Jeez Louise!

I cannot believe that so much time has passed since my last post. Unbelievable. I'm sure if I think about it, I probably have a lot to say, but I'm only here for a brief visit. I'm here to post my long and short term goals for weight loss a la Amy.

Long Term Goals

For long term goals, I would like to be down to about 160 before next summer. Ultimately, I would like to weigh about 140, but 160 before I start trying for baby number 2 would be lovely. I would also, after baby number 2, to get myself involved in triathlon training and racing once again. I used to have a great time racing, even though I was always in the back of the pack.

Long Term Goal Rewards

Always with long term weight loss goals comes a new, fabulous wardrobe. I think a triathlon bike would be a fabulous reward as well.

Short Term Goals

Short term goals, I find, are the hardest to set. I tend to put time lines on mine and then if I don't achieve it, I get pissy. Eh, I'm honest, right? I think I would like to think of my weight loss in chunks of 10. Fairly manageable. And being a Weight Watchers girl, I would very much like to motivate myself somehow into tracking again.

Short Term Rewards

I have put a moratorium on buying any more sock yarn. I have a ton, and I'm working diligently on a couple of project and I have spend too much on sock yarn this summer, and in no way will I be able to use it all up by Christmas...however, I think I will reward myself with a trip to a local yarn star each time I lose 10 pounds. I will, of course, set a budget which I will try very hard to stick to. As for tracking, perhaps for 2 week period that I track a minimum of 5 days I treat myself to a pedicure. Sounds good to me!

Amy's Outdoor Strength Challenge

As part of Amy's 15 week Challenge, we could earn extra points by taking our strength routines outside. Being that I am home alone all day with the baby and the dog with very little "me" time, I had to think of some way to keep the baby entertained, the dog happy, and not drive myself crazy. I came up with the following (pictures, I hope, to come soon):

Aquatic Baby Strength Training! A series of strength training moves in the pool using my 25 pound son as a weight. This workout included: baby squats, baby lunges, baby over the head presses, and baby jumping jacks. It was a workout that left me drained, but best of all....Alexander loved.

As per usual, this will be a very random, rambling post. But hey, it's my blog and that's just the way my blogging brain works...

I have found something new to love. And do I love it. Let me present you with:

Yes, Nestle now makes a mini drumstick. Being the ice cream idiot that I am, I am so glad that I found and ice cream product that is pre-portioned and not huge. Each lil' cone has 140 calories and 7 grams of fat. Granted, I could find something that is frozen yogurt or reduced fat ice cream, but they just aren't the same.

Alexander has become attached to a toy these days. Although he is too young to sleep over night with his little toy, he does like to take it to bed with him and I later remove it once he's asleep. Let me introduce you to Blue Puppy:

There are actually 3 different Blue Puppies. Once I discovered that he preferred this little blue stuffed animal I bought 2 more so that I could wash one and still have another available...and if one gets lost, there are 2 more. Only 2 are in rotation right now. He really does love his Blue Puppy.

I think that's all for now, but I'm hoping to blog again very soon. It shouldn't be so hard because I'm on summer vacation! Woo-hoo!

Challenge Week One- Recipe Make-Over

There is nothing I like better than spicy food. I love it, love it, love it! Amy challenged us to revamp a recipe to make it healthier and of course I want to do something yummy and spicy...chili! I've taken out a lot of fat by using ground turkey instead of beef, added extra vitamins and fiber by adding carrot. And I've added extra dimension to the flavor of the chili by adding cocoa powder.

Turkey Chili

1 Tbsp EV Olive Oil
1 lb lean ground turkey
1 clove garlic- minced (I use 2 or 3 because I looooove garlic)
1 medium red onion
1 can of red kidney beans
1 can of corn
1 medium to large carrot- shredded
1 jar salsa
1Tbsp chili powder
1Tbsp Cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper powder
1 Tbsp cocoa powder

In a large non-stick skillet heat up the extra virgin olive oil using medium heat. Once heated, add garlic and onion to the pan. Once the onion starts to become translucent, add the turkey. Let the turkey brown slowly, as it browns sprinkle the chili , cumin, and cayenne powders over it. Once the turkey is cooked through add the cans of corn and kidney beans, liquid and all. Add the shredded carrot. Let the pan simmer for about 5-10 minutes until it starts to thicken. Add the jar of salsa. Allow the pan to simmer for another 5-10 minutes. Stir in the cocoa powder. Allow to simmer until it has thickened to your liking. Serve over brown rice or whole wheat pasta. For an extra kick sprinkle with fresh cilantro and 2% shredded cheese.

