Festival of Lights Parade

Either we effed them up royally, or just normal teenage forgetfulness?

Part of the "fun" of having a kid that plays sports is all the new stuff you get to buy every season... cheerleading is no exception.  Today I called Jessi between school and cheering to check in and at the end of the conversation, she throws in a quiet "My cheering sneakers got stolen."  "Wait..... WHAT!!??"  "My cheering sneakers got stolen." Umm... yeah... I got that... how about some freakin' DETAILS about the stealing of the BRAND NEW JUST BOUGHT LAST WEEK FOR $70 FREAKIN DOLLARS SNEAKERS!!!!???  Apparently they were in the locker room, in a 'basket where they can put their stuff'  NOT in a locker where they COULD have been.  As the story unraveled further AFTER I called the school, they had been left in said "basket" since before vacation.  Hmmm... news to me that they had been left at school at all.

So now I have a kid at cheer practice who knows she is dead meat when she gets picked up.  I also have a smorgasbord of punishment ideas.  I also have to suck it up and buy a new freakin' pair of SEVENTY DOLLAR SNEAKERS... which freakin KILLS ME!

So I call Rick... FURIOUS... and of course he just says "Oh well.... kids forget stuff... I'm sure she didn't mean to...." yada yada yada. He did manage to agree that she should have to do chores to earn back the money.  (OH HELL YEAH she is going to do chores... I'll not be lifting a freakin' finger for a LEAST a week!!!!!!!!)  Being Rick's polar opposite... I went straight to... "We have ruined our children.  They are spoiled brats who don't appreciate the things that we buy or do for them and they don't know the value of the dollar.  If Jessi was from a family who was poor... or who didn't buy their kids stuff all the time... she would have kept those sneakers by her side all the time because she knew there was no way she'd get another pair!!!!!"

So yeah... opposite ends of the spectrum there. 

Maybe I should consider myself lucky that he at least agreed there needs to be punishing.

For the first time... Black Friday was truly a dark, dark day. or "Riot at Bangor Toys R Us"

I totally {heart} Black Friday. I look forward to it all year long. I read ads, I have spreadsheets. I plot. I plan. I lay out gloves and stuff the night before.

This year things changed. Toys R Us had a "great" effing idea. "Let's open at MIDNIGHT and start this shindig off before EVERYONE ELSE!!" The second I read that in the ad, my heart sank. I knew my BFF, BF, would never be the same.
BUT... I sucked it up. Decided to go out anyway and get in line at 11pm.

The plan....
11pm Toys R Us line and shop
130-2am-ish Head over to Old Navy, they were opening at 3am and giving away Lego Rock Band.
430am-ish Hit the mall... stores open at 5am. Or maybe Target, who also opened at 5am.
...also Walmart was in the mix at some point, but that wasn't a main target.


The Reality...
Napped, Amped, and Ready I headed out a'nd met Karyn, Nicole, and Jen at Toys R Us. The line was snaked around and headed down towards The 99 restaurant'. That did not dissuade me, I have seen lines like these before... I was usually closer to the beginning, but no biggie. I wasn't really there for any of the "must haves." At around 1130 the manager walked through the line to let people know that there were only 100 Zhu Zhu Pets (What the fuck is a Zhu Zhu Pet!??) and if we were hoping for one, forget it. A few minutes before 12am, there was some yelling and commotion, I assumed the doors were starting to open. The line moved up a little, so I assumed that I had assumed correctly. I quickly learned that I hadn't assumed correctly at all as a couple minutes later the police pulled in with blue lights flashing and the talk events at the beginning of the line trickled back our way. There was fighting... there was mayhem... there was pushing. Seriously?? For a fucking $8 Zhu zhu pet that I have never even HEARD of??? As a result, TRU opened a few mintues late while the police did a little crowd control. And we made it in.
 
It. was. MAYHEM. WALL-TO-WALL people and carts. You couldn't even move and people were grabbing things like it was the LA Riots.I managed to get all the stuff I wanted with a little teamwork with Nicole who got her stuff and then stood in line while I ran to electronics. BTW...The line that she stood in... all the way at the BACK OF THE STORE. This is already getting a little long, so I will just give you some line hightlights....

