It's Tuesday, so it must be the day after weigh-in! Drum roll, please...

Nah, just kidding. I lost another 2.5 pounds. Whoo hoo! Being the computer geek that I am, I have an Excel spreadsheet on my PDA that charts the weight loss, but also tells me what percentage I am to my first goal, as well as what percentage I am to my ultimate goal. My ultimate goal? To try to take over the world! Ha, just kidding...I had a Pinky and the Brain moment.

According to my handy dandy spreadsheet, a steady 2 pound loss per week will get me to my goal by the first meeting of April. My average loss per week is right at 2.5, but I'm not going to count on that lasting for any amount of time. I'd rather overestimate the time than underestimate, ya know? So anyway, there you have it-another week of negative numbers, and a happy Jen. Now if I could just straighten out this whole Tooth Fairy thing, everything would be peachy!

Cam took his tooth to school yesterday and the nurse gave him one of those plastic tooth chests. He was ecstatic. TJ had duty yesterday, so I thought that maybe the Tooth Fairy would find it easier to do the exchange if Cam camped out in my room last night. We set up a pallet on the floor, got his pillow and blanket and such together and were ready for bed. I watched him the whole time, mind you. He set that plastic chest on my dresser. I said, "Are you going to keep it there instead of under your pillow?" He said yes. All righty.

Sometime around, say, 5AM, the tooth fairy comes. I think she had to use her cell phone for light (my bedroom is like a cave) as I saw a pale blue glow flitting about my dresser... I woke him up around 6:30 to get ready for school, and a few moments later he goes, "Mom, look." All bummed out. He picks up his pillow, AND THERE'S THE DAMN TOOTH! "Wait, wasn't it in the chest?" No, he took it out with some freakish slight-of-hand and put the damn thing under his pillow! "Wow, honey-but look on the dresser! I BET the Tooth Fairy thought the tooth was in your chest still-see, it's gone!" In its place were two shiny new gold dollars. Not the $9 he seemed sure he was going to get, but not a bad haul for such a little tooth. So now I'm going to have to have a talk with the Tooth Fairy-maybe see if we can get the chest back (ahem) and the tooth taken this time. I probably ought to ask her why she didn't make sure the tooth was in the chest when she took it away, too. Sheesh. Well, it was early, and I bet she hadn't had any coffee yet. Yeah, that's the excuse we'll use. :)

I had an epiphany this weekend concerning my weight, dieting, and food. It's not anything I haven't really considered before, it just seemed to coalesce at a very appropriate time; just sort of a little light bulb going off with the classic "Ding!" sound.

The annual Grubbs/Morton (Mom's side of the family) family reunion...well, thing was this past weekend. There's more eating than 'reunioning', but that's par for the course given my family. If there were something else going on beyond the dinner it would be one thing-but nope. It's a food thing. At an all-you-can-eat buffet, no less. The Golden Corral. Or the Golden Trough, as we fondly refer to it. So in reality, there's between 40 and 60 folks there (including children-gads, we're a prolific family) squeezed into 4-top tables in the most crowded buffet restaurant in Pensacola. How much 'reunionizing' do you expect to take place? The kids had a great time-there's no way to impose the strict Morton law when the kids nearly outnumber the adults, and besides your great-aunt-whats-her-name won't make you chew with your mouth shut or tell you to stop running up and down the minuscule aisles between the tables. ...sigh... The one time each year that most of the family members get together, and it's AYCE. Don't get me wrong-I don't necessarily mean that I want to hang out somewhere else with all these people!

And then, as if that was not enough family togetherness to last me for the next 6 months, we had a Tucker (Dad's side) family dinner on Sunday. Aunt Fay is in town and it was the best way to get everyone together. This was pizza. Oh, and fried spring rolls from Val's in-laws, and potato salad from Grandma Morton. ...sigh...

Now, to see members of my family is to realize why all our bonding occurs across the dinner table. I didn't buy this amazing figure from a catalog, folks; it was proudly passed down by generations of Southern cooks and connoisseurs of anything fried, fatty, and/or containing "may-nays". (Partial credit to Val on that one, heh.) Very few members of either side of my family could be described as 'slim;' most range from 'pleasantly plump' to 'morbidly obese.'

Upon realizing this, I found myself at a crossroads. I could either say "to hell with it" and go with Mother Nature (and my voracious Southern appetite) or I could be the non-conformist I've always wanted to be (hey, I'm one of the only people I know that does not have a MySpace-I'm TOTALLY nonconformist!) and continue busting my ass to lose the weight and do my best to ensure that it doesn't creep back up. Still in the throes of a steady weight loss, I opted for the 2nd choice. Ask me again once I hit my first plateau. Anyway, I'm teaching myself to ENJOY eating right, and trying to set a better example for Cam. I'm hoping that getting (and keeping) the weight off will prevent the diabetes that my doc warned me of; I was borderline diabetic when I was pregnant with Cam, and I have many relatives on both sides of the family that are diabetic, too. Getting older is hard enough without your own body betraying you. Stupid pancreas.

