I Remember....

Yesterday I got some really sad news. A friend of mine that I have known since childhood but have not talked to in about 10 years has passed away. She is only 36. She has one son who is about 18. The day turned into a feeding frenzy of phone calls to old friends to share the news and dig for any information about why she passed. Her mom, who is friends with my mom could barely get the words out that she had passed...on March 16th....and has already been burried. WHY? That was the big question..we were only told that it was under investigation.
Well, this morning I finally found out....suicide. She took her own life. What could she have been going through to decide this was it. I just don't know and will probably never know. But instead of tearing myself up about the why I decided to do this blog entry and write all the great things I remember about her and our friendship.

Janell....

She was my very absolute without a doubt best friend, BFF, sister, pal, confident and secret confider from about the age of 7-14. We spent the night numerous times at each others homes, swam in each others pools, watched the Thriller video every 15 minutes for about 3 hours while eating Doritos and Dr. Pepper, played soft ball together, went on field trips, girl scouts, trick or treating, birthday parties, hours of roller skating, rode bikes, did bike car washes, got the same rainbow shirts and knickers, visited her dad at the grocery store he managed and got a behind the scenes tour of the store, played Monopoly, vistited her grandparents, went to movies together, church and youth group, six grade camp, slumber parties, school dances, boyfriends, cheerleading, football games, jr. high graduation dresses, her collection of horses, her big sparklets jug of change that her dad would fill for her, telephone calls, sticker books, Hello Kitty, trips to the mall, when she got chicken pox she only got three and they all left scars...one above her eye, sweet 16, millions of notes letters and cards and oh so much more.
We kinda drifted in high school and soon after graduation she met a guy who would later become the father of her child and husband. I attended her dental school graduation cermony, exchanged Christmas cards for a few years and then we just lost touch. I would get updates every now and then via my mom from her mom. There are three other friends from that original "group" that I am still in touch with and we tried to get in contact with her about a year ago to go to a group dinner reunion. I wish we would have tried harder.
So, if you have made it through this email....go run to your phone or address book quickly and look up those old friends that you keep saying you should call sometime and just do it. You never know what is really going on in someone elses life and just knowing that there is someone else out there that loves you and remembers the fun times like I have listed above is all it would take to keep that friendship alive.

One of my friends, Kim and I are getting together on Monday to go and lay flowers on her gravesite and plan to go to coffee afterwards to talk about the good old days.

I will remember Janell as the sweet childhood friend that I was blessed with knowing.

Going Digital

Years ago when I did weight watchers I bought a food scale.



Kinda like this one where it has a removable dish so you can weigh the food directly on the scale or in the bowl. The problem was that it just wasn't very accurate. You could manually reset the dial depending if you used the bowl or not.
This time around I don't want any errors...I am really trying to follow the plan well and accuracy is important when it comes to weighing food and making sure the portion sizes are right.

So, I bought a digital scale. I love it.



This is not the exact one I bought but pretty close. It is well worth the $30 it cost. I have used it for lots of things such as meat, pretzels and just this morning cream cheese. I highly suggest getting one if you are just starting out or like me trying to tighten up any areas of slippage.

Vanished

So, just wrote this big ol' post and then lost my internet connection...poof!!

Anyway, just wanted to drop in to say that I did not go to my weigh in on Saturday because we were at Legoland for Buddy's birthday. We had a great time, the weather was perfect and he had fun. The best part was that my dad was able to get these radio promo tickets for only $7.00 a person. So the whole family got in for $35.00 intead of about $200.00. We were so stoked!

I also wrote about how amazing Homer is and that he went from not exercising at all to being able to run on our new treadmill. RUN!! It is just amazing to me. I can barely walk 3.4 mph and he's running. True, he has more experience as a runner. He has done a couple marathons but he hasn't run in probably more than a year. Damn, I wish it was that easy for me.

We are having a garage sale this Saturday so I am hoping to go to my WW meeting on Friday instead. I will be happy to be even from my last WI. Currently I am showing a small gain mostly due to all the birthdays we have had in the last month (4) and a few too many treats!

A Random Meme.....

So, I am going to attempt this meme that I snatched from "It Coulda Been Worse". I will do my best!

