Wednesday, January 28, 2009

25 Random things about me

I got tagged on facebook to write 25 random things about myself.
  1. I really like to sing karaoke and take it waaay to seriously at parties.
  2. When I was in middle school I said I wanted 10 kids. Four is sounding better all the time.
  3. I didn’t experience my first kiss until 19, but by 21 I had gotten at least 5 marriage proposals
  4. In eighth grade my English teacher called home to say that “be a mother” was not an acceptable answer to the question of what I wanted to be when I grew up. I got my degree in Chemical Engineering but I’m still a mom anyway.
  5. I am directionally impaired. My brothers still tease that I couldn’t find my way out of a paper bag. Garmin is my seeing eye dog.
  6. Looking at model homes is a favorite pastime.
  7. Calling someone a Capitalist is a compliment in my book
  8. If my kids call me by my first name I call them Snicklefritz, Snoofendorf, Frank or Oofenhymer (depending on who it is I’m talking to).
  9. When I was little and wanted to pray seriously I would lock my door, turn on every light and kneel in the middle of my room.
  10. Most people dread, but I like it when I’m asked to give a talk in church
  11. I hated History in high school and put off the required freshman History class until the last semester of my Senior year. Turns out that I really like History after all.
  12. I’ve never been snow skiing…EVER
  13. I wanted to declare Music/Dance/Theatre as my major. My father said no because he didn’t consider it a real major.
  14. I used to play hide and go seek with my poodle, Skipper. I’d find a good hiding spot and scream to let my brother know I was ready. He would open the kennel door and Skipper would come tearing down the stairs barking and sniffing wildly. He could find me every single time no matter what. It was so much fun we’d play for hours.
  15. I home school because the alternative is a government monopoly that will never pay teachers enough so it can justify always asking for more money for their bloated bureaucracy with a track record of social propaganda and educational failure.
  16. I’ve kept a journal from when I was 12 through college. I couldn’t find the time or incentive after I got married until I discovered blogging. Blogging is better for keeping up to date, but edited for shiny happy content since I have an audience.
  17. I’ve been to Hawaii and Mexico with my family, to Canada with the marching band and to Spain (briefly in the airport) and the Canary Islands as a missionary
  18. I play the piano, clarinet, tenor saxophone and once when I was in the 4th grade in Connecticut, the violin. I wanted to play the trombone because the guy demonstrating it at my school played Superman! I did NOT want to play the Clarinet because the guy’s fingers looked funny after being over the holes. I ended up with the Clarinet after the move to California since that’s what my father played and he had one for me to use.
  19. I was in the Jazz Band (sax & piano) and Marching Band (clarinet) in High School and the Marching Band in college.
  20. I won a headstand competition in gymnastics when I was 9. I practiced a lot.
  21. I beat all the choir members who tried out to sing for my High School graduation. I tried out with "My favorite Things" and sang "Hero" by Mariah Carey at Graduation.
  22. I used to put both my legs into one leg of my mother’s nylons, both feet into one of my father’s flippers and swim around our pool like a mermaid.
  23. I got an enormous scholarship for college through the Air Force. I turned it down because I didn’t want the strings attached.
  24. My grandfather built me a dollhouse that I played with for hours and hours as a little girl. I still love dollhouses. I play The Sims every once in a while after the kids are in bed as an age appropriate alternative.
  25. In my spare time at college I wrote original pieces of music, nowadays I film and edit wedding videos as my creative outlet. I’d like to do it more, but I’m bad at sales and advertising.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

What's up meh dude


I'm not sure where exactly they got the idea, but Ethan and Hunter have developed their own brand of male bonding handshake. It's funny to me because when they do it, it's VERY SERIOUS business.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

No, You're in Trouble

Wanting to do things like Mommy is normal for a little girl, right? Emulation of mother is probably very important for a little girl's development, self esteem and identity.

Sigh

I came into the bathroom and Elle had gotten into my mouse. I took a look around at the mouse spread all over her, the cabinets the toilet and without saying anything went to get my camera. When I came back she looked at me...BEAMING! She was going to get pictures taken of her cuteness!!! I looked at back at her and said, "No, you're in trouble little Miss." This is the face she made.
At this point she forgot she was in trouble and wanted to show me more of where my mouse ended up. I just know this is my mother's revenge for something of hers that I got into as a child. Although nowadays, I can't exactly remember what it was...

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Elle's Birthday Party

The theme for Elle's party was "Little Mother". Her friends were invited to bring their baby doll. The first thing we did was go shopping. The boys lined up the different play food on the couch as the store. I made little stickers of each food item. The girls were given a paper and a set of stickers to make their shopping list. It didn't quite work out like I expected. They put whatever in their basket and then got confused when I asked them if they were getting things on their shopping list. After that we sorted the food into fruits, vegetables, bread and protein. It was on this point they lost interest and left the structured activity. I laid the food out and all the dishes and just let them play house for a little while, which was better received.

While they were playing house I set up the kitchen so they could do some real cooking. I got a angel food cake mix where all you have to do is add water and bake. I measured the mix and split it four ways. For authenticity's sake I let them spoon it into a bowl with measuring spoons. I put a drop of food coloring in the baking dish after they mixed in the water so everybody got a different color cake.


