Morning Dance Party

I've blogged plenty of times about how much I hate mornings. I’m generally all business and no party, kind of like the front view of a mullet-style haircut.

It’s not that I’m angry or grumpy in the morning, it’s more of a “failure to comprehend” type of problem. During the week, I wake up, I get ready for work, I leave for work. There’s no messing around, this girl is on a tight schedule and there’s not big margin for error.

Over the last few months, I've been playing fun music on my iPad in the morning while packing up the girls’ snacks and lunches, and making them breakfast. Sugar is normally still doing her hair at this point, but Spice and I will dance all around the kitchen.

Sugar and her eagle ears hear this going on from upstairs so she’s made a point to get ready faster so she can play along. In addition, she has started setting alarms to music to avoid forgetting to do things in the morning. Kid Rock reminds her to eat breakfast. Hannah Montana reminds her to put her lunch bag into her back pack. The list goes on.

We liked her music choices and started using some of those songs to set the stage for our morning dance party. Now we've gotten to the point where one of us shouts out a song and whoever is manning the iPad plays the request.

Recently, EN was up early enough to see the VERY WHITE (read: lack of rhythm) chicks he lives with dance and sing all over the kitchen. Rather than laugh at us on that day, he decided to join in and dance with us, white man overbite and all.

He was quite pleased to show off his insane dance moves.

He “mowed the lawn.”

He “picked apples.”

He “weed wacked.”

By the time he was done, he was the only one left dancing. No one took him up on his offer to teach his stellar moves. We all just stood there in silence, wide-eyed and watching. I should point out here that while he may have stayed within the beat better than we ever do, his “moves” are as bad as ours.

Spice finally broke the silence when she walked over to grab her cereal bowl, “Well. That was awkward.”

Awkward or not, we continue to sing and dance in the morning… and I find myself functioning, awake and smiling just a little bit earlier than I used to.  

xoxo

Ice Princess

A Random Sunday

I feel as though my girls have grown up enough to the point that the hat I seem to be wearing most often lately is that of a taxi driver. It doesn't happen on a regular basis, but on a day like Saturday, where we had two birthday parties to attend at different times… and presents to buy, I felt like I spent a lot of time in the car.

Of course the day had to start off in Target for the gifts. In the process, I refereed three fights, spent scads of money on household crap that we NEED (does everything have to run out all at once?!), lost my cell phone and lectured the children who were trying to buy stupid crap with their own money. Seriously, if Spice adds one more interactive stuffed animal to her collection, I will lose my shit.

After 11 on Sunday both girls were back home and we had a day with not much to do besides laundry and a little house cleaning. The girls attempted to go outside for a bit, but the weather wasn't overly conducive to bike riding and fighting where the neighbors can hear you. Before long it was drizzling and both girls were back in the house. A perfect lazy day.

We've recently become addicted to shows on Food TV like Restaurant Impossible and Restaurant Stakeout, all to be watched when Cupcake Wars isn't on, of course. So on a drizzly Sunday we parked our butts on the couch and watched random stuff on TV. As we are all somewhat opinionated, we all have something to say about what goes on during these shows.

We would have stayed there all day, but I woke up that morning with a hankering for pizza. I've been doing great with the dieting, but when this girl wants pizza, there is no denying her, or there will be hell to pay.

After EN left for work, we got a few things done and headed out for the pizza I was craving. We went to a local place that EN and I used to go to “when days were old and nights were bold.” It tends to be more of a bar type of atmosphere at night, but I figured we’d be pretty safe at 4 pm on a Sunday afternoon.

As I suspected, there were about six people in the place-watching golf, a mellow day all around. Our usual table was available and we quickly ordered as I knew exactly what I wanted. I’d been dreaming about that pizza all freakin’ day!

I would have expected that we would have eaten our meal and left and no one would have noticed our presence. However, we had an awesome waitress who really went out of her way to make sure the girls had fun.

I never really allow the girls to have soda, but when we go to this place, I do let them share a Sprite. I asked to have a cherry added to each of their glasses and the waitress overdid herself by adding a shit ton of cherries to each AND the shot of grenadine to turn the Sprite into the favored Shirley Temple. Already my girls fell a little bit in love with the waitress.

The girls mooched a couple dollars off me to go play songs on the jukebox with the promise that they would play a song for me too. Suddenly the volume skyrocketed and I’m hissing at the girls to leave the volume button alone.

The waitress said, “Oh it’s not them, it’s me!” And Call Me Maybe is blasted through the restaurant.

Two biker looking dudes at the bar start dancing and singing the song to each other.

A lady at the bar starts dancing in her seat, hollering that this is her favorite song.

And the waitress handed my girls a stack of cash because she liked their taste in music and wanted them to choose a few more songs.

Our pizza arrived and we ate and sang along to a bunch of popular favorites by Bruno Mars, Blake Shelton (the ONE song they played for me) and a whole bunch of singers and bands I've never heard of. We chatted and laughed and no one had time to remember to fight or to complain about not being hungry, a very rare occurrence.

The point of this post? The point is that in the grand scheme of life, this was a quick weekend and really, “nothing special” happened that will make us remember it forever. It struck me then, and still sits with me a few days later, that a fun few hours out doesn't require a ton of planning or a lot of money. The dinner out cost me a whopping $22, but the fun we had together (and with the others in the restaurant) was priceless. 

xoxo

Ice Princess

Chubby Chicks: Weeks Ten and Eleven

And here I fell off the planet again. Not going to lie, the dental work I had done two weeks ago today kicked my ass. I am going to taunt the Gods in Heaven by saying that I’d much rather endure pregnancy and childbirth again before enduring another “measly” four hour appointment at the dentist.

I still don’t feel right and it’s been two weeks. I recovered from c-sections faster than that!

On to the big news of the day, or the big news of the last two Thursdays.

Week 10: Down 3 pounds (over two weeks) for a total loss of 13.8.

Week 11: Down 2 pounds for a total loss of 15.8.

That’s right, I’m about to go buy my THIRD bracelet.

I’m feeling good about this and I find myself treating meals differently. I plan ahead more. I make allowances for when I know I’ll be around good food/drinks… I’m cooking healthier foods. I've learned to roast vegetables and just eat mass quantities of those because they have ZERO points.

I even lightly breaded and baked eggplant for my own white trash version of Eggplant Parmesan.

I’m trying so hard to make healthier decisions every day, but you know what? I miss bread, potatoes, pasta and chips like nobody’s business. And you know what else? It’s true that one can still enjoy these foods, albeit in smaller quantities, and lose weight. I did some good eating on Easter, but managed to reign it back in for the week and still managed to lose weight.

Just when I get really good at this, I’m going to plateau. We all see it coming, yes?

My euphoria has ended because I surfed the internet while typing this post. I was curious about what my ideal weight should be and it came to my attention that I’m not even halfway there on this journey. Damn it all.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Repeat for infinity…

xoxo

Ice Princess