Another Reason Lauren Graham is my Heroine

My favorite actress is now my new favorite author.

I have felt a kinship with Ms. Graham since she played Loralie Gilmore on the popular show Gilmore Girls many years ago.  She was quirky, funny, and definitely marched to the beat of her own drum.  When I had Maddex at the ripe age of 20, and was thrown into single-motherhood, I had another reason to look to Loralie as a role model.  I modeled my "its you and me against the world" form of parenting by Grahams character, and although I have molded it to fit my and Maddex's personalities, I admit I would have been lost without her guidance.  

Lauren Graham has inspired me in many ways, not just through her characters, but through what little I can infer from her wikapidea personal history blurb.  I note that she is not married, cutting right through societies demand for women to find a male counterpart at an early age. She dates other funny people dedicated to their craft, who probably inspire her. It has been a personal struggle since the beginning of adulthood to justify my lack of a husband, but seeing her gracefully choose to stay single somehow makes me feel empowered.  

I have also admired how beautiful and in shape she has kept herself over the years!  She is currently 47 years old and looks like she might be 30!  So many women in "real life" use age as an excuse to let their bodies go, so I am very quick to notice women who keep it together and age gracefully.  I aspire to follow her lead into a beautiful middle age, and appear to be able to live forever!  It seems she didn't become a super popular actress until she was in her thirties, which is just another way she has defied societies rulebook!

And now, through a brief interview I encountered via Twitter, I learned that she has written a book.  When asked why she wrote it, she simply said that she wanted to do something on her own.  Basically with the attitude of "because I want to, that's why", which just happens to be the reason I give to people when approached with questions about why I write.  Immediately I bought the book on Amazon and waited anxiously for it to appear in my mailbox, which it did last night!  I'm only 20 pages into the novel, but I recognize Grahams unique voice, and I am loving her fresh take on the day to day.  I cant wait to get into these characters!  Her novel has already had me laughing out loud a couple times!

No Sleep Makes Mommy go... something something

A few nights ago my son came to me complaining about a tooth ache.  I peered into his mouth and saw that in the back of his jaw a new tooth was trying to poke through.  I told him it was nothing to worry about, although it may be painful until it succeeds in its quest to become part of the gang, and that he wasn't particularly fond of teeth growing when he was a year old either.  The next day he came to me again complaining about a different tooth.  I told him he was fine, but gave him some children's Tylenol just for good measure.  Well by the next day he was in full blown pain.  We were sitting in the dinning room working on his school project:

Side note: How awesome is this? He had to make his own 

planet, and he decided it should have a lot of moons.  

$71 spent at the craft store later and this creation was born!

Anyway, so we were working on the project when suddenly he bursts into agony.  He was holding his cheek and crying so hard that all I could do was run to get my phone and dial his dentists number.  Thirty minutes later we were in the x-ray room at the office so they could check out what is going on in his mouth.  After another half hour we finally got to talk to the dentist.  Guess what? He couldn't see anything wrong with his teeth.  He GUESSED it was an inflamed nerve that was giving him trouble, and prescribed some antibiotics.  "OK," I said, not thoroughly satisfied, but then figured while we were there, "Also, Maddex has been complaining about one of the caps on his side tooth.  He says it wiggles when he presses his tongue to it.  I figure maybe we could get it removed since its on one of his baby teeth, and a new one will grow in its place soon enough."  Well the dentist thought I meant remove all of the caps on his teeth (there are 3), so on top of the inflamed nerve my poor little guy got THREE teeth extracted.  No pain meds were administered.  

Not a happy camper

Defiantly not a happy camper

The rest of the night was horrible.  He wanted to go to a movie at the church with his cusion, and although I wasn't thrilled about letting him, he insisted and since he had already been through so much that day, I decided to let him go.  I mean, they were just going to sit and watch a movie, whats the harm? And it was fine, he was in pain, but not so much that they needed me to pick him up early.   On the bonus side, my sister brought over Denver when she dropped my nephew over, so that was awesome!

"Hi! I love you!"

