USC vs. UCLA Youth Basketball Game

Allow me to introduce a guest blogger for today, who has something to share....

Hi, this is Harrison, and this is my blog update...

Trojans win! Trojans win! In my basketball teams game opener, it was a battle between the USC Trojans (I'm on that team) and the UCLA Bruins. In practice games the week before, the USC Trojans lost to the Florida Gators 38-23. At the half, that game was 31-1 in the Gators favor, but the Trojans almost came back with some extrordinary defense. For UCLA's practice game, they lost to the Gray Ghosts 30-23. Back to the USC-UCLA game, it was a tight game going into the half, Bruins leading 18-16. During that half, one of our players got hurt, so I had to go in for him for 30 seconds. During that time, I faked out one defender and swooped under another and made a fabulous hook shot. Our other player, Seamus, was eventually fine and ended up with 3 points and 9 rebounds. Once the second half started, our zone defense kicked in and we were stopping their team on every one of their possessions. Also, our passing and give-and-go plays were working great. With about 2 minutes and 30 seconds to play, the game was tied at 26-26. No team could score for about 2 minutes. Finally, with 31 seconds left our team got the ball. Our point guard, Momo, misses a 15 foot jump shot, we get the rebound. That goes on for about 4 tries, then eventually, our small forward Ken hustles to get a nice board with 7 seconds left. He passes it to me, and I take the shot from just in front of the three-point line with 4 seconds left. It's going, going, going... it banks in. With 3 seconds left, the score, USC 28- UCLA 26. I thought the game was over so I untucked my jersey, screaming with joy and power, and all the players come on the court and mobbed me, but the ref says "Game's not over yet". When UCLA inbounded it from their own base line, I was counting down the seconds.. 3,2,1, their player takes a shot from the halfway line, beeeeeeeeep. The buzzer goes off, the basket misses just barely hitting the bottom of the backboard. Now, for real, all the players come off the bench and mob me. It felt great. At the end, I led my team in points(8) and rebounds(10). I also had a steal and an assist. Our team is now in first place with a record of 1 win 0 losses. GO TROJANS!!!!!!!!!!

MAJOR MILESTONE!

I'm pretty psyched...I hit a major milestone in my weight loss yesterday...I'm finally under 300 pounds! It was a great feeling of accomplishment to see the scale go below that and know that it will NEVER EVER go above that again. I now weigh less than I did when I got pregnant with jacob and Michela! I lost 3.4 yesterday for a grand total of 66. In 14 weeks. Still averaging about 4.7 pounds a week, which is quite good. I've been back to the gym three times since last thursday's class and talk with my educator and the doctor, so i'm back in that regular routine. I'm going to try to go mondays, wednesdays and fridays. It eats up half my day (I work out for about 1 1/2 hrs, but with the driving there, parking, walking in, waiting for machines, chit chatting w/people I know, it's about 2 or 2 1/2 hrs!). But it's an important priority.

Not much else is new here. I'm trying desperately to make head way on my growing list of things to do. Marlon is in New York. We wanted to take the whole family and go, but the timing wasn't right for school. We'll go next time. He'll be gone thru Sunday (left yesterday.)

I did my hotel negotiations for the Bar Mitzvah weekend a couple of days ago and was pleased to see that I haven't lost my touch! I talked one of them down from $179/night to $99/night! In fact, I talked ALL of them down to $99/night. Now we just need to make a choice, which is difficult.

I'll keep this post short and I'll do another one later today or tomorrow with Kids Konnection articles -- I want to give you a chance to read this one first!

I'm hoping to get a lot done with pictures on the computer, too while Marlon is gone!!

Weight Loss News and other updates

Last night's results at the scale were frustrating again - a mere 1.4 pounds. I know, I know, I shouldn't be discouraged as long as it's going in the right direction, but I just prefer those weeks of 5, 6 or 7 pounds so much more!! Total is 62.6 in just a little over 3 months (I started Aug. 11). I'm also getting a bit tired of not eating and am getting bored with the food. It's getting old. I'm still going strong, though, and don't plan to deviate from my plan, even during the holiday season (others have blatantly said they're going to.)

