Hey, Mrs. Wilson!

I think that the universe (God) (and my husband) is trying to give me a hint. In a big way. A hint that I need to get my jello-y butt off the couch and start exercising. I’m kind of lazy. Can I hear an “AMEN!” Noah?

I’ve been told by my doctor that one of the best things I can do to make my depression disappear or get better or whatever is exercise. But, who the deuce feels like exercising when you have to force yourself to even get out of bed in the morning? Exactly.

Since I don’t have time to go to the gym (besides at 6 am, and that is NOT going to happen) and I will soon be living in a winter wonderland of snot-freezing coldness that will prevent me from doing anything outdoors, I have to resort to doing something at home.

Last year, Kaylie and I got into the routine of doing a work-out video every day. She LOVED doing it with me and would use her stuffed animals as weights. Kaylie is now in school all day, but I’m sure I could convince Liliana and Little C (the dude I babysit) to do it with me. They’ll probably find it hilarious. Noah says I should do it when he’s home, but that is NOT going to happen. Sorry dude.

I have a few DVDs that I will not mention due to the fact that my father-in-law reads this blog and will make fun of me for them. (Yes you will!) I am going to try to start doing one every day. Actually, it’ll be every day that Noah works or is in school (which is six days a week), because, like I said, he is NOT allowed to watch. No way. He said I should tape myself doing it and put it on youtube. I think that people either will want to gouge their eyes out or will die laughing after watching, so that is NOT going to happen either.

On a happier, non-exercising note, I just booked myself a weekend in Edmonton in January with a couple of my girlfriends. We’re attending a Christian worship conference there that I haven’t been to in five years. The last time I went, it was with a group from my home church. On one of the pit stops, my father-in-law and a friend of his tried to play matchmaker. (Yes you did!) Awkward.

This year, two of my favorite worship song writers are going to be there. Paul Baloche and Brian Doerksen. I love singing and listening to the words of their songs every Sunday morning (and sometimes throughout the week), but to hear the songs sung by the guy who wrote them is even more incredible. Noah and I had friends of ours sing at our wedding the Brian Doerksen song that is linked. (Hi Nita!) Such a beautiful song.

I’m splitting my hotel bill in three, as I’m staying with two friends. Should be a gong show. In a good way. Also exciting about the trip is the possibility of meeting a blog friend. (Hi Amy!) Meeting my favorite bloggers is probably in the top five of my favorite things to do. Nerdy? Maybe. Exciting? Yes. Another great thing about this trip is that there will be no matchmaking. At least not for me. (Hi Ann!)

***

Kaylie and I started a new tradition tonight. Mommy-Kaylie Movie Night. She loves her Mommy-Kaylie time, and since Liliana goes to bed eary and Noah works late, it’s just the two of us. Tonight we made a ginormous bowl of popcorn and watched Monsters Inc. I have to admit that I actually laughed out loud. More than once.

When the movie was over, it was about 9pm. I told Kaylie to go brush her teeth. She objected, and said, “I thought this was our movie night!” Um, dude. It was. We watched a movie. And now it’s BED TIME! Apparently “movie night” to a 7-year-old means that we watch movies ALL NIGHT LONG. Not just yet darling. Maybe next week next year when you’re 30.

I’m watching Michael Phelps. That dude is AMAZING. Did you see his 7th gold medal win? It was even more spectacular than the 4×200m relay, and that was spectacular enough! The guy is a great source of entertainment. (And Canada isn’t exactly winning any medals, so we’re cheering for the US of A. I have an American sister-in-law and two American nieces after all.)

And if you’re wondering, no, I don’t watch it because he’s attractive. I mean, he’s alright, but tight swimwear and big muscles just don’t do it for me. At all. Seriously. But a certain perfectly sculpted man who has never (to my knowledge) worn a Speedo, he, my friends, is hot.

Another day, another tooth. Well, two if you’re Liliana. She pushed through her top two eye teeth recently. When? I’m not sure, but it sure would explain the grumpiness lately. I noticed two new sparkling things earlier today and took a closer peek.

