I woke up in a great mood.  Drew came in my room for an early morning cuddle, we got up got dressed, got ready for school, I cooked breakfast, dropped him off.  Smooth sailing.  So then my niece and I hang down stairs folding laundry and listening to music, we do a little dance, sing, play, then BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM……  Silence.  There goes my washer.  Guess it couldn’t handle Drew’s comforter with the sheets thrown in there too.  Take out the soaking wet contents, try to fix it….

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

ROOF ROOF ROOF

“Hi I’m Mike, I’m here to fix your electrical problem.”…..  Let him in, show him the problem, and let him go from there, I’m not a frickin electrician.  He moves my couch, my TV, and just about everything else that’s too heavy for me to move.  He does his thing and informs me that the outlets (not all of them, just half the living room outlets) are broken.  Can he fix it?  Sure he can!  But its not covered under our warranty and its gonna be about 500 bucks.

Hubby calls, wants to talk to Mike the electrician.  OK, fine, Mike can deliver the bad news.  So they’re on the phone and they’re talking, which quickly turns into bickering like two 5 year old girls.  Jason doesn’t want to pay him the 60 dollar deductible, Mike the Electrician doesn’t want to leave our house with out it….  And lucky me, I have the check book, so really, this is MY problem now.  They hang up, Mike checks one more thing.  Jason calls back and tells me not to pay him since he really didn’t do anything.

You know what?  F you both.  OK, Mike the Electrician went from a decent guy to a giant Dbag once him and Jason hung up, and Jason how dare you put me in this position?  Technically, Mike the Dbag did his job, we owe him 60 bucks, I’m not sure his job really warrants 60 bucks per 20 minutes of looking around and telling us its a 500 hundred dollar problem, but you know what?  I’m the one sitting in here with this guy I don’t know, and frankly, when I’m alone with a stranger in my home, I’d really rather not piss him off.  So I’m writing him the check, if you don’t want to pay him, stop payment on the check.

So then Jason’s asking my a million questions on the phone.  After reminding him that I am not a frickin electrician, he wants to talk to Mike again.  Mike wont talk to Jason, takes his 60 dollar check and storms out of my house, leaving all that furniture thats too heavy to move right in the middle of my living room.

F you both.

Oh and by the way, my washing machines still broken.  YEAY.one

Sorry its been a while.  Between Mother’s Day and my recent discovery of Magic Erasers, I have been quite busy.  But my mothers day was probably the best yet, and I am so grateful that I have such an amazing family to celebrate with.

Now, I’m gonna tell you guys ALL ABOUT Magic Erasers.  Maybe most of you already know, as they have been around for a bit, they are just incredible!  But for you other skeptics out there, here’s a little story….

December 9th, 2012, we closed on this house and got a set of keys.  Our first home.  Beautiful, wonderful, PERFECT!!!  Well, almost perfect….  Our bath tub was a hot mess.  No biggie though, right?  I scrubbed, and have been scrubbing to no availe since December.  5 months of scrubbing.  Kaboom, Ram, Ammonia, bleach, comet, and just about every single cleaning mixture the previous home owners left behind, I mean, these people had stuff I’ve never even heard of.  I went as far as trying to scrape that crap off with a box cutter!  Tried it all.  DID NOT DO ANYTHING!!!!  The tub looked no better.  I mean, can you imagine 5 months of this insanity?

Now, the tubs not dirty in the sense that there is dirt in it, it was just stained with grime.  Nothing floated up when the tub was full or anything gross like that, but it looked disgusting, it was like, yellow.  So, anyway, my mother in law kept saying “Just get a magic eraser.”  judging by her easy going tone, it was clear to me that she didnt know how bad my tub was…..  I’m like “yea, there’s a solution….  I’ve tried everything in the world, and I’m suppose to believe that a magic eraser is gonna get that clean?”.

Well, yesterday, I went out, coughed up the $2.74, and bought a 2 pack of magic erasers.  WOW.  My mother in law was not underestimating the grossness of my tub, I was clearly underestimating the power of Magic erasers.  If you need proof, here it is….

After

Okay, not sure how to get those pics next to each other.  But That first one is obviously before the magic eraser, but that’s after scrubbing for HOURS with every cleaning product imaginable…..  The beautiful clean tub there on the bottom?  That’s after 15 minutes with the magic eraser!!!

So after the tub was done, I went nuts, I started running around my house with the magic eraser, I got out every smuge on the wall, every mark on the floor, everything.  There was NOTHING I came across that I couldn’t conquer with the Magic Eraser!!!!  So I’m just sayin….  Worth the $2.74!

