cat and mouse

My name is Kim and I have a little shopping problem. When CD takes his leave of the family I have a tendency to kick up the on-line shopping. In truth, it starts a few days before he departs. It's not like doesn't know what I am up to. He sees (and pays) the credit card bill. For some reason, it seems better if he doesn't see the boxes at the front door. Sometimes I actually return things but I don't exactly get brownie points for that. So there!

This week I have a couple of great excuses for shopping, in addition to being on my own for 11 days during CD's latest trip to a geek-fest. The kids' birthdays are coming soon and until this week, I had purchased none of their presents. They are also short on spring/summer clothes. Doesn't get much better than that.

So the UPS/Fedex/USPS trifecta have been making regular visits to our house this week. These are a few of my favorite things (this week, anyway):

Hanna Andersson Stockholm Petite slim pants - OMG, what took me so long to order these? They are the greatest pants ever. One pair is definitely not enough. Eleanor got some shirts and shorts on this order.

LeapFrog® Tag Reading System - This one is a birthday present for Oliver. I wasn't a fan initially, but his teacher (who is not at all into electronic gizmos, despite her husband having invented the emoticon!) recommended it to help close the gap has between cognitive and fine motor skills. I entered all the current giveaways, but bought one anyway. Now I'm sure to win. (Amazon has $10 off at checkout on the Tag, and $4 off on books, at checkout through March 31.)

Remo Rhythm Club Floor Tom - Eleanor loves drums. She shouts "drums!" when she hears them, and loves to play with them when we are at Music Together. Oliver got instruments for his first birthday. We're a little behind.

Cupcake Courier - I have been looking for a deal on one of these for over a year. Every time I know I will be transporting cupcakes, I start looking again in earnest. My Michael's used to have them. I would dutifully clip the 40% off coupon and go down there, only to find they didn't have any in stock. Three times I did this. Finally I decided I'm wasting more money driving down there, only to end up annoyed and disappointed. Besides, on-line shopping is better for the environment.

RL Clara shoes - Love these! Wasn't sure I would and hesitated, but PiperLime had them on sale with free returns, and ordering from them gave me free shipping on my Gap order for the kids, so how could I resist? Now I wish I had ordered the black too, but they are back to full price. I'm checking all the other shoe sites for Clara in other colors at a good price. Anybody have a coupon for Zappo's?

The mail has brought a couple of cool giveaway wins my way as well.  The Fabulous Miss S sent the Boca set I won. The yoga mat was just the kick I needed to get back to the shred. I think I have had "day one" four times this month. And Mistress Shredhead herself sent a gift card for Smarty Pig from the first "graduation" giveaway. I totally don't understand how it works yet, but I'll dive in and figure it out later on. 

And somehow, tomorrow morning I'll wake up in the dark while the kids are still asleep and spend a little quality time with Jillian. Hate her, especially before coffee.

ashes to ashes redux

My dog Piper went to Bong today. She had been there before, on a very happy day when she was first introduced to birds. Today was a little different, but she didn't go alone. My dear friends Helen and Otto took half of her ashes along on a training session and scattered them in the fields and the water. (What happened to the other half is explained in an earlier post, though you'll have to dip into the comments for details.) They say a true friend is one who will help you hide the bodies. I think a true friend will scatter your dog's ashes for you and take pictures.

bumpy rides

Oliver and I spent a great weekend in Milwaukee. It rained for two days, but we were not there for the weather. Now that he's a little older, we are seeing him becoming afraid of things that once did not phase him. For instance, flying. He has never been bothered or fearful of flying before, and unfortunately, this was a bumpy couple of flights. Really bumpy. The return was so bad he made me hold his hand the whole way. That was Sunday. Today, after a few days of processing, he wanted to talk about it. This morning he said, "Mommy, you held my hand in the airplane. You kept me safe." I get weepy just typing that. 

Moving on...shred. Argh. What was supposed to be a couple of days off for the trip turned into a full-on hiatus. It's the same with journalling and Weight Watchers. If I take a day off with the intention of going right back, it never happens. I've been staying up late and finding every excuse I can think of not to spend some quality time with Jillian and her minions. Even when I've found a window of opportunity, Comcast on demand has not been cooperative, giving me error messages and not always loading the work out. 

So I bought the damn dvd. Now I own Jillian. She doesn't own me. And last night I finally got myself to bed before midnight. And this morning I was out of bed by 6:15am. I put Jillian in my laptop and headed for the basement. The kids cooperated and let me shred AND shower before waking up. It was a miracle. Felt like day one all over again, but it's done. Tomorrow is day two.

shreddus interruptus

We interrupt this regularly scheduled shred for a number of reasons.

