Monday, November 30, 2009
It's that time of the semester
When students get whiny and stressed. All of my students are doing fine.* They are perfectionists and are worried and anything I say is the wrong thing. I have two students who have decided I'm not worthy, but I think they've decided that of all the profs in the program. It's okay. We'll all get through it. If they don't think I should teach again, I'm FINE with that. I teach FOR FUN. I have to keep in mind that many of my students have told me absolutely wonderful things this semester. I can't let a couple get me down. (Easier said than done.)
p.s. this is being backdated for the protection of student identities. The publication date is at a time when I'm not actually teaching.
*with the exception of one, but I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
errrrr.
I was going to try to post more in November, but then work got insanely busy. Isn't that the story of my life?
I'll do a quick re-cap of the holiday break. First, I LOVE 4 day weekends!!!! All weekends should be 4 days. Wouldn't that be grand?
Thursday, one of my brothers flew in to see us. He and I cooked the dish Dad always made--eggplant. It's so good. I ate way more of that than I would have eaten if we'd made turkey. I'm not a big turkey fan. I used to make turkey fajitas, and I thought that would be our tradition, but now, I'm wondering about that. I'll probably keep switching it.
Anyway, I figured out how to make sauce with the new tomato products. Basically, it just needs salt, oregano, basil, parsley and garlic, and lots of the tomato paste. It came out super yum.
My brother brought down lots of video footage of our lives. He's always taken video at all of the family gatherings. He had my graduation from graduate school and I got a copy of it. Graduation was a great day. It ranks up there as one of those really great moments. I was so young though.... 12.5 years ago.
And, my brother also had footage from a Christmas 20 years ago. OMG, I was so very, very young. The crazy thing was, as I watched, I really didn't remember *anything* about Christmas that year. I remember all of our Christmases were fairly similar, but as I watched the video, I had NO IDEA of what would happen next. It was surreal, knowing that was me, but feeling like it was someone else. It's not my life now. When I was young, I remember wanting my life to be very different than it was. I love my family, but I didn't feel like I fit.
Recently, I became friends with a person I was friends with at college (in facebook). She went back to her home town after college, got married and had a child fairly quickly. I have no idea, but I'm guessing her life is fairly similar to her life as a child there, except now she's the grown up and has the children. She hangs out with her sister and I'm guessing with friends she has had most of her life. I didn't want to be a grown up like that. I had good friends in High School, and I would love to be in the same location as them, but alas, we went to many different places. Very few of the people I was really close to are in the place where we attended high school. We clung together in high school because we felt different from most everyone else. I hope they all found their happy places too. Unfortunately, ten years ago, we found out about one good friend. She'd stayed where we grew up, and she wasn't happy (M).
Anyway, back to the video, I remember that Christmas (1989) was one of the last Christmases that I was home. I was home the next year (1990) and then I was home again in 1996, and 1999. MWH and I went to his family for Christmas in 1998. I probably should have taken everyone back there last year for my Dad, but I just couldn't. Okay, getting depressing now... I'll come back to this later.
I'm working on #2.
Loft progress
Sorted through 7 boxes
22 boxes left
This isn't counting the 3 boxes of out-of-date, hard-back text books that we need to donate/recycle
Nor the 5-ish boxes of electronics/wires that we need to sort/recycle/donate
Nor the suitcases to find a home for somewhere better than the loft.
We might make it through most of it by the end of the year--or not. We'll see.
The rest of the weekend... Friday morning I got to do Zumba--I had to work off the four bowls of pasta and eggplant from the day before. That afternoon, we had our friends for dinner. Super fun. Our friend L, though I'm not sure I should call him that any more (heh), brought a whoopee cushion for the girls. Oh my. The hijinks and hilarity. Enough said.
Okay, this is way longer than I expected it would be... I'll do Saturday and Sunday later.
I'll do a quick re-cap of the holiday break. First, I LOVE 4 day weekends!!!! All weekends should be 4 days. Wouldn't that be grand?
Thursday, one of my brothers flew in to see us. He and I cooked the dish Dad always made--eggplant. It's so good. I ate way more of that than I would have eaten if we'd made turkey. I'm not a big turkey fan. I used to make turkey fajitas, and I thought that would be our tradition, but now, I'm wondering about that. I'll probably keep switching it.
Anyway, I figured out how to make sauce with the new tomato products. Basically, it just needs salt, oregano, basil, parsley and garlic, and lots of the tomato paste. It came out super yum.
My brother brought down lots of video footage of our lives. He's always taken video at all of the family gatherings. He had my graduation from graduate school and I got a copy of it. Graduation was a great day. It ranks up there as one of those really great moments. I was so young though.... 12.5 years ago.
