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This is a few days old, now.
May. 4th, 2014 12:09 amI realized I never posted it:
Tomorrow is Elise's 7th birthday. At this point, it will be a relief to not have to talk about the countdown all day every day, anymore. I'm also excited for her :) I just finished wrapping her presents with Isaac and Jake, behind a locked door. Then, I was sitting here looking at the afternoon tea menu of the place we're taking her, and her chosen birthday (home) menu, and the pineapple upside down cake she wants, trying to move my Weight Watchers points around enough to be participatory and happy throughout the day.
I really have to wholeheartedly endorse Weight Watchers. You can eat what you want and what you like. Now that I'm not B-12 deficient anymore, it's like magic; someone has used science to create math that allows me to control what my body does. I never felt like that about just counting calories, since it requires radically more personal researching and math throughout the day. This also encourages way better health than just using MyFitnessPal or something for calories, since fruits and vegetables are zero points, and WW takes fiber and protein into account, too. It's on my phone - they have the menu of every freakin' restaurant you can imagine. I can use the recipe builder one time for each common thing I make at home regularly and then just select it, after that. I mean it's a little bit of a pain sometimes, but overall, I really like this system.
The fact that you start with a lot of points and very gradually use less and less as you lose is also cool. It all just feels so sustainable, compared to NO CARBS EVER or Eat to Live or what have you. I can get up and have a couple of fried eggs on a small halved croissant with mushrooms browned in butter, sliced tomatoes, and a giant mug of coffee with some sugar and Coldstone flavored creamer in it. I can go out with Grant. I can have wine sometimes. You just have to plan things. I like to say, dorky as this is, that I can eat anything I want, just not everything I want.
I've lost 14 pounds so far, which also translates to 4 inches off of my biggest measurement (that includes my hips and hernia). I was kinda losing my mind for the first month because it's slooooow (healthy, recommended...) weight loss. I keep doing this circular thinking where I get frustrated, but then I think of what it means to lose 1.5-2.5 pounds per week for A YEAR. Years fly by so damned fast now that it's actually really motivating. I mean I can't even believe how many things that feel like yesterday are actually a year ago.
You also learn really quickly about things that are way more points than you would have thought, and are just not worth it, and things that are way better than you would have guessed. It's good for recalibrating my understanding a bit, because normally I eat pretty overwhelmingly HEALTHY food, but with a mega slant towards fat and richness. Which is probably why I have good cholesterol, low blood pressure, no insulin issues...and weigh a whole lot.
We're feeling some big money stress. A lot of MAJOR, extra expenses have bottle necked over the past 6 months...Getting Annie's braces put on; fixing all of Isaac's and Jake's cavities; getting all of MY fillings; all my medical bills at various specialists in general; bringing my mother in law and nieces down to stay for a week at Christmas; Christmas; tires AND break pads AND a radiator, for the new car*; this stupid dispute we had with the Solid Waste Management dept since we moved into this house 5 years ago, over them billing us for the previous tenants' bulk pick-ups, that we finally had to just pay; and here's the big doozy...a new computer system for the van. Just that, was $2400. We seriously considered selling the damn thing instead of doing it, since it has over 100,000 miles and body damage - but it'd never had any engine trouble before, it seats us all, and we own it outright and would like to avoid another payment. So we did the repair, with the hope/assumption that if we even got another 6 months out of it, that would be cheaper than 6 months of payments and full coverage insurance on a new-to-us van. This logic was backed with a sort of obvious feeling in us, that probably it would actually last far longer than that.
We've been barely somehow sort of squeaking by (ish) since that repair 3 weeks ago, and would be caught up and alright again soon, except...that the fucking thing wouldn't start this morning. Just, (#*$)(*#)!(@#_@*)$(&%. I called and cancelled with my counselor, and Isaac missed the game he was going to cheer for, and Annie missed practice, and...we're not really sure what to do next. My credit card company is willing to finance up to $20,000 for an auto loan, for us, which is sort of compelling, but GAH about a second car payment. And, minivans are so freaking expensive! $20k in something with a decent safety rating means something that already has 60,000+ miles on it, and that's just kind of a crappy investment when you're talking about 5 years of payments...
