In Search Of Creative Exercise Ideas

 

While my ankle must be immobilized because of peroneal tendon damage, I can either a) become a seriously grumpy pain in the rear from no exercise or b) find a way to exercise that doesn't allow my foot to move much, if at all, and boosts my heart rate.

Anyone have any ideas? Comments are wide open - please use them liberally.

Truckin'

It turns out, country music does sound better in a pickup truck.

Last night we borrowed a friend's Ford F-150 flare-side 4x4 pickup to transport our new refrigerator from the store to our house. Andy took care of that but this morning I was the one who drove the truck to drop Kevin off at camp and take the truck back to our friend's house.

Shewwwwee! That is a big, honkin' truck. There were no other vehicles on the road (I didn't see any tractor trailers) that were taller than me. After dropping Kevin off at nature camp, I pulled out of the land conservancy property wanting only to jerk the wheel to the side and plow through the hilly fields of tall grass - just because I could have!

Since getting rid of my (much smaller) truck and driving the car regularly, I've come to love the car. It fits me well and handles great. It responds quickly, which a large vehicle can't.

However, I proved this morning that you can take the girl out of the truck but you can't take the truck out of the girl.

Penny-wise and Pound-foolish (or is it pound-wise and penny-foolish in our case?)

 

We spent oodles of money on this fridge only to say, "No way we're paying you $65 to deliver and install it!" And then we spent HOURS of time and GALLONS of sweat trying to get it into our house and we still ended up with the same number of dings and scratches on it that we would've if we'd paid someone else to do it while we watched, drinking margaritas.

If only you knew more of what I do for the environment, you'd understand!

I try to be nice to the environment. We use organic products in our yard and garden, I clean with old socks and t-shirts instead of paper towels, I buy large containers of food and repack it into smaller reusable containers myself, I buy environmentally-friendly cleansers, I recycle, I occasionally ride my bike to the grocery store, I don't drive over 65 mph to get better gas mileage, I turn off the dishwasher when it hits the dry cycle...

But this week, I - consciously - decided to be less environmentally-conscious by buying pre-packaged fruit cups and juice boxes to easily pack Kevin's lunch for nature camp since I'd like the summer off from the ugh-inducing task of packing a healthy, filling and environmentally-sensitive lunch and this one week didn't seem to be a big deal. In fact, I smiled as I pulled the shrink-wrapped package of 10 foil-lined juice boxes off the sale shelf at Giant on Sunday, imagining myself plopping a box in Kevin's lunch box and quickly moving on to the rest of my day.

Yesterday morning I dropped Kevin off for his first day of nature camp. The counselor who checked him in gave me a piece of paper and said, very politely, "We're trying to have the kids eat trash-free lunches this week. On this paper are some tips for doing that like using re-usable plastic containers instead of foil and plastic bags and bottles of water that can be refilled..."

Thank you for raining on my easy-pack-lunch parade.

Father's Day Interview - June 2008

Here is 2008's Father's Day Interview with Kevin Aguilera.

Click the links to see previous years' interviews: 2007, 2006, 2005

What is Pápi’s name? Andy
Is Pápi tall or short? Short
What color are Pápi’s eyes? Brown
What color is Pápi’s hair? Black

How old is Pápi? 41

How much does Pápi weigh? I don’t know
Do you have a guess? 60 lbs

What does Pápi like to eat? Watermelon
What does Pápi like to drink? Coke
What is Pápi’s favorite color? Red
What’s his favorite thing to wear? Shirts. Clothes.
Any particular kind? Tank tops

What do you like to do with Pápi? Play imaginary games
What’s your favorite imaginary game? Spaceship
Any others that you love? Overboard. Power Rangers. Fighting like Super Man and Batman.
What is Pápi’ s favorite thing to do with you? Play with me.
What kind of playing? Fun, imaginary games.

Where do you like to go with Pápi? To the bird store
What do you like to help Pápi do at home? Work around the house

What does Pápi do that makes you laugh? Does silly faces

What does Pápi do at work? He builds stuff and he orders stuff

What is Pápi’s favorite song/music? “Oh Mickey, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind. Hey Mickey!”

Is Pápi a good singer? Nnno
Is Pápi a good dancer? Yes

Do you have any good ideas for questions? “How smelly does Pápi smell?”
So how smelly does Pápi smell? VERY smelly.
What’s the smelliest part of Pápi? His armpits

Does Pápi love you? Yes
Do you love Pápi? Yes

Tag

 

I'm trying to figure out what it is inside me that's causing my overjoyment at making this tag for the plate of cookies I'm giving to Kevin's bus driver on this last day of school.

