The Busy Boarnet's

June Kids Konnection Column - Domestic Abuse Does Not Discriminate

2009-06-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

Again, i've fallen behind on updating this blog. I've been doing short updates on facebook regularly, though. it's hard to do both and part of the problem is that the kids' computer crashed and it was my old computer and that was the computer on which i had my "email distribution list" for the blog. I haven't had time to create a new email list. So, since i couldn't send out an email telling people that i updated the blog, i just didn't update it. does that make sense? anyway, i'll try to work on creating that new list this weekend.

If you're not on facebook, check it out. So many of us are on there! Even Marlon has joined!

Anyway, the postings on facebook have to be shorter than on here, so i can't post my kids konnection articles on facebook. here is the column from the June issue.... you can read it here, or go to www.ocjewishlife.com to see the "real version." Just scroll down to the bottom row and look for Viewpoing: Kids Konnection or do a search for me by name!

Domestic abuse is one of those topics not easily discussed. Most of us wouldn’t even consider the possibility that Jews could be such victims. But domestic abuse does not discriminate. The Jewish community is not immune and we all know people who are abused, either physically or emotionally, even if we do not realize it. Not all bruises from domestic abuse are visible. Mental and emotional abuse are just as damaging to the body and soul as sexual and physical abuse.
Awareness of domestic abuse in the Jewish Community is ashamedly low. Studies estimate that 15 to 20 % of Jewish women are abused, a rate comparable to that of non-Jewish women. Further, there are no denominational differences – the rate of violence is the same among Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews.
Unfortunately, the belief that Jewish men do not abuse their wives has made the situation of abused Jewish wives all the more difficult. Sometimes, women, believing that "Jewish men don’t do that", believe that they are at fault for what happens to them. Moreover, often, especially in closely-knit Jewish communities, women feel that, by complaining about their husbands’ behavior, they are undermining the community value of shalom bayit (domestic harmony or peace in the home). It is a cruel irony that this value is often invoked to deny or cover up the most blatant violations of domestic harmony, creating a sense of guilt for Jewish victims of abuse, causing them to feel responsible for the discord within their lives and families.
Relatives and friends of the victim may close their eyes to what is going on, or they may discount her story (if she tells of abuse) as exaggerated or hysterical. Rabbis may be so blinded by the conventional talk about how wonderful Jewish family life is that they do not recognize cases of abuse. Also, rabbis may find it hard to believe that Jewish men, often respected leaders of the synagogue or community, would behave in such a reprehensible, "unJewish", way. They may also be psychologically naive, and they may counsel people to work out their problems together, not realizing that they are, in fact, thereby advising the abused wife to suffer more abuse.
A few years ago, when I was the chairman of the National Young Leaders Advisory Council for the Orange County area of Hadassah Southern California, I organized a conference on domestic abuse for the Long Beach/Orange County area. As part of the full-day series of speakers and presentations, Israeli actress Naomi Ackerman presented her hour-long powerful monologue called “Flowers Aren’t Enough.” This moving and emotional dramatic presentation tells the story of Michal, a young woman from an upper to middle class Jewish family who finds herself in an abusive relationship. Michal describes how her partner gradually narrows her world and isolates her from her surroundings. We see her denial, her guilt, and how living in the Jewish community intensifies her shame and despair. We witness Michal sink into darkness and then we watch with joy as she takes charge of her life, re-discovers herself and ends the years of being victimized.
Michal’s story is a true story based on the lives and stories of several Israeli women. But not everyone’s story has a happy ending. A recent story is more shocking and illustrates my point that domestic abuse is prevalent everywhere and can have tragic results. There was an orthodox and very religious woman living in Jerusalem. She was a young woman in her early twenties, the daughter of very wealthy, ultra-Orthodox diamond merchants. Her marriage to a brilliant Talmud scholar was arranged by matchmakers, who demanded and received a huge dowry on behalf of the groom, a dowry which included a house, fully furnished, an annual income, a car, and many other gifts from the bride's father. Several years later, this lovely girl took her daughter, a gorgeous, blonde three-year old, to the top of a Tel-Aviv hotel and committed suicide with the child in her arms. This perfectly normal, lovely, deeply religious woman had been pushed to an extreme few of us will ever know by her husband and the society around her. She had been abused by her religious husband, a Talmud scholar, a man presumed to have the highest morals and values. Rather than seek help and bear the “shame” and guilt of being a victim, she felt the situation hopeless enough to take her own life – and that of her daughter’s.
There are many signs that someone is in an abusive relationship. The partner may try to isolate the other from her family and friends or demand that the other spend all her free time with him. The abuser may want to know where the other is at all time and may be impatient or become angry if the other does not follow his advice. Finally, the partner being abused is usually blamed for everything and regularly belittled by the abusive partner. Shouting at another person, demeaning or belittling another person, not to mention striking another person or coercing her to engage in sexual activity against her will, are wrong, even a single time.
When my oldest was in preschool, I had a friend – another mom from the J.C.C. – whose husband was, in my opinion, a real jerk. She had to ask his permission to do anything for herself or her son or to spend any money. He was very critical of her and constantly insulted her in front of other people. During that time, I felt bad for her that she was married to such a loser. But never once did I realize that she was a victim of domestic abuse and that I could – and should – help her seek help. As part of a Jewish community who cares about one another, we should all look out for one another and be aware of domestic abuse in our community, whether it be at school, at synagogue, on sports teams or in our neighborhoods. There are resources available to help people in these situations and we should not stand by silently while someone we know continues to be victimized. “Shalom Bayit” is an important Jewish value – we can all do our part to ensure that it prevails.
If we, ourselves, feel that we are victims of domestic abuse, or if we know someone who we believe is a victim, we can and should seek help immediately. Rabbis are trained to help people in such situations the Jewish Family Services has experience in dealing with cases of domestic abuse and provides an excellent resource to those in need. As evidence of how Jewish organizations are making such resources a priority, recently Hadassah opened a Center at Hadassah Ein-Kerem University Hospital in Jerusalem for the treatment of Sexual Abuse and Domestic Violence. The first of its kind in the Jerusalem area, the new center provides comprehensive multi –disciplinary care in physical as well as emotional treatment to victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence. The interdisciplinary team will include a gynecologist, a nurse and a social worker, who will follow the entire process. This will involve medical aspects, prevention of pregnancy and sexual diseases, documenting for legal purposes, help in the emotional coping, facing reaction of other people and continuation of care within the community.

Fun all Around

2009-05-28T22:25:00.000-07:00

Today was an action packed day. At Michela's softball practice, the girls and parents "painted/decorated" everyone's car for the upcoming weekend tournament. all of the girls had a great time signing their names, nicknames and numbers on everyone's cars. Jacob made sure to put a part that said "...and Jacob rocks at Rainbow competition" amidst all of the "Silver U10 Allstars Rule" sayings, since the minivan will be going to Riverside for his competition in addition to Westlake for her tournament.

Tonight Jacob did his tap solo at the competition and earned a "high gold," which was good for this competition because they give out the platinums only sparingly.

Harrison worked on a big project for school and his never-ending thank you notes and also had batting practice.

See you tomorrow!

New Blogging Promise

2009-05-26T18:36:00.000-07:00

I know I sound like a broken record, but here I am again, apologizing for not posting in weeks. I just can't believe how fast the time flies by. And I also can't believe how overwhelmingly busy we have been.

The good news is that I now have an iphone (well, okay, i got it almost a month ago, but i'm now figuring out how to use it!) and i can blog from it while out and about, waiting for the kids' at activities, in line at the grocery store, etc. So i've decided that i'm going to do short blog entries every day so that i don't get so far behind.

To quickly catch you up, since i have to leave about 5 minutes AGO (!):

-Michela's softball all star team experience is going well. It's intense and time consuming, but she's loving every minute of it. Her team was CRUSHED in their first tournament, losing every game by a wide margin, but hopefully they'll do better this coming weekend. they had fun anyway, so that's what matters and she did a great job in her positions.
-Harrison's baseball all star team didn't fare any better in their weekend tournament. They were slaughtered three out of four games, but they ended the weekend on a high note by winning 12 to 7. Harrison played amazing -- getting great hits and making great plays in the field.
-With all the tournament games this weekend, marlon and I pretty much waved hi to each other on the freeway as we past each other going from game to game. Not exactly, but it felt like that!
-Jacob is as busy as ever with dance, as he has a competition coming up this coming weekend and the big dance show is in 3 weeks. He has something like 24 numbers (some of his perform more than once.) Michela is in 4. :)
-The other dancer in the family is Marlon. He's enjoying the "dad's dance," and has almost as many reheasals as Jacob does. They take this dance stuff seriously at Focus Dance Center. When i saw the rehearsal schedule, i just about thought he would kill me for signing him up, but he's loving it.
-New dance competition groups were annouced for next year's groups. jacob advanced to the next level, so he's happy about that. He'll be in Elites for jazz, tap and lyrical. they haven't annoucned honor groups yet, just large group competition numbers.
-School is good. the year is winding down. lots of projects and tests.
-Maintenance is good for the most part. I eat everything, just try very hard to keep a good balance, make every calorie count, and keep the calories low and the exercise high. sometimes i succeed at it, sometimes not. I'm basically maintaining, which is fine for maintenance, i just had hopes of losing a bit more. but my health educator today reassured me that maintaining the 120 pound loss is what's the most important thing. it's nice to eat somewhat normally again.
-My mom is doing thru a pretty severe depression and is not eating well, moving around enough, wanting to leave her apartment, etc. so that is taking careful monitoring and intervention. another thing to deal with, but i think the situation is improving somewhat.
-we still haven't finalized our summmer plans. i did decide on camps for the kids and just need to sign them up and we're still talking about/thinking about a trip around the 4th of July, which is our 15 year anniversary!
-I'm still (as always) hopelessly overwhelmed by the number of things that i have to do and on my to-do list (household stuff, kid stuff, work stuff, volunteer stuff, etc. etc) i have several new (fortunately, temporary) responsibilities that i'm trying to manage -- being in charge of ticket sales for the school musical, being the "team mom" in charge of scheduling tournaments and all communications for harrison's all star team and being a coordinator for one of the seven dance shows.
-on that note, it's time to go.....

i'll see you tomorrow!! and i haven't forgotten about posting bar mitzvah pictures, speeches and all that. i'll still get to it. believe it or not, we haven't even looked at the pictures ourselves yet! lol

Busy, Busy, Busy

2009-05-08T20:25:00.000-07:00

I'm so sorry that it's been so long -- AGAIN. I thought things were going to settle down after the Bar Mitzvah. Well, I obviously thought wrong. It's been busier than ever.

The last two weeks I've spent hours and hours every day working on a work project. It went well and I actually enjoyed it, but basically all I did was work and do the basics to take care of the house and kids. I was already hopelessly behind on "things" (paperwork, correspondence, household projects, etc.) because of the Bar Mitzvah and this put me futher behind, but it was an important work project and had to be done.

Once it was finished, i spent some time this week catching up on post-Bar Mitzvah tasks, especially errands like returning the 11 dresses I had bought for Michela and we didn't choose, the 14 dresses for me, the 6 dress shirts for Jacob, etc. etc. Would you believe that I returned over $2,000 worth of clothes?!

we're gearing up for a very busy weekend. the kind that i have to do a typed up schedule for marlon and i to keep it straight. i won't give you the hour by hour rundown, but basically tomorrow (sat) we have: 1 baseball game, 2 softball games (semi finals and then championships), an "all star meet and greet" for Michela, two teams parties (one swimming all afternoon, one dinner and that's here), 7 hours of dance (jacob), 3 hours of dance (Marlon for the dad's dance) and i think i forgot a couple of things!

the next 2 months are going to be beyond busy with baseball allstars, softball allstars, dance competitions, big annual dance show, harrison's musical at school, normal end of year stuff, etc... I'm used to "busy," but these next two months are going to be hard for even me to juggle.

Here's a "bullet point" summary of the highlights of what's been going on (in no particular order other than the order i'm thinking of them):

-I got an iphone! so far i love it, BUT i haven't downloaded any songs or applications or had time to configure the email or anything. the texting is amazing. i got it last week. i need to make time to figure it out and get it configured.
-I'm doing a great job of maintaining my weight. i'm not really losing, but i'm not gaining either and i'm eating a full array of foods, so i'm very pleased with how it's going. hopefully eventually i'll start to slowly lose a little bit.
-i bought a FEW new things, including JEANS and a BELT. I don't think i EVER wore jeans or a belt before, believe it or not. i even have jean shorts now. and some cute capris.
-Jacob had his auditions for next year's honor groups at dance. Jazz/lyrical were last week, tap was tonight. he thinks he did well. we'll know in a couple of weeks.
-Michela made the softball all star team!!!!!!!!! She was so excited. it's very competitive. It's also going to be a very intense 6-8 weeks of 4-5 practices a week and tournaments every weekend. it's a very highly competitive level of play. it'll be a great experience and she's becoming quite a good softball player so we're hoping she'll keep it up and will be able to get a scholarship for college.
-Harrison also made his baseball all star team!!!!!!!! He was also excited. things will be equally intense and time consuming for him.
-in light of the two all star teams, our summer plans are completely up in the air and i've been trying to figure things out. we were talking about renting a motor home and taking two weeks to drive to texas to be with marlon's family, taking detours along the way to see things. but now we can't really be gone two weeks because you have to sign a committment contract for all stars. so we MAY still go to texas for the 4th of july weekend or we may do something more local, or we may just do little day trips around here all summer.
-our kids have the longest summer they've ever had this summer - 6 weeks. (not sure why.) usually we have 4 1/2 or 5 at the most. I'm trying to line up some camps for them because 6 weeks is too long to just sit around and i have a lot of work projects to work on. I think all 3 are going to go to SURF camp every day for a week. funny, huh? they have surfed a bit and want to learn how. it's a california thing. harrison might go to football camp (see below), jacob wants to try a basketball camp (huh? basketball? jacob? well, great if he wants to!). he may do a dance intensive. i'm looking into a softball camp for michela, etc. i think that jewish sleepaway camp is out of consideration because they can't be gone a week b/c of all stars and dance.
-Yes, harrison now wants to play football. he wants to try out for the freshman football team in high school (he has one more yr first). Matt Leinart is his idol. Matt Leinart runs a football camp for 5 days (overnight camp) here in long beach. Harrison is sending the receipient of his "camp scholarship" to it (he asked matt leinart's brother ryan if they'd make up the difference in cost between the $300 he raised and the $700 it costs and they said they would!)
-Marlon was away for a week and while he was gone i enjoyed a "special night" with each of the kids alone. harrison and i splurged (calorie wise and financially) and had a nice dinner out at the Melting Pot. Jacob and I went for manicures and pedicures and then had dinner at a cafe. Michela and I picked up dinner and ate it in a movie, just the two of us, then went shopping for some new clothes the next mornig.

ok, this is long enough. i'll try to update more often so that these aren't so long. and i know i still have to post bar mitzvah pics!

Barbara

Catching Up

2009-04-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

After my last post, i sort of "checked out" for a week or so! I think i needed a break from everything structured and busy. The kids and I enjoyed their last week of break - relaxing, playing board games, getting together with friends, going to the pool, sleeping until after 9 every day, seeing some movies (17 Again was great, although if you're conservative about movies, you might want to skip it because it's somewhat "mature", Hannah Montana was dumb and my kids thought that even more than i did!).

Harrison's birthday was low key after his big weekend, but we did spend the day with some good friends at the pool and then went out to dinner and he got to have a sleepover.

It also took the rest of the week to do a lot of the "post bar mitzvah " tasks, like put the centerpieces away, unload the car, unpack from the weekend, etc.

I gave Harrison a break on his thank you notes and let him enjoy the last week of his very busy spring break. Now, though, he has a goal of a minimum of 5 per day until they're all done. I hate thank you notes that are just one little sentence, so these are "meaty," full of substace and from the heart. Please know that he is working on them (in no particular order other than the order the gifts were openened) and yours will be coming. In the meantime, Marlon and I would like to say thank you so much for your generousity. Harrison has opened up a savings account and deposited all of his Bar Mitzvah money into it and he will be saving it for college. He did use some of the many gift cards and a couple of cash birthday gifts to buy himself a new (and somewhat expensive) DeMarini baseball bat, which is apparently the ultimate in bats. let's hope he hits some homeruns with it! lol

Soon i'll return to posts about the Bar Mitzvah. I've had several requests that i post our speeches, the candlelighting ceremony script and of course pictures, so i'll work on all of that!

Oh, by the way, a brief update on my weight loss/maintenance. I've been on regular foods now for about 3 weeks. I still use their products as part of my intake, but i also eat a wide variety of foods. During the long weekend of the Bar Mitzvah, I didn't really count calories at all, ate whatever i wanted, and enjoyed the delicious foods we had at all of our events. i must admit, i was also not careful at times when i could have been more careful, but i had been strict for so long that i guess i just needed a little break from it. i didn't keep track of anything and didn't exercise, but i didn't miss any of my classes - i went right back tuesday morning, even though i knew i had gained. Sure enough, I had gained 6 pounds (i had anticipated between 2 and 10, so i wasn't surprised by this.)

i got RIGHT back on track last tuesday, still eating regular foods, but counting calories, trying to keep it low, weighing and measuring, writing it all down, back to exercise (although not the gym yet, just swimming and the elpyp at home) and as of today i lost 7.2 pounds so i lost everything i had gained plus an additional 1.2 pounds! yippee!

ok, that's it for now. more later!

Bar Mitzvah Reflections, Part 1

2009-04-14T23:06:00.001-07:00

It's going to take many posts, i'm sure, to tell everything about the Bar Mitzvah and weekend. Here's the first one, which is the text of my Kids Konnection article for May that I wrote this morning. It's a good start on my recap!

* * *
Words cannot adequately describe the magnitude of the emotions I am feeling and the thoughts that I want to express as I reflect about the most wonderful weekend of our lives as a family – the Bar Mitzvah of our oldest son. Every aspect was perfect. Each element exceeded our expectations. Being with so many members of both sides of our extended family from near and far was incredible. The pride we felt as Harrison led services and chanted Torah flawlessly, spoke words of wisdom articulately and conducted himself with poise, maturity and personality filled our hearts with great joy. The parties were all perfect with excellent food, beautiful decorations, wonderful “little touches” and everyone having the time of their lives! Here are some details to aid you in planning your own simchas.
1. Invitations. We were thrilled with Jackie Wolf (Jackie@wolfiesprint.com) who orders from the major companies and offers a discount. There is a huge range of styles and prices. Having a traditional invite that incorporated Hebrew was important to us and we spent hours on the wording. We received many compliments and no one knew that we had chosen a style at the low end of the price spectrum!
2. Involve your Child. We were fortunate that Harrison wanted to be involved in ALL of the planning. He helped with everything and was a part of all decisions (except for a couple of “surprises” I thought would be fun for him.) His involvement made it more special and we had so much fun and got so close doing everything together.
3. Service. Thanks to our well-prepared son and wonderful clergy, the service was beautiful and moving. We chose to personalize the service in a few ways and we were very grateful that we were allowed us to do so. It was important to us to “honor” and involve as many of our family members as we could because it was so meaningful to us that they were here to share this special day. So we added extra prayers, a special presentation of the tallit of my father, for whom Harrison is named, an instrumental piece (by Harrison on the trombone and our other children and two of their close friends from temple, all on different instruments) and we have the distinction of having more people for Aliyot than any other family!
4. Meals. Harrison wanted an evening party so we chose to have a luncheon following the service as well as the evening party. It was nice to do this because it gave people a chance to really be together. I did assigned table seating for both events and put a lot of thought and effort into mixing people up so that they weren’t sitting with the same people for both events, which everyone seemed to enjoy. We also had a Shabbat dinner for family on Friday night and a Sunday brunch for family and some close friends on Sunday morning, and we were very blessed that family members generously offered to host all of these “extra” events including the very “upscale” Saturday evening cocktail hour. Our caterers, Nina Varkel and Ruth Gueta of Gourmet Caterers (www.gourmetcaterers.net) were phenomenal in all respects and I highly recommend them. The food was beyond delicious, the presentation of the food was amazing and they were a joy to work with.
5. Venues. We were so pleased with our choice of venues. Having the extended Kiddush luncheon at the synagogue was perfect because everyone went straight from the service into the lunch. We had the evening party at the JCC, which was great. The dance floor was the largest we’ve seen and the set up of the room worked perfectly. There was plenty of space and it felt “right” to have a Jewish event at a “Jewish venue.” I looked at more than fifty places and the cost of the JCC was comparable to most of the other places and we got more space for the money (the use of other parts of the facility for the cocktail hour, buffet stations, etc.)
6. DJ. Mark Fortier of What a Party (www.whataparty.com) was simply amazing. He had the right amount of “energy” (he was “up,” but he wasn’t too hyper) and once we walked into the door of the ballroom, he did his thing and kept things moving along perfectly on schedule. Everyone there danced the night away and had the best night ever!
7. Décor. To keep things “moderate” and not “over the top,” we did all the décor ourselves. The lunch theme was based on Harrison’s mitzvah projects (which involved tutoring Santa Ana kids with their reading) and the centerpieces and baskets on the Bima were wrapped with pretty Star of David cellophane, tied with sparkling blue and silver ribbons, and filled with books that Harrison will be donated so they looked nice but served a useful purpose. The evening’s theme was “Harrison’s World,” with centerpieces made of vases filled with pretty rocks, tied with sparkly silver and blue ribbons, adorned with Stars of David, and each featured a photograph of Harrison doing something important to him (with the table placecards matching the tables.) We made the centerpieces and all the table placecards ourselves, and even though they looked homemade, they were creative and special (it helps that I do calligraphy.) Making the sign-in board and other “photo boards” for décor was easy and fun. Decorating baskets for programs, kippots, etc. made everything festive and beautiful for little cost and effort. Our balloon vendor, Irma Minsky (minskyfam@att.net) was excellent and decorated the room beautifully with arches, balloon trees and a fun “exploding balloon,” while keeping within our strict budget.
8. Little Touches. All the special extra touches added so much: the program booklet at the service that explained everything and mentioned everyone involved, Harrison’s Jewish friends led Havdallah at the party, special presentations to Harrison by his siblings, a candlelighting ceremony honoring close friends and family, a video montage made by Harrison’s uncle, (which was incredible), fun party give-aways, inexpensive party favors (personalized pens at lunch, bags of candy in the evening), etc.
9. The Hotel. I negotiated an amazing rate at the Residence Inn by Marriott in Irvine. We had a block of 25 suites and everyone enjoyed the luxury and comfort of the recently renovated rooms, the complimentary breakfast, the common areas to congregate, the fun sports deck and the fact that they let us use and bring in our own food to their downstairs “ballroom” for a large family seder.
10. Capturing the Day. Our photographer and videographer were fantastic: Mike Perez for photography (jacquelyngp@gmail.com) and Dennis Backer for videography (dbacker@mediabydesign.net).
11. ENJOY EVERYTHING. Most my important advice is to work as hard as you need to (and we worked really hard) to plan everything and then put it all aside. We were able to do this and I can honestly say that we savored and enjoyed every moment of the weekend.. It didn’t “fly by in a blur” as so many big events do, we were calm and relaxed, and we had the time of our lives. A few minor things didn’t go “exactly” as planned (very few, actually, given the number of events and people and all that was involved), but we didn’t worry about it and we just enjoyed each and every second of this wonderful simcha. We achieved our goals of keeping our focus on the importance of the service and Mitzvah projects and having fun celebration events that incorporated all the elements but were not “over the top.” It will be hard to come down from the clouds and return to a reality that doesn’t involve Bar Mitzvah planning and enjoying, but fortunately we have another one to look forward to in 2 ½ years!

special thank you!

2009-04-13T22:50:00.000-07:00

during the time at the party that marlon and i got to say welcome and thank you to our guests for being there to celebrate with us and got to thank the many people who hosted various events and who helped us in so many ways, he accidentally forgot to mention his grandmother, Meme, who co-hosted the family shabbat dinner. so, she got a whole special (and very heartfelt) tribute when i spoke rigth afterwards.

this next tribute is the same. I accidentally forgot to thank someone who helped me a lot (it happens, i guess) and i feel terrible, but this gives me an opportunity to give her her own well deserved little tribute so maybe it was "beshert" (fate.)

one of the many people who came over and helped me with centerpieces who I forgot to mention was my good friend elaine o'connor. she and her son, Fergus, came over twice to help and it was much appreciated. but even more than this centerpiece help, i really want to thank elaine for being the wonderful friend that she is. you have probably read some of her comments here b/c she frequently comments on the blog. she has been one of my biggest cheerleaders and encouragers during my weight loss journey and her support is endless. i know i can always count on her for a smile,a hug, some encouragement or just anything. she has this knack for making me feel so good about myself and is always so sincerely complimentary about our kids.

the week of the bar mitzvah she came over to help and harrison spent an hour showing her everything and telling her about all the plans. she was so excited to hear about everything and was so excited about being at the bar mitzvah service and party that it made harrison feel so incredibly good. she is the most selfless person i know and is the epitomy of a good friend.

elaine, i can't believe i forgot to mention you, but don't worry, everyone who was there reads the blog (and many more) and now they will all know what a wonderful person and friend you are and how much i love you!!!!!!

First of, I'm sure several, recaps of the big Bar Mitzvah and weekend celebration!

2009-04-13T22:45:00.001-07:00

Our big weekend is over and the last of the relatives in town are leaving first thing tomorrow. I will be updating with detailed recaps of the Bar Mitzvah and weekend, but right now i want to get to sleep because as you can imagine, i'm pretty exhausted.

Words cannot even describe how perfect the whole bar mitzvah and weekend was - each and every party was spectular and beyond amazing, harrison did incredible in leading the service and reading from the Torah, and every little detail was just perfect. I had high expectations about everything because i planned it and knew what to expect, but it exceeded even my expectations. Harrison said it best when he told us last night that the day and night of his bar mitzvah was the best day of his life and the whole weekend was the best weekend of his life and he has no idea how anything will ever come close to being as good the rest of his life!

I promise I will write about everything so that those of you who weren't able to come can experience and those of you who were here to celebrate with us can re-live the experience. but i'll save that for another post.

Long Overdue Update

2009-04-03T23:18:00.001-07:00

I'm so sorry, faithful blog readers, that I've been so long in updated. I have received so many emails asking me what's wrong because there haven't been any posts in awhile. Many apologies! Nothing is wrong. Everything is fine and great, actually. We've just been busy beyond belief and there simply hasn't been time for anything extra. I'll try to catch you up and do better!

So, here's what's new:

-Weight loss continues to go well and i'm proud to say that i've now lost almost 120 pounds, which is about 5 pounds more than my interim goal. So, i've started back onto regular foods now, having gone through the slow transition of reintroducing things. The timing was just how i planned, just in time for the Bar Mitzvah week and weekend. It has been wonderful to be able to eat real food, but I'm being very careful to keep within my calorie budget. I worked way too hard to lose the weight to let it get out of control. I still look and feel terrific. My plan is to still lose another 30-40 in maintenance by contiuing to keep my calorie intake low, using the plan's shakes and entrees to help me do that (but still eating regular foods as well) and of course continuing the high amounts of exercise. I'm really pleased with how i've done and continue to do. And shopping for Bar Mitzvah clothes was so fun! Now i have new bras, new underwear (too much information?) and 3 new gorgeous dresses. everything else is still kinda big, but i'm not ready for a whole new wardrobe... yet.

-Work is good. i'm really enjoying this project i'm working on. once the bar mitzvah is over, i will be spending some time completing it and then... better sit down for this one b/c it might shock you... i'm planning on trying to work even more to bring me up to almost full time (but still flexible of course.) Believe it or not, this bad economy should be a good one for obtaining independent contracting business because small firms will still have work but might not want people on their regular payroll. Hiring me as an independent contractor is a win-win situation for both of us -- flexible for me (and i can say no to work if i want or need to) and they will have some qualified to do work, but can also avoid paying benefits and can just say they don't have work if they don't.

