Jenn's Zen

The sweet darling little girl that is.  She has recently discovered Wheel of Fortune and I dare say it’s her new favorite show.  At first I tried to get her to not watch it.  While we are the parents and we make the rules, TiVo does make it difficult to justify to a child that the show is on after bedtime and therefore she can’t watch it.  Wheel of Fortune is on at 7:30 EST in our viewing area.  The little girl’s bedtime has been 7:00 pm for quite some time now.

A few things made the shift to letting her watch a little easier. 1) JD gets home later than he used to.  So their time together was taking a hit. 2) The little girl was starting to do the bedtime procrastination thing.  All parents and caregivers are familiar with it. The dawdling, the requests for water, time in the bathroom, did I mention dawdling?  It was pushing bedtime further and further (closer to my prime-time viewing actually). And by allowing her to watch Wheel of Fortune both of these things were solved.  JD watches with her and it has become one of their special things.  Be careful if you watch with them, you can’t just blurt out the puzzle if you think you know.  Our rule has become that she has to be ready for bed (jammied up and teeth brushed) before she can watch.  Done.  Easy Peasy.

It’s hilarious to watch with her.  She’ll usually comment on Vanna’s lovely dress (the color, how sparkly, how long it is).  Then she does what we all did.  It’ll be a five word puzzle and they’ve called T,H and E. “I know, it’s something, something, THE, something, something, something”.  I’m not even kidding.  That’s exactly what she says.  And I laugh EVERY time.  She was shocked to learn that when mommy watched the show as a little girl Vanna had to actually turn the letters.  It took some explaining, but she was impressed.

Another generation of Wheel.  Merv would be proud.

:: Insert head-smack here ::

I know how to do this, really, I’ve done it before. How could I forget the drinking water part?

To be perfectly honest I’m not much of a beverage girl. We have coffee in the morning, but if Jeremy didn’t want it I wouldn’t make it. As a kid I had milk or water with meals, but now I don’t. I don’t crave milk, juice or soda. I drink diet soda instead of grabbing a handful of cookies. And I often forget about water altogether. One of the things I often forgot in the first weeks of working out at the gym was my water bottle. After paying over $1 a bottle for water whenever that happened I quickly caught on to remembering my Sigg bottle. At home I rarely have a glass of water. At the nanny family’s house I’m more apt to keep a cup of ice water around (not sure why it’s easier there).

I do know however that in order to get the pounds off the scale (and my thighs) I’ve got to drink a decent to significant amount of water. For me the important time is after dinner. I usually want to munch something while hanging out in front of the TV. If I drink 2-3 glasses of water between 8-11pm I see a difference on the scale. No lie. This of course is in addition to working out and tracking my calories.

It makes sense, it’s just something I tend to forget. So I’m here to remind you, just add water. 

Am I the only person who sometimes feels bad for the husband who is depicted as clumsily taking care of his own children?  This week in the comic strip For Better For Worse the mother has been out of town and dad has been home taking care of the children.  As per the stereotype of this situation he doesn’t know the routine or where anything is located in the house.  If I side with this guy do I have to turn in my neighborhood mommy card? Am I siding with the enemy?

(more…)

This started on Facebook and then I thought it would be fun to post it here as well.

1. I started Kindergarten when I was four years old. By high school I was the youngest in the class.

2. I have lived in in 18 different homes, in 10 different towns, in different four states.

3. Except for a school year in Missouri, I’ve always lived in states that border an ocean.

4. My leg (femur) was broken in a car accident when I was in 2nd grade. I was in the hospital for a month, at home in a body cast for a month and then at home on crutches for another month.

5. In 8th grade I had the chance to go to the Jackson Five Victory tour in Vancouver, BC (for free) and didn’t because I didn’t think it would be a very Christian thing to do. I’m STILL kicking myself for not going. Not cuz I’m a Michael Jackson fan, cuz I’m not, but I really think it would’ve been an incredible thing to see.

6. I traveled to Baja Mexico for a mission trip the summer before my sophomore year of high school. It forever changed how I view what I *need*.

7. Even though I was a band geek (flute) I was voted to be a cheerleader as well.

8. I started playing the flute in 5th grade band. I played until my early 20s and haven’t played since. Growing up I was often in vocal choirs. I haven’t in the past seven years and I miss it.

9. I attended an all women’s college (Cottey College, Nevada MO) for one school year.

10. In a children’s theater production at Cottey I played Rabbit in Winnie the Pooh.

11. During my second year of college I managed the 99 cent theater in town. I learned how to splice film together and run a cinema grade projector.

12. Because of the above mentioned job I have listened to the Rocky Horror Picture Show more times than I care to count.

13. I married my high school sweet heart. And we are still happily married!!!

14. For our tenth anniversary we celebrated with a trip to Hawaii, a new diamond for me and a house (in NC). We will have a difficult time topping that in the future.

15. We had the name Emily picked out since the early 1990s. There are a few people who may actually remember. I was very distressed when Alex Trebeck named his daughter Emily in the early 90s.

16. Until I witnessed a friend give birth I was convinced I would not be able to do it.

17. If I were to go back to college it would be to get my RN and masters for mid-wifery.

18. My dream car for years was a Volvo wagon. I’ve driven one for the last seven years.

19. I have eaten crepes at the base of the Eiffel Tower.

20. My number one goal as a parent is to raise a child who can give and receive love in healthy ways.

21. My favorite Disney princess is Belle (because she reads alot)

22. At Starbucks I order a tall, non-fat mocha, no whip.

23. If I could live anywhere it would be the Oregon Coast.

24. My favorite color is the darkest of navy blue.

25. I’ve decided that high thread count sheets, massages, psycho therapy and good hair cuts are worth the expense.

The dishes are done and the laundry is caught up, whoo hoo!!!  You would think I’m going out of town or something.  Why is it that I bust my butt to clean before I go somewhere?  Why not do it all the time and live in a nice clean home?  Not that we live in a pigsty or anything, but there is always SOMETHING that’s lingering around to be cleaned.  I hate dishes, the big dishes.  The little dishes go in the dishwasher, easy-peasy.  I’m talking about muffin pans, coffee pot, casserole dishes, blech!  I even vacuumed last night, but you can’t tell because Parker has already been outside and back in so there’s muddy paw prints from the back door to the bedroom.  Lovely.

Must keep cleaning… 20 minutes left of unstructured time.

In the last two weeks I’ve made:

• Beef Stew
• Oatmeal & Raisin cookies
• Chili
• Banana Bread

It’s 80 degrees outside, but apparently my kitchen doesn’t know that. 

I’m here, I’m blogging.  Note, it’s after midnight and I’m only doing this because my aunt has been harassing me long-distance via my mother to blog. To her I say, “WHERE ARE MY GIRLSCOUT COOKIES?!” Ha, gotcha!

Life here has been crazy since we returned from Disney.  We had a great time and our pics are on Flicker.  If you’d like an invitation to view them let me know and we’ll hook you up. They aren’t public.

The little girl only has 10 days or so of pre-school left.  The big “K” starts in July. Hm… time to book my mommy spa day. Our summer will be a mish/mash of Kindergarten, the nanny job, swimming, trips to the library and just general hangin’ out.

I’m working on an entry regarding the gym. It’s been a year since Lifetime Fitness opened in Cary, so it makes sense that I should mention it this month.

More soon~