Lucky Girl

I get to have a root canal tomorrow. Yea, me.

I've been loopy on Tylenol with Codeine since Friday night. Sometimes I feel like my arms and legs are not attached to my body.

George put aside money in our health spending account so that I could have a root canal and crown done in January, but my tooth would not wait three weeks until we could actually afford it. So, lucky me, I get to have the root canal done tomorrow.

We had a nice but busy weekend. Saturday, we (mostly George) succeeded in cleaning out most of the garage. This was quite a feat, let me tell you. I'm actually very impressed/surprised that my husband worked so hard to get it cleaned up. He must be feeling that Santa's-list-naughty-or-nice crunch.

Renee took Bart and Mack to Jacksonville to do Christmas shopping, so Bart missed going to see the Flotilla with us Saturday evening. I was not real happy about that, but at least he had fun going to see "Bolt" at the movies and playing at Chuck E. Cheese with Nana and Mack. It was pretty chilly out, but I think the Flotilla is always worth it. There's just something quaint and cozy about downtown New Bern at Christmas. I love the atmosphere. It's all about carriage rides and boats and artwork and good food.

Sunday, after Church, Skylar had to ride with the Girl Scouts in the Trent Woods parade. New Bern's parade had been on Saturday afternoon, but we chose to skip it this year and just go to Trent Woods. It was cold and windy out. We parked near Bangert Elementary and found a place near the beginning of the parade route. One thing I love about the Trent Woods parade is that those folks know how to give out some candy! I have literally never seen so much candy and goodies thrown to parade-goers, and let me tell you, I have been in a LOT of parades in my life. At one point, the candy was literally raining down from above - I'm not even exaggerating. We got hit with Tootsie Rolls and candy canes lobbed by over-excited Cub Scouts and collected tangerines given out by Bart & Skylar's school, Ben D. Quinn. We caught a bag of golf tees and a poster of Handy Manny. Last year, Drake got a stuffed animal. We collected candy until our pockets were full and then we had to put it in the basket under the stroller. The only thing I had to put all the candy in when we got to the car was a small backpack. The candy filled the backpack to the very top. I'm telling you - it was better than Halloween.

Monday, we succeeded in finally getting our Christmas tree decorated for Family Home Evening. We'd had it up with lights and ribbons on for a few days, but due to busy schedules, it had just sat there unfinished. Of course, that's one down like four more to go. I put a smaller (six foot) tree on the upstairs balcony, two four foot trees on the front porch, and I'm contemplating putting my four foot white tree in the playroom. I recently located my box of white and blue Christmas decorations, which had gotten misplaced in the shuffle of moving,

I'm doing it again. I'm falling asleep at the keyboard. It's definitely time to get to bed....

Madame Lulu

I realized in that last post, that I just complained mostly. Well, here's some good news:

Lucy, aka Madame Lulu, rolled over today for the first time - from her tummy to her back.

I know it's because she hates being on her tummy so much, but I was excited nonetheless.

My sweet Lucy, she's getting to be such a big girl.

Bart and Drake were crazy today. Drake kept going up to Bart while he was trying to read his book for school and hitting him and saying, "Fight". Drake was trying to get Bart to go have a light saber fight with him in the playroom. When Bart managed to get him to stop hitting him, Drake turned to Skylar and tackled her head.

Honestly, I never know what that kid is going to do next. Right now, he's all about "muht". "Muht" means "milk" in Drake speak, and "Snot muht" is his favorite drink. It means "snack milk" which is what he calls chocolate milk. I can't think of a less appetizing name for something containing chocolate.

OK, I'm off to eat my "snot tuhtties" - er, chocolate cookies...

December's Off to a Bang

I'm just writing a little before I head off to bed. Today was a little hairy. I'm not really sure why, I just felt a little off all day. I've been sick since Thursday evening (Thanksgiving). I had started to get a sore throat. Then I was up at 4am on Black Friday, doing the Walmart crazy thing. Then I didn't get to bed until after midnight. Anyway, I was wiped out and ran a small fever on Saturday. I missed church on Sunday. Yesterday I felt like crap. Today, I'm starting to feel a little better.

We had a movie night scheduled at church tonight for the women. We were going to watch Mr. Kruger's Christmas in our PJ's and eat popcorn. However, by the time George got home and I unwound and we made dinner, it was just kind of late. I decided instead that I really wanted to take Skylar to see Twilight. I went a few weeks ago with a couple of friends & liked it. I felt like Sky & I could use some mommy-little girl time.

We had a great time. When Edward kisses Bella for the first time in the movie, Skylar was like, "Why can't that be me?" And I'm all like, "Patience, my dear, patience. One day, it will be." Except, no vampire, of course. I hope.

Yep. She's growing up, all right. My little baby Skylar kept whispering through the movie, "He's pretty hot!"

At least she's got good taste, right?

I was pretty surprised, though. For the last year and a half, she's been reserving her admiration for the one and only Harry Potter. I think it impressed her that the actor playing Edward also played Cedric Diggory in the 4th Harry Potter movie. Move over Daniel Radcliffe....

