Game On! Update

Celebrating my day off with a Game On! update post. I was terrified of jumping on the scale today. Yesterday we had an ice cream social for one of the girl's I worked with's last night in our NICU. I just had to partake! My waffle bowl of birthday cake ice cream, marshmallow cream, strawberries, chocolate, walnuts, whipped cream and a cherry on top (of course!) had me feeling like I might have been in trouble. Oh...and I forgot the macadamia nut cookie! Yesterday I still had another 0.2 to go to make weight.But I made it! And then some. I lost a total 2.2 pounds this week (my goal each week is 1.4).

I finished out last week with a score of 834.4 out of a possible 850. Our team scores were averaged and we scored a 779. Go Dieting Divas! Last week I lost 1.6 pounds, so I barely scathed by. If you're keeping track, I am down 3.8 for my first 2 weeks of Game On!

My score won't be quite so grand this week. I lost 6 points Monday for forgetting to eat my 4th meal on time, and another 20 Wednesday night for not exercising. Those exercising points really add up! It's about time I get off my butt and do today's exercise. Today is my day off, but I already took my day off exercising on Monday & lost the points Wednesday so I have to today or I will lose another 20.

I thought the ice cream party would cost me 6 meal points last night, and then I forgot my last meal at the end of my shift. And then I realized I hadn't posted my blog last night. But someone myst have been graciously looking out for me! The ice cream and missed meal were after midnight, so technically on my day off! And if I post my blog today, yesterday could be my day off from my healthy goal. So I am not in as bad of shape as I thought.

I think I will go celebrate with some margaritas with the girls tonight...

Evie and The Pests (OK! I mean pets!)

Evie had a fun project to do this weekend. She got to take a picture of herself and a pet to tell her class about. Instead of one pet, we did all 3. We had a photo collage made up and printed so she could show them all off. The kids love these pets.

We got Fiona, our English Bulldog from a breeder in Alabama in December 2008. She and Chase have been best friends from the start. She is very good with the kids and tolerates a lot. She does have her chewing moments, and that drives me insane. Last week she ate a pair of Liam's sunglasses (not that he wore them anyway) and she has become particularly fond of a stuffed giraffe rocker in the living room. Ryan told me just last night that he was going to take it out the trash, but I said no because she'll just move on to something new. Might as well let her finish off what she started! We chose Fiona's name came because Ryan's bulldog, Belle, who he left with his parents when he moved to Georgia, was name after the Disney princess. He really wanted to keep that going, and Fiona was a fitting name for a bulldog.

Jujubee, Evie's kitten, is a white mutt-kitten we picked up from what we found out later must have been a flea-infested bug-dungeon. No sooner than we had gotten in the car I spotted a tiny black demon. I would have left her there if I had known just how many were covering her tiny white body! We immediately made a beeline for the nearest store to stock up of flea-murder in bottles and a couple baths and treatments later...problem solved! Jujubee is the world most psychotic cat (although I am sure many would beg to differ). She is often found leaping through the house up door frames and into walls. Jujubee was named by Evie. She had been naming everything, living and not, Jujubee for quite awhile. She wanted Jujubee to be our Elf On The Shelf's name, but she lost to Chase's pick Bob. The name came from the Elf On The Shelf book and she had been begging for a kitty to call Jujubee for quite some time. She finally wore us down!

Raspberry (or should I say Raspberry #3...but don't tell Evie!) was a present for Evie's 4th birthday. She had been asking for one for while so we surprised her that day. She was so excited. I don't really know where the name came from. I remember we had been talking about raspberries the morning I took her took pick out her fish, but I can't remember why. She is very good at helping feed her fish every morning and every night. A cute story about Raspberry is, after the passing of Raspberry #1, Evie noticed her fish (the new fish) had white on her belly (Ryan didn't really pick out an exact match). Evie doesn't miss a thing and questioned Daddy the second she laid eyes on it. My quick-thinking husband told her Raspberry was just getting older, which Evie was so proud to run out and yell down the stairs to me. Crisis averted! Raspberry is the perfect pet, and if we had to choose just one, she'd be it!

Liam Say's "Mmmmmmm!"

This boy can eeeeeeeeat! I mean...really eat. Don't get me wrong. He's still a pretty picky eater. There are days when I can barely get him to take a bite of anything. But give him the right food at the right time, and he will singlehandedly eat you out of house and home. Take this ice cream sandwich, for instance. Before I could even see this pic on my viewfinder...it was gone! Just like that! Well not quite, but you get the picture. He had already had his usual after school Cheerios on the way home from school this afternoon (pick him up without them and you're in real trouble) but really showed his jealousy of the big kids and their ice cream. Mom's not real good at saying no to Liam yet, so of course I gave in. To tell you the truth, he didn't have to try all that hard :). The full-size sandwich was gone before I knew what had happened.

He's not your typical 1-year-old. At least, he's not like my other kids were. His favorite food is probably baked beans. He loves them. But Chase and Evie won't touch them. He won't touch anything green...except zucchini. He likes to finish off all the zucchini from my hibachi take out. But he won't let a pea or green bean within 10 feet of him. Hates chicken nuggets (unless they're from Chick-Fil-A), but loves bratwurst. You might find one thing he scarfs down one day but finds absolutely disgusting the next. I have learned not to really worry when he won't eat much one day. He will definitely make up for it tomorrow!

My brain is fried. What was supposed to be a day in my office turned into an even longer day in the unit. But I can't complain. I love my job!

Regardless, however, after finishing up homework when I got home I am in now shape to communicate, so instead, please enjoy browsing some pics of my crafts over the last couple months :).

