slimfast.....strawberry flavored puke in a can?

Is there ANY WAY on GOD'S SLIGHTLY GREEN BUT MOSTLY BROWN AND DEAD EARTH to drink that stuff without retching??? Comments would be appreciated. I'm off to another fad diet. woo hoo! None of that eating sensibly and exercising more and waiting for the 1 lb a week weight loss for me, nope. I couldn't make it past half a can of "extra creamy" strawberry high protein slimfast. My teeth would not unclench enough to pour another drop in. HORRIBLE stuff. I think it was the protein crap that made it so bad. I picked up some rich fudge crap and made it through a can for lunch yesterday and today's breakfast. ick ick ick. Not as bad, but still pretty rough stuff. Any ideas on the best tasting? I'm turning 37 soon and having a bit of a mid-life crisis.

My job may or may not be here after Dec. 31. I also would appreciate any information on how much Kansas unemployment is if anyone out there knows. I am crossing my fingers as this job is PERFECT for me now. We'll see.

I am starting a teaching program through Avila college in kc. It's the best around, but also FREAKING EXPENSIVE and of course I've used up all my undergraduate financial aid. great. non-subsidized college loans ahead. woo hoo. I'm going to try to take as many classes at good ol' JCCC as I can and transfer them over so I can afford to eat and buy yarn. Hey, if I can learn to live on slim fast, I won't need much $$ for food, I can just buy yarn. Oh, and clothes and food for the kids, right. can't forget that.

Beth's ninth birthday is on Thursday, she's so excited. I have a tween now. it's official. The phone does not ring without this little chic FLYING through the air and pouncing on it. You hear "ring....IGOTITIGOTITIGOTITIGOTIT!.....BAM hellooooo" cripes. We're doing the big fam dinner for both of our bdays (Beth was born 2 days before my bday and Joey was born 3 days before Xmas so I always told them they were my best presents ever....awwwwwwww. I know, I'm sweet) on Thursday and we're picking up STROUD'S CHICKEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would eat a week of slimfast strawberry puke in order to eat 2 of those heavenly "we choke our own chickens" fried chicken breasts and cottage fries and gravy and sweet rolls......mmmmmmmmm.......Stroud's chicken........If you ever get to Kansas City, you NEED to eat there. mmmmmmmmmmm

Sunday night I went over to Jeff's to hang out after the kids were all in bed (my cousin Michael the super baby sitter came by) and while snuggling on the couch, I ended up having a major freak out crying breakdown. great. Now the boy KNOWS I'm crazy. He'd been alternately pissing me off about little things and confusing me, my job was stressing me, my kids were stressing me, my school future and possible career change was stressing me, I'd gained 4 pounds AND I was having a bad hair day. The poor boy set me off and it was a 2 hour cry fest. Now all is better, and, get this...he thought it was a big step in our relationship. He thinks he loves me even more now that I "allowed him" to see that other side of me. Ah well. whatever works. We got some stuff cleared out and of course it was silly misunderstandings and now he's all lovey dovey, which is always good.

I knit Beth the felted bucket hat from chicknits. I've just thrown it in the washing machine, so we'll see how it turns out. As I was knitting along this weekend while the kids were swimming in the pool at the hotel, I knit it a little too long in one part, but I figure I'll just felt the crap out of it and stretch it to fit. I used some pretty marbley-looking cascade in a red/pink mixture, it went FAST. I'll hopefully have pics up tomorrow.

Joey's feeling better, thanks for all your good thoughts! He's still pretty worn down, but can breathe pretty clearly again and just takes lots of drugs and gets lots of rest when he's not at school. We go in tomorrow to Children's Mercy for his CF (cystic fibrosis--genetic lung & digestive disease) check-up. Xrays, blood work, lung function tests, and lots of spoiling. He RULES the cf department. He walks around doing Dr. Black impressions and gets the staff rolling on the floor. Last time Dr. Black found out and went around doing Joey impressions and I almost wet myself. too funny, good people.

I'm off to drink my can of sludge. mmmmmm. sluuuuuuuudge. Too bad they don't make slimfast in extra crispy fried chicken skin format. Ok, that just sounds horrible, nevermind.