I don't think this is just the battery or something with our van, either, because what's actually happening is it's turning right on, and then turning off again on it's own a couple of seconds later.
I was actually considering the merits of trying to be a one car family again for awhile. It involved a lot of bike riding, very inefficient transit, and tons of waking up before dawn to take Grant to the train station on days I needed the car, before, but...we made it work. I suppose if GMYS actually provides busses to camps this summer like they're tossing around, it might be possible-ish. This wouldn't be the same as when we only had the van, though; I can only carry four kids (or two kids and one cello) in the Fiesta at a time. Hmmm.
Assuming I can actually travel to the school in some sort of vehicle come fall, I've been considering either adding a second Bachelor's degree to my current plan, or just steering my electives towards my interests so I get to learn about and enjoy them while I get the psych degree. PLANT BOTANY. Doesn't that sound profitable? I can just be a botanist who writes poetry, and have quaint little tea times on the sidewalk, while homeless.
It's very personally compelling to me that FIU's botany classes are held at Fairchild Tropical Gardens. Supposedly you can add a second bachelor's with only 30 additional credits; 150 instead of 120, total. Or, you can do both as a double major within the normal 120 credit requirement, but then you just get the one diploma and really, I'm not sure if it's actually bad but I have this vague sense of unease about my psych degree saying "botany" on it as a double. Feel free to weigh in on this issue, I'm still researching.
I get a ridiculous lot of satisfaction out of plants and flowers all the time, these past couple of years. It all just makes me so happy. There's not really a way to overstate it - everyone close to me has quotas for how much of my pointing things out and raving about leaf textures they can take daily. My children just sort of hang back and roll their eyes anytime we enter a store with a flower section. I follow multiple botany tumblrs and have purchased more than one relevant book, in the past year. I've even made a real life botany nerd friend :)
I may be taking you on a tremendously boring tour of the flora on my property, soon. It will be exciting for me, anyway, so perhaps my enthusiasm will bleed through. It's kind of weird to me now that I'm thinking about it, how absent this whole facet of what I think about every day has been from this livejournal.
*we still think of it as "the new car." It's a 2011, that we bought last summer :p But since we've had the van since 2008 and the car has a payment, it "feels" new.
Tomorrow is Elise's 7th birthday. At this point, it will be a relief to not have to talk about the countdown all day every day, anymore. I'm also excited for her :) I just finished wrapping her presents with Isaac and Jake, behind a locked door. Then, I was sitting here looking at the afternoon tea menu of the place we're taking her, and her chosen birthday (home) menu, and the pineapple upside down cake she wants, trying to move my Weight Watchers points around enough to be participatory and happy throughout the day.
I really have to wholeheartedly endorse Weight Watchers. You can eat what you want and what you like. Now that I'm not B-12 deficient anymore, it's like magic; someone has used science to create math that allows me to control what my body does. I never felt like that about just counting calories, since it requires radically more personal researching and math throughout the day. This also encourages way better health than just using MyFitnessPal or something for calories, since fruits and vegetables are zero points, and WW takes fiber and protein into account, too. It's on my phone - they have the menu of every freakin' restaurant you can imagine. I can use the recipe builder one time for each common thing I make at home regularly and then just select it, after that. I mean it's a little bit of a pain sometimes, but overall, I really like this system.
The fact that you start with a lot of points and very gradually use less and less as you lose is also cool. It all just feels so sustainable, compared to NO CARBS EVER or Eat to Live or what have you. I can get up and have a couple of fried eggs on a small halved croissant with mushrooms browned in butter, sliced tomatoes, and a giant mug of coffee with some sugar and Coldstone flavored creamer in it. I can go out with Grant. I can have wine sometimes. You just have to plan things. I like to say, dorky as this is, that I can eat anything I want, just not everything I want.
I've lost 14 pounds so far, which also translates to 4 inches off of my biggest measurement (that includes my hips and hernia). I was kinda losing my mind for the first month because it's slooooow (healthy, recommended...) weight loss. I keep doing this circular thinking where I get frustrated, but then I think of what it means to lose 1.5-2.5 pounds per week for A YEAR. Years fly by so damned fast now that it's actually really motivating. I mean I can't even believe how many things that feel like yesterday are actually a year ago.
