I'm doing some much needed scaling down right now.

I worked for the second-to-last weeknight (at least for now--I don't have plans to schedule anymore week night babysitting jobs--I'm burnt out for the time being.) I came home exhausted, and nearly fell into bed. Then laid next to my husband and watched Frasier while he worked on his laptop. I swear having a TV in the bedroom is not a good thing, at least not for my sleeping habits.

I'm notifying several of my clients that I just can't sit for their children anymore. Some of them are in downtown Boston, which is sort of a pain given travel time, and since they don't pay any extra, it's time to let them go.

In other notes, I haven't been home much this week, and my house is suffering for it. Need to clean.

I have the moving bug. Not moving cities, but moving house. Even just moving down the street would be good. I can't explain it, other than that I moved 17 times before I graduated from high school (at least that I can remember.) I told Jes I come from gypsy roots; he told me I come from crazy roots. :P

So we figure we need to make an extra $30,000 a year for me to be a stay-at-home mom. Think Jes will get that big of a raise this year? Ha ha!!! Only if he changes companies.

Check out my latest business post. I think I need some friendly feedback. Starting a business is frustrating sometimes, especially until you find your niche, which I haven't done yet.

In other news, we had a nice picnic today at Spy Pond (I love that park) and saw lots of geese and a duck. The kids honked like geese the whole time, and mashed lunch and cookies into their clothes. They had a great time! I think I have a bit of a sunburn to go with my tiny cold, but that's life. On the way home we stopped at Derby Farm and I bought a Mother's Day present for my mom. (Don't worry, Jes, I used my babysitting money!) (That sounded like I'm 12.) :O)

After that I ran into a friend, who said I looked like I'd lost weight. Funny, since I'm bloated right now and feel like a big fatty. With a cold.

Tonight is the annual knitting group anniversary party. I can't believe it's already been a year! Last year I baked a casserole in my nice clean kitchen, and this year I bought cookies, which I stored overnight in a bag in my (not clean) kitchen. I don't think I can call that progress, but it is what it is. I hope to come home with some nice yarn to replace the yarn I'm swapping.

My mom posted a blog today, in which she mentioned "Can't Touch This" (the song) and now I have it in my head. (She was making a funny reference to a dog she has which is in heat, and all the boys want to get to her, but mom doesn't want her bred. So...can't touch this. And, to help get that out of your head, I leave you with this: "Vanilla iccccce iccccce babyeeee." Evil.

An--Pregnant Pause--Hypocrite. I can make fun out of myself too, Tom. :O)

I took the kids outside today--they loved splashing in the puddles:










We're inside now (thank you Captain Obvious) and pants are in the dryer, kids are snacking, and I'm writing my To Do List. It's about a gazillion miles long. One of the unfortunate things about working outside of the home is that I can't accomplish things at home (again, thank you Captain Obvious.) However, each day I try to bring something that I'm working on, whether it's a knitting/sewing project, bills that need to be paid, or just random internet things (like catching up on blogging and updating my store.) That way, when I have a few moments of downtime, I can maybe get something accomplished. Funny enough, one thing I need to get done is updating our online photo album, but every time I sit down to do it, I'm interrupted. So it keeps getting pushed back, and back, until now, when I'm four months behind. Sigh. It will get done, probably in the next few days since I'm getting to the point that it's Really Bothering me. But then again, maybe I'll start a new sewing project. :O)

But I'm trying. I keep trying. Perseverance is key.

Jes is still in Seattle. He's gone until Thursday morning.

Friday we drew pictures, and I introduced the kids to glue...



I love this picture:



He looks just like Daddy!



And here we are Sunday, in Northampton, where we went to see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot, give a talk and sign our book. She is an amazing speaker, and very gracious in person! And she posted our picture on her blog (April 28th posting, and scroll down a bit to the "mums and babies" section. We're the second picture.)

My doctor wanted me to switch from 2% milk to 1%, and from cream in my coffee to milk. Today is day one of 1% milk. And I'm out of cream.

I may have to give up coffee.

On another note, I'm officially down 10 pounds. And at American Eagle, I'm apparently a size 10, as opposed to a 16. At Gap, I'm a Large as opposed to an XL. Go me!

