Happy Thanksgiving! 

Woke up and it was sunny (a rarity for here) and cold.  I decided to put off my run until later when I won't freeze to death.  After all- who can cook if they are frozen?  Or dead?

We have the best reason to be thankful this year- I have, in my hot little hands, the final paperwork for our house!  All we have to do is sign it before a notary and our house is sold!  It took 3 months from the time we put it on the market until we close next week.  I'd like to say it was our awesome house or fabulous agent, but really it's just luck.  There were 2 other identical houses in our neighborhood for sale (1 was a foreclosure and the other was on the market for 2 years) so why did the guy choose our house and not those?  Well, the foreclosure takes 6 months to buy, but the other one?  I'm not arguing.  3 months!  I'm so thrilled and can't wait to sign those papers and mail them back.  Yea!

We did it- moved 2500 miles cross country- and are now living on the east coast. Everyone we knows thinks we are nuts and will be back. Really? That's a lot of work to just change our minds and move back. I figure there are 2 types of people with regards to jobs- those who stay put and find a new job at a different company and those who move to the job. Apparently we are those who move to the job. I spent my whole life before college in the same town in the same house. That's how you end up in a rut. Moving isn't a bad thing. It broadens your horizons, gives you new perspectives, forces you outside your comfort zone. Nothing wrong with that.


Things aren't perfect, but I'm still glad we moved. Our house is smaller so we've had to get rid of a lot of stuff. The schools require a physical (complete with psych eval!!) before kids can start school, so they were out longer than expected. It's rained almost every day since we've been here (What's that stuff falling from the sky? Rain? Huh. So that's what that is.). I keep getting lost in our neighborhood (it's huge with lots of winding roads), but only when I'm really trying to find something. The things they call mountains here are little more than bumps. But all in all it's not bad. I am trying to focus on the positives. I've found Target and a grocery store. The local school is supposed to be the best in the area. We have a huge yard and there are lots of other kids in the neighborhood to play with. It's only 11 hours from our families (as opposed to a 4-hr flight or 3-day drive).  And, best of all, there's a running path the goes around the entire neighborhood (and in this case I wouldn't mind getting lost). 

So this has to be the last post for awhile.  I know, shocker, right?  I haven't been so good at updating this fall.  What with the birthdays and the cleaning the house and the selling the house and the moving.  Sigh.  But it's almost over.  We sold our house (thank you God!) and are leaving next week.  Yes, I said next week.  Don't worry, it still doesn't seem real to me either.  The movers come in 1 week and I'm still thinking that I'd like to dig things out of the boxes we've already packed. 

Anyhow, the house looks fabulous.  Moving, or should I say selling your house, is really good for some things.  I'm not one of those people who vacuum every day- I mean really, get a life- but I kep the house clean.  But with it being sold and having to be show-ready, it is spotless.  This forced us to do all those things I've been thinking we need to do but haven't managed to get around to doing, like painting the whole house, cleaning out the window tracks, cleaning all the screens in the windows, and all those other little things that I just keep putting off.  And man are my windows clean!

The only downside I can see about this is that the kids aren't thrilled that we are decoration-less.  My husband loves Halloween and the kids love decorating, so they are going through withdrawal.  We take the dogs for a walk every night and the kids have resorted to counting the number of houses that are decorated.  All I can say is thank goodness we are moving before Christmas! 

As the boxes pile up around me, literally, I'll just say don't miss me too much.  I'll be back after we're settled and have the internet again. 

Last week was Fall Break.  Think Spring Break, but in the middle of October, but without the big trips and partying.  Who wants to go hang out at the beach when it's chilly out everywhere?  I don't think it exists anywhere else but here, and I know we didn't get a random week off in October when I was a kid, so my kids were pretty lucky they got the week off.  Sorta.  They both have October birthdays, so I take the week to schedule their annual doctor checkup (with flu shots!) and a dentist appointment for them.  So at least that way they were tortured as much as I was.  I mean really.  A week off in October?  What's the point of that?  This week is parent teacher conferences, so there are 2 half days on Thursday and Friday, so they basically won't have gone to school for 2 weeks.  School starts the first week of August, so maybe this is payback for starting extra early, but I personally think it's 1) to torture parents, and 2) because the teachers are sick of the kids by now.  In that order.  Come yesterday, guess who didn't want to go back to school?  Yeah.  They were still complaining about it last night. 

