How much do you want it?

I was going to title this blog "How badly do you want it?" but didn't want a negative tone. "Bad" is a negative word, unless you are "bad" ass, in which case, I envy you.

First and foremost, how was YOUR Christmas???? Mine was good. Got everything I asked for, including my new 12 lb weights. The kids were satisfied with their less than enormous haul, primarily because they got what they asked for. I should have realized a long time ago just get them what they want. Could have saved us tons of cash!

My folks were with us for a couple days, which is always nice. They read my blog now, so I will only say good things about my parents. I love them and they are very generous with me and my family. Did I mention I love them?

And I got the best present of all: I am up to SIX followers now. I send my love and gratitude to the Love Shack for being my 6th follower. Thank you and I hope I don't let you down.

Ok, with house keeping out of the way, let's get down to this blog.

I managed to keep my weight in check over the holidays but it wasn't easy. But something clicked in my head that I really want to hit my goal and maintain it. That is where the "How much do you want it?" came into play. I want it very much. I am so close that there are no excuses left. None.

So I promised myself a reward that is near and dear to my heart. It is personal (not like yicky personal) and I won't be sharing it with you, but just know that it is something that means a lot to me. Ok, for those of you that know me well know I will tell you what it is when I hit my goal!! So hang in there with me.

I joined Sparkpeople 5 years ago this January. I have said it before but it has been one of the biggest aides in my weight loss journey. One of the things they suggest doing is an Inspiration Board. You cut out words or pictures that inspire you to continue eating and living well. I always thought this was a LAME idea. But you know what? I want my goal enough that I am switching things up and made a Board of my own. Daughter helped me, too. Any chance I get to spend one on one time with my teen age Daughter is the most wonderous time in the world.

Here is what we came up with:

Daughter cut out the pic of the avocado with the jeans on saying "It reminds me of you. Avocado's are cute and it's wearing jeans like you do". Huh??? But I took it as a compliment and she put it center stage of my Board. It is on my kitchen cabinet so every time I am in there, I remember what this is all about.

I don't make New Year's resolutions. I make enough weekly and monthly goals to choke even the best life coach. I try to make everything I do better than I did it before. I apply this to all aspects of my life: health, finances, relationships. It isn't always easy but it is worth the effort.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and enjoy ringing in the New Year! It will be just my little family watching the ball drop, but we will make it better than any year before.

Thanks for reading!!

Cat

Wrapping things up

This will be a short post as it has been a long couple days. We finished wrapping all the gifts tonight. As much as I was excited about two out of three of my kids knowing Santa is just "in spirit", kind of bummed me out that Middle child was so into what he was getting. It was much more fun when we didn't wrap gifts in front of him. Note to self: Let Youngest think there is a Santa until he is 50.

Speaking of Youngest, he has been on my every last nerve since break started because he doesn't understand yet the days of the week and how long apart things are. Every day we would have a conversation about how many days until Christmas Eve, and what really is Christmas eve and when do the presents come and how many days after the presents do I go back to school and how much Prozac can mom take at a time and you see where  I am going with this???. I try to patiently show him the calendar and how much longer he has to wait. Still not clicking with him.

After trying two of my "dance your ass" off dvd's today, I hated both of them. Which is ironic since I majored in dance for two years at OU. I said screw it and colored my hair instead. As I was sitting at the computer, with goop in my hair, Youngest asked me what was in my hair. I tried to explain it best I could (it is stuff to cover all the grey hair you people give me!!) and I think he kind of got it. Then in the most serious expression he could muster, he said "You are still really pretty anyway."

Clunk. My heart just fell to the floor. As much and as often and he tries my patience, my heart is his. He is my favorite. For today anyway....

I wish you all the best for this Christmas Season. It is hard with the kids home but I try to remind myself DAILY to only yell at each of them ONCE a day. The rest of them time I try to embarrass them by hugging and kissing them. They leave me alone more when I do that.