-kids are doing great. They're on spring break, which is nice. we're trying to intermingle some fun things in with bar mitzvah prep and we'll be doing some fun things with relatives next week. they seem to be having fun helping with decorations, etc. (esp Harrison of course) and Patti and Brian bought them Rockband 2 so they have been playing with that a ton! it's noisy, but keeps them happy. They are still busy with their activities (life doesn't pause just b/c we have a big bar mitzvah coming up!) and Harrison was excited to be selected to go on the middle school honor trip for a week to Catalina in May (it's an educational thing.)

-Of course i saved the biggest thing for last...the bar mitzvah. I can't believe that we are one week away. where does the time go? i remember when we first got the date assigned to us.... almost 3 years ago! Harrison is completely ready from the religious standpoint and we couldn't be more proud. the rest is coming together. So much to be done. it has helped that he is on break and he has been VERY hands on in the planning of this. very, very helpful and he and i have been having a really good time doing everything. we've had a lot of laughs as we do things like listen to itunes to select songs for things and make centerpieces. he isn't worried at all about his hebrew and leading the service... he's just worried about getting it all done. Our event isn't "over the top..." really it isn't... but it will seem like that because of all the little touches that we're doing. It's going to be fabulous. If it was just a matter of planning the actual bar mitzvah party, it would be a piece of cake. What's hard is that we're having two parties (lunch and dinner) plus other events that weekend like a passover seder, brunch at our house, etc. family is being so kind as to host different things, but it's just a matter of coordinating it all. harrison asks me every hour or so if we can cross another thing off the list of things to do! I've had a lot of help here and there from friends and I know it will all get done.

ok, this turned into a far longer post that i intended and i must go. it's 11:30 and I want to get an early start to the day and be very productive, so i need to sleep!

More later.

A must read!

2009-03-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, I’m a voracious reader. I love to read every spare chance I get. I usually go through a couple of novels a week (at least 5 when on vacation.) I have a whole list of favorite authors. An author I just discovered, Peggy Chrusciaki, has just jumped to the very top of my list! And what’s more, she’s the mother of a friend and I have had many personal email exchanges with her.
When I sat down to eat my lunch a few minutes ago, an incredible feeling of sadness and let-down washed over me because last night I finished her book, which is probably the best book I have ever read. (It was actually two books because there was a “part one” and a “part two.”) I was sad and let down not because I didn’t enjoy the books, but because they were over and today I didn’t have more of the story to look forward to!
It was one of those “catch 22 situations,” where I couldn’t put the book down because I just had to see what happened, but I also didn’t want to finish it because I knew how disappointing it would be when it was over and I didn’t have any left of it to read.
If you enjoy family sagas and stories about real people, you MUST read these two books. You will love some of the characters, you will hate others. You will relate their lives to yours. You will feel protective over some of them, you will feel like crying for them, and you will feel like laughing over some of the things they say and do. You will want to be part of their family and you will be glad that you’re not. Just when you think that there is no way one of the characters could possibly hurt or betray his family any more than he already has, he goes and does it again. But as angry and frustrated as you may get during the stories (and these books are long so you have lots to read – nothing worse than a short book in my opinion!), I guarantee that you’ll feel good at the end and that’s all I’ll tell you. If you want something wonderful to read this spring and summer, get these books – you deserve to relax and I can’t think of a better way!
Here’s how you can contact the author about buying them directly from her, even though the books are available in bookstores. www.simonsays1and2.com, www.peggypoet.blogspot.com

p.s. maybe we can all encourage her to get her fingers moving on that keyboard and write a Simon Says Book 3 – there’s still more of the story to be told!!!!!!!!!!

Odds and Ends

2009-03-17T23:01:00.000-07:00

The bullet point format worked well last time, so I think I'll keep that for now.

-Please check our Bar Mitzvah blog at www.harrisonsbarmitzvah.blogspot.com. There is an important letter from Harrison on there regarding his Mitzvah project and he would love and appreciate your support to reach his goals and help an underprivileged child.
-Hilarious comment of the week: at dinner last night I was telling everyone about how I dropped Harrison off at the family resource center where he tutors kids with their reading (part of his Mitzvah project), raced to the Dollar Tree to buy a few more items I need for the centerpieces, and then raced back to get him. Jacob looked at me with a straight face and said "see, mom, money DOES grow on trees!" I'm constantly telling the kids "money doesn't grow on trees, guys" when i feel like they're over-spending. We cracked up! Almost as funny as the time when Michela was about 3 or 4 and was wearing this beautiful dress to Marlon's sister's wedding and someone asked her where her mom bought it and she said "the 99 cent store - it's her favorite store!"
-I'm slowly but surely getting things done. My work project is going well, although it's very time consuming. Little by little, I'm able to cross things accomplished off the Bar Mitzvah task list and boy do i draw lines through those tasks with flourish. It's coming together and we're actually having a lot of fun doing everything, it's just that everything takes longer than I expect. For example, Harrison and I spent about 4 hours listening to songs on itunes to pick the ones for his photo montage. We were cracking up at some of the crazy songs we found, but we found great ones that have perfect lyrics and nice tunes. And something simple like ordering yalmulkes-- i thought that would take 15 minutes. Well, after I looked on-line, found three places that looked good, called them all, compared their products and prices, figured out what we wanted on the imprints, finalized the colors, called back with more questions, then agonized over how many to order, i finally placed the order 1 1/2 hours later!
-Weight loss continues to go well. I've now lost 115 pounds and am just about ready to continue my transition on to maintenance, where i will hopefully slowly continue to lose the last 40 or so.
-That's about all that's going on. Our life is pretty much about Bar Mitzvah stuff, this work project, exercising and just regular activities.
-Don't forget to check the bar mitzvah blog!

Long Overdue Update

2009-03-07T22:40:00.000-08:00

I'm so sorry that it's been so long since I've updated this blog. I know what you're thinking -- what happened to the twice a week plan?

Just totally and completely overwhelmed by everything that has to get done, so haven't had much time to update.

I'll do this update in bullet point format since there's a lot to cover:

-Weight loss continues to go well. I'm still averaging about 2-3 pounds a week, even though I'm on healthy solutions now instead of the very low calorie diet. I'm no longer under the dr's supervision. I have 3 shakes or cereals, 2 entrees and at least 5 fruits and vegetables each day. So basically i'm eating normally. Still exercising as much as i can, but we've been busier than usual, so that takes a toll on that.
-Harrison's big southern california soccer tournament FINALLY took place last weekend. It was hectic because Jacob and Michela had a lot of stuff too, so they stayed with my mom for the weekend, which worked out well and she and they enjoyed it, but lining up different people to pick them up and drop them off for all of their stuff was incredibly difficult. And we couldn't stay overnight anyway because it was the bar mitzvah party of a good friend, but it worked well.
-It's good that it was an honor to get to go, because it was demoralizing there! They went into it being undefeated. In the tournament they lost 5-0, 5-1 and then 12-1. pretty brutal.
-Jacob and Michela both made the talent show and are having fun at the practices.
-Harrison made the middle school musical but didn't get the part that he wanted the most (Gaston.) He got a good part (Maurice, the dad, plus some "extra roles,") but was disappointed at first. He's over it now
-Softball and baseball both started and are going well
-Marlon was in DC and had a good trip
-I have a huge work project, which is good, but it's due April 10th, which is bad. can you believe it? what were the odds? the day before the Bar Mitzvah! But i'm working on both night and day and telling marlon that he needs to help pick up the slack with regular household stuff. like today he spent the whole day with michela at her opening day for softball while harrison and i did bar mitzvah stuff before his baseball game.
-bar mitzvah planning is going well, there's just so much left to do and i can't believe it's in 5 short weeks. for an update on that, if you're interested, check out the bar mitzvah blog at www.harrisonsbarmitzvah.blogspot.com. I'm actually way more creative and artistic than I thought and am having fun designing table centerpieces, name cards, etc.

Ok, times up. It's almost 11 p.m. but it's daylight savings time tonight, so it's really almost midnight. I have about 10 more small bar mitzvah tasks to do and then i need to go to sleep!

Weekend update

2009-02-22T22:46:00.000-08:00

We were supposed to be in San Diego all weekend for the Southern California Championships for Harrison's soccer team, but it got postponed yet again because of predicted rain that didn't materialize. So, instead, we had a pretty mellow week and weekend.

Here are the highlights:

-Jacob and Michela both auditioned for the talent show and did really well. (Jacob did a tap number, Michela sang lead vocals in a band with some friends)
-Harrison got a callback in his audition for the middle school musical (Beauty and the Beast) and is hopeful he'll get a leading role
-With a little help from my mom and a good friend, I got the Bar Mitzvah invitations assembled, calligraphized (i know that's probably not a word), sealed, and mailed (well, they're going in the mail tomorrow). We're really happy with how the invites came out, esp since we chose one of the least expensive ones, but we love them and we worded them ourselves so we put a lot of thought and effort into them
-I got new bras -- i had gone down about 4 cup sizes! :) amazing what new bras will do. i'm nice and perky now! lol
-Several of my friends took me out to celebrate my 100 pound weight loss - we saw a movie and had coffee out. woo hoo!
-Midnight turned 3 years old yesterday (21 in dog years.) :)

I guess that's pretty much it. Things are good. Felt a bit less busy this week but that doesn't mean that I still don't have five gazillion things to do, it just means that I didn't stress out about them all!!!!!

Have a good start to your week!

Weekend Update

2009-02-16T14:55:00.000-08:00

Whew. What a weekend! Here's a quick recap:

Jacob had his first dance competition of the "season." He's in 5 competition numbers. Last year he was in 3. It's a lot. Kept us at the Disneyland Hotel for hours and hours all three days, but of course he loves every minute of it. His numbers did well. His small group jazz honor group during which he has a nice solo feature took platinum and placed 4th overall, so that was great. His other three group numbers got gold, so there's room for improvement, but it was the first competition. He did AWESOME on his tap solo (it's really a level above him but our studio director who is his choreographer views the solo as an opportunity to really challenge yourself and strive for the next level) and got gold, almost platinum, placing 5th overall out of 9 in his age/category. There are three from his dance studio in that category and age, and he placed just behind one of them and just ahead of the other, which was really great because both of them have been tap dancing longer than he has and are at a higher level.

While sitting around waiting for Jacob's numbers, I was very productive and re-organized my "to do" list for the Bar Mitzvah, putting everything into categories like service, catering, invitations, clothing, decorations, etc. and putting deadlines by which I need to do everything. It took some time but it was a perfect task in between watching numbers and helping Jacob with costumes, etc. Now I feel very organized and, dare I say, even a bit less overwhelmed! Still tons to do, though.

In between the hours that we were there, Michela and Harrison each had a basketball playoff game and, unfortunately, they both lost, ending their seasons. Harrison's team hadn't really done well all season, so it was expected. Michela's team was undefeated, however, so it was quite a shock to lose the game and be out of the playoffs already, but it's ok because softball and baseball have started and it's so hard to juggle the multiple sports.

Marlon, Michela and Harrison came for two of Jacob's numbers on saturday and then the four of us walked around Downtown Disney and had lunch at the ESPN Zone (we've never been there -- with a 50 foot wall-long TV screen of a basketball game and 12 other tvs with different sports, Harrison was in heaven!) and the food wasn't bad either. (my baked potato w/veggies was certainly yummy!) Sunday Harrison went with a teammate to his game but Marlon and Michela came to watch Jacob's solo. It's a big honor to be "asked" to have a solo, so it's quite a big deal.

Both Marlon and I have been having nightmares every night, so I think we're both a tad stressed out! Sat night he dreamed that I was pregnant again and he only found out about it because he overheard me telling hi mom! I dreamed that I had forgotten to order the yalmalkes for the bar mitzvah and the temple didn't have enough so the rabbi was mad at me. then i dreamed that I had forgotten to do the table seating assignments and when everyone got to the party they were running around trying to find seats and it was chaos!

I guess that's it. I better go tackle the mountains of laundry waiting to be put away while I have a few extra minutes. I think the kids change clothes in the middle of the night just to create more laundry for me!!!

The Top 5 Good and Bad Things of the Last 5 Days

2009-02-10T21:30:00.000-08:00

Top 5 GOOD things that happened in the last five days:

1) I am LOVING eating veggies every day. They are so delicious. We went out to dinner and I was able to order and eat a MEAL -- a half of a baked potato with steamed veggies (minus the cheese sauce) at Claim Jumper. So yummy!
2) Harrison and I FINALLY finished sorting through ALL of our family pictures and choosing the ones we need for various aspects of his Bar Mitzvah. It was a HUGE job - took us hours and hours and hours and we must have gone through 2,000 pictures. But now we're done with that part of the planning, plus all of our family photos are pretty well organized.
3) I'm slowly but surely getting things done and being able to "cross off" the things I've accomplished off my unbelievable list of things to do. We even made huge progress on new clothes for the Bar Mitzvah weekend for everyone but me (i'm not ready to shop yet) and only have a few things to fill in, like ties, etc. and we found these new suits and other things at an incredible SALE at Macy's.
4) We love our brand new tile in the kitchen and have been making progress on some other minor "home improvement" projects
5) Even though I'm finding it hard to juggle the Bar Mitzvah planning along with work projects, kids' activities and life in general, and even though i feel a bit overwhelmed, it is coming together nicely and we are actually enjoying the planning and finding things to laugh about. Every night I have some new story for the family (like the day I made the balloon vendor choke on her coffee when I told her our budget or the day someone else's "Bar Mitzvah coordinator" called to ask if harrison was coming to that party and she said "hello, I'm so and so, i'm the bar mitzvah coordinator for so and so. and i said "very nice to meet you, I'm Barbara and I'm the Bar Mitzvah coordinator for Harrison Boarnet...!" Both Marlon and I are enjoying involving Harrison in all aspects of it. (There's just so much involved with the service, the parties, the mitzvah project, etc. etc. Because i'm doing so much of things myself instead of hiring people (to save money), it's just a lot.

Now for the top 5 BAD (or just annoying) things that happened in the last five days:

1) Harrison has the flu and is miserable
2) Even though I've made significant progress on my original list of things to do, I thought of about 50-75 new things to add, so the list is longer than it was before!
3) Everything associated with planning this Bar Mitzvah takes longer than I thought it would take and costs more than I thought it would cost!
4)I had to go to 7 stores to find the right kind of "plain long sleeve red tshirt" for Jacob's tap solo costume (the studio director has a "vision" for how his costume should look and the red shirt is part of it). When I showed her everything tonight, guess what? She LOVED the one I got FIRST (that cost $5 at Kohl's) even though I thought she would hate that one because it's not plain, it has a picture of a guitar on it. I could have saved myself a whole DAY of running errands and now I have to go back and return about 5 versions of a "long sleeved red plain tshirt"!

ok, that's pretty good - i can only come up with 4 bad things. i'm racking my brain and nothing else comes to mind. so i'll just add a couple more "good" things -- i got a new really cute and short haircut! (I wanted a new look to match my new looking body!), Jacob has a dance competition this weekend, Harrison has the southern california soccer championship tournament the next weekend, and we all saw a cute and funny movie last weekend called "New in Town."

Okay, that's about all the time I can take for blogging - gotta get back to accomplishing real things now!!!

Until later....

WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-02-06T00:40:00.000-08:00

Hot of the presses! As of tonight, I have hit that major milestone and have lost over 100 pounds! 100.8 to be exact. Very exciting. It's been a challenging almost six months, but I look and feel terrific and it has been worth every second of challenge.

I still have about 40-50 pounds to go, but I've very pleased with my progress and feel that it has been a total and complete success. Even if I didn't lose another pound, I've definitely completely improved my health risks and lifestyle.

I've started the transition to the "Healthy Solutions" plan, which incorporates unlimited fruits and veggies (including potatoes and beans). It's a 4 week transition, so this week i get to have an entree every day (which i was already doing) and a cup of vegetables. Those green beans tonight were delicious! Next week i add an extra entree and veggie, then weeks three and four incorporate the fruits. I'll stay on healthy solutions for about a month or so and then continue the transition to mainteance in early april so that i'll be on real foods by the Bar Mitzvah. I'll still plan to keep my calories low enough to continue to lose very slowly until I reach my goal and then to maintain.

I want to thank everyone for the support that you have shown me along this journey. I appreciate the calls, emails, comments on this blog, and comments in person - it helps keep me going, so keep 'em coming!

As far as other things, still totally and completely overwhelmed. It's really good that the weight loss efforts and exercise routine are so under control because everything else is spiraling out of control. Just way way way too much to do (Bar Mitzvah stuff, work, normal activities, doing some household maintenance things like a new kitchen floor etc.) and not enough time in which to do it. You all know that I rarely get stressed and adopt a "it will all get done eventually" attitude, but i must admit i'm stressed! Big time. I'm making good progress in getting things accomplished, but there are so many things to do that even getting one or two things done per day is just a drop in the bucket. :)

and on that note, it's time for bed!

Happy Birthday Trent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-01-31T16:29:00.000-08:00

We just wanted to take a minute to wish Marlon's younger brother, Trent, a very, very happy 40th Birthday! It's a big one!!!! We are sorry that we don't live closer so that we could join the family in the celebration dinner tonight, but we are thinking of you. You're a great person, a wonderful brother/brother in law, and an even better uncle and we all love you!!!!!!! From my viewpoint, life keeps getting better and better even after you turn 40. Although Marlon left Trent a message saying that he shouldn't worry about it being bad when you turn 40 because it was all downhill after 25! ha ha

The Big "O"

2009-01-27T09:17:00.001-08:00

No, not that! :) Overwhelming!!! That's the word to describe our life the last couple of weeks. Overwhelmingly busy, to be exact. More so than usual. It seems like every day is a "crisis" that needs to be handled that day -- the invites needed to be ordered quickly (the holidays set me a bit behind on that), the contractor doing our new tile kitchen floor had a job cancel so he gave me one day's notice that he was ready to start our job and I hadn't even looked at tile, so that had to be done THAT day, Harrison and I have spent hours and hours sorting pictures for Bar Mitzvah stuff (decorations and slide show montage) and we're almost done but not quite there (we'ver literally gone through thousands of pictures!!!), and just a bunch of other stuff that seems like it has to be done NOW. I try hard to prioritize, but it's hard to do that when everything seems to be top priority!! Mix all that in with trying to work, exercising 2-3 hours a day, and the kids having an extra busy schedule, plus just normal stuff and what do you get? You get OVERWHELMED!

Anyway, I'm doing my best and know that everything will get done at some point! :)

We had some unexpected excitement last sunday at Harrison's basketball game. The game was practically tied and there were two minutes left in the game. harrison stole the ball on the opposing team's side of the court and was running full speed towards his basket. An opponent either tripped or pushed him (accidentally) and he went flying, landing with a huge thud flat on his face. He falls a lot in sports and gets right back up. This time it took a second and when he got up, he was covered with blood. There was soooooooo much blood. All over his face, running down his chest, running down his arm (b/c he was holding his face.) We couldn't even tell what was bleeding and first. Blood all over the floor and everything. I was very good and didn't panic. We calmly put my sweatshirt on his face to stop the bleeding and left the game to head to the ER. Turns out it was a very straightforward cut right on his eyebrow line (which is good, won't scar much) but it was deep - needed SIXTEEN stitches! He was fine by that afternoon and resumed sports again less than a week later.

Speaking of sports, Harrison's sports stuff is keeping us more than busy. Usually he plays one sport at a time with just a little bit of overlap. Well, this year isn't working out quite that way. It's basketball season so he's knee-deep in that with two practices plus one game a week. Then, he was nominated for basketball allstars (nomination goes to the top two players on each team, so an honor!) So he went to those tryouts and we'll see if he makes it. It would be great if he does, but would make the next couple of months even busier, so it wouldn't be a bad thing if he doesn't. His soccer season was supposed to end in November, but they're still going strong and playing in a regional tournament in two weeks. if they win that, they represent our region at teh state level up north! Then, baseball season is starting up, with those try outs last week. They are doing one "coach select" team in his division, where that coach gets to hand pick his whole team first, and then the other coaches do a draft where they alternate picks. He got picked for the coach select team, so his team will be a bit more competitive and will play higher level teams from other cities. A good thing, but just a bit more intense. And THEN, to add to it, he's trying out for the Maccabbi games, which is a huge thing for teen jewish athletes, where they compete against other Jewish teens from all over the world and they stay in "host" homes and there's all kinds of other cool stuff going on. A year and a half ago it was here and we were a host family. He is trying out for basketball and baseball and we'll see which one he makes. Baseball goes to New York, basketball goes to San Francisco.

Anyway, between sports, Bar Mitzvah preparation, band, his mitzvah project and school, he is keeping busy, but is happy and still has time for friends and got his progress report a week ago and has straight A's, so i can't complain.

Jacob and Michela are doing well and are busy as well with school, hanging out with friends, dance and sports. Jacob has a big dance competition coming up the second week of feb. (of course it's the same weekend as Harrison's big soccer playoff tournament, so we'll need to divide up much of that weekend) so he's busy getting ready for that with a lot of extra rehearsals and working hard on his tap solo. Michela is playing basketball and her team is undefeated so far, so that's exciting. She also recently had her softball tryouts and did very well with that. And they're both of course still going to hebrew school and doing youth band and band at school.

Marlon and I are just trying to keep up with everything spinning out of control around us.

There, that's a pretty good update for now. More another time!!! Hope you are all well.

Recap of Last Weekend's Fun Family Camp Retreat, in Photos

2009-01-17T14:39:00.000-08:00

Well, it's a weekend late, but I finally took some time today to post the pictures from our get-away last weekend and will do a "recap" of the weekend mixed in with the pictures, so be sure to go all the way through! We went to Camp Hess Kramer in Malibu with our synagogue for a family camp retreat. My Kids Konnection for February is all about it, so i'll post it as soon as it's published.

And speaking of Kids Konnection, my January article is a doozy! Scandalous and "eyebrow raising." I've received many, many phone calls, emails and questions about it - really got people thinking! I'll give everyone a day or two to read this post and look at all the pictures, then i'll post it. In the meantime, it'll give you something to wonder about!!

Oh, and before I post the pics, as of this past thursday, my total weight loss is 93 pounds!!! Hopefully within two weeks i'll hit 100! woo hoo.

Ok, now for the photos and recap.....

A nice shot of Marlon and I. We were at dinner the first night. All of our meals were served family style in a big dining hall and we enjoyed talking with many different temple friends at each meal. I didn't eat, of course, but everyone said the food was great and it looked and smelled delicious. They were very accommodating in heating up my stuff in the microwave and all that.

This is a shot of Jacob, Michela and a couple of their friends in our cabin. We shared a cabin with 3 other families - about 12 of us in one room and using one bathroom! It was sort of "roughing it", but it made it more fun. At night, when Harrison went to the teen programs, Jacob, Michela and their friends played multi-player DS games, hooking up their DS' with each other, and had great fun!!

Despite all the noise in the cabin until midnight or so, Marlon fell asleep in his bunk by 10 p.m. the first night. Everyone was cracking up at how he could sleep.

Michela and her two best friends from temple brushing teeth

Harrison at the Shabbat service in the outdoor synagogue

Jacob climbing up the ladder to do the 50 ft high "leap of faith" on the ropes course. He didn't make it all the way to the top, but he tried 3 different times and got a bit higher each time. It was really fun because everyone was encouraging each other and it was a huge "team building" experience.

Jacob strapping up

Michela all geared up

Michela climbing up the poll. She didnt' think she could get herself up there, but she did!

There she goes- starting to walk the tightrope. She's FIFTY FEET up! She was so scared, but she did the whole thing. It was so funny because as soon as she got up there, so said, in her very Michela attitude voice, "I could use a little pep talk about now." When no one said anything right away, she said, "Um, now would be good, so who's gonna give me one?"

There she goes - walking across! (sometimes swinging)

Like now, she's sort of just hanging there b/c her foot slipped off the wire!

Jacob almost to the top!

Jacob hanging around!

Harrison just scooted right up, no fear, no hesitation.

Reaching the top of the platform

And there he goes - leaping!

Now he's on the tightrope wire thing, again fairly effortlessly. He's the most adventurous. Jacob and Michela did it, but it took a lot of prodding and encouragment. We were very proud of them, though, and more importantly, they were proud of themselves. Marlon and I, well, lets just say we kept our feet flat on the floor!

There he goes, almost done

A photo of our cabin, nestled in the woods, a good 10 minute walk from the dining hall and locations where all our sessions were held. But I am in so much better physical shape than I was a few years ago, i could so very easily do that walk, whereas last time it was very difficult for me!

In the dining hall

A nice shot of Michela. Doesn't she look pretty with her hair down?

A shot of all the people in our cabin. We got these shirts as a "parting gift." Marlon was amazed when I put it right on. He said in all the years we've been together and all the activities where we've been giving tshirts, he's NEVER known me to actually wear it. That's cuz they never really fit comfortably and now they do!!!!

A nice family shot

Michela and I at the beach. We HIKED (yes, hiked, yes, me!) to the beach twice - once just marlon and i on sat late afternoon and then again with the kids on sunday after the program ended before we went home. it was so beautiful and so fun to hike there.

The boys on the beach

Michela and her friend Shelby. She went with her dad and sister (her mom was sick) but they had to leave sat afternoon, so she stayed with us the rest of the weekend.

The giant menorah at the top of the hill. I'm including this picture so you can see how high up it is because we climbed up to it!!!

Just a nice beach shot

Jacob hiking

All of us hiking

A nice shot of Marlon

During our hike we found this fallen tree to walk across. You can't tell from the picture, but it's actually a pretty decent drop down into a ravine if you fall! Marlon was pretty nervous about the kids walking across it, but they did great.

He did pretty good too...... well, until he needed to drop down and crawl across on his hands and knees. i decided to save him some embarrassment and not put that photo in! :)

Effortless, again, for Harrison! :)

And here we are, having made it to the top of the hill to be at the giant menorah. It was beautiful up there, overlooking the ocean

Very aptly named "inspiration point."

PHOTOS!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-01-06T12:20:00.000-08:00

As promised, here are the photos from the last week of Hanukkah (last week of December), when Marlon's parents were here visiting. These are the best 25 or so of the 110 on my camera! (I guess I take a lot of pictures.) I've even captioned them all for you, so you know what you're looking at. Enjoy them and don't forget to comment!

Our house, all decorated for Hanukkah
A side view

A night view (hard to see our pretty twinkling lights)

Another night view, not the greatest, but you can kind of see the lights

Barbara's mom opening her gifts. Not the greatest pic, but we had to have one of her on here!

Poppy (Bernie) playing poker, which we played as a family every night for 3 or 4 nights when they were out here last week, using the new awesome poker set the kids got for Hanukkah from Patti and Brian

Michela - holding her cards tight to her chest!

Bubbie (Esther) concentrating on her dealing

Marlon always stands up to deal. funny!

Jacob collecting his many winnings. He won often. He's a shark!

Barbara placing a bet

Midnight hanging out on his pillow while we played

Harrison just hates to part with that money!

Ok, this was hilarious. One day we had to take Barbara's mom home on our way to ice skating (that's her walker in the back) and we had an extra couple of kids, so the car was FULL. Poppy rode in the trunk for the 10 minute drive until she got out and freed up a seat.

Yes, he was able to get in and quite easily.

Michela, Jacob and Barbara on the last night of Hanukkah

Bernie, Esther and Marlon, same night

Awww, so sweet!

Harrison with Bernie and Esther, same night

The last night of Hanukkah happened to also be Marlon's birthday! Happy Birthday sweetie. One candle on your freshly baked hot apple pie.