That kid is a teething machine.

Miss Ann has provided Kaylie and Michaela (her daughter) with huge amounts of entertainment lately. She set up a pool for them yesterday and they’ve been in it all day today and yesterday.

The temperature has been in the high 20s (which is high 70s-ish for you Americans) here the last couple days, which is perfect pool weather.

Between pool parties, the girls have been tanning on the trampoline.

What’s that? You’re too focused on the BIG BRIGHT THING in the background?

Is that better? This kid is a natural.

She comes by it honestly though, right Ann?

Kaylie has totally loved having a friend live upstairs. She’s sure going to miss Michaela when we leave. Kaylie absolutely loves being outside, and fortunately for her, so does Michaela.

Every day after school (and when she wakes up), Kaylie asks if she can go upstairs to see if she can play with Michaela. She keeps telling me, We’re best friends!

A black and white one, just to make things even.

Does anyone have any advice as to how to keep grass out of a pool?

No?

Alrighty then.

Liliana wasn’t as keen as Kaylie and Michaela were on the pool idea.

I tried to put her in, and she screamed. Kaylie splashed a teeny tiny bit of water on her, and she screamed. I wrapped her in a towel and handed her to Ann.

She was happy.

Little monster.

Let me introduce to you, the train. (And my lovely assistants, Ann and Michaela … see Ann, I included the VAN in the picture!) Our newest mode of transportation. We already had the bikes and the jogger/trailer, but I picked up the trailer hitch the other day so that Liliana could join in on the biking fun.

Since it’s been so nice out, I figured it would be fun to take the kids out biking. Since Kaylie has yet to learn to ride a two-wheeler, she’s been on the Trail-a-bike. She totally loves it.

My friend and former boss had done this little set up with his girls, so I figured why not try it out!? We were a little wobbly to start, but once we were going, there was no stopping us.

My kids always love it when I take bizillions of pictures of them. They always respond with bright eyes and happy smiles. See?

Liliana totally loves it when we’re moving. But when we’re stopped? Not so much. She wants OUT.

That picture seriously cracks me up.

This week is calling for a lot of sun. If you live in our area, I’m sure you’ll see our train pass.

Yes! The house is sold! No more showings!!

It took me about an hour to upload that picture above. Apparently after the computer was formatted, my drivers got deleted as well. (Duh, Jen!) Well, I cannot find the driver disc (maybe one day I’ll put things where I can find them again) and therefore have to upload the pictures on my old computer (that has the driver), put them on Flickr, then download them to my new computer and into Paint Shop Pro. Stupid, stupid computer. And stupid me for losing the stupid disc.

Soup Diet

I’ve been doing well so far (ish). I decided to enjoy Debbie’s delicious spaghetti and Caesar salad on Wednesday at our Widow’s Dinner. I do not think one meal will kill my goal. It might a little bit, but it was worth it and I am back on track.

Besides that dinner, the only time I cheated was when I licked the sour cream spoon. I have a dish of candy on my desk that I have not touched. Okay, I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of the heart candy things, and if the dish was filled with Peanut M&Ms I might not have such an easy time.

As for exercising? It’s hard to find time to do that when you’re working, you have kids, and you’re deathly afraid of the dark.

I swear though, after this is done I am never eating soup again.  Ever.

Hey Russ, was this the double chin you were referring to?

Thought so.

While I was looking for that oh-so-flattering picture (but one of my favorites because my baby doesn’t snuggle at all anymore), I came across my all-time favorite picture of my girls.

Liliana sat so nice and still back then.

On to the updates:

Liliana’s eyes/ears

It’s official that Liliana has an eye infection. She also has a double ear infection. Her doctor only gave her a prescription for her eyes, because she said that her ears are not all that bad. The drops have worked wonderfully so far, and Liliana is no longer snotting out her eyes.

Deswaddlification

De-swaddling Liliana is going quite well. We are doing an initial swaddle at night, but are not re-swaddling her at all. She has been sleeping in some hilarious positions, has been crying a little more than usual when she goes to sleep, and sometimes plays (silently!) for a couple hours before she falls asleep, but we do not hear from her until morning. Oh how sweet that is!

