On My Way...

Holy cow I am loving My Fitness Pal!  I am 4.2 down and logging like I did post pregnancy. I am feeling great and have been exercising every day (almost!).  A BIG  change in attitude for me and 127.8 this morning put a big smile on my face.  Now, to keep the momentum going....!
-a

129.9

Borderline rude.
Hello all - A here, i have now been 129.9 for 2 days straight and while I'm happy that its not 130 I'd take even 129.8 at this point!
It's that teeter totter of you are on the brink of getting back into the 20's and feeling like you are getting back to a good place or the just .01oz and you are back to 30's land.  I feel really good as I've been dedicated all week (yes, that's a big feat) and I've come in under my calories every day and have logged everything.  The Fitness Pal tracker has really helped me keep on track with my exercise too, I am heading to Cardio Funk today, a new one but it's supposed to be really fun.  We shall see!!
-later,
a

Trekkin Along...

Hello all - A here, so I am trekkin along with the Fitness Pal deal and loving it so far.  I have been exercising a good bit and the fact that it calculates everything for me is perfection.  I like that it adds the basics together like "milk and cereal" so I don't have to do 2 entries.  its the little things lately that make the biggest difference.  I am down 2 lbs and I am now convinced that my scale was wrong for the last few years.  I am at 129.9 now and I cannot BELIEVE for as good as I've been its not coming off quicker. Must have done some real damage along the way - sweet.

Anywhoo - hope all is well in weight-loss land you y'all are continuing to do great things!!
-stay skinny webbies!
a

Forever + 1 Day + 10lbs

OMG - its been forever that i've blogged and the reality is that I am up 10lbs and I want to CRY.  I have kicked it into full gear (again) and have joined the "My Fitness Pal" deal.  I've been tracking for a full 24hrs (yes, it's a big step) and I even went out and exercised this morning.
Getting older kinda SUCKS as what I used to be able to eat and not think twice about now stays...and that BOTHERS me.  I am making conscious efforts to not do my "new normal".  Yesterday at a Bday party I didn't a) have a cupcake b) eat cake but I did c) drink wine and chose veggies as opposed to chips...though after a few glasses of wine a LARGE cheese piece of pizza went down without a thought.  DAMN IT. sigh.
Baby steps and I will get back there!  I am adding my Fitness Tracker thing to this site in hopes that I will get back on the right track.
PLEASE HELP!
-a

I think the God's are trying to tell me something...

Well after running on Monday and all the crazy tightness I felt in my rear... Tuesday night my right knee started to swell up with fluid. This happened to me twice, right after I had S. My knee swelled up to the size of a grapefruit. I literally could not fit my jeans over my knee. Anyway, I had it drained and once I got over that initial post-pregnancy weirdness, I haven't had an issue with it. That is until Tuesday night.

I can only assume it's from running, but I can't be for sure. Either way, I'm getting frickin' old!  Luckily I still had my anti-inflammatory pills from the last time, so I was able to keep my knee from getting super huge. But it's still enough that I can't straighten it or bend it all the way. Good times... Here's a photo of my knee when it swelled up right after I had S.

But I'm going to prevail and I'm headed to Atlanta today for my fun girls weekend with A and my sister... even if I have to hobble the whole way there! I'm at work until 4pm and then I'm off to the airport to catch my 6pm flight. I am VERY excited and can't wait to get there.

I'm going to miss my little ones though. As much as I bitch and moan talk about being home alone with them all the time without a break, I'm rarely away from them. Especially not for 4 days. Though the thought of sleeping past 7am is an appealing one.

Things are still good with the new nanny, Ms. K. When I got home on Tuesday, my entire house was picked up and ALL the dishes were done. Why didn't I think of this nanny thing earlier?

Have a great weekend y'all! (the "ya'all" part was because I'm headed to the South today)

-V

Just Call Me Mrs. Frankenstein

Well I certainly paid the price for running yesterday. I could barely walk by the end of the day, my butt muscles were so sore and tight (sorry TMI).  I was walking around like Frankenstein for most of the day. I would say my pinched nerve is definitely not healed yet and I'm highly annoyed.It's not like I ran 5 miles, my God! I'm feeling ok this morning though. It's hard to tell if I'm sore from running or 30 Day Shred. Either way, it's a good sore this morning, not the painful kind I was in last night.

Our first day with the nanny seemed to go well. She was only there a short while, since husband's flight got changed to much later. So I think she went home at 1pm. But today she's there all day, so hopefully things will continue to go smoothly. S was still sleeping when I left the house, so I hope she doesn't freak out when she wakes up and Ms. K comes into her room. Hopefully since she was there yesterday, she won't be too afraid.

I leave for Atlanta on Thursday to go visit A for the weekend. I'm getting really excited. My sister just stopped nursing her baby so I have a feeling there is going to be a lot of drinking done. The bad part about this trip is that I don't have a suitcase. Husband hijacked mine and now I need to borrow one from someone. We do have more than one suitcase, but the other one we have is MASSIVE. And I am not lugging that thing for a weekend trip. And my white noise machine broke. I am one of those people who cannot sleep without white noise or a fan noise in the background. My travel noisemaker broke, so I have no idea how I'm supposed to sleep now. I keep forgetting to email A and see if she has one.

So I have a bunch of baby stuff I want to get rid of on CraigsList. I've never actually sold anything on there before. I know I need to put down an email address but should I make up a new one just for CraigsList stuff? I don't want to get a bunch of spam sent to me? Anyone know this? Any other tips?

-V

Holy Soreness!

So our new nanny starts today! I'm not gonna lie, I'm a bit nervous. I'm not sure why, since Ms. K has taken care of J for the past 8 months at daycare. But I guess it's different when someone is in your own home. I'm worried she's not going to be able to find something she needs, I'm worried my kids will be total spaz's because they are excited, I'm worried worried worried about little, silly stuff. I made up a hand book of sorts for her, which does have a lot of info in it. But there's just SO much when it comes to your children, it would have been 80 pages long if I put every last thing into it.

Plus it didn't help that last night husband came up to me and asked me to give him anything of great value (jewelry, etc.) to put in our safe "just in case."  Well cool, thanks for that husband, now I'm even MORE nervous... ha ha.

But I'm so happy I am trying this. I got a facebook message from another mother who's child was in J's classroom. She told me that they took S's teacher out of her room and put her into another room. So if we had stayed, S would have also had to get used to a new teacher. And the teacher they put in S's room is this old, crabby lady, who in my opinion, has no business working in a daycare. AND on Saturday, I saw another mom of a child in J's class who also quit daycare last week, for the same reasons I did. So this was a needed move... I just need to keep telling myself that throughout the day today.

The good thing is that husband has water training this morning (in case, God forbid, his plane should ever go down in water, he can survive) and then he's back home for a short while and then off again to fly at 5pm. So he'll be able to "check-in" around lunch time to see how everything is going.

I've been super good on the workouts. I did 30 Day Shred last Friday and yesterday. Holy Soreness!! I also got up at 6am today and ran. I'm trying to slowly get back into running after this whole pinched nerve in my rear issue. It's still there, but according to the doctor, it's just going to have to work itself out. So I speed walked a mile, ran about a 1-1/4 mile and then speed walked another 1/2 mile to cool down. The pinched nerve didn't really hurt much, I felt it, but I wouldn't say it was super painful. It was a HARD 1-1/4 mile run though. How sad last March I was training for a 10K and now I can barely run 2 miles. But I just don't to injure myself more. So I'm going to slowly ease back into it, only running once a week. But I'm glad I did it. I love that it's light so early in the summer, so I can get outside and exercise. It's so much better than working out in my basement.

Ok, work to be done!
-V

Slacker Jack

So my fitness took a HUGE hit when husband was gone at flight school last month. While I did good on the eating front, I just never seemed to have time to squeeze a workout in. There was just always something to be done. But now that husband is home, I NEED to get back on track. I need to start doing 30 Day Shred during nap time again. And I need to get my butt up before work to workout on the days husband is home.

So, today was day 1, and I got my lazy butt up at 6am and hopped on my spinning bike today. It was hard but it feels really good. I am one of those people who actually really enjoy working out. Eating healthy? Hate it. But working out I love. So it was nice to get back to it and much needed.

