Social butterflies...

Is it sad that my kids have busier social lives than I do? At least this weekend--oh, let's face it, most weekends. :-)

Last night I took them ice skating with BFF and her two kids and then we all went out for dinner and ice cream. The kids then had a sleepover at their house.

They came home this morning and did chores and homework before Hubby and Keeper Boy left for the rink. They were going to watch a hockey game and then Keeper Boy had practice. And now,at this very moment, my 11-year-old Keeper Boy is out with the rest of his teammates and their dads. At a bachelor party. At Hooters. Allow me to explain. Apparently the kids decided to have a "bachelor party" for their coach, who is getting married at some point in the future. I have no idea when. The invitation was a photocopied piece of paper, written by a 10-year-old, that said:

"Come to Hooters in Chantilly after practice on Saturday for Coach Mike's bachelor party. No moms or sisters allowed because they would ruin it."

Can't argue with that kind of logic!

Meanwhile, J-Mav and I were home all afternoon. I was cleaning and shredding lots of old statements, bills, etc. I got a call with a request for J-Mav to go to a friend's house tomorrow afternoon to play. He was very excited. Late this afternoon J-Mav and I headed over to Target to get him some new sneakers en route to Logan's for dinner. While in Target, my Blackberry buzzed. It was a message from another friend's mom asking if J-Mav could come over and play TONIGHT. So we purchased the shoes (and a baseball equipment bag that he HAD to have because "he's a baseball player now") and grabbed a bite to eat at Logan's, and I dropped him off at his friend's house. They were running around playing Star Wars when I left. J-Mav will sleep well tonight!

I'm going to need a separate calendar for the boys' social engagements soon... how long until they can drive themselves? Oh, wait... maybe I should be careful of what I wish for!

Accountability...

So, ya know that 0.8 pounds I lost last week? I found it.

Hubby, on the other hand, lost another 2.5 pounds and is back into pants he hasn't worn in years! Way to go, Hubby!!

TODAY'S STATS
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Change from last week: +0.8
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Change since starting WW: -24.6
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Pounds to goal: 17.4
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Weekend...

Another busy weekend is winding down as I sit here watching the Oscars... not because I really care, but more because Hubby is at work trying to catch up, the kids are sound asleep, and there's nothing better on TV. I was happy to see Heath Ledger win Best Supporting Actor for his haunting performance as The Joker. He deserved it.

I had a weekend mixed with sadness and joy. Friday my brother and I drove up to Pennsylvania for a memorial service for our neighbor, who passed away last week after a battle with cancer. It was a lovely service and a fitting tribute for a wonderful woman.

We stayed with our parents on Friday night, went out to breakfast at their favorite new restaurant on Saturday morning, and then visited for a few hours with my brother's best friend from high school and his wife and son. I adore them both and hope we get to see them all again very soon.

We headed back to Virginia in blindingly bright sunshine, which I would've enjoyed a lot more if I hadn't had a splitting headache. But we made good time and were able to go out for a bite to eat with Hubby, J-Mav, and Keeper Boy before heading to [gasp!] the rink (I know... shocking!) for Keeper Boy's hockey game. My brother came with us and was suitably impressed with Keeper Boy's improvement since the last time he saw him play a few years ago.

BFF and her family came to watch Keeper Boy play, as well. Keeper Boy's team played well and won the game, beating the team that defeated them for the tournament championship LAST weekend. Good payback. After the game, we came home with an extra kid (our Godson).

Today we had awesome suite tickets for the Caps game against the Penguins. But before we headed downtown, I had to take a quick trip to the grocery store as we had no milk, bread, or toilet paper! The five of us (Godson came with us) headed downtown for lunch and the game and had a great time! Caps beat the Pens and, during the first intermission, Keeper Boy's goaltending partner and another player from their team competed in the shootout final for the other Squirt bracket... the same competition Keeper Boy and his teammate participated in in December. They won, too!

We had dinner at Rio Grande with BFF's family... great end to a great day. Now on to another week of work and school...

Accountability...

Back from my meeting. Any week with a loss is a good week, so this was a good week. :-) My leader ended the meeting by putting up the following quote:

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing." --Abraham Lincoln

Hubby lost 5.6 pounds in his first week of his Weight Watchers at Work program!! Way to go, Hubby!!


TODAY'S STATS
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Change from last week: -0.8
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Change since starting WW: -25.4
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Pounds to goal: 16.6
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Loss...

It seems to me the world loses an awful lot of good people before their primes. It's an interesting thing... and one that's not really very fair. Wednesday night, the mother of one of my oldest friends lost her battle with cancer.

This was a woman who was always a mom and wife first. She raised three children and two foster children, and welcomed all of their friends into her home.

