Look, I really am 12....

I took this little test and passed....

Created by Train Horn

Apparently as we get older we are unable to hear certain frequencies so some people utilize this noise to bother teenagers and deter loitering.

I've always claimed that I still think I'm twelve...I love guitar hero and rock band, 13-year book series (Twilight, Harry Potter). People think I'm just immature, but now I have proof that physiologically I am still a teenager....That argument holds up, right?!

Excuses...Excuses...Excuses....

You know what they say, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" In the beginning of February, I was back in the swing of things, checking in on my daily reads, keeping my google reader down to manageable numbers, actually posting regularly then,

BAM!!!

note: if you're easily grossed out stop reading right here...that's right, go away now...go see my friends that are listed on my "hit list" to the right. I know they don't post disgusting pictures or posts about themselves...you're excused; I promise I will not hold it against you.

Okay, you hard-core, steel-stomached, bloggy friends o'mine...here's what happened to me last week.... (little interruption once again...not only did the below happen to me, but the computers at work went all hoo-haaey on us and I had to keep my laptop at the office so that our IT guy could fix it remotely at home after hours so if I had "felt up to it" I wouldn't have been able to post)

Last Monday, I woke up with a sty on inside corner my left upper eyelid. I really didn't think anything of it...I had gone out to a nice pre-valentine's dinner on Friday and actually wore make up. I have sensitive skin so I kinda always get itchy or what have you. Also with some of the increased stress I've put on myself, I've had 3 styes recently. I did the old wives remedy of rubbing a gold ring on it...to no avail...that sucker hurt and began to grow.

Tuesday: Holy SH*T!! The sucker had grown and my whole eye lid was swollen. I looked a bit peculiar, but it was just a sty right?! So I talk to our nurse practitioner at work and she suggests warm compresses and Aleve for the pain. The swelling was causing a lot of pressure and pain...small area + swelling = very uncomfortable. Okay, so the warm compresses and the round-the-clock Aleve begin...

Wednesday: F(*&K!!! My eye is grotesque, my eyelid is completely swollen, underneath is swollen, my cheek is swollen and tingling. I go check in with our nurse practitioner we both agree it's time to start the antibiotics for which in now obviously cellulitis. Keflex 500 mg twice a day was started mid-day.

Thursday: Igor is still here....swelling the cheek has gone down, but the eye is still horrible and very painful.

Friday: Eye is going down a little; figure out I should be taking the Keflex four times a day, not two (hell, what do we know...we're Neurology?!) I decide to go see an ophthalmologist prior to going into a weekend. Go see a ophthalmologist, he walks in the room and is like, "Holy Cow! What have you done to yourself?!" He wouldn't even shake my hand for fear of getting my Ebola cooties! He diagnosed not only the cellulitis, but he said I now had an abscess. He suggested I "compress the crap out of it" over the weekend and continue the antibiotics and follow up with him on Monday.

Saturday: The swelling has definitely gone down a little, but now it's turning colors....compressing the crap out of it as directed. Pain a little better, but still present.

Sunday: The swelling continues to improve; color is a nice purplish tint...pretty!

Monday: I no longer look like Igor, but I do look like I have a mosquito bite in the corner of my eyelid. At least the townspeople aren't coming after me with pitchforks and torches any more.

So day by day, the sucker has improved which makes me very happy not to be in pain and be a freak show. Of course I have pictures to share (I am the one who posted a pic of me with tissues shoved up my nose!)...so if stuff like this disgusts you, this is your last chance to run away...go now!!!...

Thursday

Sunday

Today (Wednesday)

Oscar

In honor of "Hollywood's Greatest Night" I copied this from Missy who copied it from Shannnon.

You Would Win Best Documentary Feature

You are very curious about and engaged with the world. Everyone is interesting to you. You have a variety of interests, and you delve into them quite deeply. People are impressed by the sheer quantity of stuff you know, and you're learning more every day. However, you're not just informed. You also are very informative. You share what you know in an engaging and interesting way.

What Would You Win an Oscar For?

You say it's your Birthday....

A special blog dedication to my BFF from high school: Tressa!!! (American in Norway).

