Baby!

It's a BOY!  I'm going to have a son!

I can't wait to snuggle with my little guy.  

Due date is September 10, 2012

It's Woe time

So I haven't talked about my chest woes for a long while, I decided to skip the complaints about milk leakage, engorgement, etc while I was nursing Gracie, but now I've got something. So here goes..

Itchy Boobs

That's right, I said it, super, untreatable, inconsolable, itchy side boobs (mostly).  

However, that being said, itchy boobs is really the only thing I can complain about with this pregnancy, otherwise it's been a breeze so far.  Being a flat chested woman, these puppies have a lot of growing and stretching to do in order to house the milk needed to fill up a hungry baby's tummy.  My body's just prepping for that occurance. If only they'd stay milk jug sized afterward...

And yes, I did just say that I'm pregnant. Yipee!  More to come on that later. 

This little piggy.... is so not cute.

I love my daughter, I really do.  I can't talk enough about how I think she's the best little person in the world, not to mention the prettiest little girl I've ever seen.  Seriously, I don't know how we got her, she's just too cute.  But despite her adorable face, her clever wit and good humor, her rockin' style and her girly flare...
Girlfriend has got the ugliest feet.
First of all, she was born with gargantuanly long feet, looked like they belonged to a child rather than a baby.  But that was just the beginning.  She's got some funky toenails that literally grow upwards, I don't mean out, I mean they actually curl up if they grow just a little bit too long.  Needless to say, I'm very meticulous in making sure this doesn't happen.  And now, to top it off, she's developed some wicked constant skin peeling on her toes and feet.  I lotion them several times a day, it helps for a few minutes.  Poor little things are shedding like a snake in the summer.
And the best part is:
She loves them. 

5 Years

My sweetie and I have been married for 5 years.  He bought me a new wedding band for our anniversary.  I love it! 

@#$%

Vermin.  Such a disgusting word.  It makes me think of spitting and snarling, which is how I feel right now.
Storytime
We've had a raccoon get into our ceiling.  Not onto our roof, into our ceiling, and it pads around and scratches and scratches and scratches, it's so loud and so close it sounds like it's going to fall right through our ceiling and right onto our heads.  It steals our sleep and makes me crazy. 
Wildlife Protection was contacted about the situation and they came and set up some traps, giving me the charge to check them every morning and reporting every morning if there was a Catch or No Catch.  I forgot to call one morning and they put me through the wringer. It's not a pleasant experience being chewed out by an animal catcher.
The good news is we caught the little stinker.
Here's proof:

Don't you dare think for a second that he's cute!

The bad news is some idiot, bleeding heart, let him go before Wildlife Protection was able to get here to take him away.
So now we'll continue to have raccoon problems, and I'll have to continue go to out every morning and call in my report.  They say the chances of catching him again are very low now that he knows the trick.

I'm so mad I could spit, and to make it worse I have strong suspicions on who the guilty party is, which just angers me more.

P.S. It's against the law to mess with animal traps, and those people aren't interested in being merciful, they take this stuff very seriously.

Sugar Free

So much Yum!

11 days sugar free and feeling great!

Judge me if you must

My new favorite song to run to is Sexy and I know it by LMFAO

I work out.

What's your favorite workout song?

Thumbs Down to Daylight Savings!

Espeically boo to the spring version!  My minutes are precious, and to take away an hour from me is just rude.  In our society, there's really no point to it, it doesn't save energy, because we'll just use electricity more in the morning now instead of in the evening.  We had a hard time going to bed on time, but still had to wake up early, I ended up going to gym an hour later than usual, because I couldn't wake up, and came home in the dark, instead of the light as I do even leaving hour earlier!
  The whole thing just makes me grumpy.

Mall Trip

I had to go to the mall yesterday to visit the Apple store because my ipod broke.  I've got to give props to Apple, they give excellent customer service, and they gave me a new ipod and charger easy-peasy.
I don't like going to the mall, it just reminds me of how out of fashion I am.  I noticed that the shorty short shorts are in fashion again, I liked it the last couple years where the knee length shorts were the fashion, that was sure handy for me.  Let's go back to that. 
And, does anyone else find the trend of short shorts with stockings repulsive? Seriously.  What are they thinking.

On a positive note, I do love going to the mall to get my monthly Godiva chocolate, and Gracie loves the escalator.  She was also a very good girl and held my hand the whole time while we walked around.  She also adored the play place, it was great to see her running around like a crazy person having so much fun, wish I'd had my camera.

what are we teaching her?

Gracie's hungry, she says:  Let's eat, let's eat
I say: We can't eat until daddy comes home
Gracie says:  Oh, eat pitzzy! (pizza) 

Guess she remembers that daddy brings home pizza sometimes. 

Morning Rituals

Gracie and I watch Tangled on Netflix every morning while I comb out her own lovely locks and try to do something with that hair to keep it out of her face.  It's actually become a really great system, Gracie lets mommy play with her hair for up to 20 minutes sometimes, and then afterward, I get to snuggle with my baby for a little longer.  To me it was just a way to get her to hold still, then Skylar pointed out how clever it was of me to have her watch Tangled, of all movies, while I did her hair.  I didn't know I was being clever in movie choice, but I'll take the compliment.

Well Leap Day happened, and Netflix decided that we had enough of Tangled, so they took it away.  Not Happy were we.  I'm pretty sure we were mostly keeping our account just for the morning hair ritual. 
Now what? 
We bought it of course. Can't live without our Tangled. 

Goal pants? Check.

I didn't think I'd be able to, but I did it, I fit into the pants. This is a monumental occasion, because as I mentioned before, I've never actually fit into any of my goal pants in the past.

