Thursday, November 5, 2015

Random Acts of Kindness

A few months ago, Random Acts of Kindness (RAOK from here on out) started showing up at my workplace.  We have a locker room where we change into scrubs for work, and little gifts would show up in front of people's lockers.  Or if they don't have to change for work (the business office people), their gifts would be sitting on a table in our staff lounge.  Two or three people each week would get a gift, and my turn never came.  At first, I didn't really say anything.  Then as the weeks went by and still no RAOK for me, I started saying things like:

"I'm so kind, I don't need a Random Act of Kindness"

"They started with the people who are not kind first"

"If you're listening RAOK person, I really need a new {whatever I felt like saying that day}"

A few of us even got out a list to see who had yet to receive a RAOK.  I was on the list......until I went on a break, walked past my locker, and there was a gift by my locker.  I was so excited and thrilled and speechless.  My gift?  A pumpkin crate filled with all things pumpkin.  Pumpkin Oreos, M&Ms, Pumpkin Spice Latte packets {Starbucks}, and an umbrella {which is a long work post to be shared another day}.  If you know me at all, you know I love pumpkin.  So the RAOK person definitely knows me, or they work for Santa.  Either way I may have teared up a little in the locker room.


And just because you are dying to know.... 1. Every single employee where I work received a RAOK.  2.  Several of them were very personal {the RAOK person really did their research}! 3. The RAOK gift giver has not been revealed!  Which makes it even more fun.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Random Things

So we survived the cold cold weather on Saturday.  First up was the parade where we sat outside for almost an hour.  The boys were totally willing to brave the cold for CANDY!  I felt sorry for the people riding on the floats. They looked like they were freezing.  At least we could walk around and warm up.  Second we went to my nephew's football Cadet Bowl.  Sadly they lost, and I ended up with a dead battery at the end of the game.  My vehicle became the warm up place for all the kids, and I'm pretty sure they were charging all their devices while sitting in the car.  Luckily the car parked in front of me (nose to nose, even!) had jumper cables, and we were able to get my van started quickly!


Guess what I get to spend my fall break doing?!?  Swiffering!!  Yes, that is totally a verb.  I won a contest on Dana's blog, A Slob Comes Clean, and I got my very own BIG GREEN BOX just the other day.  So far I've dusted ceiling fans (they were embarrissingly filthy!), and swiffered up tons of dog hair.  There is always dog hair.  I was very excited to win and hopefully I can talk the boys into swiffering with me!


Last year the boys dumped a couple of rotten pumpkins in the mulch in our back yard.  When Spring hit, several pumpkin plants sprouted and grew.  There were tons of vines and blooms, but only one tiny pumpkin finally formed at the end of August. I was so excited to see this just last week.  I'll have at least one pumpkin to put on the porch.

 I'm still watching Gilmore Girls!  Almost done with season 2.  Jen Hatmaker just wrote a Gilmore Girls: All My Feely Feelings post!!  I have 5 seasons to get through before I can read it.  She also said on Facebook that she spent 154 hours watching the entire show.  I'm so behind, but will catch up!!

Saturday, October 3, 2015

October Weather

We haven't really had any cold days this fell...yet.  Then today the forecast looks like this.  And today is our small town's Riley Festival parade, my nephew's championship football game, and my oldest son's best friend's last home soccer game.  A great day to spend hours outside!  Guess it's time to break out the winter coat, ear muffs, and gloves.   Which I'm sure I put neatly away last year and will be so easy to find.  Or not!


Thursday, October 1, 2015

October

It's October.  We are almost done with 9 weeks of school.  Our 2 week fall break starts after school on Friday.  I cannot wait for no homework and not having to study 5th grade spelling words!  

CHOIR
I begged Noah to take freshmen guys choir (yes, that's what they call it) this year.  I am so glad he decided to listen to me.  They had their first concert last night, and it was amazing.  The concert lasted 2 hours!  His choir sang 4 songs, so we watched lots of other kids also.  But it was definitely worth the time.

