website making

How do you make a website or game on real life on a computer?  Please help me.  I want the website mod.  My name is William.  I am 7 and I am doing fun homework. I am at the dining room table.  I was bored then mom made me do homework.  So she made me do a blog.

 thank you

 bye bye.????

{I am good}

Ay! look a present!

 

 

The Story I've Never Told

Actually, I told it through FB NOTES on 20 August 2010 but apparently that's news to some people.

I decided in February 2010 that I'd had enough of being so heavy. I had no excuse to be 10lbs heavier than my low weight after Henry was born and only 15 pounds below my max weight, which was when I was HEAVY with child. I was a product of laziness and gluttony.

 This is a picture of me and my second son sometime in Fall '09.

I was further spurred to action by the awareness that, in a short time, son #2 would be walking and that over time both kids would only get faster. I was also being actively drafted to a friend's soccer team. I use the word 'drafted' loosely as I am not a good player but a LOYAL female player who could be counted on to show up to prevent forfeiture of coed games.

In the beginning, I walked on the treadmill, played with some weights and, in a short time, jogged a bit. All the while, not losing any weight but feeling a bit better. The jogging aggravated a back injury I obtained while pregnant with son #2 and that was very discouraging. After talking to the doctor, we decided I should try the elliptical despite my previous displeasure with the unnatural, forced stride of those machines. I found the right style elliptical for me in the back 2 rows at the YMCA.  I quickly realized the elliptical burns calories fast and, mixed with 80s rock music, was a great motivating workout for me.

Around April 2010 I thought about calories and how, maybe, I eat too much. Deep down, I'd known that was the real problem, but wasn't ready to limit myself.

 This is a picture of me and that same second son and a friend's baby in April 2010.

I searched iTunes store and found the FREE MyFitnessPal app. Here I will add: I found it in April and Crystal did not.

I started tracking my calories and realized I eat WAY TOO MUCH! This app lets you choose a goal and sets a calorie limit based on your weight and lifestyle. You enter the food you eat which is super easy because they have almost everything in their database. If you exercise it adds back those calories your burned so you can eat more. Or you can choose not to eat more and lose more weight faster. I like food, so many times my only motivation on the elliptical was the thought of a yummy treat of the same calorie count.

I committed to, at least, 4 workouts a week which then moved to 5 because the boys really enjoy the routine of going to the gym to play each morning. Unless there is a real pressing conflict, we go.  I mean a serious, can't be changed like a fasting blood draw or sick person doctor visit, kinda conflict. If one of us is sick, we walk at a park or on the streets using the double stroller. It IS part or our M-F lives.

My workouts have gone from 20-30 minutes of a slow/moderate pace to 45-60 minutes of a high-energy pace. I can't tell you enough how much rocking out helps keep a fat-burn/cardio pace. I have also increased the resistance setting because it burns more calories per stride and I can really feel my muscles getting stronger. I am more than happy to be heavier than 'ideal' in exchange for feeling strong and powerful. A certain number on the scale or the clothes tag is not why I am doing this. But it is nice not to wear plus sizes anymore.

That's it folks. It isn't hard or revolutionary and not at all costly. BTW if you don't have a smartphone MyFitnessPal has a website with even more features than the app.

I will end with a disclaimer though:  I think the BMI is a terrible tool to judge health but for a reference I still have to lose a few pounds to be out of the obese category. I don't feel obese and I don't think the BMI takes into account that I have shoulders like a linebacker or that I have a bone density rivaling the rock-man from The Never Ending Story

 My triumphant poses after the 2010 Turkey Trot.

UPDATE:  I wrote this when I had lost fewer that 40lbs.  By October 2010 I had lost a round 40lbs.  I have now lost 65lbs and I am in single digit sizes for the first time since I can remember.  And when I say that I don't mean in my adult life.  I mean I can't remember because I was in elementary school.  I would like to lose another 5lbs but it is truly more important to me to be healthy and happy.  I'd like to start having athletic goals that are non-weight-loss related but since my knees and back don't like the impact of frequent running that limits my possibilities.

These are pics of me wearing single digit sized clothing July 2011.

Is that POOP on your cake?

Why yes.  Yes it is.

But I have a very good reason for serving manure cake.  

