some more nickularity

This evening, I was in the guest bedroom, vocalizing and singing through the song for my upcoming church gig. When I came out of the room, Nick greeted me with "Mommy - your singing was very impressive!"

I swear, our young son is morphing into a teenage girl right before our very ears. :) He has become so melodramatic!! (Patty - mellow and dramatic). At bedtime tonight, we were forcing him to limit the absurd amount of "friends" he wanted to take to bed with him, and he finally got so upset that he cried "This is TOTALLY ruining my life!"

how do i do this?

OK, blogging friends - I need some tech help. I've noticed some of you using the neato form of humour whereby you type one word that has a line through it followed by another "replacement" word. Such as "I will now subject (this word has a line through it, but can still be read) treat you to my thoughts on the matter." How do you put that line through the word? Please share...

the great food purge

I actually did it today! I did the massive food purge that has been a long time comin'. I filled 4 kitchen trash bags with expired/freezer-burned/stale food from my fridge, freezer, and pantry. I'm ashamed to admit that a few pantry items even dated back to the turn of the century. :) It seems like we hardly have anything now! It's so nice, though, to look in the fridge and pantry and know that everything there is current and something that we will most likely use. I feel somewhat guilty at throwing out so much food, but I know I'm not the only one to let such excess occur, and to keep food so long past its expiration date. On some of the "dry" food, I'm pretty sure it would probably still have been OK, but I had to draw a line somewhere, and I figured that even if it was still edible and safe to eat, the fact that we had had it for so long and hadn't eaten it probably meant that we would never eat it. So, out it went! It was incredibly cathartic - I highly recommend this, readers! :) I also threw out all of my expired pharmaceuticals.

So, the purging continues. At this point, I still have the office closet (I dread this, as it will be time-consuming and fraught with tough decisions.) and Nick's and my spring/summer clothes. I can't believe I've gotten so much done already!

I bought the first two tubs for Christmas decor, and I'm not looking forward to getting into that, but it must be done, and baby steps are the key. Wish me luck! Oh, and I finally got all of my discarded books out of the house. I garnered a paltry sum for a few of them at a used bookstore, and donated the rest to the library.

better than anything on tv

This evening as we were trying to get Nick to bed, he was misbehaving and being disciplined by Brian, and he ended up just falling apart and having a total meltdown of epic proportions, which was actually pretty hilarious. I tried not to let him see me laughing, because I didn't want to scar him, but he was so over-the-top. At one point, he was screaming "It's not fair!" If I closed my eyes, I could swear he was a teen girl. The best part, though, was when he said "It's not all about YOU, Daddy! It's not all about ANYBODY in this town! It's all about ME!" We finally got him in bed and I was trying to get him calmed down, and I said that he and Daddy should "kiss and make up." He replied "But make-up isn't for boys!" :) That was just the icing on the cake. What a show!

hmmm....i'm not sure!

In preschool this week, they've been talking about outer space, planets, aliens, etc. Yesterday, on the way home from school, Nick piped up with "Mommy - do aliens have penises?" :)

still chuggin' along

Tonight, I actually made soup for dinner! It's called Italian wedding soup, and only has 4 ingredients - chicken broth, Italian meatballs, pasta, and spinach. Yum! And while I was cooking, I actually listened to one of my CDs - Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem! I love that work, and it had been way too long since I gave it a listen. Yesterday, I actually baked a dessert called Bananas Foster bread pudding. It was just OK - I don't love it. But, at least I'm trying new recipes!

I've really been making progress in my basement. Yesterday, I transferred my solo sheet music to plastic tubs, organizing and consolidating it in the process. I have it divided into genres - sacred, opera, art song, musical theater, Christmas, and jazz/pop. Now, I need to do my choral music, which won't take nearly as long. I also went through my Easter decor today, purging the vast majority of it (I'm just not into pastel bunnies and frou frou anymore!), and only keeping a few things, like my marble eggs, a basket for Nick, kitchen towels, etc. Oh, I keep forgetting to mention that I've been selling some of my books and DVDs on half.com. I highly recommend this - it's very fast and easy. I've already made close to $100, minus the cost of mailers.