At the Newport Beach Back Bay Nature Preserve - we went "hiking" (well, walking) and the kids enjoyed climbing trees and being in nature

A nice shot of Bernie and Esther

Jacob up in the trees with Marlon

Harrison climbs to the top

Michela needs help down

A nice family shot overlooking the back bay. even Midnight had fun

Weight loss update

2009-01-01T13:51:00.000-08:00

I didn't want this to get "lost in the shuffle" of my long New year's post. I lost 3.6 pounds last week, which was great because I didn't exercise as much because we've been so busy and also my calories have been higher over the holiday season (still "in the box," of course, but using entrees and bars more freely, as we're encouraged to do, to get through all the parties, eating out and special meals!)

Anyway, so grand total to date is.... drumroll please... 85 pounds! It will be 5 months on January 11th.

I have two full months to go and then i'm going to transition to maintenance. If all goes as I hope and expect, I will hit and exceed 100 pounds before I transition, and I hope (and expect!) to be 120 pounds down at the end of the transition period at the beginning of April, which was my original goal. Woo hoooooo!

Now read my new year's post!

Happy New Year - Here's to 2009!

2009-01-01T13:35:00.001-08:00

We would like to wish all of our friends and family (and faithful blog readers, whoever you are!) a Happy, Healthy New Year. May 2009 be a great year for all of us, bringing good health, happy times, success in business and school, peace and safety, and a better economy!

I like to spend some time on New Year's Day reflecting about the year we just finished and thinking positively about the year ahead. Our family used to do formal "resolutions" and share them with each other, but they seemed to always be the same ones, so we sort of stopped doing that. So instead of "resolving" today, i'm more "planning" - revising my on-going and never ending list of things to do - it seems as if I can never get that list down to less than 150 or so things. But, I'm re-energized, re-focused and eager to start tackling the "meat" of the Bar Mitzvah planning (I can't believe it's only 3 months away!), quite a few household projects, some exciting work prospects (Patti and I have some good things brewing and I'm still very hopeful about the law school prospects and I definitely want to turn my writing into more of a career this year!), and continued progress and success with my diet and exercise. (I'm so pleased that I'm well on my way with that and will soon be turning my attention to new ways to cook and live our lives healthfully on maintenance!) For us, 2008 was a great year and I feel very blessed at all the good in our lives, and hope that 2009 will be even better!

I have many pictures on my camera that I hope to download later today or tonight, so you may get two posts in one day. But I didn't want to wait for the pics to wish everyone well today and do an update.

Now for a quick update on what we've been up to. We have had a busy, fun-filled week since I last posted. Marlon's parents came into town on Christmas day and we enjoyed spending time with them without it being the time of dance or musical theater shows or other "big events" or with other family around. It was really nice to just do fun things together. We saw a couple of movies (Marley and Me was great and Marlon and his parents and Harrison enjoyed Valkiyre, while Jacob and Michela and I laughed our way through Four Christmases. ) We went to a couple of our Irvine "outdoor entertainment complexes" and walked around and ate. We took Midnight to the dog park. We walked around and explored the Newport Beach back bay ecological preserve. We took the kids ice skaing. They spent a day with the kids bowling and playing miniature golf. We went to temple . We celebrated Hanukkah every evening, lighting the candles, singing songs and all that. (and of course presents) The kids had friends over to play. We had neighbors over for brunch and spent time with my mom. We celebrated marlon's bday! We played with the kids' new ping pong/air hockey table in our bonus room, and we spent several evenings playing poker with our brand new really, really nice set of poker chips and cards and felt poker table top thing. (both were gifts from Patti and Brian, and were HUGE hits and the kids haven't stopped playing with them!) All in all, very fun times!

Enjoy the rest of your New Year's day and weekend and keep in touch! I'll update again soon with pictures.

Merry Christmas to my friends/family who celebrate it!

2008-12-25T15:07:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to wish everyone who celebrates Christmas a wonderful holiday. I hope that you are all enjoying time with your friends and family.

We are having a great day - getting some projects done around the house, waiting for Marlon's parents to get here from Texas, and then we're going to see Marley and Me, which we've been waiting anxiously for!

More later!

Happy Hanukkah

2008-12-23T00:14:00.000-08:00

PICTURES ARE FIRST, THEN A NEWSY POST ABOUT WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO!

All of the out of town family and friends have been begging me to post a more recent photo since I've lost 80 pounds (as of last week). I've been hesitant to do so because I don't think it shows that much yet and it's just really started to show now, but i've gone ahead and posted a couple of photos here. there were taken about a month ago, on Thanksgiving weekend.

Now for some really recent photos, from TONIGHT! (how's that for quick downloading)

Michela concentrating on playing dreidle.

Marlon and I

Midnight enjoying the toy he got as tonight's gift

Harrison and I watching the dreidle spin. (ignore the messy kitchen in the background!)

Jacob takes his turn

Now Marlon gives it a whirl

One of our groups of friends over for Hanukkah lunch

Happy Hanukkah to all of our friends and family who celebrate it. I hope you're enjoying it so far. We have been busier than usual the last couple of weeks with end of school activities and holiday preparations. The kids (and I!) are all thrilled about their 3 week break, which started last friday. They'll do reading and some extra credit and Harrison has a science fair project to finish up, but not the usual regular daily homework and no rushing in the morning to be out the door by 8 a.m. Yay! And most of their activities stop for a couple of weeks around the holidays, so that's nice and gives us a break.

We've been enjoying things even though we're busy. We've had several parties at our house already and have a couple more to come. Marlon's department party was here was two weeks ago, then we had a party for the kids' jewish (and a few nonjewish) friends last week. they decorated cookies, ate latkes and other snacks, played dreidle and we lit the menorah and sang songs. it was fun. Friday night we went to an annual Christmas party at our neighbor's which was nice. Saturday night we had our chavurah from our synaogue for a hanukkah party at our house (about 8 families) and sunday lunch we had a different group of friends from the temple (harrison's close friends and their families.)

Last night, for the first night of Hanukkah, we went to a community wide event at the Irvine Spectrum. They lit a giant menorah made out of cotton candy and there were jelly donuts to eat and other activities. then the kids rode the ferris wheel and we came home. We lit the menorah ,had our "treat" from the "8 nights of hanukkah" boxes that I fill and read hanukkah books. oh, yeah, and opened presents. Jacob and Michela got new inline skates and Harrison got a football and some football "stuff." Midnight got a bone.

Today was the first real day of break and I worked ALL day on our holiday cards (the photo card with letter that we always send) and am ready to mail them. All 3 kids were at different friends houses for parts of the day and home relaxing the rest of the day. Tonight for hanukkah we lit the candles, read a story, and then played dreidle as a family, which was fun. For a gift, the kids all three got new tennis shoes, which they all needed and Midnight got a toy. not all gifts are big, of course, and i try to be practical. one night they might get new underwear and socks! :) I try to keep the emphasis away from the presents and more on being with friends and our family, but they're normal kids and they like presents.

Tomorrow we're taking our gifts to the family we adopted and that's always a highlight of our holiday season. I bought a TON of stuff for them. I love knowing that we make someone else's holiday so special. For the first time, we're actually going to do more than just drop off the gifts - we're treating the whole family to bowling and pizza. their kids are basically the same ages as ours, so i thought it would be nice.

Harrison's soccer team - the one that I mentioned was undefeated a few weeks ago - is STILL undefeated. they haven't lost a single game, which is almost unheard of. They won the Mayor's Cup and went on to the area tournament. They had 2 games on saturday and won both of them, so now they go on to the larger area tournament (more areas) which is in Feb. in San Diego. If they win that, they go on to the state Championships in Northern Calif. Its been very exciting.

That's all for now. More soon.

I'm back from my blog-cation!

2008-12-12T20:33:00.000-08:00

I'm so sorry, faithful blog readers, that I haven't updated in so long. I've received many phone calls and emails asking if anything was wrong because it's been so long. One sweet friend even left me a voicemail saying "if you ended up stopping the diet because of thanksgiving and are now afraid to tell people, it's okay we all still love you." very sweet.

No, I haven't stopped the diet and things are still going great with that. I think it's been 2 or 3 weeks since I updated on my weight loss progress, so i lost track of what I blogged about it, but as of yesterday, which was exactly 4 months to the day, I've lost a grand total of 75.8! I'm still very pleased with my progress. Didn't cheat even one bite over Thanksgiving weekend or at any of the many holiday parties we've been hosting and attending the past two weeks. I'm still going strong with my swimming and going to the gym three times a week and it's all good.

Others have just been asking "what's wrong? Hope you're all okay." I'm pleased to report that nothing is wrong and we're all totally fine. I'm sorry to have worried so many of you and sorry to have disappointed others with no blog posts.

I've actually just been really, really busy - busier than usual, and just haven't found time to update. And, actually, I was hoping to post pictures from Thanksgiving weekend and was waiting to post until I got them downloaded, but since that has happened yet, I figured I'd just do an update. I should've just done it long ago and not waited for the pics.

Thanksgiving weekend was awesome. We had a great time with my family in Scottsdale. The not eating during Thanksgiving dinner and other weekend meals was fine. I just ate plenty of shakes, entrees and bars and felt satisfied. more or less. :) I was able to get all my exercise in, including lots of extra walks with Midnight (who also had a great time on the trip) although I often had to swim at 10 p.m. in the dark! But the pool was right outside the door of our hotel room, so it was fine. We saw a couple of movies (Twilight is awesome), had our annual family poker tournament every day (Jacob won!), read a lot, and had a nice 4 days of unstructured down time, which we all desperately needed.

Since we got back, it's been hectic. All three kids have had lots of school projects and tests to study for. Harrison and Michela are busy with basketball practices and games and Harrison's soccer team is still going strong, now in area playoffs. They won the Mayor's Cup! And they're STILL undefeated, although they did tie last night. It's been something like over 20 games for them! Jacob is busy with dance and it's a relief to have that West Side Story production over with, although it was fun for him.

Our house is all decorated for Hanukkah - I'll post pics of that when I can. Have to take some first. :) We've already hosted our first big party - Marlon's department's annual holiday potluck. I think there were something like 60-70 people here and it was a big success. No parties this weekend, but a ton coming up next week and weekend.

I'm behind, as usual, on getting out our holiday cards (I'm aiming for monday!) and gift buying (which I'm trying to keep minimal this year.) I hope to get a lot accomplished next week with buying for the family we adopt, teacher gifts, getting the kids' stuff organized, etc. They get out of school on friday for three weeks, so I need to get stuff done before that.

I've been really, really, really busy with work stuff the last two weeks. Not just my regular work with patti, which I'm really trying to get a lot of done before the kids' break, but I also had a research project for another client and I had a big meeting with the Asst Dean and Dean of the new UCI law school to prepare for --I'm trying to get involved on the ground floor of the law school seeking a position planning and coordinting student programs and events and other events like open houses for prospective students, community wide lectures, conferences, symposia, etc . It's not a job that was posted or anything, but one that I approached them about. I spent a ton of time researching what the other area law schools have in the way of this and making notes about program ideas, etc. and then put together a very impressive packet of my newly revised C.V. (which took awhile to do - it hadn't been updated in many years), recommendation letters, tons of writing samples from my Kids Konnection (because that makes me more marketable because I can write promotional literature about the events, publicity, etc.) They were impressed and the meeting went very well. They aren't "there" yet in terms of need and funding (the school doesn't open til next year) but I planted the seed and we agreed that we'll have further discussions soon. It would be my dream job, combining my legal experience with what I love to do (planning and programming events) and it would be such a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor. Who knows, in several years maybe i could work my way up to be Dean of Student Affairs! We discussed possible part time or full time positions or working for them on an independent project basis. We'll see what develops, but we had a great rapport. If it's part time or project work, i can do my other work with Patti too - it'll just make for full-time working, which at some point down the line I'll be ready for. I'm also working on my writing portfolio so that I can seek some additional freelance writing jobs. And I'm trying to figure out how to get those books written.

That's pretty much all that's been going on. So, as you can see, nothing wrong, just really busy with work, normal activities and holiday season stuff.

I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with the kids and Marlon over the holiday break and the plan is to get most of the Bar Mitzvah planning and preparations done this break so that we're ahead of the game. (right now we're a tad behind, but not horribly so.) Harrison's not behind- he's learned his whole Torah portion and is working on his Haftorah.

I will try to post pictures soon. Not tomorrow b/c I have to spend the whole day in traffic school starting at 7 a.m. because I got a ticket for making an illegal turn WHILE talking on my cell phone (against the law now in CA!) "My bad" as they say! I guess the saying is true - "you do the crime, you do the time!"

How are YOU???????? What's up with YOU???????? Feel free to COMMENT about all that. Hint, hint!

USC vs. UCLA Youth Basketball Game

2008-11-24T18:36:00.001-08:00

Allow me to introduce a guest blogger for today, who has something to share....

Hi, this is Harrison, and this is my blog update...

Trojans win! Trojans win! In my basketball teams game opener, it was a battle between the USC Trojans (I'm on that team) and the UCLA Bruins. In practice games the week before, the USC Trojans lost to the Florida Gators 38-23. At the half, that game was 31-1 in the Gators favor, but the Trojans almost came back with some extrordinary defense. For UCLA's practice game, they lost to the Gray Ghosts 30-23. Back to the USC-UCLA game, it was a tight game going into the half, Bruins leading 18-16. During that half, one of our players got hurt, so I had to go in for him for 30 seconds. During that time, I faked out one defender and swooped under another and made a fabulous hook shot. Our other player, Seamus, was eventually fine and ended up with 3 points and 9 rebounds. Once the second half started, our zone defense kicked in and we were stopping their team on every one of their possessions. Also, our passing and give-and-go plays were working great. With about 2 minutes and 30 seconds to play, the game was tied at 26-26. No team could score for about 2 minutes. Finally, with 31 seconds left our team got the ball. Our point guard, Momo, misses a 15 foot jump shot, we get the rebound. That goes on for about 4 tries, then eventually, our small forward Ken hustles to get a nice board with 7 seconds left. He passes it to me, and I take the shot from just in front of the three-point line with 4 seconds left. It's going, going, going... it banks in. With 3 seconds left, the score, USC 28- UCLA 26. I thought the game was over so I untucked my jersey, screaming with joy and power, and all the players come on the court and mobbed me, but the ref says "Game's not over yet". When UCLA inbounded it from their own base line, I was counting down the seconds.. 3,2,1, their player takes a shot from the halfway line, beeeeeeeeep. The buzzer goes off, the basket misses just barely hitting the bottom of the backboard. Now, for real, all the players come off the bench and mob me. It felt great. At the end, I led my team in points(8) and rebounds(10). I also had a steal and an assist. Our team is now in first place with a record of 1 win 0 losses. GO TROJANS!!!!!!!!!!

MAJOR MILESTONE!

2008-11-20T10:51:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty psyched...I hit a major milestone in my weight loss yesterday...I'm finally under 300 pounds! It was a great feeling of accomplishment to see the scale go below that and know that it will NEVER EVER go above that again. I now weigh less than I did when I got pregnant with jacob and Michela! I lost 3.4 yesterday for a grand total of 66. In 14 weeks. Still averaging about 4.7 pounds a week, which is quite good. I've been back to the gym three times since last thursday's class and talk with my educator and the doctor, so i'm back in that regular routine. I'm going to try to go mondays, wednesdays and fridays. It eats up half my day (I work out for about 1 1/2 hrs, but with the driving there, parking, walking in, waiting for machines, chit chatting w/people I know, it's about 2 or 2 1/2 hrs!). But it's an important priority.

Not much else is new here. I'm trying desperately to make head way on my growing list of things to do. Marlon is in New York. We wanted to take the whole family and go, but the timing wasn't right for school. We'll go next time. He'll be gone thru Sunday (left yesterday.)

I did my hotel negotiations for the Bar Mitzvah weekend a couple of days ago and was pleased to see that I haven't lost my touch! I talked one of them down from $179/night to $99/night! In fact, I talked ALL of them down to $99/night. Now we just need to make a choice, which is difficult.

I'll keep this post short and I'll do another one later today or tomorrow with Kids Konnection articles -- I want to give you a chance to read this one first!

I'm hoping to get a lot done with pictures on the computer, too while Marlon is gone!!

Weight Loss News and other updates

2008-11-14T13:21:00.000-08:00

Last night's results at the scale were frustrating again - a mere 1.4 pounds. I know, I know, I shouldn't be discouraged as long as it's going in the right direction, but I just prefer those weeks of 5, 6 or 7 pounds so much more!! Total is 62.6 in just a little over 3 months (I started Aug. 11). I'm also getting a bit tired of not eating and am getting bored with the food. It's getting old. I'm still going strong, though, and don't plan to deviate from my plan, even during the holiday season (others have blatantly said they're going to.)

I had long discussions with my health educator, the doctor and the program director last night, though, and learned some important things. (1) Although my swimming is excellent exercise, I need to get back to the gym. They all stressed the importance of "mixing it up" a little bit and that I need to be doing weight bearing exercise in addition to the swimming. Apparently the weight machines help a lot to speed up your metabolism and they said it's just important to have variety in work out routines. They suggested the gym about 3 days a week and swimming the other days. (2) I expressed concern that their "formula" of predicted weight loss wasn't working for me because the last few weeks it's been much less than my "projected" loss of 5-6 pounds week. If that's correct, then why am I retaining so much water? I even questioned the possibility of do I maybe have some sort of tumor growing inside me that is weighing something and making the weight loss less. (they said that's unlikely!) Actually, what they told me explains a lot, but is disheartening. They said that they've taught us to use a metabolic factor of 11 (for women) in doing our calculations because that is an "average," but that my metabolism is probably much slower due to my genetic make up, my weight, my body fat percentage, etc. They said I should be using 8 or 9 as my number. Major bummer, as that makes a huge difference. Using that factor, my predicted weight loss is 3-4 lbs a week (based o my calorie intake and exercise expended), which makes more sense. At least I have my explanation. There is a test they can do to test the resting metabolic factor, but they don't recommend it right now because it will change as I continue to lose weight. They said I should definitely have it as I near maintencance because that will help determine my calorie budget. (3) I've been taking in the minimum number of shakes and then enjoying entrees and bars for the first time this past week. They said the entrees and bars are fine as supplements, but that I should increase my number of shakes a bit to get more protein because that will boost my metabolism. and, finally (4) despite MY frustrations and disappointment at the scale, they said I'm actually doing really, really well and not only better than most, but better than expected. They expect women to lose 2-4 pounds a week on average after the first couple of weeks and I'm still averaging 4.4 (just not 5.) They said to keep it up, that I'm doing fantasic and I have NOT hit a plateau, even though I was feeling like it. So I'll keep plugging along.

I went to the gym this morning for 1 1/2 hrs today (one hr of cardio, 1/2 hr of weights) so if I do that 3 days a week, hopefully it'll jumpstart me back to more rapid weight loss!!! It felt good to be back and I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in better shape than when I was there last.

Other news:

1) Much of our Texas family has found awesome airfare deals, so prices are coming down. If you're part of our out of town family, now would be a good time to get your tickets!

2) I must be feeling a bit stressed about the Bar Mitzvah planning as I had a horrible nightmare a couple of nights ago. As I was dreaming, I kept telling myself "relax, this has to be a dream," but it felt so real that I wasn't sure. I dreamed that it was the night before the Bar Mitzvah and we were going to temple for the service and NOTHING more had been planned for sat. The menus weren't set, the video montage wasn't done, the decorations weren't done, we had no balloons or anything. Basically everything on my "to do" list wasn't done. Must be stressed out about that list! In my dream I was frantically calling some of you (specifically Sydelle, Teresa and Jane) and telling you what you need to do that very night to get things ready! We also couldn't find Harrison, we were late for the service, Jacob and Michela didn't wear the clothes I laid out for them and Michela's hair was a mess. I guess deep inside I'm a tad stressed!

3) Jacob is LOVING this West Side Story experience. Although his part is small, it's featured at the beginning and the end and he loves being part of the cast with the big kids. They are all soooooo nice to him and make him feel like a part of everything. they're constantly high-fiving him, they hang out in the dressing room when they aren't on stage, they talk about movies, music, dance, theater, etc. and they have even helped him with his homework. the girls all think he's adorable and the boys think he's cool. He even has his own "assistant" to help him with his costumes, remind him when to go on stage, etc. He is so loving this, which is helpful to combat our displeasure at the number of nights he has been there until 10 p.m.! The show starts tonight and there are 8 performances over two weeks.

4) Harrison has been doing his Mitzvah project for a couple of weeks and is really, really enjoying it and finding it rewarding. He goes for an hour or so to this Family Resource Center in an apt building in Santa Ana and works with some kids on their reading.

5) Michela was happy to be nominated for the girls soccer all star team. The evaluation was yesterday. We'll see if she makes it. Even if she doesn't it's a big deal to be nominated. In fact, it would be better if she *doesn't* make it because it will make her too busy with dance, basketball and hebrew.

6) marlon leaves wed for New York. We thought about taking everyone and going too, but it's not a good time because we have so much going on and it's so expensive right now.

That's about it. Be sure to comment!!!!!

Kids Konnection for November 2008

2008-11-08T15:16:00.000-08:00

Hot off the presses, the November issue of Orange County Jewish Life magazine has just come out. I'll start by posting my Kids Konnection column for November. I'll try to post one every day or every other day until I get all the back ones posted. I think I stopped posting them in about June. Then, hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to include them as a sidebar link to this blog and you can click on them when you want to! Or, feel free to go to the magazine's website -- www.ocjewishlife.com -- and you can read the current issue on line or do a search for me and find ALL of my columns!

Kids Konnection: Being Thankful During Uncertain Times by Barbara Boarnet

In these times of economic uncertainty and financial crisis, no one is left untouched.We are affected even if our jobs are secure, because our friends, neighbors or family might not be so lucky. We are affected even if we don’t have much to lose in the stock market, because what the markets do affects so many other things. We are affected even if our bank accounts are at a comfortable level, because everything is more expensive right now. We are affected even if we are not losing our home, because everyone’s home is losing value. Everyone is worried about the state of the economy, and no one is untouched.As we approach Thanksgiving this month, it is hard to feel grateful and appreciative with stress and worry upon us.

But, in my view, there are no times better than tough times to focus on the good in our lives. Even if times are tough, there are many things for which we can be thankful.We can be thankful for our homes. We can and should enjoy the beauty, the comfort, and the security of our homes, not to mention all of our fun gadgets like television, computer, music, and video games.If money is tight and a vacation isn’t in the plans this year, stay home and appreciate the wonderful things that we never have time for like board games, outdoor play, sitting by the fire, and smelling the roses in our garden. Two, we can be thankful for the good health of our families and ourselves. If you are suffering from health issues that are in your power to change, now is an excellent time to concentrate on doing that. Three, we can be thankful for each other: our spouses and children, our parents and grandparents, our extended families, our friends, and our communities. This Thanksgiving is a good time for all of us to remind ourselves to appreciate our families and friends and to show them how grateful we are for their presence in our lives.

We also can incorporate Judaism into our Thanksgiving celebrations to make the holiday even more meaningful and spiritual.Most Jewish families celebrate Thanksgiving the same way that non-Jewish families do. Some historians have proposed that the first Thanksgiving meal was modeled after the pilgrimage festival of Sukkot, which, coincidentally, comes near the time as the secular “fall harvest” holidays. Giving thanks has always been an important part of Judaism, from reciting blessings after meals to thanking God for the creation of the world and our many blessings in it. American Jews are thankful for their acceptance into the safe haven of American society.Thanksgiving presents a perfect opportunity to perform mitzvot, or, good deeds. Giving tzedakah or helping those less fortunate than ourselves is a classic Jewish way to show our appreciation for our own good blessings. Thanksgiving is a perfect time to donate food to an organization that fights hunger, adopt a family, volunteer at a community charity, or invite someone to your home.A second way to add a Jewish element to our Thanksgiving celebration is to treat the Thanksgiving dinner as a festive meal similar to Passover. Saying the Hebrew blessings over the wine and bread and adding some words of Torah, as well as reciting the Birkat HaMazon (prayer of grace after meals), and combining Hebrew songs of thanks after dinner with our traditional American folk songs, all link the holiday to our Jewish heritage and customs. A nice project for the children would be to create a “Thanksgiving Seder Plate,” which could feature objects that signify things for which they are personally thankful.

Yes, times are tough and yes, I, too, am worried about how this financial crisis will affect our lives. But as Thanksgiving approaches, every day I am thankful for the good that we have in our lives, and will welcome the opportunity to incorporate some of these ideas into our Thanksgiving holiday this year to help show my appreciation to God for our many blessings.

Update

2008-11-07T10:51:00.000-08:00

I never did my update about our weekend and now it's time for an update about last night's weight loss. Sorry for the delay. It just gets busy around here. I know you understand.

First, the weight loss. I lost 4 pounds this week for a grand total of just under 62. Everyone is saying how awesome it is -- the health educator, the doctor, the rest of the class, Marlon. So how come I was disappointed with only 4 pounds?! I guess because I was hoping for a bigger week since last week was so low. I have to keep reminding myself to think of that half-full glass! It really is a LOT in not-quite-3 months. (It will be three months next week.) It might also be because I'm getting a little bit sick of it. 3 months is a long time to go without any real food. I've been enjoying "hot vanilla" shakes w/cinamon and nutmeg for breakfast instead of my standard chocolate. But it's getting old. I'm still planning on doing the very low calorie diet until mid Feb, then I'm going to transition into maintenance. So I'm about half way there. Hopefully I will have lost most of my weight that I want to lose by then, but I can still keep losing slowly on maintenance as well, just on regular foods.

Last weekend was a very fun weekend. I didn't do an update about Halloween or post any pictures because, to be honest, we really minimized Halloween and I didn't even take any pictures. We had services at temple and Harrison and Marlon and I went. It was his good friend Matthew's Bar Mitzvah. He, Matthew and Matthew's brother were the only three kids there, though. But he enjoyed it. Jacob and Michela went trick or treating with some friends. I think jacob was a cowboy and Michela was a gangster girl, but i'm not even sure. I told them to find something to wear in their closets! They had fun trick or treating and going to a scary haunted house. (Thanks, Anice, for taking them!)

Saturday was a really, really busy day. It was also a day of being around food -- two cocktail hours with delicious looking passed appetizers and other goodies, two sit down meals, two scrumptious looking desserts, and being gone almost the whole day so I needed to take all my shakes, entrees, etc. I got up early to swim to make sure I got that hour in. Then we had the Bar Mitzvah, which was great. I did the program for them (little booklet to hand out explaining the service and all that) and it came out great and they were very appreciative and now I have a head start on Harrison's. It was a wonderful service and Matthew did awesome. I took Harrison and some of his friends from the service to the party and Marlon took Jacob and Michela in his car. Listening to their conversation about Obama and prop 8 (the gay marriage ban) and the passion and knowledge with which they spoke about both was so wonderful. They were all for Obama and all against Prop 8 (against banning gay marriage) and listening to their passion and way they were able to talk about very adult issues made me know that our country will be fine if these types of kids are our future!

The Bar Mitvah party was really fun. I noticed a benefit to my weight loss and being in better shape - I could dance the day away, unlike before when I couldn't keep up with the hora and fast dancing. Marlon couldn't keep up with ME! Matthew is very into politics so the theme was based on the election and everything was red, white and blue and there were cut outs of all the political figures, which was fun. All the kids had the big Obama cut out dancing with them and they had a great time with that. (that's where those pictures came from). Matthew's mom, Robin, has a button making business and she makes the political buttons and sells them at the national conventions, so she had special buttons made for Matthew and also had a ton of official buttons from the election and things that she had gathered at the democratic and republican conventions like floor passes, Lincoln pennies, etc. Very cool give-a-ways and different from the usual glow necklaces and sunglasses. We all had great patriotic hats and flags and there were political trivia games and all that. Out of the hundred or so people there, I think at least 95 of us were for Obama, so it was great fun. The very few McCain supporters kept quiet!

After the Bar Mitzvah, we dropped the kids off at home and Marlon and I had a wedding on the beach in Laguna Beach for one of the students he advises. It was a beautiful ceremony, then there were cocktails and appeitzers and then a sit down dinner inside this house on the beach. It was very nice and fun to get to know some of the student's aunts and uncles. there was dancing there too, of course.

