Exquisite Turmoil

Happy Halloween everyone! I’m not entirely sure who everyone is, since I don’t think anyone really reads this :p Well.. Dan and Ryan excepted, there. But in any case, if anyone is reading this, then Happy Halloween indeed. As you can see, I went as a sailor for Halloween. Dan was Vash, Anya was Sailor Venus, and Alex stayed home. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of Anya to post at the moment, because she ripped her costume off the moment we got home — I guess the shoes were hurting her, and the wig was pulling her hair. Katie did manage to get a picture or two on her camera before we went out Trick-or-Treating, so I shall see if I can steal those from her tomorrow and get some Anya Venus pictures up.

Man I wish that I had a Halloween party to go to! It seems silly to get all dressed up just to walk Anya around the block for an hour collecting candy. It would be much more satisfying to actually have somewhere to wear a costume to. But my life is dull and friendless so, of course, I didn’t receive any party invitations. One of these days I vow to have friends. I suppose it doesn’t help that I’m shy and anti-social. It always seems strange to people to find out that I am shy, given how talkative I am online, but I truly am. Tremendously so. I think it tends to get taken more for snobbery than shyness, which is a shame…

Whee for getting a ticket today -.- Doing 35 in a 25, and I swear I thought it was a 35.. I thought all of the paved roads by us were 35 and the dirt roads were 25, but I guess I was wrong. More posted signs would be a good thing. It sucks. Not that I even really care that much about the ticket… I’d rather not have to pay it, of course, but what I really care about is that today was Anya’s Halloween party at school. And I had to sit around getting a ticket while Katie took Anya in to the party, so I didn’t even get to see all of the decorations that the kids have been working on, and all the party stuff they set up. I swear this guy was a heartless bastard, too. I was the soul of politeness, of course, and there’s Anya sitting in the back seat and she asks “Mommy, am I going to be late for my party?” He heard her. Stupid jackass even decides to tell me all about what costume his son is going to wear for Halloween. Does he really think I care what costume is son is going to wear for Halloween when he gives me a ticket? Maybe I’d care if he kept his stupid tickets to himself.

On the plus side, my darling husband bought me a dozen roses on his way home from work to cheer me up about having to miss the Halloween party! This is the second time in our entire relationship that he’s ever bought me flowers, or even a flower in the singular. The first would be when we had just been dating for a few days and I lent him my car. When I went to get in my car afterwards there was a rose on the steering wheel. That was like :p 5.5 years ago. Anyway, when he came home today I was in the bedroom reading a book (with a monster headache due, no doubt, to my stupid ticket) and he said he found something that he thought might cheer me up. I asked what, and he said I’d have to come see and that it was in the kitchen. So, of course, I proceeded into the kitchen to see my roses on the table. I will admit, I cried. I’m not really a crier, (though I suppose I have been more of one since the kids — I’ll continue to blame it on raging pregnancy hormones) but after my sucky day, headache, and not having gotten flowers in forever.. well. Maybe I should rename this post “Wonderful husband” and focus on how sweet he is, rather than stupid ticket making me miss seeing the Halloween setup at school.

Oh, and for anyone who is curious — Anya dressed up as Princess Jasmine for school today. She is actually supposed to be Sailor Venus this year, (and that costume cost me a freaking fortune, had to special order it tailored for her and it still doesn’t fit right) but her friend Jacquelynn (of the birthday party this weekend) mentioned that she would be dressing as a tiger, so they decided that they needed to be Jasmine and Rajah. Not that I got to see them together, of course. Jacquelynn left a little bit early — I saw her walk out as I was waiting to pick Anya up from school, but I didn’t get to see them together. I really wanted to get a picture, too =/

I’m wondering if I will have to start a new category for Dan quotes! He had a good one last night, in any case.

I can’t quite remember why, but I called my mom a brat for something or other, and Dan pipes up with “You can’t call your mom a brat!” And you could just see that she looked so happy that Dan jumped in on her side (not that we were fighting mind you, it was all in good fun), and then Dan finishes out his sentence… “She’s too old to be a brat. I guess you could call her a hag.” And, of course, everyone at the table (my mom excepted) just starts dying laughing like… oh my god, did he really just say that? In any case, it was goooood.

