Is that chubby girl teaching the Zumba class??

You never see a chubby girl teaching an aerobics class, right? Well, last night, Cecilia, her sis Mariah, and I went to Zumba...and that's exactly what happened...kind of! There were only five of us in the class last night, so we had a lot of fun chatting and laughing about stuff. Shannon is our favorite teacher! One song came on and I told her it was one of my favorite routines and she said, "Then you're teaching it!" and pulled me up to the front! Now, let's be honest, she was still doing the routine and I was basically copying off of her, but I felt like I was really INSPIRING the other people to shake their booties!! It was good times! Here's where you can see the actual routine we did. Note: this is NOT me leading the class. This is a YouTube video of our routine. Don't be fooled!

Magoun...FOR THE LOVE!!!

So Magoun (really, his name is Jerry or Larry or something like that...I asked) checked out the place again today...and he STILL isn't sure! I'm all for thinking things through (even though I don't sometimes), but MAN!! This guy is really thinking it out! Apparently, he was a little unnerved by a small piece of siding that has popped out of place (basically, it's not totally tucked under the piece below it). And it rained last night, so he wasn't crazy about the standing water in one corner of our yard. I get that, but what can anyone do about that, besides God? And I'm not God, Magoun. All I can do is clean, and clean, and nail down the siding, and clean again, so that maybe by the time you come for your 38th visit to our property, you'll make a decision!!! AAARGH!!!

It might really happen...

Okay, so the guy who liked our house...I don't know his name, but let's give him one. How about Magoun? That's kind of a joke at work. We always talk about baby names at work because we have two pregnant coworkers and one who will most likely be pregnant before the end of the year (or is she now???). I also always look at houses for sale since we're trying to move. One house for sale on cifsbo.com is located at 101 Magoun Street. We have since decided at work that SOMEONE should name their next child Magoun!

So we're calling this guy Magoun. Anyway, Mike the realtor emailed me today and started the email with the sentence, "I think I have good news." That's always a good thing to hear from your realtor! Apparently, Magoun wants to see our house AGAIN tomorrow. I've looked at houses, and I've looked twice at some houses, but I've never looked three times at any house!! He must be really interested! This also makes me think, "What is there to see that you haven't seen yet??" But, hey, if he wants to look a third time, come on over, Magoun!

Tonight will be a cleaning night!

What is on your shirt?

This is what I've heard multiple times today. Let me explain.

You see, I haven't put away all my clean laundry, which means I have a huge basket of super wrinkly clothes in my room. I usually don't care about wearing things that are wrinkled because I'm kind of a slob like that, I guess. Today, though, I went for the folded clothes and pulled out this blue short sleeved shirt. This will work, I think, because it's still hot out, it's clean, and it fits fine. I then realize that this is a MATERNITY shirt that I just haven't let go of. And yet I wear it anyway because, you know what? Sometimes I just want to wear a shirt that is a little more freaking forgiving so I don't spend all day feeling like I have to pull the shirt out of my back fat!

Back to the shirt. I put it on with some nice black goucho pants and sandals and I'm thinking, "Okay, not too bad! We'll just not say that it's a maternity shirt, because then I'll REALLY feel fat!" I even straightened my hair today so that I wasn't just wearing it pulled back. It's an attempt to look nice! I go to work, chat with my coworkers, and then Cecilia notices my back and says, "What's all over your shirt?"

It's WHITE PAINT!! Yes. I wore this shirt while painting something in my home and now I have dried up white paint all over the back of my left shoulder. That looks awesome! She thought it might have been deoderant (as did someone else in the lunch room), but thought that I surely wouldn't have smeared my deoderant all over my back like that!

I thought about going home to change my shirt. But I didn't. Because you know what? I don't want to drive home, thus losing my good parking space, and tear through the wrinkly, back-fat-adhering to shirts to try to find another one while, most likely, working up a sweat in the process! So I'm wearing a paint-covered shirt.

Hey, maybe I can convince people that it's a shirt I designed myself...

My boy is BACK!

Austin spent the weekend at Gramma and Grampa's house this weekend! They met us in Clinton on Thursday evening (we had a visitation to go to there) and we had the whole "Austin swap". He stayed down there until I picked him up this morning, and he had a GREAT time! It was good for all of us. I had to work Saturday morning and Nick had to work all weekend, so it was nice for us to not have to worry about how Austin was doing. Also, I got to go out -- yes, OUT -- with my friend Cecilia on Saturday night! More about that in a minute...

