I'm now officially banned

We have a fireplace and I love having fires in it. It is wood burning--not gas. I think gas fireplaces are wimpy fireplaces. I love the real fire, faint scent of smoke, the beauty--I love it all especially on cold days. And today was a cold, snowy day. Joe was still working (and is still working) so I decided I would start up the fireplace before supper. I attempted to light the starter stick and was quickly reminded that the lighter didn't work. So I vaguely recalled Joe lighting some paper or something last night from the gas stove and then putting it on the fire last night. I was half asleep when it happened but I thought that it was a paper towel. So I decided I would give it a try. I lighted some paper first and by the time I got it to the fireplace it burned out. So I went for the paper towel. It looked promising when I initially lit it and then it quickly developed into something that was too promising. I often wonder how I would respond in urgent situations-today I found out. So what do I do with a paper towel flaming in my hand with Sara standing back screaming--mommy, you are going to burn the house down!!! Run, of course--exactly what they tell you NOT to do with fire. But I made it to the sink before my hand caught on fire and I've officially banned myself from ever trying to start a fire in our house by myself.

Update on the kiddos

I realized that I haven't updated y'all on my kids lately. So here's what has been going on:

Ashley:

• Her best buddy Winston (the bear) decided to stick around in Indiana for a vacation after Christmas. Fortunately, he decided he wanted to come home and arrived just in time to sleep with her again last night.
• She got to start LTR at school, which is the phonics reading program that the school uses. She reached a huge milestone this week--she had her first homework. She was very, very pumped.
• Her favorite Christmas present: princess cash register that really scans prices--very cool!

Nathan:

• His goal for each day is to see how much toothpaste he can eat before mom catches him and how many times he can make his brother and sister scream
• He enjoys helping himself to apples out of the refrigerator.
• His favorite Christmas present: his "vacuum" (AKA a lawnmower); he especially likes to roar out of his room at 7am with it

Sara:

• Is doing phenomenal in swimming lessons. She (and we) are deciding if we continue to do swimming lessons or if we make our leap into sports teams and let her play soccer this spring
• Loves math and reading and is doing well at both. She just got her recent math test back--36/37. yeah Sara!!
• Her favorite Christmas present: Emily--her build a bear rabbit

John:

• Quote master of our house. He comes up with a new quote pretty much everyday.
• Sounds like the Brain of Pinky and the Brain when he works a puzzle. When one fits where he wants it to go he says "YES!!!" just like Brain. Makes me wish I had a video camera.
• Loves reading his Sandra Boynton books. He just got two more for his birthday yesterday.
• His favorite Christmas present: I really have no idea. He pretty much loves it all because all of his toys require testosterone. Spiderman, superman, transformers, dinosaurs, knights, cars, trains, trucks--he spends hours in his room with his toys and his imagination

Note the tracker at the side

Okay, so I've decided to track the weight progress on my blog. If you've ever looked at Joe's website (You should check out The Bullhorn if you haven't yet) you will notice one fairly significant difference between Joe & I's tracking system--I will not be providing you with my goal weight. I will let you live under the illusion of what I weigh if somehow you think it is significantly less than what it is.

I also will accept the challenge that my dear husband has handed me--who will lose the most? Now, he wants to do it based on percentages. Since I am sleep deprived, I almost included that on my tracking system. Then I suddenly realized that most of you can probably do math!! So we will just keep you updated as to who the current leader is.

I would like to make one note to the competition. This competition was originally his idea. I would also like to note that every other time we have lost weight I have lost more than he has. Sooooo, I tried to be nice and decline the invitation, but he insisted so let the competition begin.

PS He found a battery so I will weigh in tomorrow morning on schedule!!!

My obsession

I have joined Weight Watchers again. I lost 50 lbs via the Weight Watchers program before Nathan was born. So, I've decided to join again. Fortunately, this time I am starting at a lower weight than I did before. And I'm not going to the meetings this time--just doing it online. I track everything I eat, etc. You may be thinking--so why do you pay for it? Couldn't you track it without Weight Watchers? Well, yes, but when I pay for something I will not let it go to waste.

Well, I've totally digressed from where I was headed. With the program, you weigh in once a week. They tell you not to weigh in any more times than once a week because your weight fluctuates, blah, blah, blah. Are you kidding me??? Of course I'm going to weigh in more than once a week and probably more than once a day. Last night I went to weigh in before bed and horrors of horrors--my scale was broken!!!! Ok, before you start making jokes about how I broke the scale (ha, ha, ha), Joe did some investigation and discovered that the battery was just dead. I have to say, I'm extremely thankful that it is just a battery problem. I was starting to panic that if I had to weigh in on a different scale on Thursday it wouldn't show the true amount I had lost--or it might show I'd gained!!! Ahhhh!! That would be very traumatic and honestly, I'd rather live with illusion of a false weight than find out it is actually 3 pounds higher. So the number one task today--find a new battery for that scale!!! I'll let you know tomorrow what the results are.