Happy Birthday, Nana!

Pictures from Saturday morning

Ahhh - Saturday morning. I awoke to the dulcet tones of my children getting along. Caleb was offering to get the girls breakfast...but then things rapidly deteriorated from there. Julie wanted a glass bowl for her cereal and Caleb was offering her a plastic purple one. Oh well. At least one child was using his head.

So here are some pictures. The first pics are of Caleb's program yesterday at school. It was "The Drumming Spider." I can't tell you the plot line because I couldn't hear anything. Oh well. At least it was short. He's second in from the right on the front row.



For those of you who grew up here in LA, the choir director is Laurel Webb. How fun is that?

And on to this morning. I've spent the last week tearing out the nasty grass out of half of our front yard and replacing it with flower seeds. I thought it would be fun to let the kids choose and plant their own stuff. I ended up planting most of it, but that's fine by me since I'm the picky one. As you can see, I still have some planting to go, but I'm waiting on some plants from a friend. She's thinning out her garden and we're getting some hollyhocks and orange California poppies from her. Maybe also some daisies. Depends on how she and I feel. Anyway - after I get those little plants in, I'll fill in the spaces with a Rocky Mountain seed mix Mom got for me last year. I'll be generous with those seeds since they're over a year old. I'll have no way of knowing what is what when they sprout and grow, but that's part of the fun of a seed mix, right? Audrey's kinder class planted some sunflower seeds in a little plastic cup a few weeks ago for some science lessons so we transplanted them Sunday. I think a little bunny came over and ate one, but we still have 3 little plants that look alive.

We also reseeded the other part of our lawn. It looks pretty rough, but hopefully I can nurse it back to respectability this spring and summer.





I got the girls to pose by some of our flowers. I can't take credit for the irises in the front nor the peonies in the back. They're welcome leftovers from the previous owners.

Julie is doing her "Vanna White" pose and showing us...what? I'm not quite sure what she's trying to show off besides her skills as a ham.

A New Sensation

Remember how I've mentioned before about getting "the itchies" when I run? I started on a training program a few weeks ago to run a 5k (3.1 miles) nonstop and it began with walking rather briskly. Since I was using different muscles than running, I got the itchies in my legs the first couple of times I walked, but it went away.

Today on my first run since I started the training program, I got the itchies on my abs. My abs! Yay! Do you know what this means? The extra bloodflow from exercise is starting to reach the fat there on my tummy. Finally! Does this mean I will have chisled abs anytime soon? Doubtful, but maybe I'll be able to see a little definition before long.

Finally Made It Home From Clovis

So it was brought to my attention today that it was taking us a long time to get home from Clovis. Oops - we're hooooome!

Lots has happened since I last posted - basically the whole month of April. Before I get to recent past events, I'll post some pics of past past events. Like my pink hair. I'll start with that.




The pink is fading on the edges (my pillowcase is slightly pink-tinged), but I'm still happy with the color. I need to get in to get a trim soon.

On another front, I'm down in weight to 167.4. I'm .4 pounds away from my 10% goal. Actually, it's the third time I've lost 10% of my body weight since I started on this journey almost 3 years ago. But the bummer is that I've weighed in at 167.4 for the last two Fridays at the Weight Watchers meetings. And I was so diligent this week with my tracking, measuring, and exercising. All I can hope is that next week the scales will be more kind to me. When I hit the 10% mark, I'll get a spiffy keychain from WW.

Back to Spring Break - we got to spend some time with our twin nephews. Here's a picture of us out on Mom & Dad's driveway on the very popular plasma cars. I was giving John a ride. He seemed to enjoy it. I know I did.
Next on the agenda: I went to a writers' conference in Albuquerque mid-April. It was a great learning experience for me. I took two yellow pads - one for general notes (I took several pages) and one that had a partial manuscript (I took several pages of notes specific to that manuscript). So now I'm ready to start some serious work! I also had an appointment with an editor about my Stephen F. Austin manuscript. While I wasn't offered a multi-million contract on the spot (or any contract, for that matter) I was able to pick her brain for a little while about how to improve the manuscript. I'm going to take the story in a whole new direction and I'm excited about it.

