*dusts off blog*

Hellooooo!

Long time, no see; hope you all are doing well!

I took a little blog-break, not intentional, just one of those things where I kept putting it off and putting it off and then life got really busy.... and I've had a hard time getting back aboard. I will be making blog rounds this week and getting caught up on everything I may have missed in my absence!

I think the biggest (personal) news in the past few months has been my continued weight loss... I am very proud to say that my 8 year fat phase if officially OVER!!!

As of this week (exactly one year from the start) I am down 58 pounds and have 10-20 to go until I reach my goal. I have dropped about 6 sizes and thoroughly LOVE my new wardrobe!!!! I can't even express how completely awesome that was! As the weight's been coming off my energy has gone up (shocker, I know) and my work-outs have gradually increased. I'm now working out 5 days a week starting with 100 crunches then running for 20min which usually works out to be around 3 miles. Three days a week I add my homemaker's weight training circuit(chair dunks, and costco sized apple juice weights). I know it's not a lot, but for my body it's perfect and making a big difference!

Overall, weight loss has been easy. It's just so damn SLOW! I've been hitting 4-6wk plateaus every 10 lbs which is frustrating but clockwork and it's teaching me patience. The cool thing about the plateaus is that even though I'm not dropping weight, this is when I am losing the inches!

I've also FINALLY figured out why I got fat in the first place. Not HOW, I know HOW. I needed to figure out WHY I allowed myself to do it. REBELLION. Pure and simple. *Snort!* SO glad that's OVER!

The Sex Talk

As a person who does not censor well, I find myself stumbling every time Thing1 (6yo) starts discussing sex, which happens at greater and greater frequency. That fine line between answering honestly and sharing too much is invisible to me. Then comes in the part where I think in visuals...

At Kindergarten this month they have been studying frogs. I have been getting many questions about why frogs grow babies in eggs and yet I grow them in my belly, and HOW did they get in there? We've had the HOW discussion before, sorta. She's seen those illustrated graphics of the female reproductive system: Ovary... fallopian tube... decent of the ovum, fertilized, implanted and baby grows! And we have gone over the male reproductive system...

BUT HOW???

A special hug... ? *hopeful grin*

"Mooooommmmm."

So I Googled frog mating and decided to focus there. What I learned is that I am not the first mother to have fielded this question! I also learned that perhaps I should STOP going for visuals as it's only going to get me into trouble...

And this video is perhaps one of the greatest masturbation talks... of ALL TIME. (Weeds) Embedding disabled.

To Hell In A Handbasket !

Newt Gingrich has always scared me. Now even more so...

"I have two grandchildren — Maggie is 11, Robert is 9," Gingrich said at Cornerstone Church here. "I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they're my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American." (emphasis mine)
Politico


*blink*

...And, let me be clear, by "scared" I mean because so many Americans buy into his brand of ignorant spew.

Star Wars cliff notes....

....for dummies by dummies....

A Techno-step Forward.... however small....

I am the new owner of a tablet pc! It's a hand-me-down from my dad. I've spent much of the last two days figuring out how to use it, setting up a network, trying to sync it up with my desktop (failure), and re-learning how to type... using a combo of thumbs and stylus pen. I'm starting to understand the lure of txtspk.

Bloody hell! I can't believe some of you blog this way! It's torture not having full typing speed! And on smart phones with an even smaller screen???

Keep in mind, I'm not technologically behind by preference. This came with the pay cut I took when I accepted the SAHM gig... I've been technologically frozen for almost 7 years now!

Spring Feast!

Today is the DC family's Spring Feast! My atheist twist on Easter. There's much more to this story that I will save for another time.

On tonight's menu...

Baked Ham
Potato salad (grandmother's 100+yo recipe)
Spinach
Baby green beans
Deviled Eggs
and a Lemon Cream Pie for dessert (another of my grandmother's 100+yo recipes).

*Cheers* To Spring, Spring Break, and Homemade YUMMINESS!!! Lemon Cream Pie, your hours are numbered, my friend...

Spring

I don't really DO Spring. I'm not a Spring kinda girl. Because of this, I've been stuck in my Val-Day blog decor due to not finding a spring design which felt right. I kept re-working my ideas... but BLAH. So, this is the first time I am choosing a pre-designed blog background. Spring, but not the usual.

Speaking of Spring, the season of my discontent... it was sprung upon me, last evening, that THIS WEEK is Spring Break. *blink* Oh, wow, that was fast! Good to know! Didn't we just have Winter Break??? I guess we should make some plans...