I will be spending the next couple days with my family and I hope you do the same with yours. Be thankful and love the people around you. I love each and every one of the five of you that read my blog. You are truly the cream of the crop!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Cat

Climbing out of the puddle

So as soon as I mention that I am floundering in a puddle of no motivation, I get the desire to get a whole bunch of stuff done today! Perhaps it was a good night's sleep and that I am out of work now for two weeks that improved my attitude? Regardless, I had a great day of eating well, tried a new "Walk off Belly Fat" dvd (My belly fat did NOT get the memo and is still here, will keep working on it though!!), organized and cleaned out my downstairs bathroom vanity and under the kitchen sink.

I would like to pause for a moment and reflect on how good it feels to clean something out......ahhh.....it feels good to throw crap out!! I should do it more often.

There is lots to be done in the next couple days but I feel like I am getting back on that track I spoke of yesterday. Sometimes wallowing in the puddle is all I need to actually get myself out of it. It's ok to wallow, not to drown.

A pic of picking up my Army nephew at the airport last night. Please thank those Military, Police, and Firefighter people you know. They risk their lives daily to keep us safe.

Have a great night!!

Cat

Floundering

I have been feeling a lot like this lately: A Flounder, just floundering along. I feel as though I am in a pit of despair when it comes to working out, losing weight, and eating well. Ok, maybe not a pit of despair, more like a puddle of non-motivation. After that 4.5 lb weight gain ( I did get two of those pounds off quickly by staying away from the tater tot) I have had no direction, no aim. Just floundering along.(side note: how seriously messed up looking is a flounder?? I am going to put your eyes and mouth on top, give you one fin, and squash you like a pancake. Voila! We have A Flounder!).

The Me of Christmas pasts would have a conversation with myself (it may be out loud if I am in the car or alone) that goes like this:

Why are you worried about your weight? You lost 40 lbs and look great. Life is short, you should eat what you want and exercise when you want. You are the adult here, you make the decisions!! Who cares if you are getting squishy in places again? Husband loved you when you were a hideous troll, what's a couple squishy places between spouses??

But the new, improved, 42 year old me had this conversation with myself today:

You know what? I have hit a rough spot, the holidays are here, my schedule is crazy. It's not going to hurt you to eat better at every meal and pop in a workout video a couple times a week (I actually went to the library and got some new ones, just to add some variety). You worked hard to get this weight off and you know how good you feel when you are lifting weights, eating well, and doing aerobics. We will get back to a schedule in a couple days. Hang in there.

Now there's a pep talk I can stand behind. I am looking forward to putting my new library dvd's in tomorrow and busting out some hip hop moves! Laugh if you must but I was this close to getting a Richard Simmons dvd!! Hip hop seemed a little more my speed, but we will see. I may be more Sweating with the Oldies than I thought!!

The highlight of my day, actually the highlight of a long time, was going with Husband and the boys to meet my nephew at the airport. He is on a 20 day Army leave from Korea (things are not well there, it was lucky he got out for leave) and it was soo nice to give him a big hug (ok, it was more of him giving me a big hug because he is a tall man!!) and have the boys get to see him. Youngest told him that he prays for him every night and that really touched my nephew. Truly a great night for all of us. So glad he is home. 

As for me, I will be all right. I will jump over that puddle of non-motivation and get back on the right track. It can be done and I know how to do it!!

Have a great night.

Cat

Non-traditional Christmas

Hi gang! I hope you all had a good weekend. I was a little under the weather but managed to watch Middle Child's basketball team rally from behind and beat the other team 26-25. Proud of my son and his team.

As a family, we don't have many Christmas traditions. Christmas day is always kind of an unknown until about a week before: grandparents may not travel because of weather, some may travel because of the weather, Daughter is/is not at her dad's (this I do know ahead of time). So our Christmas's are rather low key. I believe I have mentioned I like this best about this holiday. We kind of wing the whole thing.

Normally this would drive me up a wall, but I have learned that some of the best times come out of the ones we did not plan. Just like Youngest being a boy instead of the girl we planned on, sometimes the surprise is better than the event.

Friday night we did something we have never done before: we made graham cracker houses (instead of gingerbread). This is what we started with:

 I forgot to take a picture of the can of vanilla frosting, but that's what we used to hold them together. That was the hardest part of this endeavor, holding the pieces together.

