Tuesday, April 24, 2012

I bet you think this blog is about you.


I couldn't tell you the last time I de-friended someone that I actually know on facebook.  I've tried "cleaning house" on my friends list to delete people that I have absolutely no clue who they are, but I typically get through the first page then I'm bored and just hope that they someday do the same thing and they can delete me.  

I am a facebook over-share-er.  I know this, and really I don't care.  If someone doesn't like it, they can de-friend me or remove me from their news feed if they still want to creep on my page.  Whatever, I'm not updating my status for them anyway.  I update my status for family and friends.  I share when I'm going to spend the day cleaning up Elliot's puke because I want those who care about me to know that I'm going to have a long day and I may not answer their phone calls/texts right away.  I also know that many of them will understand what I'm going through, or at least empathize and say a little prayer to help me through my day  

Today a girl that I have known for at least 10 years posted a status that read something along the lines of, "When I get out of bed I'm de-friending people who only talk about their kids on facebook..."  I put it in quotes just so it's easy to understand who said what, but I am strongly paraphrasing here.  This girl has also posted many times that she doesn't want children.  I totally support her in that decision.  If you don't want kids, don't have them.  Just because you get married doesn't mean that you should have children.  I actually congratulated her on being able to admit this and defended her decision to other people that I know who though she was being rude and dramatic.  Every other week or so she'll post some anti-child, "I thank God I don't have kids" rant, and whatever, that's her choice.  She'll post pictures of women postpartum that have stretch marks (women who took the pictures because they are proud of their stretch marks and what they mean, and want to be encouraging to other women) and talk about how disgusting they are and how she's glad she'll never look like that.  Again, whatever, she can say what she wants, and yeah, stretch marks are disgusting.  Would I trade my children for smooth skin?  Absolutely not.

Like most of her anti-kids rants, she got a few likes, some supportive comments, and lots of comments from people pissed about what she said.  Or in her words "easily offended."  She then ended the comments saying that she was only talking about 2 or so people who post 30 pictures a day of their kids and always talk about them pooping or puking.  At this point I realized (especially given that her morning status was about 30 minutes after I posted mine about Elliot being sick) that she is probably talking about me.  Okay, Kyle travels 4-5 days of the week, and all of our family and friends live at least 2.5 hours away (with the exception of about 10 people).  I post a ton of pictures so they can all see our kids, and I share everything about my day because 1) If they call, they already know what's going on, and 2) I'm a stay at home mom, and my kids are my job.  The most exciting part of my day is when Elliot says a new word or Caroline giggles.  As of an hour ago we were still facebook friends, and I'm assuming that she was out of bed by then, so maybe she wasn't talking about me after all.

Then I realized it didn't matter if she was talking about me or not.  I don't want to see her status updates (whether they are meant to be negative, or "just her opinion") or comments anymore.  It's not worth it.  We're not even friends.  At best we may be acquaintances.  And really, it's probably better for us both that we're no longer facebook friends because I'm going to keep posting about my kids, and she's going to keep posting how she is annoyed by it.  I'll call this a win-win-win situation. 


....and yes, the song reference could go for either her or me... which makes it a double awesome choice as the 'song of the day' :)

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Fun Weekend

Song of the day:  Taylor Swift ft. The Civil Wars - Safe & Sound

Friday I did a 60 minute pilates video that I had.  This one is much better than the new one I bought.  When Kyle got home we ordered chinese.  Bad idea.  I ate way too much.  My plan was to save some for lunch on Saturday, but it was just so good!  I had Kung Po chicken, so the vegetables and chicken are actually healthy, and the sauce isn't heavy so that's good... but the pint of rice probably wasn't a good idea.  

Saturday I went on another 5 mile run.  This time I ran more and walked less and was able to shave 6 minutes off my time!  My first mile was done at an 11 minute pace!  Not the best I've ever ran, but it's definitely getting better - and there's even a hill in my first mile :)  My parents came down for the afternoon so they could watch the kids and we could get some more work done without Elliot's "help."  We had Subway for lunch, and went with 6" subs instead of foot longs.  We got a ton of work done - and hopefully will be able to finish unpacking today.  For dinner we order Pizza from Famous Yeti's Pizza.  It's easily the best pizza I've every had.  So amazing!  I didn't track my calories for the day though, but I don't think I was out of control like I was Friday.

