Because I'm A Bad Friend

Several days ago, Damselfly bestowed the "Nice Matters" award upon me. I ever so dutifully posted the graphic in my sidebar, and completely let the honor go unacknowledged.

(Damselfly, why on earth do you put up with me?? I don't acknowledge your awards, it takes me forever to return things that you loan me, and I barge in on you at your house without even calling first. I don't deserve you!!)

So thank you, dear Damselfly, for thinking of me in regards to this award. Now, it's my turn to pass it on!


Let's see. I'm going to give the award to:

1. Horseymama at A Day in the Life of a Stay At Home Mom because she's another real-life friend of mine, and well, she's nice. Very generous and helpful! Also a person that I know will actually pray for me when she says she will.

2. Mamabear June at the Path to Health, because she always leaves such encouraging comments when I post regarding the weight-loss challenge I am participating in.

3. Anne/kq at Life in the Ketchup Bottle. I've never met her, but I can tell by her writing that she must be a very nice person indeed.



Isn't it nice to get an award for being nice? That doesn't happen often. LOL!

First Baseball Game (plus weekly weigh-in.)

Hi! If you're here from Tales From the Scales, scroll down a bit for my weigh-in post.

Lance got to enjoy his first baseball game last night!! Hubby was able to score some AWESOME seats down on the field right next to the bull pen for the Cubs-Marlins game. (He got them through work somehow. Either from a client of theirs, or someone they are a client of-- I dunno. I get them all mixed up. I think Hubby's company buys software from the company that gave us the tickets, making Hubby's office the client??? Make sense to anyone?)

Anyhoo. It made for a great night out of the house, and Lance had SO MUCH fun!! One of the Marlins players (Miller,) who was hanging out in the bull pen gave a baseball to Lance! Isn't that sweet? We were hoping to get a photo of Lance with Miller, but there was a big sign on the fence between our little area and the bull pen that said "Do Not Disturb the Players During the Game." So we honored that, and just smiled a thank-you to him.

This little area where we were sitting is a pretty fancy-shmancy area. You didn't have to go out to the concession stands because they made hot dogs and chicken fingers right in there for us, and there was someone to serve us drinks. PLUS there were THREE hot-tubs in this area. No one was using them, so we let Lance splash around a bit. He had such a great time! (And got soaked. And got me soaked. And got Hubby soaked.)

Do any of you find an unfair ratio of pictures of your child with their father to pictures of your child with YOU? I'd say ours is about 5 to 1. TONS of pictures of Lance with Hubby, and only a handful of them with me. When he grows up, he'll think I wasn't around. I'll just have to remind him that yes, in fact, I was there because I was the one who shot the picture. LOL!

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Well, it's time for a new challenge. Last week I reported an 8-pound weight loss for the duration of the May Day Weight Loss Challenge sponsored by the ladies at Tales From the Scales. Well, this week we begin a new challenge! The Look Great in 2008! Challenge.

My starting weight for this challenge was 149.8.

This morning, I weighed in at 148.2. Hooray!

Total loss for the week? 1.6 pounds. Not bad at all!!!

Family Mission Statement

I belong to a bible study group composed of moms. We have a very descriptive (albeit not too creative) name for the group:

Tuesday Morning Moms.

I just adore it! Anyhoo, we've just started a new book called Mom PhD and the first chapter compares the running of a home to the running of a business. Many businesses have vision/mission statements, so the author challenges us to come up with a mission statement for our family. This is what I came up with.

Honoring God, Loving Each Other, Caring for the World.

Very broad, I know, and can mean a lot of different things, but when I think about what I want my family to be like and how it will function, I think that's the way it should be. Honor God and His commandments. Love each other. Care for the needs in the world. That also goes along with what our pastor is currently preaching on. She is encouraging us to have a "ministry in the church and a mission in the world."

Yesterday I wrote about how my band played at a local homeless shelter. Well, I'm hoping to begin volunteering there or doing something to help meet that need. There are needs in this world everywhere we look. While it's wonderful for church people to take care of each other, it's so easy to forget that there are people outside our church doors yet in our backyard that need our care.

I hope I can raise a family who will honor God, care for each other, and care for the needs of the world.

What can you do to take care of a need? Maybe you can bake some cookies to take to YOUR local homeless shelter. Do you know anyone who has family in the military overseas? Send a care package. Donate some school uniforms to a school in a low-income area, or volunteer a couple hours a week to do some tutoring.

I've been thinking about things like this all week. What are the two most important commandments? "Love Your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself."

