Hey everyone, I have moved my Blog to a new server. I am no longer on WordPress.com. Follow me here, www.YourDailyGrace.com
Keeping it Classy.
Who says that your 21st birthday has to involve going crazy and waking up with a hangover…not this girl:) In fact, I spent my 21st birthday having a family pizza party with cheesecake and of course Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Not that I don’t get tipsy off of one Mike’s because I’m a lightweight like that….
But if you haven’t noticed Rob and I are two very different people, and he likes to upstage me, so of course… Rob went the classier route. With special thanks to Uncle Dave and Aunt Jen who insisted we go out and have an adults only night at a fancy restaurant to celebrate-who would turn down that offer?
Dinner was fabulous and as for the rest of the day well it was pretty laid back. Aunt Jen and the kids headed to Alabama Adventure but “Old Man” Rob wanted to stay home:( So I stayed with him it was his birthday after all. We went to Zoe’s for lunch.
Then went to Dick’s to find some more Nike shirts for him and then to Michael’s to get a shirt for me-my tie dye didn’t turn out so well:( Then we came back to the house and relaxed while we waited for everyone to come back home! I read and Rob played Tiny Wings-he’s really intellectual like that:)
Happy Birthday Baby! I love you and I hope you enjoyed your day because you make all of my days happier:)
Okay I’m done being gushy now! I have lots of homework, working out, and hopefully some more relaxing to do tomorrow!
Questions for you!
What did you do on your 21st birthday?
Momma’s Home!
Aunt Jen and Uncle Dave got home last night a little before midnight to some very excited children! It was an exciting end to an interesting day…
Day 7
It was nice and sunny when we all woke up basically in the afternoon but that didn’t last long. We went up stairs to finish decorating our shirts and a storm came and the power went out 😦 For the next 7 hours!! Needless to say we all had a bit of cabin fever and 4 hours into the power out fever we had to get out!!
Did anyone guess what today is? Rob’s 21st Birthday!!!!
Not sure what is in store of Rob’s Birthday but right now he is snoozing away, one of his personal favorites so I think he’s happy:)
In honor of his birthday I will share this hugely embarrassing video that MK made of various footage of all of us dancing, mostly doing “the creep.” In case there was any doubt in your mind that I am a giant loser who cannot dance this video will change that.
Questions for you!
What would you do to keep busy during a power outage? We tried playing Life and that didn’t go well…I spent the rest of my time trying to put away laundry and dishes in the dark-it made things just a little more difficult!
“Exhausted Grace”
Sometime between Thursday and yesterday I slowly morphed from “Fun Grace” into “Exhausted-PMS ridden Grace.” Sounds like I am a big ball or fun right? Well after a nice long sleep last night I am feeling in a much peppy-er mood and “as soon as I finish blogging,” I promise we’ll go decorate shirts-which is what I’ve been repeating all morning early afternoon.
Thursday-Day 4
Friday-Day 5
We all had an early day since Josie had to be at gymnastics 8:30! After we dropped her off we headed for a 5 star breakfast!
Saturday-Day 6
Yesterday was when “Grumpy Grace” really made her debut. MK and I woke up at 6 to take her to her tournament. I am going to blame sleep deprivation and hormones on me being a grumpy pants. I feel bad for the poor kids because I was being way lass than fun:( We did head to the pool and Josie had her friend Allie over night before so they were at least entertained! I have been combating my grumpiness by taking some “me time” to read.
I found this book in one of Aunt Jen’s drawers and I am finally pulled into a book! I’ve tried reading a couple other books recently and was just not interested and this one is different! Apparently there is a Lifetime movie I’ll have to watch when I finished reading it…gotta love Lifetime.
Okay! We are currently in the midst of a dance party at the house and then we’re going to decorate some tie dye shirts!
P.s This is my 100th post!
P.s.s-Tomorrow is a special day for someone important to me! Any guesses?
Questions for you!
What do you do for “me time?” Reading, exercise, baking, and watching movies -I think it’s high time I watch something that isn’t Disney Channel, animated, or involving a super hero:)
A little more low key, but only a little.
Day 3
I had grand plans to take John David to the pool everyday this week and I was convinced he’d be swimming in no time! Unfortunately the weather here in Birmingham has not cooperated what so ever.