Random story here: A couple of weeks ago on a Wednesday afternoon, Audrey busted out with a classic "Audreyism." As you may recall, elementary schools in Los Alamos dismiss at noon on Wednesdays, so all 3 kids are home. Since we have such a nice stretch of time, I have the kids bathe. So I was in the bathroom scrubbing on Julie when I hear some bloodcurdling screams from Audrey. The screams are growing louder, so I know she's making her way to the bathroom where I am. The door opens, and I see Caleb helping Audrey in. She's got her arm around his neck and he's helping her walk.

She's still screaming like somebody is ripping out her fingernails, so it's hard to get a good read on the situation. She's bleeding a bit from her mouth (great - another mouth injury?), so after I get her to rinse her mouth out a bit, she sits down on the toilet lid and tells me that all this is because she fell out of a tree in the backyard. All her limbs are fine, her mouth is fine, but she has some scrapes on her cheek, chin, and tummy. Apparently she tried to hang on to the tree as she was falling.

But the best thing? She said this: "Caleb can be seriously annoying most of the time, but he was really helpful getting me inside after I fell out of that tree." I almost didn't hear the last part because I was trying not to laugh about the "seriously annoying" part.

These are the things I'm remembering at the moment. Steve is gone for the weekend - helping a friend at his mom's house in San Angelo. I'm just in "survival mode" for the next few days.

Future events: I'm going to run in one (and possibly two) 5ks in June. The first is Saturday, June 13, and the second is Sunday, June 21 (Father's Day). I'm positive I'm running the first one, and not sure about the 2nd one, since it's a Sunday. To that end, I've started running again. I stopped over the coldest parts of winter because I'm a weenie. My goal for the 5k is to run the whole 3.1 miles (right now I'm in a run-walk pattern). After I finish, I'll get a 5k charm to put on my spiffy 10% Weight Watchers keychain. That's why I'm really doing it. I love the bling!

That's it for now. If I think of anything more, I'll let you know (and I promise I won't wait a month to do it!).

Blog Slacker Checking In

We're in Clovis today on our way home from Mom & Dad's in Texas. We spent spring break there and had a great time. It's 11:37 a.m. and the wind is ripping outside. I went outside to get something out of the suv and noticed the sky is brown. Gross.

The big news from Texas was that we got to see 2 different sets of cousins: the twins from Weatherford (Walt & John - my brother's kids) and the not twins from Bryan (Grace & Joshua - Steve's brother's kids). We had a nice time with them all. But not at the same time, lest I gave you that impression.

The other big news is that I saw a magic number on the scale and dyed my hair pink to celebrate. I weighed the first day we arrived and was 169.8. UNDER 170. Good enough for me! So I went to Funky Cheveaux (hair place in College Station), and got my hair did. I'll post pictures later because I just realized the memory card with the pictures is packed away in a suitcase in the suv.

I'm ready to be home. I had a nice time out and about, but there's no place like home. Makes me want some sparkly red shoes I can click together. We still have 250 miles to go. Mostly on interstate and fast highways, so it won't be too bad.

That's it for now. When we get home, I'll post pictures of our adventures.

Finally

I weigh less than Steve. He's somewhere in the 170-175 range and I'm 171.9. So I'm officially classifying myself as weighing less than he does.

We had a nice day today. We took the kids to the empty elementary school parking lot down the street to practice riding bikes. Caleb is doing very well on his two-wheeler and Audrey is working on transitioning from a bike with 12" wheels to one with 16-inchers. It was a bit windy but otherwise it was nice out.

