Surprise!

I almost had a really big surprise waiting for me when I got home from work on Friday.

The McHusband had found my car – the same one I’m driving now – but in the really pretty blue color that I prefer.  It was at a dealership in VA and he asked about it then told me that it already had a buyer.

Darn.

Well, in reality, he was throwing me off so he could go up to the dealership, check the car out, buy it, and drive it home so when I tried to pull into my spot in the garage, I’d find that pretty blue car with a big red ribbon and bow on it.

How fun would that be?  For both of us (but especially for me).

Unfortunately, things didn’t work out.  The car’s exterior wasn’t up to our McStandards and with that beautiful blue paint color, we wanted it looking great.

I had to share all that because the McHusband deserves credit for his intentions.  I can’t believe he went to all that trouble – the research, the planning, the day off work – to surprise me with a car.  I wish it had worked out, for both of us, but it was still amazing to know that he tried to do this for me.

I have a pretty awesome husband, don’t I?

All is not lost though.  Kevin, the McHusband’s brother, found another blue TL Type S for sale by a private seller in Nevada.  It looks like that car may just have my name on it.

Keep your fingers crossed that this one works out.

Four hours

So I went to the Y last night as planned, but I didn’t take the muscle conditioning class like I wanted.  My lower half was just too sore to put those muscles through their paces again.  I mean, lowering myself onto the toilet to pee was painful, there was no way I was going to be able to do multiple reps of squats and lunges.  Instead, I hit the cardio machines upstairs and torched about 600 calories that way.

While I was elliptical-ing my butt off (hopefully literally), I was reading a recent issue of Women’s Health and I saw this little blurb.

And you know what?  I totally agree.  If suddenly my boss told me I could start leaving at 4:00 four days a week, I would absolutely try to get to the Y for a workout or go for a run before picking Connor up.  How awesome it would be to get in my exercise before the evening rush and then have time for my family and house and myself.  Not to mention I’d avoid the evening commute that I normally suffer through.

How about you guys?  What would you use those four hours for?  I admit, there are weeks when I’d probably just like to save up a chunk of time for an epic nap, but I prefer to be awake during my “me time.”  Unless I’m absolutely exhausted (instead of just really really tired like usual), I will always choose to catch up on some TV or do some blogging – or both at once – rather than snooze.  I find that I need to be awake to get that mental reset.  Yes, a nap helps offset physical fatigue, but time all to myself helps with my mental fatigue.

Looks like we have a rainy weekend on tap around here.  The upside to that is it might keep the McHusband inside, and I just might have a few projects he can help me with (hint hint).

Hope you guys have a great weekend!

PS  Happy early birthday to Chase who turns seven tomorrow.

Exercise!

Guess what I did Monday morning?  I ran!  Since we moved, I haven’t done any REAL exercise besides walking (although some of those walks were hilly and fast) and, back closer to the move (I feel like I should start writing THE MOVE because it was such a major event for me this year), there was a lot of lugging heavy boxes up and down stairs.  But I haven’t been back to the Y since…the first week of August, I think.  No, actually, I think it was the last week of July.  And to think, in 2013, when I spent more than half the year pregnant, I earned a t-shirt for being one of the top 100 attendees.  Hope they don’t want that back…

Anyway, so I got up at 4:20, got myself dressed and out the door, ready to turn on some music and see how far I could go on what was a really nice morning.  Halfway down my driveway, my iPod dies.  Womp womp.  It had shown almost a full battery but it lied.  Ugh.  But I was committed to the run at that point so I did a little walking warm-up before picking up the pace.  I really had no idea how far I’d get before I needed to walk.  One minute?  Ten?  I ran a fairly hilly route out and back and then had a big hill to get up to get back in the neighborhood.  Knowing I had another hill pretty much immediately, I gave myself a 50-second walk break and that was at the 16-minute mark.  Not too bad for someone who hasn’t done much huffing and puffing in way too long.  I finished up my run about 7 minutes later without any additional walk breaks.

