Monday, August 24, 2009

School? Not soon....

With a late Labor Day this year, our older kids aren't starting school until Wednesday, September 9th. Can you believe it? Two weeks from now. That's a long time away....I guess it will go pretty quickly if you're 7 or 8!

On the other hand, I think they are ready for school to start again. They're starting to fight a little more each and every day and they're finally complaining that they're "bored". We still don't have their teacher assignments so we can't even finish their "back to school" shopping. DinoBoy is going into the third grade and Twink is going into the second. DinoBoy's list for school is 2 pages long and Twinkletoes' is almost that long. There is only one difference: DinoBoy's is teacher specific. That's an issue when you have no idea who your teacher is going to be. I looked back at the Principal's last bulletin in June promising teacher assignments in the beginning of August (she indicated like we had last year - I don't remember getting them that early.) Here were are with just a few days left in August and I still know no more than I did the first week in August. Its frustrating. I have plenty of other things to complain about but that is all I will blog about today.

I lost two pounds last week. Yippee!! Of course, I probably gained them all back last night eating a piece of the jello poke cake I made (Mom and the kids frosted it, so I can't take all of the credit.) It was so gooooood though. The Husband actually had two pieces (shhhhh!) I never make sweets and I was actually going to take it to a picnic that we went to on Sunday but I couldn't pull it off in time. I sure do hope my Mom took some of it over to Mommom today. If not, I am going to have to borrow someone else's willpower in order to keep away from it tonight. :-)

Hope all is well with everyone!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Just a cute picture


Trying out my new "used" camera which replaces the one we took to Jamaica this year (the lense fell out while we were there...) SweeTart is getting so big and her personality is ENORMOUS! Love those curls!!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Gymnastics!!

Twinkletoes has started gymnastics again. Although, this time, it is NOT classes. It's "pre-team" - which is different. Different in the sense that it is now gymnastics "practice" instead of "class". Same thing? I think so but maybe a little more intense, and definitely longer. Last night was her first night back.

She is thrilled. Excited beyond belief. Motivated to learn and try new things. Happy to be part of the "team" even though she is still with the "little" girls. They can't be much younger than she is - in her "section".

Practice was from 6:30 - 8:00 last night. DinoBoy, SweeTart and I took a ride to Walmart after dropping Twink off at practice. (She was so excited that she can now come in by the "side" door instead of the front entrance since she is part of the team!) We did fairly well in Walmart, grabbing what we needed in less than 1/2 hour, also picking up some school supplies (can you say 24 packs of crayola crayons for a quarter a piece?) and made it back in plenty of time to see the end of her practice. DinoBoy was estatic when we left Twink at practice and he began his "whole hour and a half without" Twinkletoes. Too funny.

We made it back in time to see Twink working on the trampoline doing spotted back handsprings. How cool! Her coach then showed us how she could get on the bottom bar of the uneven bars, by herself and perch there to jump off. She hasn't had a class since the winter so she's moving right along ... she got to ring the gong too to show that she mastered a new technique and the entire team stopped and cheered for her. (See why she is excited??)

We made it home around 8:25 - got her showered and SweeTart to bed. Twink was so excited that she couldn't stop talking about her practice and talking and talking. She was the energizer bunny - she finally went to bed at 9:45. When I shut the door, she was still talking. She is lucky she didn't wake SweeTart up!!

Looking forward to Wednesday - our new practice schedule is causing me to have to rearrange my meal plan for the week but all is good! She is happy in her new adventure!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

August

We packed the truck, the kids and the wave runner yesterday and headed down to Ship Bottom to R&D's vacation spot for the week. It was awesome!! We were able to corral the little ones on the first floor - the deck had a gate - thank goodness!! They didn't get into too much trouble and I think that SweeTart and her cousin TMW had a great time playing together. Its amazing that they're so close in age and so different in size. For starters, SweeTart must have ten pounds on the kid - but he is over a head taller than her and skinny, skinny, skinny. Funny that his mama told me that he is back in a size three diaper and we're moving right along into fives all the time. I guess I can pack up the fours that we have left and give them to him -- at least he'll grow into them. LOL

The husband, DinoBoy and Twinkletoes had a fantastic time on the wave runner. We all got a turn - but the kids had the MOST turns. They couldn't get off of the thing. When they weren't on the wave runner, they were swimming in the bay right off of the dock at the house. Reminds me of summers when we were little...running up and down the docks. Very fun!! I will post pictures later today.

Today, I am aiming to get a meal plan for the week, or even two done. I need to get myself back on track with weight loss. We've been eating okay but not well enough lately. I have cookbooks galore from the library: weight watchers, south beach diet, warehouse cookbooks - you name it, I've either got it here or it is on hold waiting for someone else to finish up with it. I am determined to drop 20 pounds. DETERMINED. Which means that I need to focus, stay on track and be accountable.

I found a few little sites that may or may not help me with this mission of meal planning. Check them out - if you're in the same quandry I am - getting home later than anticipated, having nothing in the fridge for dinner (we have it - but it is located in the freezer and is still a block of ice!), stopping on the way home spending extra money at the supermarket to get something that should be either quick or healthy but is usually neither (even if it is good) and wind up spending extra money that I shouldn't. So ... here are a few of the sites:

I am sure there are plenty more but I am going to do a little more research, grab another cup of coffee and get to work. First order of business is cleaning out the fridge. Its a yukky job but I've been neglecting it for too long!!