Category: pre-triplets

06/21/04

I am now the new Martha Stewart. Yes indeedy. First it’s the blanket I’m knitting for Ren’s baby and now it’s my homemade blueberry jam.

Yesterday morning, Polly, Annie, Laurie and I headed to Long Beach, Mississippi to a blueberry farm (actually someone’s house with lots of blueberry bushes behind it) and picked about five pounds each of delicious, sweet, juicy, sun-warmed blueberries. God, so good. To pop one in your mouth right off the plant. I felt like I was in a Laura Ingalls Wilder book.

After we spent about an hour picking berries, we ate lunch at a very cute restaurant in the very cute “downtown” of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. My mom was only a few miles away on her man-friend’s sailboat, but we didn’t get to see her. Had an incredible sandwich – fried eggplant topped with pecans and melted monterrey jack cheese. Holy cow. Ate several homemade french fries. Thought I was going to die on the way home. I absolutely cannot eat fried food anymore. What is wrong with meeeee? But being in pain is a good deterrent to eating fries.

After I got home and recovered, made my jam. It worked! The jars are all sealed and safe and sound. Had jam on toast this morning for breakfast. Deelish! Wonder what kind of jam to make next…except there isn’t any other fruit to go pick in Louisiana, I don’t think. Also it’s cheaper to just buy fancy jars of fancy jam. Hmm.

06/18/04

Yay, Friday! Yay, payday! Boo, doctor’s appointment!

Went to Outback last night with George. Didn’t do too badly on points, if the Health Discovery website I found is right. Please, God, let it be right! Filet mignon, salad, (and yeeeah, I ate the cheese and croutons!) steamed veggies, and beer. 21 point meal, but only ended up using 4.5 flex points as I went to dinner with 14 points left, and I’d exercised so I had some activity points. Yay!

Blueberry pickin’ on Sunday, then jam makin’. Hope it’s not hard to make jam. Hmmm.

06/17/04

I have a very sweet boyfriend. Yesterday I was sad because the cruise I was supposed to go on for work (and make masses of overtime money on) was cancelled. So he took me to Winn-Dixie and bought all of the boxes of sugar-free popsicles they have left. (Another addiction of mine. 15 calories each. You must get the Popsicle brand, they’re the best. But can be expensive. W-D had them on sale for the outrageously low price of two 24-count boxes for $5. Insane.) So that was four boxes. 96 popsicles. Now only 93. Yum. These should last me a few weeks, at least. Yay!

Rode bike with Polly this morning. It is so friggin’ hot and humid already, and it’s not even technically summer yet, right? Blech.

Just read my comments from the past few days. (Love comments!) First, I may ask Debbie if they plan on leaving Fufu as her middle name. Good idea. (Now I wish her name was Ping-ping. That is really cute.) Also, I didn’t weigh myself this morning! Okay, I lie a little. I did, but after I had gotten up and drank some water and put my shoes on. That’s not a real weigh-in, so I think it’s okay. Baby steps. And also, I have measured myself. If I recall correctly, I’ve lost something like 2 inches off my hips and 2 or 3 off my waist. Most of my weight, I think, has come off my top half – arms and shoulders and such. Which is okay, but my hips are my worst part. But I am pleased with the inches lost. See, I know the scale isn’t everything. Tomorrow I go to the doctor for a checkup. I hope the nurse notices how much weight I’ve lost in the last year!

06/16/04

10% 10% 10% Yay! This morning, I hit my 10% goal! Yay! Exciting! That means (and yes, you can do the math now, I am just too self-conscious to put my actual weight but anyone can figure it out) I’ve lost 21.6 lbs! Yay! Am v. excited. Losing weight is fun. Tee hee!

This means I lost 3.6 lbs in a week. But I gained .8 lbs last week, which I think was fluid weight, so really it isn’t as dramatic as it sounds. I’m surprised WW didn’t yell at me but losing that much in one week. Who knows, I may gain next week to offset this loss. But I will do everything in my power (mwah, mwah, mwah!) to make sure that doesn’t happen. Don’t want to lose my 10% star, after all.

Last night, George and I bought a lawnmower, one of the manual reel-type mowers. We put it together last night (which only involved putting the handle on it) and then took it for a test mow. Our yard is completely dark, as we have no lights out there, so we couldn’t see what we had done, but this morning, I was pleased to note that the mower works perfectly. Yay! So today after work I’m going to tackle the whole yard.

