I meant to write earlier today but I just didn’t get to it so this will be short. The kids had their annual eye appointments today. Josh took them. He reports that Jacob and Cameron are “where they’re supposed to be” visionwise, whatever that means, and Elise is FINALLY picking out some new frames. (Her last pair of glasses snapped a few months ago [when Elena pulled them apart!]) She brought home three pairs to decide from and I believe we’ve chosen a winner so hopefully they won’t take long to come in. I received my copy of test results from bloodwork I had done last month and tha page basically just says normal normal normal all the way down (with just a few minor exceptions like apparently my good cholesterol is a tad low and my SGPT and GGT are a tad elevated) whatever that means! This evening Elena crawled up on me to give me a hug and kiss and her slipper fell off in the process, Josh was standing right there so he picked it up and put it back on her and she turned to him and said “thank you” and then turned back toward me and said “gracias!” Now, she watches Diego and little bit of Dora, but I’ve never worked with her on any foreign words, so I was surprised to hear it, and she obviously knew what it meant. Perhaps she’ll be the one to follow in my lingual footprints.
Archive for November, 2007
I’m sorry if you are tired of hearing about weight and food from me. But it’s about the only news I have right now. And, to me it’s huge. Anyway, today the bathroom scale confirmed that I have finally made it down below my previous “lowest weight in the past 8 years” so that I now DO weigh less than I have in over 8 years!!! I’ve had to adjust all the straps on my bras to make them smaller and I also tried on some jeans this morning that were another size smaller and although I probably won’t start wearing them out in public just yet, I could get them on. They fit the way my jeans that are two sizes larger were fitting me this Summer: snug with minor bulging over the brim, but not sqeezing my guts up out the top so that I can’t breathe. I also caught a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror this morning while spending some time giving my teeth some thourough attention and was both disgusted but also pleased with what I saw. I can see a real humanoid female shape beginning to appear. Unfortunately, I think I may have a problem with saggy skin–although I suppose there is still time for it to try to shrink back down with the rest of me. I just fear that it will say that it has been stretched beyond all stretchitivity. 
This year Josh and I hosted Thanksgiving at our house. I’ve already written a little bit about it. Josh smoked ribs and a picnic instead of doing a turkey. My mom likes ribs. Anywho…we had a really nice holiday and it was nice to be able to do it at home and not have to travel and be rushing about trying to catch all the families and worrying about what the kids might get into at someone else’s house etc. Of course we missed seeing everyone that we usually see, but Christmas is coming quickly! Anyway, I thought I’d stick up a couple of fun pics my dad took at our Thanksgiving. First, Cameron showed off the costumes he made at school.
Grandpa Dan is trying his best “Puritan” face.
Here is the group at the table before the meal. Notice Bertie at Elise’s feet. She stayed there and kept Elise’s toes warm through the meal.
Sarah got stuck at the kiddie table for a few minutes. See her bangs? Apparently she’s had them for a few weeks but none of us knew it. (and mom and dad had seen her just the weekend before! lol)
I guess I’m not sure just how long it takes for a person to gain weight after eating etc., but according to my (albeit potentially inaccurate) bathroom scale as of this morning I made it through the Thanksgiving weekend without gaining any weight! In fact, if my scale is to be believed, I actually lost another pound! Yay! I’m still not liking my image in pictures, and I do still have a long way to go, but…this means I’ve conquered two major food holidays (Halloween and Thanksgiving) and I can now approach the upcoming birthdays and Christmas with more confidence! I still hope to lose another 10-15 pounds before New Years if that’s possible. Hopefully, since I have all of my Christmas shopping completed I will be out and about less this season and therefore much less likely to be tempted by fast food. I am fairly proud of myself for only having 2 McRibs since they’ve been available and I don’t feel like I need any more. Unfortunately some of my healthier fallback foods are not sounding so good to me anymore and I’m having a harder time thinking of things to eat, but I’m hoping this is a temporary obstacle that I just need to push through. Anyway, I hope by the time I see many of you around Christmas that you will be able to tell that I look a little bit slimmer. That is one of my short-term goals.
I had this song from the Spongebob movie stuck in my head all day yesterday. Josh and I got up at 4:30 am. My parents had stayed the night so we could go out early to hit all the sales without dragging the kids along. First we had to get gas and here is Josh bringing me some hot cocoa for breakfast: 
Josh has gone out first thing in the morning almost every day-after-Thanksgiving since we’ve been married. This was the first year I was able to go with him. It was also the first year that we were not in Muscatine so going out early meant hitting more than just Wal-Mart and Menard’s! Wow! I would guess that this year was crazier all over because I heard things like that Williamsburg and Jordan Creek Mall were opening at midnight etc. but I tell you what, wow. I dropped Josh off at Best Buy 15 minutes after they opened and the items he wanted were already sold out! The line to check out was wrapped through all the aisles stretching the length of the entire store! I ran over to Younkers and overheard ladies who said they’d been out shopping since midnight! Amazingly, we eventually not only got all the deals we’d originally wanted, but we also found other great bargains and had a lovely buffet breakfast at the Iowa Machine Shed restaurant. And the parkmaster was in effect all day long! (That’s me, I am the parkmaster for I am known to get pretty good parking even on busy days. Yesterday was no exception!) We had good parking at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, Kohl’s, TJMaxx, the restaurant, Hy-Vee and Wal-Mart again! Here is Josh acting out a scene from “the Office.” Anyone remember the episode? 
