Olivia Turns 3!

I was honored to attend Olivia's third birthday party this Saturday. It was a Sesame Street party and even the real Oscar the Grouch showed up!


Olivia had sooo many presents! All of them wrapped with colorful paper and hiding wonderful toys!


Olivia was so excited over every present; she immediately wanted to open all of them to start playing. But, mean mom told her to wait until they were all opened. Mean mom!


At some point, Olivia just said, "You guys go ahead without me" and couldn't open another gift.


Finally, her uncle Don took pity on her and opened up her dollhouse family's car. She played with that toy for a looong time.


There's some strange guest eating Oscar.


Here's the cake. It was so cute and tasted as good as it looked. Add some ice cream and it was an awesome deviation from the diet.


Olivia loved having everyone sing to her and blew out her candle all by herself!


Happy 3rd Birthday, Olivia! Never forget how special you are. We love you!

Slowing Down

12 pounds down...about 11 to go. I think the weight loss has slowed a bit from about 2 pounds a week to 1. I know losing 1-2 pounds per week is the healthy way to lose weight, but I'd rather lose 2 than 1. Poo. I plan on amping up the cardio and strength training next week to maybe get over this hump.

Day 5: Highway to Hell

The morning we left Texas started out well. Breakfast at the restaurant (pancakes-Yum!) and more chatting with family. Time to go found us packing into the car (literally) since we had to take Josh to the airport. Mom and I and both dogs crammed into the backseat for the 1.5 hour drive to the airport. Oh, scratch that, the 2.5 hour drive to the airport. Bumper to bumper traffic FOREVER. Josh's flight left at 3:45; we got him to the airport at 3:20. He was getting a bit stressed.

After an emergency bathroom break (Dad did just turn 60 after all) we were on our way. Or so we thought. More bumper to bumper traffic all the way through the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and beyond. I thought aliens had landed south of Dallas and the residents were making a mass exodus out of the city (think Cloverfield or War of the Worlds).
So, a seven hour drive became a 9.5 hour drive. Wonderful.

Day 3 and 4: What a lazy vacation should be

On Monday I woke up after a solid 10 or 11 hours of sleep feeling human again after my day of the worst hangover I've ever experienced. Nothing much exciting happened: exercised on the treadmill, played some Wii sports with Josh and Bryan and ate grilled-out hamburgers for dinner. One odd aspect of the day: I swear I drank my weight in water. Okay, so maybe not that much, but I would make a guess and say I drank about 140-150 ounces of water. Keep in mind the recommended water consumption (minimum) is 64 ounces. I guess my body was trying to repair damage wrought by half a bottle of vodka. Whoops.

Tuesday was pretty much the same except it began an obsession with Wii games. I probably played for 2-3 hours. My parents enjoyed playing too so now we're all pumped to play at home. Dinner was pizza. I'd been fairly decent all vacation so I splurged and ate three pieces. I'm weak when it comes to pizza. Three pieces is better than the 5 or 6 I could have eaten.

Stayed tuned for Day 5, otherwise known as the longest drive in history.

I thought a question was followed by a question mark

Am I wrong!

Day 2: Kerry's an idiot (and a birthday celebration)

So Day 2 of Texas was actually worse than Day 1. Well, for me anyway...and for a reason that was entirely my fault. I swear, sometimes I never learn. I was so hungover from drinking the night before (and morning). I was a zombie all day. And, believe it or not, I've never actually been physically sick from drinking. While the details of most of the night (and morning) are either fuzzy or missing completely, I had the pleasure of remembering in great detail vomiting violently for quite some time in the yard (sorry Aunt Linda) while the cousins took turns holding my hair back. Ahh...the joys of being intoxicated. So, Sunday was almost a complete bust as I tried to recover from what was most likely about 1 drink away from severe alcohol poisoning (I may be smart, but I'm not too bright).

Sunday's redeeming qualities included lasagna for dinner and celebrating three birthdays: my grandpa turned 83 on the 7th, my cousin Bryan turned 29 on the 11th and my dad turns the big 60 on the 20th.


I felt so crappy that I didn't exercise for the first time in over a month. I went to bed early and felt human again the next day. Lesson learned: Vodka is not my friend and lasagna and cake taste better when you're not hungover.

Day 1: Monkey Chunks

So day 1 of vacation to Texas started out blowing monkey chunks. I had to wake up at 6:10 a.m. Six, combined with the letters A & M, and I do not mix. In fact, I routinely roundhouse kick 6 a.m. in the face every time I see it.

Alas, waking up at the butt-crack of dawn was not to be the worst part of the day. Little did we know that near Paul's Valley, Oklahoma, a construction zone was to be our downfall. Dad was driving (very intelligently I might add) and had slowed to about 20 mph as cars were starting to back up when it got down to one lane. All of the sudden he yells, "Oh shit!" and then "BAM!" We got rear-ended. Luckily we weren't the first car hit, but the second. A girl driving a Firebird (entirely too fast) apparently wasn't paying attention (texting is my guess) and rammed into a small pickup truck, which then rammed into us.

No injuries in our car except I hit my head on the head rest. I was just damn happy that my dogs were okay. Had the girl hit us directly I think the story would have been much different. As it was, my dad had to help the girl out of her completely totaled Firebird and she was pretty much in hysterics. The man in the truck had a really bad headache. Both went to the hospital in an ambulance. An hour and a half later and we were on the road again, more than a little anxious about the wheel well damage rubbing on the rear tire.

A 7-hour drive was turned into a 9-hour drive. But everyone was okay so that's the important thing. Here are some pictures my dad took. The next time I'm in a wreck remind me to take the pictures. Dad never got a picture of the entire scene or the truck that hit us. Duh. Our car doesn't look too bad but the estimates we got this week put repairs at about $6800.

The commercials will be over soon I promise!

Damn, commercial breaks get long and annoying. For all of my 5.2 readers, this blog's commercial break will be over shortly. Promise. Soon to come, vacation update and weight loss/exercise debriefing. And, maybe pictures of Bailey at the annual KSK9 ResQ picnic that we're going to this weekend. Until then enjoy another round of commercials.

Pizza Tonight!

Nine pounds down...fourteen to go!