September = Crazy Busy.

Tomorrow is the 1st of September.  And even though tomorrow is a holiday and so the week won't actually start until Tuesday, I'm already anticipating how mad-busy this month is going to be.

I really should enjoy tomorrow with every fiber in my being.  What should I do??  I'm thinking a morning run with the kiddos is a superb idea, as long as it's not pouring down rain.  I also think swinging by the Jack and Jill consignment sale is a definite must.  BECAUSE CONSIGNMENT.

Speaking of consignment and hand-me-downs, let me just say that Lucy's wardrobe LACKS FOR NOTHING.  Two of my friends passed down outgrown clothes from their little girls' closets (mainly sizes 9 and 12 months which is what Lucy will be wearing over the fall and winter), and then one of Lucas's coworkers passed along five large diaper boxes jam-packed with girls' clothes ranging from 3 months to 24 months (mostly 3-12 months).  This was on top of the boxes of clothes I already had in the closet waiting for Lucy (that I had forgotten about).  Needless to say, I had clothes coming out of my ears this past week!!

The five boxes that Lucas brought home.  Yes, Pampers....."huge box" is right.

The boxes I already had in the closet.

I sorted through all of those clothes and finally got everything organized.  Thank goodness.

I'm still buying things for Delano for fall/winter.  So far I've bought 6 pairs of pants, 12 long-sleeved shirts, 12 footie pajamas, 2 hoodies, 1 sweater vest, 1 heavy coat, 4 pairs of shoes and a pair of snow boots.  That sounds like a lot, but he'll need more pants for sure, more shirts and hoodies (or jackets) and probably another few pairs of shoes, because even though the shoes I bought all claim to be size 7, two of them fit more like a 6, which is what he's in right now.  I should also probably buy a couple of sweaters for pictures or nice events.

But back to my busy month.......starting with this week.

I bartend events at the Hunter Museum both Tuesday and Friday night, and bartend a HUGE fundraising event at the Aquarium Thursday night.  On Wednesday night, I have a meeting at the Aquarium regarding the event on Thursday night.  On Saturday, I'm hosting one of my BFF's bridal shower, which is a two-fer.....lingerie shower at 2:00 followed by a crafting party (help put together the wedding decor) at 4:30.  I also have two environmental work projects that I accepted this past Friday afternoon.  Both projects are here in town, which means I don't have to travel anywhere, but I still have to schedule two site visits and run around gathering all of my research for the reports, which I will have to work on AFTER I get home from my bartending shifts when everyone is in bed.  The second week I have 2-3 bartending shifts during the week and the Tap N' Run 4k on Saturday.  The third week I have 2 bartending shifts, both environmental reports due, a wedding on Thursday evening and a bachelorette dinner on Saturday.  The fourth week I have 2 bartending shifts, an eye doctor appointment for Delano, a wedding rehearsal on Thursday evening, a wedding on Friday evening and then a well-deserved Wine Over Water date night with the hubs on Saturday.  Then just like that, the month of September is over.  Whew!

Which is why tomorrow, I plan to pretend like I don't have ANY of that coming up.  But there's now a curve ball......both of my kids have snotty-nose colds.  So there's the chance that tomorrow could turn out to be kind of miserable.  Or worse, my kids decide to pass on their snotty-nose colds to me.  Because that's exactly what I need right now!!

On that note, I think I'm going to go take some Vitamin C and hop in the shower to wash off the "sick".  Wish me luck!

I'm Not 22 Anymore.

Amanda and I had a date night last night.  A mommy date night with NO KIDDOS.  And it was amazeballs.

Well.....it was kind of amazeballs.

We had dinner at Easy Bistro, which was delish.  We had their summer succotash as an appetizer, which I could have eaten a huge bowl of as my meal had that been an option.  I actually wish I was eating it right now.  Then Amanda had their summer tomato salad and the roasted chicken entree and I had the French onion soup and the mussels entree.  Then we had bread pudding for dessert.  ALL YUM.