I had my doctor's appointment last Friday for that annoying pinched nerve feeling in my butt that I've had since March. I was quite discouraged when he basically said I probably pulled something and there wasn't anything I could do about it. It could take 3, 6 or even 12 months to heal. It just depends. Well, sure glad I paid a $30 co-pay and waited a month to see a specialist just to hear that news. I probably could have diagnosed that myself... thanks man. I also had him check out my elbow, even though I had already seen the doctor for that. He also said it was "Tennis Elbow" and gave me another set of exercises I could do to try and strengthen it. But again, not much I can do about it. He did give me another cortisone shot, which hurt like all holy hell. The last one I got hurt a little but this felt like I got shot in the arm. For 2-3 days afterwards I could barely bend my arm... sheesh! It's just now starting to feel better.

Our new nanny starts on Monday. She is coming over tomorrow, so I can show her where everything is. I made up a sort of 'hand book' that she can refer to when it comes to everything. I'm excited for this, but also nervous. I really hope this works out. The kids last day at daycare is today. I'm happy to have them out of there. Just yesterday we got a notice that there was a case of Pink Eye in S's room. This is another reason why I'm happy we are out of there... all of the illnesses.

I'm SUPER excited that I get to go visit A in Atlanta next week. My sister and I are both going, though we are on different flights (hers out of Detroit, mine out of Grand Rapids). But it's going to be a super fun weekend and I cannot wait! AND I get to have 3 full nights of sleep, without having to listen for any children.

Ok, have to get back to work!

-V

I Promise, I'm Alive

I've been neglecting you the past week, dear blog. I'm so very sorry, I just can't seem to catch up on life, since husband came home. It's been SUCH a whirl wind. And to top it off, S had her tubes put in this morning, so yet another day off of work to take her to the hospital.

But the tube procedure went GREAT! We were up all night last night with S, and just as I suspected, she had the start of another ear infection. So this is a good thing we did this today. She was a rock star throughout the entire process. Except for when they had to take her away to give her the anesthesia. She was screaming for me as they carried her away down the hall. I, of course, started crying. There's nothing more heart breaking as a parent, to see your child scream for you and for you not to be able to go hold her. But we were back home by 9:30am and she's been playing ever since.

This weekend was really fun. Saturday we drove down to the Detroit area for a bbq with my parents and sister and her new house. It was really fun. My parents brought their bounce house and the kids had a blast.

Last night we had friends over for our own bbq. The kids swam, played, blew bubbles and had fun together. The adults got to drink beer... so all is good. After dinner, we gave the kids ice cream out on our deck and S thought it would be hilarious to smoosh her face up against the door... and it kinda was.

Ok, I'm at work tomorrow and will be back to a more normal blogging schedule now. Thanks for your patience!

-V

Can I get a WHOOOOOOOOOO!

Please excuse my absence this week. It has been CRAZY!!! First off I had just gotten to work on Tuesday and daycare called me to tell me S had a 101 fever and I had to come get her. So I trekked 40 minutes back home to pick her up. Talk about a waste of time and gas. It was a rough day because I had A LOT of work to do, freelance wise. I had a conference call set up for 2pm that I HAD to be on, so it was a tricky day to juggle that and S.

Then I hired the nanny. Whooooo! I'm very excited, but a bit overwhelmed of having to basically write a 'handbook' of sorts explaining the in's and out's of my kids schedules, meals, naps, etc. It's a lot to think about.

And then yesterday morning S and I had to get up bright and early and drive to pick J up. My mother-in-law met me at the halfway point. J was VERY mad at me and wouldn't even hug me. He does this often when I leave... he makes me pay. So he was pretty much a little sh*t for the remainder of the day. I was ready to drive his butt back to grandma's after a while...

I had another conference call I had to be on at 1pm, so I was just able to get the kids down for naps in time for that. And then husband came home. Can I get another Whooooooooooooo!  We picked him up at 4pm, the kids were ecstatic. I love how husband goes away for a month and J is just fine with him. I leave him at his grandma's for 2 days and he won't even look at me. WTF?

So anyway, I'm back at work right now, incredibly behind so I will keep this short and sweet. I finally have my doctor's appointment tomorrow for that pinched nerve in my butt. I'm hoping to resolve this so I can start running again soon.

-V

PS: husband said I looked "skinny" when he saw me. YEAH!

And Then There Were 2

Only a few days left until husband comes home. I cannot believe I made it! Whooooo! He may even be able to come home a day early. He was originally supposed to come home on Thursday, but if he can get his flight switched, he'll be home Wednesday. Only 2 days away!

Had a good weekend up north, at my in-laws. It was sooooooooo nice to see S. I missed her very much and I was happy to have us all back together again (minus husband, of course). We spent Friday fishing and playing on their big deck (they live on a lake) with buckets of water. We went for a wagon ride, S even tried to pull J on it, which was pretty funny.

We headed home on Saturday and again, it was nice to have us all home together. Sunday we had an engagement party to go to. Unfortunately it was 90 degrees here and the house the party was in did not have air conditioning. I seriously wanted to die it was so hot. My kids were sooooo crabby and hot too. It was NOT fun! When we got home in the late afternoon, I threw the kids bathing suits on them and filled up our kiddie pool. They were so happy playing around in the pool. It was really fun because S was too little to do this last year with us and it was nice to see her and J play together.

Around dinner time, my mother-in-law showed up and took J home with her. He did NOT want to go. He's a mamma's boy and pretty much likes to be at my side 24/7. I know once they got on their way, he was fine. But that mommy guilt you feel when your child doesn't want to go somewhere, is not fun. I'm going to get him Wednesday morning, so he's only up there for 2 days.

Thank you for all the nanny advice. I'm gave the potential nanny a day rate and I'm waiting to hear back from her on it. She has been J's teacher for the past 8 months, so if this works out it will be really great. Hopefully I will hear from her today and we can get this officially set up for the summer.

Happy Monday!
-V

Keeping It Up

Happy Monday my webfriends!  The challenge with any good work-out/diet is keeping it up for the long haul.  I did great last week and as a result I feel good.  I worked out almost every day including Saturday and Sunday.  A big time first for me in a while.  Zumba plans tonight and to stay motivated I am already dressed to go....@ 6p. I need to keep motivated and updating here is helping me a lot.  I am traveling this week so its important that I stay on the right track - here's to healthy a week again, cheers!
-a

Saturday Success

Well, I got up this morning and ran again - I didn't drink wine last night (though I ate an entire burrito @ Willy's - like Moe's) and I ran for 20 straight minutes and walked for another 10 - OK, you can stop laughing now, please see "square 1" reference - this is really good for me!  I worked out 4x this week and am feeling really proud of myself.  Thank you again for the comment "remember how badly square 1 sucks" to keep myself going - that is helping a lot.  I honestly could have kept running for another 10 (I think) but I didn't want to push it and think I have to keep at that pace until I'm really ready to be there.  So, in other words, now I know I can run for a straight 20 and keep going strong and it shouldn't be an issue going forward.  Weird psychological games I have to play to keep it up, whatever works.
Hopefully this will be me soon:

V- tick-tock goes the husband arrival clock, getting close - hang in there buddy!
Have a GREAT weekend webfriends!
a

Feeling Good!

Wow - how nice for a change!  Each day this week E and I have eaten healthy and I've worked out every single day - a RECORD for me.  I weighed myself this am and am down 7lbs since before my craziness of a few weeks.  The world of bloat and ick that's been hanging around is kinda gone....kinda.  My goal is 4lbs away - PLEASE G-D PLEASE let me keep up the good work, this is about the time that I start to get comfortable and I cannot do it this time.  Gotta be good!
-a

Nanny Question

Ok web friends, I need some help and advice. I have found a nanny that is willing to work with our crazy schedule and watch my kids. The craziness is that because of husband's pilot schedule, some weeks it's only 3 days, some weeks 2 days and some only 1. But I am allowing this nanny to bring her 2-year-old daughter with her. So she would be watching my 1 and 3-year-old's and also her 2-year-old. She has been J's teacher at daycare for about 8 months now (up until last week), so he knows her, as do I. Her daughter was in S's class, so she also knows her.

