How lucky am I?

Hubby was out of town last weekend and he had to work this Saturday. So Sunday was our first family home day in the last couple of weeks. Kev and I are very happy outside. Whether it’s working in the yard or just hanging out by the pool (which isn’t open yet), we love being outside, especially when the weather cooperates. With Hunter in the picture, it has revealed some real challenges trying to spend quality time outside.

Yesterday after our usual breakfast out and running around, Kev went out to work in the yard. He picked up and moved some firewood, changed the oil in the lawn tractor, started emptying the pool cover… you know stuff like that. I put groceries away, feed Hunter lunch and cleaned the kitchen, while Hunter played in his playpen in the dining room. Every chance I got I would peek my head out and see what Kev was doing and see if he needed any help.

We contemplated calling Grandma to come over and keep an eye on Hunter so I could help with the yard work (and basically just be outside). But honestly, I figured Hunter is a permanent part of our lives and we really need to figure out how this is going to work, so Grandma wasn’t called.

One of the last times I went out on the deck, Kev said he had an offer for me… no telling what was up his sleeve. He came in a few minutes later and said since I have been stuck in the house for the past two weekends, he would stay in with Hunter if I wanted to cut the grass. First of all, it’s stuck as in ‘in the house’ and not ‘with Hunter’ – just to clarify. Now most of you are probably thinking, “cut the grass?!… nice… I don’t think so”. But I love cutting the grass. It didn’t take me long to take the deal. We have over 2 acres, a riding mower and I love to spend time riding around the yard. Especially this time of year, everything is blooming. Renewal is everywhere. I feel very refreshed. I have the bestest husband in the whole wide world.

Not to mention I had on my shorts from 2 years ago and they weren’t even tight. I can’t wait for them to be too big!!

Pictures? You’d like some pictures? Sure…

Creeping flox - one of the first signs of spring in the yard.

“I’m outside with Dad!!”

Mr. Happy with dimples.

Yay, I’m outside!! (clapping)

American Idol Gives Back…

Gives back what? Our time? I’ll take that thank you very much. American Idol wasn’t American Idol last night, it was more like the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon. I wonder if Ryan Seacrest knew he would be hosting a telethon instead of a pop-reality show? I really feel as tho’ Idol was trying to somehow deceive me. I just wanted to know who was getting voted off… and no one did. A fine waste of my time. Good thing I didn’t watch the whole thing. At least on Labor Day, you know what you are in for.

Oh yea, I did catch when they were telling Lakisha whether she was safe of not. Let’s just say, I hope they put aside a bit of that money raised to give that poor girl a shirt that fits!!! I didn’t need to see her who-ha’s peaking out in the button gap. Come on people, I’m sure you could have given the poor girl a bigger shirt!! Who was in charge of that fashion faux pa? Thank goodness someone gave her a safety pin, before they all had to perform. (sorry, I couldn’t find a pic)

One more thing (and this is for my bud Nikki) – what the fuck was up with a duet between Celine and ELVIS?!? Very disturbing.

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Hubby’s home – yay! And every time Hunter has seen him since (like 1st thing in the morning or when Kev gets home from work, Hunter lets out this adorable little scream (if he was older it might be a Howard Dean scream). He’s just so happy to see him.

In other Hunter news, yesterday he started crawling ‘properly’ and not his army crawl. Of course he is now circling his playpen by holding on to the sides, so I’m not sure he is going to have much use for that crawling thing anyway.

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Weighing in tomorrow, keep your fingers crossed.

Bizzy, bizzy, bizzy…

You know, in my mind I’ve been blogging more regularly. So much to catch up on…

Hunter got his first haircut a week and a half ago, on Sunday, April 15th. Of course I got some of the hair. He was so good.
Before:

During:

After:

Fit with Finance Update:
I’ve lost 15 lbs so far and I am still in first place with 2 weeks to go. The closest person is 3 lbs behind me. But this is more than a contest for me; it needs to be a way of life. I want my family to be healthy and more importantly I want Hunter to grow up eating healthy, I don’t want him to have the same struggles I have always had. And if any of this body type crap is genetic, then he is going to need all the help he can get.

My clothes are definitely fitting better and I can wear my shorts from 2 years ago (pre-pregnancy). Now, if I could just fit into shorts I didn’t buy at Lane Bryant.

In due time, I am sure that will happen. I have been reading (and reading and reading). I am tracking what I’ve been eating on sparkpeople.com (pretty cool site for tracking and it’s FREE). You know the diet industry is all over the map about what is healthy and what is the best, healthiest way to lose weight. But that is a whole other post.

Hubby update:
Hubby is out of town and has been for 4 days (since Saturday). I miss him tremendously! We have the kind of marriage where we do things together so this feels un-natural. I know he misses the Bug really bad too. He is in Reno with some buddies, bowling in the National Tournament. I usually go with him, but they plan these so long in advance, we weren’t sure where we where going to be with money (work weirdness) and I just didn’t know if I could leave the Bug for that long. Well, we have had a great weekend together, enjoying the sunshine and 80 degree weather (gotta love Michigan!). We’ve been to the park – even tho’ he slept through the whole thing. We’ve gone for walks every evening. But boy will we be glad with Dad is back.

It’s time to move the mattress

I don’t get to sleep in anymore so I steal as much sleep as I can when I don’t have to be at work. So tell me, how am I supposed to sleep when this is all I can see. Apparently Hunter was ready to get up.

