Monday Mornings with the Yummy Mummies

I don't usually go to the gym on Monday mornings for a few reasons, but today I decided ah what the heck, let's go. One of the reasons I don't go to the gym first thing Monday morning is a group of ladies I (lovingly) call the "yummy mummies" Apparently, my definition of yummy mummy and the internets' definition of yummy mummy is completely different but that's alright.

So what's a yummy mummy? A yummy mummy is a woman who goes to my gym on Monday morning (and sometimes Tuesdays too) and works out vigorously on the treadmill for an hour. There are two distinct categories of yummy mummies:

The first is the bleach blond, overly tanned, very toned woman who has no reason to be on the treadmill except that she needs something to fill her time.

The second is the perfectly highlighted brunette, incredibly tanned, fairly toned woman who works out because she has to.

The biggest issue I have with these women is that they never appear to sweat and I'm incredibly jealous of that. They look just as good getting off the treadmill as they do when they get on (full make up of course!) I will never be a yummy mummy for a variety of reasons:

1) I sweat, a lot, when I'm working out.
2) I've never tanned in my entire life
3) I haven't colored my hair in at least six months and the only high lights in my hair are naturally grey and a little too frizzy for my tastes
and
4) I need to either work out four to five times a week or not eat to even think about being toned

So I'll never be a yummy mummy, but that's okay because they've taught me a good lesson just by watching them gab and not sweat on Monday mornings...we work out for ourselves, not for others. I'd be willing to guarantee that the yummy mummies don't give a damn about sweaty, grey haired me because they're busy doing their own thing...and perhaps I should take that to heart. I work out for ME not for anyone else. Now I just need a group of people who are like me who want to get really sweaty and have a fun group name too-any takers?? hehe

Okay! Toast It Is!

I keep hearing from people that these are the best days of our lives and that we're gonna miss the "good old days" when our children were young and keeping us busy. I don't doubt that they're right but in the moment it's hard to see it as such. How about an excerpt from a typical day in our house:

I wake up at seven and spend two and a half hours (approximately) getting Gabriel up for school. At 7:22 or thereabouts, he groggily walks out of the bedroom to the bathroom where he splashes his face with four drops of water and looks at his toothbrush and calls it good. We spend fifteen minutes having this conversation over and over and over and over:

Mom: What would you like for breakfast?
Groggy Gabriel: werkoc8a9
Mom: What?
GG: wr823usfsdk
Mom: okay toast it is

If we happen to make it through breakfast without a major catastrophe we call it good. If we make it to the bus stop ON time with a fully packed backpack and lunchbox I paste a gold star on my mom board when I get back.

The feeling of elation at being the best mother in the world (trademark pending) pretty much ends one and a half minutes after Bits gets up.

Mom: Good morning Bitsy, how are you?
Bitsy: (read this in high pitched voice really really fast) HIMOMMMAHOWAREYOUIHADREALLYGOODDREAMSLASTNIGHTBLAHBLAH
Mom: Mhmm, what would you like for breakfast?
Bitsy: (screaming) AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIHATEBREAKFASTWHYAREYOUOFFERINGMEBREAKFASTWHENYOU KNOWIHATEITDOYOUHATEME?!
Mom: Okay, toast it is.

Breakfast is done and it's time to get on with the business of the day...but not before cat one and cat two get in on the act. I don't speak cat, but I can try and translate what they're saying:
Cat one: meow meow you should probably feed me today
Mom: what would you like
Cat one: filet mignon, caviar, and whole milk fresh from the cow
Mom: okay! toast it is!

Cat two: meow meow, I'm dumb, you could feed me cardboard and I'd be happy
Mom: Okay! Toast it is!

If during the course of the day nothing manages to catch fire, fall out the window, get stuck in the toilet, or end up all over the wall, I call it good. In fact, if I can brag for a minute, I call it an AWESOME day and strut till it's time to miss bus pick up in the afternoon.

