From Inmates to Playdates

Posts Tagged ‘Exercise’

While sitting around the campfire tonight, we talked briefly about the bucket list. I don’t really have a bucket list, but I do spend a fair amount of time thinking of things I would like to do before I um, you know, pass.

This isn’t necessarily a bucket list, because? Hello? I’m already 36 and these are things I’d like to do before I’m forty, not before I’m dead but it’s certainly a list of things I’d like to accomplish before I have the birthday that comes after the thirty-ninth.

And just before the one that starts with forty and ends with one.

1. Give up my love of lists.
 
2. Lose a lot! of weight.
 
3.  Learn HTML code.
 
4. Go to Australia with McDaddy
 
5.  Get a full ten-hour night of uninterrupted sleep (without waking to pee!)
 
6. See a Broadway Show
 
7.  Share McDaddy’s love of off-roading without irrational fear or panic attack.
 
8. Own a Saturn Sky even if only for a short time.
 
9. Purchase the empty lot beside of our house so that McDaddy can have the garage of his dreams.
 
10. Finish the basement. I mean completely finished and mess cleaned up!
 
11. A new deck (We need one sooner rather than later or else we’ll have our very own drop zone!)
 
12. Worry less.
 
13. Get a full night of uninterrupted sleep.

What?

I already said that. Yes, I know. I’m just reminding you!
 
14. Go to the dentist and get a good report without getting the dreaded floss lesson. (Which means I should actually floss each. and. every. single. day. Thankyouverymuch!)
 
15. Visit Alaska
 
16. Worry Less
 
17. Get off blood pressure medicine. This could probably happen by achieving at least seven of the items on this list.
 
18. Declutterize our house completely!
 
19. Learn how to start the lawn-mower. Not cause I really want to mow, but, because its the responsible thing to do.
 
20. Find the perfect bra. Why is that we can put a man on the moon, but we can’t make a bra for every woman’s size and body shape that is comfortable?

 21. Actually pay attention every. time. someone. speaks. to. me.  {Huh, what did you say?}
 
22. Learn how to make a perfect batch of no-bake cookies just like my daddy!
 
23. Read the Bible allthewaythrough.
 
24. Have a really easy, great haircut that is easy to style.
 
25. Be free of my addiction of caffeinated Beverages {Could someone warn the folks at Dr. Pepper that in four short
years there could be a slight decline in monthly sales}.
 
26. Get rid of everything in our house that has not been touched for a year.
 
27. Let my boys be – BOYS. Without fear of injury or something worse!
 
28. Learn more about stuff I know nothing about. Knowledge regarding things like stocks and HTML Code could be very helpful to me some day!
 
29. Cook more. {Enough said}.
 
30. Buy flowers for spring and keep them alive all summer by watering them instead of depending on prayer and God to bring them back to life.
 
31. Find the perfect purse. I have purchased at least twenty perfect purses, yet, they find their way to the bottom of the purse pile when the next ’perfect’ one hops off the shelf and onto my arm.
 
32. Get rid of stuff in the loft that we have not touched since we moved here seven years ago. {Anybody out there have a need for old diaries or one or two or twenty backpacks?}
 
33. Do every. single. thing. on my long term To-Do List. Or just shred the list.
 
34. Be caught up on scrapbooks with NO pictures in the pending basket. After all, someday these boys will be grown and may actually want to take them when they leave.
 
35.  Think. Before. I. Speak. {Sweet Hallelujah, is it possible?}
 
36. Take the boys to Lake Powell to spend a week on a houseboat. We’ve made this trip twice – before kids, mind you – and it is the most relaxing vacation in one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited.
 
37. Have patience.
 
38. Successfully back the van into the garage on the first try. It’s been seven years – and every single time I back in crooked I think about the fact that the guy who built it, (ahem! Glen) designed it just off center. I’m sure his botched calculations are the root of the problem.
 
39. Lose FIVE! sizes. And never find them again as long as I shall live!
 
40. Change my freakin’ attitude about things I have no control over.

WHEW! It’s a really good thing I have three years, five  months, and nine days to get this all figured out. I am no doubt going to be a busy girl.

What about you? Anything you’d like to do before you hit your next ‘milestone’?

Talk amongst yourselves!

It’s Monday and as you know that means another edition of Not Me! Monday.

You know, as in the first day of the week, Monday. Laundry day. The day where I admit to doing all kinds of goofy and embarrassing stuff. Not that I ever do anything goofy, or embarrassing.

No. Not me. 

It wasn’t me who just cleared 28 spam comments from my blog dashboard while wondering how it is that the spammers copied comments from real, live blog readers and posted them as their own.

