Chocolate Protection Program

It's teacher appreciation week at Jonathan's school. More accurately, it's the night before the very last day of teacher appreciation week. Since I rarely check Jonathan's backpack for anything more than his homework, I missed the note that was sent home by the room mom who knows how long ago. Fortunately, I did find it in time. In addition to mourning the less of some of my favorite calories, I spent much of last night trying to think of a cute teacher gift. Here's what I came up with. Remember, this idea was hatched between midnight and 1 am, and I obviously had chocolate on the brain.

In case you can't tell, it's supposed to be a candy jar. I had to search and search for one that was opaque.

This is the gift tag that goes along with it.

Almost middle of the night musings...

Never tell a skinny woman you're on a diet. She'll get that special gleam in her eye and spill all her top secret skinny woman knowledge.

She may begin by extolling the virtues of celery. "Did you know it takes more calories to burn off celery than you get from eating it?" Another big secret is bringing little baggies of veggies everywhere you go, so if you're tempted to get that donut you already have a snack.

I'm really good at deluding myself, but even I can't make believe that celery is a tasty treat. And given the choice between carrot sticks and a donut it's really no contest. This is why she is the skinny woman and I am not.

The thing is, I really do appreciate their well intentioned advice. But do they think we didn't already know that vegetables are healthier than potato chips? I'll guarantee you that the overweight woman knows more about nutrition than the average skinny woman. Why? Because we have been to every weight loss program, we've seen nutritionists, we've read all the books. Trust me, we know.

I can't speak for everyone, but what it comes down to for me is changing habits and finding motivation. Making the voices in my head that tell me I'll just gain it all back shut up. It's about finding healthy things that aren't too repulsive to me and still allowing myself the good stuff in smaller doses. Because some days I'd rather cut off my right ear than eat broccoli and the thought of no more chocolate ever might make me suicidal. And I will never be able to convince myself that celery is a tasty treat.

disclaimer: In rereading this I fear I may offend some of my skinny girl friends. That is not my intention. I love you all, even if you do tell me to eat celery. Blech. It's late and I didn't get enough chocolate today.

All dressed for church

Yeah, he didn't want his picture taken.

New Toy

Jonathan somehow finagled a new toy out of Grandma and Grandpa while we were in Arizona. Grandpa and Aunt Kerri had just bought the new Nintendo DSi. The DSi not only plays games, but can take pictures and record sounds. You can also do some fun photo editing on the pictures. Jonathan loved the DSi so much that Grandma and Grandpa bought him one.

Here are some samples of Jonathan's artwork.

Vacation pictures

Here's the rest of our trip to AZ...

On day 2, we babysat Kerri's friend's baby Junior. He was such a doll, he saved all his fussiness for his mom. We took him to the mall where everyone ooh'd and aah'd over him and he peed on the wall in the bathroom when Kerri was changing him. The little dogs (Max and Lola) were surprisingly interested in the baby. I think Max is trying to figure out what kind of dog he is.

The next day we went to Healthy Kids Day at the YMCA.
Kerri and Jonathan climbed the Rock Wall.

That's as high as he got.

On Sunday we went to the Race for the Cure with a team Kerri and some friends organized. (I volunteered to take the picture so I'm not in it) We missed our 1 mile walk thanks to really poor parking organization. Luckily, the shuttle busses weren't running when we wanted to leave and we had to walk about 1.5 miles back to the car.
This is Max. We have a love hate relationship. I love him and he hates me. He's such a cute little bugger, but he barks and growls every time I enter the room.

This is Kerri's dog Lola. Lola likes me and I'm going to steal her one day.
This is Lola at Kerri's soccer game, which they won. Notice how she is all bundled up in her winter coat because it is so cold in Tucson.

We had a great time in Tucson. I am sorry that I didn't get to visit any friends while I was there. It just seems like we never have enough time to do everything in one trip. Hopefully I'll plan better next time.

We also had a much more enjoyable trip down and back since we decided to spend the night in Sin City each way. The 14 - 16 hour drive was just getting too long with 2 dogs and an impatient 7 year old so we found a kennel in Vegas for the dogs and got ourselves a room at a hotel.

Lastly, a word of caution... The entire state of AZ is now one big speed trap. They have photo enforcement cameras everywhere. I don't think I got a ticket, but I guess we'll find out if I get a letter in the mail in a few weeks.

First official day of Spring Break

For his birthday Jonathan received a card promising a special surprise the next time he visits his Aunts in Tucson. We spent today in Phoenix getting this special surprise.

On our way we saw this...

and Jonathan commented that it looked like a remote control car, and wouldn't it be cool if he had a remote control car.

The surprise turned out to be this:

We went to a little shop where you can build your own remote control car. Grandpa and Jonathan each made one and I decided to make one for Russ so they could race eachother at home.We ate lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. It was overpriced but a fun atmosphere. I loved this picture on the ceiling. Notice that most of California has sunk into the ocean and Los Angeles is now an island. Afterwards we went shopping and pretty near bored Jonathan to death.

We saw this car in the parking lot. Can anyone tell me the purpose of this one light on the bumper?

Happy Easter

Part III: Revenge of the Dog

It seemed like such a brilliant idea... Until she decided to use the diaper for it's intended purpose.

Dog Torture Part II

I didn't intend Dog Torture to be a two part episode, but Pie had a vet appointment today and well... You see, she's had a bladder infection which has caused her to become sore in a delicate area. The infection has cleared up, but the vet thinks a certain part is not healing because she licks it too much. (Way too much doggy info, I know.)

The vet told us to make her wear this:

Conehead Pie Dog proved to be a little impractical and VERY comical. She can't lay down or walk up the stairs with this thing on, and she has no peripheral vision so she runs into things. I wish I'd gotten a video of her trying to climb the stairs.

Then I had a brilliant idea. Or maybe Russ did....Doggy Diapers!
Then Jonathan had a brilliant idea...

Super Diaper Dog! We used Jonathan's jacket as a cape. (I think he got the idea from a Captain Underpants book.)

Dog Torture

By now, I'm sure many of you have seen this dog.

His name is Stains and he was made famous on Animal Planet thanks to his love of cupcakes. If you know our family you probably know that we have a dog of the same breed as Stains. In fact, it appears that this food obsession may be a genetic trait. We decided to try and recreate this video with our own Australian Shepherd, Dollie.

If you think this is maybe too cruel, we did let Dollie have the cupcake in the end.

What's in a name?

I got this link from a friend's blog. You can find out some interesting, and basically useless information about your name. I love useless information so I thought this was pretty fun.

http://www.isthisyour.name/

April Fools

We had some fun today with April Fools. Jonathan and I switched Russell's cereal this morning before school. So when Russ went to pour Capt. Crunch he got Lucky Charms instead. Later on, as I was folding laundry I decided to hide all of Russell's underwear. Thanks for the idea Kelly! Then I changed all his car radio presets to Country music, which he hates.

Lastly, I did this in both our toilets. Except, I wrote "Don't Pee on Me" on the TP.

This was the funniest one because Jonathan was the first one to need to use the bathroom and he really thought he couldn't use either toilet.

I hope everyone had a fun April Fools day!