DivergNOT

I've been taking a break on the blog because I just haven't had a lot to say.  My eating is going so-so.  Still mostly vegan, but also still struggling a bit to get that devil named Cheese out of my life.  I'm not losing any weight, but no one else in the diet challenge is either, so I still have a chance to win it.  The problem with having a diet challenge with your family is that we all share the same DNA to eat badly.  This might be the first diet challenge where the winner is the one who GAINED the least amount of weight.

Fortunately, the movie Divergent has pulled me out of my writing slump as I absolutely must comment.

We went to see the movie with my visiting nieces and nephews on Saturday night.  I had caught on to all of the buzz about it being the new Hunger Games, and I wanted to check it out.  I should have known that it wasn't going to be all that when the only truly excited person in our group to see it was my sister.  She wasn't exactly in the movies demographic.  The teenagers were all willing to see it, but they actually chose to just sit around at the grandparents house instead of seeing it on the opening weekend.  You can imagine how exciting that would have been. The suggestion was actually "you can go downstairs and play on the singing machine."  However, my sister won the battle and off we went to diverge.

The story is something about factions and having free will but still being told what to do, etc, etc.  I finally was able to fully relate to my father's experience when he first saw The Matrix.  During The Matrix, he kept saying, "Will someone please tell me what is going on?"  I had to say that about 20 times to my niece.  Who are the Erythromycin and isn't that an antibiotic?  I finally gave up trying to understand and chowed down on my Sour Patch Kids.  

Many rolling of the eyes, sighing, and Hubs whispering "someone in this theater might actually be enjoying this movie" later, I gave up and just went with it.  I think the whole crowd felt the same way because the 2nd part was way more fun.  Made me miss the days of Mystery Science Theater 3000 because this movie was perfect for it.  Kate Winslet looked embarrassed. Ashley Judd seemed grateful to be killed.  She barely had any wounds.  More of a she didn't need the cash that bad for another movie kind of a death. And, the most surprising part is that none of the 4million people that Triss told she was a divergent to seemed to spill the beans.  Or maybe they did, and because everyone else knew it wasn't even worth gossiping about.  And, despite an all out mind taking over war with people being shot in cold blood on the street, the train still ran on time.  Because I'm Dauntless, B*TCHES!

All in all we had a great time.  I'm sure the book is great, but I'll stick with my chick lit and leave the YA to the young adults.  So, my recommendation is if you see it go with your snarkiest friend, sit on the back row, and be prepared to laugh as quietly as you can. 

Par-tay Planning

I am making major progress on our Little House on the Prairie birthday party.

Thank goodness that amazon sells pretty much everything.  Including this...

You might wonder how we can justify an expense of a washboard for a one time party.  Well, I just have to say we are one step closer in fulfilling my lifetime dream of having a bluegrass band.  This item was not purchased in the Home category, but rather, in the musical instruments.  

And this...

So, this is a purchase for Bruiser.  Not sure why they need sexy coonskin cap, but I guess sex sells even in the child's hat category.

I can't wait for this party!  If only now I could find a butter churn and and old timey cash register, we would be set.  It mostly feels good to be planning a party in advance of actually having it.  We are typically flying by the seat of our pants at all times, so this is a nice feeling.  I've got the invites figured out, just need to print and send. Hubs recommended that we include a copy of the first Little House tv movie as he believes that most little girls don't know about the Ingalls. Don't know what planet he is living on...not knowing Caroline and Charles and Mary and Laura and baby carrie and baby grace and Mr. Edwards and Nellie Olsen and Albert...ludicrous I tell ya!  

In the world of eating, yesterday was great.  The bus is about to come so I don't have time to post pics, but I was very vegany.  Oatmeal, veggies for lunch, and our famous chili for dinner.  I did have a mishap with my oats in the morning.  Work BFF sorted me out.  The top of my bowl cover completely flattened in the microwave and absolutely would not come off.  I was about to declare it a muffin day when she came up the brilliant idea to have me heat it back up.  Sadly, it worked. 

Some extra tips

I'm getting back on track with the whole diet thing.  Yesterday was a good day.  Not a great day, but better than drowning in cheese.

I was hoping to get a double workout in as I've decided that excessive exercise is definitely where this party needs to head.  I got an elliptical workout in the morning and was very much looking forward to doing a class called Bodyflow at 7 after hubs got home.  Everything was on track until....dum dum dum....2 extras gigs came across the screen.  Must apply, need new pictures, panic, frenzy.   This bring me to my first lesson in booking extras work in ATL:

1--ALWAYS have good pictures ready to go at all times.

