Well, if I can get it written and posted in the next 8 minutes that is....
I baby-sat Burim, my three year old nephew and apple of my eye, tonight so that Shannon could attend a friend's wedding. I have been in a FUNK all week long so I was acting more like a brat about doing this than I honestly should have. Here are the highlights from tonight's adventures in baby-sitting and yes, you are going to be subjected to all of the cute stories because almost all of the rest of you have cute kid stories all the time and I am always jealous so now I have some and I am going to blog about them. :-) I should be ashamed of myself for being bratty about baby-sitting when it brings me this kind of joy...(not to mention blog material)
1) I hand my fortune cookie to Burim and he opens it and pulls the paper out. "What does it say Burim?" (since he is learning to read- yes, I know- he is a genius) He hands it back to me and replies, "I don't know- it's in Spanish." I just stared at him and took it away from him. No, don't get all excited- it wasn't actually in Spanish- but where he came up with this is beyond me!
2) Burim knows he is NOT supposed to touch the little chlorine floater in the pool and I often say to his mother- if he isn't supposed to touch it- why not just take it out before he gets in there? Seems simple enough to me! Well, tonight, we all pile into the pool and are having a splendid time and he goes over and picks up the chlorine floater. Wait- who left THAT in there? Oh yeah. I'm the one in charge tonight so I guess that would be ME. "Burim!" (I shriek) I proceed to remind him he is NOT to touch the chlorine and that he knows this and if he does it again- he will get out of the pool and go to time-out. Here comes Mr. Burim through the water. He wraps his arms around my neck, leans his head on my shoulder and says, "Becca......I love you!" Silence. Troy is trying hard not to lose it and bust out laughing. "Burim, I love you too. Now don't touch the chlorine." (Trying to keep a straight face and failing miserably.) When I was re-telling this story to his mother- she says, "Wait. You didn't take it out BEFORE you got in the pool?" Damn my arrogance anyway.
3) When we arrived, we had picked up our dinner and came in with a big bag of food. Burim comes running up to Troy. "Uncle Troy! Did you bring me a burrito? Nuggets?! Pizza?!?!?" We are staring at each other and at his mother- it is 6:30! He didn't eat yet?! He runs to his mother, "They are eating and didn't bring me ANYTHING!" We are HORRIFIED and MORTIFIED! So we proceed to tell him we are going to make him a burrito right now. He looks at us in disgust and says, "I do not WANT to eat now. Right now, I will be playing." Where does this child GET this stuff?
4) Giving Burim his bath after pool time ends. I am sitting on the commode, flipping through a magazine. He turns around and looks at me. "Becca. Are you pooping?" Ummmm. No. But thanks for checking!
5) The best part of the whole night, well besides him being completely adorable and having the best laugh in the whole wide and ENTIRE world, was when he curled up with his blanket and tried to fight off sleep while he laid his head on Troy's lap. This makes my whole WORLD that my nephew who has my dimples and my blood in his veins adores the man I love more than life. I literally cannot explain what it makes me feel and how much it makes me love and adore BOTH of them more and more every time I witness it first hand.
I think five is enough, more than 5 and I would just be showing off. :-)
Dang it. It's 12:02. Oh well. Back to back blogs it will have to be. But I'm not going back to change the title.
Good night!
B
Saturday, July 11, 2009
77 and counting
Sevens are lucky in the gambling world...and anyone who knows me well knows that I Lo-ooooo-ve to gamble. Emphasis on the love. I have been feening for some gambling time but this year it's not looking so promising. Maybe next year as my reward for all of this hard work.
This week we went back to WW after a week off for the 4th of July holiday. She presented stats that said JULY is the biggest drop-out rate month of the entire year for their program. I was shocked by this! She said she was too. I thought for sure it would be either April (when the newness from New Year's resolutions wears off) or November/December when people start going holiday crazy. Nope- July she said. Inneresting. Glad we came back or we would have just been another statistic.
