Random Ramblings

I have so much going on in my mind I decided to just do one big random post.  I have been a single mom since Thursday and Oh.What.A.Ride.

- The "Incident" went like this; get to the mall with the kids, AL (11months) and LD (4) - no stroller.  I go in anyways - I'm tough. Right.  Get to the shoe store as I said as soon as the clerk brought us to the running shoes LD starts SCREAMING hear tummy hurts.  Should I remind you here how gross public bathrooms are and that I am carrying an infant?  I will save you the rest of the details.  So when I got home I could feel the stress aging me and I told my husband "these kids are the vampires of fun".  They are so fun to do stuff one-on-one with but it is very difficult to have 2 or more out in public.

-Thursday is hubby's first day away and AM has soccer practice at 5:30p.m.; I have a committee meeting for our May event at 4:30p; and there is the issues of getting the two little one's picked up from daycare and finding someone to watch them.  It was a complete exhausting circus!!
 
-Friday I stayed up until 11pm to get stuff ready for a baby shower I was hosting on Saturday.  At 11:30p.m. LD wakes me up saying she wet her bed, but she had a pull-up on so I couldn't figure out how that was possible.  SO I get her in the bath an clean up her room and the hall and anything else she touched.  That night LD ended up with 3 baths and me washing 3 sets of sheets.  She stopped throwing up at about 5:30a.m. and stopped rolling around moaning about 6:00a.m. and AL was up at 6:30 a.m.  Needless to say I did not make the shower my sister picked everything up and got it took care of everything.  My mom picked up AL for a while so I could get some rest.  LD had other plans so she roamed the house watching tv while I slept.

- Saturday I got some rest but I also got a lot of bleaching and laundry taken care of.  I love a freshly bleached home!!  I also got AM and I Chinese food.  Hubby hates Chinese so it was a treat for us.  I actually had a great day Saturday.  I sometimes make my families life so busy that we never just get to hang out and enjoy each other and we did just that this Saturday.

-Chinese food realization when I was done gorging eating I felt kind of miserable and possibly ashamed of what I had just eaten and a memory of childhood flashed.  I was the "good eater" in my family.  My two sisters were pains in the asses picky eaters.  So while we ate almost every meal as a family our meals mostly consisted of my mom and step-dad trying to get my sisters to eat.  So my flash was of me and my proud face when I had eaten everything.  Not feelin so proud these days! Weird how life changes.  I think this is one of the reasons I don't fight with my kids to eat.  If they aren't hungry they aren't hungry.

Here is my final rant.  A few months ago I was struggling because I had all of these emotions and felt like I had to be a certain way on my blog.  So I wrote a big long post about it.  Out of respect I sent it over to my editor (hubby).  What he sent me back really made sense.  (paraphrasing) "If you feel like you need to post this than do, but I see your blogging from both sides and what I like about it is that sometimes blogging makes you look at the good side of things.  So I never posted that post because I decided that's what I like about blogging too.  I tell some of my frustrating stories but I will keep my dirty laundry to myself.

The point of that most RANDOM story is that I am still struggling to get back to business with my good eating habits.  I am feeling a little overwhelmed these days.  So in true blogging spirit I am going to write post this week that outline my weekly struggles and how I plan on kicking those struggles in the behind!!!  So look out for my Kung Fu posts this week - because this chick is kicking butt and taking names!

Where's the Button I Really Need?

I have been on a hunt for running shoes.  My shins have been killing me and I am sure it is because I am mostly working out in shoes I wore during pregnancy, i.e. shoes that endured a whole lotta weight and are broken down.  This has not been a fun experience.  When I was on my trip in March I went to a running store in Reston Town Center and the sales guy did a running anlaysis.  He said that I needed a neutral running shoe - no stability.  So last night I go to the store and tell the lady I need a neutural running shoe , she says "what do you mean".  I look at her and say, "I don't know what I mean, that is what I was told. I assume it means something less concerned with stability and more with cushion".  Than there was an incident which I will discuss another time and so we left.

