The King has been trying for months to rearrange the flights for our upcoming European Vacation.  Yesterday some flights opened up and we were able to get better flights.  When traveling with a toddler “better flights” constitutes “at night” and “direct”.  (Let’s not talk about the fact that this little ticket change cost us enough Frequent Flier miles for an entire other ticket to Europe!)

So now we’re flying to Europe directly.  No 24 hour layover in Newark.  (Sorry New Jersey, we’ll catch you next time!)  And we’re flying on a better airline company.  And dude, we’re flying at night.  Which, I think, means Babboo will just sleep through the flight  and all will be magical and blissful and full of reading time for mommy and sleeping time for daddy and nobody will want to kill us when we land in England.

One can wish, right?

This little ticket change also means we’ll be on vacation longer. But only an extra day at the beginning and an extra day at the end. So yeah, one more day in Berlin and London.  Bring it.

Yesterday was spent with me frantically trying to find some cheap hotels online using my usual methods. Thankfully all was successful.  (I am actually quite happy with the hotels we scored for this trip.)  (Expect a full report when we return.)

We don’t leave until Monday afternoon.  At which time our lovely friend will be moving into our house to pick up our mail, feed our cat, eat our food, sleep in our bed and order p*rn on our PPV for the three weeks that we’ll be gone.  Here’s hoping he remembers to not leave any water on the counter tops and to water the plants in the yard.

Presents still need to be purchased for our friends in Europe.  When I suggested to The King that we take them some famous Seattle Chocolates he just rolled his eyes at me.  Oh right, we’re supposed to be the one bringing chocolates back from Europe. Not the other way around.

I guess that means I’m taking them the left over iron-on shirts I made for all the kids in Babboo’s class.  Today’s his last day there (he starts his new school in October) and The King and I wanted to leave everybody with something to remember our little genius with.

(And yes, I did all of the ironing on the bathroom counter top at work today.  And no, I wasn’t caught.  Not a single person had to pee in the time it took me to iron 15 toddler sized shirts.  It was an ironing miracle.)

I’m going to try my hardest to post while we’re away.  (Thanks to the lovely Carrisa for being the guardian angel over holaisabel.com while I’m gone.) I mean, what if I run into Rob Lowe again? I know you’ll want to hear about it.  So here’s hoping some of our hotels offer internet in the lobby as we’re not taking our laptops with us.  But have no fear, like always, I have some fun things lined up for all of my lovely readers while I’m gone.  So don’t forget to check back.

You won’t want to miss a minute of it.

Peach out.

(I always type “peach” instead of “peace” [I just did it again].  So now I just give in and type “peach.)

The first thing I do when I get to work every morning is make myself a cup of oatmeal. Okay, it’s really the second thing I to. First I turn my computer on. Wait, really it’s the third thing I do. I turn my computer on first and then I change my shoes and then I make my oatmeal.

So I make myself a cup of oatmeal every morning.

About three months ago I noticed one of Babboo’s little boxes of raisins in my backpack and thought to myself, “I should add his raisins to my oatmeal. I bet it would taste yummy!” And so I added them to my oatmeal. And it did taste yummy. I’ve since bought my own supply of raisin for the office and use them liberally every morning.

(My Weight Watcher total for this morning meal: 3 points!!)

It wasn’t until just this week that I realized something about my oatmeal and raisin delight….

IT’S THE SAME THING MY MOM EATS FOR BREAKFAST!

For as long as I can remember my mom wakes up and puts a kettle on the stove to make water for her oatmeal. She then gets a scoop of raisins out of the same mason jar she’s always kept them in and adds the raisins to her oatmeal (along with a little butter and some brown sugar, which I do not add to mine).

I’m not sure what aspect of this discovery was more alarming to me; the fact that I’m becoming my mother or the fact that it took me so long to realize that I’m becoming my mother.

So tell me, have you discovered something that you do the same as your mom (or your dad, or aunt, or grandma, or some other adult in your life)? And are you okay with the discovery?

I mean, I guess it could be worse then eating a few raisins in my oatmeal, right?

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Check out my latest post over at SeattleMomBlogs about sexual harassment at the office and what to do if you are being sexually harassed.

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Check out my latest New Thing.  I tried out a few of those beachy-hair-type products.  And guess what, I like them!

I finished the last book in the latest round of FluentBrittish’s Super Duper Blogger Book Exchange (SDBBE). I love the SDBBE. I love reading new books. I love getting to know old and new bloggers and I really love reading all of their comments in the books. (Oh yes, we read the books and WRITE OUR COMMENTS IN THE ACTUAL BOOKS!)

