Happy Halloween!

So yesterday was the assigned day for trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Does anyone else have this? Designated times and days for trick-or-treating? Personally, I think it’s dumb. I mean I know they do it for safety and stuff like that, but really? It kind of takes the fun out of the holiday. When we were younger you always went trick-or-treating on Halloween night, no matter what day of the week it was, after dinner, with your parent who waited on the sidewalk while you went up to every door you could manage before your feet got too tired or your pumpkin got too full of candy or that parent who was so patiently tagging along decided it was time to go home. Now for us it’s always the Sunday before Halloween, or if Halloween happens to be on a Sunday then I guess we luck out.

 

And what really stinks about having trick-or-treating this way is that you always get inundated with people who bring in carloads of kids from all different areas of the city to simply clean up on getting all the candy they can, every day they can. That’s not fair. You don’t live here, I’ve never seen you before, and you’re neither wearing a costume nor bothering to say “trick-or-treat”! That’s the part that really annoys me.

 

But anyway… Yesterday was D’s first time trick-or-treating, and it was so much fun! Last year she was still just a wee lass and sat on Daddy’s knee to help pass out candy as a little moo-cow. This year, however, she was big enough to walk around to a handful of our neighbors’ houses with Daddy and get her own candy in her little orange pumpkin. She was Little Red Riding Hood, and Daddy was her Big Bad Wolf. Love!!

Friday morning - I was a ladybug for trick-or-treating at daycare!
Cutest ladybug ever!
1 of 3 ladybugs that morning (but still the cutest!)
Getting ready to head out yesterday
I'm Little Red Riding Hood!
Waiting with Mommy
Look, Daddy, an airplane!
Going up to my first house
Action shot - it was breezy
Time to help pass out candy with Daddy
Digging into the loot
Trick-or-treat!

 

Happy Halloween!!

 

 

 

It’s Mom Sexy time!

First off, what do you think of the new look? I decided things needed a little sprucing up around here, so I gave my blog a mini-makeover. Let me know. Good, bad, or otherwise, I’m always open to feedback and suggestions. Now onto the main event…

 

A few weeks ago I posted about finding a little Mom Sexy of my own one night at the gym. Well Mary Fischer, the Mommyologist herself, actually read that little ditty and loved it. I was SO excited! She’s since started a new Mom Sexy Fridays series over on her blog, and of course I volunteered to be a part of it. She took the time to read my small post, after all, so I definitely want to do what I can to contribute back. And I am thrilled to announce that today is my day to be featured. THRILLED, people! So please, head on over to the Mommyologist to see what amazing things I have to say today, won’t you? Happy Mom Sexy Friday!

 

My Mom Sexy Friday…

 

 

I’m crazy pumpkin head – give me some candy!

Unlike my husband, who holds this as his favorite holiday, I’ve never really been a big Halloween fan. Maybe it’s because I’m extremely uncreative (if that’s a word) and can never think up nor really feel like putting together a good costume, whereas he is the master. I mean, I always liked Halloween parties in school and stuff, and admire people who go all out on the decorations. You know, dry ice for scary smoke; bowls of jello, spaghetti, and grapes to represent various guts and body parts; robotic mummies and witches all over the place to bend over or jump out and scare you at just the right moment; spooky music. It’s just never been my thing to try and set up all that paraphernalia.

I’m more the simple pumpkins and mums on the front porch type. And although I’m the biggest wimp on the planet, I will admit that even I do like a really good, seriously frightening horror movie this time of the year. As long as there’s someone sitting next to me into whose lap I can jump, or a giant blanket under which to hide myself at the really terrifying parts, that is.

Carving pumpkins has never been the highlight of my year either, as I hate grabbing through all the innards and usually just go with a traditional smiling jack-o-lantern face. This year, however, I decided to spice things up a bit with the carving. We had a couple carving kits leftover from years past that I busted out last night, and we now have some pretty sweet-looking pumpkins on our front steps. And no, I didn’t suddenly get all artistically talented or anything; they were stencils. R did do D’s free-hand, though. See, I told you he’s the creative one in this family.

