Oh where...

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate moving? Yea, I probably have.

One of the things I hate the most is the loneliness. I think on this move it has manifested itself even more. I know the first six months are always hard on me, so I have a month to go. Though you would think that the loneliness would be less this trip since we came back an area we had just moved from, but it is still there, but it is more of a logistical/seasonal problem.

When we were in Hawaii the friends for the boys and me were just across the street. No need to set up play dates, just run across the street. We lived in Navy Housing and our boys are not wanderers by nature so they pretty much had free reign to run back and forth. Rules were they had to tell me if they were going somewhere besides across the street. I think once they walked their friend's dog. :-)

So here it is winter. The boys have a crazy school schedule... it is hard to arrange play dates for them and for myself. Playing outside to meet the neighbors is really not an option and I already told you all about SP, across the street.

I always end up feeling jealous of Blunoz and how he gets to go to work and meet people and have adult conversations during the day. This week I got "out of the house" once to take YB to gymnastics and met Divrchk there. She is my one adult conversation this week. Even Blunoz hasn't been home very much or very talkative.

Oh where or where is spring?! I am so looking forward to its arrival. Maybe all of this is really just Seasonal Disorder...

Spring come soon!
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 ...WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH MONDAY MORNING... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN XXXXXXXXX HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WATCH FOR SNOW...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH MONDAY MORNING. LOW PRESSURE ALONG THE GULF COAST WILL MOVE EAST TONIGHT...EMERGING IN THE WESTERN ATLANTIC NEAR GEORGIA AND SOUTH CAROLINA BY SUNDAY MORNING. THE LOW WILL THEN STRENGTHEN AS IT MOVES NORTH ALONG THE COAST SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND NIGHT. SOME COLD AIR WILL BE IN PLACE DUE TO PRECIPITATION TONIGHT. THE STORM WILL REINFORCE THAT COLD AIR. PLENTY OF MOISTURE WILL BE IN PLACE TOO. THEREFORE...THERE WILL BE THE POSSIBILITY OF 5 OR MORE INCHES OF SNOW. A WINTER STORM WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT SNOW...SLEET...OR ICE ACCUMULATIONS THAT MAY IMPACT TRAVEL. CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS.

The Power of Ketchup!

What is it with Ketchup? I often think that YB got my taste buds but then I see what he does with ketchup and say "nope, no way, he didn't get that from me!"

YB is a super picky eater (like me) and lately he has been expanding his repertoire of what he eats by dipping it in ketchup. Yup ketchup. Everything is going into the ketchup.

Tonight I made a Salsa Chicken that had melted cheese on top of it. Usually the boys don't like melted cheese on their food (yes WEIRD) so I made a piece without cheese on it and put the bag of cheese on the table for them. Each of them wanted a little pile of shredded cheese on their plate. YB of course was not eating his chicken and asked for ketchup.

Ok, does anyone see where this is going? First the tortilla chips went into the ketchup..."Mmmm, yummy", me thinks not. Then he declares, "I am going to try the cheese with ketchup!". UGH! This combination also got the two thumbs up. At this point, I excused myself from the table. :-)
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In case you are wondering, I am also on the No High Fructose Corn Syrup Bandwagon and this is the ketchup we are now using.

Advice I Never Took

I have children who are very picky eaters. I know shocking... they are in fact related to me. :-)

But YB has always boggled my mind. The boy won't eat pasta, not any kind of pasta. What kid doesn't eat pasta?! One of ES's favorite meals is home made macaroni and cheese and YB won't eat it. It is one of those things I serve a hot dog with so he eats the hot dog but not the mac&cheese.

Have you ever heard people say "if you want your kid to eat something, have them help make it"? I always scoffed at that advice. Maybe because I have the patience of a gnat and did not want my children helping me cook dinner, but I have never had them help me.

ES is deep into Cub Scouts and one of the requirements for completing his Wolf Badge is to help make a meal, set the table and clean up from the meal. Last night Blunoz was on a later bus and we were hemming and hawing about eating out or staying home. ES said he wanted Macaroni and Cheese so I decided, what the heck and asked if he wanted to help me make it. He did, and of course YB wanted to help too.

They were both great helpers and did not get in my way at all. Dinner might have actually gotten on the table sooner since I did not have to do everything myself. Yes, this was an eye opener to me. I may be getting them to help me out more in the kitchen.

While we were stirring the cheese sauce I asked YB if he was going to try what he made and he said yes. So when we sat down at the table I put some mac and cheese on his plate like I aways do. This was the first night he didn't scream that it even dared to touch his plate. He gobbled up his hot dog and wanted more hot dog, so I reminded him that he was going to try his macaroni and cheese. He actually tried it. Are you all ready for his reaction? Did he hate it? Did he like it? Did he love it? He said it was "yummy!" and ate more. He probably only ate about a tablespoon of it, but certainly more than he ever has in the past.

So yes, having your kids help you make dinner encourages them to try new things because they do want to taste what they made! Who knew?! :-)

Obstacles

Hello again! Wow, life really threw us a loop and a half. Sometimes I feel like I am meant to be overweight, something always seems to kick my motivation right out the door. Since January 20th I have been sick. It started with a soar throat, moved to a low grade fever and then on to normal cold symptoms. Well the cold symptoms went away but the low grade fever hung on and on. I had a third doctors appointment scheduled last Thursday since i doubted they could tell me it was a cold when I had no cold symptoms. I had just gotten out of the shower and dressed Thursday morning when the phone rang. It was the school nurse at ES's school. ES was running a 102 fever and could I please come and get him.

So ES was horribly sick for two days. His fever spiked at 104 and he was vomiting (on the bright side it stopped me from concentrating on my own illness). ES will not swallow any kind of medication (yes, we have tried everything and anything). He had practiced swallowing bread balls as his doctor in Hawaii had recommended so I knew he could do it. I had cut a Tylenol in half for him but he just spit those out. He finally came up with the brilliant idea of cutting it into 4th. The first quarter I gave him he spit out but then swallowed the other 3 successfully! Wahoo, within an hour his temperature was down to 101.

Saturday morning we both woke up fever free! It was a miracle.

So today, I sit here trying to find the motivation to get up and exercise. Get back on that WW track. The good news is that I still managed to lose some weight during all that time of being sick. But the bad news is Blunoz wants to go to the Submarine Birthday Ball on April 11 and I would really like to be in a size 12 by then. You would think that would be motivation... :-)

Ok, I am off to exercise. Wish me luck!