Thanksgiving Feast

Just a little quickie to share some pix from school. Yesterday, Turner's class had their Thanksgiving Deal. They made Friendship Stew. I made peanut butter sandwiches. My friend Andrew brought pumpkin pie and a few not-as-trusted moms were responsible for bringing in chips. It was a gorgey day, so they were able to eat outside. Oh, and in case you are wondering, Mrs. Y is smart enough to know that everyone wanted to be a Native American, so there were no pilgrims at the feast this year.

Turner's table:


Turner and a few pals:


Turner and his BFF:

Uh oh, I've been tagged

I have not been writing faithfully, nor have I been reading faithfully. I have a very good reason. No time. Seriously. :) Allison tagged me on this, so before I try to think of a topic, I'll just ease back into blogging with this fill in the blank session.

Four Films I Could Watch Over and Over:
1. The Breakfast Club. Brings back warm and fuzzy high school memories. Not because the movie imitated my high school life (but if it did, I'd totally be Claire), but because a good friend and I used to quote it back and forth to each other daily. I miss Jason Page.
2. Gone with the Wind. It reminds me of growing up, watching it with my Mom and aunt. I loved what a drama ho Scarlett was. And she is the most gorgeous lady I've ever seen.
3. Pretty in Pink. This one reminds me of high school, except I wasn't from the wrong side of the tracks and my prom dress came from Classy Lady, Too.

4. I really want to say Four Weddings and a Funeral, but don't want Allison to think I'm a copycat. But Andie MacDowell has the most perfect accent in the world. Oh, let's switch to Sex, Lies & Videotape. I get Andie and a bonus James Spader.

Four Favorite TV Shows:
Um, I think I could use four favorite TV shows on each channel, or each genre, or each season. Something. I don't think I can limit myself.
1. The Office. I do not laugh out loud while watching TV often, but every Thursday I do.
2. Prison Break. Maybe it's because I practically know Wentworth Miller?
3. America's Next Top Model. I feel like it's making me an expert in something.
4. The Biggest Loser. This is SO much more inspiring and enjoyable when you are actually losing weight while watching it.

Four Favorite Foods
1. Snow Peas and tofu with brown rice. I'm drooling on the keyboard.
2. Bean tostadas. This has been my favorite for 25 years or so. I ranked my stir fry ahead of it because the DH had lunch at Stir Fry Cafe without me today.
3. Apples and peanut butter. Yum. This would have never been on my list before I began Training for Life.
4. Pinto beans (or white beans or navy beans), but only when my mom makes them especially for me.

Four Websites I visit Every Day:
1. Jie
I haven't been uber-regular anywhere else lately, but I do visit a few places very frequently:
2. All of my friends' blogs.
3. Turner's school website.
4. I've been cruising the Body Pump boards.

Four Places I Would Love to Be:
1. At the gym
2. At the Loews Vanderbilt hotel in Nashville
3. The condo we stayed in over the 4th of July
4. The Great Smoky Mountains in a kickin' cabin

Four Favorite Colors:
1. Orange - Powell orange
2. Olive green
3. Red
4. Navy blue

Four Names I Love But Wouldn't/Couldn't Use for a Kid
1. Will. totally doesn't work with my last name.
2. Walker. I have a slight amount of regret that I didn't use it for Loudy.
3. Scarlett. No girls, and not a SOUL in my family approved of it anyway. You'd think they were Yankees.
4. Holland. This one was well-accepted, but I still didn't have a beautiful girl on which to bestow this name.

Four People to Tag:
Anyone who happens to be here who hasn't done this?

Seriously?

You know I love patchwork. And plaid. And J. Crew's junior line - crewcuts. But sometimes the designers carry it all just a little too far. Check out this blazer. For a mere $350, you can dress your 2-10 year old in this piece of loveliness.

7 things about me

Following my amigas...

1. I am often the smartest person in the room. Seriously. And even when I'm not, it gives me a lot more confidence to tell myself that I am. I recently went to a birthday party and there were LOTS of people packed into the office of that trailer park, but I never doubted my position as Smartest Person there.

2. I am all about Tommy Hilfiger jeans. This is a recent development, due to my weight loss. It gives me a sick thrill to wear these heinous jeans because I know how long it has been since I was able to button them. Today my jeans have an American Flag ribbon all the way around the waist band. Tommy is so patriotic.

3. I have no idea where my engagement ring is. I wore it one Saturday in the spring, came home, took it off, and I have no idea where it is. The problem is that I was too fat to wear it regularly, so I'd just pull it out when I really wanted people to know I was married. It was probably a couple of weeks before I looked for it again and it was MIA. This is starting to worry me a bit. How will I ever be able to trade up if I don't find it?

4. I love the color orange. And I really think it has nothing to do with the Vols. Throughout the year, I long for fall so I can wear my multitude of orange sweaters and my orange shoes. I would never wear either past the Thanksgiving though. Orange must give way to red on the day after Thanksgiving.

5. I'm really concerned about this TV writers' strike. This could totally affect my life. Thank goodness there are enough reality shows to get me through the tough times that are sure to come without new episodes of my favorite dramas and my favorite comedy - The Office.

6. Apparently I'm going to turn into one of *those* moms. I'm really mad at Turner's art teacher for giving him an S instead of an E. He tries really hard and loves that class. That S hurt his feelings. This happened several weeks ago and I'm still mad about it.

7. I'd like to visit all 50 states, and I'd like to take my children. But as long as we continue to go to Florida twice a year and Kiawah once, that's probably not going to happen. I think I'm going to take them to Baltimore in January, so that's a start.

