It is Official...

I have lost 20 pounds! I can't believe it. I only have 4 more to go to reach my goal weight. Now all I need to do is work on toning up what I have left.

I got my Sushi fix!!

My sweet hubby had mercy on me and took me to eat sushi tonight. TT and I had a feast. We got our favorite roll, plus new crawfish crunchy one to try. It was yummy. It had this little bitty dot of chili sauce on top that looked harmless, but wow was it hot. I warn you do not dip a already hot piece of sushi into soy sauce loaded with wasabi. It can cause a major meltdown. After a moment I recovered and popped another one in. This time the burn was good!

It has been a long week and I wanted to take a breather. The first week back to school was okay. We haven't found our groove yet. TT is still dragging his feet with math. Sometimes I don't think it will get any better. He just doesn't want to think. The word problems are not that hard, but it requires him to really sit and think. He doesn't like to have to do that. He would rather have the answer given to him or it pop out of thin air. NOT going to happen. So I will count to 10 and keep on keeping on.

Poogie has a rough first day, but is now cruzin' along with her studies. She is much easier to handle because she gets things really easy so far. I know we will reach stuff this year that really challenges her, but so far so good.

Tomorrow night I have a hot date, with my hubby that is. We tried to have a date a few weeks ago and I came down with strep throat. So we are going to try again tomorrow. We plan on going out to eat and to see the movie Wanted. I want to see something fun and exciting and since we aren't really Batman fans Wanted seems to fit the bill. Plus it has James McAvoy in it. He was great in the Last King of Scotland. We watched it last weekend. Let you know how it goes, the movie that is.

My dental appointment.

Well, I do not completely have my new teeth. What I have is my new teeth minus one crown because it didn't fit right.

What happened was this. After having my temporaries glued in twice last week, they had to use permanent cement instead of temporary. Today went they went to remove the temps it broke one of my root canals and the crown would not fit it correctly. So now what I have are my new teeth as temporaries. They will remake my crowns to fit better and rebuild my root canal. This will all occur in two weeks.

I was so ready to just be done with all this but that was not meant to be. It does feel nice to have my new teeth. They are so smooth and pretty. So now I will wait yet another two weeks to do it all over again.

Plus, TT didn't want to go with me today so I didn't get to go out for sushi afterwards. I didn't want to eat alone so I just got some fast food and came on home. I hope to get some this weekend though. Once I get a craving for it I have to have some sushi.

Day 3 Much Better!

After my first day meltdown I rearranged a few things and it is going much better. Yesterday we even took a trip to our local library to pick up books to go along with our science topic, cells.

I worked with Poogie first yesterday and then TT. Today I did the opposite. I think I will have to start with TT and then work with Poogie while he is doing independent work. He just has so much more to do and yesterday he didn't finish until around 2:30. That is late for us.

Today went well. The only downside was that the phone rung every ten minutes. Mostly my mom called and it is really distracting to the kids. If I don't answer she just comes over since she lives next door. Today she needed my help because she was getting cable hooked up, but it is always something. I was planning on using a system of colored pages hanging on my door. If the red sheet is up we are working, do not disturb. If green is up come on over.

Our situation is really hard because I live next door to both my widowed mother and father in law. They are both elderly and demand a lot of time. I have been trying to get my mom involved in activities at the local senior citizens center. They would come and get her and everything (she doesn't drive). But no she would rather I entertain her. Which is fine but I feel very overwhelmed right now and fear I will have a major meltdown if this year continues like last year did.

Anywho, tomorrow I get my permanent choppers. I want to take pics and post the before and after on my blog. Hmm, I might even make a sushi run after my appointment. That sounds so yummy right now.

My sinuses have been going crazy and they have taken over my taste buds. I can't really taste anything that isn't spicy. So of course I want to eat unhealthy things. I haven't gained any more weight but I haven't lost any either. Only 5 more pounds and I will have reached my goal. Darn sinuses.

First Day of School.

Hmmm. That is my feeling right at this moment. We began our school year today and I have to say things did not go as planned.

Last year both of the kids worked on the same subject at the same time. I usually got TT started and then worked with Poogie. Well, that is not going to work this year. Each of them have lessons that require more teaching before actually doing the work. This means they need to have their undivided attention on the lesson, and not on what the other one is doing.

I feel that both of them could complete their core lesson and seat work in about two hours. That includes, Grammar, Reading, Phonics, Math, and Spelling. So I would like to do two hours with TT and then work with Poogie for two. Then in the afternoon we could work on science and history together. This also allows each of them one on one time with me while the other could work on exploratory subjects such as typing, foreign language, and music (guitar and recorder).

I am going to try this method starting tomorrow and see what happens.

Getting ready for the new school year

I have been working all week to get prepared to start school next Monday. I am still working on it. This week has not turned out like I had planned, but then what week does. I had hoped to have Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to stay at home to work on all my stuff, but that did not happen.