I hope that my "family mission statement" will stir the members of my family to be able to do just what it says:

Honoring God, Loving Each Other, and Caring For the World.

Beware the Babysitter!

This is what happens when you leave your little boy in the care of your friends who have two daughters.

"Mommy, I don't think this blue dress matches my grey and green baseball shirt. Can you please ask my babysitter if she has it in a different color?"

This is also what happens when you leave your baby in the care of your friends who have recently left the baby years, so they clearly miss the days of wrestling squirming, wriggling, infants into tiny little bitty clothes. They miss it so much they keep putting different costumes on your child.

Now that's more like it!


Tee hee hee. Poor Lance.

He spent several hours yesterday afternoon at the home of my friends C and K while Hubby and I were with our church band, playing at a local homeless shelter. We played outside for about two hours. It was quite the experience. I'm not sure if "shelter" is quite the right word for it, it was more like a halfway house. People have to go through an orientation program, and they are required to look for work and find it. As they get more and more on their feet, they "graduate" to nicer living areas.

I think the thing that most struck me was the children. When you think of homeless people, you don't often think of children. But there they were! It was really quite heartbreaking. While I know that God used our band to bring some joy and light into these people's lives, I think we all learned a thing or two as well.

Weight Loss Challenge: Final Results

Well, this is the last week of the May Day Weight Loss Challenge that I joined beginning in May. My goal was to lose 20 pounds. I didn't quite make it, but I have made significant progress toward that goal.

My starting weight was 157. This morning, I weighed in at 149 for a total loss of 8 pounds for this challenge, an average of a half pound a week. I was hoping to do better, but you know the saying, "Slow and steady wins the race." I found that I did better losing weight when I weighed myself more frequently. It allowed me to see the results of the previous day's eating/exercising. I discovered that you can ruin an entire week of healthy, good choices by indulging yourself on the weekend. I also discovered that I am less likely to lose weight in a given week if I drink soda, diet or otherwise.

I learned that "useful" calories are much more filling than an equal amount of "empty" calories. For example, a sandwich made with Pepperidge Farm Harvest 7-grain bread will keep me full for HOURS. The same sandwich on white or even "honey wheat" bread requires additional side items for the meal, and I'll be hungry again sooner. Not only do you feel full eating less food, your body will feel a satisfaction that you don't get from junk food. It's almost like you can feel your body absorbing all the nutrients and putting them to use, rather than storing them up for later or simply getting rid of them.

Fortunately for me, the gals at Tales From the Scales are beginning a new weight-loss challenge, "Look Great in 2008!" I will join in this one as well. If you'd like to be part of a community of bloggers with the goal of becoming more healthy and losing weight, please join in with us! You simply weigh in each week and report your goals, successes, failures, improvements, etc. You do not have to post your actual weight, but instead can just say how much you lost or gained in a given week.

My ultimate weight-loss goal is 120, which is, according to the "charts," a healthy weight for my height and age. That means I have 29 pounds to lose. Let's see how much I can lose during this next challenge!

The three things I am going to focus on for this challenge are:

1. DRINK WATER!!
2. Add fruits and veggies
3. Reduce salt intake

Good luck to all my fellow participants!

First Haircut

Here are pics from Lance's first haircut!! I'll come back later and edit this post with the story, since it's WAAYYY too early in the morning and I'm not thinking clearly yet. :) (Gotta love those wee-hour postings, hmmm?)

An Unexpected Burst of Productivity

Wow. I have been more productive this morning than I am in some entire days.

It's 9:45 am. Already, I have:

-Fed and dressed Lancelot
-Showered (including washing hair, shaving legs, and underarms!), dressed, and fed myself
-Done a load of laundry
-Finished loading the dishwasher
-Pulled linens off the guest bedroom bed
-Written a blog post! :)

It's a good feeling to be productive. Why can't I do this other days? I'll tell you why. I'm not always expecting weekend guests. My parents are coming for the weekend, so I want the house to be in good shape for them! Not that they expect it to be spic-and-span. They're very understanding. The best parents a girl could ask for, actually. Anyhoo. I guess because I know they don't expect my house to be perfect causes me to want it to be nice for them.

It's amazing how much I can get done when I've a mind to. Other days, I wouldn't have bothered showering yet, and most likely right now I would have gone back to bed while Lance takes his morning nap, rather than spending it blogging and continuing clean-up.

