So I made it. 3 weeks officially ends tomorrow. And phase 2 officially begins tomorrow. I start adding foods back in. I think dairy is a trigger so we are starting with that since my body will be most sensitive. The last few days have been iffy anyway so to be honest, I'm not sure I should start tomorrow. I think I am intolerant to pistachios and possibly white wine vinegar (or maybe regular vinegar). Hard to tell, though, bc I am also in the middle of my cycle and that screws me up anyway. I definitely have a hard time processing lettuce (or when I eat 2-3x a day I do).

In the past week I feel like I have finally figured our stuff I can eat and be happy. Like, olives on a bison "burger". I used brown rice flower, water, and flax to make a flat bread bun, threw a bison patty on it, covered it in olives and devoured. Brown rice pasta salad is also good but I'm thinking the dressing I am using is causing issues. Or maybe it was just the lettuce and the dressing is getting a bad wrap.

We are also wrapping up homeschooling ALREADY! It's crazy to me that we have come this far so fast. We started multiplaction today. I am sure that we are going to do it again next year. I just wish I had someone to set up crafts/activities for me for major holidays each month. I know there are some "craft in a box" mail order places but they are all so expensive! One I was looking at the other day talked about going online and downloading something. Well, I don't need to pay $40 per month to download. I can search and download myself.

Little Monster is winding down in preschool. This is the first year I haven't like school at all for him but it feels like we are putting more time and energy into it than we are getting out of it. His birthday party is in about 4 weeks and I'm SUPER pumped about it! Since they are about 6 months apart, I don't get too frustrated or burnt out on parties.

In 10 days in. In 8 days I lost 8.5lbs. Crazy!! I tasted more new foods in 8 days than I did in 29 years...for example: buckwheat pancakes, cashew butter, cauliflower, quinoa, sweet potatoes, papaya...I'm sure I'm missing some. I have definitely expanded what I eat but it still isn't easy.

It seems like I am fine one day and the next I'm falling apart. The worst part is I can't keep up w/ the rest of my life b/c I'm too busy cooking and cleaning the kitchen. The laundry falls behind, school for Little Bit, my rest. I'm getting tired of that.

I am also having a hard time being around food. Little Monsters' Easter egg hunt was yesterday and it bothered me to be around the choc chip cookies, popcorn, m and ms...but I was ok today w/ the kids having pizza. Hmmm...wonder where my weakness is.

And it isn't helping that I'm coming off of my effexor. I think that has multiplied my issues by a million. I took my last dose last night. I hope the last little bit of withdrawals go by fast.

We are still clicking on with school but it has gotten to be so routine that there aren't a lot of things to update. Little Bit has come so far, though! She is reading chapter books and loving it. I think it really clicked with her last week. All of a sudden I noticed her wanting to take books to bed with her or taking them in the car. I'm so excited for her. I can't imagine not loving to read. I hope Little Monster is the same way.

I started an elimination diet on Wednesday. I am going to try to keep track of the changes in my body as I go but we'll see how far I get :) Wednesday was hard. It was really hard not to get a frappuccino after working out, not being able to take a sip of anything (orange juice, milk, gatorade, etc) except water, not being able to grab a jelly bean or piece of chocolate, no potatoes, no bread...you can figure out the rest. Thursday was a little easier in that aspect but then yesterday was BAD. I think the hardest part is making food for the kids. I can't even lick the peanut butter off the knife. I completely lost it this morning. It gets to me that I don't have a choice in this. This isn't a fad or just for fun. Its for my life. I know it will get easier as I start introducing things back in but these 3 weeks are going to suck. The most I have learned so far is not to try something new when I'm hungry. If I don't like it, I just get angry that I can't grab anything else easily and I can't fill myself up.

Just a few noteworthy Little Monster conversations heard in my household lately
*about a month ago I lost my voice. Little Monster cried and cried, concerned that I would never get it back.
*last night Little Monster had a bedtime breakdown b/c daddy and him had donuts w/ dad today and he was sad I couldn't go.
*Little Monster asked me tons of questions about dying the other day (he is extremely sensitive about that, which works as a pretty good inspiration to NOT run in the parking lot). After our talk he went to daddy and told him that he's going to die one day. Then he said "daddy, you can't die. You have to pay the bills"

Has it really been over a month since I posted? My how time flies. So the brief overview of the last month, followed soon by pictures (assuming I can ever get the energy to get to my computer and post them):

*we finished homeschooling for the year before the public school and had an entire month to be lazy. Around our house that means going non-stop without trying to fit homeschooling in as well. It was awesome and although everyone said I would come back in January refreshed and ready to go, I didn't. I even contemplated keeping Little Monster out of preschool bc I don't love his teacher and taking him on the 2 days I don't have to be at the gym drives me crazy.

