This year for Thanksgiving, we decided to try something new. We had dinner at our house; just the six of us! Thanksgiving has traditionally been something that we do with a big group of family, but for some reason this year, it just felt like small and intimate was the way to go. We had a great deal of fun on that day, and I have to say that the best part was that there weren't any time constraints on us. Dinner started when we were ready and we didn't have to wait for others to come; and no one got up and left during dinner. Not that these are total dealbreakers, but let's just say the contrast was nice. The kids were able to help with meal preparations quite a bit, and we all had a fun day.
The girls were most excited about the table decorations. I don't blame them. One of my favorite memories of childhood was sleeping over at my grandma's house the night before Thanksgiving. The next morning, as food was being prepared, I got to help with mashing potatoes, setting the table and making sure that everything was ready to go when the time arrived. We found a fun project from Family Fun and had a great time making our turkey centerpiece. The girls also made sure that we were using Great-Grandma Homer's table cloth and accessorized with some nifty placemats and wire pumpkins they picked out from Wal-Mart. (We are high class.)
Well, high class or low, the food sure was tasty. We brined the turkey we made, and cooked Lion House rolls. We tried a corn casserole with cream cheese and peppers (so yummy) and the sweet potato casserole was like dessert for dinner. We also had veggies and homemade pies. And of course, sparkling cider to drink. We had some great conversation with the kids and really enjoyed the day.
After dinner we went over to the new Megaplex Theaters in Centerville and saw the Muppet Movie. Soooo much fun. Came home and headed to be early, because for once, the girls actually convinced me to go shopping on Black Friday. Not sure that I'll do that again, but they loved it.
In many ways, it was the perfect day and was a great start to the weekend. So thankful for all of these people in my life and for the joy they bring me daily. Grateful to spend our day of thanks together.
I have to admit, the only time that I had been to the Natural History Museum at the U was back when I was going to school there. I had a class held in a building on President's Circle and there was designated museum parking, so I took advantage of it by running through the museum as fast as I could to get a validation. Shameful, yes, but that's kind of how I rolled in college.
Well, over the course of the last 3 or 4 years, the U has been in the process of rebuilding and moving their museum collections to a new location at the Rio Tinto Center in Research Park. It is a beautiful facility and the way that it's laid out is fabulous. My dad's company was actually involved with the building of the project so we were fortunate enough to be able to attend a special preview event, complete with lunch and special activities before the doors opened to the public. Sadly, we only managed to stay together through lunch and then everyone was off like a shot to see all the cool things at the museum. Therefore, no great pictures from this trip.
However, after going once, I knew we would have to go again; and that's just what we did. The day before Thanksgiving found us headed up to the museum with our good friends, the Tullis family. We love them.... can't imagine what life would be like without them. Anyway, it works good because each of our kids has a friend in their family and they all get along so well. Jack, especially, loves his best friend Nate and was so excited to go to the museum with him because Nate LOVES dinosaurs.
The thing that is so great about this museum is how interactive it is. When they put the exhibits together, they really took the time to try and address the different ways people learn. You can touch, smell, hear and see things. It's amazing to walk through the dinosaur exhibit and see bones surrounding you on all sides. They also have great representative models on geological features, water, wildlife and native cultures. They have great kid spaces with puppets, books, and models to help children understand and apply the things they are learning about. I can't say enough about how fabulous this museum is.
So much fun to go and see and so grateful that it is so close so that we can go often.
This time of year the talk starts to center on the things that we are grateful for. As I was listening to the radio today, the program I was listening to featured interviews with individuals who, along with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, were shot outside of a Safeway on January 8, 2011. In some ways, it seems as if this event just happened. I remember it vividly as I waited to deliver Will. And yet, Will turned 10 months old today, so it has obviously been a while. I was intrigued in listening to these folks; they are grateful for little things like planting petunias in dirt, being outdoors, relationships, lunches with friends and most of all, by having the chance to be frustrated by the slow progress of their recoveries. All of them were grateful for the progress they've made and the lessons they've learned. That got me to thinking about what I have to be grateful for.