I still have left to do:
-Wash the sheets for the guest bedroom
-Clean the second bathroom and prepare it for grown-up use (which means picking up the bath toys and removing the faucet guard, also putting the shower curtain back down. Right now it's looped over the rod so Lance won't tug on it during his bathtime!)
-Vacuum the floor
-Windex the glass-top end tables and coffee tables
-Clear away clutter
-Go to the grocery store
-Get Lance's first haircut. (This one makes me nervous! He really needs to get his hair cut because it's growing down over his ears and is starting to look like a mullet in the back. Thankfully, I have a friend with 6 children who has a hair salon in her home. If I can trust anyone to cut his hair, I can trust the woman who has cut the hair of her own 6 children!) Our appointment is at 3:30 today.

So much to do. I better get my rear end out of the computer room and get to work!!

Wishing you all a productive day!

4 A.M. wonderfulness

It's 4:00 A.M.

I just changed the wettest, soggiest, soakingest, drippingest, heaviest, most dense collection of infant urination that I have ever encountered in my 9 months of motherhood.

Just thought you should know.

Time for a clean sweep!

I have the sweetest, most loving and understanding husband in all the world.

Just last night I was bemoaning my inability to keep the house in good order the way I did before Lance came around. I was on a schedule, assigning specific housecleaning tasks for each day of the week so that grime and dirt never built up. The showers were scrubbed once a week. The kitchen counters were wiped down daily, and weekly they were REALLY cleaned, as in I would move things off of them and clean behind and under appliances and get all the crumbs out of the corners. I even wiped out the inside of the microwave and the refrigerator shelves.

Dusting and vacuuming was assigned to another day. I went through the house with my Swiffer duster. I not only dusted furniture, but I dusted the outside of the air vents and all the blades of all the ceiling fans.

My house was clean. Cluttered sometimes, but clean.

Now, 9 months after having a baby, I've been letting those things go. I might pull out the duster once every couple weeks and quickly swipe over visible places and run the vacuum cleaner in high-traffic areas of the house, but I can't remember the last time I moved things off of counter surfaces or table tops. The space behind the toilets have seen neither sponge nor Lysol in an eternity.

So my husband came up with a fantastic, incredible idea.

We are going to hire a cleaning service to come in and get this place spic-and-span. It's much easier to maintain an already-clean house than to try and start from scratch. And it's just frustrating to only have one room of the house clean at a time. (Which is the way it usually ends up. Every so often I'll find myself with two hours in which to clean, so I'll attack a room with a vengeance. Then I'll feel great about it, until I leave the room. Can I get a witness??)

Isn't he just a darling man? I think so.

I'm over the moon. Going to get quotes from a few places now. Have a lovely day!

Have You Seen This Yet????

A friend emailed this to me. SO CUTE!!

**disclaimer: This is not my video. I do not claim it as my own work, but unfortunately I cannot give it proper credit because I have no idea where it came from. By the time it arrived in my inbox, it had been forwarded multiple times. If you know where this came from, please let me know so I can properly give credit! Thanks!

Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer

In some parts of the country, summer is over. The air is turning crisp, leaves are fading from bright green to the lovely palette of burnt oranges and reds signifying autumn. (Hey- I can get poetic when I have a mind to!)

That is not so where I am here in South Florida. The only indication that fall is on the horizon is the fact that my calendar is turned to September and the fall equinox is marked in a box. Additionally, people are throwing their end-of-summer/Labor Day barbecues, one of which we attended last week.

Here is a picture of Lance enjoying a watermelon.

That's my arm there next to him. :)

This photograph tells a story. A story that most likely I will be the only one to remember. Just minutes before this photo was taken, Lance and I took a spill. A nasty spill.

At this particular gathering, there were two other families with young children, ranging from age 2-6. They were running back and forth between the house and the slip-and-slide which is not pictured here. The patio floor, as a result, was wet. I did not know this. As I was carrying Lance out to the backyard to join in the festivities, I slipped in a puddle and the two of us went down. Hard.

I landed on my knees and then toppled forward. Then, things went in slow motion. I saw Lance falling away from me, his head milliseconds away from smashing on the hard tile floor. Then, I heard it. A loud "smack." I saw his head bounce. I was certain that when I lifted him up, I would see blood all over the floor.

Miraculously, there wasn't. Everyone who was in attendance saw something different from what I remember. They all said that they saw me catch him, with my hand behind his head, and that it was my hand that hit the floor.

I'm tellin' ya, they must have seen the hand of the Lord supporting my boy's head, because to my recollection, my hand was nowhere near his head. Plus, if my hand had indeed hit the floor with the weight of a 22-pound baby pressing it down, surely there would be a bruise or something, but no. I felt no pain on my hand and there's not a mark on it.