HARRY POTTER
I love to read, but have never read any of the Harry Potter books.  I decided this was going to be the year that I read Harry Potter to the twins.  It's not easy to read a book like this out loud, but I am determined to finish.  I told the boys we will watch the movie when we are done reading.

SOCCER
The twins are playing soccer.  They are on the same team which really helps out!  Their team is undefeated so far (a far cry from our previous soccer seasons).  It is definitely more fun when they win.

BASKETBALL
Noah is still playing league basketball.  He will have high school tryouts in November.  We are really excited to see him play at school this year.  He really didn't start playing basketball until 6th grade, so it's really fun to see him improve and develop every season.

WORK
Once school started I volunteered to work extra days when they are super busy at work.  So I've been working more hours, but still not full-time!  After thinking about it, I really haven't worked full-time (40 hours a week) since 2003.  That's 12 years of part-time.  I realize how lucky I have been to do that.  I've also realized that kids get way more expensive the older they get.  Oh to be paying for diapers and baby food again instead of sports team fees, book rental, and gigantic shoes!

GILMORE GIRLS
I started watching Gilmore Girls because Jen Hatmaker told me to.  (She really didn't just tell me, she told her whole Twitter fan base, but I felt like she was talking specifically to me)  I'm on season two.  Our library has all seven seasons, so I've been taking lots of trips to there to check them out.

READING
Not happening as much, except for Harry Potter.  Gilmore Girls has taken over my life.

FRINGE
I bought a fringe tote bag at the Walmart a few weeks ago.  I took it back this week.  I am so in love with fringe, but am afraid to actually carry the fringe.  As a mom I don't go lots of fancy places and all I can picture is the fringe getting stepped on and me freaking out.  Maybe I'll find some cute fringe footwear in my size.  Or maybe I'll never wear any fringe.  Stay tuned!


Friday, July 10, 2015

I know It's Summer When...

There are 8 bikes in the yard.

I've yelled shut the door 27 times and it's only 11 AM.

We've used My teenage son has used 75% of our data plan and the month is only half over.

I broke down and bought paper plates and cups because I just cannot handle one. more. dirty. dish.

When it's time to pack for something I just do laundry then throw the clean clothes in a Walmart bag.

I have no idea when my kids showered last.

We've been swimming that day, so that definitely counts as a shower.

Brushing teeth is optional.

Having to be anywhere before 11:00 am is painful for everyone.

When I tell my boys "it's time to wake up! if you were at school, you'd be eating lunch right now!", their response, "why do you wake us up so early every day?!?!".

The Minecraft music will be the death of me.

I've memorized the YouTube videos they think are hilarious {"I'm legally blind", "What's 9 plus 10?"}.

We are out of toilet paper. Again!

Making two 10 year old boys read for 15 minutes is torture.  Just ask them!

I thought I would save money not paying for school lunches.  Boy was I wrong.

Three meals a day morphs into one meal a day and a ton of snacking.

You see the school supplies at the front of the Walmart and do the crazy, excited, let me bow down and kiss your feet dance!!


Monday, July 6, 2015

Small Town Living

My teenage son has a bad habit of losing things!  {Especially things that have just been purchased.}  A few weeks ago he was headed to a team basketball camp with the Varsity and JV teams.  He decided he needed to upgrade his wallet.  In other words, he graduated from the canvas velcro wallet to the $12 leather wallet from the Walmart.

He headed to basketball camp with all his stuff and his new wallet with the spending money I gave him for snacks and food while traveling.  He ended up spending all the money I gave him {no surprise there}, but he came home without his wallet.  It took about 6 days to discover this fact.  So I told him to ask the coach if he could look on the bus for his wallet.  The next week, the girls basketball team rode the same buses, and I told him to text a friend of his and ask her to look for his wallet in the seat.  He decided he was way too cool to do either of my suggestions.  I told him no way was I paying for another wallet.