The kids stayed home alone with Harrison in charge. and you're not going to believe what we did. We had brought 3 of his friends home from the party and they were getting picked up here. They all started begging for them to stay and hang out and watch a movie. Our initial thought was "no way," we're not going to be here. But they're good kids and we trust them and, after talking to them about the parameters of what they could and couldn't do and could and couldn't watch, and talking to the other parents, we said ok. So, basically, harrison was here with his brother and sister and TWO GIRLS! (the 3rd friend, the other boy, had to leave b/c he had too much homework.) They ate warmed dinner in the micro and hung out and watched a movie. As we drove off, Marlon and I almost couldn't believe we were allowing him to stay home with two girls (one of whom I think has a crush on him and he on her) but we trust them and they're all good kids and we figured Jacob and Michela would keep an eye on things. Michela, as sweet as she is, just relishes the opportunity to tattle on her brothers if they do something wrong, so we knew she'd both keep everything in line and tell us if it wasn't! I also checked in by phone every 30 min or so. It all went fine. We did tell Harrison that he should not expect to be left alone in the house with any girls or girlfriends when he's older!!

Sunday was also a great family day. We participated in this Mitzvah Launch at our synagogue. We met at the temple for a big spirit pep rally, then broke off into groups based on the activity we signed up for. There were lots of things to choose from -- writing letters to politicians lobbying for Darfur and other causes, beach clean up, visiting an animal shelter, and a bunch of other opportunities. We chose to go with about 5 other people to a transitional housing shelter in Laguna Beach to prepare and serve lunch for about 30 people. jacob and Michela make decorations for the tables and we made pasta and chocolate chip cookies to take. Others made lasagna, garlic bread and salad. We set it all up and served it. It was very rewarding. The residents were very appreciative. Although they have funding and a staff person does cooking on a regular basis, they really appreciate when others bring food in because then they can use the money for other needs. We decided that we'll bring all of the leftovers from harrison's bar mitzvah and the other parties to this shelter and will keep it in mind for other parties we have.

There was a lunch at the temple afterwards, then we came home and relaxed from a busy weekend!

I'll try to post some of the kids konnection articles and pictures this weekend!

Isn't it GREAT?!

2008-11-05T13:17:00.000-08:00

I know not all of you agree with our politics and supported Obama, but I just had to share how great we all feel in the Boarnet household. Yesterday was exciting and we are all thrilled that we can believe that people can make a difference and that good things are on the horizon for our country. All 5 of us became involved in this election and I was so proud of our kids for being so into it and becoming so aware of the issues and what it all means. Listening to them having political discussions with their friends was amazing. Not just our kids, but so many of the kids with whom they are friends, are passionate about wanting to change the world and do good things. They are all adopting a "yes we can" attitude and it is wonderful to see and hear their enthusiam and passion in their voices. If these kids who we know are our future, then our future is in good hands.

We were going to let the kids stay up as late as necessary for them to wach what we hoped would be Obama's victory speech. Even we were surprised at how early they called the election (one minute after our CA polls closed) and how early in the evening the concession and victory speeches took place. Our kids didn't even have to stay up past their bedtime! It was so exciting to watch history in the making and we all had tears in our eyes and joy in our hearts. The kids found it amazing that in 30 years, their kids will be reading about this election and this era in *their* social studies books and our kids will be able to say that they watched that speech being given and watched our white nation elect its first black president who stands for change and for the real people. Very very amazing.

I'll do another update later on today or tomorrow about our weekend, which was great, and everything else. In the meantime, I just wanted to share how elated we are and wanted to share these pictures!

This is the kids yesterday morning, right before we left the house to vote and then go to school. Everyone got into the spirit and wore red, white and blue.

Marlon with his "buddies."

Harrison and his close friends from temple hanging with our new pres!

Jacob and Michela spending time with our new pres as well!

Gotta look at the glass as half full!

2008-10-31T13:59:00.000-07:00

First, let me give a big Happy Bday shout out to my mother in law, Esther. It's a "big bday" for her today. She's a great woman and a great mother in law (I know some people are stuck with bad ones) and we admire her, love her and appreciate her very much!!! Ok, mom, after that wonderful tribute, now don't be mad that your card/gift is sitting under my planner pad and never got mailed so you'll get it a tad late.... :)

Second, thank you to those faithful readers who check every day for new posts. I know you're out there! I apologize for my lack of posts this week. Time just got away from me. I also apologize that I still haven't posted the photos, videos and Kids Konnection articles -- I'll get to them, I promise, I just don't know when.

Second, let's get the weight loss update out of the way. Nothing extraordinary this week - just 1.2 pounds, but it's better than nothing. It's frustrating when it's slow little after I worked so hard all week on my exercise and haven't had a single bite of food in 11 weeks, but then I remind myself that I'm still averaging about 5 pounds a week, which they say is incredible and that losing faster than that would be bad for my health anyway. So I won't get discouraged and will keep plugging along.

And both of those two things leads me to the real message of today's blog -- I just have to look at the glass as being half full, not half empty, or I'm going to go crazy. With respect to life in general, I am so overwhelmingly busy. I am trying to juggle way too many balls, wearing way too many hats. I'm trying to work significant hours (and have some exciting work projects "in progress" that I hope to share with everyone soon, all related to my work with Patti and our litigation prevention package of services), keep up with our daily household (which in and of itself is a full time job), exercise daily, work on my writing (and have I many ideas for books, articles and other freelance writing work that I just need time to pursue), household projects, and Bar Mitzvah planning. There are so many things on my list of things "to do" that I often feel overwhelmed and discouraged at the end of the day when I realize all of the things that I didn't get to. But then I think about all of the things that I DID get to, all of the things I got done, all of the progress I did make, and that feels good. So, to preserve my sanity, I just have to think of that glass as being half full, not half empty. I'm sure it would be a good motto for everyone and if any of you have any "tips and tricks" about ways to do that, please share a comment!

It applies to the weight loss too. I was a little discouraged that I only lost 1.2 pounds this week. All my hard word, all my depravation and that's all I lost? But then I have to remember that I lost 6.2 last week and I've lost 57.8 in only 11 weeks. And I have all of these news tools and skills that I've learned that will help me keep it off. And although I wouldn't say I "enjoy" not eating, I do very much enjoy the group that I attend and have met some wonderful people there and I enjoy how good it is making me feel that I am losing this weight. So, again, the glass is half full, not half empty! It's all a matter of perspective.

Ok, enough of the philosophical stuff. A few interesting things going on to share:

-Jacob was asked by the UCI Director of Theater and Drama to be the "young Tony" in their upcoming big production of West Side Story. He "heard about him" from someone he knows. It's a big production in the big UCI Barclay theater (where his dance shows are) and runs for 8 shows over two weeks. He doesn't have a speaking part, but the director said he and the young Maria are highly focused and the main parts of the first and last scenes of the show. It'll be fun for him and a good experience and he'll enjoy doing theater with college and graduate students and it might open the door for future opportunities for him and even possible for Harrison and/or Michela. It's all in the month of November, so he'll be a busy boy!

-Michela's soccer season is over. Her team finished first in the regular season, but, unfortunately, because we didn't have enough "referee points" (parents reffing other games), they can't go on to the playoffs. We actually had NO ref points. I was "team mom," so I felt like I did my share, but we, or someone else, should have stepped up to the plate and now the girls are disappointed. We all learned a lesson. We have a fun end of season party coming up Nov. 15th at our house.

--Harrison's soccer team remains undefeated even in playoffs. They're still going strong. I think the coach almost hopes they lose one just to humble them because they're getting pretty cocky. They've won something like 16 games straight. The games are fun to watch.

--Basketball will start for both of them soon.

--Dance is going well for Jacob

--School is going well for all three of them. Report cards come out next week. They all have big projects they're working on.

--Work is good for Marlon, just busy as usual.

--Midnight is a happy boy. The person who stayed with him when we were on our trip invited him to a Halloween party at her work yesterday. Everyone was bringing their dogs so she asked if he could come. When I told Marlon that she called to ask if he was free, he said "of course he's free. He's a dog. He doesn't usually have plans!" Midnight found that whole "he's a dog part" offensive - he doesn't view himself that way. He went to the party and had fun!

--Last be not least, don't forget to vote and give some serious thought to voting for Obama if you aren't already! tuesday should be a very exciting day. We're going to hit the polls early with the kids so they can feel like they're participating (they sure wish they could vote) and then we'll probably let them stay up late to watch the exciting election returns. They're very into it.

That's all for now. I'll try to get all the photos, videos, kids konnections and all that posted soon.

6.2, woo hoo!

2008-10-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

I was very pleased with last night's results at the scale-- 6.2 more pounds down, for a grand total of 56. In 11 weeks. So I'm still averaging about 5 pounds a week, which is awesome. My "core" class (the first 12 weeks) ends Nov. 13th (remember I did two weeks in a different class, so my class is actually on week 9) and I will be transitioning to an "ongoing weight loss" class, which will be basically the same. I'm hoping to still have my health educator and hoping that some of the same people in my class with be in the same class.

Thank you to everyone who has read Marlon's post, and especially those who have commented and emailed. Of course people have differences of opinions and thoughtful discussion and dialog is great.

Have a good day!

Guest Post With Political Commentary -- Why We Support Barack Obama

2008-10-22T00:15:00.001-07:00

Everyone, please welcome my guest blogger, Marlon, with an excellent summary of why we support Barack Obama - and why you should too. Comments welcome, let's get a dialogue going here!

* * *
Election Day is less than two weeks away, but the Obama campaign only has a few days left to determine where to deploy crucial resources. Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania said today that he thinks that state might be closer than the polls show. I just made a donation, to be sure Obama can get his message out.I've been meaning to write and send my own thoughts about why I support Obama, but have not gotten around to that. I offer some brief reasoning below. I encourage you to donate, if you can, or to talk to your friends. Let me outline why I support the Obama-Biden ticket.

Senator Obama has a viable health care plan that will preserve employer-paid health insurance while moving to cover more Americans. Health care is a crisis of fairness and of economic competitiveness, and Obama's approach is a more effective way to make progress. McCain's health care plan will likely reduce the number of Americans covered and will tax employer-paid health benefits for the first time ever. Obama's tax plan will likely need to take cognizance of the coming recession, and I would not be surprised if tax increases (only proposed on income above $250,000) would be delayed. But I agree with the principles of that plan -- to move toward balancing the budget through modest increases in progressive taxation, a tenet of the tax code for a century. This would reverse the Bush tax cuts, which provided large tax breaks to the very wealthy, and would restore top rates to the levels of the 1990s. Obama's response to the current economic crisis is thoughtful, while McCain has admitted that economics is not something that interests him.

The environmental, infrastructure, and security challenge of the next several decades will revolve around reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Normally I am skeptical of large government-led efforts at innovation, preferring market-led growth. Yet Obama's energy plan is correct in its two core philosophies. First, Obama wil put all options on the table, nuclear power included. Tomorrow morning I fly to Washington D.C. for a meeting of a National Academies study committee on Land Use, Vehicle Miles of Travel, and Energy, on which I sit. After more than a year, we are crafting our conclusions and recommendations. One thing is clear: Progress on problems of climate change will require that all options be on the table, but also that some options will deliver more "bang for the buck" than others. The most effective options do not include increased drilling, even if that must be part of an overall strategy. Second, government must play a role in promoting transformative technology, through subsidies that make alternative energy sources economically competitive and through policies that directly address the issue of climate change. These two tenets are central to Obama's approach.

More generally, Obama appears to be dedicated to governing seriously, and if we've learned anything these past eight years it is the perils of anything less than a serious, steady approach to governance. Beyond that, I believe the nation seems ready to leave behind the divisive culture wars of the 1960s and 1970s, and engage in the important business of rebuilding our infrastructure, education system, and uniting as Americans. As someone who came of age in the era of Nixon, when politics pitted American against American, I longed for the sense of earlier eras, when Roosevelts (both), Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy united Americans of differing ideals and perspectives behind a common cause. Political eras tend to last about two generations, and I have hope that the country is turning the page on the politics of division and seeks to work to strengthen our entire country. I know many persons who are much more conservative than I. They love America, they are patriots all, and they care about building a better future for their children. All the things that slightly left-of-center (yea, liberals) like me desire. There is much common ground to be found in a philosphy of pragmatic problem solving. Obama will not work miracles, but he has a leadership approach that I believe is right for this moment.

The U.S. is the greatest country on earth because, at times, we have reshaped our polity in ways that are more supple than any other nation, past or present. Those reshapings have always been from the bottom up, from the strength of citizens seeking to perfect this union, to respond to challenges, or to right past wrongs. Those reshapings of our polity have also been accompanied by leadership that gives voice to that moment. Senator Obama will not be the only leader for this moment, but he is one. Senator McCain has served our country honorably throughout his lifetime, but I believe that Obama is best suited to the challenges of the future.

Watch a video message from Barack and make a contribution to support the campaign's final push:http://my.barackobama.com/page/ic/ya4x3lji7ge9wl/SgFTVAcID1oAHkZcVQBc Better yet,watch this clip of Colin Powell explaining why he will vote for Obama for President.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27265369/

Thanks for reading!

Busier than Usual Weekend

2008-10-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I forgot to post yesterday! I was so busy working and being productive that it completely slipped my mind.

We had a great weekend, but it was busier than even our usual busy weekend. Friday night was the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, so we went to synagogue for services outside in the Sukkah followed by a pizza dinner and the kids hanging out in the youth lounge. Movies at home afterwards rounded out the evening.

Saturday Michela and Harrison's soccer games were at the exact same time, so I went with Michela and Marlon went with Harrison. They both won, Michela's team 5 to 1, Harrison's team 5 to 0. It's a huge bummer, though, because although Michela's team is ranked first among the other teams, they are probably not going to be eligible for the playoffs because they have no "referree points," meaning no parent from the team referreed other games. There was a pizza party for Harrison's team afterwards because it is the end of the regular season, but now they go into playoffs. (they have plenty of ref points.)

Jacob was at dance from 11 to 6, as usual, but enjoyed his day there. he has breaks and all his dance friends are there so they hang out, buy and eat lunch, get Yogurtland, etc. It's a very social place.

Harrison went to an overnight retreat at the temple sat night for the 7th graders. They had a great time doing ice breakers and activities, watching movies, eating, etc. and then got up at 6 a.m the next morning to perform their first of 5 "social action" mitzvah project days, which was helping hand out water at the Lung Asso Walk. I made dinner for Marlon, Jacob and Michela and then we played board games, they practiced their instruments, did some reading and went to bed.

Sunday was an extremely day and I basically shuttled kids back and forth. Jacob and Michela had auditions for the Hip Hop Production Group from 9 to 11. Then they told the kids which ones made it and which ones didn't. There were about 70 trying out and they were taking 36. Jacob made it. Michela didn't. She was fine with that, didn't really expect to make it. Jacob would have been upset, but fortunately he made it. Some of the kids were pretty upset, though and there were lots of tears from those who didn't make it and cheers from those who did.

Jacob was then there for the rest of the day til 6:30 for an all day rehearsal for the group. They had a lunch break where pizza was brought in about 3 p.m and Marlon took over grapes I had bought for the whole group and said "hi" to Jacob.

I took Michela to her basketball evaluations (basketball starts in mid Nov) and then dropped her off at a bday party of one of her friends from school. Then I went home to get Harrison, who Marlon had picked up, and took him to basketball evaluations. He skipped his baseball game b/c he was too tired. We picked up Michela, stopped at the dog park because Midnight deserves some fun, and then went home. After Jacob got home, we had dinner, the kids watched some tv to relax and then went to sleep.

Not much else new . I have been working as much as I can on the work I do with Patti and also have some great ideas for ways to further my career as a writer, I just don't have time to do it all. Bar Mitzvah planning is going slowly, but it's going. I have a pile of paperwork in the office waiting to be filed and several rooms to straighten, but I'm keeping up with the daily exercise and doing the best I can to get everything done in each day! :)

I know I promised to put the Kids Konnection articles up. I'll do that tonight, hopefully. And I have pictures and video still do download. One of these days.....

Money lost, life lessons found!

2008-10-17T13:08:00.001-07:00

I decided to turn the negative situation around to a positive and glean some "life lessons" out of it and turn it into my Kids Konnection column article for the next issue (which will be early Dec. - the November issue is about giving thanks.) I was going to post the article, which I just wrote, here, but that's probably not ok with Orange County Jewish Life to post it before it's published by them, so I'll post it the second it comes out and you can read about the life lessons we've learned from this experience.

In the meantime, here's the basic situation: I had $1200 in an envelope to go to the bank. It was in my tote bag with other "errand" stuff. Somehow it fell out of the bag and out of the car at one of my stops. The envelope and the two checks that were also in it got turned in, but the cash was gone.

So, we're out $1200. A lot of money to lose. Not going to "make or break" us, but not fun. You can imagine how upset Marlon was at first. I, too, was very upset with myself - I should have put the money in my purse.

Of course we need to "recoup" that loss - what message would it give the kids about the value of money if we just let it go without having any negative consequences? So we need to make some cuts that will total up to $1200. Short of taking on a part time job when I can barely handle the work I already have or selling my getting-thinner body, there weren't too many options. I decided to make some budget cuts on things that were mine or for me because, after all, the burden should rest on me since I'm the one who lost the money!

In any case, I certainly learned my lesson and will be much more careful about where I put things. Hopefully whoever found it really needed it to feed their family or something and isn't just greedy.

Rotten day with a capital R

2008-10-16T23:48:00.000-07:00

Well, today was a pretty rotten day. First, I only lost 1.8 pounds this week. I know that some weeks will be lower than others and I've been losing 5-6 pounds a week for at least a month, so I was bound to get a lower week, but it's annoying all the same. My average is still about 5 lbs/week, though, so that's good. I just work so hard at it and am so good about staying in the box that it's frustrating when the results are not as good as I expect.

Second, Jacob didn't make the 2 honor/competition groups that he was hoping to make, so I have to deal with his disappointment. Not the end of the world, I know, but in his world it was important. He is an "apprentice" to those two groups, which means he gets to go to those choreography classes every week and has been doing so for a couple of months, working hard and hoping to become an official member of those two groups. We found out tonight that he's not quite ready to compete at that level, so he should continue to go to them all year (free of charge) but he won't get to ever perform those dances with those two groups. He has lots of other groups, but he had been working hard to try to get in, so it's disappointing to him.

And I saved the best for last and this one is a doosy. I lost $1200 today. No, I don't mean in the stock market or in a missed work opportunity. I mean I really LOST it - cold, hard cash in an envelope on the way to the bank. There then gone. Let me tell you, it is NOT fun to lose $1200. About the only thing I can think of that's worse than losing a large amount of money is telling your husband that you lost a large amount of money. Not fun at all. It's a long story and I've got thoughts in my head of ways to turn it in to my next Kids Konnection article, so I'm going to write it up and then will post it so you'll see the whole story. I can tell you this - it was carelessness on my part and totally my fault. Although I'd love to blame someone or something else - and I did go through that - it was my fault and I'll deal with the consequences (there's a plan for that too - I'll elaborate later.)

Anyway, I'm going to bed now before the day gets any worse.

Unwelcome Excitement Last Night, Weekend Update

2008-10-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

First, I am very behind on posting the video and photos I have for you, plus I have a ton of new video to download from the birthday party this weekend, so I'll really try to get to that early this week. (Don't worry - I'll only put a few short video clips on the blog.)

Second, I am so, so, so far behind on posting my Kids Konnection articles from Orange County Jewish Life. I will do a post about that tomorrow (FOR SURE) with links to the various articles. I haven't posted the ones from June, July, Aug., Sept or Oct and I really love for people to read them and I know many of you enjoy reading them.

Third, we had some unwanted excitement last night - we were in a car accident. We're all fine. It was just Harrison, Michela, Midnight and I. We were driving to Harrison's soccer practice. (Marlon was picking Jacob up at dance in his own car.) We were at a complete stop, waiting to turn left into the soccer field parking lot, signal on, and this idiot ran right into us. He told the police "I just didn't see her." How could he not? Anyway, apparently the motorcyclist behind him couldn't stop in time, so he ran into him and flew off his bike. So although we weren't hurt and there isn't THAT much damage to our car, it was a pretty significant accident. I called 911 and within minutes we had three police cars, an ambulance and a fire truck there. The guy was ok, just banged up a bit. They treated him at the scene and of course we had to do all the witness statements, etc. The police officers said that the liability will be on the guy who hit me, the other two of us didn't do anything wrong. The police officer walked harrison across the street to his soccer practice and Michela and I stayed for all the cop stuff. She was a bit shaken up by it, but we're all fine. Now we just have to get the car bumper repaired....

Finally, a quick weekend recap. Friday night was Jacob and Michela's bday party and it was great. Kids are still talking about it and saying it was the best party they've ever been to. We had this guy who owns this company called The Game Squad come with huge screens that he set up for Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Wii and Dance Dance Revolution. The kids had so much fun for two hours. There were about 35 kids here. Marlon and I even got into the action and I got the highest score of the night on Rock Band vocals singing Eye of the Tiger. Woo hoo! After the video games, they watched a movie and had dessert. It was a "ten's" theme because Jacob and Michela turned 10 and the party was on 10/10/08, ending at 10 p.m. We had 10 things on the dinner buffet and 10 toppings on the frozen yogurt bar. All in all, the night was a TEN! :)

Saturday Harrison's soccer game was great - closer than usual, which made it more exciting. They still won 3-2, and are still the only undefeated team in Irvine. Michela's game was also exciting - they won 7 to 1 and Michela made one of the goals. Jacob didn't have dance this sat b/c the choreographers are all in New York previewing costumes, so he and Michela had a whole-afternoon-long playdate at a friend's house.

A friend from temple gave us her elyptical machine because she wants to turn that room into something else and it was taking up space. We got it saturday afternoon and it's in our bedroom. The whole family has been using it. I use it about 5-6 times a day, but only in 5 minute increments because that's about all I can do at one time. It's tough. But the time adds up to a lot of calories burned. And I can do it naked if I want! :)

Sat night Harrison went to hang out with friends and the rest of us were just home, playing board games.

Sun. we were at temple all morning from 8:30 to 2:30. Jacob and Michela had private instrument lessons with the band director and Harrison did homework while I did some actual work on my laptop. Then, while the kids were in religious school from 10:30 to 12:30, there was a meeting about Bar and Bat Mitzvah dates for Jacob and Michela's year (can you believe that?! We haven't even had Harrison's yet!) and a study session with the Rabbi about Israel. Then I worked some more while Harrison was at youth group and Jacob and Michela were at youth band rehearsal.

In the late afternoon, we went to Harrison's baseball game, then out to dinner at the Elephant Bar with a good friend of harrison's from the team and his parents.

The kids went back to school yesterday -- yay, I get my life back! I love having them home on break and spending time with them, but it's hard to get things done, so it's nice when they go back.

That's all for now. Check back tomorrow for the articles!

Reflective Yom Kippur, weight loss, and other things

2008-10-10T08:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, as most of you know, was Yom Kippur. We spent the evening before and most of the day yesterday in synagogue and really enjoyed our services. The melodies that the cantor and adult choir chant and sing are so beautiful and the prayers of repentence, hope, and reverence that the Rabbi leads us in and that we say responsively are so meaningful when you really read them and think about them. I grew up in a conservative synagogue with "old style" prayer books and the special Yom Kippur prayers where you ask God to forgive you for your sins were so archaic. I don't remember them exactly, but I know the words didn't make sense in modern times. The more prayer book that we use has *real* sins that we all commit today and in modern language that we can all understand, even the kids. I was very proud of our children - our services are long (about 2 1/2 hrs each) and, at their age, they are expected to sit quietly in shul with their parents, not attend special children's program like they did through 3rd grade or play on the playground like their many orthodox friends do at their services (I figured out awhile ago that that is why they love to go to the two nearby Orthodox shuls with their schoolfriends.) I also expected them to fully participate this year, reciting the prayers they know, trying to read along with the hebrew ones they don't know by heart (they can all read hebrew fluently now), reading the English responsive prayers. I was very proud that Harrison participated fully and completely without any prodding (and even fasted all day!) and Jacob and Michela only needed a few pokes and reminders.

The Rabbi's sermon's words were also motivating and inspiring and made us think about how we can be better people in the coming year. Wed night he talked about how important it is to be kind to people, not only strangers (by practicing random acts of kindness) but especially those we love because when times are tough (as they are right now with the financial crisis) the ones we love the most are the ones to whom we tend to be less kind. Yesterday he talked about labeling and how we all tend to label people unnecessarily and how hurtful that is.

Even though it was a holiday, I went to my weight loss class last night because that is my highest priority right now and I'm not letting anything interfere with it. I lost another 4.4 pounds, which was great because I didn't exercise as much. So my total is 48 pounds, which is amazing for only 2 months. I'm still averaging 5-6 pounds a week, about .7 pounds a day! At this rate, I'll certainly reach my February goal! I'm glad I went because the information was very important and practical for maintenance.

Then I joined the family at our friend's the Varkels (she's the caterer for Harrison's whole Bar Mitzvah weekend) for a break-the-fast get together. They all said the food was great (I didn't eat it, of course), the kids played, and we enjoyed meeting new people and having great conversation.

Looking forward to the upcoming weekend with the beach today, Jacob and Michela's 10's bday party this evening (it's 10/10!), soccer games tomorrow, some playdates this weekend, hebrew school and youth group on sunday and then Harrison's baseball game sun afternoon. Around and in between all that I need to straighten up the house, write an article for the magazine I write for, handle some correspondence and paperwork, do a few hours of work-work, and get organized for the week ahead - the kids go back to school so I can go back to being even more productive and boy do I have a lot on my "to do" list! (And hopefully I'll remember to download that video from last week!)

Have a great weekend - what are YOU up to? How was YOUR Yom Kippur? (Feel free to comment.... I love it when you do!)

NEWSFLASH.....

2008-10-06T14:25:00.001-07:00

This just in... as of 1/2 hour ago... my doctor said that everything is significantly better and... I CAN SWIM AGAIN! I'm very excited - never been this excited about exercise before. I've really missed my swimming all week.

There's only one spot on the back of one thigh that he still wants to keep an eye on, but he said if I promise to put hydrogen peroxide on it right after swimming (like the second I get out of the pool) and promise not to go in the hot tub (which has even more germs), then it's ok.

Great weekend

2008-10-06T11:49:00.000-07:00

I seem to be in a pattern of updating on mondays and thursdays, so I figured it was as good a time as any to do a post right now. Jacob and Michela are at a writing workshop with several of their friends this week - just Mon, Tues and Wed for 1 1/2 hrs each time. They're writing their own mystery stories. Harrison is working on an extra credit project for social studies. I must admit, he's not self motivated to do all the extra credit work that he does. Let's just say it's "highly encouraged" by me. I'm trying to instill in him the DESIRE to want to do all the extra credit, but right now it's very much that I tell him he should do it. Once he gets into a project, he enjoys it, but he doesn't always take the initiative.

We had a great weekend of just normal activities, but nice family time. Friday night was family services at temple and all three kids played in the youth band. I took some video snippets so hopefully I can post that tomorrow. It was a nice service and we enjoy talking to our temple friends after services and the kids hang out in the youth lounge, which is a privilege for the 4th-12th graders.

Saturday Harrison had his soccer game and it was the battle of the undefeated teams and his team won 5 to 0, so that was great and very exciting. After their 5th goal, the ref came over to the coach and said something like "enough's enough, have the kids pull back." They DID pull back and didn't play hard after that, but the other team still couldn't score. Michela also had her game and they won SIX to 0. Michela got one of the goals and was an integral part of several of the others, so lot's of good soccer fun.