We just finished dinner - chicken & veggie kebabs. The 2 big kids liked the red, yellow, and green bell peppers, but didn't care for the mushrooms. Julie ate the chicken and was bribed into licking a piece of green pepper by the promise of a rice krispie treat. We're trying to convince her that veggies don't kill.

So Julie has a new song:
Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb.
Mary had a little lamb, at least as white as snow.

She won't be persuaded that it's anything different. Very cute.

Audrey and Julie were both sick in recent days with fevers, coughs, and lots of snot. They both missed school for a couple of days but are better now. Caleb got an ear infection from his copious amounts of snot instead of getting a fever and he's on antibiotics. Julie informed me on Friday that she had a "boo-boo" in her ear - so I schlepped her to the doctor and discovered that she, too, has an ear infection. I'm suffering from allergies (darned juniper) and nothing is giving me relief. But I'm not done trying pills from my stash of OTC stuff.

Mom was here a couple of weeks ago while Steve was in CA at a conference. She caught whatever it was the kids had/have and now she has a "boo-boo" in her ear, too. Poor Nana. But the kids and I really liked having her and Punkin the poodle here to visit. Julie is still saying at least three or four times a day, "I wish I had a real poodle like Punkin." So do I, Julie. So do I.

Our spring break is in a week. Hard to believe. I just realized it this morning when I was making the menu and grocery list for the week. Wow. Time flies.

I think that's pretty much it for here. To celebrate when I lose the next 1.9 pounds, I'm going to get hot pink streaks put into my hair. Professionally, this time. Not like 2007 when I did it myself. That was interesting.

We've taken lots of pictures lately with our new camera and I'll start posting some soon. But now I have to go and get tomorrow's middle school Sunday school lesson ready.

I Went Shopping

After Weight Watchers today (and I lost 1.6 pounds, up to a total of 7.6 since joining the meetings and 51.6 since starting in 2006), I went shopping. This is a picture of the dress I tried on. It fit nicely and was a size 13. Wow. Haven't been that size in years!

Saturday

We've had some interesting things happen in the last 24 hours.

1 - Around 3 yesterday afternoon (the kids only had a half day of school) I was sitting at my computer in the office when I heard the horrible sound of breaking glass followed by a blood-curdling scream from the living room. I rushed in to find Audrey screaming her head off and a mess on the floor in front of the fireplace.

After I got her calmed down, I realized she was physically fine, just very scared about getting in trouble. She had knocked down a mantle clock with a glass dome, a ceramic candle warmer, and two Willow Tree figurines. The clock was ok, but the dome shattered into a million pieces, the warmer was just a bit chipped, and the two figurines were in 3 pieces each.

She had tried moving something (foot massager) that was plugged in to an extension cord that was plugged into an outlet above the mantle, thereby pulling everything on the right side of the mantle off. She didn't know it was plugged in because she saw me unplug it yesterday. Caleb, lurking between the couch and the wall so I wouldn't see him as he clandestinely watched TV two days ago, had plugged it back in.

So it was really my fault for using the plug above the mantle, Caleb's fault for plugging the massager back in after I told the kids to leave it alone, and Audrey for not paying attention. She grabbed the massager to take it back to my room, but was watching Caleb play a video game and wasn't watching what she was doing.

Good thing I got new vacuum bags this week.

2 - It was conference week all this week. Actually it started last Friday, the kids had Monday off for President's Day, then continued the rest of this week. Elementary schools let out at 11:30 so parents and teachers can meet each afternoon. But that meant that all 3 kids were home for a 3 1/2 day weekend, followed by 4 more half days of school. Not pretty.

I didn't have anything planned like I do in the summer because I still have all of my obligations to carry out - Bible study, church stuff, etc. I hate conference week. At least one of the school-aged kids has a meltdown each day. This time it was Caleb. He spent 2 of the afternoons this week in his room because he lost all of his tickets.

