Blogging 2015: 84 down, 1931 to go

I stayed up until 9pm last night!  That's almost a normal adult bedtime.  I'm a little impressed that I made it that long.  This morning I had two little visitors in my bed at around 6am.  It always starts out so cute, with little fingers tangled in my hair and cuddles.  Then the inevitable question: "What'ssss for breakfasssst?"

And because I am apparently a short order cook, suggestions are immediately bandied about.  Chocolate chip pancakes! No! Blueberry pancakes! Eggs! Cereal! Wait, would you make cinnamon rolls?

So I sent them down the hall to get dressed and hoped for some toaster waffles.  When I got out of bed I felt like I got a roundhouse straight to the spine by Chuck Norris himself.  I could barely bend.  That is a sad state.  My hamstrings were tight, but that's no big deal.  I wondered what the hell had gone wrong (I do have kind of a bad back in that I have scoliosis and sometimes things slip out of alignment) and hustled downstairs to foam roll on the toothy foam roller of doom.

Hurts so good.

So I rolled and stretched and realized...it's not my back.  It's my stupid fucking uterus.  Fucking up my life yet again.

The kids came downstairs and I made toaster waffles and peeled a couple of oranges.  For myself I made a couple of fried eggs, some bacon, and some mango.  You'll have to take my word for it.

I was hungry.

I took the kids with me to CF this morning.  They had a blast with the other kids and I practically had to pry them out of there.  The workout was brutal, even scaled down pretty considerably for my shouty back and my partner's gimpy knee.  Still, I'm glad I went.  I need to get the boys signed up for CrossFit Kids.  They'll be 5 in 2 short months!

Everyone got a workout.

I wasn't feeling much for lunch, so I had a jumped up snack. Brie, berries, and maple glazed pecans.

I. Love. Brie.

I sent the kids upstairs to "nap" which is asinine because they hardly ever do, but if I'm lucky I can at least get a little quiet time out of them.  Today their nap was my treadmill time. 40 degrees out and I'm on the fucking mill.  

Sigh.

I watched "Married at First Sight: The First Year" while I ran.  Last year fantastic husband and I watched a show called Married at First Sight about three couples who were matched up by experts but didn't meet until their wedding day.  It was fascinating.  I understand there's going to be a second season.  You know I'll be watching that shit.  Probably on the treadmill.  

After my run I had an orange.

ORANGE!

Gave the kids a snack then took the dog out for a walk.  It was amazingly warm and wonderful outside, and I was really looking forward to a nice leisurely walk.  When am I going to learn that walking with the kids is a soul sucking activity?  I've never thought of myself as an optimist, but I must be, because I always start out thinking what a nice day it is and how great the fresh air will be.  Then I end up either literally dragging children along, or shouting at them to stop sprinting down the sidewalk out of sight.  Today I did both.  The boys were rocketing down the sidewalk...and the girl was dragging ass behind me, whining all the way.  So instead of doing a nice 2-3 mile walk we got 1.2 and I got a headache and lost the will to live.  

At least we tired out the dog.

Dinner was Wildtree Adobo chicken and cumin roasted carrots.  The chicken was kickier than anticipated, which I heard some significant whining about.  I liked it.  The carrots got mixed reviews.  "These carrots smell weird" "These are delicious, is there cinnamon on these?" "I tried a bite of this carrot, and I don't like it at all".  I thought they were good, and a nice change up from just plain veggies.  

Like carrot fries.

I did some dishes and some cooking today, but that's about it. I had big plans for other cleaning, but there's always tomorrow, right?  I did some knitting.  That's kind of domestic.

This was another good week.  To recap:

Goal: CrossFit 2 days Achieved

Goal: Yoga 2 days Achieved

Goal: Run every day Achieved

Now I shall set up a movie and make some popcorn for the ungrateful brat brigade.

Is it time for vacation yet?

Blogging 2015: 79.3 down, 1935.7 to go

After going to bed at 6:30pm last night, I woke up naturally at 4am feeling refreshed.  Which is a good thing, because I had planned to workout at 5:15am.  It's kind of novel to not hit snooze when the alarm goes off at 4:30.

I kicked today's ass.  I'm still riding the red tide and dealing with all the fabulousness that that entails, but I decided that I wasn't going to be sidelined today.  I would just deal and see what happened.  Overall I feel pretty decent right now.  I may regret it tomorrow, but for the moment life is good.