Together- Troy and I have now lost almost 60 pounds. Of course, he has lost more than me, that's why I group it together. Makes me feel more successful lumping his success in with mine. I told our leader after the meeting today that I was expecting big savings in my bank account next month because gas prices are going back down and we should be getting better gas mileage on our cars REAL soon. She couldn't help but laugh.
I had to get up and speak today because I set another milestone and it is a big one in the world of Weight Watchers. I lost 10% of my body weight today! I didn't just lose what I needed to either- I obliterated it! I lost another 3.4 pounds in this morning's weigh-in and I was pretty stinkin' proud of myself for coming off a week with no meeting PLUS a major national holiday?! Awesomeness.
Even more awesome- I went to the front of the class, wrapped her feather boa around me (that is her "thing"- you wear a boa and shimmy it whenever you lose 10% of your weight- for some reason, Troy politely declined when it was his turn- such a party pooper) and talked about my journey thus far. Bonus? I didn't even shed a tear! Troy was sitting next to me and I thought he had turned into Bill or Edward (hello Sookie and Twilight fans, are you following this?) because I am pretty sure he had stopped breathing. I couldn't even look at him because I knew that would probably do me in. Later he told me, he heard a slight crack in my voice in the beginning and he knows that is how it always starts but that I shook it off and kept on trucking and didn't shed a tear. After the meeting, I went to hug my leader and she showed me where she had grabbed some tissues on her way into the room because she wanted to be prepared if I started blubbering. :-)
I have found my weight loss journey to be quite the emotional one. It is easy to ride high on adrenaline when you are losing faster than you can buy new clothes but it is just as easy to beat yourself the hell up whenever you do everything possible that you think is right and then you only lose .2 of a pound. So, making it through my little public appearance today with no tears was QUITE the accomplishment.
The changes in my body are becoming more and more evident and when I see my sister tonight she BETTER notice something besides my incredible-shrinking-boobs. Because I am so short, I have dropped 3 sizes already with my current weight loss. Fantabulous!
77 pounds to go. I can do this- yes I can! 7's are lucky!
Love,
Becca
This week we went back to WW after a week off for the 4th of July holiday. She presented stats that said JULY is the biggest drop-out rate month of the entire year for their program. I was shocked by this! She said she was too. I thought for sure it would be either April (when the newness from New Year's resolutions wears off) or November/December when people start going holiday crazy. Nope- July she said. Inneresting. Glad we came back or we would have just been another statistic.
Together- Troy and I have now lost almost 60 pounds. Of course, he has lost more than me, that's why I group it together. Makes me feel more successful lumping his success in with mine. I told our leader after the meeting today that I was expecting big savings in my bank account next month because gas prices are going back down and we should be getting better gas mileage on our cars REAL soon. She couldn't help but laugh.
I had to get up and speak today because I set another milestone and it is a big one in the world of Weight Watchers. I lost 10% of my body weight today! I didn't just lose what I needed to either- I obliterated it! I lost another 3.4 pounds in this morning's weigh-in and I was pretty stinkin' proud of myself for coming off a week with no meeting PLUS a major national holiday?! Awesomeness.
Even more awesome- I went to the front of the class, wrapped her feather boa around me (that is her "thing"- you wear a boa and shimmy it whenever you lose 10% of your weight- for some reason, Troy politely declined when it was his turn- such a party pooper) and talked about my journey thus far. Bonus? I didn't even shed a tear! Troy was sitting next to me and I thought he had turned into Bill or Edward (hello Sookie and Twilight fans, are you following this?) because I am pretty sure he had stopped breathing. I couldn't even look at him because I knew that would probably do me in. Later he told me, he heard a slight crack in my voice in the beginning and he knows that is how it always starts but that I shook it off and kept on trucking and didn't shed a tear. After the meeting, I went to hug my leader and she showed me where she had grabbed some tissues on her way into the room because she wanted to be prepared if I started blubbering. :-)
I have found my weight loss journey to be quite the emotional one. It is easy to ride high on adrenaline when you are losing faster than you can buy new clothes but it is just as easy to beat yourself the hell up whenever you do everything possible that you think is right and then you only lose .2 of a pound. So, making it through my little public appearance today with no tears was QUITE the accomplishment.