Anyway, it was a nice break for all of us, because Austin has been having some sort of ULTRA clingy phase this past week or so. It only happens when I'm around. When I'm around, he ONLY wants me to hold him. I'm happy to say that since coming back home from Gramma and Grampa's, he seems to be doing this much less! Yay! Also, I found a new molar coming in, which may be the reason for the clingy-ness. Hopefully now that the tooth has broken through, he'll get a little relief, which means we'll get a little relief!

So on to the big weekend plans...Cecilia and I decided to go out on Saturday night since neither one of us had kids around and both of our significant others were either going to work or out of town. I know, GET CRAZY!! We first headed out to TGI Friday's and ordered these drinks. They are called Caipirinhas, and are described by Friday's like this:

• The Caipirinha (kai–pur–een–ya) is Brazil's national cocktail. To hold such a lofty title, it's got to have great ingredients. Starting with the main one — Cachaca (Brazilian Rum). We then add fresh lime and pure cane sugar and serve it on ice. Simple and refreshing, taste one and see why.

Sounds good, huh? We thought so! We each ordered one. I got the Tropical and Cecilia got the Berry Brazilian. When they came out, they weren't quite as colored as the menu showed them to be, but we didn't think much of that. We took our first drinks. Here's how Cecilia and I described our drinks:

• ASS

Wow. I mean, I know we're kind of lightweight mom drinkers and all, but was there anything other than the famous rum in there? We had to get some pineapple juice from the bar and keep adding it to the drinks just to get through them! I guess we could have just NOT finished them, but where's the fun in that? We then left and went across the street to Famous Dave's and got the wonderful, delicious Sweet Mama's Punch! That was so much better than the Ass Drink at Friday's!

Everybody's Workin' ON the Weekend!

Well, so maybe just me. And my brother-in-law Danny. I'm copying Erin's latest blog entry, kind of (read it here). We're having a Saturday orientation session for students wanting to get started at Heartland full time this fall. You've got to love working on Saturday!

I just got some good news from our realtor Mike! He called to ask me if he can show our house tomorrow at 11 a.m. to the same guy who looked at it and liked it last Tuesday! Apparently, this guy is bringing his parents this time to check it out! He wants to look at all the houses on the street, but one has "expired" (which I think means they haven't renewed the contract with their realtor?), so he can't see that one. The other two on our street he will be viewing again. Mike said that this guy liked the layout of our house the best, as well as our fenced in backyard (he has a dog). The other houses on our street are about 300 square ft bigger overall, but one is really in poor condition, apparently. The other one is supposed to be really nice (updates, new flooring, etc.), but it doesn't have a fenced in yard, and it's about $7000 more than our place. I'm hoping that we've found our buyer!

I guess I know what the rest of today holds for me, then! Some cleaning and house prep for tomorrow! Keep your fingers crossed!

Mommy Post for the Boy

I'm stealing this from Cecilia, who stole it from someone else!

Mommy Survey for Austin

1. Age? 15 months

2. Name? Austin Nicholas

3. Birthday? April 13

4. Time of birth? 8:51 a.m.

5. How long did labor last? 0 minutes...it was a planned C-section!!

6. Did you use any drugs during labor? Spinal block because DAMN that would have hurt otherwise!!

7. Who was in the room when baby was born? Daddy

8. How long did you push? Again, 0 minutes. I really recommend the C!

9. Weight? 7 lbs, 10 oz.

10. Length? 20.5 inches

11. Any hair? Some auburn fuzz, but not much of it! We're still pretty fuzzy, but it's totally blond now!

12. Who did the baby look like? A lot like me!

13. Be honest… how much weight did you gain during pregnancy? Around 40 lbs. Awesome.

14. Was baby early or late? 2 days before his due date. They thought he was going to be this freakishly huge baby and that he might not come on his own!

15. Who drove you home from hospital? Daddy

16. How many baby showers did you have? Two -- one at work and own with family and friends

17. When did baby start sleeping through the night? At 7 weeks, but we've had some back and forth since then.

18. Did you breastfeed? Until he was about 6 weeks old. I wanted to do more, but I just wasn't making enough!

19. If not, what kind of formula? We used a lot of free samples, but eventually settled on Nestle GoodStart.

20. Who keeps your baby the most? He was with Laura from 6 weeks through just last week, when she had to go back to work. Now we're with Sherry and Susie, who have Cecilia's kids, too!

21. When do you wanna have another? Yes, but not for a WHILE!! Hello, birth control!

22. How did you pick the name? Nick just picked Austin out of the blue one day and it grew on us! Nicholas is for after his dad, obviously.

