Before you start passing judgment, no, my husband did not ask me that (I think he . . . → Click Here To Read The Full Blog Post: The One Where I Tell You “What I Do All Day”]]> This one really goes out to the Stay-At-Home Moms… only because we are home all day long (for the most part). Has your husband or significant other ever asked you “what do you do all day?”

Before you start passing judgment, no, my husband did not ask me that (I think he knows better)… but I do get the feeling from talking to my Mommy friends that they don’t seem to fully “get it.”

There seems to be some kind of misconception that we are home all day, so clearly, we have lots of time on our hands. Right?

My husband has been making these “jokes” about how I spend all day on the computer. I think he does it more to light a fire under my ass because he knows how much it pisses me off to hear that. Especially since it’s far from the truth.

So today. I set out to document my day. Hold on to your fuckin horses, there are a lot of photos involved in this post and really, I’m not sure if you’ll be able to keep up.

C usually wakes up around 6, 5 if she’s feelin’ frisky. But today she spared me and woke up at 7. I tried to keep her in bed by amusing her with Elmo’s World, but that shit didn’t work. And since my loving husband showed her how to get down from our bed herself- forget it. She’s out and ready to start the day. So, up I get.

We head out into the living room and I look around, sigh, and try to figure out where to start. Now, the house is not a wreck, but when you know that you are going to attempt to clean the WHOLE thing- you’ve got your work cut out for you. Especially with an 11 month old who won’t let you breathe without her permission.

I decide to tackle the kitchen first. Now, I must say that I am not good at sticking to one task at-a-time. I usually get sidetracked and start working on something else completely until I remember that I never finished the first thing that I was working on. I choose the kitchen, though, because I can make her breakfast, feed her and clean it up at the same time. So, I proceed to make her porridge. While I am doing that, I put on my pot of coffee and wash up the dishes. C entertains herself by pulling all of the kitchen utensils out of the drawer and throwing them on the floor. *Note to self, wash ALL of those utensils that are now on the floor.* I feed C, sip on my coffee and decide to head out to the living area- there are toys there and hopefully they can keep her occupied long enough for her to allow me to sweep and mop.

So she may give me about 5 minutes of this- her entertaining herself before she’s over it and SO curious about what I’m doing or where I am.

So during this time I sweep. Around her little ABC mat, on the mat (she likes to eat there) and the entire living room and entryway.

While I am sweeping, C decides that she’s over playing in her play area and wants to venture out into the greater living room. What does she go for? Her activity center, which my husband ever-so-gently tucked away into a corner next to the fireplace. Why? Well our cable wire is hanging under there and he thought if he put her activity center there, she couldn’t go for the cable wire and try to pull it out of the wall. I don’t need to tell you how well that plan worked.

Anywho, she doesn’t like to sit in her activity center- Nooo she likes to climb on the sides and let it rock. She also likes to go underneath it and sit there- she usually gets stuck under there and cries. Well today I got sick of seeing the activity center rock to and fro- knowing that at any second she could tip it over and fall flat on her head on the tile. Um… no thank you. So:

me being the mean Mommy that I am, I took that bad boy up and put it behind the safety gate. Yeah, she was not happy.

So, she found something else to do: stare out the patio door at the dog. She LOVES to do this. So I thought “sweet,” I can mop the floor while she looks to see what the stupid dog is doing. So, I grab my Shark Steam Mop and start mopping away.

Oh what is that C? You want to help Mommy mop? No thanks, I’m all set. Oh yes, please. Pick up the cord for the Steam Mop and shake it all about- are we doing the Hokey Pokey?

I mop the entryway, I mop the play area, I even use the steam mop on her little ABC foam mat. You know why? She spills things on there and they leave little black marks… well the steam mop cleans that all up.

