Me: Gots to get one. http://youtube.com/watch?v=zUr7byYaql4
Andy: Yep, pretty cool...now tell me how much.
Me: Can you put a price tag on my happiness?
Andy: I do all the time. But the price is so high, I usually try to put a price tag on your complacency.
On our trip to Texas last month, Amanda and I went on a big shopping spree and she bought FitFlop shoes which are flip flops that are supposed to help your legs and butt get in shape. They are a little pricey but she wanted to give them a try. Besides, Amanda is a sucker for an Oprah recommendation.
She wore them for a while and didn't notice a big change so she decided to write to Fox 4 News for their "Deal or Dud" segment, recommending that they check into this product and see what they thought. Little did she know that within a couple of days, they'd be asking her to appear in the segment to test them out.
Wednesday night, the segment aired and the video was also posted online. Find out if the shoes are a deal or dud!
Amanda's TV debut
We do allowance a bit different at our house. We don't tie allowance to chores because we view allowance as a chance to learn how to manage money and chores are just done separately.
When Payton was little, she got a few dollars a week to work with. As she's gotten older, the dollar amount has increased a lot but her responsibility has too. She gets paid on the first of every month and with that money, she's responsible for paying for her school lunches (during the school year obviously), mall purchases, gifts for friends, movies, clothes (outside of our twice yearly clothing purchases when the seasons change) and other things she chooses to buy. It has worked well and she loves the freedom to make choices and has done a good job budgeting.
We ran into an issue with Payton not wanting to carry too much cash with her so we took her to get her own account setup where the money is automatically transferred from our account to hers on the first of the month and she can have checks, make ATM withdrawals and ...drum roll.....
...use a debit card! This is exciting in 13-year-old Land, people. We managed to make Payton happy. For this day anyway.
(btw, those aren't fake nails, they are her real ones that she did her own french manicure on. Further proof that she's my exact opposite as I sit here chewing on my nails.)
Payton's primary goal in life is to do fun stuff with friends. Spare hour between two friend events? Fill it in with something with another friend! It can be exhausting shuttling her places and keeping up with what she's doing. I can almost see why parents let their kids drive at 16. Almost.
Payton spent this afternoon at the pool with a friend then she had to come home to prepare for tennis practice. After tennis, she had to take a shower and then it was off to pickup another friend and take them to the ice skating rink.
She loves getting her picture taken!
She never really left the wall the rest of the time. Like mother, like daughter.
(Girls aren't holding hands in this pic, just the angle of the pic makes it look that way. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
While Payton was skating, Andy, Blake and I went walking near the river. The sounds from the minor league stadium, the nice evening temps, sounds of waterfalls plus the riverfront ambiance made for a really nice evening.
The three of us ended up in the restaurant in the Hyatt drinking water and ordering ice cream. Fifteen minutes after our order was placed, I asked about the status because we really couldn't wait too much longer. We were told it was going to be a few more minutes. Wow...can't wait to see this amazing dessert that takes 20 minutes to prepare! Nope, it wasn't. Next time, we won't make the silly mistake of assuming that ordering ice cream will be quick.
My handsome baseball player...
Meet Austin, the real coach...
Andy, the third base coach...
The sister...
Meet Bradley...
Bradley has 4 older siblings in their 20s. His parents adopted him via foster care. He now has 4 younger siblings, all adopted like he was and all born drug addicted. He is obsessed with baseball, plays on two teams and has attended games in many places. Inspiring family.
As a lover of comedy, I know of George Carlin and his influence (though sadly, I don't know his material as much as I should because the last decade he wasn't as good as he'd been earlier in his career so I didn't pay him much attention recently). When Andy and I were in Vegas in 2004, we actually ran into him on an early morning while he was out jogging and I whispered loudly to Andy "that was George Carlin!"
Someone I do know is Kevin Smith and love almost everything he does. He writes a eulogy for Newsweek regarding his hero, George Carlin.
Kevin Smith remembering George Carlin
Blake loves musicals. LOVES them. Even as a baby, the only thing that calmed him down was singing Do Re Mi from The Sound of Music. He decided to perform Supercalifragilistic for us featuring a move he named "The Rotating Flamingo." Enjoy.
btw, that's Payton talked on the video (not me) and it's grainy because she was using her low res camera.
This week, I completed another week of half-marathon training but instead of doing my long run this weekend, I ran a 5k. I'll resume normal long runs next week.
I tried something different food-wise this week and just tried to be sensible rather than obsessed. I didn't count points, just ate healthy when I was hungry. It seemed to have worked for me because when I checked mid-week, I had lost 2 pounds. I think I will do the same thing this coming week.
This whole training thing takes quite a bit of time and dedication. I had a short-lived feeling this week that it felt really selfish given the amount of time invested. Had to talk my way out of that by reminding myself that I'm making myself healthy which ultimately benefits the family. Plus, I have way more energy and get more done when exercising and eating well so it ends up better in the end.
On Andy's side of the family, we have lots of kids. From oldest to youngest, there's Payton, Isaac, Blake, Mia, Joey, Bree, Micah, Lizzie, Althea and Alan and now...#11 is on his/her way as baby Althea is going to be a big sister. Congrats to David and Liz - we just wish you lived closer so we could spend more time with your babies!
The big-sister-to-be...
