A lot of Blah, obviously.

I felt a little like superwoman last night, because I did more than sit and read for most of the evening.  I picked up books from the library, made dinner, kept good track of exactly what we ate (since C is now keeping track too, I have to keep track of BOTH our meals. Also, I got a food scale and that thing is awesome). Cleaned the kitchen. We went on a 2 mile family walk, I cut Henry’s hair and got him to take a shower (he hates them, but apparently being allowed to bring a monster truck in makes all the difference). I read a somewhat long book to the kids, repotted my plants for the office, and walked around the house for 20 minutes to get up my step count.

And then I sat and read for the rest of the evening.

So speaking of Henry’s hair, I bought new clippers because he STILL won’t let us take him to the barber and I was sick of cutting it with C’s beard trimmer. Those new clippers are fantastic, but apparently I cut it too short for him and he hates it. Hey, it’s summer and it’ll grow back and it’s not like I scalped him or anything, but child won’t even look in the mirror. He glances and then says “I hate it, I do not like it” and ducks out. I couldn’t get a picture yet because he would have known it was all about the hair.

 There will be photos, if for no other reason than for you to agree with me that it’s cute and will grow back.

Tonight should be another busy night. I’m trying to read nightly to the kids, so tonight we start Mouse and the Motorcycle. I have a huge mound of laundry that needs folding (this is C’s least favorite chore, so I almost always do it), and I’m thinking of going through the toys to thin them out a bit. I can’t really fit all the toys in the bins, and one of our bins is completely ripped up (memo – add new bins to my shopping list). And grocery shopping. Good golly. Busy. And a little boring, reading back through this. But hey! I blogged!

Proud to be and other stories

Henry is obsessed with American flags. This child gets so worked up excited when we pass the new Burger King and it’s got FIVE! AMERICAN! FLAGS! On top! Anytime we are driving anywhere he picks out the American Flags. It’s pretty funny and darn cute. I passed the Shriners lodge the other day and they were having one of those gatherings where they all stand out on the street waving American flags, and I swear if traffic hadn’t been so wretched and I hadn’t forgotten my phone at work, I would have driven him back by after picking him up at daycare.

The other day we were in the turn lane, and the SUV next to us was decked out in one of those paint wrapping advertisements, and it was a flag. The boys were beside themselves. “Look at THAT!”

Then Spencer: “He must really love America.”

Folks, it was an a/c business. Apparently the marketing kitsch works, at least on the under-seven crowd.

**

My fitbit decided to poop out on me. It took four in six month to get one that consistently worked (this is not generally an issue, from what I can tell, just my own bad luck). This one lasted a full six months, and I don’t know why it stopped holding a charge but it’s grating on my nerves. Thankfully they do have excellent customer service, so once they go through all the troubleshooting emails with me (I know all the troubleshooting tricks and try to let them know, but that’s what help desks are for – confirming people are trying everything first) I should be able to get a replacement. In the meantime I’m dealing with it.

**

And speaking of Fitbits, C has decided to get one too, and also to sign up for My Fitness Pal so he too can track his food. This is great! But also annoying, because then he makes all these arbitrary rules on himself, like staying under 100 for carbs, but yet I’m the one cooking all the meals so now I’m going to have to abide by his arbitrary rules. Last night I made pizza pockets from the TJs garlic and herb pizza dough and filled them with veggies and a little feta and they were delicious and fairly low calorie, but they were made from pizza dough so obviously the carbs were high.

Now that C is tracking his steps too, he has started us on family walks. Family exercise! Important! We went on a walk last night and it was great except the kids complained a lot and there was a lot of forcing them to stop and look for cars and all of that. Pointing out American flags on the houses. Maybe we can hike sometimes soon.

**

I have this hacking cough that I get mostly at night, but it’s pretty distracting. I can’t be on the south side of the house when the kids are falling asleep because it keeps them up. I have trouble reading to Henry without croaking out the last 2/3 of the book. Water, honey, cough syrup – none of it really makes much of a dent. 21 days, right? I think that’s what the common length of a cough is with or without medicine. Thankfully it doesn’t keep me awake so sometimes I just feel like I need to go to sleep to get relief from it. Anyhow, earlier this week I was coughing in the office while C messed around on Reddit, and this exchange happened:

C: Please don’t die, I need you.