After dinner we headed over to The Big Chill because we had never been to their new location.  It was NICE in there, especially since it's now a nonsmoking joint.  We sat at the bar, gossiped, and watched music videos of the songs the DJ was playing.

That should have been the end of our night, but we didn't stop there.  We found out that our buddy KT was in town and sitting over at CBC.  So we headed over there and proceeded to close it down.  Which meant that I got home around 3:00am.

So really, last night WAS amazeballs.  It's today that's not so amazeballs.  I would like to just go to sleep and wake up and it be tomorrow, because I know how fantastic I'm going to feel tomorrow and I'm already excited about it.  But alas, I have little people to take care of.  And the hubs is out of town for the weekend so there's only me to make sure the little people stay alive and fed and at least a little bit clean.

I did manage to go to Target this afternoon.  I dropped the kids off at my parents' house since they were home so that I could shop alone.  Since I feel so superb today, that was a super bonus.  I got a few groceries and knocked a few other things off my list.  And I may or may not have bought myself some peanut butter M&Ms.

Yesterday during the day, Amanda and I met up with some other local moms at Crabtree Farms to meet their new baby goat and have a picnic.  Though it was hot out, we sat on blankets in the shade and had a really great time.  I was a little hesitant about going and hanging out with moms that I didn't know, because you just never know what you're getting yourself into.  But these moms were pretty awesome, so now we have 4 new mom friends and 6 new kiddo friends!

Goats!

Baby Nutmeg.

And a sheep.

And geese.  There were also beehives we admired.

Four of the eight kiddos, playing with leaves and dirt.

Lucy turned 8 months old today!!  Only four more months until my SECOND child is a year old!!!  That is so crazy to me.  She's crawling and pulling herself up and saying "mama" though it's not actually directed at me yet.

Where is the time going??

Weeds, I tell ya.

Squishy Bellies and High Expectations

Here's another blog post I started back in April (APRIL!!!!) and never finished:

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I have unrealistic expectations for my post-baby bump, and I'm fully aware of that.  I don't need anyone to tell me that "it's only been 4 weeks" or "it takes time" or "you look great!" to convince me that my weight loss expectations are set on LEVEL HIGH.  But I'm such a slacker when it comes to motivation (and will power) that I try to use my high expectations as fuel towards my goal.  Is it working?  Ehhhhhhhhhhh..........did I mention that I'm a slacker?

Ok, so it's not that I'm really a slacker, per say.....it's just that it typically takes me a LONG time to actually fall solidly into a beneficial, healthy routine.  It takes me only moments to decide that I'm going to do it, and yet it takes me eons to follow through.

Since having had 2 children in the past 17 months, my body has become "mom fluffy", but that was to be expected.  What I didn't expect was to fall back into my old crappy eating habits, and that it would be SO HARD to break them once again.

Sadly, this makes me want those fries!

Almost a year to the day before becoming pregnant with Delano, I decided to take up running and switch to healthier eating habits.  I started with the Couch to 5k running plan and cut refined carbs out of my diet.  Over the course of many months, I managed to lose about 25 pounds and put myself in the best shape I had been in in a LONG LONG time.

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That's apparently as far as I got.  And of course I have NO IDEA what else I was going to say, since those thoughts came pouring out four months ago.  But since the blog was about fitness and running, I'll just keep on talking about it from my current perspective!

So it's now August - almost September.  I've been running on the regular (or at least semi-regular) and I've managed to nix those horrible eating habits I mentioned before.  So woohoo to that!!  I still have my moments of eating pure crap, but it's nothing like it was four months ago (though I did just eat the last very large piece of birthday cake from Delano's birthday party).  I'm back to ordering veggie plates and salads and healthier menu items for lunch and avoiding drive-thrus just about completely.  I've dropped from 140 lbs post-baby to about 131 lbs.  So it hasn't been a hard-core git'er done process, but a very slow and gradual one.

Scale happy dance.

Another bonus to losing weight is that I was just recently able to squeeze back into my pre-preggo jeans and shorts.  It only took almost 7 months post-Lucy!

I'm not physically where I want to be yet, but I'm getting there.  I've still got "fluff" all the way around my middle that I'd like to slim down.  I'd like to slim a good chunk of it down over the next month, given that I'm in a wedding at the end of September and would like if my underwear didn't create a mega-dent in my side for all to admire (maybe I'll buy some Spanx!).  And I'd like to have ALL of it slimmed down by the other wedding that I'm in this December, because the bride and the other two bridesmaids are SKINNY MINIS.  I would really hope that by mid-December I could lose about 8 more pounds.

SOMEBODY have a gypsy wedding and ask me to be a bridesmaid!!!!!!

I've definitely hit a plateau at the 131 mark.  So as of today, I'm cutting beer out of my diet (DON'T PANIC IT'S ONLY TEMPORARY).  Not that I have a problem - I only drank 3 1/2 beers the entire time I was at Brewfest, a BEER FESTIVAL - I just think that in order to kick-start the move on this plateau, I need to cut out my typical one or two beers that I have while watching TV with the hubs after the kids have gone to bed.  It's going to be tough because it's SO NICE to plop down on the couch in the late evening after pouring a nice, frothy, cold Guinness, but unless I want to see that scale stay right where it is, I need to make a change.

At least all the birthday cake in the house is gone now.  And the donuts from that darn too-good-to-resist Krispy Kreme Groupon Deal.  They're finally gone, too.  Delano thought  those "bagels" were AWESOME.

I've also only got two months left to train for the Ragnar Relay coming up in October.  I'm not nervous about it because I think it will go just fine, but I'm definitely uber excited!!  I would just like to be a little more prepared for it than I am at the moment.  Time to get off the treadmill and run outside more.  I debated on signing up for the Four Bridges Half Marathon happening in October, but so far have opted against it.  I could always change my mind, but I'm thinking maybe I should stick with just the Ragnar in October shoot for the Scenic City Half Marathon in February. 

Speaking of running outside......I ran with the double jogger for the first time ever last week.  HOLY SORE ARMS, BATMAN.  My awesome Bumbleride Indie Twin jogger glided along the path like a breeze, and I did pretty well on level and downhill terrain.  But the inclines were a doozie!  The stroller weighs 34 lbs, Delano weighs 32 lbs, and Lucy weighs about 14 lbs.  That's going to take some practice!  My friend Stacie (a seasoned double jogger runner as she has two sets of twins) said that practicing with the jogger will make me a stronger and faster runner overall.  I can totally see why!

Alright.....time to wrap this blog up and move on to some other things I need to get done.  Adios por ahora!

Bloggity Blog and a Weekend Wedding.

It's 12:38 am on Sunday night.  You might assume that I haven't gone to bed yet OR that I'm up with the baby, but you would be mistaken.  The baby is sound asleep and I was in bed.  But I rolled over onto my stomach/chest and realized I had a knot in my left boob.  Aka a clogged milk duct.  So now I'm up pumping and crossing all my toes and fingers that I don't wake up in the morning with mastitis AGAIN.  So since I'm up, I figured I'd finish one of my blogs that I only got partway through either last week or the week before.  So here it is.  Be prepared to be awed.  Only kidding, of course.

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I love blogs.

I love my blog.  Not because I think I'm an awesome blogger or anything (I'm obviously not a famous one), but because I love to write.  It's my online diary.  And my plan is to print out all of my blogs one day (in all of that spare time that I have) and put them in a binder for a hard copy version.  If I was fancy, I'd scrapbook them in yearly increments (I'm not sure I'm that fancy, though).  In the storybook version of my life that happens in my mind, one of my kids will be sentimentally attached to my blogs and keep them forever and ever and then pass them down to an equally sentimental grandchild.  My legacy will live on.  Except that instead of hand-written cursive love letters on faded paper to my soldier overseas, my children and their children's children will have printouts of my blog.

SO 2014.

