Movies

The two most recent movies we've seen have been Donnie Darko and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. They're kind of odd movies, but Jeff & I both really enjoyed them. The rabbit in Donnie Darko freaked me out at first, so much that I wouldn't even look at the screen if I thought I would see it. By the end of the movie, once I realized what was going on, it didn't bother me so much. They're both good, thought-provoking movies. Anyone have any other suggestions for good movies out there?

Fun afternoon

Yummy!

When I started making this, I figured that - as usual - Sarah would eat her required one bite and fill up on plain pasta and raw vegetables. Instead, she had seconds and said, "Can you make this for dinner every night?" Jeff and Lauren thought it was OK, so it's being added to the regular line up.

Shrimp & Green Beans

4 tsp canola oil
1 1/2 lb shrimp
4 garlic cloves
1 1/2 Tbs fresh ginger
1/2 pound fresh green beans
8 oz pineapple chunks
1/3 c. chicken broth
2 Tbs teriyaki sauce
1/4 tsp salt
3 scallions

The basic recipe is to saute the shrimp, take them out of the pan, saute the garlic & ginger, add the other ingredients (except scallions), cook for a bit, add the shrimp back, and top with the scallions.

Since Meijer had "buy one, get two free" on frozen pre-cooked shrimp, I skipped the first step. I hate peeling raw shrimp, so it worked out better anyway. I also cooked up some pasta and threw that in (putting the shrimp in the colander before pouring the pasta & hot water over it goes a long way to thaw it quickly) to make it a complete meal.

I have GOT to get a No Soliciting Sign

I mean, really. No, I am not going to let you come in my house and demonstrate a vaccum cleaner. I'm sure you're on the level (I can see other guys dressed similarly walking around the neighborhood), but I'm not letting a stranger into my house.

Simultaneously Embarrassed & Proud

We've been looking for a church to attend, which means going to new churches to try them out. Last week it was a Lutheran version that didn't really do it for me, yesterday it was a United Church of Christ. I've seen the UCC commercials that stress acceptance of everyone (the "controversial" ones, that dare to show two women together), and this is a church that our neighbors have gone to and we went to once a few years ago for a Christmas service.

Lauren stayed in the nursery, but Sarah sat with us for about 20 minutes of the service. Then the pastor/minister/reverend called all the kids up to the steps, where they sat and talked. Sarah had never really seen him or any of the other kids before, never experienced anything like this before. And yet . . . guess which kid had the most answers and spoke with the loudest voice? Yeah. Hey, it was a good conversation starter with the other members of the congregation after the service! And it's not like she's the only kid to ever act that way.

When Jeff & I talked about it later, we realized that we both felt the same way: at the same time kind of embarassed that she was dominating the conversation, but also proud that she was self-confident enough to hold her own with an adult. That's our girl!

Dress up

Lauren got her birthday present from my mom & stepdad yesterday, so we let her open it last night. Oh my god, it is too cute/hilarious. Colorful is probably the best way to describe it.

Wow!

Yesterday, when Jeff got home from work (like over an hour early) we all met him at the door and he told me he had something for me.

"Drugs?" I asked hopefully (it had been a really long day).

He laughed and shook his head and told me to close my eyes. At that point I figured it was flowers, because once in a while he'll do that.

Then I felt a plastic container in my hands. It was an MP3 player! "Oh my God! What is this for?"

He said that he felt really bad that we didn't get my charm bracelet fixed and new "Lauren" charm for Christmas, and one of his work buddies brought his MP3 in, so he went out and bought one!

He knew I've been wanting one for when I walk or work out, and we'll also be able to take it with us to Florida, so we won't have to have 500 CDs in the car for music variety.

Then he told me I was absolutely not allowed to ask how much it cost. Uh-oh, that means it was really expensive. But I promised not to peek at the bank statement, or look it up on the website to find out how much it was.

Now I need to go figure out how to play with my new toy! Woo hoo!

Things I Miss

I realized that there are a few things that I used to have or do that have "gone away" due to my recent change in direction of my habits.

I miss:

• being able to run through the parking lot into a store when it's cold
• crossing my legs at the knee instead of putting an ankle up on the opposite knee (I can still do this, but don't)
• all those great new clothes I got for my birthday (tweed pants, why have I forsaken you?)
• feeling like I look pretty good/enjoying having my picture taken (a reporter came to work last week to take pictures of the computer lab, and I wasn't happy about it)
• my winter coat being way too big
• that happy feeling I got from eating right, getting exercise, and generally taking care of myself (this is the biggest one - why would I stop doing stuff that I know makes me happy?)