A little pumpkin? For me? Thanks! (pay no attention to the overflowing recycling bin in the background. *ahem*)
Daddy showing how to dig out the guts
Oh like this, Dad?
Hee - pumpkins are fun!
Daaad, gross, I don't want to eat that!
Well now what?
Pumpkins are REALLY fun!
Clothes get in the way of pumpkin carving
Bonus pic - D's new play corner in the living room
Family of jack-o-lanterns
D's
Mommy's (pattern was really called pumpkin head)
Daddy's

Didn’t they turn out great? It only took a couple hours to get them all finished because I had to give D a bath in the middle and then her incoming molar caused a scene at bedtime, but I’d say it was worth it. I did enjoy seeing D playing with her pumpkin this year, so that got me a little more in the Halloween spirit. And instead of real candles, this year we’re using little flickering pumpkin lights so we don’t have to worry about them constantly blowing out. Geniuses at work, I tell ya.

Happy Halloween!

 

Impressive

There’s a girl I see jogging most mornings on my way into work, and it is now obvious that she’s pregnant. I’m a terrible judge of things like this, but I would guess she’s around 6 months along. She’s really thin, so maybe she’s showing early, though, and could be earlier in her pregnancy. Or maybe she’s how I was, not showing until pretty late, and is even farther along. I have no idea. All women show and carry their pregnancies differently, so for the sake of this post let’s just say she’s 6ish months pregnant.

Now why did I entitle this one “Impressive”, you may be wondering? Well here’s the thing. Assuming this girl (girl? woman? i never know which to use. is there an age cut-off where you no longer call a girl a girl, but a woman? is it offensive to a younger female to call her a woman if she prefers girl? lady? whatever, i’ll stick with girl for now. she appears to be maybe my age, so we’ll say 30ish. lots of “ish”es here today) is near the end of her second trimester, if not even into her third, to me jogging every morning is certainly impressive.

When I got pregnant with D I was fully planning on continuing my usual workout routine as far into my pregnancy as possible. And this included jogging. For although I was by no means an avid runner at the time, I did try to jog whenever possible (weather permitting, duh), because I really do think it is one of the best ways to stay in shape. Well things happened, plans changed, and my exercise took a back seat to simply being pregnant. And I mean a way back seat. Like if we were in a stretch limo, exercise would have been all the way in that far back area, past the bar and tvs, so far back it could barely hear the conversation.

For some reason, however, I got it into my head to try jogging again during the spring that I was pregnant. The weather had started getting nice again, and I felt like I needed to do something. Why that something took the form of a jog after months of doing basically zero exercise, let alone running, I have no idea. I tend to get these “great ideas” in my head from time to time that really end up being just plain dumb and painful. Yet I rarely learn my lesson and keep trying them.

Well this, indeed, was a dumb one. I was about 4-5 months pregnant at the time and not really showing, but I could definitely feel D and all the pressure she was putting on my internal organs in there. Especially my bladder. I shit you not – I took 3 steps of that jog and felt like I was instantly going to wet my pants. Oh what the hell?? I thought. And of course I was jogging in a park near my office, having decided to workout after work that day instead of heading out from home. Splendid. So not only was I going to pee my pants, but I was going to have to go back into my office building with soiled draws (you know, ghetto for drawers, pants, trousers. not the verb like something an artist does. duh). You must be kidding me. Thinking it may have just been a fluke and my body simply needed to get used to jogging with extra weight, I tried again. Same result – a few steps and the feeling of impending and uncontrollable urination was back. Ok, that’s enough, I’ll walk the rest of the route here, thankyouverymuch. It at least counts as some exercise, and I won’t have to go back into my office sporting soggy bottom.

So that’s why I say this girl jogging each morning while this much pregnant is impressive. I tried it once, for about 10 seconds, and failed miserably. Obviously many, many women run while they’re pregnant, and a lot of them run the entire time with ease. I, however, was not one of them. Maybe next time I’ll try a little harder to be able to run farther into my pregnancy. Or maybe I’ll just skip it again and find an alternative, saying it’s all in the name of keeping my undies dry.

 

It’s been HOW long?

You guys, why didn’t anyone tell me I hadn’t run in over a month?? Last night I wasn’t in the mood to wait until 7:00 for my Monday night group training session at the gym, and since it was what may have been our last nice day of the season I decided to take advantage and go for a run. I am now beginning to seriously think I have lost my mind.

