We’re Going To….

DISNEYLAND!!!!! That’s right, we’ve decided to let the big secret out. We were trying to surprise K, but we just couldn’t keep it up for another month. On Saturday, both Mr and I almost spilled the beans, on accident. So Sunday, while doing breakfast, we decided to tell her. She was so excited, she started screaming and jumping up and down. It was adorable! We went online and showed her pictures of where we’d be staying, and both parks. 23 days and counting!!

This morning, I woke up and right away knew I didn’t want to workout. Shoot, I didn’t even want to get out of bed to get L ready for school. However, I knew I had completely slacked off this weekend in that department, so I got L dropped off at the bus, got changed, and headed to the workout room. All the residents here get a key that opens the pool gates, laundry rooms, and workout room. The handle is what the key opens, though the doors are equipped with deadbolts, too. For the first time in the year we’ve been here, the door was actually locked, dead bolt turned and everything. I kind of stood there for a minute, letting it try to sink it. All that forcing myself to go to the workout room, and it was locked. I don’t know why. The office isn’t open for about an hour, so I can’t even ask them yet (though I will).

I’ll get some workouts in at home, but it’s just not the same. I don’t have a treadmill or anything at home, not even a pair of dumbbells, so I’m limited in what I can do. Luckily, I’ve got YouTube, an internet accessible TV, and a website that helps with home workouts, so I will be able to do something.

One other thing. On this day, in 1986, at 11:38 am, we lost the Space Shuttle Challenger.  Commander Francis R. Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Mission Specialists Judith A. Resnik, Ellison S. Onizuka, Ronald E. McNair and Payload Specialists Gregory B. Jarvis and Sharon Christa McAuliffe were lost in the explosion. Let’s take a moment to remember them today.

This and That

Good morning! Only 25 days until our vacation! Yay! Obviously I’m excited.  We know where we’re going, we’ve got our plan for the weekend, and all we’re doing is counting down the days. The week before we leave is going to drag, I just know it. I also know, the day we leave and the day before that are probably going to fly by, in the sense that I’ll have so much to do and feel like there’s not enough time to do it. I’ve already started my lists of what needs to be packed, and what needs to be done before the trip. Is that crazy? Maybe just a little, lol, but oh well.

Today was quite a fun day. For some reason, I was awake at about 5 am. I tried to get back to sleep, but I couldn’t because I was hungry. I’m one of those people who just can’t go to sleep if I’m really hungry. I wasn’t starving or anything, but also didn’t want to get up and eat, because then I’d be awake. It’s always a tough decision, lol. Anyway, a little after 5, I heard the kids door open, but then didn’t hear them. No tv, no playing…nothing. I figured maybe one of them had opened the door in a semi-sleep state (happens quite often in this house). I got out of bed a little bit later and decided to play a game on my computer, which happens to be right next to the couch. I come into the living room, and my couch is full of kids. There was a kid at each end of the couch, laying with their toes toward each other, sharing one blanket, fast asleep. It was so adorable! If I hadn’t been afraid of waking them, I would have taken a picture.

This morning we actually had plans outside of the house, which was unfortunate, kind of, for the simple fact that it was raining…quite a bit. We’re talking, we walked outside and the sidewalk in front of our door was flooded. It was one of those days where you just want to curl up on the couch with a mug of something hot and watch movies all day. If the plans had been just any other plans, I would have cancelled them and immediately turned on Netflix. However, today was a special day.

For the past 2 months, we’ve been trying to find a place for the kids to take gymnastics classes. The reason it’s taken so long is because we wanted a gym that wasn’t too far for us or K’s dad to drive, had a class for each child at the same time on the same day, and had coaches with previous experience working with special needs children. We narrowed it down to 2 gyms. Well, actually, I had one I really liked and wanted, my Grandma had another. Since she’s the one paying for lessons, she obviously got a say. Today the kids had a trial gymnastics class at my Grandma’s gym preference. They loved it and really had a blast. K can’t wait for her class next week, and L actually followed directions and tried pretty hard. The downside is, because of his slight motor delays (and probably some of his speech delays, too), L has been bumped down to the class for the kids a year younger than him. That normally wouldn’t be an issue, except the class that’s held the same time as K’s class is booked solid. So right now, we’ve got one class Wednesday nights and one class on Saturday mornings. Hopefully we’ll be able to get L into the Saturday class soon. The other possibility is, he makes progress in the younger class and is able to move to the age-appropriate class, which does have a spot open in our desired class.