Then I decide, heck, while I’m deep cleaning- why not take up the rug, sweep under that and mop too? So of course the first thing she does is go over to the rug to touch it. “Hurry up” I say to myself “before the damn rug falls and knocks her in her head…” I assure you, the rug did not fall- and so all is well with the world! While I was sweeping that area, something told me to check under the sofa for goodies. Um yeah, that would be 1 sippy cup and 1 bottle Alex. Depending on how disgustingly old that milk was in the bottle, it would have to go straight to the trash can: Do not pass Go, do not collect $100.

Thankfully, it wasn’t moldy, just stinky- so into the sink it went for a good soaking.

I go in the kitchen to empty the dustpan and soak the stinky bottle and there she is, right on my trail. Making weird noises that I guess she thinks is crying, but I know is just fake random “pay attention to me” noises that she likes to make.

She finds her play area again and decides this time to pull the ABC mat apart… whatever floats your boat honey, as long as it keeps you quiet. I can put it back together at anytime. I know my ABC’s… I think.

Oh yeah, the bathroom rugs are in the washing machine, I should probably put them in the dryer. Here she comes… investigating the “one day I’m gonna have a garage sale and when I do this is the stuff that I’m going to sell” pile o’ crap.

“Ohh lookie here, Mommy left the door open…” “I’ll just help by pulling the rugs out for her!”

After I avert that crisis (of her throwing my clean rugs on the floor). Back into the house we go.

What time is it?

Isn’t she tired yet?

What the fudge?!

Uhh no, Cadence, please get off of the fireplace. I HATE when you climb up there. It’s not safe.

No, no, NO!!! Please stop trying to pull the garland down off of the fireplace. Ugh! This is exactly why the Christmas tree is in the kitchen.

Feed the fish, feed the dog.

“Oh lookie here. It’s Mommy’s water bottle.” Wait, what’s that? Is it… RUUUUuun!!

“Puh-lease pick me up!! I don’t want to see that!”

What could bring her such terror you wonder? Duh-duh-duuuuuh: **gasp** The Vacuum!!

So basically, I have to hold her in my arms and vacuum. Great fun, quite the workout too.

So thanks to the vacuum she’s in a pretty foul mood. It’s after 11. I’m running on coffee and she’s cranky. Ugh. This is not going to end well at all.

Time out to check the diaper, comb her hair (shocker, huh? I know you all think I never comb her hair) and feed her.

There is the proof that her hair was combed today.
Thank you- please hold your applause.

Since I was in her room, the scatter-brain in me decides to clean up in there. C was SUCH a big help. She emptied all of the contents of her diaper bag on the floor… now if I was smart I would learn to keep the zipper closed so she can’t do that anymore… but I can be a little slow on the uptake. Hopefully, though, I’ve learned my lesson!

I had to walk past the bathroom to get back to the kitchen. So what the hell, might as well clean up in there- this should only take a few minutes. Wipe down the toilet and counters with Clorox wipes- check. Clean out the tub -che… uhh, NO CADENCE don’t touch that! **sigh** (Note to self: Please remember that she has a long reach- put everything waaay far back from the edge) Clean out the sink- check.

While I am cleaning out the sink, she decides to pull her ducky tub out of the big girl tub  and then tries to sit in it while it’s on an angle . Yeah… she fell right out of there.

NEXT!!!

It’s 12:20 pm- do you know where your children are?
Mine is wide awake and ready to eat.

Don’t judge me based on what I feed her…

Moving on.

She starts to look a little tired. So I try, yet again to put her down to sleep and… JACK-FUCKING-POT!!

I’m so excited, I don’t even know what to do first. I consult my planner which contains my list of things to do daily (more about that another time) and I decide to finish in the kitchen.

First thing’s first, dump all of C’s toys into the sanitizer…. do this until all of her toys have been cleaned.

SO I’m washing the dishes and think- Okay, I vowed to try and stop complaining about my days so what’s one good thing that’s happened today?

Well, I thank God for allowing me to see another day with my family- that’s huge. Right?

Then I think, when this day is over, what can I say that I did for myself? (cough, cough- nothing) This is when I choose to work out- this is something that I am doing for me and I will NOT skip a day. Plus, who knows how long I have left in C’s nap. So, workout it is.

