Tiny Talk -- Karate Version

Tiny Talk Tuesday celebrates our children and their view of the world. They continually make us laugh and by recording their Tiny Talk we can focus on one of the many JOYS of parenting! If your kiddos made you laugh this week (don't they always), then feel free to share the humor! Check out more Tiny Talks with Mary.



That Other Kid had his first belt test for Karate Friday night. He had sooooo much to say after and during his test. He was sooo proud of himself for managing to get past this first milestone. I'm pretty proud of him myself! Here are a couple of the videos that I took...

My Karate Kid

Before Yellow Belt Test



After Yellow Belt Test







He's sooooo proud!!! and now he can't wait to get his Orange Belt!

This was Friday night. Everyone he sees or talks to is shown his Yellow Belt....even people who could care less! or know absolutely NOTHING about Karate! He can not wait for his first class as a Yellow Belt tomorrow afternoon...Tomorrow morning will probably be very LONG!!! Probably a good time to go to the gym and work out and let him play in the child center and drive them all crazy talking about his "Yellow Belt"! I'm all about sharing the love!

Sometimes I Just Wanna Give Up...

Ya know the kind of day I'm talking about, don'tcha? The days where you think, maybe I should have stayed in bed. There's nothing really "wrong" but yet there are sooo many things that are wrong. That's the kind of day I'm having. I can't really describe it. It just is one of those kinds of days.

It's a lazy Sunday....I cleaned the hall bathroom. It's only needed it for 3 or 4 weeks. I still have the master bathroom to clean. I probably won't get it done. I don't think I have it in me.

I fixed burgers on the grill for dinner. That Other Kid is eating a bag of Ruffles, instead of eating the burger he "promised" he would eat. That Kid is working all day...been gone since before I got up at 8 a.m. and still not home at 6:30. When he comes home at 9:30 or 10 p.m. tonight he'll be tired and hungry.

That Kid informed me last night that he needs new ice skates. That's another $400+ that we need to come up with! He needs them so he can earn money....of which he owes us a bunch of! What's a girl to do???? AGH!! yeah, like that's gonna help!

I know alot of others have it A LOT worse. The economy stinks, the gas prices stink, kids are over in Iraq or Iran fighting for our freedom to moan and groan. Wall Street is a mess. The Government and President Bush are trying to keep this country from going down the tubes.... etc., etc., etc., but tonight I feel like groaning and whining a little and since this is my blog I have that right!

Ok, so enough moaning and groaning from me....Thanks for listening!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Tiny Talk Tuesday celebrates our children and their view of the world. They continually make us laugh and by recording their Tiny Talk we can focus on one of the many JOYS of parenting!

If your kiddos made you laugh this week (don't they always), then feel free to share the humor!

Check out more Tiny Talks with Mary.

This week I took That Other Kid to Walmart with me and I bought him a "prize" for behaving while we were there...I'm easy to bribe! But I was only willing to spend about $20 so he was limited to what he could choose. Some of the items he wanted were pricey...like $35+. I told him these "big toys" had to wait for his birthday or Christmas.

Then he asked, "how many sleeps till my birthday and I'm a big boy like my friend?" I told him about "90 more sleeps"...."Oh that's too long to wait to be 5 years old."

Oh it does sound like a lot, but I know it will be here before we know it! My baby will be a big boy sooner than I will want it to happen...

Tonight I went to a college fair with That Kid, so daddy and That Other Kid got to spend the evening together. When I walked in a full 30 minutes past his normal bedtime, he ran to me and told me he "missed me so much". Daddy had just finished reading his story, so all I had to do was brush teeth and do "pats", which is the way I help him go to sleep. It felt good to get out for a few hours, but it was nice to be "missed"!!

No Wonder I Have No Traffic on My Blog

I apparently never write here anymore....I can't believe it's been over a week since I posted something. I guess that just goes to show you how boring, mundane and not exciting my life has been this past week.