 This is Youngest, very serious about his creation. I think he was more concerned about WHEN he could eat it more than how it looked. He is starting to look more like Middle child more every day.

 That's the whole gang, including the neighbor friend that was over for the evening. There is always an extra on staff in case one of our stars needs a break!

 Middle child with his creation. I think he has a BIG blob of frosting in his mouth...

 Pretty girl with her pretty castle. She managed to eat half a can of frosting in a day and a half. Bleck.

Husband with his teepee. He and I have little patience for creative works. Mine was a teepee as well, with a wall of marshmallows in front.

I don't know that this tradition will "stick" with the kids but everyone had fun and we listened to Christmas music the whole time we worked on them. I don't think you have to have a picture perfect Holiday to make it memorable. It's all about family, laughter and a LOT of sugar :)

Hope you all have a good week and holiday. My schedule and the kids are whacky this week so you may not hear from me much. Trying to be in many different places at once, but thankfully Husband is home to help.

Do something fun with your kids today!!

Cat (the Troll)

New Nickname

A funny thing came out of my evening with friends; a new nickname for me. I am now known, to my Husband and LunchLady man I work with as "Troll" or more accurately, "Hideous Troll" (Husband would like me to add that he doesn't actually think I am Troll-like, he just goes along with the joke).

And there is a funny story to go with it.

My friend and I went over to LunchLady's house Sat night. Husband stayed home to watch the kids so it was four of us, LunchLady's wife included. 

A glass or two of Sangria into the evening, I remarked at how much time Husband likes to spend with me. That he wants to be with me ALL the time. LunchLady's wife jumped right in and said " It is because you look soo much better than you did before! Maybe he thinks you will find someone else". I brushed it off and chuckled. My Husband is no slouch in the looks dept, so I hardly think he feels threatened by my improved downsize.

I had forgotten about the comment until Husband and I were getting ready for bed two night's ago (Interesting fact about us: we hardly talk to each other when we are in the house together, but the minute one of us leaves for work or to run an errand, we call each other to talk about what we are doing! And we like to wait until 11pm to talk about what we did that day.). I told him what LunchLady's wife said about me and he said "Were you hideous before? Were you a hideous troll??" We laughed and laughed, primarily because we both knew that's NOT what she meant, but I love the word hideous and troll, so it stuck.

At work this morning, I told LunchLady about it and he defended his wife by saying "What she meant was: you were ugly when you were fat but now that you are skinny, you are hot". We laughed and I now I am referred to as Troll at work, Hideous Troll if he has time to get the whole name out.

You need to be able to laugh at yourself. I find myself quite amusing most of the time, so it is easy for me. You are all funny in your own ways. Embrace it.

Hideous Troll

Basics

In the last week or so, I have put on 4.5 lbs. Whoa! Yeah, I am thinking that, too. Too much bread, processed food, and not getting my aerobics in. I have been steady with the weight training but really need to get back to running or some type of aerobics several times a week.

This is a hectic time of year but seeing that number on the scale reminded me, in big BOLD numbers, that I have to take care of myself first. I am so close to my goal, I don't want to blow it over a few minutes of tater tot casserole bliss. Not worth it.

Husband is going to Sam's Club today to load up on pork and chicken. Need to get our basement freezer stocked so I always have a lean protein to eat. This is key to my success.

Please take a minute when you are at the store to buy an extra can of tuna or soup of Hamburger helper to donate to your local food pantry. Every day is critical for families that don't know where their next meal is coming from. Help them out today and as much as you can through out the year. They aren't hungry just around the holiday's.

Ok! Let's get back to what we know we should do to be healthy and get this weight off.

Have a great Thursday!!

Cat

Frustration, disappointment and a plastic angel

Hey gang!
How was your weekend? Get your Christmas shopping done? Wrap anything yet? My answers, in order are: good, no and no. I am close to getting shopping done but need the kids to pick out what they want to buy for each other. There is a $10 cap and this is the first year we are having them buy for each other. Should be interesting to see what they think the other would like. We will get that done Friday night and Sat morning.