I thought about calling the bus department on the small chance that someone had found it and turned it in.  He thought that was a ridiculous idea.  He told me to just give up on the wallet.  This is where the part of living in a small town comes in very handy!  This Sunday at church a lady (who also happens to live in our neighborhood) flagged me down to tell me she had Noah's wallet!  One of the gals who cleaned the bus found his wallet and turned it in.  And my teenage son was smart enough to put his library card {with his name on it} in the wallet.  And the $1.27 he had left over was still in there!  The wallet was recovered today, so that's one less thing I have to look for, and one less thing to hound my teenager about.  That's a win for all of us!

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

2015 is Half Over!

It's really hard to fathom that 2015 is half over!  This year has definitely gone faster than any that I can remember.  I thought I'd take the time to give a little Whole30 update.  This little blog is definitely not a diet blog, nor am I a diet expert.  I'm just sharing some things I've learned the last 6 months.

I started my first Whole30 on January 1, 2015.  In the beginning, it was hard.  Very hard!  But each day got a little easier, and I really feel like the first 30 days weren't all that bad.  I tried to take a weekend off and quickly realized how much I liked the restrictive parts of Whole30.  It gets easier to say no to food. (something I thought I'd never say)

I pretty much stuck to the Whole30 plan until after the Indy Mini Marathon.  Oddly enough, this was the first marathon that I experienced leg/calf cramps.  Around mile 12 I thought I was done for it.  I couldn't walk.  I had just passed a medical tent and thought about trying to crawl back to it.  I stopped, tried to stretch, almost cried, stretched some more, then thankfully they went away.  I don't know why I got them and haven't experienced them since then.

After the marathon, I decided to add hummus to my every day eating.  I love hummus so much, and I was so thankful to have it back in my life!  So right now I describe my diet as Whole30 plus hummus!  Also on the weekends, I take a night (sometimes two!) and have a treat.  I've tried the Arctic Zero ice creams (yuck), Halo Top ice creams (yummy), M&Ms on my popcorn (our family movie night treat), and I even had a Dairy Queen Jurassic Smash Blizzard after a co-worker raved about them (delicious).  Eating treats definitely makes me want more treats, but so far I have been able to wake up the next day and eat healthy again.  I plan to do this until my birthday when I get myself a big ol' cake and maybe eat the whole thing!  Then I think after I turn 41, I'll do another serious Whole30 with no weekend treats.  That's my plan for now.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

40 Year Old Rescued by Parents

Last week my mom sent me an email telling me I needed to write something on this blog.  She was tired of my March post.  Seriously, when was it March?  It feels like forever ago!  My husband and the twins are at church camp all this week, so she suggested I needed to write something during all my free time.  In all honesty, my "free time" was very limited, even with 3/5 of my family gone.  I still had a 14 year old to shuttle around and a 1 year old dog to take care of.  When my mother told me to blog more, she had no idea that she and my dad would come to my rescue this week.  So this post is dedicated to my mom and dad!!

So Wednesday night my son had a basketball game in Fishers, which is about 35-45 minutes from our house depending on traffic.  I had also volunteered to pick up one of my son's friends so his parents didn't have to make the trek.  {We take turns missing our kid's basketball games!}  So we get to the fieldhouse almost 20 minutes early, and I drop them off at the door and go park.  I had tucked the book I'm currently reading, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, into my purse.  So I decided to take advantage of the 20 minutes to read before I went into the game.  I sat in the car and read my book.  When it was almost time for the game to begin, I tucked the book in my purse, grabbed my water bottle, got out of the car, and shut the door.  And then something didn't feel right.  I looked down for my keys {they have a long lanyard on them so they always stick out of my purse} and didn't see them.  I looked all through my purse.  No keys.  Then I took the walk of shame to the car and sure enough they were sitting in the ignition!  I quickly checked all the doors.  They were locked.  No way I was getting in the vehicle.