…

…

…

I can’t cook for shit.

So there’s that.

**

We were going to see Paul McCartney at the end of the month, but he rescheduled all of his June dates, so now we’re just going 3 hours north to stay in a hotel that we can’t get reimbursed and have an overnight date night. Anyone know anything we can do in Jacksonville, or a good restaurant we should try while we’re there?

**

I was looking through my phone for a specific picture, and found this:

Why on earth did my husband take a picture of his foot with my phone?

Love/Hate on Monday

I am working on an actual post or six, but for this Monday morning I am nursing a sore throat (for the love of God please do not turn into another sinus infection) and a little bit of a tummyache (possibly anxiety about the sore throat becoming  sinus infection) and I feel a round of K’s Love/Hate is in order.

Love: my son is obsessed with reading. Obsessed. Every night he stops whatever he’s doing, playing his kindle, watching tv, to read. We rarely have to limit things. As soon as he wakes up, he runs in to ask if he can turn on the light to read. I’m so excited for him to be excited by the written word. This is me. This is my kid. We read side by side on the couch.

Hate: He has also hit this “rage” part of being six. Everything is a melodramatic stomping, fist clenched growling issue. He took a Styrofoam sword to a motorcycle rocking toy and beat the royal crap out of it because he was upset because his brother wasn’t playing baseball correctly. Thankfully he is channeling his rage without hitting any people or destroying actual things (the beating didn’t destroy anything, although if I hadn’t stopped him, the sword would have been toast).  I tried to get him to take some time to his bed to calm down and chill. He made this sign: 

but it’s been hit or miss (ha) that he remembers. Hopefully we can work through this with no injuries.

Love: We are still having the best time at Disney. Who would have thought when we got annual passes 16 months ago that we could go nearly every weekend and still have a grand time. Saturday we did Epcot and a little at Hollywood Studios (which was crazy busy for Star Wars weekend. Mark Hammel was there.) Sunday I had plans and C took the boys out to Magic Kingdom and Blizzard Beach (although they got rained out at the water park). It’s just so FUN. And easy. And we don’t really have to think about what we are doing for the weekend. Do we have other plans? Sounds good. No plans? Disney it is.

Hate: I wanted to go to Blizzard Beach on Saturday but C didn’t feel like it, so we didn’t go. And then he decided to go on Sunday when I wasn’t there. Bum.

Love: I got to spend a good chunk of Sunday with Becky at the Rays game, which was just so much fun. She is so much fun. And I got a foul ball which I gave to Spencer and he thought it was the coolest thing ever!

Hate: Our closer choked and we lost. Bah.

Love: Mondays mean I get a little bit of time to myself without any kids or husband or obligations. I often take that time to do laundry or clean but sometimes I sit on my butt and do nothing, and no one says a word. Yesterday I did all the laundry, so today might be a sit on my butt sort of day.

Hate: Sherlock is just all over the place this season. I watched the first two episodes of three (Britian is on crack with the way they space their tv) and it so very disjointed. I’ll watch the last episode tonight during my me-time but I’m not thrilled with it so far.

Love: I am finally in my “permanent” desk and all set up after a week of displacement while they moved us. I love my new desk and have a new happy wall. I love my happy wall.

Hate: I’ve moved my desk 12 times in nine years.

Love: There was a Living Social deal for La Nouba tickets this weekend, so we decided to go for it – will be going at the end of the month. Still expensive yet less expensive than if we bought tickets outright. Terrible seats, but I don’t think it will matter, and I’m hoping the kids love it.

Hate: It’s good that I think I’ve run out of things to hate, right? Oh, H fell asleep on the way home from Orlando last night and didn’t pee before bed. You see where this is going, right? And I cracked my head on the bunk beds changing sheets in the middle of the night.

Love: I’ve moved the kiddo bedtime back to 8:30 for the summer since the light outside was driving them crazy when they went to bed (and me by extension). So with the extra 45 minutes I’m hoping to start reading to them. I just requested Mouse and the Motorcycle and that will be the first, I think.

Hate: It’s embarrassing to admit, but I really hate reading aloud.

