The Big Delete

So shortly after I posted my technology rant I realized that I had 352 Facebook friends. THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-TWO!!!! So I decided to clean out my closet…of friends that is…we aren’t touching the clothes closet or what it needs….

*Disclaimer* - I am not pregnant. Nor do I intend to be in the foreseeable future. However, I do want to be someday. When that day comes, I don’t want 352 people seeing the pictures I’d like to share with my friends and family of me looking all nasty and sweaty and sick and miserable and tired and worn out and all the other things new Mom’s look like. But what’s more is that I don’t want them seeing pictures of my incredibly adorable, amazing, beautiful, genius, super-cute, exceptionally swell child. I mean, unless I have an ugly child, which could happen. So maybe I don’t want strangers seeing my ugly, troll-like, carrot topped or possibly bald baby. In either case, I don’t want 352 people I don’t truly know seeing pictures of the baby. Ugly or adorable.

So I set out on this adventure and I hit “unfriend” on the page of every person whom I could not remember either leaving me a comment, liking a photo, posting a picture, etc on my page in the last 6 months. That didn’t bring the number down low enough for me so I set out with new parameters. If I hadn’t left a comment on THEIR page in the past year, I “unfriended” them, too. You know I had friends that I have NEVER communicated with via Facebook other than to hit the accept button on their friend request? The shame!

My friend count is officially down to 221. I still think this is a pretty large number and I was sincerely hoping to get it down to fewer than 200. However, I counted and close to 75 of my Facebook friends are family….so, that means that my friends from other walks of life is down to under 150 and I feel good about that number. I mean, it’s not my fault I come from fertile genes so I don’t think they should count towards my technology life because I will also send them pictures of that cute or possibly ugly child in the mail.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I deleted distant relatives. I mean if they were a second or third cousin, or even a few first cousins honestly, and they had never left me a comment, they were out! You know what the crazy thing is? They won’t miss me. I bet at least 90% of them don’t even notice I am gone. In fact, I deleted 131 friends and I could probably only actually name a handful of them. They won’t miss me, and I will not likely miss them. If they miss me, they’ll friend me again and I guess that means they are keepers. Or maybe stalkers. Or maybe just curious. Either way, I’ll accept the friend request. Although, I truly think that the ones that are gone will never notice.

So ultimately, I feel good about this decision. This cleansing of my virtual world if you will. I also have started putting my phone in a separate room while we eat dinner, leaving it in the car when we go to movies or stores…you know, taking my own advice and “disconnecting” from the technology. I mean I got what I was achieving, which is that at the end of the day, less than 150 friends will be seeing my adorable child. Or my freak baby. Someday.

It's Okay Friday!

It's Okay...

*To be OMGosh-so-excited-can't-stand-it-over-the-moon to be going to Gillette this weekend to visit my brother!

*To have nearly had a friggin' heart attack over the American Idol results last night!

*To actually be looking forward to the musical Grey's Anatomy episode.

*To live and die by making lists, I'm a forgetful person!

*To like make up enough to want to own awesome brushes and bad a$$ color palates but only actually wear it twice a week. Maybe 3 if there is a special occasion in there.

Happy Friday!!

Technology

So in the past few months I have really had some experiences where I had to truly evaluate a few things and force myself to come to the reality of the society we live in. Now, I am going to make a disclaimer that I am by no means living in the dark ages. I have nice, technological things. Among those things are a blackberry, my lap top, the internet, a PS3, a wii, a Hi-Def television, an ipod nano and my most prized of them all, my nook. That’s a lot of technology. However, I am learning, for many it is not enough…

I have no intention of buying an ipad, an iphone, an Xbox Kinect, a fancier car, a better mp3 player or upgrading from my whopping ONE YEAR old phone (GASP!). I look around though and I see people doing this left and right. I mean seriously, if you already have an ereader, an ipod, a lap top and a smart phone, why waste the hundreds of dollars on an ipad? You ALREADY have the technology to do all the things that an ipad can offer. The answer I most often get? Convenience. With the ipad you can do all those things on one simple device. Seriously?! I mean seriously. What, your bag is too heavy to carry around four devices that total less than 10 pounds? That is a ridiculous answer in my book.

