Adventures in Motherhood

It was cold today! I'm still cold, all bundled up under my snuggly blanket in my chair, good thing Eli gives off lots of heat, hehe!!

Today was busy, as per usual...M had school, we went to the Y while she was at school, I ran-very proud of myself, btw-we had to do a whole fitness evaluation at the beginning of one of my fitness classes (for school) at the beginning of the semester in september.

now i am doing my end of the semester evaluation, can't wait to see what my body fat percentage is down, that will be fun to see. but anyway one of the things we had to do was a 12 minute run test. run for 12 minutes and see how far we went.

In september I ran .94th of a mile in 12 minutes, and that was working as hard as i possibly could.

Today I just ran like I usually did, I didn't really feel like I was "trying" super hard (ie not winded and a stitch in my side like in sept LOL) and I ran 1.54th mile in 12 minutes! So I am happy with that, I think that's pretty good progress!

Anyway after the Y we picked up Mairi, met someone from Craigslist who was selling some stuff we bought for M for her birthday (books etc) for a great deal (all new!). Mairi was oblivious ;) We came home for lunch, and went out to the library for a playdate with my friend Amy-Mairi was a little on the tired/cranky side, *sigh* but progress, not perfection, right?

Then we came home to get Keith, who was doing schoolwork, and he took ME to school for my silly class, which I finished in 15 minutes (did the work) and then proceeded to also complete another entire module (unit) for another class that is due Monday. Awesome. I might have to take more lame classes next semester-I also did some emailing and read, hahaha-so awesome to get "paid" for me time, heeeeee!

Keith took Mairi to dance, Lijee napped the whole time, sweet boy...then came back and got me.

We went to Panera for dinner, nom nom nom, Mairi had her usual French Onion soup with a baguette, K and I split the Asian sesame chx salad, and Lijee and cream of chicken and wild rice soup, wow he loved that LOL

Then the kids and I went to B&N while Keith moved a piano (yes, he moved a piano, by himself, he is the Original Beast, hahaha!) from his mom's house to my aunt's house.

A stop at Weg's and we came home-tired kids, off to bed they went, and here I sit, doing some schoolworking, watching a hooping dvd to learn about some new things to practice tomorrow, and figuring out what the BB predicts my weight loss to be this week. I'm 229.3, I'd REALLY love to be 226 something this week, but if nothing else I'm sure I'm at least 227 something. I think BB is predicting 3.something, so maybe it'll be about 2.5lbs again. Who can know.

I switched my weigh in date to Wednesday instead of Thursdays. My gram is coming in tomorrow and we are going thrifting, so that will be fun.

Now, off to bed for me.

backpacking
Want to embrace your wanderlust on the cheap? If you're high on adventurous spirit, but low on funds, this community can help you plan a trip to anywhere. Offering plentiful tips on how to travel light, you can post about inexpensive hotels and youth hostels if you're into urban exploration or discuss camping gear and mosquito netting for the great outdoors. Hitch your backpack, pitch your tent, and carpe diem!

I made some delish burgers tonight, well according to keith and mairi :) it's kind of a mishmash but apparently turned out fabulous.

1lb lean ground beef
1/2C oats
a couple pinches of ground flaxseed and wheatgerm
diced onion (I used maybe 1/8c or so)
1/2C chopped spinach (i used frozen)
1 egg

mix it all together with your hands, make 4 patties.

keith grilled them up, and they ate them on WW english muffins. mairi told me that she doesn't know why anyone would want to get eat the yucky burgers at mcdonalds when they could eat THESE, and maybe *I* should work for mcdonalds to show them how to make good burgers, bwahahaha.

bookfails
Planning to do your part to help boost the declining publishing industry this holiday? Better check here first. Sure, there are plenty of folks who post glowing reviews of their favorite books. But what about the epic fails? Compose and/or discuss snarky, incisive critiques on the books you despise most.

foundphotos
Ever stumble across a frayed photo in your grandmother's attic? How about a faded picture tucked in the sleeve of an old novel at a used book sale? This is the place to post them. An amazing, eclectic collection of photographs sure to delight anyone with a penchant for history or nostalgic memorabilia.

note_to_cat
Having trouble conveying the concept of accountability to your cat? Now you can share letters to your significant felines and give public witness to your declarations of love and domestic negotiations. Whether you want to publish an apology for falling short on your cat-nip obligations or you need to raise a delicate hygiene issue.

And finally, pics from our holiday with Keith's sister and her family. The kids are just so much fun together!

