Lose It!

I've lost a lot of things in my life, most specifically my marbles, but I've found a new App that encourages me to LOSE. Calories that is. I got the new Lose It App for my iPhone and have begun recording everything I eat on a daily basis.....and HOLY COW it is eye opening!!

I've always read that a food journal is a good thing, but I can't keep up with one single notebook to save my life. The one thing in my life that I have managed not to lose (including my kids) is my iPhone. Therefore, this App is always with me and easy to use. I've been trying to eat healthy for over a year, we've switched to whole grains, 1% milk, blah, blah, blah....but until you actually realize HOW MUCH stuff you are putting in, it really doesn't make a huge impact on your body size. Plus, it is easy to rationalize small snacks throughout the day because they are just 100 calories, but in the end it really adds up fast!

I joined WW once, and it wasn't willingly AT ALL. My friend asked me to go with her and since I am an awesome friend, I did. I was shouting joy from the roof tops the very next week when said friend got knocked up and could no longer follow WW. Now, there was no need for me to try to count points and all this nonsense!! That baby remains my favorite child to this very day!! I just can't see keeping up with conversions and points - it's just not me. The Lose It! App is FREE (no weekly fee, like WW) and you just put in what you ate, then it tells you how much more you can eat if you want to stay on track. Granted, I know that calories are only one equation to the overall process with fats and carbs, but this thing is EASY - and it works like it says it will. I've lost some poundage just by being aware of how much is going in. I still eat what I like, but I can realize better how to space out the things that I love the most. You can add in fats, carbs, etc., but I haven't done that. You can also record your weight and watch your progress on a fancy schmancy graph.

One of the biggest eye openers I had was my Macaroni Grill Penne Rustica - this revelation made me cry. This is my absolute favorite dish in all of the USA and I realized that it is almost 1600 calories!! Thank goodness I have never finished off a whole one in one sitting, but I could. That is an entire days worth of eating!! In one dish!! OY!

It is also eye opening that just a small bit of exercise allows you to eat another 100 calories, and the App will allow you to add in your exercise (even if it is SEX! wooty!) and then you realize that you can have that midnight snack after all (and not feel horrible about it).

If I get to the end of the day and I'm out of calories it is a good motivation to go hit the treadmill, even if just for 30 minutes.

So, while I have not been paid to do this post - I did get the App for FREE - but so can everyone else on earth, I can highly recommend this App for even the most casual attempt at a healthier life. It really makes it easy and makes it very straight forward.

PANTS!!

I don't know where I have been for the past few years, but dudes, I have been missing out!

I went shopping for a baby gift and I ended up at T.J.Maxx - this place has something for everyone! So I found something cute for the baby that I could embellish with embroidery (and on Clearance! Woot!) and then I decided to wander through the clothing.

Now, I don't typically like to shop for clothing - I'm short and wide, so nothing really fits. I've given up on finding things I like so I stick to my tried and true wardrobe, crossing my fingers that I can make things last! I have a pair of adidas pants that I really like, so I decided I would look for a second pair. Unfortunately, I had no luck. But I did find something new.... YOGA PANTS! I have really missed the boat! These things are tre-awesome!!!

I've never purchased Yoga pants before, they are made for those who are blessed with long, slender legs - or so I thought. I am right about the LONG part, good lord every pair of yoga pants I've ever looked at would've been a good 8 inches past my feet. Out of the question. But I found a cute pair of cropped yoga pants, with a roll down waist. I figured for 15 bucks it was worth a shot. I kind of figured that I probably would not like them, or that I would be squeezed into them at best, but O.M.G. they are frickin' perfect.....AND I don't look half bad in them. They fall at all the right places (especially the roll down waist) and they are sooooo comfortable!! I am completely in love with these pants.

I've heard that it is not socially acceptable to wear yoga pants in public, except in class transit. My new mission in life is to find any and all retailers that deem my yoga pants acceptable shopping wear, otherwise I plan to just stay at home. Or maybe I should open up my own yoga wear shop, therefore I could be a working model! I suppose I could take a yoga class, then if I get caught at Target in my yoga pants I can say that I was just leaving class......yeah. Or I could just lie about it.

Piggie Fun!

I am super excited about tomorrow! I'm a person who doesn't like "routine", so I really don't hold fast to traditions. I can't stand it when someone freaks out because "we always do it this way...." I'm really easy going and I don't really mind when things change, or happen differently than they used to. But tomorrow.....

Tomorrow we are going to do some fun stuff that we try to do with our kids every year during the holidays. Things that just make our holiday so much more fun, and I can't imagine not getting to do them every year!! First we are going to ride the PINK PIG! Granted, my legs go numb from being crammed into the ultra small seats, but the Pink Pig is an Atlanta legend and it's in a big tent outside of Macy's and they project pink lights everywhere and it is just a Pepto Bismol explosion of awesome!! After the Pink Pig, we will be spending the night downtown and then we will go to The Fabulous Fox Theatre to see The Nutcracker, performed by the Atlanta Ballet. Nothing puts me in the mood of Christmas quite like watching the Nutcracker!

