Archives for January 2010

Crazies

January 13, 2010 by Amy 2 Comments

I’m feeling crazy tonight. Second-guessing the whole add a few more blogs thing. Because I haven’t touched the new one in two days and I *need* to work on that if it’s going to take off. And because when I got off work today we interviewed Brad Leland “Buddy” of FNL and then we had company over for dinner and my amazing husband bought and made dinner and while he talked to the company, I got the girls to and from church and did homework when they got home while watching American Idol and then watched FNL after getting them off to bed and podcasted it directly after that and found out we have two more FNL interviews next week, one with “Vince” and one with “Billy” (yay!). It’s 11 and I just now put the dishes away from dinner and started the dishwasher. Not to mention my Danny blog that is getting seriously neglected by me right now and thank goodness for the help I have there. And oh my word, just feeling a little overwhelmed tonight.

I’ll be ok. Carry on.

I Shall be Last

January 13, 2010 by Amy 10 Comments

I’ve been holding off on this post for months now. Simply shame has stopped me from me posting. After reading Pete’s blog today about pride, I feel it’s a good time for a little confessional. But not just for confession’s sake, but maybe to help others make a change.

I had a few minutes to myself after dropping my ring off at the jewelers at the mall. I went through Nine West to look for shoes and went to Ann Taylor to try on jeans, none of which I bought. I settled in at a book store for my last stop, browsing romance and then Christian fiction. I was caught up by the Buy 3 Get 2 Free sale and spent at least 20 minutes trying to pick out 5 books. When I realized time was slipping away, I hurried to the front with an armful of books. As I approached the counter from the side, I noticed two other females coming at the counter straight on from another section. I thought I had “beat” them there, or at least gotten there at the same time so I flashed a tight-lipped smile and continued towards the counter. I also knew I was younger, prettier, taller, skinnier than the other two and socially, I “should” go first. That’s shameful to admit, but yeah, I thought it. But apparently they didn’t. As I walked up to the counter, I saw the lady at the register shrug her shoulders at the other two females just as I was going to put my books up on the counter. I held on to my books and turned around to find two very peeved females waiting their turn. I blushed, pulled back and insisted that they go first. They shrugged and took their turn. As I stood waiting my turn, I wanted to run and hide. How awful was I to push my way to the front, considering myself better and more deserving to go first? The ladies left without a backwards glance. It was a knife in the back that I had read the sale wrong and had to put aside a few books at the counter when it was going to cost much more than I had anticipated. Squish two of your fingers together as hard as you can and I felt a little smaller than that. I left the store and the mall with stinging eyes.

I can’t count the number of times since then I have stopped and let someone through a door before me or in a checkout line ahead of me. Some of them seem surprised and sometimes it even brings a smile to their face that I’ve let them before me. I particularly remember waiting on an older mother and her two kids to go through the line at the movie ticket line when it would have been so much easier, had I, who was alone gone through first. Every time, I’m reminded of how disgusting my pride is at times and I am happy to let them go before one such as I.

I can’t help but think of this verse and how much in the past I’ve prayed for these things.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

I suppose sometimes learning a lesson is not fun but it wasn’t in vain. How many of these things listed were improved upon by this one encounter? As painful as it was, I’m so grateful. I’m so glad God pricked at me and showed me what kind of person I was being. I could have shrugged my shoulders and went on with my day, not really seeing what was going on. I’d rather feel this pain and shame than cause one more person to feel smaller than who they are because of my pride.

So take my lesson and make it yours…make “go ahead” part of your encounters.

Tuesday Random

January 12, 2010 by Amy 1 Comment

I think it must be a record I’ve gone 5 days without blogging, at least in recent times. So what have I been up to?

Couponing. I ended up at Harris Teeter I believe 4 or 5 times in 3 days. I think I ended up with $200 worth of groceries for less than $20. Lots o fun.
Running. Just completed W6D2! The next run is now going to be the longest run of my life…25 minutes. For the record, I still do not like running. I like that I’m completing the running and I’m proud of myself but I do not like the running itself.
Blogging. I’ve got two new blogs coming up. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know about one of them! In other exciting and random blog news, Kaitlin and I are interviewing Brad Leland “Buddy” off of Friday Night Lights tomorrow afternoon!
Working. I’ve gone to the office the last two days. I’ve gone to bed before 9:30 the last two nights (8 on Sunday) and spending the day in the office both cut down on Internet time.
TV. I actually gave up on Bachelor last night mid way through. I found Jake to be quite boring and the girls to be quite annoying. There was no one I was rooting for much and then I read spoilers for the season and I’m just out. As for American Idol tonight, Justin was my favorite. I also liked the girl with the grandmother, the one of 12 kids and the one with the church background.

