All of you may be following the Olympics closely. Jack is watching the Olympkins. So far, the gymnastics, men and women, and the women’s beach volleyball are his favorites. No great surprise there! But all of it seems to intrigue him. It’s been tough to explain some events - like boxing and wrestling, since he’s not supposed to hit or wrestle!
We are off to a jury trial in a moment or two, but before that - let me introduce you to my new niece - Anna Claire. I don’t have anymore details than she was born to my sister and her husband on Saturday, August 9, 2008.
I think she’s beautiful! And I can’t wait to meet her.
This picture just cracks me up…
I mean, does that look comfortable, to sit on a water fountain? Oh, here’s a little Jack-ism. On the way home from this party, I was mentioning that I needed to take a look at my hair and see if I needed to take a shower before the next party we were going to. Jack: “Mommy, I”m looking at your hair, and you need a shower.”
Ok, here’s a bit of a brag, or more of a comparison - before and after, if you will.
The picture on the left was taken in April, right before I started doing Beck, and it was a serious kick in the pants to take it seriously. The picture on the right was taken Saturday. I’m not standing up straight but you get the idea. Pretty cool.
And now to the trial.
Ben broke the news to me this morning, the Packers traded Brett Favre, Hall of Fame QB, holder of many many records to the Jets. In fact:
“Favre leaves Green Bay as the NFL’s all-time leader in most major passing categories - touchdowns (442), yards (61,655), completions (5,377) and attempts (8,758) - and his 253-game starting streak intact. By playing 16 seasons in a Packers uniform (1992-2007), he matches Bart Starr (1956-71) for the longest tenure in team history among his 30 team records.”
You know, I had really mixed feelings about Brett’s return to football but it’s his life not mine. What I don’t have mixed feelings about is Ted Thompson’s handling of the situation. Sure, you need to have a post-Brett plan and sure, Aaron Rogers deserves his shot. But, come on, do you really turn Brett Favre away after one of the Packer’s best seasons? And do you drag the drama out? That’s just not fair to the other players who just want to focus on getting ready for their season. Still, I can live with him playing for the Jets and I am still a Packers fan. Just not a Ted Thompson fan.
Thank you to everyone who has congratulated and complimented me on my weight loss. And for all those asking how I did it, I have an answer but be prepared - it is not sexy or fancy or new. I ate less and moved more! Personally, I’ve been trying avoid that plan for oh, gosh, 42 years. I thought, surely, there must be some magic potion or incantation or something. Nope. I watch what I eat very closely, I write it down, I plan for exercise, I walk when I can (good with the cost of gas, too!). Something else sort of cool happened this week - my co-workers are motivated, too. Our deputy plans to eat more salads, court reporter is doing the 3-day diet again, and judicial assistant is talking about the crazy lemonade diet. As Ben said, it’s odd that no one took the example of following the Beck Diet Solution, a normal and healthy approach, but it’s cool to be an inspiration of sorts.
On to the salt mines…
*Ben’s accidental pun, but I can’t take credit for it.
Over Father’s Day and Ben’s birthday, Jack and I realized how tough it is to shop for Ben. He doesn’t have a “thing” we could easily identify or afford. Jack reasoned that daddy must love cars since he plays cars with him. That was the end of it until we were listening to Oscar the Grouch sing “I love trash.” Jack asked why Oscar loves trash, and responded it was just like he loves cars and trains and I love yarn and daddy loves… “PORK… and steak and lake…” So, Jack has found Ben’s thing pork, steak, and the lake. Should be an interesting Christmas!
I reached a goal today - my first “mini-goal” of 26 pounds. This is thrilling for me. Nothing fits, except the clothes that my friend Cleo passed down to me when she dropped a bunch with Beck. I have so much more energy and feel better about me. So, in honor of this goal and pre-season football which is coming up, I have set up another goal of 10 pounds. I’ll see where I am then, maybe more, maybe not. It just makes me want to go to the doctor to show off!
And actually, I’ve thought a bit about diets and how successful they are or aren’t as the case may be. Tara Pope has been blogging about it here. Diets, to me, represent scarcity. Eating is an exercise in getting as much as you can for the points or calories. As a result, I don’t pay much attention to whether I’m hungry or full as much as I have lately. Rather, I paid attention to eating everything I was allowed because I was restricted. I’m still restricted but it’s my rules. I plan for what I eat and reward myself (Yay, me!) for pushing away when I get full and not powering through to the bottom of the plate.
Alrighty, time to go pick up my little man. Yesterday, he gave me my first picture, collage actually, that he created especially for me. The colors aren’t represented fabulously, but it’s turquoise paper, with a heart for me - well, here it is.
He asked me to put it my office and this morning asked where I was going to put it and if he could come see it. It’s a pretty cool piece of art.
We’re just about through the first week back from vacation. Jack started strong but is ready for the weekend as he counts down the school days left (1 tomorrow) until the stay-home days. I’m plodding through the piles of mail and files on my desk, very unmotivated and happy for the judge’s absence from the office as I settle back in.
Speaking of Jack, not only can he spell and identify his own name but also ZOO. As we reached our exit on the way home from NC, he noticed the sign for the zoo. I’m unclear whether he simply recoginized where he was or the actual word but he proceeded to say zoo is Z-O-O. We’re thrilled, obviously, we have a genius, future Nobel Laureate winner in our midst. So, we can overlook the complete and total breakdown he had at the pool last night, right? Lucky that such behavior is rare - with the screaming and yelling and crying and the other parents staring. And the new Grant Park pool is great. Love the zero entry pool, just like at the beach, the kids can control their depth. Jack loves it, too, although he scraped up the tops of his feet and knees trolling around in the shallows.
And now the vacation pictures!
