Fill in the Blank Friday

1. The best surprise ever would be a surprise romantic vacation. Hint Hint Chris!!

2.  When my youngest (Klara) was born, my mother-in-law was holding her, when my oldest (Virginia) demanded, “Give me back my baby! ”This is my most favorite memory .

3. The hardest, but most worthwhile thing I’ve ever done was becoming a mother. I am sure every mother would agree.  The hard part doesn’t end with childbirth…in fact, I don’t think it ever ends.  Every day is a challenge, but every day is so worth it.

4. The best part of my day is  any part where I have no responsibilities – usually this means when I lay down in bed at night, but not always.

5. Something I like that most people don’t is ketchup on rice.  It started when I was a kid, and I still love it.  I even have my kids eating it.

6. Something I am willing to fight for is my husband and children.  They are my world. Of course there are always limits.  I won’t fight my children’s battles for them, .  They have to learn how to deal with life. 

7. Something you might not know about me is  probably something I don’t want you to know…after all, I am an open book in most areas of my life. 

Fascinating!

I just had to share this useless piece of information.  I use WordPress to write my blog, and it keeps statistics for me on the reading trends pertaining to my blog.  In the last three months alone, my blog has been read by at least one person in 50 different countries (included the United States)!!  I’ve listed the countries below.  Yes, something this trivial excites me.  What can I say?   

Fill in the Blank Friday

I got to enjoy a fabulous field trip to the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, TN, with my youngest yesterday, so this is a day late.  Sorry!

1.  Something that is very near and dear to my heart is, my lungs.  LOL  Sorry, it’s too early to come up with something so deep. 

2. It is the weekend, and that is good cause to celebrate .

3.  The most fun I ever had was hmmm, this is a tough one. I have been blessed with so many wonderful moments in my life, that there is no way I could simply pick one. 

4. True friends are one of God’s greatest gifts.  They make life a joy to live and they keep us young at heart.  They also give us so many things to list in #3 that it’s hard to list them!

5. Something that makes me terribly happy is  my dog – who can resist unconditional love like that?!

6. A good way to spend a sunny day is anywhere outdoors!

7. My favorite celebratory food is  filet mignon.  Yep, I’m a carnivore!

It’s Mother’s Day – Apologize to Mom!

I did it.  The ultimate evil.  A parenting atrocity.  I used the mother’s curse.  You know which one I’m talking about – “I hope you have kids that act just like you!”  Yep, that one.  It’s the curse that keeps on giving.  Except, I never received that curse from my mom.  So why I was I living it as a mother?  My parents (well my dad) had put the fear of God into me.  I wouldn’t dare talk to them like my children talk to me.  And when my mom simply stated she was disappointed in me – well – IT WORKED!  My kids just roll their eyes to say “Like I really care.”  So in the midst of one of my daughter’s recent emotional outbreaks, I threw it out there.  The words were said.  There was no taking it back.  But it got me thinking.  I was living as a victim of the curse, even though my mother never cursed me with it.  Where was this coming from?

Then it occurred to me…my husband.  I wasn’t living a curse passed down from my mother for my actions.  NO!  I was being punished for my husband’s actions as a child!!  I immediately went into the living room, where he sat watching TV, and told him that he had better call his mom and apologize.  He looked at me as if I were crazy.  How could he not know what I was referring to?  So I had to explain it to him:   There is an old world curse that can only be passed from mother to child by the uttering of those magical words….”I…HOPE….YOU….HAVE….CHILDREN….JUST….LIKE….YOU!”  Even if my mom did put the curse on me, I swear I was a relatively easy child (at least I THINK I was!).  So a curse on me wouldn’t have been such a bad thing.  My girls are not being easy like I was.  I must be receiving retribution from whatever behavior my husband exhibited as a child.  As I explained this to my husband he just chuckled and went back to watching TV; ignoring the rantings of this crazy woman standing in the room interrupting his show.  I was serious!  I told him I was serious.  He needed to call his mom and apologize to her for whatever it was he did as a child, and he had better apologize profusely, because I was paying for it!

