"Its OK" Thursday 8/16

I am linking up again with with Neely: A Complete Waste of Makeup and Amber: Brunch With

Amber Click the button above to visit and link up too!

"Its OK"

-That I officially kicked off my birthday week at 5:00 yesterday. I get to use this glass only once a year, so I washed off the dust and will be using it ALL week. Don't think I wont be reminding my husband every chance I get that it is in fact my birthday week.

-That I am a serious cleaning machine. I worked for 7 hours straight yesterday. I am going to reward myself with something today. I just don't know with what yet.

-That my daughter sent me this text at work Monday and I almost fell off of my chair. All of these years of bringing her with me to the nail salon have finally paid off. She is a good kid like that.



-That the son I never had, sent me this text after taking my daughter to the shooting range.

- That my husband actually ended up folding a load of laundry this week. He gets confused with who owns what clothes. He was folding a pair of my daughters shorts and asked me if they were the babies (he thought they got left here).  I am not exaggerating when I tell you how short/small my daughters clothes are. She really hates wearing conservative work clothes.

"The babies" shorts

She considers these her "mom jeans" shorts. See how ridiculously long they are ? cough, cough. If I had her body and the knowledge I have now,  I would wear a bikini every day, even in the winter.

-That I really had the best experience with a repair man ever yesterday. A father and son team came to fix my TV yesterday. He was an older Italian man. He was the sweetest, most personable repair man I have ever had in my house. I could have listened to his Italian accent all day. Anybody in the MA area that needs a TV/stereo repair man, I have the man for you. He also gave me a few recipes I will be trying out.

-That as soon as my husband came home from work,  instead of admiring all of the hard work I did all day, he had to make sure his surround sound etc. were all in working order from the TV repair men. I paid him back for his oversight by cleaning the sheets (for those of you who read my blog, you know that his only job inside of the house is to make the bed after the sheets are washed) I can hear him up there swearing now. Its good to be the queen.

-That I am actually hoping for rain either Saturday or Sunday. My husband said if it rains we are going to the outlets. It is my birthday week. He wont be able to say no to anything. We were going to go to Maine but he told me we cant because they don't have a Black/White store (my favorite), that means he wants to shop for me. I don't have a problem with that.

-That while carrying my coffee into work on Monday, the whole bottom of the coffee cup broke apart and I had to drop it. That meant no coffee until 11:00 when one of the girls were due to come in. My husband offered to bring me a coffee but I didn't want to seem like a crybaby so I said I could live without coffee until 11:00.  It was hard but I managed. All of the girls that called in to check their schedules offered to bring me coffee that day for some reason. Maybe I had an edge in my voice from lack of coffee? They are good to me.

-That I only walked three times this week. All of the cleaning I did has to count for exercise right?

-That I deleted all of my blog buttons by accident. I think I permanently deleted my blog button as well. I am dreading telling my daughter she needs to fix it. She is going to tell me I'm old. I just don't have the patience to learn about these things the way some of you youngsters do.

-That I have only done my hair once this week. The rest of the week I just wash and go or leave conditioner in it. My hair is as dry as cotton candy right now. If someone lights a match, it may go up in flames. I am blaming hormones. Just another perk of getting oldER.

Happy Thursday!



What's in your closet?

I have been bitten by the fall cleaning bug. I know its not fall but I want to get a jump start. Remember how I claim to be neurotic and neat?  I lied and my closets will tell you otherwise. I think I am like most people and let things go in the summer. Things just tend to accumulate and I tell myself "That will be a great winter project". Who wants to sit in the house on an 80 degree day cleaning? Not me.
My problem is, once I start something, I go all out. Now I want to just rip the house apart.

I filled up a huge trash barrel and a big trash bag with things I only use occasionally. I really hate clutter. I really should have had a yard sale but I am too lazy. Most of the things I threw out were used maybe once or twice. Most of the things were gifts from my brother for Christmas over the years. He usually hands me my Christmas gift and says, "Put this in the Mark closet (his name) because you probably wont use it". He is usually right.