It wasn’t as long a run as I would’ve liked, but I didn’t exactly jump out of bed so I lost a few minutes to the snooze button.  But still, it was better than nothing and certainly was a great way to start my week.  I was a little sore during the day on Monday and my quads were even a little more sore yesterday.  But that was to be expected and honestly, I was surprised they didn’t hurt worse.  They might have if I’d gone longer so it was probably a good thing I reached my finish line when I did.

Another pop quiz for you: Guess what I did last night?  I went to boot camp at the Y!  It was so nice to see all my boot camp buddies and sweat alongside them during an amazing workout.  Misery loves company, don’t you know. 

(I’m writing this too soon to say for sure how sore I am, but I’m pretty sure I’m hurting today.)

I hope to get back to the Y for my muscle class on Thursday so that I can officially have a good foothold on the exercise thing.  It’d be one thing if I just weren’t exercising but my diet’s been terrible, too, and that’s not a good combination according to my pants.  So before I need to invest in bigger clothes, it’s time to put myself a little higher on the priority list.

Fingers crossed that I can keep the momentum going!

PS  Happy 10-year wedding anniversary to Chelle and Jeremy today!

What a nice weekend

Connor isn’t in full-blown terrible-twos tantrum-throwing mode, but since we moved he has seemed a little…hormonal.  Just running hot one minute, cold the next with seemingly no explanation for the switch.  I can’t blame him, I know my moods have been up and down since we moved, too.  But just like I’m finally feeling a little more normal, I think he is, too.

The McHusband actually took Connor to the doctor Friday afternoon.  Daycare called to say that he had a slight fever, wasn’t quite himself,  and maybe had a rash on his chest.  They’d had an outbreak of Hand, Foot, and Mouth so they were justifiably paranoid.  Luckily there wasn’t anything wrong with Connor and he and the McHusband had a little extra time together while I had my hair appointment.

We started Saturday with sleeping in then we walked with Monte up to the Dog Day in the Park in town.  It’s so nice that our new house is right next to a local park that has greenways connected it to two other parks.

All of us had a great time.  By the time we wandered through and socialized, Monte was hot and tired but we still had to walk home.  He couldn’t wait to find some tall grass in the shade to plop down in but we had to forge ahead so no rest for the weary.

I felt bad for Monte as we walked by the lake that was taunting him as the big water bowl he wasn’t allowed to drink from so I decided to let him quench his thirst.  Well, before I knew it, he was shoulder-deep in the water, walking around with his mouth open like that whale filtering out the water to eat the krill.  So guess who got to give Monte a bath when we got home? #itwasme

Saturday night was a normal pre-move night with dinner with friends and a bonfire afterparty.  It was so nice to just hang out with everyone, I just can’t even tell you how refreshing it was.

Sunday was mostly stuff around the house.  The McHusband worked on the invisible fence and got the little cat door installed in the door from the sunporch to outside so Tori can get in and out without us leaving the door propped open for other creatures like birds (yes, I saw one in the sunporch) or anything bigger to get in.

I did my cleaning and laundry and got the crockpot cooking our dinner, all while chasing after my little toddler-nado.  Seriously, he never stops.

Connor was just in a great mood all weekend.  He has his new lawnmower toy from Grammie and Papaw (Thank you!) that he just loved to push all over the place.  We heard lots of animal sounds (Connor’s version of “meow” and “woof”) and we practiced our body parts, we ran circles around the downstairs, and Connor helped me vacuum (minus the vacuum being plugged in and actually sucking up any dirty).

These are the kinds of weekend where I can see how people decide to add to their families.  Not me, but those other people.   It’s going to take more than two nice days to make me want to start over again. 

Like a lot of tequila.

Happy Monday to you guys!

Windows 10 + coconut oil

Anyone else download the new free Windows 10 upgrade?  I ignored it for a long time and finally decided to give it a try.  Everything seemed fine til I was online and I got a blue screen telling me about  a “Page Fault in Nonpaged Area.”  But don’t worry, there was a colon-parentheses emoticon of a sad face so it wasn’t serious. 

Thanks for the reassurance, Microsoft.

I finally read up about how to fix things and meandered my way through the start menu to where I could restore my previous version of Windows and so far that seems to have solved my problem.