So I'm going to start taking care of myself again. I don't know if I'll get on the scale - I usually need that reinforcement in order to stick to it - but just for today, I'm going to stay out of the leftover cake and candy from the party yesterday. I'm going to get some kind of exercise. I'm going to make a good choice for lunch when our friend Rob comes over and we all go out. Right now, I'm going to go make some oatmeal. I think I'm finally tired of fried eggs & toast. Thank God.

sniff . . .

My big girl!

OK, Everybody - Repeat After Me

If you say you'll bring cookies to your sister's Valentine's Tea Party Saturday, and you realize you're coming down with a cold and are a little overwhelmed at life in general, and you try to decide if you should make them or go out and buy them . . . GO OUT AND BUY THEM.

I made a very nice, butter/cream cheese dough, cut out a bunch of hearts, even did a "windowpane" for a few (smashing Dum Dums suckers to pieces is harder than you might think), colored some with red food coloring, left some white, etc. Oh so pleased with myself. Until I started cleaning up and putting everything away. It wasn't until I put away the measuring spoon that I realized I didn't use it. I forgot the baking soda. They still taste fine, they just didn't rise very much and I think the texture is a little off. Still, it's a keeper recipe, and I didn't have to leave the house to get them.

What a week

This week has been too busy, too crazy, too stressful. I'm wondering if I should start working all this much, but I think it's just the getting everything together all at once timing that's bad.

The rundown:

Monday - Drive Jeff to work so I can meet with the Home Economist at Hancock to talk about a sewing class. I found out what I need to make up for flyers, but can't get my printer to work, so I have to find a way to get to Kinko's.

Tuesday - Grammy came to babysit while I take in the controlled chaos at the school. I also get to be the yearbook advisor, fun! There are fewer than 60 kids there, so I suggested using www.mypublisher.com. I'm going to take in a hardcover and a pocket book when I go back in next Friday to see if they think that would work and parents would be willing to pay for it. The thought of putting Sarah into a "regular" school is crossing my mind. Also went to tutor PowerPoint in the evening.

Wednesday - Drive Jeff to work so Lauren can go to story time. She loves story time - asked the story lady at least 5 times in the 20 minutes we were there eary when it was going to start - but won't sit still during the reading. I made it to the gym, but only for half an hour on the elliptical. Katrina came over to babysit, bringing her snowboard, which both girls thought was the bomb. Pictures below. Pizza for dinner! Thought about going to Kinko's, but was too tired, desperate to watch Lost (the one episode I missed), and endured about half of the State of the Union Address. I swear, if they would limit the standing ovations to an even dozen, the could have had time to show Alias.

Thursday - oh, that's today! Got to the gym by 6:30, half an hour on the elliptical. Still eating too much. Took the girls sledding. Made banana muffins, with assistance. Did some school work (first time this week, bad homeschool mommy!) Going to get ready for work tonight (part deux of PowerPoint) in about half an hour.

When did I get so popular?

So after all last year of working hardly at all (I made less than $2500), I'm steadily working Tuesday and Thursday nights, with potential craft classes coming up, and I get a call from my friend Dawn at work yesterday. The charter school where I worked last spring is losing their computer teacher in a month. Guess who they requested replace her?

I'm flattered that they asked for me, and eager to get make some more cash, but I'm trying to figure out the logistics.

• The school is only half a mile away, so I could walk there. In fact, I would be walking there (until we get the second car back in the spring) so that we could avoid driving Jeff to work any more often than necessary.
• The pay is $18/hour. Good, not great. Part of that includes 1½ hour lunch duty, which usually only pays $6/hour, so this balances it out ok. It also includes a half hour prep time.
• I don't know if the hours (10:00 - 3:00, though I'd need some walking time on top of that, on Tuesdays & Fridays) will work for our regular babysitter. I'm going to call Jeff's mom and see if she'd be interested in coming once a week for some Grandma Time. If that works out, there's the added bonus that I will generally keep the house much cleaner, heh.
• Classes run until June 29, kinda long. Since we've already scheduled Florida vacation for the last week of May and first week of June, I'd have to see if they could work around that. Or we might cut it a little short. The other option is to go to Florida in July. Or August. Not an attractive option. I'm hoping that they'll want me to come back in the fall, so I wouldn't want to wait until September, as we've done in the past.

I hope it works out. The steady, reliable money would be welcome, and I enjoyed working there before. Still, when I'm teaching I'm much more prone to insomnia (can't get my brain to slow down enough to sleep), and this would be a big change.

I'm so excited!