This afternoon, I closed myself up in our office and sang for awhile, vocalizing and working on the song I'll be singing at NACC in February. I sounded pretty good!

So, I've really had success in working toward various goals over the past few days. Yay! It's a little disheartening that one's work is never done, but I just keep reminding myself how far I've come already, in less than a month.

We're having a nice, lazy Monday evening here at Chez Hoogstraet/Jungen. I think I'll go cuddle with my Nickadoo...

my weekend so far

This morning, I went to Rolla with a couple of fitness instructor buddies to get my CPR/AED certification. The course and instructor were pretty darn lame - that woman should NOT be an instructor! She was just so random and disjointed, and could never seem to actually answer a question - she would just talk in circles. And we were disappointed to find that we were not covering child/infant CPR, but only adult. Oh, well. At least I got my certification, and a yummy lunch at Panera.

So, last night, we took our good friend Mike out to dinner to bid him a fond adieu, as he is moving to Ft. Hood, TX. We went to this amazing restaurant called Sybill's, which is about 30 miles from here. It was WONDERFUL! Brian and I had eaten there before, but Mike never had, so it was great that he got to experience it before he left. The bad news is that I ate enough calories for several days. (On a side note, we discussed the unfairness of that. Say you normally eat 1500 calories a day. If you eat a 3000-calorie meal, then, why can't it be that you wouldn't be hungry again until two or three days later? Wouldn't that make sense? But no - I woke up this morning just as hungry for breakfast as I always am. ) The good news is that all of our food was amazing. We had simple but scrumptious bread and butter to start with, and we also ordered spinach artichoke dip with crostini to dip in it. We bought a bottle of yummy local red wine, and enjoyed delicious salads - mine had Romaine, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, bleu cheese, etc. Brian had pork chops, Mike had a chicken dish, and I had this amazing ravioli that was stuffed with portobello mushrooms and various cheeses and surrounded with olive oil, spinach, sweet peppers, red onions, feta cheese, etc. OMG. It was so rich that I simply couldn't finish it. Actually, I was proud of myself, for though I did eat a staggering amount of food, I actually left part of everything on the plate, even the peanut butter pie I had for dessert! (Brian had peach cobbler and Mike had lemon raisin bread pudding.) This restaurant is very ambient and posh, and our waitress was amazing - she really knew her stuff and was very attentive. Here's how fancy the place is - when she brought out our bottle of wine, she actually poured a little into my glass and then stood there waiting for a second, and I realized that I was supposed to do the whole "tasting" thing! I was rather embarrassed, as that's a bit over my head, but I think I pulled it off pretty well. I picked it up, swirled it around a little and sniffed it, and then took a sip, swirling it around in my mouth before swallowing and pronouncing it delicious. :) The total bill ended up being in the triple digits, but it was well-worth it, in my opinion. It was a once-in-a-blue-moon occasion, and the perfect way to send off Mike, who is quite the foodie.

Mike left today, and I'm pretty bummed about that. I'm really going to miss him! He was a good friend and such an interesting, layered person. He never ceased to surprise me, and we had the best conversations, and various interests in common. And the great thing about him was that unlike all of my other friends here, who have families, he is single, so he was almost always available and willing to "hang out" with us, even on very short notice. That was rather refreshing, and will be missed. I know we'll keep in touch, but it's not the same. I wish him the best of luck, though, and hope he has a great experience in Texas! And I hope that he'll visit us sometime - he'll always be welcome.

This afternoon, after a short nap, I commenced (finally!) about taking down the Christmas tree. I've got everything off of it, and after I'm done blogging, Brian and I just have to take the tree apart and shove it in its box. Yay! It'll be good to have that monkey off my back. And, true to my goal, I did manage to purge several ornaments as I was taking them off the tree.

