A Year in the Life

My fam loves pizza.  A few summers ago I think I averaged cooking at least 2 homemade pizzas a week. I like homemade pizzas better because I know exactly what is on it & can load it with different kinds of vegetables & the people will gobble it up.  Tonight, I went into uncharted territory.  Henry is trying to lean up for lacrosse season.  Being 16, it shouldn't take him that long.  I hate teenage boys.  They can burn 1000 calories by just blinking.  That's fair, said no momma ever.  I've been on a diet most of my life & I'm still trying to lose baby weight I gained when I was pregnant with Henry.  Granted he is 16, but I still have about 10 pounds I need to get off.  I'm thinking at this point it may just be a permanent part of the bod, boo.  Anyway...  Henry started eating much leaner last week, aaannnddd he lost 5 pounds in one week.  (Insert huge eye roll here.)  All he did was cut down on his...

I don't make resolutions.  I used to, but wisely I quit.  I figured when I kept breaking them after a few weeks or months that something had to change, and it had to start with my thoughts and actions.  Here are a few of my failed resolutions: Don't failures look so much prettier when they look like that?  Still, they are places where I fell short, and that is where the most learning takes place.  What I really learned is that I needed to be a person of action instead of talk.  Talk is cheap.  It's easy to say I'm going to do something, but the follow-through is another issue.  I can say I'll love my fam, but unless I actually do it the words are meaningless.  I figured what was the use in making resolutions if it was all talk and no action.  I had to make lifestyle changes.  Instead of just wanting to read my bible, workout & lose weight, I made changes to make sure I did.  I started by putting things on my ca...

I even asked nicely.  I have sacrifices I need to make.  Just kidding.  In case you didn't know, I'm allergic to alcohol.  Yes, it includes all kinds of alcohol.  Even if it's clear without sulfides I will have a reaction.  It's really pretty.  Think temporary hives & swelling.  Yeah, it's great. Last night I went out to dinner with a group of girlfriends.  It was hot & humid...duh, it's summer in Alabama.  My hair was exceptionally big, but that's another story.  I asked my waiter if I could have a virgin margarita.  It's a limeade with salt, but hey, I was in the mood for it.  It was so pretty when he brought it out.  It was limey & I really wanted to use the glass as a salt lick, but decided to use my manners instead. The first sip was so refreshing.  After about 3 sips, I started wondering if there was some alcohol in the drink.  I was starting to laugh a little  more, and I noti...

dance /dans/ verb 1 . move rhythmically to music, typically following a set sequence of steps. "their cheeks were pressed together as they danced" synonyms: sway ,  trip ,  twirl ,  whirl ,  pirouette ,  gyrate ;  More 2 . (of a person) move in a quick and lively way. "Sheila danced in gaily" synonyms: caper ,  cavort ,  frisk ,  frolic ,  skip ,  prance ,  gambol ,  jig ;  More noun 1 . a series of movements that match the speed and rhythm of a piece of music. I grew up dancing.  There is something about telling a story through movement and music that is cathartic and beautiful.  The story is told from the dancer's finger tips to the end of their toes.  Dancing requires core strength, bursts of power and balance.  Like all g...

I'm hard on my stuff.  I don't mean to be, but I am.  I guess I fall into the work hard/play hard category.  (or at least that's what I'm telling myself.)  It's something I didn't mean to pass onto the chicks, but I did.  Ugh, can we have anything around here that's not chipped or broken?  Feel free to giggle at the pic on the left, because it's pretty funny when you see it for the first time. Speaking of chipped or broken stuff...I have a love/hate relationship with my fitbit.  It's great because I roughly know how many steps I take a day & the amount of calories I burn.  I'm super competitive and it allows me to compete against others while making me get off my booty to do it.  At my age I need all the exercise I can get.  The muscles are not holding their tone as long as they used to, and they have to be worked pretty hard.  My first fitbit I had wouldn't keep a charge after a few months so the company sent me a replaceme...

We wear pink on Wednesdays. Suck.  That's right I said it.  Mean people suck.  I'm fuming right now!  My heart beating like a drum & hands shaking kind of mad.  Mean people, ugh!  I asked my friend if I could tell her story here about her encounter with some mean kids & I have her ok, but I'm changing her name. Jana is 24 weeks pregnant.  Not all of us are blessed with wonderful, glowing, easy pregnancies.  Some of us are sick and struggle through the 40 weeks of growing another human being inside our bodies.  Jana is one of these lucky few.  Did I mention she is also chasing a 2 year old around?  Talk about compounding your sickness and exhaustion. It's summer in Alabama, and if you live here you know that means hot and humid.  Add in that it's been raining a ton, which we need, but it jacks the humidity close to 100% & makes it feel even hotter.  Being comfortable while also trying to chase said toddl...

