Twinkle Toes

It was my turn to choose our date night activity. I decided for a change we should go get a pedicure together. The asian ladies using a knife, took about an inch of callouse off of Jake's feet. In the end, I chose french manicure and Jake let the ladies choose for him. They could not stop laughing, even as we were leaving.

I'm not really a fan of my big, wide feet. But if I'm going to post his, I should at least be willing to post mine as well.

A Very Merry Un-Birthday

Because my bday is in Dec., I have empathy for my children who are also all winter babies and I give them an option for a summer bday party. Caleb's bday this year was Aug. 18th. (A date pulled out of the air.) It gave us a chance to use our yard instead of trying to entertain 10-six year old boys in my not that big of a house. He was so excited for it this year and doing it in the summer allows some space between the excitement of Christmas and a bday party.

I made him a special cake that was supposed to look like a dirt mound covered in creepy crawly things. I got the idea online. I also got some good ideas for games online, but the boys only had the attention span for one and then they wanted to swing and climb, which was a lot easier for me. I kept coming in and out of the house with pizza, soda, cake, ice cream, napkins. I was glad Jake was there to run things because I was just a gopher.

Our present to him was a new bike, which he needed desperately because his old one was way too small and had a bent front wheel and missing spokes. I gave it to him by way of a scavenger hunt which the kids really enjoyed. And of course, the traditional pinata filled with more candy than it should be.

Overall the party was a great experience. The down side is that now Caleb is a little confused about exactly how old he is, but no system is perfect.

Latest trip to Cali

My husband says that all I ever want to do is go to California. I have to admit it calls to me and I have no real vacation experience; so, I don't long for other places. This trip was all planned because of my 20 yr high school reunion; so it had to be a CA trip.

We started by visiting Lisa in Huntington Beach. She was very gracious and let us eat all of her beloved ice cream. Coming from her, that is true love. Thank you again, Lisa. Next we went to Lovely downtown, Bakersfield. The first night it was 107 degrees when we arrived. We had pizza with my fam and as we exited it was still 107. We stayed at the four points by sheraton and they had a great pool. It wasn't heated but it felt like it was. We went swimming the first night and Jake complained that he couldn't cool off. I love night swimming. He was just happy that we could crank it down it 65 in the hotel room.

The next day we took advantage of the fact that my sisters wanted to watch our kids and we went to the movies alone. We saw the latest Harry Potter, which we both loved. Jake could not get over the fact that the theatre was so very empty. It was a brand new, stadium seating theatre called the Mayan. We arrived five minutes before the show and it was a new movie. There was no line at all and they were offering free popcorn, which we didn't want. We only ever get popcorn to occupy our kids who easily get bored at movies. I tried to explain to Jake that people just really don't go to the movies in Bako. Personally, I would rather go swimming or boating instead as well.

That night we went River Rafting with my sister's, their men, an uncle, a cousin and her friends. It was pretty scarey while rafting, but after I couldn't remember why I was scared. It was beautiful at night and great fun.

The next day, saturday, was my reunion. I couldn't find my camera; so, I have no pictures. Hopefully someone will post there's soon so I can see them. It was fun to see people. Almost everybody that showed up is also on facebook, so I felt like I could tell them about themselves rather than ask them any questions.

We went swimming everyday, while there. The kids of course loved staying in the hotel and I just love to go away every chance I get. The kids got to spend a lot of time with cousins they never see. And I got to see two of my father's siblings that I never see. Everything went as planned, so it was a very good vacation. Next time, I'll have to think of somewhere to go other than California.

Quick "10 Minute Trainer" update

Jake and I have been following the 10-day program for 2 days so far and the results have been great. We both lost 3 lbs the first day and he lost another 3 and I lost 2 the second day. At this rate we really will cut quite a bit in 10 days, maybe as much as 20 lbs. The meals are light, but the recipes are pretty good and you're eating constantly. I follow the program down to the minute and measure the food with a food scale. So far I've done three videos a day and Jake just works out and plays tennis at school. I know that it isn't suppose to be healthy to lose weight this fast but that's probably why it specifically says not to do this for more than 10 days. I trust Tony to not put out any program that is not healthy and that won't improve fitness.