Someone grabbed Lance from me, and someone else helped me up to my feet. They were all asking me if I was okay, and I was annoyed with them for not immediately getting something to stop the blood gushing out of his head (because I was sure that it was) and/or calling 911. I didn't understand why they didn't seem to care.

It's because they witnessed a miracle. They witnessed my child's life being saved by the hand of an angel. I wish I could have seen it, too!

My knees got a little banged up and bruised, and they're still a little tender, but other than that, we're all fine! As you can see from the photo, Lance calmed down as soon as we gave him some food! I think he was more scared than anything else.


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If you haven't already, stop by Growing A Life and wish Flybaby a happy 1st birthday!



Here is a picture of Flybaby and Lance in adjoining high chairs at a local ice-cream place. Damselfly, J.P., Lance, Hubby and I went out to celebrate with them. His birthday was on Friday, but today Damselfly and J.P. are hosting a party for him at their home. More pictures to follow!

Doin' A Little Happy Dance

YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those of you who have been regular visitors here, you know that I have been participating in the May Day Weight Loss Challenge. Every week on Tuesdays I report in with my loss or gain for the week, along with goals and ideas for the upcoming week. Well, I haven't been good about reporting in because I was holding my weight steady. I just couldn't get below a particular number on the scale. (while I was grateful that I was not gaining any weight, it was still discouraging because I've got quite a ways to go to achieve my goal.)

To my surprise this morning, when I stepped on the scale I was one pound below the number I previously couldn't break through!! It was a complete surprise. I don't know why we seem to assign magical values to particular numbers, but for some reason I had it in my head that if I get could to the weight I finally achieved this morning, then it would become easier to continue losing. I know, it doesn't make any sense at all, but that's how things work in Guinevere's head.

So now, my total weight loss for the challenge is 7 pounds.

Only 30 more to go. I can do it!!

The Baby Bathtub Has Left The Building

We have retired the baby bathtub. I realized it was time to graduate to the "big kid" tub when Lance tried to crawl out of his baby tub. He would turn himself around in it, lean way over the side to pick up toys that were on the floor, and just generally wouldn't stay put. He loves the big tub! He can crawl around in there, stand up, sit down, turn himself around and do the hokey pokey. This photo was taken on his 3rd bath in the real tub. He just loves it!

(You may have noticed a pirate theme going on in this family. A few days ago I posted a photo of Lance wearing a Jack Sparrow wig and hat, now you see that his rubber ducky is, in fact, a pirate ducky. Wait a second. I have another pirate picture for you!)

I don't know how well you can see, but the shirt says "Pirate In Training" and I bought it at Disney World when he was just a month old.

Arrrr.

The reason for this pirate madness? Well, a couple years ago the men in our small-group Bible Study decided to dress up as pirates and serve the ladies dinner on Mother's Day. (I have no idea why they chose pirates.) So now our group calls itself "Captain Doug's Prayer Pirates." It's very corny, but hey, every group needs a gimmick, right?

Here they are.

After serving us dinner, they chased us around the house and called us "wenches."

We have a fun time at Bible study. LOL!

Sick Day(s)

We've got colds.

Icky, nasty, booger-y, sore throat, head-swollen-up-to-twice-their-size headcolds.

Please say a few prayers for us! I'm not sure how many more times Lance will put up with that nasal aspirator!

Wordless Wednesday

In case there was any doubt that he is, in fact, a male child...



As promised, here is a "princess picture" from my weekend getaway! Details to follow. (I'm the one on the far left.)

Getting Away For the Weekend

Before I get to the main subject of this post, I just HAD to share this photo.

I LOVE "Pirates of the Caribbean." So when Hubby, Lance, and I were cruising the mall last weekend and poked around in the Disney Store, we couldn't resist putting this Jack Sparrow wig on Lance.

Halloween costumes already? Sigh.

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I'm so psyched!!

Tomorrow, I get to go away for the weekend! By myself! (Along with a couple hundred women.) I am attending a weekend women's retreat being hosted by a local Christian musician and speaker. It has become an annual event and I can't wait!!

We're staying in a nice hotel on the beach. We have several sessions with the speaker who will be speaking on "Why We Need Girlfriends." We will have a pajama party, complete with DJ. (Macarena, anyone?) We're having a "Royal Feast" in which we get to wear a princess item. (I purchased a Belle tiara and scepter from the Disney Store. Thank heavens for early halloween costume sales!!)

Of course I'll post a picture of myself in my princess regalia when I return.

I'm just so ready for a little break from the normal everyday-ness that is Mommyhood. I won't be far away, just about 45 minutes, so if something happens, I'll be close enough to return home.