• 3.5 hours. NOT EVEN KIDDING. And if you are saying "There is nothing I want that badly to do that, this chick is crazy." Do you think that really didn't occur to me 100 times? I couldn't have left if I wanted to. The aisles were literally standing room only and I spent the bulk of my time with my cart handle jammed into my stomach and the cart of the lady behind me jammed up my ass. If there had been some sort of medical emergency, it would have been bad... and there would be lawsuits pending.'

• Cutting. Lots of it. And with the cutting came LOTS of (NOT by me, fyi) "Get to the end of the line, bitch." "Fuck you Bitch, I was here before you were" and pushing. lots of pushing. I can't even count the times that I thought a cat-fight was going to break out and turn into a riot and I was trapped there.

• 2 registers not open. SERIOUSLY!! WTF!!??? I called the manager from the line and they said they didn't have enough staff to open all the registers. again. WTF!??

• Line buddies. Because we were all standing together for so long, the people in the general area with us all became line buddies who had each other's backs against the cutters. That sounds so funny now... but in the moment... we were in south central LA and we were crypts and the cutters were the bloods.

I'll leave you with that. That is so not even all.... I tried Old Navy and ended up dropping my bag of stuff where I was standing and just left. My last stop was Walmart in Brewer, and I can't even believe I am about to type this, but it was DELIGHTFUL!! It was not busy, there were helpful, smiling staff EVERYWHERE (the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of TRU), and I didn't even have to wait in line to pay.


I went home very bummed that greed and the media generated hype about the economy killed the joy of my favorite day.

Busted.

So... I totally got busted hardcore at work reading Black Friday Ads online... which led to a huge lock down of all fun things internet related at the office. SUCKY!! I feel like the kid in the class that was naughty and made everyone have to stay in for recess LOL!!

Not that I was a total slacker or anything at work... I GIT ER DUN, man!!! But because my job depends on people calling me to ask me questions, there is NATURALLY some built in down time there.  So  honestly... I find it a little insulting that we all work really hard there and ALWAYS get the job done, yet now are looked at like we are all a bunch of wild monkeys that they are paying to only surf the internet.

So... now all my surfing... blogging... and online shopping must be done at home. It's putting a SERIOUS dent in my keeping up on all the blogs I read. (Which,,, BTW... is NO DIFFERENT than people who spend time at work reading the newspaper... doing the crossword and word scramble... chatting with friends.... texting.... reading the news online..... but hey... whatever......)

I see the light

There may just be a light at the end of my tunnel of phlegm.  I feel MUCH better today!  SO of COURSE that means that I have to over-do it and push myself today and take Jessi and her friend's to the 12:05AM New Moon Premiere!  Hey... that was planned WAY before I got sick.  New Moon waits for nobody!  I was so hoping I'd feel better.  The girls are SO EXCITED for this!  I think it's going to be full-on-shenanigans with people dressed up and revved up.  We are planning to leave at 10:30 because Since both theaters have been sold out for weeks, getting a seat may be a challenge!

Should be a blast!!  ....If I can stay awake.....

Drowning in a sea of phlegm

 <~~~ That's my desktop background.  LOVES IT!!  I LOVE the "create collage" feature in Picasa. 


So yeah, Sea of Phlegm... that's us.  Well, most of us.  Rick seemed to get through it without much damage.  The rest of us flu'd it up good with high fevers, coughs, sniffles, and lots of time in bed missing school and work.  What I am missing most is Jillian.  I feel like a total failure that I had to stop "shredding" because moving=coughing.  I am not a retard, I realize that I didn't QUIT, I am just sick and OBVIOUSLY I will be RIGHT BACK TO IT ASAP (my plan is tomorrow... my plan WAS today, but my cough is worse today than it was yesterday).  But it was SUPPOSED to be a "30 day shred"  My goal was to exercise EVERY DAY for 30 days and I couldn't do it... and that effing sucks.  I keep wondering too if I am just being a big woosey and I should be working out anyway even though I'm sick.  I also have kinda just eaten whatever and haven't really kept track of points the past couple days.  But I am not the old me... so a few bad days doesn't = may-as-well-call-this-month-off.  I am back to tracking today.

