Decaf Detox

I have a big announcement to make. BIG!

Decaf is NOT caffeine free.

Oh, you knew that already? Well, me too, kind of. But I didn't realize how caffeinated a decaf drink, **ahem**-a Starbucks Decaf Venti Mocha--really is. Let me tell you how I discovered (besides the fact that I Googled it). As you might have read, one of my New Year's Resolutions for 2010 is to only have one Starbucks a day. I know for those of you who are new to the blog this might sound crazy-that I was drinking more than one Venti Starbucks drink a day-but I was. But I'm not now. So, in my quest to keep to my resolution, there have been days where I didn't go get my normal drink...ALWAYS a Venti Decaf Mocha.

Jump forward a month or so...flowers are blooming, trees are budding...allergies are in the air. I've never had allergies, but an onslaught of a recent sneezing attack has made me rethink. I've always had headaches, and they seem to be more frequent, too. So, maybe, just maybe, I am acquiring allergies in my "old age." The sneezing is an annoyance. But the headache, oh, I can't handle the headaches!

Being the health conscious person I am, I started tracking when I get these headaches (I started tracking them mainly for hormonal purposes--sorry any dudes out there--it's just something that we women have to do to figure out what the heck is going on with these rockin' bods of ours. Just wait 'til I do my breastfeeding post). Anyway...I started to notice a pattern.

No Starbucks=headache.

Well, good for Starbucks, huh?

So today I've made an executive decision. I'm going cold turkey. Today, as I type this, I'm sipping on my last Starbucks. I'm sure it won't be my last one ever. But it's my last regular, get-a-coffee-once-a-day, have to have it Starbucks.

The main thing is this--I don't like my body depending on something to feel normal/good. I've de-toxed myself from caffeine before...about 8 1/2 years ago I went cold turkey from Diet Coke and Mountain Dew. It was tough...major headaches, fell off the wagon and went on a week-long Diet Coke binge, then said "enough is enough" and went totally caffeine free. Then a couple years ago I discovered I like Venti Decaf Mocha's from Starbucks. Being decaf, I thought it would be okay. But it's caught up to me and again, I say, "enough is enough." If I did it once, I can do it again.

So bear with me if I'm grumpy. If my posts are gloomy and grumpy for the next week (which is usually not like me, I'm kind of a "rose colored glasses" type of gal). Encourage me, tell me it will be worth it. I'll need it. (I sound like a drug addict getting ready to go to rehab, huh)? It'll be hard because I like the taste of my Starbucks and I'll crave that creamy, chocolatey goodness. But I can do it!

Plus, think how many calories will be taken out of my daily consumption (450 calories, thankyouverymuch).

And, cha-ching! $33 per week in my pocket.

So come on--LET'S DO THIS THING!!!!

Help me, what've I done?

Let me reiterate...decaf does not equal caffeine-free.

Sweet Dreams

I love watching my baby girl sleep. When she sleeps she puts her sweet little hands under her cheek just like in the old fashioned baby product advertisements. It's too cute. She's done it since the day she was born.

Here she is on August 16, 2007--the day she was born (we didn't pose her little hands like that-she just did it).

Here she is two nights ago (I know the quality of the photo isn't very good--it was a dark room and I was working with very little light and an iPhone camera).

I hope when she's a sassy teenager and I walk into her room after she's fallen asleep, that she'll be lying there with her hands tucked sweetly under her cheek. She'll still be my baby even then and my heart will still feel like it's going to explode because I love her so much.

Sweet dreams!

Perfect Pairings--Palm Sunday

Again, like normal, I'm a little late getting this posted today. This is Katie waving her palms that she got at church this morning. We walked to church today and as we walked home, she waved them the whole way. You can see more Perfect Pairings over at Baloney's Blog.

¹²The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. ¹³They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Blessed is the King of Israel!" ¹⁴Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written,
¹⁵"Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey's colt."

--John 12: 12-15

Have a prayerful and peaceful Holy Week.

What's He Doing??

Here's a fun game...

Can anyone guess what's going on in this picture?

Check back next week...oh, say Tuesday after noon. I'll give you the answer, and the person with the closest guess wins. Wins something...I just don't know yet. Don't get too excited, though, it'll probably be something like a $5 Starbucks gift card or, hey! maybe a box of Girl Scout cookies!! I've certainly got enough of those laying around. But it won't be some big monumental prize.

