Movement and getting unfat

So days 1, 2, 3, etc haven't gone so good. Not only did I eat cookies for lunch on Friday and then atoned for my sins by eating a salad for dinner (complete with a 42 oz milkshake for dessert), but we had my famiy's Christmas dinner on Sunday, where I scarfed everything in sight and then some for both lunch and dinner. I ate leftovers today (and stuffed myself sick again) then had mass quantities of popcorn at the movie and came home and ate pizza. Besides all the huge amoutns of food I've eaten over the last several days, I have stopped doing Pilates and Yoga. I've been too full at bedtime to do them so I've been skipping.

In getting back on track, we set up our Christmas present tonight. My mom got us a Wii for Christmas and we wanted it to be set up and totally ready to use when the kids found out about it in the morning. Good thing too because it took over 30 minutes to set up and then to sync and so forth. Once we had it all set up, we had to play it to make sure that everything worked right. :) My brother and were playing Wii Sports (the other games are "to be opened" tomorrow morning) and decided on boxing. We played 3 minutes and both of us nearly died in the process! Every time one of use would go down, we were both doubled over, hands on our knees, panting like crazy. I haven't been that active in ever. I'm not sure I even worked that hard when I used to play soccer (which could have something to do with the fact that I was never, in all the years I played, on a winning team LOL). Then we bowled, which was much less active. If I played one of the games (I left the "boys" playing tennis to come to bed) at least once a day, I would drop mad weight and be in killer shape. I'll have to find out if I can play against the computer or if I can play online or if I'm just going to have to get someone to play against me everyday :)

Bathroom water, CEc and Zelda

I don't like drinking water from the bathroom. I realize in my head that it is exactly the same water that is in the kitchen. However illogical it may be, I can't convince the rest of me that the water is the same. I'll drink it sometimes but if given a choice, I drink from the kitchen. Strange I know and it has no real point. :)

We were out shopping today and took the kids to Toys R Us to spend their gift cards. Lizzie picked out a pink Little People Castle (When we pointed out that buddy already had a castle set she said "yep, now I have pink castle and it has a princess") and a "Musical Tea Set" Much to my dismay, she seems to prefer girly things :( A side note, she tried to play with one of C's toys the other day and he told her she couldn't because she was a girl and girls only like makeup and dolls. GAH!! I pointed out that I'm a girl and I like (and never did) neither of those things.
He said "did you like video games and superheros"
"Yes, actually I did"
"so you were a geek?"
" yes I was and in case you haven't noticed, I still am"
"no you aren't" What a sweet boy LOL

He bought Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass for his DS. He started playing the game with my dad and he was having a hard time with it. When we got home, he asked for "help" (which means, play my game while I watch) so I was playing it for awhile and the game ROCKS. My absolute all time favorite video game is the original Legend of Zelda. I played it for years and years and years and finally beat the first half of the game on an emulator a few years ago. I haven't managed to beat or even figure out the second half and likely never will. Anyway, this game is like a cross between orignal Zelda and Final Fantasy 9, which is another in my top 10 best games ever. I may have to start a game of my own on the system because it is that much fun.

While we were shopping, we decided that we were going to take the kids to McDonald's to let them run off some energy. We drove by the one by the mall and it was PACKED. We decided to try the other one but the kids freaked out and said they wanted BK instead. Mom decided that she wanted to do something different and while she was thinking about it, she came up with Chuck E Cheese in Bloomington. So we ran home, grabbed my dad and headed for Bloomington. We had pizza and played games and spend 2 hours. Lizzie napped on the way home and C played more of his game.

Sicky Chicky

Lizzie is sick again today :( Since she was sick earlier in the fall, everytime she doesn't want to do something she says she is going to be sick. We don't believe her at all anymore when she says it. This morning, she woke up at about 6:30 and told me she was going to be sick. I took her to the bathroom (I may not buy it, but I still take her because I'd rather than than clean up puke) and she hung over the toilet making puke noises and looking slyly at me out of the corner of her eye. Eventually, she decided that she wasn't sick and was ready to go back to bed. She laid down with me and dozed off for a few minutes. Then she woke up and told me she was going to be sick again. I handed her the "chuck bucket" as they call it. She sat up for a few minutes then she put the bucket down and asked for "Spongebob" on TV. I turned it on and rolled over to go back to sleep (because 6:30 is a stupid early time to be awake when we don't have to go to school). It wasn't 5 more minutes and she started to cough and threw up in the bed. Well, that was it for sleeping so I got her up and got dh up and had him take care of getting her cleaned up while I took care of the bed.

