There is no point whatsoever to this post*

Consider yourself warned.

At 10 o' clock last night I was packing up the veritable mountain of stuff I had to mail off (mailing packages here is such a pain in the kiester that I tend to save it up until there's so much that I just can't put it off anymore)(well, I could, and I usually do, but this time I didn't). One of the boxes was to send to Holly containing the Egyptian part of these nutritious prize packages. It also contains my mom's walking stick. She couldn't fit it in her luggage, so I told her I'd mail it to her, but it didn't fit into any of the boxes I had, so I slipped it into the larger box heading for Holly. So hey, Hol, when the box comes, can you call my mom and have her come get her stick? Thanks. But I digress. Try not to be too shocked.

As I was getting ready to tape up the box, I realized I hadn't included the most important thing! The trash! I couldn't exactly promise bona fide Egyptian street pickings and not follow through, now could I? I mean, if you're denying yourself figgy pudding because it might get between you and your own piece of garbage (or, say, because it's figgy pudding, but work with me here), you want your trash, dangit! But you know what I don't like doing? Going out at night by myself. Especially to, you know, pick stuff up off the ground. Lucky for me--and you winners, you--my husband was home this weekend.

I gotta say, he looked at me really, uh...bewilderdedly...when I told him what I wanted him to do. I think for a moment or two he thought I was kidding. You may not have guessed this about me, but I kid a lot, so I can get where he might think this. But I was serious. And he is a seriously nice man. Holly is not the only one who goes along with my harebrained schemes. So he took his little flashlight (or, as our 2-year old calls it, "The Ghostlight! Aaaaaaaaaahhh!")(Said 2-year old is a little obsessed with Cars.)(That was a little bit of an understatement.)(So was that.) and went and foraged on the streets around our house. My husband loves me very much.

As a(nother) side note, Eminem just came up on my iTunes, and my husband thinks it's really funny that I even have Eminem on my iTunes. What? I don't strike you as someone who would like really crass rap? Have you never met me? Besides, it's just one song. Plus it's the clean version. So there.

But rest easy friends, the trash is on its way! Also some stuff that's not trash (I hope)(I have a really hard picking things out for other people). Yay for prizes! And yay for everyone for doing this with us. I'm thinking that if those of you who didn't win want to join us again for a Springtime contest, I might offer a piece of garbage as a participation prize. Mostly because a) they're funny (and really isn't that reason enough?), 2) they're free, and III) I've clearly proven I can get my husband to do some pretty crazy things for me, so why not?

P.S. I just noticed that dh's Facebook status update is referencing my Eminem. I can't complain though; I might need him later. That trash ain't pickin' itself up!

*Told you.

Contest Day Something: Weigh-in Day!

I told Holly from the beginning that she'd have to be in charge of keeping track of the days, as my ability to remember stuff like that is not so great. Most days I'm lucky if I can remember my children's names.

Anyhoodle, don't you hate it when people say some variation of "anyway?" I sure do. But that aside, it's Friday! Hooray! Time to weigh in! And use exclamation points way more than necessary!

When you post your weight, also tell us something that you did this week that you're proud of. Of which you are proud. Grammar shmammar. It can be anything at all, such as not eating the entire package of oreos. That's just a random example I pulled out of the air. No matter how big or how small, there has to be something about this week that you did well, and we want to know what it is! If you're e-mailing us your weigh-in, still post a comment about your accomplishment(s) this week.

Insert Your Own Clever Title Here (cuz I got nothin')

As you can see, my ability to think is still about where it was two days ago, so there's no possible way I could come even close to producing a list like Holly's. I do have a few ramblings to share though. Lucky you!

I was thinking today about gratitude and health/dieting/body image stuff, and when it comes right down to it, I am just plain grateful to have a body, even though I'm not entirely happy with how it looks. I am grateful that I'm healthy and that my family loves me no matter what I look like. I'm grateful that my children and husband are healthy, too, and that we have plenty of everything we need. Technically, I don't think sanity is a need, per se, because we're a little short on that.

Last year I had a malignant melanoma removed from my arm. It was caught early enough that the only treatment I needed was the one surgery, but my risk for skin cancer to return is what they call "elevated." I recently reconnected with a friend I lost touch with several years ago and found out that last year she was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer. She went through 5 months of chemo and is currently in remission. In April, my grandma was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer and 2 weeks ago was moved to Stage V. She's not expected to live much past the new year.

None of us can control whether or not we get cancer, but we can mitigate the risk. None of us can control what happens to our loved ones, but we can control what we put in our mouths, how (and how often) we move our bodies and whether or not we wear sunscreen (p.s. wear sunscreen). We don't know what's going to happen in the future, but we do know that how we live today can influence it. Influence it for good, ok?

Because this post isn't very funny, I'll try to redeem myself by posting a homework assignment my Kindergartener did. I feel the same way she does.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Perhaps not the first guy you'd look to for dieting inspiration?

Winston Churchill: the right man for the right job at the right time.
Winston Churchill: not necessarily a bastion of healthy living.

But he did have a way with words. I'm sure I'm not the first person who has applied his famous "Never, never, never give up" to their efforts in getting healthier, but today I found another quotation that feels even more applicable to me right now.

On Saturday, Holly got to listen to me rant via IM (I'm thinking that at this point, she's likely cursing the inventor of iChat and/or whomever it was that gave me access to it) about how despite consistent exercise (9 straight weeks!) and diligent food tracking (5 weeks without missing a day!) and persistent water consumption (100 oz. a day! for over 2 weeks now!)(with no thought to the risk of injury to my person, no less!) I gained 1.4 pounds last week. Boo.

So far I've done pretty well and looking past the results and focusing on the effort, but sometimes it would be nice to have a little correlation between the two, you know?

Anyway, here's where Mr. Churchill comes in:

Success is the ability to go
from one failure to another
with no loss of enthusiasm.

Thanks, Winston; I feel better already.

I was just walking down the hallway and stepped with my bare foot in a puddle of pee. Right then I decided that this quotation is also really applicable to potty training.