Thankful Day 26 - 3 Minutes of Heaven!

This is a picture of the call from "My Marine" that I've been waiting nearly 10 weeks for!

I was over at our Team Leader's house this afternoon for our Thanksgiving Potluck just relaxing. I had been told by numerous moms that I should expect a phone call to discuss travel plans for after graduation but I really had no idea when it would come! When I saw this number come across my caller id on my cell phone I nearly peed my pants! I knew it had to be My Marine! So I went out and found a quiet corner and took the call! It was a tiny bit of heaven for this momma! I started crying as soon as I answered the phone and heard his deep voice on the other end!

I knew the call would be short (from what I had been told) so I tried to listen and ask vital questions. It was sooooo wonderful to talk to him. He sounded great! He wants to get the "hxxx" out of there as fast as possible on the 16th so I'm hoping we can all get flights home that afternoon after graduation. He wants to take us to a hockey game while he is home. He wants to relax and enjoy spending time with his family! Sounds perfectly wonderful to me!

19 days till I see my Marine son -- not that I'm counting! -)

A Crazy Busy Confession

Today is Tuesday, and that means Confession time over at the Sisterhood. I have had a pretty good week, although sometimes during this past week I haven't known whether I am coming or going!

Mother's Day weekend is always crazy for me. The annual homeschool bookfair is on Friday and Saturday of Mother's Day weekend and so that means I am gone most of the day on Friday and Saturday...It also means eating out most every meal and some of my choices were not the best, but to my benefit I do ALOT of walking during this weekend! I tried to make good choices but sometimes there were NO good choices! I did log all my food into Livestrong/MyDaily Plate so at least I saw what my choices cost me!

For our Mother's Day dinner/celebration we went to Outback Steakhouse! It was soooooo yummy and I don't feel I ate poorly. I had a yummy steak, a salad w/o dressing and a baked potato w/cheese only! and of course bread!! Have you had their bread?? It is the BEST bread!! That Other Kid even ate it and he is soooo picky he rarely eats anything that he isn't used to! That Kid ate a couple of loafs of it by himself!!

I did manage to drink my water all weekend long, which is hard when you are out and about all day looking at books!

For my Mother's Day present -- I got to use my hubby's cell phone upgrade and get MYSELF a new IPHONE!! I have been drooling over one for nearly 6 months and my contract wasn't up till July so I thought I would have to wait, but hubby said he didn't want a new one yet so I could use HIS!! Money has been so tight for so long that I haven't felt I could spend money on anything extra and certainly not something frivilous like an IPhone but business has picked up over the past month and a half for hubby and we are finally caught up enough that I don't feel guilty over buying something that I have wanted for some time, that will help not only me but the whole family! I'm a happy momma!! I have downloaded a number of apps but I haven't really had time to play with them or the phone much yet! Like I said I've been super busy!!

I have been getting my 30 minutes of exercise in daily but not really in the conventional sense of working out. I've been doing things like pushing a wheel chair around (with my best friend) for an hr yesterday while we took care of some errands for her, walking around a huge convention center carrying 20 pounds of books on my back/shoulder Friday and Saturday for 6 hrs, kicking my hubby's back to relief the stress in his muscles....things that you wouldn't really think of as "exercise" but let me assure you that I have been moving my body and that is the point of "exercise", right??

I have really had a hard time keeping up with the housework over the past few weeks and it's been frustrating me. My house is a disaster and I hate it! How do women do EVERYTHING?? oh yeah they dont and they are usually frustrated like I am!

That Kid is moving back home this week so he can get out of his lease of the apartment he has been sharing with a bunch of deadbeats. He will only be here a short time (probably a month or 2) before he goes off to Marine bootcamp but that means one more person in the already too small apartment! But I'm not gonna complain I get to spend time with my son before he goes off for 13 weeks for boot camp! Fortunately he doesn't have a lot of stuff and most of it will go into storage or in the office/bedroom.

Ok one last thing before I get off here and try to accomplish a few more things off my "do it (tomorrow)" app that Kirsten told me about (Thanks, Kirsten! Hubby even laughed at the name of that app and it applies to me a little too well!)

As I have mentioned a few million times money has been tight for a while for us (and I know it has been for a lot of you, too!) but I just wanted to remind you that there are some in this world who don't even have clean water to drink (and I can't even stand to drink tap water can you?? but Lissa and her family are running for clean water and I wanted to do my part, so I donated this morning. Can you help, too? Even if its just a few dollars it will help them to reach their goal and they aren't even close to it yet! Please help if you can. Thanks so much!! Lissa is an awesome woman/wife/mother/friend and she is raising some great kids who think of something other than themselves! You can't ask for anything better than that in this day and age! Donate to their page here and show Lissa how much you appreciate her!

