Finish that Sentence Part Two

Last week I blog stalked and did Finish That Sentence even though I had missed the original bloggers' linkup. The original bloggers that created the little fun game are doing it again and I feel the need to be legit blogger girl and link up to their linkup thing. This blogging thing is a world all its own and linkups are a part I am just discovering, four years later. But, the girl in this linkup, Holly, has lost a bazillion pounds and is hilarity and her husband blogs and pretty much makes fun of women's blogs but in a funny way and I do love to blog stalk them.

That Sentence Take Deux

1. If calories didn't count, I would eat...A very large pizza followed by a very large brownie with ice cream and nuts. In this world, my stomach doesn't have fullness limits, right? Cause ask my sister Tammy what happened the last time I overate. Rolling around on the floor moaning.

2. On my Prom night....The first year I went with a guy that was so nervous he was afraid to touch me and the second year I went, my date danced the night away with me, we even did the hand jive from Grease. He had to dye his blue hair blond for the occasion, which I'm sure my parents were grateful for and we had the greatest time ever......he was gay! I didn't know it at the time, it made a lot of sense when I found out later, I just knew he was a super fun guy friend that I would have a great time with and the romantic date the year before hadn't really panned out. There is a lesson to be learned here peeps. Cause I'm sure a lot of high schoolers are reading this. But if you are: go to prom with your friends and have the best time of your life. Even if you go with your crush at the time HAVE FUN, don't worry about the "romance." That boy/girl is going to either try to get laid that night or ditch you for the next best thing or be afraid to touch you all night and you won't talk to them again after high school so have FUN!!! (or if you are a weirdo like me, you remain good friends with your first prom date, and 15 years later you are friends with his wife on facebook and you exchange pics of your kids and Christmas cards.)

3. When I go to the store, I always buy...Almond milk, egg beaters, bananas, yogurt, some form of cheese.

4. Family functions typically...Make me feel warm and fuzzy. I am seriously lucky to have good family and Rob is too. We are a rarity that both of our parents are still married and still like each other and I'm very thankful for that. Either that or we drink enough to make me feel warm and fuzzy.

5. I think my blog readers...All 3 of them? I think they'd rather see pics of my cute kids. They need to tell said kids to smile at the camera. Cause Mama stays home with them and she's a talker and needs SOMETHING to talk about and SOMEONE to talk to, so this blog is it some days. And with no smiling kids to show pictures of, I just have to talk about SOMETHING else.

6. I'd much rather be.....Thin? Tall? Not living in Little Rock, AR?

7. I have an obsession with....at the moment? reading blogs and linking up to their wacky games.

8. My work friends...wish I'd work more than one day/week.

9. When I created my Facebook account....I thought it would be lame-o like myspace and I'd forget about it after a month or so. I also wasn't aware of how many people would be so annoying on facebook. Because COME ON already, nobody loves their life that much!!!!

10. My least favorite word is...a tie between moist and panties. Worse is they were ever used together. ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Moist is just not right and describes the smell at any thrift store, panties......that just sounds pediphilic to me.

11. I really don't remember....my first prom night. Sentence number 2 up there is making me realize I must have stuffed those memories deep, cause I have a very vague memory of wearing blue and slow dancing seriously uncomfortably to the theme from Titanic and winning a drawing for a cd player and then my memory ends.

12. Justin Bieber....is sadly turning into a douche canoe. I had such hope for that little tyke. Just like Britney, just like Lindsey, we raise them, we make them millions, we set them free and they just can't fly right.

If you want to answer these sentences and linkup with, just click on the pic and follow their directions. There is a gift card given to one person that links up. So go on!!!!

You don't have to go to school to celebrate Spring Break

This post contains all of the following: happy kids, sunshine, animals, healthy people
This post is void of: sad kids, mention of bodily functions (including illnesses that cause these), talk of losing weight.

The first year of motherhood, for me, was kind of.....lonely. I LOVED being a mommy, I loved hanging out with my baby on my days off. But, we didn't have people. We didn't know where to go. So, we joined some playgroups. Some worked out better than others, but from these playgroups, the kids and I have met and gotten close to some fabulous families. It has truly made living in Little Rock better for us. With no family within a 2-3 hour radius, and living several miles away from town gets a little scary. The people we have met since becoming parents have made the world a better place.

Anyhoo. This last week was Spring Break. My kids do not go to a school. However, Rylan does get 2 kinds of therapy and at home preschool that requires us to go-go-go a lot and be at the school a lot. So, we had the week off from therapy and Hippy, our friends that go to preschool had spring break, and one local elementary school has a good playground that was as empty as can be one day.