Alrighty, it’s going to be another early night…

Gymnastics Day 1

January 7, 2010 by Amy 4 Comments

So today was the girls’ big gymnastics debut. I feel a little behind on the whole organized sports/activities at 5 and 7 but really, they haven’t begged to do anything and if they aren’t 110% in it, why spend the money? Since they both seemed ecstatic about it back in December, I forked over the money for 8 weeks of lessons and two new leotards and there we went.

The good news? My frugalness patience paid off because both the girls had a BLAST tonight. None of the shyness showed up one bit, even for a second. It probably helped my face was stuck to the glass the entire time but still. They weren’t stuck to me and there were no tears. Well, once there were tears when Emma fell back into a chair in the waiting room but that’s neither here nor there I suppose.

You could tell neither of them really had NO idea what to do but I was proud they were actively listening to the teacher and just following the other girls around them who had obviously been in gymnastics for at least a previous round or two. Several times I saw a little girl instruct Emma. Lexi several times went to her teacher when she didn’t know how to do something. For example, Lexi was trying to do a handstand against the padded wall and y’all, if I showed you the video, I know it would make rounds on YouTube but she kept butting her head into the pad instead of tucking it under before she threw her legs up. But she kept trying and when the little girl beside her couldn’t help her, she had no problems asking the teacher who was helping other girls do a back bend. Thankfully, the teachers both seemed very responsive.

Emma did floor work, uneven bars and the long jumpy thing. They don’t have it in the Olympics so I’m at a loss for names here. Lexi did floor work, balance beam and the vault.

They were happy to watch each other during the times when their classes didn’t overlap. Unfortunately I couldn’t get two classes exactly at the same time so if I hang around the gym for both classes, I’m there for two hours!

I SO want to show everyone the video of the two of them. I can’t help but be so proud of them even if they’re pretty clueless just beginners right now. At least they’re getting out there and trying. I just don’t feel comfortable posting a video with about 75 other little girls in leotards. I did crop some pictures. They’re bad first because they were all taken behind a glass wall and second because they were cropped so tightly to avoid any other children in them. Anyway, I hope it at least gives you a little idea of their time tonight.

Daily Peek

January 6, 2010 by Amy 4 Comments

I haven’t done a post on couponing in quite some time but be rest assured I hit CVS up weekly. And like today, Harris Teeter. It’s super double coupons this week and I can’t tell you the joy I got from the look on the cashier’s face when my total went from $60 to $3.84.

I’m sporting ghetto nails today. Actually it’s an adventure trying to type this on my phone. I bought these at the dollar store for the girls’ Christmas stockings and thought they had stickers. They didn’t. I glued Emmas on today. I started to put Lexi’s on and she decided she didn’t like them. In a genius moment I thought I’d put them on just to mess around. Well here we are 8 hrs later and I still have them. It feels like my entire nailbed might rip out of my thumb when I try to remove them so they all stay. In fact, I glued back on two that had fallen off just so I didn’t look any more ghetto than I do. It was all for naught though since I lost a pinky nail whilst couponing.

Dollar store ghetto nails and free food. Yep, that was my day.

Posted via email from Amy’s posterous

Tuesday Random

January 5, 2010 by Amy 7 Comments

Let’s make a list!

We’ve caught Dave Ramsey on TV a few times. I haven’t read his book but listening to him for just a few minutes is enough to make you second-guess your spending habits. After digging into a month or two of ours, well, let’s just say we’re making changes. As of today, it’s been over a week since we’ve had dinner out. It feels really different but in a good way. Speaking of, does anyone successfully use any budgeting software they can recommend?
Emma has become miss sassypants lately. I think she’s getting it from girls at school but we’ve really had to pay more attention to it lately. Not fun.
Lexi has suddenly adamant about what she is wearing. She’s 5! I used to pick her outfit out and got minimal kickback. But Sunday she had a meltdown because I put a white shirt under her sleeveless dress. On Monday she was trying to tell me something about church and she said, “You know the day I had to wear that white shirt with my bow dress?” I’m sure I’ll hear about that day for many years to come. Trauma, I tell you!
I’ve been enjoying the winter hiatus on TV so much. In its absence, I decided to go back through Lost starting at Season 1 and Scott has stuck around for several episodes now. In fact, once we were done with Season 1, he asked for Season 2. The show may travel too much on the scifi side for him, especially in Season 5 but it is nice to have another show that we can watch together.
I’m so tempted to create a fan site for CW’s new show Life Unexpected. It’s gotten good reviews. I’m just not sure whether I have time for it and also there is already an established site for it out there.
Emma and Lexi start gymnastics for the first time Thursday. We’ll see how this goes. I think it will either be a huge hit or a complete disaster.
This Saturday I’m running for 20 minutes in a row for #C25K W5D3. I’m trying not to freak out. I think it’s the longest I’ve ever run in my life. LIFE.
I’ve all but given up on my book. I’m just eh about it right now. I got the story on paper and that was my goal.

