Max

Well, I made the leap today and found my family a dog. We are now the proud owners of a carkie (cairn terrier/yorkie mix) named Max.

He is ADORABLE. He is so sweet and perfect with the boys. Addison and Austin haven't met him yet, so that should be interesting. So far, he's just been checking everything out. We did give him a bath, flea treatment (just in case, although we didn't see any), and a good brushing.

I'll post pictures in the next day or so. He really is cute. And free. That was the best part. Gotta love Craig's List. It took quite a while for us to find what we wanted for free or really cheap, but we finally did! I'm wondering if we should really name him Maximillion to stick with the whole "ending with an n" thing. Hmmm.....

Inappropriately Chubby

That's how I would currently describe myself. I'm taking the plunge here and telling the whole world (well, or at least my 3 readers) that I seriously need to stop painfully stuffing my midsection and butt into my jeans. And my pajama pants. And my undies, for that matter. It's just so scary. And like I said above, inappropriate.

If you know me at all, you probably know that I've always been thin. It's true. It's just never been an issue for me, really. Well, it's an issue now. I've been pregnant or nursing or postpartum since 2006, so needless to say, the metabolism/hormone combination has taken a good beating. So much so, in fact, that I believe I no longer have any metabolism. Is that possible? Is it possible to take 3 days to digest a meal? I think it may be.

Anyway, here's the deal. I'm not pregnant, nursing, or postpartum anymore. I AM planning on swimming this summer though. In an actual bathing suit. I am also planning on bending over and not ripping the butt of my pants. I would also like to bend over and not black out. I'm dangerously close to that last one. I think I saw "floaters" yesterday when I reached down to pick up Austin's burp rag. So sad.

I'm the type of person that will whine about something for awhile. I will also have good intentions of accomplishing goals, although it sometimes takes me some time to get going. However, when I'm ready, I do it. Well, I'm done whining and ready to go. I have never been okay with buying bigger clothes. That's dumb. I mean, come on. Am I seriously going to spend money on new clothes because I cannot stop stuffing my face? How ridiculous is that? Like I said before, I just stuff my face and then stuff my butt and other surrounding squishy parts into my regular clothes. When that no longer works, I stop. Although, I would LOVE it if someone decided that maternity clothes were "in" for regular people. That would be AWESOME.

As of tomorrow, I'm beginning South Beach. I'm ready and excited. I will admit that I have gorged myself all day today. I mean GORGED. I feel a little nauseous as a matter of fact. Again, so sad.

Well, I just thought I would share. Since I'm SURE you'll be SO curious to know how it's going, I will be posting about the whole dang thing. :)

Oh, and one more thing - I already exercise alot, and will continue to do so. I'm actually starting training for the Tulsa Run that's held in October, which is a 15k. It's just that from now on, I will reward myself with a highly tasty celery stick after working out. Instead of a highly tasty candy bar.

Have a good night!

Oprah

I think I have a love/hate relationship with her show. I used to watch her quite frequently, but it's actually been a few years since I was any kind of "faithful" viewer.

I had the idea a week or two ago to start recording the shows to watch at night occasionally. I'm kind of wondering if it was such a great idea.

Let me give you a fair warning: if you haven't watched this week, I'm about to spoil your fun. A few nights ago, I decided to watch the episode about motherhood. I mean, I figured this could be really great, you know? Oprah said they were talking about how mothers REALLY feel, etc. I was so excited. Fast forward about 3 minutes into the program and I was completely let down. If you've read my blog long at all, you know I keep things pretty real around here. I have never claimed to have it all together, and I certainly have never pretended like motherhood is perfect every day. BUT - I was really disappointed that there were so many women "confessing" that being a mother just really sucks. I couldn't believe it!!!

I began to wonder how I would feel if Logan was sitting next to me on the couch. Or how the children of these women would feel if they heard what their mothers were saying. I'm not talking about things like admitting that you don't bathe your kid every day. That's just real life sometimes. I'm also not talking about the feeling of being alone and overwhelmed that we get occasionally - that's totally normal! I'm talking about complaining about your kids and how they're just a big pain in the butt. I'm talking about the mothers who said that they need to practically be drunk to handle their kids. And they were laughing the whole time! And so was the audience!

I did learn something from Oprah that night (and the rest of this week, for that matter). First of all, I learned that I won't be watching her show unless she's interviewing someone super interesting. I didn't make my decision off this one episode. The rest of the week was quite disturbing, too, in my opinion. Second, I learned that I am so thankful for the fact that I thoroughly enjoy my children. No, they are not perfect all of the time. Not by a long shot. But would I ever wish they were "out of my hair"? Never! I also learned that I am so thankful that I have a great group of "mom friends" who feel the same way. I hope that the moms who spoke on Oprah can find some friends like mine. Maybe if they step back and see their children as blessings instead of burdens, they won't feel so frustrated!

So thank you Oprah. Thank you for helping me realize that when you surround yourself with positive people, you'll be much less likely to complain so much. Thank you for helping me realize that I truly have better things to do with my time (well, at least most of the time).

Yoga

So......I tried yoga tonight. For the first time - ever.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but just in case: I am not coordinated. Oh - and I have no balance either. Not a good combo when you're attempting yoga. I was laughing so hard at myself as I was doing tree poses and warrior stuff. I was also making a mental note to NEVER do yoga outside of my living room. I wouldn't even let Jason come in and watch me. He may never look at me the same way again. I just couldn't have that, you know?

Anyway, I think I'm going to stick with it. Without going into a bunch of boring schmoring weight loss crap, let's just say that I need to lose a few pounds. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that 15 pounds would not be too much. Therefore, I'm doing running/walking intervals 5 days a week and now I'm going to do yoga 3 days a week, too. According to Denise Austin, I can be fit in 21 days. We'll see I guess. I mean, I would REALLY hate to embarrass myself in a bathing suit this summer. With that being said, I've decided to believe Denise Austin. She better be right.

Oh - and one more HUGE piece of news: I no longer drink Diet Coke. Good grief, I really never thought I would say that. I seriously hated the first 3 or 4 days, but I'm happy to report that I'm no longer gnashing my teeth. According to the lady from Flat Belly Diet (no, I don't have the book - I saw it on Oprah's website), you can lose quite a bit of flab by cutting out a few things for a week. Soda was one of them. I don't know what the other things were. I pretty much ignored the rest of it. :) ANYWAY - I'm just a water girl now. Like my friend Mellany pointed out, I guess I will no longer have Coke Reward codes to enter. Therefore, I will apologize now to my friends and family. You will no longer be getting fabulous Coke Reward gifts for Christmas. You will have the pleasure of not sitting next to a fat girl by the Christmas tree. Take your pick.

Ok, that's all the mind-stimulating information I have for you today. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Addison's Update

I'm SO excited to report that I took Addison to the pediatric cardiologist today, and she's doing great! The hole in her heart has closed, which they were pretty sure would happen. The pulmonic stenosis (the "sticking" and narrowing of the valve) has actually improved, which they did NOT think would happen! The best case scenario that they gave me was that it would not get any worse. That's all they were hoping for. That would have been fine, as she would not require surgery with the problem being at that level, but I'm really excited that it's actually healing.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers! We don't even have to go back for a whole year - and that's just for another routine checkup. Yeah!!