Well, I guess I'd better go and get that tree down. How's your weekend going?

update on progress toward goals

First of all, we're having the first snowfall of the winter here (finally). It's very dry and powdery, and probably won't amount to much, but it's pretty to watch it falling! We were going to head to Rolla today for some errands (Brian has a long weekend for MLK Day), but we decided to stay home, because it's so cold and unwelcoming outside. :)

OK - on to my goals. I'm still doing pretty well! I am down another 1/2 lb. this week - inching ever-closer to my goal. And frankly, even that small loss surprised me, as I didn't exactly eat like an angel. As for continuing to tone my body, I'm really happy with the definition I'm seeing, and I've even been getting compliments lately, especially on my upper body. I have pretty rockin' quads and calves, too. :) And I'm looking forward to my CPR certification tomorrow. I'm hoping to have my fitness instructor certification by this summer.

As for cooking more, that hasn't been happening so much, but I DID make those muffins yesterday, so I guess that counts. Something else that hasn't been happening is listening to my CDs - I guess you can't win 'em all, eh? And, there's still lots of year left, so ya never know!

I'll be singing at my church in Springfield in mid-February, so I'm really looking forward to that. Unfortunately, I won't be able to join the community choir in Rolla this semester either, because they rehearse on Monday nights, and Brian has to take a Monday night class later in the semester. :( Alas.

I'm happy to report that all of my fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving decor is now in plastic tubs, along with my paltry little pile of Valentine's Day decor! Yay! Next, I'm going to do my sheet music and Easter decor, and leave the Xmas decor for last. But, I'm slowly but surely getting it done, which feels great. The purging has slowed down somewhat, but hasn't come to a complete halt. I'm still pumped that I emptied my bookcase, and now I just have to get the books out of the house. I think that the next phase of purging will be to do the kitchen, one cabinet at a time, over the course of a couple of weeks.

So, there you have it.

my son ate zucchini!

Of course, it was grated and baked into a muffin. :) I'm pretty proud of myself, as Nick never eats vegetables. He's pretty stubborn! I'm just hoping his daily multivitamin will pull him through until his palate matures. Anywho, here's the recipe, and they're really good - very moist and just the right amount of sweet.

Zucchini Bran Muffins

1 box (18.25 oz.) raisin bran muffin mix (My Walmart didn't have ANY bran muffin mix, so I had to substitute 2 7-oz. boxes of Jiffy oatmeal muffin mix. Not as healthy, but the best second choice. I didn't add any raisins, as I don't love them.)
1 medium zucchini, grated
3/4 cup apple juice
3 egg whites
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1-2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 and spray Pam in a 12-muffin pan.
2. In a large bowl, stir together all ingredients until combined. Spoon batter into muffin pan so that cups are almost full, but not quite. (I actually had a little left over - maybe enough for one or two more muffins.)
3. Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool muffin pan on wire rack before removing muffins.

Enjoy!

my sweet little boy

I just had the best time with my son! You know how some days they're total turds, and then some days they're just in such a good mood, all sweetness and light? Well, today is a sweetness and light day (so far). I took Nick to preschool this morning, and Brian picked him up and took him to lunch and then brought him back to me, and Nick was all excited about this tiny plush puppy he got in his Happy Meal. She's a girl, according to Nick, and her name is "Dog." From the moment he got home, he was so agreeable and considerate, and then we ended up cuddling on the couch together and reading books - just me, Nick, and Dog. We stayed there for a good 45 minutes, and it was heaven! And then when I told him it was time for his nap, off he went eagerly, taking Dog to bed with him. Sigh of contentment. Why can't all days be just like this?

And the day only promises to get better, because Idol starts tonight! Yes. Our friend Mike (the one who's leaving forever in 4 days) is coming over to watch it with me.

state of the amy address

I have been felled, yet again, by some kind of sinus thing, and I'm quite miserable. I was, as you may recall, exhausted for the entire latter half of the week - my theory is that my immune system was fighting this illness. Well, apparently my immune system lost, because I am stricken with relentless sinus pressure and congestion, and I'm just wiped out and in a fog. I took a nap mid-day - I just felt like I had no other choice. Needless to say, the Christmas tree will be with us for another week. :) Alas! I just hope I feel well enough tomorrow morning to go to the gym. We shall see.

