Favorite Quote of the Week

From The Big Bang Theory, Howard and Raj talking about setting the record straight on Facebook:

“Grow up Raj. There’s no place for the truth on the Internet.”

Be Careful What You Wish For

You know how I said that I wanted a day where I didn’t have to do anything, talk to anyone, or go anywhere? Well, I got what I asked for but not in the way that I wanted.

Friday, the Mister and I took the girls to a baseball game. They had a blast. The youngest is a people watcher and her eyes were bright with wonder the entire game. I was afraid that she would get bored because she’s not exactly a baseball fan, but she loved every minute of it and asked when we could go back. We also stayed for the after-game fireworks which were pretty great. We thought they were over twice before they actually were. Great fireworks show.

Saturday morning is when it happened. I woke up about 6 in the morning which made me really mad, lol. That’s when I normally wake up during the week, NOT on a Saturday. As I tried getting back to sleep, I started feeling queasy and it soon became apparent why I woke up in the first place:  it was finally my turn with the stomach flu. I’m just today starting to feel normal. Either I was affected differently than the girls or we had different bugs because they were better in a day and it took me three days to feel better. The only good thing about it was that it happened mostly over the weekend. I don’t know how I would have handled driving the oldest to and from school if I had gotten sick during the week. AND, I lost about two pounds, heheh. Hey. I’ll take the pound lossage anyway that I can get it.

Due to being unpleasantly laid up in bed, I’m behind in my blog reading, Twittering, and responding to comments and such. So, thanks to everyone who wished me well via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, etc. It was very sweet and made me feel better to read all the nice comments. Like I said, I’m pretty much back to normal today. I just have some residual tiredness and not much of an appetite.

Hope you all had a better weekend than I did. ;)

On Being Me

I’ve been in a mood lately. Or to be more accurate, I’ve been moody. What?!?! ME!! Moody?!?! Never! I know. It’s a shocker. I need therapy or something, I’m sure. Anyway, today I am focusing on the positive. Barring any unforeseen punishments, we are taking the kids to a Kinston Indians game tonight. We’re having some spectacular weather and it will be a perfect evening for a game. I’m really looking forward to going as a family this time, lol. For your reading pleasure, I’m going to list some other things that I enjoy. I’ve done something like this before, I know, but my tagging system is, well, not a system and I can’t find my other post, lol. So, if there are any repeats, you can rest assured that it’s something that I really  like.

1. I really love getting into a freshly made bed at night. Crisp, clean, lovely smelling sheets are a perfect prelude to a good night’s sleep.
2. Coming home to a clean house after being away for a few days.
3. Hannah when she sleeps in my lap. Or as much in my lap as a 60 pound dog can be. She’s such a cuddler that I think she’s a lap dog trapped in a larger dog’s body.
4. Bailey when she smiles. She’s four years old and it still makes me giggle every time she does it.
5. A hug from my youngest daughter. She gives the best hugs out of anybody I’ve ever known my entire life. You can tell she means to give love and comfort with her tiny arms.
6. When I look at my oldest daughter and I’m suddenly struck with how beautiful she is and getting a glimpse of the young woman she’s becoming. Every once in a while, I’ll glance at her and see that woman on her face. It’s amazing.
7. Watching my husband watch TV or read. I don’t know what it is about it, but I just like watching him concentrate on something, lol.
8. In the early, humid, morning, right after the sun has risen, I love the scent in the air. That smell that is fresh and a bit crisp because the day is still chilly but you can tell it’s going to be a scorcher. I love that. It reminds me of my dad.
9. My desk after it’s been clean and organized.
10. The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She is so funny. I laugh throughout the entire show and it just makes me feel good. Her Move It, Move It game makes me laugh until I’m crying. It’s a must DVR show.
11. This one is shallow, but having money in the bank. When we’re broke and I’m worrying about finances, I have migraines and insomnia. Sleeping at night and getting through the week without emptying a bottle of Excedrin is a good thing.
12. Relaxing with a glass of my favorite wine and an episode of a favorite show. I actually have “Wine” shows, lol. Weeds, Californication, Dexter, The Secret Diary of a Call Girl, are a few of the shows that a glass of wine is the perfect accompaniment.
13. Listening to the rain at night. I like to leave the windows open, turn off the lights, and light candles while it’s raining at night.
14. Playing the radio LOUD in my car. We have a rockin’ stereo in the Scion and it' is so much fun cruising around with it bumpin’. No. I’m not 17 years old, heheh.