Once that’s over and I realize she’s still sleeping I decide to go around and empty all of the trash in the house: both bathrooms & our bedroom.

Back to our bedroom… I turn/flip the mattress (on my list to do today), make the bed, clean off the ironing board (which was becoming a junk pile), clean off the counters/sink area and oh! C’s awake…. It’s after 2. She gave me a good hour plus.

Bring her into the bedroom with me, sweep, NO GET OUT OF THE TOILET!!!

I get the steam mop, bring it in the room, plug it in and wait for it to heat up… once it starts releasing steam. C shouts “hot, hot, hot!!!” Soo funny. Probably the cutest part of today. I always tell her not to touch the steam mop b/c it’s hot. So now when she sees it “hot, hot, hot.”

Somewhere in the midst of my temporary insanity I decide to give the dog a bath. A) Because he smells like shit and B) I’d like to vacuum and febreeze our bedroom carpet. If I do that and a smelly ass dog lays on it, I’m going to be PISSED.

Good thing I already cleaned the guest bathroom. K, let me pick up the rug, remove ALL of C’s toys from the tub and give this dude a bath.

He was fairly good and C was just in awe. She’d never seen him get a bath before. (For so many reasons- including that he doesn’t get bathed as often as he should).

And just for cuteness sakes, here she is trying to give the dog kisses while he gets clean:

K, dog is done. Dry him off, take him out back to brush him off with the deshedding tool. THIS TAKES 100 YEARS. For a short-haired dog, he sheds more than I don’t know what.

Shit, it’s after 3. I need to go to the post office, but most importantly I promised Hubby I would go to the pharmacy and pick up his meds.

I. Promised.

Okay, if I leave by 4, I should be able to get there and get back in time to let him in. (My husband doesn’t feel the need to travel with his house keys)

Febreeze sofa cushions and pillows.

Clean guest bedroom.

Shred papers.

4 o’clock, still haven’t eaten… Running on nothing but Mommy juice now.

Maybe I’ll stop by Subway after I get Hubby’s prescription.

Hop in the car, go to the pharmacy and wait… and wait…

Fuckin small towns- only damn pharmacy in town with 80 people behind there, but only 1 person helping people with pick-ups. Great. There goes my Subway.

What the hell… is that cramps I’m feeling?

Son of a-!$#@*&! I would get my period today.

Oh, what’s that pharmacist, you only have 3 out of the 30 tablets my husband needs and I’ll have to come back on Monday? Oh great… thanks!

K, hurry, hurry. Hubby gets off of work at 4:30, give or take 15 minutes to get home… I have time. Maybe I’ll drive through McDonald’s and… Ohh look at all of the cars in the Drive-Thru.

NEXT!

Headed home, stop at the post-office and it’s empty. Thank You God.

Back in the car…. driving. Oh thank you Lord for that green light. Thank you for allowing me to turn left and YAY!!! (Big sigh of relief) Hubby is just now pulling up as I arrive.

Suh-weet!

It’s 11 pm… I’m writing this blog post. I ate 2 Taco Supremes today and had 2 glasses of wine.

I haven’t showered, or brushed my teeth (headed to do that now, I promise).

Tomorrow is Saturday, so I get to tackle this beast again on Monday.

What did you do today?

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C must have woke up on the wrong side of the bed because she was kind of getting on my nerves this morning and I hadn’t even had my coffee yet. But, I took a step back and a few deep breaths and . . . → Click Here To Read The Full Blog Post: 30 Day Challenge: Day 7]]> I’m not even gonna lie… I’m feeling good today.

C must have woke up on the wrong side of the bed because she was kind of getting on my nerves this morning and I hadn’t even had my coffee yet. But, I took a step back and a few deep breaths and reminded myself that I’m the Momma and she’s a child- get a grip lady… oh and some patience.

So, I did.

