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.