It's hot outside. Don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining. But when you walk two miles pushing a gigantic double stroller with 50 pounds of toddler and all their various accruements, it's bloody hot. Anyway, we went to Waldo Park today for some flower planting fun, then to our house for lunch. The kids had fun, and saw their friends, but were happy to get home and nap.



My conversation this morning, with my 19 month-old son:

Me: "Come on love, let's get in the car so we're not late!:
Eamon: "Yep!"
Me: "You're such a big boy, letting me strap you into your carseat!"
Eamon: "Yep!"
Me: "Wow, do you really need to eat 12 cheerios at once?"
Eamon: "Yep! Teh-teh!" (Teh-teh means turtle. He was pointing to his turtle on his snacktrap. Look it up if you don't know what it is.)

My point is, I can't decide if he's listening to me, or if I'm having one-sided conversations. I mean, the "Yeps" were all in the right places, but the "turtle" was pretty random. I don't know. :O)

I also made a tiny Etsy update, which makes me feel a little accomplished.

Jes is leaving tomorrow for WA, for which I am insanely, deeply jealous. He's visiting my beloved Seattle, while I'm stuck going to work and stuff. Sigh.

In going to purchase our plane tickets for our August trip yesterday, I realized that I couldn't use only miles, which had been my plan, so then it dawned on me that we *could* have gone on this trip, which would have only served to rack up more miles, and we wouldn't have had to pay for Eamon's ticket, but alas, I didn't know Alaska had a Peak vs. Saver rule (20K mile difference, people!!!) so I'm 6K short of a ticket. Which really makes me angry, but I suppose it's one more validation that we are not lucky people, and that things do not happen easily for us. In fact, I believe whoever is in charge is deliberately, maybe even laughingly, making our lives difficult. But that is neither here nor there. Anyway.

So I have two deeply sleeping children, and I'm completely exhausted, and I have a few tasks to do...but all I can think about is the purse I want to make tonight, and how I need to sort through some of Eamon's drawings for grandparents for Jes to take with him...a hand delivery of sorts. And I really need to make some Mother's Day cards, and I want to make a new apron, and ironing board cover, and this dress for which I found some steeply discounted, but fantastically pretty cotton for...perfect for a summer date night...Oh, and I won tickets to two Independent Film Festival showings this weekend...but I have to work during one of them. Ugh. But Jaimie and I are going to the other, provided I can find a sitter. See how my brain works? No, of course you don't. It's very confusing, even--especially--for me.

I had a nice long weekend, due to Patriots Day (gotta love crazy colonial reenactments, complete with muskets and period dress. I'm not kidding. They closed down the main drag for it. And shot their muskets.)

Friday night was spent breaking in my new sewing machine, making Pam's birthday present, a cute little clutch from the new book from Amy Karol (Angry Chicken.) I wrapped her Grobot in it.

Saturday, after KinderMusik, I spent the ENTIRE day baking. I made two loaves of bread--one of Who Bread, and one Banana. The rest of my day was spent baking, cutting, and decorating chocolate bugs for Pam's party, by request. It was fun, but tedious, and I was exhausted by the time of the actual party. So exhausted that I didn't play Settlers to my usual butt-kicking standards.

Sunday was my turn to get up with Tiny Man, so we spent the morning baking two more loaves of Who Bread, since the first was demolished at Pam's party, and Jes wanted one to take to work. Then I got to go to Ikea with Sarah and Francesca, and pick out a new bookcase for all of our craft supplies. My intention was to go home and set it up, but we were sidetracked and ended up at Shona's house for dinner with Rosanna and Jonathan, and their kids, and Sarah and Francesca. So we put it together at 9PM, and I put most of our stuff away.

Today Eamon and I braved the Boston Marathon crowds and spent the majority of the day on Newbury Street walking and having a picnic lunch. We stopped to watch the runners for a bit, and when we'd had enough of that we walked some more. We visited the Method store, and of course Starbucks. Eamon had a short whole milk, which is apparently his drink of choice. Tonight I sewed a purse for my sister, which I will send with Jes when he leaves Thursday for Washington.

