been at Dead Festival all week. After a call to his pediatrician and picking up some more allergy meds, L is doing much better. Today was the first day in more than a week that he got through the whole day with NO TIMEOUTS, none. It was amazing quite frankly. I had to call my own Dr. and get some stronger allergy meds of my own, but they seem to be working so I'm happy about that. I do have a really hard time with L having all of these issues. . . On the one hand I can recognize when he's having issues and it's easier for me to pick out what some of the issues are, but the reason that I can figure them out so easily is that I have the same issues. It seems that he has inherited my "Autoimmune Tri-fecta" (as one of my Dr.'s called it) of asthma, allergies and eczema. Makes me feel a bit guilty really, as if I could have done something different and saved him from much of the hassle that these issues can cause. . . Guess all I can to is make sure he understands that he has to have good health insurance!

So, like I said I'm a little stressed and it's probably starting to show. If my hair ever grew out far enough without me coloring it, it would probably be grey. . . If it actually did grow out that way, I could just leave it and make a statement!

Victory is mine. At least right now.

At the moment I'm feeling pretty good. I went to the gym yesterday to work out and remembered that I'd forgotten to weigh in for the 90 Day earlier in the week. Thinking it was time to get the dreaded event over with I found a trainer and stepped on the stupid thing, otherwise known as a scale. I was pleasantly surprised to look down and see that I'd lost 3 lbs. since last week. 3 lbs!!! As I was feeling quite happy with myself I got on the treadmill and finished my scheduled workout in less time that I though it would take! This put me in a good mood for most of the day yesterday. One of these days I am going to learn that almost no matter what time the kids go to bed they are going to wake up some time around 630 or 7am. Ugh.

To up my mood a little more I decided to follow the training schedule and go for a nice long run, to spite the fact that it was snowing and windy outside. Sometimes you just need to hit the pavement to get that happy feeling going. I am proud to say that I completed my long run, all 6.2 miles of it, including some hills that happened to be on the route. Since the half marathon I signed up for is not until June I have some time to increase my distance. Admittedly I am not setting any land speed records, I would probably classify myself as a speedy turtle more than a slow rabbit (it just sounds better).

I am enjoying some chocolate right now. All work and no play makes Kari very cranky.

Where did the last month GO!!!?????

To answer my own question: House hunting, offer, contract, negotiations, L's surgery, Grandma visiting for a week, and more paperwork.

L had his tonsils and adenoids out about a week and a half ago. He had a very rough first week, needing medication for the pain for the better part of a week. I don't think I've ever seen him so sad and out of energy as he was that first week. He spent almost the whole time laying on the couch with either Grandma Ve, DH or me. He watched movies most of the time, a few times a day he'd get up or want to play with Q for a while but he'd end up back on the couch to rest. At this point he's pretty much back to normal, he even ate pizza for dinner last night. We have had a bit of an adjustment period in the last few days. I guess that's what happens when you give a kid pretty much whatever they want for a week and then try to get back to normal.

It looks like everything is moving forward with our home purchase. The paperwork is all in (for this moment), the inspection is done and fixes agreed upon, value estimate of the house is done by bank. . . Everything we can do is done and now we just wait for the closing date to be agreed on and get everything straight in my head. At this point I'm definitely flying by the seat of my pants. DH signs things from work and faxes them in and I do all the leg work and phone calls from this end. I have no idea how my Mom did this a couple times all by her self, doing this with DH, I still feel like I'm going to lose my mind. I still think all of this is totally worth it to get a house of our own in a great neighborhood and be able to change the things that we want to change (as far as the budget will allow, which right now is. . . not much ; ). I will also be nice to have a guest bedroom, not in the basement and have more than 1 floor to live on again, I miss that from our townhouse.