What about the gym I really wanted? Glad you asked. It basically came down to this, that gym is more expensive, and Grandma didn’t want to pay the extra money. Hey, it’s her money. I’m not really going to argue with her about it.

Alright folks, I’ve got to head out and finish cooking dinner. See you all later!

Vacation Madness

So the Mr, the kids, and myself have never really taken a family vacation. Oh, we’ve driven the 2 1/2 miles down south to visit Mr. brother who was stationed down there, but that doesn’t really count. I also don’t think it counts when we went down there a few months ago to see my father-in-law and have a chance to say goodbye before he forgets us.  We were trying to decide between a weekend getaway for just the 2 of us, a 4 year delayed honeymoon, or if we should do a family vacation. It wasn’t even something we spent a ton of time thinking about….we definitely decided on a family vacation.

We have some ideas of where we want to go, possibly some things we want to do, but we haven’t really settled on anything yet.  We know we want to go to California, because there are a ton of different places to go to. The problem is narrowing them down. We’ll figure it out, I know we will, and when we do…well, I’ll just keep that my little secret! It’s hard right now, because we’re planning this now, though we can’t actually book it for a month or so, and yet, looking at different pictures of the different areas, and everything there is to do, it’s driving us insane! We want to head out and start the vacation right now, lol.

In other news, I’m still thinking about that career move. I have a couple of months before I’d be required to actually start the job, so I’ve got a little bit of time to make my decision, but every day it’s looking a little bit more like something I’ll do. I’ve got a few questions for the headhunter, but those will have to wait as today was a holiday and no one was in the office.

Since today was a holiday, which means L was not at school, I didn’t wind up starting my workout routine today. To be honest, I kind of slacked off in that department. I only did a few sit ups and a short plank. Sit ups not only hurt my abs (working them out), but they also hurt my spine. Basically, I just need to do as many as I can at a time, and try to bump it up by one every time. Today I managed 10, tomorrow I’m shooting for 11. As for the planks, I’m doing the elbow planks, and so far I can do 35 seconds before I just collapse.  My goal is to be able to do that for a minute, eventually getting to side planks. I’m working on adding an extra 5 seconds to those planks each day.

Here’s what I’m wanting to do for tomorrow, and the rest of my weekdays while L is at school:

7:45am- L gets picked up by bus

8:00am- I’m at the gym, starting to stretch, then hop on treadmill

9:00-10:00am- I’m aiming to be able to work out until 10, but I need to work up to that.

10:00-11:00am- Get home, get showered, start doing home workouts of sit ups, push ups, planks, jumping jacks. Keep adding one per set or 5 seconds to each set.

11:00-Rest of day- This is where I take care of everyone else, get housework done, etc. Once we’re actually part of a gym, we’ll also do a workout once Mr’s off work.  I’m hoping to be able to buy a workout game, like Zumba or something, for our PS3, so I have something else I can do at home. We’ll see how that goes.

Anyway, that’s the plan, we’ll see what happens!

What was the last vacation you took?

Big Changes on the Horizon

One Wednesday, for the first time in about a month, I stepped on the scale. Last time I weighed myself, I was down about 17 pounds. Since that point, my seasonal job ended and I wasn’t getting exercise  so I expected my weight to either have stayed the same or give up. Imagine my surprise when I found I’d lost another 10 pounds. Somehow, I’ve lost 27 pounds in about 10 weeks with minimal exercise or change to diet. Yay!