The frustration portion of this post is again about Youngest and his behavior at school. Last week was bad and today was even worse. He can't put into words what is bothering him and honestly I don't know if he knows. Is he not feeling well? Anxious to be out on break? What is it?? He keeps losing privileges and now I am thinking I should take back the DS I bought him. It was going to be a surprise since he had done so well at school, but now, I don't want it to send a signal that he is being rewarded for his bad behavior. I thought it would be good as a reward tool, but he still is borrowing our neighbors and has not been able to play it for quite sometime because of his behavior at school. Clearly playing it is NOT enough to get him to behave. What would you do? Would you be a hard ass and return it, keep it and tell him he COULD have had it had he behaved in school, give it to him anyway? I need some help here, folks.

This morning I was trying to remember what made my birthday so rotten last year. I knew there was something but I couldn't put my finger on it. Then I happened to look at my cell phone contact list, and the first person that is on there is my friend that passed away last year. On my birthday. I remember, quite specifically, NOT writing her passing on my calendar, saying to myself, "How could I ever forget she passed on my Birthday?" And here I had forgotten. I have not forgotten her, of course, and still keep her on my contact list as a reminder that we used to call each other and talk. But I am disappointed in myself that I had forgotten the day she passed.

Feeling bad about myself and apprehensive about how Youngest would do at school today (rotten, again), I went to work. It was Christmas hat day and though I was not feeling very Merry, I wore my most annoying Santa hat with a bell on it. Some of the kids wore funny hats as did the guy I work with (he is a 6'4" 300lb lunch lady!!) and my mood started to lift. As ticked off as I can be on the ride in, that place always makes me laugh. We had our staff Christmas party after work today and did a White Elephant exchange. I got to pick first and picked the oddest shaped gift I could find.

It was an outdoor, plastic angel that lights up! I think it was my friend's way of telling me it was "ok I forgot but thank you for thinking of me as often as you do". My boss was going to steal it from me but I think she could tell by the maniacal way I was clutching it, I really wanted to keep it. The angel is even in our office picture.

I am a BIG believer in signs, kismet, karma, etc. I think the plastic angel, that is now nestled between our reindeer and penguin, is a sign that it will be ok and we are being looked upon by an angel.

I think she fits in just fine.

Have a good evening.

Cat

The End of the Day

I had a pretty good day today, despite an entire week of Youngest having nothing but trouble at school and home. It has been a long week, and I will admit when Husband told me Wednesday that he was taking Friday off to take me to work, hang out there, and "where ever you go, I go" I was pissed. I like my routine. I like being alone when I can.

But as this morning unfolded and I resigned myself to the fact that I have a man that actually likes to spend time with ME, I got over it and was glad to have him around. He got to meet the people I work with, we had a great lunch together, did a little Christmas shopping, and came home for a nap before the kids got home. Though I don't like being smothered, I like being liked, so it all worked out. Another example of me needing to think it through before reacting. Thank goodness Husband is onto my weirdness and can deal with it. I love him.

I weighed in this morning at 145.5. Lowest yet. My goal is 142 so I am close. I ate well all day though I took the day off from working out or weights. 6 days of working out is about all I can do.  I have a lot of eating out ahead of me but thankfully it is with people that are watching their weight, too, so there is no need to go overboard to impress anyone.

My May 2012 5k run music consists of the following (it is really diverse! Artist, song):
Better Than Ezra: Rewind
Usher: Yeah
Pistol Annies: Hell on Heels
Hot Chelle Rae: Whatever
Better Than Ezra: Hung The Moon
Mary J Blige: Family Affair
Better Than Ezra: This Time of Year
The Band Perry: If I Die Young
Foster the People: Pumped up Kicks
Miranda Lambert: Baggage Claim
Kenny Chesney: Ain't Back Yet
Better Than Ezra: Summer House
Maroon 5: Never Gonna Leave this Bed
Better Than Ezra: Porcelain
Kenny Chesney: Somewhere with you
Adele: Rolling in the Deep
Joe Nichols: Gimme that Girl
Better than Ezra: Desperately Wanting

Why so much Better than Ezra from the late 90's? I just found the cd's again and this time of year always makes me reflect on the past. A lot of these songs bring great memories from college and after.