Several of my posts have been very serious and, hopefully, a little thought provoking lately & so I'm offering my humiliation up to make y'all laugh.  Laughter is good for the soul.   “Life is worth living as long as there's a laugh in it.”   ~L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables I spend just a little bit of time sitting.  I sit when I work; I sit when I sub; I sit when I'm driving children all over the place; and I sit when I write.  It's amazing that my behind is not flat as a pancake.  This is not really about my behind, it's about my new desk chair. I've wanted one for some time now, but just now purchased it.  It doesn't go with my decor or other furniture at all, but I don't care.  It's an exerball chair.  I like it a lot except for one thing, it's not made for short people.  When I first put the chair together, well, when Henry fixed what I had messed up, I was so excited, but noticed it sat kind of low to the ground. ...

Y'all know I love Zumba & Pilates.  I've recently added muscle works & barre classes into the rotation.  I needed to do something to change up my routine & confuse my muscles.  I hate working out with weights by myself, so the muscle works classes are great because misery loves company.  (even though I think my instructors are part Terminator...)   Barre is a class I love to hate.  It is so stinking hard.  My muscles burn & shake all over the place.  It's not pretty. I have had a personal goal for myself for the last few months.  I wanted to be able to do "boy" triceps push ups.  For you to understand this goal I need to back up & explain some things about me.  I have strong legs.  My mom used to tell me I had thighs Bo Jackson would be proud of.  :/  That is just what every teenage girl wants to hear.  They are tree trunks though.  My father-in-law told me that my booty looks like JL...

My post went up on my sorority blog yesterday & want to send you over to read it.   It has a recipe in it...Something easy & and my fam gobbled it up.  I'm all over easy & kid friendly.  Know what I mean jellybean?  Well, gotta go!  About to run to go do Zumba...gotta workout so I can eat later.  Yea!  I get to move my booty!  Celebrating Life! ~ashley

...or 20 minutes under my electric blanket on high.  I am sore.  Not just a little bit sore, my whole body hurts, and I feel every one of my 40 years.  Well, my fingers don't hurt, so I guess it can't be considered my whole body.  I decided to really push myself with the cardio today because I'm not going to be able to workout tomorrow.  :(  I figured if I doubled up today it would make up a little bit for not being able to exercise tomorrow, and maybe I wouldn't feel as guilty.  Since I may not be able to move, the guilt will have to take a back seat. I am living out the words 'stove-up'.  For those of you too young or not from the south, it means that whenever I stand after I've been sitting or laying down for any period of time, I hurt until all my muscles have loosened.  It hurts to just change sitting positions right now.  3 hours of Zumba will do that, especially if you have a bum knee.  As you ...

I am a hot sweaty mess.  Welcome to summer in the south!  It's the humidity that gets me.  It doesn't have to be that hot, say 85 degrees, but you add in 80% to 90% humidity & it suddenly feels like 95 outside.  Yuck.  We had a swim meet tonight & I was in the full force sun for the entire meet.  Some clouds or a little breeze would have been nice, or maybe a tent, or since we were the visiting team, getting to spend part of the meet in the chairs that had shade...but it was all a no go.  Oh well. You know those women who don't sweat?  Yeah, well I'm not one of them.  It pours from me until I look like I've been dumped in a pool or just stepped out of the shower.  My head even sweats.  I know it's an attractive thought.  Today I did Zumba, (it was great) and when I was done my hair was wet and my entire shirt was drenched.  None of the other women in the class even looked like they broke a sweat.  The...

I hate you, you know that.  I hate how you make me feel.  I know I've given birth 4 times.  I know my body has changed a bunch because of those births and time and gravity.  I know that I'm 40.  But I don't feel 40, I forget that I'm not 18 anymore, or even 21.  You used to make me feel beautiful.  You would bring out the best in me, and now you throw my shortcomings in my face.  Couldn't you be a little nicer?  It's not fair that you haven't changed at all, you look exactly the same after 20 years.  Now granted, you have spent a lot of time in my drawer because I was too overweight to wear you, but I really would like to look the same as I did 20 years ago when I wore you for the first time.  I would like to have my pre-baby body back when everything was tight and in the right place.  I have decided I don't like old, lumpy, and frumpy. I will wear you before the summer is out.  Maybe not in front of anyone...

