It’s really warm here this evening, and earlier on I went to turn on the AC and it made a whirring noise and then the breaker flipped itself to ‘OFF’. So I went and knocked on the apartment managers door and her boyfriend came to look at it for me. Turns out that the motor for the fan has burned out, and it’s just cheaper to replace the whole AC unit than to replace one part. I’m not complaining, we’re getting a new AC unit before the summer season really kicks in. I’m just glad that we’ve discovered the problem now and not in the middle of August when we’re dripping in sweat :p
The summer season here kills me. I love hot weather, but the humidity gets a little much when you can’t breathe or sleep at night. I’ve been coughing all day long because the humidity is affecting my asthma and I’m gonna have to turn on the fan tonight just to fall asleep. I feel crappy as it is, because my allergies have been messing me around and that on top of everything is just making me feel proper miserable
I’ve discovered that my family don’t really care much for my choice in my music. Nick really likes classic rock like Metallica and Aerosmith, and Abby tends to dance to my Miranda Lambert collection. My favourite music in the world is ska. Or failing that, punk. Punk can be a little depressing at times, but ska is SO HAPPY! It’s hard not to like it. It just makes you want to get off your butt and pogo around the room like a lunatic. Takes me back to my college years when I drank too much, did a few illegal drugs and partied like a rockstar. Sometimes I miss that life and it’s weird uncertainty, but then I think about how good I have it now and I take it back. My early adult years were so much fun though, sure I fell in with a bad crowd but I’ve got some awesome, wicked memories from it all. There’s nothing quite like waking up with your tongue stuck to the roof of your mouth because all you had to drink before you hit the hay was beer. Or pot. Tends to do the same thing to my mouth in the morning :p
Now I’m sure that some of the people out there reading this are all like “OMG! You did what?! You bad person! You don’t deserve to have a daughter!” Yada. Yada. Yada. I’ll tell you right now, shouting abuse at me is like talking to a brick wall. I’ve developed a pretty thick skin when it comes to the stuff I did in the past. Some of you straight laced people need to cut loose once in a while and get out of your comfort zone. I grew up in the middle of nowhere in the UK and I never thought of doing anything like this before I came to the US and some very good friends of mine opened my eyes to the stuff that went on outside my protective bubble that I grew up in. They taught me dumpster diving, how to play the guitar for cash, Food Not Bombs, vegetarianism and how to feed a whole household of eight on $10. Other stuff too, like just because someone looks strange doesn’t necessarily mean they are. And the companies that were easy targets for stealing from, because lack of a security system. Sure, some of the stuff I did in the past was VERY illegal and I could have been caught anytime…but I loved every moment of it. I never really had a proper place to live, I was just crashing on other people’s couches for about a year straight. Then I moved back to the UK and I straightened myself out. The experience changed me as a person and for the better. I’m not half as uptight as I used to be. That’s also where I discovered my love for Ska, when we would spend Wednesday evenings smoking joints and listening to Sublime. Good times
Last night, me and Nick marinated a whole cut up chicken in some home-made sauce and left it overnight. We got the barbeque grill out this afternoon (because the weather was gorgeous today) and grilled the chicken, along with some bratwurst. I am absolutely stuffed. Abby didn’t want to come outside and hang out with Nick and I, so I had to stay upstairs with her and keep running downstairs to the back to bring Nick stuff. I’d spend a couple of minutes with him, drink some PBR and then run back upstairs to keep my eye on Abby. Turns out my plan wasn’t as foolproof as I thought.
I was keeping my eye on the chicken while Nick started to run some of the stuff back up to the apartment, and he eventually comes back down stairs and proceeds to tell me that Abby was really naughty and couldn’t be bothered to get up to use the bathroom. So, I get back upstairs while Nick stays with the bbq and Abby is in her bedroom with a pull-up on and she’s been stripped out of her jeans and underwear. I take her shirt off, put her pj’s on and brush her teeth. Since she decided it would be a fun game to pee on the couch, I don’t read her a bedtime story and I tuck her into bed. After shutting the bedroom door and turning out the light, I take a towel to the couch and attempt to soak up some of the pee out of the couch cushions. Sigh. There’s still the towel laid on the couch so if anyone sits down, they won’t get a partially wet butt :p After two brats and a couple of pieces of chicken, I am absolutely stuffed.
I will not be working out tonight because I think it’s safe to say that I got enough of a workout just by going up and down the stairs and carrying stuff up and down from our apartment. Tony Horton and Chalene Johnson can wait 24 hours :p
I’m sorry that I never got the chance to post yesterday. I was really busy and after everything was said and done, I slept for half the afternoon and then bummed around in front of the tv for the rest of the day. I got some nice things though, Nick got up early and made me and Abby breakfast. He also joined us at church and then afterwards, we went to the nursing home to spend some time with his Grandma. Nick’s mom and sister bought me a couple of giftcards (a $10 for Blockbuster and a $25 one for Old Navy). Afterwards, we all came home and crashed for a couple of hours.
