Who Laced My Diet Coke?

Someone must have put something into my Diet Coke this weekend to get me moving, because not only did I thoroughly clean the house, but I also steam cleaned the carpets, washed everyone and their mother's clothes, towels and bedding and painted the kitchen trim and door because the paint has been worn off for awhile and it was driving me crazy.

I am now so tired that I can barely keep my eyes open, but I did get it all done!

Why so much, do you ask? Because Luke is coming on Friday! My aunt sold her town house and needs someone to watch her dog for a couple of months until she finds and moves into a new place. She is unable to take Luke with her to where she'll be living until that time, so he will be staying with us.

Since we'll be having two very hairy and massively shedding dogs here, I figured this was probably my last chance to clean so thoroughly for awhile. That and I didn't want the house to smell so strongly of Daisy when Luke gets here. I've heard that can make it easier on a dog coming into a new home that already has a dog.

So, now that I've had a bit of a break, I need to go swap out my summer clothes in my closet for my fall clothes. According to my weatherman, fall is expected in a couple of days. I can't wait!

World's Worst Parent

Apparently, today is Nickelodeon's Worldwide Day of Play. They've gone off the air to encourage kids to get outside and play today.



Guess what our kid has been doing downstairs since 6:30am?

Hey, it could be worse. He's been awake since 5:20am, begging to play his new Lego Batman game on the Playstation.

Fat Ticker Friday

I've been such a bad, bad blogger. Things have been pretty boring and normal around here. We've settled into a nice routine since school started. I've been going over and helping Bret's Grandma get up in the morning a little earlier than usual so I can make it to the gym (I know - gasp! - 3 days in a row this week!)

I've been participating in Hot For The Holidays over at Baby Tea Leaves and had a weight loss of 1.5 pounds this morning, which brings me up to a total of 4.5 pounds over the last 3 weeks. I was actually worried that I would have a gain since I just went back to the gym this week, which usually makes me gain before I lose.

The weekend ahead hold no big plans for us. I may just decide to take advantage of it and get some much needed things done around the house that I've been putting off.

Have a great weekend!

Wii Fit = Smart A*#

I've been having a hard time finding the time to get to the gym lately and while I was at Wal-mart this morning, I happened to walk past the electronic section and almost died of excitement when I saw that they had TWO Wii Fit's in stock. I've walked by many times and there has never been one there. So I grabbed it.

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After I got home from my little part time job at school, I started setting it up.

Yep, that's the Mii I set up for my self sometime ago.

You should be ashamed asking for asking a lady how old she is! Fine, let's get started with your little pretesting, shall we?

No. I do not trip a lot. Then it tells me that my Wii Fit age is 42 years old and all of sudden my Mii becomes rounder. I almost threw the remote at the TV.

Hmm, chose a trainer? Male or Female? What do you think?

The jury was still out on how well of a work out one could get with this, but 38 minutes later I have to admit that I was a little sore and working up a sweat, but having fun at the same time. I think we'll keep it!

Homecoming Parade

This weekend is Dunlap's big Homecoming weekend! Ashley survived her first parade in the marching band and had a great time.

After the parade, we ran home to eat and change clothes and then went and cheered on the football team at the game.

Today we're off to Chicago to drop off the kids at my mom's and then it's on to my friend Emily's house for girls night out.

Join The Fun

They've got me hooked over at Facebook. I originally only signed up to give it a test run to see if it was appropriate for my daughter to use. The jury is still out on that, but meanwhile I've been having more fun on there than a 31 year old mom probably should be having, but in my defense, I'm not the only 30 something over there. I've found that many of my friends are there and I've reconnected with quite a few people from my high school days. It's been fun sending little messages and funny "gifts" to my friends throughout the day.

So, while I've been busy settling into a back to school routine over here, I promise to try and keep up on this blog a little better than I have been. However, I'm curious - are any of you signed up over at facebook.com? Want to join me over there? Email me at lmweth24 at aol dot com. Oh, come on! It's really fun!

Week In Review

I apologize for disappearing this week, but things are now finally starting to slow down. Ashley's softball season is officially over. Her last game of the season was Wednesday night. Watching her games has been a lot of fun, but I'm ready for it to be over.

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Homework has been out of control now that school is back in full swing. It seems like once we're all home and done with dinner, we're spending the rest of our nights buried in homework. Ashley is doing excellent in school. No problems there. Ryan is struggling a little, but we expected that. While he has made tremendous progress - I'll never get tired of him reading a book to us - he still has some more catching up to his peers to do. Five years of undiagnosed hearing loss plus a possible learning disability will do that to you. We just have to stay patient, work with him and keep on top of the school.

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Homework time.

Earlier this week, Ryan brought home a short story that he wrote himself with no help. I was very proud and promptly hung it on our fridge. It had some spelling errors, but it showed promise. Being able to write an actual sentence was a challenge for him last year.

Also this week, I got my highlights redone and my hair cut. It's still very blonde right now, but it'll tone down in a week or so. I went for more layers this time around because I'm so tired of my hair just hanging there, doing absolutely nothing. I was amazed at how many of the little kids at school the next day noticed my hair.

