Mini-Vacation

The four of us went up to visit Rob's family over these last couple of days. We had a lot of fun and we got to see Rob's sister Shelly and her family (two of her girls are below--thanks for the lovely room and fantastic hospitality!), Rob's mom and step-dad and his dad and step-mom (hey, thanks for the yummy dinners!) and Rob's old Youth Pastor, which was an extra-special treat (his daughters blogs are on my links, Jenny and Breanna). We also got to visit IKEA (Swedish heaven!), which was wonderful as well! We had a great time, though it's always great to be back home after a trip away.

Ashly, Amanda and Leeann. These three have a little too much fun together!
This is Titus from a couple of days ago. All of his pictures from this weekend have snot running down his face. Come to think of it, that's one reason I haven't posted many pictures of him recently. I thought those of you far away might want to see an updated picture of him though, so here it is!
Leeann and Meemaw (Rob's mom) have some fetish together about water bottles. Meemaw left her water bottle in the car after IKEA yesterday so we gave it to Leeann on the way home. I don't know how long she was doing this for...
...but it must have been a while! You may have to click on this piture to make it bigger to see what I mean :0)

Meet Mr. Frog

Hi. I'm a frog.
Uh... this isn't my natural habitat...
Ashly, stop trying to kiss me... I'm not a prince!
Alright, I may not be a prince, but I'm not half bad if I do say so myself!

More Froggy

The girls (Ashly, Amanda and Leeann) put the frogs in a barbeque type thing at the park. Then they gave them a hat for shelter and some leaves, rocks and sticks to make them feel at home. It's a lovely home really. 764 sqaure feet, full basement, skylight :0)
Did I mention Leeann doesn't really know how to play with frogs gently and she may have very well inadvertantly tortured the poor little guys?

No frogs were harmed in the taking of these photographs (at least not that I'm aware of!)

Eroica's Baby Shower

• This is one of my best friends, Eroica. She is owner of Precious Portraits and currently 9 months pregnant with a little boy who's name is not available for public knowledge yet :0) Jennifer and Milly threw a wonderful baby shower for her at my house this week.
  I had been wanting an excuse to try out my new tiered cake pans, and I had a beautiful cake planned out in my head. It didn't really look anything at all like the pictures you see below, but that's okay because this one turned out allright too. Apparently I'm not ready for wedding cakes yet though, it was quite a bit more difficult than I had imagined it would be. Oh well, you learn more with each one!
  And, just in case you were wondering, the accessories are bath toys from the baby section at Target. Hey, whatever works!
  
  

1366

That's how many calories a person my height weight and age would have to eat each day in order to lose 1 pound a week. Yikes!

Have you ever paid attention to calories? They're in everything (duh!)... and lot's of them!

That's any given McDonalds value meal with a refill of soda. That's not even two totinos pizza's (sorry Suzy!).

A turkey sandwhich with a little bit of ranch dressing and a handful of chips will cost you around 400 calories. A 1/2 cup serving of ice cream is going to run you 150 or so. So, my average bowl of ice cream is more like 400, plus the calories from the milk and the chocolate sauce I like to put on top!

A medium soda? 210. A handful of chips? 150. A cereal bar? 150. A bowl of cereal with fat free milk? 200. Yogurt, strawberries and granola? 400! A 16 oz double chocolate chip blended creme from Starbucks? 380--without whip cream.

Regardless, it all adds up to 1366 far faster than I'd like to think! This really isn't easy. You have to be quite diligent to stick with that.

I haven't had any soda or coffee in more than two weeks now, and I've had very little chocolate (besides in my ice cream). Those all add up the calories quite quickly. Or, subtract the calories quite quickly if you're willing to do without. Suzy and Rob are beginning to call me the calorie police. It's kind of fun though. It's almost like a game to figure out how to get the most bang for your buck. Or, the most filling and goodness for your 1366 calories!

Once I hit my ideal weight I can up my calories to 1866, which seems a bit more doable. I look forward to that day with great anticipation. Though, if I truly am cutting down to 1366 calories it will still take me 10 weeks. It's a little hard to tell though because it's hard to figure out how many calories some things have. The scale and my jeans tell no lies though, so we'll see!

This isn't so easy...

I've never really gone on a 'diet' before. Not like this anyway... you know, one that actually changes the way I eat :0)

It's been 9 days, though it feels like 3 years! This whole being considerate of what you eat thing is kinda tough! And... not real tasty either!

Okay, really, it hasn't been all that bad all things considered. I've lost 1.5 lbs. I feel like the other 8.5 could take another 10 years to melt off, but such is life. I am finding that just making simple healthier choices is making a difference. And, not going back for seconds. I haven't given up my ice cream but I have found healthier alternatives that actually taste quite good (yay for Breyer's light mocha silk!) Somehow though, I wish I could just wish 10 pounds away by just thinking healthy thoughts. They tell me that's not how it works though...

One baby down, two on their way, one to go...

... and then a few more down the road (and one not too long ago!)

Okay, there's something in the water and I'm glad I wasn't drinking it approximately 9 months ago!

Diana (a friend from my Corban days--see my links) had her baby just about a month ago. Welcome to the world baby Peter!

Brenna (the youth pastor's wife and a good friend) had her baby Tuesday night. Welcome to the world Claire Grace!

Cherish (a friend of mine and the old youth interns wife--see my links) is currently in the hospital awaiting the much anticipated arrival of the yet-to-be revealed gendered baby!

Becky (another friend from my Corban days--see my links) is also in the hospital today awaiting the arrival (if not already arrived) her baby boy. I happen to think he's got a super name. I'll announce it later, or you can link to her blog!