This morning started off with a healthy breakfast of whole wheat toast, blue cheese (from Laughing Cow), spinach, over easy egg, topped with sweat peppers and tomato, a side of bacon, and coffee.  This is what I had yesterday morning as well, and is pretty close to what I have every morning, but is so so good!  Kyle commented on how my presentation of the food had gotten better from yesterday's first try, so I thought a picture was due. 


Today we're returning some stuff to Target and Home Depot, taking some stuff to Goodwill, and doing some shopping.  I would also like to go tanning today, and grocery shopping for the week is also on the "to-do" list.  I'm hoping to be able to get in another run today, but I may miss my workout today :/  Hopefully not... I'm just glad that I moved my weigh-in day from Monday to Thursday!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Week 1 Weigh In

Song of the Day:  Wiz Khalifa - When I'm Gone

Starting Weight: 230.4
Week 1: 224.2

Total: 6.2 lbs

Woo-Hoo!!  I have to say that I am surprised!  I thought I would only lose maybe .5 lbs between Monday and today.  If you haven't noticed I am also tracking my weight loss on the right hand side of the screen.  I know it's not good to lose almost 3 lbs in 4 days, but I really think that my Monday weigh-in was thrown off by a little dehydration.  So yay!  I'm excited and more motivated to eat healthy and get my workout in today!

Last night Kyle and I had spaghetti.  Normally I would load up my plate with tons of noodles, pour enough sauce to drown them, and add about 4 slices of garlic bread - to start.  See, I LOVE garlic bread.  I buy a loaf of french bread, slice it, butter both sides, and put garlic powder and garlic salt on the up side, then brown in the oven for 10-15 minutes.  AMAZING.  And absolutely terrible for you.  Well, not absolutely terrible, but the terrible part is that Kyle and I will eat the whole loaf.  That meal probably packs enough calories for at least 2 days.  So, partially to help my self-control, and partially me not thinking about picking up bread at the grocery store, we skipped the garlic bread.  I had 1 cup of noodles and 1/2 cup of sauce... afterwards I realized that a serving of cooked noodles is actually 1.5 cups, but I was actually full.  I even had enough calories to have a glass of red wine with dinner :)  Not too bad for being on a "diet."

Elliot is now able to open the fridge.  The handle of the fridge at our apartment was too high for him to reach and have leverage to open the door.  The fridge in the house has a handle that stretches the length of the door.  Thankfully he goes for really healthy stuff - and there's not really anything unhealthy in our fridge, just stuff he should eat, like jalapenos.  This morning Kyle was finishing getting ready and I was brushing my teeth, Elliot was sick of waiting for us, and headed down the stairs.  He was downstairs maybe a minute before us and when we got there he had the strawberries out and was eating them (including the green part -ewwww).  Now that he can open the fridge he wants to pick out his own food.  Hello independence!  Yesterday for lunch he wanted string cheese and apple slices.  This morning for breakfast it's strawberries, cold penne noodles, and half a bagel.  Whatever I guess.  As long as he's eating, and it's healthy choices, I'm okay with it.     

I can hear Caroline's heavy deep sleep breathing on the baby monitor and it's making me so sleepy... time for coffee!!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

I'm just resting my eyes...

Song of the Day: Justin Bieber - Boyfriend

After yesterdays fiasco I didn't work out.  Really, it had nothing to do with being locked in the basement, but I'm going to use it as an excuse anyway.  Honestly, I'm just exhausted.  By the time Elliot goes down for a nap I have an hour or so to eat lunch, work out, and shower before Caroline is up.  I didn't feel like doing any of those things... except eat lunch.  That means I haven't worked out since last Thursday... yikes.  So yeah, I worked out today.  I did a cardio dance 35 minute DVD.  I then attempted a pilates DVD.  Turns out I have zero ab muscles and the instructor was terrible, and calling her an instructor is a term used loosely.  So after about 12 minutes I just turned it off.  I'm hoping to go for a run tonight when Kyle gets home, but that will depend on the weather and how I'm feeling.