I’m just one person who isn’t very technical, but if you’re considering downloading the upgrade, my advice would be don’t.  Let other people deal with the bugs first and then you can get the new and improved 10.1 version.

On to something new that I tried that DID work though.  So a little personal info first: I like to get my underarms waxed.  Okay, I don’t actually enjoy the process – I’m not a masochist – but I enjoy the results.  But I’d go broke if I went back to the waxer every time the hair intermittently grew out.  So I spent about $10 on a Nad’s wax strip kit and I try to do some in-between maintenance myself.  This stuff actually works really well and unlike Windows 10, I do recommend Nad’s.

But that’s not my something new.  See, the kit comes with, like, three little wipes for getting the waxy residue off.  But there are 25 wax strips!  I’m not known for my math skills but even I can see that things don’t add up.  The instructions recommend baby oil as a substitution but guess what?  I’m probably the only person who has a baby who DOESN’T have baby oil.  Oops.  However, I had the idea to try coconut oil since it’s supposed to be good for a million and one things.  Make that a million and two: it removes waxy residue!

So, to recap:

1) Don’t download Windows 10. 

2) Give Nad’s a chance.

3) Coconut oil is awesome!

Keep your fingers crossed for my laptop and it going back to the earlier version of Windows.  I don’t know what I was thinking anyway.  Me, the biggest creature of habit ever, downloading something new like that? 

Thank goodness the coconut oil worked out though.  I really don’t want to know how that could’ve turned out had it been an unsuccessful experiment.

PS  Happy belated birthday to Leah!

Connor: 18 Months (or so)

(I apologize for any formatting issues.  My laptop's acting up so I'm using Blogger and I don't have as much leeway with picture placement, etc.)

Well, while I’ve been not-blogging, Connor’s been growing like a weed, both physically and mentally.  We had his 18-month check-up mid-August and he weighed in at 30 lbs (98^th percentile), stood 34” tall (93^rd percentile), and had a head measurement in the above-99^th percentile!  Luckily his noggin has always been big so we aren’t concerned that it’s more or less off the charts.  No shots at that last visit, and he randomly showed the doctor his problem-solving skills and was more than happy to show off his excellent walking ability so she is happy with all his development.

We moved right before that appointment and although we didn’t go far, it was enough of a jump that we had to switch Connor from his home daycare, which we LOVED, to a traditional one.  I was very sad to leave Ashley, but I think the timing was good for a toddler who’s learning to test limits.  He adapted right away to his new school environment and we couldn’t be happier with where he spends his days.

Connor is still a very good eater, but he has more of an opinion about what he wants to eat.  Lately, he’s been eating a big breakfast (one day he ate two waffles, a sausage patty, some raspberries, and an adult-sized Greek yogurt!), a good lunch, snacks, and then dinner is usually pretty good but if there are going to be food vetoes, that’s when we get them.  He takes after his mama in the carb department – never met one he didn’t like!

It seems like Connor is learning a word a day.  Even if he isn’t saying them – or his version of them – it’s amazing how much he understands.  When we first moved, I couldn’t find the bath pitchers we use for rinsing the shampoo out of his hair.  So I leaned him back under the faucet and rinsed his hair that way.  He didn’t fight me but he didn’t relax into the position either.  I sat him up and said, “Want to do it again?”  He shook his head.

 

Connor’s spoken vocabulary includes: dum-dum (yes, usually said together and meaning jump-jump), ball, bubba (bubble), mama, dada, tee (which could be Monte or Tori/kitty), bye, hi, pee (for a certain body part), woof, and duck (stuck).  There may be a couple more that I'm not recalling or recognizing; it's hard to be a toddler translater.

 

He hasn’t gained much sign language, but that’s mostly because we’re working on his talking.  But at school they continue to learn new signs and the most recent one is thank you.  I haven’t seen him use that one yet.  We still use more, eat, drink, all done, and please on a regular basis.  He’s learning to calm down if he’s upset and use please to ask for something.  It’s heartbreaking, however, when he does that for something he was never going to get anyway (like a popsicle after breakfast) and he doesn’t understand yet that it’s not the right time but if he eats a good dinner, he can probably have one later.  He doesn’t understand all that, but it doesn’t stop me from explaining it.