Happy Birthday!!!

Tree, I hope you had a great, fun-filled day surrounded by love, happiness and good wishes!! Sending you love from across the pond.

XXOO

Kelly

A funny "name" meme

Okay, so this may be an old e-mail thing or facebook thing, but I recently saw it and it made me laugh. So if you need a laugh, giggle, chortle, snort, whatever, play along!

1. Your Real Name: Kelly
2. Your Gansta Name: (first 3 letters of real name plus izzle): Kelizzle
3. Your Detective Name: (favorite color and favorite animal): Green Puppy
4. Your Soap Opera Name: (your middle name & street you live on): Lynn Hampton
5. Your Star Wars Name: (first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name): Holke
6. Your Criminal Name: (your 2nd favorite color, and favorite drink): Blue Ultra
7. Your Witness Protection Name: (parent's middle names): Ann Elijah
8. Your Goth Name: (black, and the name of one of your pets): Black Shannon
9. Your Hood Name: (first 3 letters of your first name and add -iqua): Keliqua
10. Your Porn Star Name: (Name of one your first pets & your mother's maiden name): Cafe McGuire

Happy Friday & Happy Valentine's Day Eve! Once again it's time for Candid Carrie's Friday Foto Fiesta Finish. After you're done here, go there to see what's going on!!

So I came home early from work today to redecorate my living room.

What do you think?  Doesn't 123 cases (or 1,476 boxes) of Girl Scout Cookies just add a new decorative flair to my house?!

Just one thing before I bid you ado...BUY GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!!

Golf

Interesting title, huh? Didn't it just draw you in?!...Make you wait with baited breath anticipating what I'll post about?!...Sorry, no excitement here; just an update.

Well the Gigi (what the girls call my Mom) surprise went off without a hitch. My Mom kept me updated on her status during her 4 hour trek from south FLA to central FLA. When I knew she was close, I called the school to let them know the girls would be picked up. I filled them in that it would be a surprise for the girls and apparently the front office staff and teachers played along with us. My Mom reported that Cameron was so excited she was vibrating! Emmy was excited to, but not as much as Cameron.

Gigi took the girls to putt-putt Golf where Emmy proceeded to beat the pants off of Gigi & Cameron (beat them by 16 strokes!)...future Tiger in the making? Gigi then took the girls to snack time at 7-11...Suicide Slurpees all around (do you remember making them as kids? Quick recipe for suicide Slurpees: take some from every flavor...Walking on the wild side!!). The rest of the night was spent watching American Idol.

All of this golf talk reminds me of the easiest "A" I earned in College....that's right, I took Golf as an elective in College. I'm sure that my Mom was pleased that she was paying hundreds of dollars per college credit hour for me to take Golf! Of course, we couldn't learn the intense game of golf in the 2 hours we spent in class each week. In order to get full credit for the course, you had to do extracurricular golfing activities: i.e. go to the driving range - did that, play 9-18 holes of golf - wasn't gonna do that...couldn't waste 4-5 hours of weekend sleeping time!! or play putt-putt. Needless to say, I played more games of putt putt in college than I had in my entire life. I learned a couple life lessons from that college course: 1) I suck at golf 2) putt putt golf should only be 9 holes not 18...it's too long...because of my feelings about #2, I think I might have a touch of attention deficit disorder!

A question and a surprise

Okay, all you bloggers out there who are not only addicted to blogging, but also Facebook-ing (is that a word?!) have you discovered that you suffer from significant memory lapses or is it just me? Let me clarify...there are these people who went to the same school as you did, you have many, many "friends" in common, but you don't know who the HELL they are?! My lack of memory is really freaking me out!! The names sound kinda familiar, but I CAN'T place them! I finally got some relief when a guy from my college class (didn't remember him either!) posted all these newspaper pictures from my senior year...now my memory is coming back (somewhat). Please tell me that this is a facebook phenomenon and that I don't have to start Aricept® for early onset dementia!!

Now the surprise...well not for me, but the girls. My Mom called at the end of last week to let me know she would be visiting family friends in Pembroke Pines (~4 hrs away). She's going to be driving up tomorrow to surprise the girls at school. I can't wait to hear about how the surprise goes!!!

