This morning, we woke up at 6am to go on a bike ride. Getting the kids up early is never fun, because I just keep thinking of all the quite time I just forfeited. Getting myself up early is never fun either. I just keep thinking, my birthday is a month from now and I want to be able to buy clothes with my birthday money in a smaller size and have them fit. I don’t know why it was so hard this morning. We frequently go on bike rides and this time it killed. It makes me really frustrated with myself, because as much as I really want to feel good about my body, I just really, really don’t like pain.

About losing weight: I started to read this website the other day, Losing the Cow . It is really really profound. I’ve only read the first blog post, but really, there are so many good things. I think what I took away from it is this: As bad as you may want it, you have to find what’s keeping you from it.

Sometimes life should be easy.

But there are good things about riding early.
*It’s not hot.
*There’s no one on the trail to notice how sloooow you’re going.
*When you puke, there’s nothing in your stomach to come out.
*We’re up so early that we’re back in time to watch the first round of Dora on Nickelodeon.
*Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully the kids will take a good nap.
*I’m awake to iron Jim’s shirt while he takes a shower. Yeah… that’s not as much good for me as it is for him. In fact it’s not good for me at all.
*There’s lots and lots and lots of time to gaze at your bed longingly and wish you were there.

yup. A morning of good things. Martha would be proud.

I never watch the news, so I didn’t know until I talked to my mom yesterday that the town my uncle, aunt and cousins live in was hit by a tornado on Friday. Thank God they are ok, although their home and vehicle were damaged. Luckily they were not home when the tornado hit, which damaged their roof and ripped off the deck that my uncle had just finished painting.

These are the things that are a reality check slap in the face. There are people who do not have a place to sleep tonight. Kind of puts life into perspective. I am grateful for life today, for health, for food in the fridge, for a vehicle that works (even though punk kids stole the Honda emblems off it the other night!), for (a little bit of) money in my bank account, for a nice house with a nice yard, for great friends and for the family we have that cares.

It’s a good day.

Monday
Spaghetti

Tuesday
Stir Fry

Wednesday
Turkey Sandwiches

Thursday
Pizza

Friday
Chicken Curry
Spiced Carrot Muffins

Sat/Sun options
Hamburgers
Toast smothered with Tuna and White Sauce
Red beans and Rice

I really need to go buy some peaches!

I went to Old Navy last night. Oh, how I love Old Navy. As I’m walking up to the store, I always do a mental check of what I’m wearing and EVERY TIME, I’m covered in head to toe Old Navy clothing. Seriously yesterday I was wearing Old Navy flip flops, jeans, white cami, olive shirt, even my underwear were Old Navy, if they made bras my bra would have been Old Navy. Oh, yeah and my purse was Old Navy. Yeah, it’s quite possible that I may have a disease, but come on, who could blame me? Old Navy is the bestest. In Heaven, we’ll all be wearing Old Navy. I’m sure of it.

I’ve been knitting hats like crazy lately. I’m teaching a class at the yarn store next month and I’ve been trying to find the perfect and most affordable yarn. This is my favorite hat so far, but the yarn, which is Colinette, is really expensive.

I also made one out of Di.ve Fiamma, but next to the Colinette, it was less than impressive. Right now, I’m just two rows from finishing my third, this time out of Rowan Biggie Print.

I’m excited to be teaching a class, I think it will be really fun. We’re also talking about me teaching the One Skein Wonder too, which will be really fun.

Things are so busy today that I only have time to brag that I won two things from Blingo in the last three days. A $25 Visa gift card and another movie ticket. yay blingo!

Yesterday morning Honor slept until noon. NOON! I kept checking on him, but, good Lord, you don’t wake a kid up! He didn’t take an afternoon nap, but it was an acceptable swap. While we waited for him to wake up (a.k.a. enjoyed our slime free peace and quite), Eden and I consumed large amounts of our new favorite snack, Nutella and graham crackers. This is her, “Can I have more?” face.

After he woke up and we had, you know, lunch, I went down to the basement and pulled the training potty out. It was a little dusty, so we took it out side and hosed it down. Honor was so very excited and had to sit on it that minute, so I pulled off all his clothes and the sitting began.

Potty training boys is a whole different thing. They’ve got whole different directional parts, so I had to teach him that he needs to point his pee pee down. He got it down pretty quick, he’d hop onto the toilet, point it down and then hop back up. Over and over and over again. He’s just missing one little detail: the peeing part.

We brought the potty inside and placed it in it’s rightful place in the bathroom. Eden and Honor spent quite a bit of time on their potties respectively; Honor on the training potty and Eden on the “flush” potty. As they sat there together, I reminded Honor that he needs to point his pee pee down and Eden said, “I’m pointing my pee pee down.” “Good job, Eden.”

It wasn’t until I found this:

that I realized what I’ve done. What was I thinking? I renewed his love for the toilet without even realizing it. Sometimes I astound myself with my lack of rational thought. How in the world would I think that he could spend any amount of time in the bathroom and NOT make a mess?

But here’s my big question: If it’s supposed to GO in the toilet, does it still make the toilet list?

Oh, and the menu is FINALLY back.

Today is August 8th. August 8, 1999, Jim and I were engaged. As we already had a date set (shhh, don’t tell anyone), I knew it was coming, but it was still the coolest ever. The day before my mom had let is slip, she asked me, “why does Jim want to talk to me?” I figured that he was going to ask her permission, but pretended like I didn’t know. No reason to ruin the surprise. I guess she said yes because the next day we were on our way to Aspen.

It was a Sunday and he picked me up early. I’ve lived about two hours away from Aspen since I was in 2nd grade, but this was my first (and only) time there. I remember construction on the road and massive fields of condos being built. As we neared the town, I pulled out my finger nail polish. I was pretty dern sure I’d have a ring to show off and I wanted my hands to look nice. Traffic slowed to a crawl and I had plenty of time to make my fingers perfect. There was some sort of music festival going on in the outskirts of town and traffic was jam packed.

When we finally arrived in town, we then had to search for parking. I remember being floored at the cost! Like two dollars for an HOUR! It was ridiculous. We shopped around town, taking our time to stop and listen to the street musicians. I remember a particularly cool area that was shaded by flower surrounded trees and paved with grass lined brick. There we listened to a teenage girl beautifully playing the violin.

As we meandered around town, we came to the gondola that took trips up the mountain. We decided to check out the top of the mountain and Jim paid the expensive fare (something like $6/person.) The view of Aspen was beautiful. And so was the view on top. We hiked around for a few minutes, noticing the fancy restaurant being built. As we rode back down the mountain, Jim was very antsy. He kept shifting his weight, crossing and uncrossing his legs.

About halfway down the mountain, he smoothly moved to one knee. It was perfect. And I stepped off the gondola engaged! The rest of the day is kind of hazy to me. I remember eating at the Hard Rock Cafe, and not being very impressed. I think after that we headed home, it was my step dads birthday and we were supposed to be back in time to have cake. I remember calling all our friends to tell them the news. It was a perfect day.

Six years.. it’s a long time. But I have to say, I love him even more today than I did six years ago.