I have wanted one for-ev-er! But you know me, I hate to buy anything until the old one konks out (remember my post about my new IPod?). My big tall hubby and my mom worked behind the scenes to get this for me. (They work about 10 minutes from each other and apparently they did some covert mission yesterday.) Big tall hubby came home late from work and believe it or not I was crying, it had been a hard day and I was cleaning for yet another showing and just plain tired. Wednesday, I drug my two sick boys to two different stores looking for vacuum bags for my Hoover and both stores were out! I was lamenting to my mom about it and that's when she must have sprung into action (my birthday is not for a week!). Anyway, big tall hubby comes in and puts the gigantic box on the counter and that makes me cry even more. He was like, "huh? Haven't you wanted one of these for like years? Don't you remind me every time you see that guy on the commercial? Don't you check the Target ad every week for the price to drop?" Of course I do but I guess I was in disbelief. I'll probably be the same way when I get my Corvette. I've only wanted one of those since I was 5 years old and my Barbie drove her yellow one around my bedroom all day. I was so excited I didn't want to touch it. So this morning I have been a vacuuming fool, as you can imagine. I haven't even taken the tags off! I wish I would have taken a picture before it was all full of crud but I was too excited. Gross as it is to see all that junk, I just vacuumed my whole house Wednesday for the showing that night! Ick! Anyway, I am feeling totally spoiled and like a geek over my new toy. I know you fellow Dyson lovers out there will agree with me, some of you I have talked about getting one of these for years! I am in love.
The heating vents in my home have turned into coveted spots here in the last few weeks. I find the kids standing on them watching tv or looking at books. I taught them to put their shoes on them upside down and when you put them on, your shoes are nice and toasty. I have also discovered that a cleverly placed sweater will dry a lot faster than just laying flat to dry. Putting snow clothes on a drying rack over the vent gets them dry a lot quicker for the next snowy go round. A book thrown into the bathtub also dries a lot faster when placed over a vent. Who knew?
See even Max is looking for a way to capitalize...
What keeps you from exercising? If you're like me it could be any number of a million reasons... lack of motivation, it's cold outside, I'm sick (this has definitely been the reason lately), I'm exhausted, not the right equipment, no one to exercise with, Jersey Shore marathon, you name it, I've used it for an excuse at some point over the last 20 years or so of exercising for fitness.
Probably the excuse that really does make exercising difficult for me is the lack of extra time to workout. I really love to exercise. Before kids, I exercised a hour or two (yes, I said, two!) a day. I never missed a day. I loved it that much. I had the abs to prove it too. **sniff sniff** Not so much now. I still love to exercise but now I have three little munchkins (and animals- do they count too?) who need me a whole lot. Time for exercise just slips away sometimes.
On most days, when I am not in the depths of total sickness/recovery from sickness, I get up around 5:30 to exercise, before they all wake up. It stinks. Yes, it really does but I have tried to exercise while they play and it just doesn't work. They drive me crazy. Doesn't mean I don't love them, but they won't leave me alone. A lot of times I wait until they go to bed at night but that is tough in the winter months for me. I think because it gets dark so early, I have no motivation once the sun goes down. In the summer, this is great because it stays light so late, I often work out late but it doesn't seem so late, you know what I mean?
Occasionally, I sleep later than I want to and have to do my time crunched workout. I developed this one myself and it works for me. I feel like I am getting a decent workout in a shorter time.
First, I jumping jack or jump rope for a couple minutes to warm up.
Next, I do a set of deep squats. I don't count, just do as many as I can until my booty is screamin'.
Then I grab these... (I have a set of 2 pounds, and a set of 3 pounds)
Then I hop on my treadmill (or hit the pavement outside if it is warm enough).
While I am walking quickly (about 3.9-4.0 pace) I do sets of arm exercises. I do bicep curls, shoulder presses, lateral raises, front raises, punches, jabs, upper cut punches and finally more biceps. I do these over and over. I don't really count reps, just do it until my arms are tired and I move to the next exercise.
