Wow, these kids really live it up. They run around, play, get tons of treats and toys, and then get to take a nap and do it all over again when they get up.

And during the last week in October, that just doubles in craziness! LOL

We have actually had only two parties this week but two is a lot! First we went over to Freckled Frog for a party on Monday. The attention to detail and how everything was completely decorated up was totally fun!

The second party was at her school and I was one of the Room Mom’s for.  Room Mom basically means you are in charge for the four main parties during the year.  Of course when you are IN CHARGE you tend to freak out and over analyze everything to death so the weeks running up to the event seemed a little crazy.  I thought my partner-in-crime and I did a FANTASTIC job because what ended up happening was a very mellow party where all the kids got to decorate their crafts, play a little Halloween freeze dance, and have lunch in a very relaxed setting.

The official Photographer got some great pics (haven’t seen them online yet though), the parents all got to take photos, and we got to enjoy helping our kids and not be rushed! It worked out REALLY well!

Decorating princess & pirate hats!

Mmm, making “Candy Laces” necklaces with licorice, live savers, fruit loops, and more!

Who can make the silliest face!?

Eating with her bestie, Morgan! Fruit cups, Mummy hot dogs, and tasty treats.
Cupcakes are yummy!

We may go down to the Orange Circle for Trick or Treat tonight, or even to the Oct-Boo-Spectacular (or whatever) in Fullerton, and we have fun plans for Saturday!  We are even dressing up! (Sam made us!) But it’s been awhile since we’ve gotten all dressed up Halloween so I am excited.

Last weekend we had a fabulous time as I threw a surprise birthday party for hubby! I did a pretty good job on the surprise (I am SUPER terrible at surprises…) up until the last 10 minutes where I did some uncharacteristic things. Then, when we tried to spring it on him, I should have really just stayed silent. Not said a word. When I did, “You want to come in and get a glass of water?” and realizing I had no water bottles, I poured our friend half an inch of water, haha, it was just pretty silly.  So I suck at that. Terrible!

NO matter though. We had a fantastic time! We were in a limo, I had tons of yummy goodies, and we picked everyone up and had a great time!  The Derby Piano Bar down in Mission Viejo is an awesome place. The piano dudes are pretty rocking.  The amazing time was being surrounded by friends!

I think I’ve stared at my sneaky peeky about 250x already. I keep going over and over the photos, I love them so! Go take a peek! They are in Facebook right here.

While you are at it, go ‘Become a Fan’ of the DrewB Photography page and the new Mom*Tog page!  I convinced Drew to make a page and set it up for her! Any business should have a fan page it’s a GREAT way to connect with your clients. Anything you put on a fan page (not a group page) will get shared in the person’s wall stream. Then, if they share the item posted, it will go to THEIR friends, etc. etc.  I was actually talking to my hair stylist about it last week too!

With Photographers it’s nice because they are always posting pictures and they can tag people, so it shows up in their stream anyway. The networking aspect is so fun though.  And if Facebook ever updates their archaic way of email notification on discussions and events, it will be even better! Facebook, I’m sure you are NOT listening to me but really, you need some updates!

Today was a most fabulous day.  It was pretty busy but filled with so many fun things, I wanted to talk about them because I didn’t want to forget.

We started the morning with G sleeping in until his ‘normal’ time of about 645! The past week he’s been getting up around 6am so we finally caught up on sleep (the day before he took a 3+ nap!) and all was good.  I got Sam’s lunch made, everyone dressed, breakfast, and in the car by 8:06 to make it in time for singing before preschool at Fairmont. Sam gets very sad if she misses the morning singing with all the kids and teachers.  I got her situated next to her ‘bestie’ Morgan and took off for the FPA (Fairmont Parent Association) meeting.  The extended daycare lady came up to me and asked if she wanted me to watch Griffin in the room and I thought that was an awesome idea and handed him over. So he got some play time and I got to hear about the cool things they are doing for the month of October and how much they raised from all the fundraisers. I had to leave early though, grab Griffin and make it over to Gymboree.

