Inauguration Day

Justin came home after midnight last night (delayed, late flight from Denver) so lights were not out for me until after 1am. Needless to say I was not thrilled to hear Jack awake at 6:50am. But the promise of watching inauguration festivities pulled me out of bed (oh, and a cup of coffee...)

Now it's 7:30 and both kids are up early (thanks, Mr. Garbage Man!) and we are watching the festivities in DC. I can't help but think about what a wonderful thing it is that when my kids become aware of the president of our country and all that the position stands for, Barack Obama will be their point of reference. They are too young to have any concept of race, and I love that their perspectives will be shaped from the foundation of a person of color in the White House.

Oh my goodness!

I've lost 4.6 lbs. in one week! My first weigh-in for Biggest Loser 6 was this morning. I'm off to a great start... wish me strength!

Late night ramblings

Yo Gabba Gabba Heaven at the Kennedy House

I'm not sure why I'm blogging instead of going to bed - it's almost midnight and everyone else in the house is asleep. I confess that this quiet time is golden to me. Even if it means staying up really late and sacrificing sleep, it's heaven to putter around and do whatever I want, without being whined at by anyone.

Brooke and I decided to host a Valentine Party for her pre-school classmates. I just finished the invitations and they are pretty adorable, if I do say so myself! Here is a photo of the front. The inside has a cute verse printed in red in a great font called Harrington. (I wanted Aged but I was too cheap to pony up the $29 and buy it.) We asked each child to bring a small (under $10) Valentine gift to exchange. Our friend Whitney, who works at the stamping store, helped us design it and also sold us this super fantastic elephant punch that makes a perfectly adorable elephant that even has an ear that sticks out. Too cute for words. Of course, my elephant-crazed girl has punched no less than 1000 elephants in all the colors of the rainbow and "sprinkled" (her word) them throughout the house.


I think the party is going to be a blast. We're making all kinds of pink and red foods, cupcakes, home made candies, and have even started collecting some fun things for goody bags. I even found a couple of fun projects at Oriental Trading Co. that are Valentine-themed (including one for girls and one for boys). Ah, I love planning a kids' party... and I figure since Brooke's birthday is during the summer and over a holiday weekend, it's unlikely that she will be able to do something with all of her class, so we'll have this party now and then do something special with one or two friends on her birthday.

In other news... I joined Weight Watchers last night and I'm happy to say that my first day is over and went OK! They have really improved their program since I tried it (briefly) in 2006. I have to admit I'm impressed. The online tools are fantastic - online tracking, food value lookups, recipes, etc. Tonight I made a Weight Watchers coconut shrimp recipe for dinner and it was quite good! Of course, it would have been fantastic with some corn-syrup laden dipping sauce, but I survived without it. I have a long list of "weight-watchers approved" foods that I'm anxious to pick up tomorrow to make things a little bit easier for me.

OK, it's officially after midnight and I must go to sleep. If I can drag myself out of bed early enough, I'm going to try and hit the gym before the munchkins wake up and the craziness starts.

A fresh start

2009 = the year that I get serious about losing some weight and keeping it off!

Today is the first day of an online weight-loss competition a friend of mine has organized and I'm off to a good start. Had salad for lunch, went to the gym and walked on the treadmill for 47 minutes, ate an apple for a snack this morning. Wish me luck - there is a lot at stake for me, both personally in terms of my health, and also the competition prize money! Of course I already have a few ideas how I could spend that money...

Jack cracks me up. His vocabulary is exploding which is so fun. He is starting to have real preferences - for his food (he points to what he wants in the fridge, usually mozzarella sticks) and his clothing too. His favorite shirt is his football sweatshirt and he asks for it by name - "football!" while pointing to his chest. It's quite adorable. When you confirm what he's asking for he nods vigorously and says "Mmm!" He is working on a whole bunch of two syllable words, like airplane, football, Brookie, and, inexplicably, pinecone. He imitates everything Brooke does, including asking "why?" incessantly which is a bit much for one mom considering both of my kids now ask why whenever I tell them to do anything. He adores his dog, Leo, and calls "Yee-Oh!" loudly, including yelling "Yee-oh, pee pee!" loudly out the back door as Leo tries to do his business with a shred of dignity. It's quite hilarious.


Brooke had a concert in pre-school today, which was postponed from before Christmas due to the snowstorm we had. It was darling. They all had percussion instruments (jingle bells, shakers, triangles, sanblocks...) and sang about 6 songs. I got some video on my Blackberry but am not sure how to get it off the phone and post it. Brooke was really proud of herself and had to restrain herself from running over to hug me several times during the concert.

Yum

Brooke refused to sit on Santa's lap. Absolutely put her foot down. And you can see how happy Jack was...

Last night, I finally made up the gifts for Brooke's pre-school teachers. School was canceled due to snow the last two days before Christmas so I got a short reprieve. They got a cute white Starbucks mug filled with home made Vanilla Chai Tea Mix and a Barnes & Noble gift card. I have to admit, I was skeptical about the Chai mix - thought it might be un-drinkable, so I tried it before I gave it away and it was so good I went out and got more ingredients this morning so I could make some to keep and some to send to work with Justin! So yummy - to me, this tastes as good as a chai tea latte from Starbucks.

It's great to be back in the routine this morning - Brooke is at school, Jack and I came home and finished packing up the Christmas decorations, and the house is somewhat quiet. Heaven! Now if I can just get my body back on the routine. After weeks of staying up wayyyy too late and drinking more than my usual one cup of coffee every day, I have not been able to fall asleep the last two nights at my regular bedtime. It's such a bummer to lie in bed at night and stare at the ceiling until 2 or 3 am, thinking of all the projects I could be doing if it wouldn't wake everyone else up. Grr. So today I'm holding fast to one cup of coffee and hoping it helps me get to sleep on time.

Another pic from our holiday season... Have a great day!

I'm alive!

I know you have all probably given up on me, and I'm blogging to the sound of static right now, but after a two month break, I am back! I have a bazillion pictures and stories to post, including everything from Thanksgiving to our trip to Hawaii, snowstorms, and Christmas too. It seems like time has just flown since 11/1!

I promise that very soon I will post more pictures, but I thought I'd share this one from right before Christmas. We had so much snow. It cooped us up in our house for a few days, then snarled everything up for a week or more, and then it melted... and now it's falling again. Sigh. We were enthusiastic the first time, but this time? Not so much.

Hope you all had wonderful holidays! More to come...

Halloween 2008!

A great time was had by all... The rain stopped just before we headed out to Trick-or-Treat and within minutes of awakening this morning, both kids had Tootsie Pops jammed in their mouths and dripping all over. Later, I'll post pictures from Brooke's class party yesterday. What a day!