So instead of hanging out at the pool we’ve been hanging out around the house. As you saw they kids live pretty busy lives so some low-key days are probably great for them. If you didn’t notice I spent quite a bit of my down time yesterday mixing up the look of my blog! It is still a work in progress but thanks to Google Images and Shabby Blogs I think it is looking pretty cute! If I do say so myself!
After lounging around all day…spending an extremely frustrating hour trying and failing at french braiding…going to the pool only for a thunder break to be called 10 minutes later…we were off again! Josie went to gym and the rest of us took Mary Kathryn to her practice about half an hour away.
I somehow managed to go to bed even later last night! I think working out at night gives me a little boost of energy =/ I cannot stay up that late the next two nights though because we have two very early mornings ahead of us! We’re doing some more relaxing today and I have loads and loads of laundry to tackle!
Questions for you!
Do you enjoy lazy days? Sometimes being too lazy leaves me feeling tired but I still had lots to do around the house and no time to be sleepy!
How is the weather in “your neck of the woods?” I know Florida has afternoon thunder storms every day but they usually clear up quick enough for an afternoon nap…this weather however is just blah blah all day!
This is a test.
Day 2
I guess I was being a little too confident at the end of Day one… because Day 2 came with some serious tests for “Fun Grace.” Starting at 2 am! Since John David went to sleep so early he woke up at 2 in the morning and didn’t want to go back to sleep. Luckily a cup of juice and warm blanket lured him into watching Peter Pan outside of Mary Kathryn’s room on the couch. My alarm clock was going off way to early for my massage and that 6 am workout? What a joke..that didn’t happen! The massage was nice but usual it made me have some roller coaster like emotions=( When I got home we all had breakfast and I cleaned up and we headed to the pool! Unfortunately once we were there for an hour some big clouds and thunder started rolling in from almost every direction and they called a “thunder break.” That means that every time they hear thunder it is 30 more minutes before you can get back in the pool=(
After my plan to wear John David out at the pool went out the window I made one of the worst decisions ever….to take all three kids to Walmart. We needed quite a few thing…what could possibly go wrong? They reminded me that I am being “Fun Grace” as they put movies, Cosmic Brownies, Chef Boyardi Raviolis, Spray Cheese, and lots of other junk food into the cart. They were testing me…big time!
Even though I went to bed late we all slept in until about 10! I was having some horrible dreams that I cannot actually remember so I know it wasn’t the most restful sleep…but 10 is nice! When I woke up John David wasn’t in his bed? He wasn’t with his sister’s watching TV? He wasn’t in his parent’s bed? But don’t worry I found him….with Rob! The fist thing John David said was, “Can we go to the mall today and get that Doctor’s Kit? I want to pretend to be a nerd!” He meant a nurse! Because he is already a nerd! It looks like we’re going to “Super Awesome Target” a little later to see if they have a doctor’s kit because he apparently is not going to conveniently forget about it.
Questions for You!
What tests you the most? Ice cream I love, and Little Debbie brownies I can tolerate but spray cheese? Really?!? That almost put me over the edge.
Mommy Bloggin’
We now interrupt your regularly schedule programming giant portions of froyo and sweaty workout pictures to present :Your Daily Grace as a Mommy Blog.
My Aunt and Uncle left for a week-long Caribbean vacation, which means I am on Mommy Duty a.k.a. slightly organized chaos. I’m not sure if you have picked up this vibe from me yet but I am not going to be the “good cop” when I have children. If you’ve ever seen Modern Family, I am full on Claire.
- So Rob had a “talk” with me the other night about being “Fun Grace.” Which translates to: I do not interfere with behaviors such as making a gigantic mess with toys, consuming far too much sugar, and subsequently acting like a crazy children unless someone may get hurt. Instead I join in on the fun! It has already been hard I mean come on John David is a 4-year-old boy…do I need to say any more? But I think I’ve been successful on Day 1…
Day 1!
What You’ve Missed…
Because I’m a terrible blogger.
Well there you have it! You’re all caught up! I hope you’re ready for 5 more days of pure “Fun Grace!” This “Mommy” has a massage scheduled at 8 am tomorrow morning, which means 6 am wake up call for my workout! Night, night, Sleep Tight, and Don’t let the bed bugs bite! Or at least that is what my Mommy always told me:)
Questions for You!
Do you read Mommy blogs? Which ones are your favorite? I love “It’s a dog lick baby world”, “Kath Eats Real Food”(only semi-Mommy), and of course” Peas and Thank You.”
