Random Ruminations

Summer: Em and I have been enjoying summer outings. Today we went to the amazing downtown library. We participated in Story Time (which always ends with a story and song sung by an animatronic owl---WAY cool!) and Family Art Time. The "Main Library" downtown is literally the largest public library in Florida. It is amazing! I'll have to take pics for Show&Tell one of these days. :)

Today our friends from Em's gymnastics class went with us. It was our first non-gymnastics related play date with them. It went really well---Em and M hit it off well. His Mom, G and I got along great. I even legitimately ogled his 7-month old brother WITHOUT jealousy pangs, yea me! (And of course somehow the conversation somehow led to IF at one point, wherein I learned G had 2 miscarriages and struggled to get PG prior to the birth of her baby. Sighs.) Hooray for new friends!!

"Cool" Play yards: One thing that drives me insanely crazy is the LACK of inside and/or shaded play areas here in Florida. When it is in the 90's as it has been the past week and a half, it is difficult to find outings where Em can run/play/exercise in a cool environment. ALL of the B.urger K.ings nearby have taken down their play equipment...I'm guessing someone somewhere sued them. This is a bummer b/c there was a B.K. with a ginormous and amazing Kid's area...that now has tables and "Free WiFi" instead of the play yard equipment. We sometimes end up at C.hic F.ilet, which is fine, but their play yard isn't very large.
There are many local Mc.Donald's, however the majority of those with play areas have OUTDOOR play yards. I'm fine with this, as I enjoy spending time outside...except, they don't have shade. Who designs this stuff? Play yards in FL with NO shade?
Kind of like our favorite local park...great swings and jungle-gym type equipment...but we can only go in the evenings this time of year, or we'll scorch! Once again---no shade. Luckily, both malls that are nearby have indoor play areas.
This morning I searched online to see if there were any Mc.Donald's with indoor play yards. I found one---10 miles from the downtown library. Ahhh, what the heck...we didn't have anything planned after our library play date. Em and I lunched and then she played for TWO HOURS while I finished my 800+ page book "The Sweet, Far Thing"....all in the air conditioning. Super sweet...definitely worth the extra drive.

Mail: The first 2 sentences of a letter I received from my insurance company last month:
"Our records indicate that you may have already delivered, or are expecting in the very near future! We would like to remind you to schedule an after-delivery (also called postpartum) exam." If I go to the footnote at the bottom of the page it states, "If this is not the case, please call Member Services at the toll-free number on your ID card so that we can correct our records." ACK! Blasted insurance company. My summer was going great...I didn't need a January miscarriage 'reminder.' Not to mention, even if I was still pregnant, I wouldn't be due until mid-September, not the "very near future" in my book. Ugh!

Yesterday's mail included a letter to all teachers employed in my school district. It includes some "minor benefit changes" that went into effect on 10/1/08: Items no longer covered by our insurance include "routine eye exams, infertility treatment, and massage therapy." ARG. Though DH and I still don't know our next steps on the IF journey, it saddens me to know that my employer/insurance benefits no longer cover IF treatment for those who choose to pursue IF treatment options. (Not to mention my yearly eye exam, dang it!) Blasted insurance companies.

Exercise: On Thursday DH and I bought "Active," a new W.ii exercise game. (Click HERE for the info link.) We both enrolled in the "30 Day Challenge." WHEW! It is a killer! Even at the low-level, our quad muscles are killing us today! (This secretly makes me happy, as DH has been a runner for 5 years....knowing that he is in pain along with me and my newly-exercising-fat-butt makes me feel like the exercise is really working. Am I sick, or what?) We both LOVE it thus far. Especially as compared to the W.ii Fit. I enjoy W.ii Fit, but frankly it can take up to 2 hours for me to feel I've had a true workout. With the Active, my muscles are totally burning today, after only 22 minutes Thursday and 30 minutes yesterday. Sweet!