Having an extra day off is nice, but it makes me want to stay home everyday.

I am swamped right now. With baby stuff, and work stuff, and life stuff.

I put in notice at my Wednesday night position. Although I like the extra $100 a month, I also like my Wednesday nights. So my last night is May 7th.

I'm trying to cut back my weekend work. I need more time to be at home, doing homey type things, like playing in the park with my son, and growing things in my containers, and cleaning, and sewing, and creating for my Etsy shop.

I promised everyone a revamped photo website a few weeks ago. I haven't even started it. I suck. Fail.

Today is a picnic in the park with Pam day. We brought sunscreen, a ball, bubbles, floppy hats, and bread to feed the ducks. We're prepared.

Yesterday we played barefoot outside and discovered soft moss, cool dirt, rough bark, smooth sticks, and pokey green grass. After work, we took Nibbler for a walk and found some wintersweet (forsythia, I think you New Englanders call it) and a renegade daffodil to put in our owl vase. We smelled the magnolia trees, watched the big kids play soccer, and said hi to the birdies. It was a pretty good day, which was made even better by the fact that I got to purchase a new sewing machine, since my $55 machine needed $95 worth of work done to it. So, better to spend the money on a new machine. It was an early Mother's Day present. :O)

I'm reading The Creative Family, by Amanda Blake Soule, who blogs here. I love her ideas, and am so inspired to get Eamon and Bug off to a creative start. So we've been trying to get outside more, and this weekend I'm going to attempt to organize our crafting things a bit better to make them more accessible.

It just took me 45 minutes to type this, between Eamon's fits of mommy attention seeking behavior, so this is probably why I don't post as much as I want.

Whew. I'm tired right now. I finally got my Etsy shop up, but I'm having technical issues and am waiting to hear back from support. So I only have three items for sale. And I decided I didn't like my photographs, so I'm going to retake some photos before I upload the rest of my items. But the past few weeks were spent building inventory. I also started a new blog, specifically for my new shop, which will not name my son or divulge too much personal information, as it will be entirely public (as opposed to this one, which I keep mainly to update friends and family, and occasionally vent about nekkid Walgreen's guys. Amen.)

This week is going to be long. I managed to schedule myself WAY too many nights of work, and I'm not looking forward to it. I work tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday and Sunday, and I was asked to work Thursday as well. (I said no, as my family is more important.) And as I was having this (email) conversation, I realized that I should be able to only have the one job, that the side jobs were only meant to be temporary, but that we've grown accustomed to having the extra money, and now I begrudge them. So, we've made the decision that I will quit my Wednesday night job, and for now I'll keep taking the other sitting jobs. However I'm going to try to make an honest effort to only take one night a week. I think, though, that I'm starting to burn out, and need to quit all of the side jobs by this summer at the latest. I think that's fair. I've spent the past year (more than, really) caring for multiple children, and I'd like to keep it to just the one that I truly enjoy spending time with (which, thankfully, is my day job, and the one child that I spend the most time with!) Anyway, I believe that's a new goal, and we'll just have to curb our spending to fit into it. Because I can't keep doing this. I need time to myself. And that's the way it is.

Today we walked to our house for lunch. I realized that I had forgotten to water my plant starts last night and this morning, and with the day being slightly warmer than cold I needed to or they might dry out and die, so we spent two hours home. Which was nice. I threw a load of laundry in, sorted coupons, ironed a table runner, and planted some peppers. It was nice. Tonight I get to go home, pack our dinners, then walk to work with Eamon. Jes will pick him up after he gets home from work. Oh boy.

I have some bloodwork being done on Thursday, more fun tests. They're checking to make sure my thyroid is responding to the double dose of Synthroid, and a few others that I can't think of right now. I believe they're doing the two Lupus tests again (my knees are hurting again, no rest for the wicked.) And probably my blood sugars. Funfun!

Check out my beautiful wall, with my new lovelies from Anthropologie (bought on sale from the new store in the Burlington Mall!!!)

