Livin’ Life On The Lamb

Thirteen Things I Have Learned Since I Started Working Out:

1. Monday mornings may be hard, but they sure do set the pace for the week.

2. It’s worth getting up 15 minutes earlier in order to get the nice step, the non-grimy weights, the inflated ball, and the good spot on the floor (under the fan, of course).

3. Singing while working out is frowned upon, especially in the weight room, ESPECIALLY when there are guys around. Even if the song ROCKS, and it takes all your effort to keep from bursting into song…keep the love to yourself.

4. Wearing less clothes doesn’t mean you are in good shape.

5. Exhaling very loudly while pressing any amount of weights does not make you look stonger. It reminds everyone in the room that we should all brush our teeth before going to the gym.

6. Perfume stinks when you sweat. Really. Don’t wear perfume before coming to the gym. You will smell like a dirty hooker by the time you leave, and people will shy away from you in step aerobics class.

7. Nobody wipes down the machines or mats when they are done using and sweating all over them.

8. Soooo, wipe down all the machines before and after you use them. Especially before.

9. Working out is one of the only ways that I can be happy all the time. Even if I don’t want to be there, I leave feeling like the most gorgeous woman in the gym and I’m pumped for the rest of the day.

10. You must keep working out. No stopping. No breaks. Especially not for two months, even if you’re sick, because when you go back, you WILL feel as though you’ve been hit by a truck. A big one. Like Mac from Cars.

11. Lunges suck. I hate them. They were created by Satan and that’s what bad people will be doing in Hell if they don’t eat their vegetables and say their prayers. I have been doing lots of both so I don’t go to Hell. I hate lunges.

12. My face gets so red during aerobics that I look like I’ve just spent 43 or so hours in the Sahara Desert without a hat or water or any shade. But I’ve lost 30 pound since I started in October, and I feel great, so I can deal with the red face!

13. It’s bad manners to stand next to the machine I happen to be using in the weight room and sigh heavily and tap your foot and act like I’m in your way and ruining your workout. Especially when I rest between sets. Give me a break! Oh, and the no singing during your workout? Really don’t do it while resting between sets when the aforemention goon is standing and tapping his foot and sighing loudly and waiting for “his” machine. He will get mad. Then he’ll go talk to the manager. But by the time they come back together, you’re on the next machine, pumping iron as if your life depended on that last press and the guy looks like a giant dork.

SEE! NOT FAKE! (ok, so it’s not completely wordless…)

Gila Man sent me this link last night and I just about fell off my chair laughing…ENJOY!!!

Or something like that. That what Templeton the Rat sang on the first Charlotte’s Web. Since Gila Man has Sunday and Monday off, we were trying to plan a fun (and cheap) family activity that we could do. Now the zoo is always a given, you never have to ask us twice to head up to the big city and visit the zoo. But I happened to go online and find out the dates of our (semi) local fair. Monday was family day - $2.00 parking, $2.00 admission, and Mr. B was FREE! WE LOVE THE FAIR! The sights, the smells, the shows, the rides, and of course, the food!

Something about going to the fair makes me happy. Silly, I know. But I remember going to the fair as a kid and participating in what seemed like EVERY event in the livestock barn. Growing up, we had a small farm since I was born. Um, not that me being born meant that my parents suddenly had a farm…but one of my earliest memories is looking out the sliding glass door in the back of our little home and seeing (what seemed to me) thousands of little fluffy chicks. My dad went to go buy a few and ended up filling his hatchback Honda Civic with flats and flats of chicks.

When I grew older, nothing changed; I remember all the work we had to put in to get all of our animals ready for the show. You could always tell which kids waited until a week before the fair to put a collar on their animals. There was walking and brushing and trimming and putting on the coats so they don’t get sick because we just chopped off all their hair and making sure that everyone was ready to go.

Then we would pack up the travel trailer with everything a family of five could live on for 3 or 4 days, pack up the horse trailer with all the critters (mostly goats, we did chickens, rabbits, pigs, and sheep at the local fairs), and head to the BIG CITY! Once we were there, we would, of course, have to unpack everything and everyone and get the critters ready to show.