I’m still waiting for him to make that phone call.  He says he is going to call her on Mother’s Day.  He better.  She deserves it!  Oh and to my Mom – I love you very much.  If I am blind to anything I put you through, I’M SORRY!!!!!!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Changing the Family Diet – Week 3

Want another reason to change your diet?  A poor diet promotes IMS – Irritable Male Syndrome - that is the male version of PMS.  That’s right men…that lame, cop-out called PMS that you like to use when things aren’t going well between you and “your woman” isn’t always a legitimate argument.  I’ve watched many a friend fall victim to a mate or partner looking to pick an argument and then blame it on the woman having PMS.  Hello?!  You did not just start something and then transfer the blame, did you?!  Think about it.  In the mean time, I will continue -  it has been proven that there is a male version of PMS, and get this…it can strike ANYTIME with no cycle!  Britt Warner has already done all the research for me, and has graciously provided all the resources necessary to prove it’s existence in  a fantastically written blog here.  As Britt explains, the primary causes to IMS include medication, excessive alcohol consumption, illness, lack of sleep, stress, and DIET!!!   So now the men in the household have a reason to change to a healthier diet as well!

So onward to week three of my attempt to change my family’s diet.  Even though I may experience an occassional setback here and there (mostly at dinner), things are going relatively well.  My pre-teen’s moods have been fairly pleasant.  Even her sister said that she was being unusually nice.  Could it be the diet?  Possibly.  Could it be the multi-vitamin she now takes?  Possibly.  Could it be the melatonin that is actually helping her fall asleep at a relatively decent hour each night?  Could be that too.  Most likely it is a combination of all of the above.  Either way, things have settled down somewhat in our home.  They are far from perfect, but way better for the moment!

This week I continued with pre-making the week’s worth of lunches for the girls to take to school.  I’m getting quite good at that task.  But for breakfast I chose to switch from breakfast burritos to breakfast sandwiches.  I purchased both biscuits and English muffins (yes, a little processing going on here), the healthiest turkey sausage patties I could find (hormone free and all that jazz), eggs and cheese.  Well, my girls have resulted to eating just the biscuits.  My eldest has declared she doesn’t like sausage.  What about the breakfast burritos she has eaten for the past week-and-a-half with just about every meal?  Plenty of sausage there!  When I told her that, she was shocked.  I guess the mixture of eggs, sausage, cheese and salsa masked the fact that she was eating sausage.  Either way, breakfast sandwiches were a bomb and are now out.  I may go back to breakfast burritos for next week.  I still have plenty of tortilla wraps.

Dinner started off well this week, as The Chef was home and cooked the first couple days of the week.  But then he was back to working late and life took hold, so we finished the evenings with some packaged stuff that I still have in the freezer.  Oh well, can’t win them all, but we will keep trying!

 

200!

Wow – I’ve reached my 200th blog post! Who would have thought it could happen?

I feel as if I should do something spectacular to celebrate. I thought of ideas such as 200 things I hate, 200 things I have failed at, or 200 other miscellaneous things to blog about. Even though you may have gotten some laughs at my expense, I can’t really say I’d be able to come up with 200 of anything.  So I will just say thank you.  Thank you for listening to my rantings and ravings, and just sharing my life with me.  Blogging is the best therapy, and you should know from reading my blog, I definitely need lots of therapy!

Keep Reading!!!

Changing the Family Diet – Week 2

I really need to start watching The Doctors more often.  I have a co-worker who just came back from leave and had plenty of time to watch the show, and now thanks to him, I have yet one more reason to try to eliminate foods with preservatives from our family’s diet - Did you know how they make raspberry flavoring?  I didn’t know until today.  Read this:  http://www.rodale.com/gross-food?page=7.  You may never want to eat anything flavored with raspberry again.

So week two of changing our family diet is going well. I spent last Sunday preparing the kids lunches for the week just as I did last week. Right after that, I went into making breakfast burritos and freezing them so they would have breakfast for the week.  I just recommend if you make them that if you aren’t a skilled burrito maker (which I am NOT), you may want to use the large tortillas instead of the small ones.

