Josh and Becca Thrap and Family

Just in case any of you were wondering how I’ve been doing since my post about loving food, here is a post to let you know that I’m doing pretty good.  I have been exercising every weekday with a friend here in Ankeny and I have been keeping my total daily calories very low.  I had one bad day when I went to my doctor’s appointment and she said that I was off to a good start but that the 2000 calories I was trying to keep to was really more a recommended amount for men.  Women, she says, need less.  And women who want to lose weight need significantly less.  I don’t know if she was lowballing me or what, but the first number she mentioned seemed so impossible that I immediately broke into tears.  Not that I wanted to of course.  I don’t cry so much, and I especially don’t want to cry for seemingly no reason in front of basic strangers.  Plus, I had my kids with me cause , you know, they’re always with me.  Ok, that’s not true.  Josh came home for lunch to watch them when I had to go to the dentist.  Anyway, I digress.  So, yeah, I had that one really bad day.  But by bedtime that night I had regained my resolve to lose the weight and although I don’t expect to ever maintain the low daily calorie amount mentioned by my doctor, I have reduced my intake even further.  I did have one McDonald’s cheeseburger.  I know it sounds like an excuse, but it was a neccessity.  Even so, one little cheeseburger in three–almost four weeks, that is impressive!  (Ok, so some of you especially from older generations may be thinking “four weeks, big deal.”  Maybe you haven’t had a cheeseburger or eaten fast food in months.  Ok.  That is valid.  But, as recently as last month I was eating fast food upwards of 5-6 times/week.  And none of this “one little cheeseburger” crap, no sir!  I had value meals.  And usually I would “Super-size,” “Biggie-size,” “King-size,” whathaveyou.  Sometimes, I would even go to more than one place for different menu items.  And sometimes, I would get a meal PLUS another sandwich.  So, for me, one little burger in 4 weeks is HUGE!)  So, like I said, I’m doing well.  My scale is starting to tip. 

My Grandpa and Grandma are together again.  After eight years of waiting for him, my Grandpa has joined my Grandma in Heaven.  I suppose it is a very happy day for him.  This June we would have celebrated his (I believe) 95th birthday!  So obviously he lived a good long life and we’re not completely surprised by his death, although, you never really know when it’s going to happen, you know?  He managed (with a lot of support from his children–esp. my uncle who lived nearby) to live alone at his own home.

So we got a lot of snow here in Ankeny the other day.  Ok, not a LOT of snow, but enough that the roads were not clear and the kids could play in it.  Since the roads were not clear, I had to wait to go to the grocery store until after Josh came home last night (cause, you know, the remainder snow on the road melts in the sun in the afternoon so the roads are ok, but then I have all the kids so I can’t go.)  So I left home around 6pm.  I had several stops to make and here’s why I call it a success: 

When I go shopping, I have two nicknames, the Parkmaster and the Bargain Hunter.  It’s true that I may have started these nicknames myself, but they have caught on and now others know of my reputation in the areas of getting good parking and finding good sales.  Last night I lived up to both.  My first stop was the library.  I had a family video to pick up and Josh asked me to look for a certain book for him.  When I pulled into the lot I got the spot right next to the Handicapped space, and then inside the book I was dreading looking for was right on the first shelf!  My next stop was Hobby Lobby.  (BTW Kate, mine didn’t have that journaling set either and I KNOW it couldn’t have just sold out cause it was their first day of the sale and the roads were crappy and the other sets were all still there!  Grrrr!)  And just as I was pulling up to the store a vehicle left the very first spot, making it available for me.  Inside the store they did not have what I was searching for, but I  did find a couple of things that were clearance-priced and suited some of my other needs so, all-in-all:  Successful!  I made a return to Target and seriously debated going into Michael’s, but I thought that could just get me into trouble so I went on to the grocery store.  And, of course, I got good parking.  Now, while it was not neccessarily a “bargain,” I did FINALLY find the bread that I’ve been looking for for weeks so I stocked up and have put some in my freezer (BTW, if anyone knows of an available freezer I could really use one!  I prefer an upright, but if it’s free I’d take a chest too ).  I also found Josh some clearanced smoked almonds which I can’t stand but he loves, and then, the piece de resistance!  I got SNOWPANTS for me and Josh!!!  And they were only $5 each!  Now, they may be a bit big on Josh, and I’m hoping against hope that they will not fit me again next year, but to be able first of all to even find snowpants in my current size is no small thing!  And now we can enjoy the snow with the kids.  I’m hoping it’ll snow at least once more enough to take the kids sledding.  Of course I got some grocery items at slight discount from weekly store sales, but those were the really impressive things. 

The end of this month marks the 14th anniversary of my first time in Russia.  I was to spend 5 months in Muscatine’s Sister City, Kislovodsk, with two of my U.S. friends.  We each lived with separate families and we attempted to attend school.  We were 15, and we did NOT speak the language.  “Na poloo, byez moloko”  The trip had its ups and downs, but by the time we were to come home the people and places had taken such a place in my heart that I simply had to return.  So I went back for a month and a half the next summer,   and then again, after graduating from high school.  I took a year to travel before going to college.  It was in those 10 months that I finally started to really learn the language (with lots of help)!  “Veter po moru gulayet EE karablik podganyayet On bejit cebye volnah Na razdooti parusah”  –Pushkin  By the end of that trip I felt like I was leaving home again, only, this time I was leaving “home” to go…home.    And I knew that the future was completely uncertain and I did not know when I’d be able to go back again.  It was a really hard time for me.  Of course, as soon as I got back to Iowa I was reunited with my own family and friends and I started college right away and got a job.  Life continued and I was happy.  I told my friends and “family” in Russia that I’d plan to return for a visit in 1998.  When 1998 finally came around I was in no shape to travel–I was pregnant with Jacob.  So, I’ve graduated, married, had four adorable children, and a home of my own, but I have not been back to Russia since 1996.  And every few months I tell myself that I need to start saving and planning so that next year I can go…and every year passes and I am no closer to being able to go.  And now, that part of my life feels so long gone that it almost feels more like it was a dream.  :(  And it was such a big part of me and who I was.  So.  Yesterday I had a talk with Josh and we are planning a trip.  We still won’t be able to go for about another year and a half, but we ARE going.  The planning and saving has begun.  I am so excited.  And also, very nervous.  You know the phrase, “you can never go ‘home’ again.”  It has been a long time and many many things have changed.  I don’t remember the language well AT ALL and I’ve just never really traveled as an adult.  I am eager to finally get to share this part of my life with Josh, but nervous about that too.  What if he doesn’t get why it meant so much to me?