Stalking RPattz

I have to confess, tomorrow morning I turn into a Celebrity Stalker. Don't worry, I'm not alone in this insanity, there are two other maybe-not-right-in-the-head moms going on this adventure with me, so hopefully we'll make it back, sanity intact with some PICTURES (I hope!) to prove we were successful in our quest.
You see, our favorite Twilight star, affectionately known as RPattz, is premiering his new film, Remember Me, in New York City tomorrow evening. In fact, the internet buzz is that Rob arrived yesterday along with his BFF Tom Sturridge AND (drum roll...) Kristen Stewart! We may get a two-fer here and see BOTH our Twilight stars! Oh, and Pierce Brosnan too. How cool will that be? Any other old people remember Remington Steele?

Funny story, I booked a hotel not really knowing where the premier would be, and it turns out it's only 4 short blocks away. This is fate, I'm telling you.

So! Tomorrow morning, Megan, Kerri and I are heading to the train for our whirlwind trip to the Big Apple, and I'll be facebooking along the way thanks to my handy dandy iPhone. If you'd like to 'friend' me and follow along, find me at girlyshappymom at yahoo dot com. (And does anyone know why people spell it all out on blogs? I'm curious.)

Wish us luck! (And honestly? Even if we don't see anyone, I'm getting the heck out of Dodge for 24+ hours, so that in itself will be lots of fun!)

Fit Friday - It's Go Time

My 10k is two months from Monday (May 1st) and the number on my scale is the highest its been EVER, not counting pregnancies. My right arm is falling asleep at night due to carpal tunnel; my grey slacks now look ridiculous with all my shoes because my big butt is making them too short; my rings do still go on, but only with lots of pushing and shoving, and maybe a little soap. Something's got to give, and it's not going to be the seams on my pants. So!

In addition to the familial epiphany I last posted about, I've also decided it's time to buckle down and get this weight off. It's a slippery slope from tight pants and eating m&ms every night to not being able to bend over and tie my shoes. I read a blurb from one of the Jillian Michaels newsletters that arrives in my email daily that she works out 1-1/2 each day. Now I ask you, how is the 20 minutes (and actually, it's 25) of Shredding supposed to make us look like any of those three girls? You can't do it with the Shred alone. And I did know that, I just didn't want to face the music, so to speak. You can't get skinny by exercising alone, you have to cut back on what you eat - that's why there are pudgy runners, and why I didn't lose much of anything last summer. Click here for an article on cardio and weight loss.

Another Jillian tid-bit she shared was in response to someone who'd asked about yo-yo dieting and metabolism - they felt they'd ruined their metabolism over time with their weight going up and down. Here's that link; and this is where she talks about weight loss being, in the end, a numbers game.

With all that helpful information in mind, this is my three-step plan going forward to drop 10 lbs and get ready for the race!

1. Plan out daily calorie intake of 1550; this is actually a little less than my 'weight loss' intake, but allows me a little wiggle room for the odd pretzel rod during the day and maybe a Dove chocolate as a treat at night. Gotta give myself a little chocolate.
2. Run 3 times a week; last summer I was able to do 5 miles easily, then I hurt my shin; then the holidays came. Sunday I ran 3 miles and had to walk a few times. Not happy about that, but I'll get there again.
3. Shred 3 times a week and throw in a yoga too. On Shred days I'm also going to walk on the treadmill for 15 minutes for extra cardio.
   

I've been really good this week and have already dropped 3 lbs from my 'high' - a good bit of that, however, was fluid, I'm sure, as the fat% on my scale went up. I expect it to be slow-going from here on out.

Am I obsessing over this? I don't think so. There's a reason this country has an obesity epidemic going on; delicious, fattening decadent food is readily available anywhere and everywhere and we're programmed to want to eat it - at least us ladies are, because how else will you grow a baby in a famine? I really just want to maintain a healthy weight going forward, once I get back to the weight I was for most of my adult life. And I won't get there by noshing on m&ms, yummy as they are.

***********************************************************

If you're still here, we had the DRT at our house on Saturday, a last 'hurrah' for me, food and drink wise :) We have some neighbors we try to get together with once a month to blow off steam and chat, and I think a good time was had by all. Here's some photographic evidence:

Kim and Michelle - best friends :)

The DRT gang

The little blue bottles are all empty now

Me, after the better part of a bottle of Merlot and 2 little blue bottles of yummy stuff.
I don't remember this picture being taken, but it's clearly late as everything's all cleaned up.

Finally - thank you to everyone for all your kind comments about my last post. Honestly, I am in a good spot mentally. Was I too hard on myself? I don't think so; Matt thought it was pretty honest and spot-on too. Life is just intense for us, and we don't have family close by to pitch in; I do, however, have wonderful friends and neighbors, and virtual friends as well - and this is proven to me on a daily basis. I hope you all have a great weekend :)

Fork In The Road

I haven't been to your blog lately. Or gotten any projects done. Or slept much. The sleep thing is my own fault though - well, actually its the fault of the Olympics. Why on earth do they have to run until 11:30 at night? And all the good stuff happens at the end. Oh, and its Matt's fault too, because he was in Hawaii - I can never get to bed before midnight when he's away :) Anyway! What I have been doing was/is trying to be a better person in Real Life.

