It's Just Hair... It Will Grow Back...

or in other words... Wow! That's short!

I went to the salon this morning, compliments of my neighbor. The hairdresser recommended cutting it short. It will look good, she says. It will make you look younger, she promises. I, being incapable of saying no, discussed it for a minute but ultimately caved in. After all, as I tell the kids all the time, it's just hair. It will grow back.

An hour and a half later I'm looking at a pile of hair on the floor and a girl with very short hair in the mirror. What have I done?!?!?

Do I look younger? Not that I can tell. Do I hate it? No, but I'm not sure if I love it. I don't think my hair has been this short since my mom took me out back with scissors and a garbage bag during the Lice Scare of 5th Grade and cut it all off. Not even when I cut it "short" upon graduation and commissioning. What I miss already are the options. I can no longer wear it up or wear it down or curl it. It is what it is.

I have no other opinions yet so I've got my fingers crossed that every one will love it and think I look 10 years younger.

And if not, that's okay. It's just hair. It will grow back. I hope.

Ryan Tidbits

A new diet plan... recommended for scaredy-cats... The Chicken Diet.

How it works? Imagine everyone is a monster, scream and run away, A LOT, which burns lots of calories. Apparently he got it from a Scooby book. Of course. Scooby, monsters, running away...

At first I thought he meant scaredy cats should eat a lot of chicken but then he explained it to me. Maybe I should try the chicken diet.

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Darn... there was another really good one and now I can't remember what it was. Maybe it will come to me later.

Wait - I remember now!

Felisa is the #3 leader of the house. Don't mess with her. Seriously. Daddy is the #1 leader, Mommy is the #2 leader, and Felisa is the #3 leader.

Almost a direct quote. I don't even remember now what we were talking about at the time but I thought it was hilarious the way he said this.

To tote or not to tote

Well, it seems we're in the big leagues now... Ryan has soccer. Bella has cheerleading. All the kids have swimming lessons. Which means I'm spending a lot more time away from home, with ALL the kids than I used to. And that means I have to come prepared... chairs to sit in, blankets/towels for the ground, entertainment for Felisa, hair bands and comb for Bella, snacks, water, etc.



I've always been one to tote around a lot of stuff - just in case. And I don't mind bringing everything but the kitchen sink. I just don't like looking as though I've brought everything but the kitchen sink. The last few weeks spent at the various activities has shown me that a lot of the items I'm bringing need to come to all the places we go, so I should have it all in one bag that is always ready. Another reason to have only one bag is that Ron likes to travel light. He gets impatient when I have a lot of stuff to round up and transport. So if I only have one bag, I can just grab and go, thereby avoiding the dirty looks and the exasperated sighs.



We've graduated from diaper bags (woo hoo!) so now I'm searching for the perfect "bring everything but the kitchen sink to every place under the sun" bag. I read a review of a bag over at Family Travel Gear that has lots of pockets and compartments so you don't have to dig around in the big black hole trying to find what you're looking for. Sounds good to me... one place for water, one place for snacks, one place for the cheerleading horses (ask Felisa about that one!), etc. I don't want to buy a bag sight unseen but I like the idea of pockets. I saw a couple bags at Tuesday Morning this morning that looked promising. The purple bag was smaller, and it was purple, but it was $50. There was another sport duffle with a mesh pocket for the soccer ball, but it had no price. And so the search will continue for a few more days at least...

To the Moon and Back

Ron put the seat down in the minivan the other day and discovered the kids' messy litte secret. Crumbs and indescribable ick everywhere. Deep down inside I knew it was there. I was just living in denial. So Felisa helped me while I spent a good two hours scrubbing and vacuuming and vacuuming and scrubbing until it's back to normal. I would say good as new but we all know that's not possible after 3 kids plus friends and multiple road trips. I think I vacuumed enough crumbs to lay a path to the moon and back. I even found a sticky shrivelled strawberry leftover from the drink Ryan spilled at Sonic in Kansas.

(Yes, I'm a terrible housekeeper... lazy and messy too. What of it?!)

Plateau Already???

So I started my sugar-free candida diet on the first day of school, Sept. 4. I made remarkable progress in the weight-loss department and some progress in the yeast killing department. It has been only 2 weeks and I feel stalled out. Week 2 seems a bit early for a weight-loss plateau. For one thing, I am finding the weekends harder to stay strict to my restrictions. For another thing, my weight has been fluctuating back and forth between 172 and 173 for the past couple days which is making me crazy frustrated. My daily calorie intake is 1/2 to 2/3 of what is was over the past 6 months to a year at least. I have been exercising again, which had dropped off during the summer. I'm doing everything right and have what seems like nothing to show for it.

