Don't be rash!

We had a weekend of sickness around here. Not terrible but enough to be annoying (the sickness not The Son) I picked my sweet boy up from school on Friday at 3:30 and he instantly began crying. He hadn't complained to me at all that morning and hadn't complained to his teachers so I was very surprised. He felt so terrible that he couldn't walk back to the locker room with me to gather up my stuff and then he couldn't walk to the car and then he couldn't walk into the house when he got home. I made him of course because he's too heavy to carry all that way and it wasn't like he was being asked to walk miles, just a few feet...anyway...

We got into the house and he wasn't looking well. He wanted me to hold him so we sat down and began to watch "America's Next Top Model" that was recorded on the DVR. The Son LOVES ANTM! I usually preview it first to make sure it's appropriate or I fast forward through parts that might have less than savory language. All in all, it usually turns out to be OK. At the first commercial, I had to rescue The Ziggy from his kennel, he was crying and knew we were home. I put The Son on the couch and went down to get Zig. By the time I got back upstairs, The Son was sound asleep. Ziggy was very concerned and tended to him in such a sweet way. He kept nudging him with his snout and looking at me with very sad puppy dog eyes. He snuggled up next to The Son and rested next to him, even thouh he had been in his kennel for hours and probably really just wanted to play. He knew Brother was sick.

About an hour later, The Son woke up and started spitting up. It wasn't terrible but was enough that I was getting concerned. He managed to hit Ziggy's head on the first spit-up and then, concerned mother that I am, I started yelling for him to get off the carpet and spit up on the hard wood floors. I managed to get him off my carpet and wrangled him into the powder room. He was not looking good. The Son had dark circles under his eyes and was pale as a ghost.

I proceeded to look for our thermometer that I know I had in my hands last week and could. Not. Find. It. Must be those leprechauns again. I knew he had a fever but wanted to know how high it was. The Husband was teaching his Ethics Seminar at Villanova so I called him and asked him to pick up a thermometer on the way home. The Son wanted to take a bath and play in the big tub so we got him all ready to do that but the poor child had no energy and try as he might to play, he just kind of laid there in the water. It was so sad and rather pathetic. Poor kid.

I got him back out of the tub, got some comfy jammies on and took him to bed. He wanted me to read to him but was tired after one chapter of "Horrible Harry" and wanted me to hold him so he could sleep. I wasn't going to pass up that chance, so we laid in bed and waited until The Husband got home. We took his temperature and it was 100.8 under the arm so I'm guessing he was probably about 102. Not terrible at all. We gave him some more Tylenol and he finally fell asleep.

3AM... I hear him waking up and ran out in the hallway to meet him... scared the kid half to death. He had to spit up again but managed to make it to the bathroom and then went right back to bed. He woke up in the morning and seemed much, much better. Still tired and not quite himself but he had a pretty good day hanging out and playing with Daddy.

The next day, Sunday, I was sure he'd be fine until he woke up and we noticed... THE RASH!
The Son was bright pink on his face and had a speckled reddish rash all over his body. Fifth Disease! I was sure. I went on line and consulted my favorite doctor, Dr. Google, who confirmed my suspicions. All his symptoms were those of Fifth Disease. A viral infection that we had been treating appropriately. He was no longer contagious, blah, blah, blah... I decided I should still call the doctor just in case so I managed to get in touch with someone at CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) which is who his ped. is affiliated with and who answers weekend "emergency questions." The nurse asked me all kinds of things and then told me he had a "viral rash" but not Fifth Disease. I'm still very confused as Fifth Disease IS in fact, a viral rash and all of his symptoms match that of Fifth Disease. She said he could even go to school today if he was feeling better and the rash was "covered by clothes". I guess he didn't have Fifth Disease but whatever it was, it was EXACTLY the same as the Internet describes Fifth Disease... whatever...

I woke up this morning for work and went to check on The Son, he was still looking pink and rashy and so I decided that I would not take him to school. I called out from work which I have not done at all this year but The Husband was going to head in to work early so that he could be home for me to go teach swimming this evening. It's nearly impossible to get a sub at such late notice. We went back to sleep for a while and when we were woken up by The Son, I noticed that there was NO. RASH. None. At all. "Great news." I thought! He's going to school! I know I could see someone who will think it's weird that I called out and then managed to bring the child to school anyway but he wants to go, CHOP said he could go and this Momma needs her work out! We're skipping his swim lesson just so that he doesn't get over tired before his regular class.

