We "met" the Roloff's!!!

*Warning: Very photo heavy post!*

This past week Hannah, my Mom and I went to the LPA (Little People of America) National Convention. It was held downtown in Detroit at the beautiful Marriott Renaissance Center. We had such a great time and the workshops were very informative. I was a little worried ahead of time because I did not know what to expect and whether or not it would be worth going since Hannah was still pretty young. However, the workshops were great, the people were great...just about everything was great! I attended some really informative workshops that included: Ortho issues in young children, Achondroplasia specific diagnosis workshop, the ABC's of education, Sewing and Alteration, Dwarfism in Ancient Egypt, Dwarfism a world view and how we impact it as well as a couple of others.

The following are a few highlights from the week!
Here is the sign that greeted everyone in the lobby.

I say we "met" the Roloff's, but we really did not. We did get our picture taken with them though. They did a nice presentation about where the met, and how the show has impacted their lives and at the end had a picture time. Even though Hannah does not know who they are, I think it will be a nice photo for her to have when she gets a little older.

During the Newcomer's Reception, Owen decided to take over the International Group and become the leader! As always, he was such a cutie!!

The hotel was located right on the Detroit River and directly across the river you could see Windsor.

Apparently the GM building (which is attached to the Marriott) has spent a lot of money renovating the area. One of the things that they have done is to revitalize the waterfront. Hannah really enjoyed the fountain that the put in as part of the revitalization.

One of her favorite things to do was to step on the water when it would go down and try to block it from coming back up.

Another one of her favorite things was to visit the "water falls" that were located in the GM building. Every time we would enter the building for a workshop she would ask if the waterfalls were on and if we could go see them.

Detroit and Windsor put together one of the Nation's largest fireworks displays. Here is Hannah in awe of the fireworks.

Here she is with some 3D glasses that somebody gave her to try.

Knoah enjoyed the fireworks as well! He is such a cutie and he was such a ham the entire time we were there that I think my mom fell in love with him!

Here is Miss Priss with her sword that Gramma Cath bought for her. She was soooo spoiled the entire time we were there. Pretty much whatever her little heart desired she got. You gotta love Grandmas!

When I got home I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me!!! I have been wanting a Wii for quite some time and my hubs surprised me with one for my graduation present. I think it was sort of a combination of celebration of his exciting news and my graduation.

What I didn't tell you the exciting news? He had a job interview Monday, which is the main reason why he did not go to convention, and he got the job!!! Hooray he finally got the job. It was not the job that he had originally wanted but it is with the same company and he is really excited about it.

So we had quite the week...now wii are having a grand time...I mean getting ready to leave on vacation tomorrow!!

Summer of Meeeeee!

Have you been wondering about my weight loss? I know you are just dying to hear all about it. Unfortunately I kind of fizzled out. I did a great job on cutting down my portion sizes and sugar intake. However, I kind of fizzled out on the whole exercise thing. I would rollerblade here and there, or go for a walk with the kids but nothing to really get me motivated. Summer Slimdown came and went and I only lost 5 lbs. Nothing major. Of course it also could have been my sweet tooth that slowed me down.

So I decided to try again this time it is the Summer of ME. Christie over at Baby Tea Leaves is keeping the fun going. This time I decided that I am going to do an actual program to keep me motivated. I have actually done the program before and had good results, so I know I can do it. I am doing the Couch to the 5k program. It is a fairly "easy" program because it starts off in small intervals and gradually works up to 30 minutes of running. I actually started the program today and boy oh boy are my legs tired! Going up and down the stairs is killing me. I really need to shower but I'm putting it off because I do not want to go up those steps! So, I have my program now I just need to find a 5k to run!

I should also try to start some sort of diet. Does anybody have any suggestions on a good one? I don't care for weight watchers that much because even though it works, I hated having to calculate my points and how much food was worth etc. So, I would like something a little easier to use.

Anyway, feel free to leave weight loss tips, recipes or any sort of motivation to help me keep that ticker moving!! Now I'm off to try to hobble up those darn stairs!

Something to cry about

OUCH!!! Poor little Zander-doodle! We had a serious high chair malfunction last night and it was not pretty. We were eating dinner at my in-laws and we had just sat down for dinner with the colonel. Zander started to squirm and the highchair seat flipped forward (out of the base) and he smacked his face on the table and flipped him completely upside down. Hubby flipped the seat back up and his face was just covered in blood.