What is the cause? My little cheats? The carbs in my cheats could be disrupting the low-carb effects of the candida diet. Not drinking enough water? Hormones? Not nursing? The last time I did this battle with the yeasties beasties, I was nursing. Apparently that burns a whole lot more calories than I realized because last time it all just seemed to melt away - all 40 pounds of it.

Will I wake up one day and have dropped a pound or two? One can hope. In the meantime, I guess I'll just keep plugging away. On the plus side, I ate out twice today and still kept my calories to under 2000. Pretty darn remarkable if I do say so myself.

Oh and if you want to spy on me, here's a link to my FitDay journal.

Little Mama

After yesterday's crazy hectic schedule of school and after-school activities, today's easy pace is especially welcome. I'm still feeling a bit under the weather but better. I got to sleep in until 7:30ish. Ron gave the big kids breakfast. I picked a suit for Ron and packed lunches for Ryan and Bella and then nothing else. No exercise, no shower, no taking anyone to school (R and B have a ride in the mornings). I have nowhere that I MUST go until 3:00 when I pick up the big kids. And it's great!

Felisa has been playing with her baby doll this morning. She changed the baby from her pajamas to her clothes. She played a game with her baby - she strung up the barrel of monkeys (hanging from my finger of course because there is nowhere else in the house to hang them from) then let the baby knock them down. Then she gave the baby her teddy bear and played some music so she could go to sleep. I was babysitting with the baby asleep on my calf while I folded laundry but then Felisa decided the baby doesn't like to sleep on pokey legs (did I mention no shower today?!?). So she moved her to the pillow and shushed me multiple times (I guess I was folding too loudly). Then after the baby slept on my pillow for a few minutes she moved her to the baby's crib. Unfortunately the baby was crying when she woke up from her nap because Mommy Felisa was gone. They played a little more while I made some breakfast for myself. I called Felisa down to have some eggs with me. She came with the baby and told me she would have to eat with only one hand as she was holding baby in the other arm and the baby doesn't like to be dropped. I have to agree that in my experience, babies do not like to be dropped. And then... when she was done eating, as she was getting up from the table, the baby knocked over her water cup and made a big mess. I have to agree once more... in my experience, babies make a lot of messes!

Isn't it amazing how many universal truths there are to being a mommy? And so far, it looks like Felisa will be a great one.

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In other news...

A reportedly very annoying (according to Bella) little boy cut Bella's hair during math yesterday. The teacher called to report the incident and told me that she handled it very well. I'm glad. And of course Bella has so much hair, you can't even tell. Unlike when Felisa cut her own hair a few months ago.

Ryan's soccer coaches are working them hard in practice. Or maybe he was extra tired because of his cold. He has some good coaches this season and lots of friends on his team so we're all happy about that.

Bella got to use pom poms at cheer practice yesterday. Raising that cuteness quotient even higher! First home game is in a week and a half.

I made my kids (and myself) sit out in the hallway (on the cold, hard linoleum floor) to chow down our McD's dinner while Bella was in the gym cheering. The sign clearly says "No food or drink in the Gym - Water Only". Next time we'll probably just eat in the car after we drop her off - more comfortable. But anyway, after we ate, we moved into the gym so we could be more comfortable (a carpeted floor!) and so we could watch practice. Another family came in with burritos, spread a blanket (they get points for being careful), and started chowing down. I was a little annoyed that they weren't following the rules (you know me - I love people following rules!) but didn't say anything (you know me - avoid confrontation at all costs!). Happily, the coach came over and told them they couldn't eat in the gym because we would lose our practice space if caught. So there.

A Trip to the Carnival

We went to the carnival last night. Splurged on the 50-ticket sheet that cost $40. I thought it would be nice for the whole family to ride the ferris wheel, and at 4 tickets a person, that was 20 tickets right there.

Pros:
*We rode the ferris wheel for 30 minutes (yes, I checked my watch). About 10 minutes of the actual continuously spinning ride and the rest of the time loading/unloading passengers, two gondolas at a time.
*None of us was too big or too small to ride.