The changes in my body are becoming more and more evident and when I see my sister tonight she BETTER notice something besides my incredible-shrinking-boobs. Because I am so short, I have dropped 3 sizes already with my current weight loss. Fantabulous!
77 pounds to go. I can do this- yes I can! 7's are lucky!
Love,
Becca
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Happy Birthday America!
That's what I spent some of my time doing on the holiday yesterday....trying to get Burim to say that. It finally happened after about 4 unsuccessful tries of him holding his arms up and yelling proudly "HAPPY BIRTHDAY BECCA!" LOL
My husband decided on our way down to Canton yesterday (for those who don't know, Canton is a small town out towards East Texas and the weekend before the "First Monday" in every month, they have a huge, I mean HUGE, trade show where you can buy just about anything your heart desires) we needed to introduce our 3 year old nephew to the spectacle and mystery that is fireworks. I informed him we should likely call Burim's mommy, my sister, and get permission before making such an investment, and to my wonderment, she thought it was a good idea too and told us to proceed. Yeah! Exciting times!
After spending 4 hours shopping in the 104 degree Texas sun, we were dripping wet, red faced, and exhausted, but got re-energized all over again when we pulled off onto the gravel shoulder to what claimed to be the "Largest fireworks stand in Texas! NO WAIT! 15 windows!" and began our inspection of their bounty.
Now, I know nothing about fireworks. We weren't allowed to have them as a kid and my mom put the fear of God into us with her wretched story about her friend, the boy who "blew his hand off", and forbade us from touching them. Troy, on the other hand, grew up with fireworks and goes into some sort of frenzy around them. Some of my greatest memories from early on in our marriage is going out to his sister's home in the country, which sat on acres of land, and watching the boys all shoot off hundreds of dollars worth of fireworks. We would BBQ, have watermelon, and home made vanilla ice cream with fresh sweet strawberries and sit outside drinking beer and wine coolers and having a great time. Her kids were young and still at home back then and they loved their aunt and uncle and we loved them and it was good, great, and awesome times. I get so nostalgic just thinking about it! His mother, Sherle, would send people back up the fireworks stand over and over and over again to get "just 20 more dollars" (really $100 more) because she loved it so much and Troy definitely takes after her in this way. She would slip money into different people's pockets and think she was being sneaky even though everyone knew what she was doing. Someone need to run to the store for milk? $20 in their pocket to stop by the fireworks stand on the way. 4th of July was one of our greatest family holidays back then and fireworks were a BIG deal. I can't believe those kids are now either in college, married for 5 years, or already finished a 4 year stint in the Marines. Goodness how time passes us by.
Troy starts conversing with the woman at the fireworks stand about what is appropriate for a 3 year old (really I think this is a ludicrous question- fireworks that are appropriate for a 3 year old? Let's get serious people!) and the pile in front of us starts growing and growing. He buys an entire SLEEVE of sparklers instead of just one box- why, I have no idea, but that's what he does. Then these little chickens who lay eggs ("shoot sparks out of their butt" is how she explained it) get added to the pile. He decided he wants a sparkler fountain too and she grabs one off the shelf. He double checks to make sure it is just a fountain that sprays color and she assures us it is. Good thing he has a witness to this conversation. That's all I'm saying. Otherwise, my sister really might have killed him last night.