So at the last minute, we decided to go camping on Saturday.  We loaded up the car, our son, and our dogs, and headed to a local camp ground on a lake.  Every time I go camping, I am amazed at the experience.  There is nothing like it.  We got there around 3pm and I made a fire and got the dogs settled in, while Jason and Drew put the tent up.  Then we just hung out!  No distractions from each other.  We all talked around the picnic table, then Drew and Jason went exploring for a bit, I took the dogs exploring for a bit, Drew and I went out trying to find frogs, then we played “I spy” and “20 questions” around the fire until it was too dark to spy anything.

I made a great dinner on the fire.  A cheese burger, grilled veggies, and a baked potato for Jason.  A hot dog and baked potato for Drew (I let him pass on the veggies, cause we were out camping), and, in an effort to eat healthy regardless of the circumstances, I made some chicken and grilled veggies for me.  It was awesome.

Its so great to just get away.  We basically just hung out around the fire all night, Drew went to bed around 10, and Jason and I just snuggled up near the fire, talking, laughing, and having a really great time together.  For us, camping brings out the best in our family dynamics.  If I could, I’d live out there all the time!

So Friday was my son’s Kindergarten concert.  Oh my gosh, it was too cute!  Me and my niece walked into the gym, where there were TONS of parents.  The kids came out, and at first I couldn’t spot him, but then I did.  He was looking all around trying to figure out where I was.  I knew from where I was sitting, there was no way he would see me, so I got up and moved to a seat he could see me from.  I watched him looking at me until we made eye contact.  Then we both smiled that really REAL and HAPPY smile and was like the whole world just melted away, and it was just me and him, staring adoringly at each other.  I LOVE those moments, there is nothing in the world quite like it.

So then the concert starts and it was the cutest thing!  All these little peanuts up there, dressed up like bugs, and singing songs about bugs.  Drew didn’t take his eyes off me the whole concert, and he kept pointing at himself, then pointing at me, then pointing at the door, because he wanted me to take him home.  I kept trying to get him to focus on the concert.  After all, they had hand motions they were suppose to be doing as they were singing, and he was totally missing them, but I assured him (the best I could from the audience) that I would take him home with me.

Well, after the concert, the kids were suppose to go back down to their classes, and from there, the parents could meet them in their classrooms and take them home.  Of course Drew didn’t know that, so at the end of the concert, the music teacher announces that the kids would be going to their classrooms and Drew burst into tears!  : (.  I kept motioning to him that everything was good and I’d meet him down there, so he walked off with his class.  I met him down there a few minutes later, and he was so sweet packing up his back pack, with his cheeks all red and his eyes still watery from crying.  So that night I bought him some peanut butter cheerios (a definite win by the way, if you haven’t tried them yet.) for being such an amazing little guy.

I just thought that was a cute story and wanted to share!

Ok, so before I tell you guys about my strange morning cardio workout, I should tell you a couple other things;  It is impossible for me to go for a run outside in the morning, because I have the kiddos, and I know myself well enough to know that I wont go running in the evening when my Hubby gets home, because by that time, I’m ready to relax with him.  Every single time I get the change, I forgo indoor cardio to go running outside in nature.

Maybe the treadmill, exercise bike, or elliptical works well for you.  I personally just don’t have the attention span for 30 minutes of that, so I have been forced to find unique ways to get in a good cardio work out.  One thing I started doing a while ago to intensify my cardio, regardless of what type of cardio I was doing, is interval training, and I love it!  It really intensifies my workout, so I know I am getting the most out of it, and it makes things less boring.  For any one who doesn’t know, all interval training is, is when you switch off between moderate intensity, and extreme intensity.  Like, 5 minutes jogging, two minutes sprinting, 5 minutes jogging, two minutes sprinting etc.  From what I understand, there are many very scientific approaches to interval training, to target your exact goals, but I don’t know how all that works, I just know that when I intensify things, I burn more calories and have more fun.

I do cardio 6 days a week, although its really only necessary to do it 3-4 times a week, but because I really enjoy the feeling of a good workout, I do it more.  About 3 times a week, (including today) I incorporate my work out into my morning cleaning.  Its actually very entertaining, and the time flies.  So basically, I turn on some good music, and I run around the house, like crazy, jumping, skipping, doing jumping jacks, jogging in place, shuffling and pivoting around, all while doing dishes, making beds, picking up clutter, and all types of other cleaning chores.  I run from room to room, picking up things that belong in other rooms, then run them to their room.  Every few minutes, I do a minute of intensified jumping jacks, running in place bringing my knees extra high up, or whatever, to keep it intense.  LOL, my niece thinks this is hilarious, and laughs at me everytime, because in all honesty, I look like an idiot, but I sweat a ton, and am totally out of breath; the two sure signs that I’ve gotten a good work out in!  I figure why not?  I’m killing two birds with one stone that way.  And when you’re a busy mom, killing two birds with one stone is never a bad thing!

