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I had to at least drop by to change the age on my profile, since I had a birthday yesterday.

And here's how that went:  During breakfast, my 2-year-old said, "Mama, you have a little quack."  Me: "A crack?  Where?"  "Right there - by your eye."  The kid straight up pointed out a crow's foot.  For the first time ever.  On my birthday.  Thanks, kid.  You're lucky you're cute.

Other than that, it was quite nice.  My sweetie gave me a lovely gift in the morning, then we all went out for pizza that night.  Dessert was banana pecan praline gelato, which sounds good, but is oh so much better than good.

And now, I have an hour and a half to get about three hours of stuff done. So, Bye!

Saturday at Stage Left Cafe

Hi, guys!  There are a couple of non-Facebookers who occasionally stop by (I hope they still do) who might want to see this.  This is an open mic semi-near us, and I was signed up for 8 pm hoping for less light outside so I'd be an image rather than a silhouette, but they were running early and I went on at 7:30. Also, I made it especially for some friends in Vermont (which is why the opening slate has a mountain scene and cryptic inside-jokey graphic).  My intro explains it a little more.

Beware:  Randy Jackson would say, "It started out pitchy, Dawg." But, it gets better.  I was preoccupied trying to sing with an Irish accent without sounding magically delicious.  Not sure what key I thought I was in at first.

Enjoy!

Christmas at our House

Hi, there.  The following video probably only works for grandparents who just can't get enough Jackson.  I'm not sure the rest of you will want to sit through all 8 minutes of video.

But there's a pretty funny fart at 4:10.  You should at least fast forward and see that.

Fall Family Fun

It's been quite a while since I posted, but it has come to my attention that the Georgia grandparents aren't really digging Facebook anymore.  Since it's selfish to hog the Jackson pictures, here are a few from a recent trip to a local pumpkin farm/ petting zoo.

Mama's little threat to society. <3

It is my lot in life to be surrounded by handsome men.

Having lots of fun in the pretend fire truck

See what I mean?

Mama wanted to take a picture.  Jackson wanted to have a fit.  Mama decided to lie down in the grass and have a fit, too. It just got giggly after that.

Me and Mr. Frowny Face waiting for the Great Pumpkin

We saw LOTS of animals that day, but they were kind of hard to photograph given the conditions.  The giraffe was very photogenic, though.

Hanging with the reindeer

Jackson's not a fan of being able to see through something that's holding him up.

See what I mean?

It's so hard to choose just one

Ooh, look at that one over there!

We have a winner.

Busted

Umm, hi. Well, yeah, I guess I have been avoiding you. I know, I know - I totally didn't need to do that! It's just that, well, I made such a big deal out of pursuing the 30 Day Shred, and I only made it about 18 days. Then I was kind of embarrassed. But, honestly, it was just making me too tired. You know how moderate workouts actually *generate* energy and make you feel better? Well, really really hard butt-kicking workouts DO NOT. I think it's a fantastic workout, and it does what it's supposed to do. It gets you stronger and leaner really quickly. But, it came down to continuing the workout or being awake to talk to my husband at night. I chose time with my sweetie.

OK - that was four months ago. On to cute things Jackson has done recently:

Last weekend I was upstairs and the boys were downstairs. Jackson heard me drop my blow dryer. He looked up at the ceiling and said, "Uh-OH! Mama!" then dropped his toy car and ran for the stairs. Bryan followed him and took down the baby gate so he could come upstairs and check on me. Couldn't you just eat him up?

On the other side of the bipolar experience of parenting, he's cutting his molars. Which apparently hurt WAY worse than those cute little front teeth. Plus, he's a toddler and being in pain without the verbal skills to express it leads to frustration tantrums. So, it's been loud here from time to time.

On a super serious and sad note, we lost our dear doggy earlier this week. Her name was Tuttle, and she was 11 years old, and had been with us for nine. We were in no way prepared for it, because she'd recently been to the vet and had her annual physical and the bloodwork came back very healthy for a dog of her age. Three weeks later when her leg wasn't healing (what prompted the first vet visit) AND she slowly stopped eating, AND eventually wouldn't move more than absolutely necessary, we took her back to the vet. The x-ray showed small tumors covering her lungs. We were advised that nothing could be done, and after watching her suffer through another day it seemed selfish to let her deteriorate further just because we wanted more time with her.

Since I don't like to end posts on such a serious note, here's something extremely hilarious.

Shred Days 14-16: Halfway There!

Warning: this post will likely get a little goopy, so if you're not in the mood for sweet sentiments, keep it moving.

If it weren't for Bryan, I would have gone two days straight without working out. I know that doesn't sound like the end of the world, but staying on track with this is very important to me and losing momentum feels dangerous.

Day 14 went okay (Level 2 is still waaay hard) but the next day I just couldn't find the motivation. There was no injury or scheduling problem. It was, as my Mom would have put it, "a case of the Sorries." A BIG case. My inner brat took over, and I got tired of having something else to do everyday.

Yesterday was Day 16, and it was dangerously close to becoming my first second day skip. I have a friend in the hospital who wasn't doing well (he's improved some since then) and when bad things happen, I often give in to the Sorries. While I was walking around rationalizing a second consecutive off-day, Bryan said, "You're my hero." Well, what are you going to do after that? So, I laced up my shoes and got to it.

The boys came downstairs in the middle of my workout, and Bryan made a pretty convincing show of admiring my muscles. That was very sweet and helped me remember why I'm doing this. Then, Jackson did some clapping and stretched out across my body during crunches and "helped" me keep my abs tight. That was just funny and distracting, and also helped a lot. When I was done, Bryan did the workout so I had someone to be tired with.

I want to sincerely thank my boys for their support, in this, and everything else I do. You guys rock!

Shred Days 12 & 13: All's Well that Ends Well

Jackson, who's in a mimicking stage, did a perfect recreation of what I looked like telling Bryan about my recent weigh-in:

All this work just to lose a half pound!

I was devastated last night after seeing the scale, even knowing that heavy muscle is better than lighter fat. I only weighed because I was feeling so confident that I'd lost a few pounds. But I did the workout anyway.

Things all turned around though this morning when I did three things I haven't done in almost two years:

1. wore a pair of pre-pregnancy sized pants,

2. tucked my top into those pants, and

3. used the pre-pregnancy notch in my belt.

In light of those three details, who cares about that silly scale! I'm wearing clothes I couldn't wear before I started this, so there must be substantial muscle skewing the numbers.

I'm not weighing again until April 20th, when my 30 days of Shredding are complete. Hopefully by then I'll be so hot I won't care what number the scale throws at me. Since Bryan's already Shredded today, I've got some catching up to do.

So, I'll leave you with wishes for a happy and blessed Easter. We're having a great one here, just look at how smiley we are: