Crooked Necks and Days Off

The hubster was sick all weekend.  Poor guy.  He literally never gets sick, but when he does, it really kicks his butt.  So he stayed home from work on Friday and slept most of the day.  And then he chilled out most of Saturday too.  By Sunday, he was starting to feel better. When he went to get out of bed, something happened to his neck.  Don't you know this guy came down the stairs with his head tilted to one side because he literally couldn't straighten it?  But being the tough guy he is, he still went outside to put the cover on the pool.  By dinner time, he was in labor.  As in, screaming out in pain and ripping the couch cushions apart every two minutes as his muscles went in to spasms.  When he told me I would never be able to fathom what his body was doing (Ummm, au contraire, mon ami), I decided to pack the troops in to the Envoy and head to urgent care.  4 hours, 2 Vicodin, 3 Tylenol, and 1 neck brace later, he was sent home, good as gold. I totally want to post the picture he sent to my phone while he was all hopped up on drugs, but I gotta go with my gut on this one.  My gut is telling me that doing that wouldn't be nice.  So here's a nice picture of us.  With our heads on straight. 

 

I totally tried to score some drugs from him, and he just laughed.  What's up with that?  I thought we were a team here.  

 

In other news, my pants are totally way too tight.  I am starting to notice that my legs are turning a nice shade of blue from the lack of blood that is able to circulate past my waistline.  While it's pretty and all, I'm guessing I should try hitting the gym a little more seriously.  And regularly gorging on chips is probably not advised, is it?   

 

I do have a glorious random day off tomorrow, so that's exactly what I'll be doing. (Hitting the gym, geeks, NOT gorging on chips.) And that's right after I spend some time with some pretty cool kindergartners.  Yes, that's correct.  I am going to  to stop focusing on alternative ed high schoolers, and remember that there is actually a whole bunch of kids who actually ENJOY school (and life in general).  And bonus- my kid is one of them.  I'm super excited!

 

Have a healthy day,

 

J

 



I Want To Retire

My job is officially consuming my life.  And the sad thing is that I only get paid to be there until 10:30 every morning.

So far this week I've had two full days of training on new State regulations I have to learn. I was on the phone with a colleague until 10:00 the other night, and on the phone with one of my administrators again last night after I put the kids to bed.  I was then up until 11 creating a 2-day lesson, and at work this morning for a 7:15 staff meeting. 

Meanwhile, I have no groceries in the refrigerator. I still have my second job at the gym to be at, school lunches to make, a house to clean, a new-parent meeting at CJ's school,  and apparently I have entered the contest for World's Largest Laundry Pile.

I know, cry me a river, right?  There are millions of mothers out there who work 9 hours every single day and still manage their kids and their household.  I'm not exactly sure how they do that, but I've heard it happens. 

You see, I have this horrible tendency (as I'm sure tons of mothers do) to want to do everything.  And by everything, I mean that I seriously want to have my little hands involved in every single thing that I'm interested in.  I want to be respected at work. I want to be creative and innovative and make a name for myself. I want to be a crazy fun fitness instructor who volunteers in both of her kids' classrooms and also helps out with Religious Ed on Sundays.  I want to blog my little heart out while making 50 frosted cupcakes and winning an award for being the Coolest Mother Ever. I want to go out with my husband every single weekend and remember what it's like to have fun. I want to make big, healthy meals that everyone eats. I want to plan fun outings for every single weekend yet I want my house to be clean and organized.  I want, I want, I want....

I want to retire.

Yes. I went to college for 6 long years and owe more in student loans than some people owe on their homes.  Yes. I am unwilling at this point to sacrifice any portion of my lifestyle, and therefore will talk about quitting my job all the time but will never do it.  Yes.  I really do think I'm in the right career, and for the most part, I enjoy what I do. 

But duh, work sure is getting in the way. 

In other news, I am still trying to get used to this new crazy schedule we are on.  I think we've finally figured something out that will work for everyone, and it involves making sure the boys are in bed by 7 every night.  Awesome if you've got a bunch of stuff to do around the house. Not so great if you've got a bunch of stuff to do anywhere else.  Like, say, go to the gym. 

So we're compromising.

Monday night was my night, last night was the husband's.  Tonight we're back to me.  I'm gonna try to get to Zumba if he gets home in time, but otherwise I'll get in some treadmill/weights action. 


That's about it.  CJ got out of school early today and both of them are taking a nap.  I'm actually going to try to be productive and get dinner started. That's right- just call me  a hot-mess Supermom. 