You see, I am hosting a double birthday party for my boys 2 & 4 this summer at a bounce house place.  Until now I have chosen cheap or free venues for our family parties but after we attended a party at PumpItUp this spring I decided I could justify the expense because we were taking care of 2 parties in one event.  We didn't add on the extras that really run up the total cost as well as serving homemade birthday cake in lieu of a made-to-order birthday cake like we had done in previous years. My boys requested 'tractor cakes' which for the unskilled cake decorator means appropriate colored icing and strategically placed toys for decoration. Sounds easy enough, right?

Some weeks ago I found miniature John Deere farm scenes with tractors at WalMart.  They each had a tractor, fencing, two farmers and either two cows or two horses.

What I didn't count on was falling and fracturing my arm near the wrist one week before the event.  So that brings me to today, party eve.  I have my injured arm/wrist/hand splinted and swollen and in pain from doing more than I would admit to my new orthopedist.  My un-fractured arm/hand/wrist is sore and achy from taking up the slack for the injured hand.  I did fine baking the cakes (one vanilla and one chocolate) this morning and even mixing and applying the green-vanilla icing to one half of each cake.  That's the grass. ;)  Then I mixed the chocolate cake and began the mud (or earth or soil) portion of the tractor/farm motif.

Well sometimes when you are an accident prone person with one arm in a a splint and have a spatula with chocolate icing in your hand you can lose your balance.  When you lose your balance you can also lose your icing prematurely.  In fact, you can lose a huge blob of it right in the middle of your green-vanilla field side of your cake.  Do you remember in art class when you found out it is significantly easier to hide a light-on-dark mistake than a dark-on-light mistake?  The same applies here.  BTW I had no remaining green-vanilla icing and was almost completely out of powdered sugar so just covering the chocolate with green-vanilla would be an ordeal.  So, as I finished the application of 'mud' to both cakes I considered my options.

I thought about covering the blob with one of the tractors but this blob was as big as either tractor AND the tractor was supposed to be tilling the earth or something on the chocolate side while the green-vanilla pastures were for the horses or cows.  

UGH.  Cows are disgusting stinky beasts.  

YES!  COWS are stinky beasts that stink like POOP!  And cows make poop and there is plenty of poop anytime you come near a cow.

And so it is done.  The cows are on the cake that was hit with the chocolate blob.  The chocolate blob is in the corner of their fenced in area.  Thankfully, the set included a farmer with a shovel!

This post is taken from an FB NOTE I wrote on 08July11.

Don't call me Handy Mandy

I inherited a cargo style coffee table from a former employer over a decade ago but it is big and sturdy and has such a simple style that it has migrated with me throughout the years.  The only reason we removed it to the garage was to prevent our son from killing himself.  He would (and still does) literally run circles around the open-space living area as toddler/preschool aged children are prone to do.  Frequently, he would trip and fly face first into whatever furniture, people, wall or toy that was in his path and this was the cause for our replacing the table with a HUGE padded ottoman.  Lest you think I hadn't tried to "babyproof" the table, let me assure you that protective foam is of no use in high-speed facial impacts.

In addition to the ottoman, we had a hand-me-downed 3 times train table in front of our fireplace that served the dual purpose of child entertainment and creating a barrier that may prevent our children from accessing said fireplace.  Well, recently that 10+ year old assemble-out-of-the-box, press-board table began to show it's age and travels and abuse with splitting and cracking that became hazardous.  It wasn't until that crotchety table lashed out and gashed my 4yo in the leg so bad I suspected deliberate shanking that my lazy butt stepped up and decided to defend my cubs by evicting the vicious train table.

I decided my sturdy cargo style coffee table would do nicely in place of the train table.  In addition to being more sturdy it's much taller which makes it easier for my 90%tile height children to use.  However, it had been in need of a refinish for sometime and if I was going to be a child's plaything I had better at least make sure to sand away any dangerous splinters.

Here's how the project went down.

This picture shows the table after the foam padding had been removed but it's left with an awesome film of adhesive that took 4 applications of Goof Off in some places.

See that yummy-gummy goodness?

Let me take a moment here to tell you that initially I had thought this to be a project I could complete in one 4 hour time frame but after the Goof Off stage I decided it might be more realistic to consider it a two day project.  My expected working time was reserved for days when both children would be at preschool.