A Bunch of Random to Catch Up With You

As the title states, I have a bunch of random info to share to catch you up with my life. Nothing special has transpired over the past 10 days since I last blogged but lots has happened. I'm sure you understand...

* I got a new phone Friday afternoon. I'm still learning how to use it, but at least it WORKS!! I had a Blackberry that I was absolutely HATING (mostly because the screen was tiny and it didn't work half the time!!)and I was due for an upgrade. I sacrificed some sleep Friday afternoon and went down to the AT&T store to look for a new phone. I'm not the kind of girl who can look online and decide what kind of phone to get. I need to go in and touch and feel it and get an idea of what it does by actually checking it out. My dh just doesn't understand that. He researches phones online for (literally) months and decides what he wants based on what all the forums, reviews and other users have to say about it. Then he orders it online, sight unseen. He's usually happy with his choice, too. That's not for me...gotta see it and hold it, ya know? Btw, my new phone is this one. So far I LOVE it...it is easy to use and has everything I need. Now I just have to figure out how to make it do everything I need it to and get all my info off my Blackberry which may be difficult since I can't seem to get it to do anything! Couldn't even get a text off from there that someone sent me while I was in the store upgrading! UGH!!

* Next bit of random, I am training for my FIRST 5K!! I am following the Couch 2 5K program....and I'm actually finding that it is kind of FUN!! Did I just say that?'
I think it is more fun knowing that I am going to run my first 5K with my brother and sister in law this October! Yes, that's right the 3 of us are going to do this together, because she started training this week too! I am just finishing my 2nd week of the training plan but already I can tell that I am progressing. Saturday I ran at 4.2 on the treadmill and walked it at 3.2. Last week I was only at 4.0 and 3.0. Next week the plan calls for me to run 3 minutes at a time....I'm kind of concerned about that, but I know that I can do it if I just focus on the final result not the actual time I am running.

* I am begging, pleading, whining the managers for a shift transfer. I have been working 3rd shift for the past (almost) 5 months and it has been a struggle to have any kind of life with That Other Kid. I am supposed to be homeschooling him but just don't have the energy or time to do it. He has been lonely and watching WAY too much tv while I sleep in the mornings. Not to mention I don't get enough sleep and am grumpy most of the time. But since That Kid is home now and will be taking this fall semester off from college we will have access to a second car so dh can go to meetings and such for his business and I won't have to worry about getting to work on time...I am working on getting 2nd shift, meaning 4p.m. to 1a.m. This is an ideal shift for me. I can work till 1 a.m. then come home and be in bed by 2a.m. I will be able to sleep till 9 a.m. and then get up exercise, do school and everything else that needs to be done before I leave for work about 3:15p.m. I know that 7 hrs of sleep is still not ideal but it sure beats the 4 or 5 I am getting now. Not to mention I will be able to spend some good quality time with That Other Kid and do school.
So far, I have been told that they have a position open but they just have to make sure with all the other managers that it will be a permanant full time position. This has been going on for more than 2 weeks and is beginning to run me insane. Please pray that they get everything worked out early this week. I want this so much and the indecisiveness is really stressing me out. Also pray that I can still have my weekends off. Right now that seems to be a big deal to them...but I don't really understand why I can't keep the same days off...It's not going to affect them in any way, since they don't have ANYONE in this position now...what difference does it make if I have the weekends off? Ya know??

* For my final bit of randomness, I have been eating crap, and consequently gaining weight over the past 2 months. I don't really understand WHY I am not eating the way I know I should. I know what I need to do, but seem to be at a standoff with myself. I want to eat right, but every time I go to eat I look for the worst things to eat. Just tonight I ate 1/4 of an Oreo Pie that That Kid's girlfiend made for him. I doubt that he ate ANY of it. I think over the past 48 hrs I have eaten 3/4 of the pie. Needless to say, the pie is gone now and for that I am grateful, just wish I would have let him eat it or thrown it in the trash instead...I think the lack of motivation comes from my stress and frustration level. But, since I am now training for this 5K I'm hoping I can make myself eat right because I won't be able to "really" do it if I am feeding my body junk.

Just tonight I was watching the last 2 episodes of Losing It With Jillian, thinking "Wow, if she came to my house right now what would she say about my food choices? Would she be disgusted and start screaming or would she look at me and say "no wonder you are fat and can't lose weight?" Don't answer that...She would do both! and she would totally kick my a** in the gym, too. So...my 5K training lasts another 7 weeks and during that time I want to be proud of myself for my progress with the running as well as the food choices, so I'm clearing out the junk and eating the way I know I need to....