What is your dream car? I don’t exactly have one…I just said that the nex car I buy will have a back up camera and sensor on it! I love SUV like cars and safety ratings are high on my priority list as well!
P.s. Please excuse my blog as it is currently under construction..:)
Super Booda Birthday Celebrations!
John David turned big number 4 last Saturday and we’ve been celebrating ever since! While we were in Tallahassee we didn’t do too much softball watching since MK has a broken wrist but instead we did whatever John David, a.k.a. Booda wanted to! We have also been busy ever since we got home Sunday night, which explains my absence and the fact that I am being lazy enough to do a slideshow!
Hope you enjoyed all my pictures and my complete lack of brains tonight! I plan on doing a more wordy post this week about how my “detox” is going…if you need a hint that’s say I ate a few bites of a pop tart and little debbie cake tonight=/
Questions for You!
How long do you celebrate your birthday? Do you celebrate like a 4-year-old? I act like a 4-year-old for about a whole week!
What do you do when a “detox” or diet starts to make you feel binge-y? Clearly I allow myself to cheat on a one time only place like City Cafe but then later cannot control myself…
In honor or John David: Who is your favorite Super Hero? I love Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man just as much as John David, I’m eager to see Ryan Reynolds The Green Lantern though!
Back to Florida!
I’m Back in Florida! But only for the weekend…we’re in Tallahassee for a softball tournament for my cousins Mary Kathryn’s(MK) softball tournament unfortunately she broke her wrist in two places at a softball tournament last weekend. However my Uncle is a coach and our family already had plans to meet us here so we came anyway! I do feel bad for poor MK who has to sit in dugout and sweat in her cast:(
This week Aunt Jen and Uncle Dave were in NYC for three days which meant I was a very busy girl! Every time I watch my cousins I wonder how Aunt Jen possibly does it all! It is just a little exhausting! I tried to remember to snap some pictures during the day to show just how busy I was!
7:30-8:30-Wake up and squeeze in some blog reading to start my day:)
8:45-9:15-Wake up John David and Josie then get them dressed and fed breakfast
9:30 or 3:30 Swim Lessons for John David and his friend Harrison!
10:00-11:30-Josie has Tennis camp everyday at this time and I cleaned the house and did dishes and laundry!
Noon-3:00- Spend time at the pool! This is a great way to wear out children!
*I never got a picture at the pool since I was too busy watching a 3 year old..way more important!
3:15-Drop off Josie to the carpool for gym. That child does tennis for an hour and a half, four hours of gymnastics, and at least 2 hours at the pool…she is crazy! She also has a rock hard body which makes me wish I were a gymnast!
3:15-8:30-Do various “mom’ like things…
8:00-Pick up Josie from gym carpool and go home for dinner! The rest of the night is chaos!
11:00-1:00-Bedtime?? I am not the greatest babysitter because I don’t put John David to bed I just work on wearing him down all day, put on movie, give him chocolate milk, and wait for him to fall asleep on his own *It takes about 5 minutes! Way better than crying over the dreaded bedtime:) The funny thing is I also fall asleep in 2.5 seconds if I turn on the tv because they are wearing me out!
Tonight we went to Mk’s game and they won! We were all starving after so we went searching for somewhere to eat!
Rob, Josie, and I just got back from the teeny tiny hotel gym..even though it was small we got in a good sweat session! Josie and I did 20 minutes on the treadmill-the first time I’ve run in over a week! and it felt great! Then Rob helped us learn some arm exercises with free weights…I learned that an almost 10 year old is pretty much stronger than me, she’s a gymnast maybe that’s why? Now I am all showered up and ready for bed but before I go I wanted to share some stuff about my detox….
So far so good with the detox though and I am feeling great, except last night after I consumed tons of dough from Mellow Mushroom and today after I ate french toast sticks and an egg only breakfast burrito from Sonic…so I think I see where the problem is! But I am on vacation with other people who already think my eating habits are crazy enough so I am being a little lenient when I am not at “home” a.k.a. Aunt Jen’s house. I am happy to report that I have resisted french fries, frozen yogurt, and chocolate chips cookies all this week. It is slightly painful to watch the kids and Rob eat it…I even dreamt about eating french fries but I know my body is thanking me!
Speaking of my body…it is now begging me to go to sleep and I have a nice late wake up of 9 am for 10 am breakfast at Cracker Barrel to celebrate John David’s Birthday! We’ll see if I can resist those wonderful fluffy buttermilk pancakes! Good Night! or should I say Good Morning!