Even Ackels was okay with it.  We love this puppy!  Everything was fine until about 12:00.  I had put Maddex to bed at the normal time, and he did get some sleep, but around midnight he woke up in screaming pain.  I tried to give him more Tylenol, but it wasn't working.  He literally shook and cried in my arms all night/morning long.  I kept him home from school, and the hysterics continued.  I called the emergency line for the dentist office, but the doctor on call said it would have to wait until he was in the office.  When I finally got ahold of him, he said he couldn't prescribe pain medication because Maddex is only 8 years old.  WTF? so my baby just has to deal with the pain.  Awesome.  

Luckily around 1:00pm, Maddex finally got a bit of relief and I took him to eat soup, soft bread, and sip some hot tea.  We still hadn't slept, and both were getting cranky, but this was a nice break in the Hell we were experiencing.  He was so upset with me all night and day.  He couldn't understand why I wasn't making the pain go away, because I have always been able to in the past.  I tried to explain to him that I was doing everything I possibly could for him, but he was in pain and didn't care for reason.  It was one of the hardest times Ive had so far in motherhood.  Top 5 at least!

By the time I had to go to work I was so exhausted, frustrated, and downright bitchy.  One of my co-workers actually called me an asshole.  I was offended and told him he was bad at life.  And then he laughed so maybe we were joking, but I cant remember, its all so fuzzy.  When I got home, Maddex was still up watching TV.  He hadn't been able to eat anything while I was away so I made him some whole wheat noodles to see if I could get some starch in his tummy.  He took two bites and threatened to throw up.  I noticed he felt really hot.  The fever is actually a good sign, it means the antibiotics are working.  I gave him more Tylenol and put him to bed.  He hasn't gotten up yet, so hopefully hes out.  I should stop writing and try to get some sleep just in case he decides to unleash his pain monster again.  

Ugh motherhood.

Reasons To Love Brussle Sprouts!

Did you know that stress frays the ends of your chromosomes by breaking down the Telomeres that are put in place to protect our genes?  Well its true.  You know what food can help prevent this from happening? Brussels sprouts!

Brusslesprout and green onion pizza!

Honestly, I have never been a fan of the taste of steamed Brussels sprouts, so I had to get creative and use them as a pizza topping.  It was actually really delicious.  I used mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, but I think it would be amazing with goat cheese.

Other reasons to incorporate Brussels sprouts into your diet is because they are supper high in vitamins and minerals such as Vitamin K, Vitamin C, folate, and manganese.  They are also known to lower cholesterol.  Better yet, they are known to help prevent cancer because they contain glucosinolates. 

Brussels sprouts are also used to detox your cells because they make isothiocyanates and contain sulfur.  These are substances that get our bodies detox system going and humming.  Other then the unique taste, there is nothing in these little guys that are bad for you.  You can eat them in so many different ways, but they were quite wonderful on pizza!

 Even Maddex was a fan!  At first glance he was like, "Mom, why did you put salad on the pizza?" but after the first bite he was sold!  :)

A Spring Trend I Love

For this spring/summer I have noticed a lot of new trends coming to the market (can you say crop top, eek!), and a lot of them seem very intimidating.  One that I am just loving right now is the no-denim shorts! I feel like throughout the year I am living in denim and it is not as much fun as it used to be.  So when I started seeing cloth shorts and even LACE styles I instantly fell in love!

An elastic waist band is not flattering on anyone, but if done right, I can see it might be really cute.  I also love that these shorts tend to have wider leg holes (haha, holes) so for girls with "athletic" thighs like me can give the illusion of slender legs.  Does anyone else have that problem where denim shorts hug your thighs at the seem making it look like your legs are bigger then they actually are! I feel like I'm always on the hunt for wider leg holes.

I'm also really loving the different color/patterns that are available! With a lot of denim you basically just get the one look leaving your top to do all the personality conveying! Its nice to mix it up a bit!

  

Plus, I'm just a romantic at heart, and how cute are these Lacy gems? 

And sequins! A causal feeling outfit can easily double as a chic night out! The summers here in Fresno are awful, but one good thing about them is night time!  It stays warm all night so living in shorts and tank tops is pretty much your only option!