Lately I've been exhausted and the lack of sleep has been catching up with me.  Last night I fell asleep on the couch around 8ish.  I was trying to motivate myself to work out before Kyle got home, and fell asleep in the process.  I woke up at 8:30 because Kyle was calling to say he was on his way home.  After we hung up, I fell back to sleep and may have woken up a little when Kyle came in, but the next thing I remember is it's 11:30 and he's telling me to come up to bed.  Then out of nowhere it's 6:00am and Elliot is jumping on me and hitting my head.  Awesome.  I think I really need to get more sleep, but I don't want to go to bed earlier, especially if Kyle is home.  We only have so much time together so going to bed early just seems lame.  Even if he's not home, after the kids go to bed is my only time that I get to myself, and I rather spend it watching reruns of The Big Bang Theory or The Office while surfing Facebook and Twitter instead of sleeping.  Yes, my priorities are probably a little off... 

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

trapped in the basement

Song of the Day: R. Kelly - Trapped In The Closet Chapter 1 - feel free to waste your day watching all 500 (exaggeration) chapters...

Our dining room table and chairs was scheduled for sometime between 9:30 and 11:30.  Thankfully they showed up at 9:30....

...our basement door has a real lock on it.  Like, you need a key to get upstairs if it's locked.  Well I took clothes down to the laundry, walked back up and realized that I was locked in the basement.  Quick mental assessment of the children, Elliot is watching Veggie Tales and Caroline is in the pack 'n play fed and changed.  Okay, check for my phone.  Not in my pocket, it's on the couch.  Crap.  Look through the few tools that are down there to see if I can pick the lock with anything... see, I watch a lot of cop shows and stuff like White Collar that have me convinced that I can break into/out of anything... of course, there's nothing except a few crowbars.  I check out all the windows, one looks promising without the promise of lots of spider webs.  Thankfully we also have ladders in the basement.  As I'm looking out the front window I see the Slumberland furniture truck.  Yay!!  Then it drives away.  No!!  I'm hoping that they just looked at the front door to see the note that says to to the back door, and are now driving around the block.  I go up the stairs to the basement doorway and look out the door that leads outside - that does not open.  (and yes, I did try to call Elliot to open the basement door, with no luck).

The truck pulls up and the guys get out and I start knocking on the door.  The guy looks at me hesitantly then walks over.  I explain that I'm locked in the basement and ask him to go see if the back door is unlocked.  I was hoping that I left it unlocked when I took the trash out this morning - apparently I didn't.  So I head to the window at the front of the house and the furniture guys head there too.  I unlock the inside window, they unlock the outside window and I pry it open with the crow bar and use the ladder to help crawl out.  Yay! I'm out of the basement!!  But I'm still locked out of the house.  

I know that the dinning room windows don't have screens and that one comes open without the crank... but they're all locked so that doesn't help.  We tried getting Elliot's attention and then told him to go open the door.  He laughed and smiled and waved at us waving at him... thanks for the help kid!  There's a window that goes from our 3 season porch to the play room... one of the only windows with a fully intact screen... which is now a casualty of war.  I tried to pop the screen out, but it didn't work, so I punctured it with the crowbar and ripped it out.  I was then able to push up the inner window and climb inside.  Thankfully I had not locked that window!

Then they loaded in our new table and chairs.  It all took about 30 minutes, and the moving guys  complimented me on how well I was handling the whole situation... I think I have all the cop shows I watch to thank for showing that staying cool under pressure is much more productive.

And good news is that the kids had no idea :)  ...and now to finish the laundry... step 1: unlock basement door.

Monday, April 16, 2012

monday monday

Song of the Day:  Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe


If you're looking for a Monday weigh in, you'll find it, but not regularly.  This morning I weighed in at 227.0 lbs.  Down 3.4 lbs from last week!  I decided that I'm going to do my official weigh in on Thursdays.  This weekend I wouldn't say that I fell off the wagon, but I definitely was holding on for my life to keep from falling off.  


The problem with the weekends isn't really eating, it's working out.  I only see Kyle on the weekends due to his work travel schedule, and I don't want to spend those few hours that we do actually get together as a family, or without the kids, working out.  Now, I know the option of working out as a family is there.  If it was nice we could have gone for a walk, or to the park, but it rained all weekend, so that wasn't an option.  Instead we stayed inside all weekend, continuing to unpack.  You'd think we'd be done by now... I also forget to drink as much water as I normally do during the week, and this morning I can feel the water retention in my hands.  So, I'm sharing my weight today, but it won't be official until Thursday.  But I'm really excited to see the weight starting to go!


Our dinning room table and chairs get delivered tomorrow morning!  I can't wait!  I'm so sick of eating on the couch, and allowing Elliot to eat in the living room!  We got a couch cover because the fabric was looking so gross.  Elliot has stained it with juice, jelly, fruit, and just overall drool.  I've tried cleaning it, and some of the stains come up, but not enough.  We're still trying to decide what new furniture we want, and what will fit in the room (which is kind of hard to do since we still have some boxes in there), so we haven't ordered anything yet, but when we do - all leather.  


I have 6 week postpartum doctor appointment this afternoon (a week late), and I'm hoping to get my workout in before then.  I am all dressed in workout clothes, but Elliot turns off my tape every time I start it, even though the TV is otherwise off.  Apparently he doesn't want me to work out, lol.  So, I'm just hanging out in my workout clothes.  I'm looking forward to the day where it doesn't look ironic that I'm wearing yoga pants...

Friday, April 13, 2012

5 miles... sure, why not?


I love this song.  It's on the Disney advertisement before the Cars 2 movie.  It just makes me feel good and smile :)

Yesterday I didn't get around to doing the 30 Day Shred.  Caroline was having an "I want Mommy all day" day, which is perfectly fine with me (except when I really have to pee...).  So when Kyle got home at 7:40 I gave him a kiss and was out the door for a run.  I ran/walked 5 miles in 70 minutes, a 14 min/mile average.  Not bad for my first time out.  My first mile was about 12 min/mile, and they got longer and longer as I started walking more and running less.  Why start with 5 miles you may ask?  Well one of my goals is to walk/run 5 miles a week, and it's supposed to rain for the next 4 days and I don't want to not reach my goal on the first week.  I'm actually feeling pretty good today.  Just a little sore in my right hip, but I think after moving around for awhile that will go away.

The diet part of losing weight really hasn't been hard this time around.  It's just tedious to weigh everything and really make food, and that hasn't really even been that tedious or time consuming.  I actually find myself needing to eat a snack after dinner to make sure I get enough calories for the day.  Last night my choice was 1/2 cup of in the shell pistachios.  I like when they're in the shell because then you have to work for them, and they take longer to eat, so you don't eat as many (in theory).  I measured out 1/2 cup so I wasn't going to eat more anyway.  What I hate about pistachios in the shell is the possibility of biting a piece of missed shell.  This happened to me last night.  A tiny piece of the shell stuck and it felt like I had just bitten a rock.  Thankfully I didn't chip a tooth or anything, but ugh, pain.  

Since Kyle's home tonight my plan (again) is to make salmon.  This time I actually got it out of the freezer, so the chances are greater that I'll make it tonight, lol.  Maybe we'll even get out the grill!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Day 4

Song of the Day: Phantom Planet - California

Thanks to Facebook's timeline I looked at some super old (like 7 years ago) pictures of myself.  At that time I thought I was so fat and wanted to lose weight.  Now I'd give my left hand to look like that again!  Someday.  My song of the day is a nod back to 2003/2004 and those pictures.

I didn't get around to making salmon for dinner, but I actually came in under the low end of my calorie range.  I got done eating dinner and was so tired that I didn't even want the snack (of even potentially candy) that I could have.  I was sleeping by 9:00 and it felt great!  Caroline slept through the night, so I'm glad she's back on schedule.  Elliot was up at 6:00 and Caroline at 6:30.  Everyone is back on track!  Kyle gets home tonight and I can't wait!  Even though he's gone for 90% of the kid's day, it's just nice to know that he's there at the end of the day.  

I finished day 3 of JM 30 Day Shred.  There's parts of the level 1 routine that are becoming easy, but there's other parts that are tough for me to finish.  I don't think I'm ready for level 2, but I do feel like I want to do more cardio.  What's nice about the dvd is that it's only 27 minutes long, and sometimes that's all the time I'm guaranteed.  Most of our other dvd's are an hour long, so I might have to look for another 30 minute cardio dvd to add to the 30 Day Shred if time allows. 