Now, with the exception of one thing that I need to order I have ALL of our Christmas shopping completed! It was a fun day. My parents took my kids to the historical fire station in Des Moines and when they went home Josh made us pork nachos and the kids and I watched our new copy of Shrek the Third while Josh napped near us.
When Josh and I were younger and moving from here to there and back again and living in all kinds of places that were never really our own, I put up with a lot of ugly! A LOT of UGLY! But it never seemed worthwhile or financially smart to bother trying to improve the surroundings much because we knew they were temporary. The one thing that annoyed me the most though, were those long vertical hanging ridiculous excuses for window treatments. With small children especially those things are the worst because the kids pull them down and since they are plastic that means they’re broken and won’t go back up so then you have all these irreversible gaps in your ugly window treatment. They also never seem to pull smoothly or lay correctly and they catch on things and did I mention that they’re ugly? So anyway, imagine my dismay after the initial euphoria of homeownership had settled when I realized that my new house is FULL of those stupid vertical hanging window treatments! Well, we have lived here for two and a half years now and I have finally had ENOUGH! But now the problem seems to be finding something else that will work in the space and match the decor. The main problem is that most of the places that I’m wanting to replace the darn things are in doorways–the sliding doors out to the deck from the kitchen (which the kids use several times each day to get to and from school) and the french style doors in the downstairs that remain locked at almost all times but should still be somewhat accessible just in case. So I need something that can cover large areas and be easily moved out of the way, and they have to match the rooms–and that, I am finding is NOT such an easy task. I’ve been looking in all kinds of stores for weeks now ranging from places like Goodwill and fabric stores to Penney’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, Marshall’s etc. I’ve even tried looking for things like shower curtains and bedsheets that I might be able to make work, but no luck. The only place left that I can think of that might even sell curtains or something that I haven’t checked already is Kohl’s and I don’t know why but I just don’t really like going there. Of course I could just get any random thing to cover the windows, but the whole point is that I’m trying to make it less ugly and more “MY” home. (And when I say “MY” I do in fact mean “OUR” because of course I want the rest of the family to like it also and Josh has been looking and brainstorming with me as well.) So…anyone have any good tips or suggestions for me?
A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
5 THINGS I WAS DOING 10 YEARS AGO:
1. Attending MCC and hanging out with my friends daily
2. Working at the movie theatre and Walgreens
3. Getting used to my awesome new car a ‘95 Eagle Vision with power everything after my old piece of crap car–a ‘79 Dodge Aspen with broken almost everything finally gave out
4. Shopping for the biggest Christmas exchange with my friends ever
5. Flirting with Josh
5 THINGS ON MY TO-DO LIST TODAY:
1. Laundry
2. Christmas Cards
3. More Laundry
4. Paperwork for life insurance
5. Take care of the kids (and ALL that that implies)
5 SNACKS I ENJOY:
1. Fuji Apples
2. Cereal
3. Diet A&W Root Beer
4. Chocolate covered raisins
5. Peanut butter and honey on Sara Lee Delightful honey wheat bread
5 THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WERE A BILLIONAIRE:
1. Pay off all our debt
2. Buy a bigger house
3. Travel the world
4. Financially help my loved ones
5. Hire a personal chef
3 OF MY BAD HABITS:
1. Picking at my arms
2. Verbally cutting people down
3. Yelling at the kids
5 PLACES I HAVE LIVED:
1. Boone, Ia
2. Muscatine, Ia
3. Kislovodsk, Russia
4. Ames, Ia
5. Tempe, Az
5 JOBS I’VE HAD:
1. Corn Detassler
2. Cook/Dishwasher in a Mall Diner
3. English Tutor
4. Video Store Cerk
5. Project Coordinator for delegation of visiting Russian businessmen
5 THINGS PEOPLE PROBABLY DON’T KNOW ABOUT ME:
1. When I was little I disliked anything to do with Russia
2. I have worn a toe ring for the last 5 years
3. I like to watch Avatar: the Last Airbender with the kids
4. I used to (and sometimes still do) dream in Russian
5. I don’t like to share my opinions
I tag:
Kate Wheeler
Chris Wheeler
Jess Moe
Candace Laughead
Diana Evans
For the past couple days I’ve had this sore inflamed tastebud on the top of the tip of my tongue. It’s really sensitive so I’ve been careful what I eat and have been eating less just because it hurts. I haven’t had an apple in days! Anyway, today is the first day that it seems to be feeling a litle better. I called Josh to see if he wanted to join me for lunch because he’s really been away a lot lately and he has class tonight so he won’t be home again until after the kids are in bed, but he said he had too much work to do. So I decided to eat up some leftovers to clear out some room in the fridge just in case the Wheelers make it this weekend after all and I need room to stash a turkey or something . I found some meatloaf that I forgot we had and thought that sounded good so I heated it up and made a little PB&Honey sandwich on my low carb light whole grain bread for a dessert. It did not even occur to me until I took my first bite of meatloaf that the ketchup I smear absolutely all over my meatloaf would burn my tongue! But of course now it’s cooked and on the plate so I am eating it all! Bite after painful (yet tasty) bite!