Connor is more into reading books himself these days, which is nice to see.  He’ll get a book and walk over to the chair in his room, ask for help getting in it, and then “read” his book.  Works out well for me when I’m putting his clothes away or doing some laundry (in our new house, the laundry room is upstairs close to his room).  He’s starting to be interested in those first puzzles and he still loves balls.  Bri gave us Lyla and Maxie’s old water table and he could play at that thing for hours, I think.  

  

 

Our sun porch is the best playpen ever.  Connor can go in and out (sun porch and house, not sun porch and outside) and be totally supervised without us being on top of him.  It’s great that he gets some independent play time – and I get some independent get-stuff-done (like sweeping, emptying the dishwasher or cooking dinner) time.

 The McMom gave us this little wooden walking toy (a dinosaur at the end of a stick with a ball on the end) that Connor loves to walk around with.  It’s one of those things he’ll take out on the sun porch and if we then go outside, it goes with him and he pushes it all over the place.  He also still loves to use the little walker because he can run with it and, well, what McBaby doesn’t want to go fast!

Connor has all but given up his morning nap unless we’re in the car and then he will likely take a snooze.  Now he just takes a post-lunch nap that lasts between 2 and 3 hours.  He’s been sleeping great at daycare since day one.  I have a feeling all that learning and structure is exhausting!

Our toddler isn’t really showing any signs of being ready for potty-training.  He will point at or grab his wet diaper, but he isn’t particularly bothered by it.  What does bother him though?  Getting his diaper changed.  He fights it every.single.time lately.

Oh!  Connor gives kisses (on the lips, of course, cuz that’s where kisses go), says bye unprompted and at the appropriate time, and blows kisses complete with the “mwah!” sound.  He loves to sit on the McHusband’s tractor both when it’s just sitting and when the McHusband is mowing and they ride together.  Lucky for Monte, Connor also enjoys long walks and is content to ride in his stroller while we explore the new-to-us area around our new house. 

Connor knows several body parts: nose, eyes, ear, mouth, tongue, foot/feet/toes.  He understands commands like “Get in your chair” or “Throw it away.”  He also understands that a phone is for talking and loves to “use” a cell phone, cordless phone, or play phone to chat it up with his friends.  And he likes for things to be the way they are supposed to be: doors/cabinets need closed, his bib need to be on, both feet need socks, etc.  Wonder where he gets that from…?

I’m sure I’ve left out some of his advances and I know I have glossed over some of the not-so-fun parts of having a toddler who is coming into his own, but I’m thinking this post has to end sometime.  The most important thing I can say is that we are bursting with love for our not-so-little guy and we look forward to spending quality time with him, whether that’s an hour after work during the week or all day on the weekends.  Although I’m not gonna lie, I do also start to look forward to his bedtime on Sunday… #keepinitreal

Long time no blog

I needed this long weekend.  And the entire month of August plus a week of September.  The move to the new house took its toll.  There was just so much to do that I didn’t have the energy, mentally, to live the life I did before we moved.  But I started feeling more like myself last week and the long weekend helped tremendously.  I was able to be productive around the house, but I tempered it with enough downtime to feel rested.  Connor had his moments, both challenging and rewarding, but thankfully he ended it on the latter note.

We didn’t have any social plans this weekend unless you count touring Terry, Vickie, and Zachary through the house.  In the spirit of the Labor Day cookout, the McHusband and I grilled turkey burgers on Sunday and enjoyed our new porch furniture and lights.

Monday was more of the same: long walk, house stuff, and hanging with Connor.  The added bonus was baking cookies (see, I told you I’m feeling more like myself), visiting Heather who is recovering from some surgery, and the McHusband bathing Monte, who was waaaaay past stinky.

I have Connor’s 18-month post written and hope to get it published this week with some pictures.  Don’t come here every day looking for something new and interesting (or even just one of those), but check in once a week or so.  I hope to resume a semi-regular blogging schedule.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.