So this leads to my question. For her hourly rate, do I get to pay her less because she is bringing her daughter with her? Her daughter's needs will most certainly be taking up some of her time, being that she's only 2. But I am having the convenience of having someone come to my house.

Thoughts? I am clueless on this whole nanny thing.

Thanks!!!
V

So Long Debbie!

So since I've been Debbie Downer this week, I thought I would write down a list of all the positives I've had going on this week:

• Spending one-on-one time with J all week.

• Having had the most awesome day off yesterday with my little guy. We went shopping, out to lunch, the park, everywhere.

• J got a free ice cream with M&M's on it at lunch at Culver's yesterday... man was he excited!

• Only 1 week from today, until husband comes home.

• I get to see my little girl today.

• I think I found a nanny to watch my kids for the summer (I'm so over my daycare facility).

• Found some super cute summer dresses to keep me cool when it's 8 billion degrees out and I'm schlepping my kids around.

• Completed everything on my 'To Do' list yesterday. Every... last... one.

• J's new Yo Gabba Gabba Nap Matt I ordered for him to use at school, came in the mail. He was VERY happy.

• Snuggle time in my bed with J last night before bedtime

So there you go! Some great positives about this week. I did have an email talk with husband about my hurt feelings. And I do feel a lot better for having gotten it off my chest. After work today, I'm going to pick J up from school and then we are heading straight up north to Grandma's house to get my darling S. We will stay there until Saturday morning and then head home.

Happy Thursday!

-V

Day 2. I Did It!

Hello Web Friends!  Well, I did it.  Day 2 and I got up and ran at 6:30a...and it SUCKEDDD while I was doing it but boy do I feel better for having done it.  Tomorrow I will try and do the same thing, fingers crossed I can keep up the trend.  And, being totally honest - the comment about thinking about how badly Square 1 sucks will help me tomorrow morning, thanks for that!
Life is good on this side otherwise, we had a FANTASTIC time up in MI and I saw V post a pic one time so I am going to too. This is from my mom's house and B and I relaxing in the "da-kuzzi" as he called it. Thinking back now, is it even safe for a toddler to be in one? Lord I hope so.

We ate like TOTAL pigs and he puked 4x in the rental car on the way back to the airport, 3.5hrs in the car with that - not cool.  But, whatevs - we get through.  I even told the people that I filled the car up with gas and I didn't - E is going to be SO MAD at me when they charge our card. I JUST COULDN'T do it - mad exhausted and I needed to roll.
I've been good this week eating wise, we've cooked healthy meals and I've worked out 2x.  This is BIG for me in the trend of bad eating and fatness that has become my normal.  Such is life and again, we all need to start somewhere - and here I am, heading into day 3 tomorrow.  I will cook healthy again tonight and resist the urge to say, I've been good this week - PIZZA tonight.  I wont do it, even though I want to.
Later Webbies!
a

Square 1, We Are NOT Friends...

Well hello web friends, A here.  I have been on the road non stop and its been not only hard to be gone from my family but staying on top of anything out side of work has been near impossible!  And yes, sadly that includes my eating/working out/ and overall health in general.
My clothes are skin tight, need I say more?  I had a mental shift this morning and actually ran.  It was a slow, arduous and painful experience but I did it and I forgot how badly Square 1 SUCKS.
So I'm back at it and already feel better for the slight modification to my morning.  I will need to find a new app or something to start tracking because I think I'm bored of caloriecount.com and need something exciting to keep me motivated.
Side note, my time @ home and with V last week ROCKED!  Miss you already V but cannot wait for you to get here soon! 
-a

Life with One Child

It is very strange to only have one child. I'm loving it and hating it all at once. I'm loving the one-on-one time with J. I'm loving the freedom I have because J is much more chill than S (there's such a big difference between 3 years old and 1 years old at this age). He'll just hang out and I can actually get stuff done. S pretty much wants me to be with her, either holding her, or her sitting in my lap 24/7. So basically I get nothing done when she's around. But I also miss my girl. I miss her hugs and snuggles. And J misses her too. When I picked him up at school yesterday he was  like "ok, let's go get S!" I had to remind him that she was at grandma's and he was not happy.

But we had a lovely night again, just the two of us. Dinner and then again we laid in my big bed and watched Fresh Beat Band (his new fav. show) until his bedtime. It was nice to snuggle with him. Part of me feels bad for ever complaining how hard it was when I only had one child. Hell, this is a breeze compared to 2!

Husband called around 9:30pm last night and I was kind of pissy with him. I NEED to get over this Mother's Day thing. But it was like rubbing salt in my wounds yesterday. ALL DAY LONG at work I had about 5 billion people come up to me asking me "how was your Mother's Day? What did you get? What did your husband get you?" Really? And how awkward everyone felt when I said I got nothing... ha ha. So it was still raw when he called. And I know you are just thinking, well tell him you feel this way. But I've had so many similar conversations with husband about just this topic, what else is there to say? I need to just get over this and accept the fact that he sucks at holidays and I will never get anything. As one of my commenters, Kate said, I need to buy myself flowers or a gift if it means so much to me. So I think I just will from now on, good advice.

Ok, no more pity party for me. I promise I will end this party now and be resentful move on.

I'm up to my eyeballs in freelance work right now and between that and my actual job work, I'm pretty busy trying to get it all done. But freelance is good, it's more money, so I need too keep it up.

-V

Welcome to my Pity Party

So Mother's Day kind of sucked. I mean, it's not like I thought that it was going to be this grand day with all these presents lavished on me. My husband is out of town for a month... I get it. But I still thought it would be better than what is was. When you have a 1 and 3 year old, it's not like they know it's Mother's Day. I can't expect them to make me a card or anything. They can't say "hey mom, happy mother's day!" And husband was gone, so it's not like I was going to get breakfast in bed or anything. But, going on facebook and seeing all the photos of all my friends with their new jewelry, flowers, gifts, brunches, etc., was hard. I didn't think I'd feel jealousy like that, but I did. So then I started to have a pity part for myself. I was pretty down. And as much as I know husband wasn't in town, I just feel like he could have least sent me flowers or a card. I mean even just a crappy homemade card would have been nice. He called to say Happy Mother's Day, but that was it. And especially with me being all by myself, it would have been nice to have something...

I love my husband, but he just sucks at holidays, birthdays, etc. He always has and I still get disappointed for some reason. Even though I know this about him. But again, I guess I just thought that since he was gone, he'd do something nice for me. And I'm not gonna lie, I'm a bit pissed. I think it was kinda shitty, to be honest. But there's not much else I can do but move on.

On a positive note, I did go to my sister-in-law's for a bbq yesterday. My in-laws were there also, so that was fun. And I did get a homemade card from my niece, so that was nice. At least someone thought of me... lol.

My in-laws took S home with them. She will be there until Thursday. That also sort of set me off in a bit of depression. As much as it was my idea to send her off, I was just so down yesterday, it just added to it. I miss her like crazy! But it was nice to have some one-on-one time with J. We played on the swings, did play-doh on the deck. We can never do play-doh anymore because S is always eating it and throwing it. So that was nice. We watched Bubble Guppies in my bed after his bath, which was also nice. Another thing we can't really do with S because she's a bit of a spaz and won't sit still. My bed is really, really tall, and I'm always afraid she's going to fall off of it.

So here's to a better day. My feelings are still hurt and I'm missing my girl, but I'm going to make the best of this. Only a week and a half until husband comes home and then I get to go to Atlanta and see A for her birthday/housewarming party. Whoo!

-V

What Moms REALLY Want for Mother's Day

I got this from Rants From Mommyland and had to share it. It's SO funny and SOOOOO true:

Happy Mother's Days!

-V

Things I Thought I Would Never Do As A Parent...

• Let my children watch as much tv as I do. But hey, sometimes I NEED to get something done and as much as I've tried using other things to entertain them, tv works the best.  So suck it judgers!

• Be so out of tune on what music is popular today. I couldn't tell you one top 10 song right now. Complete lie, I totally know that One Direction song 'What Makes You Beautiful.'

• Know every word to every Wiggles song ever made.

• Give my kids food while grocery shopping, just to keep them occupied so I can shop in peace.

