Prepping for VD.

{You'll Shoot Your Eye Out Kid}

It had been over a month since seeing my dad and I was missing him, so I called and asked to come down with the kids.  Then I invited my sister along for some traditional Valentine's Day crafts and oh my gosh check out last year's post here because you cannot believe how much our four kids have grown in just one year!  Ridiculous.

We always get to dad's at noon so we can have lunch together, too bad for him the kids got normal food and we brought a salad and some fresh take (it's like a coating for baked chicken - shake n' bake with cheese mixed) for the overweight big people.

Don't think after a bowl of salad I didn't add up the WW points for a Lofthouse cookie!  And then immediately shove it in my face and enter the four points into my phone.

We let the kids tear up the place while we digested and cleaned up.  I wondered why they were being so quiet in dad's bedroom.  Yeah they were doing something not allowed at home...hasn't my dad ever read about the ten little monkeys?

We planned to let the kids make cards for their dads, I got the idea from Pinterest but now that I'm here looking at the difference between theirs and ours?  Quite a bit...damn, the fingers were supposed to overlap! 

{Taken from Pinterest}

After they were finished with the hands, we cut them out into hearts and spiced them up with glitter and I quickly decided I could not give them to Jon.  What if he said he was going to take them to work and they sat in his van for a month and got ruined?  Can't take that chance...so we'll get him a box of conversation hearts instead.

After our painting, Haylee found a DVD with a picture of a pig on it so she ran it to my dad saying "I want to watch Peppa Pig!"  I was only half listening to the commotion but he put in the DVD and assured her that Peppa Pig was coming on but it was the Simpson's Movie with the spider pig in it!

The movie was totally inappropriate but they were glued to it...hey, my sister and I wanted to catch up with our dad so desperate times called for desperate measures!  I only hope Ryan doesn't use the word butt-head at daycare tomorrow.

Leave it to my dad to teach them the things they shouldn't be learning until at least six or seven, right? I'm pretty sure that is why Ryan is so drawn to him, because he's like the rebel grandpa who does things that make mom gasp...

But if you ask me they are good for each other.

This and That.

{Frozen Edamame Soy Beans: microwave one minute and salt}

Katie fell on the floor when she saw me snack on these today!

I wish I had a better network of bloggers who were on Weight Watchers because I could really use some tips and tricks right now!  You may remember that my mom, sister and I signed up for their online program two weeks ago and although we are all doing very well, it has been hard to find variety.  My mom is down twelve pounds, my sister six and five for me.

Although the weight these past few weeks has come off slowly, I have been getting compliments from so many people.  Even my doctor said to me at a visit this week "oh my gosh, you are sixteen pounds lighter than you were when I saw you in September!" which made me feel like a diva.

I do not care if I only lose one pound per week for the next twenty weeks...that simply means I will be twenty pounds lighter this summer than I am today and the thought of that?  Inspiring.

Although we've had the mildest winter since I've been old enough to drive, tonight I was white knuckled.  People joke about how Michigan drivers should have it down pat by now and I'm right with them but when it's twenty degrees and the roads are pure ice?  There is no starting, stopping or turning, it's just giving it a little gas and saying a prayer.  It took me two hours to drive twenty five miles tonight and 1/2 of the drive was after I picked up the kids which made me nearly want to throw up.

The more I think about Ryan starting kindergarten this year, the more I get that lump in my throat.  This child that I created and have had had in my hip pocket for five years is now going to be off on his own at a big old elementary school with cliques he may not fit in, kids who will teach him that the tooth fairy doesn't exist and laugh at him when he gives a wrong answer in front of the class.  The thought of somebody hurting him breaks my heart...

Tonight I let him sit at my computer and practice his letters, I spelled to him and he would find the letter on the keyboard.  He knows 1/2 of the letters by sight and needs hints to find the other half which I think is a great start...I was told recently they are eliminating the cursive writing in school because the kids are typing their letters rather than writing which seems bizarre!  Kids start out using a computer on the day they arrive.  How times have changed.

Lube It Up.

On our way home from the baby shower Saturday night Haylee says from the back seat "turn on the light mom, I can't find my gum!"  Oh great...how in the heck am I supposed to find the missing goo when I'm driving seventy miles per hour down the freeway? 

This child is obsessed with chewing gum and at first it was funny because she was like a two year old side show freak who could chew the same piece of gum for three hours and people would comment "wow, she really doesn't swallow it?"

Yeah well now she wakes up on a Saturday morning, eats her breakfast and immediately asks for her gum.  Um....do ya think it's a problem?  Now I have settled on buying sugar-free and try to convince myself it's okay.

Six months have gone by without incident but the minute we walked in the door, the location of the gum was apparent. The extraction couldn't have come at a worse time, she had been up all afternoon with no nap and she was begging me to put her to bed.  Thankfully, she was easily lured in with pizza and a cartoon.

I called my friend Katie who said the trick was definitely ice or peanut butter but I had no ice and only chunky peanut butter so I figured some good old cooking oil would work.  All I needed was to get it lubed up right?  I'm here to tell you that the canola oil worked within minutes, slid that gum right off the strands of hair.  I will add that washing grease out the next morning is another story.

{Did I say it just slid out with ease?}

David took pictures and laughed hysterically because when she stood up to walk away it was also hanging off her rear end!  Three places in her hair and on her butt...boy was she a mess.