I don't work at the caterer this weekend and I do not have to do my last two hours of training. They are ready to put me on a job but it will be the end of the month. And that is fine with me. The boys are out of school next Fri for two weeks but I still have to work the week before Christmas. Need to find someone to watch the boys Weds (Neighbor K, check your email! I sent you a request to watch Youngest). I still have a couple more things to get for Christmas, but I am close to being done. I think we are going to my mom in laws Christmas Eve day for a bit. That will be nice for all of us.

I get to sleep in tomorrow and Sunday but I also have a lot of stuff I want to knock out this weekend. The boys are growing out of all their pants!!

I have an experiment in place with the kids, though they don't know it. I am not going to buy any pretzels or crackers for them to munch on, but have apples and carrot sticks ready for them. I got Husband on board with me for a week to see how it goes,  and so far, Youngest ate two apples and Middle ate one. I figure if they don't have the processed stuff to eat, they will go for the fruit or veggie. Youngest even ate the chicken I baked in the oven. It seems what people tell me IS true: if they are hungry enough, they will eat it.

Have a great weekend. My first week being 42 has been hard being a mom but as a woman, I am close to my goal and feeling stronger than ever. Ladies, pick up the weights. It will change your body. I can't wait to get my 12 lb weights for Christmas!

Have a great weekend.

Cat

Purging recipes

I like to read. A lot. So it is no surprise that I would go to the library and check out 9 cookbooks at a time. I also like to tear out recipes from magazines, download them off the internet, and share with friends. I have quite a thick file of such recipes and I decided to go through them yesterday and ditch the ones that would not be a healthy choice for myself of my family.

That ditch consisted of 90% of my recipes!

I am excited to get into my library cookbooks and have all ready gotten half way through one of them, "5 Meals for $5. How to feed 5 people 5 meals for $5-$8 or less". By Jaci Rae. I have seen a lot of potential meals, though some are not so healthy ( I am trying to stay away from anything that takes two or more cans of condensed soup). But I have earmarked several pages that look like contenders and can't wait to try some of her recipes.

Some of the other cookbooks I picked up from the library are:

Feeding the whole family: Cooking with whole foods, by Cynthia Lair

The Autism Cookbook, by Susan K. Delaine

The $5 dinner mom cookbook, by Erin Chase

The Best Life Diet cookbook, Bob Greene (I believe he is owned by Oprah)

Semi-Homecooking, Sandra Lee (she violates my condensed soup rule a lot, but I am willing to have a look)

While looking at these recipes, I have the kids more in mind than myself or Husband. We are trying to stick to more Paleo eating (he's more on board since he has put on some weight over Thanksgiving) and though it is costly to buy meat/poultry, when I look at buying the ingredients in these meals, I think it is a wash. If I could just get the kids on board to Paleo eating...I have gotten rid of quite a few processed foods, but sometimes I miss the convenience of heating up some chicken "nuggets".

I will let you know if I find any recipes worth sharing.

Happy Hump Day!

Cat

Time to think

Husband that snores + little dog that snores + Youngest waking up every hour last night + threat of basement flooding from all the rain = lots of time for me to think about things all night!!

I thought a lot about Christmas and what it means to me. Though I like to work myself into a frenzy about Thanksgiving, Christmas is more of a calm event for me. I enjoy just close family, staying in pj's all day, napping, cooking whatever anyone wants. We usually walk around the neighborhood in the evening and check out everyone's light displays and just enjoy some lazy time together.  I am really looking forward to that this year. Daughter will be at her dad's so we get to do Christmas again when she comes. Bonus Christmas for everyone!

We used to have a big New Year's eve party with all of our neighbors and kids. I have fond memories of toddlers in footie pajama's asleep on the floor while the parents counted down to midnight. But then friend's moved away, our kids got older and had New Year's plans of their own, and everyone got strapped for cash. I miss those get together's but I know things change.