Because I am a super geek, I have been keeping up with all of the political nonsense of the Presidential campaign. I think the thing that I'm most tired of is off the various candidates, no matter what their party, spend all of their time telling me all of the bad things that their opponents have done or most likely will do. I don't care about all the gossip you can dig up on your opponent!!! How about telling me some of your ideas about fixing the problems? How about you take the time to tell me about what you really think instead of telling me what you think I want to hear? I may be a bleach blond, but I'm not THAT dumb. Santorum calling Pres Obama a snob for hoping everyone student in the country has the opportunity for an education is the stupidest thing I have heard in a LONG time. What parent in their right mind doesn't realize that you need some kind of a degree or certificate to answer a phone these days?! I worked in daycare and the parents wanted to make sure that I had at least some college. Either you are adding something to society by making yourself a more productive and intelligent person or you become a drain on the system by retaining your ignorance and continuing the cycle of poverty. They have done study after study on the effect of education on people socioeconomic situation. Children typically achieve the same or higher levels of education than their Mothers. So why is it a bad thing that we hope every high school student has the OPPORTUNITY to get a higher education?! Okay, I think I'm done ranting.

As for the lifestyle change, over all it is going well. Cutting out the bread and most of the fruit has not been a hard as I though it was going to be. I have had rice in the last couple weeks, but no bread till last night when we had pizza for dinner. I have managed to keep the candy and sugar under control most of the time; with the exception of some indiscretions involving gummie candy the week of L's surgery. Overall I am feeling better. I have more energy than I did before I stopped eating bread and so much sugar and I think I'm a bit more even tempered. Although I did lose it a bit when Q deleted a few apps from my phone this morning. . . Not cool. I did notice after I ate the bread in the pizza last night that my stomach was upset the rest of the night. A little weird but maybe a little more incentive to keep doing what I'm doing!

New goal: 13.1 Marathon run in Chicago on June 9, 2012! Registered yesterday!!

Contract and . . .Ouch!

Well, I would call my first week without so much junk food a mixed success. I don't miss the breads and pasta, I miss the fruit a little but I can go without it for a while longer. My problem seems to be chocolate. I know every woman, except my Mom, are laughing at that statement because they know exactly what I'm talking about! Luckily for me, the South Beach plan has guidelines that are realistic and expect you to cheat a little so they recommend that you cheat with bittersweet chocolate. Reasoning that it has a ton of antioxidants (which are good for you) and a little does go a long way, at least most days. On those overly stressful days, sometimes we all need LARGE doses of chocolate to make it through. Along with some cheesy chick movies to make you smile, I recommend the Princess Diary movies.

On the up side, and stressful side, we have made an offer on a house and it has been accepted! In typical fashion for my family, the house is in need of so much love that it's not even funny. The house was built in 1930, the last addition to the house was done in 1960. Apparently the couple who moved out lived in the house for 35 years and didn't change anything. I mean nothing. The walls are covered in extremely ugly wallpaper (in nearly every room) and someone puked horrible wood paneling all over the house, mostly on the ceilings. But, in the original part of the house all the floors are hardwood (under nasty carpet, of course; including one closet of two-tone green shag that needs to be mowed). All the windows need to be replaced, eventually. The kitchen resembles a mine at the moment, due to the dark (FAKE) wood cabinets, dark wood paneling and beams covering the very low ceiling and an amazing tile backs splash meant to look like different size pebbles and rocks, ranging in color from brown to cream and white. However there is a great vintage stove. After doing some research I found out that the stove was near top of the line and is now a collectors item, I'm not kidding. It needs a good cleaning but has some serious appeal, although I'm not sure of the color, it is light colored-ish. Like I said, it needs a good cleaning. But all but one burner works and it might be just dirty, I hope. The inspection did note the predictable issues that one would expect from an old house, and I can't help wondering if we're trying to eat the proverbial elephant. However, it is in a great neighborhood, mere blocks from a cute downtown area and within a 2 blocks of "houses" that look more like compounds. The taxes are horrible but we might be able to argue that the house has been over estimated and needs to be reevaluated.

