My Afflation

7-Day Western Carribean Cruise on the Disney Magic It's the night before our latest Disney Cruise and this time we are hitting some new destinations. This makes me very excited. What am I most excited about? Probably the first day at sea where I plan on going on full introvert mode. I haven't had any serious downtime in over a year and the stress of it is showing to those who know how to look. After that, I will probably have enough energy to deal with all the Disney Magic ... on the Magic . We will be exploring ruins in Cozumel, viewing sea life in Grand Cayman, pretending to be the Jamaican Bobsled team in Jamaica, and then enjoying the day at Castaway Cay. I might need a vacation from my vacation! Tonight we are just chilling at the Hyatt in MCO. It's an awesome hotel, you don't even hear the airplanes even though we can see them taking off and landing. View of the control tower from our room After we had all settled into the room, we headed down to Mc...

My daughter is a picky eater. In the last three months she has developed intolerances to wheat, dairy, and soy. Just need nuts and seafood to be complete (knock on wood). Creating menus each week just got more interesting . Luckily, she can eat just about anything from El Pollo Loco, but we have both gotten tired of that in the last month. Cooking from scratch in 30 minutes or less (most nights)... Monday: Beef and Broccoli - minus the soy sauce and water, so I guess it was more of a stir fry, but she had multiple servings. Tuesday:  Avocado Strawberry Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing Wednesday:  Beef & Bean Chile Verde  - I make mine with Fresh and Easy Salsa Verde Thursday:  Chicken Avocado Salad Wraps Friday:  Primal Jambalaya  - minus the cauliflower rice Saturday:  Paleo Avocado Turkey Burgers  - reminds me of the burgers at the District Pub (also much cheaper to make at home). Menu Plan Monday hosted by:

I couldn't find one of myself that I liked, but I did find this one of my daughter and nephew that is just adorable. I'm not sure if they would feel the same way about each other today. Pin It

Usually, I enjoy working from home. Today was the exception that proves the rule. Today I was WFH because I finally took Joy to get seen about her  insomnia . I had planned on being imminently productive ( cue laughter ). There were good things and bad things about today's arrangement. Usually I have no issues, but today my internet seemed to freeze at the worst moments. Taking three hours to get a few emails out, not being able to do my analytics report, multiple reboots .... and having workus interruptus from said tween asking for food and being hormonal (it really sucks that she's on my cycle but hasn't started yet. I pray she doesn't have PMDD because if today is any indication, I am going to need a CASE of Bailey's and at least 5lbs of chocolate each month ! Boys are so much easier, even if they do turn into aliens). And once I finally got into a groove it was time to leave for her appointment. Also, insomnia/sleep deprivation + hormonal tween + PM...

Or maybe my daughter. She's had insomnia ALL WEEK !!! Which, in turn, means that I have gotten little to no sleep. Yesterday I was on the brink of losing my mind and my emotional cool. Luckily, I have people in my life who bring me some sanity. A little emotional reset was and is desperately needed. I am so glad today is Friday. Until I remember that softball season is upon us and there is practice tomorrow. No rest for the wicked. Just take a look at what missing a little sleep does to you... Pin It

Opening day of Joy's 4th season of soccer was this past Saturday Pin It

It's another one of those days when I swear I just gave birth , but here she is, 11 years later and entering 6th grade. Wasn't she just in kindergarten ? And why is 6th the beginning of middle school now? It should be the last year of elementary. Mom, you got me to school on time. I got this. You can go to work now. End of day results :  She claims she has three of the best teachers in the school (she likes her teachers and classmates, this is a bonus).  She got violin instead of Cadet Corps (thank goodness!) Math is soooooo basic , but I still had to double-check that she didn't miss any prime numbers and tomorrow's homework is composite numbers.  She made friends (she's an introvert at first, so this is important). I am grateful that there wasn't any sort of meltdown over not being able to go to school with her BFF's from elementary. And now that we have the rest of the school supply/clothing shopping out of the way I am going to pass ...

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We went old school tonight after my daughter found my deluxe board hiding in the storage closet. Even I had forgotten where it was. First time she's enjoying math in a while. :-D And obviously over getting over her strep throat. And then she taught me how to play Monopoly Millionaire. She owned me. I swear, it's because of this game I have no interest in ever being in real estate, no matter how many episodes of those brothers I watch on HGTV. All in all a decent Friday night. I'm going to pass out now.

The first day was Monday and she's still this happy and excited two days later. It helps that she got the teacher she wanted.

