A Great Valentine's Day!

There was chocolate.....

.....and flowers......

.....and jewelry.......

.....a heart-shaped steak!

The chef and his amazing work!

Crab legs......(and shrimp too)..

A delicious dinner!

Followed by cookies for dessert!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Arlie's birthday party

Arlie invited friends from school...

Including Rylie, her BFF!

We had a tower of cupcakes!

And homemade pizza (daddy makes it BEST!)

Girls are so funny!

Everyone had a great time playing the "unwrap the present" game.....

Presents were opened........

The boys went home at 10.......

The girls played a funny game!

Put on a hat, scarf and gloves and try to open a present!

Then it was time for spa treatments......

Arlie and McKenzie.....best friends!

Competition!

Arlie getting psyched for her latest meet......

Beam routine..

Handstand!

Bars......

Our champion!

Arlie's 12th Birthday!

Arlie woke to the traditional "birthday fairy" - a table decorated, a "cake", and presents.....

Arlie wanted homemade soft pretzels for her birthday morning treat - and Jeff obliged!

Grandma Mary Anne sent this adorable hat!

.....and this cool shirt!

What's in this bag?

Yes! My top wish - a personal DVD player!

One happy girl with cookies and a milkshake made by daddy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARLIE!

Another gymnastics meet!

Arlie's third competition......

Hannah is always there to support her!

Bar routine.......

Getting ready for the dismount......

Handstand on the beam!

Leap like you mean it!

Floor routine in action!

Winner!

Arlie achieved the highest score in the meet! We're so proud of her!

Before.........

This is me.......
I need to lose weight.......

My belly is my worst feature!

But this is who I am.........

So this is what I look like right now. I don't love my weight, in fact, it's not a healthy weight at all and I really need to do something to lose it. I've been keeping a food journal, and it's very apparent I do not eat as healthfully as I should, and I eat too much sugar! Sweets are my downfall and I eat something sweet at least a few times a day. I've been trying to consciously avoid the biggest saboteurs like pastries at Starbucks. I start most days on a really healthy kick - healthy cereal, fruit, etc. but it does downhill from there and I end most nights having something sweet and a glass of milk before bed. I have cholesteral that has recently (in the past five years) creeped over to the higher side, my blood pressure is fine (actually low), but my blood sugar is JUST under being diabetic, and I REALLY do not want to go there. I exercise most days, at least three times a week if not every day, but I obviously need to kick things up a notch. I'm meeting with a nutritionist next week so hopefully I will get some guidance and be on the right track. But it's really simple - eat less, exercise more! Something I've been struggling with for years. I'm not hung up on a size or a specific weight. I just want my "numbers" to be good and to feel comfortable in my clothes. So, here I go.........

Valentine's Day......it's about love!

Valentine's Day. Some say it's a created holiday, meant for retailers to rake in big bucks selling flowers, candy and jewelry to hapless young men wooing the girl of their dreams. But, historically, it's a long-debated holiday stemming from three possible St. Valentines who were all martyrs. Meaning they DIED for what they believed in. Now, I'm all for dying for the ones you love, but let's take a dramatic step back, shall we?

To me, Valentine's day is about love. And not just between lovers, but real, true love that relationships are made of. Love for children, parents, siblings, friends.......love for those who are unloved or unlovable. To be loved, we have to love. It's all about the give and take. Love is like water or food, everyone needs it, and those who don't receive it starve their souls. People who are not in a romantic relationship often hate Valentine's day or condemn those who are "in love". But everyone wants to be loved. Perhaps not everyone can have an intimate, romantic relationship with the love of their life, but everyone can love and be loved.

I remember working as a daycare provider many years ago. I was just a teenager and taking care of elementary school kids. Everyone loved the cute, sweet, clean kids. But the ones who had runny noses, unkempt hair, bad behavior - those kids got passed over when it came time to dole out hugs or pull into a lap for a quick cuddle. It made me sad, and I decided then and there that it was the people who are MOST "unlovable" who need love more than anything. It's not always easy to love someone who is unappealing or angry or cynical, but everyone needs love. And the more we give love, the more we receive love.

So, this Valentine's day, go ahead and be a sucker. Buy the cards, candy, jewelry, doo-dads that are pink and red and heart-shaped and scream of marketing. I love that stuff, it makes me smile. But it's love that makes us happy. It's love that feeds our souls. It's love that we need to give and receive. Go on, go love!

Olympics, Cake and Other Stuff

Last night I went to a party celebrating the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics 2010 in Vancouver, BC (I put all that so in the future I'll know which Olympics I was talking about - you know, in case I'm still posting on here when I'm 90). Anyway, it was really fun to watch the opening ceremonies - such cool ideas. People are incredibly creative. So sad, though, to hear about (and watch, ugh) the death of the Georgian luger. Now I hear the track is supposedly too fast and too dangerous. Why do we have to make things bigger and better all the time? At the cost of a human life? Not worth it. I can't imagine the pain his family is going through right now. So sad.

So, for the party I made cupcakes. Jeff got me this awesome rotating cupcake "tower" that makes ordinary cupcakes look like art and it's just the coolest thing. But, strangely, this tower holds 35 cupcakes. A box of cake mix makes 24 cupcakes. You do the math. Anyway, I, of course, was going to make both chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. While mixing the vanilla batter, I got distracted with Jeff and Arlie leaving the house and forgot to put the eggs in the batter! Oops. I baked them anyway, and they turned out looking like regular cupcakes. But, oh no! Those deceptive little things were completely stuck inside the wrappers. I hated to waste 18 perfectly good cupcakes so I peeled the cake bits from the wrappers and saved them in a bowl. For what? Oh well, let me tell you. For trifle. Because my kids love trifle. I mean, they love chocolate trifle, but I thought why not just layer up these crumbly cake bits with vanilla pudding and cool whip and maybe even tint the whole mess pink and call it good? Yeah. I have to buy vanilla pudding and cool whip of course. And I'm giving the whole pink mess to the kids at their dad's house. Because I'm cool like that. Anyway, the chocolate cupcakes turned out fine, thanks to the addition of EGGS, duh, and so I took those to the party, sans cool tower. They were arranged on a plate. Sigh.

