Well, this day did not start out well. Gwen woke at 5 for a feeding. Jason was up and getting ready to leave for work when unexpectedly Ethan woke up. Sometimes he'll do this and fall straight back asleep, but this time he did not. So, I had to slog out of bed at 5:30 and take care of him. I hadn't gotten to sleep until about 1 (stupid insomnia!), so I was really dead on my feet. I laid Ethan down at 7:30 cuz I was falling asleep on the couch and just had to get some sleep. He woke at 9:45 and I was able to get in some sleep. Luckily, Gwennie slept through it all, waking only to feed. She was a gem.

I called my Mom to find out when we were going to go walking, and she could tell that I was pooped, so she very graciously dropped her activities for the day and came over with Shel and Jenni. Bless them. They cleaned my house exceedingly well (Jenni, the toilet was beautiful ;) ) while I went outside and weed-whacked, weeded, pruned, mowed and swept up the whole front of the house. It really needed to be done, and I just needed to get some hard labor in. There is something very cleansing and satisfying about it for me. Really, I think if I could do it every week my head would be a lot clearer.

Foolishly, I decided that I would join ediets.com and find something workable there for me. No such luck. It just wasn't what I needed. Their menu plans were overly restrictive (in my opinion) and too complicated. I just couldn't find one that would have worked for our every day life. Of course, I figured out that all I really needed was a spreadsheet to keep track of certain things AFTER I went through the whole registration process and paid (warning, you can cancel *anytime* but there is a late fee for doing so). Gah. Disappointing. Oh well, Michelle said she may loan me an exercise video and I did calculate my caloric intake today and it was only 2072, which, given that I'm breastfeeding, is not a huge amount, since they say to add 500-1000 calories to the amount you're supposed to intake (about 1200-1500). Just need to burn more. I'm motivated to lose 40 lbs by the end of this year. That should bring me back to where I was before kids, and then some. I'm not so concerned about the weight as I am about sizes and measurements. My weight has always been 'high' for my height, even when I was in small sizes. Me bones are heavy!

Yesterday I got a call from the UW about having Gwen in a research study. I called back today to see what it was for. Its a hearing study, to test infant responsiveness and also how they 'learn' to respond, by rewarding them when they do. I'll hold her the entire time, and the appointments are only 20-40 min. If I need to bring Ethan, they can arrange a professional nanny to watch him. We're only paid $15 per session, but no matter, it should be interesting! We go twice next week, then once the week after that.

So, people, I need opinions. Should I cut my hair? The length I'm thinking of cutting it to would be right below shoulder level. I wouldn't have bangs, so it would all be one length. Well, I may have them frame it around the face a bit, but it wouldn't be like in my eyes or anything...

Tomorrow we go walking w/ Mom and I hit the library again! I've been on a rampage of book reading and putting things on hold. Last I checked I had 14 items on their way to me. I don't think I could ever run out of things I want to read!