I'm Saved!

The camping trip was CANCELED! The whole weekend was canceled by the pack which is just fine with me.

Not so fine with Bug and the rest of my family, though. :( I sort of feel bad for them.

Sort of.

I'm sure we'll be camping again, though. Sooner than later.

My one day of rest

Today is Tuesday and it is the only day this week I will not be running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I'm so pleased. I told The Man last night that I didn't even want to step foot in the car today.

Unfortunately the kids missed the bus this morning so I DID have to step foot in the car to take them to school. But no more! I'm not going anywhere else! :)

Tomorrow we have a cub scout meeting, Thursday is a brownie meeting, and Friday we're going CAMPING with the cub scouts.

A couple of weeks ago it was me who decided it would be a great idea that we all go camping this weekend with Bug's pack. I thought it would be great to spend a weekend together as a family, in the wilderness, building a camp fire, roasting marshmallows... all that jazz.

As the weekend approaches and the rest of my family gets more and more excited, I am getting more and more apprehensive. I'm seeing myself attempting to feed my family with the aid of an open fire (there's a Burger King and a Publix about 5 minutes up the road), me getting dirty no matter how much I try not to (our house is only 15 minutes away with it's hot water showers and hair blow dryer), and our tent being impaled by a wild boar.

We have lots of wild boars here in Florida. They look something like this:


We see them frequently eating grass on the side of the road when traveling home at night. They like the yummy grass that borders the road, I guess.

Yeah... if I meet one in the woods I think I'll pee myself.

Do you know what you want?

"I do. What I really want is my foundation to match my skin."



For some reason this ad drives me bonkers. This is what we, as women, should "really want" out of life? For our foundation to match?!

Maybe I'm being petty, but I can't help it. I pay attention to advertising. It has always interested me. This ad makes me want to boycott Revlon. Not that I'm a big Revlon supporter in the first place.

Does anyone else think this is a disgusting advertisement or am I just crazy?

Changing your oil... it's gotta be done.

I hate getting my oil changed. Seriously... I hate going to the place and having to talk to the guy behind the counter and having him ask me questions about the car.

"Is it an LX, an EX, a Limited?"

*blank stare*

"Is it a 6 cylinder or an 8 cylinder?"

Is he talking to me?

Once I complete my oral test I fight with my key ring so I can avoid giving Mr. Grubby McDirtyhands my house keys and my mom's house keys and the keys to my mailbox and all other precious keys while still giving him access to my car. I'm not sure why I do this, actually. Do I think he's going to write down my address and make a copy of my keys so he can come to my house and steal all of my valuables? Because my minivan filled with children's toys and things I need to take to Goodwill surely makes it look like my house would be the one to rob. Yep... lots of valuables in there.

Then I am dismissed to the waiting area to watch Montel Williams or look over Car & Driver magazine while sitting in a cold plastic chair and trying to avoid eye contact with the other patrons.

After 45 minutes I am called back to the desk where Mr. Grubby McDirtyhands shows me something small and black and greasy and says something like "Your flux capacitor is old and cracked and needs to be replaced. It's going to cost you $89.95 plus labor. I really can't let you drive out of the parking lot with it like this."

I attempt to call The Man to ask him if this guy is giving me the run around. He doesn't answer so I give in to pressure from Grubby because I know nothing about cars and he has convinced me that the car surely will break down 3 miles from the oil change place and I will be stranded cold and hungry and unable to get to my children.

An hour and a half later I sign a bill for hundreds of dollars, remove the grubby paper mat from the floor of my car and throw it in the back of the van, and am on my way.

There goes over 2 hours of my life I'll never get back.

So I'm doing it differently now.

Yesterday I got my oil changed and it was fun! Yes, you read right... FUN!

My best friend and I put our cars in TOGETHER. Then we took a little walk down the street to the Pollo Tropical where we had a little lunch. While eating our lunch Mr. Grubby called her cell phone to try to up sell us on auto repair stuff. My best friend is tough and knows more than I do and talked sternly to Mr. Grubby about how all we wanted was an oil change. (Yay!)

After our yummy lunch we walked over to Linens & Things and browsed all sorts of things we didn't need. We played with the Leg Magic and the Ab Lounge. She bought a pan.

We walked back and our cars were ready. $30 later and I was on my way. Painless.

I'm getting my oil changed like this every time!

That's what worked for me!

For more Works for me Wednesday posts, check out Rocks In My Dryer!