What to do?  My husband is 2 hours away in the middle of nowhere at church camp.  We are 40 minutes away from the house.  And we pretty much know no one here.  And I brought another kid with us.  That's when it hits me, call your parents!!  So I try my mom's cell phone.  No answer.  I call their land line.  Yes they still have a land line, and it's the same number they have had since 1978.  Funny thing is I didn't dial it, I looked it up?!?  The number I've know for almost 37 years.  Thankfully my mom picked up the trusty phone on the second ring and heard me whimper, "Mom, I need your help!!!!"  I'm pretty sure I sounded pathetic.

So my parents drove to my house to get the spare set of keys.  She called me from the laundry room, and I tried my best to describe what the key fob looked like.  {Luckily the right one was picked}  Then they trekked to the fieldhouse.  They pulled in right as my son's game was ending.  His team lost by the way.  They had parked by my van, and my mom was dangling the keys out of her window.  Thankfully we were saved at last.  And then they offered to take us all out to dinner.  So we headed to Five Guys for some burgers and fries.  I offered to pay for their meal, but my dad insisted he buy.  What a guy.  He did mention that maybe I had planned the whole thing to get a free meal.  He knows me too well.  Wink.  Wink.

In all seriousness I am thankful for parents that go out of their way to still help their daughter out.  I'll be 41 in August, but it's nice to know I can still count on the people who have known me my whole life!  And I just may be investing in one of those magnetic key holders that attach under your vehicle.

Friday, March 13, 2015

March Updates!

Reading:  I just finished an Ann Patchett book (my first one by her), This is the Story of a Happy Marriage.  After reading this book I decided I wanted to move to Nashville and become best friends with her and also work in the bookstore she owns!  She talked a lot about her best friend Lucy Grealy in the book, so then I read Autobiography of a Face.  I just finished that book today.  Wow!  What a great book.  I will definitely look for more books by these 2 authors.

Eating:  I'm still going strong with Whole30.  I've decided to continue {at least} until May 2nd.  This is the day of the Indianapolis 500 Mini Marathon.  I'll be running jogging walking limping along to the finish line.  I signed up last year in a very weak moment when the registration price was $10 cheaper. Every year I say I'm not doing this again, so it will be interesting to see what it's like after 4 solid months of Whole30 eating.  Maybe this will be the year I love all 13.1 miles of it.

Drinking:  I'm drinking pretty much water all day.  I do have coffee in the morning and hot tea at night. But other than that it's water.

Exciting:  Megan, Garret, and baby Harley will be here in one week!  We are all so excited to see them. I'm sure Harley has changed a lot since I last saw her two months ago.  I'm looking forward to baby snuggles!

Celebrating:  Zac our dog turned 1 this week.  Some days he's lucky he made it to 1!  He celebrated his birthday by escaping from the house (I still don't know how he got out!) and taking a stroll all on his own.  He ended up at an apartment complex, and a very nice young man brought him home.  We will also be celebrating Garret and Noah's birthdays next week with my whole family.  March is an exciting month in our house.

Making:  Today I made Paleo Zuppa Tuscano soup.  I hope it's as good as it smelled while it was cooking.  I've been eating a lot of the same things every day for over two months now, so I'm trying new recipes.

Needing:  I really need new patio furniture.  All of our snow has pretty much melted, so I'm itching to go outside and read.  However, Zac chewed up every patio chair we had, and our patio table had a broken leg already....so everything got trashed.  I'm definitely buying chew-proof chairs this time around!

Wanting:  I want to shop for spring clothes.  Really badly!!  There is a new boutique shop that opened in out little town, and I have yet to go.  They keep showing really cute shirts and dresses on Facebook. Momma needs new clothes.

Planning: My oldest is in 8th grade this year, and there is lots to do before the end of the school year.  Today we met with his high school guidance counselor and picked out his freshman classes.  How can this be?!?  I was pregnant yesterday!!  He also has his class trip to Washington DC, a visit to the high school, and the 8th grade dance.  Lots of stuff to get ready for!


Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Harley Grace

This is a long overdue post about my new granddaughter, Harley Grace!  Harley chose to make her appearance on Christmas Day.  How can you top that Christmas present?  You really can't!  I think every Christmas gift in the future will pale in comparison to this little bundle of Christmas joy.  I hope she doesn't hate having her birthday on Christmas when she gets older!