So then when I’m done with that, my house obviously isn’t spotless, but its clean enough that I’m motivated to make it spotless.  Which is honestly a rarity.

So maybe you don’t want to go running around your house, cleaning up messes at a ridiculously fast pace for 30 minutes.  That’s okay, I totally understand.  The point is, you don’t have to have any type of “structured” or “standard” work out, just find a way to have fun while moving.  That’s it!

So lately my friends and I have been talking a lot about exercise.  I think with the weather warming up, we’re all excited to go hit the trails without freezing our asses off and burning our throats while gasping for air.  I am an avid exerciser.  I LOVE it, and while I do exercise all year, I am the first to admit that when its cold, I’m much less likely to go for a run, leaving me to find more creative ways of exercising.  This takes real motivation.  Its much easier to say “Its too cold to go for a run” than it is to find an alternative.

So, every person needs to find their own way to stay motivated, and sometimes what works for one person doesn’t work at all for another.  But I do have some general tips to get and stay motivated before and during a work out.  And being that I spend about 2 hours a day, 5 days a week working out, I think its worth mentioning the techniques I use to get going and get through the work outs.

So here they are.  I’m going to put them into a list to maintain structure in this post and hopefully keep me from rambling.

1)  Set a time:  It is so important to set a time to exercise.  It doesn’t need to be an exact time, and it can be a time based on events rather than a clock, such as instead of exercising at 9am, you could commit to exercise after you drink your morning coffee.  That’s how I do it.  After I drop my son off at school, I come home, drink some coffee and then do 30 minutes cardio.  When I put my niece down for her nap, I do 1 hour of full body toning, and after my husband goes to bed at night, I do 30 minutes of ab exercises or butt exercises, depending on the day.

2)  Get up and dressed to exercise:  Work out cloths and running shoes are so important, because sometimes all you need to do is put them on and you’re ready to go.  For Christmas my husband bought me the single best running shoes in the world, so once they’re on my feet, it feels disrespectful not to start running (or dancing, or jumping around like a fool, or whatever form of cardio you chose to do)  I always do cardio first thing in the morning, when my stomach is empty (minus the coffee), and I have the energy.

3)  Switch it up mid session:  Its easy to look at the clock and say “What!?!?  I’ve only been running for 10 minutes?” and give up knowing you still have 20 more minutes and you’re already exhausted.  For me, this problem is eliminated when I’m outdoors, because I find nature to be rather entertaining in its self.  But while indoors, on an elliptical, treadmill, or watching a work out video (which is often what I have to do because of the kids being with me) its easy to hit this wall time and time again.  So when it happens, instead of stopping, go run through your house, switch from the treadmill to the exercise bike, do jumping jacks, run in place, skip around, dance, anything!  JUST KEEP MOVING!!!  It is truly amazing how much this speeds up those 30 minutes.  (tomorrow I’ll post my extremely odd morning cardio routine, which works beautifully for me)

4)  Power Phrases:  I learned about power phrases when I was training for a 10K when I was 16.  A power phrase is something you say out loud to keep you motivated, but its nice if its also something that makes you smile.  You can have as many power phrases as you want, I have just one, and I’ve been using it since I was 16.  its “Raisin Bran and Bananas.”  Weird to think that saying “Raisin Bran and Bananas” would keep me running, but it does.  When I was 16, I ate Raisin Bran with cut up Banana’s in it every morning after going for my run.  So it was motivating, and yummy enough that it made me smile.  Now it just makes me smile because it reminds me of back then, and its embedded in my brain to keep running when I say that phrase.  Sometimes I have to say it 100 times in 30 minutes, but it does help me.

5)  Find a motivating image:  I know that we aren’t suppose to compare ourselves to other women, especially models or movie stars, but I do it all the time.  In fact, just yesterday I watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre while doing my full body workout because Jessica Biel has such an amazing body that it helps me get through my work out, knowing that every squat I do is one squat closer to having Jessica Biels ass.  And that’ll keep me squating all day.