Both kids are now on antibiotics and Elliot started coughing when he got up from his nap yesterday.  I called the doctor again and asked if they wanted to test him to confirm the case, but since we were made aware of it so quickly, and he already started medication, there's a good chance the test would produce a false negative.  Which means he may or may not have it, but he's getting treated anyway, and we are quarantined for the next five days.  Now, if the five days start from the first time he took medicine that means until 4:00 on Monday.  If it means that Wednesday (when he started meds) counts as Day 1, that means through Sunday he can't go anywhere.  With the first option Kyle now has to take part of Monday off because I have a doctor appointment, thankfully he's not out of town.  But either way, we're missing Veggie Tales Live on Sunday.  We bought tickets for Elliot's birthday (coming up in May).  Thankfully he's too young to know that he was going, or now that he's missing it, but I'm still angry.  I was pissed about this whole thing, and now I'm angry.  And even though it's the last day of quarantine, I'm not going to do what the Typhoid Mary family did and infect hundreds of people by being negligent about how my child's health affects other people. 

Okay, I promise that I'm done with my angry rant about the kids being sick.  What's done is done, and now, I just have to let it go.


Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Egg-cellent

Song of the Day: Jessie J - Domino

Yesterday instead of working out while the kids took their naps I slept and watched Criminal Minds reruns.  I was exhausted since Caroline decided that getting up at 2 am was going to happen again!  We had this issue with Elliot too after we would be gone for a weekend.  They just get off schedule, so hopefully she'll be back to sleeping through the night after a few days.

Last night Caroline woke up at 1:30am, and after I was done feeding her I just put her to bed in our bed.  The heat in her room is really weird and we need to get a space heater.  Since it's like 25 degrees over night her room is super cold, which is why I just let her sleep in our bed.  Well at about 4:15 ish she started fussing around so I tried to give her a nook.  Bad idea.  See, Caroline isn't super into her nook, sometimes she wants it, but 90% of the time she wants nothing to do with it.  Well, last night she wanted nothing to do with it, and ended up gagging, then throwing up all over the place.  Thankfully I had put a burp cloth underneath her, so nothing got on the bed.  I had to clean her up and feed her again, which puts it at about 5:15 by the time I'm done.  I decided to go downstairs since she was still fussing because I didn't want Elliot to wake up.  Well, that didn't matter.  At 5:30 I hear Elliot upstairs.  By 6:00 he was fully awake and at his door.  So much for getting any sleep.  

Instead of napping with their nap today, I decided to get my workout in so I can go to bed earlier tonight.  So day 3 of JM 30 Day Shred is done!  I'm feeling energized right now, and I'm hoping that lasts for at least a few more hours!  When the kids get up we're going to go for a walk to Walgreens to pick up some antibiotics.  Turns out that a family brought their sick child to church, and put her in the preschool center, and their other children could also be infected, and they were put in the nursery and children's church.  What is this sickness that is so communicable that the children should have been kept at home.  Whooping Cough.  Wait, isn't there a vaccine for that?  Yep.  So, because these parents decided not to vaccinate their kids, I now have to give my 6 week old antibiotics because she came in contact with one of the children, and again, it's highly contagious and can be fatal, especially to infants.  If parents decide to not vaccinate their children, fine, that's their right (I don't agree with their decision, but it's their choice), but at least keep your kids at home!  Seriously, even if it wasn't whooping cough, why is your sick child out and about?!  Shouldn't you keep them at home so they can get healthy?  And so they won't spread the sickness?!  I am not saying that you shouldn't bring sick people to church, that would probably be sacrilegious on some level, but if you're bringing them there because they're sick and you want prayer for them, keep them with you not around other kids. 

*If anyone wants to respond with their own views for or against vaccines, that's fine, but I'm not going to respond either way.  I have done my own research, and I believe what I do about vaccines, and I'm not going to change my mind, as I'm sure you're not going to either, so lets agree to disagree (if we disagree)* 

Anyway, that's my quick rant.  Thankfully we were made aware of the situation and it can be remedied quickly.  

