Stevie Pic #5! And Updates Galore!
Posting to stay in the web site game today. Trying to get hits. It’s a total head thing. Posting because Stevie takes good pictures. Posting to use up all the ideas that are rattling around in my head and driving me crazy. While, in between, doing laundry. That damn laundry.
I have actually had 2 days off. This is my third. Third. (!) Why am I not all posted and getting tons of new followers? Why do I have a giant pile of crappy clothes and never worn shoes on my bedroom floor that are supposed to be purged? Why have I not seen my new little nephew in person?? Why is the laundry NOT done yet???
I have been doing things. Things like, helping my kids with this last week of real school. The boy’s last final is today. He is stressing big time too, trying to finish without any D’s. It’s been a tough and lazy year for this kid. His XBox is riding on this last grade. All he needs is a C. Seriously. And the girl has Algebra and her state Constitution to worry about. Math is killing her, but I told her to focus on the Constitution and forget the rest because at this point 8th grade is all about getting out and moving into high school. She needs to pass the Constitution, everything else, realistically, does not matter. No one EVER asks for your 8th grade transcripts. It’s all about the high school now. Fresh start. I may not be the best mom on the planet today, encouraging my kids to do mediocre, but at this point, on this Friday, with nothing left to lose or gain, passing is going to have to be good enough.
On a more “me” note, I exercised. Yes. I said, and typed, ex-er-cise. I did a workout AND ran a 5K. Yes. Ran. (Jogged. Shuffled. Walked a little. And maybe missed about 1/2 mile of the course…for a total of about a 3.9K) Two and a half miles at least. The course was kind of confusing and didn’t have clear markers at every point, but that’s not too bad. It wasn’t an official timed race, mostly fun. I finished in approx 40 minutes. Not a record breaker, but not last! And it was exercise. Outside, with other people as witness. My daughter helped organize a charity/community run for her school and I took the day off to participate. It was actually quite fun and I feel extremely proud and impressed by my daughter and her school and the whole event in general. There was about 60-70 runners and 100’s of spectators. That may not sound like a lot, but it is pretty damn good for Jr. High. My girl came up with the name and the theme and even designed the facebook page to promote it. Of course it helps that her aunt is a professional event planner and fixed all the details, but hey she’s only 14. Today the little village, tomorrow the big city! Check out the site here, if you like, just to get a feel for the kind of thing it was, and maybe next event you can come too! Here is my number bib as proof:
And holy poo-poo, my legs are killing me! The tops of my thighs seem to have taken the brunt of the exercise fall-out, and they are not allowing me to walk properly, or sit and stand with any kind of grace or fluid motion. I have to push myself up and lower myself down using my arms as brace so I just don’t fall over. So stupid.
The other thing I have been trying, “trying” being the key word in this sentence, is a new exercise craze you may have heard of called: Hip Hop Abs. More like Hip Hop Flabs for me (Sorry, that’s my one joke I keep repeating. It’s not the most original, but it usually gets a laugh.) and Hip Hop Jiggly Butt. (On another rambling side note, I have to say that when I was running, the most distracting thing was my jiggly butt. I could feel it moving. Yuk. So gross. I need to use this burst of exercise rejuvenation and keep doing it. It’s bad when you can feel all the flab actually moving. Yuk again.) My friend at work is like the new spokesperson for Hip Hop Abs or something, and texts me everyday harassing me about this shit. So I finally did it. I have discovered that I may be too old for the hippity hop, or any form of exercise that requires me to dance like a young person in a club and jerk my body all over, and into weird contortions that I probably couldn’t have done even when I was younger. My hips and shoulders don’t necessarily hip and hop in those directions. I just don’t have the rhythm or moves and ability to dance and exercise at the same time, and I never really did. Butt. I am going to try and continue anyway. If you are following along on the body pain tally, this particular tape set hurts my shoulders and arms. My abs are actually fine with this. They have probably just given up and are like, whatever lady, the layer of fat you kindly blanketed across our middle will protect us. Nice try though! Stupid abs. One day I will have a sort-of six pack and a non-30-year-old-ass. That last sentence is all for you Amanda. One day Vegas will see us again and we will ROCK that pool. We will cut through the water like sharks in the ocean. Although I will have to upgrade to a non-40-year-old-ass. Eeek. Time is a ticking.