Jacob was at dance for his usual 6 hours on saturday. He loves being there, though, and it is a very social place. He hangs out during his couple of breaks with all his dance friends and says there isn't any place he'd rather be. I feel bad that he spends so much time there at the studio, but he really and truly loves it there and is as happy as he can be.

Harrison had a friend over sat afternoon/evening and they hung out and played and then we all had dinner together when Jacob got home. I made a nice dinner of lasagna with homemade fresh bread and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Both were extremely difficult to handle and smell, but I did it. I feel like I can't deprive the family completely. :) After dinner, we played some board games, then we watched College Road Trip which was a great movie even though it was rated G (and our kids tend not to like G movies anymore.) I highly recommend it, even for adults. Very funny.

Sunday, the kids had hebrew school and then youth band rehearsal. Then we had a Chavurah (small friendship group from temple) event at a nearby park, which was really low key and fun. The adults talked and ate and the kids played soccer and on the playground. There are a lot of kids in the group so they were able to have a full soccer game and one of the dads who coaches a team had pennes and cones in his car, so they had a real game going!

When we got back, Jacob and Michela rode bikes with their friend Gaby who lives on our street, ended up at her house, got invited to stay for dinner and didn't come home until 10:30 p.m. (remember, we're still on break!) Harrison and Marlon enjoyed watching the Angels/Red Sox game that went on for hours. I decided that it would be a good opportunity to work, so I worked for about 4 or 5 hours, even though it was a sunday evening!

That's about all that's new. I'll post the video tomorrow and then another update on Thursday. Thanks for checking in and let me know what's going on with YOU.

Scary incident, but great scale results

2008-10-02T21:56:00.000-07:00

I had my regular Thursday weight loss class tonight. The good news is that I'm down another 5 pounds for a total of 43.8 in 52 days, so I'm still averaging almost a pound a day and about 5-6 pounds a week, which is fantastic. I'm very, very pleased with my progress. I was worried about this week because my exercise was down due to the infections (see previous post). I'm hoping to get back into my exercise in the next day or two.

I'm thoroughly enjoying my daily entree. The food is actually really, really good. Seriously. Everything is made with natural ingredients and is tasty. They are actually pretty filling even though they are small, or maybe that's because my stomach has shrunk. One entree and a cup of soup at dinner leaves me quite full. Having something to actually eat (besides the oatmeal which I still love) and some variety has made a world of difference.

Ok, now for the scary incident. I got stuck in the elevator tonight going up to my class. I've never gotten stuck in an elevator before and it was really scary. I was with two other people from my class, so I'm glad I wasnt' alone. One of them was the loudmouth guy with the strange personality (remember him?) and he was so calm and reassuring -- go figure the one with the attitude turns out to be a hero! It was completely pitch black, I mean you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, and the phone didn't work. I was on the verge of total panic, but he reassured me that they knew we were in there, they were getting help, we wouldn't run out of air and it would be fine. He said, "let's just sit down and tell ghost stories." After about 10 minutes, the lights came on and the elevator shot down to the basement, but still nothing happened. We pushed "door open" but nothing. I suggested that we push the "basement" button since that's where it said we were and the door opened. We had to walk up 2 extra flights of stairs to get where we were going (should've taken the stairs in the first place, but I was carrying a heavy bag!) and then we were ok. NOT a fun experience.

On other news, we had a nice Rosh Hashanah holiday this week. The kids are enjoying their break. Jacob and Michela have been enjoying a cooking camp in the mornings (except not Rosh Hashanah) with their friends and lots of playdates. Harrison has hung out some with his friends, is doing some extra credit and hanging around. We've also been doing some Bar Mitzvah stuff and he finalized a plan for his Mitzvah project, which is exciting. He's going to be helping underprivileged elementary kids with their reading at a place called The Family Resource Center in Santa Ana. He's going to go once a week for about an hour. There are other things he's thinking of incorporating into the project as well, like fundraising to be able to provide the funds to send one of the kids he works with to summer camp.

That's all for now!

Hazards of all my exercise

2008-09-29T17:03:00.001-07:00

Well looks like all that exercise has a downside.... I've developed several spots of staph infection (the resistant kind) on the backs of my legs way up high near the top where my bathing suit and underwear elastic goes on my legs and in some other nearby places. They are very painful and really, really horrible to look at. (good thing no one else can see them!) I went to the dr. today (I first noticed them on saturday) and he said it's because of all of my increased exercise. He said that the rubbing and friction of my bathing suit when I swim, my underwear when I walk and do the elyptical and the pressure/friction of the bicycle seat at the gym caused "hot spots" where my skin was sore and then bacteria got in them from all the sweating I do and possibly also from germs at the gym and germs in the pool. The fact that I spend 80% of my time in gym clothes or a bathing suit isn't good because those fabrics don't let enough air through and being overweight also contributes to the problem, of course.

Maybe I'll have to get an exercise video and do it naked at home so nothing is rubbing against anything!

So, now I'm on heavy duty does of antibiotic again and no swimming or any kind of exercise that puts pressure on those areas until they heal, probably a couple of weeks.

I'm pretty upset about it. I tried negotiating with the dr. to at least allow me to swim but he was pretty firm that if I didn't take care of these, then he have to put me in the hospital for IV antibiotics. Apparently these resistant staff infections can be pretty serious. It's possible that the ones on my legs were a result of spreading from the finger infection, but he doesn't know.

He said I can still take walks as long as I wear loose fitting clothes that don't rub or cause friction, but I'm bummed because walking burns the least amount of calories for me and is the least favorite. I don't mind a short walk a day with Midnight, but to burn the amount of calories I burn when I swim, I'd have to walk for 2 1/2 to 3 hrs and I'm not able to do that, either physically or time wise. I guess I can still go to the gym, but no bike and he said to sit on a towel on the weight machines because of the germs.

Who would have thought that all the increased exercise would have such a negative consequence. Exercise is supposed to be good for you, not cause these kinds of problems! I'm quite frustrated (and very uncomfortable - it hurts to sit!)

Good things aplenty tonight!

2008-09-25T23:55:00.001-07:00

I lost another 6 pounds this week, for a grand total of 38.8 pounds in about 6 1/2 weeks. I'm quite pleased. We all have to write our "stats" on the board like how many shakes we had each week, how many exercise calories burned, how many days in the box, etc. Tonight, since it was week 4 (but remember I did 1 1/2 weeks in the prior class), we had to put our 4 week weight loss. Mine was the second highest and was only 1 pound less than this one guy. That was nice to see!

People are starting to notice and mention it to me, so that's also nice. And here's a great thing - I noticed something tonight that was really positive reinforcement. Most of you would never notice that the seats at some movie theaters are larger than the seats at others. (Generally the newer theaters have larger seats and the ability to raise the arm rests.) Unfortunately I do notice these things because some of our local theaters are downright uncomfortable with the arm rests pressing into my legs. One of these theaters was the one I was going to this evening with a few fellow mom friends from school.

Well, guess what? My butt fits noticeably better into the seats at that theater, which last time was quite uncomfortable. A very nice surprise and made an already excellent movie (The Women) and fun night out with friends even better!

But it gets better yet. When I bought my ticket, the guy at the window said "$5.50." I said "huh? Isn't it $10?" and He said "well, yes, technically it is, but I accidentally pushed the button from the kids price so instead of voiding it, I figured I'd do something nice for you and charge you less." That was nice.

But it gets better yet. After the movie (which, did I mention, was EXCELLENT?), we went next door to Peets Coffee for a hot beverage. I asked the guy working which herbal tea he recommended and he told me his choice. He asked if I wanted it as a tea bag or loose tea, so I asked what he recommended and he told me and I said that would be great. When I tried to pay, he wouldn't take my money he just smiled and said "this one's on me." But when my friends bought their tea, he took their money! Must have been my lucky night. I hope he didn't think I was flirting with him. :)

Anyway, it's midnight and I just got home so I better see what needs attending to in the house. It was a great night out and I'm very pleased with my progress.

We've been enjoying the kids' break and getting some projects done around the house and relaxing.

I hit 5000!

2008-09-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

Very exciting news, folks. Our P.A. (physical activity, calories burned from exercise) goal for each week is 2000 P.A. calories. As I've mentioned, I've been closer to 4,000 because I've been exercising so much. (Some people in my class don't event meet that 2,000 goal, although one or two consistently do over 6,000 and one was a 9,000 last week.) This week I set a personal goal for myself to hit 5,000 and I did it! Woo hoo! I've been swimming an hour almost every day, which burns 900 calories, and yesterday I did an hour and a half. Add to that a day or two at the gym (instead of swimming) and some walks with Midnight (in addition to swimming) and I got to 5,000 fairly easily.

We'll see tomorrow how it affects my results at the scale!

I think I might make my goal 7,000 for this coming week. That would be 1,000 a day, which is do-able if I don't miss a day of swimming. We'll see - that might be a bit too optimistic.

Weekend Recap

2008-09-21T22:39:00.001-07:00

Harrison at his soccer game. It was a great game, with his team winning 2-1. Harrison had two great quarters as goalie, preventing all goals from the other side and sacrificing his body to do it. He took a pretty good hit in the head that stunned him for a minute, but he was ok. He also did great on offense for two quarters and scored one of the two goals.
Michela had a great soccer game yesterday too. This is her scoring a goal. She scored the winning goal and her team also won 2-1.

Jacob had his usual saturday of dance, dance, dance, but he loves it. He went to the studio early to do some drop in classes (he's unlimited so he can go whenever he wants) and was there from 9-6. We all met him there for an hour lunch break from 1-2.

Friday night we just hung out at home and I went for a long swim. Last night Jacob and Michela and I went to a play to watch two of their good friends (but one was sick and wasn't in it afterall) and Harrison went to a youth group event.

Today all 3 kids had hebrew school and youth band and Jacob and Michela had a youth group event for their youth group. Marlon and I went to the gym together this morning. The kids and I played soccer in the park this afternoon and also threw tennis balls for Midnight so he could play too. Then we came home and played some board games.

Tonight Jacob and Michela went to dinner at my mom's and spent the night there with her. Harrison hung out with some friends at one of their houses. Marlon and I decided to go see a movie -- My Best Friend's Girl -- which was not that great but was a little bit funny.

That's about it. Low key and mellow weekend, but good family fun. I have a zillion things on my to-do list for this week, so let's see how productive I can be.

How was YOUR weekend?

Progress continues and other stuff

2008-09-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

Just got back from weight loss class -- down 4.6 more for a total of 32.2. In 5.5 weeks, so that's pretty good! (although I do like those 6 and 7 pound weeks better!) Everything is going good with it. In fact, my health educator gave me the "go ahead" to start entrees. A couple of people in the class started them already. I'm going to wait one more week (mostly b/c I had already bought my shakes and didn't want to stand in line again) and then have one entree every day. Yippee! Lasagna, pasta and chili, here I come! (all in portion controlled low fat little packages, of course.)

Tomorrow is the last day of school before our fall break. We aren't going out of town because we travelled enough over the summer to last for awhile. We're just going to hang out, I will continue to exercise and to work (I've been trying to increase my working time) while the kids play, ride bikes and have playdates and we'll work in some swimming, beach time, museums, movies and the like. We're re-doing Jacob and Michela's bedrooms, so that's a good project, and we have some cleaning out to do of the garage, playroom, etc. A huge project is going to be to go through all of the various photographs that we just have in boxes and organize them. That will take HOURS. We need photographs for the Bar Mitzvah slide show, etc., and I want to get back into scrapbooking. So, don't be surprised if you get a whole envelope of pictures of your kids from the last several years!

I also want to make sure everyone does a lot of reading and some extra writing, Harrison is doing a science fair project for extra credit and some extra credit social studies projects and Jacob and Michela are taking a writing workshop with some of their friends. I may sign them all up for a 3 day cooking class as well and it's also the Jewish holidays.

Please send good thoughts to my sister and brother in law (Nicole and Darren) and their kids. They live in Houston and have been uprooted due to Hurricane Ike. Their house is fine and they are fine, but they have no power so they were at a hotel and are now at my inlaws, but it's been hard, Darren needs to get back to work, the kids want to get back to school since it had just started and they love it, and I think Nicole has had enough and really wants to get back into their normal routine.

Lastly, I LOVE my new laptop computer. It has so many neat programs and I've been spending time getting up to speed on how to use them, organizing files and so forth.

Just checking in

2008-09-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how quickly the time flies by...it's already Tuesday. I see from my sitemeter reports that many people check the blog every day. That's so exciting - I love that I've generated such interest. And I'm sorry that I haven't posted new posts as often as you check - I know when I check my friends' and families' blogs it's disappointed when it's the same post day after day. I'll try to be better! :)

One interesting thing that is new is that we tried out a new babysitter this weekend -- Harrison! He has been staying alone for awhile now and staying with Jacob and Michela during the day, but not at night. We decided that he's getting too old to have a babysitter -- the babysitters that we used to use when the kids were all little were in middle school, 7th and 8th grade. As they got older, we continued to use them, so they were highschoolers, but now they have busy social lives on weekends. So, what are we to do? Go back to middle schoolers? Let's see... a 7th or 8th grader? Well, um, yeah, that would be a DATE for Harrison. So, it's time for him to be the babysitter. We tried it out sat night when we went to a party at a neighbor's house not too far away and it went great. Jacob and Michela respected him and listened and in return he didn't boss them around. They all know what to do if there are emergencies. So we'll save some money too and the kids really enjoyed the privilege of staying home alone together.

I had a two nice compliments this week. One was at the gym on sunday morning. A guy who I used to see there all the time when I used to go two years ago was there and he noticed and remembered me. He said it was so great to see me back because he had wondered long ago where I had gone and if I was ok. He said that my smile lights up the room. Isn't that sweet?! Marlon better watch out! Just kidding - he's like 60 or something. But it definitely made my day. That and the fact that I could do my 10 minutes on the eyptical trainer without feeling like I'm dying. Oh, and I increased my mph on the treadmill! I'm definitely noticing that I'm in better shape. Then today, at the pool, after I finished my full hour of laps, this guy who was also there (relaxing by the pool, not swimming) said "wow, you're an incredible swimmer." Yeah, right. Incredible? Even Jacob and Michela beat me across the pool hands down. But I CAN sustain my swimming for an hour without problem, so I guess that's pretty good. And I do burn 900 calories when I swim an hour, so that's really good! The compliment was nice anyhow.

So, as you can see, the exercise is going well. The diet is too - I'm pretty used to it now and it's just routine. I'm hoping for another good week at the scale, but, if not, I know the week after will be good.

Aside from that, not much else is new. We had a great weekend of normal weekend activities -- soccer games, baseball games, dance classes, hebrew school, some playdates, etc. Harrison had fun at the school dance on friday night and Jacob and Michela and I and two of their friends (and one other mom) went to see the sing-a-long version of Mamma Mia, which was really fun!

I'll update again on Thursday after my weight loss class! Have a good couple of days and don't forget to comment and let me know what YOU'RE up to!

Much better week at the scale!

2008-09-11T23:27:00.000-07:00

I didn't have to take a sledehammer to the scale at my weight loss meeting tonight. I swear if I had another week of no weight loss, I would have! But I lost 6.8 pounds, so I'm much happier. And that's real fat pounds lost because my ankles and feet are STILL swollen. So I'm still retaining water. So the good news is that another week I should lose a lot again because at some point all this water retention will go away. The bad news is that, well, I'm still retaining water, which is annoying.

I saw my own Dr. yesterday for a follow up to my finger infection (which is still red) and he said not to worry about it (the water retention OR the finger!) He thinks it's my body's way of adjusting to either the diet itself or the huge reduction of calories. Eventually it should go away. The dr. at the weight loss place seemed to agree.

In the meantime, I'm trying to drink even more water (I'm drowning over here), keep my feet up and swim a lot.

Anyway, it's a total of 28 point something in 5 weeks, so an average of 5.5 or so pounds a week. I'll take it! :)

Not much else new. I wrote about all the new stuff on Tuesday. marlon is still gone but comes home tomorrow night. We're all well and good.

Living Up to Our Name

2008-09-09T23:22:00.000-07:00

We're back in the full swing of activities, so we're living up to our name the BUSY Boarnet's. It's been hectic around here with dance starting back up (Jacob dances mondays, tuesdays, one hour on wed, thursdays and saturdays. Michela just on mondays, tuesdays and thursdays), hebrew school starting (sundays for all three kids, wednesdays for Jacob and Michela, Tuesdays for Harrison), soccer (practice mondays for Michela, mondays and wednesdays for Harrison, then games for both on saturdays), youth band (for all three sunday after hebrew school), etc. It's hard to keep it all straight, much less get to it all!

Harrison was going to play fall baseball, as he usually does to keep his skills up, but he's decided to take a break from baseball and try water polo instead. It's a smart move in my opinion. Although he plays rec soccer and basketball in addition to baseball, water polo is an excellent sport for high school and he may decide he likes it. Plus, fall baseball games are on sundays and it just makes our sundays so hectic with hebrew school and youth band and many of the games conflict with hebrew school anyway. This way they can go to hebrew school and youth band from 10:30 to 1:30, then we can have family time in the afternoon to do things like go to the beach, go to a museum, etc. It's much better. Esp since our saturdays are crazy with two soccer games and all of Jacob's dance.

Marlon is out of town this whole week (Monday to friday) which always makes things tougher because I don't have anyone to help get the kids everywhere they need to be. For example, Jacob and Michela had dance monday and then had to come with me to Harrison's soccer game, so they had to do their homework and eat at the soccer field. It works, but it's better when there's two of us here so they could have stayed home. I can't even fathom how my divorced friends handle it. But the ones I'm thinking of only have one child, so at least they don't have to juggle multiple activities.

I've been enjoying the new Beverly Hills 90210. That was my all time favorite show back then. I watched the 2 hr season premiere that I taped this afternoon while I sorted laundry and then watched tonight's episode live. So far I don't think the show is as good as the original, but it's entertaining enough to watch.

There are so many things on my "to do" list that I'm feeling very overwhelmed. You know I get that way sometimes. I'm so far behind on work, household stuff, Bar Mitzvah planning, etc. But at least Jacob and Michela's bday party is planned and taken care of.

I'm heading up a new Middle School Task Force committee at school to design and implement ways to enhance the extra curricular and social aspects of our middle school. We are a small middle school (being K-8) which has definite advantages but some disadvantages. The committee members have a TON of energy, enthusiasm and ideas and I'm looking forward to working with them.

The diet is going well. I haven't gone out of the box at all, even when I picked up burgers and fries for the kids at In and Out and had to drive with them sitting next to me on the front seat while I took them home! I've been around food and preparing food more than most people on the program so I'm proud of how I can just "tune it out." It just goes to show that when I'm eating again, I don't have to eat everything in sight. :) I'm still retaining some water in my ankles, though, so I'm worried about what the scale will say in two days. My dr. said fluid retention from salt takes awhile (like a couple of weeks) to go away and be patient. I'm drowning in all the water I'm drinking, I'm swimming a ton and I'm putting my feet up like they suggested. Short of hanging upside down (which I may actually try tomorrow!) there isn't much else I can do. If I have a week where I don't lose anything again, I swear I'll take a sledgehammer to that stupid scale!

Ok, well, gotta go now. More on Thursday after my group!

P.S. Addendum to Last Post

2008-09-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all the great comments and the emails you sent after the last post. I love the support and feedback. Keep the comments coming! :)

Several of you expressed curiousity, via email, about the "loudmouth" in my class who was going to eat his heart out all weekend. People wondered if he came back. Yes, he was back. Yes, he proudly told us that he ate all weekend. He started the shakes on the Tues after Labor Day, so just a couple of days ago. He had less of an attitude last night, so that's good, but he still asks a ton of questions and makes some pretty strange comments. I actually feel kind of sorry for the guy in a way -- he waited til his wife (who is also on the program) left the room to go to the bathroom (so obviously something he's hiding from her) and then asked our health educator how to handle the withdrawal from alcohol symptoms. I guess he was wondering if anyone else had that problem. He shared that he was used to having 4-5 drinks a day and it's been hard the last two days not to have that and could he cut out the alcohol gradually. Sounds like he needs a different program in addition to this one!

The Good and the Bad

2008-09-04T22:21:00.000-07:00

There's good stuff that happened today and then there's not-so-good. To start off on a positive note, Happy 10th Birthday to Jacob and Michela! It's hard to believe that 10 years ago today they were born and we became a family of five. They are sweet, funny, sensitive, smart, insightful, talented, loving and amazing kids and we are so lucky to have them in our lives. They give us joy and laughter every day.

They had a pretty good bday, considering it was a school day. I took them a special lunch at lunch time, then I brought choc chip cookie ice cream sandwiches for them to hand out to their class at the end of the day. Then tonight we went to Ruby's for dinner.

They are having an amazing party on Oct. 10th. It's a "TEN's" party. They are turning 10. The party is on the 10th day of the 10th month. It ends at 10 p.m. Everyone will get 10 small items in their goodie bags. They are doing 10 different activities. Their dinner will be 10 food items. There will be 10 toppings on the ice cream bar. A guy who brings these huge screens and sets up Wii game systems, other games, Dance, Dance Revolution, Kareoke, etc. will be coming with all of his stuff and the kids will have a blast!(We're sort of trying him out as a vendor for the cocktail party at the Bar Mitzvah).

The other good thing is that I'm typing this blog entry on my new, fully loaded Dell Inspiron laptop computer. The computer consultant was here all day tues and today getting it set up and getting me going. It's an amazing machine and can do everything! And I mean everything. I have more cool software than I ever thought of. I have so many wonderful programs on it, but now I need to figure out how to work them all. Patti bought it for me to use to do my work for her and I'm looking forward to putting it to great use for that as well as putting it to good personal use.

Ok, now the bad news. Not really bad, but disappointing. and very annoying. I didn't lose ANYTHING this week. I stayed exactly the same. My ankles are very swollen, which indicates I'm retaining water. I can see and feel it. So I knew I wasn't going to lose as much, but I thought I'd at least lose a pound or two! They said I probably have 3-6 pounds of fluid - mostly due to the increase in sodium intake (the bullions they told me to take), the high humidity and the fact that it's hot. They said I'll probably just lose more next week and that the water retention would correct itself. I'm trying not to be discouraged because what's important is the average weight loss and one isolated week doesn't matter, but when you don't eat anything and don't cheat, you expect to get good results! It was a good week from all other respects, though -- emotionally, staying in the box, doing a lot of exercise, etc.

That's all for now. Let me know what you've been up to!

Weekend Recap - Fun times!

2008-09-01T23:55:00.000-07:00

It's late so I should be going to sleep, but I thought I'd do a quick update now because I'm working all day tomorrow (our computer consultant is coming to get me going on my new laptop!) and I know I won't have time to post.

We had a mellow but great long weekend. I was pleased with myself that I got through quite a few difficult food challenges without going out of the box!

Friday night we had a dinner reception at synagogue before services, with foods from "Around the World" with several area caterers presenting their specialities. We (Marlon and I and the kids) were in charge of the juice bar, which involved buying a million different kinds of juices, setting up the bar, and being the bartenders during the hour long food reception. It was fun (we did it last year too and I enjoyed creating different "mocktails" with the juices) and it kept me from being too upset about not eating, although the room smelled so good. I did torture myself a little bit (I have no idea why!) because I walked around to see what everyone was serving and it all looked so good. That was hard! So I quickly scurried back to the safety of the bar, where I could sip my 5 calorie glass of Minute Maid Limeade and not think about the food I was missing. The musical service with the special "Friday Night Live" band was incredible and it was a great evening.

Saturday Harrison and I had a good two hour session at the gym, and, aside from that, we just hung around at home much of the day. The kids all have big science tests this week, so I quizzed them and we just did stuff at home. In the afternoon we went to the pool and met up with some friends there and had an impromptu pizza dinner at the pool (another food challenge, but I just had my shake and ignored the pizza.) The two boys of one family (Harrison's good friend Chasen and his brother Colt) ended up spending the night at our house, which was fun for the kids.

Sunday morning Jacob and Michela each had hour long instrument lessons with our youth band director at temple, then we went to the temple family picnic at the park. Tons of food around, so again, another food challenge, but I just talked to people and ignored the table of goodies. It is certainly teaching me that I can have fun at these various kinds of events without eating everything! When I'm off of this diet, I'll be thrilled just to be able to munch on the vegetables and fruits - forget about the chips and dips! The kids played all the games and activities, Marlon and I talked, and even Midnight had a great time because everyone wanted to pet him. He's such a good dog that we can take him to things like that and he's not wild or difficult. he just hangs out by our feet.

After re-grouping at home, doing some more studying, etc., we decided to go to Laguna Beach around 4 p.m. Marlon watched the kids in the water (they did their boogie boards and played in the waves, etc.) and Midnight and I took an hour walk on the walkway. It was so great. It was really, really nice to have a change of scenery for my walking and what better place than the beach. And there were tons of people with dogs there, of course, so Midnight enjoyed quite a few "meet and greet" sniffs! By the time we were done walking, everyone was hungry, so we ate a picnic dinner on blankets on the grass. (I love Laguna Beach because it has a grassy area where we set up our stuff so everything doesn't get all sandy.) I had packed my chicken soup in a thermos and it stayed warm and was quite tasty. The rest of the family had a tuna salad and a pasta salad that I made, plus cheese and crackers, yogurts, fruit, etc. After we were done eating, it was after 6, so Midnight was allowed to go down to the water (between Memorial Day and Labor Day dogs are allowed on the beach after 6. Now that it's after Labor Day, they can be there anytime.) He LOVED the water, which was great because last time we tried going down to the water he didn't want anything to do with it and was freaked out. This time he kept splashing around and jumping the waves. It was so cute and he had so much fun and of course the kids had fun jumping around with him. The only negative is that the car is such a mess from all the sand everyone trekked into it!

We stayed up way too late after the kids went to bed working on the list for the Bar Mitzvah. It was agonizing because we had to cut people that we really wanted to invite. You all know me - I love to throw a good party and want to include *everyone.* But, unfortunately, space, budget constraints and a large amount of extended family make it impossible to include everyone we'd like and Marlon took to the list with a red pen like a slasher with an ax! (I know he had to keep me in check :) We stayed up til 1 a.m. going over it together, negotiating and discussing, and then I was up until at least 3 because I couldn't fall asleep because I was still thinking about it!

Then, amusingly, we both had strange dreams about the Bar Mitzvah and the guests. Marlon's was the best - he dreamed that a couple of our close friends were the waiters at the party!

Today Jacob had a private dance lesson, then we went to the JCC for their Labor Day pool party, which was fun. They had a bar-b-que and lots of water games and activities. (Another food challenge because it smelled so good, but I got through it.) I was even able to sneak upstairs to the gym for a workout, not as long of one as usual, but something.

Tonight we had dinner at home, studied a bit more for the science tests, did some reading, watched a little tv and then the kids went to bed. Marlon and I watched "It Happened in Vegas" (cute movie) and he's already in bed and I had better get up there too!

I hope you had a great weekend too. Tell me about it!

New Class has some Real Characters

2008-08-29T00:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, my new class (thursday instead of wed) has some real interesting characters in it. I think it's in my best interest to just do what I've been doing and not pick up any bad habits -- or attitudes! There was this one guy who was quite a bit larger than I am. He must have weighed at least 400 pounds! When our health educator was talking about exercise and how we should be aiming for 300 P.A. (physical activity) calories burned per day to meet our minimum of 2000 per week, he said, "ok, so if I work out really hard and long and burn 600 instead of 300 calories a day, can I have 300 more calories of food?" She said "you can always have an extra shake, cereal, soup, pudding or even entree if you feel hungry or feel that you need it. You don't have to exercise extra for that." He said "no, I mean can I have 300 calories worth of *real* food, not this stuff?" The answer is, of course, NO. That would be going out of the box. I'm sure he'll be finding a way to circumvent the system.

