jenniferh

If I hadn’t jumped on the scale on day 2, I would be going “OH YAY I LOST 3 POUNDS” instead of “Oh, good, I didn’t gain any of it back.”

My son spent the night at a friends house, my daughter Rebecca needed to take  a morning off, and so Rachel went jogging with me.  I didn’t make it to the lightpole I had in mind, but I did go four mailboxes farther than I did yesterday!

Eating - I did REALLY well.  By the time we got back from the band meeting, I was wanting something to eat REALLY badly because I was so pissed off.  They have fee after fee after fee…  The school system we moved from charged about $95 for the kids to be in band for uniform cleaning, shoes, and a band shirt.  Everything else was either owned by the school and you’d pay if you broke it (the uniform bags, flip-folders, etc) or was purchased by funds raised by the band-boosters (pre-game meals, water at the games, chartered bus for contest) and the kids only did fundraising if they wanted to go on the spring trip.

Here: $100 equipment maintenance fee, $100 fee for bandboosters, THREE mandatory fundraisers where you either participate or buy out at $100 for one and $50 for each of the others, you have to buy the garment bag, the tote bag, the polo shirt, the t-shirt, and pay for flip-folders, plus I don’t know what else because by then the sticker shock had about given me a heart attack.  What the Hell is the band-boosters for if WE’RE giving them all the money?  We’re not rich.  We don’t GO on vacations, we buy used cars, and I’ve never spent more than $30 on a really nice dress off the clearance rack (and THAT’S a once a year purchase!)  But these people expect band parents to either be rich or go into debt for their kids to be in band.  Rachel been in band since the 4th grade - I’m not going to make her quit now because it’s expensive.  She has wanted to be a musician in an orchestra since she was in elementary school, and her back-up plan is to be a band-director!  How could I tell her, now, “I’m sorry dear, I know it’s your junior year, but I can’t let you sign up for band anymore because these people have lost their damned minds.”  And if I let the one in, I have to let the other in.  So we’re looking at about a thousand dollars in fees, unless I feel like letting my kids go door to door in a saturated neighborhood selling crap to people we don’t know (ummmm, NOT HAPPENING.)

 SO when I came home last night, the first place I headed was the ‘fridge.  I drank a big glass of milk and went and sat down and tried to figure out what we’re going to do without so the kids can be in band.  I may have to tell Becca “no” because the rule has always been “one thing” per kid, and she’s going to have to choose either band or choir.  She was only in both last year because at the junior high, they didn’t have any expenses except the shirt and she already owns the flute.  I don’t want her to miss out, but I don’t think I can afford two kids in band.  I’ve decided I’m NOT going to be spending a portion of my first official paycheck on clothes, the stuff I wore for student teaching will work just fine if I just take it up at the waist and hips.  I’ve decided I’m NOT going to be making double payments on my student loans - they’re just going to have to settle for the minimum.  I’m not going to start trying to pay off our vehicles, their going to have to keep getting the minimum, and I’m not going to decorate the kids’ rooms.  I had planned on spending about $200 a month out of my check to decorate for the kids, one room at a time, because they’ve never had nice rooms - mostly they have hand-me-down furniture, posters I’ve painted for them, no curtains (just the blinds that came with the rent-house and now the blinds left by the previous owners), and their books.  I wanted to get them nice bedspreads and curtains, maybe a rug…  NOT HAPPENING.  At least not until next year.  Well, at least Rachel will get a pretty room for her last year of high school before she leaves for college - which will be paid for by student loans and whatever money she earns.

 But honestly - it’s not worth gaining back the weight or even putting on more over.  I’ve been in really tight spots, and believe me, this is NOT a really tight spot.  Having no food in the house, missing a second car payment, and not being able to pay the rent is a really tight spot and we’re nowhere near there.  We live in a really nice house, the kids are HAPPY and they are HEALTHY and they have enough to eat and enough clean clothes to wear… They’ve got dogs, neighbor kids to play with, their own rooms, running water in the house, a freakin’ SWIMMING POOL (HELLO!) - we’re doing just fine.  So what if we don’t have steak every night - steak is bad for you anyways.  So we do without some luxuries - at least we’ve got the necessities and then some! 

I’m off until later - I’ll be checking on my buddies after lunch.  Until then, I’ve got a busy morning getting the house in order and playing with Riley.  I won’t be on here at all over the weekend: that’s family time.  But I’ll be blogging again by Monday morning. 

So I’ve accomplished a lot of housework, I at least cleaned the recycleable material out of the minivan and tossed it in the blue bin, we shopped for food and milk for the weekend, and I picked up about a thousand stickers from a fellow freecycler for “Riley’s Excellent Potty-Training Adventure.” 

By the way, if any of you haven’t heard about freecycling yet, go to http://www.freecycle.org/ and check it out.  It takes some effort, some care, and some discretion.  Don’t sign up for individual emails - daily digest or check the site yourself.  Some of the things people post are just not worth the gas it takes to get there (like a used paperback thesaurus… would use more money in gas to get to the lady’s house than the $2.65 it cost to pick it up the last time I was at Wally-World.)  Some of the things go the second they are posted, so if it’s more than a page back, don’t even bother.  But I’ve gotten some pretty good stuff, and I’ve helped a few people out with stuff I just didn’t need cluttering up my house, too!