She laid around on the couch for awhile and ended up getting sick again about 8:30. Around 10, she asked for something to eat so I got her some crackers and a little 7 up. About 11, she threw it up all over the dining room and herself. I put her in the tub, while I cleaned up the floor and then let her lay on the couch and watch Blue's Clues. At noon, I told her it was naptime and although she was pissed, she went to sleep in under 10 minutes :) She slept for 2 hours and got up fairly happy. She was hungry again and I cautiously handed over about 15 crackers and maybe 2 swallows of 7up. She did fine and asked for a banana which she also did fine.

We did the paper and then she came home and had some soup and ice chips (she didn't want anything to drink but she was thirsty) and is now sleeping quitely. I am a mean mommy though because I'm making her sleep with a little blanket tonight (not so little that it doesn't cover her all the way up, she just can't thrash all over the bed and remain covered) because it is easier to wash if she does get sick in the night.

Goals for 2008

I don't make resolutions because they aren't realistic and it seems very sheepy (baa). However, I have some goals for the upcoming year.

Broad goals:
Lose weight
quit being poor

The smaller sub goals:

Weight:

Become more active (possibly joining a class or sport of something)

Monitor what I eat (I don't diet, I hate being deprived of anything and dieting makes my crazier than normal)

Quit eating just to eat. Just because there is food around, doesn't mean I need to eat it.

Only eat when I'm hungry and only until I'm comfortable. I tend to stuff myself to the point of sickness and that isn't good for anyone.

Poor:

QUIT SPENDING SO FREAKING MUCH MONEY ALL THE TIME. This is obviously a big one. I don't need coffee all the time, Lizzie doesn't need to go to tag along gym every week, etc etc.

Pay off the van. Previously mentioned $2k plus taxes makes a good portion of the total amount owed. That will free up a couple of hundred dollars a month.

Pay off student loan with extra from van.

Save the money that was being spent on the van and the loan for a DP on a new car when dh's car quits (it is 7 years old and still in good shape, but better to be prepared for when it happens than to be blindsided)

Shop smarter. Maybe coupons or really chasing sale. I seriously need to cut our food budget. This partly goes with the weight loss, but I need to start cooking and serving realistic portions. We end up with a ton of leftovers that usually get thrown out because we don't eat much leftovers. I also need to cut back on the meat that we use. For example, we use 2 pounds of hamburger for goulash. We could totally get away with only one lb.

Scrapping and paper routes

I've been busy tagging the CATW kit. Talk about blah. I remember how overwhelming it felt to tag all my files orginally and this feels the same way. It is too much, but I can't do anything else until I get it done. That puts me behind on the project for my parents and I haven't scrapped a current picture since C's b-day in October. I have several that need done but it is going to be awhile. I've finished all the backgrounds and I have 300+ more elements to go. :( I have deleted a TON of stuff that I will never use. Really how many snowflakes does one scrapper need? I need to apply the same theory to my current files but somehow I can't. I think "I don't want to tag all these frames because I never use frames. I've used frames on maybe 5 layouts ever so I don't need to keep these" By that reasoning, I should just dump my whole "frames" folder, but I can't do it. I might need a frame for something someday and I'll be mad as heck if I don't have it :)

Going through all these files has made me question some of the designers I like. I have a few fave designers that I dl pretty much anything they put out there (free only because I don't pay to scrap). I don't use a lot of the stuff but I feel like I should have it because I might need it and hey, it is free. I see some of their stuff in CATW and it is UGLY. When I think about it, most of their stuff is ugly, yet I keep dling it because there was something that I liked at one point. Again, I need to delete a BUNCH of that crap, but I probably won't. I'm a packrat, what can I say.

I quit my paper route today, via email because I'm a coward. He told me they want a month's notice to quit but that seems so extreme. I told him that it is more physically demanding than I expected and I won't be able to do it anymore because of the pain that it is causing me. My back has been hurting again since I started it and I don't need that. I just got it were it wasn't killing me every time I moved and now it is starting up again. So Friday will be my last day as a paper girl. I told C I would work up a list of things he could do to earn money and I'll figure out something else that will bring in a little bit. I don't want any major commitments (I hate being tied down everyday) so it is going to have to be something on and off. I might start subbing again so that I can make a little bit but aren't commited to doing anything all the time. I might also offer babysitting services to my playgroup on a drop in basis, as long as they don't mind their kids running all over hell's half acre with us :)

Paper route

Day 2 of the paper route and it SUCKS! My mom gave me a really hard time about it last night and I ended up saying to her "no one asked you to do it. If you don't like the idea of a paper route, then don't do it. Oh look, you aren't. Problem solved" She was pissed but at least she dropped the subject.