Anti-Body Dysmorphic Disorder: A Self Diagnosis

Body Dysmorphic Disorder or BBD is most often found in person's suffering from anorexia. They look in the mirror and regardless of their actual appearance, they see someone who is overweight and they continue to work to lose it. I believe that I am suffering from something opposite of that. Despite what I wrote it my last post, the truth is that I think I look really good when I look in the mirror and so I have to remind myself that it can't possibly be true. How is it possible that I am the weight and size of someone who would not look good but on me it just works. If you've ever seen the movie Shallow Hal, there is a seen where Gwyneth Paltrow takes off her little clothes and throws them accross the room and all of a sudden they are huge. Well I must have been affected by Tony Robbins because my large clothes look the perfect size once they are on me. I'm glad that I like me so much but I have to remind myself of the truth so that I can remember to work toward actual improvement.

In addition to Tony Robbins, I am also a big fan of Tony Horton (P90X); so I bought another of his programs called The 10 minute Trainer. The workouts are only 10 min but you can do multiple in a day, so I plan to always do 2 or 3. I'm excited that this program is more designed for women than P90x and for weight loss. P90x is so muscle building that I didn't lose any weight, I'm excited to see some slimming results. The program even contains a 10 day quick cut weight program which promises to cut one pant size in 10 days. I happen to have 10 days left until my high school reunion, so I'm putting it to the test. I'm actually only two pants sizes bigger than when I was in high school; so one size down would be great and two would be fantastic. So I have high hopes for this program. I even got my husband to do it with me. Normally he wouldn't do anything that was at all girly, but since I did P90X with him and since he wouldn't mind cutting some weight too. Next time we start P90X, we'll be more able to do push-ups and pull-ups when we have less body weight to push and pull.

Fatty Bubelatty

Many of you know that I have struggles with weight ever since I started having children. My whole life, I never knew what it was like to need to watch what I eat or worry that things won't fit. Now I know that I should be grateful and feel very blessed for that history because it is an awful feeling. The pregnancy years were tough and pretty hard on my self esteem. It's like I was a totally different person for those eight years than the person I was for the first 30 years of my life. If you didn't see me during those years ( the "Large Marge" years), let me assure you that I am not one of those people who exagerate this kind of thing. Let's just say that I was big enough that my husband's grandpa said to my face that I was "almost big enough to pull a plow." And I had my first cousin say, "there she blows," and when I tried to ignore him, he made sure that I knew that he was saying I was as big as a whale. (Am I the only one with relatives who have no tact?) Luckily my husband never even hinted at such a thing. He says he likes women to not be too skinny, so that they don't have a womenly figure. Perhaps he's a really good liar or perhaps the fact that I wanted and needed to believe it helped a lot.

Now it's time to enter a new stage and I have high hopes for a good future. But I do realize that keeping in shape will be a big part of the rest of my life. I have a lot of determination, and right after the last baby, I dieted big time and got down to my goal weight in 10 months. I also got into the size of jeans I wanted, but I was so flabby and untoned that I wasn't as pleased as I planned. I went off the diet for the holidays and was suprised at how quickly one can gain the weight back. Then I began the world of P90X. I am still a believer, but I think it is better designed for someone who has no life and no house full of sickies. My husband and I have vowed to conquer the program but I hate doing things half way, so we're going to wait until Sept to start, because our lives are a little more simple at that time. Right now I'm just eating healthy and going to the gym, because it fits pretty easily into my day in the summer time.

My goal now, is to hit a weight and pants size that I can comfortably say out loud and still be muscular and tone. My opinion is that fat is better than flabby, so that is my current state. I am so determined that I have decided that I will never again by an article of clothes with a number on the tag that I don't like. I will simply buy two moo moo's that can cover my nakedness until the clothes that I allow myself to buy will fit. I recently went on a big shopping trip with my mother in law and sister in law's using this rule. I purchased a lot of shirts and no pants. I think I look pretty good from the waste up and from the knees down, but my bum and thighs are holding up the progress and it's me vs. them from here on out.

Vegas Vacation

Jake went bear hunting for five days this last weekend. And rather than waiting around here, we decided to go away ourselves. We visited my mom in Las Vegas at her time share condo. It's about half-way between CA and UT, so it makes it easier to see each other if we meet in the middle.

The kids were thrilled about the pool and we went swimming practically the whole time. I tried to site-see a little, but they weren't too interested, so it was minimal. We went to Circus Circus and rode a couple of rides at the adventure dome. We all got a healthy dose of sun, and then some. It was good for the kids to see my parents, that happens only a few times a year.

Jake shot a six foot tall bear and he is having it made into a rug with a head, which is the standard practice I guess. He gave the meat to his brother and brother in-law, who love wild game meat more than most people. I will post a picture of the bear when it's back from the taxidermist. Right now it just looks like a black garbage bag in our chest freezer.