I started my day with some melon pre-WOD.  Fantastic husband picked this one out and it is delicious.

Today's WOD was deadlift heavy, which was fun.  I haven't deadlifted in a while.  I also did some 24" box jumps, which are decidedly less scary than they were a month or so ago.  Also rowing.  I'm improving at that, but I could be faster.  I mean, I'm pretty tall, so rowing should be my thing.

I took a sweaty selfie to prove I went.  Notice it's still dark, even AFTER the workout.  

Seriously, I am so pretty.

Came home and made some breakfast, ham with eggs and cheese.  Plus some more melon because it was pretty fucking great the first time around.

Basic but tasty.

Fantastic husband went to the Y for his workout and the smalls opted to stay home.  That meant the treadmill for me.  I'm making peace with the treader.  I don't love it, but I feel more positive about it.  I think part of the problem I had in the past is watching TV from the treadmill doesn't work.  It generates enough white noise to cancel out dialogue so I couldn't watch anything that had a plot.  Lately I've been Netflixing on my phone with headphones while the kids watch cartoons.  It's much more effective.  My chosen viewing is documentaries.  For some reason they really pass the time quickly.  I've learned more about the American prison system in the last week...

I need more of these pants.  

They make my ass look fantastic.

After my 8 mile jaunt on the treader, I had a snack.

No oranges? Eat apples.

The girl child had a Girl Scout field trip to Eagle III today.  I did shower before going.  I'm not a barbarian.  After the field trip (which was pretty cool, I have to say) we made a Costco stop because I was out of oranges and that is not an acceptable state of being.  I also really wanted a wheel of brie, because while I was sucking it up today?  My uterus just wanted some fucking brie.  Okay?  Okay.

Also mango and raspberries.

Did a little knitting, then geared up for hip hop yoga.  Fantastic husband came home from his training and I was out the door to Jenstar for happy hour.  There were a boatload of CF people there tonight.  I've decided that a class that CrossFit heavy should be dubbed broga.  I had an orange on the way.  Of course I did.

Still tasty.

I'm utter crap with removing make-up.  I never wash my face before bed, I just change clothes, crawl in, and konk out.  Hot yoga is extremely effective at removing make-up.  Except for mascara.  That stayed put.

Clean face, gross hair.

I know the reason you read this blog is for the sweaty selfies.  The more I look at these the less sense my face makes.  I should stop.

Fantastic husband made Chinese pepper steak with cauli rice for dinner.  This is the portion I'm going to eat later, once I've washed the smelly spawn and put them to bed for the night.

I can't wait.

Whew.  So there you have it.  Tomorrow I'm dragging the spawn to the 8:15 free WOD.  Then it's dishes and laundry and housework.  Because I lead a glamorous life, bitches.

On to spawn washing!!

Blogging 2015: 71.3 down, 1943.7 to go

Today is my transition day.  That means this is going to be short and sweet as I'm exhausted and will probably be asleep by 7pm.

Last night I packed the last of the salisbury steak and cuali mash for my midnight meal.  It was a lot of food.

Tastes better than it looks.

Had a little snack around 3am.

Apples, sunbutter, and mint tea.

I had forgotten about my protein shake the other day, so I had it for breakfast this morning.

Chocolatey.

My shift ended early today since my shift overlapped the shift of the woman who keeps my house from burning down over night.  The good news with that is I didn't have to deal with the temptation of oatmeal cake in the cafeteria.  

I took the dog for a quick walk this morning. She's pretty much back to herself, full of bouncing boundless energy.  We did a couple of miles.

She's supposed to be taking it easy. HA.

I knitted for a bit afterwards.  I shouldn't do anything requiring concentration when I'm tired, because I'm fairly certain I fucked it up pretty badly.  I learned my lesson though, I won't try to fix it until I'm more rested.

After dropping the boys off at 4k, fantastic husband and I went for a nice walk.  It was a beautiful day.  I thought about running, but I hurt so I opted out.

4.3 miles of fresh air.

After the kids came home and had their snack I started to sundown.  I was freezing and tired, so I put on my big sweats, laid down on the couch, and promptly fell asleep.  The dog joined me.

My ass makes a dandy pillow, apparently.

Fantastic husband made supper.

Curried chicken and spaghetti squash.

And now I'm struggling to stay awake through Jeopardy.  Because I'm old.

