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.

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?

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?

 

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!

I’m a slacker

I am the first to admit that I slack off, at times. This blog is one of the things that was put on the back burner for a bit. The Mr and I started school in January. Between the two of us, we were in school 5 days a week. One of my classes is an English class, which means essays and, since it’s 102, this means essays where I have to do lots of research. Needless to see, while I spend a lot of time on the computer, most of it is spent either doing English stuff, or studying for my Biology class. When I’m not doing school, I’m being a mom and a wife, so this had to be put aside for a bit. Spring break started this week, for both of us. The kids are still in school, the Princess doesn’t go to school, so she doesn’t do the spring break thing, and Little Man’s spring break isn’t this week. So the nice thing is, I’ll be able to relax while he’s at school. Call me selfish, but I like the idea of not having to do anything during the day when he’s gone.

Of course, just because I wasn’t assigned any homework, doesn’t mean I don’t have anything to do. I’ve got my second essay due for English at the end of the month, which doesn’t leave me a ton of time once we get back to school. Thanks to this reduced time, I’ve decided to get some work done on my essay all this week. The first essay for this class was broken up over a month or so period. The last two weeks of it, I was a madwoman..every available, waking moment was spent hunched over my computer, working furiously on that essay. My poor husband didn’t get to really enjoy time with me during that time. I’d only allow myself a little bit of relaxation every night to avoid getting too far behind. That’s what I’m trying to avoid this time around, hence getting a head start on things.

This weekend was a great one. My grandfather’s 78th birthday was Saturday, and there was a huge celebration for him. Normally, 78 isn’t a huge one to celebrate, but last year on his birthday, he had a stroke. So this year was not only to make up for last year, but it’s also a celebration of how far he’s come since the stroke. There were lots of friends I haven’t seen since I was younger than 10 years old. My dad also made a special trip out from Tennessee for the party. My dad made his initial greetings to the kids, then basically ignored them until the last hour we were there, with the exception of a couple of brief interactions. I could write an essay on the issues I have with my father, so I’ll just leave it at “The kids really enjoyed getting a chance to see their Paw-Paw”. All in all, it was a fun day.

Unfortunately, the weekend ended on a bit of a sad note. The Mr’s grandpa is in the hospital, following surgery. He’s going to be okay, we went to visit him today, he seems to be doing well. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go work on my essay a bit. I’m going to try to post here more often, so hopefully I’ll see you guys sometime this week. *waves* Bye!

Our First Tweet Up

So last night was the first time we had attended a Tweet Up. If you don’t know, that’s where you get together with a bunch of people you talk with on Twitter and meet each other in real life. Last night was the Bookmans Phoenix Tweet Up. The turn out wasn’t the biggest, the Mr, Tank and I were there, along with one other Tweeter and her 2 kids, and the woman behind the Bookmans Phoenix Twitter account, Yvette, but it was a really fun night. We got to talk about some of the things we’d like to see from them in the future. Yvette brought out a craft project for Tank to work on, so he wouldn’t be bored.

Here he is, with the finished ornament project. There was also coffee and some great snack from the Bookmans Mesa cafe. By the way, I’m now very jealous of them because those baked goods? Yummy! I should have grabbed a picture, but to be honest, I just forgot. I guess I really need to get the whole picture part of this blog down.

Anyway, it was a nice time. We munched on some baked goods, enjoyed some yummy coffee, had a great time chatting with the others, and found out some interesting things about our favorite bookstore. If you’re in Arizona, I strongly encourage you to check out Bookmans. They’re all about recycling and keeping things as local as possible. They also have amazing prices on books, movies, and games.

We actually had some store credit from the last time we sold books to them so we picked the kids up some new books.

Here’s Tank, reading Curious George for bed. Well, I read the story and then gave him the book, so he could go through it again. That’s what this is.

In other news, I just turned on the heat for the first time this winter. Today’s high is supposed to be 65 degrees, with a low of 49. I know it’ll be shut off before lunch, but the apartment is just a little too chilly to do without it. I’m in a sweater, pants and socks and I’m still cold. I’m just looking to take the chill out of the air so I don’t feel like I’m an ice-cube. This year, my joints hurt more than last year, so I’m going to avoid suffering, especially since we have a flat rate on our electricity. YAY! If I chose to make it 90 degrees in here this winter (yuck!), I could without worries. There are a few advantages to living in an apartment and this is one of them.

Alright everyone, I’m going to head out and see about taking Tank for a walk to the pet store across the street. He loves looking at all the animals and I love him doing all that running.

Question of the Day: Have you turned on your heater yet? How cold is it where you’re at?

