Working Out: The Struggle is Real

So I have been pretty low key and boring lately. It may have something to do with the fact that my Stinker won't let me sleep more than 3 hours at a time. Did I mention she's almost 7 months old?! At this rate I figured I would get my 8 hours back. I haven't. Other than that I haven't been very exciting. I've been doing horrible at keeping my Lenten promises, I've been to the gym once and have eaten meat like 6 or 7 times. It sucks. I suck. Oh well. I'm also human. On that note, today's post: working out. 

Yesterday I decided to get my butt in the gym. I literally only had time to run a not so fast mile, but progress is progress. I'm planning on doing a spring tri in September so I need to get on my swim- run- bike game. Hopefully the weather will permanently turn into Spring in the Bluegrass and I can get outside to train. To be honest, working out isn't easy for me. To say I hate it would be an understatement. My sister loves fitness, I strive to be her, but come up very short. It could be that the exhaustion has taken over my body, it could be that I have 1 hour for lunch and I have to choose to eat or workout and usually eating (and socializing) takes priority, it could be that if I wait until the end of the day, the guilt builds up that I'm not home snuggling Boo Bear for the few hours I get with her before bed. It could be all those things combined. At the end of the day, I need to do this for myself. I have noticed my self esteem is horrible. I look at myself and hate what I see. I need to make the change and I am. Today. I feel like if I write it on the blog, I'll have all my non- existent readers to hold me accountable. 

Anyways, I wanted to get some writing in today. I wanted to vent my struggle because for some, the struggle is VERY real when it comes to working out. I hope that I can become a better, healthier version of myself. I still have this damn baby weight plaguing my thighs and stomach. It's almost bathing suit season and even though I'll be working a one piece suit thanks melasma line I need to be able to have a body that will still turn my hubs head. :) Happy Tuesday everyone. I promise #tbt and my other Thursday post will be a little better. I'm lagging here. 

My Baby Girl

I originally started this blog to talk about my life, and I think I do a good job at that. Sometimes I'll have ridiculously funny stories and other times not so much. Although I do have a weekend recap to do, I just wanted to dedicate this blog to one little gal I know won't read it, my Harper Maryann. Last night as I was snuggling my Boo Bear (she won't sleep in her crib, I complain but I secretly love having her in our room) I just started thinking how truly blessed I am. This little thing loves me so unconditionally that sometimes the magnitude takes my breath away. There are millions of people in this world who won't ever be able to have children, millions more who abuse that privilege (and it is a privilege IMO) and to realize I'm one of the few that get to experience mommyhood is such a HUGE deal! So, I dedicate my blog to my sweet girl. Miss Harper Maryann who is 29 weeks old today. She's starting solids, making messes, rolling all over kingdom come, won't sit still to save my life and smiles all the time. She's the best thing that's ever happened to me. I love her to the moon and back! 

New York Road Trip Recap: My Daughter Pooped EVERYWHERE

So sorry for the week vacation I took! It was pretty nice and nothing too exciting has happened. I figured I'll let you all know about my New York trip. While it was amazing to see my dad, step mom and step sibs, the trip was BRUTAL. If anyone has ever driven a long road trip with a baby would totally understand. What should have been a 9 hour road trip took us 12 on the way up and 11 on the way back. My sweet Harper decided to serenade my sis and I with lovely screams, tantrums, and adorable noises and poops. It was awesome.  Here's the recap of the road trip:

We left on Wednesday night after work and decided to stop half way to give Harper a break from sitting in the car for too long. My dad called and told us to stop in Columbus, OH because it wouldn't be worth the drive to Ashtabula (a booming metropolis on the Erie, PA border) because he had to work the next day and the weather would be perfect for us. We stopped in Columbus for Harper's first hotel stay. She screamed until midnight, we woke up around 8... didn't leave until 9:30 and this was a view of our drive FROM COLUMBUS TO ROCHESTER

Isn't the sunshine beautiful?

It poured all the way through Ohio, Pennsylvania and all the way up to Buffalo where the weather promptly switched to snow. FYI to all you who plan to travel to NY... the potholes are horrible and rocks will constantly shoot at your windshield. No lie... they come at them like bugs do in the South. It's nuts. From Columbus to Rochester the drive should have lasted 6 hours. It took 9. By the time we got to my dad's, Harper was over the trip and letting us know by screaming and Liza and I were about to flip the ish out. 

Once in the ROC we had an amazing time. Dad got to see Harper and get some time with her while Liza and I saw some of her friends from U of R Nursing School. My step brothers got to meet Harper and my step sister and step mom got to play with her. We went to an amazing wing place called Jeremiah's  (shout out) and another restaurant whose name I have forgotten. But Harper sat in a big girl chair there and rolled around on their sheep's wool benches! We loved it. 

Harper and Grandpa on our last night.

The trip was very much needed but on Saturday night I started to get the feeling of doom. There was a drive back... we had to do it... it would be an all day adventure. F. I should have known this one would be a memorable trip when I somehow over slept an hour and missed our alarm. Then once we got Harper into the car the screaming promptly started 1 HOUR into the 11 HOUR drive. We pulled over checked the necessities and lifted her out of her car seat. She started laughing and smiling. Little A-hole (a term of endearment, I promise) just wanted to get out. I saw where this was going and it wasn't pretty. 

