I am so excited!

I won my first award today! Mom not Mum at Don't Call Me Mummy gave me this today. Woohoo! Thanks so much for coming here and reading my posts even though I am still pretty brand new at this. So thanks again! I will wear the banner proudly.

I will also like to bestow the honors and name three others whose blogs I love to read. I want to give this to Lisa at The Shizzle Life. I have been reading her blog for a long time (we go way back haha) and I want to let her know that I love her posts. I also want to give it to Whatworksformom over at What Works for Us. I love reading about her being a mom and her helpful tips. Finally I also want to give it to Janice at Mom on the Run. I love reading about her kids and we have the same goals for weight loss. So go visit some of my favorite reads.

Thanks again!

Fit Friday #3

Progress from this week:

Current Weight= 136.8 (happy with the progress but it had nothing to do with my exercising this week)
Goal Weight = 119
Pounds to go = 17.8

Exercise this past week = Don't ask (hanging head in shame). We did go camping this weekend and I did do some walking. I suck...

Diet = Low Carb - Did well most of the week again. During the camping weekend, we went to an all-time favorite restaurant Sat night. Its too far from our house to go for a dinner trip but since we were spending the weekend in that town, we had to go. It was worth the cheat!

Goal for next week = Exercise! Exercise! Exercise! Exercise! Exercise! You slacker!

Thursday Thirteen #2

Thirteen of my Favorite movies We have been discussing favorite movies so I thought I would compile a list of mine. Some people tell me I have terrible taste in movies, so you be the judge. These are in no particular order. 1. Kentucky Fried Movie – Classic 70s Zucker Bros movie. Incredibly funny. 2. Xanadu – Great 80s roller derby, sweat band, Olivia N-J dancing to ELO. Classic. 3. This is Spinal Tap – Gotta love em, “This goes to 11. None more black”. Nothing better than a Rock N Roll parody. 4. Terms of Endearment – When you really want a good cry. 5. Kill Bill v.1 & 2 – I love these, great action, strange plot, cool music. 6. Bring it On – OK, had to throw this one in here. I can watch this movie over and over again. Cheesy but I love it. 7. Keeping the Faith – I love Ben. He’s awesome and this is a great, silly story. 8. Better off Dead – John Cusak is a favorite. This is a great 80’s, high school love story. 9. Blades of Glory – I saw this on the plane coming home from England and I have to say that it was great. Good story line and great characters. 10. Office Space – This is such a great mockery of corporate life in the cube farms. So funny and great one-liners. 11. The Matrix (just the first one) – Awesome story line and amazing special effects. Generally I don’t like futuristic type movies but this one I loved. 12. She's Having a Baby – I love the music from this movie, not to mention it’s a great story. Kate Bush’s “Woman’s Work” is a wonderfully moving song. 13. Tootsie – Classic Dustin Hoffman in drag movie. This is such a funny movie about the hardships of being an actor. Of course there are tons more movies I love but this is a good list of my favs.

You know what they say about luck

If we didn't have bad luck we would have no luck at all! I was home for 12 f'ng weeks. Twelve weeks on maternity leave and not once did any of my kids (well the older ones who were in day care) get sick. I have been back to work for three weeks and I get a call from the center. E got sick and I need to come get her. Granted she was acting 'off' last night at dinner, wanting to lie down and not eat, which is unusual. Well the lying down part, not the not eating. Not eating seems to be a trend in my house (with the exception of me and L who cannot seem to loose weight no matter how hard we try). So, I sent E to school this morning cause quite frankly she was acting more like herself and there was no fever. No fever = going to school. But they called and told me she got sick. So off I go to get her and bring her home. She looks like she is feeling good and still no fever but the 'getting sick' part still happened so home she goes. I have to sign the incident paper that specifies that without a written Dr's note she cannot come back for 24 hours. OK, like I am going to drop her off at the center just before lunch tomorrow. Whatever. Taking her to our pedi would be useless. "Yeah, she got sick but she looks fine now, can you write her a note so I can go back to work tomorrow?" So,my company offers back up care. I register for this service who provides care for sick family members and I get a reduced rate. Its quite convenient so we may give that a try. Of course the company wants to make every effort to get their employees to work, but its a good benefit and I have used it in the past and I trust the care that they provide, so I will partake.
Of course all this talk about 'getting sick' has me feeling like I have a queasy tummy. I certainly hope this was just an E incident and the stomach bug doesn't start to work its way around my family. That.would.suck.