Virtual Wagie Ride

My blog is probably not the only place you're going to be seeing this today...

If you need the backstory go here and here (they say it better than me anyway). There's a lot a sadness going on amongst the Mommy bloggers right now....some precious children have recently been made angels or are very sick. I just can't imagine what these families are going through...I would love to do something to make it better, but I don't have any magical powers or answers.
But in honor of one of those special babies, Emmy, Jack and I participated in the virtual wagie ride going on today. We explored the paths around our house, played at the playground, and fed the ducks. Most of all we enjoyed each others' company. I am thankful for all I have been given and all that I have. My thoughts and prayers are with those families going through these really, really, rough times.
Peace,
Kelly

My Silly Guy

I'm playing Candid Carrie's Friday Foto Fiesta Finish this week. So after you're done here go THERE to see what's going on!!

Sit back...let me set the scene for you....

Picture this, I am cleaning up after dinner. You know the routine, putting dishes in the dishwasher, cleaning counters, cleaning the table, etc., etc. I decided to be the queen of the multi-taskers and start the bathwater while I was doing all of the above.

All is well, the girls are in their rooms doing whatever, Jack is in the living room with Daddy. Then Jack escapes to see what the girls are doing. First stop: Emmy's room, there's always good things to do in there, but Emmy is in there and can only tolerate Jack in her stuff for a few minutes. He's sent off to his room, but wait, what's that? the sound of running water? Why that only can signal Jack's favorite activity of all time - BATH TIME! So he takes off to the bathroom and gets in the tub clothes and all. As soon as I heard Cameron say, "Jackson!" I knew what had happened.

Of course prior to getting him appropriately ready for bath time, I had to get pictures. Enjoy!

Getting right down to business playing in tubby time!

What?! What did I do? What's wrong?

Nooooo! Don't make me leave my precious tubby time even to get naked!!

Top 10 reasons I hate Wii Fit

I currently have a love/HATE relationship with our Wii Fit. Don't get me wrong...I love that we have one...it gives me NO excuses whatsoever not to do some exercise on a daily basis (Alas...as there is no reason, I've determined that I am just lazy). AnyWho, it's been fun exploring the games, etc., but the little things about it irk me. So I've developed my top ten list:

1) When you do your first body test it changes your Mii (your character) to be skinny, normal, or in my case, very fluffy

2) It chastises you if you don't get on every day

3) It asks your family members to rate how you're looking/doing

4) Every time you get on the damblasted thing a little high pitched voice says, "Ooooh!"

5) It thinks it's funny - I'm serious - it had been a couple of days (okay 19) since I had been on and it chastised me (see #2) and then it said, "I don't recognize you; Daddy, is that you?!"

6) It tells me I'm "unbalanced" (who needs that kind of reminder?!)

7) I suck at the ski jumping....I mean how hard can it be to lean forward and jump?! Apparently for me VERY...I'm ranked last in my family (yes, my 6 year old can kick my a$$!!)

8) If you lose your balance doing a yoga pose and put your foot down, it tells you it knows you decided to "take a little break" during the exercise. No, I just don't think my hubby would appreciate me crashing my unbalanced self into the t.v.!

9) I have to shoo my family out of the room during my daily body test because there is no discreetness in the measurement "Obese" (announces it!!) and then showing my weight. I can't get it off that screen fast enough!!

10) Cameron asked me the other day if my goal (because you set one during your first "assessment") was to gain weight! - yes, they have a nice little line graph displaying every one's progress.

There you have it...I'm sure my attitude will change as I become a less fluffy Mii and am looking svelte and muscular....Oh the things I do to impress a video game!

I think I need to go back to baby food...

So I haven't lamented about my ongoing weight loss struggles for a long time now. Why? well for one...I can get a little obsessive about the whole weight loss subject and two, that obsession can fall very easily into "stinkin' thinkin' " which I am really good at; especially if it's aimed at me!!

