Next Vacation Four Weeks Away

Well, a short vacation has come and gone. I worked until 3 on Wednesday, had Thursday off and worked half a day on Friday. I like working the Friday after Thanksgiving because honestly, it's not really a full work day with everyone else on vacation, and also I get to save a vacation day.

This was a good mini-vacation. I've worked out six days in a row, which is a first for me. Now if only I can get my eating under control! If I could get both of those important factors in synch I would be doing good.

Image by Anne Taintor

Thursday we did nothing, absolutely nothing. Friday I was off by 12:45 so we went to the movies and saw Megamind. I don't care what the reviewers have said, it was a very cute movie and I liked it. We were good and went to the gym and then we were bad and we had Chinese take-out, thus the reason I can't get my eating and my working out in synch. Saturday I spent the day doing and folding laundry but I was able to work in a walk with the kids. Once again, bad dinner, pizza...

So what will today bring?? I'm taking my daughter to buy an outfit from Justice, a girl's clothing store. She needs some cute clothes. She's 9 and girls start becoming self-conscious about their clothes at her age. Which reminds me! Have you all seen this great Barbie "When I Grow Up" commercial? We saw it at the movies Friday and then I blogged about it on skirt!

It got me to thinking about what I want to do with my kids to help them even more with their education. Here are some of the things I thought about.

1. I've been wanting to take the kids on a walking tour of Downtown Houston with a history lesson. I need to do it while it's still cool outside. Just walking down Main Street and reading the historic building plaques is an education in itself.

2. At least one monthly visit to a different museum until we make the whole museum circuit and start over. We belong to the Children's Museum so that one is a given. But let's say, start with the Museum of Natural Science, next the Museum of Fine Arts, etc.. Maybe we even hit up the not-so-popular museums too, like the Railroad Museum.

3. A trip to our State capital for a Texas history lesson.

4. A trip to San Antonio for their Ruiz family history. (Their ancestor signed the Texas Declaration of Independence)

5. And finally I want to start taking road trips to different state capitals nearby. We can stop in Baton Rouge on our way to New Orleans. When we get to the other states we'll have to fly. That's a more lofty goal and one we'll have to do when we have bigger bonuses coming in, whenever that happens.

I have five vacation days left and I'm taking them the last week of the year, which coincidentally is also when I may be having my little procedure that I blogged about last time. I'm not looking forward to that but it is a necessary evil.

So here we go, last few hours of freedom for the weekend and we're back to our regular routine. Let's go see what kind of sales I can find.

At Least My Bladder Isn't Hanging Halfway Out of My Body

I wish I was the Bloggess. I wish I could write about hilarious personal things that are super embarrassing, but that people could actually relate to. But alas, I'm not brave enough, so this is all you get.

Let's just say I went to see a specialist today that had to look at my lady parts and I was all uncomfortable because I've seen the same OBYN for like, almost 20 years.  Dr. Miro is one of the best OBGYNs in the world, or at least Houston. He saw me before, through, and after both my pregnancies. I always tell people that he's such a great doctor that even the nurses from the OBGYN department at NW Memorial Hermann hospital see him. That says a lot about him!

So when Dr. Miro recommends a doctor I take his recommendation seriously. That's why I went to see this specialist for a little female problem that I'm having. I think I was in denial that he was going to check me down there. When he told me to undress from the waist down I tried to tell him I couldn't, but he didn't accept my excuse. So there I was naked from the waist down with not only a strange doctor about to peek inside, but also a strange nurse standing by. I've had both the same doctor and the same nurse all of these years. Yes, I'm spoiled like that.

First I was all complaining because I didn't have socks. Every time I go see Dr. Miro I have the courtesy of wearing socks, especially since I've been wearing shoes without socks all day and let's face it, my feet do not smell like roses. I wiped my feet with the Wet Ones I carry in my purse (yes I do) and then I wiped them down with a paper towel, but I was still uncomfortable. I was fine with my lady parts because let's just say, I am a strict believer in female hygiene and Wet Ones. When the nurse went out to check on the doctor I told her to find me a pair of socks too. I think that's when she realized I was a bit high maintenance. The doctor was already coming and asked what I needed and she told him I wanted socks. He looked puzzled at first and then just laughed at me.

Then for the best part, a little bonus surprise. He checked me and then I felt a sharp little prick and I yelped. The doctor said, "Sorry, that's the catheter." What the heck! He sure was good about explaining everything that he was going to do beforehand, with a pelvic model and all, but he never mentioned the catheter.

I'm serious y'all! He had the whole pelvic model and he was explaining how we are made and what happens to our pelvis and other parts when we have children, etc.. He was very detailed and he even drew pictures for me, but he never mentioned a catheter. He was very vague about that part.

I felt so violated! None-the-less, violated or not, he found out what the problem was and it wasn't as bad as he imagined it would be when I first explained my "issue." At first he was all talking about a more extensive surgery and in the end he said he could fix it quickly in a an outpatient visit. So come December I'll be having a little surgery procedure to correct my "female problem." There we go, I guess the catheter experience was "kind of" worth it.