The day is going to resume as a normal day and I am so pleased to get back into the swing of things. Thanks for reading this far if you managed to do that. I had to tell the whole story, I just can't stop myself! Have a good Monday everyone!

Living Healthy, Living Well...

Adventures in Healthy Living
with CityMomma/CountryMomma

It's Friday again, I'll be blogging about my weight loss/healthy journey today as I have been every Friday for a few weeks now. I'm not going to link up to those posts but if you're interested in reading them, they all have the label "Healthy Momma" and are always posted on Friday. (there might be a Saturday one in there too come to think of it...)

So, great news again this week! I lost another 2.2 pounds. That brings me to a grand total of 26.6 and helps me hit my first major goal of 25 pounds lost! Funny enough, Miss Phyllis my "weight loss lady" told me that I've worked really hard and I replied that it didn't feel like that at all. I mean that in a good way of course, not a bad way. It's become a way of life for me and I'm finding it easier than ever to stick to this plan of eating healthy and working out. I know that my working out is a big reason why I'm losing and I love it so much now that I couldn't imagine it not being a big part of my life. I am truly converted!

That brings me to my main topic for today... dining out and ordering in. When The Husband and I lived in The City, we had access to just about any kind of food we wanted and we wanted it all! We would order Fried Chicken, Mac and Cheese and Jambalaya from Jones a fantastic local restaurant. We became experts on where to find the best Philly Cheesesteaks... a quick search on the Internet and I can't find our old favorite, I wonder if they went out of business since we moved? We could walk to literally hundreds of delicious restaurants and bars and we frequently dined out. The Son has been to some of the best restaurants in Philly and was dining out in top notch places since he was an infant.

Now we live in The Country, there are not that many restaurants here and we certainly can't walk to any of them. The only place that delivers is Domino's Pizza which I never would have ordered in The City but certainly ordered with frequency once we moved here. Last night, The Husband and I were feeling lazy. I was craving pizza and longed for the days when we would order a pizza, sandwich, breadsticks and wings but realized that I no longer eat that way. I decided to check out the Domino's website because they do have a clever way of ordering on line and then I found it... the cal-o-meter! It turns out that you can check the calories of your meal before you even order. I was thrilled! I played around with the pizzas and found that you can order a thin crust pizza with ham, olives and mushrooms and the calories (while certainly not low) are WAY better than the sausage and pepperoni hand-tossed pizza we would have ordered before. We decided to order! I knew I had plenty of calories left so that I could even have a couple buffalo wings and even a glass (ok, two glasses) of wine. It was like a party! I will not be ordering out again any time soon but was proud of the choices/changes I made and certainly satisified at the end of my meal. I don't get weighed again until next Thursday and I've been eating very well so I don't think this will even make a dent in my plan.

Did you realize that lots of restaurants have similar calorie counters right on there websites? Saladworks has a really cool one where you can build your salad. Go try it out and check out how much fat and calories that dressing adds... it's shocking! Most restaurants, certainly all the chain restaurants, have their menus on line now too so if I'm going to go out to eat, I take a look before I go and decide on some healthier options for what I'm going to have. I find myself ordering chicken fajitas a lot and I also enjoy a small filet mignon with a plain baked potato now and again. It's not that difficult to find healthy but also enjoyable choices when dining out or ordering in. Don't forget to ask your server to hold any extra butter that might be on sides of veggies or even on top of your "healthy" steak that you order. It will save you lots of calories and fat in the end. Lastly, another thing I like to think of is something that Miss Phyllis has told us. If 9/10 of your meals are "on target" with your calories than it won't make a difference what you eat for that 10th meal. Of course that means you have to eat 9 healthy, good meals before you can have that 10th "splurge" and that you have to get right back on the wagon again after a "splurge" but it's a good thing to keep in mind.

If you stayed with me this long, thanks! I know this is a very long post. I've never been one for brevity! ha ha! I'm off to pack up my bags for they gym and I must get The Son ready for school. I am supposed to be going to a "Twilight" movie party tonight. The Husband is teaching an Ethics Seminar at Villanova and I'm really hoping he makes it home in time for me to go. Have a great Friday everyone.

The slide...

