ally-cat

I have been sooo busy this week (and this month) with Girl Scouts. Not only am I still a troop leader (my girls are now in 4th grade), but I am also the Registrar and the Recruiter (two other positions) for our Service Unit (basically all the schools in Acworth). It’s a lot bigger job than I expected. I’m enjoying it, though. Tonight I have a team leaders meeting and then tomorrow night I have my regular meeting with my troop. Then Thurs night I’m meeting my friend Jenn for dinner. Busy busy.

Today is Lauren’s due date. The doctors kept telling her for the past two weeks that she would go any time now and probably not make it until her due date, but here we are and still no baby. She’s been trying all kinds of old wives’ tales about how to get the baby to come. People around here claim that if you eat this certain dish at an Italian restaurant nearby, that you’ll go into labor within 48 hours, but that didn’t happen.

I’ve been trying to diet and exercise the past couple of months. I’ve now lost about 15lbs, so that’s exciting.

I think Lucas has learned a new word. His first word was “meh” which means “more” as in he wants food. I think now he is saying “uh-puh” for “up” when he wants to be picked up.

Today Paul and I took Lucas to his first gymnastics class! They have a baby tumbling class that we signed him up for. I figured he’d like it since he loves to climb on everything. There were only two other little girls in his class. I think they might be a little older than him (like around 2). The instructor, Peggy, was very nice and enthusiastic. She showed us several things to do with our kids and then kinda let the kids have free reign to play on whichever station the kids wanted. We had Lucas swing from the bars (he really just held them while I swung him), crawl over mats, jump in the foam pit, and his very most favorite – the trampoline. It was really fun for all three of us to get out of the house and it’s a great way for Lucas to be around other kids and do new things. The lesson was 45 minutes long. By the time it was over, I was exhausted and Lucas passed out in the car on the ride home. I think he had a great time!

This weekend Paul, Lucas, and I went to the Love the Lake Festival in downtown Acworth. It was a mini-craft fair that they held by the lake to celebrate the city of Acworth being 150 years old. It was a gorgeous day – not too hot, sunny, slight breeze. First we walked along all the little tents of people selling their crafted goods. I showed enormous constraint by not wasting money on more perfumes and lotions that they were selling since I already own a ton. I ran into my co-leader for Girl Scouts and her daughters at the festival, too. We saw a bird show with parrots and a marionette show. Then we took Lucas over to the playground. I tried to take him one of those big, inflatable bounce houses, but he as scared of it. Instead he had immense fun climbing back and forth over a wooden board that separated the playground area from the grass. He got the hang of stepping down so he just went back and forth over the board while I swung on the swing set.

Wildkittn3 (5:51:36 PM): http://www.nationaldriverstest.com
Wildkittn3 (5:51:39 PM): see if you can pass that
Wildkittn3 (5:51:43 PM): i almost failed
ModernHecate (6:00:33 PM): i only missed two
Wildkittn3 (6:00:45 PM): damn, i just suck 😛
ModernHecate (6:01:40 PM): im never riding with you again

so tonight i made an awesome italian frittata. i hadnt ever made one before, so i wasnt too sure how it would come out, but since i guess in a way it is essentially a breakfast item it is covered automatically in my repertoire. i had half a plate of leftovers from the other night when i made the chicken and veggies dish, so i chopped up the chicken into chunks and threw it, plus eggplant, squash, red and green peppers, onions, and tomato in. then for the heck of it i threw in a half cup of cranberries to add a little sweet to all that salty. for the egg mixture i used 6 eggs, 3 tbl milk, 1/4c shredded cheddar, and 6oz of cottage cheese, and finally topped with another 1/4 of cheddar cheese. it was quite tasty and it made enough for like 5 servings so ill get to eat all the rest of the week.

today starts week 2 of the Biggest Loser competition. mom and i both lost 3 lbs last week, so we are tied still. i guess i really need to up my game if i’m going to beat her! according to my site, i will reach my goal weight sometime btwn jan -mar of next year. oi thats a long time! hopefully Vlad Tepes and his castle on a mountain knock off a couple of pounds (assuming i can even make it to the top!) yall should start making bets on how far up the mountain i make it.

