RTT: Hair, hummus and GofT

I got my hair cut and colored this weekend. I feel like a new woman! I cut about 6 inches off and went back to my (almost) natural color of a dark brown. My original hair color is a nice poop-brown color. My stylist laughed when I said that but agreed and said that we both have a similar natural color and while it’s not terrible it’s not a  color any normal person would ask to have. The funny thing is, neither boy made mention of the fact that when they saw me after I got it done that anything was different. Not surprising about Leo but Jacoby would have really only known me as a red-head and to see me with brown hair and not say anything was surprising to me. Aw well. I shouldn’t be surprised…they’re boys!

 

I love hummus. The only problem is my stomach does not love hummus. It makes me incredibly gassy and the smell is AWFUL. But I can’t quit eating it. I will for a while because I’m embarrassed by what my children say to me when I *ahem* fart, but then I’ll pick the habit back up. Like today I downed a bunch of it. I can only imagine the ridicule tonight. (holds head down in shame)

 

Did anyone see Game of Thrones this weekend? What. The. Heck. I’m all for storylines changing every once in a while to further the story but come on. Making major plot changes just to include characters in a story instead of bringing in new ones? Driving me insane. Also, it’s so strange to me that the ages of these kids (literal children in the books) have been aged up so dramatically that I feel really awkward watching the end of sex scenes with what I’m remembering from the books as he was 8. 8! So yeah. Gross.

 

There have  been a ton of people at work retiring lately. I work in a company with 800+ employees and so when I say a ton I mean like 3 or 4 but it has really got me thinking about retirement. I have been reading a lot of retirement articles and looking at what I’m contributing to my 401(k) etc. but it just concerns me that with the way the economy is and has been that I won’t have enough to retire. Ever. I don’t want to work forever. I want to work for max 25 more  years which would put me at 55. But for reals. 25 years is so far away. I’m just going to cross my fingers and hope that in the next 10-15 years I will be debt free and contributing the max amount of 75% in to my 401(k). Haha. Or at least like 20%!

 

That’s all my random for today. Go see Stacy and join the random rebellion.

Weight Watchers Week 6

So I’m a month and half in. And while last week I said I was going to try really hard and get myself motivated again…welp it didn’t happen. I did focus on portion control but didn’t really track as well as I should. BUT we’ve done much better about eating out and when we do go out I don’t go extremely overboard as I am known to do. I also did go to the library and check out a workout video…but I still haven’t used it. So, another week, more things to work on. I can do it.

 

As for the numbers:

Starting weight: 160

Last week:          155.2

This week:          155

 

So down .2 pounds. A loss is a loss! I’ll take it!

RTT: Jacobyisms, manicures and insurance

Time for another bout of random brought to you by the erratic thoughts in my head and Stacy. Because she rocks and lets me get these out.

 

-I got a manicure with my mom the other day. I love getting manicures. But…I feel like what we get for them is going down or staying the same and the price is going up. Is Shellac really that much more expensive to apply? Or is it because they know it will last longer and you won’t have to come in more often to get it redone that that is why they upcharge? #Thingsthatmakeyougohmmm

-I applied to be a blog correspondent/whatever you call it for Wichita’s City Mom’s Blog. I think it would be cool and while I don’t know that everything I have to say would be worthwhile blogging material I feel like I have some insight. You know, since I have two incredibly cute boys who like to say the most ridiculous things…

-Which leads me to the latest Jacobyisms—he has started telling us when he *ahem* farts that, and I quote, my butt farted. Oh Jacoby. My little 3 year old verbal wonder.

-Leo has a make-up soccer game on Wednesday night which is abnormal. Usually games are on Saturdays and Sundays and so it is really throwing a wrench in my weekly menu plan. Thursday night I will be out of the house and that usually always means that the boys will go out because god forbid the hubs is able to scrounge up anything. But with his game being at 6:30 and me not even getting home until 5:30 there is no way we will have time to eat before which means we will be eating dinner around 7:45-8. Which means I will need to be uber-prepared and/or we’ll be going out two nights in a row. Which a) is gross and b) is expensive. Because those two growing lads won’t settle for kids meals anymore.

-I HATE insurance companies and doctor’s office billing departments. It just drives me insane that they can’t work together but when you have a question they each tell you to go to the other department. It is a mess and I feel like I’m always overpaying or that nothing is resolved unless I am the one to push on. If there’s a mistake/overage on a statement you would think that the doctor’s office would catch it. Because you know dang sure that if there was a shortage they would be demanding their money. But when I bring something up then it’s always well, we should have caught it but I’m not sure why we didn’t. Ugh. Drives me crazy.

