10 Whole Days!

Five months ago, I was the stereotypical frazzled single mom that did everything, went everywhere, cleaned everything, cooked nothing (microwaved everything) and found very little time to myself. I wished many times that I could just have a few days to myself to do what I wanted to do, not be at the beck and call of my son (remember - I was married, sure, but still did it all alone). After my life changed, I experienced my first 3 days kid free. I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself. I had just moved into a condo and was all settled, so there I sat...on the couch staring at the TV (SpongeBob I'm quite certain since that's what I'm programmed to look for on TV these days) and thinking, "Is this REALLY the way I'm going to spend my kid free time?!?!"

Well, those days have long passed. I've found LOTS of ways to stay busy when X is with his dad. As I mentioned earlier, I've taken up running (again, more on that later), dating (yes, I said dating - pick your jaw up off the floor - a woman has needs) and spending time with my kid-less friends (love you!!) and co-workers (you guys rock!).  HOWEVER, this past Sunday marked the first of 10 days X will be with his dad for "vacation". TEN WHOLE DAYS!?! This is the longest I've been away from X since he was born (5 very quick years ago). Luckily I have another moving expedition to keep me busy!

I'm moving back into my house! So excited and overwhelmed all at the same time. For those of you that know me, I'm NOT a home remodel/repair/maintenance/fixer-upper kind of a gal. But desperate times call for desperate measures, so I'm rolling up my sleeves and digging in! I've been painting the house inside all new colors (to reflect the new leaf we'll be turning over living there) and evaluating the condo to sort out how to make this move happen as a one-woman show.  I think this picture reflects most clearly how I feel these days.

I owe my mom a HUGE THANK YOU as she's rolled up her sleeves as well and really helped me bust out this painting business. By the way - if anyone needs help painting anytime soon - please God don't ask me!! ;)

I'm aiming for getting the move completed by end of the day tomorrow and looking forward to settling in again and surprising X with the house when I pick him up from daycare. I hope he loves this surprise and is happy to back in his home!

With the move complete, I'm looking forward to spending some kid-less time over the weekend doing fun things like a date to the pumpkin patch, family visiting and getting back to running in preparation for the Turkey Trot!

Love!
T

Welcome to the new and improved blog!

I know many of you started following my blog a few months back, chronicling my trials and tribulations of being a married, single mom.  Ok, maybe "many" is an overstatement (I only have 1 official follower - "THANK YOU FOLLOWER!"), but I do know some of you have read and commented on my adventures and my mis-adventures.  I have missed writing about my life, but my life has changed dramatically and until I was back emotionally, I put my blog on hold. Guess what....

I'M BACK!! :)

You may wonder about my life...(if my new blog title isn't clue enough, please feel free to ask, I'm not shy about it, but I don't want to get into all the details)...let me just say, it's still amazing!  X keeps me on my toes more than ever before! I'm happy, confident, satisfied, loved, cherished, healthy (I have even taken up running...more on that later) and looking forward to what life has in store for me in the future.

So, let me welcome you to my new and improved blog. I hope you'll continue to read and follow along as I discover what its like to be single in my 30's, how to continue raising one of the most amazing boys on the planet and how to stay sane during all of it!

Cheers!

T

Bucket List

DISCLAIMER: If you have a weak stomach or don't like to talk about poop, please don't read this post!


Being a mom is gross. Between the tar-like poop you have to practically use battery acid to remove from their butts as infants, the concrete-esque boogers you have to suck out of their noses, being peed - pooped - vomited and sneezed on and the kicker...handing me (more like spitting out) chewed up items he doesn't want to swallow, being a mom is gross.

Now, since I'm the "95% of the time" parent in our house, I get dubbed the expert in all of these experiences, and can easily cross any bodily function being on me off my bucket list (if that's something people would even want to track on a bucket list - but as a parent this is a given).

X had a bout of diarrhea a few months back and I had to explain to him, "If you feel like you have to fart, please sit on the toilet so we don't poop in your pants again, ok?" (yes AGAIN, that was a long day/night with many loads of laundry).  Gross.

This past weekend, X had a minor stomach bug. Since he is a bright child, I think he remembered what his stomach felt like then because on Saturday morning he woke up and said, "I think I should fart on the toilet because my butt is steaming!"  "Ok then. Gross."  Sure enough he had some diarrhea.  I immediately switched to water and crackers and after a few it seemed to subside. Wrong.