I will continue now, to update my exercise status, again. I just re-read that, and I didn’t mean right now, but in the days and weeks to come. I even have a plan. I mean, I always have a plan. I just need to carry through. I even have a goal. Fer reals. Wanna see? I might as well just post it now, since this is already long anyway.
It’s a pair of jeans. That’s pretty much it. My entire weight loss/get healthy plan around a pair of Hollister Laguna Skinny 9L’s. I can almost squeeze my ass into them. Literally. They go right on up, and over my legs and thighs, but then stop dead at the ass portion of my body. I can almost tuck it in but then my front poochy area tries to make a stand and it’s just all-around ugly. There is no way I could zip them up and I feel bad for anyone near if I did. The pants would suffer, my flesh would suffer, anyone who has eyes and was looking at me would suffer. The jeans seem to be made of very high quality, strong denim and fasteners, but I don’t know, wearing these right now would require a lot of tensile strength that might be asking too much of a simple pair of pants. But that’s the ultimate goal.
The goal was also to have these on by my daughter’s graduation party in, oh, 22 days. I had a slim-down plan, like I did a few years back. The category heading is still over to the right there. 34 Day Summer Slim Down. Obviously I was going to modify that to account for my new timeline, but guess what? 34 days came and went and now I have 22. I aimed for that date so I could impress my whole family, current, new, and old, with my skinniness, because that’s healthy, right? Like my daughter’s teacher just said to me at the race when we were talking about it, “Oh well as long as you are doing it for the right reasons.” HaHaHa. We laughed. No one loses weight to impress themselves. Anyhoo. I am also trying to grow out my bangs. Which is taking way longer than I want. But I was using her party as goal for that too. I figured if I could keep them longer, and survive the bad stage where they poke at my eyes, without cutting them, at least until then, I could probably make it the rest of the way to the long stage again. So far so good on that goal! I use headbands at work. I feel weird about my open face but half my patients can’t see me clearly anyway so who cares. As I always say, I look much better blurry.
Well I should wrap this up. Hours have been spent here. I swapped a few loads of laundry, but I need to fold all that crap and put it away and try to clean up this house a bit. I defiantly told the BF that I would have all the laundry done by the time he got home. I am so stupid sometimes when I am trying to be all smart. I think I hit all the major updates. No, wait…
Thursday was my daughter’s Spring Band Concert. Done. Today is the 8th grade dance. Exciting! We had Mother’s Day. I had to work. There was the annual Crawfish Boil my sister and her hubby have every year. Fun! Here’s a pic:
I have GOBS of bird pictures and wildlife in the backyard. The bird feeders are back. The fat squirrels are eating everything and making me mad. The hummingbirds are back too. I saw them. I have street money that I am still collecting. My niece graduated high school!! Congrats Jesse!! I have new things involving trucks with crazy stuff on them. And tires. Lots of tires. I don’t even know why. I probably have more random things that I can’t even think about because now I am trying to hurry and finish so I can do a fast clean sweep and get back to the computer. My son just texted. Geometry final is over. He’s one class away now from sophomore year. I need one last picture though to end this mish mash. And there are always more pictures. In my phone and on my desktop. Hmmm. How about superheroes? My kids are a daily reminder that you are never to old to build a blanket fort in your room to keep out the bad guys:
Or too old to goof around in Target. Hurry up mom, and take the picture!! Come on now…
I. Am. IronMan.
You won’t like me when I’m angry.
Saving the world one word at a time. “Mommmmmmm.”
“Come on already.” Later.
De-tox complete from the other night and on to today. Maybe.
Sister is having a combo party. She is kind of famous for them. This time is a triple dip although I am only bringing one food item.
Her son, turning 6…happy birthday!
My other sister’s son, turning 4…happy birthday!