Over the course of the last year, my life hasn't been nearly as traumatic as those of these individuals, and that in and of itself is reason to be grateful. So, for posterity, and as an exercise in counting my blessings, I want to share with you things I am grateful for.
I am VERY grateful for my husband. He works so hard. He stresses about things so I don't have to. He spends every free moment he has working at something to make our lives better. Heaven knows he doesn't take much time for himself and I worry about him.... if his boss is reading this, he could really use some help! I know it won't change much, but I want him to know that his hard work does not go unnoticed or unappreciated. He makes me smile and makes me laugh. I love this about him most.
I am thankful for four beautiful children.
Erin is creative, loving and growing up before my very eyes. She tries her hardest to make things good for her brothers and sister. She has developed quite the sense of humor and can make me laugh; which is great because sometimes I really need that!
Allie is smart and sweet and oh so helpful. I cannot imagine what the last year of my life would have been like without this little helper. She is generally very quick to respond to my pleas for help and Will lights up when he sees her.
My little Jack..... what would I do without him? He makes me laugh, and makes me happy all over. He loves his mom, and I hope that never changes. No morning would be complete without our "snuggle time." This boy is going to do great things and I can't wait to watch.
Sweet William; I never knew what I was missing, but now there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that he was meant to be here with us. He has the most beautiful, expressive brown eyes. He loves to dance and watching him sway to the music makes my heart happy. I have loved being a mom of a newborn again. Who can believe that it has almost been a year?
I am grateful for our home. Whether or not it is a castle, it is a safe warm place to spend time with those I love most. It is such a relief as we head into winter to be able to feel secure in my bed while the wind howls outside.
I am thankful to have time to spend with my family, and to honestly and truly appreciate it. As I have gotten older and our kids have grown, I want to put a forcefield around us and keep us by ourselves forever. I love that we have fun together and that though it isn't always rosy, we would pick to spend our spare time together.
I am thankful for families; both mine and Matt's. I am thankful for the love, support and sacrifice they exhibit on our behalf. I am thankful for babysitters, for cousin time, for one-on-one time with grandparents and for aunts and uncles that get to be fun with kids. I am so thankful that we have been sent here to be a part of a family and I am thankful for the examples and paths blazed by those who have gone before me. What a legacy I am fortunate enough to have.
I am grateful to live in the time and place that I do. I love living where I do; at the foot of the mountains in a beautiful state. I am grateful for the natural wonders that bless my life. I am grateful for living in this wonderful country and for the opportunities this affords me.
I am thankful for the things I know and the opportunity to learn more. It's awesome that I can learn about whatever interests me without having to worry about what anyone says. I am so glad that my children have the opportunity to go to school. That we are able to meet their needs so that they concentrate on learning the lessons they need to. I am thankful for good books, and that I can read.
I am thankful for good friends. There are so many people in my life who are there to lend a listening ear, bring me a coke or laugh at my jokes. I only hope that I am able to return the favor.
I am grateful for modern medicine and the fact that medical woes that may have troubled my family in the past are made easier by medical advances. I am grateful that I live in a society that helps to care for its elderly and its young. That there are professionals who are not only proficient in their professions, but are also caring people who love their patients.
I am thankful for reliable transportation and the ability to deal with problems as they arise. My children are so lucky to be able to participate in extracurricular activities that I can drive them to. I am glad that the kids schools are close and that we have any number of shops close by so that our lives, and our bellies, can be richer and fuller.
I am so fortunate to be able to walk, to move, and to make my body do what I want it to. I can think and I can talk. I can say what I mean to say and I can actively participate in things with my family.
I like the wet nose and warm body of my dog, Annie. Despite the fact that she is sometimes a pain in my rear, my life wouldn't be the same without her.
Finally, I am thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ and the knowledge I have that he knows me and my struggles and that he has atoned for my sins. I am so thankful for all that I have. I am truly blessed and I will do my best to live worthy of these things that I have been blessed with.
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you'll want to look this one up online because there are video clips that are essential to the post***
To be completely honest, this week did not start out great. I woke up Monday morning with a pounding headache, chest congestion from you-know-where, and a slew of appointments to cancel or reschedule because of said maladies. To make matters worse, I was pretty sure that Will's ear infection was back and Matt was leaving that afternoon. Fast forward to Monday night, and I'm totally having a Clark W. Griswold moment.