Tomorrow I'm planning a trip to the box at 0515 and yoga at 1730.  I'll either walk or run depending on...factors.  The kids don't have school, so they'll probably spend all day in their jammies.

Yikes.  I'm spent.

G'night.

Blogging 2015: 65 down, 1950 to go

My uterus is very angry.  I'm not sure why it's so pissed off, but it's really fucking up my life and I want it to stop.  I finally made an appointment with my gyn to try and figure out what's going on and come up with a plan to fix it. It was bad like this when I was a teenager and I was told it would get better after having kids...and it did.  For a while.

When my uterus is angry, it makes me almost immobile.  My back hurts so badly that it's difficult to stand up straight.  It's like back labor, only with no end in sight and no reward in the form of a baby.  Pretty much the only reward is is ruined clothes, because that isn't embarrassing when you're 37 years old.  To give you an idea, on a scale from 1-10 I'd rate labor a 6.  I'd rate these cramps easily a 5.  It's crazy.  And the bleeding? It's like nothing I can describe.  I've actually had a uterine hemorrhage, so I know where of I speak, and it's approaching that level.  It's worse with movement.  That pretty much kills running, yoga, or CrossFit...for 7-10 days a month.  Yup, the whole awful experience lasts 10-12 days with 7-10 of those being so bad that moving around makes me afraid I'm going to leave a puddle of murder scene on the floor.  Or, you know, get chased by wolves or sharks or some shit.  Oh, and Ibuprofen no longer works to keep it in check.

Last night I walked into a firestorm at work.  On top of my already stellar mood.  So I took my lunch card down to the cafeteria and got myself some deep fried cheese to cheer myself up.  I have to say, it did work.

Gods, these are good.

Later in the evening I had a tuna sandwich.

Meh. It was free.

And that was it except for some rice rollers and Sunbutter when I got home.

So lazy.

I took the dog for a short walk (1 mile-blah) since she was fairly peppy when I got home, and then I went to bed.  I slept badly and woke up earlier than I wanted.  My back hurt so much that it was hard to get up.  I put on my sloppiest, shittiest sweats and went downstairs.  Lucy and I commiserated about our mutual feminine problems and she slept on my belly while I tried to sleep in the chair.  She's kind of like a furry hot water bottle, so it helped some.

Then I went to Walgreens and spent a small fortune on feminine hygiene products.  I shouldn't have to buy that shit in bulk.  And I buy the ones that are maximum plastic and pretty colors, because I'm in pain and the environment can go fuck itself.

Sigh.  It'll be fine.  I packed a nice lunch and tonight is my last shift before 7 days off.  I'll feel better after a solid night's sleep and maybe a cyclobenzaprine.

It only costs $135 to spay a dog.  I wonder if the vet would spay me if I gave him $200 cash.  How different can it be?

Blogging 2015: 64 down, 1951 to go

Took a bit of a "rest" day today.  Just 3 miles easy on the treader. It was actually a lovely day outside, but I was in need of sleep and then had to take my car in to have a tire checked.  After that I went to the vet to pick up Lucy (she had her lady parts removed today) and by the time I got home it was dusk.  Opportunity lost.  Oh well.  I'm well rested and still got a few miles for my total.  Not a bad thing, really.

In a way I feel bad for Lucy, she's obviously still in an anesthesia haze and probably pretty uncomfortable. She spent a little time in my lap wrapped in a blanket when we first got home, then crawled inside her crate and has been kind of punked out since.  She is never, ever this chill.  This is a dog with a 4' vertical leap from a standing position.  It's a little freaky.  In a way I am jealous.  She'll never have her period again.  Lucky bitch.

Last night was a decent one.  Little of this, little of that.  I had a bag full of leftovers so I still have my handy lunch card.  Started my night with some sweet potato jalapeno chowder.

No heartburn!

This is the last weekend I'll be working with one of my techs, so she made cupcakes.

Wasn't that nice?

I had the very last orange and some venison sticks for snack.  I only ate one of the meat sticks.  Just wasn't feeling it at 3am.  And apparently I lost the photo, so you'll have to use your imagination.

I brought quinoa mush for breakfast.  I don't know why I dished such a huge portion, I couldn't finish it.

Mmmmm.  Mushy.

I slept like the dead today.  It was great.  There was snow falling this morning when I left the hospital.  It was perfect Christmas snow, if you know what I mean.  No wind, just light fluffy flakes floating down from the clouds.  If I wasn't afraid of getting flattened by a school bus I might have gone for a run right then and there.

