Our weekend

We had an action packed weekend that turned out to be really awesome. On Friday, I got home early, so I went home first before I picked Em up from daycare. We didn’t do anything major on Friday night. We just hung out at home. Emerson ended up waking up at 652am on Saturday morning. Ugh. He usually sleeps until well after 7am. I was not happy at all with that. I made us banana pancakes for breakfast, then we headed to buy a birthday present for the party we had that afternoon. My cousin’s daughter turned 2. She is absolutely adorable. I had a great time shopping for girl stuff too. After shopping, Em and I headed to my best friend’s house for a playdate. It was only about 8am when we stopped over too. She didn’t mind at all. We let the boys play for a couple of hours before Em and I went home to get ready for the party. We headed to the party around 1pm. It was so hot out, but we had a great time. Em loved the bouncey house and running around with the other kids. We hung for about 3 hours. Em hadn’t napped all day, so once he was in meltdown mode, we made our exit. He napped until about 6pm, so I knew bedtime would be a bit later, which was fine. He ended up going to bed around 8pm. I rented Aloha, had a glass of wine, a snack, and just hung out. It was nice. Em ended up waking at 652am on Sunday morning. Really?! Even with a later bedtime, he was still up early. We piled into the car and headed to Dunkin Donuts. I got a pumpkin spice latte, which was amazing! Em got a couple of munchkins. He absolutely loved it. We hung out at home for most of the day. After Em napped, we headed to pick my sister and nephew up, then did a little back to school photo shoot. Em wasn’t really interested, but I still got some decent shots. It was fun anyway. Afterwards, we headed to the park, then to my parent’s house for a big turkey dinner. By the time we got home, it was 630pm. Em played in the yard for a bit, then went to bed at his usual time. It was a great weekend.

I got so much food prep done for the week too. I’m so glad. I ended up making  5 breakfast, lunches, dinners, and 10 snacks. So, what’s on the menu? I made banana bread overnight oats for breakfast. They are so yummy and taste just like banana bread. I made southwest chicken bowls for lunch topped with avocado and lime juice. Dinner will be fish, rice, and mixed veggies. I made buffalo chicken dip with cucumbers to scoop, and deviled eggs for one snack. Then, I made peanut butter Greek yogurt with strawberries. I also have my Shakeology. The only thing missing is my nightly snack. I’ll probably just wing that and make some kind of fruit snack. Everything is ready! I’m glad because that lifts a huge burden off of my shoulders for the week. I’ll just need to cook dinner for Emerson, which is not bad at all.

I slacked a bit over the weekend. I didn’t work out at all on Saturday, or Sunday. It’s time to get back into the routine. I’m working out tonight after Em  goes to bed. Tomorrow, I’m running. Wednesday, I’m doing my upper workout in the gym studio. I’m running on Thursday, then bringing another workout to the gym studio for Friday. We’re doing our labor day cookout on Sunday, so I’m going to work out on Saturday night. That should complete the week! I’m much happier adding my carbs back into my diet. Clean eating is the way to go paired with exercise. I think I just feel a bit at a loss of where I want to go right now and what goals I have. Building muscle would be amazing, so I am going to plunge forward with my 21 day fix extreme workouts, but up my weights. Working out in the gym studio will help me do that. I won’t need to buy new weights yet for home. Instead, I can play around with different sizes there to figure out where I need to go. I’m at 8 and 10 right now. I’m thinking 10 and 12 will be my next move. I’m using my 8 and 10 today, but the workout I’m doing might be difficult even with those sizes, so we’ll see.

This week, we have nothing planned, which I’m fine with. I have Monday off of work, so we’ll have a long weekend. I’m thinking of driving into work on Friday, so I can run in the morning, then still using studio time that afternoon. That sounds a bit ambitious, but I won’t shower/do make up before I drive into work, so I can just get ready there when I’m done running. Alright, I have to do a few things before the day is over. I hope everyone has a great week!