The weather here has been horrible and depressing for the last couple of days. It has rained nonstop. Despite the constant rain, we went to the high school football game tonight. We made it through the first half and ended up leaving during halftime because of Ryan's boredom (his friends decided not to brave the rain), the obnoxiously loud parent behind us and because we looked and felt like drowned rats.

Ryan is ready for the football game.

Brings back memories of the good old days.

I didn't get any pictures of Ashley tonight. Once we walked through the gates, she was swallowed up by a group of her friends and gone. Seems to be becoming the norm these days. Sigh.

Motivate Me, Please

Looky what I found by way of Maggie. Should be fun. This is just what I've been looking for - a group of people with the same common goal to help keep me motivated and on track. Be sure to check it out!

Party Like An Eight Year Old

Friday night was the big night for Ryan. He and 14 of his friends swam the night away at the indoor River Plex pool at his birthday party. His birthday was Aug 19, but we've been so busy that we couldn't have his party until this weekend.

Ashley and her cousin Mitchell are always inseparable.

(Click on pictures to enlarge for a better view.)

The kids play in the zero depth area,

while the big kid waits for his friends to join him.

Lazy River

Ryan and his two best friends.

Bret's always up for a water slide.

The birthday boy gets dunked by his uncle.

Then the uncle gets attacked by the kids.

Batman cake for the bat boy.

Cheesing it up.

Sydnie, Ashley & Skyler.

Jackpot!

All hopped up on sugar and ready to go home!

Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Payday

At the rate the kids are going, it's a good thing I took on a part time job at school. They each made $4.25 this week. Once they had to pay up their first and second quarters, they caught on pretty quickly. It actually served as a good little math lesson for Ryan. He did pretty well with counting out the quarters, exchanging them in for dollar bills and then counting out how much he had altogether in paper money. Now the kid wants to go spend it all! Go figure.

Nine Months

Wow, yesterday marked nine months since I quit smoking and I didn't even realize it until last night. This is the longest I've ever stayed quit and I'm pretty confident that it will stick. I honestly can't see myself ever going back.

Last night, my friend Teri and I went out for a couple of drinks and the thought to smoke never occured to me once. The Illinois smoking ban (thank God for that!) I'm sure has a lot to do with that.

Three more months until I make it to the one year mark!

Trim Up Tuesday - Baby Steps

Well, I guess I made it through my first week back at Trim Up Tuesday. I started out this week taking it slow since we all know how fast I tend to jump back into the whole working out thing only to end up injured and out of commission for the next couple of months. My effort, however, was squashed by busy schedules, rain and then getting sick. I'm not really sure how, but I did manage to lose 2.5 pounds this week.

I'm going to try something new here. I think it will help me to do this as more of a journal type thing. Something to the effect of holding me more accountable....blah blah blah. I'm just going to go with it and see what happens.

Week One:

Tuesday: Sore from my first day back to the gym yesterday. Thought about not working out today, but the pull to do something was strong so I grabbed our dog and headed to a nearby trail for 25 minutes of uphill and downhill torture. Has anyone found the secret to avoiding shin splints?

Wednesday: Holy calf pain. Those hills yesterday got me good - I wonder if the poor dog is sore, too. Very seriously considered taking the dog over to the Rock Island trail after school/work this afternoon for a walk, but chickened out after talking to another Playground Supervisor Mommy at work and hearing that two women were recently attacked on the trail in broad daylight. Will rethink that plan after I buy some mace. Where can one buy mace at these days? Decided to give my calves the day off.

Thursday: Rainy, stormy day + running around town getting errands done = no work out today.

Friday: 5 hours of house cleaning today. Well call that a workout and run with it.

Saturday: Too busy being a family to do anything else today. Ashley had a double header this morning. After that we went out to lunch, did a little shopping and then it was time to head over to our friend's backyard party.

Sunday: Awful allergies got me good. Or maybe it's a cold. Can allergies really make you feel this bad? Had to leave the party early last night and was in bed by 8:30pm.

Monday: Still sick and miserable. Enough said.

So, as we can all see here, I didn't really keep up with the excersice, but I did spend 2 hours a day at work walking all over the playground. I also didn't eat out as much this week, which is probably a big help.

Weight loss this week: 2.5 pounds

Total weight loss: 2.5 pounds

Enough Already

I'm tired of hanging up forgotten bath towels, cleaning up puddles around the toilet, finding dirty laundry on the floor IN FRONT of the hamper, tripping over toys and cell phone texting during homework time. It's time to train them.

Starting today, both kids wills start the week with $5 in quarters. Each time the kids break a rule, fail to listen, or don't take care of their belongings they have to pay me a quarter. At the end of the week, whatever is left in their cups is their's to keep. (I'm even going to be nice and cash them into dollar bills so I don't have to keep running to the bank for quarters.)

Unless they surprise me, there probably won't be much left in there by this time next week.