I don't think I am ready yet to bare my legs to the world!  I have a few leg and booty workouts in my immediate future, but as every girl has a pair of skinny jeans that motivate them to work harder, I bought myself a pair of cute shorts to give the same effect! I cant wait to wear these this summer!

What do you think of the new trends for 2014???

Tuesdays Confession

Something that has been weighing me down is the amount of food I have been eating lately, literally.  I love to work out, and run, and I'm a part of the Tone It Up community, however, I CANNOT CONTROL THE AMOUNT OF FOOD THAT HAS BEEN PUT IN MY MOUTH LATELY! Its horrible.  Ive gained 8 pounds in the past month, and try as I might to counteract the damage with vast amounts of exercise, the scale continues to read larger and larger numbers.

It must be emotional, because at the beginning of every week I make a plan, shop for the perfect foods, and gain all kinds of motivation.  And by Tuesday every week I'm a huge failure.  It seems like the more I try to fix the problem, the more obsessed I become, and thus the more I think about food, and the more I think about food THE MORE FOOD I EAT!!! Its horrible.  I know that if I just stopped obsessing then I could gain control over this, and get back to my normal weight.  I mean I have a wedding this summer!  I have to be able to fit into my bridesmaids dress!

So I submit to you, dear blogging community, how do I turn this around? Does anyone else have these issues? Tell me its not just me!

A Much Needed Vacation

Its no secret that I have to travel to San Luis Obispo, Ca every other weekend to pick Maddex up from his dads house, but its fairly rare that I get to actually stay the whole weekend and enjoy 90 degrees at the beach and breathe clean air!

I rolled into town at about 11:00am Saturday and immediately met up with a very old friend I used to work with back in my banking days.  Sara means a lot to me because she was one of my main cheerleaders when I decided to go back to school to study Dietetics.  She is an amazing friend, but literally the same month I moved to the central valley, she moved to Sacramento, and so I never get to see her anymore.  Somehow the stars aligned, and we just happened to be in SLO on the same day, so we took advantage and went for a hike up Madonna mountain!

The hike lasted a while, but there still wasn't enough time to fully catch up, so when Sara had to get on the road back to Sacramento, I nearly cried.  After she left I went to the computer store to get my Mac looked at.  Its been running slow lately, and as it turns out after I upgraded all my software my memory GB was now tapped out.  So for a small(ish) fee, I had them upgrade the memory, and now she runs like a dream again!  While this was happening, I contacted my very good friend Monica and she came to meet me! After we were done at the computer store, we went downtown and shopped around a bit.  Somehow we ended up at CPK for drinks!  Its not really that surprising, drinks is what we do.

Around that time my dearest friend Juliette invited us over to watch Catching Fire and eat Chipotle and drink wine! Of course we accepted because there was wine!  Plus we are all super book nerds and love all things Harry Potter, LOTR, and The Hunger Games.  So we met up with Juels at Target to raid the shelves of candy and booze before heading to Chipotle to flirt our way through the burrito bowl line, and took everything back to Juliette's cute little apartment to sit down and enjoy the good life for about 3 hours! Nights like these are my idea of fun: great friends, good movie, amazing food and getting tipsy! Sign me up!

Oh, and I have I mentioned that Juliette is one of my absolute, all time, favorite people in the whole wide world? Can you say soul mate? We both read magazines from back to front, so, you know, that's solid proof!

Juliette enjoys her sleep so she kicked us out by the time it was nearly 11:00pm.  I drove Monica back to her car by the computer store, and we sat for an hour talking and talking... and talking! I love her because she has so much to say!  She left around midnight, but not before I could give her a ginormous hug! I miss her so much!

Afterward, I went to my friend Amy's house to crash.  Amy wasn't in town this weekend, but she was really sweet and let me use her room so I wouldn't have to sleep in my car, lol.  That's one of the best parts of having amazing girlfriends, they are always down to help you out!  She left behind her dogs, Diesel and Mac-Attack, two ginormous Mastiffs who like to cuddle.  I was a bad friend and let Diesel up on the bed to cuddle with me all night.  I only had a sheet to sleep with so he kept me warm! I mean, whats a girl to do? I cant wait to get a dog, I have never felt so safe in my entire life!

