oh the dentist...

another item crossed off the resolution list - i made an appointment and attended said appointment at the dentist. it's been a little over 3 years which is ridiculous since we have coverage but they were calling me for an appointment when i was pregnant and i had that pregnancy gingivitis which made me not want to go and have wicked bleeding while they flossed. i avoided their calls thinking that i'd go when ben was born. then ben was born and there's just never a good time. anyways...excuses aside, i finally went.

it took the hygenist an HOUR to clean my teeth. those are some stained teeth. then they took a ton of x-rays. (resulting in a 2 hour appointment) now apparently, while i was on my dentist hiatus, they invested in some wicked technology that when they x-ray your teeth, the x-rays pop up on a computer screen next to my chair! very cool. so though it had been 3 years, i was looking at these xrays thinking that my teeth were looking pretty good - no black holes anywhere.

then the dentist came in and burst my bubble. after 28 years of no cavities...i now have four. FOUR. i honestly felt like crying. silly, i know. but i'd never had a cavity and now i had four? ugh. the dentist said that when you're pregnant, the baby saps a lot of calcium from you and he attributes that to the reason i've never had a cavity and now have so many. two need fillings but two, however, could be "healed". if i floss at least once a day and rise before bed with a flouride rinse like Oral-B, i could actually reduce the cavities because they haven't yet hit the enamel. hello flossing TWICE a day.

then the decision of silver vs. white fillings came up. i couldn't believe what a difficult time i had making this decision. i know that people are having their silver fillings being taken out to have them replaced because of the mercury so i asked about this. she had lots of info and studies to back her up that actually, that mercury isn't doing anything in your body. plus, these silver fillings last almost DOUBLE the amount of time in your teeth. why would i want something that's not going to last as long? a difficult decision.

anyways, i'm back in the chair tomorrow to get one of my fillings and then in a few weeks for the next one. until then, i'll be working on healing my cavities...?

still only two points...

today, i bought a box of Fibre1 bars...but get this - new flavour: dark chocolate chunk with chocolatey coating.

it's intense. and it's still only 2 WW points? craziness.

a ben series: budding photographer

before i'd lost my camera, i'd given our old one to ben to play with. obviously, he was thrilled. here are some of his photos...(the most in focus ones)

fridge.

lost coffee mug.

hockey ball.

cd case.

now that this old camera is the only thing keeping me from freaking out about my missing camera, i'm holding on to it tightly. ben hasn't taken any photos in awhile...

last wednesday?

i have obviously been doing something else because i have not been blogging. i didn't even realize how long it had been because i'm still spending ample time on the computer. i've been tupperware crazy (some of you may know because i emailed you about having a party! ha!) because it's record breaker month in tupperware world. i guess it happens every september and the idea is to beat your previous best sales month. i wasn't going to attempt to do this. so i didn't work very hard to do anything until sept.9th. for some reason, on this date i thought, "maybe i should try - i could use the money i'd make just from the extra parties i'd have if i worked at getting them". and thus the work began. and apparently, blogging went by the wayside.

also hindering my blogging has been the loss of my camera. i know that it MUST be in the house somewhere. in fact, i last remember having it and thinking, "i should put this up where ben won't see it". so i have looked on every high surface in my house and have not yet located it. i even went back into my photos to see what was the last thing i took a photo of. the photos were outside which worries me somewhat. but i like to have photos to post and blogging reminds me that i can't find my camera which annoys me and so i have been avoiding the blog i guess. i do have a back up camera, which was my old one, that i've been using for photos and videos here and there so that ben will not have weeks of undocumented daily life but using your old camera makes you miss your camera even more.

give me a couple days here to get something happening in my life to blog about other than tupperware and anger-towards-missing-camera and we will return to our regularly scheduled programming.

mr. noodle

if ben is up before 8am in the mornings, we turn on sesame street after he eats his breakfast. we usually just catch the last 20 minutes or so which is always "elmo's world". if you know nothing about current day Sesame Street, let me enlighten you. there is an entire 20 minutes at the end of the program dedicated to elmo. yes. elmo. and the elmo's world pattern is this: elmo tells us what he is thinking about. then he tells us that his fish, dorothy, is also thinking about that. dorothy asks a question. elmo poses the question to "mr. noodle", the creepy man behind the shade in the window. then elmo asks some kids. then he asks a baby. it goes on to learning more about the subject by using email, tv, and usually a "guest". then they sing about the subject to the tune of jingle bells so that it's easy to sing along. and then they say goodbye. and that is elmo's world. (more than you ever wanted to know, i'm sure)

let's rewind to the part about the creepy guy. here he is:

this part weirds me out every time. who is mr. noodle? who came up with this portion of the show?

anyways, i was watching sesame street today and felt like i should let the non-watchers know. what can i say? (insert old man voice here) "it's not the sesame street of my day!"

note: when googling "mr. noodle" for a photo, i came across this blog post about mr. noodle in which the author researched a little better than i and has many more interesting facts about the real life man behind mr. noodle. you know...if you're interested.

he's a climber

disclaimer: tim's standing right there behind him and after this photo was taken, we never let him up there again. :)

it must be fall...

today we discovered The AppleBarn Pumpkin Farm in town. so great! a u-pick apple orchard, u-pick pumpkin patch, hay rides every half hour, playground, petting zoo that you actually get up close and personal with the animals (ben couldn't believe he was walking around WITH the goats and not just trying to feed them from outside the fence!), bouncy castle, specialty coffee etc. etc. it was the place to be today! we didn't get any pumpkins yet but we did get some apples. mmm...

