dieting sucks

I hate dieting. I really do.

After Bethany was born, I blew up to over 250 lbs. Lost most of that eventually. After Bryan was born I actually looked fantastic.

And then I got old and complacent and I looked at myself one day in the mirror and stepped on the scales. I was back up to 250 lbs. I couldn't believe it.

I didn't look like myself at all. I looked like a gigantic marshmallow. Just not as yummy.

Then we bought this house. It's two story. I lost 10 lbs in the first month, just from going up and down the stairs. Yay...down to 240.

Six months later the staph infection came to visit. I dropped 20 lbs in a week.

Down to 220.

Staying sick for so long...the next month I lost another 20 lbs.

200

But I still looked like a cow.

So I had this bright idea to start going to the gym and diet.

I go to the gym 3-4 days a week, walk or run a minimum of 4 miles and sometimes up to 8 miles.

The weight is coming off.

I'm at 164 now. Only 34 lbs to go.

OMG this last 34 lbs is going to kill me. I am so HUNGRY!!

But I have a couple of class reunions coming up...lots of faces I haven't seen in too long and I am determined to turn heads. I'm going to be the woman that everybody stops and stares at.

Vain?

yes, yes I am.

so...mostly I have been eating fruit for supper. tomorrow's menu? yogurt and granola for breakfast, probably nothing for lunch...and fruit for supper.

Did I mention that I'm soooo hungry and that I hate dieting?

The New Week

Well everyone, it's Sunday night and I'm gearing up for another crazy week. 3 nights of football practice, 1 possibly 2 nights of auditions, 3 nights of plays, and a saturday full of football. That's just the kids' stuff!

But what a great month October is turning out to be. October has always been my favorite month, the weather is perfect, the seasons are changing...and this year October has been going even better than ever before.

I promise this week I'll get at least ONE funny story on here. Hopefully more. I might even find some great pics to post. :)

But for now, I'm going to bed. I'm gonna need all my strength for the week to come.

Reunions...

Last weekend, I crashed the 89 reunion. Tracey Bush asked me to come up for it, and Derek Hodges went too, so there was just no way I WASN'T going.

It was so much fun I could hardly believe it! Derek started my night off by getting me drunk as a skunk, which hasn't happened in ages.

And since I was drunk, my brain wasn't firing on all 8 cylinders...I asked Derek if he would take me for a ride in his plane.

When I sobered up, I just prayed he didn't remember that little conversation.

Unfortunately for me, he did. So we made plans to go up yesterday. I was absolutely terrified. Derek called Thursday night to tell me we couldn't go up Friday because the starter was out in the plane.

Talk about dodging a bullet. *whew* But I promised him I'd go up with him next time. Maybe I'll have found my nerve by then.

THEN to compound this week's stupidity...only this time I was sober when I opened my big mouth...Noel Charpentier asked if he could start going to the gym with me.

SURE...that'd be GREAT!!

Did I mention Noel is a fireman and is going to probably have to drag me around the gym, broken and battered? What the heck was I thinking? Oh that's right, I wasn't. *rolls eyes*

but at least it will be fun.

January I am still looking at a mini reunion with Aaron, Brandon and DJ. And then of course the big reunion over the summer. I am sooooooo looking forward to seeing some beautiful, wonderful faces that I haven't seen in far too long.

I've learned that I LOVE reunions. I think I may be gettin' addicted.

Stage debuts and even more football

Well, this week my baby girl had her on stage debut as Slightly Soiled in the GISD production of Peter Pan. She was AMAZING.

Even before this show is wrapping up, she has ANOTHER audition for The Case of the Crushed Petunias. Auditions on Monday after school, call backs are Tuesday.

Now if I can just convince her that she needs to start doing community theatre...

Bryan had his weekly football game today. He was fantastic as always. The whole team played much better today. They actually started working together as a unit. And OH MY GAWD they busted out a hurry up offense tonight and they rocked. Too bad they haven't been doing that all along!! But something really clicked tonight for them. I hope they remember it next Saturday!

This has been a great week for getting in touch with old friends. Had a couple of fantastic phone calls that have left me feeling quite giddy. lol

Now more than ever I am looking forward to all the up coming reunions.

Flu and football

The kids have been sick. The flu has been running rampant in Georgetown and OF COURSE my kids had to get it. And of course they HAD to breathe on Mommy, so for the last couple of days I have been down with it too. But, with an amazingly rapid recovery, I am feeling almost normal (well, normal for me any way...I'm not sure that's the best word to describe me) again. The house went from bad to worse this week. I'm not exactly Little Suzy Homemaker on my best day but with a house full of sick people I am much worse about the housekeeping.

Today, though, is all about football. Bryan has his third game today in Burnet. Now he's not only playing nosetackle, but they have him playing full back too. We are taking his best friend, Juan, to the game with us so I'll even have someone to cheer with me today!

