13

Thirteen. I love the number thirteen. What’s so special about the number thirteen? Well…it’s the number of pounds that I have managed to lose so far by just changing the way I eat. I’m not going to say, “I changed my diet”…I hate the word “diet”. Diets are things people try and fail at repeatedly. “Diets” are what you do when you deprive yourself of the foods you love or crave. That’s been my experience anyway. I’ve been on the weight rollercoaster most of my life. Up and down…up 10 pounds, down 4. This time it’s different. Currently I eat everything I want. I refuse to deprive myself of the foods I love. That is a recipe for failure as far as I’m concerned. At first I was motivated by the fact that I’m on medication to lower my blood sugar levels. Now I’m motivated by the fact that I’m losing weight. THIRTEEN POUNDS! Yesterday my friend said, “Syl, you know I love you…but never wear that shirt again…it’s too big for you”. It took a moment to sink it…”it’s too big for you”…I’m not sure I’ve ever been told those words before. I know that I have a long way to go…its taken almost 5 months to lose 13 pounds, and at this rate it’s going to take a long time to lose the rest of the weight, but I don’t feel myself slipping back into old habits. No, I’m not exercising other than walking…but now that the weather is nicer, I see myself out playing with the kids more often. I’m just really excited about my progress; I’m losing weight and getting a better handle on controlling my blood sugar. I might be on blood sugar medication for the rest of my life (genetics suck)…but at least I’ll be at a healthy weight.

MEF and Me

I finally made it out to see MEF. I thought it had only been around 6 months since I’d seen her last…come to find out I was way off! We figured it had been almost a year since my last visit. This, of course, is unacceptable.

The drive out to No-man’s-land, Illinois went much better than I had anticipated. I left at 12:31 pm and got to Illinois at, oh heck…what time was it...I can’t remember exactly what time it was, but it was a lot earlier than I thought it was going to be. Of course somehow MEF and I both managed to misunderstand arrival & departure times because of different time zones. J Hopefully next time around we’ll be able to figure it out. **Seriously, can you believe that anyone let us ‘raise’ a baby when we were 19? We can’t figure out time zones…**

And what do you think happened that evening??? Yep, you guessed it, they dragged me, yes dragged me kicking and screaming no less, to the local waterin’ hole. And do you know what (not who) was in that bar?? A dog. A big black dog lying on the floor as his master’s feet. When you walk into a bar and see a huge dog on the floor it is safe to assume that you’ve officially reached “the country”.

We stayed at the bar for a few hours and then headed back to the house. On Saturday morning Beth and I went to Alton to do some shopping. We had lunch at a bar called Fast Eddie’s. This place was just cool, the outside ‘smoking area’ was impressive with its full bar and radiant heaters (of course we didn’t need the heaters because it was so darn nice outside). This bar has quite possibly the smallest menu I’ve ever seen. Beth and I decided on the $.29 (each) jumbo peel and eat shrimp. We started with 30 shrimp…and then went back for another 30! In hindsight we would have been fine with just ordering 20 shrimp for our second go-round (but really, who could resist them…they were SO good!).

We spent most of the afternoon just lounging around watching Burn Notice on DVD. Which of course, was incredibly fantastic for me, it’s not often that I get to relax without my offspring disturbing me. We, okay Beth, cooked some while I was there. Not much though. We were too busy being sloths on her couch. J

On Sunday we managed to get a little accomplished; Beth finished a beautiful necklace that she had been working on and I managed to string a lanyard for my work id badge. After inclement weather rolled through I packed up my car and begrudgingly headed back to Indianapolis…you know; I’m a very lucky person to have someone like Beth as my best friend. There have been times over the past twenty plus years that I’ve managed to fall off the face of the Earth and lost touch with her, but she’s never given up on me or our friendship. Even though we live 200 miles apart, I’d venture to say that our souls are connected at the hip.

100%

I know I'm a mom. I'm not a SAHM, but I am a mom with a full time job, 3 children and a husband that works nights. So, as you can guess most of the parenting responsibilities fall to me. And that's fine. I get it. Being a mother is a thankless job...but does it have to be? Yesterday morning I was ready to run out the door to go to work when I remembered that all three kids needed lunch money. Since neither Husband nor I carry cash that meant checks had to be written. I am instantly annoyed...but I write the checks. As I'm writing the checks Teenager grumpily comes out of his room in nothing but his boxers (seriously dude, put some pants on) and turns the television down. Yep, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. I start in on him about how we (the little ones and I) have to listen to him playing FIFA 09 in his room with that not so mainstream music cd that GirlFriend made for you every single God forsaken day of the week so get your hands off MY television. This of course wakes Husband...who really should know after 11 years of marriage to just keep quiet and let me rant for a minute. I'm not even sure what he said but off I went on him with a "Here is your daughter's lunch money now do something with it because I'm going to work". Why didn't he just say "Ok, I'll take care of it"? Why did he say, "Why didn't you write the checks last night". Why didn't I write the checks last night??? What in the name of all things holy was he trying to do??? Make my head explode??? I spun around and said, possibly even shouted (at this point I have no idea), "Last night when? When I was making dinner? Or running Teenager to GirlFriend's house while I was making dinner because you were too busy watching a movie to be bothered? I know, how about writing the checks while I was cleaning the kitchen or doing laundry so YOU would have clean clothes to wear to work..." I stomped back to my bedroom to get my bag that I use for work shouting at the family as I went, "It's 100% me, 100% of the time with ZERO gratitude from all of you!!!" I made it to the door before I realized that I hadn't said goodbye to anyone so I turned around and gave the kids the "I'm still angry but I love you and I don't want to to walk out the door without saying goodbye" kisses and said "I love you, have a good day". Same for the Husband...then I slammed the door behind me and drove mach 3 all the way to work. You know those women that you hear about sometimes in the news? The storyline reads "Mother of 3 leaves husband and kids to start new life"...yeah, I used to wonder how in the hell a woman who has a husband and children can just walk away from it all. I used to think they were crazy...and maybe some are. But I bet that some of them are just like me...frstrated with being taken for granted, frustrated with the "it's mom's job" expectations. To all you husbands out there...say "thank you" once in a while. Tell your wife that you think she's still beautiful and offer to help out from time to time. And for you kids out there...clean your damn room without a temper tantrum.