Dinner time is utter chaos, in fact if you could hear the noises coming from the apartment, you'd probably think it was either a) a zoo at feeding time or depending on the day b) a wrestling match complete with grunting sweaty wrestlers, I mean, children.

The best part of the night is bedtime. Oh who am I kidding? No it's not. It's worse than the morning. It's loud and awful and stressful and I want MY mom to read me a story by the time it's over.

Mom: anyone need anything before I shut the door?
Gabe: yes, can we talk about jets? what kind of jets do you like? do you like big jets or little jets...blah blah jets jets jets..blah blah
Bitsy: (at this point sobbing) MOMIHATEGOINGTOBEDINMYOWNBEDIHAVENIGHTMARESANDTHECATSDON'TLIKEMEANDIWANT
TOSLEEPWITHYOUPLEASEPLEASEIDONTHAVEABESTFRIENDTOCALLONTHEPHONEIHATEBEINGFOUR

Mom: okay, toast it is!

At this point cat one and cat two get in on the act;
cat one: meow meow get those damn kids to sleep so you can pet me, brush me, and attend to my every need in the manner I've become accustomed (he's rather articulate for a cat, let me tell you)
cat two: meow meow, yeah what he said...oooh what is that shiny thing?oh hooray a moth. oh look over there....*crash* cat two has run into the wall and knocked himself out...at least someone is sleeping in the house.

Obviously this is a *slight* exaggeration, though at one point in our lives all of these things HAVE happened (other than the cats speaking, man that would just be too weird)

I love my kids, but as Geo and I were talking about last night, sometimes when you're in the thick of it, it's hard to see the humor in what's happening, it's hard to see the memories we're making. He said that after two days of us being gone on vacation, he was so bored and lonely, he could barely stand it. As he said "at first it was wonderful. No one making messes, no constant laundry or vacuuming, I could listen to whatever I wanted, watch whatever I wanted and no one cared! WOOHOO it was wonderful until the third day and I realized that the kids are what keep things interesting around here" (the cats don't speak to him, apparently) and he's right, the kids DO keep it interesting, our lives would be incredibly dull without them. I mean, I would NEVER have to listen to an explanation of the screen being knocked out on accident at six am (that was this morning, I was woken up to Bitsy crying, quietly saying "momma, I knocked out the screen in our window accidentally getting my pig out of the window" and oddly enough, I knew what she was talking about because I'm mom and mom knows these things! there WAS a pig in the window last night, he needed some air!) I wouldn't ever get to hear jokes from Gabriel like "what did the zero say to the eight? Nice belt!" and then hear him laugh hysterically about it.

I think this quote says it all:
While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.
~Angela Schwindt

Okay! Toast it is!

Take Me As I Am-Or Not At All

I am a "take me or leave me" kind of girl; I think I have a personality that you either love absolutely or hate absolutely-I don't know that there's any middle ground whatsoever...and I am okay with that; after thirty odd years of being like this, I'm comfortable in my skin; I'm comfortable with my faults, my quirks, my what have yous.

I am gossipy and nosy and sometimes down right rude. I'm brutally honest to a fault, I judge hard. If you lose my trust, it's hard to gain it back. Sometimes I make snap judgements that turn out to not be correct. I'm hard headed, I have a type "a" personality and it's annoying, and while I can forgive easily, I have a very hard time forgetting.

On the flip side of this though, I am fiercely loyal to those I love. I will bend over backward (and then some) to make sure people have what they need. I am (mostly) a lover, not a fighter. I like things to be peaceful, even and calm. I love to laugh and love to make other people laugh. I try to see the best in everyone whenever possible even if I don't always SAY those things out loud (which I probably should do more of to be honest)