Here's my proof:

I probably should have cleaned up before having the picture taken, and we couldn't keep Gracie out of the picture, she has to do everything mommy does (she's putting on my hat there); and you can probably tell my tall husband took the picture, but there they are, my tiny skinny jeans - these things have zero stretch to them, so there was no chance of just squeezing into them, I really had to work for it.
Thanks for all your support!

Reflections on Bambi

 Recently Gracie is very interested in watching Babi (Bambi).  The cute thing is, I didn't introduce it to her, she just found the DVD among our collection and started giving it to me.
In general, I like Bambi, and I don't mind it playing in the background since there's very little talking and it's just instrumental music, which is quite enjoyable.  I have a rule that Gracie isn't allowed to watch anything that annoys me.
But I do have a few issues which I would like to address.
First of all, the names. 

Bambi - male, deer, Prince of the forest
Feline - female, deer, Bambi's girlfriend
Flower - male, skunk

Does anyone else see a problem here?  Bambi is not only feminine in itself, but the only other people named Bambi are female strippers.  Feline should be a cat, plus I always thought it sounded like Felipe, which is a European man's name.  And Flower? Cute, but not male.

Next, there seems to be some parenting issues here, while the entire forest comes to celebrate the birth of the new prince, the father is no where to be seen.  He doesn't get involved in Bambi's life at all until his mom is killed and it's time to teach him to be a man.
And on that note, WHY does Bambi's mom have to die??  This is a children's movie!  If there's one thing that children understand it's the importance of their mommy.  Bambi's mom dying is simply traumatizing, or at least it was for me when I was little, every time I knew that part was coming I'd run and hide in the bathroom until it was well over, then I could pretend it didn't happen.

I like Thumper and his little Thumperisms.  Was anyone else tempted to eat clover blossoms when they were small because of Thumper?  I was, they always looked so delicious.

Maybe I just take things all too seriously.

Banana Pancakes

I literally make the best banana pancakes ever.
And today I'm going to share my secrets with you:

For the pancake mix use half whole wheat and half bisquick - I recently started using the Heart Healthy kind because it doesn't have the hydrogenated oil that regular bisquick has in it, but both work equally.
Puree a whole banana with the milk in a blender or food processor.
Don't add oil
Do add the egg (although it still works without)
Chopped nuts are optional but highly recommended.Walnuts are my favorite, but almonds are also great.


I don't have proportions because I don't measure, I just add stuff intuitively, or until I have the right consistency.

I can be strong

I did 13 push-ups today.
It's the most I've ever done in my live, and it's a huge advance from the one half push-up that I was able to do a couple months ago. 
I feel pretty awesome. My original goal was to work up to be able to do 10 push-ups, now I'm bumping it up to 25. 

And by the way, about those pants, I think it's not going to happen, it's not me, it's my new momma hips that I didn't take into account.  But we'll see, I'll keep working on it.

A Dangling Carrot

 Like the majority of women in this country, I have constant and rarely reached health/weight-loss/get fit, (whatever you want to call it) goals.  I go to the gym regularly, but I rarely change my routine, or work hard enough to make much of a difference.  I like to eat a lot of healthy food, but I also eat an equal amount of junk food.  These make for a problem when it comes to reaching my goals and looking better.
Today, in an effort to motivate me a little more, I bought a pair of pants that are currently too small for me.  Goal pants, as I like to call it.  The thing is, this is not a new tactic for me, and the worst part is, it's never worked in the past, I just end up donating my never-been-worn-goal pants to someone else who is fortunate enough to not need to make the same goals as myself.

So here I am yet again, with goal to fit into a pair of pants that I bought knowing full well that I'll have to do some sufficient hiney shedding before I can comfortably claim them as mine.  Hopefully they'll still be in style when that day comes.  I'll try to keep you posted if it happens, perhaps there will even be a picture featuring my legs in said pants.
Does anyone else do this to themselves?

Not Dreaming of a White Christmas

I never liked the song I'm dreaming of a White Christmas, because I've never liked snow and winter.  I like sunshine and warmth. 
Upon moving to Ohio, I had no idea that the sun liked to hide for the winter, last winter it didn't show it's glorious face for what felt like 4 months straight. 
Today I received a Christmas miracle from my friend the sun. 
December 24th, the sun is shining!  There is no snow, and the sky is blue with a high of 40 degrees. That's my kind of winter.

words

Gracie has a growing vocabulary. But sometimes her words require a little translating. She says :
Momma= momma
Momma= play with me
momma= get that
momma= i'm hungry
momma= pick me up
momma= let's go
momma= hi dad

Ridiculous Incentives

It was bagels and schmear that got me out of bed this morning. 
I am trying to stick to a routine of waking up early to go to the gym and work out and be able to shower and have some me time, all before Gracie wakes up at 7:30 (ps, I hate you Daylight Savings Time, your throwing off my daughter's sleep schedule).  As it gets colder, waking up early gets harder.  I was actually awake already when the alarm went off, and I didn't exactly fall back to sleep, I just didn't want to get out of bed, for 35 minutes I thought of reasons why I don't need to actually get up this morning, or why I have legitimate excuses not to (the baby woke up at 3:00am and kept me up for 10 minutes, it's going to be a sunny day - I can run later, I could just make today my off day, and the list goes on and on). 
But then I remembered that at my gym, the second Tuesday of the month is Bagel day, and you can take as many as you want, and they're good.  At that thought I sprung to action.  I couldn't miss the opportunity to get free bagels for my family for breakfast.
Gotta get my money's worth for the gym membership, right?

Pretty Girl

My little girl is pretty, and goofy.   Here's a random selection..