Last week was thankfully Jamie’s final week of church basketball and it is the first season he has survived unscathed. For so many years, he had heart problems. Last year, he cracked a rib the first game. This year, our friend Phil took the fall for the team and is going in for knee surgery in a few weeks.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog

WHY ARE YOU A GREAT MOTHER? Let’s give ourselves a serious shout-out today!

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Every year, mothers are celebrated on that one special May day (which is not to be confused with “mayday,” another word with which mamas are familiar).

And every year growing up, I remember my mother was consumed with guilt and inadequacy, the very antithesis of what Mother’s Day is supposed to be about. Was she the perfect mom? Of course not. None of us are. But she loved, sacrificed and cared for her children as best she could.

I was recently at a resale children’s clothing store. As I poked around, the shopkeeper asked the age of my son and she confided she had a boy his same age. At check-out, I grabbed both of my children a free sucker to reward them for their good behavior. She looked at me and distastefully commented,

“I just can’t imagine giving my 21-month-old child a sucker.”

I laughed her off but almost wished I had said something like, “Yeah, I feed him straight sugar via intravenous for breakfast.”

As I walked out of the store, I was irate. How dare she criticize me? At that same moment, I noticed Read on

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog

So, it’s ummm…err..uhhh…snowing here. You know. In May. If I had signed up for this kind of crap, I’d be back in the Motherland with my frozen nose hairs!

I am week five into my boot camp/weight loss journey. And week five is always a toughie for me. Why? I have never made it beyond that.

Did I do it this week? Well, maybe if that blasted Chuck E. Cheese hadn’t made his appearance.

For all the sordid details (and haaaaalp!), checkout Mile High Mamas on Friday!

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This week was a tough one for me. It wasn’t because I had to work the entire weekend at The Colorado Women’s Expo. My efforts were actually commendable – I packed all my food and did not cheat even once.

I even resisted the treats I had at my booth. Before you congratulate me on this exhorbant display of will power, I must confess that I stocked it with food that I hate.

Because I have that much faith in my ability to resist temptation. 🙂

In the Boot Camp Biggest Loser Club on Wednesday, I had an epiphany of why my week was so tough: I just passed the one-month mark and for whatever reason or another, I blow every diet I have ever been on at this time.

Well, most are blown loooong before that but rest assured if I make it to five weeks, I start “rewarding” myself for job well done. Only instead of a pat on the back, I start consuming foods that will pad my butt.

But without further ado, my weekly weigh loss was 2 pounds. My five-week total weight loss is 13 pounds with a loss of 4% body fat since I began.

To look at the numbers, I know I am on track with where I need to be and I need to stop beating myself up every time I stray. As Life Coach Robyn says, “You made your choice. There is no reason to be consumed by guilt about it. Just make the adjustments you need and keep going.”

And she’s right. I was trucking along just fine last week until I went to a party at every parent’s hell kid’s paradise: Mr. Chuck E. Cheese. I started strong, really I did. I went out of my way to order the salad bar. But then all those gloriously greasy pizzas’ delicious scent kept wafting toward me like the forbidden fruit.

And I did partake.

I blame the serpent mouse.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog

I [barely] survived the Colorado Women’s Expo and have been limping around from pure exhaustion ever since. Waking up at 5 a.m. the next morning didn’t help much either. Nor the fact that I will be dragging this sorry body all over the mountains today trying to find a venue for my Outpost backpacking trip in June.

Anyhew, some highlights and lowlights of the Expo:

High: Meeting oodles of fantastic women including the wonderful Diana from Sunshine on my Shoulders and giving away tons of swag thanks to Mile High Mamas’ new partnership with Universal Pictures and Sony Films.

Low: Jamie telling me I am never allowed to do another Expo again due to alleged moodiness in the planning stages. This may be in reference to my breakdown the first morning of the show when he suggested I change to more comfortable shoes, only to have me change into another pair of uncomfortable shoes and then to freak out THAT I HAD NOTHING COMFORTABLE TO WEAR!

The man overreacts, I swear.

High: Really fun fellow exhibitors that included one of my favorite new products, My Side of the Bed Sheets. A cool couple invented these sheets that are designed to combat bed hogs because “these sheets are less expensive than therapy and more comfortable than a night on the couch!”

And their killer tagline? Because sometimes you just don’t want to cuddle.

Low: Working a 12-hour day on Saturday, only to suffer through the last few hours of having NO ONE attend the Expo. Except for those two creepy guys who kept coming around to visit my booth. At least they could have spoken English and kept me entertained.

High and Low: Having the booth swarming with women as a sweet gal was trying to pitch me her at-home business. Another gal overheard and ecstatically said, “I run a business out of my home. Let’s exchange cards and see if we can work something out with being featured on Mile High Mamas.”

The first gal had a cute bubble goddess company.

The second woman throws passion parties. You know, the perfect fit for my PG-rated, family-friendly blog.

Then again, they are called sex toys.

High: Having a sweet, supportive husband and coming home to a clean house, happy children and dinner on the table.

Low: I just hope he doesn’t expect me to reciprocate….

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog

Any questions?

Come find out at Mile High Mamas on Friday if I miraculously lost any weight with my Said Tempters in town. And tell me what your foodie weaknesses are!! After last weekend, I need all the help I can get.

P.S. Regular posting continues next week after the Expo. Should I survive it…..

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One of the things I love most about Front Range Adventure Boot Camp is the cohesive community of women – a kind of bonding that can only be achieved through mutual suffering success.

