Jonah's 1st Birthday

During the last weekend in February, we set out for Winston-Salem to help celebrate this little man's special 1st birthday!

And oh, what a special day it was!

It was a carnival of monumental proportions.....

complete with games, animals, facepainting...

 

and the cake...oh the cake...was a true work of art....

and the anticipation was great...

big breath mommy...... 

 

 getting to see friends you don't get to see enough... 

getting to meet Matt's Aunt Katherine and his Uncle Chris.... 

 

 to be around so many people who have prayed for Jonah 

(and continue to pray for him)....

 

AMAZING....

Bad Blogger

It has been almost a month since I have done a blog entry.  I have been a bad blogger.  I will be updating soon though, and you will be able to see what has been keeping us so busy!  I am looking forward to staying home this upcoming weekend after being on the road for the past three!

Jonah's EB Auction SNEAK PEEKS

Just wanted to let you that Jonah's EB Auction sneak peeks are up NOW.    Head on over there to see what will be up for bids beginning this Tuesday, February 23 at midnight.  Katie has done a phenomenal job in putting this together.  Let's hope that it raises a lot of money to support DEBRA in honor of Jonah's 1st birthday!

Online Class

I am presently taking my first online class.  It is a Web 2.0 class that is supposed to be helpful with learning about web tools such as blogs (woohoo), wikis, photo sharing, and other tricks to use in a school setting.  They have given us a lot of links to explore so far and I have found a few tricks that I want to try with my blog, so  be looking for those soon!  An online class is tricky in that you must discipline yourself to check the site regularly and make sure your assignments and tasks are in at the precise time.  It is very interesting and although it is right much work, I embrace the fact that I can sit on the couch with my PJs on and "attend class."    

I am a wuss and I know it.  I am not going to attempt the South Beach Diet right now.  I feel that it is quite restrictive, and although it is the "quick" way to drop some pounds, I don't want to shock my system so much.  I am talking to a few people about doing Weight Watchers, so I will see how that goes.  As always, any insight is appreciated as I begin  this journey.

A New Quest

I recently went to the doctor for a physical and it's no joke that I have gained some weight.  When Seth was born, I weighed the most I had ever weighed--I gained 49 lbs. with him.  But I ate pretty much what I wanted to.  I was able to lose much of that baby weight, even getting back to my pre-pregnancy weight.  But that was 4 years ago and I am older now and my metabolism has slowed even more.  Okay so that is not an excuse for me liking food.

My new quest is to lose some weight.   I would like to lose 15-20 lbs.  But even 10 would be great!   I talked to the doctor about it and he said that a good, healthy diet was the South Beach Diet.  Have any of you tried it?  I had heard of it but I did not know what it involved.  I came home from the doctor and started researching.  Short and dirty version is no carbs or sugars.  The diet is made up of 3 phases with Phase 1 being the most restrictive.  Phase 1 lasts 2 weeks and is basically a detoxification of carbs and sugars from your body.  If you can reach Phase 2--yes I said that---you can begin to add whole grains back into the diet slowly.  I haven't looked at Phase 3 yet.

 

http://www.dietsinreview.com/diet_column/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/south-beach-diet.jpg

I decided to do a test run of this diet today.  I made my first error not eating breakfast or lunch, but eating brunch at around 10:45.  I had an egg casserole with bacon, tomato, onion, and cheese from Cracker Barrel along with unsweet (blasphemy) tea.  Thank GOD for Splenda.  I made it until about 2:00, when I started having a hunger pain, so I grabbed some dry roasted peanuts, some lowfat cheddar cheese squares, and a glass of V-8.   This, along with 2 glasses of water was helpful until supper. 

I forgot to mention that I walked out of Lowes today and continued by a tableful of Girl Scout cookies that were for sale.  I did not stop and I did not buy any.  Also, we met Rob's dad's family at the Dixie Queen (seafood restaurant) this afternoon for his uncle's birthday.  Rob and I did not eat since we had already decided on supper.  It was so hard to go in there and not have hush puppies and their sweet tea.   Ahhhhhh!!!   We ended up having spaghetti for supper, so I was not successful the whole day, but I thought I gave it a good run for a few hours.

I have learned that I do need to get some more food though--my selection presently is not as good as it needs to be when it comes to snacking and satisfying cravings.  I bet I have chewed 7 pieces of sugar-free gum today. I am thinking about starting the diet in the next week or two--I wanted to wait until after Valentine's Day at least.   If anyone has any tips, they are certainly appreciated.

Snow and Ice Day

What I Am Reading Now....

As a middle school librarian, I try to read books that I can recommend to my students.  Now that we are in full Battle of the Books practice mode, I am trying to read as many Battle of the Books books that I can so that I can write practice questions for the students.

I just finished The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt.

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/titledetail.cfm?titleNumber=100515

This is a wonderful book that takes place in New York in 1967.  It is about a seventh grader named Holling Hoodhood.  That's correct....Holling Hoodhood--(I know the nerve of those parents!).  Holling is neither Jewish nor Catholic, so on Wednesday afternoons(instead of joining his classmates at Catholic school or Hebrew school), he reports to his language arts teacher, Mrs. Baker, who teaches him Shakespeare.  Holling discovers the underlying meaning of much of the Shakespearian terminology and proceeds to use in it in places where he otherwise might use a curse word.  This book is funny, for the most part.  Holling (bless his heart) has to deal with quite a bit of bullying and sometimes makes choices that do not help his cause. As I read this book, I found it predictable because I was able to tell what kind of life Holling had after the first few chapters.  I recommend it to anyone who enjoys middle grade humor yet at the same time can relate to being picked on.

I have just started Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/318404.Drums_Girls_And_Dangerous_Pie

So far, this book has had its funny moments, but it is real quick to slap you back into reality. The main character, Steven, loves to play the drums. He is in middle school and has a five year old brother, Jeffrey, who gets on his nerves. One morning, Steven is fixing oatmeal for Jeffrey, who is sitting on a barstool. Jeffrey somehow falls off the barstool and Steven gets blamed for his bloody nose that will not stop bleeding.  Jeffrey is whisked off to the ER by their mother and Steven spends all day at school trying not to think about Jeffrey.  After school, Steven returns home to find out that his brother does not just have a bloody nose.  He has ALL, which is a form of leukemia.    That's about as far as I have gotten.  I want to go and pick it up right now and continue reading it.  I think I will...but before I do that, I wanted to share this jewel with you:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Belle-Weather/Celia-Rivenbark/e/9780312362997

Yes it's Belle Weather Mostly Sunny with A Chance of Scattered Hissy Fits by Celia Rivenbark.  This is my adult book right now.  I have only read one chapter of this so far and it is great.  It is a lot like her other books--full of southern colloquialisms and sarcasm.  I love it!  I look forward to laughing out loud as I read this.

That's what I am reading right now.  How about you?