I should start this post off by mentioning that our YMCA pool has a slide at the deep end, a big red twisty, curvy slide that's LOTS of fun to go down. Even for 39 year old women who teach swimming. I reward my swim students at the end of each lesson by allowing them to go down The Slide, they always look forward to it and it motivates them to do a good job in swimming.
It's a big thing when a child goes down The Slide for the first time.

So, we had another "incident" at the YMCA pool last night although this one was much more pleasant than last week's "incident". The Son had his swim lesson and did a fantastic job... of course, I read him the riot act before he had it and told him that if things didn't go better, he wouldn't be swimming any more for a long time. He knows I mean business because I remind him of the one or two times that I actually had to follow through with a "terrible" punishment (Like never visiting the Please Touch Museum again... and we haven't) and it jars his memory. Works like a charm. After his lesson he played for a while, never venturing in to the teacher room again either, I also think he learned his lesson with that. After all the lessons were over, the other swim instructors and I got into the hot tub to warm up. Staying in a pool for 2.5 hours tends to make you cold, even if it is a heated pool. The Son was swimming with his friends, doing cannonballs in the deeper end and having a great time. I took my eyes off of him for maybe two minutes to answer a question my boss asked me. (Let me remind you that there are lifeguards and lots of adults around at all times...he wasn't unsupervised.) Next thing I know, he comes walking over to me and we had the following conversation:

The Son: Momma! I went down the slide!

Me: Oh Wow! That's gre..., huh? The Slide? You can't go down The Slide you have to pass The Test!

The Son: Well, I did and it was really fun. I'm going to go do it again. (and he starts to walk back toward The Slide.)

Me: Wait a minute! You have to take The Test... do you want to take The Test now?

The Son: Sure! Let's do it. What do I have to do?

Me: Well, you have to swim the entire length of the pool and then tread water for two minutes.

The Son: Ok! What's treading water?

Me: (silence, staring at him)... Let me show you.

So, I got out of the hot tub (yes that whole conversation took place with me in the hot tub) we proceeded to walk over to the deep end where a lane line was set up. I got in the pool and showed him how to tread water. He got in and tried it too, not quite getting the concept that you couldn't grab onto Momma when you started getting tired. I asked him again if he wanted to take The Test and he said he did so I asked one of the lifeguards if he could do it for her. My little five-year-old who last week refused to swim for his swim teacher, swam the entire length of the pool and treaded (tread?) water for two minutes! He had to do some floating on his back in between but he did it and I was so proud of him! He passed THE TEST! He celebrated by going down The Slide a couple more times and I even joined him... it was fun!

My boss mentioned that he should probably only go down a few times a night especially after having a swim lesson and spending all that time playing in the pool because he'd be getting more and more tired as the night went on, but he was totally OK with that and is very proud of himself that he can now go down the slide with some of his "older" friends. He's definitely the kind of kid who will work hard for something when he wants it. I haven't quite figured out if that's always a good thing though considering he doesn't really work hard if he doesn't want something... the jury's still out on that one...

Have a great day everyone! Take time to enjoy "The Slides" in life.

Remember those leprechauns?

Remember those leprechauns that came to my house on St. Patrick's Day and played all those naughty and mischievous tricks on us? Well, I think they came back, only this time they took The Son's immunization record that I just got yesterday.

The Son had his 5 year old check up yesterday morning and the poor kid had to get four vaccinations! It was traumatic for all parties involved but We he got through it just fine. There was a little bit of crying and screaming about four shots all at once, but as soon as the nurse calmed me down, I was able to hold The Son on my lap and she was very quick in administering the vaccines. The Son cried a little bit too but was VERY good all in all. He's 41.3 inches tall and 41.6 pounds. He's in the 10th percentile for height but I sure wasn't surprised by that. I'm 5 foot 8 but The Husband is shorter than I am so we're not expecting The Son to be all that tall. Anyway, we finished up the appointment, they gave me the paper I need to enroll him in Kindergarten next week and sent us on our merry way.

The Son was VERY interested in why he was getting the vaccines and wanted full details on all of the diseases that would be prevented by them. The office gives us sheets of information about the diseases and he insisted that I read the entire sheet about each and every vaccine and we continued to discuss them throughout the day. Oddly enough he was familiar with the disease "lockjaw" and was pleased that his tetanus shot would be preventing that should he ever step on a rusty nail. Incidentallym we've now added "doctor" to his list of possible professions that he would like to be when he grows up. For the record, here's that list.