Then there was this "know it all," loudmouth guy. You know the type. I guess there always has to be one of them. Our educator told the class that they could wait and start the diet on Monday or Tuesday if they had plans this weekend (this is a new class - they're all just starting except for me). He said "YES, I was hoping you'd say that, I'm just not ready to starve myself on this prisioner's diet." She said that it's best not to think about it in that way and we certainly should not let ourselves feel like we're starving, we should take enough shakes to make sure we feel fill. Then he said, "well, I'm going to eat all weekend like there's no tomorrow. Kind of like the last supper, but I'm going to have about 10 last suppers." She really cautioned everyone against that because then they'd just gain weight and have more to lose.

Oh, and guess what?! I had 3 bits of lasagna tonight. And boy was it good. And no, I didn't go out of the box. They always give everyone a little taste of one of the products, so this time it was a lasagna entree. I wasn't sure I should take one of the little taste cups, but when I asked her, she said of course I should, the entrees are part of the plan and I can have that. She even told me later that I could incorporate the entrees now, but I'm going to wait a little bit.

Anyway, it was a very sucessful week again.... exactly 5 more pounds lost for a total of 21.2. Not bad for less than three weeks! (remember I started the shakes on the monday after I started the classes.)

Not much else is new. Worked all day today on work-work, which was good. Jacob and Michela have a big science test coming up. Harrison went to a friend's Bar Mitzvah and party this evening and had a great time.

Enjoy the holiday weekend and I'll write again next week.

Happy Birthday to Some Special People

2008-08-28T12:13:00.000-07:00

A few pictures, then the text is below. I'll update about the weight loss plan tomorrow because I go tonight. I also have photos and video to upload from the weekend, but I'll probably wait and do that early next week in case I take photos and video THIS weekend!

I just wanted to wish a very happy Birthday this month to three special people -- my mom, Shirley, turned 84 on Aug. 16th, my grandmother-in-law, Loyce (we all call her Meme), turned 92 last week, and.... drumroll please... my father in law, Bernie, turns the big 7 -- 0 -- today! (Today is also my nephew Daniel's 2nd bday, so happy bday to Daniel too.)

Unfortunately we didn't see Meme on her birthday, but we thought about her a lot.

For my mom's bday, we all went to dinner at her place (the family and some of her friends), I took a cake, and we celebrated there. They also had a luau at her place this past weekend and they wished her a happy bday at that.

My father in law is actually here in California on business this week, so we were able to see him a couple of nights ago to celebrate his birthday. For his gift, I gave him a goodie bag of treats to enjoy at his hotel (fresh fruit, nuts, low cal cookies, etc.) which he appreciated because the restaurant there shuts down for lunch (huh? why shut down for lunch!) and he doesn't have anyplace to grab a quick bite to eat, and then we gave him seventy $1 bills, which I had fun wrapping in about 7 different layers and which he had fun opening.

Great Weekend - Recap!

2008-08-24T21:29:00.000-07:00

We had a great and fun filled weekend. I'll try to post a couple of pictures tomorrow. First of all, last week was goal setting/conference week at school, so every day was early dismissal and there was no school on thursday. It felt like an extra week of summer. We relaxed a lot and spent a lot of time at the pool with friends.

Friday night we went out to dinner just us and Midnight. Then we came home, put the car back in the garage, and then took a walk together to our nearby shopping center for ice cream cones (not me, of course... I did the walking, but not the eating!) Then, after we walked back, we all watched a rented movie called Bye Bye Love, about these divorced families and the dads all had the kids for the weekend. It had funny moments, but it was also a bit sad and made us all glad that we're not a divorced family because we know it can be so tough!

Saturday we went to a bbq/luau at my mom's senior living place. It was festively decorated and they had coconut bowling and Polynesian dancer entertainment so it was fun. Then, we all went to the JCC gym, where Marlon, Harrison and I worked out (and Jacob and Michela just hung out and were kind of bored.) It was my first day at the gym in about 2 years. I did about 20 minutes of cardio (on the bike, elyptical trainer and treadmill) and then weight machines. It felt great. My health educator told us that we should be lifting weights 2-3 days/week to build more muscle because muscle helps speed up your metabolism and helps you burn the fat. Harrison has been certified by a trainer so he can go anytime he wants and often walks over after school (it's just down the street from our school.) Sat night we had a going away/graduation party for our neighbor across the street who is going to Stoneybrooke, so we went to wish her well and hang out.

Today was also a fun filled day. I slept in and lounged in bed reading. I don't usually allow myself such luxuries, but I kind of feel like since I'm not getting to eat and I'm totally deprived in that area, I can indulge myself in other "treats." Then we had a fun pool party/bbq with our Chavurah from temple. The kids swam and we talked. I would have LOVED to have swam too, but the dr. said no swimming for another week because of my dumb finger infection. No adults were swimming, though, so I wasn't left out or anything. There was a ton of food, of course, but I ate my oatmeal and a couple of shakes throughout the day and it was ok. (not the easiest thing to do, but ok.)

Harrison went straight to baseball tryouts for fall ball for Irvine Pony. He MAY try out for another travel ball club team (he quit his last year when it got too busy with Pony and other things) but he may not because he wants to concentrate on his Bar Mitzvah prep and he'll be going to more Bar and Bat Mitzvahs this year which could conflict a lot with weekend tournaments.

After that, we re-grouped and then we went to the highlight of the weekend- a Summer Sunday concert in the nearby park. The band this time was our neighbor and good friend Josh Schreiber's band that does a tribute to Bruce Springsteen. He's the lead guitarist and singer. We went with several neighbor families and we sat right in front, so it was super super loud. (Marlon and a couple of the other husbands actually had to go stand/sit on the side because it was too loud.) I worried that Midnight would have a heart attack from all the noise and excitement, but he had a ball. (there were a lot of dogs there.) I swear the way he was wiggling around I think he was trying to dance! It was a two hour concert and about halfway through we were all on our feet dancing. It was SO much fun. The best time we've had in a long time. I took some pictures and some video and I'll post them tomorrow. He is really talented and it was such a fun evening with many good friends. Everyone took picnic dinners to eat before the concert, but I had a shake before I left, so I just drank a diet root beer.

I'm very proud of how well I handled the weekend with so much food around. It's a little bit tough to watch everyone eat and smell the food, but I just keep telling myself that these fast results are so worth it and it's only temporary and nothing tastes as good as it will feel to be thinner!

Bye for now!

Pancake - yum!

2008-08-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

Guess what?! I just had a pancake. Really. And I'm not "out of the box." On the internet, I found an HMR clinic in Atlanta with a ton of recipes for ways to turn the shake packets into pancakes, "chips," cookies, brownies, etc. I asked my leader if it was ok and she said it was fine, although cautioned me that it won't have the volume a shake has, so it won't fill me up as much. Since I'm having trouble getting all of my shakes in, I decided to try one of these recipes, figuring it's kind of just "extra."

This one was made by mixing one vanilla packet with 3 oz of diet ginger ale and cooking in a pan sprayed with no calorie pam (I use a natural spray called "pure mazola" which is no calories.) You cook it just like a pancake and it looked like a pancake.

It tasted ok. Not the greatest and certainly not like a regular pancake. But not terrible either. And it was pretty big. The best part was that I ate it on a PLATE with a FORK. The first time in 2 weeks! Woo hoo.

I'm also really enjoying my oatmeal a couple of times a day. It's filling and tasty.

So this week has been going very well. Emotionally I'm in a much better place and am much more positive. It hasn't been as hard. We even went out to dinner last night. I had my soup, a pudding and a bowl of ice.

I'll post again tomorrow to tell you about our fun weekend -- we've had several social things and we all went to the JCC gym today!

We're off to a graduation/going away party for a neighbor who is going to college next week... I just had to post about my pancake! :)

8.4 pounds lost this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-20T21:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read that correctly. On top of last week's 7,8, this week I lost 8.4 for a grand total of 16.2 so far. In 2 weeks! That's how much I thought I'd lose the first month -- between 16 and 20. I was extremely surprised. I was hoping for 3 or 4!! I know it won't be like that every week, but I'll definitely take the weeks that are, especially since it felt like such a tough week emotionally (even though I never once went "out of the box.")

We can introduce the oatmeal now, so I'm going to have a nice bowl of it when I'm done typing this. It is REAL oatmeal with REAL apples, cranberries and currants - I'm so excited.

My health educator and the program dr. both gave me the "ok" to add one of the meal replacement entrees at dinner if I want to, since thye know I'm having some trouble in the late afternoon/early evening. There are about 20 to choose from, so that will be nice variety. I'm going to hold off a bit, though, so I have something to look forward to (maybe 2 or 3 more weeks.)

Next week I'm switching to a new group that will be on Thursdays b/c that just works better w/our family schedule (Marlon teaches Wed evening and the kids have hebrew school.) I hope I like the educator as much as this one and the other people in the class!

Michela has been going on a bike ride with me while I do my evening walk. She enjoys it, but gives me a hard time when she hears me singing loudly to my ipod. I guess b/c she can only hear me and not the music. Other people probably think it's odd, too, but I don't really care! :) Actually it's HER ipod and her music is much better for walking. Surprisingly, Hannah Montana has a good beat for walking. I really need to figure out what purse or totebag mine is in. Incidentally, Midnight is LOVING all the extra walks we're taking.

Gotta go eat my yummy oatmeal now (I've tasted it at class - it's good!).

I'm feeling much more positive now than when I posted before, but keep those good thoughts coming b/c it really, really helps!

Just checking in

2008-08-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted, but I actually haven't really been able to type easily because I got some infection in my fingernail bed and it was *really* painful so I went to the Dr. and he sent me to the ER to have it surgically drained and put me on major high doses of antibiotics, which upset my stomach and made it hard to have my shakes because I was so nauseated and bloated and had no appetite. He reduced the dose now that I've had it a few days, so hopefully I'll feel better. I was taking 2 pills three times a day of sulfa, which is a lot!

The weight loss plan (I hate calling it a diet) is going "ok." I'm still sticking to it diligently, but it's harder than I thought it would be and *way* harder than it was last time. I'm not physically hungry, but psychologically I'm kind of a mess. I'm already totally bored with the shakes and miss eating regular food. I keep getting these panicky feelings that I just can't do it, but I keep doing it, so I guess I CAN do it. The whole finger saga hasn't helped. But I'm taking it one day at a time, trying to divert myself by taking a walk when it gets too stressful, and thing like that. My original plan of 6 months on this just seems so daunting. I guess that's why the program is a 3 month program! (For those who stay on it longer, they just repeat the program.) We'll see how I feel about it in 3 months (actually 3 months from Aug. 28th b/c I'm switching to that new group starting Aug. 28th) but I think I may try the modified version after 3 months, which is less shakes and adds 2 of their entrees a day plus unlimited fruits and veggies. It's a LCD (low calorie diet) vs a VLCD (very low calorie diet.) I'd still lose consistently but not quite as rapidly, but thst might be fine if it's easier to sustain! We'll see....

A big thank you to Maxine and Carrie for the meals they sent over. It helped more than you can imagine b/c it's really hard for me to prepare dinner, as that's my worst time. They smelled so good I had to leave the house, and the family said they were delicious!

Other news....

Harrison got his Bar Mitzvah study materials, his Torah portion and all that and started his weekly tutorin w/the cantor. Really makes it more real and seem so soon! He got a GREAT story of the bible, so he's excited. The kid before him got leprosy, so Harrison got lucky. I'm not sure he wants everyone to know until his d'var torah (speech interpreting the torah reading) so I won't say what it is. School is going good for him and he's anxiously awaiting the start of fall baseball season.

Michela was disappointed b/c she didn't make the "fall select" competitive softball team. Her coach had pretty much said she would and she made All Stars, so it came as a surprise. She took it well, though, and I got her on a soccer team even though we missed the sign ups (b/c we weren't going to do it.) She is loving playing the flute and is happy in the new classroom.

Jacob loves his teacher and is happy with playing the trumpet. He sounds like a sick cow when he practices, but he's getting better. He was very excited b/c he was invited into 2 honor groups for the dance competition season (in addition to his regular competition group) and also asked to be in a tap trio and to do a tap solo which is a big deal! He was a bit disappointed b/c he's one of 4 "apprentices" to the higher level of competition groups and one person made it in already but they said he's just not ready yet technique-wise. They want him attending that group every week b/c it's beneficial to him to dance with them to get to that level, but it may turn out that he never gets to perform those dances, which is hard, but I think he understands. At least we don't have to pay for those classes (2 hrs/week).

Marlon is fine and has been very helpful around the house with meal prep, etc. so I can't ask for anything more!

As for me, aside from being totally focused on this diet, there's not much. I'm trying to keep up with household stuff like bills and all that and trying to work and really am behind in Bar Mitzvah planning and lots of other things! :)

I'll update thursday after I have my Wed. night weight loss class. I had such a big loss last week that it might be a lot less, but hopefully I'll see *some* positive results for this torture I've had all week!

Update!

2008-08-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

Judging from the phone calls and emails I've been getting, I know everyone is anxiously awaiting an update from me on how the weight loss program is going! Again, I really appreciate the interest everyone is taking and the support everyone is showing - it makes it a lot easier.

It's going really, really well. I'm off to a fantastic start and I'm sure that will make a huge difference in how successful I am long term. It's hard to decide which to write about first -- my success in my efforts and how I'm doing from the standpoint of sticking to it, exercising, feeling positive emotionally, etc. OR the bottom line success at the scale. Of course they go hand in hand and success at the efforts should equate to success at the scale, but this is a long process and I want to make sure that my focus is more on the process rather than the end result. So you'll have to wait to the end of this post for that! :)

Anyway, it's been three full days. The three days that they said would be the hardest. I haven't deviated from the plan, of course. But I don't anticipate deviating at all, so that's a given. A few people in my group tonight said that they couldn't help themselves and had some food because it was so hard. Overall, it hasn't been that difficult for me. I get hungry around dinner time, but I don't know if that's real physical hunger or more psychological hunger. It's actually really, really difficult to not eat, but I'm so determined and positive that I'm doing ok. I have been able to successfully make meals for the family and go grocery shopping. Marlon has been helping out a ton, but he's not always here. he's handling most of the dinners, but he was late getting home last night, so I started getting it ready. I'm just separating myself from it in my mind and distancing myself from it. I haven't been tempted to eat anything that I've been preparing or that we have in the house. I do, however, have some really weird cravings. I would love a big juicy hamburger or some scrambled eggs or a plate of refried beans and rice. Those aren't necessarily even my favorite foods, just what I'm craving!

It's hard at night, after the kids go to bed. That's when I used to enjoy a nice snack, while relaxing with a book. So now I stay upstairs after they go to bed. Probably better anyway, I'm going to sleep about an hour earlier.

Physically so far I feel fine. Not tired, no headache. Just normal. Energized, actually.

The shakes themselves are actually quite good and satisfying. They gave us tips on ways we can add variety, such as adding extracts, sugar free jello, sugar free instant pudding, etc. I thrive on variety, so I bought a bunch of that stuff at the store and have been trying out different things. Sometimes (esp when I'm on the go) I just mix it up in a shaker cup like chocolate milk and it's tasty. Otherwise I use the blender to make a more milkshake consistence. I made a really delicious "mocha" this morning in the blender by using half chocolate, half vanilla and adding a tsp of decaf coffee. I also had a good "root beer float" yesterday by making a vanilla shake with a diet root beer. The shakes are really, really good as puddings, and can be mixed with instant pudding to make all kinds of varieties. I have the chicken soup broth once or twice a day for something more savory and warm. When I feel the need to crunch, I eat some ice. The kids are very into it and want to taste it every way I make it. It won't hurt them, so I'm letting them so they can feel involved. We can actually buy the product for friends and family and they said it's fine for kids - makes a very nutritious breakfast on the go, so I may let them have them once in awhile. The main reason I don't want to do that often is because it's actually pretty darn expensive!!!

I've been doing awesome on the exercise. I've been keeping up with my daily swim and have added a 30 minute walk with Midnight every morning. I'm going to gradually increase the swimming time and add a second walk. I love the walks - I crank up the ipod pretty loud (it gets me going) and off I go. If anyone knows any good fast paced upbeat music that's good for power walking, let me know b/c I need to add more songs to the ipod.

Marlon's knees have been bothering him, so he decided to try swimming with me today. He was exhausted after 15 minutes (I go for 30-45) and decided he has a new respect for it because it's harder than it looks. It'll be fun to swim together. I appreciate all the offers to go walking together, but please don't take offense if I say no. I like to have my own pace and I don't like to talk and walk - I really just want to have my music loud and spend time with Midnight. (I bet I'll trade being overweight for being hard of hearing b/c I like the music so loud!)

We're supposed to keep daily records of our shakes, blood sugars, blood pressure, amount of water drank, exercise, etc. and show them to the dr and our health coach. They were impressed and both said they've never seen such detailed summary sheets turned in as mine were. I guess they don't know me very well yet! :)

So as you can see, it's going really, really well. Once I got in my mind to do this, I became so excited and motivated and now that I'm into it, I have this inexplicable inner peaceful feeling like I know I'm doing the right thing and this is the right time and the right plan. Of course I probably should have done it years ago, but I had to be in the right mindset to do it and maybe I just wasnt' there a few years ago. Anyway, I'm doing it now and that's what matters.

Ok, so ready for the "bottom line," the numbers on the scale? Before I tell you don't get too excited. I'm sure a lot of it is water weight. It will fluctuate from week to week and every week will be different and you always lose a lot at first with any diet. Still, I was quite pleased with my number at the scale because I've only been doing the fasting since Monday, so that's just a couple of days, not a whole week. I lost 7.8 pounds! So, yes, I'm off to a great start!

Nothing major is going on in other respects. This has been the focus this week. Everyone else is fine and school is going great.

Thanks so much and weekend recap

2008-08-10T22:16:00.000-07:00

First off, I want to thank everyone so much for all the support. There were so many positive comments on this blog and triple that number of emails people sent me with an encouraging word, an offer to do anything they can to help, and very kind and complimentary words. It was just what I needed to get me started on this journey so thank you so very much! Several of you have said I'm provided needed inspiration for you to get started making positive changes in your life as well, whether it be diet or exercise or other things. One of you said you'll be making a positive change to give up your own candy as a show of support (and said it was quite a big deal for you!) Many of you have offered to prepare meals for the family (thanks, they'll take it!), one of you even offered to drive to Anaheim (2o minutes away) to get me ice from the only Sonic we know is near here! (Apparently they have the best tasting ice.) Anyway, it's wonderful to have such a great network of support, not just from my own immediate family who is being extremely supportive, but also from all of you extended people! With everyone rooting for me, there's no way I won't succeeed. I start the shakes tomorrow, so I'll keep you posted!

Everything else is status quo We enjoyed a nice weekend at home after so many weekends away. This was Harrison's first weekend at home all summer. The kids had friday off from school and Jacob and Michela enjoyed a fun swimming birthday party of a good friend, while Harrison spent the day at one of his good friend's who will be Bar Mitzvahed in a couple of weeks. Friday night we were there at Angel Stadium to watch the Angels beat the Yankees big time (always a pleasure!) Saturday was another pool party for a family moving to Baltimore and Sat night we just went out to dinner and watched a movie at home. Today was low key. Jacob and Michela, who just started their band instruments at school (flute for Michela, trumpet for Jacob) had private lessons with the synagogue youth band director so they can get a "head start" and be ready to play when youth band starts. They all had some homework. We went out for breakfast. Marlon and Harrison worked out at the gym. We went to the pool. Then, tonight, Jacob and I went to the big end of the season party for dance (for the younger dancers and their moms.) Put a group of 50 dancers in a room with a good DJ and boy do you have a party. It was great fun for them!

Until next time....

Ready to share my news

2008-08-07T10:11:00.001-07:00

I'm now ready to share my news. I've really enjoyed the guessing that everyone's been doing. The most common guess, by far, was that I'm pregnant. The one that made me chuckle the most, though, was when one friend asked if I was going undercover for the FBI or CIA. Marlon's reply to those that guessed I was starting a new full time job was "wouldn't *that* be nice?!"

Anyway, it's probably not going to be nearly as exiting or interesting to all of you, but since it's something big that will be going on in our lives and since I'm asking for the support of my friends and family (emotionally and, in some cases for you locals, more practically), I thought it was important to share.

It's no secret to anyone that I have some significant weight to lose. Now that I'm 42, it's really important that I do this for my health to prevent major problems which I know will be lurking around the corner if I don't do something. Regular weight loss programs like Weight Watchers and watching calories, fats and carbs, etc. have been a little bit successful for me over the years for the short term, but when you have so much to lose, those slower methods are difficult and hard to sustain. I feel very confident that eating plans such as those will be very beneficial to me as a form of maintenance of the weight loss, but I need something a bit more drastic to get the weight off.

So, I've decided to go on the UCI medically supervised very-low-calorie fasting diet. It's a rapid form of weight loss, which you can only do under strict medical superivision with weekly doctor appts, blood work every two weeks, frequent EKG's and other monitoring, in addition to two- hour weekly group sessions that provide nutrition and exercise education, behavior modification and group support, as well as regular phone calls with my health educator/weight loss coach. It's a very intense and closely supervised program. My "eating plan" will consist solely of the special shakes (chocolate and vanilla) and the special chicken broth and special oatmeal, plus non-calorie beverages (I'm going to be aiming for lots of varieties of teas and diet sodas in addition to 64 oz of water a day.) I'll continue to do my daily swimming (although I'm planning on going back to a full hour a day instead of 30 minutes) and I'm going to add half hour morning and nightly walks with Midnight. The increased exerise (that will be 2 hrs a day on average!) should really help me lose quite rapidly, which is why they monitor you so closely.

Many of you know that I've done this program before - about 18 years ago when I was in law school, a couple of years before I met Marlon. I was extremely successful on the program and lost 140 pounds in about 6 months. (It's very, very rapid - I'm hoping and expecting to lose about 3-6 pounds a week, which will be about 20 pounds a month). I got down too low that time, so I gained a bit back right away, but then sustained the weight loss very well until the two pregnancies, which became my "license to eat," and I gained it all back and then some over the last 15 years.

I'm excited about this and very motivated to be successful. I never went "out of the box" (their expression for staying on your boxes of shake packets and not eating any real food during the program) and I plan to be as dedicated to it this time. It will be harder, though, I'm sure, because the other time I was in law school and living at home and had no one to care for but myself. Now I have to grocery shop, prepare meals for a family, sit down for dinner with my family, and attend far more social functions than I did then, which have you ever noticed they all revolve around food?! :)

Here's where all of you come in... I will welcome and can definitely use your support! Emotionally, especially, because this is a hard thing to do! But also, for those of you that live here, please don't forget about us and think that we shouldn't be invited to things just because I'm not eating. The rest of the family will still be eating and I will still enjoy a normal social lifestyle -- I'll be happy to join you with a bowl of ice to munch on! Just please don't be offended if I don't offer to help in the kitchen or if I don't offer to bring an elaborate dish to a potluck. Sign me up for the paper products or something I can pick up easily at the store!

If you're some of those friends that love to cook (you know who you are!) or enjoy helping out a friend in need, I'm sure Marlon and the kids would love an occasional home cooked meal! Marlon's going to do what he can to help (he's EXTREMELY supportive of this) and I will be making the basic tried and true very simple and easy to prepare dinners, but if anyone feels like bringing us a meal now and then, the family would be grateful!!

Jewish friends, I'm not going be making Shabbat dinners for awhile or cooking for the Jewish high holidays or Hanukkah. We'd love to be invited to join you for your holiday celebrations this year!

You all know we love to have people over, especially around the Hanukkah season. Rather than never having anyone come over, I'll just be making everything potluck and asking others to bring stuff and handle the "kitchen duty." I know you'll understand because you're all such great friends!

I officially started with my first session last night, although as motivated as I was to go off food and start my shakes this morning, my health educator/coach suggested that I (and most of the group) wait until Monday. She said it's difficult to start right before a weekend and if you have social plans, it's not the best time to start because the first 3-5 days are very difficult as your body adjusts to the very low amount of calories (it's 500-1000 calories a day, which is much lower than what most people are used to.) After the initial period, it's not hard, but those first few days are tough and she said it's better to do that when you're not in a social setting. Since we have 3 parties and an Angels baseball game this weekend, she strongly suggested that I wait the few days and start fresh with shakes on Monday, and Marlon convinced me that she was right, so I'm going to take their advice and do that.

My plan is to do the program for a full six months and move on to the "refeeding" phase in mid February, which will give me the required 6 weeks to get back into a normal diet before Harrison's Bar Mitzvah weekend. If I still want to lose a little more weight after that, I can start up again go on a "modified fasting diet" (through the same program) where you use shakes and special entrees from the HMR company in conjunction with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Even if I don't do that, I'll be on maintenance and their maintenance program is 18 months, which provides great support, and you can use shakes and HMR entrees whenever you want in place of meals or snacks as a tool for success to help you budget your calories and plan your eating so that you can maintain the weight loss while still eating the foods you enjoy, just in proper moderation and making appropriate choices. It's a good program with a great success rate for both losing and maintaining and I'm very sure that this will work for me long term. I've had talks with my doctor and Marlon to come up with a goal weight that is good for me and me alone. The weight that my doctor feels will be the best for me to maintain and the best for my health is still a weight that would be considered overweight for most of you, but will be right for me and far better than the "morbidly obese" I'm considered to be now. I'm not doing this for cosmetic reasons or to become super skinny, I just want to reach a healthy weight for me and to keep that weight long term.

I did spend a little bit of time considering bariatric surgery, which you're probably heard of, but for many reasons decided that this was a better way to go. Both are drastic, both are intense, both get rapid results, but Marlon and I just weren't keen on the risks and long term affects of the bariatric surgery (you can NEVER put any kind of sugar in your body forever because it makes you physically ill and you can only consume 2 oz of food or beverage at one time) and feel that I have the motivation, dedication and know-how required to maintain the weight loss on my own and with the support of this UCI program.

So, now you know what's going on. I'll keep you posted through the blog, although life will go on in other ways, so don't worry - not all posts are going to be about this. It's going to be a huge part of our lives for the next several months, but not the only thing! I'm excited, movitated and ready for this to change my life in positive ways, even though the next few months might be a bit difficult. I know I can count on your support, friends and family, and that helps quite a bit! Wish me well! (Hey, now would be an EXCELLENT time to comment!)

School and Camp

2008-08-06T14:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm getting a lot of emails and phone calls with people just dying of curiousity about my "news" that I'm revealing tomorrow. I've certainly sparked your interest. Most people are guessing that I'm pregnant or that we're moving. Nope, not even close. A couple of you asked, with trepidation, if we're getting a divorce and that's definitely not the case (Marlon was shocked anyone would even think that!) You'll all just have to wait until tomorrow. It's actually not THAT big, but it's something significant that will be going on in our lives that I want to share with you.

Anyway, I figured I'd better do the update about school and camp that I've been talking about. School is going really well. Harrison is very happy with his classes and teachers. He has World History with the teacher he had last year, who was his favorite teacher, so he couldn't be happier about that. He is in the higher level pre-algebra math class, which should challenge him. He is thrilled with his language arts/humanities teacher, who is very rigorous but who will get him very ready for high school. And he loves his science teacher because she is very organization and structured and he loves that. He is still in the symphonic band, but more of his friends are in it this year (last year there were only 4 6th graders because it's the honor band, but this year most of his friends who were in concert band moved up.) He has a lot of friends in PE this year and is not doing zero period PE until the spring when he will hopefully have a role in the musical and be back in musical theater.

Socially, he lost his two best friends from school - one moved to Seattle (and he misses him so much) and the other is going to the traditional middle school (mostly because of the traditional calendar vs. year round schedule.) Another couple of good friends also moved to the traditional middle school and his other best friend moved to a different school last year. He still has plenty of friends, but it's just not the same. As part of my role on the PTA, I'm heading up a Middle School Task Force to see if we can implement any programs, such as clubs and things, to enhance the middle school experience at our school, since we're a smaller middle school (which has advantages and disadvantages.)