Santa and Buddy the Elf making toys

I had a revelation while the kids were off from school with all the snow. You could say it was a fork in the road. I saw myself with 2 paths ahead of me - one led to a rich and happy family life, and the other led to me probably ending up alone because I'd alienated everyone around me. You see, I'm not always convinced I'm cut out for the at-home mom thing. Not that I mind the at-home part, I'm actually a homebody. It's the mom part. To say I'm not the most patient person around is probably a vast understatement. The constant whirlwind of noise and activity and someone always needing something wears me down and I end up feeling resentful and like I can't breathe. And then the yelling begins. Especially so when the small people aren't cooperating.
There seems to be less and less time these days to complete chores, work on projects and just get stuff DONE, and I'm not sure why. I have a sneaking suspicion that it's related to the two smallest people in the house. Even a year ago, at ages one and two, there seemed to be more time in the day. Maybe it's just that they are all just a little older and more demanding of my attention; and while I thought having William in school all day would ease things up a bit, it's actually gotten tougher, as he now has homework and some after school activities too.

I realized one evening after a stupid argument with my better half that this is my life, and yes it's crazy, but it's mine to live to my best ability. These are my kids to raise as well as I can, and I am so grateful that they are all happy and (as far as we know) healthy. I could continue on as I was, and pass my neurotic controlling tendencies and crappy attitude (aka crapitude) on to my kids, or I could try to improve my own self and see if that behavior is emulated by them. Because honestly, I haven't been thrilled with some of the sassy things coming out of their mouths - especially the girls.

So I'm trying to take things in stride more, and hopefully yelling less. I'm trying to organize my day better so that there is time for exercise, to play with the kids, time for myself, and time for my husband. And I'm trying to not stuff my face with m&ms due to frustration. Because when I reach the end of the road I'd rather be surrounded by my happy family and not be the batty old fat lady in a rocker with hundreds of cats. With all the coffee I drink, hopefully I'm staving the batty part off :)

Some bad haiku for you :)

I can't seem to come up with any coherent thoughts to post here but I've had haiku on the brain lately, so I scribbled some down to share today. 'Cause I've got nothing else; Jason didn't nap, and Evie and William will be walking in the door any minute after their first day back to school since Thursday February 4th. Matt's on his way to Hawaii until Saturday and I'm on my own. At least it isn't snowing anymore. Here goes:

Poor sick coughing boy
Playing instead of napping
Early bed tonight

Sassy little girl
You screeching screaming sweetheart
Much too much like me

Flying somewhere warm
Leaving kids, chores, snow behind
I envy you, Matt

Harried Mom of Four
Your house is a complete sty
Off the computer!

I am trying very hard this week to 1) clean my house and 2) finish some projects and hopefully 3) find time to visit my blog friends now that Snowmageddon is over and my children are back in school. Hallelujah :)

Crafty! Making Valentines

Greetings from Snowville USA! Yes, we are buried under snow here at our house and the natives are getting restless. And Mommy is getting restless from having all the natives here at the house all.the.time. But! Mommy has decided to embrace life and take it all in stride. After all, it is kind of nice not to have to be anywhere or do anything. Except, you know, the laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc.

So back before the snow started in waves (and just for the record, since this is my only journal - the kids have been off school since Friday 2/5 and now will not go back until after President's Day on Tuesday, 2/16; their last full day of school was Tuesday, 2/2) I had the kids start making Valentines for their classmates. We've finished them in anticipation of their class parties which were supposed to be this Friday, but now? Who knows. Happy post-Presidents day? Anyway - here goes.

Target had all this cute Valentine scrapbooking stuff in their $1 section; I picked up little Valentine papers, a package of stencils, gel pens, and stickers; the glitter and ribbon were from Joann Fabrics, also $1 or less each; we made almost 40 Valentines and had lots of ribbon and glitter glue left over, and I used a little more than one package of the paper from Target.

I used my cookie cutters to trace large hearts onto white card stock and smaller hearts onto the scrapbook papers (this paper was really thin, which is why I opted to use the cardstock). The kids used my 'fancy' scissors to cut them out. Sarah and Jason had lots of fun trying out the different patterns they made :)

Evie and William chose to use the heart stencil to draw in the lines and then fill in whatever they wanted to write. I cannot get over how neat Evie's printing is - mine NEVER looked that nice! They wrote the recipient's name on the back.

Next I had them choose a colorful heart for each one & then I hole-punched them and tied a short piece of ribbon through each one. Then they added the glitter!