1. Paleontologist
2. Veterinarian
3. Ramine Biologist (that would be Marine Biologist to most of us)
4. President of the United States (He's already said Momma can live in the White House with him)
5. Doctor

Ok, back to the story...

We came home, The Son had his special treat of one mini Kit Kat bar and a bag of caramel rice cakes. Yes, rice cakes... The Son doesn't get much junk food and caramel rice cakes are definitely a treat for him. I decided to have a bowl of cereal and another cup of coffee so I got it all ready to take in the study to eat while I was on the computer facebooking and reading blogs. (Don't judge me, it's OK to eat in front of the computer if The Son is watching "Noggin") I brought the immunization record into the study with me to put it in the envelope with The Son's birth certificate, (the birth certificate that I had to send away for because I can't find the original right now.) At least I thought I brought it into the study with me, I guess I forgot about it because this morning I realized that it was now missing. It can't be in that many places, and I've searched them all but to no avail. That's why I'm convinced that those naughty leprechauns came back and took the paper. There's no other option. I honestly cannot figure out where the darn thing could be. Looks like I'll be making another trip back to the pediatrician again sometime before next week. Damn leprechauns...

Living Healthy, Living Well...

Adventures in Healthy Living
with CityMomma/CountryMomma

I'm getting there...slowly but surely. I lost another .8 pounds this week. That's pretty much a pound, right? My total is 24.4 and after losing almost 5 last week, I'm thrilled with the .8 this week. As long as the scale keeps going down, I'm motivated.

Last week in our class, we talked about personal slogans or mottos that help us to stay on track. Miss Phyllis asked us to come up with a our own motto and I thought of a couple. Last week I believe I mentioned the phrase, "small changes yield big results." I definitely keep that in the back of my mind on a week like this for instance when I didn't quite lose a pound. Our goal is to lose a pound a week but even losing just .8 pounds a week, at the end of the year, would equal over 40 pounds! That's the weight of The Son! That's a pretty big result.

I also think of the phrase, "nothing tastes as good as thin feels." I heard it years ago on one of my many different diets but it never really "took," now that I've changed my lifestyle, it's easier to keep that in mind. I know I still have a lot to lose but the fact that I'm feeling healthier than ever and stronger than ever really keeps me going. I don't even want all those "bad" foods that I used to eat out of nothing more than depression and boredom.

I also reached another milestone this week... no pun intended... I ran a full mile without stopping in less than 12 minutes! I know that's probably still considered pretty slow but it was something I honestly don't think I've ever achieved, not even in high school or college when I was thin. It was darn hard but I did it and I plan on trying 1.25 miles next. I still don't think I'll be able to run the entire 5K I want to do in May but there's no doubt that I'll complete it easily, that's for sure!

Well, I apologize for my rambling Friday post, I don't have much focus today, that's for sure. I've already been to the Y (800 calories burned + weights) and I'm taking The Son to school at 12:30. After that I'm going to come home and color my hair, (Momma may be getting healthy but she's still going grey!) and just have a little time to myself this afternoon. The Son and I might have a little Starbucks date after school today and The Husband is making his famous Healthy Shrimp Scampi with broccoli for dinner...yummy! Have a great Friday everyone and enjoy your weekend. Keep it healthy!

A little scare at the Y last night...

I teach swimming lessons at the YMCA on Wednesday nights. The Son and I have a routine where, I pick him up from school, have a quick snack with him, change him into his swimsuit and take him to Kids' Corner so that I can teach my lesson at 4. He comes to the pool at 5 and plays in the shallow end (roped off) until his lesson at 5:30 and then he swims again at 6:00. There are plenty of lifeguards and parents around and he's a good swimmer so I don't worry about that, I also check on him probably every 5 minutes or so as I am teaching because the way the pool is situated, it's easy to do that. Not to mention that my supervisor knows to look out for him too, we all watch out for each other's kids, it's one of the perks of working at the Y.