I had long discussions with my health educator, the doctor and the program director last night, though, and learned some important things. (1) Although my swimming is excellent exercise, I need to get back to the gym. They all stressed the importance of "mixing it up" a little bit and that I need to be doing weight bearing exercise in addition to the swimming. Apparently the weight machines help a lot to speed up your metabolism and they said it's just important to have variety in work out routines. They suggested the gym about 3 days a week and swimming the other days. (2) I expressed concern that their "formula" of predicted weight loss wasn't working for me because the last few weeks it's been much less than my "projected" loss of 5-6 pounds week. If that's correct, then why am I retaining so much water? I even questioned the possibility of do I maybe have some sort of tumor growing inside me that is weighing something and making the weight loss less. (they said that's unlikely!) Actually, what they told me explains a lot, but is disheartening. They said that they've taught us to use a metabolic factor of 11 (for women) in doing our calculations because that is an "average," but that my metabolism is probably much slower due to my genetic make up, my weight, my body fat percentage, etc. They said I should be using 8 or 9 as my number. Major bummer, as that makes a huge difference. Using that factor, my predicted weight loss is 3-4 lbs a week (based o my calorie intake and exercise expended), which makes more sense. At least I have my explanation. There is a test they can do to test the resting metabolic factor, but they don't recommend it right now because it will change as I continue to lose weight. They said I should definitely have it as I near maintencance because that will help determine my calorie budget. (3) I've been taking in the minimum number of shakes and then enjoying entrees and bars for the first time this past week. They said the entrees and bars are fine as supplements, but that I should increase my number of shakes a bit to get more protein because that will boost my metabolism. and, finally (4) despite MY frustrations and disappointment at the scale, they said I'm actually doing really, really well and not only better than most, but better than expected. They expect women to lose 2-4 pounds a week on average after the first couple of weeks and I'm still averaging 4.4 (just not 5.) They said to keep it up, that I'm doing fantasic and I have NOT hit a plateau, even though I was feeling like it. So I'll keep plugging along.

I went to the gym this morning for 1 1/2 hrs today (one hr of cardio, 1/2 hr of weights) so if I do that 3 days a week, hopefully it'll jumpstart me back to more rapid weight loss!!! It felt good to be back and I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in better shape than when I was there last.

Other news:

1) Much of our Texas family has found awesome airfare deals, so prices are coming down. If you're part of our out of town family, now would be a good time to get your tickets!

2) I must be feeling a bit stressed about the Bar Mitzvah planning as I had a horrible nightmare a couple of nights ago. As I was dreaming, I kept telling myself "relax, this has to be a dream," but it felt so real that I wasn't sure. I dreamed that it was the night before the Bar Mitzvah and we were going to temple for the service and NOTHING more had been planned for sat. The menus weren't set, the video montage wasn't done, the decorations weren't done, we had no balloons or anything. Basically everything on my "to do" list wasn't done. Must be stressed out about that list! In my dream I was frantically calling some of you (specifically Sydelle, Teresa and Jane) and telling you what you need to do that very night to get things ready! We also couldn't find Harrison, we were late for the service, Jacob and Michela didn't wear the clothes I laid out for them and Michela's hair was a mess. I guess deep inside I'm a tad stressed!

3) Jacob is LOVING this West Side Story experience. Although his part is small, it's featured at the beginning and the end and he loves being part of the cast with the big kids. They are all soooooo nice to him and make him feel like a part of everything. they're constantly high-fiving him, they hang out in the dressing room when they aren't on stage, they talk about movies, music, dance, theater, etc. and they have even helped him with his homework. the girls all think he's adorable and the boys think he's cool. He even has his own "assistant" to help him with his costumes, remind him when to go on stage, etc. He is so loving this, which is helpful to combat our displeasure at the number of nights he has been there until 10 p.m.! The show starts tonight and there are 8 performances over two weeks.