Eroica (one of my very bestest friends) is anticipating the arrival of her son. She's scheduled for a c-section on May 9th, but she's been having quite a bit of cramping as of today.

Andrea (a friend from church), Becca (another friend from my Corban days see links) and Courtney (Cherish's sister who goes to our church) are all just past the half-way point.

Brenna, Cherish and Eroica are all in our small group--which is obviously growing in rapid numbers! Rob and I are still thinking that we're happy to be content holding other people's cute babies though, so don't expect us to drink the water any time soon. I'll be sure to post more annoucements as they arrive!

A package in the mail!

This is me typing on my brand new Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop! Needless to say, I'm a little bit excited!!! As you may have caught in an earlier post, I've been saving for a laptop and we didn't have to pay nearly as much for our taxes as what we'd saved for... so my husband who loves me very much took it upon himself to order me my laptop! Yippie! I'm still saving up because I will owe some of the money back to us. I know, we're wierd!

This means, it should be easier for me to blog now, so hopefully I'll update you more regularly now. Only because I know how much my readers like to hear about my children's potty stories!

Water Boy?

If you scroll a few posts down you'll see my rant a few days ago about Titus playing in the toilet. Despite my best attempts at keeping the lids closed (we have 3), he has been at it again on several more occassions.

Today--getting ready for church mind you, and trying to be on-time--Titus decided to play in the toilet again. I closed the lid and cleaned him up. Then he started walking around with the plunger--gross!

Just I was about to walk out the door he started playing in a 5 gallon bucket of water that was in front of our fridge (catching the water that randomly started steadily leaking out of our water spout last night in our fridge door that never did work). So, as he's happily splashing around, getting water all over himself and the floor I wanted to lose it. Hey, at least it gave me something to blog about :0), and hopefully something for you to laugh about?

Always and Never

Leeann is closing in on 4 years of age (in July). Being the age of 3 brings many delightful changes and challenges, joys and sorrows. One of those things is an ever-expanding vocabulary and a nack for new understandings. The most recent of which, is a constant use of "always" and "never".

I always take a bath with the purple ball.

I never be naughty.

I always go the park (or the store, or to a friends).

I find myself "arguing" with her over the use of these words, because I can't figure out how to explain to her using any other words what exactly always and never mean. Don't worry, the arguing doesn't last long because I recognize how silly it is and that she'll eventually figure it out.

The funny things that kids do, and the funny ways that parents respond...

I accepted a bet...

I'm a little competitive. Okay, maybe a lot competitive...

Well, two days ago I accepted a bet with Leeann's preschool teacher that the first one to lose 10 pounds owes the other $10. Two other people got in on the bet and now the stakes are higher.

The offer came in good timing because I've been lamenting about the need to lose a few pounds, but concerned about trying to figure out how to get motivated to do so. In fact, the day before I took the bet I was telling Suzy that I need to figure out how to make getting healthier some sort of a competition to help get (and stay) motivated.

So, now the world knows... which will hopefully give me even more motivation! And, just for clarification this isn't a woe-is-me, I'm so fat, I need to go annorexic kind of thing. I simply see that I could have some healthier habits that would ultimately result in an ideal weight that is 10 pounds lighter than I what I currently weigh. So, don't go freaking out on me like I'm going to change my name or something :0)

Anyway, I really hope I stay motivated and stick with it because I really would like to enjoy the benifits of being healthier. Does anybody have any good hints or tips of things that have worked for you? I'd love to hear them, leave a comment below!

p.s. I prefer something that doesn't exclude sugar cereal and ice cream :0)

You've gotta be kidding!

I was giving Titus a bath this afternoon when he decided to poo in the bath-tub. Not thinking clearly I tried to remove it with toilet paper that just fell apart. Then I got smart and grabbed a baby wipe. I cleaned Titus up and got him dressed and let him down to play.

A few minutes later he was splashing around in the toilet in the other bathroom. I can't say it's the first time, for some reason he likes to splash and the toilet seems to be the only body of water consistently available. Arggg. I'm really going to try to do a better job of keeping the lid closed!

I've been kissed!

Those of you who know me well, know that out of the 5 languages of love I speak 99% physical touch! (It's a must-read book if you've never heard of it).

I posted this a couple of weeks ago but--because of this fact, it's been a little hard for me to feel 'loved' by Titus because he's just not touchy. Well, we've been working on teaching him to give kisses lately. He'll run up to me with his mouth wide open and run into my mouth. Sometimes he still has his binki in, which is cute too. Usually he does it with a face full of snot (he's teething... only a mother's love will accept wide open snotty kisses--I'll take what I can get!)

WELL, today Titus ran up to me, with no prompting, and gave me a big ole kiss. I was so happy, I felt like a little school girl who'd just been kissed by her crush! Okay, I know I'm pathetic, and I'm secure in that :0)

Also, Titus has been directing his sound "mama" toward me, even obviously using it to try to get my attention. I like being called mama and being kissed by my little guy. Oh, the little joys of motherhood...

Entering Known Territory

April 1st marked the day that Titus reached the age Leeann was when we brought her home. At one day shy of Titus being 16 months old, we entered known territory of parenthood!

Funny though, Leeann seemed so much more mature at this age, or maybe we just expected more of her because we didn't know any better? Maybe it's just the difference between any two given kids, or between a boy and a girl? Maybe my memory fails me? Anyway, I am glad to be entering a known stage of parenting... it makes things not so mysterious. That whole infant thing, not my cup of tea!

p.s. This is my 400th post. Yikes!