Having a grumpy bear kind of day

I guess I got a little overzealous on Tuesday’s post.  I was so pumped to be getting things done, and then yesterday slapped me in the face.  Jarrod’s car is now fixed, yep, to the tune of about 800 Franklin’s. Not only that, but Jesalyn has still been in a lot of pain, not to mention super cranky.  I’m seriously ready to buy her a little blue shirt with a rain cloud on it (quick flashback to the “old-school” Grumpy bear.  Seriously, cartoons are just not the same anymore.)  But not to digress, I was able to get her in to see the doctor in the afternoon and come to find out, her ear infection from like 4 stinkin’ weeks ago has not gone away in one ear.  The doctor never scheduled a follow-up visit and we thought everything was hunky dory.  Yeah, not so much (*please, note the frustration in my voice.)  So, now they have her on some super strong antibiotic. So strong that they suggested that we buy some probiotic to help with the digestion. And, then…yes, there is more… they go on to tell us that they are worried about her weight.  Apparently she has lost 1 pound since she was in there last time.  She is, once again, below 18 pounds.  I just don’t know what to do.  She eats all the time, but it’s snacky type food.  We’ve tried cutting out the snacks and she won’t eat her meals.  Suggestions needed people!!!

Surely something has to give….something, right?  I keep telling myself we are blessed more than we know.  There are people all over the world with much bigger problems.  But I’m just ready for things to start falling into place….maybe I’ll buy a lottery ticket =) 

Between all of the car issues and taking care of a baby with a 103 temperature, I just knew I would let my workouts slip.  I’m happy to report I haven’t missed one day due to it.  There have been a couple of days where I did it at like 9:00 at night which is normally when I’m getting some quality REM cycle sleep, and I did eat a McDonald’s cheeseburger due to lack of time, but it was only 300 calories, so don’t beat up on me too harshly.   I may not be able to force the cash flow, but by golly I do have some control over my health.  I got my workout in this morning to some AWESOME sounding rain outside.  Seriously, the perfect way to work-out!  So, tonight I will be dreaming of toned muscles and flat bellies dancing in my head.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."   ~Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.~

To Do List

Oil changed in my car- - - -   CHECK

Windshield wiper replaced- - - - CHECK

Windshield wiper fluid filled- - - -CHECK

Vehicle emissions test passed- - - -  CHECK

Car tags renewed - - - - double CHECK

Jarrod's car at the auto-shop getting looked at- - - -CHECK (fingers crossed it doesn't cost a fortune)

Insanity workout for the day- - - -CHECK


....I'd say we had a productive day.

~now if we would could only get Jesalyn's tooth in (one cranky baby!!!!)~

Baby shower creativity

So in almost 2 months, I will have a new niece.  I'm so excited!!!  The shower is this weekend and I've been itchin' for a project.  Something creative to do for it.  I found this on the intenet and had to give it a try. Of course, I tweaked it a bit.

The picture of inspiration

Those are totally onesies, bibs, and socks in that bouquet.

So here's what I did:

First, choose your flowers (a hint from experience, you will need quite a bit of green to fill in,) and the clothes you want to gift. You will also need floral tape and green sticks to attach the clothing to. I didn't end up using much moss, but it's a good filler

Next, take your clothing and roll.  It's important to roll on the seam. The seam is what creates the flower look.

Once rolled, wrap it with floral tape to keep it together.  You will also attach one of the stick to it with the tape.

This double flower is actually a onesie that is rolled long-wise and folded in half.

Start filling your basket (you will need something in the bottom that will hold the flower stems.)

And my finished project.  It's not perfect by any means, but for the first time around, I'm happy

“A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for”

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

So, I have an extra long weekend (Monday is a holiday and the bank is closed and I have Tuesday off,) so I wanted to get it started with a nice little day.  Boy, did we have fun.
~Extra warning: momma did not have make up on. Who wants to get all dolled up on a day off?~ 

We started the day at Panera.  Have I mentioned how much of a big girl she is?  Totally drinking from a normal cup and everything!

Yes, she is still rockin' the ponytail. We get comments everywhere we go about it

She played in daddy's tea, trying desperately to fish the teabag out

Quick pic with momma

We then came home, got her nap in and went straight to the park to enjoy the ah-mazing weather!!