The same could be said about The Boot Camp Biggest Loser Club, though it is more about sharing. And disdain for The Scale. Prior to attending my first meeting, I pictured a giant-sized one with everyone standing around gawking. Fortunately, weigh-ins are much more discreet but for the first time this week, The Scale was not Foe but Friend.

After we finished weighing in, Life Coach Robyn called out, “There is a problem with the accuracy of the weight on the scale today.”

Silence.

Finally, a brave person queried, “Errr…is the weight more or less?”

“It is adding three pounds to everyone’s weight.”

C-E-L-E-B-R-A-T-I-O-N TIME.

So without further ado, my weekly weigh loss is 2 pounds. That makes my four-week total weight loss 11 pounds! This is before the three pounds Robyn told us to subtract but I figure I will wait to make the adjustment until she recalibrates the scale next week. After all, I have always wanted one of those 10-pound weight loss weeks like on the show. 🙂

This was by far my most challenging week with a visit from my Canadian dad and aunt. Usually, I have a controlled environment with only healthy food but they brought in the very evils and spoils of society that included chips, dips, pies, brownies, and my biggest weakness – cookies.

It was my first real test to put all the lessons and soul-searching I have done at boot camp into practice. My goal was to not only survive but to thrive. One thing Robyn advocates is to not completely deprive yourself of things you love, otherwise you obsess about it and overindulge. It is about learning moderation.

And moderation I had. Well, except for my brownie indulgence. The sad thing is am not even a huge fan of chocolate.

At least I could have splurged on a cookie….

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog

I am still in the throes of booth planning and I will not bore you with all the sordid details. Because make no mistake: the details are many and each and every one of them is sordid. I would go into retirement after this experience if I didn’t have a slew of Mother’s Day promotions ahead of me. Maybe I’ll declare my break right before Father’s Day. Convenient, non?

Hurricane Hadley gave her first talk in Primary on Sunday. She is in the Sunbeam class – the youngest – and generally expectations are very low for their “performances.” With the exception of The Hurricane.

The Primary President asked a shy little girl to give the opening prayer and she ended up bailing due to stage fright. With her arm casually flung across the back of her chair, Hadley turned to her friend Jack (whose uncommunicative nature has his mother jokingly calling him her little Neanderthal).

“You know, Jacky? Some people are scared to get up there.”
Blank stare and then a grunt of acknowledgement.
“BUT NOT MEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

And she was true to form when it was her turn to give her talk. Jamie was there merely to assist as she brazenly grabbed the microphone, proudly held her pictures high and expounded the greatest doctrines of any 3 year old in the history of the world. I should know. I wrote the talk.

Her unabashed nature and conversation with Jack made me think back upon the good ol’ days when we went to Mother Goose Story Time at the library. She was the most animated baby and would always lead the group as they did the actions to the nursery rhymes.

Unless they made the mistake of not participating, during which time Hadley would stop what she was doing to waddle over there and physically force them to do the actions.

Because they were obviously too stupid to figure it out for themselves….

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog

Amber: Planning this booth at the Expo will be the death of me. Did you know that blah blah blah….

Jamie: Jim called today and is really pleased with my work. He extended me an official offer for a full-time consulting job with benefits.

Amber: And another problem I am having is blah blah blah blah….

Jamie: Did you hear me? I just landed a fantastic gig for the next few months that will likely lead into an awesome position!

Amber: That’s nice but WHAT THE CRAP AM I GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS BOOTH??!

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog

This is me waving the white flag. Or rather, several white flags in the battleground-that-was-our-house last weekend. Do you see our glorious new duvet and pillow top mattress pad hanging to dry? The Hurricane puked on every single one of them.

Yep, it was one of those weekends and thankfully her stomach flu is on the mend. Do you know the phrase “When it rains, it pours?” I am in the midst of a Hurricane these days. Well, it happens everyday if you count the one I gave birth to.

My stress list:

*I have major deadlines for pulling together a Mile High Mamas booth for the Colorado Women’s Expo next weekend. As in it is 11 days away and ask me if I have even started designing the booth or even know how to do it? Well, don’t ask because my head would assuredly explode.

*I am being hammered with coordinating tons of giveaways for Mother’s Day and the Expo.

*My dad and aunt are coming into town this weekend and our house is a puke-infested, duvet-draped disaster.

*My neighbor is having a huge garage sale next weekend and I want to dump half my household items on her. So, I am at Ground Zero with the worst spring cleaning/house gutting imaginable. Or at least I should be!

*The venue I had carefully scouted last fall for the girl’s camp backpacking trip I am in charge of is no more due to pine beetle infestations. So sometime in the next few weeks, I need to go to the mountains to determine a new backcountry area that will house 20 girls. And their blubbering leader. Then train these girls who have never put a backpack on in their lives that CARRYING 30 POUNDS, EATING RAMEN NOODLES AND SLEEPING ON THE COLD, HARD GROUND? THIS IS FUN!! P.S. Think they’ll like me?

*I just caught wind of another contest that I just won’t be able to adequately promote so this is where you can help me diffuse some stress! The Denver Post’s food editor just announced that we are having a contest for moms everywhere to post your family’s favorite dinner recipe at Mile High Mamas. We will choose the top three recipes and publish them – along with a picture of your family – in the May 7th Food section of the newspaper. In addition to fame and fortune, well, mostly just fame, the winners will receive a cookbook.

So, got any great recipes you can contribute? Got a shotgun I can borrow? It’s all appreciated just the same these days…

XOXOXO

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog