It's fun to stay at the...

Y-M-C-A!

Well, I don't know about fun, but I do have some observations from my first month of membership there. I've been averaging 2-3 times a week, although maintaining consistency is a little challenging with Ian's changing nap schedule (his transition from two naps down to one) and the fact that we only have one car. I've lost two pounds since I started, but I've been fluctuating around those two pounds for the past six months anyway, so I'm not really counting them. Here are some other things to note about the Y:

First of all, I never really thought it would be motivating to work out around other people. I mean, the Curves clientele consisted mostly of older women, many of whom were not in the best of shape. (It can be a really low key workout unless you try and push it.) But, wow! There are some very in-shape people at the Y doing all sorts of fast and strong things that make you feel motivated to be like them. And although they are few and far between, there are still some, uh, not-so-in-shape people who also tend to motivate you so you won't feel/look like them. I know that sounds horrible to say, but I felt compelled to share my true thoughts especially after some of these women took liberty in walking around the locker room without clothes on. Ew!

Speaking of the locker rooms, the lockers in there are awful. They are L-shaped which means you only get a narrow spot at the top (or bottom depending on which one you get) and there's not much room for my small gym bag in there. Oh, and there are hooks, but standard clothes hangers are too wide for the lockers. Now, how stupid is that? And good luck finding one where the locking mechanism actually works. Tonight, it took me four tries to finally find a locker that worked. Oh, and I've used the showers twice, a throwback to college freshman dorm days and community showers. Note to self: don't forget to bring shower shoes! (Oh, and next time... bring a hair towel and hair gel and be sure to go to the bathroom before you get in the shower because after drinking lots of post-workout water and then getting in under the hot stream, all of the sudden, you have to GO!)

My first week there I tried the kickboxing class. It was really fun, but I could've only handled about 20 minutes of it. I tried to go the full hour, but the more winded and tired I got, the harder it was to concentrate on the choreography, and then I not only looked exhausted, but terribly uncoordinated. I had to check out 15 minutes early, and I have vowed to go back once I get into better shape and improve my endurance. They also offer a beginner kickboxing class that would probably help me with the basic moves (you know, the punching, the kicking, the uppercut vs. the roundhouse and that sort of thing). I have not attended any other classes, yet, and I've just been doing cardio and free weights.

Thoughts on childcare? Well, Ian doesn't seem to mind it too much. They put all the kids in the same room, so it's a little crazy with babies through sixth graders in there. One time I went to pick Ian up and an older girl had him in a choke hold, and he was trying to push her away. (She looked about three years old.) Another time, he had climbed on top of a table. Tonight, I picked him up to find red ink of some sort on his hands and in his hair, plus a bruise on his arm. So, I don't know how I feel about it. It's a little disconcerting, but I guess it has to be done for this mama to get her workout and some time to herself. And it's not like it's all day, just for an hour or two.

Well, before this post gets any longer, I am happy with my decision to join the Y and be a healthier person. I am looking forward to trying more classes, seeing more friends there, and swimming this summer.

Here I Am!

Lydia tagged me. So, you're supposed to take a picture of yourself right now, this very second, no primping allowed. I took the pic with PhotoBooth, and because the lighting in my office makes my face look blue, I decided on black and white. The rules didn't say anything about that! I set it to bw before I took the picture, but you know, the rules don't say anything about editing your picture afterward. Those of us who are photoshoppers could color correct, mask out blemishes, etc. (I've even given someone makeup before in photoshop!) Obviously, that's not true to the intent of the tag, but maybe the rules should be more specific!

So, here I am on a rainy Monday morning the week I'm due for haircut. Yeah, looking kinda rough!


I tag: Jordan, Jill, and Cortney

My Hubby, My Hero

Just when I think my heart cannot possibly hold any more love for my husband and son, I find myself growing to love them both more every day! Now, my love is not based on what John or Ian do, but lately, I have been so proud of my husband! First, I am amazed at how he has stood up for his convictions and beliefs when it meant a career pursuit wouldn't pan out the way we expected or planned. I am also proud that he is exercising– running and doing push-ups on a regular basis, and I can see the muscle definition building, woo hoo! He is also finishing up his last weekend of homework for his seminary hours. And as it stands right now, he has a 4.0 at Truett, yes sir, the smarty that he is!

And also this weekend, he has totally saved my life, or well, livelihood, at least. (For those who don't know, I am a freelance graphic designer, so my work is my computer... I don't just use it for blogging, hehe!)

About midday Thursday, my computer completely crashed. No clue what happened. Still not sure, but we have taken the weekend to reinstall my operating system and software and then apply the backups that John has so carefully arranged for us to have in such a circumstance. Well, I say, we, but really, John did all the work. And I have everything restored– from my web browser bookmarks complete with their RSS feeds to my email folders complete with all my crazy flags, filings, and markings to keep my work straight.

