New hair taming method

Liz got her hair tamed at kalahari.

There was a chubby snowman

The Magnificent Freak speaks

Quote from my daughter tonight while I was in the shower and she finished going to the bathroom.
MF: Mom, I didn't flush because I didn't want to burn you
Me: Thanks, that was nice of you
MF: If I burned you, I wouldn't have a mom anymore. I would just have a dad and a dead mom in the bathtub.
Me: Um, ok (WTF is she watching on TV)

Tis the Season

I hate the carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Seriously? You are going to show up at my house uninvited, demand food and then refuse to leave until you get some? STFU!

Just one more reason that I'm not a holiday fan

Let the depression keep on rolling

In the theme of my past posts, this one is another depressing one.

Today after school we went to FCC to play. After we had been there for awhile, The Charming Phantom came over to the table to tell me that The Wild Freak was crying. I went to see him and see what was happening. He laid his head on my lap and cried for a while. While I'm asking what is wrong, CP was standing over my shoulder saying "things didn't go well at school today. With some force, I finally extracted from him that one of the other kids had been mean to him about PK and then that PK had been mean to him to. That instead of playing with him she ran away. Then he wailed "Everything used to be perfect and now it isn't"! Oh to be a second grader in love! CP comments, "I think he should break up with her and find another girlfriend" then shrugged at me and walked away ROFL No ulterior motives there. No sirree! :) Eventually he calmed down and told me that his new friend who is in the 3rd grade is the problem. His friends in his class don't want to play with the older kid so he has to decide who he wants to play with at a given time. I explained that sometimes your friends aren't friends with each other and you just have to decide which game you like playing better that day, that time. He told me that it sure wold be easier if all his friends could be friends. Isn't that the story of life!

Unfortunately, the way things are going, I'm betting I'll get to use my shiny new "drama" tag a lot more often.

Important names to know

Anyone that I blog about that didn't pick their own nicknames gets run through the superhero name generator. TB's friend O has earned a spot in the blog so they get names. Her mom K is the Fearless Phantom, O is The Charming Phantom, her sister M (MT's age) is The Daring Phantom and the little sister E is The Acrobatic Phantom.

Also MT is henceforth named The Magnificent Freak and TB is now The Wild Freak. Just cause I was tired of their old names. I'm not so good at forever names. :)

Body movin'

I get the National PTA newsletter through our local council PTA email list. In it, they had an article talking about different styles of learning and how to help them learn better. I took the little quiz they gave, fully expecting TB to fall into the "word smart" category because the kid NEVER stops talking. He doesn't write well because he is such a good story teller that writing limits his abilities. He can't write as fast as he can think and he ends up playing the "tell a complete story in 3 lines or less game" and leaves out a lot of detail that he would include if he were telling the story instead of writing it.

So anyway, the quiz came up with mostly "a"s, which placed him in the Body Smart Learner. Ok, he is also pretty active, I'll read the description and see what they say The following is text from the article.

Your child is a body-smart (bodily/kinesthetic) learner -- she probably has a natural sense of balance, making her a good athlete or dancer. These types of kids learn best when it involves their body in some way -- either through hands-on experience (think using objects to count with or blocks for building) or by doing something as they listen, even if it's just chewing gum or kneading a stress ball. Your child is probably also the touchy type; when she has something to tell you, she'll demonstrate it using hand gestures and pantomime, which is why she's likely to be a good actor, too.

Possible Careers: Athlete, dancer, actor, doctor, military, construction, artist, landscape designer

Homework Helpers: •Let Her Move• Give your child an exercise ball to sit on as she does her homework -- the sheer act of balancing on it will help her focus better, says Bennett. Or let her do it standing up. Want your body-smart kid to remember better? Tell her to move her finger under the words when she's reading books, notes, or spelling words, says educational psychologist Michele Borba, Ed.D. Have her write out spelling words or sums in big letters with chalk on the sidewalk, or on a big piece of paper inside, and hop on them. Or have her spell them out with her body. •Work It Out• Whether she's kicking a soccer ball or jumping rope, let your kid go out in the backyard and get her energy out before she settles back down to study.