The house

There is an offer on the house. All conditions have been met. Except one. The people who placed the offer have to sell their house. But, the good news is that their house is in a perfect price range and also has an offer on it.

We’re hoping all goes through really fast. Showings suck. (But our house is SO nice and clean!)

The computer

$136.50 later, our computer is fixed. (That’s way cheaper than buying a new one!)  I sent it to an entrepreneur friend on Friday, and he backed it up, reformatted it, and gave it back good as new. I told him to do whatever he needed to do as long as he saved my pictures.

He came through.

The first day of the diet

It’s been easy (ish) for the first day, but I can see it getting harder and harder each day. By the time Day 4 comes and I’m allowed to eat something besides soup, fruit, and vegetables, I’m going to gobble up that steak in 3 seconds flat.

All day I’ve daydreamed of baskets of fries covered in cheese and slathered in gravy, big, huge pieces of black forest cake with extra cherries, ginormous half cookie dough half Oreo blizzards, buffalo chicken strips … I’m making myself hungry.

When the kids were in bed, Noah made himself the most tasty looking, good smelling bagel sandwich ever. My mouth was watering. I’m happy to report though, that I did not even cheat once. Okay, just a teeny tiny eensy teensy little bit. I licked off the sour cream spoon as I made Kaylie a fajita for dinner. So shoot me.  I did not give in to any of of the other thousand cravings.

Yay for me. One day. The next six are going to be so much more challenging.

Thank you to those who have emailed me saying that you’re praying for me.  I so appreciate that!

Unupdated update

Kaylie had student-led conferences at her school today.  I won’t go into detail about the fun we had seeing all her work, but I’ll share one of her journal entries that I found greatly entertaining.

I sin when I lie to my mommy.  I say “Sorry and I will go right now and wash my hands with soap.”

Seriously.

Not an ounce.

If I want something, I will have it. Cookies, donuts, hot chocolate, M&Ms … you get the idea. It is because of this lack of self-control that I have never lost weight. Ever. (You know, besides when two babies came shooting out - one at a time, six years apart.)

Okay I lied, there was one other time, but it was in college, I was sicker than a dog, green stuff was coming out both ends because the only thing I was consuming (and the only thing I could keep down for more than 3 minutes) was blue Powerade, I was in the hospital on liquid IV for four hours because of dehydration … need I continue?

And anyway, after that week-long sickness when 10 lbs magically disappeared (and I looked awesome), it magically re-appeared in three days. THREE! Not awesome.

So? This week I am starting on a journey to gain back some self control. (Gain back? Is it called gaining it back if I never possessed it in the first place?)

There is only one perfect solution to weight loss. Eating right + exercise + self control = weight loss. Easy, right? Riiiight.

When I was in highschool, I, like every other highschool girl, thought I was fat. I was 115 lbs. I started to panic any time the scale got toward the 120 lb mark. Idiot, I know. When I was pregnant with Kaylie, I gained a whopping 50 lbs for a total of 165. I ate a lot of half-cookie-dough-half-Oreo blizzards and whole boxes of KD.

After I had Kaylie, I thought the weight would just melt off. I was wrong. I stayed between 130-140 lbs until I got married and got pregnant with Liliana. I (thankfully) did not hit the 50 lb weight gain mark like I did with Kaylie. Again, I foolishly thought that the baby weight would just melt off after I had the baby. Again, I was wrong. So very wrong.

A lot of it is still there (I’m not tellin’ you how much), and I hate it. I do not fit any of my pre-pregnancy clothes, and it frustrates me immensely. But? I do not possess the self-control to do anything about it.

A while back, OMSH (check her out - she’s wonderfully awesome) posted about her struggles, and this struck me:

I’m a brat and I’m selfish.

I want what I want, when I want it - which is usually NOW.

Oh how that is SO TRUE of me! I say “nothing works for me” when I should be saying “I do not have the self-control to carry this through to completion”.