Cons:
*We rode the ferris wheel for 30 minutes. 20 would have been plenty.
*There was a four passenger per gondola limit so we had to split up and couldn't ride together as a family.

So was it worth almost $20 to ride the ferris wheel? I think so. It was the first time for all of the kids. There was a nice breeze and it was fun to look down over the park and the people below. Of course, it may not be worth $20 to do it again next year. We may try the "ride all night for $20" night next year. Three kids times $20 is $60. Which seems like a lot. But we ended up spending almost that much anyway if you add in the snacks and the attempts to win a goldfish. And the kids only had 3 rides each other than the ferris wheel. If it was ride all night, they could go through the mirrored fun house to their hearts content. Although it wouldn't be cost effective for Felisa to go on the $20 night since she's only tall enough for about 2 of the rides. Do you think she'll be 42" by next fall? Probably not.

All said and done, it was a nice couple of hours. It was pure torture to watch Felisa eating her melting ice cream cone. I wanted so bad to just lick it a few times to stop the drips. But I didn't. I did eat a couple of Ron's nachos though... those were borderline forbidden foods unlike the death-on-a-cone ice cream. Or should it be life-on-a-cone since it would feed the yeastie beasties and let them live to see another day?!

So Far It's Working...

Well, the very special, eat-nothing-and-be-very-hungry candida diet is working. I'm down 3 pounds this week and am slightly less itchy. I am not any less witchy yet but hopefully that will come. :)

As I swallow the tastes-like-dirt supplements I remind myself that this is for my health. I want to be healthier. I do. But in the meantime I also want donuts and cake and bread. And coffee... don't forget the coffee. But, since I am incapable of drinking it without sugar, I will no longer drink it. I'm feeling better today than earlier in the week. I may even be productive today. On Wednesday, after sending all the kids to school, I ran two errands then came home to take a nap. So, a little less than productive this week but hopefully that will all change once I get used to my new eating habits and evict a few more of the Yeastie Beasties.

Now off to pretend to be productive... My kitchen corner shelf arrived yesterday. I wasn't expecting it until Monday so maybe I'll have to tackle the kitchen today instead of ignoring it for a few more days. Maybe I'll even finish it sometime soon so I can progress to the next room on the list. Any votes on where to go next?

The Possibilities Are Endless...

The first day of school... for two out of three anyway...

Despite the insane first day of school traffic and parking issues, Felisa and I were able to drop Ryan and Bella off for their first day of school. Second grade in a classroom UPSTAIRS - wow, the big leagues! And all-day Kindergarten. All day. As in whatever am I going to do for the next six and a half hours. Bella decided she could walk to class by herself even though Ryan offered to walk with her. I did ask him to walk with her to the stairs so that I would know she was headed in the right direction. And so they went... It seems strange to have two of them gone all day long but I feel much more comfortable with things now that I've been through it once already. There is less UNKNOWN to stress me out.

So... that leaves Felisa and I. She was sad this morning that I wasn't packing a lunch for her and that she wasn't going to school today. She immediately cheered up when I told her she could go to the Donut Store with me instead. Because really, donuts are way better than school. At 0930 we were done shopping. Which leaves 6 hours until we pick up the other kids. I'm sure I will soon be used to it but for now that 6 hours stretches out before me with so many possibilities... we could go to WV even and still be back in time. We won't. But we could!

So far Felisa has played Scooby Doo (with me), put together a puzzle (by herself), and is playing upstairs. I've boiled some eggs (need some quick no-sugar, no-wheat breakfasts now that the Yeast Wars have begun in earnest once more today), put away the groceries, talked to Shani on the phone, ate a snack of 3 baby carrots dipped in hummus, and considered cleaning my office.

3 1/2 hours to go... soon it will be time for lunch and a trip to the library and dry cleaners. Or maybe just to the library. We have to leave something for Thursday's entertainment!

Oh and in case you're curious... you can check out my FitDay food journal here. I've joined a 10-day challenge at Shrinking Mom to log what we eat for 10 days. You can view previous entries also and see what a difference the yeast wars makes to my diet. I usually eat without even trying as many calories as I've had so far today, even with my Starbucks (sort-of) cheat sugar-free soy latte. Amazing. And what would be even more amazing would be if I lost weight again like I did the first time. I've found though, that to keep it off, I can't go back to my old ways. The Yeast will find me again like it did this time. I can do it.