Christmas Cheer

A coworker of Trevor's did this for Sierra and I

Then I did a bunch of hot tubbing and cleaning and they are already chipped off. But it was fun for a day.

Four Days Before Christmas....

1...my house is almost clean from top to bottom, and even inside closets and cupboards.  Wait, let me rephrase that,  I have cleaned almost my entire house from top to bottom and inside closets and cupboards.  Whether it is still clean is the question.   Nothing remains in its clean state for too long, if at all.  But I feel better knowing that is was clean very recently.

2....I've been done shopping since Saturday and all but one gift is wrapped and where it needs to be.

3....I braved the mall yesterday with my kids and bought stuff for myself!  I know, I know right before Christmas not such a smart time to be buying things for oneself but the pants were 70% off - $10!  I could not resist. Besides, no one will be giving me pants.

4... it looks like we're to have a relatively warm, brown Christmas this year.  We had a bit of snow last night but it assuredly won't stay.  

Cue music:   "I'm, dreaming of a white Christmas....."

5....my parents decided to rent a hot tub for the week over Christmas.  I wholeheartedly approve of this and enjoyed a little soak already last night.  I think I might move back home for the week.

6...I so love experiencing the excitement Sierra is displaying over Christmas.  The decorating/decorations, buying gifts, wrapping gifts, guessing gifts, baking etc.  I also love it as she takes in the true meaning of Christmas that we are trying to intentionally incorporate as well.   We want to make sure she knows it's not just about presents.  (Although, presents are awesome)

"How many more sleeps?"

Sawyer has no clue.

7...we did not send or gift out any cards this year.  Time simply did not afford us this.  Maybe in the New Year.  Maybe not.

8....Trevor's mom sent us some little German cookies called peppernuts and my kids ate them all in 24 hours.   Trevor got none, I got two or three.  So we made more with my Oma yesterday.

A large bag.

If they remain in existence until Christmas I'll be impressed.

 

Diapers

About a month ago I officially gave up on using cloth diapers for Sawyer.

First of all, my son seems to have trouble producing solid poop.  Sierra never had issues in that area and solid poop is super easy to clean up.  Secondly, the cloth diapers I own have had the elastics stretch out completely around the legs.  That makes a messy combination - I'll spare you details - and I hit my breaking point in dealing with that.

I am quite disappointed in the diapers themselves.  Research sang the praises of this particular brand and I anticipated saving money on being able to use them through at least two kids.  Alas, they failed me.  I complained to the company and they sent me "elastic repair kits" but that will require a lot of time and work for the 18 diapers I have.  I do not have time.

So I reluctantly diaper my son in disposables.  It is much easier and cleaner but I still fell guilty.

I cringe every time I put a disposable diaper in the garbage can and am sick with how many of them accumulate after only a few days - and he doesn't even use that many.

  I by no means judge the 95% (or whatever the stat is) of you who chose/choose disposables, I get that it is simpler.  Cloth was my choice for a number of reasons, I'm just sad that I can't follow through with it. 

I Did It!!!!!!

It took four months, a month longer than the prescribed schedule, and the last month was like slogging through quick sand (which was in part due to a strained neck) , but I did indeed complete it.

P90X!!!!!

 

I can't believe I actually made it through the entire grueling program. I have never been as tired and sore for so long but I also have never felt so good.  

 

(Does that even begin to make sense?  No.) 

I definitely notice/noticed a large improvement in my strength and stamina and flexibility.  I actually feel strong when I perform the moves as opposed to the wimp of the century that infested my body when I started.  I toned up and all my clothes fit nicely.  I didn't actually loose much in the weight department, maybe a couple of pounds.  But when you factor in muscle growth (and muscle weighs more than fat) and lost inches I'd say I met my initial size loss goal that I made nearly a year ago.  

So yes, I feel good.

I have no intention of quitting now.  I'm going to keep up a casual work out schedule for the next couple of weeks and then after Christmas attack it hard core again.  Maybe I'll even incorporate more of the eating plan in and see if that scale will budge a little more!

Oh - and as for my no sugar or caffeine plan?  After the first successful week and half I gradually slid back towards my old ways.  What a difficult time of year to cut sugar!   I also began to feel better in terms of my heartburn/indigestion so I had less motivation to continue.  I'm not sure I actually  felt better without caffeine or not.  It was definitely harder after noon some days to stay motivated and accomplish anything.  Maybe I didn't give it enough time.

  I wonder if my not feeling well had more to do with a flu bug going around than anything because it was making the rounds.  I'm still limiting the sweets because even if it was sickness that afflicted me there are certain foods that disagree with my innards no matter what!

La Tree

Because I have an iPhone and 

because I can easily take pictures and post them and 

because this is what I'm looking at right now and 

 because I thought it would be fun to share!

 

Please ignore the black blob, that is our cat, he is not part of the decorations even though he thinks he is.

Sierra made this in preschool.  Isn't it cool?

I made this when I was about her age - isn't it cool?

Joining In

Until a year ago I was using a ten year old Nokia cell phone.  It was a monstrous dinosaur of a phone and I never took it out for anyone to see unless absolutely necessary.  Anyone who saw it thought it was my cordless phone from home!  I had it strictly for emergency purposes.  Then the charger got lost and it was rendered useless.

Last fall Trevor bought me a pay-as-you go phone from 7/11.  It was a tiny little thing and I was no longer embarrassed and I did use it more as a result.  But as far as cell phones go, it did very little compared to what's out there.

Then I ran out of minutes and we began to evaluate our phone situation.  With texting and cell phones becoming more and more common Trevor and I were gradually missing out on  more and more various things


due to cell phones being a major form of communication among our friends.  So we took the plunge and now we both have iPhones.  

I love it!  

I kind of hated to succumb to the social pressure of 'needing' such a device but it was turning into more than wanting a 'new toy' just because they're fun.  We were actually missing out on stuff.  It is a bit sad, actually, where society has gone with that but it is also the reality.

Like I said, I am quite enjoying being a part of the modern cell phone age.