First "accident"

Not really an accident per se but K told me she had to go potty so I got her PJs unzipped she said she wanted to go by herself, so I let her. She couldn't get her underwear down fast enough so she peed on the potty through them. LOL. I know she is not ready full on constant potty use but at least she is trying.

big girl underwear

So K asked me this morning if she could have big girl underwear. We talked about it and I explained that big girl underwear are for girls that can use the potty all the time and not pee in their pants. They have to know when they have to go potty and then go on the potty. She said she could. So we tried it and she did. Off she and I went to the store. We got groceries and the last stop was the underwear aisle. I gave her 4 choices and she mulled them over for a few minutes before deciding on Dora. So my little girl is sporting some Dora panties now.

Economy Stimulus

Read this article and then read my following post.

Normally I try not to share my beliefs and views regarding anything political. I discuss it with my father in law, my husband and my grandfather. Occasionally my parents and I will discuss something political but for the most I tend to keep my beliefs to myself. I felt like discussing this today as those I have tried to engage in conversation about it are not knowledgable about it, there have been a couple exceptions to that however.

So in summary of the article, our government is trying to stimulate the economy by basically giving us part of our hard earn money back (which if I remember right from the 2001 rebate, we will be taxed on later or it will count as part of next years return. I cannot quite remember why at this point but I do remember having to report the rebate on my taxes for that year.) It is all over the news right now. Just do a search on economic stimulus package, I am willing to bet you find a lot of information.

So the article says that they are thinking about giving rebates of up to $1600 per married couple. I am pretty excited if that is what they decide. I am trying not to get my hopes up but it is so hard not to think about paying off bills A & B or sending the whole thing to bill C so that bill is almost gone but then we still have bills A & B, or even splitting it up and paying off most of bill A, all of bill B and a giant chunk of bill D. Decisions, decisions. My dear hubby and I were discussing the rebate last night and he said if/when we get it, whatever it is, it is mine to pay whatever bills I see fit. It all has to go to bills however. Which is totally fine by me.

Now I also think that the money could be better spent by the government to pay off some of the giant deficit we currently face. I understand the reasoning behind wanting to stimulate the economy, however is (somewhat) handing out money going to do that? Does it work?

monthly goal check in time again

current monthly goals:
~drink more water, less diet cola ( I am a diet cola junkie! )
doing much better with this. I am getting at least 8 glasses a day, sometimes in the form of tea, or crystal light.
~work out a minimum of 3 times a week
I have done some form or exercise just about everyday since setting my monthly goals
~lose 5 lbs by the end of the month
I am almost there .8 lbs to go!!
~start journaling my food every day, every bite
I did really well until this week. I am starting this again next week
~plan ahead for lunches better ( I do awesome with dinner but lunch is whatever I feel like at the time)
doing well for the most part. I think about it by 9 am everyday
~Eat 3 meals a day and 2 snacks. basically eat every 3-4 hours.
I am doing well at eating 3 meals but not so well with the snacks. I am just not hungry sometimes.


On a side note, I had a few monthly non weight related goals that I wanted to achieve. We did two of them. One was to get the SUV paid off and it is done!!! The other was to pay as much as I could to the hospital from the birth of the baby. We currently owe less than 1/2 of what we did at the beginning of the month so I am proud of that. One of my other goals was to not use my credit card, I haven't yet and do not plan to. I also wanted to send as much as I could to my credit card so it will be paid off once again. I send a lot but I could have sent more. I am going to try to send more next week.

last night and this weekend

Starting today our high temperatures for the next week or so is only going to be in the single digits. AYE! so cold. I can say for certain that me and the kids will be staying home. If I do get out in the afternoon, it will be when hubby is home so I can leave the kids here. The only thing nice about temperatures that low is that it rarely snows here when it is so cold.