Questions for You!
If you’re a Mom or a babysitter what is your favorite thing activity to do with your kids/someone else’s kids? I need ideas:) I have another week of babysitting coming up while Aunt Jen is in the Caribbean!
What is your favorite meatless or dairy free products? Those Meatless Meatballs rocked my world and Better than Cream Cheese is here to stay! Soy Milk is pretty great also!
How do you stay healthy on vacation? Whenever I’m with Aunt Jen’s family I use Josie as my workout buddy and she always holds me accountable! Food wise is sometimes difficult but you can be pleasantly surprised like I was with Olive Garden tonight!
Detoxin’
May was a hard month for goals. I literally “failed” every single goal with the exceptions of reading more-if you count magazines and relaxing. Let’s recap…
Finish 100 miles in May…Failure. I only finished 73.6. I got my 50 running miles in but fell short on biking.
Get abs…Failure. Although I did keep up with Bess’s Abs challenge she pointed out that abs are made in the kitchen and you saw what I ate all month!
Take yoga class…Failure. But really I was in my yoga clothes at the yoga studio and found out that the class was canceled because it was memorial day. Can’t say I didn’t try!
I could go on but I don’t what you’re thinking…this is so not positive and I try to hard to be positive! In case you couldn’t guess I haven’t exactly been succeeding with that recently either! Surprise!
But for the month on June I’ve decided to hold myself more accountable and after a week of eating delicious but not exactly healthy food in Michigan I knew exactly where I needed to start! It was detox time! Now please don’t go thinking that I am drinking only juice and water because that is so not me! I need real food to be satisfied but that was just it I need real food not a whole bunch of ice cream junk. I also figured it was the perfect time since June marks the middle of the year! I cut out desserts and fried food in January after the holiday season so it was high time for me to do it again! This time with more of a guideline and here is what I came up with.
Grace’s Detox
- Eliminate white flour and sugar. I’m still eating my beloved carbs just in their whole grain form!
- Go dairy-free. I never noticed how much dairy I eat until I can’t eat it but soy milk is helping me with my cereal fix.
- No desserts
- No fried foods
- No alcohol Do I really drink it that much…no but the drinks I enjoy contain lots of sugar!
- Focus on fruits, vegetables, whole grain, and healthy forms of protein!
I am not quite sure if this makes sense to anyone else besides myself but I am doing pretty good at following it! I do have a few rule benders though…
- If it is once in a lifetime eat then stick to the three bite rule.
What this means is…if I think I won’t get a chance to try a certain food that I shouldn’t eat according to my detox ever again than I may eat three bites of it. The three bite rule is something Mom learned in Weight Watchers and I think it makes perfect sense! The first bite, the middle bite, the last bite….that way you savor every bite and don’t just gobble it down without appreciating it. I have used this rule once already. When I arrived at Aunt Jen’s house at midnight on thursday she immediately brought out White Chocolate Bread Pudding she had ordered at a fancy restaurant called Chuck’s here in Birmingham. She bought it just for me and Rob so I thought it would be rude if I didn’t try any, great excuse right, I also decided probably would never get the chance to eat it again so I used my three bites rules and it was delish!
I also made a rule about exercise the I only just started following Saturday night…
- Sweat everyday.
This is not difficult seeing as I start sweating as soon as I walk outside! But seriously I want to do a workout everyday even if it is a small one! Saturday night I did Bob Harper’s Inside Out Method Cardio DVD and he kicked my butt! I had only done the 20 minute workout but my 9-year-old cousins Jose wanted to do the hour workout and then the 20 minute workout! She is gymnast what can I say! I’ve been sore for the last two days and I keep complaining but I secretly like it because I know I worked hard!
Last night I logged 30 minutes on the arc trainer and tonight I’m going to some Jillian Michaels yoga and some more time on the arc trainer! I’m trying to get up the courage to run in the heat since I haven’t run in almost a week!
We spent all morning after John David’s swimming lesson, he has them all week so I’ll take some picture of the “big boy”, at the pool and now we’re cleaning up and getting ready to go see…..
Questions for You!
What do you do when your feeling like a failure?
Do you ever had “cheats” or rule benders into your diets? If so what is something that would qualify for my three bite rule?
Are you a Pirates fan? I personally love most things that Disney puts out but Pirates had always captivated me and left me feeling in a Caribbean mood for days after the movie! Hope this one is the same:)