*Christmas was definitely a full-swing event this year. Both kids were really into the Santa gig. Little Bit asked for a little bit of everything but mostly wanted an American Girl doll. I was fortunate to get one for FREE from my aunt and it was a huge hit!!  Little Monster asked for a helicopter hat and a real Yoshi. He didn't get anything on his list but was excited about what he did get. The funny (not really) part is he doesn't play with anything he got except a $10 pack of Mario trading cards.

*New Years was just like any other "I'm a parent now" new year. Kids went to bed, we rang in the new year with the eastern time zone, and climbed in the bed about 11:05. Woopee.

*Despite my lack of drive, school has gotten off to a good start. Little Bit had a math assessment the other day and only missed  writing her numbers. For example: she wanted to write 247 as '2047'. She can now add 2 digit numbers (if you don't have to carry anything) and we just started subtraction which she immediately picked up.

*We got a puppy 2 weeks ago. If you had asked me a month ago If we would get a dog, it would've been a big NO! But she is a great little dog. She is a shih-tzu poodle mix (shih-poo) and we named her Bella. She is mostly housetrained, crate trained (she definitely was NOT when we got her), and sleeps through the night. We have already taught her sit, stay, down, paw, and settle. This week we are dog-sitting my parents' dog so we have 2 kids, 2 cats, 2 dogs, and us. It is bound to be interesting. 

*This week has flown by. Actually this whole year has flown by! I was so excited about having a week off from school and it went so fast I couldn't enjoy it. I did enjoy thanksgiving though.  Little Monster had his t'giving program the tuesday before t'giving which was great. He does such a good job "performing". Other kids were crying and getting down but he just sang and did his hand motions with no problem. They wanted him to be the pumpkin in one song but he wanted nothing to do with that.

*Little Bit and I got a lot of pictures edited and food cooked. We made some yummy pioneer woman mac and cheese (although I've ruined my poor children with kraft mac and cheese so they wouldn't eat it) and some SUPER yummy Jacques torres chocolate chip cookies. They did eat those :)

*Our friends from Ohio came down to visit family this week so we got to hang out with them one night. The funny part about our friendship is my husband and her husband grew up together but her and I are closer than they are. I know women are generally closer than guys anyway but the only common ground we had to start with were those 2 who only talk about once a quarter. Her and I have a standing phone date every weekend to discuss the past week's events. I don't know what I would do without her sometimes.

*B had his last rickshaw gig for the year. I am very thankful for that job but equally thankful when it is over. I hate it when he is  gone on the weekends.

*My photo shoots are still holding steady. I have had several clients move over the last year so I am a little slower than normal but I guess I could go out and try to drum up some business. I am so busy, though, that I am happy with what I have.
*I went black Friday shopping Thanksgiving night. I was gone and back home exactly 15 minutes. I saw the line and turned around. I enjoy a good deal but I enjoy my sanity more. I am basically finished Christmas shopping. That makes me happy.

*My mom, my husband, me, and Little Bit got sick this week. I don't know who has had it worse. Little Bit's was almost just a bump in the road. The rest of us didn't fare so well. B seems to have felt the worse. My voice has been gone for 3 days now. The weirdest part is that the virus was basically just a fever and achy yucky feeling for about 24 hours. The after effects have been the worst!! I have to say, I love my Zumba classes, though (and TurboKick). I whispered to them all that I had lost my voice and they told me not to worry about it, they could just follow me...and follow me they did!! And not only did they follow me, they were even calling for me. My front row divas (who I love) would randomly yell out "Keep your arms up" or "Don't stop moving". It was awesome and makes me smile inside and out.

*Last but not least...I ordered an iMac. It has been on my list for a few years but the prices have always put me off. Well, I have seen the "dumping physical memory" blue screen on my PC more times than I can count this week and I broke down and ordered it. It should be here Wednesday. Thankfully, all of my stuff is backed up. I finished editing my last shoot today (which was a slow process b/c the computer kept blue-screening me) so now I just have to wait...and then learn b/c I have NEVER owned a Mac. The only apple product I have is an ipod that is probably 5 years old and only cost me $10.

A few kid funnies:
*Little Bit told me she is getting Papaw grocery money for Christmas b/c everytime they go spend the night he asks if she brought some.
*Little Monster had the following shopping list today: A noodle for Mrs. Jean, Super Mario Bros for the gym, and a Christmas tree for Skylar's birthday. Little Bit asked him "Who is going to play with a Christmas tree??" his response..."Skylar"
*You all will be happy to know that Bowser was at Kroger today and ripped it down but "the people" fixed it (their pretend world is so funny to listen to)
*In the car the other day Little Bit was saying something with a sad voice and Little Monster responded by saying (with a big sigh) "Yeah, no one ever picks a pepper." Not sure how Peter Piper fit into that story but I love the randomness of it.
I know I am missing one but I will have to think on it and post it later. Until next time...