We did every possible thing there:

We finished the day by buying her a big girl carseat (forward facing) but more on that later.

"Just living is not enough.  One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. " ~Hans Christian Anderson

Week Two

Week two of Insanity has come and gone!  I'll say that the workouts have gotten easier. Notice I didn't say easy,  just easier.  They still kick my butt even if I've done the same warm-up 30 times now.  The thing about this workout is that it will never, ever get easy.  It's all about cardio, so the stronger you get, you just have to do it faster and harder.  You will always be out of breath and you will always be sweating buckets. 

So, have a noticed a difference in my body yet?  I can't say that I've had a "skinny day" where I feel like I've lost weight, but I will say that I haven't had a "fat day" where you just feel overly fat. You know the day, where you've tried everything on in your closet and nothing looks or fits right. 

6 weeks left! Bring it!!

Weekend Fun

Is this not the cutest card ever?!?  Thanks Keyanna for the anniversary card.

This weekend, Jarrod and I celebrated our anniversary by having some friends down to visit.  We jammed every minute with something.  Except for the brief 20 hours where two of the guests came down with some random "puke" bug (seriously, the strangest thing ever), we all had a blast (well, I know Jarrod and I did, I hope everyone else did too.)

.

Sushi at Ru San's

 Waiting for mommom to get her coffee fix

Looking at the fish (or "sh" at Jesalyn calls them) at Bass Pro Shop

Yes, we know her hair is carazzzzy!

Posing for a quick family picture, since we finally have someone else to take it for us

A nice little stop for lunch after everyone left (sad face.)

Jesalyn and dada all worn out

February 11th

Five years ago today, I married my best friend.  We had dated off and on for like 7,8,10 years???  We went through a few rough patches but something always brought us back together (I've actually written out our story(?) that I plan to print someday)  The day he proposed was one of the best days of my life.  We had a picnic in our usual spot and he pulled out his guitar and began playing a song he had written for me and at the end he asked me to marry him.  Through the five years we've been married, we've been through quite a bit, this last year has been especially hard, but you know what, we've gotten through it and I wouldn't change a thing. I thank God every day that He put Jarrod in my life.
This was "our song." We danced to it our wedding.  So in honor of today:

The sounds kind of low, you might need to adjust the volume

Insane Week One

Journal of my first insane week!

Day One:  Fit test. Took it. Recorded results.  They weren't too bad, seeing that I'm just starting.  Took my "before" picture (can you say "yuck!!!") and measurements.

Day Two:  I woke up this morning and noticed that my whole body was sore (yes, just from doing the fit test yesterday.) I was so worried I wasn't going to be able to walk, let alone work out but as I got warmed up the muscles loosened and I was able to attempt do the exercises.  I also noticed that my abs were sore too even though I had done absolutely no ab exercises.  I think during this mornings workout, I actually worked out 1/3 of the time. The other 2/3 was me just trying to catch my breath and not pass out.  But I want it to be known that I did finish it.  I wasn't able to lift my arms by the end but I did what I could and didn't give up.  A couple of things I found myself saying;  "This man is crazy!!!"   "There is just no way anyone could do this whole workout!"  "Seriously, this man is nuts!"   I sure hope this gets at least a little easier.

Day Three: *drinking my protein shake*   So this morning I woke up, turned off my alarm clock (noticing that it was still dark outside) and...I kid you not...limped to put on my tennis shoes.  I felt like I had a charlie horse in both of my calves and my upper legs were unbelievably sore. But I told myself that I was just going to do what a could, even if it was 2 minutes of the 40.  Believe it or not, after about 3 min. the pain went away and I was able to dig into it. I was able to do more of the workout this morning. It was more power moves than intense cardio, but still incredibly hard.  Who would of thought that jumping could wear.you.out?  I also noticed that while the workout wiped me out, by like 3:oopm I was ready for more.

Day Four:  Over half way there!  Today was Cardio Recovery.  Sure, the cardio was a lot lighter, but it was more like an intense lower body sculpt. I'm still loving it though!  Bring on the next three days!!!
So, it's time to be honest.  Yesterday at about 2:oo I totally crashed. I mean, I was about half asleep at my desk and had a headache and was getting shaky. This could be from alot of things.  I was hungry all day. I ate my mini meals packed with protein but then 10 min. later I was starving.  My metabolism must have been burning. So that could have been some of it. Also, I've been cutting out all the sugar that I was eating...we won't go into the details =)  I took some Motrin and that didn't help.  Finally, after being beyond miserable I ate a tiny little piece of chocolate (or a mini-almond joy--don't hate!) and I instantly felt better.  Sugar withdraw symptoms maybe??

