Friday, February 18, 2011

Buddies

Kevin loves to chase Sophie. He is just now learning how to be "gentle", so Sophie often runs away.

028
Even under the boat.
030

RIGHT after that picture was taken Kevin ran into the light that sticks out from the trailer of the boat. He cried and ran over to me, and then immediately went back and hit it a couple times, like he was trying to say "Dang light, don't stick out like that!" You can see the tears still on his face in this picture:

033

Kevin is still at the age where he doesn't "pose" for my pictures so I get some of the cutest pics of him.

049

The previous set of pictures was taken on Thursday when Kevin was home sick. After we picked up Amanda from Preschool, we went and picked up a chair for Kevin so both kids have their own chair to sit in.

This last pic is of both kids in their chairs.

059

My little helper

Kevin loves to help. Here he is helping me change the belt in the vacuum cleaner.

002

Here he is helping me wash off my kitchen rug

009

And here he is just being Kevin

013

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

My very cat-like husband

Mike is always telling me to take his picture with the cat, so here he is with Sophie

053

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Bad week and it's only Tuesday

I am not having a good week at all.

Started with Sunday waking up and not feeling great. But we had plans to go snowboarding, so off we went. Dropped the kids at Grandma & Grandpa’s and Mike & I went snowboarding for the day. When we got there, two people were selling their free lift passes for about half of what the list price for lift passes is. We’ve done this before with no problems, but guess what, one of them was already USED! So we got swindled :(

Then we stopped at Applebee’s for dinner on the way home (aka nice dinner out without the kids!) and our server took FORever, so we ended up getting back to pick up the kids extra late. AND when we picked them up, Kevin felt warm like had a fever (though he did not by the time we got home). Not good. He slept terribly that night, waking up several times and crying until someone came in to give him a pacifier.

Monday (Valentine’s Day) I went to the eye doctor for my one month appointment. My left eye is still blurry. Doc didn’t seem concerned about this at all! Brushed me off and told me to come back in 2 months. *sigh* Also had a dentist appt. to get my permanent crown put in. Discovered I am also due for a cleaning, but guess what, in all of the last 5 appointments I’ve had for this tooth, they failed to mention this, and I have to come back AGAIN to get my teeth cleaned! WTF, you couldn’t combine some of this??

That night sucked too. Kids were in bad moods when I picked them up. Mike got stuck in terrible traffic and made it home extra late. I let him eat dinner and gave Amanda a bath (he usually does it). When it was time to get out she usually pushes the drain, but not last night, she wanted me to do it. So I leaned in to push the button, and my BRAND NEW EXPENSIVE cell phone that was in my pocket dropped out and into the water!!!! UGH. I turned it off and put it in rice which is apparently supposed to help absorb the water, so hopefully it is still useable because I have no insurance. All the advice says to wait 3 days to even turn it on, so I am crossing my fingers

THEN, Kevin was up several times that night crying uncontrollably. After several attempts to put him back down I finally felt in his mouth and discovered not one but TWO molars coming in. One dose of Ibuprofen and orajel later, he finally gave me some sleep, but he was still up again early and I am exhausted today.

I am loathe to find out what the rest of the week has in store for me.  Already today at work has not been going well.  *double sigh*

Monday, February 14, 2011

Fun with the Fam

First of all, here is a picture of Mike.  This was after the Superbowl.  He went to a party with some friends, had a few beers, then came home and passed out on the couch.  What I find funny about this picture is his pose.  It's like he's praying while he sleeps!!

002

These next two are of the kids in my truck. They asked to play in the bed of the truck, so I naturally obliged :)

003
Amanda is my little ham, she will pose for the camera whenever she can
020

And this shows you how smart Kevin is getting. I got my shipment of diapers from Amazon and had put the box just inside the front door. He very carefully dragged it over to the coffee table, laid it down and set it up for a seat for himself. Then he climbed on and sat! How innovative is that!

023

Once Amanda saw me take out the camera, she had to join Kevin too.

030

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

My (somewhat) disturbing relationship with food

So as many have seen, I have struggled with my weight for the last several years.  I "liked" weight watchers on facebook, and they often have some interesting thing posted about a new recipe or a story or something.  Anyway, a few days ago they posted a link to this blog:
http://manmeetsscale.blogspot.com/2011/01/man-and-his-messed-up-relationship-with.html
and the follow up:
http://manmeetsscale.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-i-got-heavy-my-eyes-deceived-me.html
Seriously?  It's like looking in a mirror!

If his story is really true (not exaggerated for media sake), it's a bit more extreme than mine.  But similar storyline.  And I will reiterate here first, I love my parents.  They have certainly raised 3 brilliant daughters, and I hold nothing against them.  But there were certain mistakes they made in the food department that really have affected the way I think about food!
1) Similar to his post, I rarely was allowed fast food growing up.  We ate out more than 5-10 times a year, but not by much.  Now?  I eat out in a heartbeat whenever I can!
2) Desserts abounded in our house.  Both my parents had a sweet tooth, so there was always ice cream or candy lying around.  We just weren't allowed to have it.  I think after I turned 15 and started complaining, then we got a dessert once a week after dinner.  I actually got caught when I was around 12 years old with a cup of raw sugar in my nightstand.  RAW sugar people.  I was so deprived of it, I had to eat plain sugar to satiate my craving!
3) My lunch was similar to his.  A plain sandwich on day-old bread my mom bought in the reduced price aisle, a peice of fruit and usually some sort of extra, like yogurt raisins or cheese & crackers.  I never had any treats I could trade.  I also always had juicy-juice or Motts 100% juice, not the favored Capri Sun that everyone "cool" had.  The difference is I got school lunch 2-3 times a week.  When I got to high school you were actually trusted with the money to spend in the cafeteria, and you could buy whatever you wanted.  I got $1.50 and I would spend $0.75 on a HUGE chocolate chip cookie and $0.75 on a soda.  Oh I loved those days I got away with that!
4) We were encouraged to clear our plates & not waste food.  Now that I have kids, I can see why - it's hard to get a toddler to eat!  BUT, that led to the need to see my plate empty, and when you eat at places like Claim Jumper, you often end up overeating unnecessarily!  It has taken a lot of internal will to change the way I think about food in this way.  Similarly, when we eat at home my husband doesn't like to eat leftovers so I find myself trying to finish things the night I make them lest they go to waste.
5) Similarly to him, I put on more than the "freshman 10".  I would say I gained around 30-40 pounds my first year.  Buffets 3x a day, with huge dessert carts, and sugary cereals I was previously not allowed to have! 
6) He doesn't mention soda.  Oh the soda!  Growing up, we got one soda a day only when we were on vacation.  So the other 357 days/year I spent glorifying and drooling over the soda I would one day have.  When I got old enough to babysit and have my own money, on our vacations (we drove in our motorhome 99% of the time on our vacations) my sisters & I would buy the enormous BIG GULP when we stopped for gas.  Good lord, looking back, that had to be 3 x the size of our stomachs!  But it was more than just the one 12 oz. can of soda!  We wouldn't even put any ice in the cup, lest we lose room for that soda.  Didn't matter if we stopped for gas at 9am!  And we spent the rest of the day taking dainty little sips of that soda to make it last as long as we could.

Anyway, let me reiterate my parents were great parents and they have raised three successful, confident daughters.  I don't think any parent is perfect and there's going to be something you inflict on your kids that you don't realize with affect them as much as it does.  I am probably inflicting terrible things on my kids right now and I don't even know it!