PERFECT!

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I’ve always related to this song’s first verse since I first heard it. Actually, I’ve always felt connected to this crazy song. If you don’t know by now, music is therapy for me. It’s always good to find a song that I can somehow relate to in my own way. This song is apparently about self esteem, but if you listen closely to the lyrics, it really has a deeper meaning in terms of life itself. Nobody has ever had a perfect life, but we can all get back up and make it through. I love listening to the way this song calms me. As of right now, this is my song of the moment. Life is about living and learning, but mostly LIVING. There are definitely no regrets on this end. All I can do is look forward and never look back and learn from the past!

Survivor

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According to Forest Gump, life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get! I agree with that comment. Not only do you NOT know what you’re gonna get, but it will also keep moving on. In this short life I’ve lived, I learned that there is no mountain high enough and no problem so big that tomorrow can’t fix. Even if it can’t be fixed, it’s tolerable so long as you have love in your life from family, friends and yourself! In the end, that is all that really matters- LOVE! Thank god I’ve got plenty of that around me. So in this journey of life, I know that no matter happens, I will survive and I’ve got my family with me. 

Picture of the Day: May 21

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This year, I again started my Project 365. I’ve done it before and didn’t quite get to the end each time. The point is to take one picture for everyday. My goal is that by the end of the year, I can come back to that particular day from that one picture. It’s always about trying to preserve the memories of each day for tomorrow! They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. For me, it’s a memory!

May 21

We’ve put our bikes into good use so far this year. I didn’t realize how challenging it could be. It looks easier said than done is such a fitting term for biking. The girls also love their trailer. They just sit back and relax with their munchies as they stroll away. It’s been one of the best purchases we’ve made! It will definitely be put to good use this summer as we’ve already started on it! It’s one of the better things about living in the suburbs: great roads and trails just for this!

Before I Was A Mom…

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I stumbled upon this website and found this article. It’s something I’ve always thought about when people give me “advice” or voice their thoughts on parenting when they don’t have kids of their own. I just smile and let it be. There will always be people on this Earth who put their two cents into something they can’t afford at the moment. I’m the type of parent who is very down to Earth. I hear everything being said, but I don’t let it phase me. People are entitled to their opinion, and in the end, what matters is my own. I’m the type of parent that will let your kid do their thing as long as it is not brutally violent. I will sit to the side just observing with a smile on my face. Sometimes it’s hard to bare and I want to butt in, but I let my kids learn to fight their own battles. Better yet, I think it’s worth knowing that it is not worth a battle at this point. Kids will be kids and there is no need to be confrontational. Thank goodness my husband is the same way- down to earth about raising our kids! Perhaps it is because I feel like I was that way at one point, except I kept those thoughts to myself and not actually give my two cents. Either way, before I was a Mom, I thought I would be a great Mom. Great, meaning what I once defined to be a great parent. I must say I feel like I am a good parent now, and I am no where near what I once thought I would be. That would have been perfection, which would not be good or healthy for anyone!

Happy Mother’s Day everyone! It truly would have been the hardest job in the world, but I am thankful that I have the best partner (and grandma) in the world to make mine easier than what it could have been! So here are a list of my thoughts pre-motherhood. It’s kind of funny that after you become a parent, you realize you have control, but not really over everything. You gotta sometimes let things just be. Small things in life don’t really matter. Like they say, don’t sweat the small stuff, right?

1. What a messy, sticky and smelly child. She must not be taken care of properly. 

2. What’s up with that messy hair. Brush and ribbons anyone?

3. Bedtime past 9pm every night? What kind of parent are you?

4. Gadgets before their 5th birthday? These parents are ridiculous!

6. They will never sleep in my bed. 

7. Crying on an airplane? Shoot me now!

8. Oh there’s that “they didn’t take a nap excuse” again.

9. It’s not like the kid remembers their first birthday anyway. 

10. Bribing your child as a form of reward for good behavior? I would never do that! What a bad parent!

Shuffle Time Shufflers!

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I have never been a runner in all my life. I couldn’t run a block if I tried, unless a dog was chasing after me. Even that would be a serious maybe. So when one of my co-workers asked me to sign up with her in this year’s Shamrock Shuffle, I was a bit hesitant. Then I realized I had nothing to lose except quitting in the middle of the race and calling it a day. I really wouldn’t have felt like a failure, in all honesty. I am not a competitive type- with others or with myself. The plus side to it was that it would enable me to actually start “training” myself for the day. I put training in quotes because I really had no intention of seriously training. I basically used it as a motivator to start going back to the gym.