I will be making this tomorrow and I cannot wait!

Vacation!

15 packed boxes later, I am totally on vacation. I had to pack my office this last week so the O&M crew can move my belongings into my new office for September. I cannot believe that I have 15 boxes worth of stuff. Well, I am a literacy specialist, so many of those boxes do contain books. I know I have 2 boxes dedicated to the Wilson Program...but that is another story for another day; perhaps one in which I am feeling particularly geeky.

Today is my first day of vacation. I had lunch with Darth Bruce, my BFF, at the Silver Tips Tea Room which is still my favorite place to go. They even have a blog now. Awesome! The owner has not only made the best tea room in my part of NY, but it's 100% green powered. And better yet, they are expanding to the shop next door because they are doing so well and that says a lot in today's economy.

I'm figuring that I'm going to lounge about as much as possible today and tomorrow. Well, as much as Alexander lets me and then Sunday I have to get to work on finally losing the baby weight. Alexander is down to 2-3 nursings a day and he'll be a year in August and will probably be weaned by then, so there will be no more excises. Chris and I agreed that we both need to start running again. It'll be good for us, good for Reu who will probably do a couple of laps around the neighborhood with me as I warm up, and good for Alexander to grow up in a house where exercise is a priority.

I also joined a challenge at Amy's Quest for Skinny. It has come at the perfect time for me.

Okay, now is the time for gratuitous Alexander pics....Chris doesn't want him to be a drummer or anything...

And three weeks later....

Ian is now out in San Diego doing his Coast Guard thing. He's quite happy. He has a little seniority over the other guys he's bunking with because of his college degree. He works from 7am until 1pm, with guard duty on some nights. And did I mention he is in San Diego? Where is it gorgeous most of the time? We do miss him quite a bit, though.



Alexander is now 10 months old. We've been putting him to bed awake most nights. Chris and I are unhappy that we didn't start doing that when he was 6 months old, but better late than when he can call us by name. He's gotten pretty good at going to sleep. He'll cry or fuss for a couple of minutes, but then goes right to sleep. When I went in to check on him last night, this is what I found:

Yeah, I think he was a little tired. Don't worry, I moved him so that he was more comfy. Poor little guy.

On the fat front, I am just that. Fat with a capital F. I have to get my eating under control. I'm at the point where I'm only nursing 2-3 times a day, so I don't need as many calories as I did, but I'm so used to having them that I want them. And I crave carbs All. The. Time. Like never before. Plus, things are stressful at work. State testing is coming up for our high school kids. For those of you who didn't grow up in NY or California (for a period of time) and have never experience a Regents exam, particularly the English Regents, you should check it out here. It's a really hard test...especially day two, part B. Yes, it's a 2 day exam. Lucky NYS 11th graders. Plus, I'm trying to pack my cluttered office so it can get moved over the summer. When I say cluttered, I mean it. I have a frightening amount of materials. Sigh.

Hope all of you are fairing well so far this June.

Jeezie Creezie What a Day!

I have had a crazy 24 hours. It all began this morning with Alexander being awake at 5:45 when I went into his room to rock and nurse him. Usually I wake him a little, nurse and rock him and put him back into his crib where he will sleep until Chris wakes him up around 8:20 to get him dressed for the day.

So Alexander is already awake, I have him in the rocker and he's nursing and I'm rocking and he's not dozing off. Reuben is running in and out of the room being supremely annoying, especially since Alexander really wants to watch the dog. Reuben finally leaves for a few minutes, and I start to relax. That's when Alexander bit me. On my right nipple. Ugh! I suppose there is a first time for everything.

