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Tour our website: http://www.geocities.com/jenniferioliver2001
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Before we get to today's story, I would like to take this opportunity
to welcome all new members who have joined the Oliver family in
passing on the love!
Congratulations to our niece, Dr. Kate Senger, as she begins her
sojourn in post-graduate work at Berkeley! While you're
adjusting to
the hang-ten crowd, your baby cousin, Madison, did her own version of
hang-ten by taking her first tentative steps this past weekend!
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Weight-Lifting Thoughts
When Cody was four, he was fixated on adjectives. Every object
required a string of adjectives in front of it, like -- "Mommy,
I'm a
big, old, mean, little tiger!"
One night, he gave me a back "massage" while I was sprawled
out on
the futon when out of the blue he poked me in the rear and said in a
matter-of-fact tone, "Mommy have big, heavy butt."
He poked himself in the rear and said, "I have a little
butt."
Then he poked me again and said, "Big, heavy butt."
When I was a little girl, I was known as "Skinny Jenny."
I grew up skinny until sixth grade I noticed a little pudge around my
middle. So I decided to skip breakfast and lunch, then eat a
small
dinner. I repeated this pattern in secret throughout high
school,
where I was also enrolled in modern dance and tennis. I kept a
tight
figure of 105 pounds on a 5'6" frame.
At that time I didn't know it was called anorexia.
It was during my second year of college when I discovered food again.
It didn't matter because by then I was engaged. Everyone knows
that
once you find true love, you don't need to worry about your figure
anymore.
I used to turn heads. Now I turned stomachs.
But, again, that didn't matter. After all, I was engaged to the
love
of my life.
Well, five years later, bored out of my mind with someone who
preferred being engaged over being married, the serendipitous
intervention of a coworker with great taste -- my future sister-in-
law -- landed me in the lap of true love. Before I ever laid
eyes on
Stephen, I was on the phone with him for three hours at a time.
A good old-fashioned chat room, I called it.
In spite of my self-description as a near-sighted overweight woman
with hearing aids who wore lots of make-up, we found that we had a
sufficient number of things in common to go out on our first date.
The moment I opened my door to this long-legged, gorgeous creature,
we hugged each other tight like long-lost relatives. It seemed
the
natural thing to do after our souls had kissed over the telephone
wire.
One drawback though.
Stephen had a small issue with my weight. At least at the
beginning,
he did. Then as our relationship evolved, he saw that my
positive
energy broke the scales far more than my physical presence did.
One day I was visiting acquaintances, and as I was leaving, their
precious little five-year-old yelled out after me, "Goodbye, fat
lady! Goodbye!"
Ah, I thought. So that's how it felt.
That's when I decided to do something about it once and for all.
At
my Government job, a fitness program was organized to inspire
civilian employees to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I joined the
twelve-week program that consisted of nutrition classes and torture
that was cheerfully disguised as step aerobics.
You're probably thinking, okay, this is the part where she tells us
that she lost a thousand pounds and is now wearing a half-sarong,
kicking up sand with a sculpted leg.
Wrong.
I got pregnant.
I guess the two pounds that I lost during that program made me
irresistible to my husband.
One day, I overheard a petite coworker complaining to another that
she had the hardest time finding a size six that fit her just right.
"What a coincidence," I piped up brightly. "I
have the same problem,
too!"
This stab at humor is part of why I dwell on weight-lifting
thoughts. I find that thinking and feeling positive lifts the
weight
from my shoulders.
Keep that in mind, my skinny-challenged friends. Think weight-
lifting thoughts.
Jennifer Oliver
[email protected]
Copyright © 2001 by Jennifer Oliver. All rights reserved.
*******
About the author: Jennifer Oliver resides in the heart of Texas
and
has three fulltime jobs as a webmaster for the government, wife
to awesome househubby, Stephen, and mother to four beautiful
kidwarmers, ages 1 to 6 years.
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QUOTES FROM LESSER KNOWN PEOPLE
"You know you're mature when you think weight-lifting means
standing
up." - Unknown
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FAMILY LOVE MOMENT
When Cody was four, he liked to play dead by dramatically dropping to
the floor. One time, three-year-old Ethan got frustrated by this
act, demanding that Cody get up and play with him.
I told Ethan that if he kissed Cody, Cody would get up.
Ethan kissed him and lo and behold, Cody was resurrected. They
continued this charade for a while with Cody playing dead and Ethan
kissing him.
At one point, Ethan was distracted, and Cody kept waiting and waiting
for Ethan to kiss him. Finally, out of frustration, Cody yelled
out, "Ethan! Kiss me!"
- Jennifer Oliver
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LOVE,
JENNIFER I. OLIVER AND FAMILY
[email protected]
When you are born, you cry and everyone is happy. So live your life in
such a way that when you die, everyone cries and you are happy.
- Unknown
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