6)  Take your dog on your run:  When I am able to run out doors, I like to bring my dog with me, for several reasons.  One is because it kills two birds with one stone, you’re working out and your dog is benefiting too.  But make sure you can realistically ask your dog to exercise at the level that you are exercising, for example, my Jack Russell Terrier can easily handle a 2 mile run with me, but there’s no way my Bull Mastiff could do it, and it would be unfair to try to make him.  The best part about this is that when I have Snuggles (yes, I named my dog snuggles) with me, I notice that I run faster, I have a more positive attitude, and I can last longer.  Some people get human work out buddies, if it works for you, great.  I personally have opted out every single time a friend has asked me if I wanted to work out with them, If I’m able to get out for a run, I want to escape reality, not chat about it.  Lastly, bringing a dog with you helps to keep you consistently exercising.  I feel bad when I don’t take Snuggles to the park for a run on Saturday morning, so most Saturday mornings, I get up and take her, even if I don’t want to, because she loves it.

7)  Make sure you have goals:  I don’t just mean goals like “To be healthier” or “To lose weight”.  I mean multiple specifics.  Such as “Run 3 miles without having to stop”, or  “Run for 1 hour without stopping”, “Lose one pant size by June.”, “Lose 20 pounds for vacation this summer” <- currently my husbands goal.  “I’m going to work out every other day for 6 weeks.” or what ever clear cut goals that work for you.

8)  Take a before photo:  Probably one of my best motivators.  Its lovely to look at a before picture and see the changes.  This is great if you are trying to lose weight, but I think this is especially important if you are trying to tone your body.  I found when I was losing weight, it was easier to see physical changes in my body.  I could feel my pants getting loser, and really noticed that I looked better.  It was still great to have a before picture though.  But when you are toning your body, you’re pants size isn’t likely to change, and until you are perfectly tone, you probably wont notice the changes in your body with out a before picture.  Regardless of what you are trying to work on, its nice to look at a picture and say “Wow, look how far I’ve come!”

Eight…  Thats an odd number of tips to have, but that’s all I’ve got for now!  I’m sure more will pop into my head, and when they do, I’ll share.  Exercise is just so good for the body, mind and soul!!!

So, this year has been my first year landscaping.  I was excited.  I still am.  Since I moved away from home when I was 18, I’ve lived in apartments, enjoying the simplicity of aloe plants and the durability of spider plants.  Now we have a yard.  For some reason, I decided to dive into this head first.  After all, I like nature, I MUST have a natural gift for gardening, right?  Well, I don’t.

I decided that researching plants that thrive in this climate, and opting for easy to grow plants was for the amateurs.  I opted to grow my own plants from seeds, rather than buy established little baby plants, and refused to use liners in my garden, because after all, a real gardener doesn’t mind pulling weeds.

Well, what I didn’t think of is this:  It takes a long time to grow plants from seeds.  I’m not a particularly patient person, and while I don’t mind waiting for the blooms in the back yard, I’d really like my front yard to look as nice as everyone elses.  It doesn’t though.  In fact, its not even close.

To make matters worse, there was a flaw in my thinking when I decided that I would weed heavily rather than put down a liner.  I don’t know which little plants out there are plants, and which are weeds.  They all look the same.  I know I didn’t plant nearly that many plants, so I’m gonna go ahead and say that probably 50% of that greenery out there is weeds….  So now what do I do?  Well, I guess I’m just gonna have to chalk it up to a lesson learned.  See what happens this year, and try again next spring.  Not much else I can do.  Maybe throw a sign in the yard saying “This is my first try people, I intend to do better next year” and move on with my life.

I know I am capable of achieving a beautiful garden, and next year I’ll be more prepared.  Besides, with bulbs and what not, I can potentially set myself up in the fall to have a beautiful front yard come next spring.

So, now that I have a structured bedtime routine for the kids, its inspired me to take better care of myself and my marriage.  Its already pretty great, my marriage.  As I’m sure you’ve heard me say before, my husband is amazing.  But now that bed time goes so smoothly, I’ve had the extra time, when the kids are in bed, to really relax with my husband and make him important.

I imagine that Jason and I may still technically be in that honeymoon phase, were you’re just gaga over each other.  But I honestly believe that its more than that.  We both take the sanctity of marriage so very seriously.  It sounds silly, but when we decided to get married, we clarified and emphasized that we weren’t just getting married, but we were also vowing never to get divorced.  Its sad, but I just feel like divorce is so common, that marriage doesn’t mean anything any more, unless you clarify that yes, you truly intend on making it last forever.

Now, obviously there would be extreme exceptions to that vow: cheating, physical abuse, etc.  But that’s why I married someone who would never hurt me.