Booking a gig is dependent mostly by the speed to which you apply.  Taking new pictures, downloading, and posting all takes time.  It is best if you can keep some good shots on the cloud so they are ready to go with no trouble.  Hubs has the best pictures going (thanks to the good photog work of our nanny), and I can just forward previous submissions to the new address--the best thing is that he has both bearded kinds and clean shaven which definitely comes in handy (particularly since halt and catch fire which is currently filming wants a more bearded man.)  Just take out the dates, make a more relevant joke with some kind of emoticon, and press send.  The kids and myself have had a more difficult time as all of our pictures have been taken in a frenzy of wanting to submit quickly.  I need to arrange time to gussy up and get some good outside shots for posting in the future.  I will say that this is not always true in that the pic I submitted for Bruiser for D&D2 was a pic of him covered in green paint.  I think what got him the gig in the end is that I submitted quickly, and he had long hair.  I also sent the link to his wildly successful DumbandDumberToddlers youtube video (and I am saying that tongue in cheek.) If that tipped the scales his way, then we are totally awesome...like for real.

Anyway, the frenzy of submitting the pics caused me to miss my class.  Oh, well.

One of my fave meals of all time is a veggie Moe's burrito, particularly on Moe Monday.  No cheese, believe it or not.  In the cup is tea.  I think I've beat the coke addiction down.

For dinner, I was inspired by our good friends.  I finally made spaghetti squash! It was great, but you can see my crackbread all lined up like little soldiers ready for battle of my caloric intake.  I really just need to be hypnotized to not like bread.  I think that will be the only way. 

Meatless at least

I've already gotten a little lazy on taking pictures of everything I eat.  Of course, part of that may be subliminal self-sabotage because I don't want to post a picture of me eating a mound of cheese.

Friday ended up being a truly fantastic day both food and exercise wise.  I discovered the joy of the double work-out.  It was fantastic, and it helped me lose a pound!!  I went to the gym in the morning and just did the elliptical, but on my way out I ran into an old friend who was signing the praises of Spin.  So, we went to spin Friday night.  I felt good, and it made me want to attempt to get double workouts almost every day.

Naturally, life got in the way of the double workout plan.  Saturday we did a big volunteer morning with our church.  It was great fun, but not exactly cardio.  Then, we had a party all night with our besties which involved a lot of me sitting at a table watching friend do all the work.  If only she had had a weight machine in her kitchen--I would have looked at it and still done nothing.  The cheese also started to make its march towards glory on Saturday.  We picked up cheese pizza for the kids to eat while friend was making healthy vegan spaghetti for us.  Sadly, the cheese pizza kept calling my name, and I kept responding dutifully.

Sunday was rainy and made me want to go back to my true roots of being completely lazy.  And, so that is what we did.  I read a book while the hubs worked feverishly putting together a clip of his extra gig that finally aired last Sunday.  Unfortunately, because of our ignorance of the non-disclosure agreement he had to sign, we have no idea if we can post it or not.  So, if you want to see it, you'll have to come to our house.  Sunday, I consumed more cheese as well.  Because once it starts I can't stop.

But, I did have some wins:

1--No meat (and I had plenty of opportunity)--of course a real vegan, would describe cheese as liquid meat, but I won't go there yet.

2--No coke

3--Lots of Little House on the Prairie watching.  We are starting in 1974 and we aren't stopping until Shannon Dougherty shows up and Albert goes to rehab.  What other show can really take you from the shaggy hair of the 70s to the awesome divas of the 80s and still rock it out Pioneer style??

This might be the last time she smiled, but how can you not smile in Walnut Grove.  Way better than that other zip code

Rock it out, Manly.  That is some good looking hair

The Binge

It all started out so innocently.  I made sure to put my oatmeal/banana/walnut combo in my lunch bag to eat at work.  But, then it all went so wrong.

Somehow, I failed to eat breakfast.  I fully blame my work BFF.  I depend on her to raz me about my usual breakfast choice (double chocolate chip muffin--yum) and that gives me a reminder to get the oatmeal started.  But, it was a busy day in the office, and time just got away from me.  Of course, by lunchtime, I announced to everyone I saw that I was eating whatever the heck I wanted and for them to keep their traps shut.  Work BFF and I walked down to the cafeteria, and I saw steak, and I wanted it.  Thankfully, an image of the horrible feces filled animal feed lots filled my mind, and I went for a veggie plate instead.  But, I didn't go vegan.  That cheesy goodness you see pictured is hashbrown casserole.  It was great.  Fortunately, I didn't end up eating too many of the okra since fried is bad (and work BFF gave me more heck for them then she did me possibly getting a steak.)

Sadly, that was the only good decision of my eating day.  The rest of my hours were a blur of cookies and sour patch kids and chick fil a.  YUCK!  (For some reason the poorly treated chickens living in darkness that aren't even able to walk don't flood my brain like those poor cows do--must be the eyes.)  

