He was MY AGE!!!

I just can't believe it. He's dead. He was my age and he's gone. Brian Lee and I went to college together (Wittenberg University) and graduated the same year. He dated one of my sorority sisters. We were never really close, but had several mutual friends; plus I saw him around the sorority house a lot with Tami, whom he ended up marrying after graduation. They live in Sydney, Ohio and have 2 young girls. In 2001 a mass in his brain was discovered. He went through chemo and radiation. After 5 peaceful years, he began having seizures again. More radiation and chemo. Only this time the tumor didn't shrink. He got progressively worse and died this morning with his wife, 2 young daughters and pastor by his side.

I am so heartbroken. Which feels weird to me because I was never really close to him or Tami in college. Part of it is that I tend to be a very empathetic person and I just ache thinking of her struggle right now. part of it I think is that he was MY AGE! I mean, c'mon. We expect older people to die. But he wasn't old!! Not even 40 yet. It's just not fair somehow-he had his whole life in front of him still. His daughters will grow up without their father around. My sorority sister will grow old without the love of her life around. I know God can use this tragedy for good, but I am wondering what good could possibly come out of this. He was too young to die!!!

Ordination, Farkel and a LOT of dessert

I had a fun weekend!! Travis was being ordained in Columbus last Sunday. I left the kids with Phil and drove up Saturday night to spend the night with a friend of mine from high school. We got together with several more friends of ours that night and had a blast just talking, eating lots of good food and playing a fun game called Farkel. It's a dice game-no skill needed. There is an element of risk involved in acquiring points which makes it fun. I ate well all day Saturday, but boy when the party started, my self-control went out the window. I didn't have any dessert (yippee!), but had plenty of salty snacks. But boy there's something about eating junky food that makes me crave it more! Argh!!!

Sunday was the ordination, which was very interesting. I'd never been to one before. Travis is Lutheran (and I was raised Lutheran) so some of it was familiar-the same liturgy and everything. I enjoyed watching Travis being ordained, but at the same time it was a bit strange too. After all, I just know him as crazy, silly Travis and there he was passing out communion and being solemn and everything. Kindof weird I admit. But I'm happy for him and Julie. He is the only pastor of a small Lutheran church in a small town in Nebraska (Tekameh-heard of it? me either) Then afterwards there was a reception with all kinds of desserts. I didn't get to talk to Julie and Travis but I didn't expect to. It was a great chance to talk to my cousins who I don't see much.

Monday I stayed over and got to spend the day with Julie. Since they live so far away, I only see them once a year and even then, they're trying to see our parents, his parents, grandparents, friends, etc. so we never get much "sister time" together. So she and I and our mom spent the day at Longaberger. I was born and raised in Columbus and had no idea it was there. OH HOW FUN!!!! We got to see the factory and how the baskets are made. Plus we did LOTS of shopping and tons of walking around. I bought a couple baskets on sale at the outlet store (on sale for Longaberger is still expensive though). And I was surprised to find that Longaberger doesn't make just baskets, but pretty much everything, from food to chapstick to clothes, purses, body lotion and more. Good grief! My favorite purchase was a cute "purse" for my cell phone; Julie got a matching one. It has a handle and a clasp on it so I can clip it on my purse or pants or anything. It is so cool!! I had such an awesome time! We haven't done a girls' day out together just us 3 for a looooong time!!!

Cave, cave, cave!

So today I was trying to motivate my kids to clean our house (which was more of a pit than usual) and got the idea to have a race. Whoever did the most cleaning got to pick where we would eat lunch at when we were done. My oldest (the 8 year old) won as I expected she would. But instead of McD or Burger King or something, she kicked the MALL!! Now I didn't expect that and frankly didn't want to spend the money to drive that far (it's only 15 minutes away, but gas is expensive these days ). But my husband who was home for lunch said I needed to do what I promised instead of something else. So off we went, with me already upset about this turn of events. At the mall, the David and Rachel went with me to get pizza while Rose was busy chasing Matthew. I thought they were close by and was upset to discover that I didn't see them when I turned around. I completely panicked!!! Well Rose was following her brother but making no effort to bring him back. Finally she promised him a ride on the merry go round if he came back. So they returned. So we ate then ended up riding the merry-go-round. After that, off to the play area. Walking there, the kids had to stop in all the stores and look around. So I'm running through the mall, into and out of stores, chasing my children. I know people were staring so I was trying not to scream at them. We played for awhile in the play area, which is "conveniently" located next to a train kids can ride ($2.50 a kid) and outside the toy store. In spite of promises from 3 kids not to ask for anything, all 4 ended up in the toy store begging for things.

