Strange boy

We are moving from Ethan looking at any new food suspiciously to this new Ethan who tries things based on dares or looks of revulsion on my face. This week the new breakfast treat is toast with peanut butter, nutella, jam and hummus. I agreed to do the first 3, but I put my foot down at adding the hummus, so Jason is on toast duty. Maybe I should employ hummus as a method to get Ethan to eat his salad....

An "I told you so" moment

So several months ago Jason injured his shoulder doing one of his sports. Being a guy, he self-treated with hot tubs and aspirin and heating pads. It ebbed and flow. He got to a point around xmas where he claimed it was all better. Well, last week he finally admitted that it was not, in fact, getting better, so he saw his doctor. His doctor said it was inflamed and referred him to a physical therapist. The PT game him some exercises to do and said he would be talking to the doctor about getting an MRI, that possibly there was some torn something or others that could need to be surgically fixed.

Biting tongue, biting tongue (and not at all excited about having a convalescent spouse around the house)....

But after the man superglued a cut on his chin and used a popsicle stick as a splint on his finger it's about time he actually seek a real doctor.... I'm just saying...

Pray like you've never prayed before...

Jason keeps having to take unpaid weeks off from work. Yesterday, day 1, he spent with his unemployed buddy doing pub crawls. All day. Today, after I specifically told him that I would be hopping in the shower when I returned from dropping Ethan off to school, he hopped in the shower when I got home. Grrrr!!! 3 more days of this....

We are the champions... kinda sorta

Our trivia team ("The Whole Fist"--no, I didn't pick it and it could be worse....) has won a prize at the annual trivia Clash of the Titans. We are not Titans, mind you. Our trophy is for "Best Bridesmaids", you know: getting close and occasionally winning, but mostly just showing up almost every week and getting average scores. Yay us... 

Speaking of which, last night we tied for 3rd and there were only like 8 teams playing. Sigh. 

Finished, more or less

Finally finished the website remodel I took on, er, 4 months ago. Well, it looks good and I'm quite pleased with it. It is a little buggy in Internet Explorer versions 4, 5.5 and 6 (grrrrr! Why can't everyone upgrade?!), but looks byoo-teeful in Safari and Firefox.

http://www.foothillssoccer.org/

Also check out the before: http://www.foothillssoccer.org/about.htm

Yes, he is a genius!

Ethan created this from mini marshmallows and toothpicks at after-school care. He intended to eat it, but after it sat on the counter for a couple of days, thankfully he forgot to.

My cat loves me, he really loves me (more salt, please!)

What's Worse?

That if you put your teeth in Gatorade and Coke for 3 days they will look like the above, or the fact that Jason saved his wisdom teeth??? Kyra's science fair project is to see what happens when teeth are left in liquids for a period of time. She is using Gatorade, Coke, lemonade and tap water. Surprisingly (to me, anyway), her tap water tooth weighed in at a tenth of a gram less yesterday, after 3 days of the study. She's doing 6 days total.

So if you've ever gone to bed without brushing your teeth after drinking one of these beverages, be warned!

Benefits about being overweight

I have been looking into to some self-help books on eating disorders lately, looking for something to help me break my own cycle of overeating and perhaps share with "others" who have their own issues. I came across the "Overcoming Overeating" site. Now, I did this program a while ago and it worked to a certain extent. The premise was that in order to take away the thrill or whatever of overeating, all you have to do is work to get rid of the pejorative labels of "good" and "bad" food. If you savor a food, if you don't make it seem like it's limited and that you will be deprived if you don't have it, then it will lose it's mystique and you won't crave it as much.

To a certain extent this worked. Certainly my binges since then haven't been as intense or uncomfortable, but I do still binge. I still am working on having a normal relationship with food, whatever that is. But mostly the part of the Overcoming Overeating program that I couldn't wrap my brain around was the self-acceptance part. In order for it to work, you just have to love and accept yourself as you are. It's not about weight loss, it's about acceptance, and through that you won't overeat because you won't need the comfort that comes from food; you will be able to comfort yourself in healthier ways. Right. So that's where they lost me.

I am more than overweight, I am in fact obese, according to my BMI and all the weight charts. Being obese is a risk factor of heart problems, high blood pressure, diabetes and a host of other issues. When I am overweight, I have limited range of motion; I have trouble doing physical activities; I have trouble sleeping (sleep apnea and snoring are problems of the obese). And of course, when I'm obese I hate my body. OK, so maybe I could just get over that, and maybe I should, but even if I were to do that it wouldn't change the fact that being overweight is not as healthy as being in a suitable weight for my height.

I know I can't ever be model thin. I don't actually want to be. And as my husband says, why would I ever want to be? Still, there are many good reasons to not be obese, which I am right now. So it's hard for me to jump on a bandwagon that promotes enhancing your self-esteem over losing weight (OK, I'm over simplifying...) I know (theoretically) that I am more than my weight/shape/body, and I know that my life won't suddenly be all sunshine and flowers when I reach my goal weight. (Well, there is some question about that, considering it's been so long since I've weighed that low: maybe it is all sunshine and flowers.... just kidding) Unfortunately, the benefits of being a healthier weight aren't as concrete as the benefits of eating something yummy.

Anyway, my point in this post is to mention some of the lesser known problems of being obese, like cracked feet. My husband was talking about cracked feet the other day and he said it was a fungal thing. Naturally I wanted to contradict him, (what, you don't do that?) so I looked it up. Turns out one cause of cracked feet skin is weight gain. Now, of course I can't remember what my feet used to look like, and I've been this weight before, so my cracking feet may be due to something else. Whatever it takes, baby: I'm losing weight so my feet get smoother! Now that is a goal I can get behind!

Intentions 0, reality 1

So lately I am having a girl's night out every Sunday. This is much needed, however the fallout is lack of control over bedtime the day before Monday. Last night Ethan went to bed at 9 (one hour late) and Kyra went to bed on time, however "someone" allowed her to have a caffeinated beverage right before bedtime, so she couldn't get to sleep until after midnight.

Today...I picked up Ethan early hoping for some nice one-on-one time to work on his Valentines (due tomorrow, inexplicably). Well, it wasn't nice. Tired boy thought following instructions and writing his name "over and over" was just too taxing, so there was yelling and mulish behavior all around. Jeez, even when I try to make the circumstances more ideal, things just don't always work out. So I'm taking a time out now to chill out before working on dinner. Just another therapy opportunity...