So after 1.5 hours of Goof Off-ing I finally got ready for step 2: SANDING.
This was the fun part.  No not really.  While the coolness factor of playing with a power tool made it bearable we were still in the grips of the hottest summer EVER.  Seriously, we beat out the DUST BOWL for hot this summer.  While we are speaking of dust let me mention to those of you who haven't used a CHICAGO ELECTRIC 5" Random Orbital Palm Sander that you might consider that the sanding discs create at least if not more mess than the wood you happen to be sanding.

It took about 20-30 passes over any given square inch of the table to get it to appear to be a somewhat uniform surface.  I was really pleased at this point to only be resurfacing the top of the table.  I can't imagine how much time it would have taken to do the legs and sides.

I asked my husband to go on a quick trip to the Home Depot to choose a product to prep the wood and a product to finish the wood.  Men always like to be invited on a lunch time trip to the Depot.  After much consideration we chose GREEN Mineral Spirits and  WATCO Teak Oil Finish so as to prevent poisoning our children who very likely might attempt to eat the table at some point.  By the time we returned home the temperature outside had gotten too high to safely and effectively use our prep and finish fluids so I put the rest of the project off until the next day.

Day 2:  Step 3 PREP (this is a man word for cleaning) THE SURFACE
Basically, I apply the mineral spirits to a rag and wipe (repeatedly) until dirty stuff no longer appears on the rag.  See?  CLEANING.  After the SPIRITS dissipate it is permissible to begin finishing (hehehe) the wood.  In the heat, drying took less time than it took me to read the label on the teak oil bottle.

Step 4: FINISH which means not only "To give a desired or particular surface texture." but also "The final part; the conclusion."
This involves wearing gloves because despite the oil having a clear appearance it will stain skin.  Actually, it's a good idea to wear gloves anytime one might touch chemicals (including Goof Off and Mineral Spirits) but I don't always behave prudently.  I'm a rebel like that.

After just one application the difference is drastic. (sounds like an infomercial pitch line)

Also, after the first application I realized that in spite of apparently adequate sanding I was unable to remove residue that came from the tape my former employer had used to leave notes to herself.  No, it doesn't both me enough to make me start over.  Next question?

The bottle recommended 1 application, 30 minute wait, 2nd application, 15 minute wait and then a 3rd application, if necessary.  Of course, I HAD to have an additional application.  This time my just-one-more compulsion did not cause any harm.  I can't verify it caused any benefit either but I am certain there was no harm done.

The final product looks nice and a week and a half later I swear it already looks close to the same tone of the legs which I didn't refinish.  It should continue to darken as is the nature of wood.

I can't say I have any valuable new lessons to pass on from this experience only to reaffirm that power tools are fun although messy and that I would do many more projects like this if 1/3 of the year wasn't 100+ degrees.

Produce Begger

So, I had a pretty exciting day yesterday but it isn't what would thrill most people.  In fact, only crazy women who know how hard it is to be a SAHM if you don't learn to find a bargain would understand.

I realized some time ago that my local grocery has many "Manager's Specials" on Tuesday mornings.  I was trying to grab a few items before dropping my oldest at preschool sometime last year and we ended up being late that day because spent too long excitedly picking through extra-ripe produce, almost to date dairy, meat and bakery items as well as piles of random packaged products.  I don't find much in the packaged products but occasionally I'll find some seasonings or pharmacy items.

So, Tuesday after I dropped my kidlets at school I decided to run into the grocery for milk and hit my "Manager's Special" locations.  I headed first to PRODUCE where the have a rack of bags of produce (sorted in a rather random fashion or so I thought) that looks like it won't last much longer.  I still had a surplus of jalapenos from my produce co-op and didn't want to make them all into jelly, so super soft tomatoes were on my mind.  Well, sadly there was only squash and some apples.  My family hates squash and we had apples from co-op.  I could have gotten more apples to make apple sauce but happily my children prefer eating raw apples to apples sauce.

I looked around the cleaned and prepared veg to see if there was anything marked down there but again I came up with nothing.  I wasn't sure if 9:45 was too late and someone else had gotten there before me or if there was a lack of soft veg.  I did notice a young man with a cart sorting through veg and throwing some on the top level of the cart and some on the bottom.  I thought maybe he was collecting them to take to the back and be bagged and that maybe I should try back again later.

I ran to the dairy where I had found greatly discounted low-fat cottage cheese, along with a quart of plain yogurt, last week.  It lasted forever in-spite of it's date.  I only bought cottage cheese because my son insisted he wanted it and I wanted to prove him wrong.  Nope.  I was wrong.  I don't know who fed it to him before but he was certain and he devoured it.  I had some and it was better than I remembered.  Anyway, again nothing.