So what did I do with my time other than sleep... well if you are at my actual blog and not on a feed reader... you can see I frigged around with the blog a bit.  I even dusted off photoshop and fooled around with photos and made a new banner.  I only work 30 hours a week... but between that, school and the kids, "frig around on the computer time" just isn't something that I ever work in like I used to when I was pretty much just hanging out at home with Sean.

What I ate yesterday. Volume 1.

One of the things that I like to do when I start a new diet plan is to read what other people on the plan are actually eating. I find that it really helps to see a plan "in action." So I think that once or twice a week I'll have a blog segment called "what I ate this week."

One note.... WW daily points are calculated by your weight and your activity level. So I get a LOT of points every day because I am not a smallish type girl right now. As I lose weight, my points go down... which sucks on one hand, but is good too because it gradually weans you off being an effing pig. ;-) Also... it is very strongly recommended to always eat all your points or you can stall your weight loss. In addition to my 32 points a day, I also get 35 "weekly points."

Without further ado... here is what I ate yesterday....

Morning (I was in a rush so just had to grab something quickly)
Light string cheese
big handful of baby carrots
Diet Pepsi

Morning Breaktime
100 calorie pack of cocoa roasted almonds

Lunch
Weight Watchers Turkey and mashed potatoes meal

Supper
"Lazy sushi" which is sushi rice in a bowl with shopped avocado, seaweed, and imitation crab. I also had a second bowl of rice cuz it's DAMN good (and I was pretty low on my point total for the day because I worked out while I watched General Hospital instead of having a snack).

Evening snack
Vitamin water XXX 10
Skinny cow ice cream sandwich... and then another one ;-)

Total Points... 27. Which still put me under for the day, but honestly, I find it hard to believe that even though I ate all day long and ate PLENTY... that my weight loss would stall. I mean... someday soon my daily allowed points WILL be 27 or LESS... so... ya know..... whatevs.

Jessi the sushi master

OK maybe not quite, but the sushi she made today with the kit Nicole got her for her birthday was WAS delicious! AND it was a prefect low point lunch since tonight we are having a get together and that always equals lots of yummy food. I did get some veggies and dip and I am making me FAVORITE PW corn and avocado salsa, so there are plenty of healthy options to offset the monkey bread and artichoke dip ;-)

Doing AMAZING on WW!! I think a HUGE part of it is doing the 30 day shred. I can SEE and FEEL the difference in my body and I FREAKIN LOVE IT!! One of Jessi's friends is here today and she looked at me and said "Have you lost weight?" and I said "HECK YA I HAVE!!!!" ....and she is here all the time, so it must be noticeable ;-D

Can I just say that I can't FREAKIN BELIEVE that I have worked out EVERY DAY THIS WEEK and am actually starting to LOOK FORWARD to it!!!!???? LOVE THAT!!

Today's lunch.

Today was "Promise Yourself to try a new, healthy recipe this week. Don't let yourself get bored" Day on my way cool calendar that I got from thewwchick.com. So Karyn, Jen and I all found some new recipes. This one from Gina's WW recipe site sounded so delish that Karyn and I ran out and got the ingredients and made it for lunch. We put it in 1 point pitas instead of back into the shell. SO GOOD!


Avocado and Crab Salad
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 2 • Time: 5 minutes • Calories: 223 • Points: 5 ww points

• 1 medium Hass avocado
• 4 oz lumb crab meat
• 2 tbsp chopped red onion
• 1 lime, juice of
• 1 tbsp chopped cilantro
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt and pepper

In a medium bowl, combine onion, lime juice, olive oil, cilantro salt and pepper. Add crab meat and toss well.

Cut avocado open, remove pit and spoon out avocado. Cut into large chunks and add to crab. Mix carefully, not to mash the avocado. Spoon back into avocado shells and enjoy!

Jillian Michaels kicked my ass today.