Smiles:
--Today marks the last day of my first full-week of summer vacation. Ahhh. I'm loving it! :)
--An Emmaism: On a picture of a volcano: "Why does that volcano keep interrupting?" LOL.
--My summer reading is underway. I've stayed up late reading the past few nights. LOVE it!
--ICLW starts tomorrow. :)

Show and Tell--Perverted Cartoon?

Those who know me well know that I am a HUGE Scooby-Doo fan. I've loved the show since I was a young girl...

Part of my Scooby love carries over to its creators, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. I spent many a morning back in the 80's watching cartoons. Part of what made weekends special, was because the cartoons were ONLY available on Saturday mornings.

A few years ago I read, My Life In Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Under a Century, an autobiography by Joe Barbera. I loved reading the story of how he and William Hanna teamed together to create a plethora of cartoons. I enjoyed the trivia (They chose the name "Scooby-Doo" after hearing Frank Sinatra's scat "scooby-dooby-doo" during his "Strangers in the Night" song. Neat!)

I loved reading about the amazing quantity of cartoons that the Hanna/Barbera team created: Tom& Jerry, The Flintstones, Captain Caveman, The Shirttales, The Smurfs, The Jetsons, Johnny Quest, Richie Rich, Yogi Bear, Hong Kong Phooey, etc. Including my beloved Scooby-Doo, this amazing team spearheaded over 50 original cartoons.

One of my joys as a mother has been watching my daughter grow to love some of the cartoons I loved as a child. Em loves my Scooby-Doo boxed-set as much as I do! She has recently been VERY into "Cartoon Network" and many of the 1980's cartoons I mentioned above. One of her recent favorites is Wacky Races, (wherein 11 characters race across land and sea for the coveted "World's Wackiest Racer" title. )

I HAD to "pause" and take a photo when she was watching Wacky Races this week. Good ole Hanna-Barbera...I wonder how many other perverted things are contained within their cartoons and went completely over my head as a child. The pics below say it all....they had humor. And I love them for it!




Picture of the character Penelope Pitstop, driving her car in Wacky Races.

Upon being chased, by "Dick Dasterdly," she had to use a gadget within her car in an attempt to out-race her opponents...




Photo is of the dial on Penelope Pitstop's dashboard.

ROFL. After selecting the "vibrator" option, a large strap popped out of her seat, and surrounded her as an extra seatbelt, while her entire car then bounced up and down vigorously. TOO funny. I never knew there was "adult humor" within Hanna-Barbera cartoons. I'll be keeping an eye out now... :)

Exercise?

Whew! I just got back from run/walking 1.5 miles. I woke up early so I could get exercise time in before DH left for work. Otherwise, I'd be stuck running this afternoon with Em and/or the dog. And though I love them both, anyone out there who has ever tried to exercise accompanied by a young child who isn't in a stroller, knows what a hassle it is...

I've tried walking with Emma. The difficulty is, she stops every 2 steps 10 feet to look at the flowers, or the pretty leaves, or to notice the fire ants storming out of their ant mound. While I love that my child likes to "stop and smell the roses," her turtle-like speed doesn't allow the "workout" pace I was hoping for.

Sometimes I try to take walks escorted by Em on her tricycle. If we do this, we use her "trike" that has a pushing handle, so I can help move her along once her little legs poop out. This also leads to difficulties. Steering the tricycle is a pain in the neck, as it is a tug-of-war between Em and I. Though I really like the model of tricycle, the blasted handlebars for the child are connected to the push-handle for the grown-up. Thus, if she jerks the handlebars one way, I'm forced to realign so that she doesn't crash into neighbor's mailboxes, etc. And while this might sound like a good upper body workout, it is more frustrating than it is worth.