 Anyhow… we also had my son’s friend over for about 2 hours, the girls were home long enough for dinner and then I had to take them back for evening band practice, and in about 15 minutes I’ve got to go to that stupid mandatory parents meeting.  I’m grouchy, and I just DON’T WANNA.  But I’ll suck it up and go because I did promise to be a good, involved parent way back when I was pregnant the first time.  *SIGH* why didn’t I promise to be a lackadaisical parent who only SOMETIMES cares enough to show up for those things?  THOSE parents seem pretty happy - and not busy - and somehow their kids survive… 

YAY!  I went jogging two days in a row!  I had a bat swoop at me, but I made it a little further down the road before I had to stop and walk.  I have a streetlight in mind that I want to make it to, tomorrow.  Once I can make it all the way back to the house without walking, I’ll have to add to my route. 

Eating - yesterday I did really well, except the salad in my fridge was slimy so that got tossed and I had fishsticks on whole wheat bread with a can of low-sodium V-8.  I needed the protein, anyhow.  I also had one, single, solitary, lonely M&M.  I don’t know why.  There was no point to it.  And dinner wound up being cheese quesadillas with kiwi slices and green beans.  But it was okay - I had plenty of wiggle room because I didn’t snack on anything but about half a dozen pistachio nuts.  And one M&M.  The green beans, by the way, were heaven.  I got a huge bag of frozen green beans at Sam’s, and we ate about a sixth of the bag between me and my four children.  They were every bit as good as the fresh ones we grew in our garden last year.  No salt, no butter, nothing but lovely green beans.  My two year old (Riley) ate three helpings. 

Tonight we have a “mandatory parents’ meeting” at the band hall.  I’m assuming it’s about the uniform check-out and registration this Saturday.  I’m also assuming bringing the checkbook is mandatory, as well. 

Off to get the baby up.  We have to leave the house in half an hour to get the girls to band practice.

The whole family is getting in on this!  I’ve got my two sisters-in-law to join up and be my own personal cheering section (OF COURSE I’m going to cheer them on, too!), my husband Allen is jogging and eating right and HE QUIT USING TOBACCO (PRAISE GOD!), and my kids are going jogging, too!  I’ve also recruited a good friend, and I’m begging my mom and another friend to come jump on the bandwagon.  I always do better at things when OTHER people are counting on me, so maybe having all these people around to hold me accountable will keep me on the straight and narrow.

My son Sean, bless his heart, could have gone around the block 3 or 4 times (and MAN is he fast!) but when I had to stop and walk the rest of the way at the last corner, he very nicely said, “Whew! I’m glad we stopped!  I was getting tired!”

Sweet little liar.

Then my two girls went jogging together after we got home.  The oldest (Rachel) had been going with either me or my husband when we went, so she’s getting used to it.  The younger one (Rebecca) hasn’t had PE in a couple of years because she’s been in band.  About halfway through, Rebecca asked Rachel, “So when do we get to WALK?” and Rachel said, “Whenever YOU do!”

I also managed to throw in some lunges, pushups, and crunches after I got home.  The plan for today is to stay off my behind as much as possible, have a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, eat a HUGE bowl o’ salad for lunch, and then soup and a sandwich and some more rabbit food for dinner.  Of course I’ll be munching on pistachios most of the day - I’m addicted to the damned things.  Better them than chips, though!  At least pistachios have some vitamins and minerals and essential fats in them. 

I’ll be on later to check on my buddies, but I’m off for now to clean my house before I have to take my girls to band practice, take my son to get his football pads, run to my school to pick up the key to my new room, take my son to the mall to spend his birthday money… etc etc etc ad nauseum.

I wasn’t going to.  I wanted to just weigh in once a week, but there I go, jumping on the scale on day two.  It wasn’t bad; I was already at my goal for Friday!  Except now, I have to really push myself to keep up with the plan until Friday and not give up already. 

I didn’t go jogging this morning because we are expecting Edouard (or however you spell it) to dump a load of rain on us, and I didn’t want to risk being outside when some outer band came barrelling through to hit me with lighting!  We had a TON of thunder and lighting last night, but hardly any rain.  I’m hearing a few rumbles out there this morning, and it is raining steadily.

I think I will take my little mini-trampoline out to the livingroom and jump up and down while watching the news.  Then for breakfast I want a bowl of oatmeal. 

The plan remains the same: exercise both morning and evening, no sodas, no sweets, no alcohol, no chips, and try my hardest to overdose on fruits and vegetables.

I’ll probably be on here daily just for this week, but next week I start having inservice and training and I won’t have time - I want to try to post at least twice a week, though.  Stay tuned, friends and family.  I’m anticipating good things happening in this space.

Okie-dokie, people.  My husband rolled my behind out of bed to go jogging on Saturday, and I managed to go again this morning (Monday).  My goal is to go jogging every morning this week so I can KEEP UP with him when we go jogging together again this weekend.

I gave up sodas a while back (had a setback when we moved - I started feeling like I should have had a caption follow me around saying, “This household move has been brought to you by Dr. Pepper.”) but I’m back off them again.  I’ve now also given up chips, which aside from soda, were my worst vice.  I can do without candy, I can do without alcohol, but take away my chips to go with my sandwich and I start to feel deprived.  I’ve also switched to 100% whole-wheat bread, mustard instead of mayo, and I eat a fruit or veggie with my sandwich instead of chips.  I have to say, slicing and consuming an entire avocado goes a long way towards taking away that deprived feeling.

Exercise Log