21 days

For the past 3 days I've been pretty meticulous about writing down everything I eat and I've kept my calories very low. Under 1400 calories every day.

This morning I got on the scale expecting some great drop.

Nothing. Nada. Big Giant Goose Egg.

Or should I say Big Giant Butt.

Very discouraging. I know I need to just keep it up. It's only been 3 days.

I know.

So I was reading Dawn's blog today and she posted about how it takes 3 weeks to form a new habit. She called for action from her readers to join her in trying to replace a bad habit with a good habit. So my bad habit is that I eat too much crap. Cookies, cake, pizza (I love pizza), ice cream... I need to give it up.

So for 3 weeks I'm going to give up all that stuff.

I'm making healthy choices and changing habits... for 3 weeks. Then I'll eat cake. ;) Just kidding.

Erin Go Bragh, Everybody!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! :)

Except it was Saturday this year. Who knew I was supposed to be wearing green on Saturday? I guess I would have known if I was a devout Catholic.

So the devout Catholic's got to get their drink on this Saturday while all the rest of us should be downing our Guinness tonight. I won't be imbibing tonight, though. I'm on a diet. Besides, have you ever tried drinking that stuff? I have. The first time, being young... probably 22. I went to a very authentic Irish pub in Atlanta with a couple of girlfriends and decided I'd have a Guinness. My girlfriend, Liz, raised her eyebrow when I ordered it.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" she asked, concerned.
"What's the big deal? It's just beer."

Um... yeah... WRONG.

It was like drinking a loaf of bread.

I made it halfway through the glass before I broke down and ordered something much lighter... like a Bass or something.

It was a fun night.



I also tried it again when attempting to breastfeed my third child. I have never had breastfeeding success though not for trying. My mammary glands are broken. However, I've tried it with all three and someone suggested to me that if I drank 8 ounces of Guinness each day while breastfeeding it would stimulate my glands and I'd be abundant with the flow. I know, I know... drinking while breastfeeding is a sin, I've heard, but when you're just plain desperate to get the milk to come in and you've tried all the teas and warm compresses and electric pumps and your nipples are cracking and your baby is hungry... well, 8 ounces of beer doesn't really seem so bad.

It didn't work, though. It just reminded me why I don't drink the stuff.

The Man, however, loves the stuff. He, being a very Irish man, also loves Corned Beef & Cabbage with lots of horseradish and boiled potatoes and carrots. He'll be having that tonight as is tradition on this day and I've made sure he's got as much Guinness as he would like. Yuck.

I'll be having a salad and a Tab. :)

WFMW: Mason Jars

I know we all struggle to get those 8 to 10 glasses of water in a day. It's good for our skin, it helps us lose weight, yada yada.

If you're anything like me, you want to know EXACTLY how many ounces you've ingested so you can move on to the good stuff!

Rather than purchase prefilled bottles that tell you just how much you're drinking, I suggest drinking from a mason jar.

Yep, that's right. Just like Grandma used to have. The good thing about the mason jar is it has measurements right there on the side so you know just how much you're drinking without sucking from a measuring cup.



See? People just look at you funny if you do that.

So that's what works for me!

For more Works For Me Wednesday posts, check out Rocks In My Dryer!

Sick... and tired...

I have a cold. My nose is stuffy, my throat is sore, and I'm tired but I can't sleep.

So I left The Man in bed and got up and came in here to the computer. I checked my email which I have ignored all day.

This was a bad idea.

I had a customer on eBay. This customer began snatching up dress after dress, making offer after offer, going nuts! Customer had zero feedback... this should have warned me.

Customer buys a bunch and pays and I send her a big giant box of dresses.

Today my email is attacked by Customer. Not ONE of the SEVENTEEN dresses she purchased fits her and she is sending them all back. All of them. I will need to refund her $400 and she will hold my feedback hostage until I finish licking the poo off of her arse. This is, of course, because all of my measurements were wrong.

Not at all because she bought everything from a size Small to a size 14. Seriously... small, 14, and everything in between. You'd think SOMETHING would fit, right??

I hate to think this could be a competing seller just trying to sabotage. It seems Customer has also made a large purchase from another clothing seller. I've emailed this other seller to ask how the transaction went... results are pending.

Fight the Frump! Girl Time!

It's Friday and that means today we're Fighting the Frump with Fussy!

Last week my post was all about taking some quiet time for yourself and so this week I'd like to touch on another type of time all women should take. Girl time.

