I am Bella

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You are observant, diplomatic and often aim to please. You are unaware of your
attractiveness and despite being uncomfortable with any form of attention, people enjoy your company. You can be impatient, stubborn and headstrong, but you are true to your word and mature for your age, often taking care of your family and enjoying a good book over chatting with girlfriends on the phone.

Dieting again

So I am back to dieting again. I started when Aaron left for JRTC on the 8Th, and at my first weigh in, last Monday, I had already lost 2.8 pounds! I chose to weigh myself on Mondays. I am not following any particular diet. I am just trying to cut down significantly on soda and sweets. No fast food. I am trying to drink lots of water and eat lots of fiber. I usually mix 1/2 a cup of fiber 1 into my better tasting cereal (Special K Cinnamon and Pecans) and that gets me at 14 grams of fiber right there! Then to meet my quota of fiber, I have to eat more veggies and fruits, and beans and grains. I try to make sure I am getting protein too. I have been working really hard at this for once, and I am looking forward to my next weigh in. I was so proud of myself when my sister (who is visiting) ordered a large cheesy pizza and cinnamon sticks with icing, and I did not touch any of it. I ate my lean cuisine, and had a low cal dessert. I let myself have the occasional 100 calorie packet of cookies, or a sugar free Popsicle. Last night my sweet tooth took over and I had a few of my sisters peanut M&M's, but I stopped after just a few. Normally I would finish the bag. So I just need to keep going! I am going to have to work extra hard when Aaron gets back and when my kids get candy on Halloween, but I am so sick of being fat. I am trying to ficus on the Christmas party that Aaron's company is planning this year. It is going to be semi formal for adults only, and I really don't want to look like a cow stuffed into a cocktail dress.

Bethany is doing so well!

I am so pleased. Bethany is doing so well! I had a meeting the other day with her teacher, the special ed. director, speech therapist, occupational therapist, and district rep. Bethany is doing wonderfully in school. The speech therapist told me that she doesn't need speech at this time, which was the second time hearing that this week. She finally got her speech evaluation at a speech center and she tested into the average range for her age! She is on the low side of the average, but it is still wonderful. At school they will retest her after Christmas to see how she is doing. The speech center is still going to take her on though to help her improve even more. She does still need occupational therapy. The OT discovered that Bethany has pretty low muscle tone, so that might be affecting her diet (hard to chew some foods), potty training (trouble with control), and some other things. So we have some things to work on there. But she is doing great in school. The special ed director asked her teacher what makes Bethany stand out in her class, and the teacher said that Bethany learns faster than any of the other kids in her class. She is very smart, and is soaking up everything they teach her. She is still working on social and behavior skills. She is a good girl for the most part, but she is also a 3 year old. Sh has gotten a little diva attitude lately. It is hard not to laugh because it is so funny. So overall I am very pleased that she is doing so well.

Out to dinner with the kids!

Tonight we decided to go out for dinner to the Golden Corral. We only have 2 kids, but we are a chaotic mess when we try to go out in public. Sometimes we do manage to pull off looking like a nice sweet family, but tonight was not one of those nights. We walked in and were lucky to have nobody in line in front of us. As the girl at the counter filled our drinks, some people came in, and Bethany started unwrapping and handing out straws. I stopped that as soon as I could. People were a bit confused, but they just said thank you. Then I carried the tray and Aaron carried shea who was twisting and whining because she wanted to be put down to walk, and he helped guide bethany who was not at all paying attention and kept wandering off. So we got to the table and I went to get the kids plates of food while Aaron got them seated. Then we took turns going to get our food. Finally we all sit together to eat. Shea is eating a bite, throwing a bite, so Aaron was trying to keep her from throwing food while he ate too, then Bethany had an all out screaming fit because we would not let her eat a piece of watermelon that she found on the floor under our table. She did not want to eat anything on her plate, but she decided mine looked like fun to play with. So I was trying to eat and keep her hands out of my food. Then shea started farting and giggling, so Bethany thought that was hilarious and started burping repeatedly. When they decided they had enough of whatever was on their plates, Aaron went to get them some ice cream. Bethany ate hers up then tried to help the kid at the next table eat his. Then she had a fit because we wouldn't let her. Meanwhile Shea was happily eating her ice cream, but she kept missing her mouth. She would take a big spoonful and aim for her mouth only to have it fall off her spoon into her lap. The lady at the table next to us started laughing when Aaron reached out and caught a big handful of melting ice cream and dumped it on a plate. She told us thats how you know you are a parent is when you do things like that. We were not so awful that we were disturbing other customers. (well maybe one or two), but we were definetly a mess and when we finally just started laughing (because what else can you really do at that point?) some other parents near us were laughing too. Thank goodness we were at a family restaurant full of other parents and kids. We know better than to go somewhere fancy. But I do have to ask myself is it was worth getting kids cleaned and dressed to drive across town and pay a restaurant to let us scarf down some food and keep our kids from causing a riot, when I could have just made a box of mac and cheese? The whole point of going out was to give me a break, lol. Going out takes more effort than staying in, I think.

Bethany was in a parade

Bethany's school had a freedom parade on 9-11. All of the kids marched in the parade. Shea and I watched and took pictures.

Labor day

We really had a great day today. This afternoon we went to our neighbor's house and spent the rest of the day with her and her kids. (Her husband is deployed.) We played some volleyball with the kids, and then the adults sat in the driveway chatting while we watched the kids color on the sidewalk with chalk and play in the sprinklers. Shea played in the baby pool. Then we cooked up some frozen pizza's and ate outside. We stayed outside until bedtime, gave the kids a quick bath, and they went right to sleep! I am loving that we live in a neighborhood with a yard now, so we can do fun things like this. We had a few funny moments like when Aaron sat down in the lawn chair and broke it, and when I discovered that Aaron had put Shea in a regular diaper instead of the little swimmer I got out for her. She had a really big bubble butt, so I took her in to change her to a swimmer diaper, and discovered her bathing suit had a huge pile of that stuff they have in diapers to absorb liquid. Poor kid. Aaron thought it was hilarious. The kids got good and dirty. At one point Shea used the hand she was holding her ice cream sandwich in to start digging in her ear. When we got them home they were covered in dirt, and ice cream. But they had tons of fun! We all did!

Halloumi

This will probably seem silly, but I am excited about cheese! Ha ha. At the store yesterday, we came across Halloumi cheese in the imported cheeses section. Don't ask me why we were looking. Back in my flight attendant days, I had a lot of layovers in Cyrpus. Sometimes I would layover there 5 days at a time, then be back a week later for another several days. It was my most frequent place to layover. I love Cyprus. It is an island mostly owned by Greece, but partially owned by Turkey. The sectioned owned by Turkey is bare for the most part. But the larger part owned by Greece, has resorts and a beautiful beach with clear water. Halloumi cheese is made in Cyprus and hard to find anywhere else. The hotel we stayed at, would serve it every morning for breakfast. I love it. Aaron tried a piece, and he thinks it tastes a bit like mozzerella at first. You can grill this cheese by itself. It doesn't melt like regular cheese. And it is so good. I haven't been to Cyrpus since I quit flying, but I miss flying very much. And I miss the people and the places, and the job very much. So coming across this cheese kind of takes me back as silly as it sounds.