Secular Confessions

[missychrissy]

What an excellent idea Myles! I need to start thinking about getting my crap together. My weight has started to climb back up despite smoking. I really need to get rid of the cigarettes and find a healthier way to manage my weight. Your blog sounds like a great idea.

How did you come up with 121 days?

[daylilies]

That sounds like a good idea Myles.
My weight is creeping back up too. After the cruise I really let myself slip. Thing is I think about meals too early. Around 10:30 I have good intentions for lunch but by the time even 11:00 has rolled around I've talked myself into something much less healthy. On the half hour drive from the pool to Panera today I talked myself down from a half salad and got an Italian panini

[Gwenn]

I've gained weight since DH came home, too. I'm only maybe 10 lbs overweight but I weigh as much or more than I've ever weighed and I'm not happy with myself right now. I was underweight for years and I don't care for this.

That's a great idea for a blog, Myles!

Kate, From the Mouths of Babes was actually my #2 choice. (Myles actually suggested it on fb - thanks!) Maybe I should go with that since two people suggested it independently and I really like it. I will agree that it sums up the point nicely and is catchy.

[daylilies]

Great minds think alike

What do you think about kids saying random things or refusing to answer direct questions? A lot of the time when DH tries to talk to Josh, like ask him how his day was or what he's going to do today, he'll respond with something nonsense like 'peanut butter' or refuses to answer at all. It frustrates DH because they don't get a lot of time together and he just wants Josh to have a conversation with him.
I know this is probably more of a behavior thing than a speech thing but figured I'd ask.

[Gwenn]

I think it's a behavior thing, not a speech thing, if it's only happening with DH. I wonder if, because your DH doesn't spend as much time with Josh, he's a little uncomfortable in the way he approaches him and Josh senses that and doesn't like it? That's not terribly uncommon, especially with dads. Or maybe it's an attention thing.

Does Josh ever spend time with DH alone? For an extended time, I mean, like an outing together and not just while Josh is playing by himself.

[missychrissy]

Conner will do that if he doesn't feel like answering us. It doesn't seem to happen with one parent more than the other, and in fact even if Rich asks something and gets nonsense back, if I repeat the question or rephrase it I'll get the same response. Or worse, he'll start melting down. He'll either respond in a non sequitur or simply make up his own language..similar to the adults on the old Peanuts cartoons.

[Ky'sMom]

Peanut butter LOL!!

Ky STILL does this. Mostly in school. He always sayd "I like pie" just out of the blue. He also will say "Chocolate." He says he just wants to say it. School starts next week and I have already had to discuss with him his sweet phrases. It was pretty funny because it made his teachers want pie, chocolate, and cupcake so they joke with him that he is attempting to ruin their good eating habits. So then he'll go "you know you want some....chocolate.....cherry pie." He is really silly.

Personally I would go along with peanut butter. When Ky says "chocolate" I say "chocolate chip cookies" and we go on and on about anything that goes with chocolate until we run out then we say really silly things like "chocolate covered computer" and just have a giggle. But I am silly and your DH may not be as silly as I am.

Ky started doing this when he was in Pre-K so around Josh's age. He used to say "I wish I could fly" during all sorts of conversations and just out of blue.


Erin

[daylilies]

Well it's comforting to know it's a common thing! I don't think DH is uncomfortable with interacting with Josh. He speaks to Josh normally just like I would, saying "So what did you do today?" and sometimes Josh is ready to tell a long story and other days he just shuts down. I'm not really worried about it, I just feel bad when DH is trying to connect with him and he's often rejected.
They don't spend a lot of time alone. DH gets home right around Josh's bedtime on the weekdays. On weekends we usually all go out together but sometimes DH will take Josh to his parents without me. But they don't have much one on one time.

[Gwenn]

I agree with the others that it's likely just a boy thing but sometimes I see dads who just don't seem to know how to talk to a kid and the kid shuts down. Glad that isn't it.

[AmeriBrit]

I'm like Erin and we just go on with the silliness for a laugh. But we don't take ourselves very seriously around here.

Myles, your blog sounds really cool. Do you have a link to it? Or have I missed it somewhere? (I'm hungry and my brain doesn't work properly when I'm hungry).

