Diet Diaries

Okay, I didn't have the camera on me this morning when I weighed in and now it's too late to take a picture of the scale because after two meals and no workout today the scale lies my friends. It tells big, fat lies.

Before it turned into a big liar though it said 130 lbs. this morning. Fantastic! I managed to make it through the Thanksgiving Holiday and maintain my goal weight. Now, only Christmas and New Years to go. Then I'll start berating myself again if I can't get the other five pounds off. It's nice to have something to look forward to.

I've been spending a lot of time with my friend Jillian Michaels via her thirty day shred workout video the past two weeks. As much as I hate to admit it, I think she knows what she's doing. It almost makes the fact that she calls a thirty minute workout a twenty minute workout acceptable. My scale is not the only big liar around here.

Dear Jillian,

I can tell time. xoxo Little Mama

The day after Turkey day

I decided to brave the Black Friday shopping crowds and try to finish up some Christmas shopping this morning. I only went to three different stores and actually, with the exception of Target, the crowds weren't bad at 10am. I guess everyone had already finished their shopping at 6am this morning. I've had my eye on this cute little silver tutu for Emma for weeks now. I just couldn't justify spending $20 on it. Lo and behold, this morning it was on sale for 50% off plus I got an additional 10% off at checkout. Totally worth it! Little Bit loves it. The best part of shopping today? I only have three presents left to go. Woo hoo! They are for the three most difficult to shop for people on my list though. I'm feeling gift cards or cash in the near future. Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Diet Diaries

OH. MY. WORD. Is that a 2 following the 1 on the scale? I'm not sure because I haven't seen that number in at least 15 months. But, I think it is. Success! That means I finally reached my Holiday goal weight of 130 which means I can have chocolate cake, or pie or a little bit of both. I'm going to try not to go crazy because the actual goal is to maintain the 130 or under through Christmas and then take off another five pounds before Emma's first birthday. I think I can, I think I can...

Wordless Wednesday

Gem of the Day

Yesterday, as Jake was watching his new fave movie "Free Willy" he looked at me and said "Mama! Dolphins don't eat donuts!" Okay, then. I'm not sure where that came from. I don't think it's in the movie anywhere is it? Regardless, ever since then I've had an idea for a children's book dancing around in my head. Now if only I can make it stop dancing and start writing itself that would be great. Meanwhile, I've decided to start paying closer attention to what Little Mister tells me. Perhaps he's my muse and I'll have a budding career as a childrens book writer. It's secretly one of my life long dreams.

Piggies, paws and little mini quiches

So on Saturday morning I hosted (hostessed?) my first official adult with children type party. It was a Piggies and Paws party. Jake's first teacher in our Mother's Day Out program is now an official artist with this company. I ran into her at Target a few weeks ago and told her I would love to get the kids prints done and she said I should consider hosting a party. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. We really haven't invited many people over to see our new house so I thought it would be fun.

I sent out about 25 email invitations three weeks in advance. Two of my closest friends immediately responded. No one else did. So a week before the party I sent out a reminder email. Six more people responded. That's it. I have four words for you. R. S. V. P. or Responding soon is very polite. Actually, I don't think that's what it stands for but do you get my point? It's fine if you can't make it to a party, but please just let the person giving the party know! I had no idea how much fruit to cut up or how many miniature quiches to warm up in the oven. Plus, I bought snacks for all the kids. I just assumed that everyone who didn't respond wouldn't show up and I was right! Actually, only four people came but we had a great time. They were all neighbors of mine and I got to know each of them a little bit better. The kids (for the most part) enjoyed getting their hands and feet printed for a future piece of art. I highly recommend this company if you're looking for a new way to preserve those little hand and footprints for the future. I even recommend hosting a party because it's fun even if you have no idea how many mini quiches to heat up.

Diet Diaries

After a two week hiatus, I once again weighed in this morning. Unfortunately, I seem to have deleted the picture of the scale. I think it said 131. 6. I know I was relieved because every other day this week it has said close to 133 and I didn't know how that could be especially when just a week and a half ago it said 130.8 which is just eight tenths of a pound away from my Holiday goal weight.

This is becoming slightly discouraging. I've cut way back on my sugar intake, only drink an occasional Coke Zero and have exercised six days this week. What else does a mama have to do? I wake up in the middle of the night with my stomach just growling! Oh, well. I'm not giving up. Not just yet. Thoughts, comments, encouragement are welcome now.

I have a dream

So, this is what comes down to. Me writing emails to celebrities. This is a copy of the actual email I just sent in to the Ellen Degeneres show. Think it will help?

Can Ellen help make my dream of meeting Rick Springfield for my 40th birthday come true?! I love watching Ellen and I love to see how she helps so many people. I know my wish sounds pretty silly but I'm totally serious about wanting to meet my childhood idol before one of us dies. Not that either one of us is sick or anything. I can't tell you how much I have loved Rick Springfield for the last 28 years or so. My best friend at the time and I used to race home from school to watch him on General Hospital and we bought every Tiger Beat, Teen Beat or Seventeen magazine that had his picture in it. The first concert I ever went to was Rick Springfield playing with Quarter Flash in Amarillo, Tx. Went to that with my best friend Amy and we spent the night on the front row in complete disbelief and utter amazement that we were so close to him. I even touched the girl next to me who touched his shoe!

