A weekend of Sundays

The problem with 4-day weekends is that every day after the first feels like Sunday. There's always that slight anxiety of thinking you need to go back to work the next day.

There's also anxiety in this household because we have changed Spencer over to his Mickey Mouse undies yesterday evening. No accidents yet, but it's early. I've been making him sit on a trifolded towel on my bed and asking him 1,871 times an hour if he needs to go potty. We even made a quick trip to Target (groceries, Candyland for $3.99) yesterday with no incidents. I'm cautiously optimistic. (interjection: while I was typing this I made him try to go before he had Teddy Grahams because he always poops in the morning and I was getting nervous that he hadn't gone. He insisted that he didn't have to poop but two minutes later I hear, "I did! I did have poop in my belly!" He was very surprised. He also got a Reece's Pieces (1 piece) for pooping in the potty because I'm not above bribery)

Aren't you excited to read about my adventures in potty training? I feel like I need a Thor hat.

I THINK I am nearly done with child shopping for Christmas and birthday. Spencer's birthday is so close to Christmas that I do the shopping at the same time.

So that he can stay away from my blessed laptop.
There were cuter ones, but he loves The Cat, so hopefully he'll like it.
(still haven't gotten this just yet because I'm trying to get the best price, will definitely be birthday and not Christmas)
Might be a joint gift for Spencer and Henry, even though Spencer's the only one who will care.
Buzz pjs

Doctor set: my one "impulse" purchase (in primary colors)

So the only things I have left to get for S are maybe some socks and underwear and a small toy for his stocking.

Henry is getting some clothes and one toy, but I haven't decided on the one toy. I might stick some diapers and socks in his stocking, but I haven't figured that out yet.

I still have the rest of the shopping to do: Hubby and I have decided on an $80 spending limit for each other to get presents for each other from the kids. I think I'm going to get him an air compressor and maybe something Perry the Platypus. I need to get things for my siblings and my parents, and hubby's parents (this is all my job; hubby waits until 12/24 to decide on things), and his cousin and her husband (the family that we exchange gifts with), and his Grandma (usually fancy chocolates). So ... ideally I would like to get all that done in one weekend and not have to worry about it for the rest of the holidays. Do you think I can do it?

(PS: I forgot to knock on wood - in the half hour after I typed the words "no accidents", we had two accidents - one of each variety. Just thankfully they weren't on my bed. Knock on wood.)

Success and pain

It's 6am, day after ...

Sorry, I almost broke into Ben Folds lyrics, and that would have been depressing. Anyhow, I'm the only one awake, my toddler is staying over at my in-laws and my infant is asleep in my spot on the bed because he was restless. Is it sad that I'm thinking of jaunting over to Target to see what I can see? I didn't see anything in their ad that I can't live with out, but you never know ...

I'd ride my bike over, since it's only about 1 1/2 miles, but I'm currently the most sore (sorest?) I've ever been the day after a workout. I can tell every single muscle that was used in yesterday's boot camp, and the one that I can tell I skirted working on ... my triceps are not sore at all but I only got through 1 1/2 sets of the 5x tricep pushups and I think I may have skimped on the ones I did because they were right after 10 burpees and if I never do another burpee it will be too soon. That was a lovely sentence, right? You get the sentiment.

Thanksgiving was great. I got up early to rinse the turkey and take it to my in-laws house and helped her get all 20.5lbs of it in the oven by 7am. Then I headed out to Odessa (you don't know, but it's a hike) to pick up my husband's cousin and went out to the park to have an instructor work us within an inch of (my) life ... which actually was a lot of fun, in that "what doesn't kill me" sort of way. Came home, made the best stuffing I have ever made, made cranberries, took a well-deserved and well-needed shower and then packed us all in the car and headed back to my in-laws' house!