I should win the Mother of the Year Award receive special honors for the times I've walked with Em on her tricycle AND taken our dog with us at the same time. Picture me trying to balance the leash without having my arm pulled out of socket (remember, our dog is a large 100-pound mutt.) Along with maintaining the leash, I have to help steer/guide Emma's tricycle so that she doesn't dismount her tricycle to sight see the neighbor's flowers, thereby slowing down my already snail-like workout wreck and scar herself for life.

Also fun, is trying to take Em on a wagon ride, escorted by our dog. There I am trying to shed some pounds speed-walk. Meanwhile, with one arm, I'm towing the wagon precariously behind me, (it has nearly severed my ankles as we neared the bottom of hills in our neighborhood on several occasions) while our dog is tugging my other arm forward to lead the way. I'm like a walking wind-mill with one arm forward and the other arm back the entire walk. Though I do have to say that I am certain that this IS a good upper arm workout, as the times I've tried it, I've felt the results in my biceps for days afterward.

I wouldn't trade my Em or our dog for anything...but I learned long ago if I "walk" with them, it won't be for exercise, it will be for the adventure. And as our summer is already going to consist of many mommy-and-Emma adventures, I figure I'm entitled to a solo workout walk/run now and then.

Thus, this summer I plan to rise early in order to exercise before Em wakes up. This way I can exercise at my own pace, have some ME time, beat the mid-day summer heat, and return home before DH has to leave for work.

According to my N.ike mini i.Pod monitor thingamajig, as of this morning, I've run/walked 4 workouts, totaling 6.77 miles run/walked, with an average pace of 24 minutes per mile.

While totally stoked about this, as the first "goal" I set for myself was to go 12 miles in 4 weeks, I'm also a little bummed. I have 3 workouts that for some reason did not register at all. Thus, my "tracked" mileage should actually be higher than it is indicating. Bummer!

Em just woke up and told me I'm "too stinky" to give a good morning hug to. Guess it's time to hit the shower. If only I had the strength to get out of the computer chair...

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Nothing new here. Just enjoying summer, even though it was already 94 degrees today. Yikes! DH and I took Em to the downtown water park this afternoon. (Free at Metro Park!) She was able to splash and play and wear herself out. Yea! All 3 of us napped when we got home. Gotta love summer days.

As always, I've been compiling a list of Em's humorous sayings. I'm posting the most recent ones now:

4/8/09: On getting her eyes checked...
"I liked going to the toptomitrist's office, they're up high and I like to look out the windows."
(TOP-tom-i-trist. I love it! Her optometrist's office is on the 3rd floor of a downtown building, and has an amazing view of the St. John's River.)

4/13/08 On making things tidy:
"Can you guys help me clean up this crap?"
(LOL...wonder where she's heard that before? Hmmm.)

5/12/09: While rocking before bedtime....
Em: "Why do you wear your wedding ring all night?"
Me: "Because when you get married, you wear your ring all the time."
Em: "Yeah, so you don't lose it. Because if you lose it, it's expensive, and they won't get you another one."
(Bwaahahah! Not sure who "they" is, but she cracked me up!)

5/13/09: On gymnastics class...

"Tonight at the Gym, there were some mean boys. They were playing "Tackle the Kid" during Free Play. Now I have a headache since they jumped on me."
("Tackle the Kid." I've never heard of this one...too funny.)

5/18/09: Arguing because she wouldn't chew her chewable Tylenol...
Me: I need you to chew that up like a big girl. I don't want you to have to take the yucky medicine with a dropper instead.
Em: But, it tastes so sweet...I was trying to save it.
(UGH. Glad she "likes" the flavor...but perhaps it is too candy-like?)

5/23/09 While going on a long drive in our new minivan:
"Hey, those houses over there are dirty and ragged!"
(WOW! Nice freakin' vocabulary! I have 8th graders who couldn't use the word "ragged" appropriately in a sentence. Where does she come up with this stuff?)

5/25/09: Looking at a van similar to our new Dodge minivan:
"Hey, is that your Armadillo car?" to DH
(Because the "ram" symbol on the car hood apparently resembles an armadillo.)