My son never ceases to amaze me. Yesterday, I randomly wrote a row of capital letters and a row lower case letters and he drew the lines to match them. I didn't have to help him once. We also talked about the words "cat" and "dog." I wrote them out yesterday and then tonight he asked me how to spell them. I sounded out each letter, he told me what it was, and then wrote it by himself. My favorite part was when he told me he didn't know how to write a "g" and then wrote it with no problem and no instruction.

I gave both of them octopus pictures today and asked him to put the correct number of dots on each leg. He never asked a question and got them all right. He also told me he was going to color something and everyone would "be so impressed."

Little Bit drew pictures of Peach, Luigi, and Yoshi. I love them. She also had to take a math test today and did a great job. She only missed writing the number 200 (she wrote 220) and reading one of the clock faces. I was impressed. It amazes ne how far she has come in 2 months. Hard to imagine where she will be at Christmas. Little Monster will probably be graduating from college by his next birthday.

Speaking of birthdays- Little Bit is supposed to have a party in 2 weeks and I can't get motivated. I think I might have too much going on in life. Just maybe.

My daughter turned 6 last weekend and we celebrated the weekend before with a big shindig. It is crazy how you invite a "few" people and there ends up being 16 kids and a bunch of adults (didn't count those). I guess all those friends and their siblings add up. They had a blast, though. Like every other little girl in America, my daughter loves Tangled so we had a Tangled themed party. A week before the party I wasn't motivated to even have one but thankfully I pulled it together in the end and put together a few cool things. Flynn Rider's wanted poster was posted on the front door. A friend's child got a Rapunzel toy a few months ago and I saved the small print on the back of the box. I used that as a guide and drew a bigger copy on posterboard. For her Fairy party last year I bought a TON of paper lanterns with the battery operated tea lights and never used them (didn't even remember that I had them until the party was over and they were the one thing that spurred the Fairy/Garden party idea). But I did use lanterns this year. Not all of the ones I had but a few. 

We hung posterboard on the fence and let the kids go to town with washable markers. I think this should be a staple at all parties and I plan (assuming I don't forget) to do this at every party from now on. If there's not an activity going on, just send them the fence to draw. We do have some marker on our fence now but it should clean off with a clorox solution. And if not, it adds character. Another option would be to use sidewalk chalk straight on the fence. I think I might go to our local newspaper and buy some unprinted paper. They sell the ends of the rolls for about $5 (and it is a ton of paper). Ok, back on track now--I am going to punch holes in all of the poster drawings and make a "book" for her. 

 

 

 

Trampoline, balloons, and children under the age of 6. Nothing more even has to be said. And I'm not sure if Little Monster is thieving the balloons here or taking back escaped balloons. I have a feeling he was thieving. Maybe we should have dressed him up as Flynn Rider. 

 

The cake was fun to make. Two weeks before the party I had decided to just buy cupcakes or a cake from somewhere. A week before the party I decided to ask my mom to help me with it. And 6 days before the party I decided I just needed help with flowers. Those are not my specialty but my mom is amazing at it! Hints on decorating a tower cake: use a dense cake (ex...I used THIS TRIPLE CHOCOLATE POUND CAKE...oh so amazing!! Double the recipe though...maybe even triple it), use the the inner tube of a roll of aluminum foil to stack the doughnuts on (it is a great size and really strong cardboard. I wouldn't recommend a paper towel roll since the cardboard is kind of flimsy), use moldable chocolate for any other figures that need to be created (I didn't even do a Rapunzel...just had her hair flowing out the window. Of course, every child wanted to know where Rapunzel was but I just told them she was hiding inside), and use dense doughnuts for the tower. 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure where this tradition started but I always get something for the sibling of the birthday child (my parents and one of my friends do as well). Little Monster has been having fits wanting the Mario/Sonic Winter Olympics Wii game. I found it cheap on ebay so that was his present and I don't think anything else could've made him happier. I wish I had his reaction on video. We probably could've won money off of it. But here he is examining the game with Papaw   

 

After the party was over we drove to a park to release real lanterns (just like the movie). These were so stinking cool! I got them off of Amazon and they were worth every penny. We only released 2 (which means we have 8 more fun flying lanterns). A few people were really afraid of them catching on fire but they work just like a hot air balloon. So if there's a flame, they float up. When the flame goes out, they come down. I wouldn't suggest doing them around trees b/c they could catch a tree on fire but after they are above the trees, there is no worry (well, maybe birds?).