Spammers.

I don’t get it.

I understand that these sorry saps are trying to drive people to their sites. But, um, there are other ways. Plenty of other ways.

Other ways that do not include leaving SPAM comments on mommy blogs. Because when your comments includes the words ‘while searching for lyrics online’ and ‘this is an awesome post, thanks for posting it for us’, and ‘can you give me some tips on how to have an awesome blog like this one’ um, you can pretty much assume that your comment will never see the light of day.

Spammers.

Get a stinkin’ life.

Do something productive.

Like play words with friends. Or work out. Or Facebook. Or Twitter.

Seriously. Anything productive.

Not that I do any of those things.

Ahem.

How ’bout you? What haven’t you done today?

It has begun.

Or is it began?

The Great Weight Loss Effort of 2010 is underway. On Sunday, I spent the better part of an hour on iTunes purchasing some new workout tunes. Because really what motivates a person to work out more than a good tune. Well, besides the stinkin’ scale of course. But I’m not here to talk about the scale.

Except to say that the scale is of the devil.

That being said, here are 13 great workout tunes that will help you trudge through the monotony. I might run this from time to time, because certainly there are more than thirteen on my iPod. As I shuffle through my entire playlist, I’ll pick the first 13 that strike me as great workout tunes.

1. Electric Boogie (AKA The Electric Slide) – Might sound cheesy, but I love it.

2. Oh Happy Day (BeBe Winans) – Great beat. Good message.

3. Play That Funky Music (Adam Lambert & his guyliner) – Obviously not his biggest fan,  but I give credit where credit is due. I purchased several of his AI performances from iTunes. It was my favorite performance of his.

4. Made To Love (Toby Mac) – Oh. My. Word. I love this one. I was made to love you, I was made to find you, I was made just for you, Made to adore you, I was made to love. And be loved by you. Seriously. You need to get this one.

5. Tell Me What We’re Gonna Do (Joss Stone) – I tell you what I hope we’re gonna do. I hope we’re gonna lose some of this booty. With Joss’ help, it might be a little easier.

6. Stayin’ Alive (Matt Giraud) – Another wonderful performance from American Idol Season um, I don’t remember. Maybe the last one? Whatever. It’s a great tune in the gym, in the car, or when you’re over at a friends house sitting at her counter writing this post while she’s making some gluten-free fresh bread. Which smells yummy by the way.

Sorry. The bread. It got me off track. Now, where was I?

Number seven.

Ah, yes.

7. These Thousand Hills (Third Day) – This isn’t the fastest song in the shuffle, but it puts some pep in my step.

8. Give Me Your Eyes (Brandon Heath) – Brandon Heath can sang. And his song, ‘Give Me Your Eyes’ gives me something to think about in the midst of the madness.

9. Joy & Pain (Rob Base) – This one takes me back. W-A-Y back. Like back when I was young and carefree. And skinny. *Sigh*

10. Ragdoll (Aerosmith) – Love Aerosmith. Steven Tyler and posse can rock it out.

11. Have Fun, Go Mad (Blair) – One of my favorite songs from back in the day. If you don’t know this song, you should go to You Tube and find it. Or Google. Or wherever. It can motivate you to move a little faster no matter what the task. Just ignore the part about “bottles of beer” and think instead about Dr. Pepper.

12. There Is A Way (NewWorldSon) – This is my second favorite song on KLOVE right now. My boys sing along with it every time. Oh, and my favorite song right now is Matt Maher’s new one called ‘Hold Us Together’.

13. Shoop (Salt-N-Pepa) – Can you say 1992, or quite possibly 1993? On your mark, get set, go, let me go, let me shoop, to the next man in the three-piece suit, I spend all my dough, ray me, cutie, Shoop shoop a-doobie like Scoobie Doobie Doo… I could go on and on with this one….

What about you? What’s your favorite work-out tune?

 It’s time for another edition of What I Learned This Week, which is always such an easy post for me because my fountain of knowledge will never, ever run dry. There are lessons to be learned at every turn. For that reason, the words just flow.

I’m sitting here in my big, blue, bloggy chair watching Dancing With The Stars and debating whether or not I should take a couple of aspirins. I rekindled my relationship with the treadmill today and my calves are crying out each time I move. I haven’t been to the gym for like, oh, I don’t know, forever

The first thing I learned is that eating a greasy, fat biscuit with egg, sausage and cheese ON THE WAY to the gym is never a good idea.

Never.

So, with the least amount of movement as possible, here’s the short list of things I learned this week.