So, he is my hero! Not just because he is a computer genius in my eyes, but because he is so loving and helpful and considerate of me as his wife... and he is so wonderful with Ian, playing with him, teaching him things, and comforting him. John, I love you so much, and uh, thanks for restoring my life, er, I mean, computer!

Thursdays are the New Mondays

What is up with Thursdays? The past few weeks I have had the worst days on Thursdays! Ian, after being in childcare several times during the week, is seemingly at wick's end, and I am frazzled, too, since the work week is drawing to a close. But gosh, it seems like everything else tends to happen on Thursdays: one of us gets sick or isn't feeling well, we find out that our online bill pay didn't work, so our water gets turned off or we receive an eviction warning from the landlords, my computer completely crashes, I wear myself out trying to catch up on needed end-of-week errands, I can't get all my work done during Mother's Day Out, so it is looming over me as we enter into the weekend... just to name a few!

The only relief Thursdays usually bring is a weekly dinner-and-TV night with friends. Phew! Thank goodness for a time of food, relaxing, and chatting at the end of a crazy day. But now I'm up in the middle of the night unable to sleep for some reason even though I was dead dog tired when I went to bed. The only good thing about Thursdays (at least for me these past several weeks) is that Friday always follows... and we usually take that day to recuperate!

A Girl's Night In

Once a month, John has a really long meeting at the church. Yeah, he usually gets home some time after 11 p.m. for this one. While it is hard to see him go especially after he has class on Monday nights, too, I have found a way to keep myself entertained! I have a girl's night in... just me and whatever I want to do (after the baby goes to bed, of course)!

Usually this means a nice, long shower. Then I do beauty things that usually get overlooked like pluck my eyebrows, trim/groom my nails, foot scrub and lotion, paint my toenails, etc. Then I usually watch some girly TV or a movie. Last month, I watched Mamma Mia. Tonight, I am watching HGTV.

It's 9 p.m. and I'm wondering if I can stay up until John gets home! He likes for me to wait up for him, but man, I'm already tired.

Will I Ever Learn?

I don't know if I blogged about this before, but I realized the reason I have been so healthy for most of my life— I stay away from sick people. But now that I have a little sick person who lives in my house and picks up germs from everywhere and proceeds to snot on everything he comes in contact with, alas, I tend to get sick more often. And now that Ian is eating table food, and since I have a hard time letting any food go to waste, I end up eating some of his food that he doesn't eat... only to find out after putting it in my mouth that ew, it's a little soggy. He must've spit that one out.

I should've learned the last few times NOT to eat or drink after the kid. The last time I got a little head cold it was when Ian shared my water bottle. He was just so intrigued by it, and I didn't think anything of it. So, I suspect that soggy piece of waffle I ate the other day is the culprit this time. So, when will I learn? I mean, it may just be inevitable that we both get sick because we spend so much time together, and it's impossible to avoid dealing with the snot. And how that much snot can come out of one small child, I will never know.

I've been wasting more time on the house hunt which is silly. We're not buying a house anytime soon, although we did just find out that our duplex has termites. Joy. I'm trying not to let myself get to bogged down or attached to the idea of buying a house right now, but since I continue to indulge myself in the realtors' listings, I guess I will never learn. Anyway, here are a few more houses in our area that I like.

New Things

I am sitting here on a rainy Friday afternoon listening to the rain pitter patter and my son's occasional cries signifying that he might be ready to get up from his nap. The kid is teething again, and all I could do was just sit and hold him while he just cried earlier today. So sad.

But this is a happy post! Because somewhere out there in the rain is a soggy UPS guy who is hopefully bringing me a new color laser printer! Although I wouldn't want his job on a day like today, the tracking number says he has it on his delivery docket for today. Our photo inkjet has printed its last streaky, no good, very bad page. I was surprised, actually, at how cheap color lasers are these days. We got a smaller HP model that I hope will work like a champ.

Also, after much deliberation, I decided that I can't simply stop scrapbooking Ian's life after his first year. Initially, this was my goal... since I had nearly 1000 pictures from his first year to try and get into a scrapbook, and I was hoping to save a little on time, space, and money by just keeping up with photos on the computer. Several things led me to change my mind: 1) He's just too darn cute to not print pictures and scrapbook, 2) Little boy scrapbooking stuff is just too cute, too! 3) I signed up for another scrapbooking retreat! 4) I found a super cute album that I am dedicating to "The Toddler Years." The line is called Actopus to Zelephant, and it has all these crazy little animals with matching albums, stickers, papers, etc.