When will it end

Day #4 into carbing down and I feel great. I was a little rundown yesterday, but I didn’t drink nearly enough water, so I’m sure that was a huge contributing factor. I’ll rectify that today. I measured my waist yesterday. I lost an inch from it. I’m officially back to where I was and maybe even a little better off than where I was before camp. It only took me three days too, which isn’t too bad.  It certainly takes a good amount of dedication to carb down, but I prepped all of my food, so I had no excuse. On Saturday morning, I’m rewarding all of my hard work with banana oatmeal pancakes. I haven’t had fruit ALL week, so I cannot wait to have some banana! Em will love it too. Bananas are his favorite food.

I’ve been taking a much different approach with Emerson this week. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday have been a lot more stress-free. I find myself less frustrated, and raising my voice less and less. He is insanely wild, which is typical toddler behavior. He’s into every and anything, which isn’t always the safest. I find myself saying “No” way too much. It drives me insane! This week, instead of saying just “No”, or “stop”, or “Don’t do that”, I’ve been trying to re-direct his attention to other things. I also explain why something is dangerous, etc. Before, I’d just tell him to stop, and that would be it. Now, I come down to eye level, and I really try to explain it. I know he knows what I’m saying. He always makes this pouty face like he’s in trouble. Well, you can’t throw your shoes in the oven. I mean, come on now. I have to correct that. I’ve been reading up so much on how to react to tantrums, etc too. I don’t want to feed into it too much because it really drives me nuts. I don’t want him freaking out anytime he wants something. Then, when I give it to him, he thinks that’s how things go. I don’t think so. So, I’ve been telling him that I can’t understand him unless he talks to me in his regular, nice voice. It doesn’t initially work. We usually have a 5 to 10 minute struggle of him flipping out, but he eventually calms down. Usually, he’s flipping out because he wants a snack, or a drink. Well, there is a normal way to ask for things. You don’t have to freak out and cry to get it. I feel a lot less frustrated this week though. It’s saving my sanity a bit. I’m just trying to teach him to communicate with me better. He can’t form full words yet, so it’s a struggle for him. I’m sure it pisses him off not being able to just tell me what he wants, or needs. There has to be a better way than throwing yourself all over the floor like an insane person.  We only get to spend about 2 hours together in the evenings before bath, and bedtime, so I just want to make it more enjoyable all around. It shouldn’t be filled with “don’t do this” or “Stay away from that”. He’s learning boundaries, etc now, so obviously that’ll be a part of our evenings, but handling it differently, so it isn’t consuming us is my goal. So far, so good! At the same time, I’m teaching myself some patience, which is not easy after a long day already. It’s just me at home though, so I need to have some order in my house. A toddler cannot be ruling the roost. LOL

I haven’t really spoken to my mom all week either. We got into a little tiff on Monday, which was so stupid. I accidentally had my Shakeology delivered to my parent’s house, so I went over on Monday to pick it up. My sister and I were both out of Shakeology, so we had none to bring to the cabin with us. My mom had a couple of packets that’s he didn’t drink, so she offered them to us. She has not been using the 21 day fix program for about 3 weeks. Even when she was, she’d never drink her Shakeology, so she’d leave it sit there to go to waste unless we drank it. Anyway, when I went to pick mine up, she said “Are you going to pay me back for the two chocolate shakes you took?” I look at her with serious crazy eyes. I said “You aren’t using the program, and you don’t even drink them, so no!” She basically freaked out, told me I have no sense of humor, and that she was just joking. She was not joking. Who would even joke about that? There are far more funny things in the world to make a joke about. It was beyond absurd. She’s on thin ice with me anyway because she has yet to apologize to me from her little stunt two weeks ago. So, before I left, she told me that she can’t stand me and all of this rude stuff. Really? I didn’t say anything back to her. I don’t care if you birthed me. Do not talk to me like that. She’s just mad that she fell off the wagon with her program and she feels like crap about it, so she’s blaming me. It’s ridiculous. Because I fired back at her, I’m sure she expects ME to apologize to her. It’s just unreal and I am sick of her shit. I really am just so sick and tired of her. She needs to get her shit together because it’s not right. We have no plans to go over there because I just can’t handle the negativity and the level of crazy she emits. I don’t want Emerson around that. I don’t know what her deal is, but I just cannot take it anymore. After her behavior a couple of weeks ago, I am just done. We came around enough to go camping, but I barely talked to her the entire time. When I do talk to her, it isn’t NORMAL like it was before her big ol’ outburst. It’s very general. I fully understand why my older sister doesn’t come around. She’s off living her life and being happy. I’m trying to slowly disassociate ourselves enough to where it’s like that too. Where I am not obligated to come around all of the time because it’s what SHE expects. She thinks I owe her the sun and moon, when I don’t owe her shit.