There was a bright side to all of this.  I didn't drink coke.  That's the only win I had, but it is a big one.  If I slide back down to the coke side, there might be no coming back.

I couldn't bring myself to weigh this morning.  The cookies I consumed alone were like 900 calories + the chick-fil-a meal was probably a 1,000.  But, tomorrow is another day, and I can already look into the future and see that it is going to be a good one.  It involves my usual breakfast and a great workout. I still have until April 30th to crush my siblings in the weight challenge.  That's plenty of time! 

Meat Eater

So, while yesterday was not quite a vegan day, today was definitely not a vegan day.  Disappointment abounds.  And, I've gained a pound, but I'll cry over my first world problems another day.  Here's the gory truth.

Breakfast was at least my usual oatmeal.  That's one thing I don't kill any animals for.

I got off the day to a good start actually.  I even made my own lunch.  A PB&J with carrots and hummus. Not too shaby.  However, all of my good intentions went awry one bite into the sandwich.  I had to use jelly of an unknown date of origin.  I thought it would be fine.  I was wrong.  It was disgusting.  Apparently, old jelly just sort of congeals and then disintegrates in your mouth in a very awful manner.  Jelly jar out of fridge and sandwich was thrown away.

Fortunately, the cafeteria was just 500 steps away (thank you fitbit.)  I got a veggie tray with another piece of crackbread.

I had a snack of cashew crunches.  

Then, came murder of the animal kind.  I go to church dinner every Wed and while I didn't have to eat the chicken I went ahead and did it anyway.  It was super delish.  I also had sweet tea and 2 croissants.  I think you could describe this meal as being a little off track. 

I finished the night off with an apple with caramel (again, non-vegan.)  So because of all of this bread I eat, I'm up a pound.  I am getting more nutrients than my usual diet, but I am also getting more calories.  Not the ideal combo.  I can give you a sneak peak that the next day isn't going to be much better, but what's a girl to do.  I always do better on days that I don't work, so here's to hoping I can get back on track.

Prairie Dresses Ordered!

First things first....I've got our Little House on the Prairie dresses ordered for the party.  We are going full Ingalls here people.  Sister and I will have matching dresses.  As pictured here...

I ordered them from a lady in Kalamazoo.  I decided to go matching to really ratchet the geek factor up a bit.  Mostly, because I have realized that I have missed geeking it out since high school.  Dressing up and acting "in character" to the point of making people feel uncomfortable is my thing.  So, it's time to do it up right.

Still need to plan lots of the details, but at least we have the time sensitive piece taken care of.  I just wish I could sew so that I could make aprons for all the girls coming.  Oh, well.  There's not time left for me, but there's still time left for Sister to learn how to sew (don't you love how you can live your life through your children??)

In diet news, yesterday I had more of a vegetarian day rather than vegan.  Oatmeal for breakfast--I sparing you the reposting of pictures.

For lunch, I had veggies from the hospital cafeteria.  People rag on hospital food, but I find it simply tantalizing.  Sadly, the breaded zucchini probably has egg in it and the cornbread would, too.  And, I couldn't resist a little parkay.  Don't fear, I wasn't a total glut.  I ended up getting too many parkays.  

For dinner, we had Tofurkey for the first time ever.  It was good.  I try to avoid processed soy products because they really aren't any better than other processed foods, but I wanted to try it out.  It was sort of a meatball for our spaghetti.  I also gorged out on the last pieces of the bread.  Thank goodness.  Won't purchase it again as fancy bread is my weakness.

Only thing not pictured is an apply with some caramel dip (which had milk product in it.)  So, not total vegan, but at least no animals were killed in the making of my meal.  Harmed, probably, but not killed.

Day 3--Weight Confessional

The hits just keep on coming!

As promised, I said I would put a weight confessional out there today.  So, here it goes, cyber space.

At the beginning of the Sibling Weight Challenge 2014 ('cause Lord knows we'll have gained anything back that we've lost by next year, so we might as well make this an annual occurrence), my weight was 148.2.  That 0.2 is very important, as I am now down to 148.0.  I've lost 0.2 pounds!!  Hey, I'll take whatever I can get as my sister has lost a whopping 5 pounds on some kind to ketogenic diet (which as Fancy Nancy would say is fancy for Atkins.)  So, I've got some stiff competition to collect the pot.

With that being said, here is my log.  Breakfast:  Oatmeal, surprise, surprise

I went to work on Monday when I should have been eating bon bons at home; therefore, I indulged in some dark chocolate covered blueberries to keep me going.

I made it home in time for lunch, so I had leftover "Heaven" from last night.  You can see our ever present oatmeal stain on the cooktop in back.  I do like to stir lots of pots, but that is not one of them.  Followed up lunch with exactly 5 chocolate covered pretzels (not pictured.)