In the meat department, I found a point-cut-brisket roast that was $3.49/lb to $1.99/lb.  That's good for at least a couple meals.  Also, turkey dogs were marked (just a sale item not managers special) down to $1 a package so I stocked up on those.  

I head back to the dairy to grab my milk.  It's wasn't discounted so I bought only one gallon of 2%.  I then saw a discounted gallon of whole milk that I can use to make yogurt.  It wasn't a deep discount but, considering the expiration date is over a week away, I am cool with that.

I decided to make a last pass through produce to see if that young man had bagged the soft veg and brought it back out to the rack but he hadn't.  It was even better!  He was bagging the veg right there beside the rack.  There was already a lurker hovering beside him ready to strike at MY cheap tomatoes.  So, I did what any polite civilized woman would do.  I just went past her and stood closer to the rack.  

I noticed, upon approach, that the PRODUCE young man was giving "the lurker" the hidden stink-eye for standing so close to him so I tried not to do the same.  Instead, I decided to talk to him.  

I asked if there was a method to his bagging and he explained that fruits and veg are separated and they try to keep them like or similar.  Like keeping citrus away from bananas because they can cause them to go bad even faster.  I responded that I had noticed the same with my produce at home and that sometimes I'll even put citrus fruits next to other fruit to make them ripen faster.  

Then, I made my move.  

I told him I had a surplus of jalapenos and onion at home and needed some super soft tomatoes to make salsa.  He smiled and said "Oh, I have tomatoes."  He bagged three bags for me.  Usually, these bags contain 1lb or at most 2lbs of produce.  In these 3 bags he put 10.5lbs of tomatoes.  Each bag was $1.  THAT'S $0.29/LB.  To be clear, these were not rotten.  Some were not even soft/ripe enough for salsa yet.  I felt like I was gonna have to run out of there like the lady in the IKEA commercial.

So, I grabbed some lemons (got a bag from the kid for $1) for my tea and limes (got a 1lb bag from the kid for $1) for the salsa and I was on my way home to celebrate my domestic bliss by sanding a wooden coffee table.

Produce Co-op

So my friend was blogging about her produce co-op.  I am not totally convinced her arrangement should be labeled a co-op because it is more like group home delivery and some people get paid. I decided that if I ever tell anyone about my blog they might want to know about my produce co-op.

My co-op has 12 "units" that means we buy food based on splitting it 12 ways.  Sometimes people split a full unit (as I did before my children started eating solid foods) but they split it between themselves after we as a group have divided by 12.  12 seemed like an unusual number to me when I joined (why not 10 or 15) but when you see how many produce items come in counts or weights that are divisible by 12 it makes sense.  Each unit pays in $30 so when it comes time to shop $360 is available to purchase for everyone.

We have a shopping schedule so that each member takes a turn each rotation shopping for produce from distributors at the Dallas Farmers Market.  They haul it back to a location closer to home where we divide it up.  We do this every two weeks. 

When it comes an individual's turn to shop, they and their partner can pick what they want but most members are considerate enough to buy mostly common dietary staples.  We encourage trying new items but we don't want to have to many new and unusual options in any given load.  If it wasn't for a fearless co-op member I would never have known about jicama or the joy of baked kale leaves.  We also encourage buying seasonally so we get more for the money.

The co-op has some leaders who take care of creating the schedule, managing the wait list and counting the $$$$$ but they are not paid positions.  You can volunteer to do it at anytime and you can step down anytime.

I just got my coop load today. They seem to be getting smaller these days but still a better deal than grocery shopping. Though I must admit when coop had lettuce and not tomatoes I snagged some pretty ripe roma tomatoes at Market Street for $0.79/lb. If they go soft they become SALSA!!!!!
For my $30 unit I got:
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- 2 red leaf lettuce
- 11 red skinned potatoes
- 5lbs of carrots
- 3 kiwi
- 2.5 lbs grapes
- 9 large fuji apples (actually I got 7 and traded yellow squash for a couple more)
- 2lbs strawberries (actually 1lb but traded more squash)
- 1 pint blueberries
- 4 large onions
- 1 small cantaloupe
- 1lb mushrooms
- 2 zucchini
- 4 bell peppers
I also would have had a head of cauliflower and about that same amount of broccoli but I decided at the last minute I wasn't in the mood to find creative ways to get my family to eat those AGAIN and gave them to someone else.  I could have traded but I was preoccupied this morning.
I don't make a meal plan because I like to decide based upon my mood what I want to cook but usually each day I decide based on how much life any particular vegetable(s) seem to have in them.