Boy is that an understatement. Shortly after signing up, we joined the gym and started going 3 times a week. Dex walked/ran with me the first couple of times and then divorced me for basketball. I did nothing else at the gym than go on the track or treadmill trying to build up the miles I could tolerate. I was stuck at 1 mile for a very long time,  but the good news was that I built up to doing 1 mile in 15 minutes. I know that sounds funny, but for me that is a major accomplishment. The week of the race, I was able to do 3.5 miles in 45 minutes on the treadmill and that was about as much as I could do. The treadmill was just too boring. I kept looking at the numbers and couldn’t focus much more than that.

So I told the hubby on race day to have his phone handy so he can pick me up at whatever corner I would decide to quit the race. On race day, there were so many people and I didn’t know what to expect. I just did it and did it at my pace. I wasn’t trying to kill myself to beat any kind of time. I walked. I ran. I even had to go to the Port-A-Potty only to realize how disgusting those things were. Walked out drenched in antibacterial gel. Went into McDonald’s and went to the bathroom there instead. I put on my beloved gloss and went on my way. I didn’t see any mile markers along the way and I had one moment when I was going to just walk out and call it a day. Then I looked at the empty street with the cops and volunteers and thought it would be so embarrassing to walk that lonely line all by myself like a total loser. I decided to go ahead and get with the program and just do it. I did. I later found out that the official time to finish was 1:15:00. My time was 1:12:50! I barely made it to count as finished, but I did it and I’m happy I did. Here’s a picture of (some) of us before the race and then one with the proud hubby! My fellow co-workers finished under an hour or a little over the hour mark. Congratulations to everyone! It was a good time and I’ll definitely be back in it for next year!


Now I think I have to sign up for other runs just to keep me motivated to keep running and going to the gym. Trying to lose weight is just not motivation enough for me. If it were, I would have lost all this weight by now. I am 15 pounds away from my pre-baby days and I am trying to do all I can to lose it without sacrificing too much. I try to be normal and I DON’T talk about this weight loss stuff in front of my girls. That would be too unhealthy to set such a bad example of “be happy with what and who you are” kind of thing. That is why I am doing it in a positive way by going to the gym and still eating what I want and adding some “bad” stuff every now and then. By the end of the year, I hope that I can be where I project myself to be. I definitely had a good start to the year. I’m glad I wasn’t just a statistic of people who joined the gym after the new year.

The Last Song

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The last time I posted a music video on here, it was because I loved the song a lot. I kind of knew it was from a movie based on my You Tube search, but didn’t really think much of it. My sister-in-law actually texted and told me that she had just finished watching the movie and LOVED it. I was a bit surprised. She then told me that it was based on a book written by Nicolas Sparks- who happens to be one of my most favorite authors. I got all excited and got the book that week from the library. I love movies based on books, but I prefer to read the books first. There is just so much more detail in the book so when I watch the movie, I can already foresee more deeply into their characters. By the end of the book, I couldn’t put it down. I must have read ten chapters non-stop. It was so emotional and suspenseful at the same time. I cried harder than I have ever cried from a book. Actually- I don’t think I’ve ever cried from a book. So today, we went out and rented the movie. I can’t wait to see it. If you’ve never read it, I highly recommend it. It’s a very good read. Now if only the Superbowl could end so we can start the movie!

The Calm After the Storm…

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That up there is my picture of the day taken at 0430am this morning as we were “on our way to work” extra early. When we opened the garage, we saw how much snow there was. The husband actually believed that our truck was more powerful than what Mother Nature had poured down over us. We got stuck right away- as we were pulling out of the garage in what we later found to be more than knee-deep snow. After about 30 minutes of shoveling the truck out of this mess (going forward and reverse), we parked it back into the garage. I, of course, had the worst job of going forward and reverse. Dexter had the easier job of actually shoveling out there! *sigh* Dexter proceeded to shovel the snow in the driveway as we were determined to get to work, even if we were going to be late. It was still 0515am, so we could still make it in time. DUH! Look at the damn street that we had failed to even notice until we cleared the driveway. It hadn’t been plowed at all. After about an hour of contemplation, we had nothing else to do but call it a day. I called in to work late and told them I couldn’t make it. We really both did try to make it in, but it would have been impossible and dangerous. It was better to be stuck in our driveway than anywhere else. It’s been crazy. I don’t remember the last time the weather was this bad that we were literally “snowed-in” inside the house. Take care out there guys!