Dinner, I will have to admit was definitely short of heaven.  It was supposed to be biscuit pot pie.  We just ended up smothering it in BBQ sauce and choking it down.  It wasn't my worst vegan recipe ever. That is reserved for the Italian "Eat" Balls.  Here's your juicy tip for the day, if a recipe tries to make a pun in its name, avoid at all costs.  That also goes for any vegan recipe called Cheesy--just run far away and don't look back.

Ended the day with a few snagged apples with a bit of caramel sauce that the kids were enjoying and a little dark chocolate to ease my nerves during our final episodes of Breaking Bad.  Truly, if you haven't watched that show, then do it now.  I spent a good portion of what should have been sleeping looking up Lily of the Valley berries vs ricin.  Good stuff, I tell ya.

Day 2

Yesterday was a great day all around, except for the pesky change to daylights savings.  Beautiful weather, and we even made progress on our next youtube project.  Of course, that means that a million more important things didn't get done, like laundry and cleaning house...but, youtube is so much more worth it.  Sadly, my editor is not a teenager who can edit in 5 seconds.  He is a middle age man who is easily cast as a zombie, so we work a little more slowly around here.

Of course, yesterday's eating all started with my typical oatmeal.

I choose to have my smoothies at lunchtime.  They really do pick me up.  If you haven't heard us sign the praises of our vita-mix enough, then just you wait.  It truly is my all-time fave kitchen appliance.

This is what I call my vegan junk food lunch.  An Amy's burrito and chips with gauc.  It's awfully good, but not that light on the calories.  Of course, I had to use our Darryl glass since it was TWD night (not that we get to watch it--no cable, no Darryl.)

 My downfall in the afternoon came when I let myself get ravenous before dinner.  I got my favorite loaf of bread from Bi-lo and chowed down.  Now, you'll understand why I can't lose weight.  The problem with this vegan stuff is that you are pretty much hungry all day.  I must do better about keeping ahead of it.

And, for dinner, we had what the Princess calls "heaven."  It's the Happy Herbivore mini meatloaf with homemade mashed potatoes with BBQ sauce.  It's super easy to make and tastes great, too.

I finished up the night with 5 chocolate covered pretzels whilst watching another Sunday night show we couldn't watch on cable, Breaking Bad. Thank goodness for Netflix. 

So, I'm doing ok on the vegan, but awful on trying to be a Forks over Knives vegan.  Oil really is awesome after all.  I totally failed to weight myself this morning, so I'll have to update that tomorrow.

We spent a lot of time yesterday trying to book another extras gig for the Hubs.  He is oddly in hot demand.  Sadly, they really wanted him for 4 days which is a no go for us.  As much as he does enjoy making minimum wage, we have to be a little more choosy about how he spends his time.  Otherwise, our youtube video will really never get made, and we keep our priorities straight around here.

Day 1

As promised, here is my food journal from yesterday.  

This breakfast is going to get old after a while, but I love it.  Steel cut oats with a banana and some walnuts.  How I start my mornings.

I was all ready for a wonderful Saturday at home.  Was just about to leave for the gym when I remembered that I had to go to work.  What a bummer!!  But, at least I got a very delightful black bean and avocado sandwich from au bon pain.  Sadly, I later found out that it is not vegan as it contains eggs whites and casein. 

My bad work habits.  I always have 2 pieces of gum.  A Big Red, followed by a doublemint.  My favorite combo, but they aren't sugar free.  Oh, well.  It beats my other bad work habits of chick fil a and a double chococlate chip muffin.

Last night, we went to my all time favorite restaurant, Ghengis Grill.  Loads of veggies and brown rice.  I LOVE it!

I had a billion technical issues with these pictures.  Things still just aren't quite as easy as they should be.  

But, I'm back now.  I'll post weight, etc, tomorrow.  We had a busy start to our morning as Hubs was frantically running around trying to get better pictures for a possible extras gig.  And, daylights savings time messed us up, as per usual.  I've got my vegan menu planned for the week, so there is no where to go but up...or rather my weight should be coming down.

And we're live..

Took a bit of a break due to feeling very uninspirational.   But, tomorrow is the dawn of a new day.

I have entered into a diet challenge with my siblings, and it is time to kick it into high gear.  So, from now on, I will be posting a picture of everything I consume for the next 30 days.

Also, I'm planning a big Little House on the Prairie themed party for my little girl, so I'll be posting on that as well because there is nothing I love more than reading blogs with party ideas.

In addition, I'll be starting a weekly posting on how to book gigs being an extra in Atlanta.  Let's face it, I have a lot of experience with that now.  And, I have success stories (hubs) and fail stories (me), so I feel like I have a good understanding of how they pick people.

So, stay tuned to some big excitement on the blog.

Things My Alarm Said This Morning

Got the Carrot Alarm app to work this morning.