I walked to work today. Well, walked to the bus stop, then rode the bus, since we were running late. It's now raining, and I'm not looking forward to the mile home in the rain. But I have my new rain jacket. And Eamon has a new stroller cover. So we're, ahem, covered. Sorry. :O)

I've been depressed lately. My diet sucks. I don't like the idea of diets. They're depressing. Plus the amount of weight I need to lose is overwhelming, to say the least. I'm having a hard time staying on track. But I haven't gained any weight back--in fact I'm still at 181. So a total loss of 5 pounds so far. I have a weight check in two weeks with the doctor, and I'm going to talk to her about adjusting my attitude to this. It's not like I have a support group to go to, like Weight Watchers.

I'm also depressed about money. It's a recurring theme, but we don't have a lot of it. No matter what. And it's because we're living outside of our means. And it's mostly me. I can't seem to stop spending money on frivolous things, like going to Starbucks, a new sweater (a really, really nice sweater, which I will love to death until it falls off my body but still it cost $70,) or stopping at the grocery store when we have plenty of food at home, just because I don't want to make what we have for dinner. Actually, I think it's more that I don't want to go home. Because my home is depressing right now. I'm not sure why. Something to do with the fact that I'm never home. I know, I know, that really solves the problem, right? I want to be home more, so I stay out later. Well, in some weird way it makes sense in my mind. I don't think I can explain it, but it has something to do with not having enough time to do the things I want to do (cook, clean, sort, sew, knit, quilt, paint, scrap, etc.) so I don't want to see those things at all. Maybe an all or nothing mentality?

Now I'm probably depressing everyone. Sorry again.

On a lighter note, this weekend is Wilson Farm's open house. They'll have a tide pool from the Aquarium, and a petting zoo. I keep meaning to take Eamon to see all the farm animals we always talk and sing about, so hopefully we'll be able to brave the crowds and go there. Anyone want to go with us? I don't know if I want to drive...so maybe take the bus?

I finished my hat. It took a month, and I look wicked cute in it, but so does Eamon:







I made a pillowcase for Eamon's bed this weekend. I want to make a duvet cover as well, so we have a change of bedclothes for him. I have some cute star print fabric that I had bought before he was born, so I used some of the yellow for the pillowcase, and I want to use the blue for the duvet cover, and maybe the red for curtains.

I also found a cute pattern for a grocery tote bag online that I want to try. I've made one bag before, for my sister, so surely I can figure it out. I just want a way to not only use up some of my fabric scraps, but also have cute shopping bags. And it also helps the environment. Blah blah blah.

Jes (and Eamon) helped me with the back deck last night. We filled up my new gigantic planter with soil and compost, and rearranged all the pots, and planted cool season crops (lettuce, chard, carrots.) Hopefully we'll have some yummy veggies soon!

I also sold all the bento boxes I placed on eBay. I can't believe I made a profit on all the boxes. It's insane. I have my cute ones that I love, which were either given to me, or that I bought for myself (some shipped all the way from Japan!) But these were just bought from the Asian market in Quincy. For $2 each. I'm able to sell them for $4 each, plus shipping, etc. So I made money. Even after taking into account gas costs, and we walk to the post office, so no cost there, we are making money. It's not like it's a lot of money, but my little experiment worked. So I bought a few more, and am going to try it again to see what happens.

Jaimie and I also talked about an Etsy shop over the weekend, for her jewelry. Her stuff is good, and she makes a lot of it, but she doesn't want to deal with the business side of it. So we are discussing a potential "business" where she would make the stuff, and I would do the business part of it. She's going to work on making inventory to see if she could keep up with it.

And to leave you with some nice images:

I'm back down to 182 pounds. I don't know how. Water weight maybe? Or maybe the 2 miles I walked yesterday (and .5 miles I already walked this morning? I decided to try the walk to work thing.) I've lost 4 pounds total. Goodness sakes alive.

So this morning, since Jes needs the car (so he can drive to work on his work-mandated day off, yup, that's right) I decided to walk to work. It's not far, only about a mile-ish. So I was ready to go at 7:20, and then Eamon threw a tantrum, and didn't want to get dressed, and our breakfast wouldn't fit in the basket of the stroller (which is unbelievably tiny) so I had to repack that. At 7:35 we were ready to walk out the door. At 7:40 and halfway down our street I realized I didn't have my wallet so we jogged back to the house and I ran in to get it. At 7:42 we set off again. At 7:52 we caught the bus, and I showed up at work at 7:58, with two minutes to spare. The moral of the story? Be ready by 7:00, and prepared for tantrums. And have a stroller with a bigger basket.