Gymboree was tons of fun. I was worried that Griffin wasn’t liking it but after a few weeks, he knows the routine and is really enjoying it. He doesn’t like a few of the signature activities but we just go do our own thing during them and he’s good. He loves Gymbo though and watching him explore and do new things by himself without his sister is so much fun!

On the way out, we met Grandma JJ and she took over while I ran a quick errand and then went to go get my hair done! And makeup! We were having family pictures in the afternoon and I wanted to look presentable!  While I was getting my hair done I was texting back and forth with my Mom about the face that G spent 30 min fussing in his crib and playing with music in there.  Then, we decided she should drive him around and put him out, then go back home and put him down sleeping. Sadly, it didn’t work for long and he didn’t get a nap. On the one day we needed him too. LOL – Oh well. I really liked my hair and makeup though. It never keeps any curl so she just used the big brush to give it some bounce and then teased the back of it and I felt like a 50’s housewife with a little beehive on. No, it wasn’t like that, but I felt awesome. Then I put on my jewelry and I felt like I was going out on the town instead of family photos but hopefully it turned out ok.

Taken by my iPhone - Doesn't really do justice but I felt cute!

My Mom got the kids all ready though and we met back at my house at 4:30. Of course by that point, we were all running a little late, my Internet wasn’t working when I needed to get directions so we jumped in the car half ready and speeding down the freeway to meet the most awesome Orange County photographer DrewB! Of course, I got lost because my iPhone decided to load SO SLOWLY, show directions without using the Toll Roads, and tell me to turn on a street that wasn’t there. Blah. Luckily she came and found us and led us to a gorgeous place.

I can’t wait wait wait to see the pictures but I know I have to be patient. She is in her busy season so I hope to get a peek at the good ones in a week or so! Griffin fell asleep in the car and was SO TIRED when we got him out that he was a big old sad guy. He didn’t cry though, he just pouted.  I think she got some amazing photos of hubby and Sam together though, right when Sam was at her best and loving the face she had a camera on her.

We probably got some freaking amazing ones of Sam. I was hearing Drew’s camera clicking away at least three hundred times on her.  Even with Sam holding her dress up to her chin half the time, I know there are going to be some fantastic ones! I REALLY need to get my credit card over to my computer and buy Sam some Francie Pants for her dresses because she was wearing her Dora panties (I think, maybe it was Tink) and they REALLY did not match! LOL

Drew was so amazing though, I love watching her work. She is so professional, she had two cameras, her pack, and everything organized. Treats for the kids, to get them to smile, etc. The last time we got our photos done, Sam was the exact age Griffin was and we had SUCH a hard time getting her to smile.  It’s so pressure filled trying to get the ‘perfect’ shot and she was not a smiley child when she was young.

This time felt a lot more relaxed, I felt like Drew had some awesome ideas to get the kids to cooperate and have fun and she wasn’t bothered by my obsessive cleaning of faces, arranging of hair, and forced smiles.  I was trying to remember in my head that most of the stuff I was obsessing over, Drew would probably edit it out. Yea, that booger hanging out of her nose? The camera probably couldn’t catch it and if it did? Photoshop.  So, why I was freaking out about it, I just don’t know.  Plus, with Sam older and more interactive, it didn’t feel as forced. She was doing crazy stuff and we could laugh at her and ignore the clicking away and not feel like we were forcing ourselves to gaze adoringly at our children to get a good shot. We were already doing that cause they are a crackup!

I’ve known Drew since middle school and now that we are SO OLD, it really is so cool that I get to see her in her element and be amazing behind the camera. I actually feel that way with all my friends, we are all grown up now and doing some pretty cool stuff! When you see one of your friends with their professional face on, you realize that while you knew your friend pretty well, you didn’t know the ‘full’ person and seeing those other sides to them? So cool.  I would list all my friends and how amazing they are in their businesses here but this post would be too long. LOL

Anyway, after pictures I took the kids to the Spectrum and we grabbed some dinner and went for a ride on the big wheel. It was fun.

