Busy Halloween

This weekend, which is already half over, is looking to be pretty hectic. We went to a party tonight over in Port Orchard, which was fun - but a fairly long drive with the little ones. We actually took the ferry over, and then drove back; Gus did pretty well too, and Rose had a good time hanging out with her gal friends.

Tomorrow we have church in the morning, then we are hitting the Bellevue mall after nap for trick-or-treat, and then at night our church is having trunk-or-treat. After all that we have a friend coming for dinner and maybe a movie. It will be fun, I'm sure, but quite busy!

Ruby just had her first solid food tonight too. Rose has been breastfeeding, but of late Ruby has been needing to wake up multiple times at night to eat - so Rose decided it was time to try some rice cereal to see if that fills her tummy longer. She took to it like a fish to water, hating to have the spoon / food out of her mouth for more than a split second, and then filled up on 'mommy juice' to top off. She's just gone down, so I'm hoping for a nice long sleep.

Oh, one last thing: I just uploaded a bunch of pictures I've been taking on my phone over the last few months. They are on our Picasa account, under the various months they were taken - so go check 'em out! :)

Puyallup Fair

This past Saturday my mom took Rose and me, and of course the kids, to the Puyallup Fair. It was a lot of fun, and we saw all sorts of cool things for sale and neat projects people had submitted as exhibits. Rose particularly liked the quilts and other hand-made items, while I enjoyed looking at the photo galleries - not something I would have enjoyed much a decade ago, but as I've gotten more into taking pictures myself I have gained an appreciation for the art form.

Gus of course got to go on some rides, though he is still too small for most. We have pictures of the rides, along with some other things we saw, on our Picasa account. Not pictured there are the fun things we got to eat: scones, elephant ears, fried pickles, funnel cakes, and Hawaiian shaved ice. Bonus points to those who can guess which of us ate each of those items :)

We ended the day with a train ride. Gus has been *loving* trains recently, thanks in large part to Thomas & Friends and a little train set he got for his birthday. It was a nice end to a nice day.

So William has Decided to Eat Better

Yes, I've finally decided to try and eat in a more healthy fashion. Actually, 'try' is not a good word - I will eat better, I will train myself to eat better. I've attempted to diet in the past, with differing degrees of success, but I need to get away from the idea that I can eat nicely for a month and then go back to my old ways.

The way I've been treating my body is really starting to take a toll, and while I've lived with it for years I cannot afford to do so any longer. I have a son now, so I've got to take better care of myself - and I'm going to start with the way I eat. Here, then, is my plan; I think that I need to approach this in three ways:

1) I need to eat less overall

2) I need to eat little or no of certain foods that currently make up most of my diet (fast food, desserts, snacks)

3) I need to eat more fruits and vegetables

Rose is also of the opinion that I should begin taking a multivitamin, which is probably a good idea - but not directly related to the food choices I must make.

Those three rules are good, but they aren't detailed enough to help me make specific situational choices. As such, I've come up with a list of things I am going to adhere to - and I will probably be adding to this as time goes by:

- I will not keep any cookies, ice cream, or other treats that I like at home.
- I will order smaller portions of both food and desserts when eating out. Small cookies, small/single scoop ice creams, small/6-inch sandwiches, only one cheeseburger (when I indulge in that), etc.
- I will eat breakfast every day; something healthy, or if it is something sweeter (like waffles) not too many
- I will eat at home whenever Rose cooks something for me
- I will take leftovers or other food for lunch at least three times a week (rather than eating out a bunch)
- I will make sure to eat at least one serving of fruits and one of vegetables every day (and more over time)
- I will replace unhealthy snacks I used to eat between meals with more nutritious alternatives

Any of you that read this and are close friends or family, I would ask that you please help hold me to these decisions. Someday I intend that these will be second-nature, but until then I am sure I'll be tempted to fall back into old habits. If nothing else, I would appreciate prayer in this area of my life. Thank you in advance!