5/30/09: On a sports car with a "bra" on it's grill:

"That car is wearing a coat! That's silly!"

(I've never understood the purpose of "bras" for cars either, Kiddo!)

6/3/09:

Em has been VERY into jokes lately. She finally understands the punchline of many knock-knock jokes. Last night I taught her the oldie-but-goodie,

Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence,

Pete fell off, so who was left?

Repeat!

Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence,
Pete fell off, so who was left?
Repeat!

Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence,
Pete fell off, so who was left?
Repeat!

She laughed hysterically every time. Her little giggle is so precious. How I love my sweetie.

6/4/09: On outdoor bugs...
"Hey, I wonder if we'll see any of those grass clippers today..."
(Took me a few minutes to figure out grass clippers = grasshoppers)

6/13/09: Dinner conversation:
Em was rambling on and on about random topics.
Jokingly, DH asked her, "What color is the sky in your world?"
Totally serious, Emma responded, "Forty-one."
(ROFL! Whatever they put in the Kid's Meal at Moe's...I'll have to try it next time!)
(I think she said this because when we were painting her toenails this week, she noticed the "82" on the lid of the nail polish bottle. I explained that most nail polishes have a "number." Still, she cracks me up!)

6/14/09: On retrieving lost items:
"M----ooooo----m! I need help!" When I went running into MY bedroom to see what the problem was, Em was adamant that she needed the "lawn mower stick." As our lawn mower has been broken for several months, I was stumped. It took some Mommy-detective work to figure out that she had dropped something behind my bed. She wanted the yard stick to help get it out.
(Lawn mower stick = yard stick. Tee hee!)

Crazy 8's

Last week, Sunny tagged me for the Crazy 8's game, but I was caught up in the end-of-the-school-year hubbub. But now, summer's here!

This morning I went shopping at my favorite store (Kohl's---new sandals for me, PJs for Em, and DH's Father's Day gifts purchased today) and I ate lunch at one of my favorite places (Tijuana Flats.) I finished my "ME" morning by talking on the phone with my Mom for over an hour. (Can't wait to see my family next month!) It's time to continue summer vacation with a blogging meme. Here goes...

The rules:

1. Mention the person who tagged me.
2. Complete the lists of 8.
3. Tag 8 more bloggers and tell them they've been tagged.

The lists:

Eight things I am looking forward to.
1. Having Mommy-and-Emma time this summer.
2. My sister Laurel's visit to Florida.
3. Our family vacation to visit our extended family (and friends) in Ohio.
4. Introducing my older sister Michelle and Emma to one another (in person for the 1st time.)
5. Summer reading. (Already underway! As I was alone for lunch today, I read during my entire meal!)
6. Fireworks. (I *heart* July 4th.)
7. Preparing some lesson plans and school-related stuff over the summer. (Sucks a little, but I look forward to having it done PRIOR to going back to school.)
8. Going to the beach. We've been to the beach a few times in the past 2 months, but just to walk around---no swim attire. I'm ready for swimming/playing in the sand/kite flying beach time!

Eight things I did yesterday.
1. Caught up on personal email. Went from 156 messages in inbox to 2!
2. Caught up on blog posting/reading/commenting.
3. Stayed in PJs until 4 p.m. (Sweet! Did I mention I love summer breaks from school?)
4. Delved into book I've been reading...I'm about a quarter of the way through "The Sweet Far Thing" now.
5. Took Em to her gymnastics class. Watched class and enjoyed it. Coach Kara said Em is "a natural gymnast." Awww!
6. Looked up movie times. Didn't go yesterday or today. Maybe tomorrow on my last "me" day?
7. Worked on some items for a retreat. (I'm a co-sponsor for my sister when she attends in July.)
8. Had a bowl of Lucky Charms cereal. I haven't had this sugary goodness in a long time. Yum!