Day Five:  Yesterday I had so much energy, but I felt a little like I was missing something. Yesterday's workout was tough but I missed the cardio. By 2:oo I had felt like I hadn't did anything.  After today's workout, I know why they "went easy" (haha, easy!)  on us. Today's was called "Pure Cardio."   You know you need to be scared when the trainer is nervous for the exercises.

Day Six: I totally made it ya'll.  First week done!!!  This morning was a repeat of Day one and it still kicked.my.butt. I was able to do a little bit more than the first day but whew, I'm pooped!  I think I'm going to enjoy my day of rest tomorrow.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words:

A Simple Rant

Okay, so I’m gonna rant here for a minute. Feel free to politely take your mouse and drag it to the little X at the top right hand corner of your screen. 

Today I went to a wine store to get some wine (duh!) for this weekend.  One, mine and Jarrod’s anniversary is on Friday and I thought some wine would be nice. Two, since we really aren’t doing anything for it, we are having some friends down.  We are going to have a house full and I know at least one of them likes a glass of wine or two.  So, anyway, I’m in the wine store trying to find a bottle and I had a question for one of the associates.  He wasn’t rude to me, but let’s just say he wasn’t overly nice.  Every time I go into a place that sells alcohol I have this problem.  It’s like they don’t know if they should answer my questions.  Now, I know this is because I don’t look old enough most days.  But still, I am old enough (almost 30 now) and they need to be helpful to their customers.  As soon as I got to the register and showed the dude my id, his attitude immediately changed.  He told me thanks for coming in, told me about the specials they were having, blah, blah, blah.

Second, I had a customer basically ignore me today and I'm pretty sure it was because I'm a woman.  He came into my office in need of service. My manager (who is a man) also happened to be in the office. So, I'm asking my "clarifying questions" so that I can make a well-informed opinion on what he needed.  Every time I would ask him a question, he would turn to my manager (who was not asking him questions) and answer me.  He didn't look at me for almost the entire time.  I mean seriously!  What year are we in?  Does he not know the their are many woman who are leaders and CEO's of company's all over America.  I was so annoyed with this dude.  Just so you know, I held my cool and helped the customer the very best way I knew how.  He left happy, even though I was not.

Okay, I'm done complaining.  I think I feel better.  Thanks for listening.
 

Innocent, I think not!

I’ll give ya’ll a little break from my Insanity talk (even though I have sooo not been given a break with it.)  Today I want to know what to do with a stubborn child with a temper.  Once again, Jesalyn has proven that some things are genetic and some, well, we all have our own personalities.  To reiterate, Jarrod and I were both “easy” babies.  At least that’s what I’ve been told.  As for punishments, all my mom had to do was drop her voice one octave and tell me no and I would immediately stop what I was doing and start crying.  Oh, but not little Jesalyn.  She is one of those children that when you tell her no, she looks at you with those eyes that say “yeah right” and then throws it in the floor anyway.  I never ever would have thought I would have a child like that.  You know how it is, when you are having/or have a child.  You get visions of this sweet, perfect, little child that listens to every word you say. 

So, for any of you that have this same issue, what do we do?  Jarrod is going crazy all day and I’m going crazy on the weekend. We tried slapping the hand (I’m not into whoopin’ and maybe not even slapping the hand.  How can you tell a child not to hit/slap and then you turn around and spank them?) and it doesn’t faze her. Let me tell ya a story.  Last week she was sitting with me while I was on the computer and she started eating some piece of paper.  I took it from her and told her that she shouldn’t do that (as I have thousands of times before.)  She got mad at me and slapped my face.  I took her hand, slapped it (again, slapping her for slapping me just doesn’t add up) just hard enough that it got her attention and told her it wasn’t nice to slap mommy’s face. She looked at her hand, gave me a dirty look and slapped my face again.   

