A whole month.

I skipped a whole month of writing on here. So, either October didn't happen or I suck at blogging. I'm going to go with the latter, even though it felt like the former!

I also discovered that I suck at taking things out of our pantry. I reached for a can of soup and started an avalanche of canned goods that dropped, one by one. One by one, I narrowly escaped the crushing blow of the chicken noodles, cream of mushrooms, and vegetable beefs as they rained around my dancing feet. Missing the cream of chicken however, did not happen. Right on my middle toe of my left foot. Holy hell. It's not broken, but there's a good chance the nail will go:( It has been almost two weeks and it still hurts once in a while. Mostly notably when a small child uses my foot as a little step to get 1/2 inch taller!

#3 on the list of things I suck at: Working out. :::sigh::: I was doing SO good until that toe injury incident. For real, the first few days I was lucky to walk without a limp. By day 3 I could put a shoe on without wincing in pain. Then this past Monday I decided I was going to power through. Work through the pain. Quit my bitching. Yeah, I ate a huge lunch and an hour later I let Jillian Michaels whoop my tail with her "Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism" dvd. Good. God. So dumb, especially since I know better. Tator tot hotdish is NOT a light meal. Combine that with chugging water throughout my workout and the burps that followed were not that pleasant when I was gasping for air. I powered through though and I felt back on track. Um, it's been 5 days and I haven't moved onto the second (of four) disc in my workout lineup yet. I have, however, been taking advantage of the rare great weather and getting active with cleaning up inside the house and outside. So, I'm moving...Jillain just isn't the one cracking the whip;)

I have a problem.

And it's called Farmville. It's this farming application on Facebook and it's addicting. Can't really figure out why, but I think it's because I can organize my land, house, animals any way I want to and they STAY that way, lol.

I'm getting that way with the house too. Slowing chiseling away at the clutter, slow and steady. We haven't had the giant pile up with school papers like I was expecting, so that is nice!

With Tay starting jr. high, I figured it was time to look into getting a laptop. She is involved with yearbook this year and they can work on their pages online. Between that, homework and her own online downtime, I can't see me getting the desk top a whole lot, lol. Plus I'd like to start putting video from our HandyCam on to discs, that project is WELL overdue! The only problem to that is there are a lot of little clips and they would take HOURS to burn versus the time it would take for one longer video to burn (each clip has to prep, record and finalize). With a laptop, I could do my videos on there. Plus it would take the place of our portable dvd player that kicked the bucket. However, after days and hours of research and finally narrowing it down to a laptop I like, it has disappeared from the online retailer's site:( I emailed both the retailer and the manufacturer and I have received the runaround as to the status of this laptop. It's not an older one, in fact some sites don't even have a review for it yet. I know the retailer's store has it, I saw it there 2 days ago. I was hoping to wait until later in October, but maybe we'll have to push that up a bit to get it!

Tired.

So tired....and ready for some normal!

Originally we didn't have anything planned for this weekend and that was a nice change of pace. Then my mom called mid-week and wanted to get everyone together to grill and hang out. So we went there on Friday night and stayed over since it's a longer drive to our house and DH and I both drank. Around the same time my mom called, an old friend text DH about a housewarming campout at his lake house. So mom kept the kids yesterday/last night and we hung out at the lake with some old friends and crashed in our motorhome. I'm looking forward to my own bed tonight!

Taylor starts school on Thursday and while I'm ready for it, I'm not. Homework. Conferences. Boys. Dramatic girlfriends. :::sigh::: I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

And.....done!

We did it. The crazy is finally done and I survived! :)

• The zoo (and the only monkeys I came home with are the ones that were always mine, lol). Cole was so psyched to see those giraffes and they didn't disappoint! The only downside was the weather. We did things backwards....we did the indoor stuff first and the outdoor stuff last. By the time we got outside the clouds had rolled in and it was chilly!
• MOA with Nickelodeon Universe and Underwater World. Lots of walking, and a lot of riding, but a good time was had by all. The neatest thing was Cole getting to meet SpongeBob Squarepants and Diego. It was like he was meeting his heroes, lol. Just in awe and with big smiles. So glad I caught in on camera and that they were nice enough to let me take pictures. Some places that take their own pictures won't let you do that with your own camera and then they charge you for one picture:( Their employees even hammed it up so the kids would look my way and I could get a good shot, that was really nice and appreciated!
• Junior High orientation. Oy. It was long and it was a zoo, but everything is done. Bus pass, lunch pin number, health forms, and I'm signed up for their "Parent Portal" where I can check Tay's grades, attendance, etc. online. THAT will be nice! No more emails from the teacher or waiting until the report card to find out assignments are missing. There was so much running around that by the time we found that last thing we needed, I joked that I should get a sticker for successfully completing the scavenger hunt!
  

Tay gets her haircut tomorrow, but then I'm looking forward to a few days of NOTHING. We have offers to go up north for the weekend or to camp out for a housewarming party, but I'm content to hang out at home. Get caught up on some stuff. Find normal!

Crazy busy!