Dinner was pot roast.  We usually kennel Lucy during dinner because she is a hopeless beggar.  Tonight she just sort of stood under the table with her head on my knee, then crawled into her kennel and konked out. Normally she'd be going apeshit in her kennel because we have the kids put whatever they don't eat in her bowl.  Is this what normal dogs are like?  I'm so used to her being practically psychotic I've forgotten what other dogs are like.  

Basic but tasty.

Got on the treader after dinner for a bit.

Today's Netflix?  Prison documentary.

I'm finding myself more at peace with the treadmill.  

I watched a documentary called "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" the other day.  It's about a dude with chronic urticaria (among other things) who goes on a 60 day juice fast.  It was interesting.  Now I find myself fascinated with the idea of a juice fast (not that maple syrup cayenne pepper lemon bullshit...green juices, etc).  Not for 60 days of course.  That's madness.  It's intriguing, though.  

So that was my day.  Cupcakes, tires, sleeping, and neutered dogs.

I should have a TV show.  This shit is golden.

Blogging 2015: 61 down, 1954 to go

After being awake most of the day yesterday with just a short nap in the afternoon, I made the decision to catch a short 30 minute nap before getting ready to go to work last night.  Let's just say I set my alarm incorrectly and woke up shortly after 9pm.  My shift starts at 9:30.  Oops.  I pretty much rocketed out of bed and into the shower.  You know what time I clocked in? 9:29 motherfucker.  That's right, I showered, dressed in clean matching clothes, put on make-up, dried and styled my hair, packed up my bag, got my winter gear on, and drove to work in under 25 minutes.  I DIDN'T EVEN SPEED Y'ALL.

I feel as though this is a superpower.  You better recognize.

Last night was mostly uneventful.  This is never a bad thing as it means people aren't getting worse.  It's funny.  When you work in health care, you know you should want to be bored because it means people aren't getting sick or injured.  But you're still bored.  But you can't really wish to be not bored because that's kind of the same as wishing people would get sick or injured...and that's fucked up.  

Oh HAY!  I got a free meal from the boss man today.  Turns out one of the unit nurses wrote up what we call a "Pat on the Back" card for me and my tech.  I guess we're the bees knees, so I got a little certificate and a lunch card.  Gave me a warm fuzzy...I feel like we put the hammer down so often, it's nice to get some positive recognition for the job we try to do.  

I ate the last of the Cottage Pie at midnight.  Uh, I forgot to photograph it before.

I think it was delicious.

Around 3am I got out my snack.  These oranges are almost all gone now.  I need to go to Costco and get another 13#.  Which will last me approximately 15 minutes.  I also had some cheese, because this is Wisconsin and the Packers won.  I think it's the law.

Even the cheese is orange.

I had 2 mini-cream puffs last night.  I spaced taking a picture.  They were about the size of a half dollar. Also pretty tasty.

I made my forgotten protein shake from yesterday for "breakfast" at around 6:30.  I was feeling empty and I have a hard time sleeping with a completely empty stomach.  

White chocolate peppermint.

When I got home I was feeling unsatisfied, so I made some bacon.  Because I love bacon.  

Hey, it's not a donut.

I was unconscious before 8am.  Got up around 1pm because I was volunteering at the boys' school today and I had to be sure I made it because I completely forgot the last time (I am a great parent) and they were pretty anxious about it this morning.  You know the shitty thing?  I cook, I clean, I do laundry, I volunteer at the school, I play games and read and haven't ever beaten or killed them.  What they're going to remember?  The fact that ONE TIME when they were 4 years old, I forgot my volunteer day at school.  Sigh.

Anyway, I ate an orange and walked over to the school.

Seriously, if the next box isn't this good I'm going to be fucking sad.

So I did my motherly duty, crisis averted, made some pictures with some kids and stapled some books together.  Walked home, and got on the treader.  It was a beautiful sunny day, but I wanted to do 5 miles to bring today's total up to 6 and it still gets dark relatively early so I opted to treadmill it.

I passed the time watching a documentary about the English monarchy.  Because I'm a history dork.  

Ok, I"m pretty much just a regular dork.

Fantastic husband made supper while I was dicking around on the treader.  Salisbury steak with cauliflower mash and mushroom gravy.  Looks like meat and potatoes, is really meat and veg.  

It's better every time he makes it.