Once my husband got home, we went out to breakfast and the first vomiting episode came with.  Again, thankfully X is a bright kid and knew his stomach was upset and needed to get to the bathroom, however, the vomit disagreed and it arrived just outside the bathroom door.  "Eww. Yuk."

Upon arriving home (husband was in the bed before I could get X's jacket off - knocked out cold) the diarrhea continued and after a trip to the store for some Pedialite I thought we were going to be in the clear...boy was I wrong!  X made it to the toilet to "fart" and next thing I hear is SPLAT! "OMG - it's coming out both ends!!! YUK!!"

As I frantically grabbed for a bucket and raced back to the bathroom, I stubbed my toe on the corner of the kitchen, whacked my elbow on the back of a chair and stepped right in the vomit on the bathroom floor.  "THIS IS SO GROSS!! Being a mom is SO gross!"

After I got done with my brief moment of self-pity, I looked up and saw my son sitting on the toilet, bare legs dangling from the toilet and head in the biggest plastic bucket I could find - my heart sank and immediately felt so bad for my baby.  Standing there with vomit on my feet I comforted X, got him cleaned up (a quick shower and brushed teeth) and off to the couch we went for some good, old-fashioned TV "crack-out" on Spongebob.

Item crossed off my "parenting" bucket list: First "coming out both ends" experience.

Methafast Withdrawls

One thing I've always battled is my weight and my view of what my "ideal" weight should be. If you look at any height/weight chart, a 6'0" woman should be between 146-184. Well that's quite the range and could we be more vague!?! I'm at a healthy weight right now (184), but not as low as I had gotten with Medifast.  I've been feeling like "will I EVER get back to my lowest weight on my own?" The real question needs to be..."do I NEED to get back down to my lowest weight?" Maybe, maybe not --- jury's still out.

As we were on our way to my nephew's birthday party this weekend, I was feeling very jiggly, bloated and thunder-thigh-ish and Phil asked, "what's wrong?" Open flood gates!!  As I tried to explain to him how unsuccessful I was feeling he said, "ah, I see, you're having Methafast withdrawls." WHAT?!? Apparently, he compared Medifast to Meth since I lost so much weight so fast.  But he did follow that up with a lovely compliment, so I'll take it! :) I think he might be onto something however (don't tell him I said that). Since I did hit my goal weight and know what Medifast can do, I'm feeling like "why can't I do the same thing with real food and exercise. Maybe I should go back on the program?" But I'm certain I'd start this cycle all over again, like a real addiction.  As I'm trying to cope with this addiction to losing weight and finding a way to be "ok" in my own skin, here is the back story of why I'm in this place....

Before I got pregnant with X, I was nowhere near the "ideal" weight range and to be honest I hadn't seen a weight in this range since my Jr year in college.  After X was born, I lost what I put on during pregnancy (30 pounds), but was still 50-60 pounds away from "ideal".  I farted around with exercise and diet for a while and then got really serious. I bought Opraph's trainers' book (Bob Greene I believe) and used that to kick it into gear. I lost 20 pounds doing that and then switched to straight calorie counting and exercise. I lost another 12 pounds doing that. Then I hit the dreaded plateau.  I was beating my head against a wall trying to figure out why I couldn't get the last 25 pounds off.  That's when I was introduced to Take Shape for Life (aka Medifast). My mom was on the program and was seeing incredible success. I thought, "What the hell! I'll give it a go, get the weight off and then maintain that goal weight. Simple." Yeah right!! Getting it off with Take Shape for Life was simple. It was easy and fast, just like they said. I hit my goal of 170 --- for a day, but I was doing way more physical activity than I was fueling my body for. The 900 calories a day was far too little for all the Zumba I was doing (which was 3 days a week at that time). So I decided to transition from Take Shape for Life on my own (not how you should do it by the way) and that didn't work well...at all!  The weight quickly went back on (with the help of the holidays). 

As I saw the weight go back on I knew I needed to do something, something less expensive than Take Shape for Life and something that would allow me to eat normal food so I could enjoy meal times with X and my husband (which are rare times).  I joined Weight Watchers about a month ago. I haven't seen any real loss on the progam as of yet, but I think I'm still stuck in Methafast withdrawls and not taking it seriously. 

So here I am, proclaiming my full 110% dedication to Weight Watchers, kicking my Medifast addiction and being ok with where I am now and having a goal of getting back down closer to my goal and staying there ---- on my own.