Last night, I couldn't find him. I realized that there was no way he was under the water because there were just too many kids/parents and supervision in general for that to be the case. Also, the water is about 2 feet deep and it just wasn't possible in that situation. So then I thought he went to the bathroom. The child refuses to go in the Women's locker room if I'm not with him and as the minutes passed and he didn't come out, I told one of my coworkers who was teaching another older class in the water near me. She sent one of her students into the Men's locker room to check for The Son. No son. OK, now I was starting to panic...really panic. It had been about 15 minutes since I last saw him... we finally realized that we hadn't checked the teacher/supply room and sent the older boy into that room. Sure enough, he was in there crying. He had gone in to see if he could fine "more toys" to play with and the door closed behind him and he couldn't open it. It's a heavy door. He was crying and crying and really scared. He told me that he had been in there for like "two hours, " poor little guy. Now, the thing is, he's not supposed to go in there without asking even though the children of other teachers do. He isn't really even supposed to have toys in the pool while I'm teaching so I don't even know what he was thinking. Sometimes being a "Y-brat" makes a boy too big for his britches or in this case, too big for his swimsuit. Anyway, he learned his lesson but never fully recovered and had a terrible swim lesson. Because of his bad swim lesson, he wasn't allowed to play after the lesson and he fell asleep on the floor of my supervisor's office. He got up too early and was just plain exhausted after such a busy day.

I managed to carry him up to the locker room where he slept on a bench while I showered and got changed and then I showered him up and got him into his PJs. He apologized for his naughty behavoir and said that, he was "disappointed in himself." and that he's going to do better next week...

that remains to be seen of course... I'll keep you posted.

Have a good Thursday everyone, we have another busy day today. Gymnastics, weight loss meeting/Kids' Corner, lunch at the Y and scrapbooking class... home to relax at 5! Thanks for stopping by!

Top O' the mornin' to ya!

Erin go bragh! Are you Irish? I've heard it said that today, everyone is. We definitely have some Irish in our family, The Husband's last name is VERY Irish, it's not O'Brien or anything like that but it's pretty common (from what I hear) in Ireland. My maiden name is Scot-Irish which is really Scottish, not Irish but I'm sure there's some Irish in there from someone in my family, I think it's pretty hard to grow up a "WASP" and not have any Irish ancestry, right? Anyway, we're wearing The Green and pretending we're 100% Irish today, just because we can!

The Son and I made a leprechaun trap yesterday and set it up so that we could catch a mischievous little guy should one try to infiltrate our home. Unfortunately, he got away and left a note for us that read, "Ha ha ha, Hee hee hee, you think you're clever that I can see. You might be clever but you can't catch ME! " He also made The Son's milk turn green as it poured into our green fiestaware bowl/mug. He tied a green ribbon on The Son's favorite "guy," turned all the dining room chairs around backwards, hung The Son's shoes on a decorative tree I have in the dining room, stacked all the living room cushions really high in the middle of the couch and collected a bunch of green toys and put them outside of The Son's room in silly positions. He wrapped his karate belt (green) around the banister upstairs and left a bunch of green hearts scattered them all around the floor.

Unfortunately, I wasn't home from work yet when The Son got up and I missed all the hilarity but he was excited to tell me all about it when I got home. :( (At least The Husband got to see it all, he misses too much.)

So for the rest of today, we're just hanging out, possibly going to the store to return a toy I bought on Sunday night, it's some silly "Bakugan" toy The Son has been wanting and it broke beyond repair three minutes after he started playing with it. We're picking out a new one to replace it and they WILL be refunding my money, that I can tell you for sure. The Son has karate class this evening and I still have to figure out what to make for dinner. Excitement galore around here today I tell ya...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

No excuses... and... Living Healthy, Living Well

I have been a Very Bad Blogger this week. Truth is, lots of stuff is going on in the CityFamily/CountryFamily household. Lots. Of. Stuff. Life changing stuff but... I can't tell you about any of it right now. (NO! I am NOT pregnant!) ha ha! It's also nothing bad or anything that should be worried about, at least not by any one other than us. Frankly, it's all pretty good stuff.

I started teaching a scrapbooking class on Thursdays now, it's fun but kind of a hard thing to teach to kindergartners and a first grader... they're good girls though and The Son comes with me and has been fairly well-behaved while I teach.

Tonight is "Tiki Night" at our YMCA, I'm not completely sure what that means but we're going and The Son is very excited. Should be a good time...

So, now on to my Living Healthy post that my friend Naomi so kindly reminded me wasn't here yesterday, I had some friends over last night and was consumed by thoughts of getting ready for that.