It is probably as simple as the fact that I haven't done any "crafting" in over a year. But there's something deeper that makes that matter in the first place. I shall figure out what that is - and then do something about it. This feeling of joy is nice.

Small town

The other day, I was telling Andy a story about growing up and I found myself going on and on about all sorts of things that had nothing to do with the story but which I couldn't remove from the context of the story in my head, so it all had to come out together.

After voicing some of those things out loud, I realized that there are some fun aspects of my childhood.

1. We had no shower. Just a tub, on feet.


2. When I waited for the bus in the morning, in front of our house, Mr. Bailey would walk by on his way to work at the bank and he always waved and smiled. Some days he carried a folded up umbrella in his hand.


3. When we were sick, we'd walk up the street to the doctor's office, which was in the basement of the doctor's home (which was next door to Mr. Bailey's house.)


4. Ralph Klein's store down on the corner, now a chain of grocery stores run by his sons and probably their sons, was where we walked to for food and hardware plus some clothes and my Dad's Herman Survivors work shoes. They also had a basket of penny candy by the cash register and they handed out a free piece of bologna at the deli counter.


5. One time when our well pump stopped working, we ran a garden hose from our neighbor's farm house into our 2nd floor bathroom so that we could wash up in the tub. Our houses were a few hundred yards apart.


6. We only went to church a few times that I recall. When we did, we cut across the neighbor's lawn in our dress shoes to get there. The church was (and still is) right in front of the elementary school.


7. We could tell when the neighbor's cows got out of their fence overnight by the cow flops in our yard in the morning.


8. Mrs. Vaughn lived 2 houses up and worked at the Post Office, which was in the same building as Klein's, across the street from the bank.


9. On Halloween, Mrs. Monk (who was extremely old and lived alone in a 2-story house) would put animal crackers and lollipops on a cookie sheet for us to pick from. My brother and sister and I were probably the only trick-or-treaters on our street.

Jam On It

Today was strawberry jam makin' day at our house. I only made 2 batches but, of course, it was the hottest day we've had lately and this is a hot process.

I picked 22 lbs of strawberries on Tuesday. We ate about 7 lbs of them fresh over the next couple of days. After jamming today, I now have one medium sized container of berries left in the fridge. Methinks I shall need to go a-pickin' again next week. Otherwise, we won't have any stored in the freezer for the winter. And "fresh" berries in the winter are just so yummy.

Wash, hull and mash the berries.
 

Cook the berries with a box of pectin.
 

Add sugar and bring to a full, rolling boil.


Process in canner et voilá!
 

Readoption

If even just one person finds this blog post helpful, it will be worth it. I continue to be amazed at how hard it is for the thousands of parents who adopt children internationally to get this necessary information. I'm no expert but I've been through the process successfully myself.

If you have adopted a child from a foreign country and your child came home with an IR-4 visa in his/her passport (not an IR-4), you will need to "readopt" your child in the United States in order to get your child's Certificate of Citizenship.

Each state handles the readoption process differently and in our state (Maryland) each county handles it differently. For our readoption process, we basically had to run through the domestic adoption process.

To determine what you need to do to readopt your child(ren), go to the Child Welfare Information Gateway website - http://www.childwelfare.gov/

Click on the link for the National Foster Care and Adoption Directory - http://www.childwelfare.gov/nfcad/

You can go directly to the Directory but you might find other helpful information at the main site so I posted that link, too.

Select your state and the information you want to know - for readoption info, check the box for "State Foster Care and Adoption Officials." On the resulting page, find the contact info for the State Adoption Program Manager or similarly titled person. Contact that person and they or someone from their office should give you the details you need to know for readopting your child in your state.

Good luck!

After 1, After 2

After "1" (right after removing the bushes and organizing the debris - this was the "After" picture in a previous post)
 
After "2" (after washing the green matter off the wall and removing the debris entirely)
 

Our next step is probably to take care of that awesome walkway. We might do a poured concrete sidewalk - less money and easier to do than a nicer-looking paver-type path. Definitely nicer than what's there now.

Mother's Day Interview

For Father's Day, I always interview Kevin and write his answers down as a gift for Andy (and a source of embarrassment for Kevin in the future.) This year, Kevin's kindergarten teacher did a similar thing for the mom of each kid in the class.

Q: What is your mom's name?
A: Dianne [correct]

Q: How old is she?
A: She's not 40... maybe like 50? [correct answer: 35]

Q: How much does she weigh?
A: I think she's 300 pounds [correct answer: less than 200]

Q: What is her favorite food?
A: Pizza! [correct]

Q: What is her favorite color?
A: Dark blue [correct]

Q: What is her favorite thing to wear?
A: Every day she goes to work she has to wear pants. [correct in that I'm not allowed to wear shorts to work]

Q: What is her favorite thing to do?
A: Work with my dad [lots of correct answers; this is one of them]

Q: What is her favorite kind of music?
A: High School Musical [correct answer: pretty much anything EXCEPT music from a musical; I think Kevin joked this answer on purpose because he snickered when I read this one aloud.]

