Random things

Pretty quiet summer here in the CT house, so thought I'd share a few random things:

- Where is summer anyway? It's either been cool and rainy, or sunny and dry. I'm used to sunny, hot and humid, brown grass, daily visits to the pool, and running the a/c non-stop. This year, I rarely run the a/c, and the girls have been to the pool only three times.
- On the plus side, without the oppressive heat, folks don't have anything to complain about. Makes casual conversation much more pleasant. Until they find something else to complain about.
- The girls would rather spend time with Liz, their sitter, than with me. When I wake them, their first words are "when's Liz coming?" My work from home presence is just an annoyance to them, if they acknowledge my presence at all.
- Vacation is in three weeks and I will be off from work for two weeks. The first week is Florida, second week is back to school. I can't wait. For so many reasons.
- My garage door broke yesterday. When I shut the door with the automatic opener, somehow the edge jammed into the side of the huge recycling bin. When I opened it, the edge was jammed so hard that finally the extreme pulling from the automatic door opener ripped the arm right off the door, causing it to scrape the remains, including some very sharp nails and metal edges, across the top of my CR-V. So now we need a new garage door, and I'm hoping the detailer guy can buff the scratches out.
- We've been eating out way too much.
- I've had three sessions with my trainer so far. I've never sweated so much in my life.
- I've also had two riding lessons this month. It's hard work and my legs hurt for days afterwards, but I'm loving every minute of it.
- My daughters seemed to have grown up overnight. Princess has blossomed into this beautiful tween girl, and Sweet Pea is almost as tall as her sister and just as beautiful.
- While it's true that I may be biased when it comes to my daughters' beauty, a random grandmother in the water slide line at the water park said the same thing. A totally independent observation.

I hope you're enjoying these lazy days, too!

Time to commit

Ow ow ow ow.

That's what I've been saying for the last 3 days. I had a riding lesson on Friday that went really well, but my legs took a beating. The trick to posting is to use your upper legs and not put weight on your feet in the irons. Try squeezing a horse with your legs for 20 minutes , and then you'll understand what walking like you just got off a horse really means.

In the meantime, I rejoined my local gym. I haven't worked out consistently in the past two years, including not exercising at all since my surgery in February. But after the last round of family group photos where even cropping and Photoshop could not hide the reality of my non-fitness self, I decided, enough! Time to commit.

It's not that I'm heavy. My weight is fine for my height. I was chubby as a little kid, and outgrew it by the time I was a teen. I enjoyed sports, even though I wasn't very athletic. I used to spend summers riding my bike and swimming every day. As an adult, I would take step aerobic classes at least three times a week, and even then I felt I could do more. After I married and had Princess, I didn't really exercise, but actually dropped weight due to my practicing lawyer stress diet, to the point where I was underweight when I became pregnant with Sweet Pea. I didn't start exercising consistently again until I quit my job in 2004, but once I went back to work fulltime a year later, I didn't do anything regularly.

So today I had my first session with my personal trainer. Nothing brings home the reality of how out of shape you really are until they do your body fat measurements and test strength and endurance. I'd resisted signing up for a long time, using expense as an excuse, but I also know myself. I need the commitment of regular appointments and a schedule, a plan that I can work towards and someone who will push me. I'll meet with my trainer once a week, and between the workouts and the meal plans, I'm hoping to see some real progress.

I made the commitment. I'm looking forward to the change. Then maybe I won't mind those family photos so much.

I will miss my Oreos, though. Sigh. Small price to pay for better fitting jeans.

The blogging blues

I've noticed a theme among several of my favorite bloggers - less desire to post, not much to say, and some even considering giving up blogging altogether. Even my own posting has been light over the last few months. I was going through some of my old posts, and several of them start with that very phrase.

I tend to post my spontaneous thoughts on Twitter and Facebook, and leave my longer postings to my blog. My life has been pretty quiet lately. There are some things that I wish I could write about, but I know that family and friends read my blog and Twitter posts, so I don't feel comfortable publicly writing about those areas of my life.

No worries though - I will continue to write when the urge strikes. For day to day thoughts, feel free to follow me on Twitter. If you'd like to friend me on Facebook, please send me an email at ctmom96 at gmail dot com.

But don't worry - I'm not going anywhere.

How Sweet Pea celebrates the 4th ...

Sweet Pea has been fascinated with the First Family ever since President Obama was elected. She loved the fact that there was someone in the White House her own age, and so she wrote a letter to Sasha Obama about a month ago. Her letter contained the usual 8 year old tidbits - some details about her life in the third grade, her favorite color and foods, the fact that we are distantly related to one of the rather rotund presidents, and other random facts. She also included her school picture. After we mailed the letter, I told her that because the White House gets so many letters, she may not get a response, but to be happy knowing that she made Sasha smile when she opened such a friendly letter from someone as nice as Sweet Pea.

Well, I was wrong. Guess what Sweet Pea got in the mail today:

*click on the picture to read the letter

While the response seems a bit like a form letter, Sweet Pea didn't mind. I'd heard on the NBC news special about the Obamas that Michelle Obama only answers about 10 letters a day, out of all the ones that the family receives. Sweet Pea was thrilled that she was one of them.

We've framed the letter. It now hangs in Sweet Pea's room. How cool is that?

Happy Independence Day!