Seven Quick Takes: Over-the-Hill Edition

Thank you, Jen, for hosting!

1. Yesterday was my birthday. I turned 40. No, I don't think I'm over the hill, but my cousin (who just turned 25 earlier this month) asked if I was. Ha. Ha. Actually, I'm happy to be 40. I was excited about my birthday all month! This was a nice change from when I turned 30 and I was suddenly depressed/upset. Could NOT figure that out, and it hit me suddenly. Strange, eh?

2. Little Girl's dance studio just released their May schedule. Recital is at the end of May, and she has ballet THREE times a week from now until the end of the month. One week, there are FOUR rehearsals, one of which is at the same time as a potential soccer game for Big Girl. Any busy mothers know how to bilocate? I think that would be an awesome skill to have. Or are we not allowed to do that for reasons such as this? What do you think the rules are for bilocation?

3. Travel Man (who doesn't travel much lately) and I are having a date night for my birthday. Tomorrow, we are hiring a babysitter and going to dinner and a movie. We're going to see Date Night! Hooray! I have to say that when we saw the trailer for this movie, we both about died laughing. We've been waiting for it to come out for months, and I was worried that it wouldn't be in any theaters in our small town this far after release. But it's there, and we'll be heading over to see it tomorrow.




4. Another awesome birthday present for me is that Lowe's just opened a store in our town. It's only 4 miles from my house. This is a huge improvement over the 20-30 minute drive to get to Lowe's or Home Depot in the neighboring town. Yes, I know that there's a True Value and an 86 Lumber and a carpet/flooring shop and another half dozen small businesses between here and the next town. And I still want to buy my plants from the nursery we started going to last year. (They sit IN the parking lot where the Lowe's has just been built. They were there first and are confident they'll be able to hang on.) However, I don't want to go to 18 different stores and pay higher prices for the same thing when I can go to Lowe's and buy my toilet and sink and all the plumbing stuff we need as well as the towel racks, etc. for the half-bath. (See? I already have a project in mind. I've actually been waiting for Lowe's to open to replace the toilet in our half-bath this Spring.) Anyway, to celebrate my excitement, here's a wonderful video that encapsulates how happy I am.




5. I've been on Weight Watchers again (with Travel Man), and I've lost 13 pounds so far. (Sunday is my weigh-in day, so we'll see if that number goes up!) Here's one measure of success. I have a pair of denim capris - they're stretchy, so they even have some forgiveness built in - that I could not get up past my thighs last Fall. Yesterday, I wore them all day, and they were comfy. It was SO exciting to be able to get back into them. I think the biggest thing helping me is that Travel Man is on the program, too, so I'm not tempted to snack just because he is. Peer pressure is a powerful thing, people.

6. Speaking of Weight Watchers, I made the mistake of trying to start a conversation on their community boards wherein I asked other homeschooling mothers how they do it "alone." Now, grammatically, putting quotes around that word means it is not intended to be taken literally. However, people do not understand this rule any more, since quotation marks are not used mainly as a reinforcement such as underlining used to be used. (This is a pet peeve of mine, you know.) So, I got two kinds of comments to my opening post. A: Hostile-to-homeschooling comments who were insulted that I simply asked that it not turn into a pro- vs. anti-homeschooling thread (I'd seen another thread get hijacked that way), and 2: "Why do you think you are 'alone'?" comments that focused on my using homeschooling as an excuse for not going to meetings. (Let me tell you, when hubby travels and/or we have soccer and ballet a combined total of 5-6 times a week, no meeting seems to fit my schedule.) It was actually quite depressing. I even started out saying that my tip for others is that hubby and I weigh in together and help motivate others. Only one comment was constructive: Someone said that perhaps I didn't realize that people who go to "real world meetings" also got free access to the online tools, so maybe I didn't know that people online were also going to meetings. (Oh, even my use of that phrase - real world meetings - was deemed offensive by one commenter. But she felt it was okay to call my older daughter a brat, as in "all kids are brats.") Frankly, I couldn't even figure out why they even bothered to click through when the title of the thread was "Homeschooling Moms - Doing it 'Alone'". Reading how quickly it devolved into a bashing thread with no helpful advice really put me in a foul mood. So I think I'll just avoid the "Community Message Boards" at the WW site from now on. They don't seem particularly helpful.

7. I know I've already put up 2 videos, but I'll add one more. Actually, I'll give you three. First, the Old Spice ad that premiered during the Super Bowl. We LOVE this commercial! My girls will sometimes randomly say, "I'm on a horse," to demonstrate how awesome they are at whatever it is they're doing at the moment.




Now, here's the "making of" explanation. It's nearly 20 minutes, but it's pretty neat.



And, finally, here's the short that is mentioned near the end of the above video:



One last thing. Under the last video, on YouTube's site, Old Spice has this caption:

Don't smell like sunsets and baby powder. Smell like jet fighters and punching.

I think each one has a different silly comment like that. I love this whole ad campaign!

Did I say "one more?" I guess I meant three.

Have a blessed weekend!