On the upside of this drive, I got my Popeye's for lunch (we don't have them in Lex and it was a big deal) and the weather was amazing. Harper started getting fussy so we pulled over for a coffee break and got her out and snuggled her up. Took this precious picture:

Isn't her Lloyd Christmas cut precious?

and continued on our way. We took this picture outside of Columbus towards Cincinnati. From this point on Harper would wake up, scream, fall back asleep, scream, eat, toot and fall back asleep. It was a routine but we were in the home stretch. I saw the light at the end of road trip hell's tunnel. It was bright. We hit Northern Kentucky and all types of things started to happen. It was snowing, traffic was building up and Harper was getting REALLY unhappy. Once we hit Grant County (45 miles outside of Lexington, 30 minutes left to drive) Harper had a loud toot. Liza started laughing and I just smiled until I heard Liza say "Oh my God, she just had a blow out!" Talk about understatement of the century. My little Asshole wanted to get out of her car seat so bad she literally shit it (I'm sorry but there is no cute way to talk about what she did) There was poop everywhere and the gross gas station I had to pull off at could not accommodate the mess I had. 

See that smug face? That's why she's my Asshole. 

We changed her up to the best of our ability and rushed home to Lexington where I promptly put Hubs on daddy duty for the rest of the night. It was a trip to be remembered.

I don't ever want anyone to think I'm taking my amazing daughter for granted, because I'm not. I would rather have this mess to clean up 459837432498172049 times a day than not have her. But these stories are funny and part of my life so I enjoy sharing them with the humor I chose to look at my life with! 

I should have known what she had in store when she gave 

me this look at the beginning of the road trip. 

I'm in a New York State of Mind

Rochester that is... This is the first road trip Harper and I will be making sans Hubs. Wish me/ us luck. We're going to see my dad, step mom and step sibs in good ol' Rochester, NY. You all... Upstate doesn't even begin to explain it. I'm literally flirting with the Canadian border this weekend. My sis and I will once again be road trip buddies and she'll be my co-pilot/ Harper entertainer while I schlep us up to NY in the Accord. This will be a sight to see. On the upside, I get to see my dad, Harper gets to see her grandparents. I get to escape Lexington for a little and my sis will get to dance to JT in Buffalo Saturday night! 

This is my dad with Harper at Christmas. She is 

very distracted by his loud shirt. 

My sis and Harper. Road Trip buddies.

I think the thing I'm most excited about is the actual trip. One thing you should know about me is that I am a total hotel hoe. I love to sleep at hotels, inns, motels not really but give this girl a night at the Holiday Inn and I will be ridiculously excited. We are stopping half way tomorrow to stay at a hotel and make the 10 hour trip a little easier. I'm also pumped to road trip with Sis because we have a set group of songs we sing together. American Idol season 6000 winners. As exhausting as this trip is going to be, I couldn't be more excited to go. I am horrible about getting up to NY to see my dad as I often opt to go to Maryland to see my family up there any chance I have (post coming up soon about them). Family really is my life. If I could have us all in one place, I would. It's a pain in the ass having everyone spread out!!

Sorry this post was so boring! I can't lie, I did this one for my own selfish purposes more than anything else. I promise to write a good story about me for you all to laugh at. I'll leave you with this Katie Blunder: I thought giraffes were 48 feet tall. Have a great rest of the week. I won't be able to blog until I'm back!

So... How did I get here?

So over the past few months the past 2 years if I'm being completely honest have been pretty crazy for me. So crazy in fact I decided I needed to face the obvious and start writing them down! This first post is to give just a little insight into what this blog will chronicle... my wonderful, crazy, hectic and often times messy life! So let's jump in!!

Almost 2 years ago I married the man of my dreams. We had dated about 8 years before we jumped the broom so there was no surprise that we were getting married. It still remains in my top 5 favorite things. Realistically, it's number 2 just behind having our amazing daughter (but that's jumping the gun just a little, we'll get more to her in a hot sec!)

This is us on our wedding day:

April 14, 2012

We had an amazing wedding with some of our closest friends and family members in attendance. Our fairy tale began and we hopped a plane to Hawaii for our honeymoon and returned back to Lexington where reality hit us... HARD. See I had been substituting at a local school, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and funds were starting to dwindle because of pesky student loan payments. {Guys, education is incredibly important but DO NOT take more money than necessary... you'll be paying off loans until you're 100.} I spent the rest of the summer trying to plunge myself into the real world and landed my current job at a local university. I love my job. I can't say enough great things about the people I work with and my boss. It truly is the best ever.

A few months into my job Hubs and I got the best surprise ever.

That's right people, Baby K was due to arrive

August 2013!

Now I'm not saying I was going to be on an episode of "I Didn't Know I was Pregnant" BUT I was about 2 months in before I found out. To spare you all of a long story, we were completely shocked I was as far along as I was but over the MOON excited. We spent our first year married planning for sweet Baby K (Harper Maryann now that she's born and a girl). It was pretty fantastic. I continued to get bigger and bigger and more and more uncomfortable until August 19th rolled around....

Boo Bear came into our world August 20th right

after 3 am :)

August 20th was easily the best day of my life... like I said earlier :). This little face has completely changed my life for the best. Hubs and I would spend our Friday or Saturday nights out with friends and now opt to hang out with Stinker Bugs and cuddle. You would think with the almost banishment of our social life our world would calm down but it has become just the opposite. Boo Bear, Stinks, Goof and sometimes ButtHead  has rocked our lives. We couldn't be happier but the stories we're creating are too great to not share! Welcome to the blog!!