Check this out

One of my favorite blogs happens to be written by a friend that I went to high school with.  One of my favorite stories that I remember about her (besides me having a crush on her twin brother, or talking boy problems with her, or the boxers and pillows that we sewed together in Home Ec.) was when she was a cheerleader and I was playing basketball.  She actually had the squad cheer, "Let's go, Conni Jo!" when I was playing.  Good memories!

Anyway, this is a link to her adoption story.  Help Rachel and her family bring home their baby girls!

http://give1save1africa.blogspot.com/2012/11/new-family-greenfields.html

Thankful

For:
-my fireman husband ...though I wish he would grow out his mustache like this:

source

-my daughters even when they cry, break my belongings, punch each other, drip snot, use up my money, and create dirty laundry

-my dad 

-my sister & my nieces

-my mom

-the rest of my family including my grandparents and in-laws

-my best friends 

-my job and all of my awesome colleagues

-The Ex's job and how happy it makes him

-Homeland

-health and fitness blogs

-coffee

-good sports bras

-my dog

-New Girl and The Mindy Project

-UK basketball

-food (I like it all)

-Rihanna's new CD

-Jesus and the sacrifice he made for me

There is so much other stuff that I am thankful for, truly, it would be easier to list the things that I wish I didn't have to deal with because the list is so short.

Tomorrow I am having my dysfunctional family over for Thanksgiving.  I am only making chicken and dumplings, pretzel salad, cranberries, and sweet potatoes (I am going to make traditional canned and fresh ones for my Dad).  (Don't worry, that's not all we're having, each guest is bringing a part of the dinner).  We used to have a much better arrangement for Thanksgiving, but things have sadly changed, so now it is going to be at my house.  I must be honest when I say I am not looking forward to the headache of having everyone over and because it is so much different than what we did in previous years, but it should still be a good time.  The bonus is, I don't have to leave my house.

I won't let them touch my tree The girls and I will start putting up our Christmas decorations tomorrow.  I can't believe Christmas is a month away.  This year has gone by faster than any other year in my life.  The older I get the faster it seems to go.  

At this time, I am off to the Y to get a head start on all of the calories I will be eating and drinking in the next 48-72 hours.  30 minutes of cardio and light strength training will balance all that out, right? 

Must get motivated

Since I did the mud race (you can read about it here) I have lost motivation to hit the gym.  Until Sept. 29, and then I got back at it.  I have taken a few weeks off here and there over the last 2.5 years, but that was the longest break I have ever taken.  So, I work out hard on Sept. 29 and that evening I join 3 of my girlfriends for a wine party.  The wine party makes us feel like fancy pants.  We have a theme (like bring your favorite bottle of merlot), we have fancy cheese (like velveeta queso dip), and we spend time scoring eachother's bottles and whoever has the most points gets a prize.  On the 29th, we got lazy.  We decided  just bring whatever wine you like and whatever food you want, and let's drink and chill.
There were 4 of us, each of us brought 2 bottles.  You do the math.   After we drank all of it a few glasses we decided to walk around the neighborhood.  To make a long story short, I broke my toe (it's a very funny/ridiculous story but for sake of my future political career I have to spare the details).  For weeks I hobbled around assuming that there was nothing to do for a broken toe.  Finally, 6 weeks later- I make a Dr.'s appointment.  The Dr. takes x-rays and says, sorry that type of break needs to be seen by a specialist. WHAT?!?!  A dang on broke toe!  Anywho, I went to the specialist of Thursday.  If you know me, you know that I only shave my legs for special occasions like Christmas and the OBGYN.  So, since I don't think about shaving, I didn't think the Dr. would pull my pants leg up.  Dang him.  He felt all up and down my hairy leg making sure nothing else was wrong.  I'm such a loser with a broken toe and hairy legs.  The Dr. asked how it happened and I said I tripped (truth).  The Dr. ended up saying, if it doesn't heal within the next 2 months, I will get the joint in my toe fused.  UGH!  Stupid, stupid, stupid.  I told Amber I am suing her Homeowner's Insurance.  The point to all this, I had an injury and I got out of the gym.  I have gained about 6lbs. but lost a lot of muscle.  It is amazing the difference that having toned muscle makes when wearing your clothes.  I have found inspiration on Twitter from @lauralostweight and @kylethegirl.  These chicks are on their fitness grind everyday and they have some really good suggestions plus inspiring pictures.