Reuben comes running back into the room and he's frantic. Two feet away from the rocking chair he squats as if to pee on the baby's rug. I stand up, put Alexander back in his crib- he starts crying, I'm trying to explain to him what's going on, Chris gets up to see what the commotion is all about. I take Reuben outside and he urinates for a full 65 seconds. That's a lot of tinkle. I don't think I've ever EVER seen a dog pee so much before in my life. Well, maybe a great dane, but not a weim-sized dog.

Back in the house, Chris is patting Alexander's behind. I pick Alexander back up to nurse him, and he bites me again. Finally it's 6:30 in the morning and if I don't start to get dressed I'm going to be late to work. I give Alexander some stacking cups that he loves to run across the bars of his crib like a hardened criminal. He fusses, but I have to get dressed. He's still awake when I leave.

As I'm driving I realize I'm exhausted. Great. Being exhausted at my job is like having an open wound in shark infested water. My students smell any kind of weakness. I start sharing with people at work that I am being moved to the other campus for next year, and I get a lot of "whys", which I can't answer because I don't actually know why. I know the sugary coating I got to make me feel good about the move, but I really don't know the real reason. Whatever it is, I'm just glad to have a job that I enjoy and being at the other campus won't change that.

My reading appointments go well enough, but A, G, and P smell my fatigue and decide to fight me every step of the way. Students who aren't mine also smell the fatigue and try unsuccessfully to wreak havoc in my classroom and office. Not happening.

Finally, the students go home. I walk out to my car, put my work bag in and take my breast pump out. I walk back to my office, like I do everyday and when I get to my office door the English teacher is there. She's 7 months pregnant and needs her afternoon snack. She grabs her snack, and tells me she's locking my door so I don't have to get up. I proceed to set up and I start to pump. Five minutes in, the dean walks into my room to tell me that if I get to the meeting early, we can start early and leave early. I tell him I'll be there in a few minutes. Not one minute later the male social worker walks in to tell me something. Thank God my office is set up so that my back is to the door. Neither knew what was going on, but it was a tad unsettling.

So, there is my day. Probably the most interesting one I've had in quite a while. I'm hoping for a long series of bland until the school year!

Ian Graduates!

My baby brother, Ian, graduated from Coast Guard basic training on May 1st!

Ian shaking the hand of his commanding officer.

Ian coming out of Healy Hall with all of his gear, ready to come home for a short leave.

All my little brothers, and Alexander. My brother Brendan is holding Alexander, my brother Ian, obviously, is in the middle, and the suited fellow on the end is my brother Patrick. A good looking crew...but I'm biased.

I've gotta get better at this...

I have become so awful about blogging, and I feel terrible about it, especially since when my favorite blogs don't post for a while I get a little pissy. Yeah, maybe I shouldn't be tossing stones around in this here glass house.

House update: My dishwasher is now hooked up. No more dishpan hands for me, no sirree! Now if I could us get my washer and drier hooked up we'd be in business.

Work Update: We thought we'd be looking at tons of cutbacks, but our districts keep sending us kids and it seems that they will be with us next year, so our budget gap is slowly closing. There will be layoffs, but our supervisor believes that he will be able to hire everyone back before the summer is over. I have seniority over 4 people, so I'm fairly sure that I will not be affected. The other major work related change is that they are taking the 4 high school programs (emotionally disturbed, psych fragile, aspergers, low IQ) and creating one large program. Over the past few years the lines of the programs have blurred so they decided to merge the programs. Should be interesting.

Alexander Update: Alexander is almost 9 months old and is awesome. His 2 bottom teeth are halfway in, and one of his top teeth is just about to break through. He can crawl, get into a sitting position on his own, and get up on his knees when he's in his crib. He is a fabulous little guy!

Hopefully I will be back soon with another post...I will try to be better!

Eeee Gads!

I've really got to get better about
updating this blog. I thought that I hadn't written in a few weeks...but I realized it's been a couple of months! Holy frijoles!

Alexander is over twenty pounds and is in the 90th percentile for weight and the 70th for height. He's a big boy. He's now sleeping in his crib in his own room. I don't like it, but it's better for

him this way.

He's fascinated by drums. Whenever Chris uses his practice pads, Alexander will stop everything to watch. Or if Chris wants to watch an instructional drum DVD, Alexander wants to watch. Weird, right?