• Keep a box of fruit snacks in my car for emergencies. Especially falling asleep when I don't want them to, type of emergencies (quick car naps are the kiss of death for your child's intended, long afternoon nap).

• Have only children music cd's in my car. I have not one of my own in my car currently (unless you count books on tape).

• Bribe my children. We started bribing J with M&M's if he would go #2 on the potty. And now I can't get it to stop. I swear he will be 15 years old and asking me for M&M's after he poops.

• Say the phrases my parents said to me as a child. Especially the "you are driving me crazy!" line. Sorry mom and dad, I bet I did drive you crazy.

• Serve my children chicken nuggets for breakfast dinner.

• Spend hours upon hours planning my kids birthday parties and stress over details that no one will ever notice, much less appreciate.

• Do just about ANYTHING to get my child back to sleep, once they wake up in the middle of the night. Including crawling out of their room on my hands and knees, just so they won't hear my ankle creak and notice that I'm leaving.

• Judge other people a lot less. Before I had kids I was Mrs. Judgment on everyone who had kids. I thought, I would NEVER let my kids do that. Or I would NEVER let them act that way... HA! Joke's on me now. But I've got to say, when I hear that kid screaming at the grocery store, or throwing food on the floor at a restaurant, I don't judge. I get it's all about survival at that point and I usually give the mother an encouraging smile.

-V

Side note: Doctor said for sure on the tubes for S. So May 29th is surgery day for her.

To Tube or not to Tube... that is the Question

So I am taking S to the Ears Nose and Throat doctor today. I'm assuming they will check her ears out and give us our options. More than likely I think they will want us to get tubes. But we'll see I guess. Part of me wants her to get the tubes because she's just had sooooo many ear infections. And being on antibiotics nonstop can't be very good for her. But there's also the opinion, because it's Spring and Summer, and cold and flu season are coming to an end, to wait for the Fall and see where we are at. I just want to do the right thing for her, I just wish I knew what that was.

Anyway, I'm getting excited for A's visit tomorrow. It will be quick, but fun! I'm sure the boys will have a blast together.

My mother-in-law comes in on Friday. She'll be busy at a Mary Kay event that day, but after that she will be around to help me. On Saturday there is a carnival at my niece's elementary school, so I know she said she would take both kids and give me a break. So that will be nice. I will take some of that time and get a good workout in. I haven't been able to workout once since husband has been gone. I usually workout when the kids nap, but with all the extra added things I've got to do with husband being gone, I just haven't had that time. I pretty much get all of that stuff done while they are asleep. So I am looking forward to a nice long workout.

Sunday, my mother-in-law is taking S home with her. I'm already getting sad about it. I'm going to miss my girl. It will be very nice to only have one child for a few days, but at the same time I want to be with her. I'll be zooming up there after work on Thursday, to go get her for sure.

Eating wise, I've been doing well. No real huge slip-ups yet. I did have a slice of pizza on Sunday, but it was just plain cheese. Normally I'd eat the whole darn pizza, so only have a little bit is good for me.I didn't even get any popcorn at the Hunger Games on Sunday. Now THAT was hard! I'm almost to the halfway point until husband comes home, so slowly but surely we'll get there.

-V

Thank God For Boring Photoshop Projects...

Ok, so this show in my newest obsession. I've been working on this totally long and boring Photoshop project at work the past few weeks, so I play the episodes in the background while I'm working on it. I LOVE it and I can't stop watching it.. I'm almost caught up to the current episode.

Ok, just had share... back to Photoshop and Revenge...

-V

Later Week 1!

Happy Monday all! I survived my first husband-less weekend with the kiddos. And it actually wasn't half bad.. ha ha. Except for a little snafu on Saturday night, we had a fun weekend. For some odd reason S was up from 11pm-3am on Saturday night. MAN I had forgotten what that kind of sleep deprevation feels like. I'm still a zombie today from it.

But other than that we survived. Saturday, before dinner at a friend's house, I took the kids to the Rogue River Dam in Rockford, since every time we pass it the kids ask me to stop there and we are always in a hurry so we can't. It's a very cool place and they had a wedding and tons of prom kids there taking pictures, which was fun to watch. The kids loved it! J sat there and threw sticks in the water the whole time. He would have done that all day if I had let him.

After that, we had dinner at my friend's house. She's also has 2 children, J & S's ages, so they ran around like crazy and I got to chill for a bit. If it weren't for S being up all night, it would have been the perfect day.

Sunday, my sister and niece came up for the day/night. We had a babysitter watch the kids in the afternoon and we went and saw The Hunger Games. AWESOME movie!!! Loved it and can't wait to start the 2nd book.

Again, the kids ran around like crazy all day with their cousin. They were exhausted last night, and everyone slept. My poor niece had her pack and play set up in the bathroom, since that was the only room left for her... ha ha. But she didn't seem to mind.

So here starts week 2 of husband being gone. One week down, 2-1/2 more to go! The good news is not only does A come in on Thursday night for a visit (yay!) but my mother-in-law comes in on Friday to help me. So if I can just make it to Thursday, I'll have help the rest of the time husband is gone.

-V

ummmmmm.... k

Someone typed this into google and found our blog...

"baby arm in lady mouth looks like blow job"

 Seriously, I don't even want to know

-V

Good Thing I Don't Have A Fear Of Needles

Man the last 2 days have been insane, crazy busy! I'm used to husband being gone but since I know it's going to be more than just a few days like normal, there is ALOT more to be done around the house and such. Yesterday flewwwwwwwwwww by, hence no blog post from me. I didn't even get a chance to work out when the kids napped I was so darned busy.

But so far so good with husband being gone. And my elbow and tooth are feeling GREAT! Before my root canal appointment on Tuesday afternoon, I stopped into my doctor's office and had a quick xray of my elbow done, just to make sure I hadn't pulled anything major. It was to the point where my elbow hurt so bad I couldn't even pick up S with my right arm. Anyway as I figured it was, I have what's known as "Tennis Elbow." A very annoying inflammation of the tendon that attaches to your elbow. Most common in tennis players, hense the name. Anyway since my elbow had gotten so bad, he gave me a cortizone shot right in my elbow. It hurt but I would have done anything at that point to get this pain to stop, so I sucked it up. Other than that, he gave me some exercises I can do to strengthen that area, but not much more I can do. So let's hope between the shot and these exercises I can start lifting weights and doing pushups again. Need my Jennifer Aniston arms for the summer!

Then after that lovely appointment, I headed off to my root canal. What a FUN afternoon for me right??? Cortisone shot in my elbow AND a root canal... ahhhh, it's a glamorous life people, try not to be too jealous, k?

My mouth is still sore today, but it's slowly getting better. And I'm able to finally chew on my right side again, which let me tell you, is Heaven after not having been able to for a couple of weeks now.

Yesterday was a fun "mommy" day. We made it to playgroup in the morning and I got to catch up with some friends I hadn't seen in a while. During the kids naps I literally ran around like a crazy woman, because I had so much to do. Dishes, laundry, garbage duty, etc. Our neighborhood's annual garage sale is this weekend and even though we have SO much baby stuff to get rid of, there was just no way to do a garage sale by myself with 2 kids. But since my neighbor rocks, she said I could put some items in her driveway and she'd take care of it for me. So I dragged my stroller, exersaucer, carseat and base, swing and jumperoo thingy, 4 houses down to her house. I was literally dripping with sweat by the time I got done. But am SO happy to have that out of my house. Hopefully I get a some good prices for it.

Also, S's teacher at school is pregnant and her boyfriend left her. Sad story and she's such a sweet girl. So I went in my basement and pulled together 3 boxes of baby clothes, toys, etc. for her. I can't even imagine being in that situation, so I'm glad I could not only help her but clear out more of our old baby stuff.

Then after the kids were up I took them to this new playhouse they just built in Grand Rapids, called Jester's Court. HOLY CRAP this place is awesome! If you live around here, I highly suggest you check it out. It's basically like a bounce house and Java Gym/Jungle type place, all combined into one. I got a great LivingSocial 2 for 1 deal too. We had soooo much fun. And yet again, sweated my butt off from all the climbing and jumping. So while I didn't get a traditional workout in, let me tell you, I did some major calorie burning yesterday.