Adventures in Healthy Living with
City Momma/Country Momma

I had a fantastic week... I lost... are you ready... 4.8 pounds! My grand total thus far is 23.6 and I am VERY, VERY pleased! I actually thought I had a bad week this week but clearly, was wrong. I don't really know why I dropped so much in one week, perhaps it was changing up my work out routine? I used to do a half an hour to 45 mintues of cardio (depending on the day) and then do my weights, after my weights I would go back and do another half an hour of cardio on some other machine. At the suggestion of one of the trainers at the Y, I changed that second half an hour into 3 ten minute segments with four or five weight machines/free weight exercises in between. It turns out I burned a lot more calories and could really feel the difference in my heart rate as I was doing the weight machines. I'm incorporating this change into my work outs a couple times a week now. That brings me to my weight loss philosophy for the week. It's an "inspirational" quote I saw on the ever-changing sign outside of our YMCA... "Small changes yield big results." I started this healthy lifestyle a few months ago by making small changes in my diet, in my activity and in my thoughts and now, here I am, almost 25 pounds lighter, feeling stronger and more healthy every day. I am determined. I have made small changes that will stick with me for the rest of my life now and I never feel deprived. (well, almost never ;) when I do, I quickly get over it)

My suggestion for an easy small change that will help you to be healthier no matter who you are is, drink more water! That was the first thing we were asked to do in our weight loss program and it's definitely a small change that's helped with my "big" results!

Have a great weekend everyone... I'll try to be a better blogger this week.

A lazy post today...

It's Monday, after the time change and I had to go to work in the pitch black this morning. I do not enjoy that and was happy that it was finally sunny in the mornings. Then I found out that we have a new time for Daylight Savings time this year. Damn you Benjamin Franklin! Damn you and all your crazy "innovative" ideas.

Anyway, I decided to take the easy way out and post some answers to some questions that I asked my son for a "Facebook Note". Most of the answers are pretty funny, at least to me they are. I added my comments in red, which is something I did not do on Facebook.

Facebook interview with The Son (five years old)

1. What is something mommy always says to you? "I love you." true

2. What makes mommy happy? "Hugging and kissing." true

3. What makes mommy sad? "Biting you cause when I bited green and yellow was all over your bite." (Remember I mentioned he was naughty and bit me the other day leaving a bruise? Well, it's still discolored...that kid really did a number on me!)

4. What does your mommy do to make you laugh? "Tickle me". true

5. What did your mommy like as a child? "Watching girl shows on tv or on a video player." This one cracks me up considering we didn't really have many shows and especially didn't have a video player!

6. How old is your mommy? "39" yep

7. How tall is your mommy? "40 feet" Well...more like 68 inches but who's counting?

8. What is her favorite thing to do? "Hug me and kiss me and chase Ziggy a lot" HUH? I hate chasing Ziggy but I guess the hugging and kissing is true.

9. What does your mommy do when you're not around? "Work on the computer." Well, at least he realizes being so good at Word Challenge is work.

10. If your mommy becomes famous, what will it be for? "It would be for, running very fast." Clearly the child has never seen me "run."

11. What is your mommy really good at? "Hugging and kissing and talking to Ziggy." What? Talking to Ziggy? I don't even know what that is supposed to mean and again with the hugging and kissing?

12. What is your mommy not very good at? "Losing thirty pounds." This one cracked me up! I don't know why he thinks I'm not good at it considering I've lost almost 20 already AND I guess he doesn't realize I have WAY more than 30 more to go.

13. What does your mommy do for her job? "Work with Miss Elizabeth and Aiden comes too. Teaching your craft class and you're very good at teaching swimming." Aiden is a friend of his from camp last year.

14. What is your mommy's favorite food? "Salad" LMAO! NOT!

15. What makes you proud of your mommy? "Running a mile" Again, clearly the child has never seen me run, nor have I actually "run" an entire mile... got to 3/4 of a mile on Friday so I'm almost there though...

16. If your mommy were a cartoon character, who would it be? "May from Pokemon." Whatever... I wanted something better but the child is obsessed with Pokemon, I guess he could have said I was Tasha the hippo from Backyardigans so I should be pleased, May is kind of hot for an animae character.

17. What do you and your mommy do together? "Run errands and go shopping." We do lots of other things too but I guess he forgot about those.

18. How are you and your mommy the same? "Because we live in the same family." That's true, we do.

19. How are you and your mommy different? "Because we do different things--you work out at the gym and I don't." Funny! Do you see a trend here? I think I might be spending too much time at the gym.