This weight loss, combined with the possibility of a very big decision I’m contemplating making, is enough for me to spend the money to renew my year long gym membership. Now, I can’t renew until next month some time, but I’ve decided to start doing small workouts here at home. I’m talking about things like doing 30 second planks (hoping to get those to a minute soon), as many (girly) push ups as I can handle each time and trying to increase that by 1 every set I do, sit ups, jumping jacks, and squats. These are things I can do at home, without equipment or fancy DVDs, and can do it during commercials or while waiting for something to finish. We’ve got a very small, not so great workout room here in our complex, but the weight machine is one of those all-inclusive ones and I’m pretty sure it’s broken. At least, I can never get it to work. What I’m planning on doing is trying to get to it 5-6 days a week, trying for an hour of cardio.

Now, it’s been quite a while since I was doing regular workouts and I know I can’t just start off running on a treadmill for an hour, but I can start off by just walking for that long, and make sure to try to up the speed every day. I’d like to eventually be able to run for a couple of miles. When I was in high school, my Mom and I started jogging. Each morning, we’d jog for about an hour. Now, it’s been about 10 years since I’ve done that, but I think, with some work, I can get back to that, and more. Once we’ve got the gym membership, I plan on seeing L off to the bus in the morning while dressed in my workout clothes. I’ll then walk to the gym, eventually workout for 2, 2 1/2 hours, then walk back home, pick up L from the bus, and finish my day. I might take some of the group classes after Mr. gets off of work, if he wants to go workout.

You may have seen me mention a big decision I have to make. I can’t/won’t go in to that now, but I will say, it’s something I’ve been thinking about for the last 6 months, and very very seriously about the last couple of days. It would be a career decision, of sorts. Anyway, if I decide to take this path in front of me, it would be a very big change for our family, but definitely a positive one. If/when I make the decision, I’ll post it here, but until then, I’ll just kind of allude to it. I apologize for the cloak and dagger routine, but I don’t want to put it out there unless it’s a for sure thing.

Well, I’m off to eat breakfast (scrambled eggs and home style potatoes), so I’ll catch you later.

Nosey Noses

I would like to thank all the old ladies who gave me the stink eye while I was in the grocery store yesterday. For those who may not know, L is borderline autistic. He has frequent meltdowns if things aren’t done a certain way. He’s now in this routine for the grocery store: He “pushes” the cart (while I pull and steer from the end of it), and he has to be the one to put the groceries in the cart. Yesterday, I was grabbing something, offered it to him, he didn’t want to put it in the cart, so I did. Well, it just doesn’t matter if he says no, if anyone but him puts it in, he freaks out. Didn’t matter what I did, he wouldn’t be consoled. I think part of the problem was he had a very short nap and was tired.

Whatever the reason, he was in meltdown mode. Inconsolable crying, nothing could appease him, and of course, the best part, he now refused to move from that spot in the aisle. I asked him politely to move and follow me so we could go get Mr. Then I told him, still calm and everything, that we needed to go. He wouldn’t budge. So I grabbed his hand and began to walk. That’s when he decided to become boneless and try to fall to the floor. Now, his teacher has showed me a way to hold on to him, kind of force him to stand up when he does that. The only problem was, it requires two hands and I only had the one available. Also, have you ever tried to move a boneless, crying kid through a store while he’s wearing a heavy sweater? I kept grabbing sweater, not kid.

Needless to say, there were lots and lots of stink eyes as I hurried to the checkout and got out of there. Now, I was finished with my shopping and was out of there in under 5 minutes. I didn’t drag my crying child all over the store. Have I done that before? Yes, when I couldn’t wait until later to grab something from the store. Most of the time, if it can wait, I leave. Last night was one of those nights were I couldn’t wait until he stopped crying, but luckily, I had everything and had been on my way to the checkout.

I pushed the cart, and tried to avoid dragging my son, through the parking lot and, when he dropped and tried to lay down in the middle of the road, I had enough. I stopped the cart, picked him up, threw him over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and hurried to the van. For some reason, there were a lot of people just milling around the parking lot, and they all seemed to be older women. As soon as I picked him up like that, I swear to you, two different groups of women started pointing and whispering behind their backs. I try to ignore when people do that in public, because they don’t know L and don’t know what his issues are. I know there are some moms who have handy cards to hand out, explaining about autism and such, but I don’t.