Have a healthy day,

J

I Just Don't Get It

The other day at the gym, we were waiting in line to get in to the playroom when another mom carried her tantruming boy out.  He looked like he was about 4 years old, and he was really throwing a fit.  This mom was obviously frustrated and embarrassed. The frustration I totally get- there is nothing fun about your kids acting crazy, especially in front of a bunch of other parents.  But embarrassed about the actual tantrum?  No.  Stop.  We've ALL been there.  Instead of her child, what this lady should have been embarrassed of was what happened next.

As he was yelling and kicking and flailing around, she stopped right where she was (blocking the door to get in), looked at my kids and said, "stop acting like such a JERK in front of these other nice boys".  Um, lady.  Please do not bring my children in to your awkward moment.  Since that did absolutely nothing except teach her 4-year-old the word JERK, he continued to carry on, this time attempting to hit her in order to get her to put him down.  She grabs his hand and tells him, (yelling now), "you do NOT hit me!  If you do not knock it off NOW, I will hit you right here in front of all of these people!"

Good one, Mom.  Way to send your highly impressionable child a crazy mixed message.  I'm sure that the physical pain and public humiliation that you impose will teach him how to express himself much more appropriately next time. 

It sounds so stupid, right?  But it happened.  And the sad thing is that it happens all the time to a lot of kids. 

Some cute kids who have never
been spanked.  And guess what?
They still listen to their parents and
use their manners. 

I read a blog post written by a mom who loves her kids.  This whole post was about seeing kids as a blessing and not as a chore or a burden.  Ok, fine.  But what I didn't get is when she got done talking about how much love she has for them, she threw in there that "I spank them".  Um, ok.  WHY?  When she was challenged in the comments section by someone who lives where spanking is actually illegal, she responded that she considers it "child training", and said something about the Bible (which was written HOW many years ago???  But I digress...). And then went on to say something about assuming the lady isn't a Christian. 

Oh MyLanta.  I am 100000000% not here to get all religious or preachy or even to claim that I know the best way in which to raise a child.  But please- think about what you're doing.  Do you allow your kids to hit other people?  What does hitting your kids actually teach them?  It's called MODELING peeps, and it goes a long, long way.

Believe it or not, I don't really like to get all deep on the blog.  But this has been bugging me and I couldn't let it go.  I like to have fun and be funny and talk about all of my poor eating choices and lack of workouts.  So I promise to be all of that and more next time.  And until then, go show your babies how to be upstanding young ladies and gentlemen. 

Have a healthy day,

J

A Day In The Life

 
So yeah, I stumbled across this pretty funny blog (well, maybe not so funny if you're not in to mom stuff and workout stuff and being chubby stuff, but I think it's pretty funny) a little while ago, and today the author is hosting a link-up.  I totally know I just did one of these things a few days ago, but whatever, I'm doing another one.  And since I know you creepers are 100% infatuated with all aspects of my life, I felt this one was rather appropriate.  Enjoy.

There are literally no two days that are exactly the same in my world.  But we are trying to get on board with a new routine right now.  So here's what's going down today:

5:30- The Husband's alarm goes off.  In a perfect world, I am getting up with these good vibrations and heading to get my sweat on.  In my real world however, I am too dog-ass tired to move. 

6:15- Drag myself out of bed and allow Husband to finally turn on the light so he no longer has to use his iPhone flashlight to pick out an outfit.  I'm nice like that.

6:30- Tell Ty that it' s way too early to wake up. Insist that he go back to bed, but then cave when he heads down the stairs to sit on the couch and wait for the TV to be turned on anyway; telling myself that it's not worth it to fight with a 3-year-old at the crack of dawn. 

7:00- Wake CJ up and begrudgingly let him watch Ninjago, if it will actually make him move his body out of the bed, and keep the two of them occupied while I finish getting ready.

7:05- put two outfits on the couch and remind them to get dressed

7:10- put breakfast in their hands

7:15- leave for work

7:30-10:30- work.  There is literally nothing else to say here.

10:45- Sneak away, even though I'm technically done at 10:25. Feel guilty about having to rush out, but remind myself that some things are just not my problems to own.  I really freaking LOVE only working part time. 

10:55- Sprint up to Ty's brand new classroom just in time for the day one meet-and-greet  to be ending.  Awesome.

11:15- Lunch and playing outside

12:30- Caillou (UGH, that kid is such a WHINER) and upstairs for nap.  Force Ty to go to sleep right away so I don't have to wake him up when it's time to go get CJ.

1:00- catch up on work stuff that I didn't get to at work and yell up the stairs to stop throwing stuff at the walls and go to sleep

2:35- wake Ty up and rush him down the stairs and in to the car

3:00- pick up the big kindergartner

4:15- head to the gym after some snack and rest where I have to teach

6:00- dinner,boys hang out with Dad

7:00- showers and bedtime

7:30- clean up the kitchen and remember that the boys have nothing clean to wear to school tomorrow. Throw in a load of laundry.