So, the whole weight loss thing has been going pretty well.  I started my diet the day I started this blog...on the day of the big 4-0, so I'm almost 5 months in.  I don't weigh myself, I'm very number sensitive, so I'm going by how my clothes fit.  Pretty pleased so far.  I haven't made it to stick thin, I don't think I'll ever be that skinny, but I can dream.  I've done fad diets.  They work great as long as you stay on the diet, but as soon as you quit the diet, the weight usually comes back on.  So I've stopped doing the diet thing.  I'm doing the app thing.  It couldn't be easier. The app is called 'My Fitness Pal'.  I love it, it's my bestest friend.  I can plug in how much I work out & how much I eat & it figures out everything for me.  It should be called dieting for dummies.  Now it has also been helping that I'm burning as many calories I take in 6 days a week....

My side of the fam has never had a problem with having a flat bootie.  Quite the opposite actually, we tend to pack a little too much booty especially if we've gained weight.  I was excited when everyone started to love J.Lo & Beyone's booties because it meant curves were in.  I think the appropriate term is 'bootylicious'.  Hopson has the flattest bootie I have ever seen.  His pants sag in the back because he literally has nothing.  Luckily, since he has nothing and I have too much all our children are pretty normal.  They have the potential to build some glutes if they want, but if they don't it will be good too. Elizabeth & I were shopping today & found these at a shop, called Serendipity, that a friend owns.  We had a HUGE laugh at the thought of people actually wearing underware that have bootie pads in them.  I asked DeDa (that's what we call Samantha, the owner of Serendipity) if people actually bought them...

...Again.  Momma was right about a lot of things.  I don't know if she was winging it, which is how I feel a lot of the time, or if she actually knew all the things she did.     My Momma & Daddy circa 1991 I know you're asking yourself what she was right about.  Dieting...what else.  (My momma was a true size 0/2, so she knew how to watch her weight.)  I'm pretty focused on that part of my life right now since I really need to drop some poundage.  I've tried several different fad diets over the years, and what you read about them is spot on.  Once you stop doing eating their way, the weight, plus a little more comes back on.  It totally stinks, and who wants to live without carbs or fat, that just takes all the joy out of eating. You know what momma said?  Watch what you put in your mouth; watch your portion size; and make sure you're not taking in more calories than you're burning each day.  WOW, what a nov...

The view from the bottom Ok, mountain may be stretching it a bit if you compare it to mountains out west...it's more like a a really steep hill.  Steep being the key word.  It's .3 of a mile straight up.  If I were to rate it on a ski scale, it would be a good blue, even though it is short.  Once I walk it I feel like the Queen of the Mountain.  The fastest I've ever walked the hill is 5 1/2 minutes, and I consider it an accomplishment to make it to the top.  Rounding the first curve I talked my friend Ashley into walking the hill last week with me.  I told her to get ready, it's a hard hill.  Half way up she realized that I wasn't kidding.  From a car it doesn't seem that steep, but when you're walking it, your quads and hamstrings scream at you that you must be out of  your mind.  It's so hard on my breaks I usually have to get new ones on my car either every year of every year and a...

I really don't like being on a diet.  It's not fun.  I like to eat too  much.  I exercise, but I would need to exercise for hours for it all the balance out.  Along with restricting my caloric intake, I have started exercising multiple hours a day.  I figure it's the only way I'm going to get the rest of this weight off.  I like walking with my friend, Ashley.  We have great conversations and try to solve a few problems along the way.  Much better to exercise with a friend than alone! I would love to be back to my high school weight of 108 or my college weight of 112.  I haven't seen either one of those numbers in a long time...Ugh!  Hopson was so sweet the other day, he said he could tell I've lost weight.  He may have just been trying to brown nose me.  (just kidding, he was very complimentary.)  I am trying very hard to get in shape...I have my archenemy to conquer!  In a few weeks will in...

On my birthday I did myself a favor & decided to start a diet.  Yeah, I know, what a great birthday present.  It's not that I'm obese, just pleasantly plump, and to be honest I don't want to be.  Because there is no time like the present, I started my diet, and guess what...there's an app for that!  It tracks my calorie intake and exercise. It's really great, and it's a free app.  It's called 'My Fitness Pal'.  Learn it...Use it...Love it! I'm gauging my weight loss by my archenemy...my ski pants.  I'm not worrying about how much I weigh (number sensitivity here) but how my clothes fit, and in particular my ski pants.  Last year I went to put them on & couldn't get them completely zipped up.  Ugh, I hate ski pants.  You know why?  They are made for people who are stick thin & they have no Lycra in them.  Lycra is my best friend.  I don't need it in large quantities, just between 2%-4%. ...