And, my brother also had footage from a Christmas 20 years ago. OMG, I was so very, very young. The crazy thing was, as I watched, I really didn't remember *anything* about Christmas that year. I remember all of our Christmases were fairly similar, but as I watched the video, I had NO IDEA of what would happen next. It was surreal, knowing that was me, but feeling like it was someone else. It's not my life now. When I was young, I remember wanting my life to be very different than it was. I love my family, but I didn't feel like I fit.
Recently, I became friends with a person I was friends with at college (in facebook). She went back to her home town after college, got married and had a child fairly quickly. I have no idea, but I'm guessing her life is fairly similar to her life as a child there, except now she's the grown up and has the children. She hangs out with her sister and I'm guessing with friends she has had most of her life. I didn't want to be a grown up like that. I had good friends in High School, and I would love to be in the same location as them, but alas, we went to many different places. Very few of the people I was really close to are in the place where we attended high school. We clung together in high school because we felt different from most everyone else. I hope they all found their happy places too. Unfortunately, ten years ago, we found out about one good friend. She'd stayed where we grew up, and she wasn't happy (M).
Anyway, back to the video, I remember that Christmas (1989) was one of the last Christmases that I was home. I was home the next year (1990) and then I was home again in 1996, and 1999. MWH and I went to his family for Christmas in 1998. I probably should have taken everyone back there last year for my Dad, but I just couldn't. Okay, getting depressing now... I'll come back to this later.
I'm working on #2.
Loft progress
Sorted through 7 boxes
22 boxes left
This isn't counting the 3 boxes of out-of-date, hard-back text books that we need to donate/recycle
Nor the 5-ish boxes of electronics/wires that we need to sort/recycle/donate
Nor the suitcases to find a home for somewhere better than the loft.
We might make it through most of it by the end of the year--or not. We'll see.
The rest of the weekend... Friday morning I got to do Zumba--I had to work off the four bowls of pasta and eggplant from the day before. That afternoon, we had our friends for dinner. Super fun. Our friend L, though I'm not sure I should call him that any more (heh), brought a whoopee cushion for the girls. Oh my. The hijinks and hilarity. Enough said.
Okay, this is way longer than I expected it would be... I'll do Saturday and Sunday later.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Week in review
1. I made spaghetti sauce with the new products. It needs a little more work. I knew exactly what to do with the old cans I used. I think I need 1) more paste and 2) salt. None of those tomato products had added salt. (The paste had a little, but not enough to compensate.)
2. Did I tell you I had to have two fillings replaced? I don't think I did. Anyway, the process was completed this afternoon and I'm almost not numb again. Here's a related tangent: I WISH my parents had intervened in my life in the department of food and drink more. I drank a LOT of diet coke in high school. I chewed a LOT of bubble gum. It had sugar in it. One trip to the dentist when I was like 16 turned up something like 8 cavities. Seriously. I wasn't worried about it at the time. Now, I hate it.
I really hope my girls can escape cavities. They eat healthy food, don't eat a lot of sugar, they brush well, and if I can manage to have any control over them when they are teenagers, they will NOT DRINK ANY TYPE OF COKE products. They can drink coffee or tea if they want caffeine.
3. Speaking of caffeine, I am now drinking a lot less. I just cut back to 1 cup of black tea in the morning and some green or white in the afternoon. I had caffeine withdrawal headaches this week, but I am feeling pretty good now. This is the girl who used to drink 2 cups of black tea, and 3-4 cups of coffee a day. That was my consumption rate for the last year or 2. Just to re-cap I gave it up this summer. I still can't believe I don't drink coffee any more. I don't "miss it." I like the idea of it, and have many fond memories of the taste, but I don't have any desire to drink it right now. It's crazy! I was a HARD core coffee drinker for 18 years.
4. The girls are preparing for Thanksgiving. They are going to do a play. oNe's made costumes out of paper (she's really good at that) and is writing their lines. Three-a's happy to participate, but twoK only wants to do the behind the scene's stuff--props girl.
5. Work is really busy, but I am doing better at not stressing about it. I go home and don't do much at night. MWH and I are watching some new shows on TV this season and that's helping me cut-back. We're watching "Flash Forward", "Bones", and V.
6. My back is continuing to get better and today, my right foot hasn't been numb much at all. It gets numb when I sit on a bad chair or lay down, but it used to be numb all the time. PT is very slow, but it does seem to be helping me. I am a patient patient. Slow worked for me on the diet front, and so far, it is working on the PT front. I've had to add in a lot of new exercise, but it's good for me. I'll go over that in a separate post someday.