Nicole, Jessi and I started the 30 Day Shred today. I had been thinking about ordering p90x, but read reviews and they say that you have to be already somewhat in shape before starting it because it's REALLY HARD!! (That's what she said. hee hee) So then I thought about doing Power 90... then I read reviews and a lot of people said that it's hard to stick to because it gets so repetative... then I remembered that Nicole mentioned once that she was starting the 30 day Shred.... but then I also remembered her never mentioning it again...lol! So I called her up and we decided that only a lazy fat ass can make excuses not to do it. It's only 20 minutes a day. HELLO?? Who DOESN'T have that. NOBODY. NOT ONE PERSON does not have that. Seriously. There is NO excuse not to take 20 minutes to get into shape!! (And yes... I will have to keep referring to this post when 'I don't FEEL like exercising')

So yeah. It's on like Donkey Kong!! And... FYI... I barely made it through the workout today. It is NOT EASY and I want to say many F words to Jillian... but Jessi is doing it with me so I must behave myself... but I must say, one F bomb did slip out. And it is going to be HARD to do it again in the morning (lol.. that's what she said) when I am sore... but I AM DOIN' IT!!

Happy Halloween!

Sean has decided to go dressed as a bowhunter. I think it was actually a way to trick me into getting him a bow, but since I was onto him from the beginning, I let him think he tricked me. Jessi is going as a dead prom girl... those kids today just love that 'Prom Night' movie. Yes... I said "those kids today" ;-) I can't decide if I want to lug my camera around trick-or-treating, that is the only way I'll get any pics of Jessi since she is long gone with friends probably egging and TPing peoples houses. :::wink wink:::: NOT MY GIRL!!

Later that evening..... FOUND her!!

Thank you media hysteria.

I wouldn't call myself 'holistic' or one of those people who don't believe in the marvels of modern medicine, but I do think that the U.S. is a little nutty when it comes to doctors. The slightest sniffle and some parents have that kid in the waiting room at the docs office before you can say "ACHOO!" And what is the result of that??? Well... a $100 bill, spreading a cold virus to umpteen more people, and if the doctor is an idiot, or a woos... a prescription for an anti-biotic even though they can't kill viruses but people feel better just because they are taking that horse pill. If the doctor doesn't fall into that category, you have just paid $100 for someone to tell you to push fluids and tylenol or advil. I could have told you that and would gladly take your $100.

So... unless my kids are REALLY sick... they see the doctor once a year for their well-child check and that's about it.

No with this year's flu hysteria... it's EVEN WORSE!! I heard people were lined up all the way around the Bangor Auditorium for flu shots this morning. Let's stop and think about this.... it's cold and flu season... so in your media-driven HYSTERIA... you choose to spend the morning in a huge petri-dish crowd of people carrying who-knows-what-viruses... to get a shot that a. you don't even know will work and b. has not been tested for more than a couple months so you don't even know what the future side-effects will be. That's a bug bucket o'smart right there, I tell ya.

Anyhoo... I SO digressed. The point of my blog today was to tell you all about how Sean has a cold. He has a sore throat, maybe a little fever, a snotty nose, and a cough at night. He has had colds before, obviously. But never before when he has had a cold have I kicked Rick out of bed so that Sean can sleep with me because on 60 minutes they profiled that 17 year old healthy football player in intensive care within 12 hours of showing symptoms (or somthing like that, don't quote me on those details). Also never with a cold has Rick felt the need to call home every few hours to see how "the little man" is doing. I hate that. I hate that the media locks onto something like a dog with a bone and shakes it until the masses are huddled in fear in the corners. Terrorism... Swine flu... Pirates.... Global Warming.... Mexicans.... the chances of me dying by falling down my stairs is probably 200000% more likely than because of any of those "threats." But... Hysteria Sells I guess.

Jessi's Next Top Model Party

The party was a huge success!! It was a VERY LONG weekend of fun! Saturday night she had a few friends over and we watched "The Blair Witch Project." I told them all that it was a real documentary, which made it extra super fun :::wink wink:::

Sunday Morning Daddy cooked everyone a big. yummy breakfast and the girls hung out til everyone else arrived. For lunch we had a sushi bar... which was quite an experience since a few of the girls had never tried it before. DELISH!!