After they were done I let them clean up their workspace with the kitchen wipes. After they were done they read stories to one another and their babies. Garrett needed a diaper change so I passed out his unused newborn diapers to everybody and we all gave our babies a diaper change. Then I gave them each a sheet of stickers I had made of baby things to put into their books. They drew pictures of themselves with their babies. By then the cakes were done baking, but they needed time to cool so we opened presents. Elle got a stuffed doggy, two new baby dolls, a Barbie doll, a bubble blower, and a ballet princess dress. I served up the cake. It was supposed to serve 12 so I figured the girls would want to share since each of their individual cakes would serve 3 people each. When I invited the boys to come have some cake too, one of the girls started crying because she didn't somebody else to eat her cake. Actually she started crying when Michael walked in. I couldn't help but laugh. I imagine to a three year old the prospect that Elle's BIG daddy is going to "share" translates into he's going to eat it ALL. The boys dejectedly went back upstairs and so I cut each girl's cake into four parts and gave each girl a different slice of each color. They didn't finish it all, but they did at least take a bite of each color. Figures. This is the picture that I put on the back of their "Little Mother" booklet. All in all I think the party went well, except at the end when one girl fell off the living room swing and two others were fighting over the teeter toter and one got hit in the face with the seat of the teeter totter and bit her tongue pretty good. Literally it was 2 minutes before her mom showed up. Crying and bleeding. Perfect.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Little mother

We had Elle's family birthday party today at Grandma's house. Grandma Diane gave her a pretty new dress. Uncle Mikey and Uncle Daniel gave her some new food for her kitchen and Grandma Claudia gave her a new baby doll with accessories. She is VERY excited to have another baby!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

In Garrett's Best Interest

I went off the Simeons protocol last night. Not because it wasn't working. It was working beautifully. What I didn't take into consideration was that Garrett would be on a diet too. I was still producing milk, but not enough. Garrett started out by being fussy. At first we thought it was because he was teething. Yesterday he was lethargic with few wet diapers and only one barely soiled one. For his sake I started eating normally again last night at about nine. I processed the food and made more milk which he ate throughout the night. His diaper was filled to capacity this morning. Seeing him bright eyed and his normally happy self I know I made the right choice. I feel really bad that I didn't realize he wasn't getting enough earlier. I'm disappointed that it didn't work for both of us. Loosing an average of a pound and a half a day was fantastic! In the meantime I suppose I'll start a workout program and try again when I'm not Garrett's main source of food.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

To the dentist

Last time I took the kids to the dentist it was Elle's first time. I took lots of cute pictures, but somehow I lost them before I could transfer them to the computer or put them on here. So in defiance of that I'm posting Elle's SECOND trip to the dentist. Hurray!!!

Hunter's eyes were sensitive so he got to wear a pair of cool guy glasses. At the end of their visit they get a little take home bag with little goodies in it including a new toothbrush, floss (which always gets pulled out on the way home), and toothpaste. For being good patients they get a little coin to put into the dentists toy dispenser. The boys put their coins in and got a toy out. When we got to the lobby I realized Elle did not have her toy. The assistant went back and got one for her. I figured she must have put the coin in wrong or didn't turn the dial or something. When we got home the golden dentist coin appeared out of her pocket. Ah HA! That's where it went. Little stinker got to have her cake and eat it too!

New Year's Resolutions

I have been of the opinion that diets don't work and anybody who does them just sets themselves up to yo-yo to heavier and heavier weights. After Ethan was born I started doing the Body-For-Life program. That in conjunction with nursing my baby stripped the weight off at an incredible rate. After Hunter and Elle I didn't have the energy to be so diligent in my work out program so the weight lingered. In 2007 my mom came across a weight loss program and was so engrossed by the infomercial so she bought the book and gave it to me to sort it out.

I read it and noticed that the author repeatedly referenced Dr. Simeons "Pounds and Inches". In fact, much of Kevin Trudeau's protocol seemed to disagree with his assertion that his weight loss cure was both cheap and easy. I suppose to prevent the possibility of being accused of outright plagiarism Kevin took the original protocol and embellished it to the point of ridiculous.

I read between the lines, found a free copy of the Dr. Simeons "Pounds and Inches" protocol online and then followed it to the tee. I lost 15.5 pounds in 30 days going from 138.5 to 123. I averaged about 1/2 pound a day. I didn't have much to lose, but I wanted to put the protocol to the test. People noticed the slimming down and asked what I was doing. One friend asked me, "How come you look skinnier every time I see you?"

Then I got pregnant with Garrett and I got my baby weight back.

It's been almost six months since Garrett was born so I decided to start again for the new year hoping that six months would be a big enough gap for it to work. I made my first two binge days the 30th and 31st (you have to read the program to understand why that makes any sense at all) and then on January 1st I started the low calorie diet. I weighed myself at the beginning of each day. So far it's been:

Dec 30 - 166.0
Dec 31 - 166.5
Jan 1 - 169.5 ( start low cal diet)
Jan 2 - 165.0
Jan 3 - 163.5
Jan 4 - 161.5
Jan 5 - 160.0
Jan 6 - 158.5

I suspect that it's coming off so much quicker than the last time because Garrett is nursing. Eleven pounds in six days? Not bad. I'm already seeing a difference, although 11 pounds would be hard not to notice. Just as a barometer for my progress I'm posting an unflattering photo of me taken on December 23rd. It shows the poundage around my face fairly well. I wish I had a full body shot from that day, but this will do for all intents and purposes.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

All lined up

The boys thought it would be fun to put Garrett and Elle's new baby doll from Christmas all lined up on the floor together. Sure is cute!