We went fishing last weekend and I got stung by something with a stinger.  It hurt.  I felt something fluttering around where your arm attches to your body (chest?  shoulder? upper arm?) and absently scratched at it.  Next thing I know there's this incredible pain right there.  I thought it was a really big red ant biting me, but it hurt much worse than a red ant bite.  So I looked down and saw nothing.  So I pulled down the neck of my shirt and there was a stinger sticking out of my body, with hair/fur from the thing still attached.  I grabbed it and pulled it out, but there was still 1/4 inch stuck in me.  Yeah.  1/4 inch!!  What the heck was that thing?  I looked around and couldn't find a body and it wasn't in my shirt, so I have no idea what happened to the owner of said stinger.  I yelled for my husband to come look (he was only a couple feet away, but I was a bit panicked by then) and he had to take the pliers out of the fishing bag and pull the stinger out. 

Now normally a bee sting or wasp sting or some kind of flying bee-type creature sting isn't a big deal. But I'm allergic.  At least I used to be.  I remember being sent home from school in junior high because I got stung by a bee and my arm swelled up.  I think I was in high school before I realized that most people didn't swell up and get welts on their skin when stung.  I haven't been stung since I was a kid, so we weren't sure what was going to happen.  As it turns out, not much.  I got a welt and it was red and swollen and super itchy in an area about the size of your fist on Sunday.  Today, 4 days later, the red part is about the size of a half dollar and the itching is gone.  Huge improvement.  I'm not sure if this means I'm no longer allergic or if the reaction has lessoned (because I'm bigger?), but I'll take it. 

First, check out this post on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/photo.php?fbid=2545702681966&set=a.2545702521962.2154719.1235752135&type=1&theater

I am slightly offended by this.  Part of me says "yeah!  Good on ya!  Why should our self esteem be dictated by our weight?"  Initially I thought "yep- that's what women need to hear."

But then I read on.  The rest of the note below the picture.  I think it was somewhere around the the middle that I started getting irked.  Yeah.  I'm skinny.  I'm not a mermaid.  I work out.  I eat right.  I'm blessed with good genes.  I kept reading and started to be a little resentful.  Yes, it's a good thing to encourage women- especially children and teenagers who are growing into this society- that you don't have to be thin to be beautiful.  But don't hate those who are thin.  I'm loved.  I have friends.  Kids.  A husband.  I don't obsess over my weight and, quite frankly, I'm a bit offended that this article implies differently.  It started out with a positive message, but ended up ticking me off by going too far as to imply that all thin people have problems and aren't "real" women.  Why can't we all just be happy at the size we are?  Why can't we accept that everyone is different- different sizes, shapes, colors, personalities, ideas.... how boring would life be if everyone was the same?

I'm allergic to sugar.  Well, not so much allergic as intollerant.  Think of somone you know who is lactose intollerant, then think of what happens to them when they eat, say cheese.  If you don't know, go ahead and look it up.  That's what happens to me when I eat sugar.  It's not a huge deal, I've just learned to cut sugar almost completly out of my diet.  I can eat about 5g per meal, but that's pretty much my limit.  And if you were wondering, 5g is about as much as you get in 1/2 a serving of peanut butter (yep- there's sugar in peanut butter!).  So for the most part, that means that deserts are out and so are all those yummy Starbucks drinks, unless I can get them in a "skinny" version.  It took me about a year to really accept this, and every now and then it's hard to not eat a piece of cake or some Halloween candy, but I'm ok with it now.

Now I'll admit- sugar intollerance really isn't that common.  Most people look at me like I'm crazy, so I usually just tell them I'm allergic to sugar.  But what really bugs me is when people feel the need to comment on it.  Let's get this out there- I'm skinny.  I struggle with my weight, but not the way most people do, I have a hard time keeping it on and usually hover around the very bottom of "normal" for my height.  But that is a totally different issue for another day. 

Anyhow, back to the sugar thing.  When I go to, say Starbucks, I'll order a "skinny" drink and I'll hear comments.  Yes, I hear you behind me making snide remarks.  Or when I skip dessert people feel the need to try and force something sugary on me.  Even my friends who know I can't eat sugar do this, which irks me to no end.  Especially my friend who is lactose intollerant- it's not like I try to force feed her ice cream or milk.  Or when people ask me why I don't just eat fake sugar (put all those chemicals in my body?  Ewwww).  Do they really think they are helping?  Does it make them feel better?  It's like kids making fun of someone who is different, but with a little bit more tact.  Sometimes.