Gosh I love these things...

Seriously, whenever I load up this site, it has me literally laughing out loud for 10 minutes at a time. Here's one of my favorite from today. The word at the top that cuts off is "Thanks."

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I did it!

I exercised. And kinda liked it. Elliot did it right along with me and it was pretty fun. Fun enough I might attempt to do it again tomorrow!!

At the breaking point...

Okay, I don't know which is closer to the breaking point - me, or my waistband. Seriously. I've now become one of those people who tries to diet and actually gains weight. Remind me how that happens?? And no, it's not gaining lean muscle mass, I haven't been exercising, just watching what I eat. What's that you say? I should try exercising? Sigh. I guess it's inevitable. I actually enjoy doing the Pilates workout I have, and I bought a dance routine/exercise video. Today is rainy but tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful which means I can walk Casey!! I guess it's time to bust out the exercise videos in the meantime. Oh the indignities of exercise. Flailing and jumping and doing all kinds of goofy looking stuff. At least the Pilates video is somewhat civilized and controlled. Not sure how this dancing one I got will be. Maybe I'll get the kids to do it with me so we ALL look like idiots together.

Hopefully I'll see some progress. I saw a photo of myself the other day... and it reminded me of an episode of Friends from the late 90s. It was a throwback episode where they were watching a video of all of them getting ready for their prom. Monica is OBESE in the video. While they're watching someone says "Whoa, Monica you were REALLY fat." She replies "Well, you know they always say the camera adds 10 pounds." To which Chandler responds "Whoa, how many cameras did they have ON you?" That's where I'm at. I'm even debating doing a before photo.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted on my progress. And I'll try to get up some new photos of the gang soon.

But weight, there's more...

UGH. It's that time of year again. The weather is starting to warm up, and I realize that soon I'll be in short sleeved or even sleeveless tops, capri bottoms, and dare I speak it... a swimsuit!!!! Perish the thought. I shudder to think! My current weight is the heaviest I have ever been in a non-pregnant state. Not pretty. But with each subsequent child it has become exponentially harder to lose weight. Tried and true methods that helped me shed pounds fast in the past don't even make a drop in the bucket now. It is beyond frustrating. Still, I'm at the point now that if I don't drop some weight fast... well, you get the picture. I had big plans of starting a daily walking regimen of 1 1/2 miles - the first 3/4 mile with Casey at a leisurely pace (that's all he can muster - although he's an athlete he's bred for speed, not endurance), and then drop Casey off at home and do the next 3/4 mile at a good clip. But, the weather turned cold again, and I got sick again and I haven't even gotten out to walk ONCE!! Grrrr. But I'm hoping that we'll get a nice spring thaw soon, I'll be feeling better, and MISSION SLIM DOWN '09 will kick off soon. You all might have to deal with me whining and moaning through the process. Don't say I didn't warn you.

In his own write...

Riley can be quite the quirky little comedian. Sometimes when he writes his name on his homework he puts a real flair into it and the letters come out all sideways and angular and just... they have flair! So tonight he was getting all "flairy" again and I said "Riley, what are you doing with those letters?" To which he replied "I'm just givin' them a little jazz, man!" At which point we both burst into total hysterics. Gosh I love that kid.

Retired and lovin' it!

Funny overheard comment of the day...

Elliot making a mountain out of a molehill - referring to a small crumb on the floor:

"Mom, you have a piece of bread loaf on your floor."

Almost spring!!

YAY!! So glad it's almost spring. I'm so ready to dropkick winter the heck out of here. Good riddance.

Not much to report here. We've all been passing around a nasty head cold and Liam and I are currently "it." I thought it was just seasonal allergies starting at first, but it's now definitely a cold. Bleh.

All is otherwise well. Riley just had his book fair this week and bought two books, a SpongeBob one and one from an early reading series called "Biscuit." Riley has recently really started to enjoy reading more challenging stuff. He does occasionally get frustrated but will proceed with some encouragement. PARP (Parents as Reading Partners) just wrapped up, and if your child did all 3 weeks (which Riley did) they earned a $5 gift certificate for the book fair which I thought was a nice reward. We supplemented Riley with a couple more dollars in his wallet (he thinks he's big man on campus with that thing!!) and off he went. Normally he's really interested in any books with BRIGHT pictures of FAST things (sports cars, race cars, roller coasters, etc.) but I encouraged him to try to pick something he could actually READ this time! He chose well. :)

My little business that I started handmaking dog items has started to pick up so that's encouraging. I genuinely enjoy doing it, so it's nice bringing in a little extra money for something you like to do! One woman came to pick up two coats I'd done for two of her dogs today. She brought her Great Dane to make sure her coat fit (which it did, like a glove, such a proud moment!!) and Casey was out in the yard when the Great Dane came out - Casey was fenced of course. He was really putting on a show for this big girl!! It's funny, Casey is so sleek and beautiful, he looked like the girl, and the actual girl dog Cassie (yes, Casey and Cassie) looked like a big brute boy!! So funny. Anyway, he spent so much time running himself in circles to impress Miss Cassie that the big doofus is now totally sacked out on his bed. King Konk.

That's it for now - Riley gets off the bus in 15 minutes or so, he'll be excited to see that we got our grocery delivery from Peapod while he was at school and that we now actually have food in the house.

Have a great weekend!!

Ahahahaha....

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The latest results...

Liam had his 9 month well-baby checkup today.

HEIGHT: 29" (exactly 2" longer than his 6 month checkup)
WEIGHT: 18 lbs. 15 oz. (exactly 2 lbs. heavier than his 6 month checkup)

He is 75th percentile for height and 25th for weight. All is looking well - next stop, 12 month checkup!

Our little fan in training...

He did this on his own today - honest!!