I'm really looking forward to getting away from the house (even if only for one night) and just having FUN! I had visions of taking my little girl to the Nutcracker before she was even conceived, and now that we have TWO girls (though they aren't ballerinas, or even very girlie) this is such a fun thing to look forward to every year. I hope they will look back someday, when they have their own little girls, and have wonderful memories of this "tradition" with their not so traditional mom (and dad)!

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!!

Your kid annoys me...

I have kids. Like most parents, I think my kids are pretty amazing. There is a distinct difference in me and many parents (that I encounter) - I live in REALITY. You see, even though I think my kids are pretty amazing, I also think that my kids can be really annoying. Every kid on earth has the opportunity to be really annoying, on many levels, on many occasions and it is up to me, and others as parents, to STOP THAT SHIT, immediately.

We went to see Santa last night. This year, the mall did this wonderful new trick where they no longer take reservations to see Santa - you just have to wait in line, for an hour and a half. With no benches. No wi-fi. No fountain to drown yourself in......


We had the option to go see a different Santa, however, THIS is OUR Santa. We've sat on this man's lap for the past 12 years, there was no chance I wanted to find a new Santa. It would totally mess up our entire photo collection. So, we waited.

Hunk offered to let me take the kids to dinner and he would hold our spot. I didn't take him up on that offer because I feared for the kid behind us. In the 1 and a half minutes that they had been behind us in line, the kid had bumped, rammed or otherwise touched me 5 times. I DO NOT like to be touched. I was on the verge of losing my cool, and let's just say that when it comes to obnoxious kids I am about 8 million times more patient than Hunk. I stayed for the safety of that kid.

When I get in a line, I strategically stop well before I get close to the folks in front of me. I don't like to be crowed, I don't like to be touched by strangers and I have limited patience for ignoramous people. I compensate for my known issues and I leave a buffer zone. The people behind us were reasonably buffered, for about 10 minutes, then they began to "inch". I have no earthly idea why people in a line must "inch" - especially when the line is NOT moving. See, Santa was away on his dinner break so we were just standing there, and yet people continued to "inch" forward as if it were going to help them get to Santa faster. By the time we reached the 45 minute mark the people behind us were literally rubbing up against me with every breath they took. I was seriously on the verge of a break down. But, I had my buffer in the front. I saved at least 3 feet between me and the people before me......so I scooted up a little. They CONTINUED to "inch". There was no escaping these people behind me and their obnoxious kid.

And it wasn't just them - it was a myriad of obnoxious kids. I don't understand how people let their children act so utterly annoying in public. There was a kiosk next to use where you could print off a coupon for your photos, well since there wasn't any entertainment for those kids waiting in line lots of kids thought the kiosk was a great thing to play with. In an hour and a half we waited there were about 6-8 kids who managed to print off about 856 coupons, and only to leave them in a pile on the floor. WTH? I realize that little kids need to be occupied, but here's a newsflash - you are going to WAIT IN LINE for Santa, what part of that shit does a parent not understand? Hello?! Bring a bag of tricks, a DS, a book, WHATEVER it takes. There has never been a Santa without a line, do you people not watch movies??????? Have you ever been to see Santa?????? There is ALWAYS a line!

The icing on the cake is that the obnoxious kids have such pathetic parents. It literally makes me ill to hear a parent giving their child exactly what they want when the kid is being a total douche. I want to kick the parents in the shins who have no balls to tell their kid to cool it.

But, hey, we got to see Santa. And the 30 seconds we spent with him were totally worth the 90 minutes of excruciating agony spent with your annoying kid shoving his face in my crack. And then we were treated to a wallet assassination by the photo people. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Alive and Kicking

We had a successful thanksgiving dinner at my house last week, we had 13 people to feed and I hardly had enough leftovers to send a plate over to my grandmother's house (she hates people and won't come over).

Prior to everyone coming over we did the usual scrubbing of the house. I don't really know why, but I feel like we have to do this crazy cleaning ritual before having a party. Are people really going to look in the closets? After the house was sparkling I decided to work on the outdoor entry area. I had the typical fall decorations up, but it had been awhile since I had refreshed the flower bed mulch. It was looking faded and thin. I typically pay someone to deliver truckloads of cypress mulch, or pecan shells (yes, they work great!) to spread around our many beds. This gets pretty pricey since it really should be refreshed twice a year. I've gone a full year before adding to them, but they look really ragged if I wait.

I was walking around the property admiring the trees, etc. and just taking note that we have eleventy four bazillion pine trees around, which are constantly dropping pine needles on every surface around. In fact, I had spent Monday of last week blowing off the yard and driveway only to find on Thanksgiving Thursday that everything was completely recovered as if I had not lifted a finger! Anyway, on Monday I figured if I was blowing and piling all this pinestraw I should try to put it to use. In a matter of minutes I had filled the entire back of our truck with clean pinestraw. It took 2-3 truckloads to fill all our beds, but this was EASY. The pinestraw was mostly clean (a few leaves to pick out) and it was in abundance all along our driveway. I basically just drove up and down the driveway and piled it into the truck. We have a REALLY long drive so I was able to get enough pinestraw to cover ALL of our beds and it took me a grand total of about an hour to gather it all. It was much easier to spread than mulch because pinestraw weighs practically nothing.