When he finished I said, "Well good, I was picturing my bladder falling half way out of me, the way you described it," and he laughed politely, looked uncomfortable, and got away as quickly as possible. The nurse, an older African-American lady looked at me like I was crazy (she didn't hide it) and she just shook her head and laughed. I figure if he looks at lady parts all day he should be comfortable talking about it too. So there you go.

And the Cupcake Torture Continues

Thanks for the cupcake ad! This is the ad that showed up on my blog when I opened it today. Wow! Thanks?

These cupcake ads won't take me off my path! I've been working out diligently for three weeks now and what's really helping me with accountability is that I'm posting the week and the day each time I'm at the gym. For example, today I posted Week 3-Day 9.  Ever since the kids started back at their after school care I've been very diligent at stopping at the gym on my way home.

I've been using incentives while I work out. One day I looked at a Cabi book at the outfits that I want to buy while I worked out on the elliptical. Then I took a picture of a suit that I want to wear comfortably and I made it the screen picture on my blackberry so I could look at it today.

So yeah, these crazy cupcake ads are mocking me! It's almost like they are laughing at my last post. And no, they won't take me off my path, but that cookie in my cookie jar sure did! I couldn't resist eating just half of this delicious shortbread and strawberry cookie I bought at La Madeline last Friday. I guess if you look at it that way that's pretty good. I've had that cookie since Friday and I didn't break down and eat some of it until Wednesday. That's progress, I'd have to say.

I was so sad today when I read that Sylvia Garcia lost as County Commissioner. I was so excited last week when I saw one of her digital ads running on my blog. I was telling my friend and husband about it on Saturday on our way to the Renaissance Festival. I'm sad because she was the first female and Hispanic commissioner and now she lost.

Speaking of the Renaissance Festival. Wow! There is so much hype around that festival. Yes, it's cute and nice and it's fun for people watching, but that is pretty much it. I'm not sure if I will go back and if I do it won't be with my kids. We spent most of the money on the two of them. On a good note the weather was beautiful.

Winter is finally here! I love the cold weather. Every year I suffer through our summers just to get to this time of the year in Houston. Now if only it will stop raining it would be perfect. Thank goodness I work out inside.

I Still Have Cupcake Issues After ALL these Years!

A long time ago when I was a little girl I loved cupcakes just like all little kids do. The only difference between other kids and me was that I was made to feel guilty when I ate them. I was told I was too fat and that I shouldn't eat any sweets, so then I wanted to eat them even more. One day I went to the store and bought myself one of those packs of two cupcakes. I knew that if my sisters saw me eating them they would chastise me, so instead I decided to eat them in the wash room away from their judgmental eyes. Of course one of them caught me and that was it. I would be told for the rest of my life, "Remember when you used to hide and eat cupcakes in the wash room?" It became something that I had done all the time on a regular basis and not something they caught me doing one time.

annetaintor.com (By the "we" here I mean me and my sisters)

So here I am thirty years later and I have two kids. My husband goes grocery shopping and he buys the kids cupcakes for their school lunch and I can't help feeling that that's "bad."  Worse yet, I wanted to eat one and I didn't want my children seeing me because I didn't want for them to ask for one, so I ate it in the kitchen. (they had already had one) No, I wasn't hiding. Anyone could walk into my kitchen, but yet I felt like I was hiding.

I still have issues after all these years. I can't truly enjoy a cupcake with a cup of milk like a normal kid. Somehow I know deep down that this issue is tied to my issue with food in general. Part of me is still that little girl that feels judged by her sisters and her father. And I'm FORTY years old! Who cares what they think of me, my house, or my children?

I feel like Liz Lemon in last week's 30 Rock show and her issue with Tom Jones. Only I've always known I have this issue and now I just need to figure out how to work through it. I need to start by not giving my own kids issues with food or making them feel judged. Sometimes I catch myself doing that and it makes me mad. There is a fine line between telling them, "no," which I don't have a problem saying to them, and telling them in a way that helps them understand that over-indulgence is unhealthy.

Isn't it lovely how we carry these issues with us for years and years? I laughed when I watched 30 Rock last week but I totally understood Tina Fey's character Liz. Maybe I'm more neurotic than I realize!

So today I had my first meltdown since I'm taking the kids to school now. You can go over and read about that on skirt! I've decided that I need to just stay home and live a stress free life. Oh yeah! I need money to do that and if I stay home I won't have any of that, therefore I'll be even more stressed. So no, that won't work. I think that what I'll do instead is write a blockbuster novel. Blockbuster novel coming up next! It's on my vision board so it's going to happen.

Starting Over

How many times do we start over in our lives? Thousands probably. I don't just mean big life altering start overs, like starting a new job or getting remarried. There are a lot of times that we start over with smaller things, like with our goals or an exercise routine. Today the kids go back to their after school program down the street from my gym. I'm back on my regular exercise schedule starting today. I pick them up and stop a the gym for at least 45 minutes 3-4 times a week. Do over! Let's see how I do.

Here is the vision board that I created for my goals. You can read more about it on skirt! There is a picture of the first version on there, but this is the final version.