Feel free to "go Jillian" on me if you hear differently! I need some help, seriously.

Ok..so that's enough time on the computer for the night...I need to get in bed so I can get some extra sleep for my new work week that starts at 10p.m. Sunday night and I've promised That Other Kid we would go swimming after I do my run so I will have to get up early enough to do that and everything else that needs done Sunday. Pray that it is my last week of 3rd shift!! Hope ya'll have a great week...

Wii Fit Rocks!!

March 30th the Sister of Shrinking Jeans challenged me to work out on my Wii Fit and do the Hula. The challenge was for 1 week and we were supposed to log our "spins" to see who could do the most in 10 minutes! My thoughts when I heard the challenge, "You've got to be kidding me 10 minutes on that thing is just NUTS!" That night I started off with the 70 second session and I tried over and over again. I finally managed to get up to 21 spins! I felt like I was gonna die after doing that thing, but I kept at it....

And I have kept at it over the past 10 weeks and have continually improved. After the first week I finally managed to finish the whole 70 seconds. After that I progressed to the 3 minutes and kept at it. I have been doing the 6 minute session now for a while and have continually set record after record. I have accomplished more than I ever thought I could with it....but tonight....I decided I wanted to "kick it up a notch" in the words of Jillian Michaels on her 30 Day Shred DVD (oh and btw, I have continued working out with Jillian every night). Tonight after my 70 second warmup on the Hula, I decided, "what the heck, let's see how I can do on the 10 minute session!!" The worst that could happen is that I don't finish it, right?!

Guess what?? come on guess!! I did it -- all 10 minutes!! I could hardly believe it myself!! I even had the breath and energy left to call dh in to witness my score!!
What was my score, you ask?? Thanks for asking! My score for 10 minutes was 3204!! Thankyouverymuch!!

Man it felt good to accomplish something so good for myself. That bumped my workout time to nearly 50 minutes tonight....yeah for me!!

That Kid, being a teenage boy discovered something this past week that he told me about last night. If you have a I-Pod touch, or an I-phone you can download this cool application called "Lose-It". It helps track your calories, and exercises. It also helps you set goals for losing weight. I have been been thinking about getting a new cell phone and thought maybe this would be a good excuse to buy a I-Phone, but then dh said "hey, you can use my IPod touch, since I don't use it anymore...." He got an I-phone for Christmas and has barely touched his "touch" since then. So he erased it and then I loaded it and immediately put the "Lose-It" application on there. It's going to be fun to use and will be a big help in my weight-loss journey. I'm excited about this new application. It told me that it would take till January 6 to lose the weight I am trying to lose....Let's see if I can beat the I-Pod's goal!

We Rely on Our Cell Phones Too Much

This afternoon my DH was making a phone call from his cell phone and he needed to have our home phone number to refer to for an account. HE COULDN'T REMEMBER OUR HOME PHONE NUMBER!!!

This cracked me up!! I'm not sure why! Maybe it's because phone numbers are my speciality....and I remember them FOREVER...even if I haven't dialed it for awhile!

I don't really have room to complain, I have numbers in my cell phone that I don't have ANYWHERE else...and if I lost those numbers I would be a mess!

Do you rely on your cell phone too much????

News to Report

Well it's been a couple of days since I gave you my medical report and I'm happy to report that my sinus cavities seem to be improving at least in as much as I'm not snoring as loudly and as obnoxiously!
I have been doing my nasal wash and although it is rather unpleasant it does seem to be helping. I still have bad headaches and sinus pressure, but I do seem to be improving this time. I am grateful for the ENT who was able to diagnose me with something other than just allergies as the regular doctor was telling me! I just have to do this for 4 weeks before I can get more answers....

In other news of the day -- I bought That Other Kid some additional GeoTrax train pieces last night which happily occupied a good part of his day, as well as mine, since I had to build new configurations of the tracks several times over! Finally, I told him this was the last one I was going to build and he could change it by himself, should he want a different configuration. A few minutes later I walked in and he WAS BUILDING it another way, this time adding a BUNCH of the tracks that he previously owned! Now the tracks take up a good portion of our den/playroom....well at least it hasn't spread to the living room!

By the way, if you are looking for a great train system for your "rough and tumble boy" than I highly recommend the GeoTrax system. I discovered that the wooden ones tend to break when they are abused by a "rough and tumble" little boy! Go Fisher-Price!!!

Oh yeah, one more thing....Did you know that a cell phone is NOT designed to be washed in a washing machine???? I now have first hand experience from this theory....don't ask!! The bright side I have a new cell phone and it's kinda cool! Now I have to go play with my new phone so I'll know how it's new features work....