So? This week I am trying that soup diet thing. Partly to kick-start some weight loss, and partly to aid in my gaining some self-control. I’d like more of the former, but I NEED more of the latter. More of the latter will (hopefully) lead to more of the former. (Got that?)

I also made myself a schedule (that I am hoping to stick to) to help with the fitness part of losing weight because I am the worst time manager ever. (Just ask Noah.) The schedule is also to help out with the other random things that drive me mad.

On Friday, Laura (check her out, she’s also wonderfully awesome) came to my church and gave a presentation about time management to the ladies ministry that I recently stopped helping with. I was disappointed that I missed her amazing presentation, but I got Ann to take notes for me.

One thing she said that hit me was to get rid of things that annoy you. One thing that really annoys me is being late. I am late because I am racing around doing things I should have done earlier. (I am also a hardcore procrastinator.)

So, on this schedule of mine, I have put “making Kaylie’s lunch and Liliana’s bottles” on my To Do Before Bed list. Mornings are my worst time, so if I can do a little bit of my morning stuff the night before, life will be so much easier. (Sounds like common sense, right? Maybe I lack some of that too …) Getting up on time is going to help with that and maybe I can even schedule in an exercise video in the morning. Kaylie loves to do those with me. I enjoy it too because she doesn’t make fun of me like someone else who lives in my house would if I let him watch (which I won’t).

And how the heck am I going to pull this all off? A lot of prayer. Oh yes, I cannot do it without that. Because? Without prayer, it’s a lost cause. I can try to do things on my own, but it’ll be a lot easier if I have Someone way bigger, stronger, and wiser than me helping me out.

And now, since it’s 33 minutes past my 10:00pm bedtime, I’d better get to it.  Wish (or pray if you’re the praying kind) me some luck will power!

Who knew?

I went swimming again this morning. I’ve gone every Tuesday and Thursday for the last couple weeks. How many weeks? I don’t know. Four or six or five? I lost count after two.

On Thursdays, the swim club takes up one of the three lanes. I don’t have a problem with this, but I also train myself not to look over at that lane because then I realize how truly slow I am.

I swim in the fast lane. Am I fast? Um, no. But I’m faster than the lady who doesn’t move. So apparently I’m “fast”.

Usually I swim two lengths, then take a break, then swim two lengths, then take a break. A short break, but still a break. The last couple times, I’ve tried to swim four lengths in a row. My body does not like me when I do that. When I get to the deep end on the third length, my body starts to shout at me, Hey! I’m going to drown you if you keep doing this to me!

I try not to listen. Eventually you start to ignore that burning sensation that tries to keep you from going an inch further. I keep trying to count how many lengths I do in one day, but I always lose count, or I forget I’m counting. I’m not saying I do a ton, I’m saying my brain is fried.

My older swimming friends usually take a dip in the hot tub after doing their lengths. I usually head straight to the showers. Today, when my body said One more length and you’ll end up 10 feet under! I waited until my heart rate slowed down, and I headed to the hot tub. Wow. That was quite soothing. I still could hardly move once I got home, but at least I could move.

I’m really enjoying this swimming thing. I dread getting out of bed in the morning, but once I get in the water, it’s totally worth it. I wish I could do it every morning.

I’m supposed to be going to the gym the other mornings (as there’s only early swimming twice a week), but it’s hard to motivate myself to hang out with a bunch of fit people while I’m still all flabby. I peeked in the gym while I was sitting in the hot tub this morning. There were a couple 40-ish guys who looked like they came every morning, and there were a couple young girls who also looked like they came every morning. It’s intimidating to go to work out when all you have is flab and all they have is muscle.

Are you missing seeing pictures yet? Well I’m missing taking them. 11 more sleeps.

I did not make it to the gym this morning. My alarm went off at 6:15, I layed down for a couple second, looked at the clock, and it said 7:40. Hmm. Whoops.

Has anyone ever tried to bash your husband (or friend or child) in front of you and thought that you were on their side and want to join in? Not cool. I had it happen last night. Nobody bashes my husband in front of me and gets away with it! Why would you even consider doing something like that?

Venting over.

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