Mandy, I like the name of your blog.

I'm off to go on a massive cleaning spree in the house; both boys have had a stomach bug today so I'm going to go clean everything in sight.

[Cosmosmom]

I'm also in the needing to lose some weight (well a lot of weight but really 30 lbs would make me pretty happy!). I was doing welll with the elliptical every other day.....until I was gone for almost a week. But I got back on last night! I know that exercise alone isn't enough but my main goal is to lose some weight but really just to be healthier and feel stronger/more flexible/less aches and pains. I feel really badly on my knees a couple of times when I was younger (but still an adult!) and so they can creak and grind a lot. I think that the elliptical does help with that.
And I'm hoping that if I can use that on a regular basis and get our money's worth, than DH will agree to one of those home gym weight machine things in a couple of months. I like weight training but not with hand weights.

And probably the biggie for me is to keep away from the alcohol. I can drink a 1.75 liter bottle of wine easily in 2-3 days....by myself. I'm thinking that is probably a lot of calories I don't need. Good news is currently we are out of alkie in the house.

[Gwenn]

Oh, get this. I'm sure you've all forgotten by now, but by any chance do you remember back in February or March I was complaining about the refrigerator being broken at work? I complained about it to the director several times and she looked at it and said to "tell me when it is really broken." Meanwhile it stank from all the food that was rotting inside it and the freezer wouldn't keep ice frozen. She did put a work order in to have it fixed, and the repair guys just broke it even more but nobody did anything about it. I actually found a fridge for sale on craigslist for $100 and was trying to convince my coworkers to all chip in to buy it but that was when the repair guy came out and the whole thing got dropped.

Well, last night our area director (so the other woman's boss) sent an email around stating that the fridge in the lounge was broken and people shouldn't use it, and she had found someone who would be willing to donate an old fridge to replace it. Seriously, this is 6 months after I started complaining about it. And they won't even admit it is broken until after they found a replacement???? (And yes, I have my work email sent to my phone. I'm insane that way).

[daylilies]

LOL Mandy all I have to say is

[daylilies]

Wahhh, we just watched the last episode with the 9th doctor (for you Dr. Who fans) I'm going to miss him but I hear David Tennant is really good.

[3andMe]

I remember the Saga of the Fridge, Mandy, and sheesh! Speaking of which, not only does dh have his work email sent to his phone, but he has international work email sent to his phone so every morning around 4 am he gets about 30 emails in a row and his phone vibrates *bzz* *bzz* *bzz* *bzz* *bzz* (you get my drift). Plus he has two phones and one phone forwards the messages to the other phone. So it's double the bzzing. The other night all the bzzing woke me up so much I decided the phones had to stay outside of the bedroom. I had just HAD it! Luckily, he understood, and d/c'd the bzzing.

I tried to get some videos of my kids talking tonight. It was very difficult. DD was cranky, and didn't want to do it. I tried to bribe her with a tv show. DS decided he wanted to be in the video. So I got a video of them talking together, and then DD stomped off and DS just talked and talked and talked but there were numerous interruptions. I stopped and started the camera when the baby came up or when DD said "Are you DONE yet?!!!?" but he talked about the large hadron collidor, about sea creatures, about how steam paddle wheel boats work, and hey, there's a big tree in the yard and how that's a really cool tree, and we took a boat to Angel Island the other day, and look there's a cute baby in the room, and speaking of boats, etc. I'll see if there is anything useable and give you some options.

[Gwenn]

LOL, thanks, L! I didn't intend it to become a major ordeal but I'm sure I'll love any video that involves a preschooler and a large hadron collider. That's right up my alley!

And can we add bzzing to the dictionary? Please? My phone doesn't bzz when I get a message but it blinks and in a dark room you can see the blinking cast up onto the ceiling. I'm always forgetting it will do that so every time I'm dealing with insomnia (which happens much more often in the summer because I'm not at work all day) I stare at the blinking and try to decide if it's worth the effort to clear my phone. Or just turn it upside down so I can't see the blinking.

There's something seriously wrong with modern society. DH really thinks it would be better for all of us if technology ceased to exist and I don't want to agree with him, but I suspect he may be right. I notice that doesn't seem to stop him from enjoying much of it, though.