I went out today with Dave and together we took Abby on a rampage at the park and we stopped at Old Country Buffet for lunch. Afterwards, we went to the mall and I got the chance to hit up Old Navy and spend the giftcard that I received as my Mother’s Day gift from my mother-in-law. I always, always hit up the clearance section at Old Navy because there’s always bargains to be had. I found a couple of really nice tops, one which was like a safari shirt and the other was a bright blue dressy top that had a scoop neck and three quarter length sleeves. Oh as usual, I have to buy a couple of the two for $5 flip flops. They’ve redesigned them this year and I like the new ones better. And I got them in red and black, I can never find those two colours in my size! So for two shirts and two pairs of flip flops, it cost about $23. Might have to go back and get some nice tailored shorts if I do well and lose a little more weight.
I’m finally in a medium and a Size 10! Size 8 here I come
I have a love/hate relationship with exercise. I’m not a fan of it, but after I’ve done it I feel a lot better. But then in the morning when I feel a little stiff, I hate it all over again. Hopefully, when this weight finally comes off I’ll feel a lot more positive about the benefits of it all.
I’m so sporadic about actually doing, I’ll go through phases. I’ll be all gung-ho about for about a month and then if I see no real change, I’ll stop and I’ll give up. Or, I’ll just get really lazy and rather sit on my butt and watch tv than do any real exercise other than the housework. I wish I could have someone come knock on my door and force me to do it every day. Sure, I’d despise that person but at least I’d be getting off my butt and actually doing something good for myself. I’ve started to really like my shoulders, they’re getting really defined and nicely toned. If I keep it up, I’m gonna look AWESOME come summer. Now, I just need to get rid of this spare time around my middle…it’s a nightmare and it’s so hard to shift. I will be eternally happy when that’s gone, and not having it flobbing around and hanging over my jeans all the time. My friend jokingly thought that I was pregnant again. I was really embarrased by that and I realised that I had to do something major to get into shape again.
So for the last year, I’ve been following this exercise program on and off. It’s called Turbo Jam and I really got into it last summer. Then around my birthday, I got lazy and I quit. Now I’m back at it again and I’m trying again for two reasons:
It’s really, really fun.
It really, really works.
I lost a couple of inches within a matter of days last summer and I was amazed at my progress. Even Nick thought I’d lost a little weight. So this time I’m doing it to the letter and I will not let myself quit or fail again. It’s cheaper than a gym membership and more fun than a dance class….and Chalene is one of the most energetic, yet inspiring women I have ever known. She sent me a message on MySpace last year for my birthday…and I was so happy about that because it shows that even though she’s famous…she’s still down to earth and realises who her fans are. And even though she lives in CA now, she’s a Michigan girl at heart and I like that a lot about her.
Anyway, why don’t you check her out for yourself? Watch the video below
I’ve come to a realisation that I tend to say the same things over and over again in the space of a day. In my head, I’m starting to sound like a broken record :p Usually, I will say them to Abby and sometimes Nick- and they’re always in my head. I’m almost certain that I sound like my mother at times, which I don’t think is the best thing. I always said as a teenager that I would never become my mother and I would never treat my own children the way that we were treated…yet, here I am. I suppose you want some examples? Okay then…
“Sit there and don’t you dare touch anything.”
“I thought I told you to sit at the table?!”
“Get in bed! And stay there!”
“Abby! What are you doing?”
“Honey, are you going to go to the store?”
“So I assume you’re going to the store after work then?”
“You two! Cut it out!”
“This is mine. Go get your own.”
Etcetera, etcetera. I say other ones, but I won’t bore you with a post made up entirely of quotes. There’s other things that float around in my head that I would LOVE to say, but you know I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to post them here. Usually I accompany these quotes by one or a few of the following:
Raised voice
Screaming
Pointing
Jumping up and down
Pulling my hair out
So yeah, I will be the first to admit that being married with children makes you bald, hoarse and an insomniac. I’m just warning all you newlyweds and engaged couples out there. Being married might be fine in itself, but having kids is a completely different ballgame. It’s like the difference between baseball and cricket.
