Tuesday!

Today I am walking some friemds into Disneyland and then maybe hitting the gym, depending on what time I get home. I am hoping that the treadmill part I had to order will be here this week because it is just so much easier to jump on the treadmill in the evening if I can't get to the gym and I am really trying to keep up on the workouts. Even if the weight isn't melting off, at least I am conditioning my heart you know. I realized last night that I probably won't be getting into the workforce, actually working somewhere until I am in my 40's...isn't that crazy? Anyway, this is just a babbling blog entry, so I will say goodbye now and chat at ya later. Oh, please pray for more rain---we need it!

And so I wait...

As I type this I am on hold with Providence hearing trying to get Jack an audiology appointment for his yearly hearing test. Yes, even though we know he has mild hearing loss, they still do routine hearing tests because they want to make sure he is not losing hearing, and that indeed his loss was something he was born with and is not degenerative. Meaning, his hearing will get no worse as he ages. Since Providence is out of network we either had to pay for 100% of the testing or we could go through our primary care provider and get a referral and approval to get the testing done out of network---so I did that. It took 2 weeks (really, that is FAST in the world of insurance companies) and now I just need to get the appointment made. Okay, now I have gotten the test scheduled. He will miss a part of a school day but who cares...It is only preppie K! He will be seen on Groundhog day LOL at 10:30 and also get a hearing aid check and probably new ear molds done.

Oh, I hot the gym this morning...my exercise is actually becoming pretty routine for me.

Amazing!

That's what I have to say about Phantom of the Opera at The Pantages. OMG, it's sold out (except for 2 shows) but if you can get tickets, I say try and get there. I think it was better than Wicked...SO good. I didn't know the story before seeing it, but it is truly beautiful. The last scene is so lovely and powerful that I wish I could see just that one part over and over. There are a couple parts when the Phantom is singing and he gets his voice so soft that you have to strain to hear what he is singing but I think it is adding to the performance...real suspense and drama. The costumes were great and the woman who played Christine was just awesome. I really can't say enough about the show. I went last night not really thinking it was going to be great, but it was. Now I am super excited for the rest of the shows. We see Grease next, which I have seen before in London, but I am excited to see it again. Then we see Mama Mia and then Dirty Dancing. We are going to try and get tickets for Legally blonde and we all want to go see How the Grinch stole X-mas in Nov/Dec.

Another Saturday

Yes, Steph---we are only going to Bass Lake for 1 week this year. It's good and bad I guess. I am sure the week will fly by and we will all be sad to have to leave, but we can't afford 2 weeks this year. But I know we will all have a fab time! Tonight I am going with my mom and sister to see The Phantom of the Opera at the Pantages theater in Hollywood. Last year my sister and I bought season tickets to the pantages for her birthday and tonight is the 1st of 4 shows we will be seeing. I think we are going to Red Lobster before the show for dinner and I am looking forward to that too. I have been working out at least 4 times a week lately and of course today i go to get in a 40 minute run on the treadmill and the belt keeps slipping...so I look at the belt endcap and it is broke. It did that years ago so I had to order a new one, I hope it doesn't take too long to get here.

Aunica has a history test to study for this weekend, reading to do on Walt Disney because she has an oral report to give on him in a few weeks and we also need to work on her time telling, money counting, addition and subtraction facts to 20 and some basic grammer like where to put Capital letters, punctuation and all that because next week is Benchmark testing. UGH, I hate the stress of 2nd grade LOL

Happy Wednesday!

Well, things are going fine around here. We are busy as usual and having a good time with it all. Jack is so happy to be back in school after his long X-mas break. Me too LOL I have been exercising consistently the last couple weeks and am eating pretty darn good, so I hope to start seeing a drop in weight. My goal is to lose 35 pounds at least by August 15. What's August 15th you ask? Well, that is when we will spend one glorious week at Bass lake. We normally spend 2 weeks there, but we just can't afford that this year. So we go from the 15-22nd of August and it will be our last summer hoorah before the kids start back to school in Septemeber. This year my mom, sister and nephew are joining us as well---and that will be oh so fun! I can't wait! We booked a different house this year because 1) we needed a bigger house this year since we have more people and 2) the place we were staying the last few years hasn't been kept up very well and we wanted to see what else was out there. We are going to be staying in a new cove called Willow Cove and that should be real fun. In related news, we are serious;ly discussing getting rid of our boat. We only use it when we hit Bass Lake, and now that we are only going for the 1 week, we feel it would be better to just rent a boat while we are there. It's a couple thousand dollars to rent it for the week, but it will cost just about the same for Ken to make the repairs the boat needs this year so I said "sell it!". Anyway, this is just babbling now---I must get the kids up and ready for school.

