Workin' It

So, I'm not talking about working out in a way that's all, "I'm skinny and cute and workin' it out! And I want to chat about it!" Ohhh h no...I'm talking about working out in a way that IS like, "OMFGGGGG, all of that Whitey's ice cream when I was pregnant = NOT WORTH IT." Not worth it! Soooo-o-o-o-o not worth it. *cries* No pics to be posted of the evidence. Ew.

Yah, yoga isn't going to cut it this time. I had to go back to weight training...which I dig but I dig yoga wayy more. For reals. I did miss the Peach Pear protein shakes from my gym, though.

Ew. I also started eating chicken again TEMPORARILY. EEEW. HATE IT! HATE IT! This will be short-lived.

So, this is a huge post of me b!Tching about something that is entirely my fault. :)

Some good things goin' on besides my lil bambino are: DIET POP, planning our Vegas trip, watching Belle play Super Mario on wii 24/7, the Reba show (see prior posts)*lol*, getting used to our awesome SLR camera that I never took the time to learn to use before now, my new HP arriving today *woot*, and loving my new rockin' makeup stash (see makeup blog - hopefully new post tonight).

So, all in all, life is good :)

Does anyone else have any good scoop? We're pretty boring around here. It looks like we might be snowed in tomorrow. Yay!

Mucho love~
Ann :)

Yes, still...

limping, b!tching. Not kidding. Damn, my hamstrings are killing me. I'm now doing this cute little cross-country skiing number instead of walking. It's easier to drag my feet than pick them up. Maybe by the time E&K get back from India in 2 months, I'll be over it?

So, I moved just before Thanksgiving. I have ignored all boxes that are what I call "out of sight, out of mind" boxes. They are out of my sight and out of my mind, but there are in Kurt's sight. Ya know, Mr. Sleeping with the Enemy. Mainly because I used our basement as a dumping ground and graveyard for the boxes I am not sure what to do with the contents. Oops. I never go in the basement but he always does since his bathroom and clothes are down there. So, I'm going to TRY to unpack a box per day of these boxes I don't know what to do with. Today, I hit up a HUGE box that had been stuffed in the kitchen closet.

After Kurt got off work, we picked up my rizide from the dealership. Oh, how I love my car but seeing the shiny NEW Audi's in the parking lot absolutely kills me. I need to continue to rock out my current A4. It's awesome but the color is starting to annoy me, similar to every other car I've owned. I get annoyed with the color after a couple years. Maybe bored is the answer instead of annoyed?? Je ne sais pas!

Emilene gave me an idea to start cooking! I think this is a great idea. I haven't cooked since last July. lol. Seriously, the husb is a chef. But it wouldn't kill me to make something now that I'm home with Mr. No Sleep during the day! Hopefully this time, no injuries will occur. I'll avoid that damn cheese grater! Promise!!

Love,
Ann :)

Owwwwwwww... And Daytime T.V.

Oh yeah, still L'ing and B'ing! It's awesome!

So, the little peanut and I have been hanging out watching daytime t.v. Normally, I'm not a big t.v. watcher but there's not a lot to do when you're home all day and it's 0 degrees outside! My mother-in-law comes to visit us a lot. Thank God she gets back from Mexico tomorrow!

All of that being said, I want you all to know that Reba is a pretty g.d. awesome show. He'll probably kill me for posting this, but I've noticed my husband watching it before and made fun of him. I will publicly apologize because truly the show is soooo hilarious! Seriously, watch it next time you are home sick. Lifetime Network, Baby! It's onl ike 3 hours straight in the mornings.

Occasionally, I can catch the greatest show in the world, Golden Girls! And one day there was a Brady Bunch marathon on t.v. To my horror, Belle was home from school that day and had never seen or heard of the Brady Bunch. We'll be buying the boxed sets very soon. Very, very soon. I already have all of the seasons of the Golden Girls, in case anyone cares.

I posted to my Facebook that Days of Our Lives has made about zero progress since the last time I was on maternity leave almost 9 years ago. I can't take the stress, people. I cannot effing believe Hope & Bo are once again BROKEN UP!

The reason I'm watching so much t.v. is because the sweet little baby sleeps most of the time so I'll admit to holding him 99.9% of the time. :)

Mucho love,
Ann :)

Waaaaaaaaah! Days, Nashville, ec.