3 - We were supposed to go to a Boy Scout banquet last night for Caleb. We had paid $41 and I was even letting Caleb make a cake for the cake decorating contest. He was going to make a wolf face, since he's a wolf cub scout. But after I finished cleaning up the mantle mess from #1 above, I discovered he was very sick. He threw up a couple of times and then slept for 90 minutes. So we didn't go. Bummer. But I'm now making the wolf cake. It's not very pretty, but it's chocolate, so it will taste fine. I'll post pictures when we're done. I assembled it last night with Julie's help and today we'll decorate.

4 - My weigh-in results at the Weight Watchers meeting yesterday morning weren't spectacular. 0 pounds lost. Which also means 0 pounds gained. But according to my scales here at home, I've lost 3.1 pounds since last Friday. It's easier here at home - I use the same scale every time, I wear the same thing every time, I weigh the same time of day. Oh well. I know I'm making progress and that the WW scales will catch up with my scales. So my scales said 175.1 this morning. I even saw 174.8 at one point, but the consistent number was 175.1. That's the number I'm going with.

I think that's it for now. Steve made homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast. It's our Saturday tradition now. And I know exactly how many WW points each roll is, so I can have them guilt-free.

Oh - I have gunky eyes, so I'm going to go to urgent care today to see what's up. It was just one gunky eye for several weeks, but now it's both eyes, so I don't think I can put it off any longer. And they're kid of itchy. Haven't really had something like this happen before, so I'm not quite sure what the deal is.

Milestone

Just wanted to let you know I reached 175 today. This is good news. I've been reaching for this number since May of last year. I stalled out and didn't do anything to change where I was until a few weeks ago. I started going to Weight Watchers meetings with some friends of mine and then I started exercising every day. Every day. EVERY DAY. Except today because I'm grumpy. How can I be grumpy when I reached this goal? I dunno, I just am.

So we're having Sonic for dinner. Yeah, I know...I'm trying to lose weight but I'm eating fast food for dinner. But I have the points for it, so no biggie. But I had to order the kid's meal instead of a "normal" sized meal. I'll be happy with my kid's meal because I get tater tots and a hamburger. Aahhhh - the simple (and fatty) joys of life.

I got some Levi's for Christmas in 2007 that are now too big. This is a bittersweet moment because this is the only pair of Levi's I've ever owned (they never seemed to fit me right until the advent of spandex in denim) so I'm sad. But the obvious is that THEY'RE TOO BIG. I can pull them down or up without unbuttoning or unzipping them. That's fun. But they need a new home after they go through the wash this time around because they're becoming a bit too saggy baggy.

I have 4 friends I go to WW with. We're in Bible study together and have all fooled around with losing weight through WW for years. We're finally pulling together and being intentional and supportive. It's cool.

I'm going to go now and unload the dishwasher. I probably should at least do that one productive thing today. I've sat for most of the day because I don't feel 100%. Which makes me wonder how I'm going to feel after ingesting some quality Sonic grease.

Another "accident"

We got a package in the mail the other day that had copious amounts of Styrofoam packing peanuts. I threw them away and went about my business.

About an hour later I went into the living room to check on the kids and saw this:


Audrey dug the peanuts out of the trash and the kids had commenced with a snowstorm. Throwing the stupid things around wasn't enough, so they started breaking them apart. There was tiny bits of Styrofoam everywhere: floor, furniture, pants, shirts, hair...

So I had the kids pick up the big bits and got the vacuum out for the tiny ones. I let the kids use the hose attachment and they had a nice time. They took turns and shared and I moved stuff out of the way so they wouldn't suck anything up except Styrofoam.

Soon I heard the telltale "phwump" of something large being sucked up, though. I turned to see Caleb staring at me with the classic I-know-I-just-did-something-wrong-and-I'm-about-to-get-busted-big-time look. He said, "I accidentally sucked up a sock."