It should be a challenging year for Harrison academically to get him ready for high school and I'm sure it will be a great year.

After last week's drama, things have settled down in 5th grade and Jacob and Michela are both very happy with their teacher and the classmates in their class. It's different having them together again, but it will have advantages. I think it will be a good year for them too - and then next year *they* go to middle school. They're all getting so old.

Harrison never really had time to do a "guest post" about camp, so I'll just do a quick update. He loved it. It was a little disruptive to him to have him come home for 3 days (to start school), so that was unfortunate (he didn't want to leave to come home, but then he didn't really want to go back) but overall it was an amazing experience. He definitely wants to go back next year. They had so many different kinds of fun activities - boating, rock climbing, archery, hiking, arts and crafts, swimming, leadership, music, dance, etc. The dining hall was fun, he enjoyed his cabin mates and loved his counselor. They had activities every evening by the camp fire - really creative and fun programs. Being immersed in a jewish experience for 2 weeks was great and he loved the independence and all the camp "routines." He can't wait to go back next year!

Ok, that's enough of an update. Don't forget to check tomorrow for my news!

Weekend in Pittsburgh!

2008-08-05T12:14:00.000-07:00

This blog entry has text first, then lots of pictures, so be sure you go all the way to the end to see the pictures!

We're back from our long weekend in Pittsburgh and what a wonderful weekend it was! It was so nice to be with family and be able to spend time with them. It was perfect to be with my extended family since we were with Marlon's family on our recent Texas trip. Life can be short and being with family is so wonderful and so important. We're hoping that most of the extended family on both sides will be able to make the trip to California in April for Harrison's Bar Mitzvah so we can all be together again!

We flew out on the red-eye on Thursday night. My mom travelled with us, which was actually great because she goes in a wheelchair (she can't walk the long airport distances) so we get special advantages, skip lines, board early, have help with luggage, etc. She came and went with us most of the weekend and it was nice for the kids and us to spend so much extra time with her. The flight wasn't the greatest because no one really slept (the kids were able to sleep about 2 hours, Marlon, my mom and I not at all) but that was the best way to do it to get there in time and not have the kids miss a third day of school. Our hotel was awesome and let us check into our rooms at 7 a.m. so we could sleep for a few hours.

The first event was the unveiling (like a memorial service, when you reveal the headstone on the grave) for my aunt Florence, my mom's sister. *Everyone* was there (her entire family of kids, grand kids and great grand kids, our entire family, and part of my Uncle Erwin's family) and it was such a wonderful tribute to her. We all participated in the service and it was very nice. My mom was emotional, but grateful that my strong cousins carried her up the steep hill and over the rough terrain so she could be at the graveside. Being the only one of her generation, she was the "queen" of all the festivities and really, really enjoyed being with everyone.

After having some lunch and relaxing, we all went to a place called the Alpine Club for the rest of the afternoon, dinner and the evening. It was a perfect place for all of us to just hang out together and everyone had plenty of time to talk and the kids time to hang out, go fly fishing, and play poker. We celebrated the birthdays of myself (which was sunday), my mom (later in Aug), my cousin Brad (in a couple of days) and my cousin Amy (July 31st). A highlight was catching fireflies (lightning bugs) which are an east coast thing and we don't have them here. I remember catching them in the summers we spent in Pittsburgh when I was growing up and I loved doing it. The CA and Florida kids all found it very fun and exciting to do it too.

Saturday morning we slept really late since we lost a whole night's sleep on Thursday. Then the whole group of us went to the Carnegie Art Museum/National History Museum and had a docent led tour of the dinosaur exhibit and then wandered around the museum. Sat afternoon/evening we all went to a nice park where the kids played together on the playground equipment and the adults talked and of course we all ate. We got to catch more fireflies too!

We had a hospitality room at the hotel that everyone had a key to and was well stocked with breakfast foods, sodas and snacks (by my cousins Lois and Nigel, Aunt Florence's daughter and son in law, who worked so hard to organize everything the whole weekend and did such a great job!) and we all hung out there during free moments. Sat night a bunch of us were in there talking until about 11 p.m., even all the kids. It connected to my mom's room, so the kids had plenty of space to run around and play. There were a LOT of little kids and babies.

Sunday we had an unveiling for my Uncle Erwin (my mom's brother) who died a couple of months before Aunt Florence. We were all there and, again, it was a wonderful tribute to a great man and we all participated in the service.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out at Lois and Nigels, as they live in Pittsburgh. Everyone left at different times, some to take flights home and others to do other things. We stayed until most of the cousins were gone because we were really enjoying being with everyone, looking at old pictures, telling stories of the past, playing with the babies, the older kids were running around, it was nice. We left around 4 to go to Kennywood Park, an amusement park in Pittsburgh that I remember going to as a child. If you go after 5, it's less than half price, so we figured we'd go from 5 to closing and it was the perfect amount of time. We stayed til 11 when it closed and had fun on all the rides.

Monday we were able to get late check out from the hotel, so we slept in, ate a nice brunch, watched a movie in the room while packing and organizing and left for the airport around 3. The flight home was fine and we got into LAX around 8 p.m., arriving home around 10:30 (took awhile to get the luggage, the car, drive home, etc.)

I didn't take that many pictures, but tried to get at least one of everyone. Mike, Jacquie's husband, who does photography for a living, took a lot of pictures and I'm sure better ones, but we haven't gotten his yet. Anyway, even though these aren't great, enjoy them!

My cousin Nancy's kids and spouses (Uncle Erwin's grandkids) -- Maggie, Segev, Ayelet and Jerry (I hadn't seen Segev and Ayelet in at least 15 years!)
Andi (Lois' daughter) with her daughter Meghan (14 months)
Andi's husband, Chris, with their son Kyle (3 years)
Me and my cousin Brad
Marc (my cousin Jennifer's husband, she's in the background) and Mike (Jacquie's husband)
My cousin Nancy and my sister Patti (Nancy's husband, Dave, was there, but for some reason I didn't get him in any of the pictures. Her siblings, Linda and Ed, and their families couldn't make it in for the weekend)
My cousin Josh, my cousin Natalia (Brad and Debbie's daughter) and she's holding one of Josh and Julia's 8 month old twins (Matteo, I think, but it could be Niko)
Florence Fralin (Lois's aunt on my Uncle Norman's side, who is 96 and sharp as a tack), my cousin Debbie and Lois
My cousin Amy with Jacob
My cousin Eliot (Aunt Florence's son) who lives here in CA and we see all the time and his wife Linda (That's Brain and Nigel in the background)

My cousin Brad holding a beer bottle with the fireflies in it. We didn't know what to put them in, so we used beer bottles. We had some pretty drunk fireflies!
Harrison with Brad and Debbie's son Max (that's the one whose Bar Mitzvah we went to in March)
Leah (Amy and Michael's son) with Sophia and Lauren (my cousin Jennifer's kids and they live here in CA so we see them more often)
My cousin Bryan (Brad and Amy's brother)
My cousins Lorraine and Roger (Roger is Aunt Florence's other son and their kids are Brad, Amy and Bryan)

Leah, Natalia and Michela at the museum
My mom
Me
Jacob catching fireflies
Josh and his oldest Gabe (who is 3 1/2) with the drunk fireflies

Two brothers - Roger and Eliot - at the park on Sat
Sophie (Seth's wife), Seth (Lois' son), Andi (Lois' daughter), Kyle and Meghan (Andi's kids), Julia (Josh's wife, they also live in CA) and the twins Matteo and Niko
My cousin Jacquie and her daughter Helena who is about 1 1/2. They also live in CA so we get to see them more often.
Michela, Jacob, Lauren and Sophia
Rachel and Sebastian, who are Amy and Michael's older kids (Leah's siblings.) I can't believe I don't have a picture of Matthew, their 4th child who is 5 and is adorable, but I guess he was always running around and I didn't get a picture of him. I also did get one of Michael. I tried, but I didn't get everyone.

Patti and Marlon at Lois and Nigels. I thought I got a picture of Brian (Patti's husband, my brother in law) but I guess I missed him too!) This is actually the only picture Marlon is in too. Mike took some posed family pictures, which I'll put on when we get them.
Hanging out -- Me with Niko, Brad with Meghan, Natalia with Matteo
Mike (who used to play baseball in high school) giving Harrison some pointers
Josh and Gabe
Jennifer, me and Nigel (Lois' husband)

Our kids at Kennywood Park after they got off the Roaring Rapids ride and they were soaking wet and cold!
I didn't take many pictures at Kennywood but it was a neat amusement park because it is so historic. I thought this attraction was so different and neat, being created to make people laugh during the depression. Many of the rides and attractions were original from this amusement park that opened in 1898!
The kids imitating Laffin' Sal
Harrison teaching Sophie to play poker
Just hanging around

Off to Pittsburgh

2008-07-31T17:09:00.000-07:00

Hello faithful blog readers. Sorry I haven't had time to do an update about school starting. It's just as well, though, because things changed dramatically at school today with lots of drama (crying students, upset parents.) Our very "un-touched by the CA budget crisis" school was touched in a big way when Michela's 5th grade class was eliminated, her teacher moved to 2nd grade, and all 34 kids disbursed among other classes, including a 4/5 combo class. Now all the 4th and 5th grade classes are at about 35 kids (up from 28 to 29), Michela and Jacob are in the same class, and it was quite an uproar today at school (everyone was just told today.) I'm actually fine with it (although I wish the classes were smaller!) because they have an amazing teacher and it will be a great year for them and having them together has it's advantages (and they are now mature enough that they'll be fine together and no longer need that individuality.) I'll give more details later.

I haven't updated about camp because I wanted harrison to do it (and he wants to) but he's been pretty busy with 7th grade stuff. We have free wireless internet at our hotel in Pittsburgh, so maybe he can do it then.

I'll have something pretty major and life altering to announce and tell you about next Wed, so you can look forward to that. How's that for peaking your curiousity? It'll keep you checking the blog!

We're off to Pittsburgh in about... oh.. an hour! Gotta finish packing!

We're fine!

2008-07-29T13:48:00.000-07:00

Thanks to those of you who called to check on us after hearing about the earthquake this morning. We're all fine and didn't sustain any damage to our house or anything. I don't even think anything fell off the shelves or that the pictures got crooked. We're pretty far away from the epicenter in Chino.

I actually didn't even feel it. My mom and I were walking into her building from the parking lot and I didn't even notice it. When we walked in, everyone was in a hubbub there. Marlon said he felt it and that the building shook pretty hard at UCI. I called school and they said that the kids had to "duck and cover" for real (they do plenty of earthquake drills!) and then went outside in their earthquake formation to make sure everything was ok before returning back to the building. When I pick them up in an hour or so, I'm sure they'll be excited to tell me about it, as they've never actually felt an earthquake before even though we've always lived here. (I've been through a few big ones and they can be pretty scary! After the big Northridge one 14 years ago, Marlon slept in his shoes for a week in case he needed to run out in the middle of the night!)

Anyway, we're all fine. More later about school and camp. I think I'm going to have Harrison do a "guest post" about camp.

Last of the Pictures! -- Chicago

2008-07-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, the moment you've all been waiting for -- the last group of pictures. These are all from our week in Chicago, which was amazing. I have many, many more pictures, but I just put a sampling on the blog. I have a lot of great scenery pictures, but I didn't really put any of those (well, maybe one or two.) If you'd like to see those, I'm happy to email you the Kodak link and you can see all of the pictures. Leave a comment or email me directly at bboarnet@cox.net. Enjoy the pictures and I'll write again soon about school, camp, etc.

Barbara and Jacob on the big Ferris wheel in Navy Pier.

Michela, Marlon and Harrison on the same Ferris wheel (we were on opposite sides of the little gondola thing.) What a great view of the city!
At Navy Pier, wearing the new Chicago tshirts everyone bought.
In front of the skyline at the Adler Planetarium

In front of the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier

The kids and Barbara at the Museum of Science and Industry in the lab dissecting cow eyes! It was so incredible. Barbara waited in line for an hour to make sure we got 4 of the 25 slots!

At the Shedd Aquarium

Outside in front of the Shedd Aquarium. We loved the skyline so much we just kept taking pictures with it in the background everywhere we went!

In the restaurant of our hotel with Dorey, Barbara's 97 (!) year old aunt, who lives in Chicago and came downtown to meet us for lunch

Can't see the background well, but we're 97 floors up at the top of the Hancock Building in the observatory. It was really need. I have great pictures of the buildings looking down, but, like I said, I didn't put very many of the scenery pictures on the blog. The things around our neck are the audio tours - they had a separate one geared for kids and the tours were amazing.

Construction worker Harrison taking a break 97 floors up!

Barbara and Jacob in front of the field museum

The famous "bean" in Millenium Park that's a trademark of Chicago. Isn't it neat how you can see the buildings from across the street in its reflection?

The famous fountains at Millenium Park that everyone runs around in

This little area was next to our hotel. We took it in honor of Marlon's mom and brother who are realtors!
Navy Pier (I took this photo from the boat of the river/lake tour we went on)
Marlon and I on the boat

The whole family on the boat tour

Lots more pictures - worth the wait!

2008-07-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, folks. Sorry it took a bit longer than I had planned, but it got busy around here with the start of school this week, picking Harrison up from camp tuesday night to start school on Wed. (he's going back tomorrow at lunch to finish out the weekend) and all that. I'll do an update on school, camp and all that later, but wanted to get pictures out first because I know many of you are anxious. Here are a BUNCH of them from the last days in Texas, spent with the cousins. Next post I'll put all the Chicago ones! (hopefully tomorrow or Saturday!

Michela and Alex having fun at the park

Alex and Jacob designated themselves as "buddies" for the whole time

Michela, Mark and Jacob at Schlitterbahn water park

Barbara, Bernie and Mark relaxing at Schlitterbahn (that's Esther's left shoulder!)

Ian, Harrison, Alex, Jacob and Daniel at the water park

All the kids in their 4th of July shirts that Ian, Alex and Daniel made for them, doing the "poppers" that Nicole brought along. (She didn't have a shirt for Jacob Cohen, on the far left, because she didn't know he was going to be there, but he fit in with his red shirt!)
Daniel is in this one!
Jacob Cohen (Jerry's son), Harrison and Michela (sort of)

A nice shot of Ian and Michela
Marlon and his cousin Jerry

This was the day Nicole and I took the kids swimming at the YMCA. Harrison really enjoyed being the big kid and helping Ian and Alex

Daniel gets into the fun with Nicole

Having fun at lunch at Pat's Place

This isn't the greatest shot because their heads are cut off (Jacob took the picture) but it's the only one with Darren in it, so I included it!

Trent and Michela. Don't you love how his shirt and her suit go together and are so colorful?

Alex doesn't stop moving for very long, but Jacob caught him and grabbed him for a picture!

Nicole snuck in and took this one while I was reading to Daniel in bed. Before Darren got there, so he had her hands full with the kids (it's hard to travel solo!) so I helped her out by putting him in his pj's, reading to him and getting him ready for bed. It's not the greatest photo, but it was a really sweet time.

Harrison and Ian played and played together at the park

This time I caught Daniel and got him to stop long enough for a picture and he even looked at the camera and smiled. woo hoo!

A nice shot of all the kids in the car going somewhere, I think lunch
Up on the playground equipment at the park

I like this one because it's so sweet how Harrison is helping Ian. He did a lot of that.

I just love the expression on BOTH of their faces in this one. They were actually spinning pretty fast on this spinning thing.

Next set of pictures - 18 more!

2008-07-20T16:43:00.000-07:00

This next set is of the last couple of days in San Antonio and New Braunfels before the Houston cousins came into town. I have some great "scenery" shots of various things on our trip, such as the inside of the caverns, the animals we saw up close at the Wildlife Ranch and of course buildings and skyline in Chicago, but I didn't want to put too many of those on the blog because I think most of you prefer people shots. I will be uploading all of the pictures (two hundred something) to Kodak easyshare and will be emailing the link to some of you, so if you're interested in seeing the scenery or animal shots, just let me know and I'll email you the link.

Enjoy these pictures. Next set will be all the fun with the cousins, posted tomorrow, so check back!

Jack and Harrison in front of one of their favorite roller coasters. The two of them had great fun all day going on the big rides together. It's hard to say who enjoyed them more!

Barbara and Jacob

Harrison and Jack still hanging out

At the Caverns, before going on the tour

Inside the caverns
Marlon and Jack (Jody's husband) at Schlitterbahn water park, the first, largest and best waterpark in the world!

The kids in front of some of the best rides. The blue one is Masterblaster - the newest and best ride, an uphill (and downhill) water coaster. Marlon and Harrison waited over 2 hours to go on it, but they said the wait was worth it!

A nice family picture

Marlon, Jacob, Jody and Michela

Jody and I relaxing with the kids (I think Marlon and Jack had gone to get drinks or something)

Harrison is having fun driving alone. He's actually not that many years away from driving for real! Scary!

Jacob takes Jody for a ride

Marlon is glad they're on a track. He won't be so relaxed when it's for real.

See Marlon and Harrison in the very front left side?

Michela enjoying a pampering pedicure Aunt Jody took her to

All of us ( you can barely see Marlon, but he's there between Harrison and Michela) on the ferris wheel. I was nervous because I don't like heights, but I conquered my fear and it was fun.

Jacob and Michela on the train

Marlon, Harrison and Esther. Can you see the beard Marlon started to grow? He let it grow for about 4 or 5 days, but then decided it was too itchy and looked dumb, so he shaved it off.

Exciting news - watch Jacob dance live on-line tomorrow!

2008-07-19T21:23:00.000-07:00

Very exciting news! Just like they did last year, Jacob's large group jazz competition group placed high enough overall at the Showstoppers West Coast finals yesterday afternoon to qualify for the super-duper national finals tomorrow (sunday), which are broadcasted *live* on line!

It's a really, really big deal. These dance numbers are the best of the best. Only the top 8 numbers in each age division get to move on to tomorrow's special event, so the eight numbers are a mix of jazz, tap, lyrical, etc. It's the top 8 out of probably at least 40 numbers. Jacob's number squeaked in at number 8!

Three other numbers from our dance studio qualified (all older kids.)

So, tune in on-line tomorrow, if you can. www.showstopperonline.com. Follow the link to the 2008 west coast national finals live webcast. The "minis" groups will start at 1:30 p.m. (right after the lunch break) and his number is going on 3rd. It's called "5,6,7,8." The M.C. will be announcing each number before they start dancing. There are 3 boys in the number, but you should be able to find Jacob - he's in the middle at the very beginning.

His mini's group also made this honor last year and that video is still online for a couple more days until the new one gets put up. Check it out at www.showstopperonline.com. On the side there's a link for national finals and you should be able to see a little bubble that links to the 2007 live webcast.

We've been at the dance competition every afternoon now since thursday. Jacob also did a dance camp at our studio from 9 to 1 every day and he had fun. Michela had fun at a softball camp every day from 9-3. They both went to swim team some this week and swam in today's meet. Marlon got back into the swing of work. I worked a little bit, but mostly got organized after our trip. We've gotten one letter from Harrison so far and he says he's having a good time.

That's all for now... I'll update and let you know how Jacob's group does tomorrow!

More Pictures

2008-07-18T10:01:00.001-07:00

Ok, here are 13 more pictures to keep you going! These are from some fun times with family in New Braunfels and San Antonio. I put captions under each of them so you know what you're looking for. Next up (probably tomorrow): Fun with Jody and Jack at Fiesta Texas and a fun day at the Caverns and Wildlife Ranch. After that will be the eagerly anticipated few days with the cousins, then we'll move on to Chicago. I'm making progress!!

Marlon at the Dairy Queen where he worked in high school - he got fired, though (the only job he ever got fired from!) because he kept asking for time off for speech and debate and boys scouts and other activities. Finally, his boss gave him "plenty" of time off!

"male bonding" time - actually they're putting together the new basketball hoop for the front yard

Jacob and Michela at Dairy Queen

Michela and Jody before going to see Hello Dolly, the musical

A nice picture of Bernie and Esther at Pat's Place, a New Braunfels landmark restaurant

Even Aunt Jody got in on the "WII" fun!

Barbara and Marlon on their 14th Wedding Anniversary

Barbara and Harrison enjoying a treat at the Dairy Queen where Marlon worked in high school

At the "mirror maze" fun house during our "touristy" day in San Antonio

In front of the World's Tallest Man at the Guiness museum

Enjoying a snowcone at Alamo Plaza

Out to dinner in San Antonio (TGIF's) with (from left, going around the table): Jody, Jacob, Meme, Michela, Harrison, Barbara, Lisa (Marlon's cousin), Marlon, Anita (Marlon's aunt, Lisa's mom), Bernie and Esther. Paul (Lisa's husband) was still at work because we had to go early because we were going to a show. Brett (Lisa's youngest) was in Omaha, having made it to the Olympic trials for swimming. James, the oldest, was at school or work in Houston.

Before we went to see Hello Dolly

First four pictures!

2008-07-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, I finally got the photos downloaded onto Kodak, but I haven't had a chance to sort, edit, etc. I'll get to it. At least I finally got all the laundry and unpacking done, cleaned the fridge and pantry, and went grocery shopping! I still have a ton of work to catch up on, bills, to pay, etc., but all in good time. :) I had a bad asthma attack yesterday (almost required a trip to the ER) and I'm still coughing my head off today, so that set me back a bit.

Anyway, I can't possibly put all 256 photos on the blog, so I'll do a sampling of the photos every day for a few days until I've gotten a good number of them posted. I know everyone enjoys pictures.

Here are the first four -- all from our day at the spring fed pool in New Braunfels, where we had a lot of fun. I'll pick the best 4 or 5 from each day/activity of the trip. (as a point of comparison, there were at least 25 from the day at the spring fed pool, so I picked a few.)

Enjoy!

This is Jacob hanging. Notice Harrison waiting his turn, next in line. Michela did it once, but didn't like it. This was the second time the boys did it. The first time I didn't get good pictures.

Wumps

2008-07-15T23:11:00.000-07:00

Ok, here's a random topic that should hopefully produce some comments because I'm asking you a question!

Michela asked me - mom, how many wumps do you do? Wumps? Well, I had to think about this before I answered because I didn't want to appear dumb or uncool, like I didn't know what a wump was. I was also afraid that it had a hidden meaning and my almost ten year old was asking something about our sex life or something. It sounded more like exercise, though. wumps. pushups? sit ups?

Then she increased my confusion when she added... "I usually do 19 or 20 wumps, but I got as high as 24. You're higher, right?"

Ok, I give up. "What is a wump?" I asked her. She said "you know - when you type. How many wumps do you type?" I said "do you mean wumps as in w.p.m. (spelling out the letters.) She said "of course that's what I mean." I laughed, then explained that wpm is words per minute, not wumps.

I couldn't answer her. "I type fast," I said. But, how many wpm's is it? So we got out the SpongeBob type to learn CD and we all took the tests. She's right, she's at about 23-25 wpm. Not bad. She's passed all 25 levels. Poor Jacob, who hasn't chosen to practice typing during his free time at home and school like Michela, is on level 4 and types about 5 wpm. we decided together that he had better spend some time on this the next week or so before they go back to school!

Ok, so I took the tests. You have to start at level 1. I advanced from level 1 to passing all 25 levels in about 15 or 20 minutes and my wpm average was about 85, but I did hit a high of ... drumroll please... 119 wpm on one quiz. Woo hoo.

So, how many wumps do YOU type?

Kudos to the city where we live!

2008-07-14T23:02:00.000-07:00

Recently our city of Irvine was ranked first or second nationally on the list of America's safest cities. Now it's ranked 4th on the list of best cities in America in which to live. It's a pretty nice place -- I guess that's why it was so hard to leave here when we evaluated the offer from Illinois a couple of years ago.

America's Best Places to Live: Monday, July 14, 2008 provided by No. 4: Irvine, Calif.

City of Irvine Population: 194,000, Miles from Los Angeles: 36, Green space: One-third of the city, Sunny days per year: 280, Pros: Topnotch schools, great weather, lots of green space, Con: High home prices
Long before developers embraced the idea of mixed-use communities where residents could live, work and play, there was Irvine. Born in the 1960s, when the University of California commissioned architect William Pereira to design a new campus and town, “it was one of the first of the large planned communities that offered residents more than just a house and a yard,” says Jerold Kayden, a professor of urban planning and design at Harvard University. Today, Irvine’s population hovers around 200,000, yet it feels much smaller thanks to its tight-knit neighborhoods and more than 16,000 acres of green space. From their house here, Megan and Brent Gess and their daughters, Emily, 10, Natalie, 7, and Lily, 4, can walk to six different parks. “Most neighborhoods have their own pools, swim teams and recreation programs,” says Megan, 34, a mergers-and-acquisitions attorney. “It makes for very close communities.”Families say Irvine is pretty close to perfect. The school district has won national recognition, and not just because of stellar test scores. Innovative curriculums, year-round schedules and open-style classrooms all win kudos. “Education is a high priority here,” says Brent, 37, an intellectual-property attorney. “We’re surrounded by a lot of very smart people”—in part because the university is the city’s largest employer. Some two dozen international companies, from Gateway to St. John’s Knits, also call Irvine home.One drawback—and it’s a big one—is the cost of housing. While median prices have fallen nearly 19% since the 2006 market peak, a typical three-bedroom, two-bath house still runs about $700,000, says Cesi Pagano, a realtor with Keller Williams Realty. But prices in Irvine have held up better than those elsewhere in Orange County, and foreclosures aren’t nearly as widespread.

Home Sweet Home

2008-07-13T20:43:00.000-07:00

We made it home with a very smooth travel day yesterday, arriving back in Orange County around four-ish. Midnight was extremely glad to see us and has completely re-adjusted to having us back home. He was well cared for while we were gone and got a TON of exercise daily. The dog/house sitters seemed to do a really good job and they enjoyed it.

We got straight into normal life, as I was in charge of a dinner potluck at the dance studio last night for their spirit rally for the upcoming competition. Jacob was dancing and participating in the rally and Michela helped me. Marlon and Harrison went to get a few last minute camp items. We were pretty tired by bedtime last night! :)

Today we saw Harrison off to camp. 2 weeks in the San Bernardino mountains with the JCC (Jewish Community Center) camp. He was very excited about it and looking forward to it, but I think a little bit apprehensive. The only time he's been away from home for more than a night was when he went to outdoor ed with the 6th grade earlier this year and that was only 4 days!

I'm sure he'll have a fantastic time, though!

Jacob and Michela are doing different day camps this week. (they didn't want to go to the sleepaway camp, although they could have.) Jacob is doing dance camp (bet you couldn't have figured that one out!) and Michela is doing a softball camp. They'll both have fun.

I'll spend the week getting back to the swing of things and getting organized for the many, many things I have going on. First I need to get laundry done, get suitcases unpacked, and stock up the house with groceries. (We walked with Midnight to our nearby shopping center today for brunch and took my mom out to dinner, but tomorrow we start eating at home again!) Then, I have many important projects that will take my attention: work tops the list, pursuing writing the book that I want to write, starting to really get down to the nitty gritty of planning Harrison's Bar Mitzvah, several household projects, and focusing on health (looking into some medically supervised and more extreme weight loss programs, getting back into my regular swimming routine and starting a new walking routine, more healthy cooking for everyone, etc.) All that PLUS our normal everyday busy life - oh my.

It will take me a bit of time to download the pictures from our trip (all 256 of them!) Actually, I'll download them all to Kodak easyshare and email them to whoever wants to see all of them, but I'll only be posted a sample of them because it would take forever to put them all here and you don't want to see them all anyway!!