Now to be fair, our shitter wasn't full..... it was OVERFLOWING. Like swimming down the hallway, overflowing. My family should also take note that it was, in fact, NOT MY FAULT this time! Anyway, as I'm trying to impede the flow of raw sewage down my hall and keep the baby from crawling through it, I am having a heckuva time trying to get help from the remaining kids.... including the clogging offender. After the problem is sorta solved, with a phone call to Matt in California, something in me snapped.... BIG TIME. Cue the next clip.
You must know, that I am not a yeller by nature. Hold on, hear me out. I am a screamer. What's the difference you may ask? Well a screamer, such as myself, will scream at the kids, or the dog, or traffic or the husband when they make me mad or cause a problem, but like a ride on a roller coaster, it is fairly short lived. On a normal day, I don't have the breath support for yelling. It takes a lot of effort and usually requires hand gestures and throwing things. If you're good enough to make veins in your forehead pop out, all the better. Well, I must have eaten my Wheaties on Monday morning because the yeller in me came out with a vengeance. I threw American Girl dolls, Matchbox cars and kicked a few things. The dog hid, the baby cried, Jack was the tiniest bit remorseful and my girls shared a look that said, "Oh crap, if Mom's this mad, we're really in trouble; she's generally the nice one." The whole episode ended with me losing my peripheral vision, seeing spots and the migraine from hell knocking me down. Needless to say, I didn't have any problems getting kids to bed that night.
Tuesday morning arrives bright and early, and after getting the kids to school, I come home to tackle my day. The night before I had turned the fan on and taped the door closed to the bathroom. Well, the time was at hand. After a considerable amount of elbow grease, the dry heaves and some creative swearing, the toilet was clear. Unfortunately, our bowl runneth over again in the process. That's okay, sopped up sh** again. Mopped the floor, sterilized everything, and felt quite accomplished in the process.
Next item on the agenda, the pantry doors. For some reason (I think there are actually three of them) my doors are continually coming off the track that they run on to close. Over the weekend, they nearly fell on the baby. Matt is really good about fixing them, but we find ourselves in the same predicament again and again. Well, I decided to fix it once and for all. I ripped those suckers out. Put up a tension rod and curtains. Problem solved (and yes they have been hemmed since this picture was taken.)
At this point in the day, I was really feeling like this clip.
Honestly, I had had it. I decided that I was sick of a few things around the house and I was going to fix them. Changed light bulbs that have needed to be changed for a year and a half; yep, you read that right. But that was nothing compared to my next step.
You have to know that I absolutely HATE the carpet in my house. It is cheap, contractor carpet designed to look good when someone is looking to buy the house, but doesn't hold up, IN THE LEAST to living with a dog and four kids. What is the worst part? The stairs. Besides them being high traffic, my kids have dragged leaking garbage bags up and down the stairs and on Sunday night, Erin spilled a LARGE bowl of Cocoa Puffs down the length of them. Well guess what? I'd had it! After some brainstorming and asking myself "How mad could Matt really get if I recarpeted the upstairs while he was gone?," I headed to the computer and then to the Home Depot.
I did it, or rather, Jack and I did it. We pulled up all the carpet on the stairs.
Pretty soon, the stairs looked like this.
My hopes of finding solid wood stairs (I knew there was no way they'd be hard wood) were dashed. I had pressboard and particle board. Jack and I went to work and by the end of Wednesday, this is what it looked like.
So in my opinion, this is already an improvement. And yes, I know that it will hurt more now if we fall down the stairs. But get ready to be wowed, because this is what I did today.
That's right.... I tiled my staircase. It looks really cool, if I do say so myself. The question will be this... will Matt like it? He knows I've been working hard all week, but he has no idea at what. I hope that he likes it. You have to imagine it finished; take off the blue painters tape and add a little bit of grout after the adhesive is cured, but I think it's going to look awesome. And I did it! So of course that makes it even more awesome.