Additionally, I purchased a lot of fresh fruit to snack on.  I made a fruit salad with Kiwis, strawberries and pineapple that served as a snack and supplement to breakfast for a few days, and I still had some extra fruit left over for snacks.  Grapes make a wonderful snack when you have them cleaned and ready to eat.  For me, it has been so nice to bring of baggie of grapes to work to snack on each day.  The real key is having it all cleaned and prepped up front at the beginning of the week so you can just grab it and eat it whenever you feel like having a snack.

Dinner has been easy, because it turns out the breakfast burritos I made were a hit with the kids for dinner as well!  Even before I have a chance to make dinner, they are in the freezer grabbing burritos.  So why cook?!  Therefore, I’m sorry to say there isn’t much to say about the process this week, it has been a great week with not having to cook much!     This Sunday I will venture into making breakfast sandwiches to freeze for the week.

Remember – a lot of work on the weekend = very little work during the week.  A busy mom’s life saver!  I know I still have a long way to go to completely change our diet, but every little bit helps!

Fill in the Blank Friday

1. My bedtime routine includes, tucking the kids in bed, picking up the living room and/or kitchen, last minute checks for whatever has to be done for the next day, etc.etc.etc.  No pampering here.  Rarely is bedtime about me.  Oh the life of a mom.

2. I am celebrating my wonderful husband’s birthday today!  Happy Birthday Love!

3. I can’t stand  that my husband has to work on his birthday, because  NO ONE should work on their birthday!!!

4. My idea of relaxation would be a vacation (somewhere else) with just the hubby, where we can lie around and just do nothing.

5. If I had an extra $50, I would  take my hubby out for his birthday (I will anyway!).

6. The best thing about a bloggy friend is  they can be so entertaining!

7. A recipe I’ve been dying to try is one made by someone else.

 

The B* is Back

The Red Queen is back…well technically she didn’t go anywhere, but things have been quiet in Wonderland for some time now.  Actually, I think it has been almost two years since I have written about my battles with her.  After our last issue, she moved on to torment other neighbors, and I haven’t had to deal with her.  But I guess her wrath has come full circle around the neighborhood and back to my Wonderland.

With all the long hours my husband has been working, and with no days off, there just isn’t any time for him to cut the grass.  I could jump in and help, but I have been running around just as crazily with the kids, and now after the mini marathon, well, I just can’t move.  So when my dear hubby asked me to call someone to cut the grass, I couldn’t say no.  I got on Craig’s List and found someone local.  He drove by the house and quoted me a price.  He even offered to start right away and have it done before I got home.  Perfect!

I came home to a nicely manicured lawn.  Then I got a phone call.  It seems that the Red Queen proceeded to tear this poor man a new (bleep) after some of the grass clippings from my yard went into her yard.  NOT onto her driveway, just into her yard.  Apparently she was yelling at him so loudly, that a friend of mine a few doors down heard the commotion from inside his garage and came out to see what was going on.  The Red Queen offered him a pardon instead of offing his head, but only after he blew all the grass clippings back into my yard.  *Eyes rolling here.*  Give me a big freakin’ break!  The clippings are “so awful” that I didn’t even notice them in my own yard!  I haven’t even paid the poor fella yet. I wonder if he will come back.

It seems the wrath of the Red Queen will never cease.  Oh – yeah, her home never did sell and she eventually took if off the market.  I think she needed a better realtor (HA – she’s the realtor!).  Now I have to plan and plot to find a way to get her to want to put it back on the market once again. Until then, I am back in the Mad Tea Party and watching my back (or neck).

I’ve Been Bitten

I’ve been bitten by the bug…the running bug.  I know it’s CRAZY!  I hate running.  If you ask me, my life better be in danger before you would catch me running.  But I may have to eat those words now.  You see, I let my best friend Tina talk me into doing the Country Music Mini Marathon with her.  I agreed, under the premise that we would walk it.  But even with walking it, we had to complete it within 60 minutes in order win a medal.  So we set our pace a few days ago with a run tracker Tina has, and we knew that today we would have to walk that pace at a minimum.  Every time Tina said she would get me running, I rolled my eyes.  Ha!  No one can get ME running!