23. How did you know when it was time to go to hospital? We scheduled the C-section the day before at my doctor's appt. My OB gave me option for a C or to wait and see if he "dropped on his own". We chose the C-section, especially so that Nick's dad could see pictures of Austin (he passed away 6 days after Austin was born).

24. Who drove you there? Daddy

25. Did you go home or somewhere else when you left the hospital? Straight home.

26. Anyone spend the night with you on the first night home? Daddy and my mom. Thank GOD for my mom!!

Today's my Friday!

You've got to love short weeks at work! Today is technically Thursday, but it's officially my Friday! I've taken tomorrow off of work with two of my friends, Lindsay and Cecilia, because it's Cecilia's 30th birthday tomorrow! Happy birthday...this bitch is 30! (That's kind of our theme for her birthday -- we're cool!)

I think we're going to enjoy a lovely day filled with going out to breakfast (and lunch...and maybe dinner!), shopping, and a very special viewing of R. Kelly's Hip Hopera "Trapped in the Closet", parts 1-22. In case you're not familiar with this musical creation, let me briefly explain it. Basically, R. (as his close friends call him) has created a 22-part video detailing the events of a day where he was trapped in a closet. There was some adultery involved, there's drama with bisexuality, and a midget eventually shows up. You really owe it to yourself to experience all 22 parts, but here's part 1, just to give you a taste of the creative genius...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnmWVFmZ8ik

This sucks.

Nick just got a letter saying that he didn't get selected for one of the (millions of) jobs we applied him for. This was for the IWU security position, and we really thought he had a shot at it. We're both really frustrated/sad/mad/etc. about this, because currently, he works 40ish minutes away for not a ton of money, and with gas prices being so high, it's getting hard to keep going like this. Plus, we're trying to buy a new house (maybe), and the stress just keeps adding up. I know there are way worse things to have happen to you...and, yes, he is employed...but it just plain sucks. He is such a great worker at any job he does, too, that any company would be blessed to have him.

We'll keep trying, I guess...after we recover from this kick in the gut.

Someone Liked Our House!

Yes, that's right! Our realtor, Mike, called me and said that out of the 4 houses he showed the guy today, ours was #1! I'm not going to put all of our eggs in one basket, but yay so far!!!

And....I'm sweating.

I just love the feeling of sweating at odd times. You know, when you're getting ready in the morning or putting your kid in the carseat and you just are SWEATING all of the sudden! Nothing makes you feel prettier or thinner than being sweaty while NOT doing anything particularly taxing!

I am currently feeling sweaty but it's for a good reason. I just got a call a couple of hours ago that our realtor will be showing our house at 2:30 p.m. today. Thank God he called me before my lunch break, because I used every minute of it (and then some!) to drive home and FRANTICALLY clean up my house! Now, it wasn't so much dirty because we just had an open house this past weekend. However, there were things everywhere, particularly clean laundry.

What is it about laundry? I actually like doing laundry (or, more accurately, I don't despise it), but the putting away part really doesn't happen a lot around our house. Nick dumped all our clean laundry on our guest bed yesterday, which was a huge pile!

So, did I go home and fold/put away laundry today in anticipation of our showing? Nope! I jammed all that stuff back into the dryer, praying that the potential buyer doesn't decide to open it up! What didn't fit in the dryer went into a basket and I cleverly folded a pair of jeans and two towels on top so that it gives the illusion of all being folded! That basket is sitting on top of the washing machine. I mean, it's an actual house, people, where we actually live! Please understand that when viewing!!

So we're hoping for some good news this afternoon after the showing! In other real estate news, the house I'm in love with is still on the market, so yay for that!

See?

I told you I have a habit of starting but never finishing these types of things! Here's a great example of something I started once: http://nickemilybaby.blogspot.com/

That would have been cute, too!

Welcom!

Seriously? Did I just type "welcome" without the "e"? Great way to start a blog, Em! That's it...impress 'em right out of the gates!

Hmmmm. Here I am trying to do this blog thing. I've read blogs....I've started blogs in the past....we'll see if this one actually sticks!

I was inspired to do this because my sister started a blog and, trying to prove that she isn't the only funny, hip one in the family, I'm copying her! Her blog is at http://www.ermoy.blogspot.com/, if you're interested. It's new, but already pretty funny!

I've titled this blog "You're Such a Mom!" because I've definitely heard that a time or two since having my son last year! More on that in future postings. I hope you enjoy reading my ramblings and I'll do my best to keep this thing up to date!

Emily