Troy advises Ms. Fireworks Seller we will be IN the city limits and that we need things that are quiet and can be done in the backyard with no one getting arrested. He just wants a little bit of color and light to get Burim exposed to fireworks. Oh yes, she assures us, this one will be fine. "It's just a sparkler fountain that sprays pretty colors," and she makes a waving motion around the top of the cone to demonstrate how the pretty, pretty colors will come out. He points to one that is twice the size of the one we just added to the stack and she says that one will be fine too. He adds it the pile, I am shaking my head, and remind him we are NOT going to his sister's and I start laughing telling him he is definitely his mother's son. Now I am full-fledged tugging on Troy's sleeve and reminding him that Burim is only 3 when I notice that his eyes have glazed over and he appears to be in some sort of fireworks trance. ENOUGH! Time to go. We hide our illegal loot in the trunk under all of my Canton goodies and head back to civilization.
We go watch fireworks in the parking lot of the Grapevine Mills mall and Burim could care less about them. He ends up running around the parking lot and playing with his ball instead of looking at them. I think we have possibly burned him out on fireworks since we have been taking him up to the Ballpark after the Rangers' games to watch them in the parking lot. He doesn't appreciate them the way Shannon and I do since we only got to see them once a year in the parking lot of my step-dad's job at Fort Hood and those were nothing to get too excited about but we loved them. Troy announces he thinks it will be more fun to go back and do our sparklers instead.
When we get in the backyard, I am a little concerned with the crunching sound under my flip flops and I ask Shannon when is the last time she watered her grass?! She said she is just letting it die so I am a little concerned since it is STILL 96 degrees at 10:30 PM. Troy and Artan (my brother-in-law) appear to care not one bit and off they go, setting stuff on fire. I see embers glowing in the grass and my nervous memories of my mother's stern warnings are creeping up and making my tummy start to hurt. Of course, my mother (our adult supervision) is nowhere to be found, she crashed before the sun went down and was snoozing 1.5 miles a way. She probably woke up about 5 minutes later though...
Burim LOVED the sparklers and was running all around with them and was enjoying throwing his poppers on the ground and getting all excited when one actually popped and he made a sound like a wild animal and did his arms in little muscle man poses, showing us his brute strength (LOL) every time one made the loud noise.
Troy pulls out the sparkler fountain and Shannon glares at him (we were both worried the grass was going to catch on fire and burn the house down) and wants to know what it is. "Oh, it is just a sparkler fountain," I advise her knowingly, since I am now the fireworks expert in our family. "You put it on the ground and color comes out of it, just like a sparkler but it's a fountain." She still doesn't look convinced. Troy is trying to put it in the grass and I am yelling at him that isn't a good idea and he better put it on the concrete and she is yelling at him that he better keep it away from her pool. He is ignoring both of us and thinks we are idiots and hysterical females and Artan is still throwing poppers all over the place and holding three and four sparklers at a time to make a bigger fire. Troy puts the sparkler fountain on the grass and goes to light it. Shannon is glaring at him and goes to grab the garden hose and I bust out laughing.
What happened next, I only wish we had on video or at least had a couple of pictures. Now, keep in mind, we are in Shannon's backyard- of her DUPLEX, and we are well within the city limits and less than a mile from the big sign on the side of the road that says "Fireworks are strictly prohibited in the city limits". Just keep that in mind while you read on....
5 seconds after Troy lights the pretty sparkler fountain, it goes from a nice little light show on the ground to sparks start shooting up and FIREWORKS (actual fireworks) start shooting up in the air and over the house. Whistling and then exploding it goes off over and over and over and over again. My face is horrified and I am running towards the gate. I don't know where exactly I was headed but I was booking it out of there. I am too spoiled to be in jail. I would never survive.
Burim is standing transfixed staring at this explosion of light in his very own backyard with his eyes wide in amazement. Shannon is in shock and is looking like she honestly might kill Troy with her bare hands- or strangle him with the garden hose she is clutching for dear life. I am now laughing so hard I can't stop and am yelling at Troy, "MAKE IT STOP!!!!! We are going to get arrested!" He is looking a little panicked and just keeps saying, "It wasn't supposed to do that! She SAID!" He told me later that all he kept thinking is, "Oh my GOD, how long is it going to do that and can I make it stop?!" When I say it was LOUD, I am not kidding. We were full blown shooting off a fireworks display right in the middle of town. Kaboom, kaboom, kaboom, whistle, kaboom, over and over and over again. I am positive it was fine my mother didn't come over because she could surely see it from her apartment down the road, and I am thinking Troy's mom might have been able to see it in Mesquite 30 miles down the road too. Just when I think Shannon is about to douse the fountain AND my crazy husband with the garden hose, the screeching finally comes to an end and we are all just standing there in shock staring at each other.
