My Birthday, aka the Day I Officially Turn OLD

That's right. I'm old. Officially old. I won't say how old because most of you would say "That's not old!" Well yes it is. Of course I always feel old. Part of that is the fact that I have a nine year old child. Most people I know that are around my age don't even have kids yet.

I still had a nice day. Got up on time to get the girls ready for school. Straitened my house up a bit. My BFF and her sister came over and brought breakfast. Then I had a nice chat with my neighbor, and gave her my elliptical. We never use it, and she wanted one so it was a logical step. Got Lis off the bus. Had my neighbor's boys sing to me. Then dinner out.

And there were presents, quite unexpected. First I already told you about the computer. Well for our anniversary next week I got a Kindle. So John bought me an Amazon gift card so I can by books.

Then my best friend gave me an iTunes gift card so I can get music and games. Wonderful cards. A Belgium chocolate cake (one of the few cakes I actually eat-I'm not a big cake person). No chores. Dressed up cause I feel like it. Big hugs from everyone. And a ton of Facebook messages.

All in all a great day.

-- Posted From My iPhone

Chocolate, Caffiene and 300 Calories

Yes, this is what it on my mind right now. Chocolate-a craving and also full of sugar that helps keep me awake during the mid-day crash.

Caffeine-the only reason I get out of bed for. I mean, yes, I have to get the girls ready for school, breakfast and lunch. John takes them to the school bus. But without caffeine, I would be a bear to deal with.

300 Calories-The amount I have to eat for lunch and dinner. You'd think this would be easy. But it's not. I mean, I am one of these people who do occasionally make a trip to Five Guys for a burger. And yes, I eat boardwalk fries (who can resist boardwalk fries?). But I also eat salads, rice, lean meat. Vegetables also make an appearance. But I have a small appetite (most of the time-I think every woman has a day or two where they eat all day).

Like today-coffee, half a piece of Lemon Meringue pie, two cups of coffee. I'm not normally a person who eats breakfast, I just drink a lot of coffee. As a matter of fact, the thought of food in the morning makes me nauseous. So I eat a late lunch-my main meal of the day. Today was a bowl of rice and a root beer float. Over 300 calories, but just barely. Dinner is a potluck supper at church, so who knows what I'll be eating.

My biggest fear? That I will gain back the weight I've lost over the past year. I mean I've dropped 30 pounds over a two year period. I keep having to buy new jeans. And belts. I've lost weight in my abdomen, my fingers, even my face. I'm still losing weight. I'm am two little sizes away from my goal size. I say sizes because according to the scale I have stayed within the same five pound range. But my pants keep getting looser. I need smaller tops. I also need a new pair of pajamas, because my favorite pair are getting to be too big. And not to get TMI, but my undergarments are also getting to be too big. Which is an expensive thing to keep up with.

So my new plan as I adjust to different meds, upped dosages, timing changing.

And live on chocolate, caffeine, and 300 calories.

Birthday Presents

So the word "presents" has been on my mind for a while. First Lissy got a ton of presents for her birthday from her grandparents, godmothers, friends, and yes. even us. Luckily there were no repeats in the group. That is the challenge about giving the girls presents every year. They have so many people that give them things (from their hearts-we never have said that presents are a given). But with everyone shopping in places all over thr country, it requires a lot of planning. For birthdays, Christmas, Easter, Halloween...the girls are very lucky in that so many people love them.

But back to the presents themselves. Lis just had her birthday, Anja's is coming up right before Christmas. (Anja is the hard one to shop for, since she gets two sets of presents in two days.)

Somewhere in the middle is my birthday. Every year I always ask for one thing: an iTunes gift card. And I usually get it and a card. Nothing big, nothing too expensive. This year was different. This year I got something I needed. And I got it early (early like in as yesterday). I needed it, I'm picky about it, I researched it. Then I turned the whole thing over to John.

Who found it. What is "it"? It's a brand new laptop. Top of the line. It has everything I need. Now I didn't get all of what I want, but that's okay. I don't really have a need for a Blu-ray player. And it's about two inches bigger than what I wanted. But I am taking it because I needed a new computer. My old one was a netbook, you know the mini-mes of pcs? It only had a 60gig hardrive. And thanks to my ever growing iTunes and iPhone updates, it just was way too much for my little baby to handle.

And yes, this is a VERY EARLY birthday gift, given that my actual birthday isn't until the end of next month. I've told John that this means no more gifts, but he wouldn't reply. Something tells me I may still be getting an iTunes gift card.

So far I'm loving it. It's got a ton of space to store iTunes, and iPhone updates. And pictures. Lots of pictures. And it has what I consider crucial. Faster surfing, the aforementioned space. Plus it has what I find most critical-three USB ports and a SD card reader. And while it doesn't play Blu-rays, I can still play regular DVDs. I can burn discs. I have a numerical pad. Rocking speakers. The latest processor and awesome graphic card. Expandable memory. Basically it's just cool.

And I love it already. I've already starting tranferring my music and videos. I don't know everything-yet. But in time I will learn it.

Finally, thank you John. He researched everything and found this one. I love my husband. He's the best.

You are not a REAL Working Mother!

I'm about to start a serious debate, but I don't think moms who are paid to blog and nothing else (like dooce.com) are REAL working mothers. I was working full-time, weekends included; and still managed to blog full time. I posted almost daily when the girls were younger, I've since stopped as they get older in respect of their privacy. I'd love to be paid to blog, have companies search me out as a way to advertise their product. But I wouldn't call myself a working mom. And by the way, most of these "professional" mommy bloggers have nannies and tutors and maids and all sorts of help. I did it all with only my husband to help me out. I still do it all, even though I am sick and unable to work. That's what I think anyways. (And I do READ these mommy bloggers, just don't think they deserve to be called working moms unless they have another job). Like Katie Allison Granju. She's a real working mother.

And by the way, even though I stay at home, I consider myself a working mother, too!