While I am walking, I try to find hills if I am outside and go faster or I put my treadmill on an incline. I like to keep it around a 5 or 7, not too high because flinging my arms like that makes me feel kind of clutzy.
When I get tired of the arm exercises, I finish up my treadmill on the highest incline, a bit faster (4.5 speed) for 5 or 10 minutes.
I hop off (or stop if I am outside). I do two to three sets of walking lunges and some tricep dips and I am done. If I am feeling super motivited I do some abs and pushups too but I am usually whooped. In case you are thinking, no way does she do all these outside, but I swear I do. My neighbors have seen me and I don't care. I just go for it.
This is not my most favorite workout. I'd rather do lots of other things, run then lift weights or spin but for a time crunched kind of day, it works for me. I can finish this whole body workout in less than forty minutes. If done to high intensity, I am definitely feeling it the next day.
I thought I'd try to share some of my favorite workout songs with these posts. Music is a huge motivator for me. Most of my friends know I love the Black Eyed Peas, who doesn't? I just got their newest CD and unless you live under a rock, you've been hearing this one a lot lately. This one is hard not to run to, it has a great pace and it is made for going fast.
You'll probably see Fergie and the guys on here a lot, they turn up all the time on my playlists. Sometimes I have to physically stop myself from dancing when they come on if I am at the Y, so embarrassing.
I would also like to say I am not a fitness trainer and I just like to share my workout tips. I hope no one gets offended by my ideas. I like to share any and all tips that I find helpful in my everyday life.
When the heck did it become February? I always look forward to February because the holidays and birthdays are finally over for us around here, for a while anyway . Plus I love that everyone else is sharing love, I don't care if some people call Valentine's Day a "Hallmark holiday." At least once a year people are telling their loved ones they do in fact love them. Plus I love pink. Enough said on that one. Plus my birthday is coming up. Not that I'm super excited to have another birthday but I always get to have at least that one night off from cooking! I guess I am just wondering how February got here so darn fast! I am not ready for it, I feel like I am still in the holiday fog. Maybe it's because of my recent sickness? Well, whatever the reason, I'm glad it's here.
Thank heavens for antibiotics, tissues (all three boxes I used last week!), cough drops, ice storms (so big tall hubby's school cancelled the day I couldn't get out of bed), cartoons (so I could kind of sleep on the couch), cough syrup (which I detest), Sudafed, hot tea, and doctors.
I am finally starting to feel better. It has been such a long road. I feel like all I have done is complain about being sick and done anything to get better including breathing hot steam (with a big towel over my head- so not glamorous!), gargling salt water, sleeping propped up so I could breath, and rubbing gobs of Vaseline on my nose and mouth because they are so raw. My poor, neglected family and house. I feel so bad for them. They have been having to listen to me cough and moan so long, except for the three days (!) I lost my voice, they were probably glad to get back to school/work today. I don't know the last time I have been sick and frankly, I don't want to ever be this sick again.
Being really sick does give me new appreciation for people with real illnesses and ailments. The kind that you hear about on tv and think, "oh those poor things" but you really don't understand. Being sick is exhausting! I am so incredibly thankful to be healthy (or on my way) and so glad that my family is OK too. (Well the boys are showing signs of getting sick but I have already called the doctor and hopefully we'll get them taken care of ASAP.) Needless to say, I am very sick of being sick! I hope to not have to talk about it anymore. (And you do too, right!?)
I am calling these photos, "what happens when mommies are sick." I'll bet you all could add in your own. I could add in lots more but really, do you want to see all the yucky stuff? Nope, didn't think so.
Someone put this sticker on my alarm clock. (I think it was Zoe) This was the day I could not move... I lost my voice later in the day, that was interesting. Have you ever tried to call your child off school when you have no voice? Schools do not like that a bit. (p.s. why do alarm clocks always look dusty? and why do they have to be so dang ugly?)