So anyway, even with all my crazy doctor's appointments and so many pokes from needles, I can't even count, it's been going very well so far with husband gone, except for BOTH cats puking on my carpet this morning.

Eating is also going well. I love when I'm crazy busy like this because I seriously don't even have time to eat, much less over eat.

Happy Thursday!
-V

Calorie Count - Here I Come Again

I swear when I logged in I heard the people @ Calorie Count laughing at me.  Bastards.  Oh well, I am eating really well today (and yesterday too, but today I started logging) and even got out to walk Crozzie!  Happiness.  130, I will not be seeing you for long (at least that's the goal).
I just read your post V and OMG we are seeing each other for the next 2 months - my heart rate went through the roof I'm so happy!  YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
We even get to have wine together since neither of us is preggers - life does not suck.
OK, that's it for now - A OUT.
Be skinny for me webfriends, since apparently I cannot!
a

Just Sayin'...

Just realized that my zipper has been down all day... at work... doesn't get classier than that people!

-V

Ignore My Lisssssssssssssp

So day 1 of healthy eating went well. I was surprisingly not that hungry. I easily stayed under my calories for the day, and almost stayed under my carbs. I don't follow the carb thing too closely, my trainer had suggested I try and stay under 40 grams a day. But that's pretty hard to do, so I try to stay between 40 & 60 if I can.

Talked to husband last night and his first day at flight school went well. He was in a classroom for 8 hours (UGH!) and was a bit wary of having to do this for 24 more days. I think they get Sunday's off, so to be in a classroom, 6 days a week, 8 hours a day, sounds a bit depressing to me. I so could never be a pilot.

I've got my sister coming on Sunday with her daughter to spend the night. We are going to get a sitter to watch the kids for a bit and go see Hunger Games. I just finished the book last week. LOVED it! So I'm excited to see the movie.

And then A and her son come in on Thursday! Whooooo! I'm very excited to see her. Plus I just booked my ticket to Atlanta for June to come out for her housewarming/birthday party on June 9th. I haven't been to Atlanta for ages, so I'm very excited to go out there and see her new house. I can't remember the last time A and I got to see each other 2 months in a row.

I have 2 appointments today. One for my root canal and one for my elbow. I'm very happy for both actually. The pain in my tooth and elbow is constant and I'm looking forward for the pain to stop. I'm going to assume I'll be getting one of those lovely and painful cortizone shots in my elbow. But hey, whatever works. So I'm only working a half day today and then I'm off and running while the kids are in daycare. I'm sure when I pick them up I'll be lisping like crazy, due to my numb mouth.

Happy Tuesday all!
-V

1 Day Down... 25 More To Go

Well husband left for flight school yesterday. He will be back on May 24th. I'm not gonna lie, I'm sad right now. Not just the fact that that I'm alone with two children, but just not being able to see my husband for a month. Not being able to talk and joke with him. When pilots are in flight school, they have VERY long days and it's VERY stressful for them. And while of course I will get to talk to him on the phone, it's usually pretty short conversations. So that's the saddest part for me at least. It's hard to stay connected under the circumstances.

But I'm also happy that today is day 1 of my one month eating healthy challenge. If you didn't get a chance to read my earlier post, I am going to take all my energy and focus it on eating healthy and exercising while husband is gone. Except for the energy spent on my kids of course. So I'm ready for it. Knowing I was going to start this today, I sort of went balls out this past weekend. Pizza, pasta... you name it. I feel absolutely disgusting today. Which in a weird way is good, because I don't even have a desire to eat anything but healthy foods.

I had one of my 5K races yesterday morning. Now I have taken over a month off of running, due to the pinched nerve in my butt issue I was having. So on Friday I decided to go for a light run, just to see where I was at. I speed walked an entire mile before I even started jogging, just to make sure I was warmed up. But by the end of the first mile, I could totally feel the pinched nerve and it started to get painful. ARGH!!!!!!! I was VERY frustrated. I have a doctor's appointment for it at the end of May, so I guess I am just going to wait for that and see what's up. It's not like I was going to get in a lot of running anyway with husband gone.

So for the 5K, which I did with a good friend, we decided we were going to speed walk the thing. We jogged the first half mile and then started our speed walking. Now I've done speed walking to warm up for a jog before, but I've honestly never just speed walked for 3 miles. And I've got to say, it is HARD. Like, I was breathing heavy, sweating, the works. AND I'm sore today from it! Those speed walkers are really onto something. AND this is something I can actually do with all my crazy injuries. So I'm happy to have found a good alternative workout while I'm healing. Hopefully I can get a few in, while husband is gone.

My mother-in-law is coming to stay with me, not this weekend but next weekend (May 11-13). So I should be able to get some good workouts in while she's here. When she leaves on that Sunday, she is going to take S home with her. And then I won't see S until Thursday after work. Four whole days... I might have a heart attack. But it will be a nice break to just have one child for a few days. It will be interesting to see how J reacts to his sister being gone. As much as they fight, they are best buddies too. And they've never really been apart too much. They ususally go places together, so we'll see.

Ok, LOTS of work to get done. Happy and more importantly, HEALTHY Monday for me today!
-V

Day 3

Day # 3 and I am dressed and ready to work out, lets just hope that I can actually make it out the door today.  I have the best intentions each day, I swear I do its just that I cannot always find the willpower time to actually pull it together and go.  Today is a new day and I swear I'm going to do it!
I am feeling a lot better and I think that my mom gets to go home from the hospital today - fingers crossed!!  It's crazy, I don't think I've ever thought about my mothers bathroom habits this much in my life but I PRAYING and WILLING her to go #2 so she can go home - just gross really.  Oh well, the joys of parenthood and the hard part of watching your parents get older and sometimes get sick.  Tough stuff.
Anywhoo - busy and fun weekend ahead.  E has now announced he will be making a clam risotto and I should be ready for a super yummy meal (ok, so maybe HE didn't necessarily use those words but OMG it does sounds ever so super yummy).  E is a great cook when he wants to be so I'm really looking forward to this.  He also announced that he and B will be watching the hockey game - which means I will have good downtime.  I am going to try and not have a glass of wine this weekend, I have been stuck at 128 for like 6 days now and I need to break that number something fierce.  I know the best way for me to get back to the low 20's is to stop drinking for a bit, I have the eating down - that's not my problem its the damn weekend wine and my non-commitment to exercise.  Will try very hard this weekend to be good.  Send good positive thoughts my web friends and have a fabulousssssss weekend!
-a

My Life Through the Years...

So I got one of these cheesy email quiz's today from a friend, and since I've got nothing for you, I thought I'd post it here too:

YOUR LIVE THROUGH THE YEARS:

Elementary School:

•  What did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be a soap opera actress sooooo bad. I used to write the actor's letters and include my photo in case they "ever needed anyone."


•  Favorite toy? Had to be Barbi's. My sister and I would literally get up on a Saturday/Sunday mornings and play Barbi's, in our jammies, until my mom called us for lunch. Then we'd go right back to it until dinner time. I can only pray that my children will be this enthralled with a toy that they will be occupied all day and leave me alone.

•  Did you ever want to change your name? Yes I HATED my name as a child. Well, remember the comic Family Circus? Well the daughter's name was Dolly and boy did I want to change my name to that. In every play situation, my name HAD to be Dolly. Sure glad that you aren't able to legally change stuff like when you are young. I can't imagine walking into a job interview today and introducing myself as Dolly.

•  What silly thing did you fantasize about? Funny you should ask because I was OBSESSED with having a tail when I was little. My sister and I would scotch tape pairs of tights to our butts and pretend they were our tails... man we were strange little kids.

•  Did you ever run away? Yes, one day when I was about 10, my brother convinced me to 'run away' with him. We packed our bags and told my mom we were out of there. So we hung out in the woods behind our house for a while. But as it started to get dark I got scared and told my brother I was going back inside. He was pretty mad at me, but I left him anyway. I guess eventually he made his way back home. Now that I'm a parent, I feel really bad for telling my mom we were doing this. I think I would cry if my kids said this to me.


Junior High:

•  How old where you when you had your first "real" kiss? 13 and the guy totally french kissed me. I'd never heard of this before and freaked out and started laughing, mid kiss. Needless to say, this guy did not become my boyfriend.