Before I went to the gym last night I snuck off to Marshalls and bought the same pair of Saucony's that I already had.  But since they were new they were white and not grey - you know because they are new.

Not the cutest or fanciest shoe but for $35 who can complain.  As I mentioned last week was not my most faithful gym week.  So while I was standing under the ominous humming flourescents at Marshalls staring at this most boring of shoes I made a fiscal, goal oriented decision.  Get this cheap boring shoe now, set a mile/training goal and than I will get this shoe when I reach it.

I saw these beauties in this months Fitness issue.  Yes it is a mild stability shoe not a neutral shoe but I love the colors.  I went to the Nike site to check them out and could not find them.  They had all of these buttons, for sport, stability, training, on and on.  Where is the "Cute and Want To Get Skinny" button?  I don't want to be a shoe expert I just want to do a little exercising and have cute feet while I am doing it.

Now if I was celebrating the old school way I would have gone for these.

Actually I am not going to go there.  So let's just focus on the cute shoes!

Slow-cooker Salsa Chicken

I have had a few set backs in my weight loss journey - but it is back to business.  Some of my trouble came from food burn out, meaning I couldn't come up up with meals to please my family or myself.  The other side of it came from stress, and let's face it, I am an emotional eater.  While I wish that I would just magically wake up one day being skinny, well thin, I know and have accepted that this is a journey that I have to commit to and it is about changing my habits.  Cliché, I know.

That being said I am committing to trying 1 new healthy recipe each week.  As I mentioned I recently purchased an iPhone.  One of the first  Apps I loaded was the Sparks Recipe App.  There is also a website here.  What a GREAT app.  May be one of my favorites so far.  Easy to use and navigate.  I can pick recipes, healthy recipes based on ingredients and diet requirements and than save them to your favorites.  The only draw back is that it does not build a shopping list.  Not a big deal really but it would be a nice feature for a later release.

Here is my first recipe, Slow-cooker Salsa Chicken - yum, yum!! 

 Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup salsa
1 package reduced sodium taco seasoning
1 can reduced fat cream of mushroom soup (condensed)
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream

Directions

Add chicken to slow cooker.
Sprinkle taco seasoning over chicken.
Pour salsa and soup over chicken.
Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.
Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.
Serve with rice.

*Nutritional Info

Servings Per Recipe: 6
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 157.2
Total Fat: 3.3 g
Cholesterol: 63.4 mg
Sodium: 654.2 mg
Total Carbs: 6.7 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.9 g
Protein: 24.3 g

*as published at Sparks Recipes
I do not think these numbers include the rice.

We made this dish on Sunday and I forgot to put it in the crock-pot before church so hubby put it together and put it in the oven.  If it had been in the crock-pot all day it would have looked more like pulled chicken I assume.  The flavor was great though.  In the future I will also serve over brown rice.  If you try it let me know what you think. 

Also on Sparks if you search "crock-pot salsa chicken" you will see variations to this recipe that do not have the cream soup in it.  Happy cooking!

Weekend Recap

This weekend was packed full of activities.  Fortunatley most of them fell off.  Phew!

Saturday I signed up to check out my churches ministry for single moms.  The director for the childcare portion of the ministry is leaving and they need someone new.  So I went to check it out to see if it would be a good fit.  I of course realized before the day came that I have limited time with my own kids and can not commit to additional activities.  When I got there I sat and had breakfast with a brother and sister that were absolutley adorable!  I later learned that they live with their grandmother because their mother is in jail.  Also their grandmother has leukimia.  I could have burst into tears right that second and I can't stop thinking about them.  So I was happy when other plans that day fell through and I got to hang out with my hubby and rent a chick flick and veg out!

Sunday we went to church.  I went off to my Youth group and everyone else went to their Sunday school classes.  After church I took LD to the zoo and than LD and I stopped by my grandma's to say happy birthday.  My grandmother has been sick with pneamonia for several weeks so please keep her in your prayers.

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is built into the side of the mountain.  It is a pretty good workout!

Well it is Monday and it is back to the grind!