Salud!
T

Bendaroos & Fazoodles & Pillow Pets - Oh My!

This is an oldie, but a goodie and a nice segway into my rant for the day.

So about 6 months ago or so (or maybe even longer as my memories seem to feel like yesterday when they were actually last year), I was in the bathroom flatironing my hair. X walks in and asks, "Momma, what is that?" pointing to the flatiron.  "That's my flatiron."  He then replies oh so seriously, "Flatirons crush and burn your hair and that's why you need an InStyler."  My mouth dropped open and stared at this child in full and utter shock.  I just got infomercial-ed by my (at the time) 3 year old. I blame TV and I blame myself. But what's a married single mom to do when we walk in the door at 6:00pm arms full of groceries, gym bags, lunch bags, X's coat, purse and I have a starving 4 year old on my hands immediately diving into the pantry and taking up space while I try to find something that's not frozen for dinner. "GO WATCH TV!!"  As he happily skips off to the TV, I then hear the barrage of "I want that!", "Oooh! Mommy, I need that!!" and of course "Sweet! Let's get those!!" coming from the living room.  His mind is now full of Bendaroos, Fazoodles and Pillow Pets (just to name a few). I've avoided most of these at all costs (with the exception of the Pillow Pet - courtesy of Santa - I caved).

I now sit here staring at this ad on my Woot! Watcher and think to myself "Do I dare open Pandora's Box of Mighty Beanz?"

Now, some of you following my adventures may say "What the hell is a Mighty Beanz? What the hell is a Bendaroo? WTF IS A FAZOODLE?" Well, I challenge you then dear child-less friends to subject yourself to at least 4 hours of Nickelodeon and you'll be fully versed in what I like to call "Kid-mercials".  Before child, I could zone out during a commercial and never be the wiser. But now, I have to not only pay attention to the damn commercials, but also learn the difference between a Bendaroo, a Fazoodle and those stupid aluminum foil circle-thingys that float with a wand.

I still sit here pondering the possibility of bringing Mighty Beanz into our house.

To Mighty Beanz or not to Mighty Beanz, that truly is the question.

Loves!

T

Welcome and Enjoy!

So a few select folks followed my blog during my pregnancy. It was written mostly to stay in touch with my family as they were so far away for all the "fun". Here is a link to that one if you want to check it out: http://thekendalltrio.blogspot.com/.

Anywho...as I read over a friends blog last night, I thought "I should be blogging again to keep track of what we are up to these days...maybe X will want to read all about it someday."  I'm sure that won't come for a few years (more like 10-15), but since his baby book is still unfinished, might as well start another project left to be unfinished.

Many of the blogs I read come from stay-at-home mom's with multiple children. First off, let me say "I commend and applaud you! But I don't envy you."  You seem to find time to raise multiple children, keep a house tidy, cook multiple meals, get to multiple appointments, get to the gym, bank & hair salon and still be "you" in the midst of all of it...and so many of  you do it while still looking good! I know...I tried it...I sucked at it, so I went back to work full-time. I love what I do, but what I do is still work.  So, this blog is not only a place for me to dump out my random thoughts, rants & raves, tales of the family adventures, but it's also a place for working moms to read about another working mom trying to make it work, keep it altogether and feel sexy at the end of the day just in time to spend 30 minutes with my husband before he heads out to work.

My wonderful husband works the graveyard shift. He loves it...and I try to not complain.  So, while he's sleeping between the hours of 2pm & 10pm and working between 10pm & 8am (between 7am-6pm X is in daycare and I'm at work), I'm a married single mom. I make all the drop-off's/pick-up's happen, I schedule all the appointments (while on my break at work, of course), I cook all the meals (or at least microwave them) and still try to find time to get to the gym, bank & hair salon. NOTE: Keeping the house clean isn't even on my radar, there are only so many hours in the day and I do enjoy a full night sleep.

Our family finds time on Sat & Sun to do "Kendall Family Fun Days" as well as attend church, so we do get quality time together, just not quantity. We treasure these times and try to do new and fun things as often as we can.  I'll post them here to share as they might help other moms with ideas of things to do (with or without the entire family). 

So as this blog grows and my brain dumps become etched in stone (until I chose to delete them), I look forward to capturing my life and time with my family to share with you all!

Cheers!

T