Back from Hiatus

And I see I haven't missed anything. Work has been crazy busy for me which is a good thing! Pee-wee football is in high gear and the workouts are progressing nicely. I am so bad. I have promised updated photos but I have yet to upload them so my apologies to any readers I might have. Halloween is two days away and I haven't gotten a costume. I hadn't planned on going to any parties until tonight. So... suggestions are welcome although I'm pretty sure I'm going as an Army brat. Easy enough, and I can sexy it up a little, haha! Anyway, all is well and I'm still alive and kickin'.

"What Wedding?"

Case closed.

I Don't Care

Have you ever had days where you just couldn't care less about anything? Well, I've had one of those WEEKS. I don't care about anything. I have only been to the gym once, I haven't cared about what food I consume, haven't cared that I didn't put on a stitch of makeup at work this week... I don't know what it is but I.JUST.DON'T.CARE. I feel like that little boy in the story, Pierre, who only said, "I don't care!"

Just a Random Thought

I was attempting to take a survey on my myspace the other day and was going to post it as a bulletin but I got annoyed because most of the questions were like, "did you talk to the person you like today?" and "are you still in love with your ex?"--total BS questions. Anyway, one question really struck me. It asked, "Does the last person you held hands with mean a lot to you?"

It got me thinking: the last person whose hand I held was my youngest son's. That is not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination but it made me sad because I can't remember the last time I held my oldest boy's hand. Was it when he was little like his brother? I love my oldest but he's not a little boy anymore and those moments like that with my "baby" are fleeting. Before I know it, he won't reach for my hand when we cross a parking lot. Time is no longer on my side...

A Song For You

Isn't it funny how a song triggers so many memories? I was thinking about that on my way to work this morning. The song "If" by Bread came on an oldies radio station and it immediately made me think of my oldest son. When he was very little (probably 2 or 3) I used to play Bread's greatest hits CD in the car and he absolutely loved that song. Now, every time I hear it, I think of him strapped in his carseat, thumb in his mouth clutching his blanket and humming along to the song.
Now that he's older, I think of him every time I hear "So Long Self" by Mercyme.

I have at least one song for each of my boys. Every time I hear Norah Jones' "Don't Know Why" I think about my youngest as a newborn. I'll never forget: it was one of the first nights we had him home from the hospital and I had gotten up with him in the night to give him a bottle. I turned on VH1 to have music to rock him by and the video for that song came on as soon as we sat down. It was beautiful and soothing and he was in such a peaceful state. I'm always taken right back to that glider rocker in the middle of the night holding this tiny baby every time I hear the song.

My song for my hubby will ALWAYS be "Love Fool" by the Cardigans. It was just becoming popular when we first met and we were on the phone late one night and he randomly just broke into song with the line, "love me, love me" and I remember how it caught him off-guard that I was so amused by it and we both laughed really hard! He and I still chuckle anytime we're together and the song happens to come on the radio.

Music holds so many great memories for me. Blame it on my nostalgic personality. There's hardly a song that brings back a bad or even a sad memory for me. "Even if the whole world has forgotten, the song remembers when..." (The Song Remembers When, Trisha Yearwood)

It's like a trainwreck; I can't look away!

I tend to get sucked into 'reality' shows and CMT's "My Big Redneck Wedding" is no different. I know I really shouldn't watch that crap but I just can't help it. Call it a guilty indulgence of mine!

CMT just started its second season of "My Big Redneck Wedding." It's a
show hosted by Tom Arnold that follows the preparation and ceremony of
redneck weddings. I totally can't help but watch it
when I see it! It's hard to believe that there are true country bumpkin
families that live this way (and I'm sure they would say the same about
me if they watched my lifestyle on TV). These folks can't speak plain
English, drink beer for breakfast, don't believe in teeth and their
most popular form of entertainment is diving in the middle of puddles or
tearing up their non-exsistent lawns with dune buggys.
Anywho, the second
season premiere was on Saturday night (and subsequently repeated Monday)
and it was the granddaddy of all
redneck weddings. Meet Anna and Bo of Alabama....a loving couple who
share everything together: a home, the bed, their mutual love... and the
same parents! Yes, a brother/groom and sister/bride got married. They
are not blood related, but Anna was adopted by Bo's parents and they grew up
together - that makes them brother and sister, my friends! I felt like
taking a shower after watching that because I just felt plain dirty.
Their wedding archway had shotgun shells hanging from it and
the mom talked with the daughter about her kids having sex together.
The topper came when the mom/daughter were arguing about the wedding
dress and the mom got a bit upset, so she ended everything by shouting,
"You're gonna marry your brother tomorrow whether you like it or not!"

Greatness indeed.

The "I" Word

I posted awhile back about how over the summer I sold teeth whitening products in a local mall to earn extra cash for our trip to Laguna in July. In this post, I mentioned that I got fired 2 days after I got home because I wasn't "manipulative" enough to sell the product to the masses.

This morning we were in our weekly meeting at work and my boss was talking about the importance of integrity. He gave a couple of examples of times when he advised people of the right thing to do where it pertains to their properties and the buyer/seller ultimately did the opposite and we ended up losing the listing or the buyer. It doesn't happen too often to our office but it DOES happen. I just thought it was really cool how he was talking about the importance of doing the right thing rather than compromising our principles for a buck.