Sooooooo on Tuesday we met Michelle, Lily, and Miles (not pictured, sorry Miles) at an elementary school for some lunching and playing. It does not matter what I pack for my kids, I could literally stop at McDonald's on the way to see Michelle and company, and whatever is in Michelle's bag is always better. This day, I stepped my game up and stopped and got us a fruit tray, a veggie tray, and some chocolate dip for apples. My kids are fruititarians. And Rylan has been known to eat an entire head of broccoli. Michelle's bag was way better.

Awesome swings

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Ry appeases me and eats a carrot

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Lily thought my spread was awesome.She's a broccoli lover.

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Lily pushing Max on the swings. 

Then on Wednesday, we went with Krystal and kids to Memphis to visit the zoo there. We've been talking about doing this for over a year and keep having to reschedule and all that. Mostly because of my sicklies and such. So we finally made it work. 

We left Little Rock at 7:30am. Four kids, four carseats. One newly potty trained one. We like a challenge.

Harper entertained us crooning some tunes. Rylan danced in the back

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I apologize for not having pics at the front of the zoo. I got carried away at the idea of vacation and went a little cray cray at the gas station and bought a 20oz coffee. I have a post two kids bladder and have two kids to lift out of seats and push in a stroller. I nearly peed myself. Picture taking wasn't a priority. --btw, I just couldn't do it could I? Not mention bodily functions. 

These two have been friends since Ry was a year and Harper was 6 months. This pic is so precious. He has a map and she is giving him a hug while steering him in the direction she wants to go. Old married couple.

 I got a talking to because I thought this was an animal like Diego has. Its not. He has a jaguar. This is a cheetah. I know now.

They had a playplace by the restaurant. Kind of  genius.

Hayes wasn't feeling good, which is why she is absent from some pics, but the hippos mouth got her to smile

Yes, my four year old sits in the baby seat while the 2 year old prefers the standing part. Same thing happens on our swingset at home. Rylan is in the baby swing and Max is in the toddler swing.

This one's going on the wall

Notice neither foot is touching the ground. Ever played Mario 2 on old school Nintendo and been Luigi whose legs never hit the ground and flutter constantly? That is Max. 

I think in my next life, I'd like this one.

"mama, I wanna go to the car"

We arrived at the zoo at 10:30am, we left the zoo at 4:30pm. We decided to up the anty on our crazy day and have a sit down meal at Cracker Barrel with four kids, four and under before heading back to Little Rock. Some kids are bad when they are tired. Our kids were so beyond tired, they were good, pretty much because they just wanted to put their head on their plates. Home at 9pm. 

I told the kids on Thursday we were going to have a nice relaxing day and sleep in and watch movies and read books and do puzzles. Somehow they were both awake by 5:30 and we ended up doing a one hour Wii dance marathon and doing yard work. I think we'll be needed a break from our Spring Break!

Good week. Great week. 

I get so emotional baby

Sing it Whitney

I interupt my blog posts about how my bathroom smells of pee and my kid and husband got the flu to bare my little soul. Cause blogging is cheaper than therapy or Jenny Craig.

If you'd asked me a few years ago, even a few months ago, if I was an emotional eater, I'd have said "no". I'd have told you (and I did say this) that I just love cheese dip and ice cream and sometimes I cave more than I should. I would have said that Halloween makes me eat copius amounts of chocolate and Easter candy is just SOOOO good. LIAR! I mean, I can't be trusted around a bowl of cheesedip or ice cream. That's the truth. I do try to stay away from those items. Even in low fat form. I can't be trusted.

Howeva.

I'm on a hunt for a better Sara. This took looking at myself and my habits. I am not a "bad" eater. I keep good food around my house. I hate McDonalds. I get baked chips at Subway. I park farther away than the first spot at the grocery store and walk extra when I can. I exercise moderately. I buy low fat almost everything. I'm not fat because I have everyday bad habits.

I am fat because I'm an emotional eater. I started realizing that everytime my kids have a tough afternoon and I'm feeling exhausted and stressed, a voice in my head says "call Rob and ask him to bring home food." The thing is, I am prepared for eating at home. I plan menus. I cook in my crockpot 2-3 times a week, most weeks. I try to chop/precook veggies and such during naptime to make dinnertime easier. I even have Smart Ones pizzas and dairy free pizzas, corn dogs, and cans of soup for the boys stashed for emergency purposes. Soup takes two seconds to dump out of a can into a microwave safe bowl. I don't need Rob to bring home food 98% of the time. There have been times that I have had food in the crockpot, that actually smells good, but I have that moment where I think "call Rob." Because, Rob bringing home dinner is my way of feeling like Rob is making my world better. And that food that he brings home probably has 3x the fat, calories, and carbs than what I would have made. (disclaimer: I am in no way blaming Rob, he is simply doing what I asked.)