After that, all was well. 1:10 she fell asleep and I got moving. Trainer Dan had a full body workout in store for me- and it was no. joke.

But, no complaining for me today- I took it like a champ.

I emailed Kathryn Peck, who is the community manager for EA Sports Active and she gave me some pointers for my issue with the remote the other day. By the way, I kicked the heavy bag’s ass and inline skating! Thank God for that because usually I hate inline skating, but today I “put my back into it” according to trainer Dan!

I am really feeling the upper body workout today in my shoulders and arms- so thanks for that Trainer Dan. Here’s today’s results:
Oh and just to let you know, I got a silver for today instead of my usual Bronze… Hell YEAH!

Lastly, a few pointers:

- Sometimes how you hold the remote makes a huge different- I found that out today. So make sure that you are holding the Wii remote properly.

- If you want to increase the resistance from the bands for your upper body workouts, remember that you can fold the resistance band over 1 and then step on it.

- Don’t be afraid to press pause. This ain’t a race- shoot, I press pause like it’s my JOB.

- Finally, don’t forget to stretch when you’re done. Super important.

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I thought Wahoo- take it easy on my lower body? Thank God! Then . . . → Click Here To Read The Full Blog Post: 30 Day Challenge: Day 6]]> Today went so well. C fell asleep and instead of trying to put her down in her crib, I let her sleep right on the sofa- save myself the trouble. Trainer Dan had this planned for me today:

I thought Wahoo- take it easy on my lower body? Thank God! Then I saw this:

Uhh lunges? Inline skating? What the hell?!

Trainer Danny was super nice to me today. He was saying things like:

“This is definitely the effort I want to see on every exercise today!”
“Way to go!” and my favorite:
“Deep lunges AND a great pace? You’re in total control here!”

I burned a great deal of calories today and ran 2.5 miles, so I was happy about that.

Here are a few of my issues with my EA Active:

1. Some of my moves are premeditated by the Wii. My Mii will move before I move. It will start a lunge before I start it or moves to catch the baseball before I do. Why is that?
2. When I was doing the bicep curls/shoulder presses there seemed to be a lack of communication between my nunchuk/remote and the Wii because it kept showing me this on the screen:

It got very frustrating and I lost my “groove” because I spent… or wasted so much time trying to get the Wii to see that I was doing the bicep curls and shoulder presses. I pressed pause, started the workout over and it seemed to be fine until the second time around I had to do the bicep curls and shoulder presses- the same thing happened again! Why is this happening? Any help would be appreciated!!

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“Nice Job” “Way to show enthusiasm” and my favorite: “Somebody’s serious about burning calories today”

Damn right Trainer Danny. And to punish myself for falling off the wagon for so . . . → Click Here To Read The Full Blog Post: 30-Day Challenge: Day 5]]> So, since I am not a quitter, I am back on my wagon. Things went well today. Trainer Danny said things like:

“Nice Job”
“Way to show enthusiasm”
and my favorite: “Somebody’s serious about burning calories today”

Damn right Trainer Danny. And to punish myself for falling off the wagon for so long I bumped my intensity level up from Easy to Medium and boy did I feel the burn… until I realized that I was literally burning up because I forgot to turn off the heat. LOL But it was a great workout. Take a look at today’s progress:

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Okay faithful readers. I have something to admit to you: I haven’t worked out in… 2 Days? I’ve been slacking because my mother has been here visiting and I have been using it as an excuse to be lazy. Ugh. Okay, but just because . . . → Click Here To Read The Full Blog Post: 30-Day Challenge #Fail]]> Yes, this confession warrants the Twitter hashtag: #fail

Okay faithful readers. I have something to admit to you: I haven’t worked out in… 2 Days? I’ve been slacking because my mother has been here visiting and I have been using it as an excuse to be lazy. Ugh. Okay, but just because I fell off for two days doesn’t mean that I can’t get back up, right? So- tomorrow we take my mom to the airport and I continue with my program. Thanks for rooting me on and please continue to do so- it is needed!