Love: I’ve been tracking calories for 3 weeks, and I’ve lost 6.6lbs. It’s not much, but it’s going steadily down, and it makes me think about what I’m eating instead of mindlessly stuffing my mouth, which is good. I had a second bowl of ice cream last night (THIS) which put me slightly over my calorie allotment but it was worth it. I’ve also been drinking less (last week I had 1 bottle of wine over 3 days, and one gin and soda at a sports bar on Sunday). It’s a learning and growing experience, but I’m happy with how things are going.

Hate: I really should start working out again soon, right? It’s 90 degrees at 7:30pm, and I’m pretty sure that’s a bad time to start running again.

Love: This.

 

Up and Around

Getting back into the swing of things after an illness is always a challenge. I was cut down by a sinus infection last week and holy moses, that was an eye opener for me. I have been plagued by allergies my whole life, and with that has been a barrage of related health issues. Somehow I escaped nearly 34 years without a sinus infection (to my recollection) but now, I can tell you, I know. I know. It was terrible, and I still have lingering sinus issues but today is my sixth day on antibiotics and possibly the second day I feel human. I slept and whined for several days while my husband had to handle pretty much everything child related.

But now things are better. We tried to go on with our weekend despite my face having been hit by a truck. Mostly, we managed. We hit Disney on Saturday, mainly because the Seven Dwarfs ride just opened and we had hard-to-get fast passes. I powered through until a little before dinnertime when my Sudafed stopped working but it was a long time until I could take more and I just had to insist we leave. The ride was good! The line is nutso – I don’t think I would do it without a fastpass for a while although there are supposed to be fun games to play while in the standby line.

Sunday we took the boys to see Maleficient. I was not sure about taking them because it is PG-13, but the parent websites said it was mainly rated that way for darkness and fighting, which my kids are fine with. They’ve seen all the Harry Potters. Dare I say, I think Henry enjoyed it the most – he never got scared and he laughed a lot, particularly when Aurora is a baby. I thought it was excellent. So - if your kids aren't easily scared by fighting and large animals (wolf, dragon, ent-like tree things), I whole heartedly recommend for any age.

Books I read: May

reread:

32. Days of Blood & Starlight - Laini Taylor

33. Cold Magic - Kate Elliott

34. Cold Fire - Kate Elliott

35. Delirium - Lauren Oliver

new:

25. Kingdom Keepers 1, Disney After Dark - Ridley Pearson I was very disappointed in this, and I don’t think I’ll keep going with the series. I wanted to try, because you know, Disney, but meh. It was all over the place and didn’t really ground the fantasy/mystery in anything at all.

26. The Wordy Shipmates - Sarah Vowell I didn’t like this that much – it was boring, and that’s hard for Sarah. I wanted Take the Cannoli.

27. Cold Steel - Kate Elliott I really disliked the focus on Drake, but otherwise I really liked how this ended, and I love Cat and Vai.

28. Dreams of Gods & Monsters - Laini Taylor I was worried when this added so many extra storylines for the last book in the series that it would be all over the place, but it was so so good. Tight.

29. Into the Still Blue - Veronica Rossi Meh. The first one was fantastic. The second, very good. This one – not my favorite.

30. Pandemonium - Lauren Oliver I was confused in the beginning and the end (last page) was super predictable, but I liked it overall. It moved the plot forward and I hope the third does the series justice.

But mom, everyone else was meme-ing!

Is it bandwagon jumping if I do it in the middle? Anyhow, Jess and Elizabeth and Jennie and Tara and others have done this meme, and it was a fun little distraction so I did it too! You're welcome to as well! Come on, all the cool kids are doing it!

1. What is your favorite type of cheese? It is definitely easier to say what cheese I don’t like (swiss, pepperjack) but my favorite is chevre. I could eat goat cheese all day, every day and for/with every meal. Yum.

2. What are you excited about? Right this very moment? Probably just going home to be with my family. I’m attending a 20-yr reunion of sorts at my high school tomorrow evening, but that’s more cause for anxiety than excitement at this point. Next month C and I are taking an overnight trip out of town to see Paul McCartney in concert and that’s pretty exciting.

