ride the tiger

years ago, i decided to make some new year’s resolutions even though i kinda don’t belive in the practice. i’d had a really crappy year and was in a bad place. i needed to pull myself up and out.

2009 has been a bit of a year so far. not terrible, but a rough time, if you will. on top of not seeing much of josh, the yucky economy, feeling terminally stuck in indiana, and indian market & festival having an all time low attendance, there were the two hospitalizations for emmit and the diagnosis of a brain malformation. YIKES. not terrible…could be worse… but there is now more worry for emmit’s health and future. there is now the fear of recurring seizures. there are new bills that have me sliding into the deep dark darkness of debt. there is the mounting terror that we will never be able to sell our house. on top of all that is the nervousness that jasper’s hair will never grow. that’s a big one because she’s bald.

i find that all i want to do lately is sleep or eat or re-read harry potter. that’s a textbook cry for help, right?. so i’m pulling out those old resolutions to see how i’m doing and to, hopefully, recommit myself. giving myself deadlines if i feel i need to. public deadlines. that all 5 of you will hold me accountable for. 

each resolution will get its own post.

a side note: i looked up resolution and found some fantastic expressions in the thesarus, with which i hope to start peppering my everyday speech (and, of course, these resolution posts). be afraid. 

there is nothing earth shatteringly original about this, but i want to be healthier. on a deep level, this wraps up my desire to be an active parent and good role model, my fear of being a sickly old person, my body image and my self-esteem. superficially, it comes down to: i want to lose weight and be pretty. to do that, i need to exercise and eat healthier. wait! what? is that some kind of crazy talk? we all know it’s not crazy talk and it’s not even that difficult to do, but boy is it a tough thing to start.

when emmit turned one and a half and was the hugest and heaviest child on the planet who still needed his mama to pick him up and carry him, i realized i needed a change. i did weight watchers and walked with my friend carol almost daily. before getting knocked up with jasper, i’d lost 27 pounds and was where i wanted to be. oh my, i felt pretty. oh so pretty and witty and bright. i gave myself several months after jasper was born before going back to weight watchers. then winter hit. although headed back in the right direction, i simply lost my motivation. i’m officially in a 8+ month slump. i need to lose 10 more pounds. that’s not the 25 i needed to lose before, which is a wonderful wonderful thing. for that i am grateful, but at this moment, i can’t see much difference between 10 pounds and 25 pounds when i can’t get off my ass or all i want for dinner is a s’more.

so for resulution #1: be healthier, i’m still running the gauntlet. i need to stop listening to the voice of the charmer and stand no nonsense. i’m going to lose 10 pounds before christmas by walking every day and doing weight watchers. whew. talk about riding the tiger.

starting weight: 128

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what not to touch

yesterday i stayed home from work because i was still feeling a little woozy from some sort of combo dehydration/altitude illsnesses i picked up in santa fe. it was a 6-day trip for work, but any picture or story i will share makes it look like a vacation. so i’m mildly embarrassed to say that i needed a day to rest before returning to work. i also needed a day to snuggle with emmit and jasper. that, i proudly admit.

i made the kids an early dinner, very fancy: homemade mac & cheese, a veggie burger, frozen peas and ketchup. as the kids ate, i decided i could sneak away for some…alone time in the bathroom.

emmit came in after a couple minutes and said something about taking off his diaper. we’re of the slow-and-steady-wins-the-race mindset when it comes to potty training and emmit hasn’t shown much sign of being ready. he doesn’t generally tell us when he needs to go or when he’s gone. we can tell because most of the time: a) he “hides” under the dining room table and b) it is not un-stinky. so i didn’t jump up right away when he came in talking about his diaper. i encouraged him to go back to his gourmet dinner. he left for a couple of minutes then returned.

with an excited and curious look on his face, he reached out to show me what appeared to be a rock in his hand.

a brown rock.

he then turned and left the bathroom. it took me a couple seconds to realize that it was poop. then i nearly fell off the toilet trying to stand up to chase after him. tripping over the pants that were around my ankles, i yelled for him to come back. as i ran water in the tub and cleaned him up, i told him as cheerfully as possible,  “poop is dirty. don’t ever touch poop.”

several hours later as i tucked him into bed, after many hand-washings, a bath and then more hand-washings, emmit excitedly told me, “I touch poop, mama!”

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