Oh yeah, in other exciting news, I heard from my friend Debbie last night. She and her husband Mike (good friends of mine who live in Houston) are adopting a 5 year old girl from China. Her name is Fufu. If that isn’t the cutest name in the world, I don’t know what is. But they are going to change her name. I guess Fufu could be subject to teasing because of her name if they didn’t change it. But I shall always call her little rabbit Fufu. (Oh yeah, I guess that’s how kids in the schoolyard could be mean. I fear I will be “mean Aunt Pam” instead of “fun, crazy Aunt Pam.”) But she is very cute and I can’t wait to meet her. (Also I should mention here their 7 year old son, Christian, who I used to visit once a month when he was a baby. I wish I could still get away to visit them like that.)

06/15/04

Oh. My. God.

I wish I could explain how much this would’ve meant to me 15 years ago. I may have just keeled over, hyperventilating.

Anyone who knew the 14 year old (and 15-18 year old) me understands this. Wow.

And I sure would’ve taken singing lessons.

06/15/04

Today I am pleased because this morning I was at the low, low (why am I too chicken to say what it really is?) weight that I was at on Saturday morning. Keeping my fingers crossed that it’s still that low tomorrow morning for my weigh in. Kristina yelled at me, though, for obsessively weighing myself every morning. But I think it’s okay because I do realize that it fluctuates from day to day, and I really don’t let that get me down. (Okay, I lie. Maybe a bit. But still.) Maybe I will try to not weigh myself except on Wednesdays for the next few weeks.

Am also excited because George and I are going to Sears after work to buy a lawnmower, one of the manual reel-type old-fashionedy types. Yay! No more weedwhacking the lawn so it looks like a bad haircut. Smooooth manicured lawn, yeah! (I think I still may be a bit optimistic about the manicured part, but anything is better than a weedwhacked lawn.)

06/14/04

Nice, relaxing weekend. Friday, I stayed in and watched a couple of movies. On Saturday, Laurie and I drove to Madisonville (about 45 minutes away, on the north shore) to go to Ren’s shower. It was lots of fun. Renny looked so cute. I would say roughly 98% of the women there were pregnant. Yeesh. I won two games, though. Rawr! Got fancy prizes, gift bags with godiva chocolates and bath stuff. (Times two.) Yay!

Went to the pub on Saturday night, hung out with Polly and Colin and George. Afterwards, we went to IHOP and believe you me, I was all about the bacon, eggs, and pancakes. A 21 point meal, but who’s counting? (I wanted to see what would happen this week if I had one big meal.) I think my plan may have backfired, though. On Saturday morning, my weight was down 2.8 lbs from Wednesday’s weigh in. But yesterday and this morning, I was only down 1 lbs from the weigh in. Hmm.

That’s all. Yesterday dull in a good way. Sat on my front porch swing and read a book. That’s the life! Roach in the kitchen last night, though. Our first. Pooh! Was very unhappy about that. Must sprinkle boric acid tonight.

06/11/04

Last night, George and I went to dinner with my mom last night. We had to go pick her up at this restaurant where there were something like thirty loud, drunk real estate agents at this leadership conference. (So loud, drunk, outgoing and outspoken real estate agents.) It was a very uncomfortable (but interesting) thirty minutes. (And thirty minutes of “this is my daughter and George” and “are they the ones getting married?”)

But then it was over and we went to this restaurant that had nothing WW friendly. Oh, I’m sure I could’ve asked them to grill me a piece of fish, but it probably would’ve been blackened. I don’t like blackened fish. So I had a bowl of iceburg lettuce with a bit of ranch dressing and a cup of oyster artichoke soup. Yummy but very creamy and pointy. And then I split (okay, ate most of) some bread pudding with my mom.

But then this morning, I weighed the same as I did last week! You know, as in before I gained the .8 lbs. So that is good and makes me feel like I may have a loss next week. I really hope so.

Next weekend, I’m going to pick blueberries with some girlfriends and I want to make blueberry jam. And then I was thinking, I have to put a clever name on the label, don’t I? Since my name does, after all, rhyme with “jam”. Since my domain does, after all, incorporate the words “pam” and “jam”.