That’s it for now. I have laundry waiting for me. Not a favorite thing of mine, heheh. But I’m wearing my last clean pair of underwear so it’s a must do.

Have a great and awesome weekend.

I Could Swear it’s Monday

I would give my left pinkie toe for a day of total nothing! I just want one day where I don’t have to see anyone, talk to anyone, or leave the house. Just one day. Today was not that day.

No sooner do I get the youngest child well and back to school than I had the oldest home and puking all day. Thankfully, she recovered faster than the youngest and is already feeling better.

That was today.

The weekend went by in a blur. Saturday, we were supposed to go to a Kinston Indians game. The Mister bought tickets on base and we were all excited to go. I don’t know about you, but I think minor league baseball games are way more fun than major league games. Anywho, during the coarse of the day, we discovered that the youngest child downloaded a game to her phone. This was expressly forbidden when she first got her phone. As a result, she got herself grounded and the Mister and the oldest child went to the game while I stayed home with a very angry ten year old. Fun times for me.

Sunday, we took her to a birthday party. I know. But I already told her friend’s mom that she’d be there and I didn’t want to disappoint the little girl. It was at the roller rink and we ended up dropping off both kids for the afternoon. The youngest is still grounded from her phone.

We also had to go to the commissary on Sunday. Remember how I mentioned that my tags were expired on my car and the DMV hadn’t sent me new ones? Well, we got pulled over on base for driving with expired tags. They didn’t cite us because luckily, I printed the receipt from where I had paid for new stickers so that I had proof. Monday, I called the DMV and they offered to mail them out again. Hello!! I already tried that. I paid for them on April 3rd and they still haven’t come in the mail. I told the lady I would just go pick them up at the nearest office which is only a block from my house, heheh. I’m driving legal once again.

Oh!! And I totally forgot to mention that I planted TEN tomato plants on Saturday. Yay!! I’m very excited to have garden fresh tomatoes. It’s been years since I’ve had them. I just hope they don’t die. I have a tendency to kill plants. I just don’t have a green thumb. I also planted four broccoli plants and the youngest brought a cabbage plant home from school that we are growing as well. I’m keeping all my appendages crossed in  hopes that they all grow successfully. Oh. And that the dogs don’t decide to chew them up. The only place in my yard that gets enough sunlight is the  backyard. :/

 

Where’d the Week Go?

I can’t believe that it’s already Thursday. I love weeks like this though. Supposedly, time flies when you’re having fun, right? Well, maybe.

Monday, the Mister had the day off work for the holiday. It was also our 14 year dating anniversary. 14 years. Wow!

Tuesday, we had to take the youngest for an appointment at the Naval clinic on base. It’s kind of a long story, but it has to do with her ADHD. That doctor gave us referrals to two more doctors that we have appointments with this month. I have a feeling the rest of April is going to fly by too. We also managed to get her social security card and mine replaced. They took her shot record as a form of identity. Just an FYI.

The tags on my car expired yesterday. I paid for new ones two weeks ago but still haven’t gotten them in the mail yet. I really and truly hate driving around with expired tags. Hopefully they’ll come in the mail today.

Also in mommy blogging news, I had to pick the youngest up from school this morning with an upset stomach. She had only been in school for 25 minutes when I got her, lol. I thought she was faking but she’s definitely not faking. She’s been puking her guts up all afternoon. She’s so tiny that her entire body is wracked with spasms and you can feel every bone in her back. I feel terrible when she’s sick like that. Thankfully, she’s already starting to feel a bit better. I hope none of the rest of us gets it. Puking is the worst.

\Now, with all my kidlet drama this week, I’m behind with my work. Not terribly behind but enough that I don’t like it. I left the youngest in the temporary care of her older sister while I try and get caught up a little. How do moms who work outside of the home do it? I just don’t know.