First Day of School

So my little man big guy is off to Kindergarten! He was too cute this morning. I hope he is having a great day!

Fit Friday #2

Progress from this week:

Current Weight= 138
Goal Weight = 119
Pounds to go = 19

Exercise this past week = Completed week two of my program on Sat & Tues. Also on Sunday walked around the outlet mall with V in the front pack and then jumped and played in the bounce houses at a bday party with my 2 year old (does that count? I worked up quite the sweat!)

Diet = Low Carb - Did well most of the week. (Tues I had a Taco Bell mexican pizza to go along with my taco salad....tsk..tsk..Hey, nothing else sounded good inbetween conf calls!)

Goal for next week = Need to exercise three times a week! Need to exercise three times a week. Need to exercise three times a week!

Thursday Thirteen #1 (the virgin edition)

Thirteen Things about getting to know Me. 1. I work as an engineer (click on word for full definition) but I have no degree in engineering (its in psychology) and I don't drive a train nor am in charge of anything with an engine. 2. I am currently in the middle of working on my MBA degree, but taking a break since baby #3 was born. I plan to start up again in January. 3. I have two dogs that were supposed to be small and calm. They are neither small nor calm and are free to a good home...(kidding - they will get old someday). 4. I have had lots of other pets through the years (I love animals) which include cats (and many kittens - need to spay and neuter folks!), fish (which I cannot keep alive), parrakeets and ferrets (which are tons of fun but smell, are hard to clean up after and bite...hmm...doesn't sound all that fun, what was I thinking). 5. My latest hobby (besides working on this blog) is photography. I love my new camera and I use it all the time but I am a terrible photographer and don't know how to use Photoshop. I need classes for both (which will fit into my schedule in between not driving a train and my non-existant MBA program and taking care of three kids). 5. I have an odd obsession with pens. I love them, all shapes, sizes and colors. I have to keep myself away from the supply closet at work cause I would take a new pen every day. 6. We have a love affair with our electronics. We have a TV in the family room, the kitchen (which while in the kitchen you can see the TV in the family room), our bedroom, the kids playroom, in our camper and an HD widescreen 55" in the basement. We have a Tivo and a DVR which is the best invention next to electricity and running water. We have a desktop, two laptops and a desktop for the kids. We own three cell phones between the two of us (OK, one is a work phone). And each of our cars has a DVD entertainment system so that the kids stop annoying us on long drives about how green the trees are. 7. My favorite holiday is Halloween. I love the colors, the spookiness, the costumes and the smells of fall. Mostly I love fall and Halloween is in the middle of that great season. 8. We are Jewish and celebrate Hanukkah but we don't keep Kosher, have Shabbat dinners or go to Temple. We are sending Z to Hebrew school this fall so he can learn all about the wonderful customs of being Jewish and then re-teach us since we have forgotten. 9. My husband does 90% of the cooking in the house which is great for me cause I barely know how to boil water. Well, ok, that's a stretch but I can make two things - soup (limited to Matzoh Ball and split pea) and microwavable..well..anything microwavable. We don't cook at home much mostly cause we are terrible planners and don't want to think ahead about thawing something out of the freezer so we tend to bring in take out often (hehe bring in take out..). 10. The things that I love: my family, where I live (although I could stand to have a larger bathroom for the kids and a sunroom and maybe a little less land so that my hubby isn't mowing as much...the grass is always greener, eh?), my new camera (did I mention that one already?), XM radio so I don't have to listen to commericals, shopping for baby/kids stuff cause there are so many neat new gadets out that there I love to look at and my electric doors on my minivan (we had to break down and get one since we didn't know another better vehicle to fit three car seats. Once the kids grow out of them the minivan is a gonner!) 11. Things that annoy me: people who don't know how to merge onto the highway and will ride out in the merge lane until they practically fall off the road before moving over, cashiers who give your change back to you bills first and then coins so that the coins can fall all over the ground at the drive through - you should always put the coins in my hand first, people who look at me like I have 6 heads when I tell them I have 3 kids, when my son doesn't listen to me when I am talking to him - he is like a brick wall and people who give you advise on how to be a parent (especially those who haven't had little kids in forever). 12. I clean up my house the night before the cleaning people come (every other Wednesday night). I go through a cleaning frenzy to put everything in its place so that the cleaning people can find the floors to vacuum and the counters to wipe cause if there is just a little bit of something laying out they will clean around said object. Its a total PITA and I stress about it so much every other week that I am considering cancelling the service and cleaning the toilets myself, but then the house would never get cleaned so I suck it up deal. 13. I am actually quite shy. One of the other greatest inventions of all time is email and IM. Its a way for those of us who hate talking on the phone to communicate with people we feel uncomfortable talking to. That said, I never answer my phone at home unless its my husband.