So do I call it “pyjammy’s jam” or “pam’s jam” or “pyjammy jam” or what? Or something else altogether? Does it really matter? How much jam do I think I’m going to make? It’s not like I’m going to be marketing it, after all. I may be giving jars to a few people, but do I really need to stress about this? I’ve never even made jam! What if it’s disgusting? Does anyone know the easiest way to make blueberry jam?

Ooh, tomorrow is Ren’s baby shower. Can’t wait to see her!

06/09/04

Pooh. Gained .8 this week. That is no good. But next week, it’ll all come off and more. I am grimly determined.

Don’t know if it had anything to do with dinner last night. Went out with work people, but I was pretty good, or as good as I could be. Had one drink (sangria, yummmm) and no appetizer (I was the only one who didn’t get one) and then I ate just half of the beef and chicken fajitas I ordered. That’s two tortillas, some meat, and some vegetables. No sour cream, no cheese, no guacamole, no rice, no beans. Dang, I’m good! But then there was the matter of dessert. Hell, yeah, I got dessert after being so good! But I shared it. White chocolate brownie a la mode.

Still had 10 flex points left over for the week, so I think I did decently. Maybe it was just because it was, after all, the night before weigh in. And it was, after all, more food than I’d normally eat for dinner. So who cares, right? Next week will be great! And I’m broke until next Friday, so I can’t afford to buy more food, anyway. So that’s, well, the bright side to being constantly penniless. On the other hand, my mom is taking us out to dinner tomorrow night, so I’ll have to be careful. Must think of yummy place to eat with healthy food. Don’t think Mom will want Applebee’s. It’s hard to pick a place like Applebee’s when there are so many good restaurants in New Orleans.

06/08/04

Hmmph. Think I may end up gaining 2 lbs this week. I’ve been so good! (Yes, I know what you’re thinking. Pizza, Pam? Popcorn and two boxes of candy at the movies? But I stayed within points!) But alas, what can you do? My body must be retaining water. Yes, water. That’s it. Uh huh. Ah well. Next week will make up for it. (I mean, it has to be a false gain. It has to be!)

Went running this morning alone. Haven’t done that in a while. Polly forgot about us running, I guess. I didn’t go for as long as I would have with her, but close to it. I didn’t want to go on the levee alone, plus it’s really hot up there if the sun has already come up. So I went up and down streets, around blocks, back and forth. The neighborhood really is very small for running.

06/07/04

What an utterly exhausting weekend. Painting is very hard work, and let me just say that Trading Spaces and all of those other home decorating shows have a lot to answer for by making it look like it’s the easiest part of redecorating a room. It is not! It is very hard! And I hate molding. Next time I paint a room, everything’s gonna be the same color. Molding, walls, ceiling…hell, the floor too. No more of this “ceiling is one color, molding another, space between molding and ceiling another, walls another…”

My legs are nearly as sore as they have been after running marathons, and I’m not even joking about that. I spent so much time going up and down on the chair and the ladder that my hamstrings and quads and every other muscle in my legs got the best workout of their lives. I’m afraid I’m going to develop a thick neck because the muscles in my neck got a major workout too. Who knew?

Anyway, at least the room looks great now. Who cares if the trim paint isn’t perfect? Not me!

Yesterday we took a break to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was fantastic, the best yet. Totally engrossing. Highly recommend. Go see it! It’s scary!

Oh yeah, and ordered pizza on Saturday. Yum. And didn’t feel guilty in the least. Painting is very hard work, even though I can’t figure out how many activity points I earned. On one website, it said I burned 1400 calories painting on Saturday. I don’t know if I buy that or not. Hmmm. Well, whatever. I’ll be good today and most of tomorrow. We’re getting taken out to dinner again by some sales reps tomorrow night, but I’ll try to be very good, since it’s the night before weigh in.

06/04/04

Yay, Friday!

Going to buy paint tonight. I think I’m going to go with “Approaching Night.” Descriptive, eh? Well, I suppose in a “the night sky at the end of dusk” way, it is. It’s a purply-bluey-gray-y color. Pretty. Decided I’m not going to do the red accents yet, I’m going to wait until the room is painted, then figure it out.

Have been eating a lot today. But am PMSy, so really am doing quite well, considering. Still have 7 or something points left plus 5 activity points for dinner and beer. And haven’t used any flex points this week yet. Am saving them in the hopes that George will take me for pizza. Pizza! Yum! Surely I’ll earn a ton of APs tomorrow painting, eh?