I wish to share the following with my readers in hopes that you will be as indignant and disgusted as I: Yesterday around noon, Brian took a whole bunch of stuff to Goodwill. Among the items was a rather nondescript brown teddy bear of Nick's. He had had this bear since before he was born, and had never shown it the time of day, aside from one random week, months ago, when he was sort of attached to it. So, I felt rather confident that we could get rid of it with no ramifications. Apparently, I was wrong. Mind you - this bear had been in our basement for a couple of weeks before Brian took it to Goodwill, and Nick hadn't missed it. But amazingly, just a few hours after Brian donated it, Nick suddenly started asking about "Teddy." He just had to have him. He missed him, especially his sweet smile. I dodged his questions and feigned innocent confusion - "I don't know where he is, honey. He must have gotten lost." But Nick wouldn't drop it, and started to get really upset, to the point of tears. I know that he would have eventually been OK and forgotten all about it, but mommy guilt got the better of me, and I decided to run by Goodwill to see if I could rescue Teddy. After all, Brian had dropped him off just a few hours before. I went in clutching Brian's proof-of-donation slip and spoke to a woman who was not at all sympathetic, and really no help whatsoever. I described the bear, but she just looked at me blankly and claimed that there was no point in looking for it, because they had had a lot of donations during the day, and everything was just piled up willy-nilly in the back. There was obviously no way she was letting me back there to search. I mean, come on! You'd think she would have taken pity on my poor little boy who missed his bear! I asked if it could already be out in the store, and she said no. Well, just to be sure, I went back to the stuffed animal section and looked, and there it was, along with the other stuffed animals Brian had donated. I grabbed it triumphantly and made a beeline right back to that woman, telling her that the bear had, indeed, been out already. She then informed me that I would have to PAY FOR IT. Seriously. How grubby and low-class can you get? I mean, this bear had just been dropped off earlier that same day, and it was obviously mine - how could I make that up? And why would I? So, I had to go up to the counter and give Goodwill their precious $1 so that I could spring Teddy and take him back to Nick. Blech. The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. The good news is that Nick was overjoyed, and has been clutching his bear lovingly ever since. :)

yay!

Those 3 holiday pounds are gone, which is great! I'm not so great today, however. I've just been really exhausted the past few days. I feel like my immune system is fighting something off, and it's just wiping me out. After today's workout, I felt glazed over with tiredness. Consequently, I don't have anything scintillating to say right now. Hope everyone has a great weekend! Wish me luck - I'm planning to take down my Christmas decor...

first step

I have signed up for a CPR and AED (automatic external defibrillator) certification course on January 17. That's my first official step towards becoming a certified fitness instructor!

P.S. I have weeded over 100 books out of my bookcase! It looks quite desolate now, poor thing. Now, I just have to figure out what to do with all those books.

any suggestions?

I have a $25 gift certificate for Amazon MP3 downloads. What should I get?

thanks for indulging me :)

Wow - it's nice to see what can be accomplished with a little whining. And I'll be the first to admit that I'm not above seeking pity-comments (obviously)! So, thanks to those who commented - it actually did make my day.

The purging continues, though sadly, it has eclipsed the taking down of Christmas decor. Who knows when I'll do that? Sometimes I have a hard time prioritizing.