 

That’s all the random today. Enjoy your Tuesday and hopefully the sunshine!

Just Write: PTO Mom

Just write. That’s what Ginny told me to do this week for the Spin Cycle. I don’t always have a lot to say that I think you’ll care about. Sometimes I just blog to be scrapbooking by words. I used to blog a lot and now it’s very sporadic. I’m trying to get back into it more. But sometimes it’s like…blah. Empty space. So for the sake of a blog post that you may be interested in reading here is what’s been going on lately in my life:

 

I am the PTO President-Elect. I will be the President next year. And we have been soooo busy reinventing our PTO. Maybe other people don’t see it like that but we are trying to get new blood in and keep the old blood but let them let us make things better. Last weekend was our annual spring carnival and I was a co-chair. Which means that I have been balls to the walls busy for the past two months. We’ve been begging asking politely for donations, picking up said donations (which thankfully one of the other co-chairs…there were 3 of us…is a SAHM so she could pick them up easier), recruiting volunteers, figuring out decorations and putting together raffle baskets. Then last weekend I was at the school from 4pm-9pm setting up, back on Saturday from 11-1 making sure things were pretty much ready and then back at 3:30 until 9:30 that night. Holy cow. That’s a lot of time spent, stress stressed and sweat shed. I was running around like a chicken with her head cut off. But all in all things went off successfully and we made over $2000 for PTO and $500 for the 7^th grade class! Woo hoo! This isn’t our major fundraiser and is more a “fun night” for families to get together and have fun. I think it went as planned!

Now that the year is almost over we still have Teacher Appreciation coming up (which thankfully a parent/PTO Board Member) has taken that on and that will happen the first week in May and an end of year BBQ for parents in PTO to get together. We have a few smaller things happening but those are our main events. We also want to grow our PTO and are trying to plan more events for the upcoming years to get families together. Our school is a Preschool-8^th grade Catholic school and so our principal’s goal is to create a more friendly environment for families to come together. He said he’s seen a shift from where we once were considered a “family” to now and everyone is so busy with their lives that they don’t participate. I don’t know that you are going to be able to get a large number of families to participate and I think we’re always going to have a core group of people who will involve themselves but we’re going to try.

 

So…that’s what has been going on in my life. And let me tell you…being a working mom, with one kid on a competitive soccer team and the other a 3 year old hooligan we are BUSY! But I wouldn’t have it any other way because it’s all family oriented and we get to spend time together!

Weight Watchers Week 5

 

This week was bad because of the choices I made. So I will own up to them, kick myself and then move on. Because if I want to keep losing I have to keep moving. My main thing I need to work on is getting myself moving more. I go to spin twice a week but other than that I haven’t been getting moving. So I need to get back to working out in the mornings on the off spin days to a video I have at home. Maybe I need to hit up the library this weekend to see if they have anything I haven’t tried to re-motivate myself. I also need to make sure my “cheat” days don’t turn in to “cheat” weeks like this one did. Woof. But that ice cream from Freddy’s was just too good to pass up… :)

 

Stats:

Starting weight: 160

Last week:           153.8

This week:           155.2

 

Total lost is still at 4.8 so I’ll think positively. Hopefully this week I can get back on the wagon. I now have formal motivation in that our now-traditional girl’s weekend has been set for Columbus Day weekend (October 9-12) so I have 6 months to lose the additional 20 pounds to get to my goal weight of 135. I can do this!!!

Jacobyisms, Baseball and Soccer Moms

It’s Tuesday. Woot woot. Not Monday. Woot woot!

Another day another funny thing Jacoby said. Lately he wants to eat breakfast at home before we go to school (where he gets to eat second breakfast. Like a Hobbit). So he usually gets a little cereal in a baggy or a cereal bar to “tide” him over for the 10 minute drive. This morning Leo had a waffle so of course Jacoby wants a waffle. I quickly toast and butter it. He also is crying for a blueberry so I grab a cereal bar as well. We are settled in for our drive and halfway there I look back and his cereal bar is gone and he has butter all over his face. And he’s just holding the waffle. I ask him why and he tells me there’s no butter on it…ummm dude just licked it off. So I tell him that the butter has melted on the waffle and he needs to eat it. He looks at me like I’m crazy, yet continues to demolish the waffle. We get to daycare and Boom. He sits down to eat his cereal. I think someone is growing…

 

And just for good measure (and so you know what I’m up against) here he is last night at the park wanting to do the monkey bars by. him. self. He would have probably made it most of the way by himself but he made it all the way with the help of my hand holding up his tushy. He is a cute daredevil. I’m in trouble!