The main reason I wanted to blog tonight was because of Sam. We were eating dinner and I was asking her if she wanted to go on the carousel or the Big Wheel and that I thought the Big Wheel with all the lights on would be SUPER cool (it was also closer, LOL). She looked at me and said, “Momma, I had so much fun today. I love you so much. I want to go on the Big Wheel, and go around and around, and then blow you kisses and tell you I Love You. Then you will blow me kisses and I will throw it into my heart and love you forever!” Then she got up and came around and gave me a big hug and kiss. It was SO CUTE.

Lately she gets so overwhelmed with love that you can just see her be filled ‘to the top’ (as she says) and she just has to come over and hug and love us. It’s adorable. My child is so cute. I have to remember these things as it might not last long!

When I put her to bed, I asked her if she liked Drew taking pictures of her and if she ever wanted to do that. She loves her camera that she got for her birthday last year and told us yesterday that her baby needed a camera to take pictures, haha.  Anyway, she said that yes, she thought it was so cool and Drew had TWO cameras, one that she took pictures with and one on her back! The funny things they remember just crack me up.

It’s time to watch Grey’s and Flash Forward! I also bought a brownie at the Spectrum and have full plans on eating it tonight. After I battled my way back to my status of 150, I thought I would indulge. Oops.

“I am the cookie monster!” I shouted to the sky. **

On Friday we had our Fall Festival at Sam’s new school. It was AWESOME.  The thought put into this event was amazing. They had the coolest crafts, super interactive games, and crazy water play for the older kids.  So cool!  But I was ready to cheat on my diet.  I wanted brownies. A pan of them.  I would settle for some chocolate cookies though. I bought a dozen  Campetelli Cookies to give to the ‘Cake Walk’ for the school. Anyone ever done a cake walk? In my mind I was picturing a big room filled with cakes (baked goods) that you walked through and then bought some to support the school.

I was wrong.

A cake walk is a big circle of musical chairs, with chalk squares written on the ground. You bought in for a ticket and walked around while the music played. When it stopped, they drew a number out of a hat and whoever won got to pick a cake.  Do you know how many times I played that game? Ugh. There was also NO other baked goods being sold at the event. No cookie booths at all.  It was horrifying.  There was snow cones and cotten candy though but I wanted baked stuff.

Finally at the end of the night we had four tickets left and we all played. I was holding Griffin and took two tickets and when the music stopped I was around 14. Since 4 is my favorite number I stepped on 14 and took 13 as well, since 13 is so unlucky.  Then 14 was picked! I won! But since it was the end of the night do you know what was left?  NO brownies.  Actually there were expresso ones.  EWWW, I hate coffee.  Then I saw them. Three store bought (not Campetelli) hard choco-chip cookies.  I hemmed and hawed but there was NOTHING good left.  I ended up taking them and took a bite and it was SO gross.

Once we got home, I peeked into the boys room and the dozen cookies I got them were only half way gone. The chocolately ones were gone but there was a regular one left.  I snatched it up and ate it while enjoying the season premier of Grey’s Anatomy. Which was awesome.

After I had one, I then proceeded to eat the other two gross ones from the festival.  Fully expecting to regret it later.

Surprisingly, I did not.  I CAN EAT COOKIES.

I think that may be a bad thing to know.  I reached 150.5, do I really want to know that I can eat cookies without feeling sick? The 10lbs gone feels so great!

The next morning I felt great, hubby woke up super early with a craving to go to the Pancake House.  Since I was bad the night before and nothing happened, I decided to be even worse.  Yep. French toast, covered in butter and syrup, with eggs and bacon.  I skipped the cheese on the eggs since I’m pretty positive I have problems with that.

Guess what?

I CAN EAT FRENCH TOAST AND BACON.

Can you see the pounds creeping back on me? haha

Well, good news though.

The bad news is that after I had my cheat day (well, night and morning) I was good and then I tested out chicken.  Chicken was not good.   I waited another day and then tested chicken out again tonight and I think I have another food to add to my bad list.  Garlic, corn, and chicken.  I have to test out whole milk next, I think.