Eight things I wish I could do.
1. Have a healthy full-term baby by the end of this year.
2. Play acoustic guitar.
3. Be a superb teacher without the need for planning or creating lessons. (Yeah, right!)
4. Sew. (Other than buttons, I'm clueless.)
5. Crochet. (Lovely baby blankets, warm winter scarves/hats, etc. Sighs. I don't get it!)
6. Run 5 miles (or more!) straight without side pains, gasping for air, or pausing to walk.
7. Climb/visit high places without freaking out. (I'm height phobic!)
8. Keep our landscaping groomed and looking lovely without assistance. (We have a lawn guy, because this it the time of year the grass, trees, and weeds grooooooow ever so quickly! He only mows every other week....but would/could mow weekly if we'd pay him more, because the grass grows that fast!)

Eight shows I watch.
1. Brothers and Sisters
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. LOST
4. Desperate Housewives
5. Hockey (Thanks DH for this list item. Stanley Cup final playoff game this week. Sweet!)
6. Private Practice
7. Pushing Daises (Big salty tears...it was cancelled for next season.)
8. Dancing with the Stars

Eight favorite fruits.
Insert Alana-ism here: WEIRD category!
1. Grapes
2. Apples
3. Peaches
4. Pears
5. Oranges
6. Kiwi
7. Banana
8. Strawberry
*EDIT: How could I have forgotten WATERMELON???? It's truly one of my favorites! Needs to bump to #1. Then bump strawberries off the list. Oh my!

Eight places I'd like to travel.
Alana-ism: I love history and learning about other cultures. So I'd truly be willing to go nearly anywhere if all expenses were paid. :) With that being said, here are the 8 on the top of my mind today...
1. Ireland
2. Machu Pichu
3. Disney World---for a full week at all 4 parks!
4. Spain
5. Australia
6. Italy
7. France
8. Egypt

Eight places I've lived.
1. Reynoldsburg, Ohio (ages: birth - 3)
2. Marysville, Ohio (ages: 3 - college)
3. Athens, Ohio--Washington Hall dorm at Ohio University with Michelle R.
4. Athens, Ohio--Shively Hall dorm at Ohio University with Michelle R.
5. Athens, Ohio--Lakeview student apartment #1 at OU with Sharon and Amy
6. Athens, Ohio--Lakeview student apartment #2 at OU with Karyn and then Vicki
Alana-ism: NONE of these apartments had a view of a lake. Just the Hocking River.
7. Jacksonville, FL--Lakeside Apartments---1st apartment with DH
Alana-ism: There was actually a lake here...on the opposite end of the complex, so we didn't have a view of it. We were across from one of the 2 swimming pools though.
8. Jacksonville, FL---current digs; our 1st house. This month marks 7 years we've owned it. :)

Tagging:
1. Mrs. Gamgee at Hobbit-ish Thoughts and Ramblings (If I didn't *heart* you so much, I wouldn't pick you for this stuff over and over and over and over!!)
2. Carrie at Letting it Out (You leave for a vacation at Disney World in less than a week, so I totally understand if you don't get to this!!)
3. Heather at Geek By Marriage (This is the goddess who SAVED my 3-column blog. Giving you an ode from Wayne's World... I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy!)
4. Meghan (my rockin' sister-in-law-by-marriage) (At least that's what I call her. She's my brother-in-law's wife. Which means technically she and I both married into the family and aren't really "related." But, seriously?? We've got to keep ourselves sane from the wild bunch we married into, right? Therefore we ARE related! JOKE!!) Anyway, checkout her site and her cute twin boys over at: The Adventures of Tader Baby
5.-8. Sighs. It is TOOOOO difficult to pick only 8 of the wonderful women I've encountered in blogland. Not to mention the fact that many of you (Dani, Kristin, etc.) have already completed this meme.

I'm leaving #5-8 open for you, dear readers....if you want to complete the Crazy 8's game, come join in the fun. If not, I'm not offended. Xoxox