Miss my grandpa

August 3, 1931 to May 31, 2003

Yay!

Timmy ate a boneless pork chop last night with Creole seasoning.

So, I guess we'll be using that creole seasoning on a lot of things now. Thanks Zippy for suggesting the spice idea. He really likes it, so I'll be cooking with it a lot. He did not eat his red potato salad with dill, but he did try one bite. He actually looked excited to try it, "Mmmm yeah! Potato salad!" is what he said before taking a bite. But, turns out he didn't like it. Well, at least I know he genuinely doesn't like it, and he wasn't just being stubborn.

He tried two peas and picked the corn out to eat and left the peas. Oh well. I'm just happy he ate some lean meat.

Too chubby?

I've been concerned about Timmy's weight for quite some time and the things I feed him and his refusal to eat healthy things I make for dinner. He loves breakfast and lunch, but when it comes to dinner it's only buttered noodles, mac n cheese, burritos, fries n dogs and quesadillas.

I think it's taking it's toll on his body now. My mom got him some jeans and khakis for Christmas, and they no longer fit him around his waist. We got him some size 6/7 adjustable waist shorts from Walmart, they are way too long and way too tight around his waist. The elastic waist shorts we got him make him look like a cholo because they are too long, but they fit him OK around the waist. At bedtime he wears pull-up diapers because even size 6 diapers are too small for him now.

I'm afraid if I don't do something now he will be one of those boys who won't take his shirt off in the pool because the other kids will make fun of his boobs. Or, worse, the doctor will diagnose him with high cholesterol or something. Robert says if we put him in football as a linebacker they won't tease him, but what if he doesn't like football?

Robert and I were both "the fat kid" and it's not fun. Kids can be so cruel...the pointing and the whispers were the least of it. Getting detention after P.E. class everyday for coming out late because I didn't want to change in front of the other girls was not fun either. I was referenced as "fat Christina, not shorthaired Christina" so as not to get mixed up with the other Christina in my school. I do not want my children to have to go through that.

Beginning tonight Timmy will eat what he's served at dinnertime, and if he doesn't eat it, then he doesn't get anything else until the next meal (which is breakfast). I served rice with chicken broccoli curry cream of mushroom sauce tonight, and he managed to get three bites down. I let the hunger pangs set in (if he had any), and then gave him some milk before bed.

A lot of parents do this, but I didn't really want to. I didn't mind the extensive planning ahead to make sure he was going to have leftovers that he liked when I was making something he didn't like for the rest of us. I didn't mind using an extra knife or pot to make something he would actually eat when I made something I knew he didn't like. It'd be different if he liked carrots or brown rice or zucchini or something healthy. I'd continue to make sure he had those few healthy things he liked until he grew out of this stage. But, when he will only eat pasta, tortillas and dairy, it's not good. I've tried disguising healthy foods sometimes (hiding veggies in his burritos), and that works, but I can't do that every single night. Unlike me, he gets tired of rice, beans & tortillas.

So, that's that. We'll see how things go and if he starts dropping weight because he's eating less or because he'll start to enjoy the healthy dinners I make.

Thunder Thighs Strikes Again!

So, for my work uniform, I wear gray trousers. Guardsmark provides the uniforms, but I was having trouble finding pants that fit me properly. They fit me fine in the waist and hips, but they were snug in the thighs. No big deal right? I'm a woman, who cares if my pants are too tight in the thighs. All my pants are too tight in the thighs. Well, I noticed after a couple weeks, my trouser started to come apart at the inseam. So, I went downtown and got another pair. They didn't have any larger women's sizes, so I looked through the men's trousers and found a pair that was made of a different material and seemed more sturdy.

Saturday morning comes and I'm dressed and ready to walk out the door. I bend over to tighten my shoelaces and RRRRRIIIIIIIPPPPP! Out goes the inseam from crotch to ankle. Mind you I work two days a week and have only ONE pair of pants. What the heck am I going to do, I thought to myself. I hurried to the closet and found my old navy blue trousers I had when I worked for ABM. They have always been tight in the thighs, but they are a very well made trouser, maybe they use sturgeon line to sew the inseam. Fortunately my blazer is navy blue also, so it looks nice together, but still not my proper uniform. I went to work and no one noticed until I told them. My supervisor even relieved me that day and didn't notice I was wearing navy trousers.