It's going to be great. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Weight Loss Challenge: Week 15

I stink at this.

I've been holding steady around 152-154 pounds for two whole months. I can't seem to get down below 152.

Ah well. No need to wallow. Clearly, I need to redouble my efforts.

This week, I will:

1. Take a morning walk EVEN if it is hot outside.

2. Limit myself to ONE caffeinated beverage a day. (This is a very hard goal for me to accomplish. I've been saying that I will limit myself to one a day for several weeks now. Maybe this'll be the week it happens??!!) This is how I will do it. I will brew some decaf iced tea that I can drink in the morning for something with a little flavor. Maybe I can "trick" my body into thinking that it has caffeine, lol! I will be allowed to drink a Vanilla Coke Zero in the afternoon around 3:30 for a little pick-me up. If I go to Starbucks, I forfeit my afternoon soda.

3. Start going back to the gym. I purchased a Pilates DVD that I have been doing at home in lieu of going to the gym. I'm enjoying it, but I'm not seeing the same results that I got when I was doing 20 minutes on the elliptical machine. If I want to do Pilates, that's great, but it will be an addition to going to the gym.

4. Add an extra serving or two of fruit/veggies. Eat a piece of fruit with breakfast, a piece of fruit with lunch, and make sure there is SOME kind of vegetable with dinner.


Hm. If I think back to the beginning of the challenge, these goals I have set for the next week are things that I previously did regularly, and that was when I started seeing the weight come off. It's so easy to slip out of good habits!!

Temper Tantrum, Anyone?

He's not even 9 months old yet.

My precious, sweet, long-lashed heartbreaker of a son has an evil twin.

He's learned to throw a temper tantrum.

There is a particular piece of furniture in our home on which he likes to try and pull himself up to a standing position. The problem is, this piece of furniture is very lightweight. He's pulled it on top of himself and fallen three times already. Hubby and I are trying to teach him not to pull himself up from that table. As he lifts a hand to grab it, we gently remove the hand, give it a little smack, and say a firm, "No."

He doesn't like that very much. He throws himself facedown on the floor and screams.

I'm going to have my hands FULL when he's a toddler!!

A Coupla Contests

OK, I've just entered two contests, and as is normally requested, I am now putting up my "contest post." (I hope the owners of the contests don't mind that I'm sharing a post for them both.)

The first one (and I am mentioning this one first because I entered it first.) is an AVON contest, offered by Haley over at "Love, Life, Family, and Then Some." She's giving away a whole set of some great AVON body products. Head on over there to enter!

The second one is an INCREDIBLE givewaway of Scrapbooking supplies over at Three Wild Monkeys.

I just ADORE scrapbooking, but I don't do it often for two reasons: 1- it's hard to find time with a baby around, and 2- the stuff is so darn expensive. If I win this contest, I'll most likely have something to fit any page that I need. However, if I don't win it but one of YOU does, I'll be happy for you. (Maybe you can send me a sheet of stickers if you win, lol!)

"A is for Antidisestablishmentarianism"

I have two friends with whom I communicate extensively via e-mail. On our most recent marathon e-mail conversation (you know, the kind that has 15 "re:" in the subject line, lol!) I received the following comment from friend Roo:

"I can just see it now, Guinevere, Lance will be 5 years old and you'll be teaching him his alphabet, and it'll be like, "R is for Rhombus."

I won't bore you with the details of how our conversation began as a discussion of where to go out for dinner and ended with unusual shape names, but I thought I'd take it all the way and have some fun.

So here you are. Here is the Alphabet for Advanced Children. (And yes, they are all real words.)

A is for Antidisestablishmentarianism.
B is for Baboonery.
C is for Catatonic.
D is for Diabolical.
E is for Existentialism.
F is for Fortuitous.
G is for Gargantuan.
H is for Hyperthyroidism.
I is for Infinitesimal.
J is for Juxtaposition.
K is for Kleptomaniac.
L is for Lasciviousness.
M is for Malevolent.
N is for Nefarious.
O is for Opulent.
P is for Paradigm.
Q is for Quandary.
R is for Rhombus.
S is for Sadistic.
T is for Tertiary.
U is for Umbillical.
V is for Vivacious.
W is for Whippoorwill.
X is for Xanthochromia (Yes it's a real word.)
Z is for Zanzibar.

Hmm. I hadn't realized that a good portion of my "big-word" vocabulary consisted of words with such negative connotations!! Sadistic. Nefarious. Lasciviousness. Malevolent. Diabolical. LOL! I wonder what a therapist would do with me. (Are you any of you therapists, perchance?)