I think it's good to have times like this occasionally. I know that I cannot live like this all the time, but there is something deep within me that is stirred when I take on a project like this. I can't name what the particular motivation was for this burst of energy, although I'm thinking I may have forgotten to take my anti-depressant on Saturday and Monday night's outburst might be my punishment for that. Whatever the reason, I found myself in a manic, kick-butt and take name mood on Tuesday and I'm pretty happy with the results.
With all that said, however, my entire upper body is crying and I am ready for a long winters nap..... and a hot fudge sundae. Good night people!
Honestly, it's me. I guess I've really let myself go lately. I mean, before the ward party the other night I took a shower, covered the dark circles under my eyes, put on a real bra and a little lip gloss and I got multiple compliments on how nice I looked. That should tell me something, right?
I'm not so sure that I smell bad, per se, but I will admit that most days it seems to be late afternoon or evening before I get my shower in for the day. This is so strange. I remember when I first started staying home with Erin, lo those many years ago now, and I was shocked when I would hear moms say that they didn't get a shower in that day! What??? How could that not be the first thing you do?
Well, fast forward a dozen or so years and I sooooo get it. I mean, what's the point of showering when doing so requires either a sleeping baby or the lowering of your standards to include said baby pulling himself up on the toilet bowl, maybe licking it, and being oogled by the dog all the while. Thanks but no; I'll wait until the babysitters get home from school. Besides, there's a good chance that the kid will throw up on me right after I get dressed for the day anyway. Better to save myself from the laundry and not waste the prettying up on just anyone. One thing I have learned; nobody at the elementary school cares whether my hair is done (that's what hats are for) or whether I have shoes or a bra on when I drop my kids off. I do brush my teeth, because morning mouth is just disgusting and even I have standards; they're low, but they're there.
Actually, the real reason I find myself putting of the daily shower has to do with exercise. I have learned that if I shower first thing in the morning, I am less likely to do my exercise for the day. Let's face it, any little thing could be the tipping factor in this whole venture. So, if you see me running around in the same workout clothes, day after day, just know that it is my own little way of trying to keep exercise on the to-do list.
All of this talk about smell has kind of been a meandering introduction to the real purpose of this post.... the update on the diet. I'm sure you've been waiting. I think I've even heard a few of you snicker over the last few weeks. So to all those enquiring minds who want to know, and to those of you who simply stumbled upon this blog by accident, I am down......... 11 pounds. This is right on track with where I need to be if I am trying to lose 1.5 pounds a week to get to the ultimate goal of 100 pounds lost.
So how do I feel about this whole thing? Well, I haven't quit yet. I am still religiously logging my food and have even, dare I say, made exercise part of my daily routine. It's still not my favorite, but unlike previous attempts, I do not, at present want to kill everyone in my family and I am managing to get some housework done. Last Sunday, I even chose to go on a walk, in the cold and the dark, just because. Weird, huh?
The Body Bugg has been great. If any of you have looked into it and are wondering how it works, I would highly recommend it. I love that it counts ALL of the calories I burn throughout my day and not just the measly 200 or so that I nearly kill myself to get during a workout. Let's be real, I am not in the best physical shape, so killing myself doesn't take much. Therefore, it can be very discouraging to try and stick to a plan that doesn't seem to produce rapid results. I have been watching my sleep with this little tool, as well, and I have to say that I do believe my sleep efficiency plays a role in my overall health. I average about 65% efficiency. According to sleep specialists, that's not enough. Hopefully, as the weight comes off and I can breathe easier at night, that number will get better.
A few things I've observed.
I need new shoes. I'm looking for some that are supposed to feel like bare feet? Anybody have any suggestions?
My favorite meal of all time is over 1,000 calories. Farewell regular-size Wisconsin Mac n Cheese at Noodles & Company.
Cleaning the house really does burn calories.
I am not giving up my morning McDonald's run. I can get my breakfast for 469 calories and the other day, I had oatmeal that was three calories short of that.... not worth it, and I don't love oatmeal enough to eat it without some sugar.
So there you go. I am hoping to make it through the next couple of months and be down another 10 pounds by the start of 2012. Will I make it? I don't know, but I do know that for the first time, I am not trying to sabotage myself and am being completely honest about what I am doing in pursuit of this goal. That's got to count for something.