Many of my nearest and dearest friends and family are the technology type. So please understand I am not saying I don’t like these people, I just simply don’t get them. And even my friends racing out to be on the ipad2 list are aware I think they are completely ridiculous. I see what these things cost and I see college fund money, savings for a real vacation, down payments on a new “slightly used” car, debt pay offs…..the list just goes on because I am a practical Patty. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. If you don’t need it, don’t waste the money on it.

I wonder what would happen to all the people who have every stinking form of gadget available out there if the internet just crashed. I mean up and just quit working forever. What would happen if we were REDUCED (said with oozing sarcasm) to writing letters and listening to the boom box and making land line calls. THE OUTRAGE! THE BLASPHEMY! THE….peace….the complete and utter peacefulness.

I read a blog the other day written by a man who earns his living by blogging and he recommended one day a week to completely “un-plug.” I say kudos to him and recommend everyone try it. Start small if you have to…but give it a try. I will never spend hundreds on a ipad or the new iphone or a skinnier TV, but that’s because I want to take a real vacation with my husband and start a family. So what I find to be important to spend my money on seems frivolous and ridiculous to the person who’d rather be holed up in their house with their technology. To each his own, I am afterall, a woman who is strongly considering cloth diapers…..what do I know?

It's Okay Friday!

It's Okay...

*To read an entire book in one day, even though it wasn't that gripping of a tale.

*To prioritize Diet Coke on the grocery list as long as it's below deoderant but above dishwasher soap. I will handwash my dishes in exchange for my Diet Coke.

*To dread my weekly weigh-ins at my WW meeting but still be thrilled over the loss of a pound.

*To read the free ebooks offered on my nook, it's opened me to some literature I enjoyed but never would have chosen on my own.

*To plan on spending my Friday night eating the roast my husband prepared for dinner followed by a Buffy marathon because it costs us no additional money.

*To actually be rooting for Brad and Emily, I'm a sucker for a good love story.

Happy Friday!!!

The Night Owl vs. The Early Bird

I have grown to loathe mornings. It’s a sad realization for me because there was a time that I loved them. I love watching the sunrise. The quiet of the world in the wee hours of dawn provides an uncanny amount of peace…the kind of peace that makes you think that maybe, just maybe, you want to live in the middle of nowhere in a cabin, kill and grow your own food, milk your own cow, give up indoor plumbing – THAT kind of peace. Then there is the incredible experience of watching the world wake up. In town, you don’t get that as much, but out of town you see birds waking and starting their day with song, dogs stretching, horses feeding, roosters sounding the sunrise, no one around you making unnecessary noise or reminding you of the days daunting tasks, complete privacy, seclusion, well, you get the picture. These are the reasons I love mornings. These are also the reasons I miss mornings.

However, there was one vital thing that happened in my morning-loving days that post-Doug isn’t happening as much. That is 8:00 p.m. pajama time and 9:00 p.m. (at the absolute latest!) bed time. I have to attain a bare minimum of 8 hours of sleep to be a functioning human being the next day. To operate at maximum potential I need 9 hours and to operate at full-fledged-energizer-bunny potential, we are looking at 10. I am not making this up. I have always been a person in need of much rest, and when I don’t get the sleep I need, I cry, I scream, I burst spontaneously into outrageous tirades, I kick things, I pout, I have a fuse that goes from 9 inches to a ½ inch, I cry some more and I follow that up with hysterical sobbing until I am so exhausted I have no choice but to crash into a sleep-deprived induced coma. It isn’t pretty. Those are all the reasons that, to prepare for a 5:00 am wake up call, I had an 8:00 p.m. pajama time.

Now, this is where it gets tricky. I fell in love with a night person. Not the kind who sort of stays up late, but the kind who WANTS to stay up all hours of the night, the kind of night owl who passes the early bird while she is eating breakfast on his way to his nest for the day, the kind who thinks that the right side of 4:30 a.m. is to be just going to bed. Now, you can imagine the trouble this has caused for us. I think the right side of 4:30 a.m. is about an hour before the alarm should be going off to start my day.