( cousins <3 )

Just a few random pics from the past week

( random )

So I have a small, tiny obsession with hats for Lijee. LOVE them. It's like hair things for girls, LOL. He has a lot of hats. But I saw this last night @ Old Navy and HAD to buy it for him, it's absolutely the definition of Teh Cute. Why has Gap not discovered him yet? :D

( SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE )

Hello. I am new to this so please bear with me.
My name is Lindsey. I hav two wonderful children. Madeline who is almost 2 and Delmon who is 7 months. As you all know life is very busy with lots of diapers. I am thinking it may be time to start potty training my daughter and I could use help. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

still tired, getting up at 8am this morning didn't help my tiredness :) It's been a long freaking day.

We got up to meet SIL and co at the Y, had a nice workout, til Mairi bashed her lip and cut it open and I had to end my workout a little early.

As we left, one of the childcare workers whispered to me "I am NOT supposed to say this, but your children are my absolute FAVORITES"

heeeeeeeeee. i have to admit to feeling deeply satisfied and pleased about that statement :D

We went over to MIL's to say goodbye, and I hooped for a bit, wow is that just so fun! Soon I just might treat you all to a video of my hilarious hooping attempts :D

After SIL and fam left, we did a little shopping-did some christmas shopping right in front of mairi, my oblivious choof, LOL. got quite a few things, i feel very accomplished. i got some weight training gloves to wear while hooping bc the back of both of my hands are soooo bruised.

then we came home and both kids crashed by 8pm, ha, so busted by being up at 8am!!

Keith and i tried to watch 6 feet under but meh, not my type of show at ALL, bleeeeeh.

now i'm SO tired and falling into bed myself.

I am feeling very tired. Maybe all the holiday-ness, or maybe just randomness, but wow. I feel beat up. I am thinking it might be how much I have been working out, but I dont know for sure. I'm taking it "easy" in a sense for a few days-I did hoopdance @ the Y today, I still burned my usual 500 calories (what I aim for at a minimum to burn while working out) but it only took me like 40 minutes to hit that, which is insane, it usually takes me a lot longer with running, esp if I'm not pushing it but sort of just jogging vs sprinting.

I had a great time hooping in the gym, I'm doing SO much better, I can keep the hoop up for over half a song, which considering when I first started I couldn't even keep it up at all. My hands are bruised from practicing hand hooping, ouch! But it was really fun and I look forward to doing it more tomorrow. What a workout, wow. I was burning like 8 calories a minute. So even though I'm burning as much/more than running, it feels more fun and less tiring or something.

I really just want to curl up in bed and sleep for a day, but that's not going to happen, so I keep on going.

K's sister and her fam leave tomorrow :( We've had so much fun visiting with them, we all played karaoke on wii today, the kids were so cute! we are going to meet them at the Y tomorrow early (9am, omfg!) so the kids can play in the childwatch together before they go. and i will hoop some more. my core hurts like what, not so much hurts but i can FEEL the work my abs did, somewhere deep under my fat, LMAO

anyway so i've been feeling a little discouraged, it's funny, exercise is supposed to give you endorphins and all that but the more/longer i work out, the crankier i get, wtf is up with that?

I think we need a vacation, so maybe we'll go on a spontaneous getaway this week, i'm trying to convince keith :P

off to bed so i can peel myself up in the buttcrack of 8am ;)

Today has been a nice day, it doesn't really feel holidayish for a few reasons, but I'm so very thankful anyway.

I'm so thankful that God let me keep Eli. I don't think I"ll ever stop thanking Him over and over and over. I'm so thankful for his gummy grin, watching his pride at pulling up on stuff, crawling like he's on fast forward, seeing him dive bomb mairi and love on her, and slime on her (drool/snot/whatever LOL). I'm SO thankful for my sweet little boy, who filled in the cracks on my broken heart and made it whole again.

It goes without saying I'm thankful for my beautiful firstborn. She brings joy and laughter to our lives, and keeps us on our toes. Her sweet voice, her curly hair, and her snuggles got me through my darkest days.

My sweet second daughter, who I miss every day, but find so much more peace and purpose in her life and death, and feel honored not burdened to be able to keep her memory alive.

And my amazing husband, who is better to me than I ever deserve, even after 9 years together.

I'm thankful for spending the day with Keith's family, for enjoying Keith's sister's kids and watching Mairi and eli enjoy them.

Back to the mundane, I miss my family. We didn't see them today b/c we see them all the time, and K's sister and kids (and FIL) we see so little, that they have to take priority. But I still miss my family, our traditions, etc. I can't wait for Christmas to get to be with them.

We went to the Y this morning, not our usual Y (by MIL's house) b/c they had no childcare today. Another Y had childcare til noon so we went there. It was a madhouse but I ran for an hour so yay me or something.

I can't wait til next year when I'm at my goal weight and I can enjoy life/holidays a little more. I'll never be the person I was, I'll always watch my food intake and work out, but it will be with less intensity and I'll be able to have a bit more leeway with food and stuff. Right now I just want to be really strict b/c i want to lose this weight and I can sacrifice a few holidays to get there.