I convinced C to help me out and I told him I would pay him a dollar a day, for each day that he helped me with the papers. He has been thrilled to do it the last couple of days. We'll see how he feels about that when I drag his tail out of bed at 6 on Saturday to go with me. Honestly, we'll see how I feel about it when I have to get out of bed at 6 on Saturday. I doubt I will be pleased because I hate mornings :(

I honestly don't know how long I'm going to stick it out. The weather is terrible, there is 6 inches of snow on the ground and we have to tromp through it to deliver the papers. It was 34 degrees today and windy. Taking the kids with me makes it take a lot longer than it should. C told me he would be really upset if I quit since I told him that I will pay him a dollar for each day he helped me out. He is crazy excited about the potential to have money of his own to spend (I told him he has to break it into 3rds so that 1/3 goes to long term savings, 1/3 goes to short term savings, and 1/3 can be spent on whatever he wants). It ties us up every afternoon and it means we can't stay and play in the afternoons. It means that we can't go to early afternoon playgroups and I have to get up early on the weekends. Lots more negatives than positives. The only pluses are the money (which after taxes and what I offered to pay C, is insubstantial, less than $100 a month, which is no where near what I wanted to make) and the excercise. I work up a serious sweat running around out there and that is good. I need to find some other way to get motivated to excercise and then that wouldn't even be a bonus. That would leave me with only disappointing C as my motivation for keeping the route. I could probably come up with something for him to do around the house to earn back some of that money :)

Shoe update

I bought these shoes at zappos.com. They are being shipped and should be here today. I took dh shopping to find shoes today and while I was there, I saw basically the same shoe in blue instead of black. They were $21 instead of $58. I also found out that I need like a size 10.5 (which apparently isn't made in women's shoes, anywhere, ever) instead of the 9.5 that I bought online. I went ahead and bought them and I'll be returning the ones I bought online. With all the money I saved, I went ahead and bought myself a pair of snow boots. Now, I don't have to wear dh's old work boot style snow boots anymore. Dh is very happy because he got a new pair of tennis shoes and he gets his boots back :)

New "job"

I got a paper route. I needed something that I could do to make a little money, that the kids could go with me and that wouldn't take up a ton of time. I looked through the paper, thinking I would do some sub work or something like that. I figured up how much I would have to work and it wouldn't have been the minimal amount that I was looking for. The newspaper is always advertising for carriers and adults being welcome. I decided that that sounded like a good choice so I called and the guy brought the paperwork over yesterday. I'll make around $150 a month (piddly, I know) but that is enough. Evan's check covers the bill, but only just. This will be extra money for the "things" that come up all the time. Either holiday presents, school charges (spirit-wear, that I spent a fortune one, field trips skating rental, etc etc etc) car expenses, dinners out, whatever. I told C if he would help me, I would pay him a portion of the amount. That way, he has the opportunity to earn a little money as well. He has been asking about an allowence, but I think 6 is too young for that. Having him help me and paying him for the amount of help he gives (probably a price per paper he helps with) will hopefully help him learn about money and money management.

In other news, we got a really strange check in the mail yesterday. A few months ago, we got a letter from child support enforcement saying that dh was $1200 behind in his support (he wasn't). Since then, we have been trying to figure out what is going on, talking to CO, trying to talk to IL (they have this horrible automated system that basically says "if we didn't answer your question, get on the website" which requires a name and password we don't have), talking to the people at work, etc, etc, etc. Our checking account was frozen and I opened a new one in my name alone to take care of bills and things still. Since then our account has been unfrozen (although I only knew that because I tried to send a bill payment, not because I got any notification). Despite the fact that this mess is still pending, we got a check yesterday for over $2000 from child support enforcement. Of course, we can't call IL to see why we got the check or what we are supposed to do with it. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. $2k right before Xmas could be a really good thing, if it actually ours to use. I know what I would like to do with it but what is actually going to happen is that I'm going to deposit it in savings and leave it set for some time. At some point in the future, if the state hasn't contacted us and said "oops, we didn't mean to send you that", we'll use it to help pay off some of our debt, which will be awesome :)

Productive today

So far this morning, I've been pretty darn productive. I have got dh's insurance straightened out (finally, it's only been going on for 2 months), I got the cell phone bill straightened out (apparently I had the wrong address so the payment was never processed, nevermind the fact that that is where I've been sending payments since August and all of them have been fine) and the correct amount paid. I called about a job that I'm interested in. And now I have to go put away laundry and finish washing (I love that we moved the dressers in the laundry room so stuff comes straight out of the dryer and gets hung up, but that means I actually have to hang it up and I can't just pull stuff out and shove the next load in) the rest of the clothes. And I have to create a spreadsheet for C's class Christmas party to see who is bringing what and what is already brought. I don't want another fiasco like Halloween since all the parents will be there as well.