I guess that’s it for updates around here. Running, cooking, cleaning, laundry, taxi-ing, blogging here, here and here should fill in all the gaps!

The Bachelor: Week 1

January 4, 2010 by Amy 6 Comments

Maybe I’m the crazy one for blogging about this but…

Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. How do you even begin to blog about this episode?

The CRAZEE came out on the Bachelor tonight.

With a few spoilers in my pocket, I heard that this was going to be a different season. And with Jake as the upstanding, gentleman that he made himself out to be, I for some reason though this was to be a tame, almost boring season.

Oh my.

No sirree.

I was ANYTHING but bored tonight.

In fact, that had to be the most entertaining Bachelor premiere yet.

The antics that these girls came up with to get his attention were way beyond any other season. A handmade spinner…a double-sided coin…a peacock feather…dirt from Texas. It was endless. It quickly turned into a game show all about who could do the stupidest thing to get Jake’s attention to the point it was easier to remember the girls that DIDN’T do something.

I made a list as we went through the introductions at the limo. I usually pick my favorites very early on. It’s easy to spot normal in a limo full of crazy but here were my picks from the limo convos ONLY.

Ali – the yellow dress with the peacock feather
Tenley – the divorcee
Kimberly – NBA dancer who we saw say goodbye to her family
Elizabeth -the nanny
Ashley – the teacher with the spinner

While I don’t necessarily approve of their antics I think they seemed like the most sincere, normal and genuine people there. Considering the pool of women I’m not sure how much that says but if I had 5 impression roses at that point, that’s who I would hand them to.

The crazy REALLY came out during the party though. Oh my. I have to my honest here and say that while I realize the chances of real love being found on the show is slim to none, I do watch with hopes high that something will work out. Trista and Ryan! Ed and Jillian! Jason and Molly! The party was so hard to watch and take seriously though. I ended up laughing my way through it. And really, that’s not all bad.

“I’m a puma in the bedroom”

“I’ll die if I don’t get the first impression rose”

“This is my pretend ring”

“I want to be your co-pilot”

“I would love to be the passenger in your plane”

“You can land your plane on my landing strip any time”

The funny didn’t stop.

But apparently Jake didn’t see my short list. And apparently he didn’t really spend enough time with Michelle. Or Rosaline for that matter.

After the full night, I think I added Ella the mom and maybe the flight attendant to my short list and Ali and Tenley are my favorites from my original list. I know Tenley came on strong and seemed on the verge of crazy but I think she’s ok.

Oh, Bachelor. You keep me watching.

Who are your favorites from Week 1?

Couch to 5K – Halfway Done

January 3, 2010 by Amy 6 Comments

I know I just posted about this but I wanted to officially declare myself halfway done with the program. Yesterday morning I had a great run, finishing up week 4 of 9. And after the first of week 4 I really didn’t think I’d say that again. I did make a few changes that I thought were worth talking about.

I stretched and stretched and stretched and used The Stick liberally for the 2 days prior to the run.
I used these energy goo things Melissa bought me for Christmas 15 minutes before the run. It’s hard to tell if it helped but it is one thing I added. I also determined that vanilla gingerbread probably isn’t my favorite flavor.
I listened to a podcast versus music during the run.

I think the last surprisingly made the biggest difference. I love music and I love spinning/cycling to music. It’s the main reason I love my favorite spinning instructor. He always makes sure we are peddling to the beat of the music. But running to music? It has just NOT been working for me, especially since I’m switching between run and walk all the time. I found with listening to the podcast, I simply listened. It was easier to not pay attention to the running and I wasn’t using a ton of energy trying to keep up or slow down with the beat of the music.

For you runners…what else am I missing? What flavor of the energy gel is your favorite?

For you non-runners, when are you starting C25K??