I Thought They'd NEVER leave!

Ok, I love my little family, but when Jason told me he was taking the girls to his parents house in Rockford today so I could have some time to myself, I was overjoyed to say the least. He has been so busy with the new company this week and with other freelance work as well that I've basically been on call with Juliana and the baby 24 hours a day. Plus, Ava chose this week to have erratic sleeping patterns, getting up every two hours all night- and yesterday she decided she would not go down for a nap the ENTIRE DAY. I honestly dont know how she stayed awake for over 12 hours but she would not sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time. Needless to say, over the course of this week I had made a smooth transition from mommy into bonafide zombie so I am so completely happy to have a day for ME ME ME!!!
The three of them left a little after 1 pm and they won't be back until later tonight. So far, I've managed to exercise for a full hour without anyone interupting me to pour them juice or help them on the potty. I've gotten to take a long, hot shower instead of sitting in my sweaty workout clothes for half the afternoon. I've also started taking all my old skinny clothes out of the garage and washing the funky garage smell out of them. Seriously, it's like opening Christmas gifts to see my old clothes again. I have some things that I bought last spring right before I found out I was pregnant so I had totally forgoten I even owned them. Some clothes have the tags still on!
Now I'm going to lounge around and do some stretching while I watch some tv completely unsuitable for three year old viewing. I'm either going to watch my 12 Monkeys dvd or the original Terminator movie (which I've never seen.) I've also got Wednesday's episode of Angel beckoning from my TIVO. I heard it was really great and has Andrew, one of my favorite Buffy characters aside from Spike, guest starring. Quite frankly, it had better be great because this seaon of Angel has been rather lackluster and I'm coming dangerously close to losing my faith in Joss. And that's saying a lot for me to doubt Joss Whedon becuase I was a rabid fan of Buffy all the way unti the end. Even when people were calling season 6 and 7 disasterous, my loyalty remained true. I sit at home and watch my Firefly dvd set with a tear in my eye for the amazing show that will never again be because Fox would rather air crappy shows like animals attacking or police chases on Friday nights instead of Joss' masterful storytelling.

But I digress. I must get back to my me-day if I want to do all these things and then take a nap before the cavalry arrives back home again. Yay!

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I am so tired that I feel like I could just shrivel up inside myself until I become a tiny dried up little pea. I'd elaborate but this is all I have time to write before somebody in this house is screaming for me again.

Things are Looking Up

Ok, I've calmed down since my rant the other day. I think I should just stop reading about politics for a while but it's so hard to avoid being an election year and all. On another note, I'm quite pleased with myself since I lost 5 pounds in the past two weeks! Yay me! That's 30 pounds of the 45 pregnancy pounds I put on. I've been doing my step aerobics and Pilates every single day and it's hard but it's completely worth it. I'm so glad that summer is still months away although I'd love to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight by my birthday on March 5th.

A Sad Sad State

Blah. After last night's State of the Union address I'm feeling really depressed. I'm so sad about where our country is going and about the people who are leading us. Politics make me so angry in general but I don't think I've every been so upset as I am at our current administration right now. Just when I think it can't get any more ludicrous I'm proven wrong again. I really love the country that I live in, but I'm so disappointed in our government. For example, this proposed constitutional ammendment to "protect" marriage -- basically denying gay people the right to get married. Seriously, what are people afraid of? Are gay people really that scary? Why are we protecting Britney Spears' right to be married for 55 hours but we won't allow a committed gay couple to get married? I was really disgusted by all the people applauding this. I don't understand how gay marriage affects anyone besides the two people in the relationship. It certainly doesn't affect my life or take away from my commitment to my marriage at all. I think that people who get married frivolously without understanding the idea of commitment are much more damaging to the so-called sanctity of marriage than anything else. Is is just misinformation and ignorance that makes people so afraid? Any argument for marriage being only for men and women is rooted in religion which I thought was "supposed" to be separate from government in this country.

Blah. I could go on and on about all the other things the President said that made me angry but I'd be here all day and then I wouldn't feel any better about it when I was done either. I want things to change but I'm not very hopeful that they will. People seem to be blinded by all kinds of fears these days. I want to believe that we are a country of good people and for the most part I still feel like that is true. I just fear that there are more ignorant, elitist, bigots in this country than I ever imagined and that just makes me depressed. I hardly have the energy to be angry anymore because I'm just sad.

The Old Me is in Here Somewhere...

Well, I'm slowly continuing to shrink, although not as quickly a I would like. After I had Juliana, I only "sort of" dieted and didn't do much exercise other than a bit of Pilates and yoga (which I was just learning at the time) and I dropped all 40 pounds in about 4 to 5 months. This time, I don't really feel like taking that long to return to my old body so I've been exercising a lot harder and eating much less- especially compared to how much I ate while carrying a nine pound baby! Anyway, two weeks after having Ava I had lost about 24 pounds (out of 45 total) and at four weeks I've only lost a pound and a half more. Grrr! The Pilates exercises have really flattened my previously huge belly but I'm still just bigger than I was before so my clothes don't fit yet, which is unfortunate because I really really really like my clothes. Well, anyway, my Dad bought me an aerobics step for Christmas and I just started doing that about 30-45 minutes every day starting this past Monday. I'm thinking things should start picking up and hopefully I'll be able to drop the remaining 18 pounds or so rather quickly. I'm kind of a fanatic when I get into an exercise routine, which is good because I'm not as self disciplined when it comes to dieting. I keep hearing about all these no-carb diets which are supposed to work wonders but I absolutley cannot give up bread for any length of time. I'm a weak woman when it comes to that. I can stay away from pasta and cheese and desserts but I have to be able to eat crackers or toast or chips and salsa. Well, enough boring diet talk. I've only had to do this one other time in my life so it feels wierd to be so focused on losing weight. I am so looking forward to buying new clothes this spring though! My birthday is coming up in about 6 weeks so hopefully I can reward myself with a little shopping.