anyhow its bedtime, night night

wow i haven’t blogged in a month! bad ally, bad ally *bangs head against the wall*

so here is what is up in reverse chronological order:

mom and i are having our own Biggest Loser contest (even tho i told mom i already knew she was the biggest loser. te he, j/k) where we have until sept 21st to be the one to lose the most weight and win the big pot o’ money. the rules aren’t finalized yet (despite this being day 5) but basically we start by each putting $20 in the pot, and then $5 every week. we have penalty fees as well: $5 each time we eat out somewhere (with one freebie), $1 for not losing weight that week, $1 per pound gained, etc. we are going to have weekly winners, but we haven’t figured out yet how to determine what the winner gets at the end of the week.

so i’ve been doing really kickass on it so far. i signed up for myfooddiary.com where i input what i eat and what exercise and it tracks my nutrition and yells at me when i eat badly. i’ve also been exercising every day. i am *totally* going to win this contest. i need the money for europe! it’s amazing how getting money is the most motivating weight loss program i’ve come across. my short term goal is to lose 20lbs during the contest, and to keep up the lifestyle to lose 60lbs!!! i think i’ve already lost two and i’m only on day 5.

in relation to the trying to lose weight, i’m back on the sugar busters way of eating (the one where paul lost 60lbs) which means i’m having to eat all kinds of different stuff. our fridge is packed (and for once not with leftovers rotting in the back)! plus i’m eating such a variety of foods i haven’t even gotten too bored of eating and wanted to eat out. i’m even attempting to cook dinner as we speak! the other day i made tacos and they were super yummy, but i already knew how to make tacos so no problems there. then today i tried to make lima beans from like the dried bag kind. it came out a nasty bean-paste looking glob. and aren’t lima beans supposed to be green? cuz mine weren’t. no idea what i did wrong – i did exactly as instructed per the package. oh wells. so then tonight i’m making chicken and sauteed veggies, only the veggies are squash and eggplant – two veggies i’ve never cooked before. i’ve never really even eaten an eggplant. it smelled kinda like a cucumber. i’ll see how it comes out. i put the cut veggies (randomly cut into cubes) in a pan and sprinkled on italian seasoning and lemon juice (lemon juice lowers the glycemic index of a meal). i baked the chicken with peppers, onions, and seasoned salt wrapped up in aluminum foil like i learned from jenn. then i made some sweet potato fries to go with it all.

updated: next time i’ll put lemon juice on the chicken as well and really douse it in the seasoned salt because it didn’t seem to have much flavor when it was done, but once again it was super juicy well cooked. i was able to add the salt and lemon juice to it post-baking and so it tastes pretty good. the veggies came out as well, altho next time i’ll use the salt instead of the italian herbs. i love the squash, but not sure how i feel about the eggplant just yet.

aside from dieting, my week has consisted of small amounts of work getting into the Girl Scout year, watching Harry Potter movies (i’m currently reading the books for the first time), and working on my scrapbook from 5 years ago – specifically Italy at the moment. I want to get my old europe book done before i go back again.

i had to go to the doctor on weds to meet with a General Surgeon at Kennestone about my gallbladder. I need to have it removed because it has a large gallstone in it. if i don’t get it taken care of, it can become gangrened and necrofy – awesome. next wednesday i have to get an MRI of my abdomen so they can get a good view of my guts. then paul and i both get to have surgeries the same week in august. all this medical stuff is seriously taking a toll on our pocketbook.

Yay lucas took a nap! We didn’t make it to lunch until 3pm because lucas finally took a nice long one. I got to eat at the crepe place and had 3 yummy crepes. Luckily it was so late for lunch that we wree the only ones there, because lucas decided to be a terror. They brought him a balloon, which he liked, but tried to eat and I thought it was going to pop in his face. Then they brought him these 4 tiny squishy balls that he had fun with until he started throwing them around and expecting us to keep picking them up. Finally mom took him to the playground they had in the shopping center while I paid. He wasn’t a fan of the playground. We tried out the swings, the slide, and this multi-level platform for climbing on, but he didn’t care for any of it…he just liked running around the plaza part.

I went in a souvineer shop and found baby sized Hilton Head tshirts. I had left my wallet outside in the stroller and handed it off to mom asking her to hold it a sec while I went out to get my wallet. Apparently the shop owner decided I was trying to steal the shirt for some reason because when I came back in and took it to the register she wasn’t at all courteous and as we walked on mom said she was following me around like I was going to steal it. I hadn’t even noticed her and thought it was weird that she would think I would steal a baby shirt after I had gone to the trouble to *not* take it out of the store.