She knows where we live too, so ifs he wanted to see Emerson that badly, she’d drive over. She literally works 5 minutes away from our house too. She NEVER swings by on her way home. We visit my parents ONE time a week for about 1 to 2 hours AT MOST. Sometimes, we don’t even visit for that long. My dad gets super annoyed with how rambunctious Emerson is, so it isn’t even worth it for us to be around all like that. We go until he starts irritating him too badly, then we  leave. It’s not even worth the 15 minute drive. Their house is not toddler proofed at all. They expect him to go into their house and not touch anything. Well, then start coming to our house where he isn’t so damn restricted. I love my parents to death, but they’re just bugging me so much lately. I can’t deal with it. While we were at camp, my dad threatened to go home because Emerson was crying and having a tantrum. What?! How the hell did you raise three kids?! My dad will apologize though. That’s the difference between he and my mom.  Okay, I’ll stop ranting about this, but it is really bugging me! I don’t have that many people in my life, so the ones that are in it, need to get it together.

Alright, I’m going to eat my pumpkin pie oatmeal, which is the only carb I get for the day. It tastes so delicious, so I want to savor it. I have to finish up a lot of work, then head to the gym. Have a great day, all!

Just some ramblings

Today is day #3 in my carb down week. Yesterday, I only packed one snack for work, which ended up not being enough. I was starving by the time I got off the bus. I had to run to Giant Eagle to get some doggy ice cream to celebrate Kodie’s birthday, so I ended up grabbing a protein snack pack, which held me over until dinner. Today, I’m better prepared. I have two snacks, breakfast, my shake, and lunch, so I should be all set until dinner tonight. I’m planning on going for a run around 10am, so I’m eating my breakfast now. When I come back, I’ll have a snack before my first meeting, then lunch before my second meeting. I’m planning on carb depleting through Saturday morning, then I’ll add some fruit back in over the weekend. Next week, I’m following the carb depletion too, but I’m scattering the days that I do it. I just needed to get back on track from camping, so that’s why I decided to carb down during the work week. I already feel back to where I was before I went away last weekend, so that’s a good thing. I just need to make sure I’m eating enough. It’s definitely a trial and error thing that I’m still working through. I don’t feel too run down either. Typically, anytime I’ve done a carb depleted diet, I’m so exhausted and run down. I wasn’t using proper portion control before though, so I’m sure that had a lot to do with it. I’ve replaced all the carbs/fruit that I would have eaten with extra veggies and protein, so I’m not going without. I’m keeping my calories up, and I’m actually drinking more water than usual.

Okay, enough about my fitness and nutrition. I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday. We have nothing at all planned outside of just hanging at home, which I’m fine with. I have no idea what the weekend entails. I’ll probably ask if my sister and nephew want to get out with us at least once. I want to take Em to the park too. We barely do that. I know cold weather is right around the corner, so we better get it out of our system now while we still can. It has been so chilly this week. We were going to swim this weekend, but I bet that water is freezing cold. Hopefully it warms up before labor day.