He also loves books, which I am so glad to report. He likes to lie in his playpen

and look at his cloth books, which is especially nice because then I can take the dog out to pee at the end of our driveway and not worry.

I'm doing well these days, but I'm having trouble even wrapping my head around WW. I'd like to blame all my carb and sugar cravings on nursing, but deep down I think it just might be an excuse.

There is no Alanna, only Zuul!

I kid, but it's true that I haven't been feeling like myself lately. All I want to do is overload on sugary carbs. Yum and yuck all rolled into one. At least now that I am conscious of it, I can try to manage it. I've got to start tracking, you know, like I should be doing because I'm paying for Weight Watchers. At this rate, I'll never lose the baby fat and I don't even want to think about the fat from before Alexander came. Yowzers!

On the upside of things, I did quit my big money gym and I joined Curves and am now paying less than half what I used to. I also have been going 3 times a week during my lunch break. It's a tight squeeze, but I don't have to do it in the afternoons when I prefer to spend my time with this little guy:

He's covered in green beans and bananas in this picture...but he's cute anyway, so who cares?

I also bought myself a new camera. My old camera was working fine, but the time between pictures was excruciatingly long for using with a baby, so my mom and I went to one of those big box stores...specifically the one that is going out of business and took a look at cameras. A nice man showed me a really cool camera that was on sale, but as it turns out they were out of them. I found the same camera online at Amazon for less. So I bought it and an 8 gig memory stick. I take tons and tons of pictures now. I'm loving it.

In other news, poor Reuben's OCD and separation anxiety was getting worse. When we would leave him alone in his doggy safe area in our new house, he would rub his nose on the door until it bled. When we put up a nice doggy gate, he bit into it and spent the hour trying to (and finally succeeding) jump over it. This is a familiar space to him... we spend time as a family in this space. We tried more exercise and spending more time in the doggy safe area to no avail. His vet decided to change his meds. My poor sweet doggie is now on Prozac. Real, human Prozac. He's been on it for almost 2 weeks and we see subtle differences: He jumps readily into the car, when before we had to cajole him a little bit. His turn and scratch OC behavior on his dog bed has lessened. What's even better is that he's the same silly dog that we all know and love.

This is all I can think of for now. Perhaps I will be back later!

Just for fun!

Trying to be smarter

I am trying to be smarter these days about food and money. As I'm sure you all know, both are so hard to be smart about. I am taking good steps forward. Now that we're mostly unpacked, Chris and I have been cooking dinner at home, and bringing lunch most days. We even stopped buying cookies. Instead, if we want cookies we bake them ourselves, but not the whole batch. We freeze at least half the dough so we can't binge eat cookies. So food is getting better in that sense...and so is money as a result.

Money is a touchy subject for me. I feel as if things are out of control...they actually aren't, but with the move, the new house and Christmas gifts just purchased last credit card statement, things can seem overwhelming. I did quite my big fancy $102 a month gym (and that was with a discount) and joined Curves, which is much cheaper and I can go during my lunch...it's that close to work. I'm still doing Starbucks only once per work week...I will occasionally have some on the weekend if I'm meeting a friend for coffee or something, but that's still saving me cash.

I don't think I'm doing the resolution thing this year...I find that I never fulfill them and I find that depressing. I do want to set goals for myself. One goal for 2009 is to cut my non-mortgage debt down by a minimum of 20%. This included student loans, credit cards (with home construction stuff on it), personal loan and car loan. That is a lot of $$ and if I can make some of it disappear, I am going to do it!

Only a few minutes

I have only a few minutes before Alexander might be waking up from his nap, but I thought I would check in.

I have a ton of things swirling through my mind and the biggest one is that I have to lose about 50 pounds. That is an incredibly daunting thought. I did rejoin WW and that's all well and good, but I actually have to *use* WW to my advantage. I have to work the program instead of waiting for it to work for me. Maybe I need to work out some kind of system of payment. A dollar for every .2 lost? That would be $5 a pound. A total of $250 once I've lost the 50 I'd like to lose...not enough for a whole new wardrobe, but enough for a couple of massages. I should also make a list of things I will do for myself as I lose...maybe when I lose my first 5 pounds, I'll treat myself to a nice pedicure....