Kate, I haven't watched Dr. Who (except a couple of episodes back in middle school that my insane science teacher made us watch in some elective class I took once). I'm sure I'd love it but I just haven't gotten around to it.

[daylilies]

There are some aspects of Dr. Who I can't get into, like the corniness and bad jokes will take me out of the show sometimes, but this Dr. had just started to grow on me and now he's gone

[Smplyme89]

I absolutely adore Dr Who!!! David Tennant is great! I like him ALOT better than the 9th Doctor! And the 11th Doctor is just as awesome by the way!

[missychrissy]

Mandy-I remember the fridge incident. How insane is that that they waited this long? Have people been using it all this time? I hope not.

I also flip my phone upside down when the flashing wakes up me or prevents me from sleeping at night. I'm a total nut and set it so each account has it's own color. Cornell-red of course, Facebook is blue, etc.

Kate-Bobbie would adore you! She Dr. Who and is always watching it.

Lydia-it seems like kids never do what you want them to do. I can see something like that playing out at my house too. lol

As for myself, I've had a really rough couple days and I really lost it this morning. I was just venting and not directing it at anyone, but Jesi was crying in the car on the way to school. I feel like the worst mother on earth.

[Gwenn]

While I was there I would usually stick anything I had brought for the day in the freezer where it would stay somewhere close to fridge temp, but I still wouldn't leave anything overnight. Other people would still come in and use it and we kept telling them it didn't work, but they ignored it and then would always come back and stare suspiciously at their food.

I haven't been over there since May but they had summer session for the month of June and there were quite a few people there over the summer. Don't know if they tried to use it or not. I think some of the techs started back last week and they were probably the ones to continue complaining about it and bring it to the AD's attention. Just insane.

Which reminds me, I have my autism workshop (paid!) on Tuesday and start work on Wednesday! Sooo not ready for summer to be over, but I'm not dreading going back to work this year. It should be pretty fun, although it should be crazy busy. There will be 3.5 eval teams instead of 5.5 teams last year with the same number of kids to get tested, so I should have a lot more work.

My work-in-progress blog is up. I'm still editing the stuttering/non-stuttering post but I have some basic info. If anyone wants to take a look, it's at www.wordstogrowby.wordpress.com. I'll put the link in my siggy once I'm up and running. Oh, and From Mouths of Babes was taken, as was just about everything else I liked! So I drove DH crazy last night when I was trying to sign up for a blog name.

[Smplyme89]

I love the name! Words to Grow By too cute!

[Gwenn]

Thanks!

[daylilies]

I thought it might be taken. I agonized over my blog name too and I don't even use it anymore! I like the name you picked though. I'll check it out.

[demigraf]

"Words to Grow By" is pretty perfect.

I just saw Crazy/Stupid/Love. It was really good, didn't feel too canned, and I loved the cast. Midday well spent.

AmeriAsh, I would share my blog with you, but it's really boring. It reads like a laundry list with occasional random observations thrown in. A couple days ago, I attempted to make it seem more interesting by literally cutting and pasting one of my more trying-to-be-funny FB statuses into the introduction of my blog entry. The blog is on one of those fitness social networking sites where everyone who has a profile can make a blog, and the post titles show up briefly on a page of "most recent" blog entries that quickly get pushed down to the bottom and off the page very fast, since there are probably a hundred or so new ones an hour. So apart from the odd person who just happens upon a post and decides to comment on it, the blog is kind of my pet rock. I don't think anyone actually reads it, but I feel like it forces me to focus on my nutrition/exercise for at least a few minutes every day. And that's good, because it's those weeks that go by where I'm not being mindful that cause the needle to jump on the scale.

I'm excited, though, because I got my own spin bike last night. I don't know if I mentioned that I was looking for a used one for awhile on Craigslist. I even found one I really wanted and drove an hour away on a Friday night with Bodhi in the car, but when I told the woman I wanted to buy it, she said she'd only been contemplating selling it. Even though she knew how far I'd driven and hadn't mentioned that before, and her ad had clearly said "For Sale". Boooo to her. Anyway, I'm happy I finally got one, because I've had a hard time getting to the gym or being able to workout if Bodhi is around. (Last Tuesday, I thought I was being clever by having DH meet me in a park w/ Bodhi and have them, play at the playground while I ran around, but then poor little B started crying when I first ran away from him.) Plus I really love making up playlists that go with the pedaling, though I prefer being on a real bike when I listen to them.