We're fixing the stroller part tomorrow. It's off to Babies R Us to buy (hopefully) a new stroller. Or at least pick one out so I can buy it cheaper online. I'm trying to decide between the Graco Metrolite and the Kolcraft Contours Options 4-Wheels. I think. Unless there's a better one (that doesn't cost more than a monthly car payment.)

And now off to update my mom's website, and hopefully ours. And start the newsletter for AFC.

I'm so tired. My eyeballs feel like they're swollen. My nose is running. My son is sick. Lying on the couch watching cartoons and drinking warm milk with a fever sick.

I've fallen off the diet wagon, a bit. Well, maybe steered off course a bit. I'm trying desperately to steer it back (anyone else seeing a little girl in pigtails careening down a hill in a little red Radio Flyer wagon?) I had a mini bagel and banana for breakfast, and I feel fat. I think it's all in my head, though. I have a salad (no dressing) and half a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. Tonight we're having salmon with roasted root vegetables, salad, and pasta. I might not have any pasta. I'm back up to 184 pounds. I blame it on my super yummy homemade (green) white cake with cream cheese frosting for Jes' birthday. Of which I had two small pieces--on two separate days. Seriously people. My body is hoarding fat right now. I haven't even had Starbucks in a week. I did have a small hot chocolate from Dunkin yesterday. I think the 230 calories from that multiplied and instantly attached themselves to my butt. Especially since I wasn't able to walk at all with being sick and oh, yeah, here in Siberia--er, Massachusetts--we haven't got the memo saying it's officially Spring, so stop freaking SNOWING/RAINING/HAILING or I can't take babies outside for a walk!

We've decided to sell our car. We're taking the scary step to becoming a NO CAR FAMILY. Will we survive? Only time will tell. We're going to try out new strollers this weekend (which we desperately need anyway, as the wheels on our current one are so wobbly I repeatedly envision them falling off in the middle of Mass. Ave. while a bus comes barreling down on us as I throw my baby to the side of the road and watch my diaper bag get run over. Anyway.)

I have a cold. It sucks.

Jes' birthday party is tomorrow. When I'm off work tonight, I'm taking Jaimie grocery shopping, then I'm scrubbing my bathroom, working on laundry, cleaning the cat box, doing dishes, scrubbing my kitchen, de-cluttering my dining and living rooms, and dusting. Tomorrow, I'm baking the cake and getting various birthday-boy requested party foods ready.

I have actually been looking forward to this for awhile. Not the getting ready part, but the actual party. I like hanging out with our friends (and having a clean house is a good side effect...)

I also need to make an appointment with a rheumatologist before the day's over. I've been putting it off, but it needs to be done. My Lupus bloodwork came back negative, but my PC doctor wants me to follow up with a specialist since my overall symptoms are still not good. I believe she's thinking Lupus still, but I don't know for sure. Sucky.

We're placing a garden order this weekend. It's pretty exciting! I'm going to get blueberries and strawberries for my back porch. One of these weekends I'll convince Jes to go back to Home Depot and get my potting soil so I can fill my gigantomongous planter for my tomatoes, which should sprout soon (on my window sill.) Right now my kitchen window looks terrible, with it's ugly desk lamp, heating pad, and egg crate, but I suppose that's the price I pay for home-grown tomatoes this summer...or I could buy the plants from the nursery...oh, well, this is way more fun.

And I'm down to 182 pounds! I've lost 4 pounds so far, and have 67 more to go! :O)

Oh the excitement! It's enough to set your heart a-pounding, I tell you what! My nanny baby (Bug, we'll call her) has a 103.2 degree fever! Poor thing! I called her mom, and we've Tylenol-ed, and de-socked, and all that stuff. Meanwhile, Bug is sleeping it off. It came on so quickly! We were fine at storytime, and OK (a bit fussy) at lunch, and then I noticed she was BURNING up! So I had to take her temperature. Rectally. And she was not happy with me. Maybe even a tiny bit angry. But I apologized, and now we're buddies again. Poor little Bug!