 

Have y’all seen the Royals playing this year? Huh? They are 7-0! We are planning on heading to KC in June so we are hoping to snag some tickets to a game while we’re there. Unfortunately the tickets have gone up ridiculously since their MIRACULOUS run to the World Series last year. But I think we can still manage one game. I can’t wait!

 

We had a parent’s meeting last night and the gist of it was that parents were unhappy with our coach because A) playing time was not equal and B) he was too much of a yeller and not a pat-on-the-backer. Now, I understand that these kids are 8 and 9 years old. But at some point they will realize that not all of them are as good as the others. And we have stressed to Leo that if he wants playing time he has to knock off the shenanigans at practice and prove it. Since we had that conversation it seems that he has had more playing time and less screw-ups at practice. He understands. I know not all kids get that, nor am I saying that Leo is perfect. Believe me. He is far from it. But they will learn at some point that they must prove it to play. Whether that be in sports, careers, life. As for the yelling I get. But again, I wasn’t brought up in a “everyone wins” house. We didn’t get baseless recognition and if we needed to do something better we were told. That is how I am raising my kids. I do give them the “You’re doing  a great job” every now and then but most of the times they hear criticism (sometimes constructive…other times not so much). That is something I am trying to work on but I definitely want it to be in the form of a job really well done and not just participation trophy type stuff. Maybe I’m too competitive but I think that’s better than some other things.

 

That’s all my random musings for the day. Go see Stacy and random up with her!

Weight Watchers Week 4: Slowly but Surely

Slow and steady wins the race. Amiright? This week was tough on a number of levels: Lent ended so sweets were available again and the weather has been crappy which makes me feel crappy which equals less exercise.

 

But! I had a loss this week so I’m not going to complain. I will just try better this week and get back on the wagon.

 

Starting weight: 160

Last week: 156.6

This week :  153.8

 

Total loss in 1 month: 6.2 pounds Woot woot!

RTT: Weather Report, Working and GOT

Another week, another Tuesday. What what! So let’s get to randoming…

We are supposed to get severe weather tomorrow. With no basement for my Kansas-living self I always have to be a little more prepared than others. Thankfully in this day and age we usually have a pretty good amount of time before the storm “hits.” But because they’ve been warning us about this system that is supposed to move through tomorrow afternoon I am wanting to be extra prepared. So I think I’m going to see if my mom will be home and just go take the boys and chill over there. We can play games, eat dinner and watch TV. Then, if the storm comes, we can head to the basement. Win-win. 

Every year around spring I get this urge…to not go to work. Not so much because I don’t want to work, but mainly because I could find so many better other things I could be doing. Like sitting outside reading a book. Or not working. I just need to get past this hump so I can get my mind back in the game.

Game of Thrones starts this Sunday. *squeeeee*

Bobcat Pawlooza is this weekend. Hallelujah! I am co-chairing the spring carnival and it is finally here. I am so ready for it to be done with. Not that it hasn’t been fun. Just time consuming.

Why is it so hard to stay on task when dieting? I mean, really. It shouldn’t be this difficult. And yet it is. Come on body. Work with me!

That’s all my random today. Throw down your random and link up with Stacy. It’ll be fun. I promise!

 

Home Sweet Home

This week's spin is about how you make your house a home. And to show pictures. I could show you the mess that resides in my house but I'm sure it looks just like all yours right? Right?! Please just go along with me on that one so I don't feel like a cleaning slacker! 

So instead of showing you my mess, I'll show you what I love. First my (year old) pictures of my sweet boys. I have majorly slacked on this and not printed the last pictures we had done of the boys last October. So these are from a year ago. BUT I still love them (the pictures AND the boys) so it's all good. Plus I really don't need proof that my baby is not a baby anymore and is starting to look like a real boy! Also, in the middle of my boys is the picture I painted at my *cough* 30th birthday party at the local wine and paint place. I chose the "Family Tree" and I love it.

Next is my wall art that I got on my 29th birthday trip to KC to visit my aunt. We went to a women's fair and I saw it and had to have it. I think it is an awesome saying. Accompanying it is artwork done by Leo. I love having their artwork around the house.