I did make it to the gym most days this week. After a "fun" workout with a trainer that I've worked with before taking today off was necessary. When it hurts to get dressed in the morning, it might be time for a rest. I'm determined to head back there tomorrow morning. Lucky for me, the gym has a great child center and the kids love it. Sometimes Mommy needs a time out too.

Day 2 and a little too much CNN

So I think I'm starting to detox from all the sugar that I've been dumping into my system. Needless to say, I don't really feel good right now. Headache and slight nausea are kind of uncomfortable, but I have been able to stick to the program today. Because I've done this kind of detox before, I know that I'll probably feel a little worse tomorrow when my body realizes that No, I am not having hot chocolate with my breakfast and I am certainly not throwing a handful of M&M's into my purse to snack on later.
On the workout front I did really good today. I decided to take advantage of some of the features at the gym we go to and join their 90 Day Weight Loss Challenge. You get weighed in and get to talk to a trainer and a nutritionist if you so choose. I think they keep your weight confidential, at least I hope so (YIKES!). I will keep you guys posted with lbs lost, but, as any Lady will tell you, my weight is private or at least quiet.

So I'm not a terribly political person, but I do pay attention to whats going on in the world. I love to watch the news and it seems like almost everything I hear is about the election and the mud slinging that is being done by the GOP candidates. Don't get me wrong, I am not for any particular candidate. I did find something very interesting in the South Carolina primary. Many people who would probably consider themselves as part of the "moral majority" would rather vote for someone with questionable morals than a Mormon. I find that to be terribly hypocritical. I don't think that a persons religion should either qualify or disqualify a person. The clear facts tell me that Newt has no moral compass. Not a broken one, it just does not exist. We're talking about an admitted, serial adulterer, twice divorced who had to resign from his post as Speaker of the House under ethics violations charges. I was horrified when he said that people would consider him more "normal" because of his affairs, as opposed to Romney who has been married to the same woman for 30+ yrs. I don't think it's normal to stray from the person you promised to "love and cherish, forsaking all others". The records of the hearings surrounding those charges have never been released but it is widely known that he was the KING of backroom deals. I also find insane hypocrisy in him pointing the finger at others because of their economic status. By my standards, pretty much all the candidates are wealthy, and most of them have connections that helped them get where there are, including the former Speaker.
Right now I have no idea who I would vote for, just who don't want to see in office.

100 Days and a Plan

As most of us do at the beginning of the year, I gave myself a little evaluation to see how I was doing. In my own mind of course. Looking at things I though I was doing pretty good. I'm not the most organized person but everything gets paid on time and I try to make sure everyone gets fed on time too. But after three different doctor visits and at each one having my weight mentioned, and NOT in a good way, I have to admit to spending a couple weeks down in the dumps and doing a lot more reevaluating. I'm not a huge one for Life Changing New Years Resolutions so any thoughts of that just seemed trite. But over the last few weeks I have come to realize a few things.

First of those is this; What kind of example am I setting for my kids. Sure I got to the gym, maybe more than the average person. But what does it say to them if they see me going to the gym and then pounding a whole pan of Brownies on the weekend or because "I had a bad day". If they are going to beat the rising rates of obesity and all the horrible things that those numbers bring with them then I need to the the first on in line helping them to make better choices than those around them. And how the heck and I going to do that if I'm sneaking half a bag of Hershey's Kisses while Q is napping?! It does not take a Ph.D. to figure out that nothing really good can come out of those decisions.

Second is this; Am I really being good to my self by saying, I deserve to eat this bowl of Ice Cream after I workout, or after I have a bad day, etc. (insert your own justification here). In reality I would be being better to myself if I decided to eat a great salad or a really good (low sugar) smoothie after a workout. If I really valued my self, and the work that I put in at the gym, I should be filling my body with healthier food and having the goodies only occasionally. And Tuesday night after the kids go to bed would NOT count as an Occasion.