The following week I decide to buy my own pair of gray trousers. I hit up Goodwill first, and no luck finding charcoal gray trousers with belt loops. (I have to wear a belt for my radio and cell phone at work.) No problem, maybe I can find some for $20 at Sears or JCP. No such luck. I went to Sears, JCP, Macys, Nordstrom and Gap. Found lots of pinstripes, light gray and no belt loop trousers. Some of these department stores are no longer sorting section by Juniors, Misses, Women's, Plus Size, Old Lady anymore, they sort by brand name. It took me hours to go through all these sections in all these department stores and not once did any employee offer to help me. I was almost in tears walking through the mall back to my car when I passed by Lane Bryant. I guess I'll try one more store, hopefully they sell my size.

I walk into Lane Bryant, and immediately was greeted by 3 lovely plus-sized women. Oh yeah, Lane Bryant is a plus-sized store. "Can I help you find anything?" said Tila, the LB employee who absolutely made my day. "This is the 7th store I've been to today, and I'm about ready to cry. Do you have charcoal gray trousers with belt loops?" And, guess what? They had a ton! They have some for boxy women, slightly curvy women and for badonkadonk booties. She gave me a pair to try on and kept tossing more over the dressing room door. I've never been so happy to try on clothes because they ALL fit me without having to lay down, suck it in and struggle to even get them over my legs.

This particular store didn't have charcoal gray in my shape, so Tila said she would try calling the other Lane Bryants in the area, and if they didn't have them, then she would order my pants off the website and ship them to my house for free. Fortunately, the Tualatin store had them, and Tila placed them on hold for me. I wanted to hug her, but I didn't.

HERE's my pants. I've haven't paid 50 bucks for an article of clothing since I was single. But, the pants look so cute that I would actually wear them at other times. They will also pay for themselves in 6 weeks because they are machine washable. I had to get my old trousers dry cleaned.

Weaned :(

So, I guess Jimmy is weaned now. I was bringing him in the bed every morning (except work days) and nursing him just that one time a day. But, after this last weekend I decided not to anymore. Kind of sad about it since he is our last baby. He'll be two years old in May. We moved him into his own room, and he's doing fine in there. Him being in our room it was just too easy to grab him and bring him in bed with me, so it made it easier putting him in his room.

The really cool thing is that haven't had a monthly cycle since June of 2006, the month before Jimmy was conceived. That was nice.

Victory

Not very high scoring games, but I beat everyone. I never win, sometimes I do very well, but never win. I won three times that night. My clanmates are very good players too, so I'm surprised I was able to beat them, including my husband!

New blog look!

I love it! I didn't make everything the right size, but it still looks nice. If you push F11, you can see where I didn't make the background long enough. But, who uses F11 anyway?

I got all the images from Shabby Princess' free DLs, and then I put it all together in Flash. Looks spring-y. :)

If you want to make something like that, I can probably help you with the HTML side of it and image sizing. Those parts were pretty simple.

LOL

Came across this funny video. Poor kid.

A person is a person, no matter how small

Be sure to turn off my music player for this.

This young lady's speech is absolutely amazing. What maturity she shows. Good for her.

One fact I want to point out is that only 1% of ALL abortions in the U.S. are for rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

"No children allowed in the sanctuary"

There's been a discussion on a forum I go to about a policy that a church implemented regarding kids between the ages of 3 months to pre-school age not being allowed to worship with their parents in the sanctuary. The kids must be sent to the church nursery/Sunday school class or sit in the family room and watch the sermon on a TV.

You can watch the 6 minute video here Faith Promise - Pro Kids.

The way this pastor is manipulating his church is appalling. I have never even taken a psychology class but it doesn't take an expert to see how manipulative he is.

-Blaming children for sending someone to Hell who is on the fence?! I can't believe he even said that. He seriously could have used more tact than that.

-Calling the sanctuary a "war zone". Ummm, isn't everywhere else a war zone too?

-Saying that the reason mothers are with their babies is because of the mother's "separation anxiety"? Um, wrong again. Bad joke. It's called God-given maternal instinct.

If some kids are causing such a problem in the sanctuary during service, why don't the ushers have a word with those parents. Ask them to go sit in the family room or put the kids in Pro-Kids. Why make a blanket mandatory policy? The people who are really going to miss out are those families of well-behaved children who strongly believe in family worship.

My kids are loud and wild. They are the type of kids that really do need to be in the nursery/kids' church. I think most parents of energetic kids who can't sit still and be quiet know this about their kids. It's hard to believe that there were so many wild kids (with clueless parents) that the church felt they had to make this policy.

My friend Sandy blogged about it too....hope she doesn't mind I link to her blog entry.