How to Have Everything You Need on an Outing

Thank you, moms who replied to my tantrum the other day.  I felt like a failure for not being able to exercise uninterrupted for 30 minutes.  I'm happy to hear that it's normal and that I'm not a failure.

Yesterday I knixed the workout and went to a petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point with my friend Sierra, her aunt Sheri and some adorable kids.  It was a good time!  I got a lot of walking in, and I am so burnt that I'm as red as a freshly boiled lobster. Lily was safely shaded in her car seat/stroller combo set up she had going on.  We had a picnic lunch on a table under a tree.  I had a 6 inch ham and pepperjack sandwich on wheat bread, with lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, mayo and mustard. It was from Subway. I also had some Goldfish Grahams and water.  It was a wonderful lunch.

Lily had milk.

Sheri was taking care of her sister's kids.  She has four kids all 4 and younger.  Two of them are twins.  The twins got really upset right when we got there.  We all tried to figure out what was wrong.  Sheri was nervous because she said the twins never cry.  I suggested that maybe they got sunscreen in their eyes.  So Sheri was going to go to the bathroom to rinse off their faces.  I handed her some amazing Johnson & Johnson hand and face wipes.

I LOVE these wipes.  It's the easiest way to clean Lily's hands and face every day without giving her a full on bath, or using a rag, soap and water.

Well, the wipes didn't work, and the twins were still upset.  Sheri tried giving them bottles, but that didn't really work either.

Turns out they wanted some real food.  Sheri was giving them bits of her sandwich, and I got into my diaper bag and handed her a small bag of froot loops.  She laughed and said, "At least one of us came prepared to handle children!"  I just told her that they were actually for me, in case my sandwich wasn't enough food, but that I had plenty and I was happy to share.  Then I told her I wasn't really prepared because I forgot to bring diapers.  Sheri laughed and said she had brought diapers so we were all OK!

We came to the conclusion that moms hang out with other moms because that's the only way you'll have everything you need.  You never know when an issue may come up that you did not expect.

It's also good for when you leave in a hurry and forget half of your stuff.

In other news, my solution for exercise today is to turn on a butt lift DVD while having Lily tied to me in the Moby Wrap.

I'll let you know if it works.

Brazil Butt Lift - Day 2, and a tantrum from a grown-up

How does anyone with children get their workouts done?  This is ridiculous.

I wanted to start working out at 10am.  Lily decided to wake up just then, so I fed her and got her all situated.  About 2 minutes into the workout, she decided she was upset.  So I had to stop, make her happy again, then start again.

Basically that happened all morning.  It is now 12:30 and I only have done one 30 minute workout.  I am supposed to do another one, but I have lots of stuff to get done today.  I can't spend three hours trying to get a one hour workout in. This is ridiculous!  I still need to shower, go to the store, do some laundry, do dishes, and be ready to work at 5:00.

Lance has two softball games tonight, so he'll be home from 6 to 7 then he's leaving again until about 10:30pm.  So basically I'm by myself all day and night with Lily today, and I'm already in a bad mood because I'm upset with how I look and when I try to do something about it, Lily won't let me.

Yes I'm complaining.  I'm so sick of trying to stay positive all the time, it's exhausting.

Not to mention I worked 5pm to 2:30am so that probably is why I'm grumpy in the first place.  I thought I was being awesome for working out this AM anyway.  Oh no. Scratch that idea. I'm doomed to be fat forever.

Great.

Sincerely,
Extremely annoyed, tired, sore and frustrated

P.S. Lily cried the entire time I typed this up.

Brazil Butt Lift - Day 1

I am so out of shape!  It frustrates me to no end.  That's why I'm doing this, right?  Right.

This program is fun.  You decide which booty problem you have and then the workout schedule is customized to your issues.

I couldn't decide which booty issue I had, but I went with "Too big".

So my workout today was Bum Bum (pronounced Boom Boom).  It was fun but it was difficult.  It was a lot of cardio, which I am terrible at.  I had to stop a lot to ease the burning in my boom boom. :-) But, I got through it, and next time this same video rolls around I'll push harder and rest less.