I've been going to the gym as often as I can. I went 3 times last week, and I'm going to try for 4 or maybe even 5 this week. I have been doing pretty well with watching my food intake and it has paid off, with 2 more pounds missing from this "obese" body of mine. That is what the doctor calls it, and I have to say I agree. Anyone who needs to lose 75 pounds just to get within the top of her weight range is definitely "obese".

I did a sleep study Friday night to try to determine why I am always tired....no matter how much sleep I get. They hooked me up to 22 wires and watched me sleep. How boring for this poor lady! I felt sorry for her, just sitting there all night long watching these 2 tv monitors waiting for me to do something exciting! I am looking forward to the results of the test, which I will get on October 1! The sleep study was nice in that I got to sleep in bed all by myself with no interuptions except for when I had to go the bathroom. Of course, they wanted me to go to sleep at like 10 p.m. and wake up at 5 a.m. which was a big drag....not exactly my normal hours, but oh well!

I walked on the treadmill and the elipitical machine at the gym and went 1.66 miles today. That is, so far, the most I have done since I started exercising again. But I need to bump it up....my soon to be 71 year old dad, who just underwent colon cancer surgery in July, he started back to walking a couple of weeks ago and he walked 2 miles Sunday.....so what is my problem??? Don't answer that! I already know....I'm FAT!!! He's not!!! So maybe by the end of the week I'll be able to do 2 miles....I also need to add some weights to my routine, but I just haven't done it yet. This is a process and I'm still working out the kinks!

Ok...so I'm rambled enough for now and I need to go to bed, so I'll try to write more often this week so maybe somebody will come read about what's going on in my little world. Hope you have a good week!

Random Stuff

First bit of randomness...I rented a Wii video game for That Other Kid yesterday and I've barely heard him whine, complain or ask for anything other than to read the captions on the game since then. He has played it for about 6 hours so far....3 hours last night and about 3 hours today, so far. He still has about an hour left of play time in today, so I suppose we will be up to a total of 7 hours in the 2 days....He is never this focused on anything, so I'm thrilled that something has caught his interest. It's definately a keeper....Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. If you have a young Star Wars fan, I highly recommend it. I think I remember hearing about this game from BooMama so since Star Wars is a big thing in our house right now I thought it would be worth renting the game, and Let me tell you IT IS WONDERFUL! It has thoroughly kept him entertained this weekend, what with all the rain and wind from hurricane Ike yesterday...and the lazy momma today (even though the weather is ideal to be out and about) I'm gonna have to shell out $50 for this game, ohyesIam! Anything that keeps him entertained for more than 30 minutes is a definate winner in our house!!

Next piece of random info....That Kid had to ref 2 hockey games this afternoon and since I am having a bit of hockey withdrawal I decided to tag along, watch some hockey and watch him ref, which I haven't done in a while. The first game was pretty interesting. It was 15 and 16 year olds and these guys spent more time in the penalty box than on the ice. (If you are not familiar with hockey, the penalty box is where the refs send you for being a "bad boy")!
At one point during the game there were 3 or 4 guys in the penalty box on each side... so there were more guys in the box than on the bench waiting for their turn to play! It was definately different to watch not really rooting for either side, even though I knew who I wanted to win;) There were some younger players from one of the organzations that were screaming and being obnoxious and I just wanted to slap these boys around....They were really being pests, but it was fun to listen to them when That Kid called a penalty on one of the players. If it was someone from their side it was the worst call ever, if it was someone from the other side it was the best call ever made. It was all very humorous from where I sat, being an "unbiased" spectator.

On to the last bit of randomness for tonight...DH and That Kid like to watch the Simpsons cartoon on tv. Whether you like the show or not, or have ever watched it I'm sure everyone knows who Bart is. Anywho, dh is always referring to various quotes that he says and he gets stuck on them and repeats them over and over again. He is stuck on one right now and has gotten That Other Kid to say it....although I don't like to admit it, it does seem to fit him in this stage of his childhood. "I didn't do it! You didn't see me! You can't prove anything!"