• The apple cinnamon jelly at the iHop that I snarl my nose at is actually really, really good. One should try new things from time to time.
• Diet Dr. Pepper? It ain’t so bad neither.
• Apparently 484 is my lucky number. And by lucky, I mean REALLY lucky because the odds were um, not in my favor, but still I won a really great prize over at the Ultimate Blog Party.
• Spatchcock chicken is chicken that has been flattened by cutting the backbone and then opened up flat for grilling. Just saying that word cracks me up!
• When you spend 33 minutes on an exercise bike burning a measly 240 calories, you will hesitate to eat for the rest of the day.
• I wantneed an iPad.
• Ziti, the frozen kind from SAMS, will allow you to have ONE SINGLE DINNER with no one bartering about how many bites or how much more they have to eat. Hallelujah. And Amen.
• If by chance Metro 911 system ever reconfigures every. single. address. on your street, you can expect a great deal of aggravation.
• And speaking of aggravation, you should be very careful when posting to a social networking site from the iPhone because as I’ve mentioned several times here at FITP, Inc. the little keyboard is not conducive to fat fingers therefore causing words like ‘list’ to come out as ‘lust’ and ‘post’ to come out as ‘pist’.

Now, how’s that for a random list?

If you’re linking up this week, please remember to link back here to my blog AND be sure to link to your actual WILTW post and not your blog in general. Pretty please.

Mkay, thanks!

It’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon. McDaddy took Stevie to a Scout activity and my sweet Alex is on the couch giggling at the antics of Tom and Jerry. He spent the last twenty minutes wollerin’ me in my big, blue, bloggy chair.

Am I the only one out there that uses the term ‘wollerin’?

When that game got old, he asked if he could watch Tom and Jerry, so I figured I should get started on my Not Me! Monday post so I’m not up half the night blogging after church. (As if I ever stay up half the night blogging, ahem.)

-First, it WAS NOT ME who TOTALLY FREAKIN’ FORGOT to link up to Not Me! Monday last week after being Number one and Number two the previous two weeks. Instead, I was Number 58.

-I will not be up half the night blogging because I will be up half the night selecting some songs from iTunes for my new work-out playlist that I will use STARTING TODAY IF IT KILLS ME in the gym, because I did NOT drop my jaw at my annual appointment on Friday when the scale laughed at me.

Stupid scale.

-I’m not real big on the whole self-diagnosis thing, so there’s no way I mentioned to McDaddy that my ear was infected, or my eardrum was busted. All I know is that somethins’ not right.  (The grammar police have a big time over here at FITP, Inc.)

-Minutes later, I did not ask McDaddy to “look under my chin and tell me if that red place look like poison ivy” because I’ve not been anywhere to actually ‘get’ poison ivy. Still its an aggravation and I’d almost bet the farm that it is, in fact, poison ivy.

-I’m not an emotional type, so it couldn’t have been me who constantly wiped tears this morning as we were reminded of God’s grace and God’s blessings throughout the twenty year history of our church. We ARE for sure blessed!

-On the way to church this morning, there is no way that we drove half-way there before realizing that we left the dessert and salad for the homecoming dinner at home on the counter.

-I keep three (hear me, THREE) calendars, so it makes no sense that anyone with THREE FRIGGIN CALENDARS would arrive 45 minutes EARLY for youngest child’s Doctor appointment and then be scrambling to get out of there in time to pick up the oldest kid from school because the appointment was scheduled for 1pm instead of 12pm.

Seriously, no sense whatsoever.

And yes, I said friggin.

Don’t judge.

-And just when I didn’t need ONE MORE THING to occupy my time, there’s no way I went and let myself get hooked on Twitter. If you too, are hooked on Twitter, you can hook up with me at @JulieAtInmates.

-I most certainly never complain when McDaddy is out of town on business, but if I did, I’d be complaining because he is gone again this week.

Dang.

- And speaking of Twitter, it WAS ME who dropped her jaw on Saturday morning when I clicked on Twitter to discover that I had won a prize at the Ultimate Blog Party sponsored by 5 Minutes For Mom. A really cool prize that my boys will love!

That’s enough stuff I didn’t do for one week. Head over to MckMama‘s place for more Not Me! Monday posts.

I was totally prepared to compile an extremely long list of things I learned this week.

Then, I visited Jo-Lynne to grab her link and discovered that she will not be doing a Things I Learned This Week post. I thought I might still post my own Things I Learned This Week because? Did you hear me when I said extremely and long?

I was serious about that.

But I thought about it for a second and decided that I could wait a week and post an extremely long honkin’ list of stuff next week instead.

