Why Jillian Michaels and I Can't Be Friends Anymore

As you may recall, I've been on a campaign to lose weight. I had my cousin's wedding to get me started, but since then I've been losing momentum instead of pounds. I thought I'd remedy that by buying Jillian Michaels' Ripped in 30 dvd. I started it back in May, knowing full well that I wasn't going to get ripped in 30, but rather maybe ripped in 60. I like to alternate those short but intense workouts with longer cardio workouts.

Jillian's big thing is alternating strength, cardio and abs. To keep things really intense, her workouts include a lot of jumping and similar explosive motions. I didn't exercise at all during our vacation, so when we got back I decided to up the intensity a little by adding some jump rope intervals to my regular cardio. I use an elliptical machine 30 to 40 minutes at a time, so every 10 minutes I would jump off and jump rope for about a minute. And I kept doing the Ripped in 30 video workout every other day.

I made it all the way up until level 3 before I injured myself. I've come down with a nasty case of the Turf Toe. Yes, the injury most often found among professional football players and ballerinas has descended upon a West Virginian house wife just trying to make her ass a bit smaller.

And you know, you don't really realize how often you use the end of your foot/big toe area until you injure it. Simple tasks like kicking around my blankets at night, or leaning over to hoist Maggie out of her crib all aggravate my injury. It's not severe, so the only thing I can do about it is tape it and rest it, but with 4 kids rest isn't really an option.

So I hobble through my day, while still trying to get in my workouts, minus the jumping. Because if I have to choose between a big ass and a sore toe, I'll take the pain over the gain.

Hoop Dreamz

Photobucket">

Here is my I Heart Faces entry for this week's theme: A Touch of Whimsy. Why? Because the hoop is only five feet off of the ground!

New Discoveries

Freddie has made some interesting new discoveries lately. First off, he has discovered his hands:

And he has also discovered his tongue:

I swear, this kid is so adorable that I think I may never get anything done ever again!

It Was Bound to Happen Eventually

I am a lucky woman. Even though I have four children, none of them have ever expressed any real affinity towards a particular security item, be it blankie, or lovey, or stuffed animal. Sam has a large number of stuffed animals that he rotates through his bed: a cat in the hat, a curious george, a duck that I won in a crane game (seriously, I'm awesome at those things), a pillow pet, etc. Lucy has a lamb blanket/toy thing that my friend Susan (who is moving! Buy her stuff!) bought for her when she was born, a little red beanie teddy bear that SOB bought for her in a airport, and a pillow pet (yeah, I'm that mom) in her bed, but if any one of them disappeared, she wouldn't care. And until recently, Maggie never slept with anything in her crib.

And then? She discovered BABY DOLLS!

Now, we've always had a bunch of dolls and doll paraphernalia around because of Lucy. But Miss Lu would rather build puzzles or play with scarves than play with dollies. Last year my parents bought her the whole set with a doll sized high chair, pack and play, and stroller, and it's been largely unused until last week, when Maggie claimed it as her own. She picked through the dozen or so dolls we had lying around, and selected her favorite. Then she proceeded to carry, or stroll, that doll everywhere for the next four days. Because the concept of naming is still beyond her years, she just calls her BeeBee. And she has to have BeeBee in her crib, high chair, everywhere. Mama has to kiss BeeBee before bedtime. BeeBee has to play in the gymni with Freddie during the day. You get the point.

Until last night, when BeeBee went missing. And lo, there was screaming. I tried substituting just about every other doll we had upstairs, but she would just throw them out of the crib. I then enlisted the help of Sam and Lucy in looking for BeeBee, but we remained unsuccessful. Sam did find another doll in the downstairs toy box, and since she had stopped wailing, I snuck in, laid it in the crib with her and then bolted.

Silence.

Victory, or so I though. Because today? She now wants BeeBee and BeeBee Two (or Blue, I can't tell) with her everywhere instead of just BeeBee. And the most beat up copy of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom in existence.

Crying because there is no room on her tray for FOOD!

Tuesday Tedium

It seems that lately I have much, much less time for blogging. So many things have been going on that I've wanted to write about, but there aren't enough hours in the damn day. So here is a quick recap of the main highlights:

1. This blog had it six year anniversary last week. Six years ago I still had a full time job, I was just barely pregnant with Sam, I had never touched a SLR camera and I was a blogging infant. Now, 1600 post later, I'm a blogging kindergartner.

2. My sister-in-law is pregnant with TWIN BOYS. If I could even beging to explain how this happy this makes me, I would, but it just kind of comes out like DASKFJLSHRIEKJAUSNFBVIOEWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!11!! The day before her ultrasound I cracked an egg and it had two yolks, so how do you like that? Maybe I should start wearing a babushka, since I'm turning into an old wife.

3. The garden is in!

After we got home from vacation the peas were ready for picking, so we had ten days of deliciousness. During that time we worked on getting these boxes installed in the yard. There are a few more hot pepper plants to go in around the edges (as a deer deterrent) but otherwise it's all done. Tomatoes, tomatillos, and hot peppers in there. Tomatoes, beans, and mild peppers on the porch as insurance. In case the deer decide they like spicy thai chiles.