First of all, on my drive home from work the thermometer I always pass read 61. Perfect. Yeah, not so much. By the time I got home, changed, and headed out to hit the pavement, the sun was beginning to sink behind the horizon and basically my whole route was in shade. Funny how quickly the temperature drops this time of year when the sun fades, isn’t it? My entire run felt like it was in the middle of winter – that cold air feeling in the back of your throat (which always makes my mouth fill up with excess spit. fantastic), frozen fingers, and toes that started tingling with a tiny bit of numbness. Am I just wimpy? Possibly. But you know I hate running in cold weather. Remember my no running outdoors unless it’s above 50 degrees rule? I think it may now be coming into play permanently for the remainder of the year.

But aaaaanyway… I got out there, I did it, and it always feels good to have done. Hopefully I still got a decent workout in, and hopefully my legs won’t be so sore these next couple days that getting onto and off of the toilet is painful. Have you ever worked out that hard? Where it hurts to sit on the toilet? Come on, I know I’m not the only one here. It’s kind of one of those good hurts, because you know you really pushed your muscles to get that sore, but then you’re like wait a minute, I can’t use the freakin’ toilet without wincing! Maybe that was a little much. Ah well.

Ok back to the point. Here are the stats:  I ran 2.86 miles in 25:02, for an 8:45 pace. That’s honestly faster than I was expecting to see, because it did not feel like a good run at all. And my last run before this was on September 22. Yowza! I was doing so well, too, with running once or twice almost every week. In my defense, however, I have been doing my Jillian DVD twice a week for going on 4 weeks now, so I think that is a sufficient alternative. Just getting ripped and all, you know me.

 

I was selfish, and it was glorious

After last week’s less-than-stellar performance on the record books, I decided I needed a treat. You know, some “me” time, some time to not have to think about anything, some time to relax, some time to not have to clean up a mess or sweep up a pile of crap. In other words, out of the house by myself.

So what did I do? I booked a Great Lakes hot stone massage at the Kohler Waters Spa. Go big, or go home, my friends. R’s mom had given me a gift card to the spa for Christmas last year, and I hadn’t made time for yet. So I thought what better way to do a me day than at the spa? And not just any spa – KOHLER! For those of you who haven’t been there, it is magnificent. You wouldn’t think a tiny town in east central Wisconsin would have a beautiful spa facility, but oh, it does. Kohler boasts a whole host of top-rate hotels, restaurants, golf courses, and of course, this spa. Check them all out here if you’d like to do a little pining.

Yes, it’s an hour away, and yes, it’s ridiculously expensive, but that’s why I ask for gift cards to the place whenever someone needs gift ideas. Duh. It is the ultimate. I arrived an hour before my appointment so I could take full advantage of the place. I was paying a $40 usage fee after all, so you’re damn right I was gonna get my money’s worth! We’re talking a rooftop whirlpool lounge with a fireplace – check. A deep, cold plunge pool followed by a soak in another hot whirlpool – check. My incredible hot stone massage – check. And obviously Kohler rain showers to freshen up afterward – check. That is my kind of heaven.

Paradise, thy name is Kohler spaahh...

I got to read my 4 week backlog of People magazines without interruption; I got to listen to my choice on the radio on the way up and back with the speakers as loud as I wanted (a little Adele and hip-hop, both of which are rarely on with r in the car); and I got to feel a whole lotta pent-up stress wash away. It was perfect, and just what I needed. Of course I had to clean up the messes that awaited me as soon as I got home, but it was fun while it lasted.

Then yesterday I had a mini-continuation of my self-centered glory when I took an almost hour and a half nap, smack dab in the middle of the day! What?? I never get to do that. We went out for brunch, and D was ready to conk out when we got home. So instead of cleaning up or reading or messing around on the computer while she was asleep as I usually do, I dozed out in the sun for about 20 minutes then headed into bed to sleep for another hour. Now THAT’S what I’m talkin’ about!

So yeah, I was a little selfish with my time this weekend, but it was absolutely worth it. It was so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend doing the same. (my own little adaptation of an awesome line from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. love that movie!)