I like how Leandro says, "Don't settle for less!"  When he first said it I thought, "What the heck is he talking about?"  I'm still not quite sure, but I'll take it as - do the moves correctly, don't settle for a less than correct move.  I dunno.

Anyway, today was hard and tomorrow will be harder because I'm SURE I will be sore. I have to start somewhere!

Brazil Butt Lift

While Insanity is extremely hard and very effective at getting people in shape... I've started it so many times that it has gotten mundane to me.  Not that it's easy, it's just not something shiny, new and exciting any more.  So, I've decided to try another workout program.

Starting tomorrow, I'll be doing the Brazil Butt Lift.  XD  It looks fun.

Change

Change is scary.  But it's also good.

I have given in to the requests of Donni, one of the partners at DataWise, and I will be working at night starting Monday.

On one hand I'm extremely relieved.  If I had one more day of Lily screaming all day while I tried to work I probably would have quit my job.

I almost did on Thursday.

On the other hand, I'm terrified.  I like to think I have a pretty good reputation on the day shift.  I'm the person who seems to know everything about every project.  I'm the person who can track down an email from a random client from two weeks ago.  I'm the one who has the company schedule pristine clean and sparkly perfect each day.  I don't know what my reputation is on night shift.  Do I even have one?  Will I be any good at what they do?

Since coming back from maternity leave it just hasn't been the same at work.  I had to train someone new on the schedule.  The schedule, the one duty that I loved with all my heart, was taken from me.  It was so painful to train someone on how to take care of my baby.  Each mistake I saw was another stab to my heart.  Tasha is that lucky trainee's name.  And I feel bad for her having to be trained by me.  I am so completely obsessed with perfection that I'm very OCD about the schedule.  Every single day for the past six weeks I have given her lists of things to update and fix on the schedule.  Even if they don't really matter in the big picture, they mattered to me.  And now the schedule is hers to change and do with what she wants.

I'm scared to work at night.  I worked at night for a few months back in 2007.  It just didn't work out for Lance and me at that time.  I couldn't stand being home all day, bored out of my mind, then right after he got home I would leave for the night.  Seeing your brand new husband for 30 minutes each day is not enough!  But life happens and things change.  We expanded our family by two feet (nyuk nyuk nyuk), and now I feel this will be the best way to make sure Lily gets the care she needs.  And to make sure I don't lose my mind. And to make sure Lance isn't greeted grumpily by his stressed out wife each evening.

I think working at night won't be as bad this time as it was years ago.  I'm working from home, so I can talk to Lance all I want.  We can still eat dinner together.  I'll have Friday nights off, so we can have dates or family outings.

I'm excited to be able to stay at home with my baby all day.  I'm excited to make an official schedule for us.  We'll go on walks, we'll have play time, snack time, learning time and nap time.  I'll be able to take care of my house!

Oh my goodness, my house.  It is in desperate need of attention.  I don't remember the last time it was vacuumed.

Don't judge.

This fall at DataWise is predicted to be the most busy cycle we've had, ever.  Night crew will be extremely difficult from September to November, but I'm excited.  I'm ready to join this new team at work and offer up my talents in any way possible to make it the best cycle ever.

Blessing Day

Lily was blessed two weeks ago, but I just now uploaded the pictures from my camera.

All morning long I could tell that Lance was pretty nervous.  Lily was being extremely fussy.  Lance was worried that she would cry through the whole thing.

We got her in her beautiful blessing dress that Lance's sister, Laura got for us. She looked so beautiful.

Lance gave her such a beautiful blessing, and she slept through it. :-)  It was great.

While I was sad that my parents and sisters couldn't be there, I was extremely happy about the people who could come.  In the circle was Lance, my Grandpa Billington, my Uncle Rick, my older brother Eric, my younger brother Jared, and our friend Steve.  Lance's sisters and their families, my friend Sierra and her family, and also some other friends of Lance's from his work were all there to support us.

It was a good day.

Cool Stuff

I got this totally awesome gift for Mother's Day.

It's an ice cream maker attachment for my KitchenAid!  I'm super excited!! (That's why I put TWO exclamation points.)

Today I went out and bought ingredients to make cheesecake ice cream.