After sushi it was time to start doing hair and nails...and PRESENTS, all with the music blasting, of COURSE!

Our make-up artist was a little late, which made for some very impatient girlys... and mommy, but she finally arrived and the girls had a blast getting their make-up and photos done. I think Nicole and I had just as much fun taking the pictures and try to learn lighting and flash on the fly!
(P.S. The pics look WAY better "clicked on" and full size... they look a little squished or something on this page)

The face of 14

14!? Seriously. I have a FOURTEEN year old. Not a "just turned into a teenager 13 year old..." A fully intrenched in the teen years 14 year old. Honestly, so far... so good :-)

Practiced with the lights tonight....

Enough to learn that I have A LOT to learn about lighting... LOL!! oh well... it's all just for fun anyway... and I did get some fun ones tonight!

All that talk and research about taking photos....

Made me want to get out and take some photos!! So I did.

Cooper, like Sophie, firmly believes that no trip to the woods is complete without monkey.

Getting all excited for "Jessica's Next Top Model" Birthday party this weekend

It's going to be SO FUN!! The make-up artist is all booked and Nicole and I are taking a crash course on DIY lighting for the photo shoot!! Can't WAIT to post some pics!!

And can you BELIEVE that one of the little darlings can't come because her mother thinks the theme is inappropriate for their age!!?? PUH-LEEZ!! If she has issue with THAT... she REALLLLLY doesn't want her kid at my house!! ROFL!!

I kinda "modeled" (hee hee) after this party http://yhdweddings.blogspot.com/2009/01/next-top-model-sweet-16-bash.html ...minus the limo and hibachi ;-)

I was a pig yesterday.

BUT.... I was not a TOTAL pig. Because I knew the plan all week was to have a get-together Saturday night, I banked my weekly "flex" points AND got in plently of activity points with the plan to eat a LOT and still stay within my points for the week. AND I DID IT! Not only did I DO IT UP... but I am right back to it today. In the past... I would have considered last night a big cheat or a "fall off the wagon" and just call the who weekend a wash. (p.s. I did not really have entemans valentines cupcakes, I made marble cupcakes with chocolate and vanilla buttercream frosting, but it's hard to know the points of a recipe like that, so I just used the highest points cupcakes in the ww tracker) SO yeah.... 52 points for the evening... just for reference, I get 32 a day ;-)

I made the YUMMIEST lunch today. I had read a recipe on the WW site for barley "risotto" and I LOOOOOVE barley, so I thought I'd give it a shot. My version ended up being nothing like the WW recipe... but I've gotta give them props for giving me the idea.

Here's the recipe....

Barley Mushroom "Risotto"

1 cup barley
3 cups of chicken stock or broth (I use "better than bouillon and I LOVE it!)
1 box of mushrooms (I like baby portobellos for this)
1/4 cup-ish of leeks, chopped small (or shallots, or anything oniony)
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

In a pot simmer the barley and chicken stock for 45" or so, until barley is cooked. While the barley is cooking saute mushrooms and leeks. I used the pampered chef kitchen spritzer for olive oil-and a nonstick pan, so I hardly use any olive oil, just quickly spritzed the whole bottom of the pan. The big thing with sauteing mushrooms is LEAVING THEM ALONE! It's so tempting to keep stirring them around, but if you do that, they won't get all nice and brown caramelizy, so stir about 3/4 less than you really want to and they should be perfect!

Anyhoo.... Once the barley and mushrooms are all done, remove the pan from the heat, dump the barley into the sautee pan, add about 3T of freshly grated parmesan and stir it all up.

About a cup and a half of this is a serving (1 cup barley, 1/2c mushrooms) and it's so hearty and filling and only 4.5 points!

I also added some chicken from a rotisserie chicken to make it heartier.

It was SO good!! I was hoping to bring some for lunch to work tomorrow, but Rick thought it was really good too and ate it all!