LD had some coloring quota's to meet first thing this morning and was already stressed by Monday! ;)

(She really had a dentist appointment so she came in with me.)

My hubby has been writing down some super funny thoughts and I think he may start to guest post on my blog!  What do you think?  His first one should be very entertaining!  Here's to a great week!!

AL Turned 11 Months and a Scary Story

AL Turned 11 Months on the 6th.  Now that she is practically 1 year I thought I would post about it. ;)  Seriously I am going to have to get better at treading water.

AL is a sweet, sweet baby.  She loves to give hugs.  She can reach one hand to each shoulder and than she leans her head into your chest.  It is super sweet.  AL is by far the busiest baby I have ever had.  She has no fear.  LD has a step stool and if she leaves it out AL will climb on it to get into things.  If there is a mound of toys she will climb to the top of the toys to get into whatever she can.  Recently she has started crying when I leave her at daycare.  Which makes me sad.  She has also learned to throw a fit, which makes us laugh.  She sprawls on the floor crying with her super sad face with her head laying to the side and than she kicks her feet.  Tonight as I was checking a few blogs she decided she wanted to type and when I did not let her she did a stand up version by stomping her feet.  Again I laughed.  You can't help it - it is HYSTERICAL!!  She still only sucks her thumb occasionally it is so cute!

AL also has no interest in being a baby.  She does not like it when other kids try to help her do something she pushes them away and proves she can do it herself.  I am not sure where she got this type of behavior.  cough, cough. She also has little to no interest in baby food so more and more we have been cutting up big people food for her.  She works on it with her two lonely teeth.  On the hair and teeth front, only two teeth to report.  No teeth, no hair.  Poor baby!  This is what she has to say when her daddy asks when she is going to get more hair.

For the most part she drinks from the Nub sippy cups.  She also likes the sippy cups with two handles.

Onto the scary story; AL likes to pick things up that are cup shaped and drink from them.  I have an aroma simmer pot that sits behind the TV, which is pretty low.  I had no idea it was on, the scent probably ran out months ago.  I was on the phone with AM and I happened to look up and LD had picked up the simmer pot and went to drink it like a cup and the wax poured all over her.  I was so freaked out.  I felt horrible.  We do not have many flat areas, so there has not been much baby proofing to do and this thing is behind the TV so it is not something I see.  I was so nervous.  We ended up just putting cold towels on her body, which she was not happy about, but the skin did not blister.  We were so relieved.

This picture was taken after we had finished applying the towels.  You can see the wax still on her ear.  Again we feel so relieved it was not worse than what it was.  She was already back to her happy self.

Someone Please Make the Screaming Stop.....

.....Oh right that's me.

Ladies I have been on a mission to lose weight. The last two weeks I have not done so well. My back has been KILLING me. It hurts to do anything, including breathing, unfortunately it is unaffected by eating. Boo.


Sadly I think a little; okay probably a good portion of the pain is from lugging this cute little baby around.

 

The fact is I should not be carrying around a 20 pound baby in a car seat with a handle. But this mommy would like her to remain a baby. Except now I am leaning towards a little walking. With my back I can hardly pick her up.


My secret is this; I carried AM around until she was about 4. She walked of course but I would still carry her a lot more than I should have. The only reason I stopped was that I was hit by a drunk driver and couldn't carry her. Now LD is 4 and I still carry her a lot and I carry a 20 pound baby in a car seat so all in all we can say my back pain is really my own fault. I just really like to carry my kids.

So my little baldy is going to get a big girl car seat today - something I should have done MONTHS ago.  Does anyone else have any of these things they do for their kids or someone they love they know they shouldn't but do anyways?  Or am I the only crazy lady out there?  Wait don't answer the last part....

Easter

Yes, I am so behind. I am feeling a little bogged down these days. I can't quite figure out why it seems to go in cycles. We had a wonderful Easter though!

The highlight had to be when LD whispered to us during church service "Jesus died for our sins on the cross, that cross" and pointed to the cross on the stage. It was pretty awesome and I will say it did not pain me one bit to write my check for daycare this week.