The bold part is the part that really rang true for me. We are CONSTANTLY on him to SIT DOWN. When he does his homework, when he is eating, etc. Last year it was such a problem that his teacher had him evaluated by the school OT and he ended up with a little seat cushion to help convince him to sit. Since he never actually sat, the cushion wasn't so overly helpful. This year, his teacher said she hasn't noticed as much of a problem with it. I still see it at home all the time so I'm guessing that he is doing it, he just isn't as obnoxious about it this year. I hate to suggest doing things at school that would separate him from the other kids, like the stress ball thing while listening. Or something different to sit on but I really wonder if that wouldn't help him.

Regardless of accommodations being made, he really is doing better this year. Until recently, he was doing his homework without protest every night. He has started Handwriting without tears and since I know that he knows how to actually form most of the letters now, I'm making him take his time and write so I can read what he is writing and that makes him irritated. He doesn't like erasing and re-doing but that is just too bad. He can do it and he is going to do it.

What a waste - depressing

Earlier this weekend, my cousin was killed in a car wreck. From what I know, he was alone in the car and it was single vehicle. I know that he wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Of course, my information is coming 5th hand so I don't have any details about what happened, specifically. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if alcohol was involved. He recently joined Facebook and all of his posts were about how much his life sucked and how nothing ever went right and how whiskey was his only friend, etc. His birthday would have been Tuesday and he would have been 29. I would not be surprised if he was either out celebrating his birthday early or drowning his sorrows.

He is 9 months younger than me and when we were kids, he was my closest cousin. There were 3 of us on that side of the family that were about the same age and I never really got along with the other one so it was he and I. We spent a lot of time with that side of the family growing up so i saw him several times a year, although not so much recently. He caught the garter at my wedding and the next summer married a different girl. Not surprisingly, they were going through a divorce, which is part of his depression. His dad also died about 3 years ago just before Christmas, so he was really having a bad time of it. I simply can't imagine what his mom is going through right now. Losing her husband days before Christmas 3 years ago and now her son. A parent's worst nightmare.

He has two kids who are the same age as my kids. We've not spent nearly as much time with them since we have been adults, but our kids do see each other at weddings and other family parties.

The males in my family are genetically cursed and they rarely live to see 60, however, this is something different. This is the first person MY AGE that I have lost. The others, while sad and certainly before their time, didn't bother me as much. And so far I'm not as sad as I think I should be about this. Maybe because we didn't see each other very often, it is sort of unreal to me that this happened. Occasionally, it will hit me and I'll think about it and I'll be sad, but then it kind of goes away. Mostly I'm sad for his boys. He was really into them and a pretty good dad for everything that was going on in his life. I just feel like I SHOULD be more sad about it.

The thing I'm really struggling with right now is that I DON'T want to go to the funeral. I actually probably won't go to the funeral because it is during the day and I don't feel comfortable taking time off work for it since I'm still really new there. I just know that it will make it real. I don't want to see his mom and his boys doing the receiving line by the coffin. I feel really guilty about this because I've gone to all the other visitations in my family. I feel like this one is one that I should be going to since he was my age and I did know him well. I'm sure I will go but mostly out of guilt that I don't want to :(

RIP Kevin, I will be thinking of your family and I hope that you are happier where you are now

Cookies

I decided to take Looseyfur's route and pre-bake my cookies for tomorrow (seems like an even better idea now that I've spent 2 hours on the baking). I told TB he could help me put the cooled ones on a plate. Now he is stalking my cookies, prowling around the kitchen demanding to know when the next batch will be cool. Perhaps I shoul dhave let him make the cookies? :)

The joys of 30 and the future

Pounds that is. I haven't yet hit that age, although I got my notice in the mail that it is time to renew my license so I can feel it breathing down my neck :)

