ranDUMB ramblings

Happy Tuesday!

Well, I don't seem to get as much time as I would like to have for writing anymore. I am kept busy with my newspaper column and then trying to update this blog every day. I am also now the Lapeer County Green Parenting Examiner for Examiner.com, though I've only written four articles. I don't know how much I'll be doing for the Examiner, since it all has to have local ties and all has to have a photo. I enjoy writing the articles, but if I actually got paid (I'm sorry, but I don't consider a penny per page hit to be "payment") maybe I'd do more. Still, I like keeping my news writing skills fresh and it's another thing for a resume, so I'll do it. Check it out, and if you're feeling kind, subscribe. I promise you won't get pelted with six articles a week, and also, you might get something out of it. Just ignore the local ties if you're not local! :)

Anyway, back to not having time to write all I want. I got a list going of things to blog about, and I just don't know if I'll have time to blog about it all, so I'm just going to do a sort of scattered random post here. I guess that's probably what most of my posts are anyway, unless they're a scattering of photos!

On to the randomness.

TODAY is my hubby's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY! (He probably won't read this, though!) He is 34 today. I love him so much. He is a wonderful husband and fantastic father and he takes such good care of us. I appreciate him every day.



Last night I had the weirdest dream. I was getting married (in this hideous beet-red dress that kept turning orange) but it was to the wrong guy. I kept insisting that it wasn't the right guy but people were just getting mad at me, calling me a spoiled brat and stuff because I wouldn't just walk down the aisle and marry this guy, The thing is, I was talking to him and he knew he wasn't the right one but was willing to marry me anyway, even though he didn't love me and I didn't love him. We were just friends. Not even friends--acquaintances. My dad was refusing to go to the wedding if I was going to cancel it, my mom was yelling at me for making her work on the invitiations and then backing out. My bridesmaids were already at the altar and I was on the phone with one of them and she was like "We can't cancel! We're already up there!" I was so upset and I was begging someone to please find Chris because he was the one I was supposed to be marrying. Very strange dream.

On Friday afternoon, there was a murder-suicide just about a mile and a half away, at my great-grandma's old house. I am SO UPSET that her house was tainted. I have so many memories from that house. As a matter of fact, I still might do a whole blog post about it. We'll see. Anyway, another annoying thing about it is that it happened on a Friday afternoon only about a mile from the local newspaper office, yet they couldn't be bothered to even get a photo and a brief about it into Sunday's paper. NOTHING. None of the other newspapers or news channels covered it either. Not. One. Word. FOR TWO LIVES LOST! Grrrr.... This bothers me so much because when I was the local crime reporter I would have put in as late a night as I had to in order to get something in Sunday's paper, and you know what? I probably wouldn't have had to work that late at all. It wouldn't have taken that much effort to drive over there, snap a photo, go to 911, listen to the call that came in about it, and then talk to a couple neighbors for comments. Our local paper has become a sham and it sucks. I loved that newspaper. I started reading it when I was three and loved writing for it. Blah.

Onward...

I am sick of being stuck at this doughy weight. I started counting Weight Watchers Points yesterday. Success on Day 1. Today I plan to work some dessert in after dinner, which will be shepherd's pie. I hope I can get this pudge budging, because I would really like to wear shorts once it gets warm out.

Yesterday's eats:
preworkout
banana before my 30 min jog and 10 mins of weights

breakfast (before taking Logan to school)
coffee w/ cinnamon and skim milk
a whole wheat mini bagel with light garden veggie cream cheese

mid-morning (while Logan was in school)
3 egg whites with diced tomatoes and italian seasoning
half of a huge apple

lunch
a soup made with a can of diced tomatoes, chopped purple cabbage and lots of spices

mid-afternoon
a slice of cinnamon raisin Ezekiel bread with peanut butter
the other half of the huge apple

dinner
barilla plus spaghetti with hot turkey italian sausage in the sauce
salad (romaine, carrots, cucumbers, sunflower seeds, safflower oil and spiced vinegar)

I very much did not go hungry. In particular, the two bowls of ZERO POINTS soup I ate filled me up to discomfort for a while. Thanks cabbage. TOOT! Plus, I think I did very well on getting in plenty of fruits, veggies, whole grains, milk and good fats! Yay me!

Speaking of apples, if you haven't ever had a Pacific Rose apple, you have to try one! They are the best! Hard to find and only around at certain times of year, though. Right now I can only find them at Wal-Mart, but they're a good price. They are so sweet, Hubby actually thought they weren't as good for you as regular apples. But they're just a different variety. They're big and a really pretty pink color and they're sooooo sweet, but still crisp. Perfect apples.

Even though I am not happy with the way I look right now, I splurged this weekend on a new skirt and two tops--two very girly, frilly tops--so I will have something nice to wear to church as it gets warmer. I love them. I wore one of the tops, a very pretty sheer fuschia one, to church on Sunday (alas, with pants) and Jordan had a peanut butter cookie and was dropping crumbs all over me, and I noticed yesterday that my BRAND NEW SHIRT is covered with big oil spots wherever a cookie crumb hit. I am so mad. I NEVER buy myself nice clothes. If the spots don't come out I'm going to cry.

Here is the skirt and the other shirt.



The last day of winter was nice and breezy. Logan spotted the kite the Easter Bunny had brought him last year, sitting unopened in the top of his closet, and asked if we could fly it. I had never had much success with flying kites before, but I took him to the park and by golly, it flew really well! I had low expectations for a $1 kite from Wal-Mart, but it flew and didn't even rip, so we can use it again! Logan loved flying it. Oh, and no, that's not electric wires you see there. That pole in the background is a light for the baseball field and he was definitely far enough away from it.



Jordan signed "milk" three times this weekend. That's only his second sign. "More" was first. It's my fault. We don't work on them very much. He doesn't say much in terms of words. He stopped saying "mom" but I know he can do it. He calls Logan either "oga" or just "g" (the hard g sound). He still says uh-oh. He kind of says "yes" and "cheese" and he says the "k" sound for "book." Brown Bear is by far still his favorite. It's getting REALLY trashed because he hauls it around constantly. He has also been carrying around stuffed animals lately. He loves Snoopy and Elmo and My Pal Scout. He hugs them and kisses them and then throws them on the ground and body slams them. Quite cute.

Oh, and he's a total paci addict. He was walking around the other day with THREE that he had swiped out of his crib. He had one in each hand and one in his mouth, and every so often he'd switch them around. I want to take them away but it's going to be SO HARD! Plus, he's sleeping decently now (only for Hubby. Never for me) and I'm afraid it will throw that off.

Juggling three pacis



Running... Instead of getting easier, it seems to be getting harder. I get all these foot aches and pains, and hubby does too. He said he's not sure he's going to even be able to run that half marathon in the fall because he seems to have developed plantar fasciitis too. My inserts seem to be helping with mine, but now my feet ache in a different way from fighting against the inserts when I run. I think maybe my body will like me better for running when I drop the extra 15 pounds. My feet probably hate me and call me nasty names when I'm not listening.

Oh, well, I'm sure there's more to ramble on about, but I have gone on enough for today.

Everyone have a great day!

XOXOXOXOX