Remembering 9/11

It's been 10 years today and my jaw still drops to the floor and my eyes instantly fill with tears when I hear the stories of so many people that lost their lives that day and the families that love and miss them.

Dateline aired a story of remembrance this past Friday. I started watching it with Ryan and a little way in wanted Chase to come down and watch it with us. This is something that he doesn't remember happening. He was only 1 at

the time. But this is a story he should know. He too should remember the lives lost and the sacrifices made.

When I asked Chase if he knew what I meant when I talked about the World Trade Center he said no. When I asked him if he knew what 9/11 meant he initially said no. But then he started to remember. He asked "Is that when those planes flew into those buildings"? He has learned some about that day in school, but his heart has yet to feel the pain of that day like so many of us have. But I know one day he will understand it as we do.

9/11 is more than when planes flew into a building. It marks a day in history none of us will ever forget. 2819 people lost their lives that day. So many, many more lost their loved ones. Our nation lost part of our family. It breaks my heart just thinking about it. Each family has their own story of their own personal tragedy surrounding that

day. It is not hard to find these stories amongst the many books, TV shows, and movies that stem from the attacks. But so many people have yet to tell their story. That is why it important to remember.

I hope and pray that nothing like this ever

happens again. But it does. We still have soldiers who lose their lives fighting overseas to prevent something like this from happening to us again. They fight for us like all the civil service workers fought to help the people who were trapped on our own soil that day. The fight will never be over because, thankfully, we will always have men and women willing to sacrifice their freedom, their lives, to protect those of us too scared or unwilling to do it ourselves.

To all these people. To the men and women who fought for our lives so many years ago, those who fought on 9/11, those who fight today, and those who will fight tomorrow...I will remember, forever. Thank you so much for all that you have given and continue to give for my freedom and the freedom of the ones I love.

Here is a link that gives some insight into just how much we lost that day: http://nymag.com/news/articles/wtc/1year/numbers.htm

Evie & The PreK

So we've heard about Chase. How's Evie?

Evie started PreK at Lee County PreK this year. Here wonderful Daddy waited all night in line in March, in the freezing cold mind you, to reserve his little girl's spot in the program. This is the case every year in Lee County, as there are usually never enough spots.

I remember when I went to sign Chase up for the program when he was 4. The sign said 8am, so there I was at 8am. I thought it odd to find so many lawn chairs parked outside the building. But no people outside. Surely people had been sitting outside waiting for registration to begin. I found out they had. There we only 70 spots for our zone that year. Thank goodness, despite my sleeping in the own, warm bed the previous night, Chase was registered in slot 63.

This year there were 110+ spots for our zone (there are two zones...East and West). I was there at the board of education at 3pm the day before registration, to save Ryan's spot for the night. When I arrived, the line was more than 30 deep. But we knew E was in. To be honest, she would have been in regardless of whether we had camped out or not. Ryan arrived around 530pm and we swapped kids. We went and got Daddy dinner, had a picnic with him, and went off to sleep at home without Ryan. He didn't get much sleep that night. It was very cold and uncomfortable. We met him back at the BOE the next morning to sign Evie up. We found out later that day that they hadn't filled all the spots. We're ok with that. As soon as we'd decided not to camp out we would have missed our chance.

I've drifted a little from the topic. We had hoped to have Mrs. McConnell, Chase's kindergarten teacher, as she had moved to the PreK. We were sad to find out she was only taking West Zone and we're East (they try to keep the kids together because they'll split schools next year). Total bummer...she was such a wonderful teacher for Chase. Evie is in Mrs. Pearce's class, however, and so far, so good. We like her a lot, and so does Evie. Her paraprofessional, Ms. Mitchell, is very nice, too.

Evie enjoys taking her lunch every day. She started out in the after school program, but that only lasted a week before we decided it wasn't for us. It's a mix of 200 4-11 year olds and very chaotic. Evie wasn't happy there. So she is riding the bus home now and loves it.

Mrs. Pearce loves bumblebees, and the room is covered in them. Each day Evie brings home a stamped paper with a bumblebee which means she didn't get in trouble. She's gotten a bumblebee every single day :). 2 weeks ago was her turn to bring home Bee. Bee is a bear who gets to travel home with a little girl form her class each week (the boys get to take home Bumble). She was so excited! She had lots of fun with Bee and we took pictures to send to school with her to show all her friends.

Inevitable Detention

While signing Chase's planner tonight, I commented on how proud I was that his disciplinary sheet remains empty...a whole 4 weeks into his first year at Lee County Middle School. Go Chase!

So he was telling me that he got to choose a prize for remaining "discipline free". His choices were:
1. A "Hat Pass": He could wear a hat to school on the day of his choosing.
2. An "iPod Pass": He could bring his iPod to school one day to listen to his tunes at lunch.
3. An "Outside Pass": He could spend a lunch break outside.
4. A "Detention Pass": He could receive a pass to bail on detention at any one point this school year.

I find it incredibly ironic that one of your choices for a reward for staying out of trouble is a pass to get out of being in trouble in the future. And what did my son choose? The "Detention Pass". I guess he thinks he just can't keep this up forever :).

But we are very proud of Chase. He is really enjoying his new school. I was very worried about how Chase would transition to being the little fish in a great big pond. He went from a school of 700 to a school of 1200. He is changing classes now. He was changing classes in elementary school, but he changed with his whole class. This year he is on his own, as each kid in his class goes their own way to each class. But he is loving it all. He especially loves his Keyboarding class and is always wanting to show us how fast he can type (which I think is pretty darn fast for an eleven-year-old). I spoke with his teacher last week, just to check in and see how he is doing and she said she is transitioning well. Ahhhh...I can breathe again.

On a Game On! side note...my 2nd perfect day of the game. Go Dieting Divas!