For food, I've been really into egg salad sandwiches made with a sweet pepper.  We have a dozen hard boilded eggs from this weekend and I already had a dozen regular eggs in my fridge.  So I've been eating a lot of eggs.  I always have eggs for breakfast, so I've been doubling up on them for lunch as well.  I watched an 'egg-cellent' (see what I did there?) video on eggs from Joy Bauer, the nutrition consultant on the Today show.  I'll admit it, I eat the yokes on every egg I eat.  I'm thinking of making salmon tonight for dinner.  I've tried giving it to Elliot before, but he was definitely not into it.  Maybe tonight.  Maybe.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

so out of shape...


I know that was also my song of the day yesterday, but this is the Glee version.  Either way, I'm addicted to both, but this one has Darren Criss and Matt Bomer, so it my fav!  I CANNOT wait for tonight's episode of Glee!!

Yesterday went really well!  It gave me hope for the first day!  I ate really well, and was even low on my calories so I got to eat some Easter candy :)  I did the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred for my workout, and wow, I'm out of shape.  I mean, I knew that I was, but yikes.  I also got all of my measurements and saw how many inches I've gained in a year.  Granted I was pregnant, and am still losing the pregnancy weight, and no matter what my boobs were going to get bigger with pregnancy, but it was really eye opening to see everything else too.  I'm just glad I didn't gain as much this time around!  Looking at the numbers of adding another 20 lbs would have just been even more depressing and defeating.  

Along with the Jillian Michaels workout I also did one of the fitness tests on SparkPeople.com.  I did 25 sit-ups (crunches) in a minute, and 15 (modified) push-ups in a minute.  Not bad, but definitely not even good, lol, but it's a start!  For the ab work in the video I had to modify it quite a bit.  I'm cleared to start exercising after 6 weeks, but ab stuff can take 6-8 weeks, and I read somewhere that your internal incisions can take 9-18 months to fully heal.  So since it was a little painful to do lower ab work, I decided to skip it and just focus on the upper ab stuff.  

I wish that it was nicer out.  It looks so deceiving outside.  The sun is shinning, but it's so cold!  I would like the days of 80 degrees to come back!  Of course this is more appropriate spring weather, but still!  I really want to take the kids on a walk, and if it was just Elliot I would, but Caroline is still to little for me to be comfortable taking her out in 40 degree weather.  

I really want to do the La Crosse Fitness Festival the first weekend in May, but if I can't get out to at least walk, I don't know if I'll be ready for it.  We did get a treadmill from my in-laws, but of course I can't lift it into the house, and Kyle's gone.  So getting it inside is on the list of things to do this weekend!  Along with so many other things :)         

Monday, April 9, 2012

It's Finally The Day!


Well, the move went great!  It's so nice to be in our own home!  We still have a lot that we want to do, and we still have quite a few boxes to unpack, but it's nice that this is our house :)  It took Elliot a little while to adjust, and the first week was kind of rough.  He's also adjusting to having to share mommy time.  Again, it's gotten much better than our first week in the house!  I was so stressed out after that first week that Kyle booked a massage for me on Saturday :)  It definitely helped!  Caroline also started sleeping through the night a week ago, and that has helped tremendously since Kyle is gone during the week.  

We had a really nice Easter weekend and it's always so great seeing family :)  Thankfully the ride home was less eventful than the ride to my parents.  Caroline woke up around the Dells and needed to eat.  So our normally 2.25 hour drive took 3 hours, but the good news is that we're now much better at packing!  With Elliot we WAY over-packed - and even though we probably (definitely) did over-pack this time, it wasn't to the extremes that it was before.  Since both kids have had kind of screwed up sleep schedules this weekend Elliot slept until 7 and Caroline until 7:30.  It was awesome!  Of course, they both woke up at 4:45am on Sunday, so that's probably why then slept in (by 30 minutes) today.  Either way, I'll take the extra 30 minutes of sleep!

I know it's clique to start a diet/workout/lose weight routine the Monday after a holiday weekend, but it just so happens that today marks 6 weeks postpartum and I can finally start working out again!  I know that I could have started dieting a while ago, but whatever, lol.  I plan on doing exactly what I did last year.  Drink lots of water, eat less calories, and work out for at least 30 minutes a day.  Boom.  

What's at least a good sign is my post pregnancy starting weight is less than it was last year when I started after Elliot!  I'm hoping to blog more than once a week, but with 2 under 2, we'll see.  I make no guarantees :)

Starting Weight: 230.4 lbs

Lets do this!