I think I'll go with this quote myself....I think we all need to be a sarcastic sometimes, don't you???

New Update on Dad

I talked to my dad tonight and he is doing good. He went to the oncologist that has been treating him for the cancer, and he has to undergo another round of Chemo. This round starts this coming Tuesday and will last a total of 8 weeks. He will go in on Tuesday, get the treatment and come home with the chemo bag. He will wear it till Thursday then go in and get it removed. The following week he will have a break, then he will repeat the process 3 more times. After this round of chemo he will have another surgery and hopefully, he will be done. I guess we will know more in a couple of months. This takes us into the first part of November, so I'm hoping that he will be done with this before the Thanksgiving/Christmas season.

He is in good spirits even though we thought he was already done with it all. He started walking again, and today he walked a mile at the gym, so I need to start increasing my time so I can say I walked more than my dad, who will be 71 years young in just a couple of weeks!

Let's Continue to Pray

Back in May we all found it hard to believe the Stephen Curtis Chapman's youngest daughter was killed in a tragic accident. I can't even imagine the pain that family has had to endure over the past few months. I don't usually keep up with the morning news shows, but someone on my email loops told me that he was going to be on the CBS Early Show. Of course, I didn't turn the tv on this morning to watch it, but it was online so I thought you might want to watch it, too. It's almost 10 minutes long so make sure you have a few minutes to watch it.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Tiny Talk Tuesday celebrates our children and their view of the world. They continually make us laugh and by recording their Tiny Talk we can focus on one of the many JOYS of parenting!

If your kiddos made you laugh this week (don't they always), then feel free to share the humor!

Check out more Tiny Talks with Mary.

This week we have been talking a lot about the "bigness" of God! Of course, to a 4 year old it's a little difficult to explain the omnipresence of God.

That Other Kid said, "Mommy how big is God?"

Me, "God is bigger than anything!"

That Other Kid, "Bigger than daddy."

Me, "Yes, God is bigger than daddy."

That Other Kid, "Wow, that's really big, huh?"

Me, "Yes."

A few minutes later we were getting in the car to go to karate class which he absolutely LOVES, and he asked me if God would be mad at us if he didn't wear the "seat belts" in his car seat. I told him that "God would not be mad, but he would be VERY disappointed in mommy for not keeping you safe." He seemed satisfied in that response and let me buckle him properly.

I tell you this child is keeping me on my toes....even at 4. What's he gonna be like as a teenager????

Good News/Bad News

Ok, don't you hate it when someone starts a conversation saying that they have good news and bad news, which do you want first???

Well, of course, you want to hear the good news first...this buffers any blows that the bad news could cause. So without further ado, here is my GOOD NEWS!!!

I have worked out at the gym 5 days this week as well as watching very carefully what I have been eating and drinking. I only had one 32 ounce coke this week, which is probably a true testament to my will power this week. All that hard work and dedication has paid off --- I LOST 4 pounds and 4 ounces since Monday morning!!! thankyouverymuch!!!

Ok, now on to the bad news....That Kid had a wreck in our truck this afternoon. HE WAS NOT HURT and the car that he hit took off as fast as he could possibly go....so we are guessing he had no insurance, so it falls back to our insurance. So that's 2 wrecks and 4 speeding tickets he's had in the 2 years of driving....What do you think that's gonna do to our insurance premiums?????? So I got to deal with the insurance company, car rental place, tow trucks, etc. this afternoon. Sounds fun, NOT!! Monday I will have to contact the repair shop to get the truck fixed. We aren't really in a big hurry to get the truck fixed though, cuz the car rental place goofed up and gave us a Nissan Xterra to drive while we are getting our car fixed....and I guarantee you this truck is MUCH nicer and newer than ours!

