2013 Day Twenty-Six

Ok, ok, I know you're DYING for me to finally post all about my Monkey, like I've been promising for days. :P

The other day we went to visit Stud at work, and Monkey was playing 'dress up' before we left.  Naturally, she needed to stay in character!

The reason we drove there was because she was overdue for a nap.  We all know what car rides can do to solve that problem.  About 3 1/2 seconds after I took that first picture, she looked like this...

Sunday night, Monkey and her daddy were visiting over at Grandma and Grandpa's.  She had on some new shoes, and her mommy had put on a matching shirt.  She loved them, and she looked so darn cute!

As always, she was a barrel of laughs all night, and entertained the hell out of us.  I was so busy enjoying her in the moment, I kept forgetting to whip out my phone and record it.  (Gee, can you imagine, just living in the moment?!  How unusual, right? :-/  )

She has a new song that she's been singing lately.  She had already sung it 4 times before I decided to capture it for Magnum, who was home sick.  By the time I got my phone out, she was SO over it, so this is not her best performance.  Trust me, she really does know this song, and nearly every single word.  I was completely blown away!!  (Can you tell her mommy is a HUGE Blackhawks fan?!)

I got Monkey all to myself today.  At one point, I noticed she was in my bedroom "playing," and when I went in to see what she was doing, this is what I found...

That's her pillow, which has a matching fleece blanket, that she uses when she naps here.  That handsome fellow is her skeleton, which I got her before Halloween.  The reason I picked it up for her is because a couple weeks before Halloween, I accidentally came across this video on YouTube, and she instantly became obsessed.

She learned the words and the movements in about 3 minutes. The next day, I went to the dollar store and found that cute blow-up skeleton.  It was PERFECT!  I thought I had a video of her from back then, but I can't find it.

Anyway, we had TONS-O-FUN today.  When it was time to go, I remembered the cute Monkey hat I had bought her a few months ago.  She loves it, and I love how it covers her cheeks and neck.

I LOVE looking into my rear-view mirror and seeing this...

And, there ya go!!  Was is sufficiently boring for you?  I can't even apologize, since I personally can NOT get enough of this kid!!!

I hope you're all staying warm tonight.  It's been below freezing here all day.  You know it doesn't bother ME at all.  I was still walking around in my hoodie today.  But, I don't like it for my baby.  I'm so thankful I have a remote starter on my car, so she can get into a nice, warm car when I drive her around.

Well, Magnum just walked in the door, so it's time to get dinner served.  It's a chilly night and a CHILI night. =)

2013 Day Four

Monday, November 4, 2013
Who is your favourite character of all time?

Ok, I don't like this prompt at all.  But, I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say Stud.  He's definitely a character!!  Nobody makes me laugh as hard as he does.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Stud and Magnum.  Stud was only a couple of months old here. 

 (Jeez, how dated is that bathroom!?  That was our our first (and only) apartment, where we lived until right before Stud's first birthday.  I LOVED that apartment, bad decor and all.)

I was looking through old pictures because someone is going to have a birthday on Wednesday.  I will no longer be the mother of a teenager. =(  Ok, I'll hold off on the breakdown until Wednesday....

2013 Day Two

Ok, so I forgot Jimmy Kimmel airs repeats on Friday nights, so clearly there wasn't a new "I Ate Your Halloween Candy" video played yet.  But, that's ok, since it gives his staff a little extra time to put a great one together.  I can't wait for Monday night!

So, since I can't share the cuteness of random children I don't know, I guess I'll just have to share the AMAZEBALLS CUTENESS of my favorite Monkey!!!  (Oh, come on now, I haven't made you sit through this in a LONG time, so quit rolling your eyes!)

Guess who's been trying to make the switch to Big Girl Panties!!

It's a work in progress.  The last couple of weeks have really been good, so I'm hoping by Christmas, she'll be ready for Santa to bring her some cute panties.


As has been our tradition for nearly two decades, we went to the pumpkin farm on Columbus Day.  It was Monkey's first time, and she LOVED it!

My sister and I have a picture of our kids standing in front of this gauge just about every year of their lives.  It was so cool to finally take one of Monkey.  (And, yes Jo, I threw in plenty of pictures of my brother for you.  But, you have to share them with Mark!)

I wish I had a clue what we were all looking at here.  It wasn't until about the 4th time I looked at this that I noticed my sister and I are both in the background, and all four of us are looking at the same thing, but I have no clue what it was.