Here's to old friends

The last couple of weeks I have been on a Facebook Frenzy. :)

It has been so much fun catching up with old friends. Among the most amazing of my old friends is Aaron. I could chat with him for hours!!

I am now starting to organize a large multi-class reunion (at the request of a couple of friends). I'm getting really excited about seeing some old faces! I don't know if I can wait until next summer.

I'm seriously considering a pre-reunion mini reunion.

But who to invite to the mini?? That's the hardest part. So far, I've narrowed it down to about 100 people. lol I think to have a 'mini' anything, the number needs to be less than 100.

But Aaron, if you are reading along...THANKS! YOU ROCK!

I don't have much time today and sit and blog, but I wanted to make sure I got the pictures of Bryan's first football game on here. :) We lost 40-6, but the boys had a great time! It was perfect football weather; 75 degrees, partly cloudy, slight breeze...awesome day!

Halftime Extravaganza 2009

Tonight was Bethany's Halftime Extravaganza. The choirs did the national anthem and the Georgetown fight song. The dancers danced, the band banded, and then the Texas Tech band came onto the field.

I'm glad that the Tech Band got some glory tonight, because when Tech plays UT tomorrow they are gonna get crushed. Which means not much playing time for the band. lol

I took a few pictures, most of which were blurry.

San Gabriel Flood, 2009

Last weekend, we were kinda just hanging around the house doing nothing but watching football. Bethany's friend Riley was at the house chillin' with us. Totally blissfully boring Saturday.

But it was raining. It hadn't rained here in months and months and months and everyone was loving it. Well, that was day two of the rain. I got a notification that the weather service had issued a 'flood statement' for the river that runs thru town.

The statement said that the South Fork San Gabriel river was officially flooded at 9 feet and that we were currently at 9.8 feet. So we decided to go check out the river.

Just two days prior, there was NO water in the river. Not even a drop. You could walk across the river bed to the other side and not get anything on your shoes but dust.

When we got to the river, we were amazed. The water was coming up over the banks in some areas and threatening to in others.

We got some great pictures (which I will share with you later when I find the disk).

After getting our first pics, we got back in the van and drove further down the river and got out to take some pictures from that end. When we got there, all the geese that frequent the river were huddled together around the banks, honking.

I wanted to get some pictures of all the geese; there must have been 50 of them. So I tried sneaking up on them so as not to disturb them.

That was a mistake. They turned, as a group, and started chasing me. Well, the ENTIRE gaggle didn't chase me, just about 30 of them.

I was wearing flip flops and it was raining buckets. Not good running conditions. But I tried. when I turned around to run, I discovered that I was all alone. Bill, Bethany and Riley (Bryan stayed home) had abandoned me to the geese!! And they wouldn't come back to help me and the geese were getting dangerously close.

At this point, I decided that the best defense is a good offense and I started chasing the geese. They took off in the other direction and I was safe. *whew*

I looked up and there was Riley.

FINALLY somebody came to rescue me (a little bit late, but better late than never right?)

I pointed out to my "loving" family that I didn't give birth to him and HE came back to help.

and then Riley said (and up to this point he was one of my favorite teenagers...) "I didn't come back to save you. I was going to push you down and sacrifice you to the geese so the rest of us could get away"

Nice, very nice.

Madcow disease

Since I am making a good effort to get this blog up to date...I will start with how madcow disease has impacted our lives.

Last school year (08-09 ) Bryan was in cubscouts. I was the "popcorn kernal" for the pack. The pack committee chair, webelos leader, pack treasurer, and district popcorn kernal(all the same person) decreed that it would be so and so I was the kernal. Dubious honor at best.

But I did my very best, as I always do. I receipted all the popcorn in and out. I receipted all the money in and out. I asked that all families sign popcorn in and out within 24 hours of them having a popcorn booth. The only family that would not comply was the pack committee chair/webelos leader/pack treasurer/ district popcorn kernal.

Red flags started going up for me when she FINALLY brought their money to me and it was 50% pennies. If you've never bought boyscout popcorn before, it ain't cheap. Not very likely that so many people were paying her in pennies. Obviously, she was using the money she raised for her own purposes and when I called her on it, in an effort to not get caught stealing, she rounded up all the pennies in her couch cushions.

She ordered about $7000 worth of popcorn for our tiny little pack to sell. Really?? That's a lot of freakin' popcorn.

We sold about half of it though and I returned the other half to Trail's End. She THEN ordered another several thousand dollars of popcorn for the door to door portion of the sale. We ended up with several THOUSAND dollars worth of popcorn that we did not sell.

Now at this point, the parents are starting to get concerned why we have no money in the account and why we are stuck with so much popcorn.

So while Bill and I were in Georgia for thanksgiving, she told the parents that *I* had over ordered both time. WTF??? I wasn't even in the pack when she made the first order. She ordered the second order too. That was her plan to confuse everyone about where the money was. Well, of course we had to pay for all that extra popcorn that *I* ordered.

