Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Weigh-in week 11

For the last few days of this week I'd been trying to not get too excited as each morning my wildly inaccurate scales hinted to me that good things were happening. Well, I needn't have worried, I've lost 3.5kg for a total of 10.1kg :D Switching to Core seems to have been a good plan!

My focus for this week is to get some regular exercise happening, I'm aiming for three 30 minute walks in the week and sit-ups every day.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

My first ever letter of complaint.

I'll be giving one copy of this to Dave's teacher and one to the Deputy Principal in the morning. Names have been vagued up to assuage my conscience, there are no innocents to protect. Also, I am never going along as helper parent on an excursion with this year group again....

Thursday Oct 15th 2007

To whom it may concern,

This account documents my experiences on, and subsequent to, the Year 4 excursion on Wednesday Oct 24th to the Sydney Wildlife World. I found the behaviour of M**** and M*** extremely distressing to myself and embarrassing for the school. I feel it is important that it be very clear exactly what did and didn’t happen and that the best way to do so is in writing.

When we arrived at Wildlife World it was immediately clear that M**** and M*** both resented being separated from their other friends. It was my understanding that there was good reason for that separation and I felt obliged to honour that intent by keeping them separate from the other groups. I endured a series of difficult behaviours from them including: dragging behind/running ahead of the group, hiding from me, arguing with me, squealing and making other loud noises – particularly in the nocturnal section, throwing themselves around, banging on the glass of the animal enclosures, lying down and refusing to move and trying to grab butterflies out of the air in the butterfly aviary. I was patient but firm with them. I was occasionally able to engage with them in discussion about the wildlife displays but the good moments were very brief. I found their attitude towards me, the members of the public and the animals reprehensible; they seemed to have a total lack of empathy.

At one point I attempted to break the ice with them and said I didn't want to have to tell *David's teacher* that they had been a “pain in the arse”. Unfortunately they were not amenable to friendly overtures and seized upon this comment as ammunition in their campaign to provoke me claiming that I'd be sued when they “dobbed me in for swearing at them”. I told them I'd be telling *David's teacher* the truth about how things had been, which I duly did, including the risqué and perhaps ill-advised expression I had used.

*David's teacher* requested that the boys write an apology to me, which they did once we had returned to the bus. It was delivered to me in the form of a paper aeroplane, admittedly by hand. I presume they thought better of throwing it at me in front of the teachers. I did not find the apology to be even remotely sincere and it included a blatant falsehood.


Here's the text of that note (original attached):

“To Mrs *M*

Sorry for our behaviour but we still don't think you should of called us A-holes
big sorry
from M**** and M***”

When David came home from school on Thursday he recounted to me what had taken place in class with *the librarian*. She told the boys that she had heard what had happened the day before and was not pleased with them. They then repeated, in front of the class, the false accusation that I had “called them A_holes”.

David was then asked by *the librarian* by his classmates* whether or not this was true. David had not been within hearing distance when the exchange characterised by the boys as me swearing at them, and which I presume inspired the lie, took place. I had not discussed with David anything about my distressing day as I believed it would have been unethical to criticise his peers to him. I now regret that decision because David’s response to *the librarian's* question was based purely on rumours he had heard from other children, presumably originating from M**** and M**. He therefore answered in the affirmative. I found this to be extremely upsetting, as did David once he understood the truth of the matter.

I doubt it is possible to correct the false version of events now circulating among the student population. However I am very concerned that the staff and parents involved be correctly informed. I would also appreciate a genuine written apology from M**** and M**, both for their behaviour on the excursion and for the offensive nature of the note I received on the bus.

Sincerely,
Me

*Whatdayaknow, a 10 year old boy does not always give accurate testimony. After talking to her on Thursday morning *the librarian* is absolved of putting Dave on the spot. Still the damage was the same and I was glad to be able to make sure she knew the true story.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Weigh-in week 10

I gained 1.9kg this week, but at least half of that was the yummy birthday breakfast cooked for me by Adam. I've switched to core and I'm happy to say I had no trouble what-so-ever staying on track today. I ate well, drank about 2.5L of water and walked from one end to the other of Hornsby Westfield several times over. Feels like a good start to the week.

More birthday reports tomorrow, I need to take a photo or two!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Territorial disputes

David has a problem. Most evenings as he settles into bed another member of our family stages a sneak invasion of his bedroom. Samantha has decided that the top bunk is the perfect cat bed, neither Jack nor Tom can reach her there and hey! a whole bed all to herself, what more could a cat wish for? She reaches this nirvana via the bedside table, settles in to the middle of the bed and proceeds to groom herself. Thoroughly. Vigorously even. And the whole bunk shakes.

Understandably, David objects to this and calls for a parent to come and evict the invader. Which we duly do and Sam goes and finds somewhere else to hide from the persecutions of her bigger brother.