3. How did you celebrate your last birthday? Goodness, I don’t really remember. I’m sure we went out to dinner with family, and separately I’m sure C and I went out to dinner ourselves (our birthdays are a week apart so we tend to celebrate at the same time). … oh! I remember! We both took the day off for a day date but then the kitchen sink started leaking pretty badly and it took all day to install a new faucet and couldn’t see the movie we planned on seeing. Had a nice late lunch together instead.

 4. What’s on your bedside table? My earrings from the other day that I forgot to take off before bed, a couple books I’ve been meaning to read, a box of tea I got for Jonna but have been too lazy to ship.

5. What do you order from the movie concession stand? If I go with C, we’re usually going after dinner so I don’t get anything at all. If we take the kids for a Sunday movie, we get a large popcorn and sprite to share.

6. Do you have a garden? What’s growing? I wouldn’t say I have a garden, but I do have plants. My favorite are the snow on the mountain bushes that are thriving in my front beds and the new purple plant I can’t link to but is attracting butterflies. I am not good at gardening so anything that can grow with minimal help from me is good stuff. I have an herb garden by the front door now planted directly in the ground and it’s nice that they’re all still alive. I’m happy about that.

 7. Any summer plans? We are headed to Colorado for a week in August which I am excited about since I’ve been trying to plan that trip since last summer and it came together pretty easy once I got C’s mom involved in the planning. Mountains, here we come!

 8. Which TV couple(s) are you rooting for? I can’t think of any in my current shows that I have any investment in, but I’m starting into Dawson’s Creek and I’m firmly encamped in Team Pacey (I’ve always loved Joshua Jackson, go Mighty Ducks!)

 9. What’s the last thing you bought? This is a hard question. Today, nothing. Yesterday? Nothing. Monday? Did I buy anything Monday? Ahh, food while I was on a business trip. Mahi salad at Shula’s. The last non-food thing? Shorts and a shirt at Old Navy last Friday.

 10. What’s one thing you are passionate about? I am very middle of the road on most things, but I do believe that everyone should have the same opportunities and rights as everyone else. There should not be discrepancies on pay or rights because of your sexual orientation, gender, religion, race or any belief system.

11. What are you grateful for this week? I’m grateful the work week is halfway over and we’re coming up on a long weekend. I’m grateful I have a job and I enjoy it, and that my family is happy and healthy and strong together. 

And as I was saying

Here's where I should start midsentence as if I haven't taken weeks since my last post, right? I'm sitting in an airport, and I just walked 4000 steps (that's three lengths of concourse A & C) in 3" wedges so that I could eat dinner and WHAT HAS BECOME OF ME? To be fair, I would have eaten dinner either way,  but I had sushi for lunch and a glass of wine while I did two hours of work at the airport bar and man, I should probably move some, right? 

Yesterday I started using My Fitness Pal. I am not much of a calorie counter, but I thought that I should probably start being more accountable to myself about what I'm actually putting in my body. It's a little addicting - it's amazing what is in their database (alas, no blackened mahi salad from Shula's, so I'm going to have to do some guesswork for my airport dinner). Trader Joe's ahoy! Most of my food comes from Trader Joe's these days, if I'm being completly honest. My wine too. Yum. 

Also yesterday I did some major weeding and potting and trimming back of the ginger that has taken over my back flower beds. I  faced a major fear of mine and hoisted up the chain saw to cut out some sprouting palms in the front yard (we have a giant multi-trunk palm tree in the front yard, and the middle was getting overrun with new sprouts). I'm scared to death of any instrument of cutting/pain infliction that runs on power other than arm power. So guns, chainsaws -- eek. Knives, I'm not so concerned (even though I've cut myself eight million times on knives, only little injuries! I swear!). It's my power driving the knife. I feel like I have more control over what will happen and am therefore less likely to seriously injure myself. 

You see where this is going, right? 

Well, okay, I didn't "seriously" injure myself, but I did accidentally cut into the power cord while trimming palm stems, sending sparks flying and nearly harming myself, the tree, and possibly our electrical whatevers. I stopped in time and C spliced the cord back together making it possible for me to finish the trimming uneventfully. Somehow in all of that I also bruised my ring finger, and it's now a little swollen. I had to twist my engagement ring off as it's tighter than my wedding ring and was starting to get painful. Hopefully that gets better tomorrow.

And here comes my food! Hurray and bon a petit to me!