Someone ate all the caramel Hershey Kisses and left the wrappers behind a picture frame... hmm... This is Parker's room. See him taking a big deep breath? He was super stressed. He absolutely hates his room being a mess. He is a good cleaner but needs help and guidance, hey, he's five, that's OK. Believe it or not, it got worse, way worse, after I took these. Looking at these now, I am thinking it didn't look too bad here, that's how bad it got later. I think we finally got to put everything away two days later. Big tall hubby was furious when he stepped on Hot Wheels cars in the middle of the night, that was kind of the last straw, plus I was feeling a teeny bit better and I could sit on the floor and direct Parker what to do next.
Soooooooo, needless to say, I got nothing done last week. Actually, I did somehow keep up with the laundry. I really don't know how I did it. I really just washed, dried, and folded a lot. I have severe anxiety if I start to run out of clean underwear. Like I am going to have a crash on the way to a doctor's appointment and not have good undies on! Thanks Grandma for making me a paranoid crazy person! (Just kidding, I love my Grandma tons!)
My things to do will be short this week because dumb-butt me caved to my realtor and agreed to have an open house this Sunday. I know, hit me on the head now, what a stupid thing to do, but she is relentless! I am going to clean and declutter and hopefully not have to take care of sick boys (including the big tall kind- so far he has escaped the sickness!).
Things to do this week:
massive cleaning
toy putting away
trying to make my house look pretty on the off chance someone might come and see it Sunday and want to buy it (ha ha, you gals who have sold recently know what a joke this is!)
if I have time, put together some Valentines for my kids' teachers
My menus for this week:
using some freezer stuff from last week because I really don't even know what we ate last week
fettuchinialfredo
tuna noodle casserole (grown ups) mac and cheese (kids)
egg casserole or frittata, not sure yet, using up veggies I have on hand
House showing update: a few of you asked about my last house showing, thanks by the way, so sweet of you to ask! Well, the jerk offs (I know, I am watching way too much "Jersey Shore") were an hour late! So I was really mad about that, we were pulling in to come home after being gone for an hour and they were just arriving. I know, jerks! And they have never given us any feedback. Obviously, they are not buying our house but feedback is expected and it's been over a week (almost 2) and they stink. People stink. Selling a home stinks. Grrr. Maybe this is why I agreed to do an open house? Nope, just momentary insanity.
I have wanted one for-ev-er! But you know me, I hate to buy anything until the old one konks out (remember my post about my new IPod?). My big tall hubby and my mom worked behind the scenes to get this for me. (They work about 10 minutes from each other and apparently they did some covert mission yesterday.) Big tall hubby came home late from work and believe it or not I was crying, it had been a hard day and I was cleaning for yet another showing and just plain tired. Wednesday, I drug my two sick boys to two different stores looking for vacuum bags for my Hoover and both stores were out! I was lamenting to my mom about it and that's when she must have sprung into action (my birthday is not for a week!). Anyway, big tall hubby comes in and puts the gigantic box on the counter and that makes me cry even more. He was like, "huh? Haven't you wanted one of these for like years? Don't you remind me every time you see that guy on the commercial? Don't you check the Target ad every week for the price to drop?" Of course I do but I guess I was in disbelief. I'll probably be the same way when I get my Corvette. I've only wanted one of those since I was 5 years old and my Barbie drove her yellow one around my bedroom all day. I was so excited I didn't want to touch it. So this morning I have been a vacuuming fool, as you can imagine. I haven't even taken the tags off! I wish I would have taken a picture before it was all full of crud but I was too excited. Gross as it is to see all that junk, I just vacuumed my whole house Wednesday for the showing that night! Ick! Anyway, I am feeling totally spoiled and like a geek over my new toy. I know you fellow Dyson lovers out there will agree with me, some of you I have talked about getting one of these for years! I am in love.