20. How do you know your mommy loves you? "Because I was the best present of all and you love me so much, you care about me a lot." I LOVE this answer, I always tell him he was the best present I ever got, at least I know he listens sometimes.

21. Where is your mommy's favorite place to go? "Dutch Wonderland." ha ha ha ha! I think DW might be HIS favorite place to go, it's certainly not mine!

Have a great Monday everyone, it's going to be a busy day for me as usual!

Living Healthy, Living Well...

Adventures in Healthy Living with
City Momma/Country Momma

I had a busy day and I am tired. I took The Son to preschool, had a nice long work out and then took the dog for a mile or so walk right after I got home, couldn't pass up this beautiful weather. Pheeewwww... I need to sit and rest.

I don't really have a great post planned for today, I'll come up with a better Living Healthy one for the weekend but I did want to update and say that I lost 2.8 pounds this week! That brings my grand total to 18.8. Lots more to go but still, great progress. I'll update my running totals for the week soon.

Have a great Friday evening everyone and a great weekend!

Writer's Workshop...

Thursday again... time for our friend Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop. I was thrilled this week when I saw that she had "write a limerick" as one of her prompts... and then I tried to do it, not quite as easy as I remember it being.

My life these days isn't all that exciting and besides work and taking care of The Son, the only thing I do pretty much is work out so I wrote my limerick about my experience yesterday... enjoy!

There once was a Momma from PA
who wanted to run a 5K,
She found life sublime, she decreased her time!
But found it difficult to walk the next day.

Have a great Thursday everyone...it's a busy day for us, The Son has gymnastics, I have my weight loss meeting and I'm teaching a new class for the Y at a local charter school, Scrapbooking and Stamping... four little girls are enrolled, should be fun!

Vocabulary...it's amazing!

Sorry that I've been such a blogslacker lately. I don't really know why I am. I have some cute pictures that I could post but they're still on my camera and these days uploading to the computer is taking For-ever. I don't know why, it just is.

So, in the spirit of being slightly grumpy... I thought today I'd blog about something that irritates me a little bit. Reality TV and the people on it. I will state for the record that I did not watch "The Bachelor" except for the "FINAL ROSE!" episode last night... really I wanted to see what "THE MOST SHOCKING AFTER THE ROSE CEREMONY EVER" was about and frankly, I was disappointed because Mama Kat predicted* (or was it another blogger SHE reads who predicted) exactly what was going to happen. Anywho...

In the short time it took me to fast forward through the episode, pausing very briefly to see each "contestant" meet "The Bachelor's" family, I think I heard the word "amazing" fifteen times. Reality TV has ruined the word "amazing."

Amazing- So remarkable as to elicit disbelief

Why oh why is everything on reality TV "amazing?" Have people become so complacent that they can't think of words to use other than "amazing?"

"That dinner was amazing",

"That song choice was amazing, it really suits your voice."

"I'm in love with two girls, they're both so amazing.",

"He lost 13 pounds in one week, it's amazing."

Come. On. So, as a public service to all those reality TV wannabees and contestants alike, I am going to give some alternate words to the word amazing. Use of these words will make the viewing of reality TV a bit more enjoyable for so many of us because everything does not have to be called "amazing."

Here you go: astonishing, astounding, fantastic, fantastical, incredible, marvelous, miraculous, phenomenal, prodigious, stupendous, unbelievable, (take caution when using "unbelieveable" as this one is often abused as well) wonderful, wondrous.

See, let's try them out to see how they sound...

"That dinner was fantastic"

"That song choice was incredible, it really suits your voice."

"I'm in love with two girls, they're both so stupendous.",

"He lost 13 pounds in one week, it's wondrous."

What do you think? Personally, I like it. Variety, we need it. English is a language with an unbelieveable amount of words, some might say it's amazing that we don't use more of them more frequently. I know I would. So to all you reality contestants out there and in fact to the average person out there who will never aspire to be on TV, please, expand your vocabulary, stop using the words "amazing" and "unbeliveable" quite so frequently and try out some of my suggested alternatives, you might find it fun and others will be amazed by your prowess with the English language. They might even call YOU... amazing!

(*that link BTW, is last week's "Bachelor" post by Mama Kat, as far as I know, she'll be doing another one today)