And Halloween candy? Nine times out of ten, I don't eat a piece on Halloween. I eat it the day or two or a week after, when the inevevitable post Halloween/hayride asthma attack hits both my kids. Except I don't eat a piece. I eat 10 pieces. I tell myself I'm eating the chocolate because my dairy free kids can't have it. Bullshit. I'm eating the chocolate because for one second, while chewing, that chocolate made me forget that we had to cancel the 9,000th playdate and go to the doctor's office instead. Or that I had to call my boss...again...at 5 in the morning to tell her that I can't make it to the one day of work I'm scheduled for.

I got Zaxby's 9 days ago after Max's doctor's appointment. We had to wait for 2 hours at the doctor and half the people had masks on because they were there for the flu. And then I got told that Max only had a virus. So I just subjected my kid to 2 hours of waiting room with flu people to be told to give my kid over the counter medicines. My kid that has had 27,000 ear infections and illnesses that some people have to Wikipedia before they continue a conversation with me and in no way needs to be anywhere near the flu. I ordered boneless wings and fries and I dipped the fries in ranch. As I ate it, I thought about how I hadn't been to a Zaxby's in a while. And I thought longer.....like since the last time one of the kids had to go to the doctor sick. Hmmmmmm........

As previously mentioned in my last post, the shit (and puke) hit the fan last weekend. Two our of four of Rob and Sara Plus One Plus One more had stomach flu and the two spared didn't feel awesome either. We had to cancel plans to have my dad help Rob with major house help. We were super sad. My kid that was really sick was super sad. I was up with one or more kids more than I slept Friday and Saturday nights. On Saturday, I waited for a prescription to help his nausea for almost two hours. The whole time I waited, I was thinking about my poor mom and dad and sister that were home with my kid, dealing with his flu self. A pastel colored bag of peanut m&ms caught my eye. And then jumped down my throat. Well, not the whole thing, but a lot of m&ms went down that day. Even more went down Sunday on the drive home as I wound through the hills with my sickly, on my way home to my sick husband.

 The rest of the m&ms were consumed while watching the Biggest Loser last night and it hit me how bad I'd sabatoged all my hard work. I've been getting up early, exercising during naps, doing squats in the yard while the kids played. And for what? So I could shove candy in gross quantities and boneless chicken wings down my pie whole when the going gets rough?

Part of getting better is realizing where the problem is. I've realized it and I'm not proud, but I'm glad. I have a good life. A great life. But there are times when it feels like its hard. Other times it feels really hard. My kids get sick a lot. One requires therapy that sometimes feels like more trouble than its worth. Some days I wonder if I should just work and pay others to teach my kids. Food doesn't fix these problems. A smile. A song. A kiss. A hug. A bowl of spaghetti squash and a ton of situps. Those things will fix those problems.

Playing at the park WITH my kids will probably fix a few problems too.

Weekend warriors....NOT EVEN A LITTLE

We had big plans last Friday.
Me and two cuties=head to Grammy's house Friday night.
My dad=head to our house (as in Rob and I's house)
Rob and my dad=paint our kitchen and living room.

What happened instead
Rob=called and told Dad to stay because he had the stomach flu
Rylan=woke up at Grammy and Papa's house with stomach flu
Max=had been on a hunger strike for a week, we thought he was being two or constipated, turned out he had the flu (just without the pukes) and once that subsided he was ready to eat. Carbs. Lots of them.
Me and two cuties=head to Grammy's house and infect them with flu

Life. It is such a bitch.

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So, we still have a green kitchen and a red living room and hallway. And blue master and bath. Our house is the color wheel. Not for long, its going to be a beige lovers dream in a matter of weeks.

A question and a game

Please comment on my blog if
1. You love me
B. You can give me an awesome remedy for the piss smell that has seeped into my bathroom in the last year.

B. is much more important.
Potty training one boy led to cleaning the toilet All. The. Time. and using lots of concoctions and an old toothbrush to get the pee that missed the toilet from around the base of the toilet. Now that I have potty trained Max, I'm dying. I feel like the smell of pee is tattooed onto my nose hairs.  Not that I have any nose hairs, cause I sleek and sophisticated lady and all.

Now, I stalk blogs something crazy. I get up at 5:30 am even on my days off work and drink coffee and blog stalk. I have about 3 blogs I check daily and a couple I check a few times a week. It started when I became a stay at home mom looking for ways that other stay at home moms have survived  found ways of living off of one income. Then I started losing weight and found more. And, since I'm not shoving bowls of cereal into my pie hole, Mama needed another habit.

One of the blogs had a fun game: Finish This Sentence
I'm doing it, and I want my peeps to Blog them too. So go on Michelle, Ashley, Debbie, Melissa, and Cheryll. Go on.

1. People always tell me I look exactly like someone they know. 

2. In the movie based on my life, I'd like to be played by Kristen Wiig. 

3. Typically, I end up regretting eating at a Chinese buffet

4. I always ask to leave off the mayonaise. Who orders a grilled chicken sandwich that wants all that fat? If I wanted fat, I'd get a quarter pounder.