Oh yes.  Be jealous.

But don't really be jealous.  Come on over and enjoy it with us!

Today  I saw What to Expect When You're Expecting.  It was so good!  It actually made me miss being pregnant.  I think I had a really easy pregnancy.  The delivery and recovery part is a different story, but pregnancy was easy.

I just loved how the movie showed how different everyone's pregnancies and labors are.  And every single one is beautiful and magical in its own way.

Best of all, they bring us little angels.

2 1/2 Months

Well friends, things are going pretty good right now.

Lily consistently sleeps for 8 hours each night.  Some nights she sleeps for 9 to 10.  Either way, when she wakes up, I feed her, and she goes back to sleep for another two hours.  That sure is nice!  My problem is, when she zonks out at 10pm, I want my alone time, so I don't go to bed until midnight. Then she gets up at 6am and I feed her, and I go back to bed when she does.  If I slept 10pm to 6am with her, I'd be ready for the day at 6am, and I could get a lot done before I started working.  But, yeah, I'm too lazy to do that.

Balancing work and a baby is very difficult.  I must admit I have ignored her cries many times, just so I can hurry up and finish what I'm working on.  And when I say cry, I mean, she's screaming her head off because she has already given me 10 minutes of quieter "warning" cries.  I feel horrible every time, but sometimes I really need to finish what I'm in the middle of, or I will forget what I was doing and then my tables will be a big wreck.

It's quite stressful sometimes.

Other times, the day goes wonderfully.  I'm free enough that I can feed her right when she tells me she needs to be fed.  And today, lucky me, she is taking a nap!  That is so rare. I'm stoked.  I'll try not to expect it tomorrow though...

Nursing in the Moby wrap is wonderful.  Nursing is wonderful.  Being a mom is wonderful.

It seemed magical, when all of a sudden she could empty me after nursing for only 10 minutes.  It's also nice to not have to stop working during that 10 minutes, just two or three while I get her tied to me.

My house is a disaster.  Most days I don't get dressed or shower.  I will not blame these on being a mother.  Like I stated earlier, if I went to bed at 10, and got up at 6, I could clean and shower while Lily was sleeping from 6:30am to 9am.  But also, like I stated earlier, I'm too lazy.

I stopped doing Insanity.  Gaining two pounds was not very motivating.  However, I am down four pounds, since gaining that two pounds... Basically, I need to lose 30 pounds to get back to pre-pregnancy weight.  That is so much.  I know where it all is, too. It's all in my thighs.  I swear I'll never be able to wear any of my designer jeans ever again.  What a waste of money.  Jeans that I wore when I was 6 months pregnant, still don't fit me now.  I'm fatter now than I was when I was six months pregnant?!  That is so messed up. I want to start a club called "I was cuter when I was pregnant."  I wonder if it already is a club....

Anyhow, Lily is great.  She really likes getting a lot of attention.  She's not very content just playing by herself for too long.  She loves it when you talk to her, and she tries to talk back.  Lance has this game where he says to her, "ahh, ahh, ahh" and she'll smile and jabber something back at him.  Lance has some pretty cute videos of it.  There are times when she's semi-crying, but "talking" at the same time.  So I say, "Lily, are you telling Daddy how bad your day with Mommy was today?"  It really sounds like she's just telling him how terrible everything is.

Last night I think she started to discover her feet.  She was sitting on my lap and she just stared at her feet for a long time.  She's not quite sure about those things yet.  I should break out the foot rattles that my friend Tenille got us.  Maybe Lily will get a kick out of that.

She got her shots last Friday.  That was sad.  She was a champ until four hours after she got the shots.  She just started screaming in pain.  It was the saddest thing ever.  We hurried and gave her some Tylenol, and she fell asleep, but was whimpering in her sleep.  Poor thing.

Tomorrow

My baby girl is two months tomorrow.  I can't believe it.  I feel cliche saying this, but time really is moving fast.

Well, time is moving fast now that I can actually move around without being in pain, and that I'm consistently getting 7-9 hours of sleep each night. :)

We are blessing her tomorrow.  I really wish my parents and sisters could be here for it.

And Lance's dad.  I wish he could be here too.