Then I hustled down to DePere for hot yoga.  My hips really needed the stretch, but my hair always looks ridiculous after all that sweating, and let me tell you...I smell fantastic.

Sexy.

Hustled home, hugged the kids, helped fantastic husband wash the dog (THAT WAS SO FUN), update the blog...and now it's time to wash, get dressed, and head back to the salt mine.

Good thing I already packed my lunch.

Maybe tomorrow I'll just sleep and knit socks.

Blogging 2015: 55 down, 1960 to go

Last night was one of those nights.  Short staffed, not super busy, but weird crap all night long.  I indulged in a handful of these to cheer myself up.

And they were delicious.

But then they got cold so I tossed the rest.  I ran around a bit for a couple of hours, IVs, stock outs, phone calls.  Didn't get my "lunch" until closer to 1:30.  

Leftovers again.

I only ate about half of it.  I just wasn't feeling it. So I poked around online for some clip art to jazz up a presentation, read some CE, and attempted to start reviewing for my CNSC re-up.  It's not until next year, but it's a lot of material.  That was a pretty huge snooze fest.  So I ate some pineapple.

My only regret is I didn't have more.

Today was an overlap day with fantastic husband, so he dropped the kids off at the hospital and I set them up with cartoons while I finished my shift.  When I was done we went down to the cafeteria and had breakfast.  I was straight up starving by that point, because for some reason I didn't make my protein shake.  Oh well, it's in the fridge for tomorrow.

BACON!

The bacon was perfect this morning.  Melt in your mouth crispy.  Ham & cheese omelet, fruit, and coffee rounded out my breakfast.  Whenever we eat in the cafeteria, the kids always pester me for donuts.  Because we only do this once or twice a month, I usually get one for them to split.  Today I got myself one as well, because this is a custard filled long john from Uncle Mike's and it is my fucking favorite.

I regret nothing.

And that's pretty much it.  That's all I ate today.  In my defense I was full to the point of discomfort when we got home.  Since it was 40 degrees warmer than yesterday I suited up the kids and the dog and we went for a walk right away.  2 miles.  It was so fucking beautiful outside.  The fact that I didn't get to go for a super long run today makes me grumpy.  Lack of sleep is also making me grumpy.  BUT, we got the 2 miles and some fresh air so it wasn't a total loss.  I don't have a picture of the walk because I forgot my phone.  It would've just been a picture of adorable children with rosy cheeks and expressions of whining displeasure on their faces.

During the walk we had this conversation:

Spawn: Someone cut down a tree!

Me: Yup, that's a Christmas tree.  People with real trees take them out to the curb after Christmas.

Spawn: But why did they cut it down?

Me: Well, it's kind of hard to grow a pine tree indoors, so they're grown on tree farms and cut down for Christmas.  Then they plant new ones.  There's a tree farm on the hilltop, remember?

Spawn:  There's a TREE FARM?  On the hill?  Can we go up the hill?

Me: Not today, you'll just whine that you're tired.

Spawn: No.  I'm never tired.

Me:  Right.  

Of note, we had this conversation every time we encountered a Christmas tree on the curb. This exact conversation. Since the whole neighborhood took their trees down this week, I think I repeated myself about 15 times.  In two miles.   I was starting to think I was having a stroke.

Then, when we were about 400m from home, this gem:

Spawn: Mommy, my legs are so tired. 

Other spawn (with tears and the whole nine): Mommy, I want to go home, I'm so tired. 

Still other spawn: Mom, how much further are we going to go?  I'm tired.

None of them understood why I started laughing.  Now, you might be thinking What kind of harridan forces her children to Baatan death march 2 miles in the freezing cold?  Well, that would be me.  In my defense, we walk that loop pretty frequently, and it took fully 45 minutes to do it, plus I let them play in the snow.  I am a great parent.

I could've gotten on the treader for a few miles this evening, but I'm pretty tired.  Tomorrow is another day-one that I'll hopefully get more sleep during.  My plan is to sleep for 3 or 4 hours in the morning and then get my miles.  I've got to volunteer at the school tomorrow afternoon, then hopefully sleep a bit more, then go to yoga to loosen up a bit.  

Right now I'm going to kick this chair back and try to doze for a bit before it's time to shower up.  Today is "hump day" and it's all downhill from there.  

Oh, and in a month I'll be learning to surf in Barbados.  I'm pretty sure Barbados isn't ready for this jelly.