One one hand, I think those cards are great, because people are usually more patient with a parent when they understand the child is autistic, but on the other hand, have we gotten so judgey as a community that no one will give a parent a free pass if their child is having a meltdown in the store? K, my daughter, is “normal”, yet I definitely can remember some meltdowns she had in public as a child. Hell, she occasional still  has them. Maybe what I’m trying to say is, let’s give some parents a break, okay? Yes, the screaming child in the store can be annoying, but it happens. Next time you see a parent dealing with a child in the middle of a meltdown, offer them a kind smile instead of a scowl and whispered insults.

2013 So Far

Well, we’re 2 weeks in to 2013 and my resolutions are…well, they’re coming along is what they’re doing. I added a resolution to be more patient with my children and not raise my voice as much. That one I’m doing much better on. Anytime I feel myself start to get impatient and start to get upset, I stop for a second, take a breath, lower my voice, and talk slower so I keep calm. My resolution to get my organized and be a better housewife is the one that I’m still working on. This will be one I have to work on the entire year, I know.  I made some great progress the first few days, then I majorly slacked off for a week. Yesterday, I started getting back on the right track.

 

I’m committed to taking 30 minutes, first thing once L is off to school, to do dishes or straighten up. This week, since I’m playing catch up, will require more than 30 minutes, but I know myself. If I force myself to do nothing but clean when I first get home, I’ll do like a room, maybe 2, then I’ll burn out. I’ll sit down to “take a break” and then I’ll never get back up to finish. So I’m making a deal with myself…. I’ll do on and off cleaning throughout each day. Today, for example, I’m focusing on the kitchen. I did a load when I first got home, then sat down on the computer. I’m getting ready to go unload the dishwasher and do another load. Then I’ll sit down. Frequent breaks are what work best for me.  I wish that wasn’t the way I was wired, but it is, and it’s best if I recognize that and do something that works for me.

 

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Okay, so on another note, my best friend is about 7 months pregnant, which means I’m going to be an “aunt”! She’s having a boy, I’m super excited to meet him! She came over to hang out the other day and little man decided to go ahead and move for me. Since we’re not having a baby right now, I have to get my baby fix anyway I can. Hubby always groans whenever I’m around a baby or pregnant woman, because it makes me want another one so bad. *Sigh*

 

On another note, if you don’t know, I currently have 4 tattoos. When our tax return comes in, Hubby and I will be going to get new tattoos. It’s been years for both of us (he has 1), and we’ve actually each been considering getting a sleeve done. This new ink will be the first of many. We’re each doing a geek/favorite things mural. So I’ll have Firefly, Star Trek, Merry Gentry, Anita Blake, and many more themed tattoos for mine. I’m so excited!

 

 

Do you have any tattoos? 

How are your resolutions going so far?

 

2013, Here We Come!

Good morning! I hope everyone had a great New Years Eve. For our family, it was simply a nice, quiet night. We picked up a couple bottles of sparkling apple cider (yes, we’re old haha), had some dinner, and just relaxed. Drew and I made it until midnight, barely, thanks to these colds that just won’t let go.

 

After thinking about 2012 and previous years, I’ve made some resolutions, though I’m not one to usually do that. I’ve decided to try to get more organized and proactive in 2013. I’m one of those people who can organize things like no other, but can’t KEEP them organized. I’m also really bad with the housekeeping. We certainly aren’t living in an episode of Hoarders or anything, but I want to get better with keeping our house so we’re ready for visitors at anytime. I’m working on doing a major deep clean for the start of the new year, but, to prevent myself from getting extremely overwhelmed and then not doing it, I’m going slow. I’m working my way through the kitchen, then the living room, bathroom, etc. Once everything is cleaned and organized, I’m going to work on keeping it that way.