2. Did I tell you I had to have two fillings replaced? I don't think I did. Anyway, the process was completed this afternoon and I'm almost not numb again. Here's a related tangent: I WISH my parents had intervened in my life in the department of food and drink more. I drank a LOT of diet coke in high school. I chewed a LOT of bubble gum. It had sugar in it. One trip to the dentist when I was like 16 turned up something like 8 cavities. Seriously. I wasn't worried about it at the time. Now, I hate it.
I really hope my girls can escape cavities. They eat healthy food, don't eat a lot of sugar, they brush well, and if I can manage to have any control over them when they are teenagers, they will NOT DRINK ANY TYPE OF COKE products. They can drink coffee or tea if they want caffeine.
3. Speaking of caffeine, I am now drinking a lot less. I just cut back to 1 cup of black tea in the morning and some green or white in the afternoon. I had caffeine withdrawal headaches this week, but I am feeling pretty good now. This is the girl who used to drink 2 cups of black tea, and 3-4 cups of coffee a day. That was my consumption rate for the last year or 2. Just to re-cap I gave it up this summer. I still can't believe I don't drink coffee any more. I don't "miss it." I like the idea of it, and have many fond memories of the taste, but I don't have any desire to drink it right now. It's crazy! I was a HARD core coffee drinker for 18 years.
4. The girls are preparing for Thanksgiving. They are going to do a play. oNe's made costumes out of paper (she's really good at that) and is writing their lines. Three-a's happy to participate, but twoK only wants to do the behind the scene's stuff--props girl.
5. Work is really busy, but I am doing better at not stressing about it. I go home and don't do much at night. MWH and I are watching some new shows on TV this season and that's helping me cut-back. We're watching "Flash Forward", "Bones", and V.
6. My back is continuing to get better and today, my right foot hasn't been numb much at all. It gets numb when I sit on a bad chair or lay down, but it used to be numb all the time. PT is very slow, but it does seem to be helping me. I am a patient patient. Slow worked for me on the diet front, and so far, it is working on the PT front. I've had to add in a lot of new exercise, but it's good for me. I'll go over that in a separate post someday.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
remember this?
When I posted this, she wasn't, but she is now! It turns out they started "trying" around that time. She is 7 weeks. Woo.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
2 new
I am starting in on 2 new projects this week, and needing to make progress on a third new-ish one. My head hurts a little just thinking about it tonight. I wanted to read a little bit about both of them this weekend, but instead, I think I need to go hang out with MWH.
As nature intended
No BPA! Two of the kinds are organic! I may still try to make my own sauce from tomatoes* and paste, and freeze them, but for now, this will do.
*I haven't found a recipe I love yet. I'm sure I could figure out something from what I've read on the web and how I cook. I'll keep you posted.
*I haven't found a recipe I love yet. I'm sure I could figure out something from what I've read on the web and how I cook. I'll keep you posted.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Kindergarten/first grade/second grade humor
Q. Where does the toy go to the bathroom?
A. In the toy-let.
Ask a friend to look under for something you dropped... When they ask you "under where" howl with laughter.
A. In the toy-let.
Ask a friend to look under for something you dropped... When they ask you "under where" howl with laughter.
Another thing to keep me up at night...
I was excited when my friend had a new blog post up today as I love her posts, I always learn something new. However, now I am more informed about BPA and have something new to keep me up at night. Ignorance is bliss, but the side-effects are dangerous.
After the Sigg water bottle debacle, I had wondered about canned foods and their liners and whether they had BPA in them. In the back of my mind, I guessed they did, but I hadn't had a chance to google it. The answer came to me today on the Happy Healthy Librarian's blog.
They have BPA in them.... Really, why do we have to have BPA in the liner of food cans. Why? It's BAD stuff.
We don't eat that many canned foods around here, thank goodness, but we do sometimes. You can guess that I'm taking back the cans I just bought yesterday to buy glass containers of food where possible. The one food I buy a great deal of in cans is tomatoes. Guess what? Tomatoes are very acidic and they leach more BPA than other foods. Great.
I'll be taking my tomatoes back and looking for tomato sauce and tomato paste in glass jars.
Or, here's a solution..... I suppose I could just make tomato sauce from actual tomatoes and then just freeze it. I don't think I want to can my own sauce. I don't know why, but canning scares me--freezing doesn't.
Sorry for the depressing post at the start of the weekend...it's going to light a fire under me to try cooking tomatoes from scratch.
After the Sigg water bottle debacle, I had wondered about canned foods and their liners and whether they had BPA in them. In the back of my mind, I guessed they did, but I hadn't had a chance to google it. The answer came to me today on the Happy Healthy Librarian's blog.
They have BPA in them.... Really, why do we have to have BPA in the liner of food cans. Why? It's BAD stuff.