Boat ride on the first night
Watching the sunset with Uncle PJ
Cousins heading to the fireworks
Daddy and Jack watch the fireworks - oh, ah
Harrison and Declan go for a ride
Relaxing with some yoga
The boys say bye-bye to Yaya
Who is that handsome couple?
Finally enjoying the lake… just in time to go home!
So tired
Jack enjoying his first fireworks with mom
And he thought it was “awesome!” As vacation draws to a close, I thought I’d share a cute little story of Jack and Lake Wylie. He’s been quite hesitant to get in the lake, loves the boat, but not the swimming. I can see that. It’s big, dark, and unknown. He knows he’s getting swimming lessons when we get home. So, we haven’t been pushing it. Yesterday, he got on a toy wave runner (aka Seedoo), just a floating toy, no locomotion. We tied it to the dock and he enjoyed pretending he was riding the waves. At some point, he decided he wanted to get off the toy and back onto the dock. Jack has gotten quite good at getting in and out of the boat on his own, so I imagine he figured he could do the same thing. Except, the toy tipped and spilled Jack into the lake. Yes, he was wearing his lifejacket and it performed perfectly. My only real concern was getting the toy off of him. So, I swam him back to the shore while he screamed and screamed and screamed. Until we got to the steps, then he told me “mommy, I blew bubbles and the water didn’t get in my ears!” As we talked more, he told me he was scared but it was ok and he remembered to blow bubbles. I told him he was really brave. All in all, we survived his first (and almost certainly not last) fall into the water. He proved to himself that he could do it and it was ok. No, he doesn’t love it, yet. But still a good lesson!
Look for more when we get home! Lots of pictures to come…
This is since the beginning of the year - the last time I was at the doctor and they weighed me. According to Beck, each goal should be 5 pounds. And I do celebrate those goals, but I’m going to toot my own horn just a bit more. Above is my first mini goal - a train, in honor of my sweet Jack. I’d like to reach that before Labor Day and I’m more than tracking (oh, sorry, bad pun unintended) for that. Then, I’ll shoot for the wedding weight, the engagement weight, but probably not the law school graduation weight. That was not acheived in a healthy way.
I made an observation this weekend. Friday night, the family went to one of our favorite local spots, La Casita. Mexican is a bit of a challenge but it’s affordable, kid friendly, and mighty tasty. So, I looked at the menu on Friday afternoon to plan what I’d order - tacos and beans. But it’s the chips and salsa that are the problem. I love them - the combination, the salsa, the salty and hot. Usually, we order the queso dip (aka “hot fat”) and go through about 2 baskets of chips for the 3 of us. For the past few months, however, I have not been eating the chips. I may taste the salsa or other dip, but not more than a chip or two. Friday night, I had one chip with some queso - guess how many baskets of chips we went through. Less than one. Do you know what that means? I was probably eating a minimum of a whole basket of chips on my own, plus my meal and drinks - mindless eating. Yikes. Ben seemed impressed by that, too. Anyway. I certainly am not proud of that consumption, but I am proud that I’m working to address the issue.
Last night, I was trying to tuck Jack in. He was not quite ready and seemed to want to play. He sat up so I told him to get back in bed. “I am in bed, mommy.” My fault, that was not specific enough. “Okay, sweetie, put your head on your pillow.” Don’t ask why I didn’t just say lie back down, which both he and I knew was the idea. Instead, he picked up his pillow and clutched it to his head, still sitting up and very pleased with himself. I distinctly remember pulling this sort of semantic antics as a child - and I know Ben did. Is this payback? After all, I do remember responding to the command to not be smart with “I thought you wanted me to get good grades.” Must be. On the other hand, I am proud that he’s clever.
I read yesterday in the New York Times that the J. M. Smuckers Company bought the White Lily Flour brand. They are going to close the mill that has been open since 1883 in Knoxville. For my 2 northern readers, White Lily is the key to good southern baked goods, especially biscuits, because it is made from red winter wheat, which is lower in protein. Less protein means less gluten which means more tender. Smuckers sent bakers samples and the bakers are able to tell the difference in blind tests. This drives me nuts. Why take a good local and region product and dilute it for the rest of the world? Why not leave somethings for certain times and places? Home grown tomatoes come only for a short time and can only be had if you know someone who grows them; lebkuchen is for Christmas and requires a special package from a friend or a trip to a specialty store. The list goes on. Special things should stay special.
And on the topic of food - also in yesterday’s Times was An Opera Singer’s Fat Relocation Project. It’s Cindy Sadler’s blog. She’s an opera singer and a great writer. She’s lost 100 pounds! Very inspirational! She’s also following the Beck Diet Solution. Maybe I need a To Lose category…
Summer Flowers Pedi.
One last thing before I go back to work. Please check out my Etsy.com Shop. I’m trying this out as a way to destash some of my books and yarn and beads and you get the idea. I’ll be putting some yarn up in the next couple of days, so keep checking.
Not to long ago, I mentioned that I had been called for jury service in the special draw for a case before the Judge I work for. The Jury Clerk rescheduled me for June 12. I wouldn’t mind serving, but didn’t think it was likely on a summer Thursday. Wouldn’t you know it? I was called in for a death penalty case. Day 1, I got to fill out the jury questionnaire - 20 pages about me. Do I know any lawyers? What do I think of lawyers? Do I know anyone who works in the courts or law enforcement? Day 2, today, I got to come back for individual questioning by the Judge and lawyers. What do I think of the death penalty? Here’s a problem with the system - if I tell the truth, that I’m against it and have been for as long as I can remember, I don’t get to serve (ignore for a moment, that I didn’t really want to be sequestered for 3-5 weeks over the 4th of July). You aren’t supposed to be able to ask jurors how they would find. It just doesn’t seem right. I’m sure the defense doesn’t think so either. And that’s the end of my jury service.