Click on the photos for larger versions.

April 12 of 12

Well, better late then never.

Here’s my 12 of 12. For more info and great links, check out Chad’s site here.

There is a big gap in my picture times. For some reason, I completely forgot last month and this month I had momentary lapses in memory. That’s the reason for the sporadic times.

8:05 AM Hunter and Hubby on the couch. Dad is feeding Hunter his breakfast even tho it looks like Hunter if feeding himself

8:11 AM This is my makeup drawer. I don’t wear a ton of makeup (you wouldn’t know it by the drawer contents), but when I do, this is where I start.

8:15 AM I’m heading out to start my truck (hey, it’s still cold here) and I am greeted in the front hall with Jakey-Jake taking his morning bath… nice.

8:17 AM Since I have been on this diet (12 lbs down by the contest stats – woo hoo!) I have been making my lunch and eating breakfast at home before I go. The tomato juice is breakfast (at least part of) and the stuffed chicken breast is my mid-morning snack.

8:35 AM The staple of my 12 of 12 shots – playing catch with the Big Brown Dog in the morning before work.

12:12 PM Boy what a hectic morning, no morning snack until noon.

1:54 PM I love this song. I’m in my car going to a local coney island to pick up a salad. I know I said I was making my lunch, but today I ran out of lettuce so it’s to the coney island for me.

1:55 PM Aforementioned coney island.

8:59 PM This is Missy, she is our 12 year old black lab and the official furniture holder dower. In our house if you get up, chances are you will lose your seat.

9:05 PM BONUS PIC – my random word was RED, so here is a picture of my red sharpie.

9:06 PM Hunter playing the piano. Now this is actually past his bed time, but he took two long naps today and so he has some extra energy.

9:13 PM Yep… standing and damn proud of it.

11:02 PM My little baby is back. He may look like a boy when he’s awake, but when he’s sleeping so peacefully, he’s all baby.

I know there are big blocks of the day missing. I think you should be happy that I forgot to take a picture of the 2 inch centipede that was on my office ceiling. Of course that would have been hard because I wasn’t going back in my office until someone killed that thing. I’m married now, I don’t do bug duty any more. I will certainly try to be more aware on the 12th of May. Hope you enjoyed another glimpse into my life.

Don’t forget to drop by Chad’s and check out some of the other 12 of 12’s. It’s pretty cool.

Beating a dead horse

I heard about this article on the radio this morning and I thought it was a great article.

I have seen several blogs putting their two cents in on this whole Imus thing. And I can see most folkes point. But I can really appreciate this black journalist’s point of view. I feel inclined to mention Jason Whitlock, the journalist who wrote the editorial, is black, because if he wasn’t I don’t know that he wouldn’t be lynched for his words.

Now you may be as sick of hearing about this shit as I am and you may not even want to click on the link. I understand… it’s a dead horse and we are still beating it. But I really feel inclined to share this little tidbit with my Internet friends.

The bigots win again.

While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.

I ain’t saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don’t have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas.

It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent.

Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves.

It’s embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to make racially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He was hailed as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about white and black people, and we all laugh out loud.

Personally, I think Imus should have taken Ann Coulter stance and not apologized. (Not that I condone what either of them have said – please remember that). He really wasn’t’ sorry he said it. He’s probably sorry about the public reaction to it. But I think he has gone too far meeting with everyone and trying to act all big about it. He was trying to be funny, come on people. I think right now he is trying to ride the free publicity wave with all this crap and it back-fired in his face. If he would have just left well enough alone. Because of the big deal being made, EVERYONE knows what was said and has even heard the clip. This is hilarious to me, why is it not okay for Imus to say it, but it’s okay for the whole world to re-play it?

Sheesh… and my Mom calls me sensitive.

Tomorrow

is the 12th of the month and I am hoping to remember to capture my 12 of 12. Whoot!

Who needs words?

When I grow up…

I want to be a real blogger. ( Fussy, Whoorl) Until then, I will just pretend.

I need someone to explain to me how I am supposed to get all the things in my life done. Sometimes I feel like life is a game that you just can’t win. I just can’t seem to do all the things I would like. Seriously, how am I supposed to:
Work 40 hours a week (not including lunch and travel time),
Keep a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, tri-level house clean,
Play with my son,
Teach my son,
Maintain 2 dogs and 2 cats (this makes the cleaning even more fun!),
Pack my lunch,
Eat healthy,
Make sure my family eats healthy,
Maintain a garden,
Take cool pictures,
Make jewelry,
Lose weight,
Exercise,
Bowl,
Hang out with my husband,
Keep in touch with family (including family out of state),
Mourn a great job that I don’t have any more,
Find a new job, cuz my current one isn’t cutting it,
Get some fresh air and sunshine,
Clean my office,
Balance my checkbook,
Get enough sleep,
Put on makeup,
Do something resembling a hair style with my hair,
Read a book or 4,
Come up cute stories about my day to share with my blogger friends (and finding time to post them),
Grocery shop,
Enjoy the hot tub
And maintain some level of sanity?
Especially when I’ve been sick…

And I have a cold-sore.

Fuck.

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On the up side, I have lost 5 more lbs, that puts me at 11 lbs total and the front-runner for the Get-Fit-With-Finance contest. And the most hated Biotch in finance! Did I mention the cash prize? Yea baby!

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Steph I got your tag, I’ll get to it this week.