I love to read famous blogs, especially funny ones.  One of my favorite famous bloggers is The Bloggess.  She makes me laugh until my side hurts and I snort.  One of my most favorite blogs from her has to do with Beyonce, the big metal chicken.  This blog post actually made it into a magazine, which was the first place I read it.  I CRIED.  And now I have my own big metal chicken standing guard on my front porch, which my parents actually bought for me BECAUSE of that particular blog.  His name is Jay-Z.  Lucas doesn't share my love of Jay-Z (just like Victor doesn't share Jenny's love of Beyonce).  But I don't care.  And I think Jay-Z needs a mate.

"Knock Knock Mother $#%%er" is one of my most fave lines EVER.

But apparently nowadays, that mate wouldn't be Beyonce.........

Another famous blog I follow is Diary of a Fit Mommy.  I think I follow this one just to torture myself.

She had a baby SIX MONTHS AGO.  Torture, I tell ya.  Though her blog is supposed to be "inspiring" and not depressing.  As I cry into my Bud Light Raz-ber-Rita.

Another blog I like is Scary Mommy.  She's super funny as well.  Her blog about getting her first Brazilian wax will show you that she has no shame.  Which I like.

But I also love to read my friends' blogs.  I've got some really witty, funny friends, y'all.  And I get excited every time I see a new post by them.  But even for the friends who aren't comedians, I enjoy reading their blogs to stay in tune with their life.  I enjoy reading about what's going on with people from their point of view, whether it's awesome, just okay, or flat-out crappy.  It makes you feel like your own life is so much more normal than you maybe originally thought.  Because everybody has awesome days, just okay days and flat-out crappy days.  Just not everybody talks about them.

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So there was the blog that I started.  But now, at this point, I don't know how to finish it or even what my original plan to finish it was.  So I'm just going to completely switch gears.

This past weekend was all about weddings and beer!  Woohoo!

My friend Laura and her fiance Jason eloped on the walking bridge this past Saturday morning, and I was the one to marry them!  Jason, Lucas, my mom and the kids (Delano, Lucy and Madelyn) stood near the art district end of the bridge while Laura (and I) processioned across the length of the bridge from Frazier Avenue.  IT WAS HOT, Y'ALL, but we didn't care because it was also GORGEOUS out.  Miller Photography of Chattanooga was there to take photos, and I can't wait to see them because I know he got some good ones.  After the "I Do's", we walked up to Tony's Pasta Shop for lunch, and then went our separate ways for a couple of hours to let all of the kiddos nap.  Later in the day we headed over to Brewfest on the riverfront to lounge in the grass, relax and drink some good beer.  Lucas and I called it a night around 9:30 (the kids were OVER IT) but not before we dropped the newlyweds off at City Cafe for a late-night after-beer dinner and a giant piece of cake to designate as their wedding cake.  IT WAS A GOOD DAY.

Delano playing with his bag of toys at Brewfest.

Lucy and Mama hanging out at Brewfest.

Really, it was a good weekend.  We grilled out at our place Friday night with the happy couple (and of course Maddy) after they got into town, and then we sent them home Sunday afternoon after a must-have brunch experience at Food Works.

It's now 1:16 am.  I think I've pumped out as much as I'm going to get.  The knot is completely gone, so that's a good sign!  But now I've only got 2-3 hours before Lucy wakes up for her usual night feeding.  So tomorrow might be a long day.  On the plus side, I now have some unexpected pumped milk to freeze!

Breakups Are Hard (Part 3)

I've got two or three blog posts already started that are in mid-post, but this one took precedence. 

For those of you unfamiliar with my Breakups Are Hard saga, you can catch up by reading my first Breakups Are Hard post followed by Breakups Are Hard (Part 2).  For those "in the know", I'll just briefly refresh and carry on.

I broke up with April this past April (not a typo).  That was four months ago.  And we all know she took it WELL.  She DID NOT appreciate being broken up with.  She was upset, angry, bitter and threw a fit.  I ended up blocking her cell number as well as all "anonymous" callers, since her home phone is a private number and therefore shows up as "anonymous".