4) Harrison has been doing his Mitzvah project for a couple of weeks and is really, really enjoying it and finding it rewarding. He goes for an hour or so to this Family Resource Center in an apt building in Santa Ana and works with some kids on their reading.

5) Michela was happy to be nominated for the girls soccer all star team. The evaluation was yesterday. We'll see if she makes it. Even if she doesn't it's a big deal to be nominated. In fact, it would be better if she *doesn't* make it because it will make her too busy with dance, basketball and hebrew.

6) marlon leaves wed for New York. We thought about taking everyone and going too, but it's not a good time because we have so much going on and it's so expensive right now.

That's about it. Be sure to comment!!!!!

Kids Konnection for November 2008

Hot off the presses, the November issue of Orange County Jewish Life magazine has just come out. I'll start by posting my Kids Konnection column for November. I'll try to post one every day or every other day until I get all the back ones posted. I think I stopped posting them in about June. Then, hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to include them as a sidebar link to this blog and you can click on them when you want to! Or, feel free to go to the magazine's website -- www.ocjewishlife.com -- and you can read the current issue on line or do a search for me and find ALL of my columns!

Kids Konnection: Being Thankful During Uncertain Times by Barbara Boarnet

In these times of economic uncertainty and financial crisis, no one is left untouched.We are affected even if our jobs are secure, because our friends, neighbors or family might not be so lucky. We are affected even if we don’t have much to lose in the stock market, because what the markets do affects so many other things. We are affected even if our bank accounts are at a comfortable level, because everything is more expensive right now. We are affected even if we are not losing our home, because everyone’s home is losing value. Everyone is worried about the state of the economy, and no one is untouched.As we approach Thanksgiving this month, it is hard to feel grateful and appreciative with stress and worry upon us.

But, in my view, there are no times better than tough times to focus on the good in our lives. Even if times are tough, there are many things for which we can be thankful.We can be thankful for our homes. We can and should enjoy the beauty, the comfort, and the security of our homes, not to mention all of our fun gadgets like television, computer, music, and video games.If money is tight and a vacation isn’t in the plans this year, stay home and appreciate the wonderful things that we never have time for like board games, outdoor play, sitting by the fire, and smelling the roses in our garden. Two, we can be thankful for the good health of our families and ourselves. If you are suffering from health issues that are in your power to change, now is an excellent time to concentrate on doing that. Three, we can be thankful for each other: our spouses and children, our parents and grandparents, our extended families, our friends, and our communities. This Thanksgiving is a good time for all of us to remind ourselves to appreciate our families and friends and to show them how grateful we are for their presence in our lives.

We also can incorporate Judaism into our Thanksgiving celebrations to make the holiday even more meaningful and spiritual.Most Jewish families celebrate Thanksgiving the same way that non-Jewish families do. Some historians have proposed that the first Thanksgiving meal was modeled after the pilgrimage festival of Sukkot, which, coincidentally, comes near the time as the secular “fall harvest” holidays. Giving thanks has always been an important part of Judaism, from reciting blessings after meals to thanking God for the creation of the world and our many blessings in it. American Jews are thankful for their acceptance into the safe haven of American society.Thanksgiving presents a perfect opportunity to perform mitzvot, or, good deeds. Giving tzedakah or helping those less fortunate than ourselves is a classic Jewish way to show our appreciation for our own good blessings. Thanksgiving is a perfect time to donate food to an organization that fights hunger, adopt a family, volunteer at a community charity, or invite someone to your home.A second way to add a Jewish element to our Thanksgiving celebration is to treat the Thanksgiving dinner as a festive meal similar to Passover. Saying the Hebrew blessings over the wine and bread and adding some words of Torah, as well as reciting the Birkat HaMazon (prayer of grace after meals), and combining Hebrew songs of thanks after dinner with our traditional American folk songs, all link the holiday to our Jewish heritage and customs. A nice project for the children would be to create a “Thanksgiving Seder Plate,” which could feature objects that signify things for which they are personally thankful.