When I was at my starting weight, I never thought I felt that bad. I knew I didn't have much energy but that wasn't that big of a deal because I've always been basically lazy. Even at 150 lbs, I didn't have much motivation to get off my backside and actually do anything. I knew I had trouble getting up and down but I chalked that up more to being not 12 anymore instead of being overweight. Then I joined WW and lost 30 pounds. Now, at school, I'm able to crouch and tie shoes. I can bend over and pick things up. I have more energy but still not motivation to do anything. Last night TB ended up in the Parade of Lights (apparently, my dad commented that the guy driving the old Willard Fire Jeep had a fire suit on. The asked if they wanted a ride and off they went!) After I stood and watched the end of the parade, I walked to the end of the parade route and saw the front of the parade coming down the street. I decided to walk down the street and catch them and just walk back with them. I caught up with them at West Side Park and walked back to the Orpheum, via Main St. Once they got past the reviewing stand, the rest of the parade really picked up the pace. They were done and the people were done and so they took off to get out of the cold. I ended up jogging (despite not being dressed for it in slip on shoes and jeans) from the News-Gazette office to the municipal lot behind the Orpheum to keep up. The driving asked me if I wanted a ride and I was able to tell him that I was doing fine. And I really was. They got off the float and we hoofed it around front to get inside and I was a little winded but not dying. By the time I got my coat off, I was breathing totally fine. Afterward, we went to 1 Main for the tree lighting and TB and I didn't want to mess with 12 layers of clothes just to get there so we raced from the Orpheum down there and again, I was ok. This is practically a miracle since the last time I worked out was when I was walking TB to school each day in September. Being able to do that kind of thing and being ok makes me want to want to exercise. I still don't actually want to but I fell like I should want to. Strange conundrums.


I left WW in August when I felt like the result wasn't worth the cost anymore. My plan was to go it alone and I haven't been terribly successful at it. I've maintained my weight, which is good but I haven't lost much of anything either. Randomly, I'll get blips in my weigh ins that drop me below 180 but by the next day, I'm back over. I'm not really doing much of anything so I can't really complain much (well, I can, because I can always complain, but I shouldn't). I set a goal to have lost another 30 by the end of the year. I am desperately off track for that, needing to lose something like 10 pounds a week to achieve it. I changed my goal time to my birthday, which brought it down to just over a pound a week. The thing is, I'm not sure if I care enough to do it. I didn't realize I felt bad until I had something to compare it too. Would I feel better another 30 lighter? Probably but I feel good now so how much better? I set myself a goal because I felt like I should set a goal but I'm just not sure if I'm going to do it. I'm at the point that without much thought or deprivation, I can comfortably maintain my weight. While I would like to be 30 pounds lighter, I'm not sure that is maintainable goal. Quigs said to me once that to maintain her weight loss, she would have to track food and go to meetings for the rest of her life and I thought "if the choice is meetings and tracking forever or being fat, I think I'll take being fat". I didn't enjoy WW. The meetings were something I felt like I had to do to lose the weight. Karen was riot but even that wasn't enough to make me feel like it was something I WANTED to do. I took no joy in finding lower point sub for favorite foods. I either didn't eat the food or ate a bit less and I did ok with that until I didn't. It seems like my friends who have been successful in their weight loss find joy and happiness in the process of the weight loss. It might not be easy but they don't find it quite the drudgery that I did. They are ok with the lifetime aspect of it, where I never was. My plan was for it to simply be a short term solution. I don't intent to gain the weight back but I'm not sure I can commit to losing further. Maybe in the spring, when I can start grilling food again (I joined in April and lost all my weight during the summer) and find veggies easily. Or maybe not. I was over 200 pounds for 7 years before some switch flipped in my head that made me decide that I was ready to lose weight. I'd like to not take that long this time around but I know me and really, this might be it for my weight loss.