Last night was a bit difficult in mi casa. The baby went to sleep fine as did the older kid. I should have known they had conspired against me. You see, my shoulder has been hurting so I decided to take 1/2 of a prescription pain killer before bed, 1/2 because the full one sometimes leaves me feeling worse in the morning than if I had never taken the pill. 1/2 is enough to numb the pain yet leave me coherent and able to function fully. I fell asleep almost immediately last night. At 1 am the older child woke up scared. She had a nightmare of some sort. I am still not sure what, she has no recollection this morning of screaming and scaring the daylights out of her mom, who was in the midst of a very peaceful, drug induced, relaxed sleep. So of course I had to go to the bathroom and check on the baby since I was already awake. I finally fell back asleep about 1:30. At 5:30 the baby woke me up. She was happy and just a cooing away in her crib. Daddy was awake but daddy is no help in the morning because he is slow as it is getting ready for work, the last thing he needs is to feed the baby. He gets out the door just in time every morning. So the baby gets fed and starts playing. Just as the baby starts to fall asleep, I curl up on the couch, hoping to catch a quick hour or so nap before the older child wakes up. No such luck this morning, K woke up 1 hour earlier than normal. So K is wide awake, the baby is sleeping and momma feels like lying on the couch and not moving for the whole day. Definitely not taking any painkillers until nap time. Today is going to be a nap day for momma as well as the kids.

check in day

245.4 not bad for not really counting calories this week. I slacked off a bit in the exercise too.

I tried on some pants last night. Size 18 and 1 size 17 and they fit. I could get them on and buttoned. They were a little too tight yet for my taste but I could wear them. Yeah!!! The scale may not be reflecting much of a loss but I am definitly slimming down.

my good deed..

My neighbor, a single older woman, got her car stuck in her driveway this afternoon as she was leaving for work. She got stuck sticking halfway out in the street and halfway in the driveway. I went out and helped her shovel. We got her just about unstuck when this young guy with a truck and tow strap drove by. He got her pulled out onto the street.

Then shortly after she got going, my brother called. He is coming over to clean out my sidewalk and driveway. I told him not to worry about us so much but if he could clean out the neighbor's driveway I know she would really appreciate it. So he said he would do both. Thank god because I don't really want to go out at 10:30 when she gets home from work to help her. I don't mind helping but that is a bit late and I just know she would try to pull back in the driveway and get stuck again.

I don't need to exercise today

Can you guess what the above picture is? For those that do not live in a snowy climate you may never have to use or even see the above item. It is a roof rake. They are around 20 feet in length, lightweight, flimsy and difficult to maneuver but highly effective at removing snow from your roof. They also really work the arms and shoulders as you are throwing the thing on the roof and pulling it off basicaly.

so between that and the shoveling I have gotten one heck of a work out today.

hot tea and memories

I am sitting here drinking a bit glass of hot tea. It reminds me soo much of my Grandpa that passed away 8 years ago. He drank hot tea every day. With just a touch of sugar in it. I used splenda today but it is bringing back a lot of memories of him. Cold winter days when my parents trailer had no heat so we used space heaters. I would run over to Grandpa's in the morning for breakfast, sometimes still in my pjs because we had no water for washing clothes (pipes would freeze). We lived in the trailer in my Grandparents yard. They had a house but a small one. On the really cold nights, mom, dad, Josh and I would sleep on a quilt on their living room floor. You know we were dirt poor but I never knew it. I was only 4 at that time but I still remember eating breakfast and drinking tea with Grandpa every morning. Little did I know at the time that Grandpa loved coffee but drank tea because it was much cheaper and they could only afford 1 small can of coffee a month. It is wierd but even just the smell of a glass of hot tea will bring me to tears sometimes.

Tea brings back some really good memories of my childhood. My parents would fix a glass of tea with honey and lemon when we had nasty colds. Dad drank big glasses of iced tea in the summer.

I figured out the issue

I now know what my problem is today. I figured it out when I took my birth control this morning. It is my PMS week. My TOM is due next week, usually starts on Wednesday, so today is the first day of my Pre-menstrual week. That would explain my lack of motivation, My unending hunger, my desire to devoure everything fatty and chocolately. So I am going to take it easy on myself, watch it a bit but let myself enjoy a bit of a break. Not going overboard, but letting up on myself a bit.

I baked a crustless pumpkin pie today. It uses skim evaporated milk and other reduced fat ingredients but tastes very much like a regular pumpkin pie.