There were 15 adults and my two kids present, and of course the kids took center stage (how could they not? Spencer demands it). Henry flipped out for the first time in his life, I think from all the people in his face and the fact that he's not napping properly these days. He was inconsolable for about 20 minutes until we gave him a couple ounces of sugar water, and then a full bottle, and laid him in his cradle in a quiet room so he could stare at the fan until he fell asleep (this took about 30 minutes). He was quite fine alone in the room wide awake, but obviously didn't want to deal with all the people in the other rooms.

Oh man, there was so much food! Turkey and stuffing (two kinds, but mine is always preferred by the crowd - my MIL always tries a new recipe and a corner gets politely eaten while mine is devoured - makes me feel good) and cranberries and yellow squash casserole, mashed potatoes (of which I'm not a fan), rolls, WINE, crudites, hors d'oeuvres, broccoli salad, and four kinds of pie (pumpkin, chocolate silk, pecan and coconut cream). And pumpkin spice coffee (I brought that too).

After eating Henry was awake and in a much better passing-around mood, Spencer was occupied by hubby's cousin Scottie for hours (except when Scottie was talking to me about Fallout: New Vegas ad nauseum) and I got to drink my coffee in peace and then leave with just one kid and a load of leftovers. Just a lovely day.

How was yours?

Giving thanks

I could be here complaining about the lousy day I had at work and how a client made me cry, but instead I'm going to be thankful that I have a job and that I was able to take three wonderful months off with my children and be sure that it was there when I returned.

I could be here complaining that I had to get the Christmas stuff from the attic myself because my husband hemmed and hawed but instead I'm going to be thankful that I got such a workout that my legs and back are a little sore.

I could be here complaining about the six children under five years old that are playing in the street with no supervision but instead I'll be thankful that a) my kids know better and b) no one has been hit yet.

Today was the roughest I've had since I got back to work - I woke up with a headache, everyone was off except me and my supervisor, I got verbally bitch slapped by one of my own clients that I was giving a courtesy call to (whose time is evidently that much more important than mine), I had a ridiculous amount of work to do and somehow got to none of what I wanted to do, and the dry cleaners didn't get the baby spit-up out of my husband's pants and acted like it was a pain to run it through again. Then I came home, started the turkey brining, shaved my legs (I'm working out tomorrow morning in a group - I'd prefer not to have yeti legs), got Christmas out of the attic and then took my elder child to the doctor so they could shoot lame flu germs up his nose and I could give him a chocolate for letting me hold his head still while he screamed.

But I'm thankful. I'm thankful for healthy children, a happy house, having a job, having a house to decorate, and having family to make dressing and brine turkeys for.

Deep breath.

I think I've decided to do the Gasparilla 5k in February. I've never run further than a mile before and I think I may have died after that ... in high school. So I would love a training/running partner (cough, Suz, cough) at least to cheer each other on separately on the training front and then running the thing together. I also signed up spur o' the moment for Boot Camp tomorrow, so ...

There's also the Disney half-marathon which I might be entertaining the thought of for Jan 2012 (I'm not setting myself up to fail by even thinking about this January, even if the registration hadn't passed). Or the Gasparilla 5+3k 2012 ...

If I don't get back here before, Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thankful

I asked Spencer to come up with things that made him happy, which was the closest I could come to making him understand what "thankful" means to make a thankful tree. I couldn't find any construction paper so we ended up with a list instead of a tree, but it works. I asked what he liked, who he loved, what he liked to do, where he liked to go ... you get the idea. Obviously, my not-quite-three-year-old needed a bit of prodding to come up with anythings.

Noticeably absent -- nearly all of his toys.
Also noticeable absent -- all the stupid shows he loves so much (besides Barney, but he was in the "who do you love" category).
Happily there -- nearly all of his immediate family (without any prompting).
Amusingly there -- a vast area of foods.