Okay so right now I’m going to introduce you to my neighbour. She’s also the apartment manager and we’ll just call her Crazy Vacuum Whore…or CVW. Her daughter and Abby get along pretty well and don’t get me wrong…she’s a nice person. But she has a bit of a temper and will fly off the handle at the smallest thing. She also has this insane vacuuming habit. At least once a day she will go around the hallways and her apartment with the vacuum cleaner. There has not been one day where she hasn’t vacuumed. It almost makes me feel like a bit of a slob, because well I can’t remember the last time we vacuumed. It’s not that I hate vacuuming, I just have a daughter who absolutely despises the vacuum cleaner and wails like a banshee anytime I even get it out of the closet. I don’t even have to turn it on, as soon as she sees it…she will run to her room and start her usual wailing. I’d do when she’s asleep but by that time the elderly couple on the other side of me are probably asleep and I don’t want to seem like a crazy bitch doing my vacuuming when people are trying to sleep. And I would do it in the day, but Nick sleeps during the day because he has a 3rd shift job.
So I’m screwed and yesterday I could see all kinds of junk on the carpet…like dust bunnies, toenail clippings and Cheerios from way back when. Abby hasn’t eaten Cheerios in about six months. Yes, I still walk on the carpet but what else am I supposed to do? I try to get Nick to take Abby to the park but it seems to go in one ear and out the other. Sigh.
This morning has been pretty average so far. Abby’s in the living room watching her favourite tv program- “The Koala Brothers’. Sometimes I wish that I had Tivo so that I could record some stuff and then we could do stuff like go to the park instead. But this will finish sometime around 11am and then there’s only an hour and a half until her nap time. I would usually take her to the park during this point in time, but I’ve got a lot to do around the house in the morning- so it’s just not a viable option :(
Talking about Abby, when I got home from choir practice last night my sister in law was sitting for me. She told me all the things that her and Abby had gotten up to while I was away and Nick told me that they’d been to the store up the street from here. It’s a natural grocery store, a smaller version of Whole Foods if you will. We have a WF, but it’s on the other side of the city and it’s just too much of a darn trek. Having this one close to us is nice when we just need little bits of stuff. Anyway, Abby and my sister-in-law had been for a walk and stopped off at the grocery store. Abby loves going there because they have these little kiddy carts and I think she likes to push them around and dump food in. I found out that my daughter actually has a pretty healthy opinion of food. She bought eggs, fresh pineapple, strawberries, two yoghurts (including a black cherry one for me!) and a box of honey graham sticks. I was very proud of her that she didn’t come home with a pallet of cookies or something else outlandish :-p I can’t remember who many times I’ve had arguments with her in the grocery store over cookies.
“Abby, we’re going to get some apples and that’s that.”
“But I want the cookies! COOOOOOOOKIES!!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”
Oh boy. I’m glad she at least behaved in a store with my sister-in-law. Trying to chase after a three year old in a department store or getting them to be quiet while you finish the grocery shopping is so much harder than anyone tells you in any of the fangled parenting books.
So I’m eating said black cherry yoghurt and some of the pineapple for my breakfast (we were out of cereal) and Abby is sitting at the kitchen table eating an english muffin with peanut butter. I am sitting on the couch waking my brain up to Taylor Swift chatting her happy butt off on GAC. She’s so perky that it’s almost intolerable this time of the morning. Have you ever zoned out to the tv while mindlessly stuffing your face? I do it every morning and by the time she was on tv, I’d finished the yoghurt and I’d started on the tub of pineapple. Abby by this time, is sitting next to me on the couch complaining loudly about how it was HER pineapple and I shouldn’t be eating it.
“That’s my pineapple Mummy! You shouldn’t be eating it!”
“Oh come on. How often do we have fresh pineapple in this house (nom nom nom)”
“MUMMMMMMMY! No no no!”
“(nom nom nom) What? Oh alright I’m done now. Happy?”
I can’t quite believe I was negotiating with a three year old.
Anyway, I woke up late this morning, so I’m a little behind on everything. I best go get stuff finished.
Sometimes I think that my relationships are all such jokes over the years. I’m quite surprised sometimes why i’m still in this one. It truly boggles my mind. Last night, Nick was such a crab ass and I didn’t want to be anywhere near him. Today he’s been all sweet and lovely dovey. He’s so frickin bipolar that it’s starting to really piss me off. Even Becky agreed me- we were talking about him when we took the girls out to Betty Brinn’s.
I can be so needy at times, and then other times I don’t want you anywhere near me. I’m a typical bipolar mental case. It really annoys Nick because he never quite knows what kind of mood I’m gonna be in when I get out of bed in the morning. I wish I could help him out a little more, but you know…it’s not like I have my moods set to a schedule. Yeah, I can see it now.
“Yes, honey…tomorrow is Tuesday and according to my schedule, I’ll be a crabby bitch. So try to stay away from me tomorrow, k?”
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