Here is what it told me:

1--You suck at waking up
2--I will kill you

Fantastic!  It was actually quite hilarious.  It definitely appeals to the teacher pet in me as it gives you more points if you don't snooze.  And, points equal super dumb stuff.  ...I'm interested.

What my Hubs pointed out is that the (2) line was a direct rephrasing from the smash hit Liam Neeson movie, Taken. Except the alarm inserted a "...if you snooze again, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you." That was both disturbing and hilarious. It almost made me want to snooze again to see what else it could conjure up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxBH05hcifw

In other news, we are planning a massive youtube shoot for Saturday.  I just need to assemble a children's choir in about 1 day.  Monica, now you see why I can't snooze anymore.  I've got to get busy on my wonderful cyber space projects.  Just need my wonderful nieces to help us edit the material.

Carrots

After my past lackluster couple of weeks in the no snooze challenge, I decided to get more serious last night and invest my hard earned $1.99 on an app called The Carrot Alarm.


This is the description in the app store:

Since the dawn of time, no human has ever looked forward to waking up. 

Until now. Meet CARROT, the sentient alarm clock. 


I was super excited to try it and kick this habit to the curb.  I read the instructions carefully:

1-Set Alarm
2-Put facing down on your bedside table
3-Leave on charger

Done, Done, and my battery is fully charged, so I'll skip that.  The ipad was way more important to get a full charge as it is our carrot in the morning for the kids to get ready for school.

I spent most of the night not looking forward to the alarm going off.  And, yes, I mean most of the night as we were delightfully awakened by first thunder, then the dog trying to literally dig to get into girl's room (her favorite hiding spot), followed by a lot of panting (from dog lest you think otherwise), then boy coming into room not being able to sleep from traumatic finger injury, followed by boy not being able to sleep because he doesn't have his big blanket, then....well, you get the idea.

Next thing I know, I'm hearing the nails on the wall sound that is the NPR pledge drive blasting from Hubs' alarm.  Yeah, so, the Carrot Alarm really has to be on the charger because it sucks down your battery until your phone is dead, dead, dead.

I'll give it another try tonight.  But, it does give me an idea to create an alarm with the sounds of the NPR pledge drive.  Oh, how I hate that time of the year (or rather those times of the year.)

Here's to getting my carrots in the morning!

Back to Life...

...back to reality.

Don't have a lot to report today.  I did set an alarm, and I did hit snooze...BUT only 2 times.  Success?  Nope.  Heading in the right direction? eeh.

One thing I must alter is my bed time.  I got a fitbit force for Xmas, and it will tell your sleep pattern.  It's pretty cool.  For some reason, I always go to bed later than I should because I love to snuggle up in bed and read.  Bad habit?  Wish not, but on work days it definitely is.  Do I really need to know if the neurotic girl gets the nerd or the hunk?  Because in every book ever written, she goes with nerd every.single.time.  But, me loves some chick lit.  So, tonight I'm going to focus on the input to sleep rather than the output.



Had a fairly trying day today as I arrived at swimming lessons to pick up my kids to find that boy had battled a door and lost.  Blood everywhere, and he is about to be down to 9 fingernails.  It was disgusting as you can see by the pictures I have so graciously included.  Even he said, "I can't deal with this."  But, a little Justice League on netflix has fixed everything.  {Sidebar--don't mind netflix getting me to binge on every show, but it's a little much for the kids.  As soon as I'm up to the remote, the next show has started and any change creates noise pollution.}

And, that is my day for your enjoyment.

I will soon be announcing a change to my challenge as the first step to snooze sobriety is to admit defeat to the disease...right?  I've got to move on to something else so that...well...I'm just over it.  Time for something fun!

Updating

I finally had a moment to spend a little time on blogger this President's Day.  Hooray!

So, I'm feeling like it is time for a fresh start.  Sort of sad that only 2 weeks later, and I'm having a new start.  But, isn't that what life is all about?  Fresh farts constantly...sorry...typo (had to do it as I'm around poop humor ALL DAY long.)

As much as the snow days were a little confining, it was quite nice to catch up on sleep and have nowhere to go each day.  We continued that trend during our weekend in Atlanta as my mother is always happy to watch children in the morning due to her 4am wake up time.  Now, that's a woman who has never needed a snooze.  Of course, we were hoping to have a 5am call time for our extra gig, but it was cancelled due to wind.  We are first on the list the next time they need a family which is Atlanta-wood speak for better luck next time, suckas.

