It's All About the Food

We went on a little trip this weekend to Moab, Utah, TO GET SOME SNACKS and run a race. Notice my emphasis on the food. Throughout the entire race, my mind was preoccupied with WHAT FOOD PRODUCTS might be waiting for me at the finish line.

Aaron barely caught a picture of me running toward the finish line; he was probably thinking about the snacks too! (Notice that Aaron got no pictures of me crossing the finish line, but he did keep a close eye on me with his camera as I went on my search for food.)

Here I am right after the race -- excited to get some snacks!

Here I am on a serious search for THE SNACKS! You can see Carson in this picture rooting me on!

Here I am collecting the food: apple, cheesestick, chips, cinnamon chip rolls, chocolate candy bars . . . (all for the kids, of course!)

Here I am with some of the food, about to be arrested for gluttony!

Here I am with my entire family -- all with full, happy bellies!

We went on an AFTER RACE HIKE, looking for more food products. We happened upon a rock shaped like a hamburger. Here's a photo of Grandma Joannie holding the hamburger up.

Here's a picture of the kids breaking a hotdog in half.

After breaking the hotdog in half, Nyah accidentally got stuck inside! Luckily, she was saved by her siblings!

Healthy Eating, Lies, The Missing Tooth, and Free Fried Chicken

Healthy Eating
We've been eating "healthy" now for over 3 weeks. We started out with NO whites, and have gradually reincorporated white pasta (because the brown pasta was too chewy), and white rice (because the brown rice was too crunchy)! The kids are still packing their lunches with "healthy" stuff and I am still only buying wheat bread, much to Ian's chagrin.


The Missing Tooth
Last week, Ian's homemade sack lunches started to noticeably shrink in size. One day he grabbed a piece of beef jerky, shoved it in a paper sack, and said, "I'm just not that hungry today." When Ian got home from school that day he was missing a tooth that hadn't even been wiggly that morning. Slightly suspicious.

Lies
The next day, a little neighbor girl said, "Ian was wearing a girls' apron in the lunchroom today. All the girls were smacking him on the bum and laughing at him. He loved it!"

Because I was quite an accomplished liar during my formative years, I put two and two together pretty quickly. Ian had somehow managed to become a lunchworker so he could get some REAL FOOD!! I remembered the strange lunches he'd packed all week: "Oh, I'm not hungry for lunch. I'll just take a piece of jerky!" or "I'll just take a jello. My stomach is feeling full." I couldn't wait to confront him about his deception.



Free Fried Chicken
When Ian walked in the door I looked at him with a smile on my face and said, "So, Ian. I heard you were wearing a girl's apron today at lunch."

"Yeah. It was funny. All the girls loved it."

"So, you were a lunchworker?"

"I VOLUNTEERED to be a substitute this week."

I decided to go in for the kill. "Did you enjoy your free school lunches?"

Ian started to smirk, finally realizing what was happening. "Uh, I had some mashed potatoes today."

"What about yesterday? You grabbed that stick of jerky because you KNEW you were going to be having school lunch, right?" I desperately wanted him to admit that he'd been sneaking around -- eating junk food behind my back. Remember: Aaron is paying good money to the kids for sticking to the healthy eating plan during the week. I kind of wanted to catch Ian so I could save some money!

"Well, I did eat 2 pieces of fried chicken yesterday. But, I got it out of the trash. It's what made my tooth fall out!"


Summary
My child is so desperate for REAL food that he is eating out of the trash cans at school. He also got money from THE TOOTH FAIRY for a tooth that he lost eating ILLEGAL FOOD out of the TRASHCAN.

When Ian saw the horrified expression on my face, he said, "Mom, it's okay. The fried chicken was just laying on some pieces of cardboard. It wasn't touching anything else." Well . . . in that case!!

Looks like the healthy eating plan isn't working as well as we'd hoped. In fact, I may be throwing all this wheat bread in the trash today!