Fast-forward to mid-July.  July 14th, to be exact.  My cell phone rings from a number I don't recognize.  I didn't answer (duh) and they didn't leave a message.  I figured it was a wrong number.  It didn't call back and I didn't think twice about it.  Ten days later, the same number calls again.  Then a week after that, again.  Four days after that (August 4th), AGAIN. 

August 5th - twice
August 6th - once
August 7th - once

Then there was a break for a week.  On August 14th, I got two calls from the number.  On August 15th, I got FIVE calls.....two from the number and three from a "restricted" number.  On August 16th, I missed four calls between those two numbers.  And on August 17th, I missed two calls.  Crazily enough, she actually left a voicemail Sunday morning.  In a nutshell, she asked me to call her back.

I actually tried to answer once before, just to verify that it WAS her and to tell her to STOP CALLING.  But when I answered, there was no one there, the line was dead. 

After the last two calls practically back-to-back this past Sunday, I was OVER IT and didn't want to see that phone number ever again.  So I called her back.  There was no answer and no voicemail (they don't activate their voicemail).  But I KNEW she would see my missed call and call again.

Sure enough, Monday morning, she called me back.  Here's how the convo started:

Her:  Hey, what are you doing?
Me:  Returning your call to find out why you're calling me.
Her:  I called to talk to you.  How are you?
Me:  I'm fine.
Her:  How are the kids?
Me:  They're good.
Her:  Delano's birthday is today, isn't it?
Me:  It was Saturday.
Her:  I bet he's big now!  How old is Lucy now?  Is she crawling or anything?
Me:  She's 7 1/2 months, and yes, she's crawling.  But I'm done with the small talk.  We're not going to talk about the kids.  Why the hell have you been calling me over and over and over for the past month?

I asked her if she realized how annoying it was to have someone call you over and over and over again for over a month when you're obviously NOT answering because you don't want to talk to them.  I asked her why she thought it was okay to start calling me again from a different number when I had obviously blocked her other number.......Basically she was hoping we could clear the air and start over with a clean slate.  She had hoped that enough time had passed that I would allow just that to happen.  She denied changing numbers, saying it was the same number and that she had just thought I had unblocked her.  Of course I called her out on that one.  She said that the day that I answered the phone, she heard me say "hello" just as she was clicking to hang up.  She said she thought I decided to answer that day because of her text messages.  When I told her I hadn't received any text message from her, she said (wait for it......my favorite part of the conversation......) she had texted asking if she could maybe swing by and see the kids.

I told her that I had no interest in rekindling our former friendship.  She accused me of still being mad and carrying a grudge about something stupid she had said in the heat of being over-emotional.  I told her that I wasn't mad and that I'm not carrying any grudges, that I'm JUST NOT INTERESTED in being friends.  That ship has sailed.  Then the conversation started being a repeat of the conversation we had already had twice before four months ago......that she didn't understand......if I wasn't mad at her then why couldn't we be friends....why couldn't I get over the past......yada yada yada.  When I told her I wasn't doing this again, that we had already had this conversation and that the answers were all the same, she started to cry.

She boo-hooed out, "Why are you DOING this to me????"

I told her I wasn't "doing" anything to her.  That this was just how it is.  Sometimes relationships don't work out.

By the end of the conversation, we had concluded that she shouldn't call me ever again, but that I wasn't below saying hello if we happened to see each other out and about, like at a Humane Society event.  She did toss in that if I come to the Humane Society, maybe I'll bring the kids with me.

Um, NO.  If I go to an HES event, they'll be staying home.  But at this point I'm pretty much steering clear of HES events anyway.  Partly because of April, but mostly because I just don't have the time right now to be actively involved.  And really, SHE'S not even that actively involved.  She just goes to the parties.  And in the past, she would always call me to find out if I was going to go.

I know that some of you will still think I'm being way too nice, and I get that.  It's hard for me to be mean, because I'm just NOT mean.  Even to people who deserve a reality check.  I might THINK mean girl thoughts in my mind and talk about the BATSHIT CRAZIES walking around out there with my BFFs (or blog about them because I know they won't read it), but that's typically as far as it gets.