Last time I was in the fabric store, I noticed they had a flyer up that they needed instructors for things like knitting, crochet, sewing, etc. The manager was the one that cut my fabric, so I asked her about it, and got the number. I called and left a message, and the woman in charge of this called me back this morning. I've got a meeting scheduled with her a week from Monday to talk about setting this up, yay!

I have to come up with a write up/flyer to get people to sign up, and take a couple examples of my work (they're also interested in cross stitch and scrapbooking classes, so I'll take those as well). Hee, I have no idea what I'm going to take, but I'm really excited!

It'll just be a basic sewing class, which is perfect for me. I may not have been sewing for very long, but I've been teaching for a long time, and I really think I'm going to ejoy this.

If I can get six students to a class, I'll be making $10 more per hour than I do right now teaching computers. If I only get four, the pay rate will end up abou the same. That doesn't account for my travel time, though. The store is only about five minutes from home, so I'll spend a lot less time in transit. This could finally be the thing that gets me out from under the thumb of my current job.

Eeee, I can't for March to get started on this!

Not Nerdy, but definitely not hip.

Humph. I'm much more nerdy than this indicates. I am not techno-nerdy, but my essential nerdiness remains.

Hey, I did it!

I actually woke up before 6 this morning, got out of bed, drove to Bally, did half an hour on the elliptical (a bit slower than Wednesday, but still faster than I go on the treadmill) and 15 minutes on the weight machines, all upper body. No ab work, which is probably what I need the most. I'll do lower body weights tomorrow. And abs, sigh.

By the way, getting there at 6:20 did not guarantee me a parking spot right by the front door, much to my disappointment. However, the number of people walking through the parking lot did make me feel pretty safe.

While I was on the elliptical, I had a direct sight line to the stair machines and treadmills. There were a few people on those machines, and I noticed that they were there when I started, and stayed on through most if not all of my time on the elliptical. Man, those people were like machines! They never slacked, and had a pretty good pace going. When the guy on the treadmill got off, he went and got on a bike behind me! The woman on the stair machine did it not only the regular way, but backwards, which is hard, at least for me.

I thought, "this is what fit people do. This is how they act. They are consistent and invest time in staying healthy." When the freebie pass is done in March, I think I'm going to miss it, even though I will be happy to get back to my evening walks again.

Elliptical Machine

Kicked. My. ASS.

Now I need to find some kind of motivation to get my ass up at 6AM so I can go in before Jeff goes to work. I don't know what kind of motivation will be that strong. Suggestions?

Bally

I went to Bally last night, after going to Target to buy a pair of sweat pants. I learned how to use the eliptical machine (cool!), but unfortunately, the child care deal is not included in this, in spite of what I was told on the phone yesterday. This annoys me, but not a lot, since I would have used it once a week at most.

The "best" time for me to go will be early in the morning, before Jeff goes to work. The problem with this is days like today, when it is -2 degrees. Let's see, get out of a warm bed to go sweat, or use the treadmill here at my leisure and never have to leave my cave? Not a tough call, nifty as the elliptical machine is.

Of course, the free membership only lasts through March, so if I'm going to take advantage of it, I'm going to have to bite the bullet. Yum.

And on we go

As of today:

Yesterday, I did have a fair number of Cheetos, but I counted them, and I stopped myself instead of eating the rest of the bag, so I consider that a snack, not a binge. Doesn't sound like much, but it's a victory for me!

That's a relief.

Turns out that the lock was messed up because of the cold after all. Jeff put the car in the garage (after shoving a bunch of stuff to the side & back), and after a few hours, checked it again. It was fine, and still ok when I went shopping last night. I hope being in a cold parking lot all day tomorrow while he's at work doesn't mess it up again.

Yesterday I got half an hour on the treadmill, but also had a binge again. Today, I'm going to try to get my exercise in the morning, because that does seem to make a difference with me. I already had Chex cereal for breakfast, but have no idea what I'm going to eat for the rest of the day.

National Discovery Health Challenge

Today is the first weigh in, and if I can get the car door to close properly (Jeff went out late last night for Taco Bell, and now the lock is either frozen or broken), I'm going to meet my sister there. I think that this kind of weekly accountability will help. Also, I'm going to try to get some information about the free trial Bally membership.

Yesterday: got the fruits & vegs, got the dairy, got the water, got the exercise (video at 7:30 PM). Also had a good sized binge. I'm determined to make that an isolated incident.

Edit: looks like I'm weighing in online. I really thought the lock was probably just frozen, but after looking at it, it does appear to be broken. Ducky. So we have to wait until Monday and somehow get it someplace to fix it and hope it doesn't cost a mint.