Oliver and I are off to Wisconsin this morning. Two buses will get us to the airport, then one plane to Milwaukee. We are visiting some Clumber friends, then spending the rest of the weekend with Tika, her husband, and their new baby. I'm calling it a "new baby" because I have not met her yet. She arrived in October , during Blogher DC.

Back on Sunday. With any luck, I'll be able to stick to the WW program and not do too much damage in the land of cheese.

holy guacamole

Today was a day off from the Shred, so I knew I needed to take a good walk at lunch time. Since I didn't have time to pack a lunch this morning, walking to Chipotle for lunch seemed like the best option. I spent a little quality time with Mr Google and the Chipotle nutrition information before heading out. Chipotle's burrito bols are a great option for Weight Watchers. I don't miss the tortilla at all. The other way to keep the WW points under control is to skip the meat. And the cheese, sour cream, and most painful of all, the guacamole. The fajita veggies are a good addition to a vegetarian bol, except they are 90% green peppers, something I cannot eat. 

All that means I end up with a bowl of rice, black beans, lettuce, and salsa. I love Chipotle but can you say Let Down? Yeah, I thought you could. Today the rice was super fresh and lovely, but that didn't quite do it for me.

Then I thought about how much my calves were not going to hurt today, and I was over it. Just.Like.That.

shredding with the family

The whole going to bed early thing didn't really happen last night. Not surprisingly, the whole getting up early to shred was equally problematic this morning. Since I received something resembling divine inspiration (should you believe in that sort of thing) at my Weight Watchers weigh-in today, I resolved to do the shred workout when I got home from work. 

Tuesdays are always an adventure. We have to pick up the kids and get home by 5:45 because CD has a conference call at 6pm. Since I have to amuse the kids and cook dinner anyway, I thought watching the workout might distract them. It's new. It's novel. What the hell.

This was not a good idea. The problems were as follows:

• Eleanor thought I should be holding her the whole time.
  
• If I wasn't going to hold her, I should let her sit on me during the ab bits.
  
• And if I was standing she should be able to weave through my legs.
  
• Penguin thought my being on the floor was a perfect excuse to come over and lick my face.
  

The only thing funnier than watching me try to shred was watching Oliver try to do jumping jacks or kick his own butt. If we ever try this again I'm setting up the video camera and putting it on him.

There is a up side. I remembered to wear shoes. 

better off shred

I had a weak moment last night while hanging out on Twitter. Kristen, of Motherhood Uncensored fame, started tweeting about shredding. I had heard of it, and looked at on Amazon for all of half a second before running away in fear. Like I said, weak moment. I up and joined Kristen and her merry band of shredheads, while they could all still walk. 

This time around on Weight Watchers has been pretty grim. If I am not obsessive about journalling, it's an immediate fail. I can't be obsessive all the time so the slippery slope to "what the hell?" is half a step in front of me all the time. And exercise? Has.Not.Been.Happening.

I have been trying to get myself to bed earlier and failing miserably. I've been getting to bed at midnight, or worse. Getting up in the morning has been getting harder. And then there was bronchitis last week. I haven't had a really good nearly-pneumonia round of bronchitis since college. 

For some reason, all of these little things weakened me to the point where shredding with a bunch of fine bloggers seemed like a good idea. The hell was I thinking? 

I got to bed last night at a reasonable 11pm. And got up at 6. And spent the next 15 minutes searching for The Shred on Comcast's on-demand service. Then convinced Oliver to go back to sleep, tried to do the workout while discovering just how bloody uncoordinated I am, but did.not.die. Oliver woke up and threatened to wake his sister and dad so I had to stop before it was done but I finished the first 22 minutes. 

I did learn something critical...sneakers would be useful. I can only blame lack of sleep for managing to put on a sports bra and other workout gear, yet skipped the whole socks and shoes thing. 

Tomorrow is another day. And it won't take me nearly as long to find the damn thing on the tv.

Kristen asks that we divulge a few things at the start. Here goes:

a) Before pictures:

HA!!! There will be no pictures. More power to those braver than I.

b) Tag Line

"better off shred" of course

c) Weight

165 or thereabouts. My scale and the Weight Watchers scale are not on speaking terms.

d) Goal

short term:  more clothes that fit.  long term:  30 pounds. gone. forever.

e) Diet Plan

Weight Watchers

f) Personal Rules

Lots of water. Sticking with the plan. Journalling.

g) Shred Plan

As often as possible, but at least 4 days a week, level 1, 3 pound weights. Yoga and a good walk on the days I don't shred. Walks on shred days when possible.