This NEVER happens...NEVER

Hubby is going grocery shopping with the kids and I this weekend. It is only happening because he is getting some work done on the SUV and doesn't want to sit at the dealership while they are working on it. We are doing our once-a-month pantry stocking. I am so glad he is going. He can see what it is like to try and grocery shop with 2 kids in tow. It will be nice for me to have the help and for him to be able to pick out some things for his lunch. I never know what to get him because he doesn't like things like cakes and cookies. He will eat an oatmeal creme pie every now and then but he really would rather not.
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My weight flucuates so much. UGH! I am glad that I have taken to only counting one weigh in a week. Yesterday my weight was at 245.2. Today it is back up to 246.2. Still a bit of a loss for the week. I am feeling unmotivated this week. I don't feel like working out, my right shoulder is so sore I have been doing the weight lifting motions but not using any weight. I am hoping that going through the motions will loosen it up so it stops hurting. I have been feeling like just giving up lately. I know I cannot but I feel like doing so. I am not overdoing it. I just think that I am bored with winter and I need a change.

I don't feel like doing anything

I am not sick. I woke up this morning before the kids. They are both still sleeping away. I am looking aroung the toy scattered livingroom. I usually clean up a bit after both kids are in bed but last night Hubby said I looked tired and told me just to go to bed, so I did. There is laundry to do, clean dishes to put away, a bathroom that needs to be cleaned and I don't feel like doing a thing. Of course I will do all that and more, because it is my job. Hubby gets up every morning and goes to work, whether he wants to or not, and I will do the same.

We talked quite a bit last night. He really likes me being home and is dreading the day that I return to working full-time. He understands that it will have to happen at some point but he says he likes coming home to his wife and kids and no stress. I told him that I am beginning to enjoy this stay at home mom thing and I am also dreading returning to work. I enjoy the break that working gives me but I also really love being here with my kids. Now that the baby is startling to babble and smile and want to play it is much more fun than it used to be.

cops eat donuts

That is the newest phrase from the mouth of my 2 year old. Tonight the fire whistle was blowing, Kaitlin calls it a cop whistle. Anyway she came into the livingroom and proudly announced "cops all gone. cops eating donuts." I have never heard her say this but evidently last weekend sometime there were a couple police cars at the gas station. Kaitlin saw them and mentioned it and Hubby told her the cops were there eating donuts. Yep, this is going to be interesting.

a compliment

It is so easy to look at myself and say god I am so fat. I wish my stomach was smaller. I wish I could fit into my clothes but when my husband notices, with my clothes on, that I am smaller in areas, it makes me feel like this is all worth it. He noticed tonight that my belly is smaller in my clothes and that my butt and thighs look tighter. My exercise pants looked better on my according to him. That makes me feel like a million bucks to hear him say that, especially without me asking him if he notices any differences.

mini shopping trip today

I had to go to the store for a few things. They were having a produce sale (again) and we bought oranges, apples and bananas. The only not so healthy thing we bought is Mountain Dew for hubby's lunches. This is a HUGE change. We would usually buy some sort of snacks but not this time.

feeling good, feeling great

I am feeling wonderful today. I took the whole weekend off from counting calories but I watched what I ate. I weighed myself this morning and I did not gain nor lose weight since Sunday. I tried on a pair of pants that I used to wear and I could get them up to just below my belly today. My waist is down another inch since the last time I measured. I think the difficult ab section in the long version of my workout video is really helping that. Now if I could just get in more cardio to burn that fat off. I am doing cardio during my workout but my favorite cardio activity is taking the kids for a walk. I decided to do more cardio. I thought about replaying the cardio sections in my workout video but I decided that I am just going to do my own version of it to some music. That way K can dance with me too.

an imagination

According to K there is a monster in the basement. The basement door is in the toy room and she runs out to the living room at least once a day telling me she is scared of the monster. So I asked her to show me where it was. She pointed to the basement door. So I yelled down the stairs at "it" and did my go away monster dance. Then I told her when she is scared of the monster to do the dance and it will go away. That kid! What an imagination.

ate well

Dinner went well tonight. I ate a chicken sandwich and about 1/2 my fries and I was full. Normally, I could eat the sandwich, all my fries and ice cream. Not so tonight.

Going out to dinner

Today is the first time since my diet that we are going out to eat. We are going out to dinner with my parents. Here's to ordering something healthy.

Whine and Cry

All K has been doing since waking up is whine and cry. UGH! (whine) I waaaaaaant milk Mooommy. (whine) where is my cup? (whine) I waaaant cereal. Is this day over yet? Is it nap time yet? Hubby is going to be pretty useless to me today. He stayed up until after Midnight playing his game.