8:00- So You Think You Can Dance, blog, Facebook; make CJ's lunch and finish that load of laundry during the commercials.

10:00- shower and think about packing a bag to go to the gym in the morning but remember suddenly that I have to be at a meeting by 7:15.  Get in bed and attempt to read Gone Girl, but fall asleep.


So there ya have it.  A play by play of my ridiculously crazy day.  No pictures.  Sorry about that- I'm tired. I'll be cooler tomorrow. 

Monday Madness

What a fun fall weekend!  On Saturday, we took the boys to this place that's filled with gigantic inflatable bounce houses.  They lost their minds for a couple hours, and every 10 minutes or so I thought I was going to go in to cardiac arrest.  They love that place, but it totally freaks me out.  Once they enter these things, they're gone.  I can't hear a thing because of the air pumps that are keeping them all inflated; and they're all filled with blown up things to navigate through, climb up, and slide down.  I basically watch them go in and keep my fingers crossed that they don't get either stuck or crushed before they come back out.  The highlight of the trip was watching my son sprint from house to house and get told to slow down and walk.  Instead of just complying and walking away like I imagine any normal 3-year-old would do, my child stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the guy for a solid 10 seconds. He then busted out his most elaborate ninja moves complete with sound effects and proceeded to *sprint* away from him.  It's amazing that I actually held it together long enough to get him to actually walk before I just about peed myself from laughing so hard.  My kid is so naughty. I pity his middle school teachers. 

That's just about all I have time for today, you guys.  I am already stressed out with trying to get our new routine in place.  And Im starting to feel bad for my poor lucky gym members- I definitely took all of my stress out on them tonight.  I just got home about 10 minutes and already I can't really feel my shoulders.  Oops, maybe it was a bit harsh.  But I still managed to lift my shoulders high enough to reach my mouth.  I made some stuffed zucchin for dinner and couldn't wait to get home to eat.  It may have just undone all of the work I just put in at the gym, but whoa- amazeballs.

Ok, I'm off to make some school lunch, clean my dirty kitchen and go to bed so I can do it all again tomorrow.  My littlest man starts school (well, for an hour preview) tomorrow.  Pray that he keeps his ninja moves to himself. 

Have a healthy day,

J

Random Ramblings

I never really get why a bunch of stay-at-home-mom bloggers all rejoice at the fact that it's Friday.  I mean, for real. You stay home every day.  Your chores don't change just because it's the weekend.  You still have to wake up early and make a bunch of breakfasts and clean up toys and yell at kids for being too rowdy and plan dinner and run errands and the list goes on and on.  So if you are a stay-at-home-mom can you please explain the excitement about Fridays?  Thank you.

And while I'm a stay-at-home-mom most of the time, I am a teacher for a little part of each day as well.  But you already knew that.  What you didn't know is that each Friday, my students write a Friday Freewrite journal entry.  (That means they can write about whatever they want).  Since today was their first Friday with me as their teacher, most of them were shy to share.  One boy agreed to share his, but wanted me to be the one to read it to the class.  So I did.  And guess what?  The entire thing was about how much he already hates my class.  And yes, in case you were wondering, he hates me too.  Don't worry, he went on to say that he hates everything about this school.   I asked him afterwards if he would at least give it an honest try, and he told me he "doubts it".  Over all, it was a really wonderful pick-me-up.

My family attended three different parties over the three day weekend. My children got to run around and be crazy with their same-age cousins from Pennsylvania (they had so much fun and were insanely cute together) on Saturday. On Sunday, we went to a BBQ at our friends' house. There were so many kids there who all loved playing and swimming and eating together. And on Monday, we were at my parents' house celebrating my baby brother's 27th birthday. And since I'm an All-Star Blogger and Documenter of Memories, I didn't have my camera. (And apparently, I have also decided to hang on to my old school cell phone that's worth approximately 50 cents for EVER). I am so cool like that. This is literally the only picture (that got emailed to me) from our entire fun weekend:

 

 

I worked out once this entire week.  I didn't get to teach on Monday because of the holiday, and trying to get in to our new routine has me all messed up.  I did a workout from Exercise On Demand the other night.  It was alright, and I was a very sweaty mess, but I despise working out at home.  For one, I have, like, 3 square feet in which to mover around; and two, I can never hear the freaking music in those shows.  So I have to stare at the TV to try to keep up with their beat.  It's usually a disaster and I look like a freak show.  I set my alarm to go to the gym before work today, and then just didn't get up.  I'm a mess. 

 

So there ya have it.  Cheers to the freakin weekend.  (remember that song?) I hope it's a good one.  I'm off to get my KINDERGARTNER.  (I'll probably stop talking about that soon, but I'm making no promises.)

 

Have a healthy day,

 

J