Moving on… Happy Thanksgiving to all of my United Statesians errr Americans.

C’s first Thanksgiving was awesome. She ate like a pro! She just got her second tooth in two days ago and she put them to use today. She had baked macaroni & cheese, turkey, yams, cornbread AND stuffing. Yeah- baby girl can EAT. I SO can’t believe she is going to be one very shortly- it’s crazy. I’ll try to hold back my tears- okay I can’t, please hold….

…alright, back. Seriously, though. Our baby girl is getting SO big- I can’t stand it.

And it’s official, I can now say: From our family to yours- Happy Holidays!

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My  mother flew in on Saturday and we spent the day out. Sunday… I was just lazy. Cadence isn’t necessarily taking to my mother quickly, so Chris and I have been trying to keep her calm.

I turn on my Wii today, though, only . . . → Click Here To Read The Full Blog Post: 30-Day Challenge: Day 4]]> So I took 2-days off from exercising.

My  mother flew in on Saturday and we spent the day out. Sunday… I was just lazy. Cadence isn’t necessarily taking to my mother quickly, so Chris and I have been trying to keep her calm.

I turn on my Wii today, though, only to find that my Friday’s exercise didn’t save. WHAAAAT?! So it says that Friday was a rest day when it definitely wasn’t. Argh! Oh well. Moving on.

I realized I never really explained a few key things about EA Active.

When you turn on the game to get started, you are shown what workouts you are going to do today and the expected amount of calories you will burn.

You have the option of not doing an exercise if you do not want to do it.  Simply uncheck the box.

I did all of today’s exercises with no problem, though I don’t think I will ever really like the lunges, inline skating or the side-to-side jumps. My thighs hurt!! In a good way I guess.

At the end of your workout, they tell you how many calories you ACTUALLY burned. (I burned 81.7 today) From there you can choose to do the workout over again if you want. (Of course, I don’t!) I usually do some individual workouts like tennis forehand/backhand, bump/set in volleyball or catching/throwing a baseball- just for good measure… okay, more for fun really.

So total, today. I burned 94.9 (counting the extra activities I did). I’m glad that I did it, though, I don’t want to fall off of the wagon like I did last time. So any and all encouragement are greatly appreciated!

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I was hoping that Trainer Danny . . . → Click Here To Read The Full Blog Post: 30-Day Challenge: Day 2]]> Well, today was definitely easier than yesterday. As far as getting started is concerned anyway. I put baby girl down for her nap, ran out of the room before she had time to realize what was happening, strapped on my sneakers and went right to work.

I was hoping that Trainer Danny wouldn’t have jokes on me today, but he didn’t- which made me happy. He told me things like “good job” and “way to show enthusiasm today”- I guess yesterday he knew that I’d fallen off the horse so he needed to help me get back on it. It’s okay Danny, I appreciate the tough love.

Today, Danny had me run, do high knee kicks, bicep curls, shoulder presses, lunges (oh, my thigh), side lunges w/toe touches (yuck) and some tennis. My thighs are screaming. But, I feel good. The running went well. I know it’s not “real” running, but I equate it to running on a treadmill. Maybe after a few more sessions in-home with trainer Danny, I’ll be ready to get out and “hit the pavement” (as I’ve heard some runners call it). And since C was still sleeping, I thought I’d throw in some volleyball, baseball and another round of tennis- just for fun.

Now? Off to boil some eggs. Here’s hoping I stay this motivated. Keep cheering me on ya’ll, I appreciate it. Over 100 calories today! Wohoo!

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I have been feeling down. In . . . → Click Here To Read The Full Blog Post: EA Active Personal Trainer 30- Day Challenge]]> I threw away my donut holes. Yes, I know that there are starving children in Africa- I’ve met some of them and I would never give them donuts anyway. What would that do for their teeth? Anyway, they were getting hard and going stale. So there.