In line with a weekend of Goose Chases, we went on a goose chase across Atlanta to an auction where we came home with a trunk full of what I call auction riff raff.  In our mini-wan was a rug (good), a storage thingy for the top of the van (broken), and...wait for it...a bubble chair (what the heck??)  For those keeping track, we went to Atlanta with the expectation that we would come home with approximately $200.  Instead, we spent about $400 and faced a moral dilemma of bringing home either the bubble chair or a child.  For the record, we brought home the child, but we are having 2nd thoughts on that one as the bubble chair would add a certain "who are these people?" feel to our family room.

Today has been on target for productivity.  I've taken a shower (check), purchased necessary items from Costco (check), and bought a cart full of unnecessary food stuffs from Aldi (no check as 4 boxes of generic oreos was not on my list.)

Looking forward to no snoozing tomorrow!

Goose Chase

Today I had no problem getting out of bed again.  Sadly, it is because we went on a crazy Goose Chase last night.

Yesterday afternoon I got word that the whole fam could be extras today on a TV show filmed in ATL.  Great!  Fun!  All 4 of us + mini-van would get to work which equals real spending money.

Off we went in the rain and traffic to get to ATL for a call time this morning.  Except...crickets...no call time ended up getting sent.  So, I got up early to eagerly check emails with no result.

Too bad, so sad.  Best guess is they cancelled due to weather. 

Of course, sometimes goose chases can end up being great fun, and being perfectly honest, I had to get out of the house.  It was very satisfying to flee SC for a couple of days.

In other news, we went to The Lego Movie last night, and it was great.  The only bad side effect from it was dreaming in lego blocks. 

Have a great day!!

And We're Back

Yesterday no post.  You know why?  Because nothing happened yesterday at all.

Snow day, snowed in until we made a late afternoon break to Target where I spent tons of money on absolutely nothing worthwhile, except for toothbrushes.  I did buy toothbrushes just to make the rest of my basket not look so manic spendy.

But, we are back now.  And by we, I mean me and my alarm clock.

Today has been awesome which I hope is the beginning of a new Kim.  Got up early in order to herd the children to Gravitopia (I didn't even need to snooze because I woke up before my alarm!).  Gravitopia is a local trampoline place that was going to be open at 9am.  Yes, I did get out on still ice covered streets just to get out the house and get some exercise.  Also, almost busted tail just walking in, but in we walked like bears coming out of hibernation.  Along with the other 3 families who I noted all had toddler boys, aged 2.  We smiled at each other but no one talked as we all knew exactly what the other was thinking.  "It was totally worth risking life and limb to get to a place with foam pits."

So, I'm looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings.  Nothing like a few days at home and eating junk food to make you feel like you need a nice detox.

Here's to the coming snow free days!

Houston we have pancakes...

Hooray!

Finally made those pesky vegan pancakes.  Didn't even set an alarm, so I didn't have a chance to snooze.

And, wouldn't you know, that on the one day that I could sleep pretty late, I woke up right on time at 6:30?  Isn't that how it always happens??  And, just to prove that the pancakes did happen, there are many pictures below.

There has been lots of forced merriment in my house today.  Our top quotes are:

1--The snow is hurting me
2--I hate snow
3--My feet are tired
4--Snow is on my gloves

And my favorite--
5--Snow is touching me

All of those brought to you by the boy child.  Girl child was a little more agreeable, but she also didn't eat an entire bag of Sour Patch Kids in one sitting.  Sour Patch Kids do have the unfortunate ability to make an extremely sour kid about 1 hour post consumption.

Looks like we'll be stuck in again tomorrow.  Wonderful.

Look, Mom, almond milk and maple syrup!

Don't let Vegan Pancakes confuse you.  You can see my snow storm supplies of junk food followed by junk food.

Fave Vegan Cookbook!

Happy Camper.

Evidence of the Forced Merriment.  His feet were too tired to walk, so I had to pull him in the sled.

Success!

Finally didn't snooze!

But, I'm not quite having a parade yet as I had to get out of bed to find out the bad news of if I could go to work or not.  Good news is that I could go to work!  For all of those with small kids, you know that going to work is a definite blessing on a snow day that doesn't need to be a snow day.  Particularly, when you are facing at least a day and a half of being able to go no where.

So, I'm not completely claiming victory, but it did make me consider that a wake up call app might be useful.

Oh, wait...there already is that app...and here is a giant pic of it's icon as I can't figure out how to hyperlink while children are climbing on me.  It's called Auto Wake up Call for those who couldn't determine that from the word Auto around a clock with little lines that look like eyebrows.



I'm sure I would find a way around it at some point, but this does inspire me to make this blog more interesting by reviewing various snooze free apps to find out if any of them work.

So, that will be upcoming, but not tomorrow because why do tomorrow what you can put off until some later date to be determined.

Happy Snow Day everyone!

Worst Dream Evah

Monday, monday...can't trust that day.

So, instead of my blog being named Kimspirational, I should change it to Kimameful, as in shameful.  Blek.