I remember going into the pens where the goats were kept and just hanging out because it was incredible to see the looks on the city folk’s and the little kids faces when they saw a goat for the first time. It was soooo cool to actually have someone ask ME a question about the animals and be able to answer them and be right!

I remember that the nights in the travel trailer were unbearably freezing and the days incredibly hot.

I remember that the food we packed was never quite as scrumptious as that greasy, nasty, overpriced food at the fair was.

I remember helping to milk the goats after the show and squirting the warm, creamy milk directly into my mouth (much to the shock or delight of the city folk).

I also remember snacking on the goat grain in between meals. Really. The corn was yummy!

I remember running off as soon as my brother and I could so we could check out the runway and covet the dorky stuffed animals hanging everywhere.

I rememeber the amazing feeling of pride as we drove home from the fair - dirty, smelly, tired and just plain wore out - but with a stack of ribbons to rival just about anybody…most of them blue!

So, I get a little nostalgic when I go back to the fair that I spent so much time at as a child. There’s also something really, really, cool about bringing my child there to build memories as well. Not the same kind, certainly the more carefree-I-don’t-care-what-time-the-goats-have-to-be-ringside-for-the-yearling-class, but he sure did want to put those baby goats in the stroller to take them home “so they won’t be lonely”, he said. I guess we are all still building memories, though they might be a little different…here’s an example…Gila Man wants this to be this year’s family photo…what do you think?

Well, when we bought this house and went to turn on the utilities, we found out that the whole house it entirely electric. This gave us a great discount on our electric bill and makes for really fast heating, cooling and cooking also.

We have been doing really well with keeping the bill down, but last month it jumped up to $145.00. That is the very highest bill we’ve had. Granted last month was a COLD month, but we knew we had to change a few things. We turn off lights, fans, the stove, and just be very aware of what electronics we have on. We’ve also opened the windows during the day to keep the house nice and cool.

I have changed a few habits as well; because we have those really great LED nightlights in every room, I rarely have to turn on any lights when I, say, go into our bathroom to brush my teeth. I have been doing this for a month now and never had a mishap.

Ahem, all I have to say is that I yelled at Gila Man to never, EVER put his tube of hydrocortisone cream on the same shelf as MY toothpaste ever again.

What a price to pay to keep the freakin’ bill down. YUK!!!

You know, everybody has bad days. Noah had one of those kind of days last week. He didn’t sleep well all night because he had a sore throat, he didn’t want to eat breakfast, he spilled his milk that morning, our play date fell through (because of the sore throat), and he just had a rough day.

I tried to make it as best as possible hanging out with him and playing trucks all morning and that helped, but it was playing outside that really made him happy. Gila Man and I spent the afternoon planting trees while Mr. B “helped”. We moved dirt (if that’s what you call this white Caliche sandy soil around here), mixed potting soil, and filled the wheelbarrow all afternoon long. Needless to say, we were all a little tired that evening around dinner, so we had a quick bite and I put Mr. B in the bath.

I was sitting in the bathroom reading a horrible book when I noticed that Mr. B wasn’t splashing or growling like a shark (do sharks growl?), so I looked over to see what he was doing. This is what I saw:

Now, I know you may be thinking what I was thinking, that the kid is just relaxing a little. But for honest to goodness really I am TOTALLY not lying to you, the kid is ASLEEP. And I mean not just a little cat-nap asleep, but down-for-the-count kind of asleep. I yelled for Gila Man to come and witness this sight, so he grabbed the camera and we got a shot.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all have such a relaxing bath at the end of a bad day?

Hello out there?!?! Mean people? You suck.

I got my first negative remark on my blog today! I think it was written by a 4 or 5 year old; what with all the spelling and gramatical errors, I think it was just plain silly. I’m obviously NOT going to post it, cuz I wouldn’t want to embarras any-jerk-body named kat (Not like Chassy Cat, who TOTALLY ROCKS, btw).

You know you’re making your mark on the world when people start telling you what a bad job your doing on your own freakin project. Cuz they had the choice to sit down and read the darn thing…don’t like it? don’t read it.

Hope everybody else except grumpy kat is having a great weekend!!