The movie was pretty tame (almost no swearing, no sex - only one major kissing scene, minimal blood and violence considering it's a vampire movie), but I still think I will hold off on letting her read the books. They're in no way bad books, but I think that they're still just a bit above Skylar's head as far as male-female relationships go. We haven't really had THE TALK yet, after all. Oh, she knows how babies come about, yada yada, but we haven't really sat down with her and been like, "OK, so this is how it happens..." I am not anticipating that day with any amount of happiness at all.

Tonight on the way to the movie, I had to explain to her that her former idol, Clay Aiken, is gay. Talk about uncomfortable. I really didn't want the kids at school to be the first to break that lovely little news to her. She said, "But doesn't he have a baby?" So I had to explain that one to her. Then she said, "But he isn't married, is he?" So I had to explain that one to her.

Thanks a lot, Clay.

When George called at 5:02 pm today, he was in rather (uncharacteristically) good spirits. When he told me he'd be home in half an hour, that he was still at work, and I cried, "What??", he didn't get annoyed with me or anything, but promised to hurry home.

Oh, when will I learn?

When he walked in the door, I was feeding Baby Lucy. After a few moments of cheerful small talk, he said, "So what would you do if I said I found a Wii Fit and bought it?" I just rolled my eyes and said, "So is this a hypothetical question, or did you already buy the Wii Fit and it's outside in your car?" He did his doofy grin and mumbled that it was out in the car.

I've learned by now that some things really aren't worth arguing about. Pick your battles, right? If a stupid video game makes him happy & eager to please me, fine. Whatever. He's all like, "But this is something I'm really going to use." OK, and I would REALLY use a pair of plain black Gucci pumps. I'd just like it on record that I've never gone out and spent $180 on them. I can just see George's face if I ever went out and spent nearly $200 bucks just before Christmas because I wanted to, particularly when we don't have the money to spare AT ALL.

But you see, that's what makes me so mad. I at least admit that just because it's not important to me, it is important to him. Fine. But he would NEVER, NEVER let me "waste" that much money on something he deemed unimportant. Like shoes. No way. Not a chance.

It's infuriating!!!!

And to top it all off, Wii Fit has just officially become my worst enemy.

I figured I would give George a little patience and kindness and do the fitness test. Besides, I was curious. I've always been in really good shape. Even now, with twelve extra pounds left from my last pregnancy (Lucy is 3 months old), I'm only a size 5/6. I'm trying to get back to my regular size 2/3. So, I was looking forward to finding out my BMI and my body age, or whatever it's called. Back before I got pregnant with Drake, my BMI was 13. I knew I wouldn't be anywhere close to that, but it turns out that it is 22, which is average. I know I've got a ways to go. George was labeled "obese" after his test, which he expected. He needs to lose some major weight. But his body age or whatever it's called was still only 32 years old.

So I take my test. It consists of your weight, etc. and these stupid balance and agility tests. And I totally flunk out on the agility/balance tests. I had no idea there was a time limit on this thing.

Wii Fit said my body age was 49!!!!

Are you freaking kidding me?? I'm not even labeled overweight, and George is labeled obese, and his body is supposedly like a 32 year old's and mine is like a 49 year old's? That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. I was so mad, I retook it. It gave me a different, weird agility test, which both George and I thought I did pretty well on, but stupid Wii Fit said, "Apparently agility tests aren' t your strong point" and it gave me a body age of 41. Ooh, I lost eight years. Big deal. It's still a load of crap.

There is no way I'm going to buy that George's body is in better shape than mine. I mean, he sits at a desk most of the day. I'm always up, moving, walking. I took Pilates and Kickboxing and ballet for crying out loud! I spent all last summer swimming! If I get a quiet minute to do nothing, it's while I'm sitting on the sofa, nursing Lucy - and then, my body is still burning up more calories than his!!!!

This is NOT what I needed to hear right now. I did not need a video game to tell me I am old and out of shape. I told George they had better come out with Wii Marriage Counseling next because we were going to need it.

Yeah, I'm sure he'd run right out and stand in line for that one.

So that's where I stand. I am NOT playing that dumb game with him. If I want to get in shape, it's not going to be doing video games. Does no one else realize how absurd that is? Hmm...I want to lose ten pounds, maybe if I stay in my house in front of my TV, I can do it. Running? Ha. Biking? Ha.

If I were a jerk, I'd sue Wii for emotional damage. Honestly, it was pretty shattering. I can totally see where less stable individuals might go off the deep end or commit suicide after the Wii told them they were old and out of shape and basically sucked. If I were the drinking sort, I might've tossed down a few to make myself feel better. Me, I turn to chocolate. I had two devil's food chocolate cookies to make myself feel better for being fat.

You see, I'm all about reverse psychology. I'm testing a theory that it works on fat cells. My thighs will have to get back to you on that.

Ain't technology great? As if we weren't already hard enough on ourselves. I'm telling you - keep your eyes open for Wii Therapist. I have a feeling we're going to need it.