1. What time did you get up this morning? The alarm went off originally at 6:25 am but I actually got out of bed at 7 am.
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Night at the Museum
4. What is your favorite TV show? Amazing Race, Survivor, The Hills and any other reality show.
5. What did you have for breakfast? I had a granola bar and two strawberries
6. What is your middle name?Anne
7. What is your favorite cuisine? Mexican
8. What foods do you dislike?Indian food or sushi
9. What are your favorite chips? Probably pretzels
10. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Jessie McCartney, Carrie Underwood and Lonestar.
11. What kind of car do you drive? Nissan Altima
12. Favorite sandwich? Turkey, Avocado, sprouts, cheese on a french roll
13. What are characteristics you can’t stand? Snottyness
14. What are your favorite clothes? comfy.....lounge
15. If you could go anywhere on vacation where would you go? europe
Where is sixteen?
17. Where would you want to retire? Close to family and hopefully grandchildren
18. Favorite time of day?evenings, after all the work is done and you can just relax
19. Where were you born?Burbank, Ca
20. What is your favorite sport to watch? Football, grew up watching it.
21. Coke or Pepsi? Diet Coke....seriously addicted
22. Beavers or ducks? Excuse me?
23. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Night Owl
24. Pedicure or manicure? Neither, after I heard about people getting weird fungis from the tools used in shops I don't go. I used a thick lotion on my feet and cover in socks at night sometimes though.
25. What did you want to be when you were little? A teacher and then later a psychologist or family therapist.....would still like to do the latter.
26. What is your best childhood memory? Family trips to Lake Tahoe and Christmas mornings
27. Ever been to Africa? No.
28. Ever been toilet papering? Oh yeah.
29. Been in a car accident?Yes, a couple very small ones. Never while I was driving though.
30. Favorite day of the week? Fridays, the week is done and the weekend is coming
31. Favorite restaurant? Love Acapolcos (Mexican) and good ol' McDonalds
32. Favorite flower? tulips and poppies....think spring
33. Favorite ice-cream? Not a huge ice cream person but do enjoy Phish Food from Ben and Jerry's
34. Favorite fast food restaurant? Mickey D's.
35. How many times did you fail your driver’s test? 0
36. From whom did you get your last e-mail? Anna, my friend and neighbor
37. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Target
38. Last person you went to dinner with? my family and my parents to the Corvette diner (see previous post)
39. What are you listening to right now? The Regis and Kelly show
40. What is your favorite color? red/pink
41. How many tattoos do you have?one, a sun on my back
42. How many are you sending this Email to? Blogging.
43. What time did you finish this e-mail blog entry? 9:35 am.
44. Favorite magazine: Used to be People but they started focusing too much on celebrities..now I like Real Simple, Parents, Weight Watchers
45. Coffee or tea? Coffee.
46. Do you tan easily or burn easily? Burn.
47. Do you color your hair? If so, how often?I get it highlighted every once in a while..just so damn exspensive!!
48. What was the first car you ever purchased without the help of your parents? My Nissan Altima
49. What is your most dreaded household chore? The floor around the toilets
50 Who do you tag to complete this meme? I tag anyone who reads this and would like to participate....come on its fun!!
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Happy Birthday to me!

Do you like the new look of my blog. I love it. My hubby did it for me as a birthday gift. My b-day was on the 16th.

Today was a great day. Besides St. Patty's day we celebrated Homers, Buddies and my birthday. Homers was last week and buddies is on monday. Yes, three birthdays within a weeks time. We went to the Corvette Diner in Hillcrest. It was such a cute place. It like a scene from Grease. The girls all wear poodle skirts and the guys look like greasers. They dance and interact with the guests. The kids had a ball. At the end, the waitress threw about 20 pieces of bazooka bubble gum on our table. Afterwards we drove to Sea Port Village, an outdoor touristy place with stores and restaurants right by the harbor. We walked around, went to a bookstore, got some coffee and then took the kids to the candy shop. Overall, a great time was had by all.

I went to my WW meeting on Friday morning and had a small loss this week. Only -.6. Not as good as I was hoping for but it was a loss. Our treadmill is coming on Tuesday. I can't wait. I will post a picture of it soon.

Have a great week and let me know what you think of the new look.

-4.2

Yeah!! My first official WI and I lost 4.2 lbs!! I really thought I had only lost a pound or two. My scale was way off! I am sure that next week won't be as great but I am hoping to reach my 5 lb. loss!