We don't eat that many canned foods around here, thank goodness, but we do sometimes. You can guess that I'm taking back the cans I just bought yesterday to buy glass containers of food where possible. The one food I buy a great deal of in cans is tomatoes. Guess what? Tomatoes are very acidic and they leach more BPA than other foods. Great.
I'll be taking my tomatoes back and looking for tomato sauce and tomato paste in glass jars.
Or, here's a solution..... I suppose I could just make tomato sauce from actual tomatoes and then just freeze it. I don't think I want to can my own sauce. I don't know why, but canning scares me--freezing doesn't.
Sorry for the depressing post at the start of the weekend...it's going to light a fire under me to try cooking tomatoes from scratch.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
uber tired
Earlier this week, I found out that the piece of work I was doing, and hoping to continue doing until the end of the year, was out of money. Uh-oh. We still have a lot of work to do...It will get done, somehow. We always manage. There's lots of tricks--including staying up late or working on the weekend (for free). What I was more worried about was, what piece of work will pay me through the end of the year?
....
I put out some feelers, and I think, that I have three new small projects that will keep me in business. It'll still be a little bit of a stretch, and I don't think I'll manage to be at my "goal" for the end of the year, but I shouldn't be lower than 3% off, and my supervisor keeps reassuring me that it will be okay.
....
At work, there are many new people. It's fun to have new good people. There's a core of us who have been there forever, 10+ years. It's so weird to me that I'm an "old timer," but I am. It's fun to see the young ones. They are eager and energetic. One just got married. I guess she's between 25 and 30. She's young, but has a great perspective on life.
Anyway, thinking about all the young new folks at work made me think that I should try to remember and record some of the things I do remember from that era before I completely forget. This blog is for the 3 little girls (who are growing up WAY TOO FAST) and they may want to know someday.
So let's see....
I went to S___ after grad school with my new Ph.D. I'd worked at A____ for one year, as I finished my dissertation. A_____ was a super great year, but I love A_____. If I could go back to A_____, I would. But 1) there isn't really anything I want to do at A____ right now, and 2) I couldn't be part-time.
Oh, wait, trying to record how I thought/felt 10-12 years ago.
I remember starting my job at S___.... I was very impressed with my (former) supervisor M___ and my wonderful colleague P____, and the coolest thing was, they liked and respected me too. We had the best job then. It was 1997 and the dot com craze was happening. We were working in an emerging area. It was exciting. I worked many hours, but loved every single hour. We felt like we were making a small difference in the world and it felt great.
Bleh, I think I've written all of this before.
Meh, I'm boring even myself. I don't know what to write.
Oh dear and gentle reader, could you help me by thinking of a good question for me to answer that the girls might want to know someday...? Please?
xoxo.
....
I put out some feelers, and I think, that I have three new small projects that will keep me in business. It'll still be a little bit of a stretch, and I don't think I'll manage to be at my "goal" for the end of the year, but I shouldn't be lower than 3% off, and my supervisor keeps reassuring me that it will be okay.
....
At work, there are many new people. It's fun to have new good people. There's a core of us who have been there forever, 10+ years. It's so weird to me that I'm an "old timer," but I am. It's fun to see the young ones. They are eager and energetic. One just got married. I guess she's between 25 and 30. She's young, but has a great perspective on life.
Anyway, thinking about all the young new folks at work made me think that I should try to remember and record some of the things I do remember from that era before I completely forget. This blog is for the 3 little girls (who are growing up WAY TOO FAST) and they may want to know someday.
So let's see....
I went to S___ after grad school with my new Ph.D. I'd worked at A____ for one year, as I finished my dissertation. A_____ was a super great year, but I love A_____. If I could go back to A_____, I would. But 1) there isn't really anything I want to do at A____ right now, and 2) I couldn't be part-time.
Oh, wait, trying to record how I thought/felt 10-12 years ago.
I remember starting my job at S___.... I was very impressed with my (former) supervisor M___ and my wonderful colleague P____, and the coolest thing was, they liked and respected me too. We had the best job then. It was 1997 and the dot com craze was happening. We were working in an emerging area. It was exciting. I worked many hours, but loved every single hour. We felt like we were making a small difference in the world and it felt great.
Bleh, I think I've written all of this before.
Meh, I'm boring even myself. I don't know what to write.