Other than that, my life is boring. I'm babysitting tonight. My usual Wednesday night job. Tomorrow is Jes' birthday, and I have a surprise for him. But I'm not telling a soul about it. Well, maybe the babysitter, but that's it. Saturday night is his birthday party, and he's requested a green cake with green frosting. Seriously, that's kind of gross, but he's the birthday leprechaun, er, boy, I suppose. One of these times I'm going to make him an avocado cake. There's a recipe for it in my new cookbook. Or spinach brownies (with a warning not to eat them while warm, as the spinach flavor dissipates when cooled completely.) I don't think I'll be trying that anytime soon.

I bought a mini-muffin pan today, in the hopes that I can hide something healthy in something baked and maybe, just maybe, Eamon will eat it. We'll see.

Today is a quiet, warm, spring-like day. We took a walk to Walgreens for supplies (reduced sodium goldfish and bottled water) then walked to Spy Pond for a bit of sun. The kids toddled around the park munching on goldfish and watching the various birds (today we saw geese, ducks, seagulls, and one swan.) We would have stayed longer, but a crazy lady wouldn't leave us alone. *sigh*

After that we walked the bike path so I could get my exercise in. I'm actually enjoying my diet! I've lost 2 pounds, although since we went out last night to Henrietta's (yum!) I'm up a pound due to all the sodium. Anyway, I'm down to 185 pounds this morning, end of week one! Yey me! I've managed to stick to it, and only indulged last night when we went out, and even then the only really bad thing I had was dessert (chocolate hazelnut cupcake with hazelnut ice cream, come on!) In case anyone is curious, it's just honest to goodness, old fashioned dieting, just eating healthy, eating less, exercising more, keeping a food journal of EVERYTHING I PUT INTO MY MOUTH and reporting that to my doctor. That is the key. Without that sense of accountability, I don't feel like I can do it, so I never stick to my diet. Anyway, this time I'm in it for the long haul, and I'm going down to my goal weight, which is 115 (from the doctor, to fit my small-boned, 5' 2.5" frame.) Just like in high school.

The kids were so excited to see a fire truck, and waved hello and bye-bye to the firemen, and they all waved back! Sometimes I do love living in a small(ish) town.

I'm working on my Gretel hat now, and making progress. I may have a new spring hat to wear for the first day of spring! Which is March 20th, in case you didn't know.

Please wear more than a thin bathrobe. I do not want to see you, nor do I want my children to see you. Your various exposed under parts are a bit, um, yucky. Please cover up.

Sincerely,

Concerned Mom

P.S. Smoking is bad for you.

Amen.

The beach party was a huge success! We had (estimated) 500 people. So a bit larger than last year's 400 people, but that makes sense given that we spread it over 3 hours instead of 2. As much as I complain, I do love doing what I do, or I wouldn't do it. But I love the end product, the euphoric feeling that I get when the project is completed. I suppose I like the work leading up to it as well, coordinating my groups of people, my massive Excel spreadsheet, getting funding and grants, etc. No matter what, the past two years are excellent fodder for my resume! I just don't know if I'll do it next year, unless I have a co-person to help me.

Other than that, we spent Sunday working on house projects. Jes was published in Red Hat Magazine, so I told him he could use his pay to get himself a little toy. So he bought a new receiver for the entertainment center, and hung the speakers on the wall, and hid the wires, so now it looks all professional and stuff. :O) He also built Eamon's bed, and I picked up a bedrail on freecycle. The first night, Eamon slept with the bedrail, and didn't fall out, but the next day he stood up on it and fell on the floor on his head, so I promptly removed the bedrail, ruing the day that I brought it home (Friday) and swore never to use it again. So he slept without it last night, and rolled out of bed, so now I'm ruing the day I removed it (Sunday) and swearing that we always need to use it. Actually I don't know what to do about it, other than maybe removing it during the day and putting it on at night, until he understands that he can't use it to catapult himself out of the bed. I spent the day trying to return some sense of order to the house. Ahem.