It took a while to clean him up and calm him down, but it was not that bad. Of course I was the one wearing most of the blood. We (and by we I mean me) decided to take him to the ER just to make sure everything was ok. He thankfully did not need any stitches, and we were out of the ER in under a half an hour!!!

Apparently over time the screws came loose (although my in-laws have had that chair less than a year) and his wiggling was enough to cause an imbalance in weight. We were blessed that it was nothing more than a bloodied up lip. He hit the table so hard and it could have been much worse, like a broken nose, if he would have been positioned slightly different. Even though it was scary, he was back to his busy little self by the time we got back from the ER. That boy is one tough kid.

Scum! SCUM!!!

So. Hubby and I have been talking about buying bikes. (By the way does anybody have a recommendation on what type of bike to get?) We decided that we would go look at some tonight, do some window shopping and comparisons. So he tells me to get a one of our store credit cards out, just in case that store has something that we like. Well I went to get it and couldn't find it. We looked in a couple of different places that we keep our credit cards, we looked in our wallets and could not find it. So, hubs decides to just look online just to be certain that there was no recent activity. Guess what. There was $1,700.00 worth of charges!!! What?! So we immediately called the credit card company to report the card stolen. The rep. that I talked to said that a charge was actually going through as we talked. She added up all of the charges and came up with $2,500!!! Are you kidding me? It makes me so mad that there are people that do this sort of thing. Yes I know that it happens all of the time and no, I am not going to say that I never thought it would happen to me because I have thought about it. That is why we do not carry all of our credit cards in our wallets. We only carry the one that we are using.
The thing of it is that it was not just one or two charges, it is a lot of little charges at a lot of different stores over the past month. The first charge showed up on May 17. It makes me wonder that there are that many stores and non of them checked I.D. It makes me angry that this person is just running around the area, yes it is local, (they have used the card in many of the surrounding cities) using my card. It angers me that nobody is checking I.D.'s, it angers me that some stores do not even require you to sign if the charge is less than a certain amount.
We filled out a report with the local law enforcement. We are working with the credit card company, but I have little faith that this person will be caught. We are not going to be held responsible for any of the charges, which I am thankful for, but I am just so angry that this person can rip off a company and not get caught. Maybe the credit card company will take it a little more serious than I suspect they will, who knows. Scum, scum I tell you.
Just make sure that you write CHECK I.D. on the back of all your cards!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Have you ever read the book: No, David! by David Shannon? I used to read it to my three year old class when I worked in a daycare. It is a really cute book that apparently Shannon wrote when he was a little boy. Every page he illustrated a picture of himself doing something that he shouldn't be doing and at the top of the page would be the words "No, David!"
Back in my childless days I found the book to be humorous. At the time I was an Early Childhood Education major and scuffed about how I would never spend my days telling me child no. I would redirect, I would say yes to more things....I would be the best parent I could be!
Hahahaha!! Fast-forward a couple of years. Here I am with two kids: my mellow, sweet Tater who rarely "gets into trouble" aside from telling me no or hitting her brother and then there is my bruiser Zander. What can I say? I spend my days chasing him around, trying to keep him from killing himself and guess what the most common phrase out of my mouth is? Yep! "NOOOOO!" It is like he is looking for trouble. Climbs anything, eats anything, can open ANYTHING, can reach anything...nothing is safe from this kid.
When I reflect on my day, it makes me feel sad knowing how often this kid hears no. He can sometimes be found saying "No, no, no!" for really no reason. I am trying to redirect more, I am trying to engage him in more activities (by the way have you ever tried to engage a 20 month old in an activity?) but I still find myself saying the dreaded N word more then I would like. What I am finding is that boy, this kid can throw a tantrum. Up to date the most embarrassing just happened on Thursday. I say most embarrassing because it was our first public meltdown. We were shopping at the local mall and trying to find a pair of sandals for Tater's wide feet. In the last store we visited we finally found some crocs. We thought we should try some on Alex too, just for fun...until I saw the price tag ($40.00!! um, online they are 24.99) and about had a heart attack. I think we will keep looking, I told my Mom. These don't fit very good, I told the girl and boy. I took the shoes off Alex and he just started to scream! Thankfully he was strapped in the stroller because that would have been lovely if he was able to throw himself on the floor. Anyway, I got the pleasure of pushing the screaming child out of the store to the parking lot where he continued to scream until we drove off. Fun times.
I say this because I am in a rough patch right now. There are a few areas in my life where I am feeling like a failure. My weight, my parenting skills, my organizational skills and some too personal to mention here. I just have that overwhelming feeling of failure that makes me want to curl up in a ball and hideout for a couple of weeks.