•  Did you have to wear a uniform to school? Well since we moved from Connecticut to Arizona when I was in Junior High, I went to 2 schools during this time. Yes I wore a uniform in Connecticut since I went to a private school. But in Arizona, I went to a public school.


•  Were you popular? Well again, since I switched schools midway through, I have 2 answers. Yes in my first school. Soooo totally not in my 2nd school.





High School:

•  What group were you a part of in High School? I was probably considered an athlete. I did most sports, but basketball was my main one.

•  Were you ever mean to someone in school? Yes, and to this day I feel guilty about it. When I was a freshman in high school I met this girl named Becky. She was soooooo sweet and nice. Well my brother was a Senior at the time and he told me that I couldn't be friends with Becky if I wanted to be "cool" in high school. He said she would bring me down and I had to ditch her, so I did. I still remember the phone call she made to me asking if she had done anything wrong. GOD, I was such an a-hole! I'm SOOOOO sorry Becky!

•  Is there something you wish you would have done differently? Well I'm sure everyone thinks this, but I just wish I hadn't cared so much about what everyone thought. I spent so much time worrying and pretending to be "cool."


•  How many boyfriends did you have? Um I only had 2 that were technically 'boyfriend' status.

•  First jobs? McDonald's cashier when I was 14. Cashier in the food court at Smitty's at 15 (which I was fired from for giving a friend a discount on a Coke). Retails Sales at Ross when I was 16. Retail Sales for County Seat when I was 17. I think most of those stores, except for McDonald's, don't even exist anymore.

 College:

•  How old were you when you lost your virginity? 20

•  Were you in a Sorority? Yes I was and it was awesome. I know there are a lot of negative things said about fraternities and sororities. But I had nothing but wonderful experiences. And some of my best friends today are girls I met from my sorority (including A).

•  Did you go to the college of your choice? Actually no. I wanted to go to Western Michigan University, but my dad was convinced it was a "party" school. So instead I chose Eastern Michigan University, because my brother was going there.

•  Where did you live freshman year? I lived in the dorms in a room that was almost the size if my current bathroom. My roommate smoked pot all day and night and it was SO annoying.


Your 20's:


•  Farthest from home you've ever been? Ireland

• Where did you live after you graduated from college? Well a few friends and I (including A) all decided we were going to move to a town that was known for being the "it" town for 20-somethings. It had tons of bars and cool things to do. We rented a house smack downtown and I probably had the most fun I've ever had in my life during those years. I wouldn't change my 20's for anything in the world.

• Did you meet your future husband? Yes, I actually met husband at work. We had worked in the same place for about 3 years before we actually ever spoke. I had seen him in the gym a lot, but assumed like most of the men at that corporation, he was older and married. Then one night I saw him at the bar and we started talking and that was that. About 6 months after I met him, he quit his job at that company and decided he wanted to become a pilot instead.

•  Did you get married? Well technically I was 30 when I got married, but yes.

• Did you have children? Nope, didn't have J until I was 33.

• Did you buy your first home? Nope again. Didn't buy my first home until I was 30. Husband owned his house when we first met, but he sold that to pay for flight school.


Happy Friday all!
-V

The Joys of Motherhood When You Are Sick

Well I'm still feeling a bit like crap. Yesterday was hard, I had a fever all day, that included total body aches and massive chills and my throat was on fire.

But I prevailed. I had signed my kids up for 'art day' at Java Gym along with members from my Mom's group and I was determined to go. I'm glad I did, because the kids had a blast and it took my mind off of feeling so cruddy. They made bird feeders out of pine cones and peanut butter, which was really cute. J got his face painted (S wanted NOTHING to do with that) and then we played. S is still too little to go into the play area by herself, so I had to go crawling in there after her. It was quite the workout, especially feeling as bad as I did.

When we got home, after I fed the kids lunch and put them down for their naps I crawled into bed myself. I usually almost always workout when the kids are asleep, but that was just not happening. We all snuggled in my bed for a bit after they woke up. But that only lasted for one episode of Elmo and then they were off and running again. We hung their bird feeders outside and played for a bit.

Husband finally rolled in around 4:30pm and then I took off. I took a long hot shower, put my jammies on and crawled into bed. I tried to sleep but I swear every 4 minutes I would hear 'CRASH!... WAHHHHHH!... STOP!... NOOOOO!... BANG!' on and on an on. And I was laying there thinking, what in Lord's name is going on down there? Is husband even watching them? Then I started running all these worst-case scenarios in my head. My heart started racing and I could feel the adrenaline surging. So I tried to relax again. I closed my eyes. I breathed deeply. I was sooooo tired. Then another 'BAM... BOOM... WAHHHHH!'

This was around this time I gave up on getting any sleep and turned on the tv and watched a total of 30 seconds of Real Housewives of New Jersey before J came in and started jumping on my bed asking to watch Bubble Guppies.... ahhhh, the joys of motherhood when you are sick.

Anyway, I am feeling a tad better today. My throat is still nasty but the fever, aches and chills are gone, so I'm on the mend. At the recomendation of A, I took some Zyrtec for my puffy eye and that stuff rocks! My eye was back to normal again! I woke up this morning with it puffy again and took another pill and it's already gone down. So I guess that answers my question about whether it's allergy related. But I am happy to have some stuff to make it go away  now.

Only 4 days until husband leaves for flight school. The countdown begins...

-V

A New Day.

Amazing what 24 hours can do to your perspective.
I didn't end up going for a full blown walk yesterday but after dinner B, Crozzie and I took a nice stroll around the block.  E came home in a something awful mood after a stressful day at work so I gave him the space and much needed downtime that he also hasn't had in forever.  It was good.
I took the day yesterday and organized my office, did crazy back logged expense reports and got my lists and calendars in order.  That alone lifted so much stress off of me that I was able to fully concentrate on the tasks at hand.  I have been running so much and so fast these days that it's finally hit me that I am burned out.  We have a super busy weekend ahead of us but its good family things so I am OK with that.  Everything from B's first Karate lesson to the Touch-A-Truck even directly following with play dates and yoga on Sunday to top it off.  I'm looking forward to reconnecting - we need it.
Also, my arm feels better - not great - but I can tell its healing and the bruise on my rear is something fierce!  But better as well.
I talked with my mom yesterday and she sounds AWESOME - totally different that after the last surgery's and they are telling her she can go home on Friday!  Fingers crossed all continues to go well!
Today I am dressed and walking Croz for sure!
Later Webbies!
a

Positivity Please

I think I need to focus today on finding things that I am thankful for.  Lately I have been so bad with eating and working out and it's affecting everything around me.  Too often when slumps like this start its nothing but a downward spiral and the entire process just sucks the life out of me.  Top it off, last night we were watching my SIL's dog for a bit and I tripped over it going down the stairs.  I fell straight on my rear and snapped my arm back - how I didn't break it I'm not sure but man does it hurt today!  So I will start with these (and that first and foremost):

• I am thankful for not breaking my arm or doing more damage as I fell down the stairs last night
• I am thankful that I don't weigh 30lbs more and that I had the strength and courage to get the weight off and keep if off for this long
• I am thankful that my mom's surgery went well yesterday and she is on the road to recovery
• I am thankful to have a happy, healthy son and a loving husband
• I am thankful that while my job is super stressful right now, I have a job and a job that I typically really enjoy
• I am thankful that my son got my sense of humor, that little dude is hilarious
• I am thankful for my health

That's a good start.  It's hard to keep these things in check, working from home can be really great but also really hard sometimes.  I have to make efforts to get out more often, I think that will help.  I will try and walk Crozzie around the block today as a good start.
Be healthy and happy my web-friends!
a

Hey Baby I'm a Rock Star!

So I've been thinking about what I can concentrate on, while husband is gone at flight school for a month (besides my children of course). I don't want to become down and depressed. I don't want to take my loneliness out on food. And I don't want my exercise to go sh*t. SO, I had an idea last night. Why not take the entire month that husband is gone and concentrate solely on having a kick ass eating and working out month? Why not have husband walk back through our front door, one month later and be like WOW, my wife looks hot!