I'm not a big fan of infographics, but this one resonated with me for the sheer fact that it's true for me and my daughter. Yes, she's 10 now, but even though both of my kids have had access to a computer since they were born, only she really tries to be like me -- or at least more digitally and technologically savvy than her older brother. My son just looks at me and says "Mom, make it work". My daughter likes knowing the ins and outs of her phone and would rather I show her how to do it than brush her off or do it for her. She's used my d80 , has her own digital camera , has had a flipcam  for 4 or 5 years now (but prefers to use my zi8), carries around my "purse dell", has my hand-me-down Aluratek eReader  and has been hinting that she wants an iPad. Her phone, Nintendo DS, and/or an old-fashioned book are *always* with her. She's recently started carrying a purse for all of these items. My son... does not take after me nor Bio Dad. Let...

Not that there's a lot of sibling rivalry between my kids, I mean, they are eight years apart. But my daughter is determined to skate at least as well as her brother, play sports better, and have more epic injuries. With Josh I only had to watch him for a few hours or overnight to make sure he only had a bumped head and not an actual concussion.   But my daughter ... a trip to the ER , two days later a follow-up with her regular doctor that leads to a week of bed-rest. Have you ever tried to make a 10 year old not suffering from a fever stay in bed??? It's impossible! (OK, not bed-rest per se, but the girl won't stay down and rest !!)  The weekend will be a long one for her. And she's going to miss out on a field trip to the California Science Center before she's cleared to go back to school. Guess what I will be doing this summer? But that's OK, because I love the Science Center and all the museums at Expo Park.  Joy is so bored she asked fo...

My daughter finally got a pair of heelies after asking for them since they came out. I had honestly hoped that they wouldn't be around by the time the elusive "when you're 10" arrived. Since she's had them, she's landed hard enough to bruise her tailbone (on a downward slope), and tonight, she fell and cracked her head at Target of all places! I am proud of her though. She held it together until we got to the car. Then she let it all out like someone was beating her on the head. Which is apparently what her headache felt like. Having gone through multiple head trauma and concussion watches with Josh, I wasn't *too* worried. But then she couldn't / wouldn't lie down, complained of dizziness, an increasing headache, blurry vision, and could only be moderately entertained by netflix after bed time. Which means instead of lying down and falling asleep she sat up, had the netbook raised to a certain angle, and wouldn't relax. The sunburned sho...

Sometimes the kids activities (softball games scheduled during when I usually cook dinner), my health (fatigue the last few days), and the general chaos of everyday life gets in the way of sticking to a schedule. Know what I mean? So here it is Tuesday and I'm just getting around to menu planning. My son is constantly complaining that there is no food in the house. Funny, our cupboards aren't empty and neither are the fridge and freezer, despite my attempts at mimicking Old Mother Hubbard. But to him -- because there are no baked goods, no already cooked foods (I've gotten really good at portions for 4!), and nothing easier than ramen (which he may have actually gotten around to finally eating the last case) -- there's no food in the house. And yet, I am staring at a basket-full of apples that have sat there for a week. I digress. Last night I just used the tilapia from last week's menu since one of the meals got replaced by chili cheese dogs. It was my daughte...

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Image from http://www.duy.im/2011/10/happy-new-year-2012.html   This has been quite the year! Last year about this time I thought I was dying, but it was just a kidney infection . This New Year's Eve I am stuffed up and alternating between being a mouth-breather and imitating Niagra Falls. I can't remember the last time I had a good New Year's Eve. Probably back in Oregon when I threw Shindigs (as in Browncoat parties). I've been debating for days what this last post of 2011 should be. A Best of? A collage? A worst of? A general summary? I'm still debating. I'm just glad it's over. It wasn't a bad year overall, started out sick, ended sick, and in between ... I managed to finally lose ten pounds and gain about five of it back in the last two months. I have about (1)50 posts in drafts, so if you read my blog via RSS, you're not going crazy, I'll just be knocking out the relevant ones. So let's try the recap approach. I take photos a...

And still under 190. I'm at 185 this week and blaming the one pound weight gain on water weight -- not on the candy corn. I've actually been pretty good, it took me about a week to go through one bag and I only raided the Halloween candy a few times. I keep thinking "portion control" and "stay UNDER 190!!" After about 6 weeks of little to no activity I rode my bike into work the past two mornings. My legs are confused and I have never been so glad to sit at my desk. Riding gets my blood moving but I think I need a chiropractic adjustment to get those endorphins into my brain. You would think that a 3-4 mile ride in brisk air would wake a girl up! It's good to be moving again and I am so happy that despite not exercising a lot I have been losing weight.  Regarding Halloween candy -- The Teen is allergic to food dyes but has the OK from his doctor to eat fatty foods because he's ectomorphic . I keep telling that will be in his favor until he ...