Being Neighborly and Other Stuff

Last week was spring break for my kids. The whole week was a blur of sleepovers. It began with he youngest sleeping over with a neighbor girl earlier in the week. Monday or Tuesday. Something like that. Then, one of my neighbors asked if I would mind watching her kids for a few hours one afternoon. Well, they were already over playing so I figured why not. While her girls were here, they conspired with my girls to sleepover that night. Again, they were already there, so why not. Then, to repay my kindness, my neighbor offered to keep my kids overnight the next night. Woot!!! An entire night with no kids! Then, Friday night, both the girls were invited to a  respective  friend’s house for yet another sleepover so we had no kids Friday night too. It was nice for all concerned.

As a result of all these sleepovers, I met quite a few of my neighbors. They all seem nice enough but I don’t want to be friends with any of them. How bad does that sound?? My two very closest friends don’t even live in the same time zone as me. I’m tired of making friends only to leave them behind or have them move away. We are currently trying our darndest to move back to California by next summer. If not Cali, it will be somewhere else. I don’t want to make new friends that I know I’ll be leaving in a year’s time. Oh well.

In other news…

It turns out that when a military brat turns ten, he or she is supposed to get their military ID card. We found this out the hard way and also discovered that the girls took their social security cards to play with and now we can’t find them. You need your social security card to get your military ID. Do you know how ridiculous it is to get a replacement social security card? Did you also know that you can only get ten replacement cards in your lifetime?

Don’t even ask how the dieting and exercising is going. Fine. I’ll tell you. My street “run” really threw my routine for a loop. I was in pain for the entire week last week. My left foot had this burning, shooting pain along the outer side of it and both my shins had swollen knots on them. As a result, when I tried running on the elliptical on Tuesday, I could only go for two miles before I couldn’t take it anymore. And that was the last time I tried. I’m getting back into my routine starting tomorrow. I swear. I have an appointment today or I would have started today.

I have more to post but I need to hit the shower so I can get ready to go. Laters.

My First Street Run

The Mister took me out for my first street run on Sunday. It was rough! It’s pretty embarrassing to say how poorly I did but what the hell…I ran/walked about 1.5 miles before I wanted to die. I had never seen a sweeter sight than at the end of my torturous 1.5 mile run, to see my car sitting beside the road beckoning me to it’s comforting interior. I think Trisha is more cut out for turning the key in the ignition, sliding open the sunroof, and running the volume up all the way in her car than she is for tying on running shoes and hitting the pavement. I am so sore today that every move is accompanied with a sound of pain that I can’t help making. Even my ribs hurt and I have no idea why that would be unless it is due to all the huffing and wheezing that I did trying not to pass out. Yes. It really was this terrible. It was high school gym class all over again. I knew going into it that five miles on the elliptical (my best distance) was not going to translate to five miles on the street. The machine does some of the work for you. But I had no idea that being able to run five miles on the elliptical would only mean a mile and a half on the street. I was rather disappointed in myself. The Mister said that for a first time out that I did good. I mostly believe him, lol. He knows how I feel about people telling me what they think I want to hear rather than the truth.

Even so and despite all my soreness, I’m not giving up. First of all, the Mister won’t let me, heheh, but I am pretty disappointed. Really disappointed. I thought that I could do better than that so I’m going to keep at it until I can run a respectable mile.

I’m going to alternate between elliptical runs and street runs until I can get my endurance up. Oh. And until I stop turning an alarming shade of purple. I’m going to have to come up with a plan, goals, and a routine to keep me motivated. Running sucks and at this point, I have no, absolutely no idea why people do it for fun. I’m doing it because I don’t like failing at things and I don’t like being embarrassed by how I did. Maybe at some point it will turn into something that resembles fun. But I doubt it. ;)

Purely a Test

One of my clients uses Survey Monkey. I had never heard of Survey Monkey before and one of my tasks in the future will be to compose, send out, and use the results. I’m trying to figure out how to use this service so I created a survey as an experiement. I would appreciate it if you all could take the time to take my survey just so that I can see what the results will look like. It’s strictly confidential and the survey is pointless but it would really help me out if I could see how it works.

Click Here to take survey

I’m not getting paid for this survey. It is purely for my own benefit. ;)

Two Month Update

April 1st was the last day of month number two of my new eating right and exercising regime. I’m very happy to report that I’ve lost 12.4 pounds so far. Not too terrible considering those three pounds I put back on in GA. I’m not losing at the same rate that I was in the beginning but I expected that so it’s not getting me down.