However, I will agree that this is the last straw with this particular crazy.  I plan on changing my cell number in the near future so that when she changes her own number AGAIN it won't matter.  And if I DO see her out and she wants to try to have this conversation for the upteenth time, I'll probably flip my lid.  And I KNOW she'll cry and I KNOW I'll feel horrible for flipping my lid on someone who just so desperately wants a best friend, BUT THIS SHIT HAS GOTTA STOP.  I was fine with her when she was just weird and odd and obviously lonely.  It was when the crazy emerged that it took that turn down into the toilet.

Next time - No more Mr. Nice Guy.  Or would that be Mrs. Nice Woman?

When I Googled "Mr. Nice Guy" for an image I got pictures of weed.  So we'll just leave it at that.

Trashing My Dress At The Wall of Doughnuts

Back in June, I read an article about a mural painted on the side of a local bakery’s storage building, which has since become known as the “Wall of Doughnuts”.  According to the bakery, the mural is a piece of art.  According to the City of Chattanooga, the mural is a piece of illegal advertising.  Here's the article I saw:

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2014/jun/19/backlash-brewing-over-mural/

When I read this article, there was no debate in my mind that this mural was a piece of art.  It wasn’t because I’m a liberal and wanted to protest against the City…..it was because I honestly felt like it was, indeed, art.   

I do, however, understand the stance the City has taken.  The argument didn't cause me to fly off the handle with signs of protest, because I can completely see the logical side of the issue at hand.  It’s one of those cases where somebody has to draw the line SOMEWHERE, which has the City torn.  The mural, though seen through my eyes (and many others) as art, falls within a gray area.  If the bakery is required to paint over it, Chattanooga loses this gorgeous little piece of potential history and it becomes a depressing scenario of law over beautification.  If the City approves it as art, other businesses around town will fight for their rights to paint murals on their buildings that "may or may not be" art or advertising.  It makes the argument by the City more difficult if the Wall of Doughnuts is given the thumbs up to stay.

Politics.

Back up to the month of May.  My husband and I had a one-year vow renewal ceremony on the beach in Florida, since we eloped at the courthouse the year before.  It was a casual affair, though I did wear a wedding dress.  Given that I went wedding dress shopping two months after having my second baby (and therefore was still very insecure about my body, which was still in maternity clothes), I didn't buy the wedding dress of my dreams.  I loved my dress and it was perfect for various reasons, but I wasn't emotionally attached to it.  After the ceremony, my dress hung in the guest bedroom of our home with its fate unknown.  Did I want to pay to have it preserved?  Did I want to have it drycleaned and then sell it on Craigslist?  Did I want to scour Pinterest for crafty repurposing ideas?  I stared at it for days on end trying to decide what I wanted to do with it, because I knew it couldn't just hang on the curtain rod staring at me forever.

Then the article about the Wall of Doughnuts popped up in my Facebook newsfeed, and I KNEW what I wanted to do.

I wanted to trash my dress at the Wall of Doughnuts.  And I wanted to do it with doughnuts.  And chocolate sauce and whipped cream and sprinkles.

I emailed my photographer (Heidi Burks Photography, http://photosbyheidib.com/) to see if she'd be up for a Trash the Dress session.  I then called the owner of the bakery to ask if it was okay if we used her mural for our photography session, promising that we'd clean up any mess afterwards.  Finally I called Angela (Makeup by Angela R, http://www.angelarmakeupartist.com/) to set up a hair/makeup session for the photos.  Once we had everything lined up, we made it happen.  

On the day of the photo shoot, it poured down rain most of the day.  My brother and his fiancee had recently had their engagement photos taken during a rainy day, so I borrowed the umbrella the fiancee had written "Mr. & Mrs." on for their rainy day shoot to use for ours in case it rained the entire time.  It actually only rained the first few minutes, but the umbrella turned out to be a perfect edition to the beginning photos.  We started with a few "pregame" shots, and then got dirty from there.

 Now tell me that Wall of Doughnuts isn't a piece of art.  #savethedonuts