So here they are:

1. peanut butter and jelly
2. grapes
3. bread
4. Nonnie (my mother)
5. Uncle (presumably Unk, who is my husband's aunt's husband)
6. Daddy
7. Mommy
8. Henry (Hen-er-y, I love how he says that)
9. Barney
10. breakfast
11. Tita (his daycare lady)
12. Sean and Nora and Vinny (daycare kids) "I love all the kids and all the people"
13. "making bread with you" (we've done this once)
14. "I like trees"
15. Blue and yellow cars
16. Buzz Lightyear
17. "Buzz Lightyear's dog"
    
18. playing outside
19. playing baseball
20. Teddy Grahams
21. Pama and Grandma (my in-laws)
22. "the turtle in my bed" (his stuffed Yurtle)
23. my black car "because my Grandma got it for me" (I have no idea what car he's talking about)
24. pirate hats
25. peanut butter and crackers.
    

Menu Monday and other thoughts

I've officially eaten my own food for every meal since lunch last Wednesday except for a $6 lunch at Chili's on Monday (I had already made lunch plans before we decide not to eat out anymore).

It's not as hard as I thought it would be. I brought cinnamon raisin bread and peanut butter for breakfast all last week, and had a combination of leftovers and ham sandwiches on Deli Thins with carrots and grapes and yogurt-covered raisins. Saturday I made a frittata and bacon and hubby made pancakes (I don't really like pancakes) and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with apple slices for lunch, and Sunday I made scrambled eggs and berry muffins for breakfast and chicken nachos for lunch. I've had to be more creative to keep us interested in eating at home, but it's also helped in using the stuff in the pantry. The only regret I have is that I had to miss a dear friend's 30th birthday because she was having a dinner at Carrabba's and I just couldn't justify that expense to myself.

I'm excited about Thanksgiving, but mostly I'm excited just to have more time home with family. I'm making stuffing and I'm trying to decide if I should make regular or sausage stuffing (or both, ha!) and I'm thinking about making cranberry sauce too. I love fresh cranberry sauce but I'm in the minority in the crowd that I eat with. I'm also in charge of brining the turkey, so Hubby is picking it up from the in-law's house on Tuesday night and I'll put it in the brine on Wednesday.

Anyhow, onto the menu:
Last week:

Monday: baked spaghetti and garlic bread
Tuesday: pan-fried tilapia, balsalmic asparagus and four-cheese risotto
Wednesday: Burrito bake - very tasty, very easy
Thursday: beef lo mien frozen skillet meal
Friday: Southwest chicken and corn chowder
Saturday: grilled chicken and baked mac & cheese
Sunday: ham sandwiches (I totally phoned it in)

This week:

Monday: spinach and noodle casserole
Tuesday: chicken Bryan and roasted veggies
Wednesday: shrimp and tortellini in creamy pesto
Thursday: Thanksgiving!!!!!!! there will be no weight loss this week.
Friday: frozen pizza (or leftovers if there are some)
Saturday: pulled pork sandwiches

Cut. It. Out. (Thanks, Dave Coulier!)

Declaring shinanigans

-- What kind of person does Brazilian waxes for a living?

-- Also in the discussion of extraneous hair, I have such thin eyebrows that I often say if I were to pluck I'd have no eyebrows at all. I do occasionally get a stray hair, and instead of waxing or plucking them I go to a threader and have them clean them up (we're talking once every 18 months or so). They always look at me weird like, can't you pull your own 3 hairs out?

-- Why do people bitch about their significant other on Facebook? Further, why do people fight on Facebook? Isn't it like yelling out on your front lawn if you grew up with your neighbors?

-- Is it bad form to say I can't wait until my in-laws are incapacitated (old age or something) and I get to host Thanksgiving?

-- Not that I wish them harm or anything. I just want to make something more than stuffing every year.

-- My aunt is fucking nuts. Can I defriend her? Another of my aunts (her sister) defriended me for making an innocent joke about burning Sarah Palin's book, so I think I'm entitled, but I feel bad. But seriously, who makes five comments on their own posts? And talks about some friends' dog on photos of their niece's kids?

-- What got into the Bucs this year? Evidently they just need people NOT to believe in them. I vote for black outs every year - it's the only way, really.

-- Thinking about getting hockey tickets for Spencer for Christmas. Is that too self-serving?

-- Thus endeth the random for tonight.

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