Oh dear and gentle reader, could you help me by thinking of a good question for me to answer that the girls might want to know someday...? Please?
xoxo.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
sunday night
Three-a is styling my hair and has been for about 45 minutes. I think it's done, but she doesn't. She's using a comb and my scalp is getting sore. I just asked her to switch to a brush. Why didn't I think of this 43 minutes ago? I'm a little slow. She's giving me a makeover. She just put a flower barrette in my hair and told me I look very cute.
oNe is eating a pomegranate. She loves them. She is the healthiest eating kid I know. She has been forever. Now, one of her favorite food combinations is brown rice, broccoli, and cheddar cheese. She asks for it a lot.
twoK is melting down. She's been crying a lot all day. MWH has called her "fragile" and it's true. I'm hoping she's just tired. Yesterday, she was pretty fragile too. It's tough to be a twoK! I'm hoping she'll go fall asleep for a little while so we can wake her up, give her dinner and a quick bath... She'll probably sleep better tonight if she has a nap... Yea, it's almost 6 pm, but twoK is a sleeper now. She's making up for all the sleep she missed out on when she was 0-3 and didn't sleep.
Lunch today was at our favorite Mexican restaurant, then we played at the park. Except for all the screaming from the little girl, mostly twoK and Three-a and mostly because oNe was bothering them), it's been a lovely day. I still want to ride my exercise bike and do my exercise ball video (it's good for my core).
oNe is eating a pomegranate. She loves them. She is the healthiest eating kid I know. She has been forever. Now, one of her favorite food combinations is brown rice, broccoli, and cheddar cheese. She asks for it a lot.
twoK is melting down. She's been crying a lot all day. MWH has called her "fragile" and it's true. I'm hoping she's just tired. Yesterday, she was pretty fragile too. It's tough to be a twoK! I'm hoping she'll go fall asleep for a little while so we can wake her up, give her dinner and a quick bath... She'll probably sleep better tonight if she has a nap... Yea, it's almost 6 pm, but twoK is a sleeper now. She's making up for all the sleep she missed out on when she was 0-3 and didn't sleep.
Lunch today was at our favorite Mexican restaurant, then we played at the park. Except for all the screaming from the little girl, mostly twoK and Three-a and mostly because oNe was bothering them), it's been a lovely day. I still want to ride my exercise bike and do my exercise ball video (it's good for my core).
Friday, November 06, 2009
but...
Being Grumpy makes you do better work? But, all I could do was fixate on the issues that were making me GRUMPY. I think there needs to be more research done.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Just realized
I just realized that it's November, and November is traditionally (heh) Nanoblomo. My attempt to blog more again, that started on Tuesday, isn't tied to Nanoblomo. Maybe it was tied subconsciously, maybe on some level I knew that Nanoblomo was occurring, but I didn't read it on any one's blog until last night, and I didn't mean to make my attempt start in Nanoblomo season.
Okay... I'm having a hard time NOT blogging about PT. It's not about my knee though, now it's my back. I *think* my knee is pretty much back. (heh, a pun/joke...) I have a little arthritis in it, but it really doesn't hurt much. I'd barely notice it if I wasn't still thinking about it. It isn't "injured" any more. Whatever I injured, maybe my popliteus, took FOREVEH to heal, but now, I am declaring it 90% healed and 70-80% original strength.
Right now, my back FEELS pretty good, but it's weak. That's a dangerous place to be. Because it feels good, it makes one think one could go to Zumba and go crazy... But, that would be bad. That would make it take longer to heal. I'm trying to get into as good of shape as I can NOW so that when I'm older I'll be stronger and I'll be doing things correctly. I'm doing lots of Ab work. I am going to do more weights/strengthening stuff and less aerobics... I think I told you all this last night, but I have to keep reminding myself of the plan because CHANGE IS HARD.
Okay, shutting up now.
Here's a challenge... try sucking in your stomach and making it really tight 100 times a day. I try to do it in 20 "suck" increments, thus five times a day. It's harder than it sounds. If you suck/squeeze/harden your stomach so tight your eyes might pop, it takes a lot out of you. Try it.
See?
It's hard. Now do it 19 more times....
Now remember to do 20 sucks four more times today.
Here's a fun tidbit... oNe just learned how to spell Mississippi. I've been trying to get her to learn that for a year, and she had NO interest. Then she found it on a map on her own and got inspired. That's the thing about learning... It takes motivation. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can send your kids to school, but you can't make them learn.
Okay... I'm having a hard time NOT blogging about PT. It's not about my knee though, now it's my back. I *think* my knee is pretty much back. (heh, a pun/joke...) I have a little arthritis in it, but it really doesn't hurt much. I'd barely notice it if I wasn't still thinking about it. It isn't "injured" any more. Whatever I injured, maybe my popliteus, took FOREVEH to heal, but now, I am declaring it 90% healed and 70-80% original strength.