Yes, times are tough and yes, I, too, am worried about how this financial crisis will affect our lives. But as Thanksgiving approaches, every day I am thankful for the good that we have in our lives, and will welcome the opportunity to incorporate some of these ideas into our Thanksgiving holiday this year to help show my appreciation to God for our many blessings.

Update

I never did my update about our weekend and now it's time for an update about last night's weight loss. Sorry for the delay. It just gets busy around here. I know you understand.


First, the weight loss. I lost 4 pounds this week for a grand total of just under 62. Everyone is saying how awesome it is -- the health educator, the doctor, the rest of the class, Marlon. So how come I was disappointed with only 4 pounds?! I guess because I was hoping for a bigger week since last week was so low. I have to keep reminding myself to think of that half-full glass! It really is a LOT in not-quite-3 months. (It will be three months next week.) It might also be because I'm getting a little bit sick of it. 3 months is a long time to go without any real food. I've been enjoying "hot vanilla" shakes w/cinamon and nutmeg for breakfast instead of my standard chocolate. But it's getting old. I'm still planning on doing the very low calorie diet until mid Feb, then I'm going to transition into maintenance. So I'm about half way there. Hopefully I will have lost most of my weight that I want to lose by then, but I can still keep losing slowly on maintenance as well, just on regular foods.



Last weekend was a very fun weekend. I didn't do an update about Halloween or post any pictures because, to be honest, we really minimized Halloween and I didn't even take any pictures. We had services at temple and Harrison and Marlon and I went. It was his good friend Matthew's Bar Mitzvah. He, Matthew and Matthew's brother were the only three kids there, though. But he enjoyed it. Jacob and Michela went trick or treating with some friends. I think jacob was a cowboy and Michela was a gangster girl, but i'm not even sure. I told them to find something to wear in their closets! They had fun trick or treating and going to a scary haunted house. (Thanks, Anice, for taking them!)



Saturday was a really, really busy day. It was also a day of being around food -- two cocktail hours with delicious looking passed appetizers and other goodies, two sit down meals, two scrumptious looking desserts, and being gone almost the whole day so I needed to take all my shakes, entrees, etc. I got up early to swim to make sure I got that hour in. Then we had the Bar Mitzvah, which was great. I did the program for them (little booklet to hand out explaining the service and all that) and it came out great and they were very appreciative and now I have a head start on Harrison's. It was a wonderful service and Matthew did awesome. I took Harrison and some of his friends from the service to the party and Marlon took Jacob and Michela in his car. Listening to their conversation about Obama and prop 8 (the gay marriage ban) and the passion and knowledge with which they spoke about both was so wonderful. They were all for Obama and all against Prop 8 (against banning gay marriage) and listening to their passion and way they were able to talk about very adult issues made me know that our country will be fine if these types of kids are our future!

The Bar Mitvah party was really fun. I noticed a benefit to my weight loss and being in better shape - I could dance the day away, unlike before when I couldn't keep up with the hora and fast dancing. Marlon couldn't keep up with ME! Matthew is very into politics so the theme was based on the election and everything was red, white and blue and there were cut outs of all the political figures, which was fun. All the kids had the big Obama cut out dancing with them and they had a great time with that. (that's where those pictures came from). Matthew's mom, Robin, has a button making business and she makes the political buttons and sells them at the national conventions, so she had special buttons made for Matthew and also had a ton of official buttons from the election and things that she had gathered at the democratic and republican conventions like floor passes, Lincoln pennies, etc. Very cool give-a-ways and different from the usual glow necklaces and sunglasses. We all had great patriotic hats and flags and there were political trivia games and all that. Out of the hundred or so people there, I think at least 95 of us were for Obama, so it was great fun. The very few McCain supporters kept quiet!