Em needs some fall clothes so badly. I need to plan a day to get his fall wardrobe together, and to clean out all of the clothes that don’t fit him anymore. I also need some things for myself. I just want to get a new pair of fall boots, a new pair of jeans, and a couple of warmer tops. I don’t need much. I probably need some socks though. I seem to lose those over the summertime. I know I can find some good, cheap stuff in the girl’s section. That sounds terrible to say, but I know I can get the basics for cheap in the little girl’s section. I can fit a L/XL with no issues. Sometimes, the XL are a little big, but nothing crazy. I just bought a cute pair of sweatpants for $7.97 in the little girls section for camping. I would have had to spend $13 in the junior section. A L/XL is roughly the same size as a XS/SM in juniors, so it isn’t really that big of a deal that I can fit clothes in that size. It would be stupid to not buy stuff in that area since it’s so cheap. I also need to take my car In for service. There is a recall on it and I am about due for an oil change. I should just plan on doing that all in the same day, but I swear, it always takes forever at the dealership. I might risk spending my entire day there and never doing any other errands. I’d rather shop for Em without him. That way, I can really look instead of rushing through.

I want to get Emerson’s pictures done again. He hasn’t had his pics taken since right before Easter. I’ll be smart about it this time and just select ONE pose to buy. I am still stuck with so many pictures from the package I purchased back in Easter. He’s grown so much since those pics were taken though, so I definitely want to get some cute fall ones done. They have a coupon now for $12.99 and you get a free 5x7 canvas. The coupon for that ends 08/30/0015, but they have coupons offered pretty much daily, so I’m not worried about it. I definitely want to have them done though. I haven’t even attempted my own photo shoot in a few months. He’s so wild. I don’t know if I could even get anything good. I should try something again first before I pay money to someone else. We did a cute Apple theme last September. It would be fun to do the same thing this year. I’m sure most of the shots would be action ones with him running. I’ll start there and try to get some good ones myself first. I’ll ask my sister to help me.

Alright, I have a lot of stuff to do today, so I better get on it. I hope you all have a great Wednesday!

Our camping trip

We survived our weekend at the cabin. It was really nice! There was a lot of stuff to do. They had a HUGE pool with a smaller kiddie pool, which was absolutely amazing. The pool was open daily from 830am-8pm,which was nice. They also had mini golf, and a lodge that served breakfast daily. On top of that, it was Halloween weekend! During the summer, the event coordinator holds different functions and holidays. We got lucky and picked Halloween weekend. The kids dressed up in costumes, trick-or-treated, did a hayride, and played games. It was really cute. On top of that, we were near Living Treasures animal park, so we headed there. Emerson got to feed so many animals. It was adorable. One of the goats hopped the fence and followed us around the entire time. It was pretty cool. We also visited Fort Ligonier, which ended up being really fun. I didn’t think I’d enjoy that too much, but I did.

I ate so much bad food this past weekend. My poor body hates me. It was nice taking a break though, but I’m back to the grind today. I grocery shopped this morning, then food prepped. Everything is ready for the week. I believe Em is getting in his molars right now, which explains his fussiness, and sickies this past week. The drool is out of this world.  I just hope they come in quick. I’m ready for some normalcy around here again. He was pretty good at the cabin though outside of a few tantrums. He slept both nights, which was a shocker. The first night, he cried around 3am, so I brought him to bed with me. The second night, I had a hard time getting him to bed, but when I did, he slept all night. He slept fine last night too at home, so I’m glad his routine wasn’t interrupted.

Kodie was fine all weekend. My friend, Tim, came over many times to let her out to pee. She was happy to have us home though. We missed her a lot. I went to the laundromat this morning too and did all of the laundry from the weekend, so we are good for the week. We got rid of the campfire smell from all of our towels and blankets too. I’m glad to be back home. I want our routine back. I found that I don’t really like going without my routine. It’s hard for me to just relax. Em is still a bit young for camp. There were a lot of things he could hurt himself on, so I hope next year is a little more laid back. We all had the constant fear that he’d get hurt.

Alright, I’m going to end this now. I hope you guys enjoy the pics I put at the end.