 

In other news, we have new members of our family. Inara, Shepard Book, Wash, Jayne, Simon, and River. They’re fish. L (Boy) LOVES fish, he’ll sit in front of a fish tank and stare at it for like 30 minutes, which is a very long time for him. We decided it might be really fun to have some fish and, once we figured out we’d be getting a decent sized tank, we decided the whole family would get fish. The cats are completely fascinated by the tank. Our kitten, Drogo, will stand on the back of the closest kitchen chair just staring (and trying to figure out if he can jump from the chair to the bar). Even our older cat, Leesi, has taken to sitting there, staring. It’s actually kind of funny to see.

 

Okay, well I’ve got some cleaning to do, so I’ll say good bye for now.

 

What resolutions, if any, did you make for 2013?

More health stuff

Good evening everyone. Hope your weekend is going well. Ours could be going better, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

Yesterday morning we headed to one of our favorite breakfast spots, Old Country Buffet. This is a restuarant that is close by, and every weekend they’ve got this breakfast buffet that we just love. We headed out with Tank and filled our plates. I got the Belgium waffles and topped that with strawberry topping. I also grabbed some bacon and a few links of sausage. The Mr hit up the omlette station, making one with onions, tomatoes, bacon, and cheese. We filled ourselves up with food, then headed out for The Mr’s doctor’s appointment.

A few years back, The Mr hurt his ankle pretty bad, and that ankle has caused some issues in his knees, hips, and back. Well for the last 2 weeks or so, he’s been having some pretty bad pain through his ankle and knee. We figured he’d get told the same thing he has every other time he’s gone to see the doctor about this pain; that the pain was due to him favoring the bad ankle. Imagine our surprise when the doctor actually thought there was something else going on. The doctor thinks either gout, or rheumatoid arthritis are the root of his extra pain. This was quite a shock for us, yet it was nice that the doctor looked beyond the ankle injury for other possible explanations. Right now, we’re just waiting for the test results. Whatever happens, we’re here for each other, and that’s all that matters.

Yesterday, grey storm clouds began rolling in. We hoped for rain, the Gods know we could use it, but yesterday did not produce rain, at least not in our section on town. Around 4 am, I woke up to the wonderful sound of rain.  Today wound up being grey, cold, windy, with both freezing cold rain, as well as about 5 minutes worth of hail (yes, hail in March!!). So what’s a gal to do when the weather has taken a turn for the worse? Make a hearty beef stew!

There’s my finished product, along with a loaf of sourdough bread, butter on top, of course! Every beef stew needs a piece of fresh sourdough.

In other news, I have finished the  Game of Thrones book (the first in the Song of Ice and Fire series), which is what season one of Game of Thrones is based on. The Mr is working on finishing the book, as well, so tomorrow we can start Clash of Kings. We’d like to be a few chapters in that before season 2 starts on April 1st.

Alright, everyone, I’m going to log off, so I can finish watching Celebrity Apprentice with The Mr.

In a last minute quickie, Tank has stayed dry for 3 naps in a row!!! Okay, now I’m done, night all!

Question of the Day: 

What are some of your favorite shows that are on right now?

What shows are you looking forward to the most?

Yummy Dinner

Hi all. So The Mr and I decided that we didn’t want the buffet OR Chinese food, so instead we opted for Texas Roadhouse, a very yummy steakhouse that’s just down the road from us.  If you live in Phoenix, we often go to the Metro location. The staff is friendly, service is great (for the most part), and the atmosphere is fun.

As usual, we ordered a Cactus Blossom for an appetizer, but kept to iced tea for our drinks. A Cactus Blossom is like an Awesome Blossom or an Onion Bloom, depending on which steakhouse you’ve been to before. The Cactus Blossom was delicious as usual. For Tank, we ordered chicken strips with french fries, while The Mr and I both ordered the 6 oz sirloin, cooked medium well. I ordered mine with the salad and french fries, while The Mr ordered his smothered with onion and mushrooms, with a side of cheese covered fries and a rice pilaf type dish. Unfortunately, the one issue I’ve had with this restaurant has continued with tonight’s dinner. Every time we’ve been there, my order has NEVER been cooked the way I wanted. Tonight I ordered medium-well, yet there was absolutely no pink to be seen anywhere. The first time I ordered it well done, I was brought out medium-well. Oh well, there are worse things that could happen, and the food is so delicious, no matter how it’s cooked, I never complain and always enjoy my yummy steak. I feel bad that I didn’t take any pictures of my food, I’ll try to remember to start doing that, sorry!