Lastly, I have let myself indulge a little in something I used to do after we were first married. House hunt. No, we're not planning to buy a house. But our lives are completely up in the air as what to do/where to go next (now, that is a long story) so I just glanced at realtor.com to see what was around town. And I found it... the perfect house. Good price, pretty good location (most places in this city are about a stone's throw from the ghetto just like this one) located practically inside our nice city park. Sigh.

Irresistible

I took some pictures of Ian on Easter wearing his Sunday best. (Thanks, Maw Maw, for the Easter money for Ian. We bought him a cute outfit with it!) I absolutely love how the pictures turned out... my little guy is so handsome, fun, and expressive! I'm posting a few of my favorites here, but if you want to see the other 50 or so photos (that I culled down from 125!) then visit our flickr site.

Ian Eats Dirt

I hope this doesn't make me a bad mom.

Bluebonnets, Take Two

I'm still not really satisfied with my bluebonnet pics. Here's take two...

The circumstances: a pretty Spring green stretch of highway dappled with bluebonnet clusters along the way; big fat rain drops announcing an impending storm; the lighting: cloudy at dusk, so not great; the camera: my pocket-size point-and-shoot, also not great; the baby: cute as ever and mostly compliant, but exhausted from a full day at the Easter family reunion; the hubby: calling me crazy and staying in the car; the result: see for yourself...



For more pictures of our Easter fun, check out our flickr site.

My Baby Boy

In some ways, Ian looks and acts like a little boy now, and I do find myself wondering where the time went. However, in some other ways, he is still a baby– or rather, I can see this inner struggle within him... do I want to be a big boy or still a baby? One example occurred at Life Group the other night. A friend fed her baby from a jar while he was sitting in a bumbo seat. Ian seemed like he was just about to jump in there and get a bite. Now, we've been off baby food for a while, and Ian never really cared much for sitting still in his bumbo. But when this baby was done eating, Ian climbed in the bumbo, secured the tray himself (because he is a big boy, you know), and waited for his turn to be fed.

Normally, when cousin Caleb comes to see us, Ian refuses his sippy and wants a bottle because he sees Caleb's bottle. Now, yesterday, he did fine with this... no bottles at all! But today, he refused his sippy altogether. Who knows? Also, we had the treasured bouncy chair out that Ian spent about the first six months of his life in. The point was to use it for Caleb, but throughout the day, I found Ian in it, either rocking, lounging, or trying to use it as a footstool to climb onto other furniture (because he is a big boy, you know).

I think we are both torn between this holding-on-to-the-babyness and growing up. But alas, they all must grow up eventually. Time to have another baby?

Bluebonnet Blues

Here are some more bluebonnet pics with Ian. We went around 5:30 p.m. so the lighting was a little harsh on one side, thus creating hard lines and shadows, and Ian was also pretty squinty. He didn't much care for the bluebonnets, either, finding it difficult to walk around in them. Of course, he tried to eat one, too, and his expression told me that bluebonnets don't taste very good. Oh, and he kept pointing at the cars on the nearby road, so most of my pictures are of him pointing to the side. Oh well, it was fun nonetheless.

Five Years Ago Today

Five years ago today, we took our one year anniversary photos in the bluebonnets. Because that's what Texans do in April, ya know?


So, what do you do with a one-year-old when April rolls around?


So, today we celebrate our sixth wedding anniversary! But don't worry, we didn't let Ian monopolize our celebration... in fact, we spent a night AWAY the other night at a local Bed-n-Breakfast. Because what we really needed was a little time away... and a chance to sleep in! I can't say that Grandpa and Grandma got the same luxury while on Ian duty. He woke them up at 6:45 a.m.!

Does this count as a milestone?

We had our first big boo boo yesterday where Ian's head broke his fall to the concrete. It sure made a mama sad! I know it won't be our last, but it probably doesn't get any easier to see your kids get hurt. Ian seems to have recovered just fine, and he didn't mind posing for some pictures.

Jumpin' on that Bandwagon

Well, I joined the several of you who have taken advantage of the Lands' End Overstock swimsuit sale and got a fun new swimsuit for $25 including tax, shipping, and handling. That's pretty good considering these suits retailed for nearly $100 last year just like their new swimwear line does this year. I do really like some of their new swimsuits, but I just can't stomach spending a hundred bucks on one. Of the overstock selection, it was admittedly difficult to find a match in my size, but I finally did, and here is what it looks like!


My first choice was green, and then blue, but the coral pink was the only one with both pieces in my size. I considered a one piece, but I really do like the tankini/skirtini option. Hooray, now I have a fun new swimsuit to wear to the Y! I plan to post about our first week as Y members soon because, well, it's been an adventure!