This was last years gift it came with a card with scratch tickets. I won $40.00 on the scratch tickets. That was the better gift because a) I don't like pancakes and b) I don't like pancakes


My mother is also guilty of this. She claims there is nothing to buy me (I beg to differ). She bought me this sewing machine. Seriously, does she know me? Martha Stewart I am not. I did try and use it once. It ended badly. I ended up ripping the fabric I was working on out of the machine, rolling it up in a ball and throwing it against the wall. Anybody want a sewing machine? I am serious.
Did I really need a professional grade jewelry steam cleaner? It is too much of a hassle. Steam cleaner meet your new home, the trash barrel. Sorry mom.
Pasta maker? You aren't worth the trouble. I can buy fresh pasta. I really didn't notice to much of a taste difference between the pasta I made and the kind I can just buy. We all know how I love my trips to the grocery store anyway.

I used to clean the closets and leave all of the "use once a year" items in there. Yesterday was a new day. Time to get rid of it all. I will be waiting for the TV repair man today so I will be cleaning like a fiend. When fall comes, I will be out shopping to fill my closets back up, not doing housework.
It is a rainy day so I am going to work myself silly seeing that I cant go out and walk. This post would not be complete without showing my accomplishments so here you go.

Sorry honey if you see a veteran wearing those ugly leather 80's coats. It was time for them to go. No you are not going to wear them someday, at least not with me.

Much better don't you think? I washed all of the closet floors and cleaned the baseboards while I was at it.

Up top, I like to store all of my gift bags and regular bags, it took me 17 years to organize them each into bags to have them stop falling through the wire racks. Why didn't I ever figure this out before? Every time I opened the closet, bags would fall and I would shove them back up there.

I organized my gift bags according to the holiday. I will not have to run out to the store anymore because I cant find a gift bag in the old jumbled mess.

On the floor there is a very useful gift from my mom, my food saver.

It feels much better being organized.

I would love to work on this today but my husband told me not to bother. We are going to be putting in new shelves. This is my pantry. Notice how the top left half and the bottom is mostly alcohol? I will make no apologies for that.
I wont wait to long to start to organize this, I know how he likes to drag out a project. I am more of the get her done type. I told him I want it to look like a closet company did it with bins and all. We will see if he comes through for me.

His last project, we will call it the grill project, resulted in this box being on top of my credenza for oh about 6 weeks. I asked him if he was done with it yesterday. He said "Yes, I guess I could put the box in the basement". The box is still there, I just put it in the basement. Your welcome.

Don't get me wrong, he is very neat. He just has more of a life than I do. The President is a very busy man.

Enjoy your day! I am thinking a nice nap is in order later.





Its "OK" Thursday 8/9

I am linking up again with with Neely: A Complete Waste of Makeup and Amber: Brunch With

Amber Click the button above to visit and link up too!

"Its OK"


- That I am happy my house is back in order after the party, house guests,  and the never ending round of company for the last few weeks.



-That as much as I love my favorite baby, baby paraphernalia strewn all about my house gives me anxiety. I like when I get to put it away.

-That while my daughter was getting a facial, I fed the baby a chocolate chip cookie the size of her head. Thats what Mimi's are for.  I love that baby.

-That the son I never had, gladly pushed the second carriage at the grocery store without complaint during our party shopping. At the register, he asked me why I was buying a drink mix when my psychiatrist told me I shouldn't,  because I just got out of rehab. I saw how the checkout girl and bag boy were looking at me.  He is very good at the game and fits in well with my family's sense of humor.

-That I told my real son's friends who came to my daughters party that if they gave me $20.00 each, I would introduce them to my daughters friends. His friends were staring at my daughters friends and they were really awkward about it. I was just trying to help them out.


-That when my childhood friend comes to my house for an event, even if its not for me, she brings me a prize. She is the best.

-That my daughter wanted me to do a shot with 2 of my neighbors, G and L, at her party. I do not do shots at all. My daughter poured the shots anyway and my neighbor L and I poured our shots into G's glass. G drank a triple shot and had many Cosmo's. She ended up backing out of L's driveway and taking out a neighbors mailbox. It just happened to be a neighbor I didn't invite. Whoops. Don't worry, she left a note ( I can only imagine what the note said or if it was even legible).