4. Father's day was fun. Sam drew this lovely card for SOB, with pictures of all of the things he thinks SOB loves.

In no particular oder, the items are Sam, a trophy (plaque, actually) a hockey stick, bacon, a chocolate covered pretzle, beer, a screwdriver, medicine to make people go to sleep, Harry Potter, Wii and a lightbulb. Leave a comment with your best guesses as to what each item is!

Anniversary

One year ago today we moved to West Virginia. Last night a horrible storm ripped through our neighborhood, and every house that surrounds us had at least one tree ripped out of the ground. Even though we have at least twenty trees on our property, we only have a few small branches and sticks on the ground. I guess that must have been this states way of saying Happy Anniversary!

Freddie Fridays

Night Swimming Electronica

On Tuesday we took a spontaneous trip to Kennywood. It was a lot of fun, except for the part where Lucy cried for the first two hours and refused to ride even the tamest of rides. We kind of a little bit scarred her with some of the rides at Universal, I think. But after she rode the carousel she was fine. Sam rode two roller coasters, and won a giant banana in a crane game!

(For the record, I totally won the banana, but because I am an awesome mother I let my five year old steal my thunder. And my giant banana.)

We got home just in the nick of time to turn around and run out to swimming lessons, with Aunt Tori coming along for the ride. By the time bed time rolled around, we were all exhausted. I fell into bed and totally crashed.

Until about 12:15am, when our home security alarm started going off. Now, we've lived here for almost a year (GASP!) and our alarm goes off every time the phone/cable goes out. So even though it was annoying, we were pretty sure someone wasn't trying to break into our house.

When ever the security company loses connection with our house, they call my cell phone, so I grabbed it off of my nightstand before I got up to pee. SOB was frantically trying to shut off the bleating, but I had been in a deep, deep sleep, so I just kind of stumbled over to the hall bathroom obliviously. I took care of my personal business, and went to reach for the toilet paper only to find that the roll was empty. Not unusual in our house, because Maggie still likes to unroll the paper and use it to decorate, so we often leave the rolls up where she can't reach them.

Do you see where this is going yet?

So I stand up to reach some paper in the cabinet above the toilet, and in my sleepy state, somehow my iPhone jumps out of my death grip and ends up in the toilet bowl.

All of a sudden, I was wide awake and swearing like a sailor. I plunged my hand into the bowl, putting all thoughts of my own urine out of my mind, and grabbed the phone from its watery grave. I vaguely remembered something about Amy dropping her phone in the potty before, so I tried to remember what she did in that situation. I powered the phone off, considered the fact that it was now 12:30am, and went back to bed.

The next morning, I went to try and turn the phone on, and nothing happened. Damn. So I plugged it into my computer, and lo! It turned on! It even synced! And then it worked fine for about an hour. At which point it started getting all goofy, and kept flashing to the power off slide bar screen. I took that as a hint, and turned it off again. I could see water condensed on the inside of the camera lens, so I tried to figure out how to dry it out. Since it was crazy sunny outside, I decided to take a natural course of action. I laid it out on the front porch in direct sunlight for an hour, and then flipped it over and left it out there for another hour.

And? The effing thing works fine now! Oh, happy day!

Moral of this story? Only drop your iPhone in the toilet on sunny days.

Freddie, Month Three

Dear Freddy-Nutty-Buddy,

Oh, baby boy! I've made myself a promise to kiss you at least one million times before your first birthday, and I think I'm making good progress. Luckily, you seem to find this entertaining. Anything that comes near your mouth makes you laugh, so my kisses send you into a fit of baby giggles.

Conversely, you've been working on your pout-y face. It goes a little something like this:

When you do this, I will pretty much drop everything and run to scoop you into my arms, and do everything I can to keep you from crying. Mama does not like this face.

This one is pretty nice, though! You're getting better about holding your head up. Since you have a somewhat giant melon head, it's taken you a little longer than your siblings to control your head. But we're working on it!

You've finally started sleeping through the night. I had a total light bulb moment earlier this month and switched you from the bassinet into a larger crib, and you instantly started sleeping better. Duh! We're all much more rested and feeling fine.

You've also recently decided that toys are ok. As with your siblings before you, your main goal seems to be getting them into your mouth so that you can gum them to death. You seem to especially like things with ribbons or tassels that tickle your cheeks. Or my hair. When you get any of these items in your grip, it's kind of hard to get them back. In fact, you've gone to sleep with a few of my strands of hair clutched in your palm.

You are such a dear, sweet baby. All I ever want to do is hold you close, smell your head and kiss you. And kiss you and kiss you.

Infinity.

Love, Mama

Fresh Harvest

We've been enjoying these delicious beauties ever since we came home from vacation!

Freddie Fridays

I do believe that Maggie's room may become my studio! With a floor to ceiling wall of north facing windows, the light is just perfect for portraits. Plus the ceiling is peaked, so the reflected light isn't direct. With a few floor level reflectors and some backdrops...I think I may have a project on my hands!