OMFG I am so sore! L&B, people, L&B! There's been a whole lot of whining going on at my house today. Luckily, the baby has no choice but to listen intently :) It makes me feel better...not really. lol.

On a lighter note, I watched Days of Our Lives today. Seriously, there has been NO PROGRESS since the last time I was on maternity leave in 2001! Well, except the fact they are taking advantage of the 'internets' now and Skyping with eachother insted of just calling eachother, even though they all live in Salem. Stupid. Hope and Bo are still having MAJOR DRAMA - currently broken up but still talking about eachother. I think their little girl wants them to get back together (she's like 5). Bo was skyping with his little daughter today and forgot to turn off his computer. So the little girl logged back on and caught him making out with some random chick. Duh. The goods news is Charlie, the neighbor from the show Empty Nest, is now on the show. I'm not sure why that is good news except for I still laugh thinking about Dreyfuss, the dog.

I'm in the beginning stages of planning my annual hommage to Nashville. Shall we go in March? April? May? June? Hmmm... I'd love to go when it's warm even though we ALWAYS go around my b-day in March.

We can't go in July because we're going to Vegas. Yay!

Okay, that's all my scoop!

Love,
Ann

Limp/B!tch, Same Story/Diff Year

Happy 2010!!

Went to yoga today. OMG, either I took off 10 months from yoga or I gained a bunch of weight. Oh yeah, I freaking did BOTH! So it's been a little over 3 weeks since Baby Will's b-day! I decided it was time to hit the shala!!! My practice was pretty terrible but not as bad as I expected. I am definitely already sore though and it's not even tomorrow yet! Yikes!! I'm all set to limp & b!tch tomorrow :) I was sooooo happy to get back to yoga though! =Love!!

I then weighed myself. I am aware it's only been 3 weeks but patience is not a virtue I've acquired during my 31.8 years. I have 11 lbs to lose to get back to my "first dr. appt. weight (I was about 10 weeks I think)" and 14 or 15 to lose to get down to my "wedding weight." So I guess I'm off the ice cream diet. Hahaha.

Mucho love to y'all!
~Ann

MOVING UPDATE, ETC!!!!!! :)

Long time no post! Many, many apologies!!

I promised to give an update of all of our drama as of late. As you can see my last post is Sept. 23rd, omg! I will give some short updates on our drama, although I could go on forever about each one.

The last week of September, my beloved Grandma Bernice fell ill. After a week or so in the hospital, we lost her. I spent TONS of time with her growing up and of course will never forget her. I absolutely hate that she's gone. She was my last grandparent, too. It seems weird to be grandparentless. She had moved to a sort-of assisted living cute apartment in Davenport since May and had loved living there. After a resident passes away, you only have two weeks to remove their things since there is a waiting list for the apartments. My aunts packed all of my grandma's things and moved them into our (soon to be old) house. It's weird seeing her stuff everyday and boxes with her writing on it, knowing she's never coming back! It's also strange to see the circle of life because my grandma was born in the house we live in now, her mom passed away due to child birth complications and now her things are stacked up everywhere. Sadness. R.I.P., Grandma!


The week my g-ma originally went into the hospital for the last time, my dog, Thomas, who had bone cancer (mentioned in other blogs) unfortunately passed away. I have never had to put one of my pets down. The vet had given me three signs to look for and to call him asap when it happened. Until then, he had been eating, greeting us at the door and going outside to the bathroom. He had slowed down and the tumor on his head looked TERRIBLE but he was still the same dog. When I came home that Friday, he was not the same dog. He looked so sad and wouldn't get up. So we had to make the decision. We miss him but I'm so glad he's not in pain anymore and addicted to pain meds like Michael Jackson!


Coincidentally, that same week, our groomer had found an awesome home for our dog, Georgia. I could go on and on how great it would have been. Georgia has a tendency to very occasionally snap at the air in her sleep if you walk close to her and she doesn't hear you approach. I am sure it's a herding dog tendency. She came from a very successful breeder and has a strong herding instinct. Not thinking this would be idea for the baby, we decided to consider re-homing her but ONLY to an awesome home. The people were great and we had planned on the Sunday after Thomas passed away (not knowing he was going to). Breaking your child of a dog she received from Santa is NOT EASY. We were both realllly sad and it was weird without Georgia in the house, although nice to be down to three dogs. lol. I felt TERRIBLE for Belle and bribed her with a trip to Wisconsin Dells next summer. :) The end of the story is we really missed Georgia but she seemed happy in her new home with her labrodoodle friend. I kept in contact with her new owners every few days. After about a month, her new owner called me extremely upset. Georgia and their daschund were not getting along and Dixie the Daschund was getting really depressed. She also said Georgia seemed sad. I was so happy to get Georgia back, I drove over there immediately! Georgia was so excited to see us and Belle cried when I pulled up with her in the car. Yay!