-That my daughter got an Ipad from her uncle for graduation and I am jealous.

-That my brother in law is still here. It is going on about 6 weeks now I think. He likes happy hour as much as I do. Sometimes I get a text from him at noon asking me what time happy hour is. Honestly, I really don't mind him here. I do think if he bought me an Ipad too, I would like him even better.



-That my middle daughter whines if there are not enough birthday candles on her cake. One for every year plus one for luck. I ran out of candles last year and I never heard the end of it. Next year I am getting the number candles, that will fix her wagon. My husband burnt his hand while helping me light her cake.

-That my daughter went and got me this the day after her party (her birthday) to thank me for having her party. Another WWW.AlexandAni.com to add to my collection.

-That I think I broke a blood vessel while waiting on hold with Mitsubishi Electrics yesterday. I was on hold for 45 MINUTES! Totally unacceptable. To say I was pissed would be putting it mildly. Maybe the man didn't like my bitchy attitude because I was on hold for 45 minutes and he proceeded to put me on hold again after he took some information. I had to call back and talk to someone else, I couldn't take it anymore.  Oh well. My TV will be fixed next week.



-That I miss the little cutie that owns these shoes.

-That I stopped right here and went out and did my exercise. I am not going to lie it was really tough. I have been eating things I normally wouldn't and I had shorter work out routines with all of the hubbub that has been going on at my house. I am glad I forced myself.  Now I can enjoy my day of having the house to myself.

-That my beauty routine will be easy today because I will not dry my hair. I have decided to go get a trim. They can dry it for me.

-That Pandora radio's station Pitbull is the best to work out to.  I never have to skip songs. The even better thing is, the commercials are in Spanish. At least they sound interesting. I hate the regular commercials.



-That I can hear the painters next door singing loudly and terribly. Would it be rude if I opened my front door and ask him what he did with the money his mother gave him for singing lessons? Looks like the air conditioner will be going on early. At least that will drown him out.



-That before I catch up on all of the shows on my dvr that I have missed, I am going to catch up on all of the blogs that I have missed reading



-That YES, YES, YES I am ready for some football tonight!! First pre-season game!
GO PATRIOT'S

-That I am going grocery shopping today just to get our traditional football snack food. The grocery store better have my Tony's pizza rolls or else (Tony's are MUCH better than Totino's).
I may have to double up my workout today. Its worth it.

Enjoy your Thursday!

Finally!

I am proud to say that my exercise routine is finally paying off. I am down 5 pounds. Yeah!
More importantly, I feel really good.

This is the walk I took right before my daughter and favorite baby arrived. I knew it would be my last long walk for a week.

This is the walk I took with my favorite baby. Notice how the steps are only at 158? I had it on top of the carriage and it would only record my steps when I actually picked it up to check it. I am a compulsive checker. It entertains me while I walk. It was to hot out for the baby so I had to cut the walk short.

This is the walk I took the morning of the party (it went off without a hitch and I am glad its over, not that it wasn't fun, just a lot of work). I had so many things going through my mind that I cut it short. I had so much to do. I knew I had to walk though to get rid of some nervous energy. I have been using my walking as a tool when I feel stressed. It really helps. Who needs xanax?

I like to record my walks. I feel like it holds me accountable. I try to shoot for at least 45 minutes, I am not as concerned with how far or how fast I walk as I was in the beginning. If I feel like going longer, I do.

I have also started my crunches again. I try to do 2 sets a day. I wonder how long it will take me to get to the point I can do 100.  I used to be able to do it, no problem.

I am debating on taking the baby for a walk after she eats. I only have one more day with her (insert sad face).

I am also treating my daughter to a facial today before she goes back home. I will walk around with the baby in the downtown area while she gets pampered. Her husband is deployed right now and she only gets limited breaks for herself. She may just want to go to a nice lunch where they have an outside patio. It is a beautiful day here and the humidity finally broke.  I will let her decide what she wants to do. Maybe both? Now lets see if she really reads my blog and mentions this to me.

Enjoy your day!