Here's Caleb the happy swimmer. We are so glad to be able to go swimming indoors when it's 4 degrees outside. The last few days have been warmer--in the 20's. It was a balmy 26 yesterday.

I've got the flu. Caleb had it a few days ago. A 24 hour flu bug. It's not as bad as other bugs I've had in years past. Thank goodness. I do wish that I were sick and upchucking because I was pregnant, but it's just the flu. Darn it!

Cannon is in the attic right now. He finished putting a bunch of foam board, plastic and "black death" down in the crawl space. Now the attic is getting a makeover. I sure appreciate his willingness to fix this stuff. He said he enjoys it. Again, thank goodness. In the short few years that we've been married I'm sure he has saved us thousands of dollars by fixing the car and house himself. He's the best.

Speaking of the house, we had a knock on the door a few days ago. We answered the door and a fellow said "Hi, I'm here to look at the house!" After a couple seconds of puzzlement, he explained that his wife saw that it was for rent. We assured him that it was NOT for rent and told him that he'd been a victim of a scam. I asked if his wife sent any money to the "landlords" and he didn't know. We wished him luck looking for a rental property and sent him on his way. Hopefully they didn't lose any money. Bizarro.

Caleb went in for an EEG (a brain scan). He did wonderfully well. We are still waiting for the results. When he had the flu, he did have another febrile seizure. It was very short and not nearly as dramatic as past episodes. I think that because they are purely febrile (happening when he's got a fever), he'll grow out of them. He is such a great kiddo.
Happy Tuesday to you all.

p.s. I'm using a Mac version of Wordpress, called Flock. I'm trying it for the first time today.

just barely january

january is here, beautiful snow is here. i'd love to post pics but they still aren't uploading. we've been exploring other sites to use so that i can continue to post pics and text without any trouble. obviously it hasn't been a huge priority since i've struggled for the last 3 months or so and still am using 'blogger'.

still getting busted pipe ramifications taken care of around the house. still. that and normal everyday life. dishes, laundry, meals, exercise, play dates. i keep promising cannon that i'll update our budget and i haven't done it yet. it's just a matter of plugging numbers into our excel spreadsheet and yet...and yet, it might as well be eating cooked broccoli. i hate it. and for whatever reason, laundry piles seem to crop up in the house. i don't mind doing laundry but other things get in the way of sitting down and folding it. i guess i need to improve my dvd selection so that i'll actually want to sit down and watch a movie while i fold. it would also help if caleb wouldn't dump the entire basket of folded laundry over, quickly burrowing under the pile and saying "where's caleb, where's caleb?"

speaking of movies, we've started watching the "national parks" dvd series by ken burns. they are so well done. the stories that accompany the photography are just captivating. and our national parks are spectacular, so all of the visual imagery is inspiring. highly recommend this series to anyone.

what else. oh, we went swimming again last night. there is a big water slide and cannon and i time each other on who can go down the fastest. cannon has me beat by 2 seconds. we have different techniques and his sheer weight and size probably have more to do with how fast he bombs down the slide than the technique. but he swears by the technique. caleb is TOTALLY fearless. we strap the life jacket on and let him go! the water slide isn't enough of a thrill for him. he would rather go off the diving board. yes, THE diving board. thank goodness there is no high dive. in the pool he will tug on us and say "go on the diving board!" we have to hold the back of his strap while he tries to run to the board. one of us climbs up with him and the other treads water in the deep end. he gets out to the very edge of the board, grabs our hands and then starts jumping up and down on the very edge of the board. after a few seconds of jumping and yelling like a triumphant viking he counts to 3 and then we drop him into the deep end. fortunately, he's so buoyant that his head never goes under the water. the rest of the time, he is chasing a ball. and he is relentless about getting it and if it starts to sink, he'll yell and kick himself into circles waiting for one of us to retrieve the ball. he is so fun to watch. a plastic surgeon couldn't remove the smile on his face. he kicks and yells and chases and jumps for 2 hours straight, smiling the whole time. it's a blast to take him swimming. i'm going to get him in some swimming classes this spring, after he turns 3.

one thing i have been doing is planning out meals and using the crock pot more. made some sweet and sour salmon in the crock that was awesome and some moose vegetable stew that was very tasty. will be using those recipes a lot in the future. my next attempt will be a pf changs lettuce wrap recipe for the crock pot. mmm,mmmm....

so that's about it. my neck and shoulders are healing well. i'm stiff and a little sore most days but not in pain and not achy. this is the 4th week i've been able to exercise consistently throughout the whole week without any bad physical pain in my back. i'm VERY happy about that. and like most americans, i have a new year's resolution to get this pesky fat off my body. i've been very happy while eating healthy. this is a marked change from last year. last year i had a sense of "all or nothing" and felt deprived, angry and obsessive about what i was (and wasn't) eating. i've abandoned the notion of eating super strict just to get the weight off. and i'm not planning on eating differently or having binge days once i do get the fat off. no fad diets. i'm truly changing my lifestyle. that means that i can have chocolate everyday, but in moderation. lean meat in moderation. tons of veggies, fruits, grains...and h20. it's stuff i've known since i was a kid, stuff i taught as a trainer but somehow, it has taken me a while to apply it to myself personally. super hypocritical of me, i know--but i was truly blinded thinking that i needed to do severe things to my diet or that i needed to work even harder physically than i had been...

now i'm truly taking care of myself. i feel liberated. i feel motivated. i feel happy. i feel blessed.

well, off to fold laundry and *cringe* update our monthly budget.