Back to the whole point of this.  I got back in the gym today.  I also got a haircut, so new do, new attitude.  I'm going hard in spite of the holidays.  I never reached my final goal, and I will get there. It's 16lbs. and it will be off by May.  I can't run, but hopefully in the next 2 months I'll be healed up and ready to go.  Until then, I'll lift heavy and ride that boring eliptical that I usually stay away from.  If I could find a Crossfit box that would keep my kids while I worked out, I would do that, but the YMCA will have to do for now.

If you have any inspiring weightloss stories to share, or motivation, hit me up.

And, for fun...can you guess which toe is the broken one?

Have you ever known me to be politically correct?

This is how my day has gone so far:
1:00am:  mh2 wakes up with an ear ache
2:00am:  mh2 wakes up again, I give her some ear drops and motrin because I know if she gets up twice she genuinely feels bad...I watch the news for about an hour and fall back to sleep
3:00am:  The Ex goes and gets in bed with mh2
5:00am:  The Ex's alarm goes off and I don't go and wake him up because I am too tired and lazy
sometime later in the morning:  The Ex kisses me bye
7:30am:  mh1 wakes me up telling me mh3 needs her butt wiped
8:30am: I make grits and eggs while drinking my coffee and wait for the Dr.'s office to open with anxious anxiety about the election
9:00am:  call Dr.'s office, they can see us in 40 minutes
9:00-9:30: run around like a crazy person getting everyone ready to go to the Dr.  This includes not giving anyone a shower but changing clothes, brushing teeth, brushing hair and jetting!
9:40-11:00:  Sit in Dr.'s office.  Get prescription for ear infection.  Hold down all 3 children so they can get flu shots
11:00-11:30:  Go to Meijer's, drop of prescription, run around and pick up basic groceries like eggs and toilet paper, get my own Flu shot so that the kids can see how a real woman takes a shot
11:30:  Go through self checkout line (because all other lines were too long).  I hate the self checkout, plus a midget walked right by us.  Have you been out in public with three kids under the age of 7?  Well let me tell you, they aren't that sensitive to midgets.  It goes a little like this:
1.  baby points to midget
2.  big sister says, "SJ quit pointing to that little man".
3.  I ignore all interaction hoping that it will just go away
4.  big sister continues to bring up the "little man" saying things like, "he was short like a kid but his face with like a grown up."  Bless her little curious heart.
5.  I explain in the car that some people are just shorter than others, but she was right not to point at him because it could have hurt his feelings.
Really what I wanted to do was say, "Excuse me sir, could you please stop and explain to my daughters why you look different to them?" That would not have gone over well, but why shouldn't it.  We should all be a little less sensitive and more willing to share our differences for the sake of the little kids.  Trick love the kids.  (If you have any idea where that comes from, you are as hood as me).

Pep talk

I considered joining Facebook again but then I realized the only reason I wanted to get back on there was so that I could argue with people about the election.  

Mh1 and mh2 had elections at their school today.  One of them voted for Romney and one of them voted for Obama.  Where did I go wrong?  I am having a parent/teacher conference with mh1's teacher on Monday.  I know that I am crazy because I am going to ask her exactly how she presented the candidates so that her little students could make a decision.  I am not worried about discussing reading or math, just about how she goes about indoctrinating my daughter.

I know that I am getting old because all I listen to is talk radio and I know more about the candidates running for President during this election than I ever had.  In 2008 I wanted to argue with anyone that disagreed with me, this time I don't feel like it.  I don't want to argue because I feel like I know more than the average voter and it's a waste both of our time.  This means that I am posing as an intellectual elitist.  I'm good with that.

Something you might not know about me...random songs pop into my head at totally unrelated inappropriate times.  For instance, after I finished the sentence, "I'm good with that."  The following song began in my head, "Butterflies in the sky, I can go twice as high".  These instances make me feel like a crazy person.  Why does talking about the election make my brain connect to the theme song for Reading Rainbow.  When is the last time I even heard that song?  Seriously, it has to be like 20 years.

On Sunday The Ex and I will be going with a group of his firefighter friends to see the Broncos play the Bengals.  I can't wait!  I just hope I don't get too cold.  The Ex ordered jerseys from a sweat shop in China or Vietnam or someplace.  I was hoping to get my #87 jersey in time so I could wear it to the game, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen.  You ask if it makes me feel guilty knowing who sewed those jersey's, and no it doesn't.  It makes the jerseys seem more special that the hands of an 8-year-old did the work.  I kid (well I kinda kid- they really are coming from China and it probably is some kid putting my stuff together but dang they are authentic (looking)  jerseys for like 1/5 of the price you can get them made here by an adult with a decent hourly wage and insurance).

Itsalmostnaptime.com  is one of my favorite blogs and I loved this post tonight.  I am not the best mother you have ever met.  I am just barely mediocre.  But, I do try (most of the time).