It all began with the Ice Dancing.  Throughout my life, I have had many days ruined by Ice Dancing, but haven't we all?  Stayed up too late watching something I have no interest in at all.  It truly is an enigma.

Alarm set for 6:30.  Child in bed at 4:30am.  Tossing and turning until about 5 at which point I start thinking that an inspirational person would get out of bed and start doing squats.  In fact, I was thinking about doing some squats as I was unknowingly falling back asleep.  Which meant I had the worst dream ever!

You know the one.  You think you're awake, and you're being so beautiful and productive.  I'm talking some exercise, a shower, those f*ing vegan pancakes.  Everything is wonderful and you're giving yourself a pat on the back and them BLAM....beep beep beep.  What the?  I'm still asleep?  I'm not beautiful and productive?

Alarm off and the full on" I'm so depressed that I haven't already been awake snooze fest" begins.  In fact, my brain was giving me credit for being awake even thought I was most definitely not awake.  "Go ahead.  Hit the snooze," it told me.  "You've been awake for hours, so you deserve a rest."  My brain's other name is Judas.

So, my new goal is to not hit the snooze button at some point in the next 30 days...surely that is achievable!

Sno-azy is upon us here in SC, so tomorrow is going to be especially rough as I'm going into it assuming that schools will be cancelled when I get up which means I'll sleep really bad until about 3 am at which point I'll go into hibernation and never want to get up just to find out that school is in session and it is time to get my rear to work (don't you love it when your life can be described in one giant run on sentence?)

Happy Sunday Morning!

This morning has been great!  I, again, can't get a success or fail because that's how I roll.

I will say that when the kids descended upon our bed I did not put on my sleep mask and try to drown out the sounds of Littlest Pet Shop on youtube ("skittles will you by my girlfriend?") and star wars angry birds ("no, you can't buy hans solo.")  I embraced the day and actually enjoyed the togetherness.  What a change!

And, while the kids (again) did not enjoy vegan pancakes, they did get a made meal of cheese on naan.

Speaking of naan, we had our first meeting of the GreenSville Veganites last night.  It was great.  We dined on veggie pizza, trash can smoothies, faux sausage, and hummus.  Of the 6 vegans in attendance, 3 had cheese, so I'm not sure exactly how to categorize our group other than to say we are trying our best and sometimes our best is covered in cheese.  For the record, I was in the 50% that did not eat cheese.  But, in true honesty, earlier in the day I discovered a treasure trove of halloween candy and consumed an elephant's portion of star burst, but isn't that fruit??

Tomorrow is the true test of my commitment.  Monday...blek....work day...blah...must set alarm {sigh}

Things that make you go hmmm.....

Day 2 of snooze challenge 2014 has provided a perplexing situation for analysis.  Here it goes:

It all started last night when I ran into some friends at the local fro yo shop.  In order to protect the guilty, these friends shall remain nameless as I was allowed to peer into the world of a fellow snooze addict and view his long list of alarm settings.  Oh, to see another 5:30am alarm on his phone and bond over the life that could be if we could just get the heck up out of bed., was a salve to my soul.  5:30 is the holy grail time for us snoozers.  It represents all that could be and is a true measure of our optimism for victory.  That alarm setting was followed by 6am, 6:15am, and 6:30am, and the confession that he would put his phone into his gym shoe across the room just so that he would have to get up to turn it off at which point he snoozes it and get back into bed.  Yes, kindred snoozers we are.

Seeing them made me feel very motivated about being a shining light among the bed prone. I decided then and there that I would set a very realistic alarm time for Saturday morning just to show them that we can do it!  While we were having this kimspirational conversation, my little boy, who for our purposes we shall call Bruiser, was continually filling up his yogurt cup as if it was a free refill station.  Keep in mind these yogurt cups are literally the size of feed troughs.  2 bites, more yogurt, more sprinkles, more marshmallows, more snow caps, 2 bites, more yogurt, more sprinkles, more marshmallows, more rainbow snow caps.  His cup overflowth with diabetes.  This is an important fact to know for what is to come...

Alarm set for a very realistic 7:30am.  That is our typical wake up time around here anyway, but the alarm was more of a reminder to actually get out of bed and to not spend time catching up on the latest news about Philip Seymour Hoffman's heroin dealer.  Although, he was my husband's co-worker for a short time, I don't need those deets to start my day.  Cue vision of vegan pancakes, etc.

4am---you all know what is coming---"MOMMY, my tummy hurts...blak, blek, blllauughh."  A 4 year old cannot in fact eat a yogurt serving suitable for Shamu and not have some digestive issues later (that is your fun fact of the day.)