It's no secret that I've been a slacker on the eating lately. I haven't been logging my calories or carbs in over at www.myfitnesspal.com. And while I haven't been eating like total crap, I've certainly not been as good as I was a few months ago. And with all these crazy injuries (ie: elbow, pinched nerve in butt, root canal needed, etc.) I've been working out but not quite as much as I was.

So I think that for one month, I will be a rockstar with my eating and exercise. Obviously the exercise will be time permitting around being home alone with 2 children. But that's what's so great about Jillian's 30 Day Shred, its short but hard and fast.

So there you go folks. I can do this! I also think that by feeling good about myself it will help me to not get down while husband is gone. So, Monday, April 30 is 'Go Time' baby! And when husband gets back I will look like this:

Totally kidding!

-V

Puffy Eye

To top off my day of feeling like crap, I've got this crazy swollen eyelid thing happening to me lately. Today was the worst's it been though. I am not sure if I have allergies or what. I've never really had them before. I haven't used any new products on my face lately. But when I wake up my eyelids are puffy and itchy. I can't even put eye makeup on. I used to have this problem when I live in Arizona, but haven't had it since I was probably 13. I just took the picture below of my eye to text to A, but thought I would share. Anyone ever have this?

Your puffy eye friend,
-V

Felling a Bit Defective Today...

Woke up today not feeling so hot. My throat is swollen, I've got the aches all over... doesn't look good for me. And why wouldn't I get sick right before husband leaves for flight school? At least I'm at work today and can sit on my butt all day. Send healthy vibes my way, k?

-V

All Lit Up - Literally

Hello Web-Friends - A here, FINALLY!

5 weeks on the road and my life has been all kinds of bananas. I don't feel as though I've stopped for even one minute and I'm about to crash. Work has been absolutely crazy (in a good and bad way) and for the first time I'm not 100% loving it as I have in the past. I try to take situations like this and find the positives - which I usually can but sometimes (like now) it's super hard. Though I know the lesson will come, I'm anxious for it to get here - this is draining.

Where to start - well here is a good one. I am VERY "that time of the month" so I decided to grab my hubby's jeans which are typically hanging off my hips - not yesterday, skin tight. AWESOMENSS. I have been eating like a road hog. Things like, get ready for it, Bacon, Thyme and Truffle Oil Popcorn - this may sound absurd but it MAY have been the best thing I've had ever. We were at a dinner Saturday night with 3 other couples and the spread was unreal. That was just the tipping point, btw. I will not bore you with the details but wow - I sure need to slow it. Needless to say I am signing up for calorie count this morning (again) and getting back on track (again).  Sweet.

Another thing that didn't help my waist line would be the bottle of wine I drank Friday night. We had some vendors at the house late providing a demonstration of what our house can look like with the proper lighting and it was GLORIOUS. E went to bed as he was so tired and I sat up drinking until midnight watching them work. I was in-the-bag by the time they left and oh, less I forget to mention that I, in a stupor, woke E up - asked if I could write them a check - wrote one for $3,000 (yes $3k) and committed to spending $8k. Didn't remember know this until they sent the contract on Sunday. That provided some healthy conversation with E when we drove to a charity event that night. Needless to say we are now tweaking the design a bit...note to self, don't drink where money is involved.

Another day and I am off and running - pray I can keep myself in line for another 24 hours!!

-a

Tentacles are Yummy?

Had a really great weekend! My in-laws came back from Florida and parked their huge 5th Wheel in our driveway for the weekend. It was great to have them back, even if it was cold and rainy all weekend. The kids thought having a massive camper in our driveway was awesome.

We had quite the homecoming celebration on Friday night. Husband's sister and her family came over too, so we had a packed house with lots of wine and food and kids running around. My kids went to bed waaaaaaay too late and we paid for it dearly on Saturday with some very grumpy and over emotional children. But oh well.

Saturday we all went to dinner to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday. They ordered calamari as an appetizer and thought it would be funny to see if my kids would eat it. Especially the ones that had the tentacles still. Well joke's on them because my kids gobbled it down! S won't eat eggs, but hand her a fried piece of squid and she'll chow down... go figure. You can see by the photo, J was loving every one's laughter as he held it up to his mouth.

So all in all it was a crazy busy, but fun weekend. One last hurrah before husband leaves for flight school this upcoming weekend. He's going to be in Texas from April 29th - May 23rd. My mother-in-law is going to take S for a few days the 3rd week he's gone. Then the final week he's gone, she's going to take J for a few days. So if I can just get through the first 2 weeks, I'll have a bit of a break with only having one child.

On a sour note, I took S to the doctor on Friday to get her ears checked since she had an ear infection when we went in for her routine check up a few weeks ago. She's now got a double ear infection. UGH! My poor girl has had nothing but ear infections lately, I feel so bad for her. I didn't even know either... bad mommy! Anyway, they think she should get tubes since she's had so many in a row. I know its for the best, but the thought of her having to be put under anesthesia for the quick procedure makes me nervous. The ENT (Ears Nose & Throat Doc) is supposed to call me this week with our appointment date. Unfortunately this will probably all go down while husband is away at flight school. Awesome!

I literally did NO workouts this weekend. I'm a sloth. I also ate like it was going out of style, so I'm feeling a bit gross today. In-laws are headed home today, so it's back on track for the week!

Happy Monday!
-V

I Know I'm Getting Old When...

• I injure myself at the bounce house

• I can't make it out of the bedroom without waking up my husband because of my creaking ankles

• I look at the clock and it's 10pm and I think to myself  "WOW, I'm up late tonight!"

• I'm "hung over" for days after taking one pain killer

• When people call me 'Ma'am" at the grocery store now

• When my husband complains to me how loud I've got the tv on

• I look forward to a dull evening

• I'm on a first name basis with my pharmacist

• I hear my favorite song on the elevator at work

• I yell at drivers for driving too fast down my street

• I need to wear my glasses every day I'm at work now

• My doctor is now younger than me

Man is sucks getting old!  Happy Friday!

-V

My Ex Boyfriend's Doppelganger?

So as I mentioned yesterday, I went to the dentist for this AWFUL pain I've been having in my tooth. As I also mentioned, I am needing to get a root canal there. Since scheduling anything for myself is impossible hard due to husband's flight schedule and trying to find a babysitter, I am not able to do the root canal for several weeks. So in the meantime the dentist prescribed me some antibiotics and painkillers to get me through. Well I took one of the pain killers last night after the kids went to bed and holy crap, it knocked me on my butt! I wouldn't have taken it if husband hadn't been home, and thank God for that, because I can STILL feel it in my system this morning. Ugh, I hate that hang over type feeling you get from certain med's. So not quite sure what I'm going to do about the pain now. I do not want to feel like this every day until my root canal and am not comfortable taking one of these if husband is flying over night. But the pain is pretty intense, especially at night, so who knows.... ahhh, such a glamorous life I lead.

The dentist I went to yesterday was a new one. My insurance changed and my old dentist was no longer in my 'network' so I had to switch. This new dentist looked EXACTLY like my ex boyfriend. WEIRD! I dated this guy John for 4 years when I was in my early 20's. I almost married him actually, but thankfully I didn't. Not that he wasn't a nice guy, he just wasn't the one for me. But it was very strange having this man who looked just like John, all up in my mouth. I actually sent John a facebook message afterwards and told him I had met his doppelganger.

I started The Hunger Games the other day and I love it so far. I had to see what all the hype was about and I'm glad I did. If you've been reading my blog you already know my love of reading and watching anything about teenagers. Teen angst is my FAV! So this is right up my alley. I'm about halfway through already, hopefully I can finish it soon and get to see the movie before husband leaves for flight school on the 28th.

Ok, that's all I have for you today. I need to actually work today since I dicked around so much on Tuesday.

-V

Goods and Bads of My Day So Far

Good: Kids actually slept in this morning... on a day where I didn't work.. whoooo!

Bad: As soon as they woke up the fighting started... good times.

Good: Got a 'Bouce Card' to the Blast Factory (bounce house) from Groupon and we went to Tots Bounce today, it was SO fun. The kids loved it and man it's a workout!

Bad: Got reeeeeal sweaty from bouncing... ew.

Good: I felt like a good mom at the bounce house. Most of the other moms just sat there ignoring their children while they bounced. But I had so much fun bouncing with my kids.