You also learn really quickly about things that are way more points than you would have thought, and are just not worth it, and things that are way better than you would have guessed. It's good for recalibrating my understanding a bit, because normally I eat pretty overwhelmingly HEALTHY food, but with a mega slant towards fat and richness. Which is probably why I have good cholesterol, low blood pressure, no insulin issues...and weigh a whole lot.
We're feeling some big money stress. A lot of MAJOR, extra expenses have bottle necked over the past 6 months...Getting Annie's braces put on; fixing all of Isaac's and Jake's cavities; getting all of MY fillings; all my medical bills at various specialists in general; bringing my mother in law and nieces down to stay for a week at Christmas; Christmas; tires AND break pads AND a radiator, for the new car*; this stupid dispute we had with the Solid Waste Management dept since we moved into this house 5 years ago, over them billing us for the previous tenants' bulk pick-ups, that we finally had to just pay; and here's the big doozy...a new computer system for the van. Just that, was $2400. We seriously considered selling the damn thing instead of doing it, since it has over 100,000 miles and body damage - but it'd never had any engine trouble before, it seats us all, and we own it outright and would like to avoid another payment. So we did the repair, with the hope/assumption that if we even got another 6 months out of it, that would be cheaper than 6 months of payments and full coverage insurance on a new-to-us van. This logic was backed with a sort of obvious feeling in us, that probably it would actually last far longer than that.
We've been barely somehow sort of squeaking by (ish) since that repair 3 weeks ago, and would be caught up and alright again soon, except...that the fucking thing wouldn't start this morning. Just, (#*$)(*#)!(@#_@*)$(&%. I called and cancelled with my counselor, and Isaac missed the game he was going to cheer for, and Annie missed practice, and...we're not really sure what to do next. My credit card company is willing to finance up to $20,000 for an auto loan, for us, which is sort of compelling, but GAH about a second car payment. And, minivans are so freaking expensive! $20k in something with a decent safety rating means something that already has 60,000+ miles on it, and that's just kind of a crappy investment when you're talking about 5 years of payments...
I don't think this is just the battery or something with our van, either, because what's actually happening is it's turning right on, and then turning off again on it's own a couple of seconds later.
I was actually considering the merits of trying to be a one car family again for awhile. It involved a lot of bike riding, very inefficient transit, and tons of waking up before dawn to take Grant to the train station on days I needed the car, before, but...we made it work. I suppose if GMYS actually provides busses to camps this summer like they're tossing around, it might be possible-ish. This wouldn't be the same as when we only had the van, though; I can only carry four kids (or two kids and one cello) in the Fiesta at a time. Hmmm.
Assuming I can actually travel to the school in some sort of vehicle come fall, I've been considering either adding a second Bachelor's degree to my current plan, or just steering my electives towards my interests so I get to learn about and enjoy them while I get the psych degree. PLANT BOTANY. Doesn't that sound profitable? I can just be a botanist who writes poetry, and have quaint little tea times on the sidewalk, while homeless.
It's very personally compelling to me that FIU's botany classes are held at Fairchild Tropical Gardens. Supposedly you can add a second bachelor's with only 30 additional credits; 150 instead of 120, total. Or, you can do both as a double major within the normal 120 credit requirement, but then you just get the one diploma and really, I'm not sure if it's actually bad but I have this vague sense of unease about my psych degree saying "botany" on it as a double. Feel free to weigh in on this issue, I'm still researching.
I get a ridiculous lot of satisfaction out of plants and flowers all the time, these past couple of years. It all just makes me so happy. There's not really a way to overstate it - everyone close to me has quotas for how much of my pointing things out and raving about leaf textures they can take daily. My children just sort of hang back and roll their eyes anytime we enter a store with a flower section. I follow multiple botany tumblrs and have purchased more than one relevant book, in the past year. I've even made a real life botany nerd friend :)
I may be taking you on a tremendously boring tour of the flora on my property, soon. It will be exciting for me, anyway, so perhaps my enthusiasm will bleed through. It's kind of weird to me now that I'm thinking about it, how absent this whole facet of what I think about every day has been from this livejournal.
*we still think of it as "the new car." It's a 2011, that we bought last summer :p But since we've had the van since 2008 and the car has a payment, it "feels" new.