This cracked me up!

My oldest niece and her friend joined us at the farm.  Naturally, she had to get her annual photo!

One day, we were playing dress-up at Nona's house, and she put on her Snow White outfit, along with a tiara.  I know it's a blurry picture, but her adorable face still shines through!

 

Actually, all these pictures are crappy, I know, but 1) my iPhone sucks, 2) She's still cute as hell!! and 3) No, she STILL doesn't have any hair. =(

Yay!  Day 2 - over and out!

Brain dump...

I went to breakfast this morning with my mom, brother and Monkey.  The restaurant we were at has very crammed (or is it cramped?) seating (one of the many reasons I don't like the place, but it's where my brother picked to go).  When we were getting up to leave, the two ladies at the table next to us realized that we were not going to be able to get out.  They started to move, and I was telling them not to worry about it, since we would just move the table over (since that's how we got in in the first place!)  The one woman closest to us tried to scoot over a bit, and the other woman, with a smile, says to ME, "Ok, there.  You're not big, you can get through." 

Let me repeat that - "YOU'RE NOT BIG, you can get through."

It took a minute for what she said to register, and then another minute to realize she was, indeed, speaking to ME.  Needless to say, I almost bent over a planted a kiss on her face.  Then I had to fight back the tears.  I have NEVER had anyone say something like that to me. 

In my head, I still look the same as I did almost 85 lbs ago.  I'm caught off guard, almost on a daily basis, by my new size.  Whether it's squeezing through a tight space, or realizing I no longer spill over the sides of a seat, or when I'm folding laundry and can't believe these "tiny" clothes are mine.  I'm constantly surprised.

This past Saturday, I went to work with my sister for the first time.  She works for Coty/Prestige, and long story short, I was one of those annoying perfume sprayers at Carson's.  They needed the extra help because they were launching a new fragrance.  Because of that, the sprayers had to wear T-shirts with the name of the fragrance.  My first question to my sister was, "What's the biggest sized shirt you have?"  She handed me a large and an extra-large.  Naturally, I tried on the XL, thinking it was going to be snug.  This time last year, I was sporting a 3X.  Plus, my sister (my tall, thin, gorgeous sister!) said she was wearing a large.

Well, after I put it on, my sister said, "No, try the large on, that's too big on you."  What?!  Sure enough, it fit.  I'm still a little amazed by that, and it happened 4 days ago.

The last few times I've gone shopping, it's been so strange, so foreign, to me to be able to just grab something off the "normal" rack, AND have it fit.  Truthfully, I don't know if I'll ever get used to it.  I don't know if I ever WANT to get used to it.  It kind of keeps me on my toes.

Every once in a while, I'll snap a picture in the mirror after I get dressed, just so I can track my progress.  I always think I look smaller when I look in the mirror, than when I look at the picture, so there really must be something to that "the camera adds 10 lbs" thing.  Either way, I'm pretty damn happy with what I see.

I don't EVER want to be her again...

I'm trying to get used to being her...

I still have a long way to go.  But, I'm not beating myself up over the fact that I've basically been maintaining for the past 6 months, as opposed to losing.  Things around here have been beyond stressful, which has a lot to do with my not being around lately.  Unfortunately, 2013 turning out to be a craptastic year for us.  I've been a "stress eater" my entire life, and I'm a little amazed that I haven't gained 100 lbs these past 6 months.  Truthfully, that's how I found myself at the size I was last year.  Those of you who have been around a while know how stressful my job was, as well as the other things in my life that stressed me out.  If I'm going to be completely honest, I'm still dealing with some of those stressors, but I'm starting to get a better handle on how to deal with them.  Like I said, I'm happy to just be maintaining right now.

I hope things get back to "normal" soon.  I miss my Bloggy Buddies.  I lurk when I can, which isn't often.  Thanks to my Bloggy Buddies who keep checking in with me, and letting me know they care.  It really means the world to me.

um....holy hell...

I've been avoiding doing anything with the 311 pictures I took in Italy last year, because I couldn't bear to look at myself.  It was when I got home from that trip, and saw those pictures, that I decided I HAD to do something with myself.

I finally, this week, put the pictures together to share with KC, my SIL.  I didn't want to let her see them, but she's only been asking me for 10 months now!

I pulled out some of the worst ones to share with you.  I've been putting off this post for about 3 months now because I wasn't sure if I wanted to humiliate myself like this, and let you see some horrible before photos.  But, then I decided that instead, I'm going to focus on the after, and how far I've come.