Anyway, so before we even got married, I was thinking up ways to keep our relationship forever young….  One thing I think is super important is making sure that Jason comes home from wondering what we’ll do that night.  I don’t ever want our time together to become to predictable.  Now, a lot of the time, he does know, we’re really not that exciting of a couple, I’d say 75% of the time, after putting the kids to bed we’ll cuddle up on the couch and watch some TV before bed.

But its the other 20% of the time that keeps things fun.  We aren’t in the financial position to go out to dinner ever week, or splurge on expensive date nights or anything like that.  We do go out to dinner every couple weeks and its always great, but over the past few years, I’ve come up with a collection of “Date Night In” ideas.  This way we don’t need to find a baby sitter, and more importantly, we don’t have to spend much (If any) money.  So I just thought that I’d share a few of those ideas, because, who knows, maybe you’ll have fun trying them!

Note-  Many of these ideas can be turned into family nights with the kids, and yes, we do a lot of this stuff with our kids too, but for the sake of this post, lets focus on our Hubbies!!!

1)  Mini-party for two:  This is my favorite thing to do, but I don’t do it very often any more because it wrecks my diet.  I come from a big family, and my whole life we’ve had huge parties.  I learned at a very young age, a party is not a party without awesome food!  I love to make 5-6 different and new appetizers (just cut the recipe in half so you don’t end up with a ton of extra food) and put them on beautiful serving dishes and make them look beautiful on the coffee table in front of the couch.  Then just have a little get together with your husband.  Spend some time actually talking with him about things unrelated to work, family issues, home issues or any other issues.  Its amazing when a husband and wife take time to just talk and enjoy each others company.  I know this sounds simple, but when to people share one life, its important to stay friends with each other.  Its like putting your marriage on hold to spend time with your best friend, who also happens to be your husband.  Another great thing about this for me is that I love to cook, and I love watching my husband take his first bite of a new recipe.  On these nights, I get to watch that happen 5-6 times!  Its also nice because you have to prepare for the night,  I get so excited for our little “party” and I make sure I look and feel pretty, and try to make the house and the food perfect.  He loves eating the great new foods, and loves the time together.

2)  Have a game night:  Take a break from Candy Land, and pull the good ole monopoly board, maybe laugh at each other in game of charades or pictionary….  Its up to you, the point is that you keep it fun and light hearted  I think its cute when my husband gets all pissy because hes gone around buying up every property only to have to mortgage them out to pay for the fact that I’ve snagged up all 4 railroads.  (we’ve never actually finished a game of monopoly because he ends up with every property mortgaged and I end up with 4 railroads and nothing else to do…).  A little friendly competition is always fun….  Of Course you could always spice it up a bit and play an “adult game”, sold at your local naughty store, that way, everyone wins.

3)  Wine and cheese night:  When wine and cheese is involved, you just feel classier.  I am very fond of wine, and I believe cheese to be the very best substance in this entire world.  Pair that with my very favorite man, and BAM!  I’m happy.  Enough said.

4)  Change your culture for the night:  Whenever my Dad goes to Mexico, I can only really communicate reliably with him through e-mail.  I always look up a few interesting facts about the culture and history of Mexico and email them to him, just because its interesting for me, and probably makes him smile.  So anyway, about a year ago, while emailing my dad another history lesson, I was excited to tell Jason everything I had learned about Mexico.  Being the ridiculous person that I am, I decided to make some Mexican food and tell him over dinner…  Anyway, it sparked the start of one of my favorite date nights!  There are endless possibilities when it comes to this.  Every country has amazing food; Mexican, Chinese, and Italian foods are only the beginning.  It could be any kind of food.  Order in if you want, but I like to cook, and you can find any recipe from any culture on Google….  Remember to learn a little about the culture too, because its interesting and fun, plus that way when my husband asks why we’re using chop sticks, I can tell him the history of chopsticks, while getting him a fork.

5)  Cook a romantic meal together:  Ok, so we’ve never actually done this.  But I always thought this would be a wonderful thing to do.  Pick out a new recipe, put on some music, pour some wine, and cook up a feast!  Now, my husband can not cook, and does not have any desire to give it a try (the other night he actually asked me how to pop popcorn, which resulted in me getting up, putting the bag in the microwave and hitting 2-5-0-start), and our kitchen is so small that I feel sure it isn’t physically possible for 2 people to cook in there….  But if you have an open minded hubby and a spacious kitchen, go for it!

Those are just a few off the top of my head.  The most important thing to me is to just find ways to connect with with my husband on a personal level and spend time together as two adults, having FUN.  : )