When I woke up the next morning I gathered my things and packed up the car.  Then I drove back over to Juels house and we went for a nice workout in Avila.

The workout was super fun, and I am so excited that Juliette is getting into running! I love to run, and I have seen some amazing results in my health since I began, so to hear (and see) one of my best friends get into it really makes me excited!  One of the things I love so much about Juliette is she can do anything she wants to.  There is no sense of "I can't" in her world, as there shouldn't be!  I also feel lucky that I get to go with her to run sometimes!

Shortly after our workout it was nearly time to leave.  I picked up my Maddex and we headed away from the sun and back to stupid Clovis.  I really needed that mini-vacation though, and I am so glad I got to spend it with some amazing friends!

Highlights

1) I became obsessed with this TIU workout

2) My baby brother Jaden surprised visited me on Monday night!

3) I replaced taco shells with Collard Green Leaves! So yummy and nutritious!

4) I spotted a memeber of an endaged species!

5) I got to view the venue for my brother James' wedding with his beautiful bride-to-be Courtney! Super excited for my new sister!!

Broken Blood

From what I understand, this whole Fearless Friday link-up is based around the idea of posting a topic that one would otherwise be afraid to due to possible backlash or shame.  Well I have a subject that I have been tip-toeing around which has given me a surprising amount of writers block, and this is the perfect opportunity to get it off my chest. 

Fact: when one of your best friends says to you, “You can tell me anything!” she absolutely means it.  However, she does not mean that you should attack her character or insult her.  What she means by “anything” is that time you lost your wallet in Vegas so you decided to do some strange for some change to earn a plane ticket home, or the body you buried that summer you were 19 and accidently hit that guy with your car.  What she doesn’t want you to say is something that will break her, because her feelings will get hurt, and most likely you are being a huge bitch anyway.  If you do say something insensitive, and you do end up hurting her, do not throw the whole “You told me I could tell you anything!” card in her face, that’s just rude.

I know these things from personal (recent) experience.  Unfortunately this friend who took advantage of my invitation to be honest with me happened to be my sister. Yup, my own flesh and blood.  Its one thing that she hurt me by attacking my character and making me feel horrible about myself, and has yet to apologize, but after what she said I know I can no longer trust her. Even if she did apologize or even take back what was said, I would never be able to be in the same room as her without feeling extremely uncomfortable. Every time I speak Ill be hoping I’m saying the right thing, or wonder weather or not she’s judging me. 

This is actually a gaping wound in my heart that won’t heal.  I can’t fix it, she doesn’t care to fix it, and I feel like I have lost a huge part of myself.  The part of myself that identified with my sisterhood.  I am so sad everyday, and I feel more alone then ever.  I've lost my best friend.  There is nothing I can do.  I wish I never met her for coffee that day.

Things You Didn't Know About Me

• I need to play Coin Drop for at least 40 minutes every night before bed

• I’ve watched the Supernatural Series over about 3 times completely

• I aspire to write a few books in my life: both fiction and non-fiction

• My favorite things to write are short stories

• I drink water from the gallon and it HAS to be purified by reverse osmosis.  Please don’t add minerals for taste, you bustards!

• I hate reading the classics.  Blah Blah Blah the English language is so annoying.

• I wear Maxi dresses when I want to look nice but am too bloated to wear pants

• I love math and miss it so much that every once in a while Ill bust out my old algebra book and spend two hours solving for X

• I believe in angels, and as logical as I am, 100% believe in a particular medium who lets me communicate with them. (Totally serious)

• I am a Christian who practices Buddhist philosophy

• I prefer the company of animals over most humans, simply because I value pure honesty.  And fur.

So I just wanted to share a few random things about myself in hopes that you will share some random things about you! Lets connect :)

Another Weeks Highlights

This was fun last week, so I thought I'd do it again!

1) Ackles reached a new level of cuteness. 

2) I bought a styling wand. 

3) I caught my guys napping it out in my messy room! 

4) Maddex got beat up by a girl!

5) My best friend found the wedding dress of her dreams, and she is so beautiful!