Weekend

What did you do this weekend? Oh, I shoveled for eight hours and made two snow walls.



In this second picture and from this view, you can normally see my SUV parked next to Karen's car. But you can't in this picture because of the snow walls. I would shovel the snow into a pile until the pile was over my head and then I would push it back and down so I could shovel some more. As a result, I made a "wall" that is about 4 feet wide and over 5 feet tall. Have you ever shoveled snow over your head? Good times.


We were lucky in that we never lost power, thank heavens. But I don't even want to think about shoveling the 3+ feet of snow off our back porch. And it's supposed to snow again tomorrow.


It was a fun challenge to get our cars cleared off and our driveway shoveled. But, in the end, I was so disgusted with it all, that I didn't take any pictures until now. Today I'm trying to see the beauty of it; I really am.





In other, non-weather related news, Kylie jumped from the top "step" at Gymboree down onto the padded mat all by herself. She's been making the three-foot jump for a while but has always wanted to hold my hand. On Friday, she did it solo. She still loves going to Gymboree.


She and I finished our hand-made valentines for our family on Sunday. Of course, I can't get to the mailbox so who knows when our family will get them. But kiddo and I had fun putting them together.


We also made this fun cowgirl hat with supplies we got from Michaels Craft Store.




Here are a few last pictures to share:

Sorting buttons for fun.



The circle on the floor was originally a toddler bulls-eye game where your little one could toss velcro dragonflies into the frogs' mouths. But Kylie was decided it is her special dance circle. When a song comes on that she wants to dance to, the dot gets thrown on the floor (like a mexican hat dance) and she dances around it and in it.

Of course, she first gets her pinwheel and purse. The kiddo's sense of style amuses me every day. Even at 7:30 in the morning.


Kylie thought the potato-head earmuffs made a fun mustache.


My sweet darling girl.

Progress, pages and more

Putting some fitness challenges into my vacation last week paid off. I lost 3 pounds last week for a total of 20 pounds lost in 65 days. Other than some extreme chafing, I couldn't be happier.

I had visions of completing a month's worth of scrapbook pages while I was away. Instead, I completed these four. You can click on the picture to see the page details.









We had another snow storm in DC last night. Right now, Karen and I really miss having a garage! Still, I shoveled out our car early this morning so that Kylie and I could go to swim class. Please, can it be Spring now?

Lastly, I want to give a shout out to friends Tara and Julie. Their son was born on January 29th. Head over to their blog and give 'em some love.

Missed her

While I thoroughly enjoyed our vacation, I really missed the kiddo. It was fantastic to have her throw herself into my arms at the airport on Sunday. All day yesterday, instead of running around doing all the laundry and putting away and cleaning that I needed to do, I sat and marveled at my darling girl.

I am struck by the sparkle in her eyes, her spirit, her giggles and her joy. I laughed as she shared some new phrases like, "You're awesome" and "That's cool" that she probably picked up from her cousins. I rolled my eyes as she said, "Are we there yet?" for the first time (and then the tenth time) as we ran some errands.

Before vacation, I hadn't picked up my Nikon in over a week. I've been taking my picture-a-day with my iPhone instead. But my delight in seeing the babe had me firing over 100 pictures in two days. We came back to snow--again snow!--in DC. But if it makes Kylie this happy, it's all right with me.













My darling sweet girl.

Update from Mexico

Wendy is happily snuggled on the couch and I'm filling in with this blog post for today. Hi! We've had a wonderful few days here and have done practically nothing except lay by the pool or beach, read, watch the first season of "Glee" on DVD, and have room service. I feel better than I have in weeks (maybe months) and, other than missing Kylie and looking forward to seeing her sweet self in a few days, I think I'd be content to stay here for at least another month.

I've not had any further chest pain or other weirdness (thank goodness) and while my cardiologist told me there may very likely be at least some blockage in my ticker somewhere, I'm going to chalk up this whole nasty experience to job-related yuckiness and put it behind me. Of course, my doc told me to really ramp up my exercise (which I plan to do once I'm back in the states and nearer to good emergency care just in case) and to really watch my diet, so I'll do that. This whole business is enough to scare me straight (pardon the pun) and I plan on being a very good girl in the diet and exercise arena in days (weeks, months, years) to come. I've got so much to live for with my sweet Wendy and Kylie that I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to ensure I have many, many years ahead to share with them. Nothing like a "near death" experience (or at least a "oh Lord, please don't let this be another heart attack" experience) to get my butt back on the track of better health and fitness.

My Mom is keeping Kylie this week while we're here and she has sent us two wonderful emails updating us on what Kylie is doing and how things are going while we're lounging around down here. We loved today's note so much that I thought it might be fun to share it with you too. Enjoy...

Hi Girls,

Kylie is down for her nap and I'm thinking about taking one myself. It is a cloudy, cool day but not raining for a change. Kylie has to sing the rain go away song about every day.

She is doing well and is liking Uncle Teddy better everyday. At first she would say he scared her a little bit. Now, she stands at the bottom of the steps and calls him to come down. She likes the Mario Game because the little man jumps. She is enjoying our visit with Mother every night, too. While I was talking to Linda last night, they played hide n' seek. Nana lost her balance and fell on the couch. Kylie thought she was playing and laughed so hard. Papaw is in his own world of sports but Kylie still gets him involved as much as she can. She cooked his food and served him this morning and asked him to change the TV to her show. We have played with the stickers, colored, did work sheets and read several books.

We have not had any accidents except the early morning wet pull-up when she first wakes up. She surprises me being as good as she is at such an early age. I've not had any luck in skipping baths as she is very persistent and will not agree to missing one. I do however sneak lotion on her when she isn't looking. I tell her it is my good smelling soap.