Right now, my back FEELS pretty good, but it's weak. That's a dangerous place to be. Because it feels good, it makes one think one could go to Zumba and go crazy... But, that would be bad. That would make it take longer to heal. I'm trying to get into as good of shape as I can NOW so that when I'm older I'll be stronger and I'll be doing things correctly. I'm doing lots of Ab work. I am going to do more weights/strengthening stuff and less aerobics... I think I told you all this last night, but I have to keep reminding myself of the plan because CHANGE IS HARD.
Okay, shutting up now.
Here's a challenge... try sucking in your stomach and making it really tight 100 times a day. I try to do it in 20 "suck" increments, thus five times a day. It's harder than it sounds. If you suck/squeeze/harden your stomach so tight your eyes might pop, it takes a lot out of you. Try it.
See?
It's hard. Now do it 19 more times....
Now remember to do 20 sucks four more times today.
Here's a fun tidbit... oNe just learned how to spell Mississippi. I've been trying to get her to learn that for a year, and she had NO interest. Then she found it on a map on her own and got inspired. That's the thing about learning... It takes motivation. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can send your kids to school, but you can't make them learn.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
uber grumpy
I am uber grumpy tonight. I'm not going to talk about it because none of it is a huge deal... Okay, it's just little stuff that n3nny does... stuff that happens to significantly annoy me and apparently, I haven't communicated exactly how much these things annoy me, but in general, she's super.
The other thing, Mr. Toyota Corolla... IF YOU ARE MAKING A LEFT HAND TURN, YOU ACTUALLY NEED TO YIELD TO PEOPLE IN THE CROSS WALK, CARS GOING STRAIGHT, AND CARS MAKING A RIGHT HAND TURN. Honking at people and cars does not, contrary to your belief, give you the right of way. You, Mr. Toyota Corolla, need to go take a driving class.
And then there's the ice pack incident. If you come to my house, DO NOT USE MY ICE PACKS without asking. I use them ALL EVERY NIGHT. I DO NOT LIKE IT WHEN MY ICE PACKS AREN'T ICY.
Oops... guess I discussed it.
Do I seem stressed? Yea, I kind of am... I DON'T KNOW WHY.
It might be that I'm not working out enough because I'm trying to take it easy so my back will heal and my right foot will stop being numb. In PT, we're working on my back. I think, we are making progress. Progress in PT is slow. My knee continues to S-L-O-W-L-Y improve, but I have to really work on it, but not work TOO hard. Delicate balance.
The PT said it takes about 6-8 weeks to build muscle. I think we've been working on my back for 5-6 weeks or so. I probably lost a week when I had my cold. Based on how long it takes to build muscle, and how long we've been working, I'm guessing I have 3 or 4 more weeks until I feel stronger/better in my back.
I'm doing LOTS of core strengthening work. LOTS. We're doing traction on my back in PT. If I don't sit, or lay on my bed, my right foot isn't numb. I'm hoping to be able to sit and lay again soon. I'm going to NOT jump in Zumba for a week or 2 and see what happens. I won't go to Zumba tomorrow. I'll do the elliptical.
Hey, wanna know something positive? I heart the Bosu ball. As soon as my back is strong enough, I'm going to try this. It looks like fun!
The other thing, Mr. Toyota Corolla... IF YOU ARE MAKING A LEFT HAND TURN, YOU ACTUALLY NEED TO YIELD TO PEOPLE IN THE CROSS WALK, CARS GOING STRAIGHT, AND CARS MAKING A RIGHT HAND TURN. Honking at people and cars does not, contrary to your belief, give you the right of way. You, Mr. Toyota Corolla, need to go take a driving class.
And then there's the ice pack incident. If you come to my house, DO NOT USE MY ICE PACKS without asking. I use them ALL EVERY NIGHT. I DO NOT LIKE IT WHEN MY ICE PACKS AREN'T ICY.
Oops... guess I discussed it.
Do I seem stressed? Yea, I kind of am... I DON'T KNOW WHY.
It might be that I'm not working out enough because I'm trying to take it easy so my back will heal and my right foot will stop being numb. In PT, we're working on my back. I think, we are making progress. Progress in PT is slow. My knee continues to S-L-O-W-L-Y improve, but I have to really work on it, but not work TOO hard. Delicate balance.
The PT said it takes about 6-8 weeks to build muscle. I think we've been working on my back for 5-6 weeks or so. I probably lost a week when I had my cold. Based on how long it takes to build muscle, and how long we've been working, I'm guessing I have 3 or 4 more weeks until I feel stronger/better in my back.
I'm doing LOTS of core strengthening work. LOTS. We're doing traction on my back in PT. If I don't sit, or lay on my bed, my right foot isn't numb. I'm hoping to be able to sit and lay again soon. I'm going to NOT jump in Zumba for a week or 2 and see what happens. I won't go to Zumba tomorrow. I'll do the elliptical.