I’ve had the most ups and downs with eating right. The biggest hang up that I have is that I get entirely sick and tired of cooking every single day of the week. I’m beginning to hate the whole process:  Planning meals, making a shopping list, grocery shopping, figuring out what I’m in the mood to cook and eat every night, then prepping and cooking dinner and then eating my own cooking ALL THE TIME!!! Ugh, ugh, and UGH! This is leading to burnout which results in us eating out once or sometimes twice a week. I try not to go crazy on the nights we eat out and without giving out TMI, I can’t eat too much greasy, fried food anymore. I’ve had a major thing for Quiznos. I can’t seem to get enough of it. I could eat a chicken carbornara right now. Or a Baja Chicken. Hmm. You get my point though. What’s more is that the more weight that I lose, the less calories I’m allotted a day, lol. Doesn’t seem fair, right? Well, the less you weigh, the more it takes to burn fat so the fewer calories you can eat in a day and still lose weight. I started out being able to eat 1,464 and now I’m down to 1,384. 80 calories may not seem like a lot to you, but to a person on a diet trying to lose weight, 80 calories is a lot. I miss those 80 calories, lmao.

Exercise is still going really good. I’d have to say that this is where I’m the most proud of myself. I started out only being able to run for about a mile to a mile and a half in 20-25 minutes on the elliptical. Today I ran 4 miles in 40 minutes and 50 seconds. That’s a really good time for me. Sunday the Mister is taking me out for my first street run. It should be interesting. I’ll be sure and update you all as to how it goes. I’m also going to integrate some other exercise into my routine. Probably some yoga and some strength training. My legs and butt are really firming up with all the running and my upper body is being neglected. Plus, mixing it up will keep me from getting bored and will push me over any plateaus I encounter. :)

 

I Want to Quit the Gym!!

I don’t actually belong to a gym, but if you’re a Friends fan, you’ll get the reference.

My Entrecard post and tweet stirred up some people yesterday namely, the founder of Entrecard, Graham Langdon, who left a comment and @ replied me on Twitter yesterday. He wasn’t the only one either. What’s more is that I can’t even seem to give my stinking credits away. Which, by the way, the offer is now off the table. I have to wonder, is this because so many other people are cancelling their EC account or if it’s because people don’t believe that they’d really get something for nothing. Heck. It could just be that nobody cares one way or the other but I do have a plan of action to give way the danged credits. Sheesh.

Never in a million years did I think that my wanting to cancel my Entrecard account would stir up so much drama. It reminded me of the days, way back when, when I had AOL for my dial up Internet service provider. It was near to impossible to cancel my account with them. Their service reps badger and browbeat you until you’re on the verge of tear and just want to say, “Fine!! I’ll keep AOL. Just don’t harass me anymore. PLEASE!!”  XM Radio was the same way too. And you know what?? The more you try and convince me that your product is the end all, be all of the greatest thing in the world, the more I push back and just want to get away from you. I’m to the point now that I wouldn’t keep Entrecard if my life depended on it.

And for the record, and what was failed to be mentioned by Graham Langdon in all his persuading yesterday, is that yes, bloggers do have the right to refuse paid ads on their EC widget. BUT, you, the blogger and EC account user, have to pay out of your earned credits, a fee to refuse these paid ads. This is straight from Entrecard’s blog which can be found here:  Entrecard Blog

It’s just not worth it to me anymore and you know what?? I have a right to my opinion.

And I just realized the time so that’s the end of this subject. Move on!

Attention Entrecard Users!!!

I am cancelling my Entrecard account. Why? For a few reasons but mostly because they are starting a new thing where businesses can put paid advertisements on your EC widget. I really don’t like that. Nothing on this blog has ever been paid advertising, paid blogging, paid anything (except for a very brief stint with Google Adsense that didn’t get me one red cent.) and I’m not starting now.  Not that there’s anything wrong with earning money with your blog, it’s just not my cup of tea. At least not on this blog but that’s a whole other topic.

ANYWHO!!!! I have 2,460 EC credits that I am giving away to the first blogger that asks me for them. I also tweeted this on Twitter so if a comment here beats a Twitterer’s @ reply to me there, you’ll get the credits and vice versa.

So LEAVE ME A COMMENT telling me you want my credits and if you’re first, you get them!!

Hurry up! If I don’t get any replies, I’m deleting my account and they’ll just be gone.