I don't know, I'm at a loss. I want to lose this weight because I know that I will feel better about how I look in clothes (I know my other mental demons will be there, no worries) and I know that once Alexander is mobile that being more fit will make it easier on me.

Please, I need some ideas here, so if you can, please reply with some...

Couldn't leave out pics of Xander

I couldn't leave blogger without posting some pics of Alexander...especially evil monkey wrestling.

Finally moved!

Finally, finally, finally we are in the house! If you want to remember what it used to look like, here is my old post.

New living room!

New bedroom!

The best new kitchen ever!

Cloud ceiling detail!

I promise to post more pictures, but I wanted to get some posted so there wasn't a huge gap between posts..you know, like I usually do.

Can't Keep Up!

Things are out of hand these days! We still are not completely moved into the house; which reminds me that I have to have a post with pictures of "after" and a link to " before". We're still sleeping at the apartment and I am living out of a 56 gallon plastic container. I have Alexanders clothes on the left hand side of the box and mine on the right. As a result, I have been going to work with clothes that are waaaaaaaaaaaay to small. I'm joking, of course, but I have been going to work looking a bit slovenly. Eh, the weather has been pretty bad, and we don't have a dress code here for staff.

Alexander has been doing well. We've been calling him "Xan the Man" or Xander Salamander for kicks. He seems to like his name and all of his nicknames, including "little Schmoo".

Although I have been incredibly lax about Weight Watchers, I am starting all over now that they have the new Momentum program. It looks promising...only time (and my spare tire) will tell.

Too many things at once!

My head is spinning these days. Alexander is awesome, but is going through some kind of growth spurt and doesn't sleep as well as he usually does...but he still sleeps enough for me to remain sane. Alexander was christened last weekend, and we had a big shindig for him at the yacht club my parents belong to. We have 2 dinners to go to on Thanksgiving. And we are finally moving into the new house this weekend. Plus, I am totally and absolutely broke..mostly due to the party (which was worth every dime). I'm glad we're finally moving because there were a number of double expenses....insurance, rent/mortgage, etc. I will be living paycheck to paycheck until after Christmas, I think...oh well.

Okay...back to work!

Random update

Things are going well...I have to update in bullets:

• Alexander will be 3 months on Tuesday. I cannot believe how big he is getting and how animated he is. He is truly wonderful. He sleeps through the night most nights, doesn't cry when he wakes...he gurgles and coos to himself and wiggles a lot. No one could ask for a better baby.
• I took up knitting again. My grandmother taught me about a million years ago, but all I could knit were scarves. So, I took at class on knitting baby sweaters. I'm about a third done with the process, and it's taking me forever because although I want to knit all the time, I'd rather be playing with Alexander.
• I'm still trying to get WW under control. It's taking a toll on me, but I'm getting there.
• We still haven't moved into the house AND I haven't been there in more than 6 months. I have barely a clue as to what the final product is going to look like. I've seen little bits and pieces, I've pick out colors and flooring, but I don't know how it's all working together. Don't worry...I will take a million pictures!
  

Shake it, don't break it, took your mama 9 months to make it.

Jeez, I do love the subject-o-matique on Yahoo! What fun.

No pictures tonight...I have new ones on my camera, but I am too tired to upload them right now...sorry all you Alexander fans. He is doing really well, though. He laughing and smiling like a champ. He's gotten quite good at sleeping solidly most nights, sometimes for up to 7 and a half hours. He takes after his father in that respect...Chris can sleep anywhere at anytime. All he needs to do is stay quiet and motionless for about 5 minutes and he's out like a light.

Weight Watchers didn't go well for me this past week. I didn't even go to my Wednesday night meeting. We had a bit of a family crisis that involved driving back and forth from New York to Connecticut a number of times during this past week. It's all over now, and I am back at the helm, so to speak.

Oooh, and I signed up for a knitting class! It takes place this Sunday at a yarn/knitting store around the corner from Silver Tips tea room (still my favorite place). It's a class about knitting baby sweaters. How cool is that? After the class I am meeting my mom and my brother's girlfriend at the tea room for some yummy lunch. The potential for a fabulous day is incredible.