Saturday is here! Finally :)

We got up and had breakfast and are ready to get things started. I took Aunica to Basketball practice and spent an hour chatting it up with some dads---I am the exception to the dad bringing the daughter to practice rule. These are all dads who you can tell wished they had some boys. One of the dads is very nice, but he has 4 girls and you KNOW he wanted a boy to do sports with. His 2 girls that are on Aunica's team are in everything---basketball, and year round softball. My sister calls them the roller derby girls because they are tough---they foul a lot and in fact the younger one has even fouled out of the game before. Anyway, we did that and now they are vegging in front of the TV and I am working on laundry and cleaning up the house. I wish we had a bigger house with more storage. I have NO closet space in this house. Each bedroom has a closet and we have a linen closet at the end of the hall and that's it. Tonight is going to be awesome! My mom bought Ken, his dad, my nephew, Jack and my BIL tickets to the Monster Jam in Anaheim tonight...well, my BIL made other plans and so now the boys are taking Aunica and I am going to dinner for a belated birthday with my "clegg" mom friends. SO, I am being very good today so i can eat something okay for me tonight. I am thinking the chicken caesar salad--it's at El Torita and The Lady (as we like to call this particular mom) is picking me up at 6:45ish. Tomorrow we have basketball pictures, a clinic, and a game for Aunica and then maybe some more house stuff and then dinner with Ken's parents and then back to the grind on Monday.

2 days in a row!

I think 2 more days of exercise and I will have a good base to start a real schedule of working out! I have been hitting the gym the last 2 days and working a good amount of calories off while I am there. Tomorrow is a class work day so I might not get to the gym, but I am going to try. I plan to go to Aunica's class dressing in my gym clothes and hit it as soon as I get out of her class. I usually get out of there by recess, and so hopefully I will be at the gym by 10:30. I do fun and fit club at her school at 1. Thursday should be another gym day with no problems since I don't work in Jack's class until the afternoon. Friday is always up in the air as to how long I will be in Aunica's class. I may have to do a home workout in the evening on my treadmill---Ken brought it in the house before X-mas. I always said I didn't want it in the house but the kids have actually left it alone and not bothered it at all. My food consumption is way down and I have been really good about what foods I am eating. No more junk! I have even gone to the california website for the food pyramid and looked at their calculators and stuff and it helped me figure out where the extra sugars are coming from that I can cut out. My kids were starting to get into the bad habit of only liking to eat certain foods---mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, hot dogs and bread---they love bread. So I am trying to make better choices for them too. I bought this Annie's creamy organic mac and cheese (we'll see how they like that) and I am cutting out the fruit cups and just having them eat fresh fruits and trying to get them to eat more veggies. They have always been okay with veggies, but I want to see if I can get more types of veggies in them. I think they do okay with food in general, we don't eat a lot of fast food and we don't fry anything (I don't even know if I have oil in the house) and they eat lots of fruit. They do get candy when we go to the movies, but with the price of tickets and snackbar for the 4 of us we don't go that often. As I write this down and think about it more, they do pretty well in eating things. Jack has a very sensitive nose, I think the saying "when you lose a sense, another one gets stronger" is SO true with him. His hearing may be somewhat damaged but there is something about his sense of smell. He won't try anything that has any type of scent to it---like certain cheeses that have a pungent smell or stuff that doesn't have that much of a smell like potatoes---he smells it and says no before even tasting it. But, maybe with a heightened sense of smell his taste buds are even more sensitive to tastes. Anyway, part of the new year 2009 our family is trying to make better choices. Heck, I only have 32 weeks before Bass Lake 2009 and I want to lose some weight!

Kids are back in school---

Routines are back! I dropped each child off at their school and then headed straight to the gym. I put in a 45 minute workout with good effort and then took my sweaty body to the grocery store. I bought 200 dollars worth of good healthy foods...the reason why there are so many fat people in America? Because healthy foods like milk, lean meats, veggies and fruits costs so damn much! I know I could be a more frugal shopper and hit more than one store, use coupons better and look for sales, but I am not that person. But still, no one should have to pay 7 bucks for a thing of grapes or 9 bucks for about 1 pound of boneless skinless breast filets. Yes, I am picky---I don't want to cook chicken on the bone or have to peel the skin off, so yeah I pay more for it. But 9 bucks? I can tell you that the same chicken isn't sold for 9 bucks in Alabama. If you want to feed your family for under 10 bucks, people go to places like McD's or taco bell where they have the value menu. I KNOW people who are not in that great of financial shape right now and they do this to keep everyone fed. Double cheeseburgers are 99 cents...you can't make a turkey burger at home for that. Anyway, I am happy that I am back on the exercise and healthy eating bandwagon---I just wish it wasn't so expensive!