I sort of wish I could have my own thanksgiving LOL b/c man it seems like there is just so MUCH during holidays. do you really need 14 dishes on the table? no wonder people over eat, it's kind of overkill. I'm all for the traditional stuff, but i'd make it healthier, i wouldn't make enough to feed the navy, etc. it'd just be less, more MORE in it's less-ness, LOL

i'm not really a huge fan of turkey day food anyway, so it wasn't that hard for me, plus we were at MIL's so it wasn't like not eating stuff i grew up on, i prefer my gram's stuff anyway (stuffing, gravy, etc) i guess that's good.

i just brought my JC Turkey Dinner with me and ate that, I consumed only 270 calories for Thanksgiving Dinner, and burned 500+ at the gym, so it didn't even count, really, bwhaha.



I will say I missed the desserts. OMFG my FIL was killing me, he made these AMAZING brownies with pb frosting when I was preg with Lijee and couldn't eat them b/c of my GD, but then he came back in April 2x and did NOT bring them for me....and now he brings them when I'm doing weight loss, baaaaaaaaaah!!! And MIL's amazing apple pie, and pumpkin pie, and breads and bars and OMFG.

last night i seriously dreamed about eating cake. i just ate and ate and ate cake with so much frosting, it was amazing. so damn good. then i woke up, at least it was calorie-free, *snicker*

Anyway, so I kind of missed the whole stuff yourself til you can't breath thing, but not really...only b/c that sort of signifies thanksgiving but isn't it really sick and wrong that THAT signifies thanksgiving? lifestyle changes.

Keith did so well too, he portion controlled himself and didn't eat even 1/8th what he used to, WOW. FYI he's down from 260 to 252 in 2 weeks, go keithy!!!!!!!!

so that is that, a good day, a quiet day, but a tiring day!

i'm ready for bed already!!!

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Photos of the week

We're so delighted with the immense talent of our growing, global lj_photophile community that we've decided to introduce a poll. Each week, we'll choose a half-dozen photos (based on user comments and staff feedback) and ask you to select a photo of the week. The winning photo will be announced in the next newsletter. If possible, please limit photo size to 350x350 to ensure that images display properly on friends pages. We want to thank you again (and again!) for sharing your passion.

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Curtains

Thanks for joining us. To our American friends, have a fantastic Thanksgiving. To all of our international neighbors, we'll eat a little extra for you!

down 2.6lbs in 6 days. I can deal with that. BB predicted 3.1, so it's a little off, but close enough i guess.

i'm in the 220s, barely, but i'm there. 229.3 :D

I hit my Biggest Loser Challenge on my JC board-which was to lose 30lbs before the show's finale, and I blew through that today and the finale isn't til the 2nd week in December. Sweet.

Slowly but surely.

I am weighing in tomorrow @ JC. Usually my WI is Thursday but Tday and all. I was originally going to go Friday but I need a couple more things (Mairi won't stop eating my anytime bars LOL) and I figured a WI tomorrow would be a nice motivator ;)

Soooo I just SO BADLY want to be in the 220s, I don't really see why that wouldn't happen, according to my BB it will but you never know.

From Thurs-Tues I had a total deficit of 11,011 calories, or allegedly 3.1 pounds. That's put me well into the 220s but I'll settle for 229.9 ;)

I'll let you know...

Yes, I put my child in a cage. because i'm a horrible neglectful parent who rolls like that ;)

I was so glad to find this on CL, they don't make them anymore and it was JUST what i was looking for. Keith arranged it better now, it's in a square instead of this random shape below LOL but eli and mairi both love it, hahaha. and 4 pieces left over for the playroom.

( caged! )

LJ is seeming a bit dead today, what is it, a holiday week or something?

Lots of rambling to follow, and I apologize (but not really) in advance for all my weight loss musings. It's pretty much consuming my life right now, and I'm really going deeper with it, and journaling is helping me unravel the mysteries LOL so lucky for all you, you can go along for the ride :D

Today was a VERY low key day, but in a great way. I feel like it's really relaxing not to have to GO somewhere and BE somewhere every minute of the day.

Mairi's meltdowns are (I think) a thing of the past. Since we reinstated the ear, we've had ZERO meltdowns. She had one brief moment of drama in the mall today surrounding a webkinz (she was buying it with birthday money, but i saw it another store for 50% off, but she didn't believe me or think it was the same one, so some tears ensued, but it wasn't a Meltdown on the scale of what had been happening, kwim? And she was able to bring herself back under control quickly, as opposed to previous Meltdowns where she just lost it for like an hour. Seriously, an hour of screeching, wailing, sobbing, eep)

ANYWAY. the odd thing is she really hasn't been getting our ears all that much, despite us saying she can. She kind of got out of the habit, but I guess knowing she CAN get them is enough to help her feel better thank GOD.