I’ve also another Anya quote to impart — it’s an oldie but goodie that I had just forgotten about, but it was called to my attention yesterday so I figured I’d share it before I forgot.

Anya was sitting around drawing pictures of people, and she says to my dad “I’m going to draw you Grandpa!” He’s all pleased and thanks her and she says “Yeah, and I’ll even give you hair!” (For those who didn’t already know, or somehow weren’t smart enough to figure it out, my dad is bald — or very close to it :p)

The birthday party (including Dan’s hag comment :p) was quite fun last night, and the blind wine tasting was also a good time. The reason the tasting came about is — my aunt’s friend owns a vineyard in California and supplies grapes to some pretty well known wine makers. He has recently started making his own wines, and he provided my aunt with a bottle of one of his wines, and two comparable bottles of some of the wineries he supplies grapes to.

The three wines were (not that we knew until after the tasting) a Simi Cabernet (they were all cabs) 2003, a Silver Oaks 2001, and her friend’s wine, which is called “Paden’s Patch Red”. The Paden’s Patch Red actually took the overall win, although my father preferred the Silver Oaks. I’m not really a big wine drinker myself — I do enjoy the occasional glass with a nice dinner, but I rarely like something enough to have more than a glass. The Paden’s Patch was absolutely delicious, however, and I had (I think) 4 glasses? Totally out of the norm for me. Anyway, I’m mostly relating this in a shameless plug for my aunt’s friend’s vineyard. You can’t buy his wines in stores as yet, but they can be ordered off of his website, and anyone who likes a good wine should take a visit and order something up. His prices are extremely reasonable given the wines that his are comparable to, it’s only that he isn’t so well known yet. So, basically, get it now before he gets licensed to sell in stores!

Link of the day: Quaking Hills Vineyard

Well, I did manage to get a little more cardio into my diet today. I went for a lovely slog (that being a slow, pathetic walk/jog) with my father through the desert today. We saw a jackalope (but not really, since they don’t exist.. but I did spend some time trying to convince Dan that I saw one — he didn’t believe me). I suppose it doesn’t really count as cardio when I am completely pathetic and can’t jog for more than like 5 minutes, but it’s better than nothing, I guess. Eventually I shall be a jogging champion.

Anya also went to her first birthday party today, for a girl she knows from school named Jacquelynn. The party was at “Pump It Up” which is basically just a building full of different moon bounces. The kids, of course, had a wonderful time. Dan and I also got in some quality bouncing. We had a lovely race through the obstacle course, and I am shamed to admit that he stomped me. After I started before even telling him we were racing (I had a pretty good head start). I managed to maintain my cheated lead throughout most of the obstacle course, but the last barrier is just a big wall to climb and then you go down a slide, and whereas I had to… climb… the wall, Dan was just able to leap to the top and slide down. Oh, to have such long legs. Ah well, I suppose it’s only fair that he won after I cheated. Anya, of course, wanted to race him after that and managed to beat him handily.

Much as I’d like to blog more right now, especially since I missed blogging yesterday (the internet was being awful), my Aunt Deborah is here for a short visit and we’re having a little birthday bash for her tonight, so I suppose I must go eat, drink, and be merry. We’re having a blind wine tasting tonight — should be fun, although I am not much of a wine connoisseur.