Hey, wanna know something positive? I heart the Bosu ball. As soon as my back is strong enough, I'm going to try this. It looks like fun!
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Would you like some High Fructose Corn Syrup with your water?
And then I go all curmudgeon-y on you.
I just searched the blog, and apparently, I haven't written about my feelings towards High Fructose Corn Syrup. I am a little surprised. Perhaps, I didn't want to scare any one with how vehemently I despise the stuff. I gave it up somewhere around 2004. I work really hard to avoid it, and I've only knowingly consumed it on a few occasions since 2004. (We eat a lot of home-cooked meals around here so that we can avoid it.)
I don't like high fructose corn syrup in any product. I find the process for creating it SCARY. If you read about its production you'll find many words you can't pronounce. It's a 3-step process and involves high heat and lots of chemicals.
You can also scroll down and read about health effects. I think it's pretty rotten stuff; I believe it's far worse than sugar.
Anyway...
So, a good friend brought some of these, the "Roaring Water" variety, over to our house for a little shindig with the kids.
Um, really?
We don't drink much juice around here. We don't do soda. (The girls have tried Root Beer, made with sugar, once, and oNe has had Sprite one time at a party.) Sometimes, when we get all crazy, I give the girls a splash, literally just a splash of plain juice, in their water. I don't see the point of giving them all that sugar in a drink. I think they prefer to ingest sugar in other forms. We eat lots of fruit and I'm all about the whole fruit, complete with fiber, versus juice. Anyway, Capri Sun juice bags don't have High Fructose Corn Syrup... Neither do their morning products....
BUT....
The last two products do.
Good grief, why would you put High Fructose Corn Syrup, and Splenda in a water for kids? Why? Really, Kraft, why? They advertise, "No artificial flavors or colors" and "Low-calorie." You know what? Plain water is even more natural, and lower calorie. If your kid won't drink plain water, add a splash of pure juice.
I can't even believe this product exists. I'm also a little distraught over their tag line... Four ways to do Wholesome. What part of wholesome includes High Fructose Corn Syrup? Why feed kids all this junk?
I just searched the blog, and apparently, I haven't written about my feelings towards High Fructose Corn Syrup. I am a little surprised. Perhaps, I didn't want to scare any one with how vehemently I despise the stuff. I gave it up somewhere around 2004. I work really hard to avoid it, and I've only knowingly consumed it on a few occasions since 2004. (We eat a lot of home-cooked meals around here so that we can avoid it.)
I don't like high fructose corn syrup in any product. I find the process for creating it SCARY. If you read about its production you'll find many words you can't pronounce. It's a 3-step process and involves high heat and lots of chemicals.
You can also scroll down and read about health effects. I think it's pretty rotten stuff; I believe it's far worse than sugar.
Anyway...
So, a good friend brought some of these, the "Roaring Water" variety, over to our house for a little shindig with the kids.
Um, really?
We don't drink much juice around here. We don't do soda. (The girls have tried Root Beer, made with sugar, once, and oNe has had Sprite one time at a party.) Sometimes, when we get all crazy, I give the girls a splash, literally just a splash of plain juice, in their water. I don't see the point of giving them all that sugar in a drink. I think they prefer to ingest sugar in other forms. We eat lots of fruit and I'm all about the whole fruit, complete with fiber, versus juice. Anyway, Capri Sun juice bags don't have High Fructose Corn Syrup... Neither do their morning products....
BUT....
The last two products do.
Good grief, why would you put High Fructose Corn Syrup, and Splenda in a water for kids? Why? Really, Kraft, why? They advertise, "No artificial flavors or colors" and "Low-calorie." You know what? Plain water is even more natural, and lower calorie. If your kid won't drink plain water, add a splash of pure juice.
I can't even believe this product exists. I'm also a little distraught over their tag line... Four ways to do Wholesome. What part of wholesome includes High Fructose Corn Syrup? Why feed kids all this junk?
Monday, November 02, 2009
Routine
I kind of got out of the habit of blogging. I'm a creature of habit. If I do something everyday, it's easy. If I stop, it's hard to re-start. I floss EVERY night. If I'm ever too tired, I make myself do it anyway.
I'm still reading all my blogs, and seeing lots of things I want to write about but then I don't seem to have any motivation. I've become lazy and soft when it comes to blogging.
I sort of got out of the habit when my knee was sore because all I wanted to do was write about how my knee was doing. I spent a great deal of my time monitoring every twinge of my knee. I'm happy to report that it's getting better. Today, before I went and did a really light 40 minute work out, it felt pretty much normal! As in before July 9th normal! Woo! I'll see how it feels tomorrow. I am noticing that there are many times when my knee feels good. I'm not quite back to 100% effort in Zumba, but it is not quite ready for that. I'm doing about 80% effort each class and not experiencing set backs.