Update from Wednesday and Turner's journal

A small update from the Wednesday from hell. I went to the PTO meeting well-prepared. I took paper, notebooks, a Junie B. Jones book, several engines, plenty of snacks, crayons and pencils. Loudon decided he would much prefer to play with the paint stirrers the kids use to mark the spot where they get their library books. Get two of those and you can play the drums on the table, smack them together or beat your brother with them. Apparently it is also a lot of fun to take off running across the library screaming. I was pretty sure I heard a couple of "SHHHHHs" but tried to pretend I was being paranoid.

Eventually, some b*tchy woman lets out an "Oh my gosh!" in response to his antics and I see there is no understanding that children sometimes behave this way (or in my case, always do) and you have to bring them with you when PTO meetings are held at 3 freaking PM. Unable to take any more humiliation, I have to pack up the thousands of things I brought to entertain my boys and keep them quiet while Loudon continues to go berserk. I shove everything into my backpacks and go to grab Loudon. He screams louder than ever while I grab him up and toss him over my shoulder. I put him down once we're outside the library and he takes off running. I catch up to him just as he opened the other door to the library and started back in with an evil grin on his face. I did catch him before the door closed behind him and had to carry him kicking and screaming to the car. Yeah. We skipped karate.

Now that I have that off my chest, on to sweeter things. I have met many friends on my "board" in the last few years. Some I have talked to on the phone, some just online and some I have actually met a few times. Turner now counts a Jie kid as one of his closet pals as well. An excerpt from his journal at school yesterday:

I like to play Pokemon cards with Maison in Florda.

Mason is actually spelled without the "i" and is a boy, not a house in France. If you read my blog, you definitely know Mason and his Mama. :)

Wednesday again

Some people live for the weekend. Not me. I strive to make it to Wednesday night. I have come to despise Wednesdays. They are exhausting from way before sun-up to far past sundown. My day goes like this:



4:45 a.m. Wake up and take a quick shower

5:30 a.m. Get to the gym and kill myself for an hour

6:38 a.m. Arrive home where I am immediately greeted by my husband: "Get these boys something to wear." I trudge upstairs to the whines of a 6-year old terrified he will miss the bus. He is worried that I haven't signed his agenda or written the check for his field trip. His pants are too big, his shirt is too long and his shoes are too slow. Tough.

7 a.m. 6-year old leaves and it's 3-year old's turn. "I don't wanna go pee pee in the potty yet. I snuggle with Mommy." Ahhh, one of the sweet spots in this horrible day.

7:30 a.m. My 3-year old goes to Mimi's house and I am blissfully alone to take a shower and make it to work by 8:30.

8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. I do 8 hours worth of work and internet surfing.

1 p.m. My Mom and Loudon will come and bring my favorite meal from Panera. Okay, this is a definite highlight.

2:15 p.m. Head out to school with Loudy to pick up Turner and take them BOTH to the PTO meeting that should start by 3 p.m.

3:45 p.m. Sitting in the PTO meeting tapping my foot and calculating how many seconds it will take to reach karate, which starts at...

4 p.m. Karate. Oh, how I hate it. I have now been reprimanded because Loudon does not sit quietly in a chair and watch. I am on egg shells that we will be tossed out on our tails the next time he crawls across the floor playing race cars.

5 p.m. Arrive home from karate. Just enough time to shove some food down my children's throats and search wildly for Turner's AWANA handbook and vest (which will most likely need to be ironed from being crumpled in a corner somewhere).

6 p.m. Run out of the house and to the local church where he attends AWANA. Drop him off and head to the gym.

8 p.m. Pick up Turner and drive home, imagining changing into comfy clothes and climbing onto the couch for 5 minutes of TV viewing before I drift off to sleep.

8:05 p.m. Tell my husband he's in charge of baths and bedtime and go hide under a comforter. Approximately 7 seconds later I will be found. It's not fair that anyone has to take a bath ever. Daddy's being mean. Turner points out that he's not even dirty and he took a bath last night.

The torture continues until at least 9 p.m. Honestly? I'm not even sure how long it lasts because eventually my mind tunes them out and I pass out cold.

25 lbs.

This one is all about me. I have lost 25 lbs. in 10 weeks. That's significant. It ties my record for Most Weight Lost. It means I've stuck with something for 10 whole weeks. Dutifully, I have gotten up every M/W/F morning at 4:45 (sometimes 5, once 5:20) to be at the gym for a 5:30 a.m. training session. I gave up Coke Classic, my only real vice. I go to the gym most evenings. I live, live, LIVE for Friday night Body Pump. I can do push-ups for crying out loud. Yet, I have many more pounds to go. And I have let El Rey start creeping back into my diet. I still wonder when I am going to quit. Because I am a quitter.

I quit everything. I try to surround myself with people to do things with me so I won't quit, but that doesn't always work. I got my (now) BIL to take Music Appreciation with me in college and then I dropped it because it was too annoying to come back to campus after lunch. I convinced my sister and BIL to become Lutheran and go to MY church. Now they're ushers and committee members and I haven't darkened the doors in a year. I was all hopped up on going to the gym for a few months after Loudon was born and begged my BIL to go to a class with me for a few weeks. When I went back this fall, HE introduced ME to HIS friends in the class. I could go on and on with examples, but you get the point.

I'm a quitter. And I can't quit this. I have too much to lose (pretty good pun, huh?). So, I'll keep getting up at 4:45'ish and I'll keep paying my trainer to be my best friend. And this time next year when I'm sporting something close to my early '90s physique, congratulate me. Not on losing the weight, but on being a reformed quitter.