Lastly is this, the saddest and potentially most depressing point; My biology seems to be against me. To spite all of my prayer and hopes to be naturally thin, it has finally occurred to me that I am not a Naturally Thin person. Not that I don't like my curves, I do, but there is a line in my mind between the curves I think I have and the extra junk in the trunk that seems to be my reality at the moment. I think I might have been hovering at that line a bit too long. This realization had thrown into relief a truth that I always thought I understood but now I'm feeling that I really get it. In order to get what one wants, sacrifices need to be made.

So I'm planning a 100 Day overhaul. I've done diets before and been successful but always gone back to where I was (although both previous times there was a pregnancy involved). In doing my research I realized that I need to give up the sugars, the starches and most of the carbs that I love so dearly. I realized that they don't love me back, they love to make my backside fat. It's like the definition of a frenemy.
It has finally occurred to me that I need to become one of those "healthy people", you know, they people you see in the store buying half the produce section, those people you want to ask if they've ever, EVER had a cheeseburger. I need to become one of those people.
So it's with these facts in mind that I bid good bye to the refined sugars, carbs and bad fats that have conspired to ruin my health. Like the bitchy, back-stabbing, gossiping "friend", we can meet up once in a while to check it, but you are NOT going to be a daily part of my life anymore.
I've decided I'm just too good for you.

Oops

I just looked at the date of my last entry and it has been more than 2 months since I wrote anything. Oops. I guess it just goes to show the business of the holiday season.
Ours certainly was busy. Starting in the middle of November we either had someone at our house or we were visiting someone in the family almost every week. While it is great fun, it certainly is exhausting. To add to the craziness of the season, if you're like me and insist on being this cool, I like to make a few gifts every year. Usually it involves a lot of knitting in the months of October, November and December, with the effort amplified everyday closer to Christmas we get. This year, I'm proud to say, I made almost half of the close family gifts. Mostly consisting of mittens and socks, but with one elephant for my niece Mia.
We did have one sad event in the month of November. Just before Thanksgiving, my 90 year old grandpa-in-law lost his battle with failing health. He was in very good health until the early fall when he started to go down hill, but he maintained his mental facilities until the day he died. DH and most of his family were able to go to Texas in early November and get a very good visit with him before he passed. While it meant that DH was gone for a good chunk of November I know that it was better that he went to Texas and saw his Grandpa rather than having any regrets in the future. While he was away for the funeral however, L did catch strep throat so we spent almost all that week at home. Everyone needs one week a year to live in their pj's right? Right?
Christmas was really nice, we saw a lot of all the grandparents. Including a Christmas Eve trip to the Henry Ford Museum that L still mentions because 1) we went with Grandma K and 2) he got to see Santa.

Since then I've just been trying to get my stuff back together. With school starting up again and (of course) the New Years resolutions to get rolling I feel a bit behind. Add to that the drama of looking for a house and we've got a totally full calendar already.

Although at the moment I am admittedly a little grumpy. As any Mom with little kids knows, it is not possible for Mommy to be sick at Christmas time. Even if you are sick, you are not sick. If you were, not everything would get done. So I ignored my cold and bought boxes of NyQuil/DayQuil and survived on that until I though I was better. I even went back to the gym and was feeling "much better". That is until Wednesday night when I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. Apparently I looked so bad that DH made me promise that I'd go to the doctor on Thursday. I did call and get an appointment. DH was so concerned that he decided to work from home for a couple days so that he could help with the kids. My doctor decided that I have a sinus infection and bronchitis and will spend the next 2 weeks on antibiotics. I was told to get as much rest as possible till the antibiotics start working. I was getting rest, that is until Chris got hit with a cold last night and couldn't sleep until very early this morning. So after 1 glorious morning of sleep and rest, I was forced back into full-time Mommy mode again. Does anyone else see the gross injustice of it all??? I guess that is what happens when you are MOMMY.
DH has been told that since he can take NyQuil to help him sleep, he will. And then he will get up with the kids tomorrow morning so I can sleep. So there.