In January, Bill got a phone call from the cubscout council wondering why I hadn't turned in the money. Again, WTF? OF COURSE I turned in the money to MADCOW (yes, that is what I call her. I cannot stand to even say her name) and I have the receipts to prove it.

So they finally get some of the money from her and launch an investigation based around my incredibly meticulous receipts. They proved later that she stole approximately $4000 from our little pack. They suspect that she stole about $3000 more, but that can't be proven at this point.

They stripped her of any official positions but they did not press charges. WTF for a third time!!!!

We left the pack. I refused to be a part of that. She is currently attempting to gain her previous power in the pack. And I tell you what, if they let her come back in and start messing things up again they are all idiots and deserve what they get. :(

I'm very glad that Bryan opted to play football this year instead of scouts. Too much of a chance of getting madcow disease again.

ell check?

My first official remote post!! I rock!

Haha Bethany haha...I'm not totally computer illiterate...but that spelling looks wrong...does my phone have sp

the technologically challenged meets the 21st century

I've finally set up my phone so I can blog from wherever I happen to be when the spirit moves me to post.

Ten years ago, I didn't even know how to turn on a computer, much less post something to a webpage while NOT at a computer. lol

crazy times...

Well again, it's been WAY too long since I updated the blog.

I'm addicted to facebook. That's the problem. :) There's a whole lot to post. It may take days. Possibly even weeks. We had a crazy busy summer. Well the first two months of summer anyway. Then I got sick. Again.

At least this time it wasn't staph. Looks like that is finally over. This time it was E. Coli. Ended with surgery. I do NOT wish that on anybody.

I've decided that I'm going to get something really exotic next time I get sick. Swine flu? Nah, not weird enough. Radiation sickness? Easy enough since Bill has nuclear gauges in his office. Nah...I'll think of something good and rare. Maybe the Plague.

But facebook has been amazing. I've gotten back in touch with so many dear old friends. I spend a lot of my free time chatting with high school buddies that I haven't seen in 20 years. Turns out a large number of them live very near to me. lol

So if I don't blog as often as I should, don't worry, just look for me on facebook. That's where I'll probably be.

I'm a bad blogger. lol

Okay, so the God's honest truth is I am just really crappy at keeping up with the blog.

Sorry about that. I'm trying. I swear I am.

There has been lots and lots going on around here. I don't even know where to begin.

I guess I can tell you about my harrowing rabid squirrel experience.

Last weekend, Bethany was supposed to meet her friends at the San Gabriel Park for a couple of hours for typical teenage mischief...I mean fun...

Anyway, we were early (as usual) so we were walking around the river killing time when this crazed squirrel came running up to us. I was stunned and amazed. I have never in my life encountered a squirrel that would approach humans. It MUST be rabid, I decided.

And then he put his little squirrely hands out. He wanted some goodies!! But we didn't have any and I felt like a horrible person.

So the next morning, we decided to take Bryan fishing at the same river but this time I was prepared. I had a lunch bag full of apples and bread and peanuts.

I am destined to be the crazy squirrel lady in the park.

Christmas tree trimming

Okay, I love Christmas. And I totally love my Christmas tree. I just HATE putting it up. It is tedious and I always get a bit cranky. I'm a bit OCD about a lot of things and my decorations are one of my main triggers. lol

Of course, Bill has a magic way of capturing me at my finest.

Don't I just look like I am enjoying myself??

Sadly, this is one of the best pictures Bill has ever taken of me.

Thanksgiving 2008

Bill informed me the other day that I was severely falling behind on my blog posts. lol

So I'll try to catch up this week.

First off--Thanksgiving in Georgia

I'm not sure entirely what we were thinking. We estimated that it would take us only 13 hours to get from Georgetown Texas to Hampton Georgia because that's how long it ALWAYS takes us. And we took a different (supposedly shorter route) this time, so we were SURE we would make good time. And we did. Getting out of Texas is always the longest part of the trip. Being in south central Texas, it's quite a trek to get up to north east Texas (I-20).

We got a late start, but we made great time thru Texas. We THOUGHT we were making good time thru the other states too, but it turns out we were wrong.

We got to Georgia sometime in the early daylight hours. It took us almost 18 hours this year.

The visit itself was good. I finally got to meet some members of Bill's family that I never had before. His Aunt Colleen and Uncle John and his cousin Teri. It was nice to finally meet them after 16 years.

Bethany stayed on the phone with her first boyfriend pretty much the entire week. One night, when Wayne (my father in law) called the house from work to serenade Karen, Bethany held her phone out so Trey could hear and she was dancing around. This was officially their first dance. Aren't they cute??

The rest of the trip was fun and restful and thankfully uneventful. No crazy staph infections attacked me this year and I actually REMEMBER the entire trip.