I took Nick to our credit union today to open up his own savings account. When he was born, my friend Christie sent him this lovely gift-box-shaped bank, and we've been putting extra change in it ever since. It was finally so full that I couldn't squeeze in another dime, so I figured it was a good time to deposit it! That bank had $40 in it! I had no idea it was so much. Add to that $5 more from me and $20 in Christmas money from Brian's brother, and Nick had a hefty little initial deposit for a 4-year-old. And our credit union's reward system for kids' accounts is such that he came home with not one, not two, but THREE prizes! A foam football, a little foam rocket-shooter, and a calculator. Not bad! Quite a big day.

blah blah blah

First of all, I'm going to be petulant and selfish for a moment and say that I'm kind of bummed that no one has been commenting on my blog lately. Wah!

Here's something ironic: Yesterday, I met my friend Katherine at a local cafe to have coffee and chat. We would have enjoyed sitting out on the front porch to enjoy the 60-degree day, but we had to stay inside, because people were smoking out there. The smokers drove us inside!

I am ecstatic to report that my progress has continued today. I have really caught this purging bug, people! Yay! Today, I finished purging the entire living room. Mind you, that was by far the easiest room in the house, but I feel accomplished to have finished one room. I quake in fear at the thought of such areas as the kitchen, office closet, bookcase, etc., but the more purging I get under my belt, the more I feel ready to tackle. I even purged unwanted files and bookmarks from my computer and unneeded papers from my file drawer. This might be TMI, but I'm so into purging now that whilst I was sitting on the toilet today, I actually purged a cabinet in the bathroom. That's multitasking for you. :)

I'm also happy to say that per my plan, I bought two plastic tubs at Walmart today and filled them with Halloween decor. I would estimate that I probably still need another couple of dozen tubs for all the seasonal decor, but hey - at least I've gotten started! So, I'm basically on cloud 9 at this point.

My happiness is currently tempered, though, by the fact that my poor little son is lying on the couch right now, listless and feverish. He's obviously been stricken by a virus, and he's really pathetic! We're doing our best to take care of him and keep him comfy, and he's watching Thomas, which he finds very soothing. I really hope he's better in the morning, since it's his first day back to school. Wish him a speedy recovery!

progress report

Well, I'm pleased to report that I've already made a bit of progress towards a couple of my goals. I actually dusted the house a couple of days ago (not a totally thorough job, but still!), and today, I purged a few small items! Purging really does feel good, and the key is to just take one small area at a time. See, my problem is that I have such an "all-or-nothing" mentality that I feel like if I'm going to do something, I have to do it all at once, or it's no good. So, I end up just being paralyzed by the thought of how big a job is, and doing nothing at all. I know I need to get over that, and I'm really trying. Today, I went through the little cabinet that holds my stationery, the coffee table drawer, the coat closet, and my small movie collection. Of course, I feel like I need to keep going, but I'm not really in the mood. I need to get over my internal struggle about it and realize that it's OK if that's all I do today. I think that the key to success is going to be picking one cabinet or shelf each day (or a couple of times a week), and realizing that it's OK to stop there. Same goes for transferring all of my seasonal decor to plastic tubs. The thought of going to Walmart and buying dozens of tubs at once, and then moving all of the stuff at once, is rather paralyzing. So, I've decided that maybe twice a month, I'm going to buy two tubs and then fill those. If I keep that up, I should be done within a few months, and it will be relatively painless! Wish me luck. I'll keep you posted on how it's going...

holiday damages

I'm up 3 (!!!) lbs., which totally sucks. It just seems like I'm skirting so close to 140, but can never quite get there. But, you can bet your bippy that my next weigh-in will show a loss. It's time to just bring this frickin' train into the station, ya know what I mean?

christmas pictures

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Springfield:

Christmas Eve at PaPa's house

Christmas morning at PaPa's

Christmas Day evening at Uncle Tim's (in the first pic, Nick is playing the harmonica he got for Christmas)

happy new year, everyone!

I just want to wish everyone a very happy 2009. What did you do last night? We had a friend over for dinner, but we were in bed by 11:00. We're just not very exciting people anymore, honestly. And today, I feel like I've been beaten about my entire body with a big stick, thanks to my workouts this week. :) So, I'm going to keep a low profile today and try to get a few things done around the house. I'll post again when I actually have something interesting to say!