New Year's Resolution Update

Well... almost a month has passed since I started Weight Watchers. It takes a month to form a habit, right? So far, so good! I have lost almost 10 pounds!

So, yesterday, I went out to eat with my in-laws for lunch. And I tried to look for one of the healthiest things on the menu. (I even substituted a fruit cup for my french fries!) When it came to me, I noticed that the bread of my sandwich was heavily buttered. Being who I am, I didn't want to complain, so I ate it, and chalked it up to the fact that I have my flex points. But afterwards, I not only felt guilty for eating it, I felt gross. The funny thing is, the sandwich was still relatively healthy, but I still just felt yuck!

So, I guess I have formed a habit, and one where junk food doesn't even sound appealing any more. However, I am getting sick of eating the same things every day. Funny!

Oh, and as for my ban on restraunts who won't give nutritional information, that is still going strong too. I am getting more upset at restraunts who claim they can't give me the information because vendors are different throughout the country, yet they can give me the information on the healthy part of their menu. I have officially, now as a voting citizen, written my congressman to see if I can get anything changed. If fast food restraunts need to be held accountable, I believe family restraunts (who I am sure are serving food worse than the fast food industry!) should be held accountable as well. I know... it seems trivial, but it is a big deal to me!

Of Voting Registration and Video Rentals

Well, I've done it! The thing I said I would never do. I sent in my form today to register to vote. It is a long complicated story, but I hope I can quickly sum it up.

Last night Jason and I watched a very disturbing movie. The movie is entitled Jesus Camp. It is a documentary of a camp in North Dakota for children, and it is run by an Evangelical Pentacostal Pastor, and a very fundamental one at that. At this camp they indoctrinated, and teetered very closely to the edge of brainwashing these children.

Now, if you know me, I am a Christian, but I am very against what was portrayed in this movie, and I feel the people in this movie are very poor representations of Christians. We were called to love others, not to "save" them. In fact, Jesus hated the haughty Christians of his day too!

In this movie there were 9-year-old children having emotional experiences way beyond their age! Besides, they were forcing these kids to take a stand on abortion and speak out against abortion. Do these kids even understand what they are taking a stand against??? Then came the political agenda. They were basically telling these kids that Republican equals good, and Democrat is bad. Again, do these kids even know what that means??? I was saddened because these kids are so young and impressionable, and they are being used!
So, in this movie, these kids were traveling all over the place to all these different Christian things, and one of the places they went was Ted Haggard's church... If you remember recent news stories of Ted Haggard... we know where he is now... Anyway, one of the comments that he made in an interview for this movie (he really creeped me out) was that if every Evangelical Christian voted we could keep the Republicans in office.

Who is to say that Evangelical Christians are all Republican? Did Jesus come with a political agenda? And why do we need to have a political agenda as Christians? So... this comment infurriated me, and I decided that I needed to stand up, as an Evangelical Christian, and do my part to not just blindly vote for the Republican party, because it is the "Christian thing to do!"

So, I am proud to say, that I hope my very first vote will be for Barak Obama in the 2008 presidential elections!!!

Birthdays

I love Birthdays! I like my own, but moreso, I like the Birthdays of the people I love. I don't know why, I just do. I love trying to make them feel special on their day! :o)

So, today is my little girl's 1st Birthday, and I am so excited for her. But, why is there this thing in the back of my head that thinks that when she turns 1, she will all of the sudden get up, walk perfectly, and say words that make sense? Why this thought? I was not even mildly shocked when we went to get her out of her crib this morning that she still refers to everything as "da da" (Even I am "da da" for the moment, which I guess will suffice!) and she still stumbles and falls while trying to take those steps!

Birthdays are funny things. They are markers for us, but why do we think that something big is going to happen? I guess my roll as Mommy is to make something big happen for my little one on her special day!
Happy Birthday, Sweetie! Mommy and Daddy love you so much, and are so proud of you!!!