In other news, I'm going roller skating tomorrow night! I love roller skating and haven't been in over 10 years. The last time I went was the one and only all night skate I've ever been to. It was ok but I should have gone with (had, in reality) a better class of friends because the it all drama all the time with them. Being locked in a building with 10 drama queens (guys included) and 100 other people to feed the drama was just asking for trouble, which we got in spades. Relationships were formed and destroyed, tears were shed, fights were nearly started, curse words were screamed, all in the course of less than 12 hours. It was insane. Tomorrow will be better. I'm going with C and my dad to celebrate the end of skating in PE and all the other Westie's will be there so I'm excited. :)

Snow Way

I hate snow. I dislike winter, overall, although I look better in long sleeves than short so I like that fact. It is cold and everyone craps their brain as soon as the first clouds sheds the first flake. I can forgive people, to a very small degree, that have never driven in this garbage. People that have lived here their whole lives have no excuse. If you can't drive in it, get on the bus and out of my way.

Perversely, I was just watching the weather and they are saying chance of up to an inch of snow tomorrow night and then a "significant" chance on Saturday (although weather channel says 20% chance tomorrow and only 30% on Saturday so we'll see). I'm a little excited about it. I don't want anything like we had in Feb.
where everyone had to work crazy hours and we ended up with several house guests because we live in town and no one could make it home. An inch or two, enough to go sledding without messing up the roads (tis the season to be travelling, after all), would be ok. The kids really like the snow so I don't mind it as much because of that.

Shoes

Typically, I wear Birks. Unfortunately, it is now cold and snowy and I can't wear them because my socks get wet. :( I bought some camo slip on Chuck's last year for my birthday. I spent far too much on them but they are crazy cool looking so I'm ok wearing them. They solve the wet feet problem of the Birks, but present a problem of their own. They are FLAT. They have NO SUPPORT of any kind. This wasn't a problem in the past, but I have recently come to the conclusion that they are the reason that I've been having back problems. I bought some shoe inserts that were supposed to help with that but they were too tall and pushed my foot clear out of the back of the shoe when I walked. I got some lower inserts but they haven't really helped. So, I have no shoes that I can really wear since our lovely snow the other night.

I was looking at Payless.com (since I can't afford anywhere else) for some slip on tennis shoes. I like the ones that look like real tennis shoes but have no back. I like slip on shoes because I can't stand and put on shoes (I have no balance) and I don't like having to lean over and tie my shoes because I'm fat. After seeing that there were no shoes like what I was looking for, I started browsing the rest of the site. I got distracted by the dress shoes (which I need a new pair of as well, but those are far less important than the tennis shoes) and I'm amazed at the number of "holiday party" shoes that are completely open. The reason I need new dress shoes is because my good ones are sandles and my feet get very cold when I wear them for "holiday" parties. Do these people not understand that it is winter time? That in a good portion of this country, you can't wear dress sandles in December? I do like the boots they have though. I might get a pair of those for dress (I have an old pair but they don't fit anymore)

I might take the kids shopping this afternoon and see if I can't find something that will work for one or both of my current lack of shoes :)

What should I do?

What I am currently doing:
Sitting on the couch making a blog entry
Thinking about putting on jammie pants and a sweatshirt and maybe digging up a blanket.

What I should be doing:
Going to Kinko's to print calendars
Going to Dollar General to buy Kleenex and Sudafed (we are all getting sick here and it sucks)
Taking Lizzie to the last story time, ever, at the old library.

Alternately, I need to clean the living room, including moving all the furniture and sweep and mopping the floor.

What will I do? Probably keep sitting here and then feel guilty that I got nothing done.

Tis the season to be downloading

I just went WILD and dled a TON of Xmas stuff. I can't wait to see the CATW kit that is coming out in a couple of weeks. It is going to be stellar and I hope to get every dl. I used to have a lot of Xmas kits and little use for most of them. Now that I'm working on a project that includes lots of old Xmas pictures, I have a need a no kits. Well, I HAD a need and no kits, but now I have plenty. I just have to unzip and tag all of them now :)

Woohoo, party time!

We went to J's b-day party this afternoon. I was the only mom who stayed (and I spent 2 hours chasing 8 "superheroes" around with a camera trying to get pictures for the b-day mom). By 5:30, the kids had baths and were jammied for bed. By six, they were watching TV and I was laying on the couch reading a book about digital photography. By 6:30, they were still watching TV and I was napping on the couch instead of reading.

We had a seriously rocking Saturday night. Look at us wild party animals! LOL