Thursday, September 22, 2011

well that didn't take long

It turns out that this little heart breaker has a boyfriend. Well sort of, you see it seems to be all one sided.

I dropped Maribel off at her little school and as I turned to leave a fellow father-parent stopped me asking me if I was Maribel's mom. Reluctantly I replied yes only because usually that follows with a "Do you know what your daughter did?" question but this time was different. This dad informed me that his son and my daughter were caught wrestling in class, Oh great here it comes.... and that he was asked to speak to his son because he was caught kissing Maribel. On the lips. *skreeeeetch* Okay, um excuse me? By this time I was having a rather difficult time holding back my laughter but the father looked so serious.

He then told me his conversation he had with his son, whom we will call J for anonymity's sake.

J's Dad: "You know J you can't be kissing girls on the lips. Your teacher asked me to talk to you about this."
J: "But Daa-aad I can't help it if I want to kiss my girlfriend on the lips. She's my girlfriend."

I guess Maribel is all this boy talks about at home. So what does dad say to me? "So I just wanted you to know that your daughter is safe with my son."
Um.........Okay.

So later I return to pick up Maribel at the allotted time and while walking back to the car I proceed to ask Maribel about this boy.

Me: "So Maribel, who's J?"
Maribel kind of pauses then shrugs: "I don't know."
Me (trying to see if she'll tell me): "Are you sure?"
Maribel: "Oh wait. Yeah, he's a boy."
Me: "So he isn't your boyfriend then?"
Maribel. "No. Wait, who are you talking about?"
Me: "Never mind."

This poor boy doesn't know what hit him. 4 is such a young tender age to get your little heart broken and naturally Maribel has to be the first girl to do it. If this is "only the beginning" then I'm in for a looooong ride.

>^..^<

Thursday, September 15, 2011

sweet memories

It seems like summer is becoming but a sweet memory as temps begin to cool down. All that remains now are photographs, memories and a small pile of sand shaken out of the beach bags, but after the sweltering summer we had any drop in temperature is welcome. So now were dealing with school life and all the fun and joy it brings.
Maribel loves school so much that all I have to tell her when it's time for bed is that she has school tomorrow and she hops right in with no fuss. Yessss! I'm milking this one for as looooooong as I can.

>^..^<

Sunday, September 11, 2011

bento lessons learned, please take it from me...

Before I share Maribel's bentos for the last fortnight I first want to share a few things I learned about making cute lunches late at night.

Lesson #1: Do NOT attempt to make "cute" bentos at 2 in the morning. Just don't do it. You will see why in a moment. 
Lesson #2: Cut the shaped bread before adding the pb and strawberry jelly filling. Again, you will see why in a moment. 
Lesson #3: No matter how many warnings you get from your darling little angel that they "do not want cheese so please don't put it in my lunch, mommy" maybe they mean it when they say that they "promise" they "won't eat it." and then leave the lunch with the soggy cheese out in a warm car for several hours after school so that the left behind cheese can have time to be one and meld with the bento box. Um hmm.

Let's just move on shall we...
So to start the week with Monday's lunch which was the last week of August. It was late but I was feeling creative but had no theme in mind so I drained a mandarin orange fruit cup and formed a pretty little orange flower to go with rolled deli ham, multi grain gold fish crackers, vitamin gummies, mini marshmallows, vanilla crackers with some fruit leather butterflies to go with the left over edible Easter grass I had to make a nice grassy bed for the mozzarella flowers.
See...no theme unless you use the "sky" and the "sea" kind of theme but then how would pork fit into the sea thing? Is there a fish out there that is considered "The Pork of the Sea" 'cause I know tuna is considered the "Chicken of the Sea" but what about something tying to the pig? Brace yourself, this is gunna be a long blog post at this rate. Any ways she ate everything and loved the grass but left the cheese flowers. This should have been my first clue.

Tuesday's are school pizza days so I get a day off of making lunches, thank goodness!!!.