These came together pretty quickly; Evie could have done all the cutting herself but she gets lazy (my hand hurts!) and William is very painstaking and careful and he takes forever, so I did most of the cutting myself. It was a fun project for us to do together, and I'm pretty pleased with the way they turned out. The cost of the supplies was probably about the same as buying a box of Valentines (excluding the 2nd hole punch I had to buy because William inexplicably broke the first one) and hopefully a lot more memorable than just writing names and sticking heart stickers on cartoon characters. Now hopefully Evie and William will get to go to school at some point and actually pass them out :)

Tomorrow I am going to press my luck and try to make cut-out sugar cookies with them. Again. My Christmas attempt did not go so well, and I swore I was never doing rolled cookies again, but I have one last trick up my sleeve that I'm going to try. Hopefully this will be the charm and there will be a lot less swearing this time around. Hopefully. Sarah is developing a very colorful vocabulary :)

Buried

Did you hear about the little snow storm we had here on the east coast this weekend? Honestly I don't think I've seen this much snow at one time in my entire life. I haven't seen official totals for our area yet, but I'm thinking it was at least 30 inches of snow. 30 inches, people. And powder! Oh my word, the powder. If we could get out of our town (and if the little ones were big enough) we would be at the slopes, I am sure. But! We do have a little hill in our yard that is just perfect for sledding on, and Handy Hubby did a bang-up job of creating a fabulous sled track for the little ones. Much better to be outside playing than inside bickering and trashing the house.

Two things that I am extremely grateful for 1) Matt made it back home from his week in San Diego on a red-eye Friday morning - some of his co-workers are still stuck out there! and 2) we were not among the unfortunate thousands whose power went out with this storm. Some pictures (ok, a lot of pictures!):

Friday 2/5/10 around 12 noon

Saturday 2/6/10 around 12 noon
Matt clearing a walking path for little Jason
My poor arborvitae by the fence!
I love the little puff of baby's breathe :)

Matt making a walking path up the hill; that fence is 4 feet tall.Looking at the neighbor's yard

Sunday 2/7/10 around 12 noon!

William working his way up the hill to sled

Check out the snow on the roof! Watch out Jason!

Walking path up the hill

Sarah, much happier playing in the fort

Evie and William sharing a saucer

Jason and Mommy sledding!

Harried Mom's snow covered house

He's still smiling, even with all the work :)

I wonder if Evie and William will go to school at all this week - more snow is forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday, and the rumor is another 6 inches. I haven't seen an estimate yet myself so I'm choosing not to believe that. We'll see. (I thought I lived in Virginia? Must be that global warming climate change stuff.) edited: NOAA.gov just updated us with a Storm Watch - another possible 5 or more inches coming Tuesday into Wednesday. Lovely :)

******************************************

Here's the song I've had in my head since Friday evening when I had the radio on to listen to the weather. How annoying that I couldn't download it to my iPod right away, unless I wanted the entire Scooby Doo 2 soundtrack - um, no thank you. I love the internet :)

Playing Favorites

I have a favorite, I admit it. I'm sure his status will change at some point in the future, but for right now he is just the apple of my eye.


He's the helpful one of the bunch. When I ask the other kids to do something, he's the one who gets up and does it. He's actually listening. Have I mentioned he's 2?


Whenever I have time to snuggle on the couch, he's the first to come running and claim the prime seat up close to my heart.

When he wakes up grumpy from a nap, all he wants is to tuck himself into my shoulder, just like back in the baby days that are quickly fading into memory.

He doesn't like to get dressed, or undressed, and he likes to do things himself. Other than that he's pretty easy going and a pleasure to have around.


Maybe it's just that he's 2, and the whole world is an amazing place full of wonder. Whatever it is, I am so thankful to have him in our life. I routinely tell Matt we had too many kids - we are so outnumbered it's not funny and there are times when dealing with them is like trying to bathe 4 cats - lots of hissing and spitting and scratching and swearing (mostly on my part.) But to have less than the four we have would mean I wouldn't have my little buddy - and that is something I wouldn't change for anything.

Waiting at swim practice, figuring out which way the marker cap goes; then asking to sit on my lap :)

Is it a blog post without a picture?

I was going to talk about being a Mom today; how before you become one, you just don't really know what you're getting yourself into. Even after you have that first baby, it really isn't until they are walking-talking entities that you REALLY get an idea of what it's all about.

I was going to pull some recent pictures off the camera, ones that had absolutely nothing to do with my ramblings, and maybe try to tie it together somehow. Because it just feels like less if there aren't any pictures to go with it.

So I inserted the camera card into the slot and - you guessed it - I've got nothing. My lovely PC is not recognizing any of the drives. This happened sometime before Christmas, and Matt did the fix-it thingy of opening the case up and unplugging/replugging it all back together. I'm out of luck today because Matt left this morning on a trip to San Diego and won't be back until Friday. So! Being that I am not about to do any of that myself, my lovely thoughts on Motherhood will have to wait for another time when I'm inspired to write about it again.

I can, however offer you this:

No, my house is not huge as you might infer from this picture.
And I hate that red paint.
And yes my Christmas tablecloth is still in the dining room.
And I guess I had a picture after all!

The webcam Matt ordered so we can video chat while he's on a few trips this winter arrived today and I was able to hook it up myself - Yay me! (Ok, I plugged in the USB and installed the software.) So that's me at my desk! Enjoying nap time :)

Of course, Matt will have to give me the user name and password for Skype, because he set that up before he left and didn't give me any of that information. Nor did he give me his trip itinerary and hotel information - you'd think he was a double secret agent or something. Apparently I was supposed to ask. Hmmm.....