I was very sad to see this round of the book club end. Mostly because I was anxious to have a SDBBE book to take with me to Europe. I just thought it would be cool to take a blogger’s book with me to read on the beaches in Spain. Alas, I have no Super Duper Blogger Book Exchange book to take with me.

I mentioned this to Britt last week and she was all, “Would you mind if I picked out a book for you to take on your trip and sent it to you?!” And I was all, “on my goodness, I would love that!”

It was a mere two days later that this book arrived in the mail from Britt:

Along with the book was this note:

I was so excited to start on the book. A little too excited. We don’t leave for another six days and I’m already almost 100 pages into the book. While reading the book on my bus ride in this morning I realized I’m going to have to take a few other books with me on the trip.

Oopsie.

Here’s the problem, I have no idea what books would be the perfect fit for our little trip. We’re spending most of the time on the beaches off the Mediterranean Sea. That makes me think I’ll need a beach read. But we’ll also be spending time in big cities like Berlin, Barcelona and London. Which isn’t so much conducive to a beach read. (Are there books that are considered city reads?)

And, let’s be honest here, Babboo might not allow me a lot of reading time. And while we’re being honest here, The King might also not allow me a lot of reading time. (Dude, he likes to talk to me and crap. What’s that about?)

Thankfully I spent most of yesterday downloading TV shows to my iPod for My Sweet Babboo. Maybe he’ll enjoy some alone time with his friends Tigger & Pooh and allow me to read.

After spending most of the summer looking for the perfect (read: inexpensive) shoe for the trip, I bought them yesterday. I figured the blue would go with both brown and black outfits.

I’m wearing them today. I need to get them broken-in in time for the trip. I’ve only been wearing them for a few hours and already they aren’t the perfect fit. So either that was $20 down the drain or I just need to wear them a little longer.

So tell me, what would your recommendation be for both a beach read and a city read book? Seriously my dear interweb, I need your help.

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Want to read all about my latest New Thing? Yeah, The King and I took Babboo to the local zoo for the first time. We ran into some good friends there. Good times ensued.

One week.

That’s how long I have to get everything ready for our trip to Europe. As of next Monday afternoon we’ll officially be “on vacation”. Getting ready for a vacation is hard. You can’t start packing too soon or you’ll be left with all your clothes in your backpacks and nothing to wear. You can’t put off packing too long or you’ll be the one up until 2am the day before your flight frantically trying to get everything to fit in your bags.

Unfortunately I’m not sure what constitutes packing “too early” or “too late”. And so while I haven’t actually started to put stuff in backpacks, I have started lists and piles. The list has things like “make sure battery chargers will work in Europe”, “buy gifts for German friends”, “buy headphones for the iPod that Babboo will use” and “buy dental floss”. The pile has things like sunscreen, passports, international driving licenses, electrical converters, journals, and swimming suits.

We’ve flown with Babboo numerous times. Mostly just to Utah or California. The longest flight we’ve taken him on was when we went to NYC and DC last summer. Back then he was still youngish and easy to manage. He didn’t have his own seat, but he was fine. At least I think he was fine. It was over a year ago and I don’t remember what happened last week, let alone last year.

Anyway, this flight is a little different. He has his own seat. And we have a layover in Newark. Plus, the time change is major. We’re starting in Germany, which has a nine hour time difference then here in Seattle. NINE HOURS. I think that is just so major that I really don’t think there is anything we can do to plan for that. You know, except maybe Benadryl. (I’m kidding.) (Sort of.) I’m also spending a small fortune on videos for my iPod.

My plan is to not think too much about this. I figure that way I won’t stress out BEFORE we go. I’ll save that until we’re actually on the plane. No really, I’m sure he’ll be fine. Plus, like I said, he has his own seat this time. So we’ll just keep him strapped in and hope pray wish for the best. So while we’re taking the long flight to and from Europe, we’re also taking four smaller flights inside of Europe. This kid better be a good flier, that’s all I’m saying.

I’m also going to not try to worry about how Babboo is still potty training. He has yet to master using the potty at school. I think it has something to do with his teachers, but I’m trying to not lay blame. I don’t know if I should be using big-boy-undies 100% of the time on the planes or just use regular old diapers (I’m pretty sure I can’t flush his gdiapers in the airplanes. Since a lot of our trip will be sans clothing, I’m sure he’ll just get used to peeing openly and freely. The way God intended.

Yeah see, I’m trying to not stress out about this. Really and truly. Because dude, there is going to be an awful lot of family-time taking place over the next month and I want every minute of it to be awesome.

(We went to the zoo on Friday. Together. As a family. Just to prep us for the upcoming vacation. It was pretty awesome.)