So.

That decision means that I must come up with something else for today because the eight of you that stop by every morning ready to claim your daily dose of crazy would no doubt show up on the Inmates To Playdates doorstep and be highly disappointed if I didn’t post today.

So.

Man, did I mention that I come from a long line of loud talkers?

I basically said all that to say that I’ll be posting a list of Things I Hope To Do instead of Things I Learned this week.

THINGS I HOPE TO DO TODAY

Take the boys to see the new Chipmunks movie.

THINGS I HOPE TO DO NEXT MONTH

Help McDaddy finish the great basement remodeling project of 2009 2010 (I realize this might be a lofty ambition especially since McDaddy will be doing 94% of the work!) The other 6% excites the crap out of me (picking paint colors, carpet choices, painting, and rearranging the furniture!) though.

Clean out every! basket! in! this! house! (All 137 of them)

Clean out every drawer, cabinet, and closet at the McResidence getting rid of things that we no longer need/want, then taking the stuff to the Goodwill.

Renew my Y membership so that I can,

Reacquaint myself with the treadmill.

Rekindle my relationship with the elliptical

and Relight the fire within me to take off excess pounds.

THINGS I HOPE TO DO NEXT YEAR

Lose at least 40 pounds.

Find a hair gel and hairspray that I can’t live without. (Any suggestions?) I know this seems silly but it is so true!

Be in my bed ready to sleep by midnight every night!

Work on my stupid temper.

Try not to use the word stupid when I get frustrated or aggravated. (Just keepin’ it real!)

Now, where to start?

I’ll try to keep you posted throughout the year to update you on my progress!

Last week I mentioned that the fate of What I Learned This Week was up in the air because Jo-Lynne wasn’t sure if she would continue it. Well, (cupping hands around mouth and yelling loudly) I’M HAPPY TO REPORT THAT THE WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK PARTY WILL CONTINUE ON, OVER AT MUSINGS OF A HOUSEWIFE!

It appears that we too will party on, internets!

Excuse me while I find my inside voice.

It has been another exhausting week. I know many all of y’all are tired of my constant talking whining about being overworked and overpaid. Oh, wait I don’t get paid. How ’bout lets just make that overworked.

As I was saying, I keep hoping that next week will be slower. There doesn’t appear to be end in sight though between the PTA, The School Consolidation, The Ladies Retreat, Stevie’s first-ever-report on The Camel, The Fall Party at Stevie’s School, and of course the daily responsibilities here at the company McResidence where I manage housekeeping, nutrition, discipline, entertainment, education, the mail room, appointments, pharmaceutical needs, and hygiene. It’s no wonder I never stop.

My poor van looks like a hurricane has tossed its contents about and I am in desperate need of rekindling my romance with the treadmill at the gym.

But that’s probably enough complaining for one post.

Let me get on with the point.

As if there is one.

Things I Learned This Week… in no particular order…

1. A first grader gets his clothes more muddier at recess than a Kindergartner does.

2. After a little inquiry as to the muddy clothes after the third. day. in. a. row., my first-grader informed me that “the girls chase him everyday and I have to run so fast to get away from them that sometimes I fall.” Wellalrightythen!

3. Fry Pies made in the Amish Country are delightful. A few of the gals on the bus trip this weekend, all bought a dozen pies. I bought one. I have regretted that decision ever since the first bite of fry pie met my lips.

4. First Graders have a LOT of homework.

5. I learned the hard way that when you are on a bus-trip and you pack a bag with a change of clothes, adequate underwear, extra socks and loads of other stuff, you should not leave the bag on the floor because there is a very good chance that someone, somewhere will spill something all over the floor, drenching the bottom of the bag, along with its contents. That whole scenario will remind you that you knew better.

I realize many of you are probably scratching your head at the words ‘adequate’ and ‘underwear’ in that last sentence. I’ll just say that it is one of my many quirks and leave it at that. Only if you know me, you know that I hardly ever leave it at that. The fact is that I never leave home without at least one pair of underwear. I know some of you are hollering, “TMI!”

6. I learned that I will obviously share almost anything on the blog.

7. Nielsen Ratings have no problem calling before 9:00 am on a Saturday morning. If you know me, you know that I detest callers before 9:00 am, most especially on a Saturday morning. Period. I was polite however, because I am being paid by the good folks at Nielsen to complete a survey about my television viewing habits in November. It is safe to say I will not be available during the week of November 12thbecause I will be busy recording the hundreds of shows I watch in my little white viewing book. Oh little TiVo, don’t fail me now!