Friday night hubby and I decided we desperately needed a date night so we went out to my favorite mexican restaurant and then to see a movie. The movie we chose to see left something to be desired. I was in the mood for a chick flick but there was not one showing by the time we were done with dinner so we went to see Avatar.

On Saturday we got up early to bring AM to her soccer game and when we got home we discovered someone had spilled Mountain Dew on the hardwoods so we cleaned the main level. After we got the glue Mountain Dew was successfully cleaned up we colored eggs. This year we tried twos different type of coloring kits, a tie-dye and a marble. The tie-die was a lot of fun the marble - not so much. Here is LD and hubby working on a tie-dye egg.

 

I can't decide if in this picture LD is taking mental notes for when it is her turn or if she is critiquing her daddies technique.

Here is AM's contribution to this years egg coloring.  We all needed a nap so thank goodness she was gettting plenty of rest for all of us!  Way to take one for the team AM!!

Here are the results.

Some of the eggs we just dipped in the coloros.  I get bored about halfway through the process.  I have big dreams of lots of beautifully colored eggs and than get really bored when things start to get messy and my eggs aren't turning out quite as beutifully as Martha Stewarts trained professionals.  Than I realize - I am just going to crack them all open and make deviled eggs tomorrow - let's wrap it up people!

On Sunday we went to the early service and than to my sisters for lunch and an Easter egg hunt.

Here is a shortened series of me trying to get a picture of my kids and my two nephews.  I say shortened because this 5 shots out of the 12 I actually took.

This is were I gave up.  Since I started to feel like screaming profanities I figured - they won.  Go outside and find your eggs.  Geech.

And my final attempt at a picture with all of the kids to include my aunts grandkids.

Seriously how hard is it for a 14 year old girl to stay on task with getting her picture taken?

Oh well, we really had a great day.  The sun was shining and I got a lot of great individual pictures.  I also got some great shots of a trampoline war between AM and my older sister.  I will have to post those later.  Good to hear everyone in blogland had a great Easter too! 

Have a great rest of your week!

Hello, Goodbye

Sorry I have been away for a little while.  With all of the weather changes comes allergies and sinus infections for me - not fun to say the least.

I have been meaning to make this post for awhile but I was spurred to do it tonight by a discovery I made today.

While on my trip to New York in the beginning of March my phone died.  Well the trackball stopped selecting and some of the keys started sticking.  I had one of these and LOVED it.  Well in the machine type of way. ;) 

I had the red one, I could not find a good picture in that color. I had planned on just replacing it with another Pearl but my carrier has gone to a policy that if you have a data phone you must have a data plan. Well there was no way I could put a data plan to good use on that tiny screen so I went to this.

In the famous words of my friend Matt if a phone could be sexy - this thing is!!  I love my new phone!  And I am going to have to start a twelve step program soon.  Let me tell you I have put a hurting on that data plan!! 

I discovered one small draw back today.  I found a Google RSS Reader App for my phone so I have been catching up on all my long lost blog friends and commenting!  Commenting my little heart out I might say.  All along thinking this is easy I don't have to fill out all of those annoying verification comment boxes - Lovin This! (Said in a sing-song voice of course)  Well apparently friends while I thought I was lovin on all of your blogs I have not been.  I checked in real life today to make sure my comment made it to one blog and it sure wasn't there.  So while I thought I was being a great blogger on the other end, by commenting on everyone's blogs and getting all caught up even though I was ignoring my own.  In real life I was apparently not doing anything.  So I want to send out a big fat apology to everyone for not commenting lately!!  When I really was - just in the lazy on my iPhone app kind of way and now I've been had.  So I promise to do it the old fashion way - until I can figure out the technology way!  haha 

I have to tell you there is nothing like going to the gym with your ipod in and your iphone so you can read all of your favorite blogs!  Yes I realize I could burn all of my music to my iphone but if I had that kind of time than I probably would not have been blog cheating, my blog would not be so lacking and I would be taking up precious app space!!  Real Estate people! ;)

All-in-all best purchase in a very long time.  Love.IT!!  Highly recommended.