It was a little thrilling to be completely honest (mostly AFTER it was over and no siren came roaring down the street) and I have never broken the law so blatantly (okay aside from speeding like a demon) so there was a little rush of adrenaline. But mostly, it was scary and hilarious all at the same time. Definitely a holiday memory for all time.
For future reference, the salesgirl at window 3 of the largest fireworks stand in Texas is a big fat liar and should NOT be trusted! That girl will tell you anything to sell you anything! LOL! Needless to say, we wrapped up our festivities and Troy quietly tucked the sparkler fountain that was three times the size of the one we had just set off back into our "top-secret big brown paper bag" and went and hid it back in the car. We were living on the edge last night but we aren't TOTALLY insane. :-)
For future reference, the salesgirl at window 3 of the largest fireworks stand in Texas is a big fat liar and should NOT be trusted! That girl will tell you anything to sell you anything! LOL! Needless to say, we wrapped up our festivities and Troy quietly tucked the sparkler fountain that was three times the size of the one we had just set off back into our "top-secret big brown paper bag" and went and hid it back in the car. We were living on the edge last night but we aren't TOTALLY insane. :-)
Hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th- we definitely had a happy one and the safe part, while debatable, ended up alright in the end. Happy Birthday America and God Bless the USA!
Love,
Becca
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Time flies....
Okay, people, you are going to have to start yelling at me on Facebook to stop playing Bejeweled and get my bootie over to my blog and post a new entry! I am serious when I say I cannot believe it has been almost a month since my last post. Unacceptable. But really, I guess I have been slacking all over the place since summer hit.
For some reason, I think because my sister is on summer break- I am too. Just ask my boss, I have been acting like I am on vacay for the last month and have spent the time I have been working trying to figure out new ways to take more time off. I triple love hanging out in the pool with my favorite little guy Burim and I love getting tan (tan fat=better than white fat, this is a proven fact) and I love gabbing the day away with Shannon and then facebooking on my phone while she facebooks on her computer and we are totally commenting to each other while we are sitting there staring at each other. I am aware this makes BOTH of us dorks but I don't care because I love it! Having those random fun days with her and her baby boy make it nearly IMPOSSIBLE for me to stay staring at the computer and sitting inside lovely government buildings all day. All I can think about is how much fun they are having without me and wondering WHY WHY WHY I am not a teacher for the million and tenth time. Oh yeah- I could NEVER get to work on time every day and being trapped with 20 to 30 kids in a room is my idea of torture. But the summer break....that I can do!
So, even though I am supposed to work this Friday and this Monday, I am spending this evening conniving a way to take both of those days off so I can hang out 3 miles down the road. I have spent so much time figuring that out, I guess I forgot to blog. Oh yeah- and work. I did get caught up today though so that month of slacking is behind me and I can move on to a NEW month of slacking. Yeah!
I am still going strong with the weight loss, down another 2 pounds last week. I have dropped about 3 sizes so far. My sister advised me on Friday that she knew I had lost weight because my boobs were smaller. Gotta love little sisters. Couldn't my REAR be smaller? Or my STOMACH or big flabby arms? Nope. Boobs. Such is life, I suppose anyway. I have backed off of my full-steam-ahead workouts 7 days a week. I say it is because I was worried about pushing too hard and getting injured...Troy says it's because I think I am on summer break and am stopping work of ALL types. Hmmmmm. What does he know? I bargained with myself that if I wasn't going to work out everyday, I had to change my contract with myself and drink 4 bottles of water each day instead of 3. I realize this makes no rational sense but it is how I am reconciling it all in my brain to justify my summer of leisure. Plus, the heat index IS over 100 and I would prefer NOT to die of heat stroke, I think it would hurt.