Tuesday night was the wake up call. Again I waited until waaaaay late to make her lunch and while my creative juices flow late a night I'm thinking I might just save those late night creativity juices solely for paper crafts because clearly they don't work well with food crafts. Clearly. Let's see, the top box was alright with a sliced apple with some blueberries, bear fruit leathers, vitamin gummies and a rice bear with some Italian dressing to go with the rice. Hey, she's four so what ever she wanted to put on her rice was fine with me.
And then came the awakening moment...the bottom box.
Here is where I learned that it might just be a good idea to wait to add the peanut butter and red jelly to an animal shaped lunch because after I had cut it out, the poor thing started oozing red jelly everywhere making it look like it was bleeding to death. It's not even Halloween so I couldn't just go with it. I had to do something. So I thought I would surround the dolphin with some chocolate babies. Yeh, now the dolphin looks like it was in labour for days because after adding the candied eyeball I'm sure it has the "what was I thinking" expression that us mothers have had cross our minds once or twice. So of course I couldn't stop while I was blundering along, oooh nooo. I decided I would try out the new food markers I had purchased just days prior and write a little message to my little boo. In BLOOD RED to match the bleeding dolphin mommy. So lessons #1 and #2 were learned at such a cost. *sigh* I digress.
Thursday's lunch I really felt like I had to make up for Wednesday's fiasco so I got the creative juices flowing  but I didn't wait until the wee hours of the night to make her lunch. Ha HA! Lesson #1 learned. Top box had some animal crackers, vitamin gummies, grapes and blueberries and a penguin filled with ranch dressing for the broccoli and carrot sticks in the bottom box. We had hotdogs for supper so I use the last leftover dog and made her some crabs and octodogs on a nice broccoli sea bottom with a nice cheese sun lifted up with carrots beaming down. So this is where Lesson #3 comes in to play. Since Maribel had been leaving her cheese behind and I know she likes cheese I made it a point to show her the fun cheese sun and inform her that it is made from cheese and that she likes cheese. (see Lesson #3 point in the quotations for her warnings that I chose to ignore) Ok. Point taken.
So with the following week being the holiday week and all, I only had to make two lunches. I have to say that this week was a success since I chose to listen to her warnings and made her lunches right after supper. Wednesday consisted of leftovers: corn on the cob cut off the cob, grilled chicken, tomatoes, teensie bit of salt for the corn, strawberries stuffed with chocolate chips, gummies, chocolate goldfish, and grapes. Not a crumb was left behind. yessss!
And finally Thursday's lunch. Another success. Since it's still technically summer for another couple of weeks I thought a couple of ice cream cone pb and J sandwiches would be fun with the rolled turkey meat, sliced peach, tomato balloons, gold fish crackers and gummies. Again, nothing was spared. Woo hoo.

So onward to another week of making lunches and discoveries while adhering to the first 3 lessons learned and hopefully the next few discoveries won't be as um, how should I say, frightening to the bento world...
Happy lunch making!

>^..^<

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

10 purses

Have you ever weighed your purse with the contents still inside? Yes? No? Well you might be surprised if you do. 

After I stepped on the scale this morning for my weekly weigh in the nurse quickly jotted my numbers down and then asked me to place my bag on the scale. At first I thought this to be a little odd but like a good little instruction follower I complied and was surprised that it weighed 3lbs. She then told me that I have lost the equivalent of 10 of my purses in weight.  Huh. 

I have to say I do feel healthier then I have in a real long time. I've cut out sodas or pop completely and drink only water with the occasional herbal tea and add 1/8 tsp of cinnamon to my yogurt everyday and I measure everything. I mean everything. Even my water so I know just how much I am or am not getting in each day. It really is the key for me to continue with this journey. 

So the next time I sling my purse over my shoulder I can't help but think of how far I've come in just 10 not so short weeks and look forward to the long road ahead of me. And to think that this morning I didn't have my usual contents like my camera, nook,and instax in my purse. I'm curious to see how much that would add to my purse... 

Shtats: 
Past Goal: Lose the first 25 lbs- done and passed it!!!
New Mini Weight Goal: Lose 10lbs (for a total of 40lbs)
Lbs left to mini goal: 10-
 totally doable!!!
Total Lbs Lost: -30


>^..^<

Thursday, September 1, 2011

u can't touch this

I was just about home waiting at the second to last stop sign before turning into my driveway when I couldn't help but notice that this stop sign had a little extra instruction. I have to say that this sign totally made my day!

Of course now McHammer's Can't Touch This is stuck in my head and now it's stuck in your head too, isn't it?

My, my, my, my music hits me so hard
Makes me say oh my Lord
Thank you for blessing me
With a mind to rhyme and two hyped feet
Feels good when you know you're down
A super dope homeboy from the Oaktown
And I'm known as such
And this is a beat uh u can't touch

(oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)

You can thank me later.
>^..^<