Before and After

Before
 

After
 

I know that the "After" picture is supposed to look nicer, but we're just not there yet. We removed 5 juniper bushes that have been growing like weeds since we moved in and which Andy keeps "trimming" into bowling balls despite me telling him that juniper bushes are supposed to be scraggly. When they're scraggly and this big, they're really in the way, though.

We plan to put butterfly- and hummingbird-friendly plants in this space but we first need to figure out how we want it edged.

Pulling out the bushes was so much fun. Andy tied a rope around the bottom of the stems/trunks and then we hooked the rope to the car and then I hit the gas. Out came the bushes! We really wish we could've videotaped that process but safety was of the utmost importance, so neither of us could hold the camera while it was going on.

So sour it's goooood

 

Haute Cuisine

 

I'm eating a bowl of cake. It's not a cupcake or a slice of cake, it's a bowl. You could think of it as a big cupcake with an unpeelable paper.

I have a 12-cupcake pan plus a 6-cupcake pan. The problem with that is a regular recipe or box mix of cake makes 24 cupcakes. What to do with the leftover batter? I could eat it that way, but the raw eggs concern me in such a large quantity. I could wait for the first batch of cupcakes to bake and then refill a pan with the rest of the batter. That requires more patience than I have, all that waiting for 15 minutes and then waiting for another 15 minutes.

Conversation

A friend at work (K) walked into my office unwrapping a large box of protein/energy bars.

K: Here, I owe you an energy bar.
Me: No you don't. I only gave you one - I've eaten plenty of yours.
K: But it was your last one, it was special.
Me: No it wasn't, I had 3 left.
K: And you only gave me one?
Me: Yeah, so you don't owe me anything.
K: Ok. So do you want one?
Me: Sure.

Not much makes me happier than feeling independent with a brain full of chemicals induced by exercise

It appears that I went for a bike ride today. But that's not Kevin in the trailer.
 
It's groceries! And more of them than I thought I would be able to get home from the store.
 
 
I admit to limiting myself to 1 gallon of milk instead of my usual 2 and only 2 boxes of Coke instead of anywhere up to 6 that I would usually get when at the store with a car but I still think that I got quite a bit of stuff into the trailer and to our house by only my own muscle power.
 
And doesn't it figure that the way to the grocery store is all downhill while the ride home is all uphill.

Andy's is not pink with flowers on it

 

While Andy didn't want a blue kayak, we are "function over form" people (and he didn't want to wait 9 weeks to order the orange or army green version.)

We've been out twice in our kayaks and it's been a good time. Andy tried sitting in the back seat with Kevin in the front but the front portion of the boat was out of the water. The boat stays flat when Andy rides in the front/middle with Kevin in the back so I think he'll stick with that from now on. Now he's on the hunt for an appropriate fishing rod holder that mounts effectively to his kayak. I suspect that once he finds that, I'll never see him again except for those rare occasions when he feels the need for a shower with real soap.

Sewing With Dianne

Hello and welcome to today's show. On this exciting episode, Dianne will display how NOT to sew a simple pair of shorts for her son.



What could be easier than sewing a pair of 4-panel shorts with an elastic waistband? A no-sew fleece scarf, perhaps? Not much, that's for sure! But stay tuned as we learn the many disasters lurking within the pattern, fabric and bobbin just waiting for their chance to spring loose!

At this time the producers of this program would like to state a warning that viewers with weak hearts may be susceptible to holy outbursts ("Oh my Goodness!", "My Word!" and such) when viewing these graphic images.

Behold Exhibit A. The ungathered gathering of the elastic waistband. In Dianne's defense, it was her first time ever sewing an elastic waistband. But still.


Exhibit B. This is a prime example of how not to sew a hem. Nowhere in the instructions does the pattern call for pleats and yet Dianne creatively added approximately 5 (one of them might be a wayward dart) to the hem of this garment.


Exhibit C. It's hard to see what's going on here what with all of the wrinkles at the top of the shorts, but look lower, near the hem. The arc above the hem was a simple mistake of catching the fabric from underneath when finishing off the inside edge with a zig-zag stitch. Proper patience and perseverance were displayed during the ripping out of the seam but people! The twill! It does not forgive!