As much as I love The Man, there's just something about time with my girlfriends that is irreplaceable. I'll never be able to sit with The Man and giggle about my latest domestic screw up, argue over who needs to get a pedicure the most, or lament over how much weight we've gained over the past few years. They'll never never tell me I shouldn't have bought new shoes.

Now, I take girl time even less often than I take quiet time. Part of this is because several of my girlfriends have decided to up and move to other parts of the country... but mostly this is because I constantly decide I can't take an afternoon or an evening out for myself. There's always something I could or should be doing at home (laundry, cleaning, scout meetings, cooking) and I always feel bad leaving the kids with The Man, even though he's absolutely wonderful with them.... they always get to bed on time when he's in charge.

I've noticed something when I do take the time to go hang out with a girlfriend, though. I almost ALWAYS come back happier, more relaxed, and completely ready to take on my mom/wife duties with vigor. So even though The Man and the monsters have to live without me for a few hours, we're all so much happier to see each other when I return.

If that's not fighting the frump, well then I just don't know what is.

PS - How are y'all doing with the Quiet Time Challenge? I've managed to spend a half hour doing some yoga with no interruptions this week. Fabulous.

For more frump fighting, check out Fussypants!

Rock on... seriously.

Last night I did something I wouldn't normally do.

I went to a concert.

Not just any concert, either. I went to see Seether, Breaking Benjamin, and Three Days Grace. This was so NOT my scene.

Let's rewind to Monday when I received a text message from my best friend, Trish. It explained that she, my younger and hipper and childless friend, had these tickets and no one would go with her so she wanted to drag me along. I was not at all offended that I was the last person she asked because she and I both know it would be very unlike me to attend such a concert.

My first thought was "who are these bands?" and then I figured "what the heck, I could use a night out!"

I quickly downloaded a bunch of songs from each band to load on my iPod so I could have some idea of what I'd be listening to and studied up. Not too bad... a little more rocker than I'm used to... but it sort of took me back to high school.

So last night came and I expertly applied my dark eye make up, flat ironed my hair and jumped in the minivan to go to the show. Poor Bug had to miss a Cub Scout meeting so Mommy could injure her ear drums.

Trish is two years younger than I am and for the past eight years has definitely been winning in the "cooler" category. She was adorable in her little halter top showing off her most recent tattoo (which is actually quite impressive... and I'm not a tattoo person at all). I felt like I might get a cool by association vote. We must have looked interesting together.

We got seated just before Seether started and I truly thoroughly enjoyed their set. I even knew a couple of the songs! Guess I'm not quite as unhip as I thought. ;)

The girl sitting next to me also seemed to really enjoy it - throwing up many of those rock on signs with her hands and moving around a lot.

I tried to be cool, too, but instead of the cool "Rock On" sign I threw up an "I love you" sign.

I hope no one noticed.

After Seether was all done we waited for Breaking Benjamin to start. Trish and I took pictures of ourselves taking pictures of each other.



Isn't she cute? :)

The guy behind us said "Dude, are you guys taking a picture of each other taking pictures of each other?"

Uh... yeah.

Breaking Benjamin started and either the girl next to me REALLY LOVED THEM or the drugs she had imbibed had kicked in.

She was flinging herself around, molesting herself to the band, singing loudly, practically taking her clothes off, and in the process, touching me a lot more than I would have liked. She and her friend were wearing tee shirts advertising their high school softball team.

Next was Three Days Grace and wouldn't you know it, soft ball girls loved THEM even MORE!!

I tried to take a picture of her but it was too dark. And it would have been really obvious. At one point she grabbed my boob... accidentally... I still felt violated. I don't think she noticed.

Here is an obligatory concert shot of Three Days Grace:



All in all, I really had a great time. My ears rang for a while afterward but I loved it. It was great to get out and experience something different.

Thanks Trish. :)

WFMW Backwards Edition!

So today is Wednesday and that means it's Works For Me Wednesday time. Today is Backwards Edition where I get to ask YOU a question and hopefully get tons of good answers!

My question today is simple. How do you get to sleep at night? I have been having such a hard time falling asleep at night. I lay awake looking at the clock and thinking until the wee hours of the morning and then I'm exhausted when the alarm goes off at 7 to tell me to take the kiddos to school.

Every day I end up collapsing for a nap in the middle of the day and it's really making me unproductive!

I've tried to avoid the nap altogether but it doesn't seem to matter. I end up being very nasty all day and unproductive and then 10:00 rolls around and for some reason I'm wide awake again. So what to do?

For more WFMW posts, check out Rocks In My Dryer!

LOL!