As my girl scout leader, she taught me how to do simple cross-stitch (from which I produced a pink gingham apron with cross-stitched sailboats for my grandmother).

She allowed me, as a young girl (elementary aged), to use her phone to invite people to a surprise anniversary party I threw for my parents--and stood by without saying a word (but probably laughing heartily on the inside) as I asked each guest I invited to bring some food item to contribute to the party. How embarrassing.

She did not react outwardly when I once asked her if she was having a baby--though knowing how I'd react now if some little neighbor kid asked me that about my midlife-birthed-two-kids paunch, I'm sure she had choice words about me later that night. Then again, knowing her, she probably didn't. I hope she forgot about my faux pas years ago because I know it's bothered me almost since the moment it came out of my mouth.

Several years ago, she battled and survived breast cancer. But last year the diagnosis was pancreatic cancer. Not so curable. From what I hear, she fought a hard and courageous battle. And I know she had the love and support of her family through it all and right up to the very end. She will leave a void in their lives that will take some getting used to, but I wonder if she knew how much she touched so many other people's lives in various ways?

Accountability...

I started back to Weight Watchers today. I have never really stopped. I just got lazy about tracking. And life conspired against me (work, weather, holiday/hockey travel, etc.) to keep me from attending weekly meetings since early November. (Yes, I know... I could've found a way to get there at least a few times each month had I really tried.)

So, anyway. I'm back. I'm dedicated. I have the materials for the new Momentum program. I have 17.4 pounds, as of today, to lose to make it to my goal weight. (At one point, I was less than 5 pounds from that weight, but like I said, I got lazy.)

My intention is to post here weekly as another layer of accountability to myself. Thanks in advance for your support.

TODAY'S STATS
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Change from last week: N/A, but I was +4.6 pounds from the last meeting attended in November
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Change since starting WW: -24.6
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Pounds to goal: 17.4
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Third time's a charm

Something exciting happened today -- Hubby got a wedding band!

Wait. What?! But you've been married for almost 15 years, you say!

Yes, I know. And I put a lovely, yellow gold wedding band on Hubby's ring finger on a beautiful August day in 1994. He never took it off. However, he lost it a few years later -- at the hockey rink, we think. Then he got used to not having it on.

I admit, it bothered me a little bit (okay, a lot) that Hubby wasn't wearing a wedding band. It was totally my issue, but it still bothered me for whatever reason.

So... when Service Merchandise went out of business, I bought him another lovely, yellow gold wedding band -- this time with the comfort fit feature. But it wasn't comfortable because he wasn't used to wearing a ring after so many years. Because the store was going out of business, we couldn't return it, so we got store credit and, instead, got an electic razor and a few other useful things.

It has bothered me less and less as the years have flown by. I had gotten to the point where it very rarely even crossed my mind. But over the weekend we went into Christian Bernard, which is going out of business. I was looking at something else and we turned around to find we were standing in front of the men's wedding band display. So we looked and Hubby seemed interested. Problem was, they didn't have any in his size that could be re-sized. So we left empty-handed and decided if we could get to another Christian Bernard before they all closed, we'd check it out. If not, no big deal.

Well, today we went after Keeper Boy's hockey game (which the team won... woo hoo!). Long story short, Hubby is now sporting a beautiful, white gold wedding band that we got for a great price. It looks good on him and he really likes it.

I think I had become totally fine with him not wearing a wedding band. Really, I was ok! But I am also really happy that he has one again. :-)

Heard...

My niece called last night to wish Keeper Boy a happy birthday. I could only hear his side of the conversation...

Good.
. . .
Thanks.
. . .
Um... eating dinner. Mom made my favorite dinner.
. . .
Pasta and shrimp. And she made it fancy!

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I arranged the shrimp on water goblets so it was like a shrimp cocktail, and I served our drinks in goblets, instead of our everyday glasses. That was the extent of the "out of the ordinary." Who knew I had to do so little to be so "fancy"!?

Heard...

This was relayed from my sister-in-law (Jenrie), through my husband, so it's probably not verbatim, but the effect is there...

Pre-school teacher: What is your full name?

Adorable nephew: Well, my REAL name is Peter Parker. But if I'm lost or need help, I'm supposed to say that my name is [Adorable Nephew's first, middle, and last names].

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Back story: I guess they've been working in pre-school on knowing pertinent information about themselves so if they ever find themselves lost or in trouble, they can give that information to the police officer or adult who can help them. However, for awhile now, Adorable Nephew has been insistent that he is Peter Parker (or sometimes, Spiderman, depending on the situation, I guess). Jenrie was starting to worry that if anything ever DID happen to Adorable Nephew, that he'd tell the police officer or adult that his name is Peter Parker! So she's been having these talks with him about why he needs to say his given name instead of Peter Parker when asked what his name is. Thus the gem retold above...

