Madalyn (8), today, in response to my discovery of a large (accidental) scratch along her brother's chin: "My fingernails are devastating."

John-Zachary (barely 6), today, after eating a grape which he was pretending was a person: "The brave knight is dead. Rip."

(You know.....rip. Like they write on dead people's gravestones.)

The fun never ends in California.

We're here. I'm here. Having a great time. Will do mega-update probably tomorrow night. Been having too much fun to blog. Plus I got the new Stephanie Plum book today. Heart you all muchly. Check back later.

We stopped at Dollar General tonight for something I needed and I let the kids pick out a coloring book each (Eliza also got a board book). The kids chattered excitedly all the way home about which pages they were going to color and they are now coloring away happily, singing as they do (their last number was "Come and Get It" by Badfinger). The grand total for all this fun? $7.

Some day, folks, I will not only realize but continue to remember and embrace that less is sometimes more.

(Incidentally, the coloring book choices were as follows: Eliza - Sesame Street ("Elmo!!!!"), John-Zachary - Littlest Pet Shop, Madalyn - generic cats & dogs.)

WE'RE LEAVING FOR CALIFORNIA IN SIX DAYS!!!

Now, will someone please tell me how I managed to miss making mention of this? The plane tickets were booked two weeks ago.

Not only are we heading to the land of sunshine, beaches and the Governator (who, in an effort to salvage the budget, is proposing to shut down this blog), we are practically moving in, people. We arrive on June 19th not to depart again until July 28th. (Me: "Yay!" My dad: "I think I'm having a stroke....")

Seems like a long visit, indeed. But when one takes into account how much we intend to do while there, 5.5 weeks really isn't all that much time. We have several overnight trips planned plus all our usual activities, not to mention the people who keep popping up, wanting to get together (thank you, Facebook!) So, while I'm sure we will have some down time where we can just hang around at my parents' house and take up space, I think we will be out of the house quite a lot and the time is going to go by quickly.

The actual travel part has worked out pretty well. True, we do depart from and arrive in two of my less-favorite (read: furthest away) cities. However, I can deal with that if the times are palatable and the travel in between the cities is fairly stress-free. This trip falls into those categories. We depart from Dallas at 12:20, which means we have to get up earlyish but not torturously early. We do make a stop in Phoenix; however, we don't change planes. This means no stress on the first leg about us getting there in time to make our connection and no possibility of sprinting through the airport dragging three kids plus luggage to try to make the next flight. Conversely, it also means no sitting in Phoenix airport for two or three hours trying to entertain the two-year-old because the only other option for the second leg gave us 35 minutes' connection time and we were afraid to book it. It will be so nice to get on the plane and be able to remain cool as a cucumber, even if they are late leaving.

After all of that we arrive in San Jose at 3:24. It's a three-hour drive to my parents' house but, being that we're getting there that early, we should be able to get our luggage, our car, stop at Fresh Choice for dinner and still arrive before it gets dark. It's really the sweet spot, for me and my preferences, anyway. I don't have to get up at 4 a.m. but we get in early enough that we should be in before the kids' bedtimes. (Coming back, incidentally, the flight is nearly identical except that a little more time on the ground in Phoenix plus the two hours we gain means we won't be into Dallas until almost 7:30. Fortunately the kids travel well by car so driving back late won't be an issue.)

The first major event after our arrival will be JZ's birthday on the 23rd. We are throwing him a party at the zoo either on his actual birthday or the following day (still waiting to hear from the zoo coordinator as to which day is available). I'm excited to give JZ one of his gifts because it's something he's been asking for since last year and thinks he's not going to get! (More on that later.)

However, I am getting ahead of myself. Before all this can happen I have a couple boxes of clothes to pack and ship, today, preferably, and unfortunately half the stuff I want to pack is unfolded and buried in an enormous pile of (clean) laundry on a chair. I guess I should get moving on that. Stay tuned for much blogging from California.

I'm slightly pressed for time right now as I'm about to head out the door to go see The Hangover. This will be visit #2 to the theater today; I just got back half an hour ago from seeing Up with the entire family. Robert and kids have now been dispatched to his dad's house and I'm off to see something a bit more, shall we say, mindless and immature, which I need now after having seen Up. (Which I enjoyed very much, I should say; but it did make me weep furtively in several different spots.)

Anywho, I just wanted to jot down some notes on my progress with my new goals. As mentioned the day I wrote about them (Monday) I had no soda at all. Tuesday and Wednesday each I drank somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 of a bottle. Thursday I had about 3/4 of a bottle of Coke. Yesterday I had nothing but water all day. Today I bought my standard large movie theater Coke and ended up drinking less than half. That will be it for today. I had a real struggle yesterday with wanting to jump in the car and go buy a Coke somewhere to go with dinner but I talked myself out of it, and felt very empowered afterward that I'd "won" over my cravings.

Exercise-wise, as I stated in the original post I am not exactly training for a marathon or anything. But every day except one I have done something. One day it was cool so I took the kids to the park and we did a mile-and-a-half walk. The other days I have gotten up and danced to one of the kids' DVDs. This has brought home to me how pathetically out of shape I am, as I'm not lasting very long. But I'm getting my heart rate up and I'm actually doing something, which is more than I've been doing. I'm hoping to do lots of walking when we are in California. When we first arrive there it will be early enough in June that we have some mild weather and some downright cooler temps as soon as the sun starts to go down. Not only that but even after it starts getting really hot it will still be way cooler in the evenings. I plan to take advantage of this, especially since my dad doesn't surrender control of the living room telly long enough for me to use it to exercise, and the bedrooms are too small and crowded for there to be room to exercise there. My mom has one of those elliptical (?) machines so I may try to use that some, too.

I did weigh myself on Monday and will do so again this coming Monday. Even though dropping weight isn't my primary focus I will be interested to see if there's a difference. I've been drinking a lot of water so, at the very least, you'd think I'd lose some water weight. And every little bit helps! It would be great if I did see a loss because that will only encourage me to keep at it. My intention is to go along for a month or so keeping to these three goals and then maybe I can add a fourth; for example, eating more fruits and veggies. My psyche is pretty delicate when it comes to stuff like this and I can be very easily derailed so some sort of payoff would be ideal and would help keep me on track and motivated.

Onward and upward.

The kids and I are all tucked up in the upstairs living room right now. JZ has staged some elaborate make-believe scene with toys on the couch next to me, and the two girls are playing together. Eliza just ran through her repertoire of animal imitations and is just generally happy and having a good time with her sister. I absolutely love, LOVE times like this when the t.v. is off and everyone is getting along and being sweet and funny. Madalyn really should have been in bed at least fifteen minutes ago because she has to be up for her last day of summer G&T class tomorrow, but I just can't end the evening yet. These are the times I look forward to. This is the stuff I'm going to miss when they are all grown up and moved away.

There is a certain point I reach, not mentally, but an actual number on the scale, past which I start to feel kin to Jabba the Hutt. It's not that I weigh myself, see the number and then start feeling fat; oh, no. I actually start suspecting I've gone past this point before I get on the scale, owing to how I feel. Weighing myself only confirms my suspicions. It's hard to describe but it's best summed up by saying that I go from merely knowing I'm a chunk to actually, physically feeling obese. I feel bulky and overstuffed and jiggly. I have recently, once again, renewed my acquaintance with this point and it hasn't been a happy reunion.