Nothing EVER Goes to Plan

Maybe I should have given my main blog heading this title because I am sure it is more often true than not. However, if I did that where would I post when (if ever) things go perfectly to plan? That might require a whole other blog and I'm not even sure about this one yet.


My 4-year-old son's potty training journey has been a true reflection of Bill Cosby's "Mother's Curse".

And I later found out that mothers, all mothers, put a curse on their children.

 They say, "I hope, when you get married, you have some children who act 

exactly the same way that you act."
And this curse works!

I always knew that I would be a beneficiary of this curse because I was a rotten child. I only hope and pray that my children are not as completely difficult as I was because frequently I behaved to my own disadvantage.


As part of my son's potty training 'encouragement' we developed behavior charts. If he performs the appropriate behavior he gets a check-mark or smiley on the chart and after he fills the chart his reward is a trip on the local commuter train. He loves all things travel and we chose this reward because we didn't want to buy more toys to fill our already over filled home or to use food as a reward. The only problem with these charts is that someone else had to suggest I use them. As a special education teacher I used those charts with 75% of my students but when it came to my own kid it hadn't even occurred to me.
 
So today we had the chance to fulfill his most recent earned train ride. Because of the 100+ temps DFW has had for the last 27 days, I wanted to get into town and out again before we couldn't breathe anymore. Dallas has notoriously bad air and heat just makes it worse.
 
The plan was to catch the 8:13 train into Dallas and then take another train to City Place Station because my boys love the 45-degree elevator and the M-Line Trolley. Then we would hit the only frozen yogurt place that opens at 10am instead of 11am. And head back toward home on a 10:50 train. This way we only spend money on the train ticket (kids under 5 are free so just one ticket for me) and the "ice cream factory". "Ice cream factory" is the name my 4-year-old has given the serve-yourself frozen yogurt places that have been popping up all over DFW. If we miss the 10:50 we would have to wait until 12:20 which means lunch in town and higher temps before we can escape.

I really thought I had a fool-proof plan when I set out at 7:30. We left plenty of time to arrive at the station and buy my ticket. Actually, it wasn't plenty of time but the train we needed to catch was running late so it seemed like plenty. We had about 3 minutes to spare. We made our bathroom stop at Union Station and caught our train to City Place. 
City Place was tricky because they closed the above ground access to the side of the highway we needed to be on to access the trolley. However, after reviewing the different bus options I headed up to ground level and found that I could more quickly walk to the trolley stop. 
When we got on the trolley all the windows were open and it was nasty-muggy in there. It wasn't hard to convince the 4-year-old to ride the trolley only one-way today and then head toward the My Yogo near West End Station. 
When we got to the My Yogo the door sign indicated it opened at 11 which is in direct contradiction to the information on the website (pet peeve). 
After finding a shady spot to review our options by iPhone I explained to my 4-year-old that they were closed and if we waited we would be hot and tired the whole time. I suggested that we take the return train and get ice cream between the Irving Station and home. He was remarkably easy to convince.
So as we walked back to Union Station I noticed his gait slowing and when I looked at him he was dripping with sweat and pale and flush. Another stupid-mom moment! Of course, he was tired and dehydrated. I was tired and dehydrated. Despite my cheapness, I stopped at a deli and bought a cookie for him and the 2-year-old to share and a Gatorade. I tend to believe only those who are working outdoors in extreme heat or who are true athletes need these instead of water but I was concerned he had gotten too dehydrated already.
Thankfully we were able to wait inside the station and watch for our train to arrive and then board the air-conditioned train. 
Ultimately, we found a Baskin Robbins about 3 miles from the station and all was well for the kids. They both passed out half-way home.


Now I am spending the few moments of quiet wondering why ice cream & frozen yogurt & snow cone places don't open until 11am when the temperatures reach 90+ by 9am. Also, why doesn't every business have a website and have up-to-date information on that website? I wonder how these businesses survive (if they survive). I wonder how the people running these businesses came up with money to even get started. This needs to be the beginning of a totally different blog.