I had always said it would be good for Georgia to spend some time in a shelter to know how good she has it. All of my other dogs are rescues and WONDERFUL. Georgia is spoiled and even though she's been through a lot of training, still doesn't appreciate us like the others. I don't think she liked living with a two-year old hyper labrodoodle that outweighed her by thirty pounds and outheighted her by about a foot. LOL. Every since returning, she's been a COMPLETE ANGEL!! Granted, we still do not need four dogs and it was nicer with three. The problem is I love them all! Here's a pic of us trying to get a family pic with the five dogs when we found out Thomas had cancer. Trust me, the pic is terrible and we all, dogs included, normally look much cuter!



At the farm, we are getting an invisible fence and fencing a HUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGE area. We are also going to do an indoor invisible fence and keep them off the carpet/out of the bedrooms. Our current house has ALL wood floor and neat-freak husb is suicidal enough over it. He would not be able to deal with the carpeting having hair on it. Trust me!

The invisible fence people are sooooo nice and the prices are beyond reasonable compared to getting a real fence, including chain link! At some point, I will post a pic of the humongous area we were able to fence for less than we fenced a small to regular-sized part of our old yard. It's gonna rule.

Alright, moving on. So FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY, my in-laws' house was almost done and the harvest was getting underway. Kurt had been working working working on that house every night for months. Their house is unreal amounts of amazing. Everything is unbelievably awesome and top of the line from the trim and closets to the garage floors and new tv's. I'd love to live there but would hate paying for it :) so we'll be sticking to the 1960's ranch FOREVER. :)

So, like I said, it was nearing completion at the end of October when Kurt's beloved Grandpa Fred passed away! I am NOT KIDDING. Yes, I know deaths come in 3's. My boss says my dog counts as #2 so I am hoping this is the last. The farm was Fred's (Kurt's mom's dad). He was around every single day when Kurt and his brother were growing up and everything just kind of revolved around him. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure earlier this year, same as my grandma, and his heart just got too tired. Needless to say, November 5th was not a happy day. It's definitely weird without him around! He passed away the Thursday before they were supposed to move into the new house (Fred had his own suite), so he never even got to see it. Sadness! R.I.P., Fred!


But, as of Sunday, Kurt's parents are completely moved into their new house! They began staying there last Thursday night (the 12th). I started painting on Friday night while Kurt and his brother began the horrendous task of wallpaper and border scraping. I love my mother-in-law and she sure does love her borders and wallpapers. She likes to glue it on (with super glue it seems). Kurt's brother worked all night on the master bedroom and Kurt worked for hours and hours over the weekend to get the bathroom wallpaper scraped off. What a nightmare!

The good news is that I was able to finish Belle's room on Friday night and the baby's room Saturday!! They look sooooo great!!!!!!!!!!!! Sooooo cute! I am SOOOOOOOOOO GLAD I painted those two rooms first. Our room is such a pain in the ___, I have to keep going into the kids' rooms to get inspired and not shoot myself!

Here are their rooms:



Although on my baby blog, I had posted some bedding I bought Belle, I ended up finding some I liked mucho better on Land of Nod!



The pictures are terrible lighting but it's a really bright grassy green:


Here's the baby's bedding for anyone who hasn't seen it 100 times (also from Land of Nod):

Again, HORRIBLE lighting in the pic below. In reality, it's a bright, buttery yellow just like in the Land of Nod pic:

NOW for our God-foresaken room! Some may remember the Pottery Barn collection I just "had to have." I decided this was now our "summer bedding" due to the fact I found some bedding I couldn't live without at Bed, Bath & Beyond! :) The husband was quite skeptical of this plan. I told him "LOTS" of people have summer vs. winter bedding. lol.