A Pox Upon My House

I'm not one of those mothers who rush their children off to the doctor's office with every little sniffle. Most of the time when my kids are sick, they just get better after a few days. However, there are those occasions when after a few days they don't get better. And then I'm faced with a decision: do I take them to the pediatrician only to be told that there is nothing wrong with them and they'll be better in a few days, or do I wait an additional few days until they are surely sicker than initially thought and feel guilty about waiting too long to take them to the doctor?

As you can probably guess, this isn't a hypothetical situation. Just before we left for vacation Sam started coughing, and he hasn't really stopped since. Then last tuesday Maggie's nose began flowing with a river of snot so unending that we went through almost every single roll of vacation toilet paper wiping her nose. Naturally Lucy and Freddie followed suit, though with less severity.

Evidence of snotty nose and abundant cuteness.

This morning I set my alarm and trucked all four kids to the doctor's office, and 45 minutes later I left with SEVEN prescriptions. Sam, Fred and Lucy all have sinus infections, and Maggie has a raging ear infection.

And I feel like mother of the effing year. Luckily for all of us, each kid only has to take medication once a day for five days. I'll take any silver lining I can get at this point!

Gratuitous baby photo is the best remedy!

Vacation Video Recap

So my camera has a neat-o HD video camera, and while it's not my medium of choice, it's pretty cool. This year I decided to shoot some video on our trip. So without further adieu, here is my wrap up video of Vacation, 2011.

Home Again, Home Again

Home.

I would say 'Home Sweet Home', but we still live in West Virginia.

Just kidding! Our house is really, really sweet.

Vacation 2011 was almost a near perfect experience. There were only two things that kept it from being totally perfect. Number one was Sam puking in the top bunk of his bed after a coughing spell. And then puking as he climbed down the ladder. That was pretty gross. Number two was how the temperature of the pool was related directly to the temperature of the hot tub. On moday night we turned up the temp for the hot tub, and when we got home from Universal Studios on tuesday and really just wanted to jump in the pool to cool off, it was 94 degrees. No joke. It was also pretty gross.

Otherwise, everything was spectacularly awesome! The flights, while not fun, were not a disaster. My parents took on big kid and Maggie, and we had the other big kid and Fred.

Fred, by the way, was as perfect as a baby could be. He slept well, and even when we totally effed up his schedule by schlepping him through an amusement park all day or took him out to dinner past his bedtime, he was still a total peach.

Maggie was also really good. My only complaint about her was that her nose was a running river of snot from tuesday on. And that she only ever wanted her Nunni. Ever. I wasn't even coming in second. I was, like, 17th. After Nunni, in positions 1-15, and then Pap at position 16.

Lucy was a natural in the pool, and happy as a clam after she got to meet her idol on tuesday...

In all seriousness, watching her meet the Grinch was one of the highlights of my life. The whole time we waited in line, which was only about three minutes, she just gazed at him, and slowly moved towards him like she was caught in a tractor beam. I kept having to pull her back in line, and I'm sure that the back of her head made an appearance in some other person's vacation photos.

Sam was sick the day before we left, and he was sick the whole time we were there. (See above, re: puking) BUT! He was a total trooper. He was the most enthusiastic, and we rode more rides with him than anyone. And he wanted to mini-golf, and play foosball, and air hockey, and watch a Harry Potter movie a day (we only have six), and go out to dinner, and go swimming again, and and and. He had a blast. He's the only kid that I feel a smidgen guilty about not taking to Disney. Although I'm pretty sure he didn't care, because when given the choice of going to Disney or watching a movie, he chose the movie. Which did a pretty good job of alleviating my guilt.

And I haven't even mentioned my parents or the wedding, both of which were awesome!

If you had asked me two months ago how I thought this trip would go, I doubt I would have had a positive response. Travelling with small kids is such a gamble, and with four of them, I thought there was no way we would beat the odds. Luckily for us, we hit the jackpot!

Bathing Beauties, 2011

Last year, when we went to the beach, I bought Lucy and Maggie matching bathing suits. It was adorable. Here is photographic evidence of the extreme cuteness:

So this year, when I was bathing suit shopping, I decided again to go with matchy-matchy suits. And again, the cuteness was so intense it reached the upper stratosphere. See?

So from now on, Lucy and Maggie must have matching swim suits. Even when they are 15 and 17 and they both hate me, they will wear the suits for the 30 seconds or so it takes for me to snap some photos. And then their hatred for me will grow ten fold. BUT! When they are about 28 and 30, give or take, I will make little albums for them with a decade and a half of super-precious-matching-bathing-suit-sister photos, and then they will love me for it.

Mark my words.

Soul Man

On Tuesday we ventured to Universal Studios Orlando to see my brother perform. Well, we were there to ride and have fun, but seeing my brother perform was a big part of that fun! He's been performing this role for a couple of years, but I've never had the chance to see it live. It was the highlight of my trip, so far, though I think his wedding may trump it.