Tom and Pam came over last night and brought dinner, and we played Settlers. Even after being totally blocked in, I managed to win anyway (it's karma, baby!)

Tonight we're celebrating Boston Restaurant Week by dropping buckets of money at Henrietta's Table. Maybe tonight will be the night Eamon does something mortifyingly embarrassing! Won't that be fun?

We spent the whole day today at the Children's Museum. I am so tired!

We started out by leaving late, which meant we had to run for the bus, which we of course missed. And then there was traffic, so it was late pulling into Harvard Square. Then the train was running behind, so that took forever. Then we left South Station, and I of course walked a block in the wrong direction, and after righting our gigantic double stroller I followed the signs--big mistake--and went over the river. The only way to the museum was down a flight of stairs, so it was _back_ over the river, and across the street, and then over the river again through the detour. We finally made it, only 20 minutes late, to find out that our mom's group had just arrived, all late. BTW, I ran all the way from South Station. So I was sweaty already.

So we fueled up with a latte and raisin bran muffin from Au Bon Pain, and off we went to our adventure in the museum! The kids love it--it's so fantastic! They have so many fun things to look at, and this really great, gated area where we can let the kids go crazy and climb, play with trains, or ride a car! They had a great time, but of course no one took naps, so by the time we got home and settled down a bit, it was too late for naps, and time for us to leave. Which was fine, but now we have a cranky baby boy.

Other than that, I am on day three of my new diet, which is what I'm going to call it, even though I know you shouldn't call it that because it is a psychological thing and might detour you from sticking to it forever. But I'm tired of being heavy. So I'm going to call it what it is, a diet, and move on with it. I want to look good in hot clothes and have people say, "wow, that baby's daddy is one lucky man!" :O) JK. Sort of. Anyway, it's doctor monitored. I track everything I eat, including water. I weigh myself everyday. And I go to the doctor's office every month for a weight check and my doctor will read my food journal and tell me what I'm doing wrong and right. So far, I've lost 1 pound. Yey me! In case anyone wondered, the ONLY way I've EVER been able to stick to a diet is when I've done it like this. I lost 30 pounds in 4 months just before I got pregnant, and probably would have lost the rest of the weight I needed (need) to lose if that hadn't happened. I need to lose a grand total of 71 pounds, and since I've lost 1, I'm down to 70 left to lose! (That is a number direct from the doctor, so keep your (well-intentioned, I'm sure) comments.) Anyway, I'm doing well, and that's that.

Mom had her surgery, and while they're fairly certain the giant lump they pulled out wasn't cancerous, they're still sending it off to labs to find out WTF it is. Apparently it was giant, and, just, not cool. So, that's that, and not cancer, so all's well with that. She survived her surgery, and I just talked to her. She's off to show her dogs at the Seattle dog show--gonna kick some doggy ass! :O) Go Mom!

I just spent an hour trying two things.

1. Spent one-half hour on my Cabaret Raglan sweater, only to realize that I should have swatched first as my gauge is too small. Frogged it all the way back and will start again tonight with larger needles. Ugh. Oh, well, I felt like knitting it in the round anyway, as I hate seaming.

2. Spent one-half hour trying to figure out a long tail tubular cast on. Apparently I'm a moron knitter. I tried it six times and finally threw my needles and yarn on the floor. (I picked them up and am planning to wind the yarn into a ball when I'm done bitching about it.) But the yarn is nice and smooshy. Cascade 220 Superwash.

Otherwise, I realized I need to work on the baby blanket for my brother's baby, due in July (yep--I'm a remedial knitter--it will take me that long to get it done.)

The beach party is this Saturday. I have to cut out 100 starfish, blow up 50 beach balls and 15 innertubes, finish painting a 25 foot-long mural and a surfboard sign. Oh, and also blow up a few dozen balloons. Ugh. This is my last year. It takes a lot of work, which I do like to do, but it's a lot this year, especially with Eamon, and working full-time, and working at night. So no more.

I added CSS tabs, thanks to a suggestion from Pam! They're beautiful!

Stormin Kennels