Monday, September 15, 2014

What I learned at RiotFest

Yet another non-parenting related blog post for my "parenting blog"...

Joey and I spent the weekend in Chicago for Riotfest. It was amazing. I haven't been to many concerts in my life let alone a three day music festival packed with some of my all time favorite bands. Some of the highlights for my weekend included Motion City Soundtrack, Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, New Found Glory, and seeing a few new bands that I am now in love with including The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and City and Colour.
Motion City Soundtrack. This was probably the highlight of my whole weekend.

GWAR. Scary metal band that sprays blood at you. I never thought I would get fake blood sprayed at me during a concert, and I definitely never thought it would come out of a fake set of boobs.


I learned a few new things this weekend, some about myself and some about my wonderful boyfriend. I've always heard that you learn about your significant other while traveling and I definitely did this weekend. I mostly learned a few new reasons why I love him. The main one being that when he gets frustrated he never lashes out on me but just apologizes for being stressed. At one point we were lost in an extremely terrifying part of Chicago late at night and while I was totally oblivious just trudging around hoping to find the bus soon, Joey was well aware of our situation and was silently freaking out. To clue you in on how bad the neighborhood was, a couple of our friends were also lost there and a cop stopped them and asked them if they knew where they were, telling them to head east and hop on a bus right away.

That might sound like a stupid reason to fall in love with your S.O. all over again but it just reminds me why I love having him around. Sometimes I forget that I'm only 23 (although I'm sure that he doesn't) and I'm much more impatient and high strung when I get stressed. For example, Thursday night I got so freaked out by the fact that a spider was in my car that I snapped at him for no reason when he asked me a simple question. I realized immediately that I was being an idiot and apologized because he had done nothing wrong, but right then I was thankful for the effect he's been having on me. He's much more calm and mature when it comes to things like that and it makes me stop and think about how I'm acting. The whole redhead temper stereotype exists for a reason and I for one and not happy about it. It's something I'll probably be working on my whole life.
It rained all day Friday -_-
I also appreciated how much he tried to take care of me this weekend. Bone spurs in my hip and severe muscle spasms led to a lot of intense pain after walking/standing all weekend. He was constantly rubbing my back while we were standing around waiting for bands to start, asking me if I took my meds, and even skipped out on some plans to take me back to the hotel so that I could rest/soak in a hot bath. He was so sweet and so concerned the entire time. It really meant a lot considering that most people would probably have been irritated or felt held back. I get so frustrated with my back/hip problems because I hate that at 23 years old I can't do things that I want to. I feel like I shouldn't be having these issues at my age but I do, and he is always there for me through it.

The last couple of things that I learned this weekend were that I would never want to live in a big city (I thought Charlotte was big but I was sadly mistaken) and that the manager of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones is my new hero. He manages this band and every show he dresses up with them, goes out on stage, and dances and jumps around the entire time with the biggest smile on his face. You can tell he really loves the music (and who doesn't love some good ska?) and he has no cares about jumping around on stage acting a fool and having a good time. It made my day watching him.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Losing my mommy body...

I'm starting to question whether after 4 years I can really be blaming my physique on having a child considering the fact that I've never had a truly "flat" stomach. Ever since I was about 16 years old I have been about 145 lbs and in size 7 jeans. Even after I had Sophie I bounced back pretty quickly to my pre baby weight but I think all moms can verify that my body never looked the same. I've been struggling to lose what I call "the mom belly" for the last four years and no matter how much weight I lost it was always there. I even went so far as to start running 12-15 miles a week and got down to a size 5. Still no dice. The tummy was there.

Lately I've been working out with a friend every morning before work. We do cardio of course but we also do a lot of weight training. I found out the hard way that I've been doing squats wrong my whole life, but thanks to a slightly colorful phrase that my workout buddy employs, I can now do them in correct form and have started squatting more than just the bar! :D 

I also discovered these body wrap things on instagram. My best friend used them several years ago after her daughter was born and I remember getting all her before and after pictures thinking "that can't be real." I didn't want to waste my money on something that was only going to give me false hope so I never bothered to try them. I stumbled across a girl named Vanessa on IG that was a distributor and saw all her results. I started researching, reading people's reviews on all the products from the company that makes these wraps (IT works!). Everything I saw made me want to try them, so I started the treatments. So far I'm on wrap number 3 out of 4 that is supposed to complete 1 treatment. These body wraps aren't going to help anyone lose weight, and they aren't magic, but they do a good job of toning and tightening up any areas that need a little extra help. So far I'm really happy with my results and it's just pushing me to work even harder in the gym. I can't to see how I look this time next year. 

The left is before any wraps. The top right is after 2, and the bottom is after 3.

The top is before, the bottom is after 3 wraps.

Monday, September 8, 2014

Weekend Update

Between work, friends, and "Be a Touris 2014" Sophie and I had a pretty crazy weekend. We started off with a trip to the daycare Saturday morning. That led to the gym, grocery store, back to the daycare, and then home for naps. After naps we made a quick stop back at work and then met up with our favorite kiddos Brooke and Harrison for dinner and a playdate. We didn't get to spend near enough time with them because of our schedule but we did enjoy a nice meal at Chipotle. Harrison tried to put the moves on Sophie when we were saying goodbye and she decided to run up and kiss him on the cheek again before we left. It was so cute! We went to Joey's house to hang out which led to a trip to the park and us deciding to sleep over. It was her first time staying at his place over night and it went pretty well. She was scared to sleep in the guest room alone but we left plenty of lights on and Joey told her that monsters are scared of cats so Carlos could protect her.

On Sunday we were even busier than before. Sophie was uncharacteristically grumpy all weekend, so it was a rough start. First work, then we went back to Joey's to get him out of bed and head to IHOP for some pancakes. Our first stop for BAT was Science Central. Sophie was not having any of it. She was so grumpy and just not amused with the fact that most of the things there were meant for older children (like the huge slide). There is a nice little play area for the younger kids, but the only part she cared about was the water table. There were so many other people there and she was so irritated that I just gave up and said it was time to go home for a nap. We laid her down to watch Wall-E and she was passed out within 20 minutes. Joey and I settled in to finish up the last two episodes of American Horror Story (He got me addicted and I watched two seasons in a week). Once she woke up it was time for the Art Museum and Botanical Gardens. She enjoyed both and seemed to be in a much better mood.

We did have a slight mishap at the Botanical Gardens because she tripped and slammed into one of the windows with the side of her head. I could tell it hurt her pretty bad and she has a slight knot over her ear now. To make her feel better we decided to go over to Headwaters Park. She was upset over the lack of playground, but we ended up running and splashing through the fountain. We finished off with dinner at Pint and Slice where she demolished a huge piece off pizza and a giant cookie.



All in all it was a great weekend with some of our favorite people. I just want to send a special thanks to Joey who handled Sophie being a huge grump and me getting extremely frustrated like a total champ!