So, give it a shot. What do you think Crazy is doing in that photo? (WM, you can't guess...you know the answer).

Friday Morning Blunder

You know what I don't like. I don't like disappointing my kiddos. I had my kids all excited about going to the library and taking part of the Toddler Tunes they were having today. But when we got there, we were greeted with this:

Dagnabit! My kids didn't understand, so I had to explain to them we weren't going to get to do our special activity. They were disappointed. So I let them check out lots and lots of books. Even (maybe purposely) let them be not so quiet respectful, yet, be kids and make some noise and didn't shush them every 5 minutes. They were disappointed, after all, and I was disappointed that the library didn't come up with something. Trust me, I've planned events--MANY events--and it doesn't matter what's going on, if you've advertised it, posted it on the web, etc., you'd better be ready for 1 person or 100 people. Especially when it comes to kids. Don't disappoint the kids--and don't have the parents go through all the rigamaroll to get everyone excited about the event, dressed, in the car, etc. Surely there was someone there that could've put on even a storytime or something for the kiddos.

BUT, that being said, we'll probably give it another try. I'll call ahead this time. Probably won't mention it to my kids until we're on our way.

Now...I'm stepping off my soapbox and not looking back. It didn't ruin our day or anything, we were just disappointed. We love the library (even though this wasn't "our" library, it was a different branch than we normally go to). I'm not a complainer, really, I'm not. We were just bummed. So we went to Chick-fil-A.

We're going to have lots of playtime OUTSIDE!

Happy weekend everyone!

Best Friends Forever--A review

You're going to want to sit down for this. Are you sitting? Good. I actually finally finished a book that I started over a month (possibly two months) ago. I LOVE to read, but my Three Little Lams keep me busy so I don't have much time to just sit and read. But I'm finding time, I'm carving out little bits of my day to just read a chapter or two. Or maybe I've stayed up a little later at night than I should to catch up on my reading. But, finally, I finished a book I've been working on. So, like I've said in the past, if you don't like book reviews, just click on the little red "x" and closer 'er on down...see ya tomorrow.

The book I finished was Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner. It's a book I picked up at the library (they are probably wondering what happened to it--it's being returned today, I promise library people). I got it because I've like Ms. (or Mrs.-I don't know) Weiner's books in the past...In Her Shoes, Little Earthquakes, Good in Bed, etc., etc. They are quick, easy, chick lit reads. This was no different. It was not a deep, thought provoking book. It was about a childhood friendship that went off course in high school and came back together later in the girls' lives. It's totally predictable, yet some parts are completely unbelievable. The main character, Addie, who has a quiet, stable, boring (to her) life in suburban Chicago ends up going on a cross country road trip with her childhood best friend, Valerie, to help Valerie escape from what she thought was a crime. To me, from the development of her character, it didn't seem likely that she would take such risks. There are a few other characters, Jordan, the detective who is following the girls across the country. Jon, Addie's brother who was hurt in a car accident as a teen and has brain damage and depends on Addie's care. Dan, the guy whom the crime was committed against. His character could've been (should've been) a major player, but he was just mentioned briefly here and there and then at the end of the book has a life changing revelation--that the reader is never really let in on. That was frustrating, here's this guy who was a total, jerk athlete in high school, did something terrible to Valerie, was still a jerk at their reunion, but then has a life changing turn around? Come on, let us know what exactly made him turn that corner, because it was a little unbelievable that a guy like that would just instantly change.

Best Friends Forever would make a great book for a gal to take the beach or sit by the pool and read. Very light, just entertainment. Like I said, not thought provoking or world changing. What I did like about it was that at the end, the message was that you didn't have to have the perfect, cookie-cutter life to be happy.

If it was summertime, I'd probably give it a 4 out of 5 stars...like I said, it would be excellent beach/pool/airplane reading. But since I was reading it during snow storms and cold weather (when I like something with a little more depth), I'm going to give it 3 out of 5 stars.

What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday

Wednesday kind of crept up on me this week and I don't have a really good question for this week. So I'll throw out one of those random, weird ones...

So, for What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday, would you rather...

Be able to instantly heal yourself when hurt

or

Skip on sleep whenever you want.

Leave me a comment and let me know what YOU'D rather do.

As for last week's question...I'd take the Bailey's (in a Starbuck's coffee, thankyouverymuch) anyday!