America's Got Talent - Results

I like reality TV/game shows/talent contests as much as the next gal. Well maybe not as much since I don't watch BB or Survivor anymore. However, I did watch last years AGT and thought it was a half way decent show. So I decided to go ahead and Season Pass this year's so I have something to watch during the day while home on maternity leave (cause you know how much day time TV rots). Anyway, I started to really enjoy this season much more than last season, once certain people got voted off like Guy Shakira (WTF were the judges thinking putting that one through). So, this brings me to my point, the final show. The last four contestants were all quite good. I loved Butterscotch and thought she was so talented and Julienne was great too, in her not quite grown up voice. However, the last two acts, Cas Haley and Terry Fator are both in their own right awesome. Terry Fator has so much talent its hard to measure and him winning the contest was well deserved. However, Cas is also absolutely wonderful and I loved watching him sing week after week. I felt so terrible for him last night as he wandered off the stage after they announced Terry as the winner with a sad lost puppy-dog look in his eyes. Like I said Terry deserved to win as did Cas. Its just a shame that there cannot be two winners, but then that wouldn't be a contest for the best one act in America, now would it. I just hope for Cas's sake that there were tons of record producers waiting in the wings of that stage ready to sign him a deal right then and there. Because if he made an album, I know I would buy it.

So here's to you Cas, the runner up in AGT, you didn't win but I know we haven't seen the last of you yet.

And here's a video of Cas singing "Walking on the Moon" from his very first audition.

Winger Returns

OK I admit it, I am a 80's hair-band, heavy metal, listen to the Bone Yard on XM kinda mom. So I was excited to find out that Winger has regrouped to record a new album. It has been getting great reviews from the head bangers who review music on Amazon (and we all know they are experts). So the next time I see it in the store I think I will buy it and give it a spin.

And to age me even more than I already have, I am including a picture of Stewart in all his Winger glory. And I better not be getting any comments that you don't know who he is cause then I will feel ancient!

Two-Year-Old-Revelations

The latetest two revelations as told by my 2 year old:

#1. E sits at the breakfast table. She pulls up her shirt (something she does often) and is studying her nipples curiously. She looks at them and then looks and L and me and back to her nipples. Finally she reveals:
"I have little ones!"

#2. E sits at the same table for dinner and is squirming:
E - "Mommy I have Poop" (we have been attempting potty training lately so she tells me when she has already gone, uh not really the way it works)
J - "Well, what do you want me to do about it?"
E - "You need to clean it up!"
J - "Why do I have to clean it up? You are the one who pooped and should be pooping in the potty."
E - thinks for a second and says, "Because I will get my fingers in it."

Of course I go to change her and she didn't really poop anyway.

V - 3 months old

We visited with my grandma this weekend. V turned three months old Sat so I thought I would post a pic of my grandma holding V while the other kids look on.

Picture of my pictures

Since we finished our basement we had an open area in the corner that we called our 'cafe'. Its a small square area near our kitchenette that has been in deperate need of some decorations. We thought of getting a mural painted but that wasn't all that cost effective. So while in England we took some beautiful pictures of buildings and scenes. We blew them up and tonight hung them in our cafe. I am quite pleased with how they came out.

"Mommy, you gotta bump on your nose"

As said by my 2 year old. This bump on my nose has proven to be quite fascinating by both my older kids. I have been to the dermatologist to have it checked out and he told me it was a "thingamagigyabobber" and it is harmless and I should just ignore it. However, it does appear to be a bit larger since having another baby (as does everything else on my body). But I am thinking of going back to him and telling him to just cut it outta there cause quite frankly I am getting tired of hearing about it daily, not because it is bothering me. I do have quite the fear of going through this procedure even for such a small bump but I guess its gotta be done. What do you think, remove or let live?

What Scares Me the Most

So of course on the top of my list of fears is the possibility of anything happening to my husband or my kids, SIDS and natural disasters, as is probably the case with most moms. However, one if my fears as of late are these fuckers, bed bugs. Since I was recently in another country and I have been hearing about stories of big city hotels starting to see these re-appearing in their beds, got me way freaked out. So much so that one night I barely slept because I just knew they were just crawling all over me cause I was itching so much. Of course the next day I inspected the mattresses with a fine tooth comb only to discover what kept me up all night was my wild imagination. I travel often for work and stay in lots of different hotels. I just know I am going to loose lots of sleep over these awful creatures, even though I know they are harmless. I also fear that I may unknowingly bring them back home with me at which time I would have to burn my house down (well maybe just the mattress).