Nutrition and Eating Out

I am a little upset at the moment. Since beginning this Weight Watchers thing, I am very anal about how many points things are. (If you know me, are you at all surprised by this statement!) Anyway, I e-mailed some of my favorite restraunts just to get the nutrition information of some of my favorite dishes, as I have flex points that I can use any time throughout the week, and would like to know if I am consuming 20 points or 60! Anyway, I get a nice "friendly" e-mail back from one of the restraunts claiming that they do not have the nutrition information available at this time! (I asked for the nutrition information for their SALADS!) As the e-mail continues... if you would like to eat healthy try one of these things on our menu!

So, the issue isn't that I just want to eat healthy, I want to know what I am putting into my body, and it outrages me that these restraunts won't even tell me what I am putting into my body. Wasn't there a law passed at some point about this? And if there wasn't, there sure should be. Isn't it our right to know what we are putting into our body, or are restraunts that afraid to tell us? And if they are that afraid, should we continue going? Now, I am not a huge "my rights" kind of person, but I still think that I have the right to know what I am consuming!

I e-mailed them back and let them know the reasons that I wanted the nutrition information, and if they still can't provide it, then I guess I'll have to find somewhere else to eat!

So, I think I have now started this "campaign" (be it ever so small) that I will not eat at any restraunt unless they are willing to give me the full nutritional information for the dish I want to eat. Simply because I want to know what I am putting in my body! When I cook at home I sure know what is going into my body!

New Year's Resolutions

Well, I've done it... I have joined the gazillions of Americans who have made the resolution to lose weight! However, I'm not so sure I did it as a "New Year's Resolution!" I simply did it because after Christmas you feel like such a hog from all the eating! (Especially in Florida... we were fed well!) So, I guess I just happened to start my diet on New Year's Day. Let's call it a coincidence!

I have had years of nothing but frustrations with my weight. I really don't feel like I eat that much, and for the most part I eat healthful. Everyone has to splurge once in a while, right? So, where does this weight come from? So, since I can't seem to do anything about this on my own, I joined Weight Watchers Online. (Does this officially make me obese???)

So far, I'm loving it... Ask me again in a few weeks! :o) At least Jason is doing it with me. (As if he had any weight to lose!) For now I am obsessed with this Weight Watchers thing... Gotta find out how many points everything is... Gotta portion everything out just so... Ooops, that was 13 tortilla chips on my plate, not 12, better put one back! But how long with this last? I'll keep you updated!

Our Christmas

Ok, so this isn't going to be my typical blog... but I figured this would be the best way to tell everyone about our Christmas.

Firstly, we had our own Christmas on December 15. We woke up early, spent the morning in our pajamas, made our traditional Christmas breakfast, and then opened presents. I was so looking forward to this Christmas, mainly because I was looking forward to Kaelyn's first Christmas! I was so excited to give her presents and see what she would do with them! Let's just say Christmas was a huge success. She was very happy to open her presents, especially when she realized there were toys under all that wrapping paper.
Then that evening we went and spent "Christmas" with Jason's family. We went to Jason's parents' house, and joined up with Todd, Jalene, and the boys, and enjoyed a nice Christmas dinner, followed by more presents. Which the kids got pretty spoiled! (I guess we got spoiled too!) Kaelyn was so excited that she took her first step that evening! :o)

But, Christmas wasn't over yet. We took a trip to Florida from December 22 - 27! We were anxious about the trip, because it involved two three hour plane rides to get from here to there. Oh, and did I mention that I was sick the whole time? But, Kaelyn did great on both flights there and back! She even slept for about an hour on each flight!