I’ve been eating better since April. Almost five months. And in those five months I’ve seen a lot of changes. Instead of coming home from work and immediately starting to eat whatever I can find (like bagels, chips, cookies, and cupcakes), I now keep myself busy with tasks. That intense desire to eat is still there, I won’t lie. But now I have better choices to choose from. We’re spending a small fortune on fresh fruit, low calorie tortillas, Baked Lays, ground turkey and eggs. I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve found the foods I love and that fit into my new lifestyle.

Of course a direct result of eating better is losing weight. I admit I didn’t have a ton of weight to lose back in April. But still, I had some fatty, fatty parts of my body I wanted to bid farewell to. As of yesterday’s weekly weigh in at my local Weight Watchers the weight on my drivers license is now correct. While the number of pounds I’ve lost might not seem like a high number, I have lost over 10% of my body weight. (That’s a lot, right?)

I’ve really noticed this week that none of my pants fit. I have about a million pairs of black slacks and not a single one of them fits. As in, I can’t even keep them up. You’d probably think that I’d be happy about the option of running out and buying new clothes, but let’s be honest, what is the likelihood that my weight will stay down? Plus um, I don’t have a lot of extra cash to spend on a whole new work wardrobe. It’s taken me years to accumulate the one I have. I did use a gift card I got for my birthday to get an insanely smaller pair of jeans at Ann Taylor Loft that I found on sale. I’ve been wearing them to work a lot. As in a lot, a lot.

I hear the people around me tell me that I look like I’ve lost weight. My husband applauds me on my new healthy habits and healthier body. The leaders at Weight Watchers tell me I’m an “inspiration to the rest of us”.

What I’m saying is that I look differently. There is no denying the positive changes in my body.

And yet, every morning before hopping in the shower I catch my reflection in the mirror and I think, “eww…I’m fat.” I look at my belly and see how it’s misshapen (from carrying a baby) and I think, “eww…I’m fat.” I see my thighs and think, “eww…I’m fat.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. I’ve become someone I don’t understand. It’s like when the rest of us see Mary Kate Olson and wonder how she can possibly think she’s fat when her bones are protruding and she can barley hold her head up. Not that I’m that I’m as thin as Mary Kate. Far from it. But I know, on paper, that I’m thinnish. And yet, my eyes and my mind are telling me something totally different. They are telling me I need to lose more weight. They are telling me that I don’t look as good as I could. They are telling me that I’m a failure. And that I’m ugly and fat.

I’ve always had body image issues. We all have body image issues. I’ve talked about this before with the interweb. But now, my body image issues are faltering between normal and not-so-normal. I keep wondering where the switch is that will make me love myself more. Where the switch is that will allow me to see myself how others see me. The switch that will let me be happy with my body. Why can’t I make my mind accept what is really there? Is there something that makes us not accept who we are? Are we born with this genetic fault or do we learn it from years of hearing people call Jennifer Love Hewitt “fat”? Is it the magazines that are to blame? Or are we to blame?

Have I done this to myself?

I don’t know what I’m trying to say here. I’m not looking to have the interweb tell me how skinny I am, or how messed up I am, or that I need professional help. I really don’t want the eye rolling as you call me a skinny ungrateful bitch.

I’m just trying to understand these thoughts in my head.

Because I’m sure we all have them.

(I’m closing comments on this post, for the first time ever.)

First off, it must be said, I am so over The Rain. It’s August. And it’s raining like it’s the end of the world. (Crap, I hope it’s not the end of the world. I do not have sufficient food storage.)

The Highlights from the Garden Party I attended last nigh with the ladies from church:

• The fajitas & grapes (Dude, of course the food is number one.)

• The woman who admitted, during a heated game of “Two Truths and One Lie”, the back story of her “truth”.

• Apparently she had participated in naked cliff diving.

• The friends she was with were upping the ante with each dive and diving off higher and higher cliffs.

• She decided to “up the ante a nipple” and jumped naked.

• Watching as the room full of nice Mormon ladies busted out in laughter will forever be etched in my memory.

• Seriously, she said “up the ante a nipple”.

• That’s comedy gold.

• The looks of confusion on the faces of the nice Mormon ladies when another woman read her list, which included, “has had a Brazilian”.

• I was shocked and horrified that nobody knew what this was.

• I’m half thinking they were just playing dumb.

• It was her “lie”.

• My friend’s husband who graciously offered to watch Babboo so I could attend and The King could get some work done around the new house.

• Just being around fabulous woman made the night extra fabulous.

The Lowlights from the Garden Party:

• Having the woman, who was sitting next to me, inform me that the baby she’s currently pregnant with has a congenital heart defect and might not live after she gives birth to him in a few weeks.

And because I don’t want to close on that note, here’s a video of my second favorite thing (not to be confused with my first favorite thing) about the new house.

Shower Room in the new house from holaisabel on Vimeo.