As a stay at home mom who loves my job but is sometimes frightened by the monotony of it all, I can still put one of his CD's on to lift my spirits on any given day. I'd like to say I've matured as a fan and would now just really like to sit down and have a conversation with him assuming I would be able to speak in his presence.

Anyhow, I've asked my friends and family to help me achieve my goal on my blog http://thelittlemama.blogspot.com/2009/11/please-im-begging-you.html , but between you and me I don't think they are taking me seriously. I need help from someone big. Someone with connections. That's where I'm hoping Ellen will come in. I'll even donate my $100 "reward" money to her favorite cause. Thanks in advance! Sincerely, Kim (LM)

Do you hear what I hear?

One of my favorite parts of being a mommy is watching and listening to the kids from afar. I love being with them too but it's fun to see how they behave when they think you're not around and to hear what they have to say to other people.

A few nights ago Mike had the chore (I mean privilege) of getting Jake ready for bed. They were in the playroom and Jake was throwing a good sized fit. I sat in the living room listening to our boy tell his daddy that he only wanted his mama to get him dressed and put him to bed. Mike asked him why he didn't want daddy to do it and he said because "mama my best friend!" While it disappointed me that he was being so ugly to his daddy, I have to admit there was a part of me sitting on the couch thinking "Yeah! I'm his best friend right now!"

This, however, turns out to be a short lived title. The next morning when he woke up the first thing he told me was that his stuffed penguin was his best friend. Oh, well. I'll take what I can get when I can get it. I'm sure it won't be long before he's following Mike around telling him that he's his best friend and I'll be sitting there going "yeah, but who gave birth to you?!" while I drown my sorrows in mint chocolate chip ice cream.

I've also heard him recently telling stories that I make up for him to his toys. He embellishes them with his own little details and makes them his own stories. I love this! It's wonderful seeing your child's imagination grow. Now, if only we could see his compassion for animals grow. As much as he loves dolphins and penguins right now, I'm amazed at how mean he can be to his own puppy and kitty. Poor Zoe thinks she's a soccer ball right now.

In an ongoing effort to teach him to be amazed by all of God's creations, this morning I pointed out a beautiful Monarch butterfly to him at the park. He came over, got down on his hands and knees and we talked about how pretty the butterfly was. When he tried to touch it I told him not to because they're so fragile that touching them can make them not able to fly. I thought he was really understanding all of this and loving it every bit as much as I was. Until he got up, picked up one foot and stomped on that butterfly as hard as he possibly could.

Looks like we still have some work to do. Mike told me that he actually saw the butterfly fly off at the last second and since I couldn't find a body I believe him. Now, if only we could get the cat some wings to escape his "affection" we might be okay.

Wordless Wednesday

Princess Emma

I have to say that dressing Emma up is one of the joys of my life right now. I always thought that if I had a little girl I would want her to be a tomboy and prefer jeans and a t-shirt over frilly little dresses. But for now, while she's still too young to tell me what she likes, I will dress her up for church at least. When Jake saw her in this dress yesterday morning, he said "MAMA! LOOK! Emma a princess!" I thought it was too cute because I'm quite sure we don't talk about princesses around here so I don't know how he even knows what one is. When I told him he could be a prince, he said "no thank you, I Jacob." I just love these little munchkins!

It's good to see the green, green grass of home

Backyard Saga's

In backyard news, a couple days ago Mike and his buddy hauled a couple truck loads of dirt into the yard. We spent the next two days spreading it out over the massive amounts of weeds growing there. I know we should have pulled the weeds, but we are lazy. Mike did spray them with weed killer for all the good that did.

The staked off portion below is the home of our future square foot garden. It's really going to be two square foot gardens combined into one big rectangular garden. I can taste the tomatoes now.

This other staked off bit is going to be our future patio. We hope to build some kind of an arbor over it someday so we can actually enjoy the patio during the nine months of summer we have here.

Grass was delivered today! Our friends Kevin and Leslie came over to help us lay down the sod and Mike just finished up tonight. It looks good in the dark! I'll post pictures of the finished product tomorrow. Peace out.

Thoughtless Thursday

Broccoli, Ice Cream and Dirt in one post!

In an effort to keep a clean house when I have absolutely no time to clean, I made a cleaning chart for myself a few weeks ago. Mainly because I like to make charts. I followed it for about two weeks and was pretty proud of myself. The house was never completely clean all of the time, but at least I knew each room was getting touched on a weekly basis.

Now, my chart sits looking forlornly at me on my desk. It's kind of like broccoli in your refrigerator. You know it's there and that it would be really good for you if you ate it but you just pretend like you can't see it and instead eat the ice cream in the freezer. Only with my cleaning chart I pretend I can't see it and that's it. Things are not getting clean.

In my defense it is really hard to be motivated to clean the house when no one around here is interested in maintaining the clean. Especially the 110 lb. dog who tracks mud all over the place and leaves hair balls in every corner and under every piece of furniture we own. I'm boycotting mopping the floor because it stays clean for exactly three minutes.

Here's a picture of the aforementioned hairballs. It's hard to see them because of my inferior photography skills but trust me they are all over the place. Emma eats them. She also eats cat food. But give the girl a vegetable and she screams like a vampire in the sunlight.




I'm curious to see if anyone out there has a cleaning schedule that really works for them. Clearly, I need some help. LM

I pledge to post something every single day for a month

This is National Blog Posting Month. Who knew? The idea is that you're supposed to post something every day this month even on weekends. I'm going to do my best. I'm not saying it's going to be good or entertaining, but I will try to have something every day. Better start taking pictues of the kids!

Speaking of kids, we did take Jake and Emma to a new play area/bouncy house the other day. They had a blast. Jake has developed a sudden fear of slides and wouldn't do the big one, but we finally talked him into going down the smaller inflatable slide. Emma had so much fun with all of the little toys and really wanted to join Jake in the bouncy house. She's getting so big! It really makes me want another one. Until I remember the whole being pregnant for nine months, feeling sick and tired all the time, and no sleep thingy. Then I'm good with just the two.

Please, I'm begging you...

Here's the deal. I love Rick Springfield. I know it. Mike knows it. You know it. It may seem silly to everyone else out there but I really have this dream of meeting him before I die. The sooner the better. I have now sat through two different Oprah shows where I got to watch others like me be surprised by a visit from him. Don't get me wrong here. I'm happy for them. But I always sit there thinking oh my gosh why can't that be me? On her last show Rick actually showed up and invited these two forty something ladies to go on his cruise in November. How I covet them and their cruise tickets. The only thing standing in my way of going on that cruise is about $2000 and someone to come babysit for a week while I'm gone. In short, never gonna happen.

However, I believe in my heart of hearts that I might be able to meet him in person or even receive a telephone call from him someday. That's where you come in. I'm just gonna put it out there that I need help from my friends and family to help achieve this dream for my fortieth birthday. Gosh, it hurts to say that. I can't believe I'll be turning 40 in January. It would be a little bit easier to swallow if I wasn't married to a 28 year old.

Anyway, I know someone out there has the where-with-all, gumption, fortitude etc. to find a way to get Rick to come to my house for my birthday party with his guitar in hand. Or, maybe just to get on his cell phone and call my house with his guitar in hand. What's in it for you, you ask? Well, my undying love and affection. And maybe $100 cash money. I know Rick's time and talent are worth way more than that but things are tight over here at Little Mama headquarters. So, stop reading and go get busy! I know you can do it!

It's Candy Time!

Oh, the joys of Halloween. Jake liked it last year, but this year he absolutely loved it. How is it that we managed to end the night with more total candy than we started with? Halloween is supposed to be an equal exchange or transfer of candy from one house to another. This year, by the time we were done trick or treating so were most of the neighborhood kids so we ended up with Jake's stash plus half the candy we bought to hand out. You do know whose responsibility it is going to be to eat most of that right? I'm gonna half to take it for the team so that Jake doesn't become some sort of candy crack head. With that being said, I'm going to take the next two weeks off from Diet Diaries. I will be resuming posting my weekly weigh-ins two weeks from today or approximatley one week after the candy disappears.



If you think we can't eat that entire bowl of candy in a week then you are truly underestimating us.

Jake couldn't wait to put on his lion costume and go begging for candy with his two friends "A" and Little "D". We dressed Emma up in her cow costume and then I found out from everyone who saw her that she was actually a giraffe. Amazing. I can tell the difference between a Common dolphin and a Pacific white sided dolphin but am clearly lost when it comes to identifying land mammals. Whatever. She still had fun. I'm amazed at how many people will give candy to an infant with no teeth.




Friday, I decided to go out and find some kitty ears so I could dress up as a cat. Saturday, Halloween day, at 5pm Mike decided to go to WalMart and buy a wig so he could be Afro Man. There's nothing like getting into the spirit of the holiday.

I also made some cupcakes with gummy worms on top and some cookies to munch on because I was afraid we wouldn't have enough sugar to go around. We did start the night off with some real food. Look at our scary Jack O Lantern pizza.




There were a few people in the neighborhood who thought it would be funny to dress up really scary and scare the crap out of little kids. This is actually some sort of moving statue, but then there was a person inside the garage talking for it which really freaked the kids out at first.



It was so much fun watching the sheer joy of the three little boys we had with us as they ran from house to house. Jake had to tell me after each house that he got MORE CANDY! He could not believe it. And the best part for us? Little man actually slept an hour late today. Of course, with the time change he really woke up right on schedule, but still it was a true Halloween miracle.