See why I stopped blogging? Once I start talking about my knee, I just can't stop. To summarize, my knee has been feeling better slowly. It has been almost 4 months since I hurt it. I'll try to limit myself to monthly knee status updates.
Oh... yea, this used to be a blog about little girls.
Let's see.... We've adjusted to school. We <3 our teachers. Miss twoK seems to really be enjoying kindergarten and she's a full-fledged reader! She's really good. I didn't push her at all, but she worked really hard on learning to read. Miss oNe didn't want to learn how to read and didn't work too much at it until she was almost 6.
Now, oNe is a super reader. She reads a lot each day and she reads at night in bed. It's so super to see her sucked into a book. Being book worms ourselves, her Daddy and I are thrilled!
Three-a is working really hard on learning to write. She's still hysterical... On Halloween, we went trick-or-treating with a bunch of kids. The littlest boy, is a really good friend of Three's. He's 3 and she's 4. She loves to take care of him. He was always slow in getting to the house, so Three-a self-appointed as his official candy getter. She'd explain to everyone how she needed an extra piece to give to her friend S____. So cute. One house wouldn't give her an extra piece. She walked away from the house scolding them saying, "I hope NEXT year you'll let me have an extra piece for my friend S____. I really hope you will." It was hilarious to S___'s Mom and me.
There's so much more to write about them, but I've been so busy and now, this time change is making me exhausted (tonight). In addition, I always feel guilty writing about them here, and not on "the other" family blog. I know the Grandmas love to read about them. If you want to see the other blog, let me know.
What else... Uggh... One of our pumpklns just bit the dust....MWH and I just cleaned it up. This is a photo from last year when our pumpkin decomposed, but this is what just happened again to another pumpkin. We carved him just 72 hours ago. Kind of sad.
There's more to write... Hopefully, I'll get back in the swing of things again. Remind me I want to write about our school, and the lovely families we've met.
I'm still reading all my blogs, and seeing lots of things I want to write about but then I don't seem to have any motivation. I've become lazy and soft when it comes to blogging.
I sort of got out of the habit when my knee was sore because all I wanted to do was write about how my knee was doing. I spent a great deal of my time monitoring every twinge of my knee. I'm happy to report that it's getting better. Today, before I went and did a really light 40 minute work out, it felt pretty much normal! As in before July 9th normal! Woo! I'll see how it feels tomorrow. I am noticing that there are many times when my knee feels good. I'm not quite back to 100% effort in Zumba, but it is not quite ready for that. I'm doing about 80% effort each class and not experiencing set backs.
See why I stopped blogging? Once I start talking about my knee, I just can't stop. To summarize, my knee has been feeling better slowly. It has been almost 4 months since I hurt it. I'll try to limit myself to monthly knee status updates.
Oh... yea, this used to be a blog about little girls.
Let's see.... We've adjusted to school. We <3 our teachers. Miss twoK seems to really be enjoying kindergarten and she's a full-fledged reader! She's really good. I didn't push her at all, but she worked really hard on learning to read. Miss oNe didn't want to learn how to read and didn't work too much at it until she was almost 6.
Now, oNe is a super reader. She reads a lot each day and she reads at night in bed. It's so super to see her sucked into a book. Being book worms ourselves, her Daddy and I are thrilled!
Three-a is working really hard on learning to write. She's still hysterical... On Halloween, we went trick-or-treating with a bunch of kids. The littlest boy, is a really good friend of Three's. He's 3 and she's 4. She loves to take care of him. He was always slow in getting to the house, so Three-a self-appointed as his official candy getter. She'd explain to everyone how she needed an extra piece to give to her friend S____. So cute. One house wouldn't give her an extra piece. She walked away from the house scolding them saying, "I hope NEXT year you'll let me have an extra piece for my friend S____. I really hope you will." It was hilarious to S___'s Mom and me.
There's so much more to write about them, but I've been so busy and now, this time change is making me exhausted (tonight). In addition, I always feel guilty writing about them here, and not on "the other" family blog. I know the Grandmas love to read about them. If you want to see the other blog, let me know.
What else... Uggh... One of our pumpklns just bit the dust....MWH and I just cleaned it up. This is a photo from last year when our pumpkin decomposed, but this is what just happened again to another pumpkin. We carved him just 72 hours ago. Kind of sad.
There's more to write... Hopefully, I'll get back in the swing of things again. Remind me I want to write about our school, and the lovely families we've met.
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