Whoo, I am rambling on and on right now.

OK one last rambling confession... I confess that when I was about 14, I used to pretend to smile enigmatically to myself whenever I was walking past a boy I liked, to try to get his attention. LOL. I'd totally forgotten about that until today. Poor little dweeby old me!

[3andMe]

That enigmatic smile is totally something I have done. I used to get attention from the right kind of guy just by standing alone and not smiling, too, so I liked being an observer.

I like the blog, Mandy. I sent you a couple of video links. Let me know if they work for you. I have more to choose from, but I am in a hurry to get out to a playground.

[Gwenn]

"Words to Grow By" is pretty perfect.

Thanks! I'm glad it was worth the days I spent racking my brains!

I added a video example of stuttering to the post, and other than stealing Lydia's video I think everything is ready to go. I really hope there isn't too much information but I needed to be sure I said enough. It's such a fine line!

LOL at smiling enigmatically! I was too shy to do that when I was that young, and when I was older I just didn't want to go there if I wasn't interested!

[daylilies]

When I was a tween I used to think that by darting my eyes back and forth I'd catch the light and look like I had sparkling eyes. In reality I probably just looked kind of shady. LOL

[Gwenn]

When I was a tween I used to think that by darting my eyes back and forth I'd catch the light and look like I had sparkling eyes. In reality I probably just looked kind of shady. LOL

[missychrissy]

I still smile enigmatically when I'm in a bar trying to score free drinks. I have no shame.

I had my interview today. I thought I did ok. One of those not my best but not awful interviews. They must have had a different impression because I didn't even make it home and they called to invite me for a follow-up interview Tuesday. It's a lunch one...something I've never done.

Geek-wise, it's a dream come true. Lots that I can learn, lots of responsibility, everyone seemed very nice and stress free. However, there was a major red flag. After the interview the one lady was taking me around and one of the rooms she showed me was the kitchen. I swear it wasn't a calculated question, I was meerly curious about opportunities for socialization with my coworkers, but I asked if many people ate their lunches there, or at their desks, or if they went out to eat. The lady was a bit taken aback and stammered a bit. She started out saying, "I don't really know how to say this..." and then she explained that they didn't really take lunch. I work at my desk, often through my lunch, but by choice. No one expects it of me.

That compounded with the interview question about how I'd handle having a 'full plate' and then have a huge project come up that would need to be attended to...it gives me qualms about the work-load this position might entail. I'm not sure I want it for any amount of money. I'll have to see how the lunch interview goes...and if I'm even offered the position. They're considering one other guy.

[missychrissy]

Additionally...

The Church is done working on our house. They painted all the window sills on the outside, sealed our basement with Drylock (2 coats), built our chimney as well as a brand new 10x6 porch at the front for us. They were an amazing group and were here till 9 every night (mon-thur). Tonight they had their annual picnic that they do to celebrate the completion of their community service and they had invited us to attend. Of course we felt a bit obligated so we went.

The food was excellent, everyone was very sweet, and honestly I was very touched by them. I actually loved the pastor's prayer because he said thank you to Jesus for enabling them to be giving and loving without strings. I'm pretty sure he doesn't know we're atheist, but I really don't think they'd care. I mean, they'd probably have concern for our souls, but it wouldn't have changed their attitude toward us. Very remarkable people. Funnily enough, when they were praying we, of course, bowed our heads out of respect and Conner pipes up, "What are you doing Mommy?" His sisters hushed him. Poor boy was probably very confused.

I have to say, this group actually made me wish I could believe. I mean, I won't...but if I did that would be the Church I'd attend. We plan on donating to them every year.

oh-I nearly forgot the best part. During the same week the adults (mostly men, about 20 a night) were at our house they were hosting their VBS. The kids all drew pictures on small squares of material and an older lady sewed them all into a beautiful quilt for us. Sure, it's religious. But it's going to be hanging in my living room. They called me & Rich up to present it to us and I actually started crying. I was overwhelmed by their generosity, kindness, and thoughtfulness.