It made me think of how lucky I was to have been fired from the teeth whitening biz (which I wasn't ever crazy about to begin with) only to be offered this great job with such an incredible boss and co-workers a few weeks later. I finally feel like I'm in the right place.

Leavin' on a Jetplane

My brother is in the Navy. Early in the year, he voluntarily loaned himself to the Army and is now in Kuwait en route to Iraq. I don't exactly know what he'll be doing there but he'll be gone for close to a year. Is it wrong that I'm not worried that he won't come back? I feel kinda guilty for being so blase' when I say, "my brother's in Iraq."

(pictured above: my parents, my husband, my brother and his wife, my boys and me in the middle)

The Workouts

I am progressing very nicely with workouts. Last week was my first week of serious training and I won't lie--I felt like I had been run over by a truck and walked around like a zombie. This week, I feel great! I'm definitely not as sore as I was last week and I'm loving this clean eating stuff. I made the mistake of not eating clean last weekend and I felt like shit. The diet along with the working out is helping me to see results already. I'm gaining some nice cuts (albeit small ones) and I'm determined to post progress pictures this weekend not only to my blog but to my bodyspace on bodybuilding.com. That is one of the best websites to visit for training and nutrition information as well as for incredible motivation! Inquiring minds probably want to know my workout plan so I'm posting it below. I will follow this plan for 4 weeks and then completely change up the routine to keep my muscles fresh and growing. Yay me! I am so happy; I feel so great!

MONDAY--
45 min cardio
BACK
*wide-grip lat pulldown (3x12)
*single arm dumbbell row (3x12)
BICEPS
*barbell curl (3x12)
*hammer curl (3x12)
CHEST
*flat benchpress (3x12)
*incline dumbbell flye (3x12)

TUESDAY--
45 min cardio
LEGS
*squats (3x15)
*stiff-legged deadlift (3x12)
*leg press (3x12)
*plie squat (3x15)
*skater slides (5x20)

WEDNESDAY--
45 min cardio
SHOULDERS
*seated shoulder press (3x12)
*dumbbell lat raise (3x12)
*bent-over dumbbell lat raise (3x12)
TRICEPS
*lying triceps extension (3x12)
*triceps pressdown (3x12)
QUADS
*leg extension (3x12)
*dumbbell lunge (3x12)

THURSDAY--
45 min cardio
*push ups (3x20)
*concentration curl (3x12)
CALVES
*standing calf raises (3x15-20)
toes out (3x15-20)
toes in (3x15-20)

FRIDAY--
45 min cardio

SATURDAY--
45 min cardio

SUNDAY--
active rest

A New Form of "Child Abuse"? (Warning: this is a novel!)

I've been meaning to blog about this for awhile now. This is a very sensitive topic but I can't not say anything about it.

It makes me really upset to go out in public and see all these overweight children. No, it makes me really angry. I will follow with a couple of examples here in just a minute. I'm not talking about "chubby" kids who will grow out of their babyfat. I'm talking children who are obese. Now, you may think that I am being very insensitive but that's not the case. I had an obese husband who, at one time, weighed 509 lbs. I know what it's like to live with that kind of problem because I dealt with it with him firsthand.

Overweight adults are one thing. Overweight children are quite another matter. It's one thing to be a grown person and make the decision that, "To hell with it, I'm going to down this whopper and french fries." But when parents have no regard as to what goes in their childrens' mouths, that raises so many red flags in my mind.

Last Friday we were at a football game and there was a family sitting behind us. Mom and son (who was probably close to my oldest son's age, 11)were discussing whether or not the boy could have a snack from the concession stand. The boy is not tiny, by any stretch of the imagination. This is right at kick-off, mind you, and mom says no because they had just eaten before the game. It wasn't too much longer when boy goes to concession with grandma or dad after mom says something to the effect of, "Fine. You can go and get a snack but not a meal item." Boy comes back with an order of nachos. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a container of nachos leans more towards the "meal" items on a concession menu. So pretty much what mom said about what he could have from the concession stand went in one ear and out the other.

Last night, Robert goes to the grocery and sees a boy probably no older than our youngest (he's 6) and Robert speculates that the child probably weighs close to 80-85 lbs. I am not naive enough to realize that in some cases, children suffer from health problems that render them overweight (glandular conditions, etc) but when I see parents loading up their shopping buggy with items like ice cream, chips, cookies, Little Debbie, etc., there's more than likely nothing contributing to their childrens' weight gain other than the carelessness of what the parents are feeding them. In a way, it's like child abuse. And I can venture to guess that those same parents don't emphasize the importance of physical activity.

Granted, I'm not Little Miss Perfect when it comes to what my boys eat, BUT our kitchen is not laden with freely-accessible junk food. They are allowed the occasional dessert after dinner but my boys both enjoy physical activity and are outside quiet a bit. A couple of great books for helping kids to eat more healthy are: Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld and Eat Clean Diet for Family and Kids : Simple Strategies for Lasting Health and Fitness by Tosca Reno.

Alright, I'm off my soapbox.