While in Florida we stayed with my mom and her husband. We also got to visit with my grandparents, and we met my mom's husband's daughters (Melissa and Michelle), who flew in the day after we did. They are from New York! We all had such a great time! By the end of the trip, it was almost as if we had known Melissa and Michelle forever! They are definitely great sisters and aunties! We had quite a few laughs and a ton of fun!
Once again, on Christmas, we all got spoiled way too much! The joke of the week was that we didn't get enough Christmas presents! (My mom, her husband, and my grandparents went way overboard!) During Christmas, Kaelyn got so excited that she said her first word! Doggie! Which, I was very surprised, considering we don't have a "doggie"! But, I guess she really liked the doggies! It was so cute! She said it a few times while we were there!

The day after Christmas we did a girl's day out at a salon. We all got our hair cut and facials! So fun! Most of us had never had a facial before. It was so fun to get pampered, especially with everyone who was there!
Now we are back home, and I have to admit, it is nice to be home again. I am still sick, and finally got talked into seeing a doctor tomorrow, and there is still a lot to get done before we feel settled again, but we had such a great Christmas! A big thank you to all of our families that gave us a great Christmas!

Allow Me to Step on My Soapbox!

The issue of social injustice has been hitting me frequently, and like most Americans it hits me, then I go back to doing whatever I was doing unchanged. The movie Hotel Rwanda puts it best. When the main character saw that there were American journalists in Rwanda getting the story of the tragedy going on there, he was happy because he thought this was a way for Americans to learn about what is going on and help. The news journalist informed the main character that America would be horrified for a brief moment and then go back to eating their dinner unchanged. Wow! How true?

Today I was listening to a sermon by my favorite pastor, Rob Bell. He is at an amazing church in Grandville, MI (right outside of Grand Rapids), and I had the priviledge of attending his church while I was going to school up there. Anyway, in his sermon he is talking about the fact that 1 in 10 people in Grand Rapids are unable to pay their food bill. Forgive me if I am stepping on any toes here, but I doubt those are the rich dutchmen living in Grand Rapids!

He also gave another statistic of tragedy that is happening in Sudan at present time. He mentioned that the devastation taking place in Sudan right now is equivalent to our 9-11, multiplied by 100,000 or 200,000! That statistic is staggering to me. So, again, what are we going to do about it?

I really am afraid of sounding self-righteous here... and forgive me if I come across that way (it is not my intention!), but I am to the point where I am getting physically sick when I see a wealthy American, and it is not sick with jealousy! I would like to think if I were in a position of wealth that I would do so much more with it than buy BMW's and extravagant houses!

We are by far the wealthiest country, and all we do is continue to obtain more more more... We are living in a country where we are lining up for a $600 game console a week before it comes out, where in other countries people are lining up for their daily portion of food. Does this seem a little out of balance? It does for me, and it makes me want to weep!

As Jason and I continue to raise Kaelyn, and any other children in the future, we want to teach them how to be content. But, how do we do that in a society that is continually telling us we need more and more and more to be happy? The truth is, stuff makes us happy, but that happiness is temporary, then we need more stuff to make us happy. Maybe stuff isn't where happiness is! Maybe happiness is living life to the fullest that we were intended to live life?

I'm sorry if I am getting preachy here, but my heart absolutely aches when I see people here in Southern California drop $2,000,000 on a house, which is definitely not a necessity, and that money could feed an entire starving country. Now, I am not saying that we are all supposed to live in mud huts and eat off the land. But, can't we as Americans be a little more generous and helpful to those who are even within our boarders who can't provide for themselves?

The Day After Thanksgving Blues

Well, it is the day after Thanksgiving. And right now most people are fighting the crowds at the malls trying to get great deals on Christmas presents. While most of America has the day off today, I am sitting here alone doing what I do every day... taking care of Kaelyn... while Jason is at work.

There are a few things that I don't like about Jason's job. Both of which are bothering me today. The first one is that while most of America has off, he is working. I guess death doesn't understand that it is the day after Thanksgiving, and most people have off. The second thing is on-call. Jason got paged at 5:30 this morning to go out on a visit. So, not only am I alone on the day after Thanksgiving, but I have been alone since about 6:00 this morning. I'm not mad at Jason at all, it is the nature of the job. But it still stinks!

