weight, blood pressure and hair - just keeping things real

Okay, so I had my annual wellness exam with my "female" doctor who is a male (can you tell I don't like to use the word gynecologist!). I had put this appt off and was approaching year 2 since I'd been there. I had wanted to lose at least 20 pounds before having this appt. Well, that didn't happen. So, disappointment number one was the reality of the scale. I HATE stepping on the scale at the doctor's office. I'm then directed to the room and told to sit in the "chair" and then she takes my blood pressure. She pumps it up only to let out the air and ask me to remove my sweater. "I'll try the right arm with the larger cuff" she adds. Okay, so, the reading she gets is 140/100. Disappointment number two. After barely getting into the beautiful pink plastic-ware she has left for me the doctor taps on the door asking if I'm ready. He then sits down across from me and asks me how I'm doing. HOW AM I DOING?? Well, I wasn't prepared to say "I'm doing wonderful". So, "okay" squeaks out. This leads to "what do you mean just okay?" Me: "well, my blood pressure is up and I know I need to lose weight". He honestly handled this very well and said that it sounds like I know what I need to do and then encourages me to check out MVP fitness center.

So, after leaving the office I go to pick Abby up from my mom. Abby is all quiet in the car and I ask her what is wrong. She starts to cry and says that she wishes that I still had long hair (I had my hair cut on Saturday - trimmed actually, still long in my opinion) and that she liked me better with long hair.

I guess I don't have to add that I'm not feeling especially beautiful this evening!

My neighbor emailed me this a few days ago and it's pretty funny. Needed a laugh tonight, maybe someone else does as well for I know that I'm not the only one with days like these...

A woman goes to the doctor for her yearly physical The nurse starts with certain basic items. 'How much do you weigh?' she asks. '115,' she says. The nurse puts her on the scale. It turns out her weight is 140. The nurse asks, 'Your height?' '5 foot 8,' she says. The nurse checks and sees that she only measures 5' 5'. She then takes her blood pressure And tells the woman it is very high. 'Of course it's high!' she screams, 'When I came in here I was tall and slender! Now I'm short and fat!'

Guitar Hero

Well, the Kuiper family has a new favorite game. It is called Guitar Hero. Todd and the kids gave me a "wireless" guitar and '80s music for my birthday. Abby wanted to play along with me tonight, so, here she is thinking she's playing when in actuality it really was just me. If anyone could create a Christian music guitar hero game they probably would make a bundle. I really wish they had it in Christian music... anyway, we sure do have fun!

Parenting Woes

For those of you who are parents, do you ever feel like you are doing a poor job? Lately, that's been the case for me. It seems like whenever I ask my children to do something it falls on deaf ears. I've been finding myself repeating my request sometimes up to 4 or 5 times (or more) until finally it is heard. Once heard, I usually hear something like "awhhrrr, but I don't feel like doing that". Upon which I have to make the request known again, this time including a warning. Well, I've had enough of that! There have been quite a few tears this weekend as mom and dad have decided that one request is plenty and there should never be disrespectful noises made upon performing the request. Todd and I have both become a little lax when it comes to following through with warnings and that is probably why we find ourselves repeating requests so often. So, the new deal around the Kuiper house is that when your asked to do something, you'd better do it right away or there WILL be consquences to pay. Today it was no chocolate for Abby (big deal for those of you who know her) and Josh was not allowed to play video games. Will see if we have some changes around here!

Music

I received the idea of playing music on my blog from Todd's cousin Traci who put music on hers. I enjoy just sitting listening to the music she added and thought that maybe others might enjoy music to my blog as well. Hope you don't mind that I copied your idea, Traci! And, I hope you all enjoy the music I've added to mine! (hopefully you can hear it!)

I was really hoping to put the video to the song "New Again" as the video is mostly taken from "Passion of Christ" and just makes the words that much stronger. If you get the chance, check it out on YOU TUBE

Fun with the Dog

Okay, I admit it, we do have fun with the dog. It's not ALL bad, he just makes life a little or a lot crazier! Anyway, this is our latest discovery with him. He loves to chase bubbles and try to "catch them".

Celtic Women

We've discovered that Abby enjoys "pretending" that she is a dancer/singer like those she sees on TV. Her latest favorite show is Celtic Woman. She has to dress up like them and bring her 3 dolls out to be the other "girls". She comes by this rightly as her mom used to pretend she was on Lawrence Welk on Saturday nights by wearing her "nightie" and dancing with her sister!

I'm not a good dog owner...

I'll admit it. Actually, I don't think that the Kuiper family are good dog owners. If our dog could talk I could hear him saying "nah nah nah boo boo".

Okay, here's the latest in the "Moki stories". Yesterday it was a fairly decent day and Abby and I decided to get outside for a breath of fresh air. The garage desperately needed to be swept and Abby really wanted to play on her tricyle. So, being the nice person I try to be, I thought instead of putting the dog in his crate (he does not have free reign of the house when we are not in it...I'd hate to find out what he would do if he did!), I would move his tie out so he could be by us. This required going into the front yard, getting it and attaching it to the basketball post. The mistake I made: I left Abby in the house with Moki. Yup, Moki ended up outside running around, NOT on his tie out. Somehow he "got out" according to Abby. This dog stays within his own eye-shot of us, but will not listen to "COME". He ran around for about 20 minutes with me chasing after him yelling at him "Moki, come". He'd look up at me every now and then and allow me to get close enough to him to almost get him and then he'd dart away. This is not the first time this has happened. Anyway, he ended up in the brush by the barn next to our house running back with a "prize". Some sort of animal bone that he chewed a joint off of. At this point Abby had a great idea to get a toy and that actually worked to get him.

Okay, fast forward to today. You'd think I would have learned by now...
Josh has off of school today, so when it came time to take Abby to school we decided to be nice and take Moki with us so he wouldn't have to be in his crate. Why am I "nice" to this dog? Anyway, I always put a leash on him just in case he gets out of the van. Good thing. We made it fine to school, but we had to stop by Todd's work to get Abby's "correct" booster seat out of the truck. Josh had Moki by the leash and I got out to get the booster. That went fine. Then I saw something in the back of the truck that I thought I might need. So, I left the door to the van open while getting it out of the truck. All of a sudden I hear Josh say "oh no, Mom!" and then I see a white streak as the dog jets out of the van. So, here I am following this, pardon my language, stupid dog, around the parking lot at Todd's work yelling "Moki, come!" Same thing as yesterday, he keeps me within eye shot, but each time I get close he jets away. Josh is in the van crying by now, probably because the first thing I had said about the incident was "Josh, why did you let him go? UGH!" At this point I knew I needed reinforcements. So, I tried calling Todd on his cell phone, but he wasn't picking it up. I did end up reaching him and by this time Moki is up by the entrance of the building doing his "little duty" as Todd and two other people are walking out of the building. Talk about embarassing! We did get him at this point.

Two lessons I learned from this:
1. Don't be nice to the dog anymore. Put him in his crate.
2. Don't blame my children for my mistakes. I apologized to Josh because it wasn't his fault that I left the door to the van open. The dog is strong, I should never had expected him to keep a good hold of that leash.