Thanksgiving Wrap Up

I know Thanksgiving was a few days ago, but I’ve had a lot going on. Our original plan was to get up early on Thursday morning, meet my Mom at her house, and she’d take us up to the lake. Well, that changed about an hour and a half before the Mr got off work when I got a call from my Mom. She had been at the lake, with the camper, by herself, for 3 days and was going a little stir crazy. She asked if we’d come up that night and camp. Well, we love camping, so we agreed. In an hour I packed up just about everything I thought we would need to camp and for Thursday, then picked up the Mr, and met my mom halfway to the lake.

We got up to the lake about 6pm. The kids immediately went to stand around the fire (my kids, the pyros in training, ha ha), while my parents got started on dinner. We had steak, homemade pico de gallo, and chips. I made a pledge that, even though I was on a diet, while celebrating Thanksgiving, I wouldn’t worry about it. I expanded this to include the night before. Around 8:30, we got the kids ready for bed. They were going to sleep in the camper, while the Mr and I were going to sleep in my Mom’s SUV. So the kids and my parents (and the dogs!) retired for the night in the camper, while the Mr and I headed to our “tent”. Since it was only 8:30, we weren’t the least bit tired. We were getting great reception for our phones, so we decided we’d watch some 24 through our Netflix app. After watching it for a bit, I decided to go get something to drink from the cooler. I was headed to the camper when I heard what sounded like someone rustling around in the trash, looking for cans. I figured it might be a homeless person, and walked over to the trash to get them to leave. As I got closer, I could tell it was an animal, I figured it was a raccoon. Imagine my surprise when I rounded the camper and found myself face to face with a skunk! I immediately backed away, careful not to do anything to scare it.

The next morning was a beautiful, although chilly, start to the day. We made some coffee, the kids began throwing rocks in to the lake now that they could see it, and we started cooking the pies.

There’s Tank, throwing those rocks.

We didn’t actually cook the turkey and ham in the oven of the camper, we cooked them on the grill!

Here’s our turkey, during the cooking process.

We had a good time. We munched on a veggie platter while the food was cooking, and there was drinking…lots and lots of drinking. I only had 2 alcoholic drinks, I just wasn’t feeling the alcohol. However, all the other adults were double-fisting their drinks! Mom made Captains Coffee, plus everyone had a cold drink, too.

Mom with her coffee and sangria

My other Mom with her coffee and beer

The Mr with his coffee and mixed drink.

Eventually dinner was ready and we were all ready to eat! Well, except for the kids. They had been snacking nonstop all day, which is what they usually do when we’re camping and/or they’re with my parents. The rest of us, however, dug right in to this wonderful buffet of food.

We all ate so much, we didn’t have room for dessert before it was time for us to head home. We were taking Princess back to her dad’s that night, instead of on Friday like usual, and we wanted to get her back before too late.

My parents didn’t have a ton of room for leftovers, so we basically got everything that was left except for the meat. We certainly dug in to the leftovers that night, once our stomachs had a chance to empty. While it was a crazy, hectic day trying to get everything ready at the same time, it was delicious and, the most important part was we got to spend some good time with family.

Question of the Day: How was your Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, yay! It’s one of my favorite holidays, wouldn’t you know? My absolute favorite is Christmas/Yule with Thanksgiving being right behind it. I love getting together with my family, and just hanging out. This is the first time since 2006 I’ll have actually celebrated Thanksgiving with my parents. In 2008, after Tank was born, we went to their house for pie, but I don’t count that as having Thanksgiving with them. The problem comes from usually having to share the day with my daughter’s dad and my parents usually go to their parents house for part of the day. It usually throws our day all off with timing and just doesn’t work out. This year, however, we’ve got my daughter the whole day!

Thanksgiving has become more laid back for my parents, especially since my sister and I moved out. This year, my parents took their camper up to the lake and that’s where we’ll be having our Thanksgiving. No TV for my hubby and step-mom to  watch the game on. Of course, downside means no TV to help distract the kids, lol. I’m not even entirely sure if we’ll be sitting at a table or in a circle on camping chairs. The Mr has to work on Friday, and Princess is going to her dad’s Thursday evening instead of Friday like usual since he has the day off, or else we’d probably wind up camping up there for the weekend.

This weekend I’m going to do some cleaning and figure out where our tree is going. I’m one of those people who just can’t bring myself to decorate or listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. The spot where we normally put it? Yeah, our desks now occupy those spots. The space where the desks used to be? That’s where the rat cage is. It’s entirely possible we’ll just be doing a table top tree this year. Princess was given this tree a few years ago, it’s about 3 feet tall, has some lights, is purple, and has Tinkerbell ornaments for it. If we can’t find a space for our big tree, we’ll just use that one. It’ll work, lol. If we do that, it’ll give me 2 more strings of lights to decorate the house with. Win-win either way!

Question of the Day: How are you spending your Thanksgiving? When do you normally decorate for Christmas/Yule/Chanukah?