And a Crawfish Boil….happy…whatever. That’s not like an official party thing. I think. I think it might have gotten thrown together kind of last minute. Not really sure because I don’t really eat the buggers. I am not a fan of eating things that require getting them out of small bony bodies. Crustacean shells. Exoskeleton. However you want to describe it. I’m not eating it.
That’s really beside the point because we are under tornado watch again, even though the weather was supposed to be clear now. The black stretch of severe thunder and lightning and tornados is scaring the bejeesus out of me. Especially since we are supposed to be driving more into it and it’s heading for where my children already are. They already had a terrible day and night of rain yesterday and it only looks like it’s going to get worse. I don’t think 3 hours of cloudy weather in between horrendous storms makes for a fun weekend. I say chuck it all and come home and be warm and dry while watching the storms from the living room couch. That may have to be my plan. Half an hour and then we’ll see.
If your weather is better…have a great weekend, but if you are in the crap belt like I am, be careful, watch the weather, take shelter as needed. And that’s not just me saying it. That’s the advice in the advisory. Watch the sky, stay away from windows, take shelter. See you on the other side.
Crazy Electric Blue Crawfish and his good friend the Blue Gourami
Now that the big fish tank has been downsized (minus two of the large decoration “buildings”—update on that later) to accommodate the growing Oscars, there are less places for the crawfish to hide. He likes the plants (still have 2) and the back of things. But the only thing to go behind is a tall, pillar piece that isn’t really hide-able.
And the Gourami likes to “sit” on stuff. Not sit, but kind of hover over and skim a surface to where it looks like it’s resting on it.
So these to crazy marine animals got together and I guess they are cool with hanging out on top of each other. The Blue Gourami is sitting ON the Blue Crawfish. It was funny to see because the crawfish wasn’t trying to snap at him. And it looks like the fish has claws. I took the pics with my camera phone and they didn’t move at all.
This is from the end looking longways into the tank. The camera phone took a good picture. Sometimes I get really lucky. I don’t know how amusing you’ll find it, but here it is:
Right in the middle of the plants. Fish on top, crawfish underneath.
After I saw how good the camera took the picture of the tank, I thought I’d try to get a long view of the whole tank. You can see the pillars in the back and an Oscar on the top, right. And there’s a shark near the bottom, swimming away. The light on top is from the tank, and it adds a nice underwater, peaceful glow I think. Makes you feel like a fish. That may be a stretch. But stare at it long enough and you’ll go into a trance!
Too “Mutch” (clap-clap) Time On My Hands….Tuesday
This is for my little boy today. We were finishing up homework early this morning, before school; two paragraphs on two words that are spelled the same but mean something different, and trying to work out a playlist for today.
Misspelled words? Time? Too much of something? of anything? Produce (fruits/vegs)? Produce (to make something)? Like my silly site that doesn’t offer any useful information?
“Hard boiled eggs? Really? That’s so stupid mom” That is a direct quote. Please check the previous post and enjoy the next helpful “Tip To Live”. Use it for your child’s next school lunch! My children. Always my inspiration for everything that I do!
Sunday PM: Kids came home and it’s a swirl of dirty laundry, leftover food and non-stop talking. A quick tour of the house to see if anything is new and a hug for the fishtank that my son loves more than his mom, and it’s time for bed. Spring Break is over. Back to school on Monday.
I forgot to mention the fish. (Or did I?) We have one large tank (125 gal.) Two smaller tanks (36 and 20) A brand new 3 gallon for the boy, a 1.5 gallon (?) and 2 fish bowls that the girl watches over. The smaller tanks have Betta’s–fighting fish. The 20 is goldfish that my son has collected over the last few years. The 36 is breeder fish. Messy and poopy but they do multiply! The big tank is cycling thru it’s second round of fish. The first set were killed in an unholy attack of Ich that wiped them all out before Christmas last year. Terrible.
Oscars, Sharks, Gourami’s, Silver Dollars, and an Electric Blue Crawfish. These are the new residents replacing pretty much the same thing…so far so good. Mason’s new tank is undecided. Set up is today and fish later on. I’ll keep all the waiting fans updated as it happens!