I did a brief summary of th0se last few days. Here are more details:

Wed: We went to the Shedd Aquarium. As with all the museums we went to in Chicago, I was very impressed with how nicely the exhibits were done. We saw dolphins, beluga whales, lizards, cool sea horses and many different kinds of fish and marine animals. Harrison and Michela both mentioned that might be interested in working with dolphins, whales, sharks, etc. by studying marine biology. We saw a couple of really fun 4D shows too and had a great lunch in the restaurant overlooking Lake Michigan. In the evening was the UCI reception at the hotel, which Marlon was the "host" of. The kids came in for food (really delicious appetizers that were enough to make dinner) and then they got bored and went back to the room to watch tv. I knew many of the alums, students and other faculty, so I enjoyed an adult evening with everyone. Then I took the kids to the pool, which was surprisingly crowded at 10 p.m.!

Thursday: We skipped the museums that day and had more of a low key day. We ordered room service for breakfast and relaxed in the room watching a tv movie, reading and playing. Then we met my mom's cousin Dorey (who is 97 and going strong) for lunch in the hotel restaurant. marlon joined us for a bit between sessions. We had a nice visit and a nice lunch too. When she left, the kids and I walked around on Michigan Avenue and did some shopping. We had fun in the Hershey chocolate store and looked at all the shops in the Water Tower mall. The kids bought souvenirs and tshirts at Accent Chicago and we bought a few boxes of Frango mints. You can't leave Chicago without buying them because they are a trademark and so yummy. The kids believed me when I said they check your bags at the airport to make sure you bought some! :)

Friday: Marlon finished his conference at 10, so he joined us for the day. We took the free trolley to Navy Pier, where we rode the 150 high ferris wheel and the kids went on this huge swing ride thing. We had a great lunch. We people watched and the kids thought it was really gross that this 50 something year old couple was totally and completely making out in public. Marlon and I thought it was a bit strange too! Then we went on the trolley back to our hotel, where we caught a bus straightaway to take us to the Planetarium, which was another amazing museum. The interactive exhibits were great fun and we saw 3 really good shows that taught us a lot about the solor system, planets, stars, etc. We were lucky because it was open til 10 this particular friday. We took the bus back about 9:15 and had dinner across the street from our hotel at a trendy restaurant called Bandera that had the best hamburgers ever.

Then we went back to the room, packed up and went to sleep.

That's it - our whole trip in a nutshell (well, not so nutshell-ish since I gave a lot of details.) I hope you enjoyed reading the various posts about our adventures. Feel free to comment! Pictures will come soon - probably a few a day for awhile.

Quick "check in" before tomorrow's travel day HOME

2008-07-12T00:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, Chicago was much harder for blogging because we were way busier and email access was trickier. I should be sleeping, but needed to write my Kids Konnection column for the magazine and check email because I hadn't checked in a few days (and I'm in charge of this potluck at the dance studio tomorrow.) Anyway, I need to go to sleep, but wanted to make sure you all knew we were alive and well and having the most wonderful time this week in Chicago.

I'll do a more thorough update later this weekend, but here's a teaser:

Wed: Went to the Museum of Science and Industries. Saw great IMAX movie about the Colorado River. Highlight was that each of us got to dissect a cow's eye in a hands on lab. Real dissection, real scapels, real cool! Wed night was the UCI reception, so I enjoyed visiting with Marlon's colleagues and former students and the food was terrific (and plentiful enough for us to make it dinner!)

Thursday: Had a more low key day. Had lunch here at the hotel with Dorey, my mom's 97 year old cousin who is in great shape (and lives in Chicago). Went shopping in the Magnificent Mile (where our hotel is.) Watched a huge thunder and lightning storm from our hotel room windows as we snuggled in bed watching a movie together.

Today: Marlon had one more free day, so he joined us for all activities. Went to Navy Pier and rode the Ferris Wheel and the kids rode the big swing ride. Had a great lunch there. Walked around. Went to the Adler Planetarium, which was amazing. Great shows about space and astronomy and neat hands on exhibits. Dinner near our hotel at a great trendy Chicago restaurant.

And now we return home tomorrow, having had the most wonderful family vacation of all time. We're all feeling bittersweet. You can't be gone forever and we miss Midnight and our house and homecooked meals, but it's been so great to be together and not have other obligations and do all these fun things.

More later!

Vacation Days 12, 13 and 14 (Sat, Sun and Mon in Chicago)

2008-07-07T21:40:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a bit longer since I've updated. Partly we've been so busy I haven't had time. Also, we lost our free internet access when we left Texas and now it's $14.95/day unless I want to go down to the lobby late at night when I have time to blog. :(

We're doing great, but getting kinda tired out. We're walking our little tootsies off here in Chicago. Good exercise, I know, but we'll probably need a vacation to recover from our vacation!

Sat was our transition day. We had smooth and easy travels from Texas to Chicago and got checked into our hotel by 9 p.m. sat night. Our hotel is very, very nice to say the least. It's a huge Chicago hotel in the middle of the Magnificent Mile in Downtown Chicago. Need I say more? Think luxury and personal service. Also think EXPENSIVE food, except for the kids' meals. Our room rate is really reasonable because it's the conference rate, plus we're not paying for the room b/c Marlon is on a grant for this conference, but for food we're on our own.

After a dinner in the lobby bar (we just couldn't see spending upwards of $32/person for a light supper), we took some time to unpack and organize our room. With five of us in it and all the stuff we have for a three week trip, it took some organization skills to find a place for everything, but you all know that's my forte!

Sunday:

Sunday Marlon didn't have any conference work, so we had a wonderful family day in Chicago. Although we love being with the cousins in Texas, their schedule is different than ours because their kids wake up way earlier. So we allowed ourselves the luxury of sleeping til 10 and having the delicious buffet brunch in the restaurant here. The $24/person for Marlon and I was only slightly offset by the fact that each kid was only $5 for the same exact brunch buffet! It was delicious and had everything you could possibly want for brunch.

Then we walked a few blocks to catch a sightseeing cruise which went on the Chicago River and on Lake Michigan and was a wonderfully narrated tour of the entire city. There is so much to see here and the kids were little when we were here last, so they really enjoyed hearing about everything and seeing it all. We sat on the top deck, right in front of the tour guide, and we all asked her lots of questions.

On the walk back, Michela asked me "mom, why is everyone eating ice cream." we were by a Walgreens, so I told her that probably they just bought it there. She said "but every single person is eating it." (and there are many, many people walking down the street in downtown chicago). We noticed she was right. Everyone was eating an ice cream bar or sandwich. Finally I asked someone "why is everyone eating ice cream and where did you all get it?" The guy said "from that dude dressed in the m and m costume, he's giving it out for free." Turns out the M & M company, which is here in Chicago, is promoting new ice cream bars and sandwiches and yes, he was giving it out. So we got some too. Marlon said he was there again today and he got another one, but we weren't around here.

Later that day we cooled off in our airconditioned room and had reading time and quiet time for an hour or so. Then, we walked quite a few blocks in the other direction to go to the top of the Hancock building (94 flights up) where we enjoyed audio tours in the observatory. It is very well done - there are separate audio tours for the kids which they really enjoyed. We, of course, listened to the adult tour, narrated by David Schwimmer from Friends. We chose the Hancock building over Sears tower b/c they said the audio tour was better and you could see better and we really enjoyed it.

Then we had dinner across the street at the Water Tower mall, which I remembered from when I was a kid that it had a nice food court. It was quite a food court. Everyone gets a little card and you go get what you want from the different stations and then you pay when you go out. It was fun and tasty too.

After the walk back, we were all pooped. The boys and Marlon watched tv but Michela and I went to our indoor pool for a relaxing swim and soak in the hot tub, which was the perfect remedy for our weary bones.

Today (Monday) -- day 14 of our vacation:

Marlon's conference started officially today, so he was working and the kids and I were on our own. We went to the Field Museum, which is a museum of natural history and has great exhibits. Harrison was excited to see the Evolving Planet/Early Man exhibit because he learned about a lot of that in social studies this year and he saw a model of Lucy, the gorilla/girl. We also saw Sue, the famous t-rex at this museum.

We got there quite easily, by taking a free Chicago trolley that we caught a half block from our hotel, then transferring to a different free trolley that dropped off right at the museum. It took an hour, but we enjoyed the ride. Getting back wasn't as easy. We had a hard time getting on the trolly b/c it was full because the Field museum was the last stop of three museums in museum campus and everyone was leaving. We finally got on, but had to stand. Then we transferred to the one we needed to transfer to, but then it was six p.m. and that's when the shuttles stop running. and boy do they stop. they pull to the side and everyone has to get out! We had NO CLUE where we were. We finally figured out that we could walk 3 blocks to get back to Michigan avenue (the street of our hotel, a huge street in Chicago), but we had to ask people to point the way. Then we had to ask which way was north. It was a long, long walk, so we decided to take a bus. We could have hailed a cab, but I was determined to show the kids had to navigate a large city. We viewed it as an adventure. Walking to the bus stop, we ran into Millenium Park, which was on my list of places to go, so we went and played in the fountain and saw the famous "bean" landmark there. Then we found the bus stop and asked about 5 different bus drivers which bus we needed before ours finally came. I called Marlon and we made a plan to meet at a restaurant a couple of blocks from our hotel, so we overshot our hotel and got off two stops later and met him for dinner, then we walked back.

By the time we got back after dinner at 9:30, everyone but me fell into bed and went straight to sleep. I'm checking email and blogging b/c Marlon bought the internet access for today but probably won't want it tomorrow b/c he'll be busy all day, so I want to take advantage of our access!

Ok, this is long enough. I hope you're enjoying hearing about our travels. More in a couple of days!!!

The rest of the days in Texas!

2008-07-05T11:40:00.000-07:00

We're spending our last half hour or so here in Texas right now, so I thought I'd catch up on the Texas days before heading into the Chicago leg of the trip. We're about ready to leave for the airport.

Thursday and Friday were great days here in New Braunfels with our cousins. Thursday Nicole and I took the 6 kids swimming at the YMCA. They all had fun swimming with each other and showing off how well they swim. Then we went to lunch with Bernie, Esther and Marlon at Pat's Place, a popular New Braunfels restaurant. (yummy food!) Then, while Daniel napped, the other kids (and Nicole and I) spent some time reading and having quiet time. Then, Jacob, Daniel and Bernie and Esther went to the Children's Museum and Nicole and I and the other kids went to see Wall E. By the time we got back, Darren (Nicole's husband) had arrived from the plane from his business trip. Dinner at home (delicious pecan patties that Nicole made and we had never tried before), playing basketball and playing the Wii rounded off the day. When we left their house, we went for ice cream dessert at the Dairy Queen where Marlon worked in high school, until he got fired. (He kept asking for the time off for his speech and debate and boy scouts activities so his boss finally said he could have ALL the time off he needed - permanently!)

Friday (yesterday) was the 4th of July and we had a great day. ALL of us - a huge crowd - spent the day at Schlitterbahn water park going on all the rides. Bernie, Esther, marlon and I and the kids, Nicole and Darren and the kids, Trent and Mark, Uncle Larry (unfortunately Luann, his wife, was home sick) and Jerry (marlon's cousin) and Jacob (Jerry's son). It was a great day. We came back here to the house, where Meme joined us, to bbq chicken and lots of yummy veggies. then we had a nice time talking and visiting until it was time for the fireworks, which we could see nicely from the deck.

This morning Bernie and Esther took all 6 grandkids to the park to play while Darren and Nicole packed up their stuff and we packed up our stuff. We all met for lunch at Rudy's bbq and they left for their drive home and we are about to leave for the airport.

It was wonderful spending so much time with our family in Texas who we don't get to see that often. We MIGHT come back in December if airfare is cheap enough, otherwise we won't see everyone until Harrison's Bar Mitzvah in April when they all come to California.

Now we're off for a week in Chicago.......

Happy Anniversary to my Wonderful Husband

2008-07-03T13:03:00.000-07:00

I want to take an opportunity to wish my wonderful husband Marlon a very happy Wedding Anniversary. Fourteen years ago today, almost to the hour (it's 3 p.m. now and our wedding was at 4:30), we started our lives together at the Sheraton Hotel in Long Beach. We had a beautiful ceremony under the Chuppah with almost 400 of our friends and family there to wish us well. Then we had a fun dinner/reception at the hotel. 165 out of towners and family also enjoyed a poolside dinner party friday night, synagogue and lunch saturday, a rehearsal dinner sat night, and a brunch sunday morning. A brunch monday morning culminated the wonderful weekend that I still remember every detail of to this day.

The last 14 years have been better than I could have possibly imagined. Together we have had and are raising our three wonderful, beautiful, funny, sweet, smart children who give us so much joy and happiness. Together we have established a beautiful, comfortable, homey, loving and Jewish home where we have had so many good times. Together we have supported each others' work and activities, have encouraged each other and been each other's cheerleaders. Together we have planned and gone on so many wonderful trips and vacations. Together we have supported each other when times have been rough (fortunately, we are very blessed and have actually hardly had any rough times.) Together we have celebrated simchas and happy occasions and look forward to so many more. Together we plan for the future -- future work endeavors, future vacations, future simchas and future everything.

Together is the key word. Together we are great and I can't even imagine life apart. So, happy 14th anniversary my sweetheart and I look forward to another many many more wonderful years together.

Days 7, 8 and 9 of our Texas Vacation

2008-07-03T12:28:00.000-07:00

Ooops - I guess I fell behind afterall. Sorry.

And now I just typed a long post about what we've been doing and I accidentally deleted it somehow. Ahhh - aggravating!

Day 7 (Monday) was a fun day at the Caverns, the Wildlife Ranch, a quiet afternoon at home, dinner out and seeing Get Smart in the evening. The Caverns are really neat natural underground caves. The Wildlife park was really cool - the wild animals roam free and you drive through the 4 acre park and the animals come up to the car. Some people were even letting the animals stick their whole heads in the car, but we were more conservative than that.

Day 8 (Tuesday) was a great day at Schlitterbahn Water park with Jody and Jack. It was great to spend so much time with them this trip. Tons of rides and water fun all day long.

Day 9 (Wednesday) was a low key day at home. We moved to a hotel to make room here for Nicole, Ian, Alex and Daniel (Darren arrives tonight, as he was on a business trip.) Unfortunately, we can't all fit here. But our suite hotel is nearby and nice and we'll be over here at the house most of the time anyway. We've been having a great time with them. Ian is 6, Alex is 5 and Daniel is almost 2 and all 6 of the kids have so much fun being together. It's so nice to watch them play and spend time together - they love each other so much. It's just too bad that we live so far apart and we only see each other once or twice a year. They've been playing basketball, wrestling, games and other fun things here at the house and we've also gone to the park and the YMCA pool. We've been cooking here some, but after we used every pot in the house and went through a TON of food yesterday, Bernie decided to take us all out to lunch today! :)

We're off now to the movies (Wall E) and then home for dinner, playing the Wii and other fun. Aren't vacations great?

More later!

Days 5 and 6 of our Texas Vacation

2008-06-29T21:23:00.001-07:00

I'm exhausted from a full amusement park day today, but thought I should blog before I fall too far behind!

Yesterday we had a more low key, stay at home day. I've been trying to intersperse those with the busier days so we have good balance. Marlon and I went out to lunch with his good friend Steve from college and Steve's wife Beth. (Hi guys!) We see them pretty much every time we come to visit and it's always nice to catch up on what each of us is up to, what's going on with our kids and theirs (they have three as well) and then marlon and Steve love to argue politics!

While we were at lunch, Marlon's parents took the kids to lunch and to Game Stop to buy more Wii games.

After lunch, Jody (marlon's sister), Michela and I went to have manicures and pedicures. A nice afternoon of pampering. Marlon took the boys and Meme (his grandmother) bowling. We met back up with Bernie and Esther and all of us went to dinner (chinese food) and then to see a New Braunfels Community Theater showing of Hello Dolly at the Brauntex theater (which is where Marlon saw movies as a kid.) The show was great - lots of great talent in new Braunfels.

Today we left the house right after getting up, getting ready and having breakfast and went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. It was just the five of us plus Jody and her husband, Jack. It was a Perfect day. A little hot, but not unbearable. not too crowded. Everyone got along really well, no one got cranky at all, the kids behaved perfectly, and we all got to do a little bit of what we wanted to do. Harrison and Jack went on ALL the roller coasters and enjoyed doing that together. Jacob and Michela, who don't like big rides, went on quite a few rides they enjoyed. Marlon, Jody and I, the ones who are more of the fuddy-duddies in the group were quite proud of the several rides we went on. We had a lot of laughs and saw a great drum and bugle percussion show. We got stuck in a rainstorm and got soaked. We finished off the evening at the original Rudy's BBQ in San Antonio (Yum!) All in all, a perfect day.

More tomorrow.....

Day 4, A Day in San Antonio

2008-06-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

Today we got another late start, as we had another great morning of sleeping in and lounging around. I think Marlon's mom Esther thinks it's horrible that we've been sleeping late, but you all know how busy we've been the last few months that it is such a joy for us to have so much unscheduled time and to have the time and luxury to sleep in and RELAX. It's been just what we needed!

We finally left the house around 1 p.m. and drove the 40 minutes or so to downtown San Antonio. We walked through the Alamo, which we had been to before, and had a light lunch at an authentic Texas diner "hole in the way" across the street from the Alamo. It was the best grilled cheese sandwiches and chili cheese fries that we've ever had!

Then we did some very touristy, almost "cheesy" stuff that we hadn't done before and that was great fun. We went through this "mirror maze" (kind of like a corn maze, but mirrors.) Then we went to the Wax Museum and had fun looking at all the very realistic looking wax figures. The haunted house portion in the basement was fun and scary too! Harrison couldn't believe the one of Arnold Schwarzzenager because instead of being him as our esteemed governor of California, it was him as The Terminator! He didn't realize he was a movie star before being governor and especially a star of that kind of movie.

Then we went to the Ripley's Believe it Or Not Museum, which was very interesting. We enjoyed the various exhibits, especially the big Titanic exhibit.

We finished off the afternoons with snow cones on the plaza.

Then we drove about a half an hour to the other side of San Antonio to meet everyone for dinner--- Jody (Marlon's sister), Meme (grandmother), Bernie and Esther, and Marlon's cousin Lisa and her mom Anita (Marlon's aunt). It was great to spend time with Lisa and Anita, who we usually only see once when we come to Texas.

After dinner all of us (except for Lisa and Anita) went to a show that was the culmination performance of a three week summer camp for deaf middle and high school students. It was a dance show with skits mixed in. Jody knew some of these kids from her school (Jody is a principal.) It was a really interesting and enjoyable show and we were glad we went. It's amazing how these kids can dance when they only feel the vibrations of the music but they can't hear it.

We finished off the evening with ice cream cones at Baskin Robbins. Then we came home, everyone put on their pj's and read for 1/2 hour, and now the kids (and Bernie and Esther) are asleep, Marlon's watching tv and I'm at the computer.

I seem to have SOOOO much more time for blogging while on vacation because I don't have all of my other usual activities/chores/responsibilities that I need to handle.

Day 3, New Braunfels Texas

2008-06-26T21:46:00.000-07:00

Today was great fun! We spent the morning relaxing at "home" (well, at my inlaws house). Marlon worked a little, the kids played Wii and read, and I did Sodoku, played handheld Yahtzee and read. We were going to play some board games, but then it was time to get ready and leave.

We had lunch at Schlotsky's deli. Those sandwiches are delicious (the "original") and we don't have one near us.

Then we went to the spring fed "pool" (it's a pool, but way, way bigger, kind of like swimming in the river) at Landa Park and had a ball. The water comes from the river, so it's crisp and cold, but it felt great on a hot day. The kids enjoyed the rope swing (you swing, then drop down into the water) and swimming out to the island rafts and jumping in. Marlon and I played in the water too and I also read my book.

After we had our fill of fun, we came home and had dinner with Bernie and Esther, Meme, and Jody and Jack. Then Marlon, Jack and Bernie worked on putting together a new basketball thing for the kids and the kids, Jody and I played the Wii, while Esther and Meme watched us. Jody and I aren't too bad at the bowling game!

They left, the kids and I had reading time for about a half hour, they went to bed at 10:30, Marlon and I had ice cream and he watched tv while I read some more. Now we're going to sleep too!

(In case you're wondering, I'm reading the new Jennifer Weiner, called Certain Girls. She wrote "Good in Bed," "In her Shoes" and "Little Earthquakes" and I love her books.)

Vacation Days 1 and 2

2008-06-25T19:21:00.001-07:00

I'm determined to do short blogs more often while on this trip so that I don't fall behind and so that it's not one huge post at the end. Unfortunately I don't think I can do photos or video until we get home, though.

We've now had two full days of our vacation. Tuesday was our travel day and it went smoothly without any complications. We spent the day packing and getting ready. It was a lot to get ready for a 3 week trip for a family of five. Monday was a busy day of catching up after the whole weekend of the dance show, having company staying with us, etc. Tons of laundry! And it took the whole day of Marlon, Harrsion and my father in law Bernie to get Harrison's stuff ready for sleep away camp, which he leaves for the day after we get home. Bernie spent 3 hours ironing "Harrison Boarnet" labels on everything! (sorry if I already mentioned that in a post, I forgot if I did!)

Anyway, our flight was at 5:05 p.m., right out of Orange County so that was easy. My mom packed us a bunch of snacks for the plane (from the Bistro at her place) and that was good because we didn't have time to eat in any of the airports. We flew from OC to Dallas, then Dallas to Austin. We noticed that all three airports seemed much less crowded than usual - must be the economy. The plane flights were relaxing - we played cards, read books and the kids played their DS games.

By the time we arrived, got a rental car and drove to Marlon's parents house, it was 2 a.m. so all we did was go to sleep. We slept really late yesterday (Wednesday). Then, the kids set up their new Wii. My sister and brother in law generously bought them the game system, all the controllers and accessories and some games for Hanukkah but we hadn't been able to find the darn thing in any store. It was always sold out. I called daily for awhile, then I gave us and figured eventually I'd just see it somewhere, which I did about a month ago. But I wouldn't let them take it out of the box until after school was over, then we didn't have time with all the dance shows. We bought the carry case and packed it all up and harrison carried it on the plane and we brought it here. It only took 3 calls to the Nintendo customer service people (who were great!) to get it up and running and they played almost all day. I didn't put any time restrictions on their playing yesterday because they had waited patiently so long to buy it and be able to play it. Plus it's an interactive and physically active game system, not like the videogames which are solitary and inactive. They love the bowling, tennis and baseball best.

While they played Wii, I unpacked and organized our stuff, read one of my books (I brought five and am so excited to read them all!), and just hung out with marlon, who also basically did nothing all day except read and relax (very, very unusual for him!) We interspersed the day with reading (the kids too), a couple of board games, visiting with Marlon's grandmother Meme (who we hadn't seen since October!) and eating of course.

So far today we slept in again, had breakfast, and while the kids played Wii, I spent some time online looking up different things to do that we haven't done before (or in awhile), and printing out coupons. I have most of the days scheduled for the rest of our time here, but I'm not going to tell you about it because I'll just be blogging about what we do after we do it!

That's all for now -- keep checking regularly for more updates. I'll try to blog every day or two.

Hope you're enjoying your summer so far. I - and everyone else -- would love to read about YOUR adventures too, so leave a comment!!! :)

The Big Weekend

2008-06-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, I should be packing because we leave in a few hours (well, 6 hours) for our trip, but I wanted to take the few minutes (well, ok, an hour!) to get all these pictures posted and give a brief recap of the wonderful dance weekend.

My inlaws were here from TX, as were my sister and brother in law from Arizona, plus my mom who lives local. They all came to most of the 7 shows! We feel so very fortunate that we have family who loves us enough to travel here and sit through all those shows. The kids really, really appreciate having them come. Of course Marlon and Harrison were at the shows too. Michela wasn't in all 7, so she got to watch about 3. Jacob watched half of one from the audience and parts of the sunday night Gala from backstage. I was in charge of coordinating the volunteers for the sun night Gala show and worked backstage from the wings making sure all the dancers were ready to go on. (it's called the Gala b/c it's all the company/competing dancers, as opposed to regular dance classes, so it's an amazing show because everyone is good!)

Over the course of the shows, Michela had a tap number, 2 jazz numbers, a ballet number, a lyrical number, and 2 hip hop numbers. Jacob had his hip hop production number that he did all 7 shows, his large group jazz competition that he did twice, his small group boy's honor group competition number that he did twice, then 2 jazz, 2 tap, 2 ballet, 1 lyrical and 1 hip hop. (he danced 19 times!)

They did amazing and the shows were all very entertaining to watch. Being a boy, Jacob is front and center and usually featured in the dances, so that's always exciting. Michela doesn't usually get features (some of the girls do, but she hasn't yet), but she's becoming a really good dancer and we love to watch her. It's hard when they're in the same numbers (they were in 4 together) because it's hard to watch them both. The dancers tend to move around a lot.

Our studio is large (over 1000 dancers) and each of the 7 shows is different. Our director does an excellent job of mixing up the regular dancers with company numbers and having a variety of styles, costume colors, etc. mixed up so the shows are entertaining and not boring. Even the littlest dancers are fun to watch b/c they are so cute, esp the ones who just stand there.

It was a hectic weekend for me of having to re-organize costumes and dance bags before each show (it was a lot to keep straight), do Michela's bun, do her full make up (and a little bit for jacob) and all that. In between shows, we basically just went to restaurants to eat and hung out!

I'm glad it's over because it's quite overwhelming, but it was a wonderful weekend. Having kids who perform in dance and musical theater certainly keeps us busy, but we wouldn't trade it for the world.

Ok, here are the pictures!!!!! There aren't that many of them because they have so many numbers in each show that I can't take pictures of them in all their costumes because they're changing during the show and I'm in the audience watching. I took a few backstage before and after, but not many. Professional pictures were taken last week, so I promise I'll figure out my scanner and scan them in and post them when we get back from our trip! And by then I'll be able to hopefully post the actual dances from the DVD that will be ready by then. (you aren't allowed to video yourself, you just by the DVD but I ordered a custom DVD so it will just have my kids dances on it)

Jacob, Harrison, Michela and Harrison's girlfriend Danna at a restaurant. (He brought Danna to one of the shows. She dances too, so she really enjoyed watching.)

Michela in one of her jazz costumes

Harrison and Danna in the theater

After one of the shows. They were in this same number - a jazz number.

Marlon's parents, Bernie and Esther

My mom and Marlon

Michela and my brother in law Brian

My sister Patti and I

My mom (on the left) and her friend Shirley

Esther, Harrison and Patti

Michela just hanging out

Harrison and Michela. fyi, that's a bottled rootbeer in his hand, not a beer! We were at dinner at a brewing company and they have bottled rootbeer that's good!

Jacob in his boys' honor group costume

Michela in her tap costume

Jacob and his friend Riley who also competes with him, in their hip hop production costume

Michela in tap, Jacob in hip hop production

Photos from the last day of school

2008-06-24T07:55:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from the last day of school....

Michela and one of her good friends since they were babies!

Jacob with two of his good friends. I'm not sure why he isn't smiling!

Michela and a few of her buddies

Some more of Michela's friends

Jacob and a few of his good friends from his class. The one in pink has been in his class every single year since they were in the 2 year old room at the JCC preschool! They have a wonderful friendship.

Jacob and his teacher who was wonderful!

Michela and her teacher, who was also wonderful

Harrison and a few of his buddies

Harrison and some more of his good friends

Video from last week's swim meet

2008-06-23T14:51:00.000-07:00

Here is some video from the first swim meet of the season, which was a week ago Saturday. Our kids have been doing swim team for years - each of them since Kindergarten. It's great fun and has really helped them become excellent swimmers. They enjoy the meets because of the competition of the races and the social element of hanging out, cheering for your teammates, eating from the snack bar, and all that. We missed the meet this past weekend because of the dance shows and we'll be gone for the next two. But we'll resume meets in mid July.

Jacob and Michela step up to the diving blocks. They are the last two on the end. Just by chance, they happened to be next to each other. That doesn't usually happen. If you notice, he hit the water first, but she pulled ahead.

Michela comes back, quite a bit ahead of Jacob... they ended up first and second in their heat.

Harrison racing in his favorite stroke - breaststroke.