Here is an update for those of you wondering how things are going in my battle against the bulge (of my belly). I am within two pounds of the lowest weight I’d gotten to last year before my surgery which was the least I’ve weighed in the last 8 years! I have moved down into my jeans that are not only a size smaller than the ones I’d been wearing all Summer, but they are not stretchy like the others had been which means I’m down more like a size and a half or even two! I still haven’t been “exercising” as much as I know I should, but I am keeping very busy and I’m still not really having any problems with food. My scale seems to be dropping a pound or two about every three to four days, so I really hope to be able to say at Thanksgiving that I truly weigh less than I ever have in the past 8 years and that I am so very thankful for all of the blessings in my life that have gotten me this far and hopefully this is just the beginning! I don’t want to jinx it, but when I started all this about two and a half months ago I needed to lose almost exactly 100 pounds to be within a perfect healthy range for my body. Since the end of September I’ve lost 25 pounds. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to keep this pace and be able to say that I’ve lost 75 pounds by my birthday! And maybe that is a little unrealistic, but even if I can come close I will be so thrilled! Even if I never lose the whole 100, if I can lose as much as 75 I will be … … I just don’t even have words. I have made myself weepy. For the first time in almost a decade it seems possible that I will not have to live as this incredible bulk.
There’s nothing like a hot bowl of cream of wheat on a cold morning. There’s just something fun about its lumpy gelatinous goodness. Now, I would probably never venture out on my own to try something called “Hot Farina Cereal,” but luckily I had a mom that made it for me as a kid so now it doesn’t seem so strange. I like to eat mine with raisins and cold milk on top. Of course I’ve adapted to the microwave method of preparation. Growing up it always bubbled away in the littlest pot on the stove. Now I just have to make sure it doesn’t bubble up over my bowl–’cause that makes a nasty mess in the microwave. Josh likes his with jelly in it. Personally I find that weird, I’ve tried it, but I can’t eat it that way. The kids are sort of 50/50 on it. Sometimes they’ll eat it and sometimes they want nothing to do with it.
Most of my memories of being put to bed as a little girl involve my dad and big, long books and or war protest songs. Good times. But, even though I still give my mom crap about her being the one to fall asleep when she would come to tuck me in, I also clearly remember her lullabyes. Although I never really understood them (because they were not in English), and I often criticized my mom’s singing voice in church, her lullabyes were very soothing. When I became a mother I had my own special blend of lullabyes (Modified versions of Lionel Ritchie, Tina Turner, and Will Smith songs), but in a pinch, when I NEEDED the kid to go to sleep, I would cuddle them up and sing just above a whisper “Dona Nobis Pacem.” Over and over and over.
Lately, Josh has been needing to stay away some nights for work and so bedtime has been all up to me. Usually that is really more his arena, and ever since we got rid of the crib he has put Elena to sleep in his lap downstairs in front of the news on tv and then taken her up to bed. So, it feels like a lot for me to deal with. Good ol’ Dona Nobis Pacem! I put the kids to bed and hold Elena in place in her bunk and start to sing. At first she starts singing other words with me, but I just droll on and within minutes she is down for the count. The first time I did this last week, Elise heard me and when I’d gotten Elena asleep she asked if I’d continue to sing it to her–she thought it was pretty. I told her that when she was Elena’s age she could be a real handful at bedtime and that I would sing this same song to her. Tonight, Josh is in Missouri again. So, once again I sang Elena to sleep and this time Jacob heard me and when I got her asleep he asked if I would continue to sing it to him. He said that he remembered hearing it when he was a baby (and probably more likely he remembers it from when Elise and Cameron were babies, but I humored him). I told him how my mom used to sing it to me when I was a little girl and he said “so its been passed down through generations?” I guess now it has. So. Since I had all this going on in my mind I decided to Google the phrase and see what I could learn about it. (The first thing I learned was the correct spelling, because I’d been spelling it phonetically for my search and–I’d never been sure if it was a “B” or a “P” in the second word.) I was amazed that I found it right away–430,000 matches on Google!
Wikipedia told me this: Dona nobis pacem (Latin: Give us peace) is a phrase in the Agnus Dei section of the Roman Catholic mass. It was set as a separate, final movement in Bach’s Mass in B Minor. The phrase, in isolation, has been appopriated for other works:
Dona nobis pacem, a cantata by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1937).
One section of Adiemus V: Vocalise, by Karl Jenkins (2003).
One track of the album No Boundaries, by Ladysmith Black Mambazo (2006).
At the end of “Pray Your Gods” by Toad the Wet Sprocket (1992).
It appeared in the Kenneth Branagh film Henry V.
And you can hear the tune by going to http://www.cvc.org/christmas/DonaNobis.ram