I’m supposed to be getting ready for the pool right now, but im lounging like a bum instead. I’m soo ready to go home; I’m burned and fed up with babysitting.

We just got back from the pool. He wasn’t fond of the ocean, hated the playground, and LOVED the pool. He had sooo much fun “swimming.” He wouldn’t stay in the awesome raft thing he got for his birthday, he just wanted to be held by mommy and have mommy swirl him around. When it was time to go and we pulled him out of the water he threw a full on screaming tantrum because he didn’t want to get out. Guess we’ll start making trips to the pool when we get home.

This morning we got up at 7am and got ready for a walk on the beach. This time I thought I’d be prepared by wearing a swimsuit with tshirt over it rather than my full clothes like yesterday. Unfortunately I didn’t have a tshirt, so I had to run in and grab one from the Piggly Wiggly. Soo I have a tshirt with a pig ass on it, yay. Mom gave me a really hard time about wearing it, but it ended up being hot on the beach so I actually just wore my swimsuit (glad I wore it this time!).

We got to the beach at 9am so it wasn’t all super bright and sunny and crazy hot. We pushed lucas in his stroller awhile and then let him get down and run around. He was a little more accepting of the ocean this time. I figured out he gets upset when his feet sink in the sand and the water current sucks at his feet as it recedes…for someone not super steady on solid ground, I can see how this could be unnerving. But if we held him up he had fun getting his feet splashed in it. Then we saw another family where the baby was sitting in a tiny tide pool and so I gave that a go. He was much happier just sitting and splashing in the water with me sitting with him. He started taking globs of the wet sand and smearing it around on my legs with his hands. Free mud bath and exfoliation. On the walk back he even voluntarily ran towards the edge of the water a little.

I once again hadn’t worn sunscreen because mom said there wouldn’t be any real sun that early and she kept flipping out about how late it was getting and we had to get leaving and get down there. Voila, I have a sunburn. She was right tho, the sun wasn’t direct yet, so it is hopefully a pretty light burn (we’ll see tonight once it has had time to ripen.) lucas was also not wearing sunscreen this time and when we got back and I pulled off his shirt I noticed he has a bit of a farmer’s tan. He also apparently (thankfully, luckily) inherited paul’s skin, meaning that even though this is his first real exposure to the sun, he came home with a sun *tan* instead of a sun *burn*. If there was ever any doubt to his whiteness level, you should see him standing next to me in the bright sun. even paper isn’t as white as I am.

Other tidbits: we saw two big, dead horseshoe crabs washed up on the beach and a squid; we also found a still alive sea star and I rescued it and put it back in the ocean. Lucas was all exhausted by the time we hauled him back to the car, but of course now he is all up and awake and crying rather than napping. He hasn’t really taken a nap this whole trip.

For lunch I think we are going to go over to shelter cove (a shopping plaza) and maybe walk around a bit and then this afternoon it’s time for the POOL.

So we never made it to the beach oops i meant pool. after Lucas’s pretty much nonexistent (like 30 mins?) nap, we went to walmart to get some much needed supplies (baby food, baby beach shoes, hair dryer thingy for mom). Then we asked at the information desk about places to eat for dinner. I’m pretty sure the restaurants pay the lady to hand out their particular fliers, because IMO none of them were good recommendations. The first one we went to called Remy’s “bar and grill” was actually in two separate buildings…one was a bar only, and the other was a two room buffet with no AC. We walked out of that one and went to the second one…a fancy place booked at least a day in advance and $25 dishes. Mom wasn’t interested in the bar and grill (that looked like an actual bar and grill unlike the first place) right next to it. By then I was starving, had been loading lucas in and out of the car over and over and carrying him around, and very very grumpy. We ended up going to the diner which is exactly like the Marietta diner. We only even really got to stay for half the meal because lucas got grumpy and started throwing things and screaming (including throwing his empty bottle across the table to land perfectly upside down in my little honey mustard cup). By the time we got home it was already 830pm. At 9 they had fireworks over the lagoon right behind the beach house, so I kept him up to see his first fireworks. The first few bangs sent him crying and clinging to me, but when mom held him while we watched, he seemed interested. Tomorrow we are going to get up early and go to the beach fo’ reals and then the pool in the afternoon.