Weight Watchers It Is

I've taken the plunge. I'm officially a member of Weight Watchers Online. It's time to get serious about getting rid of this baby weight. The first 30 pounds came off quickly, but the last 20 are going to stick around forever unless I do something about it.

I'm really a fan of having to write down everything I eat. It makes me much more conscious about what goes in my face if I know I have to write it down later. I also like that I can type in my own recipes and find out the points value. I'm already down 2.5 pounds since starting it on Monday. I know I'm not supposed to really weigh myself more than once a week, but I could feel my clothes starting to get looser and wanted to know how I was doing.

The next step is getting a treadmill. I'm not a big fan of exercise, but I know that at some point (soon) the weight will stop coming off simply by changing what I eat, or more like how much I eat. I will have to aggressively start exercising and I think that having the equipment at home will make a big difference.

I'll keep you up to date with the latest weight loss.

I'm Lazy

Oh how I long for those days in Paris where working illegally was no big deal. I'm not sure if it is still that way, but I'm going to continue believing that it is Utopia there. I was making cash working illegally and we had the most amazing house cleaner that was also working illegally for $30 a week. Obet cleaned everything! I would come home and the cabinet under the kitchen sink would be spotless and reorganized. Another time I came home and all the clothes in our closet were ironed. I didn't have to walk past my bathroom everyday and think, when is someone going to clean that? Maybe it will just clean itself if I leave it long enough. Man I hate to clean! What the hell is the point? It just gets dirty again!

So you must now think that my house is in a constant state of nastiness. Not the case...our bedroom bathroom is really the only place that I'll let get like that. Last Saturday night, after our return from the Midwest, Nora threw up in our toilet because she was so worked up over not being able to sleep in our bed with us. I just cleaned that same toilet this morning. What's wrong with me? I'm in total avoidance. My pattern is that if there aren't enough events scheduled, I don't get much done. For example, if Nora has preschool, we have an afternoon play date and someone over for dinner; I get an amazing amount of things done.

Obet, where are you? We need your help! I'm a lazy mother that doesn't want to do everything that is required of a mother! The $100 a week for a cleaning lady around here just isn't in the budget...I'm going to have to suck it up.

Seriously...

Tom Petty? Maybe I'm too young to understand, but come on!

At least it wasn't Brittney. Considering that she is committed right now, she would have had a hard time getting there!

New Addiction

Face Book. My new addiction. For as long I can remember, I have loved to know what is going on with whom and why. I enjoying recognizing people when I go out to the grocery store, dry cleaners, and just about anywhere. The only time I don't like seeing someone I know is when I'm buying tampons or going through McDonald's drive thru.

Because of this little quirk of mine, Face Book is wonderful. I am catching up with people from high school and college that I haven't seen or spoken with for almost 15 years in some cases. Some people are doing just what I expected and others are blowing me out of the water. This challenges my preconceived notions about people. I have always been a person to jump to conclusions about people that I know and others that I have just met. This is one thing that I am working very hard at making happen less frequently.

Case in point, a field trip to Seattle when Brian's parents were visiting led to Nora grabbing the hand of a homeless man and walking hand in hand with him for about half a block. Nana was holding Nora's other hand, but she didn't see any problem with taking his hand. He just looked like any other human being to her because she didn't jump to any conclusions like I did when she saw him. My heart jumped into my throat and all the horrible pictures of children being abducted on the evening news came to mind. Of course, Nana was holding her other hand, but Mama Bear came out quite quickly. Then I saw the smile of this man's face and knew how much she had touched him through this simple act. Nora, the kind hearted soul that she is, did not look at his clothing, shoes, or teeth and make a judgement about where he had been or his lack of a place to call home. After Nora let go of his hand, he looked at me, and with tears in his eyes, said, "That was very special for me, thank you." How could I have been so cold hearted to believe that he wanted to hurt my child just because of how he looked.