Monday I had to go to the dentist to have my final impression done for my permanent teeth. All went well or so I thought. Tuesday I noticed that something was amiss with my bridge, it was loose. So I had to make another trip to the dentist to have it glued in again. Then, yesterday I finally got to go to my stylist to get my hair cut and colored. I felt so much better. But low and behold my bridge worked loose again. I returned today to get it glued in again. The tech was there that did the initial bridge and I believe this one will last until next Thursday when I get my permanent one. Here's hoping.

Since I had to make another trip I took TT along and we made a quick stop at our favorite sushi restaurant. That is one of the things TT and I do just the two of us. We enjoyed our Mexican roll tremendously.

I returned home and contemplated working on school stuff, but ended up just playing hooky. I plan on finalizing everything tomorrow. I am trying to get ahead planning for several weeks so that I have some time to breathe this year. I don't think we will take such a long break next year. It is just too hard to start back up again.

Look Out Broadway, here comes a Star!

My Poogie was in all her drama queen, star splendor Friday when she got to perform with her dance camp group for all the parents. She loved the camp so much. Everyday I got the whole low down on each and every activity. This was a new camp for us. It was held at her new ballet school, and it was well worth the money.

I was a little apprehensive at first because the camp was quite expensive and our previous experience with dance camp had not been very exciting. This one was such a great surprise. It was well organized and the girls really learned a lot. In fact as far as ballet goes Poogie learned more this week than she had in 3 years at the other school. I am not exaggerating.

Her performance Friday included the girls showing us many of the skills they learned during the week. Here she is in her first tu-tu. I think the smile says it all.

I also got great photos of her doing each of the 5 ballet positions. She did great. For the big finale the girls did a number from Annie "It's a Hard Knock Life". Poogie loved it. She loves to act and this was just what she had been looking for. She was so excited because she and another little girl were chosen to do running cartwheels across the floor at the end of the number. She has been practicing cartwheels all summer and the one she did at the end of the number was her best one ever.

Her teacher suggested after the performance that Poogie would be great in acrobatics along with the ballet. Now this was a first because at her other school she never really did well with acrobatics. But in one week at this school she was doing an excellent running cartwheel. So we ended up signing her up for ballet and acrobatics. She was over the moon.

Here's my little orphan scrubbing the floor. The lights in the room made the color turn a little funky.

I wish I could post some of the better photos of her but they also have many of the other girls and I don't post photos of other kids or people unless they tell me it's okay. But it was a great performance. I am so proud of my Poogie.

I am feelin' Lucky..

Jeans that is. I finally had to get out all my favorite jeans and clothes that I had gotten way to big for this weekend because I didn't have anything to wear. My regular jeans were hanging way down on my hips and most I could pull on and off with them buttoned and zippered.

So I get out my favorite Hydraulic and Lucky jeans and YaHOO! I could fit in them. Some of my favorite stuff was even a little big for me. Just imagine a happy dance right now. That was what I was doing all day Sunday. I haven't been able to wear some of these jeans since I graduated college in '05. And they are all still stylish thank goodness.

I went shopping today while Poogie was at ballet dance camp. I went to my favorite store in the mall and was so happy to find I can now fit in their clothes and look good too. I purchased some cute shorts and tees on clearance. Now all I have to do is loose those last 5 pounds and I get to purchase my reward, a new pair of Lucky Jeans I have been eyeing for months.

I also have to make a final decision about what kind of smile that I want when I bet my permanent bridge. I have been looking forever for the perfect smile. The problem is what is perfect to me is hard to find. I don't want perfectly straight, false looking teeth. I want a natural looking smile. I think I will hit the bookstore tomorrow and check out a few more smiles in the magazines before I make my final selection.

Happy 4th of July!

I hope all of you had a safe and fun 4th. I know we did. We BBQ bologna and hot dogs (BBQ baloney is popular around here, I don't eat it) and all the other stuff to go with it. To end the evening we went to our local high school and watched some awesome fireworks. All in all it was a great holiday.

This is one of those holidays that really gets to me. When I get a moment to think about the what this day really means, and how scary it must have been to think about the consequences of their actions (the founding fathers) I get chills. John Adams was on all day to day on HBO and although I never got to set down and watch any of it I still feel a connection with these great men because of that mini series. Today also marks the death of both Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Two awesome, visionary leaders. Thank God for bringing all those great men and women together at one time to lead us. I pray that something that awesome happens again.

I Have a New Addiction..

I hate to say it but another rock band has become my new addiction. I Love Linkin Park and they will always be No. 1 with me, but there is another that is a very close second.


My hubby came home a few weeks ago and showed me this video of a band on You Tube he thought I would like. The song was Waking the Demon by Bullet for My Valentine. Little did he know he really started something with me. I loved that song and soon found many that I liked by the young Welsh rock gods, especially Tears Don't Fall. This pic is from that awesom video.




Now I know their music may be out there for many of you, but I just had to share. I am so hooked.