Not tonight though. Tonight she was not giving up. It's important to realise that, after a day on which my car assured me it was 35 degrees, closing of bedroom doors with the consequent loss of cross-breezes is not a particularly attractive prospect. So the fact that we went through 4 separate evictions and a couple of barely thwarted stealth advances around ankles which were actually standing in the doorway before resorting to the shut door as a last resort is less silly than it may seem.

Samantha is currently lurking in the hall by the door in question in the vain hope that a cat-door might miraculously appear in it.

Tom's 6th birthday party

On Sunday I braced myself and opened my house to 4 extra 6 year olds! The horror! I'm such a wuss when it comes to kids' parties, I stress and I don't enjoy them, but the kids seem to have fun so I must be doing something right. As usual my very wonderful mother was there to help out.

There were presents - and a silly big brother.

We decorated lolly boxes - a very serious business.

And ate party food - mmmm suuugaaar.

The end.

Actually there was pass-the-parcel, beat up the daddy-viking (who was wearing a woolen tunic in 30-odd degree heat!) with rubber swords, bash-the-pinata AND destroy The One Ring as well, but the pics of that stuff were either not so good or non-existent. But you get the idea.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Forging The One Ring was hard work

And it's already being destroyed!
Allow me to present: The One Ring meeting its demise in a pool of lava.
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Tom wanted a Balrog cake, I talked him down to something more achievable.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The lamb shanks were calling my name

We took David out for dinner at The Ranch after the session at the Anxiety Clinic because I'd promised to as a bribe/compensation for his co-operation in going there in the first place. The session went well, the other families involved seem lovely people, the staff were great and David was reasonably relaxed about being there. Hopefully over the 10 weeks we'll all learn some good techniques for dealing with the things that make Dave's life more difficult than it should be. It's on at a bugger of a time though, 6:00 - 8:00pm, not that any other time would work better given the both parents being there thing.

Breakfast
Banana & large skim cappuccino - 3pts
Lunch
Beef pho (I could only eat about 2/3 of it) - 6pts
Dinner
Slow braised lamb shanks with roasted root vegetables and parsnip mash and a glass of red wine - 16.5pts (mostly guesswork)
Snacks
milk for tea - 0.5pts
1 rice cracker and cheese - 1pt
Chai tea with honey - 3.5pts
Water
1.5L
Exercise
Nil
Total points for the day: 30.5

I really should have ordered a salad but my resolve was weak. I think I was a little stressed over how the afternoon and evening were going to work out, perfectly fine as it turned out but I was definitely craving comfort food. So I'm in debt 5.5 points at the beginning of the week and we have Tom's birthday party on Sunday - better get off my bum at some point and do some exercise!

Weigh-in week 9

What happened to week 8? Well that would be the one where everything had gone pear-shaped and I gained 1.6kg taking me back to 7.5kg lost. I was convinced I was heading for another gain this week but when I hopped on the scales at my meeting this morning I was astonished to see a LOSS of 1kg with a total loss of 8.5kg.

Weird. Nice! but weird.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Follow that wagon!

The WW wagon that is. It got away from me for a while there, I'm blaming a combination of school holidays, TTOM, Caitlin's birthday party and a particularly hideous urinary tract infection. All better now though, kids went back to school today, I'm past the "Oh, that's why I've been like a bear with a sore head for the last week!" stage of my cycle (why oh why does it ALWAYS surprise me, you'd think I'd be able to recognise the symptoms by now...) and normality has been restored - more or less - anything I still can’t cope with is therefore my own problem. Feel free to play identify the mangled quote in the comments ;-)

Yodaobi is still running the weekly challenges so I've taken myself back to square one and will be focusing on tracking again this week.

Good things about today:
1) As I dropped the kids off at school this morning I spotted a particular year 2 girl arriving with her mum. This was noteworthy and AWESOME because right towards the end of last term that child was being operated on for a brain tumor and I hadn't heard how things went - I'm not close to her mum but we chat occasionally. I was so very happy to see them, apparently everything seems fine now.
2) My gardeners came and made my yard beautiful. Every month it's like magic, I make them pot of tea and mowing, weeding, pruning all happens - just like that! They're lovely people too and worth every cent and then some.
3) My mother is awesome...as always. She came to help out with homework this afternoon and will be back tomorrow afternoon when I have to take David for his first session with the Macquarie Uni Anxiety Clinic. The program we're doing involves both parents as well as the child and runs once a week for the whole term, it wouldn't be possible for us to do it without my mum's help.