Anyway...I've wandered off the topic. Yes, yes, it does happen from time to time, don't look so shocked. Tonight is a big night for me; my 7th weigh-in, and this could quite possibly put me over 20 pounds lost total! Well, online...in the meetings it will still be 15, but hey-I'll get more gold stars! (insert happy gold star dance here) I really am enjoying the whole Weight Watchers thing-the meetings aren't embarrassing at all, except for the fact that they are 2 store fronts down from the Riviera Gym...geez, guess which building MY fat ass is going into? Ahem. Anyway, I'm still all gung-ho about the diet and the weight loss and had to share my weekend story.

Oh-I did very well at both dinners, by the way. I had to use some of my weekly allowance points for the Buffet, but it wasn't with dreadfully unhealthy stuff. I didn't need to use any at all on Sunday-I brought stuff to make a grilled chicken wrap. :) It wasn't NEARLY as good as the pizza looked, but I behaved very well. I'm going to go drink some water-keep your fingers crossed for me regarding the weigh-in!

Yes, I know, two posts in one day-someone call Hell and see if they're ice skating down there! There, do you have it out of your system now? Sheesh...

I started Weight Watchers online about 2 days after Christmas. I didn't attend my first meeting until the 2nd week of January, but I have gone faithfully every week since then. Of course, things can't be SIMPLE when I'm involved, right? Since I started keeping track online before I attended my first meeting, my numbers online and at the meeting don't match. I actually lost 5 pounds between the time I started keeping track online and when I had my first weigh-in at a meeting. According to WW online, I've lost 18.5 pounds. According to my WW meeting leader, I've lost 13.5. I'm very, VERY hard pressed to give up those 5 pounds.

Don't get me wrong-I'm not going to nitpick a stupid technicality (that is entirely of my own doing) and lose track of the fact that I've lost 20 pounds-I do a happy dance every morning now that I have more clothes to choose from as I get ready. Heh...don't you wish you could get THAT image out of your head now? Anyway, my first mini-goal is to lose 10% of my weight. Unfortunately, as my online numbers and meeting numbers differ, so do my goals. I'll reach my online goal at least a week before my first meeting goal...which is really not all that bad. It'll be like having 2 birthdays, or 2 Christmases. Only without the presents. Oh, and definitely without the cake...or holiday dinner... Ok, so it will be NOTHING like having two birthdays or Christmases, but I'm sure you understand what I meant originally.

Anyway, I've had a few non-scale victories in the meantime, as well. I wore an outfit I haven't worn in over a year yesterday-it was a tad bit more snug that it was 12 months ago, but I could actually pull the pants up over my hips and snap them without doing irreparable harm to myself. :) In fact, I was able to sit Indian-style at my computer at home quite comfortably. Grandma asked me yesterday how much weight I've lost-whoo hoo! It's the little things. :)

OK, that's probably all I'll bore you with today-you can thank Resa for my talkative nature this morning-I was hoping to get online with her this morning and she never did show. Probably doing something like sleeping or studying...granted that it's nearly midnight in Korea, so she's allowed. :) I'm such a good sister...

Some of you have heard this little brain fart before-feel free to ignore it. I had a brilliant day about a month ago...long, but brilliant. One of those, "I'm actually doing the thing I WANT to do-and getting PAID to do it!" moments. On top of that, it was an AMAZING hair day. As if either of those wouldn't be enough to put you on cloud nine, right? LOL Seriously, I had the best hair day ever. Sadly, I have no idea what I did differently that day, and all attempts since then to duplicate the 'do have failed. ...sigh... Anyway, it was great. I had 3 kids tell me at school that "I sure wish *I* had naturally curly hair..." Ha! I replied, "Yeah, me too. This (indicating my hair) is the result of a very patient and amazingly wonderful hairdresser." Three kids said that! And then I got various, "Your hair looks great, Mrs. Smith!" throughout the day.

Then there was a big event that night, and I ended up being paraded in front of an alarming number of people at the Saenger with the high school band directors...it was a good night to have a good hair day, so to speak. Some of the kids' parents were there and I had many of them comment on my hair-and got another "naturally curly hair" comment. Most of these folks haven't seen me since the last football game; my football game uniform consists mostly of jeans, band shirt, bandanna, and 2 braids. Sexy stuff right there, no? Anyway, they had to comment on how Mr. K and I both clean up pretty well from our football game outfits, and complimented my hair again.

Since then, I've done a lot of thinking. Oh, and thanking my extra wonderful hairdresser, Jenz. Thanks, Jenz! I've decided that it's not so much my hair that people liked, but the fact that my ears were out of sight. I can ruin a good hair day by pulling my hair behind my ears. It's as easy as that. If I leave my hair hanging down OVER my ears, framing my face, things are good. As soon as my ears come out, it all goes downhill. So, my good hair days are more like good ear days, or NON-ear days. Stupid ears...