Surprise Golf Outing

Dodger took the day off from work today and so he decided to surprise Dancer by taking her to the driving range this afternoon. He told her *they* were going to be here to pick her up at 1pm and to be ready, I played along. So, she did just that. At first she thought it was her grandparents picking her up but she thought that was weird because she was sure that they had just left for their vacation yesterday. So, I said, "did I say *they*?" But I refused to tell her who was picking her up. All the while Dodger is getting cleaned up and she doesn't really notice because she's watching out the front door for whoever is supposed to be her surprise pick-up.

Dodger ends up pulling back down the drive to the front of the house and honks. Dancer mouths "you're crazy" to him and she opens the door and he says "grab your golf clubs." You should have seen her smile. She turns to me and says, "he's taking me golfing... I was wondering why he kept asking me about things." LOL.

He's also taking her to Subway because she's been talking about wanting Subway all morning.

What a cute thing for him to pull off for her. She's been wanting him to take her to the driving range for ages now. I got after him last week about it, again. I'm glad he took this opportunity to do this for her today.

Just BE...

In my post today titled Summer Is Here, I mentioned that Dancer is attending a week long morning art camp. What I didn't mention was having to get up so early to be there. I woke up around 7am, this is extremely unusual for me, and got myself cleaned up. Then I went in to wake Dancer up. She had to wait until her dad was out of the bathroom before she could start getting ready to go. So, I gave her a nice long back and kneck massage and then when I was finished she asked me if I would stay in her room with her. She just wanted me in there while she did some ninja fighting on her Naruto PS2 game.

I have to tell you, my idea of a good time is NOT watching fake ninja violence from a video game. LOL. BUT I chose the opportunity to just BE with my daughter while she was doing something that she enjoyed. It's sooooo easy to just BE with your baby and toddler. As they grow older and gain more independence, we tend to lose that time to just BE with our kids. My girl will be turning 13 next month. She's already begun the hermit stage where she just wants to do her own thing most of the time and would prefer to be left alone while doing it. I respect that completely but I see that I must seize the opportunities for me to just BE with her, even if it's on her terms in her way.

I challenge you to seize the fleeting opportunities to just BE with your kids. Here I am choking back tears because my girl will one day not be in my life on a daily basis. I see the time fleeting away. I cannot turn back the clock but I can make sure that I take every opportunity to just BE with my daughter now... while she's still here.

Summer is here!

Those of us in IL who were complaining last month about how it was too cold are wishing we would have kept our mouths shut. LOL. Today there is no doubt that we finally got what we asked for... SUMMER! It's here, hot and heavy today. The heat index is at 98 degrees already and it's just past 11 am. The humidity is almost stifling.

Dancer is at a week long morning art camp this week. They are doing arts and crafts from around the world all week. Today they are doing Brazil, which is fitting because the area arts council where she's taking them at is hosting a Brazilian artist right now. His art is amazing. I'll make myself a note to post about him soon. I'm hoping that we get a chance to meet him and watch him paint at the upcoming area arts festival.

I stopped at the little thrift shop down the road on my way home, after dropping her off this morning, just to see what I could find. I snagged another Stephen King book, "Four Past Midnight", for our growing collection of his work and a muffin tin. I've needed a muffin tin for ages! I've been using one of those flimsy aluminum ones that I got from buying a tin of dinner rolls from Kroger months back. It's one you're supposed to throw away but I saved it to use because I didn't have a muffin tin. The one I picked up today is big, much bigger than the one I've been using. Here's a pic...

Total on today's finds.... $5.13. :D

Where to Get Your Credit Reports for Free

No, NOT dot com. This one actually is free. There's no need to sign-up for extra services you don't need and have to pay for to get your credit report for free. You are, by law, entitled to it for free. Where you need to go is www.annualcreditreport.com. You can then choose to receive your reports from the three major credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) all at once or you can choose one at a time, spread out over the year. You can order one free credit report per 12 months per reporting agency.

I just ordered and printed out my credit report from Experian. I'll request my report from Equifax four months from now and my report from TransUnion eight months from now. Nothing on my current report has really changed from the last time I received one. That's good.

I do wish that my credit score came with it for free but that is not the case. I could order it from Experian for $5.95, which really isn't so bad. Oh, and as I understand it, you will have a different credit score from all three reporting agencies, too. So, I think it would be a good investment to go ahead and pay the small fee to get my credit score, too.

Spreading the Spark about SparkPeople

I've been busy learning the food logging system at SparkPeople.com. I started tracking my food intake (and exercise) a week ago Friday (May 29th). My goal at this time is to just make sure that I get my needed calories in per day. Throughout the month of May, I took some time to become consciously aware of my eating patterns. They were sporadic, I never ate breakfast and I could tell I wasn't eating enough some days. I tracked my eating a few times in May and on those days I didn't even break 800 calories. Oh, my! That's not enough food i.e. fuel for my metabolism to work.

The first few days of tracking I had a tough time getting enough food. It was a bit of an adjustment being that I wasn't used to eating so much food. When the experts say to eat about 6 small meals a day, they know what they're talking about. Not only is the normal stomach just the size of a fist, so over stuffing causes all sorts of issues, but to get enough fuel we need to be eating every few hours.

Added bonus to eating enough last week... I lost 3 pounds. I have been stuck at 194 for months! Ta-da... I eat what my body needs and I lose.

I am not depriving myself of anything and am not tweaking what I'm eating yet. If I can log it and I can budget it into my daily calorie goal, then I will eat it. The tweaking will come later. A goal of mine for later is a lower sodium intake.

I love SparkPeople. They have everything you need to actively work towards a healthy and active lifestyle. One of my favorite things that helps to keep me on track and reminds me of what it takes to build a healthy and balanced lifestyle is their Spark Points. The Spark Points page is a list of daily activities that you can do to earn points towards virtual trophies and virtual gifts. A few things that I get points for are tracking my food and exercise, tracking other personal goals, posting on my Spark Blog, posting in the Spark Forums and Spark Teams.... the list goes on and on.

I really can't recommend SparkPeople enough. Oh, and best of all.... it's FREE.