What is your favorite thing about Christmas? Do you bake up a storm and have the kids help decorate? I have never done this but may give it a try this year. I know my kids will SAY they will help but when it comes down to it, it will be just me doing it. Though maybe if there are chocolate chips involved they would help out. They do enjoy a good can of frosting, too!

I hope this time of year you can find some calm in all the chaos. Put on some footie pajamas and sit by the tree with your kids. My kids put the Thomas the Train set around our tree and then made a town out of Lego's. Complete with an axe murderer and someone trying to run across the tracks, headless...hmm....need to stop buying those Lego Knight sets!!

Have a good Tuesday!

Cat

This is a short one

I am fortunate that the last few years on my birthday I have been able to say "This is the best shape I have been in in a long time". This birthday was no exception. It makes me look forward to how I will feel and look in another year. This is the year of strength, less complaining and NO excuses. I know what I am capable of and pushing myself, in many aspects of my life, will get me to where I want to be.

 I had a great birthday weekend, ending with a great dinner at my girlfriend's house with 5 out of my 6 closest friends (we missed you Beanie Weenie!!). They are really a wonderful mix of personalities and humor. I am blessed.

It has rained non stop for over 24 hours here. Makes me want to nap all day but I worked out and ate well today. Off to a great start for my 43rd year on the planet!!

Have a great evening everyone. Thank you again for the birthday wishes!!

Cat

My Birthday-recap

I want to send a sincere thanks to everyone that sent me Birthday wishes. I feel overwhelmingly happy to have soo many good friends. It is a little scary to think some of these people knew me in grade school and on from there. That is a LONG time to have been a friend. I applaud your persistence! I just wanted to recap some special and silly moments of my day.


I got up at 6am to get ready to be at my catering job at 8am. I checked my FB page first thing this morning and openly cried at one birthday post I had. It was from Husband's nephew, who is in South Korea in the Army. It was a simple "Happy Birthday, Aunt Cathy" but it brought me to tears. Here is a 19 year old kid who is enduring flooding, being away from family for a year and he is wishing me, someone he barely knows, a Happy Birthday. And he called me Aunt. Seriously? Love that boy.


So from there I gathered myself together and got to work. This is the busiest time of year for the company so there were a lot of people I didn't know and several new people there, like me. So the mood was light, and everyone was doing their thing. I washed a lot of pans and stuff, they were going thru them so fast that I would wash the same thing several times because they were using the things so much. But after a bit of that, Nice Chef had a "project" for me: Slicing 300 POUNDS of potatoes (they were all ready peeled, but I now wonder who did THAT??).  As we were carrying the 100 lb totes of potatoes out of the walk in fridge, Nice Chef tells me I will be slicing all of these by hand. "Ok!" I say enthusiastically. He starts cracking up and tells me that we have an automated slicer and I don't have to do it by hand. I am an idiot. But can I tell you? I LOVE the potato slicer!! It is like a Play-doh machine where you put the Doh in, press the handle down and shapes come out. Same principal. I had so much fun! Plus I was in the middle of the kitchen so I got to talk to everyone. It is soo much fun to be around people that like to talk about food all day long. Ahhh.....burp....


I stayed at work a half hour too long (that's how much I like it!) and when I got home, I was welcomed to a clean house, Birthday decorations and a cake. We opened presents and the kids and Tom ate cake. We all know I don't like cake, it is for everyone else. But that is ok because I ate what I wanted today and didn't work out at all.


From there it was on to Middle child's first basketball game. He scored the first two baskets of the game and played really well for a kid who has never played organized basketball. But what I was most impressed with was his sportsmanship. He was playing against his friend M and M came up to him when he got there and said "You are going to LOSE". Son didn't say anything but I was a little annoyed so I said "Those are BIG words for a little boy". He is like a head shorter than Son. So he was trying to get Son to respond but Son kept saying "We'll see". M didn't score at all but at the end of the game Son made a point to go over and tell him good game but then he added "see who won?". And Son was really supportive of his teammates when they didn't do well. I was really proud of him and I really look forward to his games.