I have been feeling down. In the dumps. In a funk, if you will. For… too long, I can’t even count. Some days I think my Pristiq is not working, but I’ll save that for another post. After four years in therapy with the BRILLIANT Pamela W. (if you need a therapist in tampa bay, I can give you her name) I should know all of the coping skills that should be put into place to help keep me out of said funk, but, I have not been using them. God Bless the man who married me to stick by me through all of my ups and downs. It has NOT been pretty.

So, I decided that I need to pick up what is left of myself and start doing something to make myself feel more like- well, myself. Enter the EA Active 30 Day Challenge.

Now I bought this video game a while back thinking “I’m home all day, of course I can workout with my Wii.” I started the 30-Day Challenge before and failed miserably. What I do remember, though, is that I felt really good and had more energy on the days that I worked out.

Getting started… did not go as planned. First, my daughter- oh God love her, would not go to sleep. I was really planning to use her naptime as my workout time. Ha! When I finally got her to sleep. I put my sneakers on and then realized that the Wii was sitting comfortably on the bottom shelf of our entertainment center. For I had not hooked it back up since moving into the new place IN SEPTEMBER. Okay, proceed to hook up the Wii…

All set up. Now I can do my EA Active. Wait, what is this? The Wii remote is flashing blue lights. Hmm that sometimes means the battery is dead, but I just changed the batteries. What else could it be? Where’s the other remote? {{searching, searching, searching…}} Huh, it seems to be lost. (Damn it, Cadence!) Okay, so I’m stuck with one remote, flashing blue lights at me and I don’t know what’s wrong. Oh look, it’s my baby brother on the phone, he always knows the answer to electronics questions.

Me: Hey Jr. do you know anything about the Wii?
Jr: Yeah, I know a little, why?
Me: Well, The remote is not working and your lovely niece lost the other remote so I’m stuck with one for now. I put new batteries in, but the blue lights are on the bottom and I don’t know what to do. I pressed the red sync button on the back of the remote, but nothing. I really thought it was the Sync thingy since once remote is missing I thought maybe this was remote #2 and ugh, we haven’t plugged this in since September…. (insert further rambling here)
Jr: Whoa, whoa, you haven’t plugged it in since September?
Me: Well, yeah, not since we moved
Jr: There should be a red sync button on the Wii itself, I know the XBox has one. Since you haven’t plugged it in in so long you may need to press that also.
Me: (Frantically searching for this magical red sync button on the Wii) Are you sure? Cause I don’t- Ohhh, you. are. so. smart Jr. I found it. Thank you.
Jr: Yeah, no problem
Me: K, I gotta go try to work out before your niece wakes up. K? bye.

Now I’m ready to go. Let me put my wrist strap on (safety first, kids) and Press A, A (yes I know the nunchuk needs to be connected), A again- damn it Nintendo, really? If I throw my Wii remote through the screen, I promise not to sue you!

Alright, here we are. ready to work out. Select 30-Day Challenge, choose my trainer Hmm, I think I’ll pick a male trainer this time, maybe he’ll do better at helping me stay on track. (wink, wink) And let’s get started Okay, running (Wahhhhhhh) YOU’VE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME. Well, so much for that workout.

Then I decide to press on, not be discouraged and rather see if I can work out with C in the living room with me. Yeah… that was- interesting, but I got it done. Try doing side lunges with your daughter clinging to your legs. F-U-N.

I can’t even tell you how many times I pressed pause. Look at poor Trainer Danny in the corner showing me how to side lunge. Just being so patient with me. I decided to name him Danny after cursing at him once when he said “My grandmother can demonstrate better than that!” Uhh excuse the fuck outta me Danny Boy.

I also had to find a good place to put my resistance bands so C wouldn’t use them as her next toy or weapon, whichever.

C found one of my old mix CD’s and I let her play with it since she seemed so content scratching it back and forth on the fireplace brick… but oh no, she still wanted to come run with Mommy.

All I can hope is that a. I stick with it and b. tomorrow goes more smoothly. So, here’s to tomorrow.

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