Monday: It was take-your-mom-to-the-doctor day over here. I took mine and the BF took his! Then we met up for dinner with the kids and some fishtank shopping! (Hence the brand new 3 for the boy and rocks for the girl) Stevie loves her tank too. She is moving her Betta out of its current home and into a smaller apartment and then putting in something yet-to-be-picked-out-until-later in the bigger tank. It’s like a cheap version of The Aquarium around here.
Tuesday: Me alone for the day. Catching up. It’s garbage day plus Recycling so I like to get as much in the can as I can so I can put more in for the next time. Every two weeks. (Three “cans” in a row–that’s funny). I have been cleaning my bedroom as I have been for the last 6 months. It is almost done. Boxes, shelves, papers, books, mags, all sorts of stuff off the surfaces and filed away. Last up: the actual dresser DRAWERS (yikes), kids artwork, report cards, school papers, etc., and…dum dum dum…PICTURES. The bane of almost everyone’s life if they have been taking them for 30 years and putting them in a box instead of an album. Like I have. Or haven’t been. I have taken countless pictures–thousands– I have been sorting thru these last few days…and why? Why have I never albumized earlier? Lazy? Housework? Yeah right. I am near the end though. Alot of memories. Alot of junk. Why do we save blurry pictures?
Here’s a tip: Take those out right away. You’ll never want them. You might not even know what they are. Save time and space upfront.
I was up until 2 am finishing the last visible box (I have more in drawers—you see how this goes?) I have them separated by garbage, mine and my ex-husband. The kids collected a few too, and my next goal is to put everything into albums over the summer. Eventually it all goes to them anyway…might as well give them some nice organized books they can pitch out all at once…save them ALOT of time!
It is funny though about those pictures. I had a life before right now…I mean, we all have a life, but the pictures of when I was in school, jobs, family, ex, kids, boyfriends, house, vacations, dogs, events, cars, birds…whatever. “Of-the-past.” What do you save? What do you give away? What do you want posted on the evening news after you become super famous and get caught in a scandal? (I’m keeping those pictures, separate and labeled, so that won’t be a problem.) All my “new” stuff is downloaded on the computer and I carry it around with me everywhere on my Ipod. I guess that’s how you can tell these days. Past from present. Digitally scanned. (I like the way that sounds.)
The good part is that I get to see how I looked–So Bad!!—some of those clothes and glasses!?! Ugh! WTF was I thinking?
And the good part is that I also get to see HOW I looked—really. Not that bad. The mirror of the past—it’s true. I hated how I looked pregnant. Hated it. But I am so grateful now for the pictures. Because 10 years later, it’s still terrible, and now I have PROOF.
Anyway, it’s all just illusion, smoke and mirrors, and this is getting way too long. It’s like a game after all these years. Trying to fit the pictures into the order of a particular life and doing it so that other people can understand. The pictures just capture the moment, but not the time. So it’s been fun and gruesome and funny and horrible and…fun. Like Monopoly or Risk is fun. Playing with your cheating family…heh, heh, heh…
So the music is about games. (And having way too much time.) Mason actually came up with it while he was half-listening to me ramble on the way I do. “Like a game, mom, ‘Poker-face, Jeopardy…’ get it??” Oh yeah I got it. And here it is, for you:
The “Game Play“ List. Play it now!
Extreme Fat Smashed–Day 7–End of Week 1!
Can you totally see how these words look like they were typed by a lighter person? The words are magically floating from my delicate fingers to the keyboard to the screen. Amazing!
OK It is actually, technically, Day 8, since it is 1:30 in the morning on the 25th. But if it’s still dark it’s still the same day right? Right. But I better make this quick anyway. I want to say we were perfect all week, followed it to the letter, but you know that just can’t happen when you have to go out and do stuff. We stayed as true as we could but the proof is in the pudding…mmmm…pudding….I can still have another snack if I want!–back to the pudding…the proof is the weight. THAT won’t happen until the sun comes up. The official, “how many pounds in one week?” weighing. I’ll let you know.