Grrr. I had moved stuff out of the way. I moved that sock well away from the Styrofoam, but he still managed to suck it up. No big deal. I figured I'd split open the vacuum bag and pull the sock out the next time I changed the bag.

But that plan was thwarted the next day.

Caleb was moving a small side table back into its place against a wall when we both heard a loud "pop" accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. He wasn't paying attention (he was actually watching TV while he was moving the table) and he kept shoving the table against what he thought was the wall, but was, in fact, a night light with an exposed light bulb. The bulb shattered.

So I hauled out the vacuum cleaner again. I didn't have a new bag to exchange for the sock-filled bag, so I had to suck up broken glass with the sock. No getting back that sock now, not with broken glass all over. Grr.

And it was all an accident. I hate that word when it's used by a 7-year-old.

Big Misunderstanding

So the girls were in tears today as we were leaving church. They had been hearing the hubbub all morning about the afternoon's party. Audrey kept begging if we could stay for the party and pretty soon Julie was on the begging bandwagon. I finally figured out what they were asking for: the super BALL party. Once we told them there wasn't a big dance with fancy dresses, they weren't interested. Football? Yeah, right. We want princes and ballgowns.

Julie Sings

As Steve and I were taking Julie to school yesterday morning, she started singing a song. It went something like this:

I broke it, I broke it, I'm so sorry
Mommy said, "Don't break it, don't break it. I'm so mad."
I said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'll fix it with hot gluuuuuuuue."
then I think there was something about gluing it together, but I'm not sure
I fixed it, I fixed it and Mommy said, "Thank you, honey."
La, la, la. each "la" was very short, as if to say "the end."

We were in the front seat trying so hard not to laugh because the song was hilarious. If she thought we were reacting in any way to the song, she would have stopped. She sings stuff like this all the time - what a talent we have.

The Girls' New Jewelry

Here are a couple of overdue pics of the girls with their earrings.

Julie's B-day

We've had a great day today. It started early when I heard the cat meowing constantly. It worried me because her usual waking-up-the-people meows are spaced a few seconds apart to allow for the grogginess of the human awakening process. I got up, a little alarmed and followed my ears to the laundry room, where I saw Caleb petting a meowing Gray Cat. Mystery solved. She's happiest when petted. It was in the neighborhood of 6 a.m., so I told Caleb to go back to his room and read for a while.

Over the next hour or so the girls woke up and the kids ate a little snack breakfast while we drifted in and out of sleep.

At 9, we were at the local coffee shop, The Coffee Booth, for Julie's requested b-day breakfast of a cinnamon roll and Sprite. We stuck candles in the cinnamon roll and she was thrilled. Terry & Gwen and their girls met us there for breakfast. Here's a picture of all the kids after Jules opened her gifts:
We spent the afternoon just goofing off around the house. The kids have been saving money to buy new handheld gaming systems. They wanted Nintendo DSs, but we figured that, at $150+ each, it was too much electronics for them. So we compromised and let them shop ebay for Gameboy Advances. Audrey found a pink one and Caleb found one with extra games. I see the beginning of an ebay trend with these 2.

Because we got in late last night, we made all the kids lay down for naps. C & A slept, but J just wallered around for a while. She's going to bed early tonight.

But during naptime a new toy arrived - a digital camera! No, it's not for Julie. It's for me. And it's sweet. I think it's way more camera than we will ever need, but at least I have something to learn when I use it. I'll start taking more pics and uploading them.

So last night - here's the scoop. We got to Glorieta at 5 p.m. and went straight to rehearsal in Holcomb Hall (the BIG one). After working out a few minor not-so-minor kinks, we felt confident. We ate a quick pizza dinner, met the composer of the music (who signed everybody's VBS t-shirts), and took the stage.

The kids were awesome! They rocked! The drama and choir were equally strong. We watched a video today of the performance, and it was awesome. Another family videoed it, so we're going to try to get hold of their tape because Julie was shaking the camera pretty much the whole time trying to watch us through it. A bit distracting. The audience was a good one - full of energy and very vocal. I'm glad we made it through the last 4 months of working on this. There were times I wasn't sure how it would come together, but it was super. I can say it was truly God.