Well, back to the diet board, today. Dinner tonight will be grilled chicken, peas, and brown rice. Unfortunately, trying to eat super-low calorie can often get.. boring. Which had me bemoaning the fact that I can’t put BBQ sauce on my chicken. I could, of course, but it seems like such a waste of calories just to add a little bit of flavor. Then I remembered about Walden Farms.. I had purchased their products once a while ago and really liked some of it (the chocolate and pancake syrup particularly, not so much the salad dressings, although Ranch was pretty decent), so I figured I’d order up some more today. For those who don’t know what Walden Farms is (probably everyone, I don’t think very many grocery stores carry their stuff, but you can always order it online), they make 0 calorie, 0 sugar, 0 carbs, basically 0 everything dressings, dips, spreads, sauces, etc. So anyway, I ordered up some strawberry and raspberry jam, some peanut butter, a coupla of different pasta sauces, some BBQ sauce.. can’t wait until it gets here, to try it out. I’ll have to make a post when it arrives (as I eat it) to let you know how it tastes. Obviously, it’s not like eating the real thing but neither is margarine, diet soda, wheat pasta, or any other number of healthy or otherwise “diet” foods. I suppose I subscribe to something my mother once said in that “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”. I’m sure not everyone agrees, but I’d rather have abs than BBQ sauce. Not that I have abs. Well, I do have abs, everyone with a torso has abs (at least I’m pretty sure :p), but they definitely aren’t visible yet. I think I heard somewhere (probably from Katie) that most women need around 17% body fat to start seeing ab muscles. I still have a loooong way to go if that is the case. I’m hoping my scale lies when it says that my body fat percentage is 27% — which would put me in the “above average” category (as in the bad above average, as in having more fat than average). I don’t feel above average, but =/

I guess I really need to start mixing more cardio into my workout. I went for a walk / jog today (I’ll be fair and admit that it was mostly walk and a lot less jog), but I don’t really get out and do much cardio at all. When we were going to the gym, I spent most of my time on the treadmill and a lot less time on the weight machines.. I guess things have kind of flip-flopped now. The Bowflex is so easy to use that I just always want to hop on it and get to lifting, but I haaaaate running outside. It’s always so hot and sunny (I don’t wake up early enough to run in the am, nor do I want to) and I feel like every person in every car that drives past is just STARING AT ME WONDERING WHY I RUN SO SLOW or something like that. Or, if I’m with Dan, I feel like he’ll just be puttering along beside me, grumbling to himself about how slow I am, and how much I’m cutting in on his workout. I guess I need to get over it and run more. Or buy a treadmill. Not that I think Dan will go for that anytime soon after we just bought the Bowflex.

Link of the day: Walden Farms

..when it consists of fried okra, fried catfish, and some good’ol homemade mac and cheese, swimming in calories. Not that I actually believe any of this to be diet food, but.. anyway. Stopped at the grocery store to grab some nice low-cal chicken breasts and soup :p when I was waylaid by the fact that they actually HAD OKRA. They never have okra. So, of course, I had to grab some. The only way to cook okra (imho) is fried, and you can’t have fried okra without some fried catfish.. which, of course, leads right into homemade mac and cheese. It was a meal destined to be. It goes really well with the total lack of exercise today too, since Dan and I have been forced to cancel our planned run for the day due to unforeseen (and unfortunately for you, unexplained) circumstances. Guess I’ll just have to kick my ass really hard on the Bowflex tomorrow. Not that any amount of ass kicking tomorrow is going to burn anywhere NEAR the calories that this dinner is going to provide me with. On the plus side, Friday afternoon should be spent hiking Pinnacle Peak with the Scottsdale Mom’s Club (no, that is not an official club). At least I think they’re going this Friday, and not next Friday. Guess I better find out for sure!

Link of the day: CrazyAuntPurl and her fried okra recipe (the best!!)

I swear, men always have it easier. Dan and I are sitting down talking today while he’s doing his workout, and he’s saying how he wants to go on the 6-week diet plan in the Bowflex book, since he’s not sure that just working out is going to drop his (practically non-existent) gut. Then we get to talking about what he eats in a day, and he’s estimating that he doesn’t even take in 2000 calories. This sounds strange to me, since I know he eats a foot long sub from Subway for lunch every day, as well as a bag of chips with a 44 oz (not diet) soda. Apparently my darling husband has not been watching his calories for long, because any consummate dieter would immediately recognize that as like a full day’s worth of food. But, of course, I have to get on the internet to prove to my sweetheart that a foot long meatball sub does not contain somewhere in the range of 500 calories. His soda contains more calories than he thinks his meal does :p I guessed it at 1100, he thought I was crazy. You will soon discover, however, that I am always right. That puppy is sitting at 1120 calories. Plus 230 for chips. Plus 550 for soda. I wish that I could eat a 1900 calorie lunch every day without packing on the pounds.