8. I have been looking for the CARS character, Giovanni for months at the Mart of Walls and the store with the big, red, bulls eye. Apparently, the car is not labeled with the name, “Giovanni.” It is labeled “Ferrari” and it is red. And, if you just so happen to find it at the flea market in the Amish Country, you can count on paying at least double for it. You know, because the Amish folk have to pay for their horses and these days, times are tough for everyone!

9. When your kid has been challenged to peddle 25 tubs of cookie dough to win a ride to McDonalds for lunch in a Hummer Limousine, you will go to the ends of the Earth, (or at least Facebook) to find enough jokers people to pay $14.00 for 3 pounds of cookie dough.

10. A nice even list makes me smile.

That’s it for this week, folks!

——-

This post is linked to Jo-Lynne’s What I Learned This Week Bloggy Carnival!

It’s been one heck of a week.

Between school consolidation meetings, McDaddy going back to work after successfully reconstituting after the stupid deployment, pre-school starting, fresh grounded faith and an endless list of DVRed material that needed tending  to, I am pooped.

Did I mention that pre-school starts today?

For my almost-four-year-old?

It’s almost more than I can comprehend.

Man, I know it sounds so cliche’ but seriously, where does the time go? Wow. You’d think by now I’d be ready to enjoy some free time, but I’ve learned this week that I’m not as ready as I thought I’d be.

I’ve also learned that when you’re having dinner with the girls at Logans before the fresh grounded faith conference and the group leader gives you a wristband required for admittance, you should probably make for sure that the wristband is on your wrist or at the very least in your purse, or else you might end up leaving it on the table at the restaurant.

Oh, and just in case you are planning a trip to Krispy Kreme doughnuts anytime soon, you should know it is cheaper to purchase a dozen than it is to purchase half-a-dozen. Unfortunately buying more = eating more. Just sayin.

And lastly, when your hubby has a heap, ahem, I mean JEEP that happens to be his hobby, you should be aware that JEEP is actually an acronym for ‘Just empty every pocket”.

And speaking of McDaddy…

He introduced me to a great web-site. It’s great if you’re in search of some great entertainment. It’s called People of Walmart (dot com).

Sweet mercy, I laughed hysterically. There are pages and pages of crazy people. It’s a wonder I got today’s blog post written. Me and the crazy? We are great friends.

Oh, and one more thing.

I’ve learned that after a six-month deployment, 2-3 night away business trips are not that big of a deal.

That’s it.

Head over to Musings Of A Housewife for more What I Learned This Week posts.

Can you believe it?

We made it through the alphabet. I’m a bit sad because finishing up the alphabet on Thursday Thirteen with the letter Z means that I will actually have to get creative with my Thursday Thirteen posts now. You know, other than thinking of some creative way to work the Saturn Sky in to each week’s post. Going through the alphabet meant that I could keep a  running list of words in my purse to use on their particular week. Each post was written after many weeks of brainstorming in my free time.

Or while sitting in traffic thinking of Q words or U words.

I guess all good things must come to an end though.

So, off we go.

1. ZINGER – Anything involving chocolate and icing is my friend. In other words, me and the zinger are friends.

2. ZAMBONI – The big machine that smooths the ice at the ice rink. I just love saying it.

3. ZOO – My favorite animal at the zoo is the giraffe. The thought of towering over all those other animals would be cool.

4. ZUMBA – I took Zumba for a number of months. I SHOULD still be doing Zumba. It is fun and provides a great workout.

5. ZERO – I have zero daughters. And I have accepted it.

6. ZACHARY – One of our six nephews. Isn’t he a cutie? At two years old, he is a huge Yankee fan. I wish Zachary and his family lived closer to us.

7. ZEST – Keen enjoyment.

8. ZIT – Nastiness. Fortunately, I only deal with one about every 27 days.

9. ZODIAC – I am a Sagittarius. I don’t have a lot of belief in the zodiac. On any given day, I can read my horoscope and find something so completely ridiculous, I laugh. Other days, it is right on. I tend to believe they assign those horoscope thingies at random. The only sign I worry about is one that says, Wrong Way!

10. ZEBRA – I’ve shared this picture before, but it is worth sharing again.

11. ZINNIAS – My favorite flower is the gerber daisy, but I like other bright flowers like the zinnia.

12. ZEAL – I think it is obvious that I have zeal and zest.

13. ZOOM - As in zeal and zest to zoom around town in this

*Pumping fists in air in celebration of making it through the whole alphabet for my weekly Thursday Thirteen posts*

Yay! We did it!

I’m open for ideas for upcoming Thursday Thirteen posts. Any suggestions?