Reevaluating Priorities and DIY Crafts

How's that for a blog title? Awesome, I know.

So... I got on the scale again this morning after following my routine yesterday and I lost a smidge of the pound I apparently really did gain in SeaWorld. I first started justifying that perhaps I made some new muscles,  perhaps I'm just bloated, perhaps I'm standing on the scale wrong, and then I just stopped. Was I saddened by the lack of weight loss while I was away? Yes. Did I do the best I could with the food choices I had? Yes. Am I doing this to be healthy and give my kids a good role model? Yes.

The weight loss, while totally desirable, is really just a happy bonus and I needed to wrap my brain around the concept again. If I continue to eat healthy, if I continue to exercise, if I continue to set a good example for my kids, I can't help but to lose weight in the long run. So I had to have that pep talk with myself. Again. I'm sure it's probably not the last time either. I get so wrapped up in the dropping numbers I lose sight of why I'm really doing it.

Remember this picture?

My new DIY shame

Well, I finally got started!

LOTS of spray paint later -- oh look you can see my shadow.

The paint sticks now look like this after a couple coats of primer and a LOT of coats of white. Next, I'm going to do some fancy design of some sort on them. I haven't fully planned it out yet. I just wanted to get them ready while the hubs was home so I could spray paint outside without the kids trying to help me and inhaling toxic fumes. Weeee... paint fumes. 

Aren't they pretty?

And now my shoes are all blinged out. It took me HOURS with tweezers and super awesome glue to do each individual little gem. Of course I had to sort them by color, and then put them in flower formations, and then glue them on. I think for a first go of it, they turned out pretty fabulous. 

4ft got in on the fun too. Last summer, I think, maybe even the one before that (so old the paint was dried out and no good), 4ft bought a treasure box to paint. And he never got around to doing it. So when I started crafting this afternoon he wanted to do the treasure box. He did it all by himself. I think it turned out great!

Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to posting some SeaWorld pictures.

Finally

I never thought I would make it home. After a gourmand breakfast at Mc Donald's (I ate blueberry banana nut oatmeal), we got on the road. That was about 9:45 in the morning. I did not walk in my front door until 11pm last night. Can you say horrendous traffic boys and girls? And lousy road construction. It was awful.

It. Was. The. Longest. Car. Ride. Ever!

We didn't stop to eat until 9 pm. So I figure the pound the scale said I gained this morning was from a really late dinner and lousy hydration. So after being on my normal routine today we'll see how I really did tomorrow morning. Here's hoping the scale likes me better tomorrow.

Now I'm busy doing laundry and restocking my fridge today. I know, I have so much fun.

San Diego - Day 4

I did it!

The combination of SeaWorld and my three children did not kill me. I survived it - barely but I totally did. I am exhausted though.

Today we saw the Pets Rule show which featured dogs, cats, and a couple pigs. It was pretty funny and 4ft thought it was hilarious. Snugglebear slept through it and The Grumpybutt was on OCD overload and stacked and sorted stuff in Nana's scooter's basket.

Then we hoofed it to the other side of the park (of course) and caught the Sea Lion show which I have to say was my favorite because it was hilarious. I thought 4ft was going to pee his pants he was laughing so hard and even Grumpybutt quit tweaking on his OCD to watch it.

After lunch 4ft got his face painted. A pretty awesome dragon that took up a lot of his face. (I'll post pictures when I get home and can get them off my camera.) He had been begging me everyday to get it done so I promised today he could. 15 bucks for this dragon. I am clearly in the wrong line of art. I need to open up a face painting booth somewhere. Stick figures are $15 cool, right?

I had my splurge today. I told myself I could have one treat since I was on vacation and since I'm going home tomorrow I got a small slice of cherry cheesecake with dinner. I didn't finish my dinner, and I didn't finish the cheesecake bit I DID savor every bite of it I took. I'm not really worried about having eaten it. I had to have easily walked 5 miles each day. We got to the park each morning at 9am and didn't leave until 7pm.

I had a blast but I can't wait to get home. I miss my routines, my stuff, oh and I suppose the husband too.

I think I'm going to need a week to recoup from this one.

San Diego - Day 3

Had an awesome day.

We saw a whale show featuring Shamu. It was awesome. 4ft wanted to sit in the soak zone but then at the last minute chickened out because some people in front of us were tweaking on it so he started tweaking too. No skin off my nose I didn't want to be drenched first off in the morning anyway. I told him we probably wouldn't get wet anyway and he was tweaking for nothing but we moved up. Boy was I wrong. We would've had to swim out of there if we had stayed where we were.

While 4ft and my dad rode some rides my mom and I took the Grumpybutt and the Snugglebear to look at the sharks and bat rays. We went on the underwater conveyor belt and Grumpybutt thought it was totally awesome to watch the sharks swim over the top of him. He wanted to go back, against the flow of traffic, to do it again. Then at the bat rays my mom bought some fish to feed them. Grumpybutt took the whole carton and dumped it on the closest bat ray. It was funny and the upside was while the ray feasted on its smorgasbord we got to pet it. Grumpybutt thought that was even more awesome.

I just want to mention, I think I walked over 500 miles today (cue the Proclaimers) and my legs and feet feel like they are still walking.

I still remain strong against the temptation of the cakes and pies SeaWorld offers with every meal. I get either a salad or a cup of strawberries instead. I have been trying to not eat carbs at night but pickings are slim and I figure as long as I'm not gorging on cake I'm still doing better than nothing. Here's hoping that I am managing to atleast keep off the 16lbs I've already lost.

Tomorrow we're checking out the turtles, the penguins again (they're Grumpybutts favorite animal - we spent a lot of time there today too), and the arctic exhibit. I promised 4ft he could get his face painted and he wants to ride the Manta again.

San Diego - Day 2

Had. A. Blast. Today.

We got to SeaWorld at 9:30 this morning. We got breakfast - Not a lot of healthy choices which was unfortunate. I made do with a peach yogurt, some eggs, and potatoes. I stayed away from the muffins, the meats, and the cakes. Yeah they offer cake with breakfast. Crazy, right?

After breakfast we went and saw a dolphin show. It. Was. Awesome. 4ft and Grumpybutt really loved it. 4ft loved it so much he's decided that dolphin's are his favorite animal now. 4ft was hoping to be splashed as we sat in the splash zone but it didn't happen much to my relief - I'm not sure how the Grumpybutt in all his OCD glory would've handled it.

Then we did the usual stuff - ride rides, walk around (had to have been at least 3 miles), play games, and look at animals. 4ft won a dolphin for himself, a penguin for Grumpybutt, and a whale pillow pet for his sister. Isn't he just the nicest boy?

As to the rest of the day eating-wise:

For lunch I had eggplant Parmesan for lunch with a salad. It was the healthiest choice where we ate and I didn't eat the ginormous block of chocolate cake that the boys had (and left over half of it uneatened - which is why they don't struggle with their weight and I do cuz I would've licked that plate clean). For dinner I had a sandwich which I ate half of, some delicious strawberries, and a couple bites of potato salad. 4ft got an Oreo chocolate cream pie of some sort that looked and smelled delicious which he chose not to eat and i thought i might eat it but I ate the strawberries instead. Go me and willpower!