The ups and downs

So 20.5 days into my no-sweets agenda, I broke down yesterday pretty hardcore. What happened was Saturday I needed a CDP. NEEDED (I’ll explain below). So I opened one that said “Major cheer!” and it was a beautiful scarf and a bag of chocolates (unfortunately I have partial boxes from the last 3-4 exchanges, so I can’t remember who it came from – but THANK YOU!). I stuck the chocolates in the fridge without thinking about it. Sunday my CDP box was a little falling apart so I picked it up to fix and store it back on my side of the bed for easy access, and two partial bags of Russell Stover chocolates fell out (from a CDP I opened months ago).

I ate all the chocolates. Six of them.

Then, later last night I pulled out the chocolates from the fridge and had two more of those with a glass of milk before bed. I know I shouldn’t have, but seriously. That hit the spot.

This morning I was scared to step on the scale, but I was only up by .2 (total weight loss this month of 5.8lbs) so I’m back on the wagon now. I know it will probably take me another three weeks to break myself again, but so far at work I haven’t even thought of the candies at the assistant’s desk (lie, but not MUCH) and I’m headed to trampoline aerobics again tonight. It will be okay.

Things have been very up and down the past few days. Henry has been really quite amazing since my breakdown last week over his behavior. I don’t know if it’s really been the major change that I feel, or if I’m simply recognizing the good behavior instead of focusing on the bad (entirely possible) but I feel lighter about the whole thing. Saturday night he was up a lot and peed his bed but in general it’s been much better.

We found a large leak in our garage Thursday evening, and after investigation it appeared to be from the water heater so C called a plumber out Friday who said yes, the water heater is cracked, and sold us a new one.

You can imagine our surprise Saturday morning when the leak was still there, right? C called them again and they told him the leak must be under the garage slab and we needed to call leak detection people. C instead cut a hole in the garage drywall and found the leak in about a half hour. In the copper pipe that leads TO the water heater, so it was never the water heater at all and we just shelled out $900 for a new one. (Yes, we are pissed. It’s up to C if he’s going to pursue this. It was a 27-year old water heater). His dad came over and they tried to solder the pipe but due to the water they ended up epoxying. $7 later the leak is fixed, and we spent the day at Disney while it was drying and the water was turned off.

We got Henry some new shoes to make him just a touch taller to confirm he could ride the 40” rides, and he got to ride Thunder Mountain for the first time Saturday. BIG. HUGE. He loved it. The whole day was just great – we still never tire of Disney.

Friday night I took Spencer to his school’s skating night. I haven’t been on roller skates in 20 years, and Spencer’s never been on real skates (not the ones that fit over your shoes). It was an adventure. I spent an extra $5 to rent a PVC skating walker so S could really get into the skating and he did great – it was so fun. And I did good too! I only went down on a knee once, when my skate stop bumped too much. I stopped on walls a lot – overall a great time with my oldest boy.

Sunday C wanted to go over to his parent’s house and help them finish setting up surveillance cameras so I was on my own with the kids. We grocery shopped (a complete chore), bought socks and underwear (necessity) and then I packed a picnic lunch and took the boys to the playground to eat and play. Whenever I’m on my own with the kids I like to eschew chores as much as possible and just have a little fun. Fun was had, and then we came home and I mainlined Veronica Mars between cooking dinner and vague parenting.

I’m hoping I can keep up whatever was going well with Henry – is it the attention? Just acknowledging the good? I’m not sure, which means I have no idea if we can keep it up but here’s to hoping. He didn’t wake up through the night last night, and didn’t tell me his underwear was wet and he didn’t know why. So we’re off to a good start.