The circus. We had just come home from the circus. It is late and the kiddos are on the verge of savagery. I am wishing I could just melt into my bed and get a full night of sleep. Maybe then my throat would feel better. Right then it felt as though my favorite snack food was barbed wire with a side of razor blades. H pipes up, "So should I put in my breakfast order now or do you just want me to wake you up...."I don't even turn to glare. I just exit the car. Quite the charmer that man is. … [Read more...]
I Cry Do Over!
So yesterday was a total wash. At least as far as living a healthy shredding lifestyle. There were doctor appointments for me and TD, and a sleepless night broke us. Numerous visits to the pharmacy and I finally got to see the psychiatrist for my postpartum depression diagnosis. It was simply put a very long and exhausting day. Do any of us really want to review our whole psych history in under an hour and dredge up all our little and not so little issues in that short amount of time? No, not really. Do we want to leave that cozy office with its box of endless tissues and go out into the blaring sun and head back into our everyday life? Not me. I just wanted to take a big nap.I did learn one thing yesterday. When I'm stressed and tired it is oh so clear that I reach for one thing. … [Read more...]
Angry Woman Kicks 1,4-Dioxane to the Curb
I'll admit I'm a bit cantankerous today. I was up all night with TD who has a hellacious cough and the poor kid is just not herself. Combine that lack of sleep with an issue that just generally gets me riled up anyway and you've got one angry woman on your hands.That must mean it is time for a SOAP BOX RANT! I've climbed up. Attention please! Let me begin.I love my kids. I want what is best for them in every possible way. I want them to feel safe and secure at all times. Their welfare and health is at the tip top of my list on a daily basis. So that is why I get so steaming, hell-fire breathing mad when I read that companies that many parents have trusted for generations, companies that love to court us mommy bloggers, just really don't give a shit. There. I said it. They don't. … [Read more...]
What Would You Do for Cupcake?
Meet Cuppy.Cuppy apparently turned two yesterday.After a spin on the Disney circuit sharing top billing with a certain Ms. Lohan, years of being a flat Stanley type character in my life, doing hard time in a box in storage, Cuppy got paroled last year and has now found a home in the heart of TD. But Cuppy has not gone completely straight yet. She whispered a little magic in TD's ear yesterday and told her it was her second birthday. It was time for a celebration TD declared.Cuppy needed cupcakes too. How convenient! We just happened to be at the grocery store.So there you have it. Happy Birthday you sneaky little Cuppy. I'm on to you too TD. I know only too well just what lengths a girl will go to for a cupcake fix. … [Read more...]
Shred, Shred, Shred!
Just when I think I can take no more I imagine myself standing in the middle of a circle of faceless people shouting, "Shred! Shred! Shred!" as if I'm about to do a keg stand instead of air punches and squats. It keeps me motivated I swear. When my arms feel like they are going to break off at the shoulder and fall on the floor writhing in agony because Man! circuit three strength training hurts so good and yes, hurts so freakin' bad I need all the encouragement I can get. I'm on day seven of Shredding and hallelujah it is working! As I type I'm wearing a pair of jeans I bought back in my pre-Dash Two days. It's exhilarating. I have more energy, sleep more soundly (minus those times when TD wakes up at 4 a.m. crying for Chapstick) and really do feel like that twenty minutes of … [Read more...]
Like Totally and Gag me with a Spoon
Apparently I upset the 80s gods the other day when I innocently set my Facebook status to having an urge to listen to "bad 80s music". While I do love my fair share of 'I love the 80s' on VH-1 and all that I had no idea people were still so passionate about day glo colors, triple-layered socks, tight-rolled jeans (Sorry Ms. Holmes), WHAM!, Vuarnet (anyone else covet that V in a circle symbol back in the day?) and Duran Duran I am still much more of a bring on the funk and boogie on down to some do the hustle disco. You all seriously don't like having the 80s called "bad" unless it's by Michael Jackson do you?So what's your favorite song, movie, style or trend from the 80s? Do you still miss wearing your sunglasses at night and believe that Nicholas Cage's greatest movie role was in … [Read more...]
Dial 911 to Get Rid of Unwanted Stuff
The other night I went in to check on TD as she lay sleeping. As I tucked her in I heard a loud rumbling engine in front of my house. Upon peering out the window I saw that an ambulance was parked out front and the driver was exiting the vehicle and walking up to my front steps. "What the..." I said to H and we both ran down the stairs. Everything seemed OK in our house. The alarm had not gone off. What the heck was going on? Did Lex the dog suddenly decide to go the way of the Chicken McNugget lady because we are out of dog treats?We opened the door, both standing there, surprising the ambulance driver as she hadn't even knocked on our door yet. "Oh! I'm here to pick up the puzzles?" She said. "Puzzles? What puzzles?" I asked. "The puzzles you are giving away on Freecycle? … [Read more...]
On Life, Death and Our Children
I have never felt so inadequate or so much like an adult as when I attended my friend's mothers funeral a few weeks ago. I was alone in attending and unlike other funerals I didn't have my grandmother, or my father or my husband to lean on. As I sat there listening to my friend and her sister eulogize their mother with such tremendous poise and grace I felt that we were passing into a new phase of our lives that needed plenty past life healing. Our parents are dying now. We have officially grown up. Then I thought back to my childhood and remembered a few of my school friends whose parents passed away due to long illnesses while we were still in grade school. In first grade I celebrated my birthday with cupcakes at 8 a.m. so that the whole class could attend a fellow classmates fathers … [Read more...]
Free To Just Be
Ever since we found out we were going to be parents H and I knew that we would without a doubt let our kids feel free to be themselves. Their quirks and personalities, likes and dislikes were free to gad about and we would not try to stifle them. Lefties are welcome just like kids with blue hair and opposing political views.Then the other day I realized we actually haven't been doing that. TD has some wildly untamable hair and everyday we run the gamut of detangler, soaking every layer and then combing it out. "Combing out the weave" is what H calls it. It's definitely a process and one that goes completely AWOL about ten minutes later. Inevitably I end up combing her whole head about three more times in a day. If I don't do this it looks like a pack of rabid squirrels ran through it while … [Read more...]
I love the smell of sweat in the morning
It smells like victory.Am breathless. Sweaty. Want to rip off all my clothes and lay on the floor panting. Jillian Micheal's and her 30 Day Shred just pulverized me and in front of my innocent children.Going into my first day of the 30 Day Shred Challenge I had no idea what to think. H ripped the factory sealed plastic off the DVD as soon as he got home last night and immediately fired up the DVD player. After watching my former Marine husband sweat profusely from just twenty minutes I got a little bit afraid. Then I thought, Pfftt.. I did an hour and a half of this stuff all last year. I'll be fine. My body will remember.HA! I am not just breathless and sweaty but also profoundly delusional. Apparently getting knocked up performs a lobotomy on your muscles. The muscles in my thighs are … [Read more...]