Do you want to hear something amazing? Remember how I went to the doctor today? While at dinner, I missed a call from the doctor’s office. I had asked them for something regarding Tank, so I figured the missed call and subsequent voicemail was from Tank’s doctors’ nurse. Imagine my surprise when I checked my voicemail and found it be message from the doctor I saw today, checking to see how I was feeling after my adjustments. To have the doctor actually call me up, himself, is really some amazing..um, customer service? Is that the right term to use for something like this? Hmm, either way, it definitely makes me want to stay with this practice. Our family practice is coupled with a pain management group, so I just had to travel upstairs, which is nice and convenient.

In other amazing news, we’ve been having a difficult time potty training Tank. In the last 2 weeks, he’s actually been going potty at school. In the last 2 days, he’s been going regularly on the potty here at home. Today, I put him in a clean pull-up right before nap, and that pull-up has lasted until bed time. That’s right, he’s kept dry since 2pm today! Squee! Here’s hoping this is a trend that will last for a while and be expanded on!

Alright all, I’m going to go get comfy on the couch and catch up on episodes of NCIS and Friends. Hope to see you all later!

Headaches and such

Good afternoon, everyone. How are you doing? I’m not doing too bad, myself. Had a couple of appointments between yesterday and today. Let me go back a little. About 5 years ago, I started having headaches every day.  At first, I wasn’t surprised because I was pregnant. Pregnancy means more blood running through the veins and that increase in blood often causes headaches. After my daughter was born, I continued to have constant headaches. The last 2 years they’ve been getting worse, and this last month they’ve been getting really bad. I finally broke down and went to the doctor, who ordered some x-rays, an evaluation by the physical therapy team, and gave me a prescription for muscle relaxers. Today, I went and saw physical therapy team and got my x-rays. Apparently, my neck is supposed to curve and instead it’s straight. There’s another issues, where I’m supposed to have this space between 2 of my vertebrae. This space is supposed to be equal distance all around, mine is squished to one side. Apparently, these horrendous headaches actually have a reason behind them. My messed up neck causes extra tension on my muscles. The muscles and messed up vertebrae cause pressure to my nerves, which in turn cause the headaches. Go figure.

So today I headed in after Tank got picked up by the bus. I had my x-rays done, which should my messed up spine. Electrodes were placed on my neck, kept on there for 10 minutes while I lay on a massaging table. Oh my, that was nice. It was meant to elongate the spine, and it felt amazing on my back, especially my lower spine. After 10 minutes, I was then given a deep tissue massage on my neck, shoulders, and upper back. That felt amazing, too. Finally, I was given an adjustment to my upper back and neck. Oh boy, I’m going to be sore tomorrow. I can already feel the stiffness and soreness in my neck. Tonight I’ll be taking half a muscle relaxer. Last night’s muscle relaxer knocked me the eff out. I’m hoping to avoid that tonight.

On to a different subject. Spring break ends after this weekend. The Mr has school on Monday, while my class doesn’t start until Tuesday. On Monday, Tank’s spring break starts. Oh boy, it’ll be an interesting week. I’m supposed to have a follow-up appointment, with more therapy, next week, but I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get it scheduled. Ugh.

Already working on our school schedule for next semester. I’ll be taking 2 classes again, but I may wind up only having 1 physical class. We’ll see what happens. There’s a Developmental Psychology class I want to take, but I’m not sure what my course load is for my Chem 130 class will be. I want to make sure I’ll be able to focus on that and not take 2 super hard classes in one semester. We’ll see what happens.

Anyway, I’m going to get going. Gonna go pick up The Mr and figure out what we’re doing for dinner. We’re debating between ordering Chinese food or go to the salad buffet. Hmmm, I’ll let you know what happens!

Take care, everyone.