If it is all meat then it would make sense because I was having chicken every other night, with pasta (meat in the sauce) the other nights. Plus turkey and ham sandwiches almost every day.  Bacon didn’t bother me though so maybe it’s not all meats.  Maybe the chicken four times a week was enough to throw me off balance.

A friend commented the other day that she knew someone who had problems from the hormones in chicken. Which is fascinating. Especially since I break out in hives when taking synthetic hormones.  Hmm… I will have to continue to experiment.

I have been enjoying shrimp stir fry lately though.  Shrimp is sooo yummy. Especially thrown in the pan with mushrooms and asparagus with a little white rice. Yum!

**  Anyone get The Ugly Pumpkin for their kids? We got this last year from a friend and Sam is getting a kick out of it. It’s actually for Thanksgiving but I got it out of the holiday books because it had a pumpkin on it. After reading it over and over again for the past week, we were at the park one night and Sam climbed up a big hill, threw her arms high up in the air and shouted, “I AM THE UGLY PUMPKIN!”.  I just cracked up.

Yes, I am still going strong on my crazy diet. I can’t even believe it. Every day I think to myself, I should really test out a pan of brownies. You know, just to see! I have stayed strong though… somehow.

Yesterday I tried out eggs so I know that is ok, added in to my diet and seems to be going well.  I am currently on veggies, rice, fish, plain bagels, and eggs. I will try it for a few more days before adding something else in. Maybe to those darn brownies!

My meals today consisted of:

B: Two scrambled eggs, salt & pepper added, plus a mini plain bagel, butter & jam
S: Cold carrots and snap bean peas
L: Quarter of potato (steamed), then stir fried up with mushrooms and rice
D: Baked salmon with onion & mushrooms, butter, salt, pepper, oregano to taste and huuuuge pot of steamed zucchini, squash, green beans, and carrots
Orange jello for dessert

I’ve been a bit pissy though because after loosing about nine pounds on the liquid and then veggies portion of my diet I have not BUDGED in a full week.  Part of that is my period, ugh, so slightly explainable but the other part is that I feel like I’m SO LOW in my weight that my body is a little in shock.  I haven’t been this weight in years!

I’ve always hovered around 160 and size 12/14 and been semi-comfortable with body image.  It’s fluctuated over the years, especially with both pregnancies.  I went down to low 150’s for a month or two when Sam was a year old and doing Weight Watchers but went back up after I reached goal and then got pregnant again.  In the summer of my senior year I did a CRAZY diet (plus diet pills – fun! Not…) that got me down to the high 140’s for a short time but again, I went back up.

Well, the past week I have been stuck at 152.  That is an amazing number for me though.  Especially considering I am fitting into size 10 pants and bought a medium (a MEDIUM!!!) shirt at the mall the other day! Whoa baby! I do have a long ways to go to hit my ‘drivers license’ weight though.  Yes, that is stuck at 140! LOL – I can’t imagine what I would do if I ever hit that weight. I may have to go back to the DMV just to move that number lower.  Ladies, it’s a written rule that it must be at least ten pounds less than what we currently are, right?

It’s also nice that I feel good every day.  Eating fish everyday is getting to be extremely annoying though.  Right now, for sure I know that garlic, corn, and cheese (assuming all dairy) is a problem for me.  I will probably try chicken in a few days and then whole milk after that to keep the ingredients pure and continue to find out the culprit(s). I have a big suspicion that chicken is a problem as well.  I ate it almost every other day so that could have been one of the main ingredients of what was affecting me.

I still have to determine if grains are a problem though.  My one big cave was a bagel one day and that didn’t affect me so I’ve been sticking to plain bagels.  There is a little wheat flour in them so maybe they are ok? Hard to tell.  Some of the rice I have been eating has traces of wheat and soy and I’ve been fine so hopefully that is not a problem?  It could be the amounts of wheat and soy that I was eating were greater than what I’m doing now, so I do need to test those as well.

So fun.  Well, not really. But very healthy for me!  So many of the foods we eat have so many combined ingredients that going back to the basics has been a very interesting science discovery.