I'm signing off now. Time to play with my camera some more.

I Hate 3 a.m.

Especially when 3 different critters feel the need to come into our room and talk to us 4 different times.

1 - 3:04 a.m. - Audrey: "Mommy, I had another bad dream." Me: thinking very slowly...don't want her in bed with me..."I'll walk you to your room, tuck you in, and we'll pray that the bad dreams don't return."

That done, I return to bed.

2 - 3:06 a.m. - Gray Cat: "Meow. Meeeoooow. Rowr." sharpens claws on our box springs to make sure she has our attention "Meeeeooooww." Me: "Steve, it's your turn." Steve: "What does she want?" Me: "Probably outside. The cat door is closed."

That done, Steve returns to bed.

3 - 3:14 a.m. - Caleb: "Mom, I'm hungry." Me: thinking a bit more clearly now...he needs some food because he threw up twice yesterday afternoon and fell asleep without supper "Ok. Come with me." Oyster crackers and Sprite. Me: "Eat these slowly. Drink this slowly. Turn the light off when you're done."

That done, I return to bed.

4 - 3:17 a.m. - Audrey: "Mommy, my nose is stuffed up on both sides." Me: "Get a tissue and blow." thinking...I don't want to get out of bed to get her more medicine. I wonder if she can reach it up on the kitchen counter. She can if she drags a chair over there. But what if she makes enough noise to wake up Julie? Audrey: "I blew but nothing came out." Me: "Come on. I'll get you some medicine."

Medicine administered, I tell Caleb not to eat all the salt left over at the end of the oyster crackers, he says he's finished, I send the kids back to bed, turn off the lights, and I return to bed.

So when the alarm goes off at 6 a.m., I think it's 4 a.m. and turn it off. I wake up 40 minutes later and Steve gets into the shower. Don't worry - he wasn't late for work.

Jules

How about a picture for this Monday morning?


Yes, that's Julie - on her potty, in front of the fireplace. It tickled Steve, so he took the picture.

Friday Night, Part 2

Audrey beat Caleb at Battleship.

Last night when I went to check on the kids at 11 p.m., I saw this on Audrey's floor. Mind you, it was mostly dark - just a few night lights here and there, so you can probably imagine what I thought when I saw this.
If you click on the picture, you'll see that it's not the cat poo or puke that I thought it was, but a plastic pretzel from a play food set Audrey got for Christmas. You can even see the little trains of salt. But last night it stopped me in my tracks and gave me a brief moment of panic. Who wants to clean up something nasty in the middle of the night?

So thanks, Grannie, Polly, and Mary, for my minor heart attack last night. :)

Friday Night, Nolen Style

We just finished a dinner of biscuits and shrimp. Steve, Audrey, and Caleb wanted shrimp but Julie and I didn't, so we had biscuits. Everyone was happy.

Now I'm watching the 2 big kids play Sorry Sliders on the Wii. Just a video game version of a board game. It's nice because nobody can cheat. Julie is on the floor playing with a little white stuffed kitty. A minute ago she slithered out of a chair and announced, "I'm an iguana." She is one-of-a-kind.

So next Friday is a relatively big day for 3 of the 5 Nolens. Back in the summer our church was asked to participate in one of three VBS preview/training conferences for 2009. Tonight is the first conference at Ridgecrest in NC, next week is ours at Glorieta, and the following week is the final one in Nashville. So I have jokingly said that we were asked to present the VBS musical for the "West Coast Premiere." More or less.