We went to the Y this morning, as usual. I lifted and ran a bit. I'm kicking butt on my calorie burn this week, I expect to see a great number on the scale on my weigh in on Friday (a day later than usual b/c of Tday) AND the very best most exciting part is I know I will be out of the 230s!! OMG! being in the 220s "feels" so much skinnier, I mean only 20 some pounds away from the 100s? That's crazy!!!

Eli loves the walker at the childwatch, he was so cute today, he was at the other end of the childwatch when I walked in, he saw me and literally RAN over to me in the walker, heeeee!! He's so darn CUTE and sooo happy, I love his happy little personality. It's like he knows how much joy and happiness he brought into our lives and just radiates it back! He and Mairi are getting cuter every day, he's so interested in whatever she's doing and follows her around, which annoys and amuses her (sometimes at the same time-she'll start to get annoyed, and then he'll laugh and she'll be forced to laugh and then everyone's laughing :D)

He's also just chowing food like the beast he is-today he ate a ton of minestrone soup, and he loves greek yogurt. Tomorrow he's having some pasta with his veggies, I bet he'll love that.

Backtracking, after the gym we went to Panera for lunch, Mairi's pick. Eli enjoyed some French Onion soup with her, LOL. K and I split the Asian Sesame Chix salad, it's so amazing.

Then we went to *gasp* the mall. K hates the mall, but I wanted to walk around a bit, a few things I was looking for and M had her birthday money she wanted to spend. I got some socks for M, but need some for Eli-but Gap, ON and TCP all had the socks I hate, the roll down top socks, no thanks. I want like the ankle type socks for Eli but can't find them, who makes them for babies? He has no socks. I think he needs some LOL

So eli slept in the hotsling on Keith for the 2.5 hours we were at the mall (much of that was spent in Barnes and Noble though, reading and relaxing!) We did get some socks for Mairi at ON (Sale for $1!) and K got a $25 hoodie for $7!

Then K had class, so we came home, chilled out, had a big cuddle puddle and watched a movie/played. Mairi also did spin art for like 2 hours, she got it for her bday and LOVES it, it's her fave thing ever, she used all the paper up tonight, ha!!! I loved spin art in school!!! It was my fave too.

I did a bunch of cooking tonight, for K's meals for the next few days. Black Bean burritos and penne bolognese, which I had never made but omfg is so good. I tried a little bite and WOW. I might have to have some!!! Seriously insanely good. Simple but good, great cold fall food.

I also cooked up some other odds and ends and froze a bunch of portions for eli for food for whenever.

Then the littles fell asleep and K and i have been doing school work.

Randomly, I'm super hungry today, like really, really stomach growling hungry. I ate my usual amount of calories (1661) and while I had a great burn today (20ish minutes to go, but it'll be about 3550ish!!!) but nothing I haven't been doing. So why the feeling of starving I don't know. And I've had tons of water today, probably around 80oz or so, so I'm not dehydrated.

in other news, i'm buying an "activity center" thing on CL for Eli. it's 12 panels, that fit together (kinda like a superyard but not as tall, probably about half as high as eli when he's standing up, and colored) b/c he's a maniac all of a sudden.

just since sunday he's decided he can crawl at the speed of light and he freaking puts every damn thing in his mouth, today alone he had like 5 things in there at various times, that i NEVER saw on the floor (nothing he probably would have choked on-part of a leaf that got tracked in, a piece of lint, etc) and he can get in all the nooks and crannies in the living room (under my recliner, pulling computer cords, etc) so I'm putting 6 panels in the living room so he can mostly have the run of the living room but be contained, and 6 panels in the playroom. that way m can still play, and he can't get into her stuff and she can have space, or get in and play with him. he's supposed to be my easy baby darn it, not trying to eat the world! :)

K's sister (with kids) comes tomorrow, we are all SO excited to see her, K's relationship with her has just been growing so strong (maybe mine too, but i never assume anyone likes me, been there, got burned by that) and Mairi just adores her cousins more than anyone in the world just about...so it's going to be a great visit.

On that note, time for me to go watch something with Keithy.

65redroses
Eva is a vibrant young woman with Cystic Fibrosis who survived a double lung transplant. Read about her difficult recovery and personal triumphs over pain, isolation, and fear. Back in school, Eva now works part-time in a children's center and enjoys running and cross-country skiing. A documentary on her story, entitled 65 Red Roses, won three awards at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

meet_other_moms
A warm and welcoming "Add me" community for moms of all ages and backgrounds from around the world. If you're a mom, just post a little about yourself and start connecting with other mothers based on similar hobbies, musical interests, book/TV/movie preferences, or taste in humor! A great way for busy moms to socialize online.