My dear husband let me fly out to Colorado in January to visit Harley and her parents.  I am such a lucky gal!  I decided my new name would be Glammy.....a friend of mine said young grandmas are now being called glam-maws, and I loved this name.  On my way to Colorado, the name Glammy came to mind, and I decided that was what I would call myself.  How does it feel to be a 40 year old Glammy?  Well just a little strange.  It's also weird that my 13 year old and 9 year olds are uncles!  All of us couldn't be any happier with our new titles!  The boys get to meet Harley in March when Megan & Garret come for a week of her Spring Break.


Megan told me my #1 goal while visiting was to get Harley to sleep in her bassinet.  I quickly accomplished that goal!  Although I think she slept because it was me who placed her there.  If her momma tried to lay her down, she would have none of it.  I tried to let Megan take a few naps, but I remember how hard it was to sleep with baby noise (no matter how quiet the noise is).


Megan and I did go into town a few times, we watched a couple of movies, we got a pedicure (poor Harley had to smell the nail salon fumes for an hour!), we ate at Souper Salad, my favorite restaurant in Pueblo, CO, and we hung out at Starbucks.  The rest of the time, I just got to hang out with this little cutie!


Now I keep getting adorable pictures from Megan.  Harley has changed so much the last few weeks.  She's definitely getting bigger and cuter.  I got her the I LOVE MY UNCLE shirt before she was born.  Girl has lots of uncles who will love her back!  And that picture of her smiling....oh my word!  March cannot get here fast enough.  I cannot wait to see this little girl (and her parents), but mostly just HER!!!



Thursday, February 5, 2015

Just a few things

Have you watched the Jimmy Fallon Saved by the Bell reunion yet?!?  If not stop right here, go to Facebook, because it will be all over your newsfeed, and watch it!  (Then come back here and continue reading!)  I remember my Saturday mornings would revolve around what time Saved by the Bell came on tv (this was way before DVRs).  I loved Zack and Slater and wanted to look like Kelly Kapowski so bad!  I did not go to public school except for one year (2nd grade), so I had to live vicariously through this show.  It's funny to walk into our living room and see my kids watching reruns of Saved by the Bell.  

When I blabbed on and on about Whole30 in my previous post, I totally forgot to mention Ryan from loved & lovely.  She really is the reason my friends from work and myself decided to do this.  My work friend showed me her blog a while back (she and Ryan have little girls the same age).  Then Ryan went Whole30 for a while and had great results.  She even sold some clothes that no longer fit her (and yes I bought a few things and no I am not a stalker!).  So watching her success is what prompted us to try it out.  Ryan also started a Whole30 private facebook page.  So we got to meet a few new people and encourage each other to stay strong for the 30 days.

I am now on my Whole30 month #2.  After taking a free day on Saturday, I jumped right back on the wagon February 1st.  My free day food consisted of a Greek yogurt (I missed yogurt so much, and it was really yummy!) for lunch.  Then at dinner (which was at Max & Erma's), I ate a few chili cheese fries (they hurt my gut within minutes), then I finished 2 of my kid's ice cream sundaes with weird toppings (and my stomach hurt the rest of the night).  The one thing I did not try was Diet Dr. Pepper....I kept thinking I would stop at a gas station and get one but never did.  Guess what I'm drinking on March 3rd?

So all this talk about Whole30, I promise my next post will be way more fun.  I'm going to talk all about my grand daughter who was born December 25th and post tons of cute pictures!!  And yes I'm a 40 year old grandma Glammy!!!




Wednesday, January 28, 2015

WHOLE30 Update on Day 28

So I am now on day 28 of my first go round with the Whole30 journey.  Let's just say it has been interesting.  I have survived.  And I am very confident I will make it the whole 30 days.  The 2 girls I work with have stayed strong also!  We survived a big pitch-in and birthday cake day (2 layer chocolate cake with fudge filling and chocolate icing!!) at work.  Also there was an Italian meal catered in this week, but I was not working that day, so I was not tempted.  My plan is to take one day off and have a few things that I have really been missing (more on this later), then do another 30 days.