Doug has always taken afternoon classes and worked evening shifts when he could. That’s how much he doesn’t like the morning. So, how on earth do we reach some sort of compromise? I like seeing him, want to spend time with him and hate going to bed without him – but I can’t wait until well after midnight to do those things. I’d be the crankiest person you know. So we have been trying something a little different. Doug has 9 o’clock classes so we have lunch together. He also adjusted his schedule at work to get off a little earlier than 11 p.m. and we have some evening time. I, for my part, have started staying up until 10, even on some days 11, at night. This is huge people. Huge. In response though, I sleep until 7. Maybe 7:30.

It’s been a hard adjustment. I miss mornings. I miss being awake, fed, clothed, dry-haired and ready for work 30 minutes early. Doug misses the wee hours of the morning. He misses sleeping in and eating his first meal of the day at 1 o’clock in the afternoon. Alas, neither of us misses those things enough to give up the few precious hours we get to actually spend together a day.

I am looking forward to the day he is done with school and I pray fervently that he gets a day job. Oh, or better yet: a morning job! Then, we can get in pajamas at 8:00 p.m. together and enjoy the birds chirping in the light of dawn. What does he ardently pray for you might ask? Well, I can’t be positive, but I am pretty certain the answer is babies. Then I will be forced to live on less sleep that I prefer and the night owl will be calling it a night as I am laying down for a quick nap between diapers…and my early bird days will be returning for all the wrong reasons…

It's Okay Friday....on a Monday

I know, I know....last week I blogged from my stinking smart phone to avoid missing a post, but this week things were a little more hectic in a lot less friendly way....so here we go!

It's Okay....

*To have had such a rough week that you are doing It's Okay Friday on the following Monday.

*To eat 8 of your 30 allowed WW points in a day on a Shamrock Shake. They only come once a year.

*To shop at Ross and TJ Maxx.

*To go to bed at 9:30, on a Saturday, on a Girls Night Out, in the city. It makes for a less cranky Mrs. Hammond in the a.m.

*To plan your husband's tie to match your dress at the next wedding you plan on attending.

*To be 26 years old and still have days where I really miss my Mommy and Daddy.

*To look forward to a skype date with a little girl who is just over a month away from her 2nd birthday. She talks "good." :-)

The Scale is my Frenemy

This weekend my beloved husband and I traveled the high end of 1000 miles in 3 days. We attended the wedding and reception of his younger brother. It was a wonderful time with family and friends, bride and groom were stunning and a good time was had by all. The reception was in Green River, and for those of you that don't know, Doug's family owns a doughnut shop, which provided doughnuts at the reception.

Let me just say, I know full well this is no one's fault but my own. BUT those doughnuts were so freaking good that I ate 3 of them. Oh yeah, count it back, I said 3. Also, when we were in Utah I ate at In and Out Burger. A burger, french fries AND a shake. I didn't even figure out my weekend consumption of points because I was certain beyond certain that it was an outrageous amount of points. So, I came home and I resumed my regular "healthier" eating habits and picked up on the exercise hard core. I don't know if you know what Insanity is, but it will kick your butt. Sean T is hard core and I have the aching muscles to prove it.

All this to say, I entered my weight watchers meeting today confident that the numbers on the scale wouldn't be that bad. I took off my coat, stepped on the scale, closed my eyes and heard my meeting coordinator say, "A gain of .5 pounds." She whispered it quietly to me so no one else heard the words, but I felt like she just as well shout it form the mountain tops the way those words echoed in my brain. Now, really, lets be honest. I ate 3 doughnuts. I ate fast food. I traveled. Really, a half pound gain in a week is not that bad. In fact, I should almost be happy about it. So, why, then am I so sad? I text my husband. It went like this:

Me: Maybe I am just destined to be fat.
Doug: You're not fat.
Me: Well, chunky then.
Doug: How about beautiful and stupid

I heart my husband. Like, a lot. He can make me feel better about almost anything in this world with his humor. After consulting one of my BGF's her advice was pretty simple. Paraphrased: "You're beautiful, embrace your body it's this way for a reason, stop obsessing, tell anyone who calls you fat to f**k off or you'll tattle to Mom." My Mom is a scary woman. That might work. (Notice the advice of a woman was much longer and heartfelt than the simplicity of the love from my husband - that is why we need both love AND friends....balance)

So I sat through my meeting thinking about the ways I can do better this week. With GNO on the horizon I am thinking I need to make good food decisions all week to make up for the pizza or Italian or Chinese I plan on consuming on Saturday. Oh, and add one work out. I am thinking all of this when my WW leader asks me to share the moment when I decided I wanted to join. So I tell her. I got comfortable in my marriage. My husband loves me the way I am so I got comfortable and I got chunky. Then, the most precious advice of all came in her words....