And then outside we have our KU flag (ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!) and the basketball. If you can't find us inside we're probably outside enjoying family time and watching the boys hoop it up!

What makes your house a home? Join us in spinning about it and visit Ginny and all the other spinners to see their homes!

Hoppy Easter

Easter this year was pretty darn good! The Easter Bunny came and went. He left a few treats for the boys and went on his merry way. Jacoby got a "big boy" Lego and a bubble wand and Leo got a Minecraft zombie novel (yeah-they exist) and a Skylanders trap. And they each got a few eggs filled with jelly beans.

Leo lost electronics for the month earlier this week and the first thing he says to me when he sees his basket is that the Easter Bunny must have known that he lost them. Haha.

We headed to mass and then attended the Easter egg hunt that the Knights of Columbus hosts. Jacoby hit the jackpot and Leo ever the drama king was crying because he ended up on the bottom of a big kid pileup trying for the golden egg. Luckily his ankle wasn't broken ;) and we kept moving our day along.

After the hunt we headed over to my aunt and uncle's house for lunch and another hunt for my cousin's daughter and my boys. We also played a rousing game of Sorry. Or perhaps the longest game ever because we played with a 3, 5 and 8 year old. Yeesh!

All in all it was a pretty great day. I hope you all had a great Easter too!

Momma Don't You Worry--Book Review

I was approached by the author of a children’s book to read and review it. I’ve never been asked to do something like this and so I was flattered! The author is Louie Lawent and the book is titled “Momma Don’t You Worry.” It’s about a little boy (who’s almost 6 :) and his mom who he thinks is over protective. It’s basically a short story of little boys who think they are too big for their britches. The little boy and his mom go to the mall, he wanders off and then can’t find his mom.

Now being an expert seasoned mother of 2 boys I know how it goes. One day you’re giving birth and the next minute they think they’re hot stuff.

I thought this book was cute and had a message that I think most kids face at some point in their life. They want to be big kids but then realize their parents only want what is best for them. I thought the voice of the little boy was realistic too as it sounded much like what I hear on a daily basis. It also was a pretty quick read so on those nights that you just want to get to bed (or drink some wine and/or watch Netflix) you can still get a quick story in with the kiddos. If you are interested in checking out the book you can find it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I think this book is great for parents who want to discuss independence with their little ones. 

Week in Review

Yesterday I said that our week was hectic. And while it was crazy busy I had a really good week. It started last weekend with my nephew visiting from Missouri. We don’t get to see him very often so that was really nice. We did a family breakfast, had a mid-day break for Leo’s soccer game (they lost) and then got back together for dinner and a fun evening out. We ended up going to The Alley. I can’t believe on such a nice night out the place was PACKED. Just to bowl would have been a 30-45 minute wait. So we decided to just do go-karts and play games. It was so fun! Jacoby got to ride with my dad and Leo rode with my sister-in-law. They had a blast!

Sunday was uneventful thankfully because the week ahead was packed. It’s so crazy how busy we are. I don’t even want to imagine our future when Jacoby is also involved in sports! Monday was soccer for Leo and Jacoby and I played at the playground. Tuesday the hubs and I got to go on a DATE(!) and went to dinner and to see Fleetwood Mac. It was so much fun. The music was good and so was the company.

Unfortunately the show was long and the next day I was dragging. Wednesday was soccer again. Thursday I had a random day off because Leo was out of school for Holy Week but we were full that day too. Because I’ve had to miss quite a bit of work lately for appointments I scheduled Leo’s dentist appointment for my day off. On top of that I had planned to get together with my school carnival co-chair and we did that for over 6 hours between the whole day. My day also started ridiculously early (4:50) so I could make it to my spin class that starts at 5:30. We also got to see a friend’s son get the save for the Derby baseball team. Go Panthers!

Sometimes I forget what it’s like to not have anything to do. This weekend I’m looking forward to soccer and Easter and that’s it! Can’t wait to do an update on Monday of my cute boys and all their Easter haul!

Weight Watchers Week 3

Blah. This week was a little rough. We ran out of fruit at our house and my week has been chock-full of chaos and no time to go to the store. Needless to say that I didn’t fully stick to the plan. I will say that I did stay within my weekly points using all of my “allowance” points and used none of my exercise points that I earned. But I think that is why I only lost a little and not more. I’m not going to complain too much though since I did lose a little!

 

Starting weight: 160

Last week: 157

This week: 156.6