So, why is it that today is harder than any other average day? I am still taking care of our beautiful daughter, I am still taking care of the house? I don't usually have an issue with this. I do this every day with no problem. So why does my mind know that every one else has the day off today except my husband? I don't understand!

It isn't like I don't have things to be happy for! Jason and I put up Christmas decorations last night (and I am working on some more today), and one of my best friends from Chicago, Kathi, will be here tonight. So... I don't know why I am stuck with the day after Thanksgiving blues!

Left Behind

Tomorrow I will be saying goodbye to a great friend. She is moving to Delaware! I still haven't realized how sad this is going to make me, but I am starting to.

I always thought this only happened in books, but Susan and I met in our child birthing class at the hospital! We hadn't really talked much, but ran into each other after our daughters were born. We got to talking and found out that her daughter (Eden) and Kaelyn were born on the same day. We met for lunch, and our friendship escalated from there.

Since our friendship began, we have been getting together about once a week to hang out and let our daughters play together. But, tomorrow is going to be the last time. I can't imagine what I am going to do without Susan being around!

I love watching our daughters play and interact with each other. Susan and I had often talked about how excited we were to have our girls grow up together, and how fun that they would share a birthday. And, I am even sad for Kaelyn that she is losing her little play buddy, even though she has no clue what is going to happen tomorrow. And I keep picturing us seeing Susan, Jeremy, and Eden like a year from now, and Eden will be so much more grown up, and have no clue who Kaelyn is. Sad!

So, through all of this, I have realized that it is much easier to leave than to be left. (Not saying the leaving is easy either, but I think it is easier!) When you leave, you have something new and exciting to look forward to, and while you grieve the friends that you are leaving, you know there is a whole new world for you to discover when you get to where you are going. (And how many friends have we vowed to keep in contact with, and a month later we have totally forgotten about them?) When you are the one left, you now need to figure out how to fill the void of the person that was there, while you continue in life as normal. Make sense?
So often I have been the leaver. And there are some friends that I still deeply miss; however, there are friends that I have made in my new location. And now I am finally realizing what it is like to be left. I admitted to Susan on Monday, that in the back of my mind I am expecting her to say, "We've changed our mind... We're staying." But I know the reality of that isn't going to happen!

Don't get me wrong... I am so excited for this new chapter of life for Susan, Jeremy, and Eden. And I know that God will bless them richly in their new journey. But, I can't help being a little selfish and wishing that my friend could have stayed in California!

Lessons Learned at In-N-Out Burger

First of all, I just have to say, if you have ever been to California and have not eaten at an In-N-Out Burger, you missed out on a big part of Californian culture! With that out of the way, I will now continue.

Today, Jason and I took Kaelyn to the Los Angeles Zoo, and instead of paying a ridiculous price for zoo food (I'll save that for another blog), we decided to eat elsewhere. We ended up at In-N-Out Burger.
Every time I am at In-N-Out Burger, I am amazed at how many people are there. And what is the most amazing thing to me every time is there are really only two things on the menu, as far as food. A burger, and fries. Granted, you can choose your burger with cheese, or a double double. But that is all they sell... A burger and fries. There is no chicken option, there is no Go Active healthy meal, there is no onion rings, and there is no fresh fruit cup substitute... A burger and fries. And, I am willing to bet that In-N-Out Burger is just as busy as McDonalds on a given lunch hour, maybe ever moreso!

So, what makes a restraunt so popular when their menu consists of two things? They do it well!!! Everything is fresh! The meat is fresh, the potatoes (is that right, Mr. Quayle?) for the fries are fresh, the veggies they put on the burgers are fresh. Interesting... They have determined that they sell burgers and fries. And they put all their energy into burgers and fries. And they have become just as successful as any other fast food restraunt in California. Any implications for us in America? I'll let you decide!