I took a nap in the afternoon and Husband took Daughter to her school function. I made a pretty good Pasole in the crockpot (Mexican soup), downloaded some music and now I must share what I got for my bday:

My new running shoes to go with the new music I downloaded.


Brace yourselves for this:

Mom got me this for my birthday, The conversation went like this:


Me: A blue starfish?
Mom: Your bathroom is blue and you like seashells.
Me: Okayyyy...


This will be someone's White Elephant present this holiday season.


I also got new underwear. You don't need to see that. I need SOME secrets :)


Seriously, I thank you ALL for my Birthday wishes. It HAS been a day about ME, it has felt good, and we are all really need to be over it. Tomorrow I will sleep in and get back to reality. And that's the way I want it.


Cat

Pay attention

Our kids are told, all the time, to "pay attention". Most of our complaints about our kids are about their lack of paying attention.

Question: do you pay attention to YOU? Do you pay attention to what YOU need? Not your kids, not your spouse, YOU?

The first answer to this hit me as I was trying on running shoes at Kohl's today. I was going to sign up for the 10k again in May 2012 because my friend is doing it and because I was going to RUN the whole thing this time around. As I was trying on lots of pairs of shoes, I had THE moment. The moment of, "Why are you doing this? You don't like to run long distances, you like to run a couple miles and be done. Why can't this be recreational and not a race?".

I didn't know what to say to myself. Aren't I supposed to like running since I did the 10k earlier this year? My Husband considers me a runner, what he doesn't know is: I run on the weekends to get out of the house for awhile and listen to my recently downloaded music. NOT because I like to run.

I bought some new running shoes (super cheap. Thanks Kohl's) with the intention of signing up for the 5k of that May race, the one I did years ago for the first time. I can enjoy myself and be part of the running experience. Win win.

My second answer of "Are you paying attention?" came later in the day. As I was on the way to pick up Daughter, there was a HUGE crash on the highway. It looked like one car or van had flipped, caught on fire, all the windows were smashed out and all their stuff was strewn over the highway. All I could see was flashing lights and debris. Had THEY been paying attention? I don't know. Did someone run into them? I don't know. It scares me because I travel that stretch of highway endlessley and always count my lucky stars that I have not been in an accident.

Off to the library. I drop off some dvd's. Pick up some new ones and walk right out in front of a car driven by like a 15 year old. He had no intention of stopping so it is good that I have no balance, stumbled and fell backwards. Ouch.

I am off to pick up daughter. I park in my usual spot and as I am pulling out, almost hit another car.

Eish, what a day.

Maybe we should pay more attention and just stand still sometimes.

Cat

Irrational things we say to our kids

My kids ask me for things endlessley: can I have something to eat, drink, wear, shoot, duct tape, etc. These questions used to get very tiresome when the kids were little as they would persist and wear me down until they got what they wanted.

Enter the irrational things I would say just to get them to stop asking me for things.

Son: Can I have some more juice?

Me: No! And you are not getting any more the rest of this month!!

Son: Can I have some more waffles?

Me: No! Do you know there are kids out there that have never even HAD a frozen waffle??

When they were young, they would listen and be a little fearful that this may have been the last glass of juice they will ever have.

They have grown up and are asking follow up questions. Here was tonight's exchange:

Both son's: Can we play "charge" in the front room? (This is running into each other at top speed with only pillows to cushion their force)

Me: Yes but if either of you gets hurt there is no Chirstmas for either of you!

When they were younger they would have decided against playing charge in case either one got hurt.

Not anymore.

The rest of the exchange went as follows:

Oldest Son (he knows there is no "Santa"): Do you really think Santa would stop making our toys just because we got hurt playing together?

Me: nothing, silence

Oldest son: I really don't think Santa would ruin ou favorite day over a minor injury..

Youngest: Santa wouldn't do that to us, we have been good all year!

Me: Grumble and walk away.

Gone are the days of the irrational statement just to get out of doing more stuff for them or being there for them if they get hurt.

Crap.
Subscribe to my blog or I will hold my breath until I die!! Did it work?? :)

Cat