I don't really want to be honest about this, but I will.  I snoozed my son.  It's true.  He's making sounds reminiscent of the exorcist, and I roll over to my husband and say, "can you deal with that?"  In my defense, my husband's super power is dealing with throw up.  He is like a stealth jet coming in with a bomb, except the bomb is a cold wash cloth and a fresh trash can and gentle words saying, "you're hot right now, but soon you'll feel cold and will start shaking" as he gives you paper towels and puts some hand sanitizer by the bed.

Don't judge me too harshly, though, because I did get up after the sounds continued.  So, it was just equivalent to one 9 minute snooze.  At which point, I took one for the team and stayed with Bruiser (after I determined it was more of a lactose problem and less of a norovirus situation.)  I guilt free turned off my alarm--no alarm, no snooze.

In order to wrap this up, I will just say that come 7:30 the kids were up, but because I was upstairs and Hubs was downstairs, we continued to snooze to each other until 9.  As in the kids come to my room and say, "get up."  I say, "go get your father."  They go to him, and he says, "wake up your mother." They ping ponged back and forth until I acknowledged that the jig was up.

So, I'm not sure how to qualify this experience except to say, "Welcome to my world."

Day 1

So, the great thing about my challenge being not hitting the snooze is that I have either success or failure as soon as I get out of the bed.  That means I can blog early!

Sadly, today was a total FAIL!  {sound of giant gong going off}

But, I actually did not hit the snooze button, so I could have blogged a success story.  But, this won't work without total honesty.

Here's how it all went down:

Alarm set for 6am
As I feel asleep, visions of a vegan pancake breakfast and kids with brushed hair danced through my brain.  I saw myself with beautiful blow dried AND "The Perfect Curl" hair wearing regular clothes (not my usual fare of yoga pants, college shirt from 1998--most of you have seen me in this so you know--no need to go further.)

Picture it...morning, 6am....iphone alarm goes off (marimba for those in the know)  MUST not hit snooze, facebook friends are watching....must not hit snooze....so tired...so comfortable....
Like all addicts who are imprisoned to the sweet nectar of snooze, I found another way.

Yes, friends, instead of hitting snooze, I turned off the first alarm and set a new one for 630 am as I am nothing but a rule follower.

Wish I could say that it went down differently at 630, but alas, the snooze has got me in his hands.  Alarm off, new one set for 7am.  However, this time the dog did not want to be party to this tom foolery, so she begged to go out.  At which point, I got up, let dog out, and {sniff} got back in bed.  AAHHHH!

7am is chaos point, so I definitely did not snooze that one.  But, I did continue to stay in bed checking my favorite website radaronline.com.  Because no one needs to get out of bed without knowing what Janelle Evans from Teen Mom 2 is up to these days.  That is some critical information I'm might need for the rest of my day.  All of this is followed by "we've got to get up, you'll be tardy, wake up!!!!"  Cue pancake on sticks, yoga pants, and kids {gasp} brushing their own rat nests.

Somehow, the kids got to school early.  That's because all addicts have their coping mechanisms.  Mine happens to be having the kids wear their clothes for the next day to bed. Ring, ring  "Hello." My mother says, "you let your kids sleep in their clothes.  In my day, we would never do that.  I can't believe what kind of mother you are."  Sigh...such is the life of a snoozer.

So, Day 1 is Fail, but like Scarlet said, "I will go home to Tara"...no, not that one..."Why, Rhett, you're a scoundrel"...no, not that one either...."Ashley, oh, Ashley".  It's right on the tip of my tongue.....oh, I know...."Tomorrow is another day!"

I'm HERE!

I am starting this blog because to put it nicely I need a commitment tool.  There are so many things I want to accomplish each day and yet nothing gets done because I'm lazy.  There I said it, "I'm Kim, and I'm lazy."  So, I'm kicking things off today by having just joined the Engine 2 Extra website in order to give myself a kick in the pants on eating right for my health, for $5 yo (more on my veganistic diet later.)

The plan for this blog is to post 30 day challenges, and then to blog each day about my success in each category..or failures...or just general lack of doing anything.  My first challenge is to not hit the snooze button in the morning.  My snoozing is legendary.  In college, I would snooze for up to 2 hours...why didn't I just set my alarm clock for later you ask??  Because, I needed commitment tools even then.  Get up earlier, exercise, healthy breakfast, etc.  Yup, ended up being no exercise and grab a Chick-fil-a biscuit on the road, desperately trying to dry my wet hair with the AC fan in the car.

But, tomorrow is always a new day, and with the help of my good friend, the world wide web, I hope to make a difference in many areas of my life.

Day 1 no snooze begins tomorrow.  I hope to be Kimspirational to all of you.

P.S.--Kimspire was taken, surprisingly.  I guess people named Kim enjoy doing silly things.  Sadly, both Kimspire and Kimspiration made one post and disappeared into the internet abyss.  Let's hope for better for this Kim and my inspirational posts.