So, here goes....

m

I know it's just a lucky camera angle on this next one, but we look fairly close in size here. =)

And, there you have it.  That's really just the tip of the iceberg.  I had intended, 10 months ago, to do some posts about my trip with KC, but I was ashamed to let you all see the pictures of me.  But, now that you've seen the worst, what difference does it make!?  I'm going to try and get some posts together this month, so stay tuned!

See what happens...

...when I'm not participating in NaBloPoMo!?  I haven't been here in four days.  If you want to know part of the reason why, you can just go here.  I don't want to repeat it all here. 

Pssst...there may or may not be a photo over there...

Suz said I looked "amazeballs" so I figured it was ok to share it with the rest of you. =)

A cutie, a hottie and some goodies...

The Cutie

My brother and I bought this ridiculous headband while we were shopping for Monkey's party. The picture is blurry so you may not be able to see that the flames of the candles spell out "Happy Birthday."

The Hottie

This is what my car said last night when we came out of the restaurant at 7 pm. We had to go out for dinner because the house was just too hot. My dad's friend was able to repair the air, thank God, but it had been out so long, it took hours to cool down the house. He had to replace the blower motor. I'm just glad it wasn't something bigger, or more expensive, or something that would have taken days to fix. Now that I'm unemployed, any hit to the pocketbook hurts, but I really had no choice. It HAD to be fixed!

It occurred to me last night that the air must have gone out either Saturday night or early Sunday. I had run home to change after spending the morning setting up for the party, and the house felt warm. I just chalked it up to the fact that I had been running around like a chicken with its head cut off all morning. CSJ said the thermostat said 83 when he got home, but he just thought I had turned the thermostat up in an attempt to be frugal.

Anyhoo, it works now!!

Some Goodies

My Tastefully Simple goodies arrived yesterday!! Look at the size of that box!

The first little peek inside...

I started to unpack the box one section at a time...

It almost didn't all fit on my counter! Then I grouped it according to how it was ordered.

This was my half-priced item. It's called The Perfect 10 Collection. (Normally$79.99, I paid $40)

It consists of 1) Absolutely Almond Pound Cake Mix 2) Artichoke & Spinach Warm Dip Mix 3) Bountiful Beer Bread Mix Value Pack (3-pack) 4) Garlic Garlic 5) Key Lime Cheese Ball Mix 6) Nana's Apple Cake Mix 7) Onion Onion 8) Perfect Parmesan Biscuit Mix 9) Seasoned Salt 10) Spinach & Herb Dip Mix

This was my FREE Hostess Gift.

It's called Returning Favorites, and is only available until the end of July. It retails for $48.45, and comes with a bonus mix valued at $7.99 (total value = $56.44!) Again, I got it FREE.

It consists of 1) Blue Ribbon Blueberry Bar Mix 2) Howlin' Horseradish Dip Mix 3) Meyer Lemon Infused Oil 4) Green Tea Peppercorn Seasoning Blend 5) Vanilla Bean Chiller Drink Mix and the bonus item 6) Viva, Garlic! Alfredo Sauce Mix.

The Rest

I earned $111.15 in product ON TOP OF all the stuff above. This is what I picked out:
Vidalia Onion Dressing
Lemonade Fruit Dip Mix
Onion Onion
Fiesta Party Dip Mix
Garden Veggie Dip Mix
Absolutely Almond Pound Cake Mix
Classy Chocolate Pound Cake Mix
Smokey Cheddar Cheese Ball Mix
Bountiful Beer Bread 3-pack
Bayou Bourbon Glaze
Pomegranate Chipotle Sauce
Perfect Parmesan Biscuit Mix
Twisty Grahams

How's THAT for a haul, huh? And, like I said before, all I paid out-of-pocket was $40! The total retail value of ALL these goodies was $230. I think every one of you should call Jen and set up a show with her!!

Ok, Tastefully Simple commercial over. Time to go clean up the next BIG mess in this house. Oh, what's that? I didn't tell you? Yeah, seems there's a leak SOMEWHERE in the f-ing laundry room (our best guess is IN the damn wall!) so I've been dealing with a flooded laundry room for almost a week now. (That's partly because CSJ insists on doing laundry every damn day.) As I've been typing, the shop vac has been sucking up water like crazy. In the meantime, the laundry piles are sky-high, so I think we just may have to head to the laundromat tonight. In the 100 degree heat. Awesome.