Then we went to the Health and Fitness Expo that was held the two days prior to the marathon.  The atmosphere was charged. I could feel the excitement while walking through the expo.  I could see the camaraderie among everyone there, and there was a feeling of excitement to it all.  I thought to myself, there could be something to this marathon thing – and I can still walk them and get a medal.  I may do some more after this!

Then today, the big day, came.  After being up half the night at a rock concert, it was difficult to pull myself out of bed at 4 am.  I slept in until 4:30 am, then slowly rolled out of bed.  I got ready and left the house at 5 am.  I had to get downtown to pickup Tina before the roads around her apartment were closed at 6:00 am.  Smooth traffic at 5:00 am….almost.  When I got closer to downtown, there it sat…..traffic that resembled rush hour!  WTF!  I couldn’t sit in marathon traffic!  I had to get to Tina before the road closures.  Our plan was for me to pick her up and drive to the start line, which happens to be near my parking lot for work.  Then since she lives near the finish line, we would hop in her car afterwards and she would drive me back to mine.  Perfect!  Except now I faced a traffic jam.  Well, one benefit of being a local and not from out of town, I know some back ways in.    I was set.  I picked up Tina.  We picked up Starbucks (yes I failed at quitting that), and headed to the start line.

We had 45 minutes to kill before the start of our segment of the race.  We wasted most of that looking for the gear check station.  Then we waited at the start line.  The time moved slowly.  I was ready to GO!  Tina asked me if I wanted to run instead of walk.  I laughed inside my head and gave her that look that said she should know me better than that!  Because some people behind us may be running, I told her that we would see what pace everyone around us started at so we wouldn’t get run over.  6:45 hit.  We were off.  Some walkers, some runners.  We started with a light jog.  When we got to the first traffic light I declared that was enough and we started walking.  Strangely, my feet hurt more walking than running – well more specifically, my toes hurt.  Apparently, the comfortable shoes I wore to last night’s concert weren’t so comfortable after all.  Now my toes were in pain, more so when I walked.  I suggested to Tina that we go by traffic lights – run to one, walk to one, run to the next one, etc.  So we started that.  The first run stretch was so easy.  So then we decided instead of lights, we would walk up hills and run down hills.  Even better; and it was keeping us way ahead of our necessary pace!  On the first run down hill, Adele’s Rolling in the Deep started playing in my headphones.  An awesome song for the run.  We ran down hill.  The song wasn’t over.  I wanted to finish the song. I was determined to finish the song.  So we ran up hill as well.  We hit the half way point, the water station, and the 1/2 marathoners were starting to approach behind us.  We had to change course.  We ran down hill again.  Then turned and had a much steeper hill.  Definitely a walker – but it was a somewhat short distance.  Turn – run again.  Brief walk, but then we were so close to the end…had to run.  It was exhilarating!  I ran more than half of this mini marathon!  Running through the finish line was AWESOME to say the least.  I accomplished something I would NEVER have dreamed of doing in my life!  No one was threatening me.  There wasn’t some mass murderer with a chainsaw behind me.  No hungry wild animals.  Just simply an awesome friend providing me unlimited support whether I chose to walk or run, and a crowd cheering us on.  It gave me the energy and momentum I didn’t know I had.  We ran through the finish line – my time 38:37.  OMG!!  The pace we had planned should have taken us the entire hour.  We beat it!  I RAN!!!!  Not only that, but what was supposed to be only 2.6 miles was actually a 5k run.

As if running through the finish line wasn’t exhilarating enough, there it was, my medal!  I was handed this beautiful honor and then walked through to more little gifts.  Food everywhere, water, Gatorade, yummy delicious snacks.  Breakfast!  We had our photos taken. We ate.  Then we had to walk almost the same distance we ran to get back around to Tina’s car. Picked up another Starbucks and headed for my car.  With every stop we made, starting back up to walk was getting harder.  By the time we reached my car my legs were on fire.  Even more so when I put pain relieving gel on them.  OMG the pain!  I got home and slept several hours.

I’m still in pain, I still feel dehydrated,  I even feel a little sick, but I want to do it again.  Did I just say that?!  YES!  I want to do it again!  The plans are already brewing between Tina and I.  Time to update my bucket list.  I can’t wait.  This is a day I will never forget.