Breakfast
weetbix, peaches and milk - 3pts
Lunch
Warm potato salad with tuna, onion, asparagus, roast pumpkin and a lemon, mustard, balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing - 5pts
Dinner
Proscuitto wrapped chicken breast with cranberry sauce, spiral noodles with parmesan, garlic sauteed mushrooms, onion, snow peas and cherry tomatoes and one of the kids crumbed chicken fingers - 10.5pts
Natural yoghurt with maple syrup - 1.5pts
Snacks
milk for tea - 1pt
Banana and cinnamon mountain bread wrap - 2pts
Carrot - 0pts
Water
1.5L
Exercise
Nil
Total points for the day: 23

Incidently? Food today was not only on track but seriously yummy too.

Saturday, October 06, 2007

First design effort

I bought myself a whole bunch of jewelry making stuff and had a play around with it yesterday. The kids made necklaces too, crafty fun all round!

Not sure what I think of this. How about you lot give me your verdict?

David took this pic for me.

And this one was done with my webcam.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Skip this one

I'm too tired to come up with anything other than the food diary...I wonder why that would be....

Breakfast
egg & bacon muffin - 4pts
Lunch
vegetable & barley soup and tuna & cheese on toast - 6pts
Dinner
2 lamb cutlets, corn on the cob, jacket potato with sour cream and peas - 7.5pts
pineapple and strawberries - 0.5pts
Snacks
milk for tea - 1pt
banana mountain bread wrap - 2pts
Water
2.5L
Exercise
Nil
Total points for the day: 21

Confession is good for the soul

Last night at about 1:00am I ate: 1 piece of vegemite toast, 1 piece of peanut butter and honey toast, 2 slices of grilled Bega Vintage cheese on toast, some dried cranberries and 1 square of Lindt chocolate.

After which I felt somewhat ill.

Hmmm...ponders...why did I do this? Let's see, no complex carbs for dinner, stayed up way too late, getting cold, pissed off with myself over wasting so much of the day yesterday, feeling guilty about all the housework that is un-done. Of course! The obvious answer was to comfort/punish myself in a way guaranteed to make me feel a) physically bleh and b) extremely silly. Why on earth didn't I just heat up one of the 0.5 or 1 point serves of yummy soup in my freezer? Would've warmed me up nicely, been within points for the day and made me feel good all round. I did think of doing that but went ahead with the other instead.

We humans are weird creatures.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Weigh-in week 7

Woot! Lost another 0.9kg :) Brings me to 9.1kg gone, dare I hope to reach the 10kg mark next week?

Adam's car is probably in the shop till Friday. Poor boy, having to do without his little red toy. He wanted to go visit the leather supplies shop and sailing bookshop place sometime this week, I might take pity on him and drag the kids around to do some daddy shopping one day. It's not like we have anything else planned and I'd quite like to see the leather place.

I went way over my 4 hours on the computer today, and I'm up well past 10pm too. Hmph, it's holidays :P I'll behave the rest of the week, need to make sure I'm out of the house for the larger part of the day - better plan some stuff to do with the kids.

Breakfast
lg skinny cappuccino - 2pts
Lunch
Tom yum soup with mushrooms, shallots and tuna - 4pts
Dinner
grilled barramundi, greek salad and 2 chips (stolen from Adam's plate) - 7pts
mango gelato - 1.5pts
Snacks
muesli, yoghurt and maple syrup - 5pts
milk for tea - 0.5pts
banana and apple - 2pts
2 Allens snakes - 1.5pts
Water
~2L
Exercise
Nil
Total points for the day: 23.5

Monday, October 01, 2007

I don't like Mondays. No, wait. Mondays good, sausages bad...

Nice quiet family day today. Lord of the Rings miniatures got painted, a BBQ lunch was eaten on the front deck, I did some grocery shopping and we walked to the park and played basketball.

I decided at lunch that I wanted one of the not quite so low fat sausages I get for the kids, I had plenty of points, what the hell I thought. Well. I remember now why I say I don't like sausages. Bleh :P Greasy and tasteless. I won't buy them again, it'll be Peppercorn Meat Company snags for all of us from now on.

I'm currently 2hrs and 35min into my allotted 4hrs of computer time and I'm looking forward to getting a decent night's sleep!

Breakfast
weetbix, apricots & milk - 3pts
Lunch
fillet steak, 4 seed roll, greek salad, 1/3 of one of the kids' sausages (YUK!) and BBQed onion, asparagus and yellow capsicum - 8pts
Dinner
wholemeal lavash wrap with smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers, shallots, baby spinach and grated carrot - 5.5pts
haloumi cheese - 4pts
watermelon - 0.5pts
Snacks
milk for tea - 1pt
banana - 1pt
carrot - 0pt
pumpkin & cauliflower soup - 0.5pts
Water
3L
Exercise
30min walking with the kids and 30min resistance workout- 4.5 bonus points
Total points for the day: 23.5