Category: Life

I finally finished my professional site:

Well. It’s not DONE-DONE, I still have some tweaking to do. But it’s pretty close.

I like it. I think it looks fun and funky and I was pleased to see a lot of people from Twitter clicked over to take a look when I tweeted it yesterday. (Thanks guys!)

I can cross that off my to-do list now.

Next, Kevin and I will be brainstorming where to place ads for his business. We’ve already listed it on Craigslist. I am also going to work on some mock up websites for a few schools that have expressed interest in buying a new website from me in the past and see if I can’t entice them to hire me.

We have a scheduling appointment at the school with Jazz on Tuesday, so we feel like this would be a good time to talk to Dude about his future. We’re bringing him back to the office after school on Monday for that talk and I want him to start studying for the ACT test after school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for about thirty minutes each day. I’m scheduling him to retake the test in April. I’ve already warned him about it and have given him the option of taking the initiative and studying on his own. Since he didn’t study for the test last year, and he doesn’t seem motivated to study for the test this year, I’m going to have to step in and make sure he takes it seriously this go around. If that means physically removing him from his comfy bedroom and computer and making him study, then so be it.

We’re going to ask him what he wants to do and if he doesn’t have any idea, then we’ll make suggestions. He can either research one of those ideas, or present his own plan of action, but he’s going to have a plan of action, one way or another, very soon. If he wants to take some college classes, we need to get him enrolled and set up to go in the Fall. The kid is not going to just sit around and play his life away. Not on my watch. If that makes me pushy, controlling and a bitch mom, so be it – someone is going to need to push the boy – might as well be me.

I’m pretty used to being the bad guy.

I’ve been working out to the EA Sports Active program on the Wii. I’m doing the easy 30-minute workout right now and I’m really enjoying the tennis and boxing. The baseball portion is okay, I really enjoy hitting the ball, but I suck at the catching part. There’s also an in-line skating part that I LOATHE. You have to squat, and maintain that squat (the lower you squat, the faster you go), and then you have to jump when you come to ramps. It’s HARD. But the lunges and squats in general are getting easier. I worked out last night and I’m pleased to say I’m barely sore today. I plan on taking the 30-day challenge very soon. I have no idea what that entails, but I’m sure it’s a program that will get harder over time.

Kevin says he can already tell a difference in my body – it looks more “shapely.” But he might just be buttering me up so I’ll continue working on it.

I’m not too proud to say, it’s working. 😉

I ordered this top. Cute, right? I received it Friday.

And made the mistake of trying it on.

I love the top, but not necessarily on me.

*sigh*

I should have known. I should have KNOWN this top was not something I should have ordered.

Let me list the flaws for you:

1. It sits too far out on my shoulders which only makes my wide shoulders look wider. (I could easily have been a line backer in my previous life).

2. Though the color is gorgeous, it looks pretty nasty on my pasty white skin. (But might look better once I start tanning again).

3. The bodice is designed to hug your bosom and define your waist. This would be great, if I knew where my waist was.

4. It’s, in essence, an empire-waist top which I personally LOVE, but Kevin personally HATES. He thinks women who wear these types of tops look pregnant.

But still. I like it.

I thought about sending it back right away, but then I got to thinking – it’s a summer-type top. I’ll have lost weight and will have a tan by then. And I think it will look pretty hot with a pair of black slacks, heels and silver accessories.

So … I’m holding off until my arms a bit more toned and have some color in them before I send it back. I mean, I have several brightly-colored t-shirts that I can only wear in the summer and ONLY with a tan, so … this might work providing I meet the above conditions.

I haven’t modeled it for Kevin yet. I’m pretty sure he’s going to hate it even under the best of conditions, but still, I’m holding out hope that he won’t be totally turned off by it.

And I thought the whole black slacks/heels/silver jewelry accessory idea would look good for our semi-formal dinner on the cruise.

That we’re planning on taking.

In July.

After we visit two of Disney World’s theme parks. (For those of you that voted “Disney World and then a cruise” on my poll the other day. *high five* Do you guys know me or what??)