So, as usual on WI days today was a food fest. First off, I had to go shopping after my meeting and since I had not had breakfast yet I was starvin Marvin so I went to McDonalds and got a hash brown...no sandwich. Then, since today was my hubbies birthday we got sub sandwiches and went to a local park/lake and had a picnic and went walking for 40 minutes. We were supposed to go out for dinner but since I now have a cold and Boo Boo has a low fever we decided to lay low. I ran out and got McDonalds (yes twice in one day) and that was that. I have used all my daily points and abouut half of my weekly 35 flex points. Oh well, I am definitely not going to stress cause that's what they are for.

We made a chocolate cake but since boo boo fell asleep we are going to wait and have it tomorrow. There goes the rest of my flex points!

We still don't have the new treadmill. I am really hoping it comes this week. My birthday is on Friday and it would be great to have it by then.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

This and That

I took a peek at the scale this morning and I am down 1.6 from last Saturday. Now, I weighed myself in my skivvies. Do you think they would notice if I walked into a WW meeting in my unders? My official weigh in (WI) is this Saturday. I definitely feel better already, just adding the water and taking out the mindless snacking. Also, I am really really trying to not eat past 8 pm. It's really tough because on nights that I work I go in at 5 pm (too early for dinner) and get home at 9:30 which is obviously past the 8 pm cut off. What I have been doing is eating a Luna bar on my break and this seems to help but I just hate replacing meals with bars but not sure what else to do. Any suggestions?

My dd Pookie has been sick since last friday. I sent her to school yesterday with a very low temp (99.4) on some Motrin and she was in the nurses office by 12:30 with a 100.8 temp and had to come home. I think she just has the flu....tummy ache, fever, poop issues etc. I kept her home again today only because you have to be fever free for 24 hours before sending kids back to school.

My dh's birthday is Saturday. Not sure what we will be doing yet. I told him it was up to him to pick something. Living in San Diego is great because there are so many options. He is leaning towards going to a park for a picnic and going hiking. Sounds like lots of fun as long as the weather is good.

Happy Thursday and thanks for stopping by.

Yeah...I have friends

As a SAHM I often feel like I have no friends. I know there are ways to get them, moms groups, library, parks etc. I just have a hard time walking up to people I don't know. I have never been good at it. That's why this blogging thing is perfect for me. I can tell you what I would tell my closest friends without going through the getting to know you stage. I was so excited to get so many comments from people at my first ever blog party and hope to keep you coming back for more.

So, this weekend I rejoined Weight Watchers for the millionth time. I won't post my starting weight here but will tell you it starts with a 2. I wasn't surprised. I have been in a funk for the last couple months and think that reading other moms blogs has really helped me realize that I am not alone. It has also made me realize that things could be so much worse!! So, my official day that I weigh in is on Saturdays now so I will be updating you then instead of on Wednesday like in the past. I fell pretty good about things and determined once again. A neighbor friend may start going to meetings with me too which will help with being accountable! I am really excited about it.

Other than that my weekend was pretty bland. We ordered a treadmill from Costco on Sunday. I am still a bit in denial that we actually ordered it. I have been wanting a treadmill for at least three years now. We have an exercise bike but I just don't feel like I get a real "workout" from it. The one we ordered comes highly recommended and was on sale which is always nice. It should be here in about 2-3 weeks. I can't wait!!

Party Time

5 Minutes for mom is hosting The Ultimate Blog party! Thanks for coming by.

Since most of you have never been by here before...let me tell you a bit about myself. I am 35, a mom of three and married almost 10 years. I was born and raised in California and currently live in San Diego. I love it and feel so blessed that I can raise my family here. My husband works as a marketing analyst and I work part time (20 hours) at a Whole Foods Market as a cashier. My kids are 9, 5 and 3. I am able to stay home all day with them and work at night.

Some things that make me smile are music (all kinds except rap), special coffee drinks (mochas, lattes etc.), the beach, the computer, family and snacks. The last one just a bit too much!!

I am very new to the blogging world and think I have had three visitors so far. I love reading other moms blogs and hearing that I am not so crazy! We all are....ha !

I am glad you stopped by. Please leave me a comment so that I know that you came and tell me three things about you so that I can get to know you. I also want to come visit you at your party too.