Bad: I had to help many other little ones maneuver the obstacles since their parents were just sitting there ignoring them. Not that I minded, but come on moms! I get if your kids are older but when you have a 1 year old, help them out.

Good: Got a 30 Day Shred workout in. Hoping I won't be quite as sore from this one

Bad: Realized that it's only 2 weeks until husband leave for flight school for a whole month. :(

Good: I was dinking around on the internet yesterday at work (instead of working.. he he) and stumbled upon this website called Pilot Wives Club. Basically it's this site where there is all sort of blogs, groups, etc for pilot wives. It's HARD being the wife of a pilot and it's HARD being alone so much, especially with 2 children. So it was so nice to see a site where I can see what other people in similar situations go through. They had a list of some really cool blogs on there too. I'm really happy I found this little niche on the internet, and I think this will be a huge help to me, especially with husband pretty much gone for the entire month of May. The support of other women going through the exact same thing as me will be much needed and appreciated.

Bad: Spent waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time on the Pilot Wives blog, and didn't get a whole lot of work done yesterday. Employee of the Year, I am... they are lucky to have me!

Good: Husband has Thursday-Sunday off. Due to a special project at work, he hasn't had a full day off for several years weeks now. It will be nice to actually have a break to go get my hair highlighted and cut.

Bad: I have an appointment on Friday to get S's ears checked. If they still look bad, we are going to have to get tubes in her ears. I'm pretty sure I know what they are going to say (yes to the tubes) but we'll see. I know so many people whose children had tubes and it was fine, but I'd rather not have to do this if possible.

Good: Sister-in-law came over early this morning to watch the kids for me so I could go to the dentist for this awful tooth pain I've been having lately

Bad: Need a root canal... boo!

Good: It's going to be 67 degrees today... whoooooo!

Happy Wednesday!
-V

The Top Things Not To Say To A Pilot's Wife

 

Are you scared something will happen to him?

No – I actually hadn’t thought about until just now when you said that – so thanks for that!

He’ll be back in no time – Keep busy, he’ll be back before you know it!

Um.... keep busy, really? Cause taking care of 2 kids alone for multiple days on end, isn't busy enough?



Do you feel like a single mom?

This is probably the most common question I get. It's rude. I'm sorry, but single moms are AMAZING people. They do this alone, with no help from anyone. Am I alone alot? Yes. But I also have multiple, upon multiple days at home with my husband. It's an insult to me, and insult to my husband and most importantly an insult to single moms.

Come and visit us!

Thank you very much. But no thanks. Do you really want to help? If so then come and visit ME

Do you get to fly with your husband when he goes on a trip?

Surrrrrre, I can take off at a moment's notice any time a trip pops up. At 17 months and 3 years old, the kids are plenty old enough to stay home alone at this point. And my work? They don't need me to come in.

Do you have family nearby to help?
Yes, but I'm pretty sure I've got it covered, I am quite capable, thanks

I don’t know how you do it. I don’t think I could.

What exactly do you mean by that? Would you divorce the father of your children because he’s going away? I’m actually not quite sure how we do it either but I know one thing – you’re right - not everyone could.

All in good fun!
-V

Deeeeeeeetroit Basketball!

We took J to his first Detroit Piston's game last night. It was an interesting evening, to say the least. We got the tickets for free through my dad's work, so they were the corporate VIP seats... which means they were AWESOME seats. 5th row from the floor! Also, included in our seats was free access to the Caesars Club which has TONS of food and an open bar. Seriously, if you are going to go to a sporting event, this is the way to go. Talk about J being spoiled for his first basketball game. I think the tickets said they were $275 a piece!

Unfortunately, J was VERY afraid when we first sat down. The loud music and all the cheering, scared the heck out of the poor little guy. I had to take him back upstairs for a bit when the game actually started. Luckily the Caesars Club was right across the hall. So J and I sat belly up at the bar for a while, him with an apple juice and me with a glass of wine and played with straws and toothpicks and watched the game on the tv for a bit. I left husband and my nephew (who we also took for his birthday present) to watch the game in their seats.

After a while I convinced J to just hang out in the hallway for a while so we could get used to the noise, then we hung out in the tunnel. Then once we got used to that, we made it to the top of the stairs... FINALLY I convinced him to go sit in our seats for a bit. As long as I covered his ears for the "loud parts" as he called them, he was ok. Then miraculously towards the end of the 1st half of the game, he was fine. He was dancing and yelling and clapping, the noise not bothering him at all... go figure.

We also were on the Jumbo Tron screen and we got to be on TV. I had several people text me to tell me they saw a close-up of us on TV. One friend even took a photo of her tv screen with us on it and posted it to facebook!

Since the game went into over-time, we didn't end up getting back home until midnight. My alarm going off at 6am was ROUGH today. In typical J fashion, he was still up by 6:45am. I swear that child could go to bed at 2am and he would still wake up bright and early. On my way to work this morning, I get a call from daycare and they told me S had thrown-up.... sooooo I turn my car back around and went and got her and took her home. Well, she's been running around laughing and playing and just have a great ole time.... sure doesn't look sick to me. So, I'm home today. I left J at school since, well we are paying for it so might as well get our money's worth on one of our kids today.

At least I'll be able to workout when S goes down for a nap, so that's good. I did 30 Day Shred yesterday before the game and I'm soooo sore again. Man that is such a great workout!

Happy Monday all!
-V

Random Facts About V - Part 2

I did this a few months back and had a lot of fun with it (http://2bestfriendschubbyroadtoskinny.blogspot.com/2012/02/random-facts-about-me.html) 

So here's Random Fact's About V - Part 2:

• Husband and I originally chose the names Brooke and Sebastian for our baby names. Some how along the 9 months I was pregnant with each, they changed to what they are now.

• In between J and S I had a miscarriage. The baby, whom we named Joesph (I am convinced he was a boy) was 10 weeks old when I went in for a routine check up and there was no heartbeat. Since the baby hadn't 'passed' yet and because husband travels out of town for work, we had to schedule a D & C so I didn't pass him, home alone in the middle of the night. We wanted the remains of Joesph so I could get them blessed and buried. After I had the D & C they told me I could pick up the remains in about a week. When the hospital called me and told me they were ready to be picked up, I had to go to the hospital lab to get them. Once there, the lady handed me the remains of my child in a clear, plastic jar. I was so shocked by this, I numbly walked out of the lab, my hands wrapped around the jar trying to cover it as I walked to my car so no one could see... awful.

• As I mentioned in my original Random Facts About V blog post, I modeled in NYC as a child. I was also involved in some radio and television work. My first commercial was for the Strawberry Shortcake dolls. Remember those? The original dolls, not the fancy new updated ones they have now.  My first radio commercial for an orange juice called "Squeeze." I still remember my line "Hey mom, give me a Squeeze!"  Needless to say, that particular brand of orange juice is no longer around...

• Husband and I dated for 4 years before we got engaged. Two of those years were long distance. One year he was going to flight school in Florida, while I was still in Michigan. The other year we were living 3 hours apart in Michigan while he was a flight instructor.

• I'm 5 foot 9. As a child I was always the tallest kid in my class and I HATED it. They used to tease me and call me the "Jolly Green Giant." I was so self conscious that in every school photo ever taken of me in elementary school, I am squatting down so I appear shorter.

• When I was about 9 years old I became deathly afraid of fires and my house starting on fire. I would lie awake, night after night, just trying to see or smell smoke. I was so scared that I would sneak into either my parents or brother or sister's bedrooms and sleep on their floor. I was caught a few times and pretended I had slept walked in there. To this day, my entire family thinks I was a sleep walker when I was younger.

• Where I grew up in Connecticut, the married actors Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner lived about a mile from our home. One day when I was about 10, my mom convinced me to walk up to their front door and ring the doorbell and tell them I lost my cat and had seen it run through their yard. Gilda Radner was the one who answered their door and she was soooo sweet and nice to me. She took down all the information on my "lost cat." She also let me look around her backyard for it.

• My first job was at a McDonald's when I was 15-years-old living in Scottsdale, AZ. "You want fries with that?"

• I got fired from my 2nd job at Smitty's in Scottsdale, for giving a friend a Coke for a discounted price.

-V