The only thing that has slightly worked is putting her in her highchair away from the tv.  Since she is a mover (go, go, go is all she does,) restraining her makes her mad.  The other day, she walked over to the tv, looked at me because she knew I was watching, and grabbed the cords out of the tv.  Jarrod and I have gotten on to her for doing this since she was able to pull herself up to the tv. She knows it’s a no-no.  But since I was doing something else, not giving her my full attention she decided to get it by doing something she’s not suppose to.  I picked her up, and put her in her chair and told her, again that she is not suppose to play with the cords.  She screamed and cried, but when I put her back down she stayed away from them.

What do you guys do when your child just don’t listen?  Is 16 months even old enough for her to grasp the concept of punishment?

 But she looks so innocent...

6 am

...and what I'm doing?  Sleeping? Nope.  I'm dripping in sweat, trying to catch my breath.  Why? Because this arrived yesterday:

this is my actual box, not a picture I pulled off of the web

I'm not actually suppose to start until Monday.  The set comes with a two month calendar for you to check off when your done with the day.  You do this 6 days a week and rest on Sunday (come on, even God did that.) I couldn't wait though so  I'll officially start Monday but I wanted to go ahead and get the "feel" of it.  I did the fit test this morning and thought. I . would. die.   And it was only like 25 min. The actual workouts are like 50!  It also comes with a diet/eating plan.  You go through this super long calculation to determine you calorie needs and subtract 500 for weight lose and there is a book with lots of recipes broken down into 300, 400, 500 calorie meals you can chose from.  I'm going to try to stick to 1200.  Guess that means no more bite-size candy bars at work =)

It may be silly, but do you know what's driving me to do this (besides losing tons of weight and possibly getting a six-pack?)  This t-shirt:

 

On the front it says "Insanity" and on the back, well you can see, it says "I Earned It"

I don't know why I want this so bad, but I do.  To get it, you take your before and after picture and measurements and send it in and they mail you this shirt.  I don't know if you have to have lost a certain amount of weight or inches but who really wants to send them in and not have awesome results?  Not this chick.  As for the results, I will post those after my 60 days. I'm not ready to be that open with y'all  ;)

...and for those of you that read this for pictures of Jesalyn. Sorry to bore you with all my Insanity babble.  Here's a little something to hold you over:

That's my girl!!!!

Your Order Is On Its Way

These are the details of my Insanity video's.  They are soooo close! Can I be honest?!  I'm so excited and super scared. 


Date/Time: Feb 2, 2011 11:16 AM   

Activity:   At U.S. Postal Service facility 

Location:  NASHVILLE, TN

Details: Arrived at local Post Office - Allow one to two additional days for delivery

Clocks and Cookies

So in my car, on my clock is built in this totally annoying really handy reminder that tells you when it's time to get  maintenance done on the vehicle.  For example, when it's time for an oil change the words "change oil" will flash on the clock when I turn on the car and continues to flash until I push a button.  It just so happens that I need an oil change so every morning I see the flashing, reminding me that I still haven't done it.  It also just so happens that I'm out of windshield wiper fluid so after the "change oil" flashes, it goes on to flash "wiper fluid low."  I see this day in and day out.  I know I should just get the stuff changed and filled but I've been a little low on time and moolah lately so I just stare at the flashing words and push the button to make them go away.  Some days I have to laugh because I just see myself getting in my car and turning the keys and watching the clock flash "change oil" and then "low washer fluid" and I'm just waiting for the day to see it flash "car tags expired," "laundry in washer," "school loans earning more interest than what your paying," "windshield wiper broken," "Jarrod's car broken," "jaw is still locked" and on and on and on.  I picture this, and laugh because, well, that's all I can really do.  No, Jarrod has still not found a job yet, despite the 5,325,390 applications that he has turned in.  But we did our taxes and are getting a small chunk of change back so that should hold us for a while.  God is good and is supplying our needs, even if it's not the way had hoped for.  Yet.  I believe it will happen. The timing must not be right.

So, what do I do when I get a wee bit stressed? I bake.  Don't ask me why, it's just what I do.
Yesterday, I baked some yummy chocolate chip cookies (froze half the dough for a later time) and a delish coffee cake.  The cookie recipe, I'm claiming as my own because I changed the ingredients around enough that it's not the same recipe and the coffee cake came from Pioneer Women. You can get her recipe here.

And my yummy chocolate chip cookies