So, for the past 1o years I've spent countless amounts of money on mulch, plus delivery when I could have just spent a few hours time and gotten it all done for free!

Unrelated, but pertaining to pinestraw.....we got two hermit crabs in November of 2008, FINALLY they both kicked the bucket last week. One of them was clearly dead and halfway out of his shell, the other was tucked really far down inside and was unresponsive. My daughter took them outside and buried them under pinestraw, not in a hole. This was because she wanted to go back and see what happened after a few days. I sent her out to take a look and Mr. Crab #2 was GONE!! Apparently, he was not dead after all and had been prancing around our yard for 4 days. She found him not far from the 'grave' and he was alive and kicking. He has since been returned to the cage (and warmth). I am amazed that he did not freeze to death out there. But it also gives a new appreciation to the reason that folks used to hold 'wakes', in case someone thought to be dead were to wake up! It happens!!!

Struggle

I've been struggling for weeks with something exciting to write about. Turns out, my life is just.that.dull. and I really have nothing.

The regular mundane things are going on around here, everyone is sort of healthy, mildly happy and getting ready for a week of vacation. We are having a STAYcation, as in, we are not going to the beach for Thanksgiving this year. Boo. It was my choice, and I figured we could all use some down time. I'm GLAD I don't have to stress about going away and the logistics and THE LAUNDRY.....but I'm kinda sad, too. I LOVE the beach, especially in the winter.

The funniest thing that happened this week was that my 8 year old fell off of her top bunk in the middle of the night (ok, maybe not funny....) and she completely busted up her face, but instead of waking up anyone she got back in the bed and went to sleep. She woke up the next morning and started telling me about it and got all upset about it and was just bawling. Which is sad, but kinda funny when it all happened like HOURS ago..... And just to prove that I'm not evil, I let her skip school - partially so I could watch her closely and make sure she didn't get all wonky from wacking her head. We did not go for an x-ray because she seems to have great movement, etc. She says her neck hurts, but she already had a pulled muscle there. I have noticed that her nose looks different. Maybe I'm over scrutinizing it, maybe I never really studied her nose? Nothing looks wrong with her nose, but it just looks different. If it keeps nagging me I'm gonna get her head examined.

I am really excited that I get to see Dave2 tomorrow. I'm not a very exciting person to hang out with, but he doesn't seem to mind. For now I'm off to serve lunch to Hunk who is fighting a battle in the trenches, risking his life against the enemy, working very hard........on the Playstation.

Get well Anissa!! Thinking of you often....

Suck It, Dude

I'm a parent who volunteers. Sometimes, I wish I were one of the parents who just drop their kids off and screech out of the parking lot to the nearest Starbucks. But I'm not. I play the roll of coach, leader, etc.... There are very few activities that my kids are involved in that I don't play some sort of roll as a volunteer.

I volunteer because I like to see what my kids are up to and I enjoy being a part of their interests. I usually have a great time, get to do fun things with my kids and see who they are hanging out with. I am currently volunteering for my daughter's drama production. While I signed up for several very specific areas, I was mostly interested in set production and I've shown up for 2 weekends to build a set. It is driving me crazy that there is no "plan" in place here! We show up and the theater kids are spending their time socializing, not working. Not to mention that the adults are helpless without direction. When a job finally becomes apparent, there are so many bored people that jump in to assist that it becomes annoying. Does it really take 3 people to screw in 6 screws? No, but there is not a job list, there is not a direction, there is not a vision and it is driving me batty! The drama director has it all locked up in his head and by the time he tries to show you what he wants, he has basically done it for himself. BAHHHH!!

I'm appalled by the lack of architectural integrity that is going into this project - things are unstable (which I've pointed out several areas of concern) and the work is shoddy. I realize that we are all just trying to pull something together with a very little amount of money, but the reality is that if the project had some real planning and thought it could be spectacular - and stable! The director has asked me to come in on 2 occasions to do some paperwork for him, and both times I have shown up he was not ready for me. An email or phone call could have saved me a trip!!

I'm wasting my time left and right with this guy and I want to tell him exactly what I think of him, but I don't. I'm often reluctant to voice my opinions to teachers in fear of my child becoming a 'target'. I would never hold my thoughts on any serious matter, but the fact that I think this guy is a total disorganized, pathetic leader is something that I hold my tongue on. I want to scream at him that he pales to invisibility when compared to his predecessor, I want to shout at him that he has no business leading a group of 30+ preteen girls and how he has absolutely not one frickin' clue on how to handle the real 'drama' that these girls are going through just because of their age. But, for now and for the sake of saving my child the embarrassment, I must keep my mouth shut and continue to waste my time piddling around this prick's idea of production!! The show must go on!