After the Bar Mitzvah, we dropped the kids off at home and Marlon and I had a wedding on the beach in Laguna Beach for one of the students he advises. It was a beautiful ceremony, then there were cocktails and appeitzers and then a sit down dinner inside this house on the beach. It was very nice and fun to get to know some of the student's aunts and uncles. there was dancing there too, of course.

The kids stayed home alone with Harrison in charge. and you're not going to believe what we did. We had brought 3 of his friends home from the party and they were getting picked up here. They all started begging for them to stay and hang out and watch a movie. Our initial thought was "no way," we're not going to be here. But they're good kids and we trust them and, after talking to them about the parameters of what they could and couldn't do and could and couldn't watch, and talking to the other parents, we said ok. So, basically, harrison was here with his brother and sister and TWO GIRLS! (the 3rd friend, the other boy, had to leave b/c he had too much homework.) They ate warmed dinner in the micro and hung out and watched a movie. As we drove off, Marlon and I almost couldn't believe we were allowing him to stay home with two girls (one of whom I think has a crush on him and he on her) but we trust them and they're all good kids and we figured Jacob and Michela would keep an eye on things. Michela, as sweet as she is, just relishes the opportunity to tattle on her brothers if they do something wrong, so we knew she'd both keep everything in line and tell us if it wasn't! I also checked in by phone every 30 min or so. It all went fine. We did tell Harrison that he should not expect to be left alone in the house with any girls or girlfriends when he's older!!

Sunday was also a great family day. We participated in this Mitzvah Launch at our synagogue. We met at the temple for a big spirit pep rally, then broke off into groups based on the activity we signed up for. There were lots of things to choose from -- writing letters to politicians lobbying for Darfur and other causes, beach clean up, visiting an animal shelter, and a bunch of other opportunities. We chose to go with about 5 other people to a transitional housing shelter in Laguna Beach to prepare and serve lunch for about 30 people. jacob and Michela make decorations for the tables and we made pasta and chocolate chip cookies to take. Others made lasagna, garlic bread and salad. We set it all up and served it. It was very rewarding. The residents were very appreciative. Although they have funding and a staff person does cooking on a regular basis, they really appreciate when others bring food in because then they can use the money for other needs. We decided that we'll bring all of the leftovers from harrison's bar mitzvah and the other parties to this shelter and will keep it in mind for other parties we have.

There was a lunch at the temple afterwards, then we came home and relaxed from a busy weekend!

I'll try to post some of the kids konnection articles and pictures this weekend!

Isn't it GREAT?!

I know not all of you agree with our politics and supported Obama, but I just had to share how great we all feel in the Boarnet household. Yesterday was exciting and we are all thrilled that we can believe that people can make a difference and that good things are on the horizon for our country. All 5 of us became involved in this election and I was so proud of our kids for being so into it and becoming so aware of the issues and what it all means. Listening to them having political discussions with their friends was amazing. Not just our kids, but so many of the kids with whom they are friends, are passionate about wanting to change the world and do good things. They are all adopting a "yes we can" attitude and it is wonderful to see and hear their enthusiam and passion in their voices. If these kids who we know are our future, then our future is in good hands.

We were going to let the kids stay up as late as necessary for them to wach what we hoped would be Obama's victory speech. Even we were surprised at how early they called the election (one minute after our CA polls closed) and how early in the evening the concession and victory speeches took place. Our kids didn't even have to stay up past their bedtime! It was so exciting to watch history in the making and we all had tears in our eyes and joy in our hearts. The kids found it amazing that in 30 years, their kids will be reading about this election and this era in *their* social studies books and our kids will be able to say that they watched that speech being given and watched our white nation elect its first black president who stands for change and for the real people. Very very amazing.

I'll do another update later on today or tomorrow about our weekend, which was great, and everything else. In the meantime, I just wanted to share how elated we are and wanted to share these pictures!

This is the kids yesterday morning, right before we left the house to vote and then go to school. Everyone got into the spirit and wore red, white and blue.

Marlon with his "buddies."

Harrison and his close friends from temple hanging with our new pres!

Jacob and Michela spending time with our new pres as well!