Which is where the title of this bog comes in (bet you were wondering-if anyone is even still reading this really long narrative). I CAVED IN!! We spent $60 on toys, plus $20 on lunch, plus probably $5 in gas. All this to reward cleaning the house. Although to be fair, they did a remarkably good job. But I'm disappointed in myself because not only did I pig out on pizza at lunch, but I wasn't real effective at disciplining them and totally caved in and bought them stuff when I shouldn't have rewarded behavior that wasn't real great at the mall. Cave, cave, cave!!

The VBS Diet

Last week was VBS at our church. I volunteered to be in charge of a group of preschoolers. So I spent several hours each night last week trying to keep track of a group of 6 small children. This involved herding a group of preschoolers all over our church (I did lots of walking that week). So there I was with one kid who didn't want to be there and would cry (loudly) the whole time, 2 kids who talked incessantly to each other (both girls) and 2 who wouldn't sit and pay attention, but kept running around. I know what you're thinking: those sound like normal preschoolers. But it's tougher when they're not your kid. I mean, how do you discipline someone who doesn't belong to you?

All in all, it was fun, but exhausting! I was worn out so I didn't eat very well and usually ate late at night. We ate out a lot and I didn't always eat really healthy. So I fully expected to gain weight. But to my shock and amazement when I weighed in Sunday morning I had lost 2 pounds. Yippee!!!!!!!!!!! I guess exercise is really important to losing weight.

I'm Addicted!

Ok, I have discovered a new favorite healthy dessert: Weight Watchers Smart Ones Cookie Dough Sundae. Yummy!! It satisfies my need for ice cream and chocolate without lots of extra calories. I'm trying to keep them around so if I crave dessert I can have something. They're a little expensive, but in my mind it's worth it if I eat those and not something with more calories and fat.

I have lost a total of 14 lbs. since I joined SparkPeople.com and started trying to lose weight. I was shocked when I weighed in on Sunday and discovered that I lost 1.5 lbs. last week. And it certainly wasn't because I ate particularly well. It must've been the exercise. I've gotta keep that up! I can still treat myself a little as long as I stick to my exercising and drinking plenty of water.

What? Me like exercise? Impossible but true!

Ok, my original goal was to workout three times a week. But lately I've only been managing once a week. Every day I think about going and mention this out loud to my kids. Rachel (my 5 year old) will usually reply that she doesn't feel like going and could we go tomorrow? So being the nice, accommodating mom that I am, I oblige. I just don't feel like fighting with the kids to get them over to the YMCA and into childcare, just so I can exercise. I am, after all, the original couch potato. I never liked or played sports growing up (or now) and like yummy food far too much. But here's the weird part. . .

I am starting to discover that I actually sort of enjoy exercising. I mean, for one thing, I get a break from my kids, which I never object to! I get to catch up on my reading while I'm on the treadmill, which never happens at home (ok, I keep a book in my bathroom and read in there sometimes when I'm "sitting"). The part I like best though is the feeling of accomplishment I get when I'm done and logging out and I can see how much weight I've lifted that day. Today, for example, I lifted 8,200 lbs. WAHOO!!!

My YMCA has this cool program called FitLinxx, which is FREE with a Y membership. You work with a trainer once to set up a profile and account password, goals, etc. Then you go around to each weight machine and learn how to use it and program the computer on each machine with your individual weight settings. So every time you work out you just enter your password at each machine you use (including treadmills thank goodness) and it will tell you where to set the seat and how much weight to lift. Then it keeps track of how many reps you do and everything. It's totally idiot-proof, which is great for me because if I had to remember all that myself, I wouldn't be exercising nearly as much! I just never pictured myself as actually liking exercising. How strange is this?

A Field Trip with David

I went with my son's kindergarten class on their field trip to California Woods, a nature preserve near our house. I actually had a lot of fun. We hiked through a forest and beside a creek. I really enjoyed getting back to nature; I don't do that nearly as often as I'd like. We lived beside a creek when I was growing up and I played there all the time.

Plus it was nice to spend time with my son without the other 3 kids around. And I enjoyed seeing him with his classmates. I always see him at home, so it was nice to see him in a different setting. I always wonder how my kids interact with others when they're in school, Sunday School, etc. Are they more/less helpful? Social/antisocial? It was very enlightening to see David with his class and teachers. He tends to get upset and cry at home when he doesn't win a game or things don't go his way; that happened on the field trip too. I wonder if that's a phase or part of his personality? He's also definitely a loner and gets along fine by himself (just like his dad).

Well I'd better quit now. This has been longer than I expected. And Rachel is bugging me to play Polly Pocket with her.