I wish I hadn't agreed to do this. It's been a HUGE pain. But it's a week away. It consists of a choir of 15-ish kids singing the VBS songs in between scenes of a drama. There are 4 kids and one adult in the drama. And the adult is me. I wish I had found someone else to either lead this thing or be in the drama. I go back and forth between being stressed about the logistics of it all and being stressed about learning my lines. But in a week from right now, we'll be taking the stage and this thing will be DONE. Until June, when we will do it for our church. But that's much easier.

So now Audrey and Caleb are getting ready to play Battleship. Caleb is setting up his ships and Audrey is standing here watching me so that she doesn't see Caleb's stuff. Now they've switched places. This video game is great. Again, no cheating.

We're getting ready (sorta) for Julie's b-day next Saturday. I can't believe she's already 3. She wants a princess party. That surprised me. I was expecting Dora, puppies, pink poodles, Diego, but not princesses. Good thing, though, because they actually have princess plates and napkins at our grocery store - so I don't have to go anywhere special or order anything for her party. And she's already figured out 2 of her 3 guests. The kids get to invite one guest for every year old they are. It's a system that's worked well so far. It won't work this year for Caleb's party. Wanna know why? I'm sure you're just dying to know.

He turns 8 this year, right? The problem is that themed party supplies (plates and cups in particular) come in sets of 8. So 8 guests plus Caleb equals too many people to have themed plates. I told him that he could either invite 7 guests and get themed plates or invite 8 guests and get solid color plates. I don't think he's decided yet. Better get on that, Son. You only have 4 months!

Steve is in here now giving Audrey his nautical advice for Battleship. Audrey has sunk Caleb's 3-holer, but Caleb has sunk Audrey's 5-holer and her 2-holer. So he's winning.

I'm going to go now. Audrey needs some moral support.

I'm Back

How about if I start with an adorable Julie story?

Tonight she was sitting facing the couch petting the cat's front paw. She started singing an original song about the activity. Here's how part of it went:

People don't has paws
They have hands and feet
And they are so soft and fuzzy

I assume that last line was about Gray Cat's paws and not people's hands and feet. The song was wonderful. She likes to make up songs and they're usually that cute.

It was 16 degrees this morning around 7 a.m. when I was out to clear the snow off the driveway. Good thing I had a toasty warm underlayer somebody gifted me at Christmas. (Thanks, Dad.) Not much snow - about 2 or 3 inches - but there was a layer of ice underneath. I got everything cleared off and by 11:30, all the ice had melted off. By the time I picked up big kids from school, the sidewalks were dry. Thank you, Mr. Sunshine.

Over Christmas, I gained 4 pounds. Unlike last year, I wasn't surprised. I knew, with every bite, that I was overeating and that the scales would show me an ugly number when I got home. But it wasn't too bad. By the time we'd been home a day, I'd already lost 2 pounds, and I've lost one more since then. I was hoping this would happen. Plus I'm back on track with my food. That's always a good thing.

Changing subjects again...I ordered a cord of wood before Christmas and we've been enjoying our fireplace for the past few weeks. The kids enjoy telling me when I've failed as a fire steward. "Mommy! The flames are gone!"

That's it for now. I've been watching "The Office" on Netflix. Too addictive and too easy to watch multiple episodes for hours on end.

A Little Holiday Whine

Who needs vino when you have me for some hearty whine?

Julie threw up several times last night - the first of which was at our Sunday school party. That was fun. Then she did it again on the way home. Then a couple more times when we got home before her tummy was empty and she could sleep.

Then she woke up this morning, ate some oyster crackers and sprite, then threw up again. Several more times. Not fun.

So I got her to come lay down with me in my room. We slept for a couple of hours. At least that's what I'm guessing because I didn't look at the clock when we laid down. When she woke up she felt better but I felt awful.

I've totally slacked off this afternoon because I feel yucky. Plus my head hurts and my kids are doing things that are just rubbing me the wrong way. And I have issues. Too many to get into here, so I won't. Plus you don't want to hear me whine some more.

I just thought I'd leave you with this lovely picture:
This is me, not feeling good.