All summer long our weekends have been occupied with something or another, but August somehow gets the brunt of it all. Fitting in stuff we somehow couldn't find room for in the earlier months. The zoo. The amusement park. The large aquarium I know Cole will love.

Tomorrow is the last day before all hell breaks loose for a week. Thursday is appointments: Tay for her ears and me for my hair (whoo-hoo!!). Then I need to shop for Tay's birthday as she turns 13 on Monday *sob*. I'm not ready to have a teenager! Friday afternoon we leave to travel to Iowa for my brother's wedding on Saturday. DH and Cole need to be there early to try on their tuxes. I'm super excited that I got my dress on clearance and I LOVE it. I've been working out like mad and I know it will look good. I'm bummed I'm not included in the wedding party and this wedding has been a lot of drama, but I'm happy knowing I'll look good and have a great time with my cousin. We never get to hang together so we're excited :)

We'll come home on Sunday and DH will leave for a trip to Kansas to pick up a tank or two. The next day is Tay's birthday and she opted for a sleepover. Send good thoughts, I'll need them! Tuesday we will *finally* hit the amusement park. My mom is watching the little ones so we can go and have a good time without worrying about changing diapers or finding a restroom *right now*.

Later this month we have a weekend for the zoo and that aquarium (one on Saturday and the other on Monday). I say it every year, but next year I'll mean it : I'm planning this stuff earlier! :)

Tomorrow, last day of the Shred! I haven't seen a big loss, but I'm okay with that. I was looking to tone and I have so I'm happy with that. I think I just need to come to terms with the fact that this just might be the weight my body is happy with and it's healthy, so I can live with it.

August. Wth?

I can't believe it. August is *wait, I'm checking the calendar on my computer* 6 days away. Yikes. Where is the summer going? Busy weekends have made the months fly by. While I love having things to do, it makes the time go by so much quicker.

Well, at least I haven't been sitting on my butt, lol. We have hit the Relay for Life this year...my first time ever! I have purchased luminaries in the past, but this year the kids and I went out to visit my sister's employers Relay team. What a great experience. I think it was very eye-opening for Taylor to see all those luminaries lining the track and all those that walked the entire time we were there. Cancer has touched us through friends and family but she was too young to understand when those times happened. Our family had 9 luminaries lit that night: 3 "In Memory" and 6 "In Honor". One of my favorite pics from the night:




It was a great night....the weather was a little cool for it and we didn't stay all night, but I'd love to go again!!

Speaking of great weather, this weekend weather was awesome. Not hot July weather we're use to, but perfect for being active outside or relaxing on the deck at night. We leaving for DH's family's annual camping trip this Thursday so I hope we get lucky with the weather again!

I talked about not sitting on my butt earlier, and boy, if that isn't the truth! I started Jillian Michael's "30 Day Shred" and w.o.w. The workouts are only 20 minutes long, but she whomps on you for those 20 minutes! You do Level 1 for 10 days, Level 2 for 10 days and Level 3 for 10 days. As of today (Sunday) I'm on Level 2, Day 5. I'm just looking to tone up and lose some baggage upfront, but the 20 minutes is enough to make me feel good and hopefully I'll keep on working out when the 30 days is done.

When the world is passing you by...

You just have to wonder, what the hell am I waiting for?

Today on Facebook I received a group invitation from my sister. An invitation to a group she created to help promote a new "business" of hers. It's photography, scrapbooking, video editing, etc. That is the second or third person lately who is just off and running with a new project. I feel very left behind, lol. I guess I feel that way because we own 2 businesses and all I do for them is paperwork. Sure, someone has to do it, but it's not very exciting or anything. Nobody sees my "talents" of balancing books. Whoo-hoo. Even a friend started a scrapbooking business where she made enough money to buy a Kindle DX. Now I'm jealous because we *should * be able to afford one as well (I'm running out of room for my collection of books), but things are kind of icky right now. Anyway....

This September we have a truck show we go to every year...there are hundreds of trucks (semi), some big and new, some small and shiny. Of course, ours get the special treatment to look it's best as well. In the past, I have seen "boards" next to a truck, showing the progression from a not-so-fancy state to pretty darn nice looking! I thought that would be a great thing for ours...it looks NOTHING like it did when we first got it. I mentioned it to DH and he was all, "Eh." Oh well, maybe I'll do it for ourselves and he'll like it enough to take it with.

I think I just feel a little low because despite all the hard work being done, we have very little fun to go with it. DH works a lot, and the trucks are running.... it's just that the time it's taking some of these construction companies to pay us is insane. We are owed a lot of money and it's depressing to wait for it when our bills aren't exactly taking a hiatus or anything. :::sigh:::

In other news, I briefly abandoned my pity party for an a** whoopin' today. After reading some posts on a SAHM board where they were talking about "shredding", I was intrigued. Long story short, I received my Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred yesterday and started it today. Wow. Each level is 20 minutes and there are 3 levels. You do each level for 10 days and then move to the next one. I checked out the reviews and most of them were very positive, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. What have I got to lose? Oh yeah, the baggage upfront...forgot about that;)