Thanks for joining us for today's episode of "Sewing With Dianne." Tune in next time when will be heard such comments as, "How do you make a button hole there?" and "You want me to do *what* with the crotch seam?" Don't miss the fun!

It's pink with flowers on it

Andy and I tried to give each other kayaks for Christmas. Unfortunately, not many stores have much of a selection of kayaks during the winter so we ended up waiting until there were more available to test at least by sitting in before making our decision of what to buy.

Today I got my kayak! The model I chose is women-specific, which is not what I planned, but it worked out for various reasons. I had my choice between turquoise blue, lime green and hot pink. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the hot pink so that's what I went with. Look at it!



When we got it home I wanted to practice taking it off the car rack all by myself. I had a moment of concern here, but it turned out well.
 
Kevin was very helpful as I tried to regain my balance.
 
Kevin knows how to max and relax.
 
Andy was going to get a tandem so he could take Kevin along but I think we can see here that it'll be just as easy (and cheaper) to strap Kevin to the bow of my boat.
 

Party Politics

Kevin's birthday is in 2 weeks so we've been planning his birthday party. It'll be at our house and the rain plans include games and activities inside, so I put a limit on the number of kids invited.

I told Kevin he could invite 5 friends from his class and asked who he'd like to invite. He immediately named 2 kids and then stumbled on the others because although he's friends with everyone in his class, he couldn't remember which ones like soccer. And having a soccer party means inviting people who would enjoy it, of course. (how nice of him)

At dinner tonight, I gave him his last chance to pick the school friends he wants to invite. Over the past week he's given me about 10 names by naming different kids each time I ask who he wants to invite. Today he came up with another new one, "EB."

"Why did you decide to invite EB? You've never mentioned her before."

"I know, but today she asked me if I'm inviting her to my party and when I said 'no,' she gave me a mad face."

Andy and I looked across the table at each other. "Well, I guess that's as good a reason as any to invite her!"

Overheard

Sitting in church yesterday before the service started, I heard a guy behind me say, "This church has too many metaphors."

Unexpected lessons from the Positive Coaching Alliance

Last night I attended a parenting seminar put on by the Positive Coaching Alliance. The goal was to teach parents how to help their kids learn life lessons through sports. It was very worthwhile and if you enjoy sports or have kids in sports, I recommend checking out their website for more information.

At the seminar, I saw an acquaintance who really confused me. I know this man through a friend and for the sake of this post I'll call him "Roger." I've seen Roger be a bit of a bully, I've seen him come down really hard on his kids for making mistakes, I've seen him be helpful to his friends and neighbors less than I thought was possible, I've seen him not reign in his kid when he was being unfair to a group of younger kids.... So, to put it simply, I've never liked this guy. And when I saw him at the Positive Coaching Alliance seminar, I admit I thought the heavens were about to crack open and deliver Jesus to me Revelation-style because nothing could be more disparate than Roger and being a good parent regarding sports.

After sitting down I thought, "Let's see the sparks fly when this guy hears that he should not put his kid down for making a mistake and that although winning is important, it's not everything." Pass the popcorn!

Much to my surprise, Roger and I had a nice discussion about being a good coach and a good parent in the ways that I know to be good. Then he was perfectly content, nay, supportive, of the goals of the Positive Coaching Alliance and I found out he had recently attended the PCA's coaches' seminar.

Wha?

If I only knew Roger from last evening and never before, I would think he was a totally different person. Seriously, 180 degrees from the guy I've known him to be to this point. Now I have to work on putting those two images together into one person.

Man, I hate it when God makes me start seeing the good in someone I've enjoyed disliking for so long.

Low-tech funnies

I know this isn't iPhoto, but it's just as funny! What do you think people did for laughs before Macs?

 
 

The third time was not a charm

When I took the laundry downstairs today, I noticed a black piece of paper or plastic under the left side of the extra freezer. I was too lazy to do anything about it at that point so I waited until later in the morning (15 minutes before I was due to leave for a game of ultimate) to finally try to fish it out. I stepped on the edge of it with my shoe and dragged it out. Only, it didn't slide out. Rather, my shoe became both slick and sticky at the same time as I pulled it back and saw that the black thing was actually a dark red puddle - of blood.

I opened the freezer door and was not chilled by the cold air inside but was overwhelmed, instead, by the odor of rotting food. And lots of it.

This is the third time we've lost a "batch" of food. Once it was from Hurricane Isabel when our power was out for 5 days so we had to get rid of everything in the fridge and freezer. Then we had an older, extra freezer go belly up on us while we were out of town for a long weekend. Then today, I found our fairly new freezer with scads of food inside - much more than usual so, good timing - and an error code blinking on the thermostat control.