5. Kim and Kanye really need to send me money, then go away. Foreva.

6. My Parents always reminded me that I was quite the arguer back in the day. Getting my payback on that one, btw. 

7. Every single day I drink entirely too much caffeine.

8. This one time in College I did 3 keg stands in one night. Old Sara was a blast. And easier to lift.

9. My grossest habit is I pick the skin around my nails until they bleed.

10. My latest white lie was ummmmm "I was behind the slowest person ever" on the way to speech therapy.

11. I know all the words to Ice Ice Baby

12. When I grow up I want to be a blogger that makes money

13. Sexy time is Not eating until we want to puke or pass out or both on a date.

14. I will never, ever cheer for Alabama? Be stick thin? Have another baby? There are so many.

15. I think it's hilarious when Rylan asks us to 'turn up the vacuum' instead of volume.

Its a potty party, I haven't cried....yet

You know that Luvs commercial that shows the difference between a first time mom and a second time mom? Where the first one the mom is packing every possible thing you could need in a diaper bag and the second time mom has her kid in a sling, grabs a handful of spilled cereal and stuffs it in her mouth and yells at the older one to "come on?"

That commercial was made about me. Still waiting on that royalty check.....any day now......

Its especially evident with the Potty Party. With Rylan, we had party hats, a potty chart, several planned treats, a new movie from Netflix, and we DID NOT LEAVE THE HOUSE for 3 days.  Absolutely no diapers. No pull ups. Boot Camp Style. I nearly went nuts. We stayed here and watched Rylan for signs of peeing.

This time I secured Rylan a spot at Tiny Town and kept Max home. I got a Potty video at the Library for him to watch, you know, to lesson the workload for me and all. We had oatmeal for breakfast (I added chocolate chips for Potty Party enjoyment) and pizza muffins for lunch and jelly beans for every pee. I forgot about a chart, I have no treats, and, I'll be honest, the jelly beans were actually meant for Easter, but I forgot to get a "treat" for each pee. For 8 hours we watched DVR'd Dora and Mickey and Diego and I watched to see if he was about to pee, before we needed to take stuff to a consignment sale so Mama can make money. Then we needed to go to a 3 year old's birthday party. So, I sidetracked Max while I stuck a diaper on him, then pulled his underwear over it and told him he was still wearing underwear. I did the same thing this morning when we went to a Hippy shindig. I mean, they were busting a pinata. Was I going to let my kids miss that? NO WAY.

The results from yesterday? 4 pees in the potty, several wet unders. About 3 wet spots that had to be cleaned up. The diaper was wet and more at the party, so we didn't master it in a day, but that's ok.

Today so far? One wet spot on the carpet and 2 public toilet pees!!!! Came home in a dry diaper. Now back to staring at him for signs of peeing. That is major major major.

Go Max. He's our man, if he can't do it......well I really hope that everyone still can.

Its his party and I'll cry if I want to

The potty party has commenced for our Plus One More Child. 7 pairs of wet underwear, one pee in the potty.

We can do this, right boo?

Not too sure.

Weight not lost

My scale is still without batteries. I'm cool like that. But, I do work on Fridays and hospitals are known to have scales from time to time. So I found one yesterday, I took off my shoes and hopped on.

And the weight was exactly the same that it was February 1. I have worked out no less than 4x a week and eaten within my calories no less than 5 days a week. Oi vay, my body hates to let go of lard.

I could be sad. I could have sadness, despair, and woe is me-ness, But, I remembered that, before I left my house that morn, I had already drank 4 cups of water and two cups of coffee plus eaten egg beaters and a slice of cheese. Hopefully that had a tiny bit to do with the fact that I hadn't lost an ounce. Hopefully. Rob has re-batteried my scale, so I'll weigh Monday.

The former fatty in me badly wanted to hit up the Nacho Bar in the cafeteria at work. But, I had spaghetti squash with vegetarian sauce on top. With a side of clementines.

Then I got off work and went to the Big Damn Bridge and nearly froze my ass off in an attempt to run/walk a few ounces off for the next pathetic weigh in. When I say it was windy and cold, I mean, it was windy. And cold. And I was ill prepared for the elements. Perhaps because I've spent thirty BLEEP-ing years NOT walk/running? I had a tiny sweatshirt, a tshirt and workout capris. I actually ran when the lady on my phone running app told me to walk, simply to get back to my car faster.

The Big Damn Chattering Teeth Bridge

Usually when I get off work early, I go home and clean or watch a show that isn't animated while I fold laundry or sometimes I shop. I looked forward all day to running on the bridge. Its nice to do something that doesn't involve groceries or cleaning or laundry when I have free time.