I say we start a campaign to eradicate the bed bugs for good so that we call can get good night sleep.

Fit Friday

OK so I am attempting to start a new trend to track my weight loss progress. I have much weight to loose since having Miss V (well I still had extra pounds on me from before I got pregnant) and hopefully keeping track each Friday will keep me focused on my target. So here goes:

Current Weight = 139
Goal Weight = 119
Pounds to go = 20
Exercise this past week = none (I was traveling back from vacation and this was my first week back to work - excuses, excuses)
Diet = Low Carb - did well on my diet (when I started back up on Monday) I didn't cheat at all, but I did have too many low carb goodies in the evenings

Goal for next week - add back in my exercise program. I was working on a walk/jog program three times a week before my vacation.

Need a professional phographer

...on my payroll.



This would have been a great shot (even with my new camera - Canon 30D) if all three kids were in focus.

I need me some classes on how to use this new monstrosity.

Resident Hummingbird

I had the bright idea to put up a hummingbird feeder after one got trapped in our garage (great idea, attract more to my house to get stuck). Anyway, my FIL had a feeder and food that he gladly gave up cause he had no luck with them. He was skeptical that we would be luckier at my house though. So, I cleaned out the very gross feeder and filled it up with new juice and hung it outside our window to wait..and wait...and wait. About two weeks later I was glancing out the window and saw a flutter of a hummingbird. I ran to get the camera and of course he was gone by the time I got back. So as the weeks go on, I see more little flutters, run for camera and miss. So, I finally got smart (took me long enough) and left the camera next to the window. Finally I catch one! Take a few shots through the window and chalk one up to me. Well over the next three weeks or so we see a hummingbird out at the feeder about once an hour. I take a few pics here and there and feel happy that I caught more.

Well the last two days we seem to have a regular. This hummingbird will sit at the feeder for hours waiting for other hummingbirds to come along just to then scare them away. He seems to have put a stake on the Nelson Hummingbird House. Of course I grab the camera but there is little sport is shooting a stationary hummingbird. But then again, maybe he knows how crappy a photographer I am and he is really sitting still for my benefit.

Here are two more hummingbird shots I snapped.

Hummingbird 1

Hummingbird 2

BLECH!!

Ok, so I am a wuss and I have little exposure to warts. Z got one about two months ago. I totally didn't know what it was and promptly went to the internet and read all about what it is, where they come from and how they are spread. OMG! More freaked out now. So at his pedi appointment I asked what there was we could do about so called really contagious HPV virus wart. Of course she brushed me off as a worried parent and told us to get Dr. Scholls wart remover. So after 6 weeks this is the results of the medicine.

I am so holding myself back from taking a knife and carving that sucker outta there, just so I don't have to look at it anymore. I doubt my son would appreciate that though. So we wait for it to fall off with more 'band-aids'.

England Baby!

L was asked to go to England for a meeting. I told him that I wanted to go with him, half joking cause I was home on leave with Miss V. But he convinced me that the kids would be very well taken care of with his mom and dad for the week and we should jet off. We toyed with getting V her passport but there was little time. We were also scared about dragging her around the airports and hotels and thought she would be better suited at home. So, being the guilt-free, selfish parents that we are, we left them to travel to England. We had a ball, saw lots of towns, nearly got ourselves killed while driving on the wrong left side of the road, stayed in a B&B, took the Underground and had fun on a double decker bus in London. Since we were not planning a vacation this year due to new baby blues this was a great way to get away for a while, just us, before I came back to work. Plus our anniversary is in Sept so this was an early celebration. Here are some pics:

Stonehenge

The beautiful city of Bath

Warwick Castle

London Baby! Big Ben....Parliamant.

Bumbo

Miss V starts to sit in the bumbo. She wants to much to be a big girl.

Kick Start the Blog

With a picture.

I have a new camera and I thought it would be nice to take our annual family picture with it unstead of paying a studio like we usually do. So I bought cheap tripod and assembled the family for the 'practice' shot on our stairs. I hit the timer and ran behind Z.

I loved the results that I didn't bother even taking another shot and annoying my family with my 'this-has-to-be-perfect-picture' antics. I blew it up and hung it on my wall.

What do you think?