Each time this happens, I think to myself, "Self - maybe this means you're not supposed to horde so much food. Maybe you should just buy food one week at a time." Then the sale papers come and I see that salmon is $4.99/lb and ground beef is $2/lb or a friend offers us a full deer worth of meat if we just pay the butcher bill or Kevin's school has a fund raiser selling frozen foods and then I go crazy thinking what a great deal! I should definitely do this because hey! I have an extra freezer!

The Lord is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Happy Easter to All!

Musical tastes of my 62-year old parents

Last week I compiled a music CD for my parents to use when they exercise. I wanted only to include music they don't already have but things that I deem "exercise-worthy" - if it keeps me on the treadmill for 5 more minutes, then it's good.

I was wary that they wouldn't like the Gipsy Kings and Offspring songs but was pretty sure they'd like Metallica and Linkin Park.

After my mom listened to it the first time, I asked if she liked some/most/all of the songs. Her response was, "'Crazy Train' has always been one of my favorites! Do you have an Ozzy Osbourne CD?"

Yes, Mom, we have a couple of them and you are welcome to borrow them. I'm sorry, but we don't have any AC/DC that you don't already have. (Yes, I'm being serious.)

I'm not giving you one of those

Tonight I said to Kevin, "Tomorrow I need to make time to give you a b-a-t-h." He's heard me spell "bath" many times but apparently his head wasn't on straight tonight because he asked what that was. I suggested he try to sound it out and he thought for a few seconds and then said, loudly and proudly, "BITCH!"

February 14th

Too many people never get a chance to see
Love in their life.
I am blessed to live in it through the respect that you have for me and others.

Too many people never get a chance to see
Joy in their life.
I am blessed to see it in the crinkles around your eyes.

Too many people never get a chance to see
Peace in their life.
I am blessed to be hugged by it when your arms are around me.

Too many people never get a chance to see
Patience in their life.
I am blessed to bask in it through your quiet waiting while those around you spin for answers.

Too many people never get a chance to see
Kindness in their life.
I am blessed to feel it in the gentle touch of your powerful hands.

Too many people never get a chance to see
Goodness in their life.
I am blessed to swim in it when your eyes fill with tears of compassion.

Too many people never get a chance to see
Faithfulness in their life.
I am blessed to stand proud next to your integrity to others and their needs.

Too many people never get a chance to see
Meekness in their life.
I am blessed by your humility to let others "go first."

Too many people never get a chance to see
Self-control in their life.
I am blessed to experience your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness and meekness when it's so easy to be the opposite.

I could not ask for a more amazing husband to share my life with.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Science Fair

 
Kevin proudly displaying his project, "Two Filters Are Better Than One."

 
Here Kevin is explaining his project to a friend.

 

This is Kevin's friend explaining his project to Kevin.

Seeing that, and Kevin's interest in all of the other projects, made it worth my effort.

We've had some ice

 

While our winter has been short on snow, we've had some ice storms. We missed the last one because we were experiencing snow northern New Jersey style. Let me tell you, those New Jerseyans sure know how to clear their roads efficiently. I'm not being sarcastic, like I would be if I said, "Those Marylanders sure know how to clear their roads efficiently." Not that I complain about MD road crews because I think they do ok, but now that I've seen New Jersey, I'm impressed. MD doesn't get enough snow to warrant spending the money it costs to do such a good job BUT... other states (*cough* Pennsylvania *cough*) do. Anyway....

This picture is from the ice event two weeks ago.

Let It Snow, Kevin

 

We went to northern New Jersey late last week for my uncle's funeral services and we stayed an extra day because of the weather. When I was at the front desk asking to have our room another night, the staff let Kevin put his name on the sign board at the front entrance. It was still there when we left the next day.

Science Fair Project results

 

Andy and I had as much fun with Kevin's science experiment as he did - perhaps more. We planned to just test what happens when dirty water is poured through sand. Then Andy and I kept deciding to try new and better filters! It'll turn out to be a good project, I think.

Nightly ritual

Kevin has a battery-powered spinning toothbrush that makes funny sounds when he holds it in his mouth and closes and opens his lips around it. The first time he did it, it reminded me of Peter Frampton using a talk box in the song Do You Feel Like We Do so I said, "Ok, Peter Frampton, now brush your teeth." No matter that Kevin had no idea who or what I was referring to, I now must say, "Ok, Peter Frampton" every night when he brushes his teeth or else he'll continue making the sound indefinitely.

No better compliments from a 5-yr old

1) "Mami, you're the bestest infinity mom I ever had."

2) "I love you to the moon, all around the planets and back, 100 infinity times."

3) "I love you as much as I can say."