I obviously want to keep my children safe, but I am going to work on not judging people. I hope other people will make this effort as well.

I have heard a few stories lately from friends and family about people judging others because of their religious or political views. I have my beliefs, but enjoy hearing others that are different than mine. I truly think that if you are not able to talk about and have a discussion with others about your views without getting upset and being offended, it must mean you aren't as secure in your views as you thought. For example, just because someone believes that abortion is an option that all women should be entitled to, doesn't mean that the person sitting across the isle with the opposite opinion is a bad person. It is something to be discussed to hear out both people. I personally could not have an abortion, but would NEVER deny that right to any other woman. I have never been put in that situation, so who am I to say that I wouldn't have made that choice if I had, for example, found myself pregnant at 16. Talking something like this out with others may lead you to understand that you may have some things in common rather than needing to be at odds.

Ok, I'm off my soapbox. I'd like to hear your opinions on the judgment topic. Especially those of you that I've just rekindled our relationships! Cheers to all my new Face Book Friends!

News From Brian in South Africa

The kids and I are in the Midwest for the next two weeks because Brian has a trip to South Africa and Germany. I wanted to pass along his words about his first day in Africa.

Hello from Johannesburg!

Wanted to send all of you a quick note to let you know that I made it here safely. I got to the hotel around midnight last night after almost 23 hours in the air and two stops in Minneapolis and Amsterdam. The weather was clear over Europe and most of northern Africa yesterday, and the view from the window was incredible. We flew over the Alps, the Mediterranean Sea, and after we passed the northern coast of Tunisia the landscape changed dramatically. There were very few trees, the landscape become quite desolate, and became even more so the further south we went. Once we crossed over the southern Lybia and Chad, the Sahara came into view and was incredible...we were flying at 30,000 feet and even then, looking as far as I could see, there was nothing at all but red-orange sand.

I don't think I have ever felt as wiped out as I did when we arrived at the hotel. It was a real relief to finally sleep in a bed.

My hotel is in a suburb called Rosebank, which is a very nice part of town. Even so, most of the houses/residential buildings are in compounds surrounded by brick walls topped with razor wire, spikes, and electrified fences. The trees and plants are absolutely beautiful (it's summertime here) and very unique to this region...I haven't really seen any that I recognize. There are weaver birds flying around in the garden behind the hotel, you can see them flying around with grass and straw in their beaks, and their nests dangle from some of the trees. I remember seeing something on National Geographic about them years ago, it seems really bizarre to see them in real life.

Continuing on the National Geographic theme, today's adventure took me out into the bush about 40 min west of Johannesburg, where I took a tour of a lion preserve. We were very lucky because today is the day that they feed the lions. At first I thought it would be something that required binoculars, but once the food came around the lions were literally within inches of the car. There were signs all over the place warning people to stay in the cars and keep the windows rolled up. One of the males got into a spat with one of his cubs about who was going to eat the slab of horsemeat they were given, and made sure that everyone knew he was upset. It was amazing (and a bit unnerving) to hear a lion roar from 100 feet away.

After the tour we stopped in an area where 4 lion cubs were resting, and we got to pet them. They are being raised by humans since their pride rejected them for not being strong enough (out of a typical litter of 6 cubs, only 2 usually make it to adulthood...the others are killed by their parents). They were pretty tame but we were warned not to touch them on the head or tail as they are still capable of causing some serious damage.
We also took a drive through the inner city of Johannesburg. It's a city of extremes...certain areas on the outskirts are very wealthy (we passed a Lamborghini dealership!) but once you get toward the center it starts getting really shady. There wasn't really that much to see except for a lot of shabby storefronts and piles of garbage on the streets. After seeing this, I can't even fathom what it must be like in the townships.

Work stuff starts tomorrow so I won't have much more exciting news to report. I am really enjoying the sunshine and the 75-degree weather, maybe i'll come back to Seattle with a tan!