As for the exercise part, the boyfriend was perfect–did it all–even the doubles (yay him!!). I must admit, that I missed one. Today was a double, but I did a single. Ran around outside in a giant 3.6 mile circle over at the forest preserve…65 and partly sunny…it wasn’t graceful–oh no–It felt like my legs wouldn’t go straight or in any kind of rhythmic manner. And I am quite sure it looked ridiculous too, me clomping around out there like I was trying to get some mud off my 50 lb. shoes…silly! But a run is a run. I broke a sweat and made it around in about 45 mins with minimal walking and pretending-to-fix-my-laces breaks.
After that mess was over I went home and prepared for my next athletic challenge. Which counts. I think. We, self and 2 children, went to the Target–the SuperTarget–to purchase some items–grocery items– for the upcoming weekend. AND, my son had to do a comparitive study on prices from the 30’s and prices today. Oh yeah–it took 2 hours. I used my legs, my arms, and my brain (calculations on some tuff math). I like to grab the things I need without much thought, but when school is involved…a 10 bar pack of soap cost 5 cents in 1933. How much today? But you go to the isle of soap and guess what? 2 bar packs, 3 bar packs, 4 bar packs, 8 bar packs, 12 bar packs–NO 10 BAR PACKS!!! Then you gotta do the math. And what brands are we talking here? It’s not like there are any that have depression era labeling—we went for the middle. Over and over again. 1 lb. of coffee costs this…can’t find one pound any more…got 11 oz., 13 oz., 24.6 oz., all around the magic 16. From $4 to $12. Again, do the math. We may have been off, but I said it’s not like the teacher is going to come to the Target and check all our calculations! “But what if she did mom?” They should learn now, not EVERYTHING can be EXACTLY right all the time. Not enough information given. Do your best and move on. Please move on…
But what is going on this week and weekend?…well we need more healthy foods like fruit and vegetables…they don’t last and they cost too much. It’s really just cheaper to be fat and unhealthy…anymoo…then on Saturday we are going to a CrawFish Boil and I’m bringing a dip. Taco Dip. Mine is the best. Many imitate, none duplicate. Its my “thing”. So of course everywhere I go it has to go too….not EFS to be sure, but those crawfish are just little seafoods boiled in water. Not bad really. What’s going to get me is the gi-normous cheeseburger I will be eating because there is no way in hell I am eating that. We have a beautiful blue one in our fishtank. Creepy to look at. Creepier to chew. Pets! Not Pots!
But it doesn’t matter anyway, because after all that “exercise” I forgot to buy the damn burgers. I also forgot to get beer, water, and soda for the party WE are having Sunday. It’s the boyfriends birthday and we have the family and friends over. More dips and chips and CAKE!!. So basically, I have to make a whole other trip in the morn to get what I should have got in the first place. I’m just going to Jewel though. Close and fast. Have to get home and exercise!
So that’s the whole story. This is where I would usually sum up with a perfectly placed playlist, wrapping the sordid tale into a neat package and putting a name on it. But I’m expanding now, so I’ll give you the idea, and you have to look at the next post. Keeps it easier in the whole; filter out the junk just to see the music; You’ll thank me later when you don’t have to look at all this just to get to this:
Was going to do a “You made it! Congrats! ” list. Or a “Dropped things, feeling lighter” you know, that type. BUT then, my children gave me the inspiration I needed to really bring something good to the party tale…non-stop arguing over who gets to sit in the front seat. Back and forth. It’s my turn. No mine. You went last. No you did. I get two turns then next time. No, one. Two. One. Two. One. Two. One. AAARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!
I told them at the store when I let them out of the trunk that they were directly responsible for today’s list. The knock-down-drag-out-can’t-we-all-just-get-along “FIGHT” List. Enjoy! (Remember–its the next post–or if you are reading this at a normal time, and in the order they get placed–it was the post before this because this is first…and that was newest…well whatever—I’ll work on that—post the list first, THEN the preview–ha-smarter every second! At any rate you probably already know what the list is, but now you have the story behind it and it will be that much better.)
fyi–the kids weren’t really in the trunk–that was creative license—don’t call the authorities—thank you.
just shy of pretty 