That’s the real reason I bought this top. Well, that and I thought it might look good to wear to work in the summer, too. (Though I’m not so sure about that one, now that I really think about it).

At any rate, I’m going to hang on to the top and see what it looks like in a few months. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll send it back.

And speaking of working out … (I’m smooth, aren’t I?)

I am in another work out spurt.

Actually, Kevin started it. He’s getting a little, erhm, tummy (which I TOTALLY love honey! I think it’s cute and fun to rub!!) but it’s starting to bother him a little bit so he pulled out his Total Gym (Yes, that’s the one that Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley advertise. And what? It’s a cool little machine!) yesterday, and worked out while watching Seinfeld, Season 8 (which I watched with him because I don’t think I’ve seen season 8 – how is that possible?!?) and afterward, put in the Wii EA Sports Active disk and did the easy 20 minute workout.

Which got me worked up to try it myself.

So, I got on the treadmill and walked two miles before hitting the EA Sport workout.

I was fine, until those damn lunges.

OH. MY. POOR. LEGS!

Those suckers were hard. Mainly because the instructor requires that you hold the lunge. After doing two sets of 20 lunges my legs were jello and would barely support me. I got a little annoyed with the program during the lunges. For some reason, the Wii wouldn’t pick up my motions, so I would lunge, but my avatar would not, so I did several more lunges than was necessary simply because the stupid program couldn’t keep up with me. Also? It kept telling me to slow down. That was also frustrating because I thought the program was too slow.

Also? The running around the track sort of hurt me. I started hurting around the area where my colon was reattached, so I ticked off the program by doing a really slow jog instead. I was totally fine until those runs. (And I wasn’t running full speed ahead, it was really only a brisk jog more than anything).

My favorite part was the boxing part. I LOVED the punches and the Wii controllers did an excellent job keeping up with my punches and jabs.

I also enjoyed using the band for arm exercises, too. They were pretty easy, but I can feel I definitely did some damage today by my soreness level.

I had to pause at the very end because by that time, I’m was getting tired and I over did it. (Which I knew I would – I always do when I get back on an exercise program). In fact, I nearly got sick simply because that was more activity my poor body has seen in quite some time.

But again, that’s pretty normal for me. I guess I don’t classify a workout as a WORKOUT until I make myself nauseous.

At any rate, I liked the EA program overall. I’m looking forward to mastering this easy 20 minute workout and moving onto something a bit more challenging.

Got a nice surprise in the mail today …

Oh yes. Yes we are.

In July.

For two days.

(We’re thinking Epcot and Hollywood Studios)

Or are we?

We may, or may not, be doing something else the rest of that week in July.

Alternatively entitled: Snowmageddon

So, the blizzard … that was fun, right?

Okay, don’t answer that. Actually, I’m okay with snow, it’s the ice that terrifies me. So I’m really thankful ALL we got was snow. I heard St. Louis and Indiana got a lot of ice.

Poor saps.

My mom disagrees – this wasn’t really a blizzard, at least down here in the Ozarks, it was a snow storm. A blizzard, to my mom, is when conditions are so bad that you literally can’t see two feet in front of you, when you are forced to stop, on the road, get out and make sure you’re still ON the road. (True story – go read about it on her blog). A blizzard is when it takes you an hour to drive a mile.

Uncle. She wins.

But we did get a lot of snow here. Not as much as my sister, though. She posted a picture on Facebook with a measuring tape – 14 inches. We only got about seven here. I think my brother got around 10 inches where he lives.

And did you hear about Chicago?? TWENTY inches. Oy.

So we were lucky. And I’m thankful, truly. Seven inches is hard enough to navigate.

This is the third day that the kids have been out of school. We all stuck around the house the first two days, Kevin and I are back at the office today.

*Side note: There has been A LOT of groaning, moaning and complaining about having kids home because of snow days on Twitter. Though I understand that kids can get underfoot and are frustrating, especially when they’re bored and we’re trying to get stuff done, I can’t help but wonder if their (the parents) attitudes aren’t being picked up by their kids? I’m betting most of the parents that complain about having their kids home on snow days don’t, in any way, relay that to their children, that they are, in fact, trying to be “cool” on Twitter and join the “Ugh. Kids home. Help me,” bandwagon and they are fun and supportive to their children’s faces, but still … Has our society gotten so used to pawning our children off on other resources that when we’re forced to deal with them it’s a chore?? Like I said, I’m just wondering. These are the kinds of things I think about.