It is amazing how much I am NOT craving junk food.  I remember reading in the Whole30 book (which I highly recommend) about eating one oreo (which has zero nutritional value whatsoever), then how your body tells you to eat another and another thinking somewhere there will be nutrition and you will feel full.  But junk food does not do this.  You just want more and more and more.  Reading this and then actually feeling this are two totally different things.  This coming from a girl who loved junk!!

What foods have I missed the most?  In no particular order: hummus, cheese, yogurt, cereal (dry or with milk....my go to if I'm bored, tired, starving, angry,etc..), & diet dr. pepper.  I made this list at work one day and was amazed that the list did not contain junk (oreos, chips, fiber bars which I ate like candy, chocolate, etc...)  There was one day after eating out at Buffalo Wild Wings that ice cream sounded really really good.  I said it out loud and everyone was gung ho about getting ice cream, but reality hit and the thought left my mind fairly quickly.

What foods helped me the most?  Larabars and cashews.  I feel like I'm packing a diaper bag all over again every time I leave the house.  I make sure I have a small container of nuts, a Larabar, at least one bottle of water, and a small baggie of grapes, apples, and/or carrots.  

What is the first food I'm going to eat on day 31?  I really think I'm going to have yogurt.  I love yogurt and probably have missed it the most.  I bought a blueberry greek yogurt cup yesterday....it's waiting in the fridg for me.  People have said things taste different after doing Whole30 (especially any soda products), but I hope yogurt will still taste as yummy to me.

I definitely fell better all around than I have in a long time.  My clothes are getting loser.  My jeans are fitting better.  When I started this, only 1 out of 4 pair of jeans fit me.  I'm now 2 (almost 3) out of 4.  My teenage son told me to turn sideways the other night.  Then told me, "I'm not trying to be mean, but you've lost a roll." (meaning a fat roll)  I gave him a big hug and told him he's now my favorite child.  Just kidding, but seriously when a teenage boy notices something like that, I cannot help but feel good about myself.

January and Whole30 have been good to me so far.  Here's to the next month and fitting into all four pairs of jeans.  Cheers!

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Can't believe it's 2015!!

I cannot believe 2014 is over.  It feels like it just started in some ways.  And in other ways it feels like it was a long year!  In 2014 I blogged the fewest times {only 18!} of any other year.  I started this little blog in 2007, and I had no idea that eight years later I'd still be here.  It seems that lots of other bloggers are writing about the fact that blogging is dying.  I don't really know if blogging is dying, nor do I really care!  I just know I post more pictures on Instagram than anywhere else, and that I rarely post {I mostly stalk} on Facebook.  My teenage son says Facebook is for the old people.  So who knows where I will be in the next 8 years?!?  Or the next 8 months or weeks or days!

I am starting 2015 by doing the Whole30 program for the month of January.  I started on January 1st, after eating like a crazy woman for the whole month of December.  I felt awful pretty much the whole month.  But it is so dang hard to say no to buckeyes, pitch-ins at work, food at parties, and all the deliciousness that surrounds the time from Thanksgiving to New Years!  Today is day 6 and I'm still hanging in there.  I've had lots of vegetables, meats, and fruits.  Cashews and Larabars are my 2 new best friends!  And I've been drinking more water than usual because that's pretty much all I can drink.  I miss my Diet Dr. Pepper.  And cereal.  And all things chocolate.  But I can do this!!  I'm definitely not going to turn this into a diet blog.  But I may be talking about food more because I'm starving {not really!}.  Saturday night I did dream I ate a breadstick and two pieces of pizza, then remembered I was doing Whole 30.  Thankfully it was only a dream!

The kids are back in school.  We had a normal day Monday.  Then a 2-hour delay today.  And tomorrow the wind chills are supposed to be -20 to -30.  So who knows what the school  day will look like tomorrow.  I'm thankful for my wood burning stove for sure in January!