I PLANNED to paint the room three walls of copper and one wall of dark chocolate. When I went to buy the paint, however, I fell into 'the trap.' The "WOW RED WOULD BE REALLY COOL" TRAP! If you have EVER painted with red, you know this trap. It's similar to avoiding a marsh full of alligators. Only, begin to welcome death, not try to jump on alligators and swing from vines to avoid being eaten, a la Pitfall.

What a ___ing nightmare. What a ______ ____ing nightmare. Red is sooo hard to paint with, people. DO NOT DO IT. If I ever insist in doing this again, I will hire a professional. It's too stressful. Due to the border my mother-in-law had in the bedroom, Sunday I primed the entire room and did 2 coats of the red. It looked HORRIBLE after coat #1, then pretty good after coat #2. It still needs a 3rd coat, however. Last night I painted the one chocolate accent wall. MUCH EASIER TO DEAL WITH!!!!!!!!!! I loved it. Tonight, I am going to do the third coat of red and finish the closet. TOMORROW the ceiling. I agree you're supposed to paint the ceiling first. I decided to go on a limb and do it backward which is good because I hit the ceiling lightly a couple times with the red!

YES, I HAVE SPENT MORE DAYS ON THIS ROOM THAN BOTH KIDS' ROOMS COMBINED. KILL ME! It sucks because now that it's the weekdays, we have to have Belle home at a decent hour and I don't get out there until like 6pm. Ay!

P.S. I think it's super weird to say "kids" instead of "kid."

ANYWAY, here is a horrible pic of the red/brown room so far. Bad, bad lighting, yet again:

So, I am loving it but it has been a humongous pain! Would I go back in time and just do the copper instead of the red? GOD, YES! But ask me again when I'm all done with it :)

SO! Hopefully tomorrow we can get the hallway and living room painted. That will allow for the carpets to be cleaned on Thursday and us to move in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday! YIPPEEEEE!

Also this weekend I'll be working on painting the bathroom and kitchen, then the entryway at some point, then seriously celebrating the end of my painting era. The only thing left would be Kurt's bathroom, wihch is covered in wallpaper. That bathroom deserves its own post, though! HAHA!

Mucho love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ann :)

Well, well, well...

Look what I found online today. CNN had a list of 18 things mothers should teach their sons about women. Granted, I will also post this on the baby blog (with a different angle), but I thought I'd also post it on my random blog for good measure, just because it's things every GUY SHOULD ALREADY KNOW! :) I know my lovely husband checks my blog once every six months or so, so maybe it will be today and he'll take particular note of #7. :) Yes, yes, we do... Love you, honey.

As a side note, due to #10, I shop alone now. Ha. There's nothing more annoying than a guy following you around Von Maur in silence and instead of looking at retail items, he is staring at the back of your head. My husand would never do this, as he's now no longer invited (a.k.a. forced to go) with me. I'm pretty sure he's very happy about this as well!

In his defense, he's beyond amazing at most of the others. Especially #1, 2, 4 and 11! :)

#12 is completely irrelevant as there is no way in hell he'd ever invest in my shoe collection. I did not know this was bad luck but if he were willing to spring for some Calvin Klein heels, I think I'd take my chances.

No s*&^ to #3. Men that use this phrase "You're being crazy" are just blatantly asking to suffer the wrath.

#6 is just completely hilarious. I've never thought of it this way but hello, SO TRUE.

Ladies, feel free to use against your men via whatever means necessary:

1. Pick your battles.
2. Walk on the outside (closer to the street) of your female companion.
3. Saying "You're being crazy" is never an appropriate response, unless you want her to go postal on you.
4. Cooking, cleaning, and taking care of kids are things men can actually do as well as women.
5. Keep backup supplies of quality chocolate in the house for her to raid.
6. Buying tampons and other feminine products shouldn't embarrass you --everyone knows they're not for you.
7. Women like compliments and gifts.
8. Earning less than her shouldn't be emasculating.
9. Be on time, even if she usually isn't.
10. Don't be a pouty puppy when shopping with her.
11. Find out what her favorite flower is.
12. If you like her, then don't buy her shoes; it's bad luck.
13. Smiling and nodding aren't the same as listening.
14. It's OK to cry in front of her, but keep the blubbering to a minimum.
15. Personality goes a long way.
16. At some point she'll be more important than your mother.
17. You will never completely understand women.
18. Oh yeah, and no woman will ever be good enough for my baby!

Love you all ~
Ann :)