Friday, January 18, 2008

Too Many Titles

Lately I've been busy setting up my new SparkPeople page and getting myself on track to loose those creeping pounds.  I had joined SparkPeople shortly after it was started while I was trying to loose weight after giving birth to Lillian.  It was inspiring and easy to use.  I soon learned how to manage my calories and get an idea how many calories I was burning by entering in daily exercise and food eaten in the online trackers.  Even though the move and all it's preparations took over my life and I had to drop the program I was still able to keep in mind the things I had learned from the experience.  Little as I would like to admit I need a swift kick of a reminder on how to do this, I signed up for it again anyway.  No, I will not bore you with the details of my weight loss program (SparkPeople gave me my own extra blog for that; just what I need right: another blog), but I am going to advocate this program here for any of you who feel like getting that bikini bod by summer or who want to loose those 50 lbs that crept up on you over the last several years.  I know you're out there.  Did you realize that America has reached a startling new milestone?  For the first time in decades the life expectancy of our new generation is shorter than the last.  It scares me to think that my children may live a shorter life than I.  With a few changes instilled in our routine it has become my goal to ensure my children a long life and a proper outlook on health and habits.

Amara has been ill since yesterday and in her delirious mutterings she has come back to her favorite fear: that her mommy and daddy might die before her.  I have explained to her that with all likelihood we will die before her, but it won't be until she is old and gray herself.  She is still not fond of the idea and so at the same time I encourage her wishes for a simultaneous family death.  Morbid, I know, but sweet at the same time.  I feel fortunate to have a daughter who thinks ahead and wishes never to be permanently separated from her family.  Maybe she won't be the kid who runs off to Europe with our grandchildren ;)

This morning a construction crew in the process of putting up a new building dug into an unexploded bomb and had to evacuate 100-150 people from the surrounding area while they carefully removed it.  It is strange to think that we are living in an area which is still unearthing relics of the World Wars from their very own soil.  We've been watching Season 6 of the 24 series (yes, we've always been a bit behind on these things) and the thought of a nuclear bomb exploding on US soil has been haunting my dreams.  To awake this morning and realize we're living in a country which still carries not only the earthly scars of the wars, but also the emotional scars, I can now comprehend how fortunate the United States citizens have been.  The Twin Towers was our first real taste of destruction on our soil. Now I even more sincerely hope we will not see more destruction on either a greater or lesser scale.

Speaking of watching the tube, we can't seem to watch anything anymore without the kitten attacking gesticulating hands or dangling earrings.  The second she hears the TV warming up she runs over and, standing on her hind legs, puts her paws up on the ledge to nose the screen.  When it's just too interesting to resist she'll wander around the edges to try and get a better advantage of whatever it is tantalizing her from behind the screen.  When that fails to produce she hops on top of the TV and haunches over the edge of it determined to catch whichever target may present itself.  What is most fun to watch though is when she finds a particularly interesting pray which walks off stage left or stage right and she follows it off the screen only to discover thin air.

Tonight is the "disco"!  If you remember what happened last year I assure you I will not let the incident happen again.  Unfortunately, I am unsure if Amara will be in a dancing mood by tonight.  I didn't think her teacher would be too excited to see her walk through the classroom threshold this morning after she'd thrown up all over the playground at recess and several more times all over the classroom yesterday afternoon, but was surprised to find she expected to see the little one walking with me when I came to report her current status.  Amazingly, her teacher has encouraged me to bring her this evening if she's feeling up to it.  Last year she had an illness at this time as well.   The morning of the dance she went to school, but her teacher had called me back to the classroom to pick her up (the first of the only two calls I've received) because she was feeling ill.  We both looked at her and didn't know what to think because she went from healthy to unhappy in a matter of minutes.  By the time of the dance she was doing back flips so I sent her anyway.  That time her teacher gave me a look like I was one of the most irresponsible parents she'd ever laid eyes on.  I suppose she was probably right because Amara only lasted through the dance and on the way home practically collapsed in my arms.  Upon returning home I discovered she'd developed a fever and was laid to rest for the entire following weekend.  Last night she continually woke up crying and so was not in happy mood this morning, still taking comfort in having her puke bucket follow her down the stairs.  Maybe if she gets some real sleep we'll let her go to her school dance, but at the moment she's still listless on the couch beside me. 

Signing out . . . I've got a dance to prepare for and kid to take care of.

7 comments:

Elizabeth said...

I'm going to check out that link to SparkPeople...thanks for sharing it!

I hope Amara feels better soon so she can boogie until she can't boogie no more.

Incidentally, I'm the one usually digging thru my hubby's pants pockets in search of change if none is readily available. *sheepish grin*

S said...

Oh, goodness! I hope that Amara is on the mend by now, poor girl.

And good on you for being motivated to lose weight!

I just noticed the pictures to the right that you took at Muiderslot. We were in Amsterdam last fall, and we took a day trip to Muiden. The kids LOVED the castle. Great fun. Thanks for reminding me.

bookcross said...

Oh boy - poor Amara, she doesn't have the best of luck on school dances, does she?
Well - i must sat that sparks is helping, but it isn't much fun....

lve, daphne

Holy said...

thx for the Spark People link - I have online support at Bally Fitness but never use the diet and exercise support available there.

I like this Spark site - I'm going to refer it to others.

The most difficult thing has been changing my mindset that I can eat anything and do nothing and still stay relatively tall and slenderish. I'm still tall but skipping meals and eating high glycemic has caught up with me.

Time for a change!

Elizabeth said...

The allure of "free" was just too much for me at SparkPeople. I signed up yesterday. Thanks again! :)

Anonymous said...

How is Amara feeling? Was she able to get her groove on?

Anonymous said...

People should read this.