Well hope you guys all have a good weekend...I plan to do some driving around this weekend in the Xterra!!

Politics....

usually scare me! I'm such a chicken. I don't like to think about them and I definitely don't like to get involved in the politicians. I just like to follow my party to the polls and trust God to make sure the guys I vote for do what they say they are going to do. I usually don't even watch the Big News...just the local stuff to keep up with the weather and make sure my neighborhood is not going down the tubes, ya know what I mean, I'm sure.

I have sooooo much on my plate that I don't have time to track what so and so is doing or saying or not saying or not doing. I almost always start paying attention when it is near election time and this year is no different. Or wait it is different! We have a historical election in front of us. History in the making, yessir or 'mam in this case!.

I just finished watching the Republican Convention where Sarah Palin spoke. In case you have been in a bubble the past week, she's the vice-presidential candidate for John McCain. I have been hearing alot about her this week and EVERYTHING I have heard I absolutely LOVE! She is TOUGH, but she is LOVING, she is a Christian and she's not afraid to get her hands dirty. She is eloquent and beautiful. AND she's a MOM!! Gotta love her!! I picture her sitting down after the kids are in bed, watching tv with her loving husband with her laptop and writing out her thoughts, just like so many other moms. Maybe she doesn't use a blog to do it with, or maybe she does, I haven't really checked it out,....but I think we all know if she can give birth to 5 children, live in ALASKA, and stand up to the liberal media with grace she can be Vice-President!!!!

And on a personal note, as a hockey mom I love her quote for the day, "The difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is LIPSTICK!!!" Ya gotta love audacity like that, now dontcha?

Ok....on to other news that isn't really newsworthy to the media!
My dad is recovering nicely from his colon cancer surgery that was just 5 weeks ago and the doctor has given him permission to start walking again, so I need to get a move on it if I plan to better him!

I started working out again at the gym and I set some pretty high goals for myself. I want to lose 60 pounds by Christmas, that 15 pounds a month... I'm working out gradually, starting with just 1 mile a day on the treadmill or eliptical machine. So far, so good. Except I have been experiencing calf cramps every day. I talked to a trainer today and he said it is probably from my seditary lifestyle and it's forcing my muscles to wake up and work. They are protesting!!! Well let me tell you they can just go ahead and protest....I'm not quitting!!! I have to get this weight off! I have children to care for...and a whole life ahead of me to live!!!

I also went to an endocronologist today and he is running a TON of tests to help get my metabolism in line. This should help tremendously as should the diet plan he gave me. He also suggested I start on Weight Watchers so I have to research that some to find out what I need to do to get started. With all this help and the exercise that I started on this week I WILL LOSE WEIGHT!!!

One more thing before I go off to bed.....I told That Other Kid that we were going to be going to the gym almost everyday so I could exercise and he could play with his friends there. He wanted to know why I wanted to exercise so I told him I wanted to get "skinny". He didn't understand what that was so then I told him I wanted to get "littler". He said he liked me "BIG" and that if I got littler then he would be bigger than me and then I couldn't carry him or play with him...he was talking about hieght...I was talking about thinness!!! This really cracked me up...for some reason. So today we went to the gym and he asked me if I was littler yet!! Not yet, but SOON, SOON!!!

Wow, Time Passes Fast

It seems like it was just a day or two since I posted but no, it's been almost a whole week...Sorry! I guess I have been busier than I thought. I do have some great video to show you of That Other Kid's first hockey class. He was soooo cute and I was so proud of him. He worked so hard. The class is 45 minutes long and he had to skate from one end of the rink to the other numerous times. He was pretty tired by the time it was all over. He was the youngest, smallest one out there but he didn't let that stop him. At one point the kids were skating backwards and one of his classmates from the previous session fell down and he said, "hey dude are you ok?" He was loud enough to be heard all over the rink. It cracked me up! So compassionate! Here are a few pictures from this weekend. Enjoy!!