That's all for tonight. I will make a promise to do three things before I go eat my vegetable soup. I will go to water aerobics in the morning, I will walk/run on Friday morning, and I will blog again on Sunday. I talked to a friend from high school tonight (when I say talked, I mean facebooked of course, I rarely talk on the phone for pleasure anymore, it is always work and by the time I get done I have NO desire to do ACTUAL talking with anyone. When I finally peel the phone away from my ear or have it surgically removed for the week, I throw it in my purse or turn it on silent and shove it under my pillow. No idea why, but that's what I do. Don't judge!) and we traded blogs...that's when I came over here to peek at mine and I thought, OMG she is probably wondering why I am passing out my blog when I haven't posted in a month. Thus, this totally random and bizarre entry for tonight. To ease my guilty conscience. :-) It's my blog. I can do that if I want to.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
Becca
For some reason, I think because my sister is on summer break- I am too. Just ask my boss, I have been acting like I am on vacay for the last month and have spent the time I have been working trying to figure out new ways to take more time off. I triple love hanging out in the pool with my favorite little guy Burim and I love getting tan (tan fat=better than white fat, this is a proven fact) and I love gabbing the day away with Shannon and then facebooking on my phone while she facebooks on her computer and we are totally commenting to each other while we are sitting there staring at each other. I am aware this makes BOTH of us dorks but I don't care because I love it! Having those random fun days with her and her baby boy make it nearly IMPOSSIBLE for me to stay staring at the computer and sitting inside lovely government buildings all day. All I can think about is how much fun they are having without me and wondering WHY WHY WHY I am not a teacher for the million and tenth time. Oh yeah- I could NEVER get to work on time every day and being trapped with 20 to 30 kids in a room is my idea of torture. But the summer break....that I can do!
So, even though I am supposed to work this Friday and this Monday, I am spending this evening conniving a way to take both of those days off so I can hang out 3 miles down the road. I have spent so much time figuring that out, I guess I forgot to blog. Oh yeah- and work. I did get caught up today though so that month of slacking is behind me and I can move on to a NEW month of slacking. Yeah!
I am still going strong with the weight loss, down another 2 pounds last week. I have dropped about 3 sizes so far. My sister advised me on Friday that she knew I had lost weight because my boobs were smaller. Gotta love little sisters. Couldn't my REAR be smaller? Or my STOMACH or big flabby arms? Nope. Boobs. Such is life, I suppose anyway. I have backed off of my full-steam-ahead workouts 7 days a week. I say it is because I was worried about pushing too hard and getting injured...Troy says it's because I think I am on summer break and am stopping work of ALL types. Hmmmmm. What does he know? I bargained with myself that if I wasn't going to work out everyday, I had to change my contract with myself and drink 4 bottles of water each day instead of 3. I realize this makes no rational sense but it is how I am reconciling it all in my brain to justify my summer of leisure. Plus, the heat index IS over 100 and I would prefer NOT to die of heat stroke, I think it would hurt.
That's all for tonight. I will make a promise to do three things before I go eat my vegetable soup. I will go to water aerobics in the morning, I will walk/run on Friday morning, and I will blog again on Sunday. I talked to a friend from high school tonight (when I say talked, I mean facebooked of course, I rarely talk on the phone for pleasure anymore, it is always work and by the time I get done I have NO desire to do ACTUAL talking with anyone. When I finally peel the phone away from my ear or have it surgically removed for the week, I throw it in my purse or turn it on silent and shove it under my pillow. No idea why, but that's what I do. Don't judge!) and we traded blogs...that's when I came over here to peek at mine and I thought, OMG she is probably wondering why I am passing out my blog when I haven't posted in a month. Thus, this totally random and bizarre entry for tonight. To ease my guilty conscience. :-) It's my blog. I can do that if I want to.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
Becca
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