It will be nice to find some other things I can eat that aren’t so carbalicious. All that rice, potatoes, and bagels I’ve been eating has been helping me  plateau on my weight, I think.  Being this good, I need to have some happy news on the scale.  SOMETHING has to be good about this diet, right!??

Last night my throat finally got so bad I couldn’t sleep and felt terrible in the morning. It was burning and closed up so I figured, I finally got a virus!  I made an appointment while Sam was in school and Griffin and I went in.  My favorite nurse, Bernadine, was able to see me and just gave me a prescription for Amoxicillin and didn’t do a throat culture. It was getting late and I had to pick up Sam.

Poor Griffin was really freaking out the whole morning. He’s either teething or getting what I have.  Probably both.  He currently has the two bottom front teeth and two waaaaay back-there teeth, maybe they are molars? Then he has four teeth on top. So he has a ways to go.  The two teeth on either side in front on the bottom are just bulging, so it will probably be soon.

Taking Amoxicillin, Bernadine reminded me that I should take it on a full stomach.  Oops! My third day of the clear liquid diet, what was I to do?  Well, since my tummy was still a little messed up, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to eat some veggies and move on. I did make it two and a half days, that was pretty darn good!

Plus, it seemed that when I would have chicken broth, it would upset me a bit.  The grease in that soup does not look pretty, let me tell you.  So it was nice to cook a huge plate of veggies and have it in place of the soup tonight.  Also, the Sprite seemed to bug me.  Which is odd because I’m drinking Gatorade with no problems and that has tons of sugar in it.  I really don’t get it.

Of course, the kids had pizza…

Will power, I has it. (For today at least!)

After a quick trip to Henry’s this morning, I ended up roasting/baking sweet potato chunks, a half of a white russet potato, asparagus, and mushrooms.  I covered them in a bit of olive oil, sea salt, pepper, and oregano. Then I steamed fresh green beans, zucchini, and yellow squash with more olive oil, salt and pepper.

Voila!

It turned out pretty good! I’m not a fan of sweet potatoes though so only ate one or two of the frys. The regular potato was ok but I’m more of a fan when it’s slathered in butter, sour cream, cheese, and bacon. The rest was pretty good.

I wish I could search tonight on other ways to make veggies.  Anyone have any good ideas? Maybe tomorrow I’ll sauté some mushrooms, onions, and garlic on the stove and try and use that as more of a sauce?? I have no idea. I think I’ve only ’sautéed’ once in my life, I am so not a good! I really wish my Internet worked tonight to research it! Thanks Time Warner…
The veggies were good though, it’s making me hungry again. I want MORE!

It did not help that I took the kids to Golden Spoon since it was Thursday.  My MIL usually comes over on Thursday but she had to work tonight and lately we have been going for ice cream.  Since it was just me with them, I said WHY NOT! I brought my orange Gatorade and had some sugarless gum to tide me over.  I’m now munching on some orange jello. MMMmmm, jello.

The kids are so cute. I usually ask for a mini only half full for Sam and the girl did a full mini! So she took the top off and put it into another cup. I had her put sprinkles on both and Sam had her treat and Griffin got his.  He finished a lot quicker than she did so he was walking around until she decided to offer him a spoonful.  Then he got a spoon and then it was her turn.  It was so cute, she is so sweet to her brother.

I have made an appointment with the food allergist.  That should help matters.  It really started right when I got pregnant with Griffin.  Those darn hormones can really screw with you! Tomorrow I don’t know what I will have for breakfast.  I have been having about 25oz of water in the morning and then switching to Gatorade. I might do that and try to last until lunch.  Then maybe a nice leafy salad with carrots and cucumber with some olive oil and lemon juice.  The dressing doesn’t sound nice but after not eating for three days, I’m sure I will love it!

Finally, Time Warner got their act together. Woohoo, Internet!

I am sitting here tonight mentally patting myself on the back because I have made it through 24 hours of a clear liquid diet.

Yes, a CLEAR liquid diet.  Water, sprite, Gatorade, jello, and chicken broth.  If you see me in the next few days, please don’t talk about food, k?