In any case, the decision now is for him to get a 6″ sub (I have no idea what kind, but any 6″ will be an improvement), drop the chips and start bringing a microwave soup from home, and bring diet soda from home (since he doesn’t like diet Coke and that is all that they have at Subway). So yes, it’s patently unfair that hubby can easily drop like 1300 calories from lunch. Lunch. Without too much effort. Yet I can’t really think of a single way in which I can cut calories. Aside from like.. not eating.

For me, breakfast consists of like.. 130 calories of oatmeal. Lunch is 170-220 calories of soup. Dinner is generally a small portion of baked / grilled chicken or fish with a heaping serving of vegetables and some brown rice or a baked potato with 0 calorie spray butter and garlic. I usually don’t snack, but if I do it’s like.. a 100 calorie pack of Oreos, or around the same calorie amount of popcorn. I really can’t see how I’m eating more than 1500 calories a day, if that. I know back when I bothered to track it, I had to keep adding stuff in to make sure I got over 1200, for safety’s sake. I guess I’m just baffled. I will drop into the 120s god dammit >.< I think food just hates me, and loves Dan. Ah well.

Link of the day: Bowflex Insider

Whee, had my first real workout on the Bowflex this morning. Dan and I messed around with it last night, but I really just did one set of everything to figure out how to move the arms and cables and such. Dan did a full workout last night (and one after work today). Anyway, I really liked it. I found the machine to be really smooth, and it isn’t hard to set up and change between exercises. I guess it kind of seems confusing at first because there are so many cables and accessories, but it’s actually quite intuitive once you’ve done a few moves and everything “clicks into place” with how it works. I’m sure it wasn’t confusing for Dan, but for measly mechanically challenged people like me :p

Right now I’m bugging Dan to make me a website to keep track of our weight loss efforts. I’m hoping for it to have like.. our measurements by week with a pic of us underneath. And then, of course, you’ll be able to compare week per week like say you wanted to see your measurements week 1 v. week 3, and it would pull it up side by side. And a little thingee to compare pictures week by week. It all sounds so.. unsophisticated when I type it out like that, but I can’t really think of a better way to describe it. Anyway, I’m off for the night, I think, to try to explain to Dan wth I’m talking about with this website x.x

I’ve decided that it’ll be easier to put my new kid quotes in new posts, rather than adding them to the Kid Quotes page (which I might just do away with), since the page will just end up being a novel at some point. So, from now on, they’ll be set as regular posts and put into the “Kid Quotes” category, so anyone looking for them can just take a peek at that category and find them all.

Anywho, the newest Anya quote. We were sitting down over on Pumpkin’s side and Anya scratched her face (with her nails, of course) and pulled off a scab. She started to bleed and Dan licked his thumb and went to clean it off. She got very angry and told him she didn’t want his spit on her face. He told her that saliva is good for cuts because it is slightly acidic and melts the skin together to stop the bleeding, which is why animals lick themselves when they get cut.

“Well, that’s why I don’t want spit on me. I’m just not an animal.”

And Anya’s.. since she “wants to work out her butt”. The things children pick up on. Anyway, as you can see, my sexy man bought me my Bowflex today! It took about forever to set it up. It has like.. a pulley system inside and it got all off track from bouncing around in the back of the Excursion and being hauled around like so much baggage. It’s all set up and working now, and I can’t freaking wait to get on it and exercise tomorrow! By the time we got it all set up, my dad had just finished BBQing up some ribs so we sat down to eat, and then it was time to pick my grandma up at the airport today. Whee! My Grandma Joan moved here tonight! It surely means less EQ2 during the day for me, but I am happy nonetheless. Oh, and yes, I do realize that the quality of the picture is awful. My camera sucks and it’s dark out.