a photo for great grandpa macdonald! isn't this an H like his?

maybe it's not the kids...

so you know how i was saying that it was the kids on the playground driving us crazy this week? maybe it's not the kids. this morning ben was up early (like 6:50am if you're wondering what early is to us) and played for awhile after he ate breakfast but then started to whine and whine again. it was just like the past couple days except no kids were outside yet. in fact, ben was not outside. he was just whining. i tried playing with him. i took him into my room and gave him magazines to "read" (which is his favourite new activity). i carried him around in the laundry basket. whine whine whine. you know how i was trying not to wish for the next stage? well, forget it! start talking, ben, and tell me what is bugging you!

so what does all this whining look like to me this week? it looks like tiredness. so what does a good mother do when her baby is tired? reads him a story and puts him to bed. has that worked at all this week? no. he sits in his crib, moaning and shouting. hmm...now what does a good mother do? who knows? i know what I do - i second guess myself and take him out of his crib. then he whines and whines around the house. i put him back in his crib where he moans and shouts. it's a vicious cycle. are we moving to needing only one nap a day? then why is this kiddo so whiny? is it the teeth? let's blame the teeth. you can always blame the teeth.

the kids are driving us crazy

our back deck looks over a schoolyard. with the way the sound carries up the hill, you'd think our back deck WAS the schoolyard. even though no one in this house is "back to school", with the bells going at 8:45am, noon, and 2:30pm, there's still an air of back to school here.

every morning this week, as the kids gather in the yard waiting for the bell to ring so that they can go inside, ben stands on the deck whining and pointing. at first, i thought he wanted to go play in the backyard so i got his socks and shoes on and opened the gate. i set him on the grass and he pointed and whined some more towards the sound of kids. ahh...you don't want to be in OUR yard - you want to be in the SCHOOLyard. he can't even SEE the kids in down the hill because he is too short but he can hear them loud and clear. he knows that somewhere down there, kids are having a good time and he wants to be a part of it.

it's throwing our whole morning off. i think tomorrow we'll have to just go down there, pick a blond kid and pretend he's my older son so that this baby can play with the big kids.

best shot monday

(on wednesday...)

gratitude sunday

joining A Journey to a Simple Life, a weekly post to remember all that i am thankful for...

this week, i'm thankful for...

> wonderful parents who have modeled 32 years of marriage for us

> not having to return to school tomorrow

> dinners with family and friends

> ben's cold not affecting his happy mood

> a new tv show to watch on dvd

> price is right game on facebook (ha!)

> sleep-ins

> sleep overs

> classic bc weather

> memories of this time 10 years ago (my first week of university)

happy 32 years!

long time friends

they're the best.

from left to right:

MT - 18+ years

YS - 20 years

LG - 12 years

SD - 12 years

RS - 13 years

me

AD - 23 years

currently, ben is...

listening... to elizabeth mitchell's you are my sunshine

reading... i love you through and through by Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak

sleeping...twice a day still

running...down the street towards the playground

loving... his water table

wearing...my red boots from when i was a little girl

laughing...whenever anyone else laughs

climbing...up and down off of the couch

working...on figuring out more words to make us understand him

giving...impromptu kisses

look ma! no hands!

my fitness faux pas

you know all these get fit shows on tv? biggest loser is the main one that jumps to mind but there's also that "losing it with jillian" show. also, on W, there are these canadian shows about "bulging brides" or something like that with the former football guy, tony europe. anyways, they all have unhealthy, overweight people at the beginning of the show that the trainers work SO hard. so hard, you think they might have a heart attack. i always think, "wow. i always hurt after a hard workout and my workout is nowhere near as difficult as this. how do they keep going the next day and the next day?" i concluded that i don't work hard enough and i'm a big baby.

this past time that i started getting back to the gym, i went to my chiropractor first since my neck and shoulders have been in turmoil since lifting ben around for the past year. i was chatting with him about these shows (because he's an been in ironman races and is my fitness guru) and he's laughing, telling me that we have no idea what's going on behind the scenes on these shows. this is tv. i shouldn't be working out like these people. our bodies need to ease into and rest between hard workouts. this makes me feel better. but after my chiropractic adjustment, i, of course, went to the gym for an hour long class everyday for a week. no resting for me. and of course, i quickly burn out.

a couple days ago, i started counting points again. and i have yet to get back to the gym. so here, on the cusp of beginning a workout regimen again, i get this email titled 6 Fitness Faux Pas from Shape magazine. the #3 faux pas? Exercising too hard, too often

The facts:
If you don't rest enough between hard cardio or strength workouts, you'll stop making progress and may even lose some of the fitness you've gained. You're also likely to burn out on exercise.

The fix:
To keep your muscles fresh and your motivation high, alternate shorter, tougher cardio workouts (for instance, 20 minutes) with longer, easier days (40-60 minutes). Don't go all-out more than twice a week. Keep in mind that the more intensely you train, the more time your body needs to recover. It's a good idea to do a couple of tough workouts and take 1 day completely off each week. On the strength-training front, take at least 1 day off between sessions that work the same muscle group.

ahh - a good reminder. i don't have to go to an hour long "cardio blast" class everyday. hopefully this time, i can use moderation. no "losing it with jillian" for me.