I may have mentioned a few times in the past two years how I thought I was lactose intolerant, or I couldn’t handle sugars… I’m to lazy to look up my last posts.  But I finally got sick of feeling, well, sick! So I cut out the sugar and I was STILL feeling bad! I happened to be seeing my doctor the other day and asked her about a cleanse diet where I could fast and then slowly reintroduce foods back into my body.  She told me about just drinking/eating clear liquids, similar to what they do for before/after surgery.  She said I should do it for 5 days, and then she looked at me, at both of my kids sitting at my feet (where I had bribed them with fruit snacks to be quiet) and said, why don’t you try for 3 days instead?

After that point, I can eat veggies for a week. Then after that, I can introduce chicken, fish, and rice.  Another week after that goes… I forget what, fruits, I think.  Grains last.  Bleah.

She also said I should see a food allergist which I do need to make an appointment. It would probably be less troubling to just find out what I am allergic to first but I was really tired of feeling sick.  I just wanted to get on with it.

So here I am. It actually hasn’t been that bad.  I started to feel sick (a cold sick, sniffles, etc) last night though so maybe that helps? Feeling sick and not wanting to eat?  Who knows.

The loosing weight benefit should be rad though.  Hopefully. Hopefully I can stick it out and not ruin it.  I’m just waiting for my body to go back to normal, and hopefully it will do that too.

“You know what I think?”

I turn around and raise my eyebrows and smile tightly at the woman. Yes, you know my bitchy look. I gave it to her.

She stares at me and repeats herself a little louder. “You know what I think?”

“What’s that?” As I bare my teeth at her in the politest of smiles that I could manage.

This to the woman who slowly, slowly followed us in her car through the small parking lot of the restaurant we were coming out of. We got out of her way and she slowly passed us and stared at us. We started to walk with Sam and Griffin between us, angling over to our car. She stopped her car and threw it into reverse, at which point hubby snatched up the baby and I grabbed Sam’s hand as she didn’t want to stop backing up with us right behind her car. I opened our car door to let Sam in while hubby walked around to take care of Griffin. I look around to see this woman (with her window open), just staring at me waiting to pull into the open spot RIGHT NEXT TO US. When there were TONS of other spots open around us. It was irritating. I slam my door, even though Sam is not buckled in, and step to the back of the car and motion in her. For god’s sake, hurry up lady. First you take your sweet time, then you almost run us over, and now you just have to have this spot next to us when we need to pack up? Whatever. Sheesh.

It reminded me of a funny story about this older woman in the plane today who did not speak a LICK of English. Unfortunately she seemed to have lost her wallet, or purse, or something and she had to impart this knowledge to both flight attendants at the exact moment of the plane pulling out of the gate. It ended in the entire plane asking everyone who spoke Korean, a person calling a friend who could translate, the older woman not getting off the phone, the women begging her to get off so as we were taking off NOW, them finally grabbing the phone from her hands and the flight attendants SPRINTING to the back of the plane to slide into their seats as the plane went into the air. They said it reminded them of the Seinfeld episode. I have no idea which one but I really think you can say that of any funny thing in life. Yes, remember THAT Seinfeld episode? Oh yea! (What!?)

So the lady in the car was so slow and backwards that it made me remember the OTHER lady from the plane and I’m in the middle of my story to hubby as we are both leaning in both sides of the car putting our kids in when I get this loud and obnoxious, “You know what I THINK?”.

Please. Please tell me what you think, crazy lady!

“I think I shouldn’t be allowed to park next to such a clean car! Yes, my car is just so dirty and parking next to your beautiful clean car, I shouldn’t be allowed to do it!”

“Wow, I have two kids, I wouldn’t call this car clean! haha!” I had to throw away my pissy bitchy voice pretty quickly and go for the sweet, you must be crazy, lady voice instead.

“Yes well… blah blah blah, my car is so terribly dirty, blah blah… Well, I’m going to go have my dinner now. Goodbye.” And she walks away.

“Enjoy!” I call to her back. I turn back and look at my husband. Who just dies laughing. At me. I’m so glad I can entertain.