We all did our own thing Tuesday, though we did get together at meal times and do the family bonding thing, but for the most part, we all stuck to our own devices that day. Yesterday, the boys and Kevin went out and shoveled snow from our driveway and sidewalk. I stayed in the house and cleaned up the lunch mess.

*Side Note: Kevin made us some potato soup for lunch yesterday. OH. MY. GOSH. Good stuff, ya’ll. It’s my new favorite. I like it even more than Panera Bread’s potato soup. Here’s the recipe.

We only have one snow shovel. So we told the boys they needed to take turns shoveling the driveway and Kevin would use the dirt shovel and work on the sidewalk. I’m telling you this so you’ll get an idea where my guys are proximity wise. Our driveway is at the side of the house, our sidewalk is at the front of our house. So Kevin was out of the boys’ sight most of the time.

I peeked out of the window and was quite amused to see my two teenage boys, who otherwise act cool and way more grown up than they’re feeling, having a little fun in the snow.

I had to tape their clowning around, of course.

Sweet, right? They made snow angels. You can hear me laughing on the tape.

Did you notice Jazz stomping on Dude’s snow angel head? That’s boy code for, “I really do love you, bro.” LOL

I also thought it was funny that they immediately stopped their “playing” when a car drove down our street. LOL

Boys are funny.

I just really got a kick out of them horsing around in the snow. They eventually got the driveway cleared away, but it took them a while. In fact, I was quite surprised that they willingly stayed outside for a little over an hour. Though it was a nippy twelve degrees yesterday, there wasn’t any wind and the sun was out, so it really wasn’t that cold, if you kept moving.

I was afraid, at first, when I saw the guys clearing off the car that Dude drives (I hesitate to call it Dude’s car because 1. he doesn’t really care anything about the car or driving and 2. he hasn’t put any of his own money into the car so instead, it’s an extra car that the boys can drive – I just call it the Cavalier) that Kevin was planning on taking Dude out driving. I mean, fine, the boy needs to learn to drive on this stuff, but at the same time .. ACK! I didn’t say anything. I’m really trying to tone down the “girly-mom” reactions (it annoys Kevin), but they must have been getting too cold to deal with it by that point because they simply cleaned off the car (we park it outside), and shoveled out a path for it, they didn’t take it out for a snow drive.

Whew.

I built a fire yesterday. We have a fireplace insert that puts out some serious heat. The only problem was, we didn’t have any wood. We haven’t bought any this year, so we used our “show” wood instead.

Yes. You read that correctly.

Kevin bought a really nice firewood holder thingie to hold our firewood in. Only, since we hadn’t bought any wood (and Kevin didn’t feel like fooling with having a half of a cord of wood in our backyard to mow around and spray for termites), he bought two log sets from Lowe’s. Expensive, but nice, dry, bug-free wood. (That’s another problem bringing wood from outside into your home – bugs). Since it was so cold yesterday and everyone was home, I talked Kevin into allowing me to use the show wood. So, we had a roaring fire burning all day yesterday.

It was quite cozy and I love that fireplace. (For about two times using it and then I’m DONE dealing with it. Keeping a fire going all day is a pain. Not to mention, you smell like smoke all day).

We all played the new game I got for Christmas last night. It’s called “Carcassonne” and it’s by the same makers as “Settler’s of Catan.” We had a pretty good time playing it though Kevin got just a LITTLE too much into it. lol We also played quite a few hands of a new card game that Santa stuck in my stocking this year, “Scrabble Slam Cards.” That’s a fun, fast-paced game and we had quite a few laughs at Jazz’s attempt to make up words.

I enjoy being snowed in with my family.

But I think I’m ready to get back to normal again.

Did you hear that Mother Nature? No more snow or ice this season, please.