"You're right. He does love you the way you are. So don't get discouraged from half pound set backs. Be happy knowing you're fine the way you are, you just want to change your body to feel better about yourself, and tomorrow is a brand new day."

You know what meeting leader, you are SO right. I want to change the way I look for me. Not for him, not for my family, for me. So, I enjoyed some In and Out. I ate 3 doughnuts. Tomorrow is a brand new day....and just when I thought all hope was lost....I got in the truck to drive home and this song was playing on the radio. A sign wouldn't you say?

It's Okay Friday!

to blog from your smart phone as long as your readers know for some reason you cant capitalize or use any punctuation except a period....stupid phone.

to single task. yeah, i said it. in this fast paced, multi tasking world, slow down and single task.

to spend the extra money on kleenex with lotion. it is so worth it. just ask my cracking nose.

to go to sleep and nine o clock at night and sleep for ten hours. it is more than ok, its awesome.

to cook lean pockets for dinner, just dont make a habit out of it.

to watch disney movies as an adult, even if there isnt a child watching with you. they are full of awesome material, good music, and valuable life lessons. specifically, the lion king.

to have new appreciation for grammar after being forced to blog without it. friends off blackberry. i

Husbands don't diet, they kill it.

For the most part, I am pretty good about cooking dinner for my small family of two. I often cook too much for just two people and Doug winds up eating leftovers for lunch all week. Generally he comes home to a meal, but every once in awhile I get lazy. In the case of last night, I just flat out wasn’t hungry. Why cook something delicious if you really don’t need it anyway? Especially because I am busy trying to stay under my allotted 30 weight watchers points a day to loose some of this post-marriage bliss poundage. So, last night, I didn’t cook. I exercised and I drank 32 oz of water, read a book and was sitting on the couch ready to call it a night when my husband walked in the door.

“What’s for dinner?”

“Ummmmm…I didn’t make anything, I wasn’t hungry.”

“Ok, maybe I’ll make a pizza or have some left over ziti.”

“Ok.”

Five minutes later I hear the stirrings of a man cooking in my kitchen. The toaster came down, the toast went in, the egg hit the fry pan, the ham came out of the fridge and the cheese was sliced. In my head all I could think is WHY is he making a ham and egg sandwich when he KNOWS I love them, he makes them better than anyone and I can’t resist?! That’s ok I think, the bread is OroWheat fiber (4 points), he used spray butter (0 points), fat free ham (6 pieces for 1 point), low fat cheese (1 point) and the egg was cooked without oil in a non stick pan (2 points). That’s an 8 point meal, not bad. BUT it is 9:00 pm. So after I calculated the pros and cons of this decision, I was prepared for the minute he shouted out at me, “Do you want a sandwich, love?”

Deep breath. Deep breath. “No, thanks babe, I’m ok.”

Five more minutes pass and I hear him setting his sandwich on the table. I slyly say to him, “How am I supposed to steal a bite if you aren’t sitting in the living room with me?” So my husband joins me on the couch, with his delicious sandwich taunting me and 4 bites in I caved. “OK! I WANT A BITE!” He smiles at me and hands me the sandwich. I take a bite and it is just as delicious as I imagined. In my brain I think, 1 point. I reluctantly handed the sandwich back to him only to take it back 3 more times. Up to 4 points now…4 points after 9:00 p.m. – no bueno. CRAP!

Suddenly I looked down at his hands and he held nothing but a paper towel. Whew, that sandwich is gone! No more temptation. So my ever supportive husband looks over at me and says, “Want me to make you a sandwich?”

“No, I want you to make yourself another one so I can take bites of it and convince myself it isn’t worth as many points that way.”

“Ok, you got it.”