I've had the best job in the world for 11 years!

Dear Keeper Boy -

Eleven years ago today, Daddy and I went to the hospital. I waddled my way into a Labor, Delivery, Recovery room; had a relatively short (induced) labor; and gave birth to the most beautiful baby boy ever. You.

We went to the hospital unsure of whether we'd be coming home with a little boy or a little girl. We knew you were ALL boy when the first thing you did upon exiting the cozy comfort of the womb was pee all over my doctor. Nice.

You were so long!! That hasn't ever really changed. Today you are less than six inches from being as tall as me. I'll be lucky if you aren't taller than me by the time you leave elementary school at the end of the next school year! Anyway, you were a beautiful, long, blue-eyed baby with ten fingers and ten toes and more blonde hair than I'd ever seen on a newborn (until your brother was born... but his hair was darker).

We brought you home and I began the trial and error process of learning how to be a mommy. Sure, a lot of things fell under the philosophy of "just do it." Maybe I didn't do them perfectly, but I did them at least somewhat naturally. Some things didn't come so naturally and took longer. I contend to this day that Daddy was way more comfortable around you as a newborn than I was. But we all learned together, and I think we did a pretty good job. :)

Very early on, you developed a deep and encompassing knowledge of and love for hockey. Other sports soon followed. But you remain the only three-year-old I've ever known who could correctly pronounce the entire Washington Capitals roster, and provide most of the players' jersey numbers. You started skating when you were three and playing hockey when you were four. You made the jump to goalie when you were six or seven, and haven't looked back. (Well, you have looked back once or twice... and we responded by reminding you how much we paid for your goalie gear.) Outside hockey, you play baseball in the spring and soccer at recess, and you love to watch pretty much any sport on TV.

You also developed a love of reading at a very young age. You were reading chapter books by the time you entered Kindergarten. Earlier this year you finished reading the last of the books in the Harry Potter series. I love that YOUR love of reading has never dwindled. I hope that you carry it into adulthood and never stop! If you never stop reading, you'll never stop learning.

The years have flown by. You are now a big brother. And a pretty good one at that. You have matured into an intelligent, funny, amazing young person. At the same time, you can be infuriating, antagonistic, and amazingly immature. As time marches on, however, it seems the scales are tipping much more to the former rather than the latter. Your ADHD medication helps. :-) There are times when I think I am getting a glimpse of what will be the teenage you, and perhaps even the man. Most of the time, I like what I see.

I know the days that you will want to spend all your free time with Daddy and me are limited. We go through phases when those days are already fading. And I know that sometimes you and I get along about as well as fire and ice. I imagine those times will, unfortunately, get more frequent as you move into the middle school and high school years. So I try to treasure every hug and every "I love you." I know I don't always do a very good job of that. But I hope you know that no matter what--even when I am beyond frustrated--I always love you.

Thank you for giving me the most amazing, frustrating, rewarding, tiring, and fun job I've ever had: Mom.

Happy birthday, Keeper Boy. I love you!

Seen...

Me walking into Giant about an hour ago in my moose PJs and winter boots. Clinton and Stacy from What Not to Wear would've been horrified.

Had I remembered an hour before THAT (when I was at Giant doing my big weekly grocery shop) that I gave my cupcake tins away, I could've bought disposable cupcake pans then... thus avoiding the going back out after I already had my PJs on thing. Oh well. I didn't see anyone I knew. And, frankly, I wouldn't have cared if I had. :)

Thinking...

Does it make me a horrible person that I was rooting neither for the Steelers nor the Cardinals during the game last night, but, rather, that the stadium might collapse?

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(Not really, of course. It's just that, as an Eagles fan, there's no way I was rooting for the other Pennsylvania team, and there's sure no way I was rooting for the team that knocked the Eagles out of the playoffs... even if the Eagles didn't deserve to go to the Superbowl with the way they played against the Cardinals in that game.)

Seen...

Blinding red and blue spinning lights in my rearview mirror after I made a split-second decision NOT to hit the brakes for a yellow light on the way home from BFF's house tonight. Bad choice.

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Back story: J-Mav had an upset stomach and was wearing his sea bands and holding a bag, just in case. In a split second I decided not to hit the brakes with Mr. Puke in the backseat, and about a nanosecond later, I saw the cop sitting at the intersection coming the other way, waiting to turn left. Then I saw him flip on his lights and do a u-turn. Sigh.

Thinking...

One of my favorite sounds is the thud of a hockey puck bouncing off a leg pad.