So here's a quick update...I re-joined weight watchers and dropped about 13 pounds in 6 weeks and then the holidays came and I fell off the bandwagon...like a lot of people. I finally drug myself back to a meeting in January (which was a definite challenge; I prefer to avoid the obvious and not "face the music"! I officially gained back the 7 lbs that is the national average for weight gain over the holidays...not unexpected. Well, for the last couple weeks I have been very successful in gaining back every ounce, but that last pound.

My biggest problems are:
1)bad food choices
2)eating way too much of said bad food choices
3)not exercising.

So I decided to take baby steps and not be too hard on myself (which is VERY difficult). I set a small goal this week to "track" my food intake every day; something which I am absolutely horrible at...What I discovered was that the "good" food choices I thought I was making are not so good. For example, I had 1/2 sandwich and a cup of soup today...doesn't sound bad right? Well the soup I chose was Crisper's Kickin Crab soup...it didn't seem cream-based to me, but it must be...because it was a whopping 12.5 points (to put the point thing into perspective, I am allowed 26 points a day). That's right a CUP of soup took up all most 1/2 my points allowance!! Not to mention the fact that I threw in a sandwich on top of the whole thing...another 8 points.

20.5 points for lunch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I shared in previous posts that my (previous) fav go to meal was a burrito bol at Chipotle which = 56 points!!! After I started on WW in Sept, I thought I would scale back a bit...cut out cheese, sour cream down to 18 points...18 points people!...that's the bare minimum that I can stand to cut out. So now I just avoid Mexican as much as possible, because obviously I can't control myself!

I'm thinking that I'm completely off when it comes to determining what's really good for you and what isn't. I am really tempted to follow one of the Weight Watcher's daily meal suggestions - even though it's difficult to get any interest in their bland meal plans. So I'm thinking may be I should go back to square one and start eating baby food...how can I go wrong with strained peas, carrots, pears, etc....May be they have a strained chicken nachos option now?!

Co-op Update

Remember when I posted about the co-op here? (If not, you can click on over to find out what the heck I'm referring to~).

This past Saturday was our 2nd go at it. We dropped the kiddos off at 5:30 and had until 10 pm to get the little munchins. Here's a recap of our night:

5:35: go to Coffee bar/Tapas restaurant only to find out they are closed until 6pm
5:40: head off to Homegoods to get some decorating ideas (have I ever mentioned that we hardly have any art on the wall because we can't decide on a style?!)
6:00: head off to Kirkland home to do more of the same...no success on either front.
6:15: put in our name at a local restaurant (wait time 30-45 min). Decide to take pager into Barnes and Noble get some coffee and relax...oops, that was my decision which hubby didn't want to do after all. Go back to restaurant turn in pager and head back to original Tapas restaurant.
6:30 - 7:00: get caught in traffic jam caused by an accident
7:20: Back at original restaurant - no one there except the 2 workers and a musician playing guitar. All they have is pre-made sandwiches to eat; no Tapas because the cook was not able to work due to a family illness. We decide to have a drink (Mint, Soy Mocha for me; beer for the hubby). Decide to head to Carraba's
7:50: Arrive at Carraba's - wait time 45 minutes - waiting area has more people in it than people in the restaurant. Nowhere to sit or wait without invading diner's space. Decide to leave; hostess was shocked that we were leaving and offered to get the manager. I told her that wasn't necessary we just didn't want to wait.
8:10: Head over to Outback - I now have a pretty good headache starting - Wait time: 50 minutes - didn't even bother putting in our name.
8:30: At a Mexican restaurant - crowd outside; we don't even get out and head to a Sushi restaurant in the same plaza. Decide we don't want to eat Sushi.
8:45: Back at the Mexican restaurant; get seated in 5 minutes and finally eat.
9:15: Back at home for a bathroom pit stop before picking up kids; damn Mexican food!
9:30: Pick up kids - all reports are good; they had a good time and babysitting parents still have smiles on their faces!

Home by 9:50

What did I learn from our night on the town?
1) Obviously we are very much out of practice at this whole date night thing!
2)Planning, Planning, Planning is definitely needed!

Our next Co-op night is 2/13, we're already coming up ideas so we're not stuck looking at each other after drop off saying, "So where to?!"