My mom and I had a really interesting chat when I was home; she basically said that her policy on people is "if you don't like me, fine, don't like me, but move along and quit wasting both of our time" and I like that. That's going to be my new policy, if you don't like me, I don't care, but I'm not going to waste ANY more of my time on you and I'm not going to waste my breath, time, and resources TRYING to make you like me or see me for who I really am. It's time that *I* started respecting and loving myself as much as I do other people and stop spending precious time on what others think of me. So, from here on out, if ya don't like me, move on out :) And if you DO like me (there's one or two of you out there lol) it's a safe bet that I like you too :)

"Look at me! I'm 81 and I can do it"

Yesterday I saw the doctor for a full check up, my first full check up in a couple of years and long story short, my weight is becoming a problem for the rest of my body. In the past I've been heavy but my blood pressure has been fine etc etc. HOWEVER this time, not so much (I'll have blood work results later this week, though I'm sure it's going to show that the dr. was right in insisting I lose this weight) The doc suggested I go to our local Weight Watchers for some guidance and support.

This morning I went to my first meeting; I was apprehensive, nervous, fill in your own adjective at this point to describe how I was feeling about being there. I was sitting in a chair and a woman looked at me, smiled and said "you can do this" I smiled and thanked her and she said "Look at me! I'm 81 and I can do it, so there's no reason YOU can't" I told her that I appreciated her telling me that and that I'd like to be 81 at some point as well. She said "Then what are you waiting for? Just do it! You're going to do great, I promise"

And you know what? I *am* going to do great because I *DO* want to be 81 and active and telling whippersnappers that THEY can do it.

So as of today, I'm an active participant in not only Weight Watchers, but also my life, not just for me or my family or friends, but for my 81 year old self whom I have the next 50 years to become.

The Facebooking of Our Generation

Facebook (and other social media sights) have changed the way we are interacting with one another; it's easy to be connected to other people through sites like facebook and twitter but is it a REAL connection?

Once a week I see some sort of "Post this as your status if you support breast cancer/special ed/anti bullying efforts and see who REALLY cares about these things" That sort of thing has a label; it's called "slacktivism" and its' sweeping through social networking sites like crazy. Basically it's a quick way to say "oh hey, I care about something enough to put it in my oh so important update space, and now that I've posted it, I can forget about it" which is what most people do. Two seconds of our day devoted to a "cause" and we're done. We feel GOOD that we've posted something like and other people can SEE that we've posted it and it ends there. How many people actually DO something beyond posting some reposted mumbo jumbo on facebook? I'd be willing to bet the number is very low.

Another thing I see a lot of is when people post something really good or really bad and tons and tons of people "like" the status or make little comments like "oh no" or "that's too bad" and let it go at that. There's no follow up and when you ask someone if they saw your status or someone else's status message stating really good or really bad news, they usually cannot remember that they posted. We've become so used to just clicking the like button or posting something mindless that we're missing the point of interacting with one another.

I'm the first to admit that I LOVE Facebook; I absolutely love seeing what my friends are up to, connecting with old classmates, and far away family. It's a great way to connect if you actually use it FOR connecting. I'm guilty as hell of clicking the like button constantly, I find myself looking for the like button on other website as well (and a lot of them are connected via facebook so I *can* click like when I like something) BUT I try to make a point to actually read what I am clicking like on, I try to make a point to follow up with someone when they post that they are sick or a family member passed away or they got a promotion. It's easy to just click like and walk away (or click away) and not give it another thought. We are making a lot of superficial connections that, at the end of the day, don't mean a whole lot to anyone. I read an interesting article about facebook and depression and anxiety. It turns out that so many people are so invested in facebook and their friends list that they are anxious about what people are posting and how much people are interacting with them. People are losing sleep over their friends lists and messages not being answered, etc etc. It's really an odd phenomenon to say the least.

What can we do about it? How can we make sure we aren't part of the superficial facebook generation? Disconnect from the computer once in a while and write an actual note; call someone and see how they are, send an email to someone following up on something you saw on facebook. Plan an outing with someone, go some place and do something with a friend or family member. Physically interact with someone-definitely more fun that just READING about it on facebook...even if you don't get to click the "like" button ;)