So, cooking disasters aside, I've been feeling very un-valentine-y. Because I didn't even get out my decorations this year! How could I just skip Valentine's day? I want a do-over. I'm seriously thinking of getting the decor out today and calling it Valentine's week. Except my kids aren't even here to enjoy it. And I kind of decorate for the kids. Well, ok, for me too, but I always have big plans of making adorable heart-shaped sugar cookies and such and a special meal.........well, Jeff and I will have the traditional surf and turf dinner we've had the past few years, but it won't be the same as watching the kids devour crab legs like animals with butter dripping down their chins. I think I'll still make sugar cookies today and at least deliver them, along with a little Valentine surprise, to my kids later. I hate not having the kids on holidays. Even if it is just a created, Hallmark holiday designed to market to us poor fools who fall for all things pink and red and heart shaped.

The good news is, after my husband spends many hours working on his truck, we will do something fun together. We have a movie we (I) want to see, and tomorrow we'll have our steak and prawns. Tonight I really wanted to go see a local high school production of Beauty and the Beast, but Jeff procrastinated on getting tickets so that went out the window. Oh well, another exciting weekend in the Moore/Gordon household.....

But I am excited about our impending trip to San Francisco! Jeff got invited to do some workshops and career counseling/resume writing with the ACS again, and he's getting a trip to SF with hotel, airfare, and his food paid for, so we thought I might as well go along for the ride! My ticket was reasonable and the hotel is in the middle of a lot of shopping and things to do, so I'm going to have another FUN time in San Francisco by myself. I loved the last time we went, and it was only a weekend. This time we're going for five days and for the first time ever, we're leaving the kids with "babysitters". Arlie will stay with our awsesome neighbors Amy and Jason, and the Gordon kids will be with their dad over the weekend. Then, for the two school nights we'll be gone, our amazing friend Amy W. will come and watch them. This will be the first time we've ever left the kids while we've gone somewhere with anyone other than family. Hayley said I should just leave them alone and she can take care of everyone. But she's not even driving and I'm not ready for that. Maybe after she gets her license! Anyway, I'm so excited to take a nice trip with Jeff in a great city! I love SF!

Then, for spring break, we are planning a trip to AZ. We are going to drive and stop along the way in various locations. Still debating on bringing the camper or not. I have to plan that trip this next week while I have lots of time on my hands with the kids gone.

Anyway, off to make my house Valentine-y and get some stuff done. Like shower and get dressed. Since it's almost 1 in the afternoon!

Where Are You Going, Little One?

When my kids were little, there was this sweet song on one of their lullaby tapes and it said "Where are you going, my little one, little one, where are you going, my baby, my own? Turn around and you're two, turn around and you're four, turn around and you're a young girl, going out of the door." Well, I turned around and my "little one", Hayley, has a whole life of her own. If she had her driver's license (which she SAYS she's getting over midwinter break next week, but I'll believe that when I see her pulling into the driveway........), she'd be even more independent, but no matter, she has friends who drive. And every day she's out of the house before I wake up, and every night she shows up around dinner time or often later, having been at play practice, meetings, etc. For twelve or more hours a day, I know not what she's doing. Sure, for six of those hours, she's in school, but after that? She has this whole life that doesn't involve me. And it's both weird and satisfying. I mean, don't we all raise our kids to be independent someday? This is how it's supposed to go. She only has one more year of high school and then who knows? College, maybe nearby, maybe not! Either way, she's living her own life now and moving in her own direction. Seems all our interactions now involve money - as in "mom, can I have some money?" Time to get a job, I guess! When I was her age, I had been working for over a year in a daycare center, making $3.50 an hour, every day after school from 3-6 p.m. and five or six hours a day in the summer. Seemed all I did was work. I wasn't that involved in school activities, so working was my social outlet and something I loved. Hayley is so busy she doesn't even have TIME for work. But this summer she will and as soon as she's driving, it'll be just one more step towards total independence. Weird. Still, she baked cupcakes last night and left the oven on all night, so I guess she needs SOME guidance yet. "Turn around and you're tiny, turn around and you're grown, turn around and you're a young girl with babes of your own."

The Plastic Carrot

The other day, I opened up my car door to find a small plastic carrot on the floor. I thought, oh, a plastic carrot. Because what else would you think? But then I started to wonder, where the heck did that COME from? Because I have seen no similar plastic carrot before in my life. It was about the size of the similar play food we have with our toy kitchen (yes, I know my kids are 11, 12, 14, and 16 but we STILL have a toy kitchen and play food, and, true confessions, certain children still play with it!). But, alas, we have no plastic carrots. No worries, I thought, perhaps it was some plastic fodder from a kids' meal at a fast-food restaurant. But we have been to no fast-food restaurants in quite some time. Certainly the kids would explain it away. Oddly, none of them had ever seen this plastic carrot, nor did they have any suggestions as to where it originated. Now, I'm telling you, this is plain strange. Who ends up with a toy plastic carrot in their car for no known reason? It's a mystery. One I'd like to solve. Because before you know it, I'm going to start having plastic carrot dreams. My imagination will go wild. Is this the calling card of some psychopathic killer? Does he wear a large bunny suit? The possibilities are endless.