She hasn't cried since Saturday and I think all the crowd coming in delayed her eating, bath, bedtime and just was too much for her to endure. Amy and Emily came by Mom's last night and she was fine.

We are learning a new song but she wanted me to change part of it because it made her sad. We changed it and now she wants to sing it every morning while on her potty.You probably remember Playmate, come out and play with me. She didn't like the part that said --I'm sorry playmate I cannot play with you. She said I can play with her,Nana.

Kylie is the best and we are having lots of fun!


Love,

Mom

Hello from Mexico

We're here in Cabo San Lucas! The sun is shining and the temperature is a wonderful 75 degrees. Our room at our resort is heavenly and we've indulged in pedicures and room service. It's all so relaxing and good.

Thanks again to everyone for your comments and wishes for us to be here.

I'm using this week as an opportunity to step up my workouts a bit. I started my "lose weight and get strong and healthy" regime on December 1st. Since then, I've lost 18 pounds.

I attribute this success on a couple of things:

The LoseIt app for my iPhone. It records my meals and my workouts. And shows me a big red bar when I've gone over my calories for the day. LoseIt offers a friends community. If any of you who have iPhones want to be my "friend", let me know and I'll add you. You'll get to see fascinating things like how much I've been eating and exercising. How exciting! What joy! What bliss!

Wii Fitness
On weekday mornings, I get up at 5:45 to get in a quick workout in my house. My favorite wii fitness programs (in order) are EA Sports More Active, Biggest Loser, Jillian Michaels Fitness 2010.

Jazzercise.
I've jazzercised off and on since the 80's. For me, it's a perfect fit between awesome music, fun dance moves, and sweating a ton. I stared going 2-3 times a week, two weeks ago.

Running.
On weekends, I go for a run come rain or shine. On January 17th, I ran 4 1/2 miles (the first time in forever) and I did it in the rain. I love my ipod running playlist. All of my songs are at 119 beats per minute or more which really keeps me moving.


Biggest Loser.
I love this show. Seriously. Every time I want to whine about working out so early in the morning or working out twice a day, I think about the people on the Biggest Loser ranch who are working out 6-7 hours a day. They inspire me to keep going.

So I decided to treat this week in Mexico as my own Biggest Loser week. Instead of pigging out on tons of food and even more alcohol, I'm working out hard and eating well.

But I would like to share with you two of my struggles.

Eating out portion sizes and waste. Eating in the restaurant or enjoying room service means looking at a huge pile of food. The portion sizes are immense. And as I'm trying to enjoy my food, I have this little mental conversation in my head that sounds like this, "I'm not going to eat all of this but look at all the waste! Maybe I'll take half of it to go. But even though we have a small fridge and microwave, this is going to taste awful after I heat it up. But look at all this leftover food!" Finally I tell myself to stop it and just try to enjoy my meal.

Working out with a skinny small group. Yesterday morning, I decided to take a "body pump" class offered at the resort. It was at 8:30 (can you believe it? I'm on vacation!). When I arrived, I saw that there were only 4 other women in the class. The woman trainer showed up and began to tell us about the class. But as she was doing so, she noticed a rather overweight man who was trying to use a chest press machine and she made fun of him for doing it wrong. In front of us, she made fun of him. Then she said, "Just wait, somebody else will do it wrong in a minute" and sure enough, someone else did. The trainer shook her head and said, "Some people".

And I had to bit my tongue to keep from yelling at her. You know how you think of what you want to say for the rest of the day when someone has upset you. For the rest of the day, I shouted at her in my head and said, "THAT'S WHY fat people don't want to go to the gym!! We know people like you are making fun of us! Have some respect for the fact that we are trying. And if you can't be respectful, then shut up!"

It didn't help that the other women in the class (who each weighed about 115 pounds) all twittered when the trainer said it. It made me truly reflective for the rest of the day. About how many skinny woman I've been around who make themselves feel better by putting other people down.

I want to be skinny. I want to be healthy. But I promise, I will never have those thoughts about overweight people.

Now, I know that this post has been an epistle and might sound complaining. If you read all the way through it, thank you.

Karen and I are thoroughly enjoying our vacation. I love sleeping late and being responsible only for myself. I love reading for most of the day and smelling ocean breezes. It's all good. Really good.

What Kylie is reading - week of January 11

We got really lucky at the library and have some lovely recommendations to share with you!



Posy by Linda Newberry & Catherine Rayner
This is a sweet book with phrases like: whiskers wiper,/crayon swiper./Playful wrangler,/knitting tangler to describe a cat. The fun part with this book was that Kylie repeated each phrase after me. We read it several times this week.


Cat Heaven by Cynthia Rylant
I thought this one was delightful not only for kids but for adults too. And it would make a perfect gift for someone who has recently lost a cat.



Wow! It Sure Is Good To Be You! by Cynthia Jabar
This book is about a girl whose extended family lives far away. She receives phone calls and letters from her loved ones. We really enjoyed it. It reminds me of "I like myself" by Beaumont.


Won't You Be My Hugaroo? Joanne Ryder
This book is all about the wonderful and different kinds of hugs you can get.

Some other library books we enjoyed this week include:
Ten Sleepy Sheep by Phyllis Root
Looking for a Moose by Phyllis Root
Hurry Up and Slow Down by Layn Marlow
This Little Light of Mine by Raffi
Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Yarrow and Lenny Lipton

Thank you and pictures

Thank you to everyone for your well wishes. Here are a few pictures.







And a few scrapbook pages.