So The Mister is bringing home dinner tonight.  In choosing what to add as my order I thought long and hard about ordering the Cheeseburger with fries.  I love a good cheeseburger.  But, one does not lose weight by eating burgers.  So I ordered the seared Tilapia with steamed vegetables.  Yeah me.  One good choice down.

Now to work out tonight and tomorrow night and the night after that and the night after that.  Basically I work out Monday-Friday.  If I miss one of the weekdays then I work out on a weekend.  What an incentive…..no working out on the weekend.  Plus this weekend is Little Miss’ Baptism.  We will be so incredibly busy working out won’t even cross my mind.

I have other incentives too….let me collect my thoughts and I will get back to you on those.

Until then, 4 pounds down since my workouts started and am trying to get at least another 4 down (but think I can do more) before my nephew’s Baptism when the unmentionable part of our family will be in attendance.

The daily workout has done little for my waistline, but it has only been a week.  Like everything, it will take time.  I just feel so good about actually taking action in working toward making myself a healthier woman/mom/person.  What it has done is make me sore.  By thighs, my arms, my back.  But all that means is that my working out is actually working out my body.  It is a wonderful thing.

Also, my daughter is sore.  She has her first bout of diaper rash.  Thank goodness for Boudreaux’s.  The poor thing just howls getting her diaper changed.  It makes her cry, which makes me cry.  We are just a crying mess over here.  Both of us sore.  Sore muscles and one sore butt.

As I sit here with the laptop where it’s name suggests, and a cuddle frog sleeping on my shoulder, I thought I would take the opportunity to tell the blogosphere something.  I have a 3 month old daughter.  Well, almost three months old.  She is 11 weeks and 4 days old today.  She makes me smile.  A lot.

In the past three months I have learned many things.  Here are a few of them.  I would love to hear your thoughts on them.

1)  Formula feeding your baby in a breast feeding society is perfectly fine.  What it comes down to it that he/she is your baby……everything else, unless it comes from your pediatrician, is just an opinion.

2)  Black may have been the go to color for a quick and easy outfit before.  My best friend in the color wheel, if you will.  Where it hid imperfections in my body nicely, now black has revolted and now shows spit up, dry scalp flakes, drool, the fuzz that I don’t have time to lint brush off.  So I deal with it because……it still hides imperfections.

3)  You can, indeed, function with an hour of sleep.  Not well, nor very effectively, but you can do it.  Although the little one has been sleeping through the night since early May so we are pretty rested.

4)  My home will never be clean again…..not that it was perfect before…..but now it is just in different stages of cluttered.

5) I love this little girl more than I ever thought possible.

There are so many things I have wanted to blog about and now I have forgotten all of them.  She is perfect.  She sleeps through the night.  She eats.  She burps.  She has diapers changed.

Next Saturday is her Baptism.  It will be perfect.  Why?  Because that is what my little girl deserves.  Only the best that we can give her.

This isn’t the perfect, or even informative post, but at least you know I am still breathing.

I am still here.  And I feel horrible about not updating, but I will.  I promise.

What I can say now is that I get it.  I get it.  I get being a mom as the best job in the world.  I get that you get used to things you never thought you would.  Surviving on minimal sleep is alright.  A smile makes you tear up.  A tear makes you sad.  And a giggle makes you giggle yourself.

I love seeing my parents as grandparents.  I love seeing my daughter each day.  I stand over her cradle in awe that she is mine.  I carried her.  I gave birth to her.  I get to love her for the rest of my life.  Even when she wants to be as far away from me as possible.

I get it.  And I love it.

I am here….I swear.  With returning to work and getting a schedule going with the girl and the Mister things are a bit hectic.  I have penciled in some time this weekend to update everyone on what has been going on and to throw some pictures in for good measure.  So if you can be patient with me for just a few more days…..

Now if you grew up in the 1980s, like myself, then the phrase “Moving on Up” should conjure up the theme song for The Jeffersons. If not, that is okay.  You can’t help it if you weren’t plopped down in front of the television like the rest of us.  You might have been outside….getting some of that fresh air that I hear so much about.

Well, in this post, I am referring to my laptop.  This nice, new, lovely piece of hardware has been living on our coffee table since it was purchased.  This was out of ease.  And laziness.  We spend the majority of our time downstairs and it was nice to check my auctions, surf, and be able to look up that guy from that show that we saw one time.  Well, all of that changed on March 20th.

You see, that was the day that our daughter graced us with her presence.  Ever since then….it isn’t about us anymore.  It is all about her and what she needs, wants, desires, and looks adorable wearing and doing.  So today, I packed up my laptop and moved it to its rightful home in my study…..upstairs. Please understand that this was no small feat.  It required the cleaning, organizing, and setting up of said study.

When I go back to work I am not going to be sucked in to the computer once I get home.  I will be sucked up by her and how much she has changed in the 9 hours since I saw her last.  The small amount of time that I will have to spend with her before it is bed time.  The even smaller amount of time I will have to spend with The Mister and my daughter before it is bed time.  These hours are not to be squandered on the internet.

These hours are for walking, talking, giggling, smiling, playing, enjoying.  Not online shopping and checking statuses.

So, in the days/weeks/months/years to come.  If you email me and do not receive an immediate response, it is for no other reason than I am spending time with my family.  And trust me…..I will be enjoying every single minute of it.

Most blogs out there, or facebook statuses, etc. are saying something about Mother’s Day.  There is no reason for this blog to be any different.  Today was like every other day, and like no other day all at the same time.  I still made coffee, drank said coffee, fixed food, cleaned, chatted with my parents, had a glass of wine, etc.  The difference is that today is my first Mother’s Day.  I have a 7 week old beautiful daughter.

I did all those things above, but in between I talked to my daughter, changed diapers, chatted with my parents….who are now grandparents…..smiled at my parents loving on my daughter and basically enjoyed life.  In the week leading up to Mother’s Day I had the same forwarded “You are an Awesome Mom!” emails that everyone did.  I saw the facebook statuses wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day.  I saw the snipettes on CNN of people overseas wishing their mom’s a Happy Mother’s Day and a, “…wish I was there…” comments.  I saw all these last year too.  This year I can say that I get it.  I get it!

Being a mom is great stuff!  It’s hard….make no mistake….but it is easy too.  The yelling of a child that used to send my hair curling when it was someone else’s kid is not near as offensive when it is my daughter.  Not pleasant either, but my hair is still straight.  Learning to function without sleep came quickly.  Completing day to day activites with one hand and half paying attention is like second nature now.  There isn’t much that isn’t fixed by looking at her.  She is perfect in every way. I love her so much I tear up on a regular basis.  My life was complete before….I thought.  Now it is pretty darn close to perfet.

So, Happy Mother’s Day to all of you.

For the past 9 years, almost to the day, I have been paying off my horrible, no good, very bad student loans.  Now they did allow me to earn a Masters of Science in Social Work, and at the same time be the bane of my existence.  Especially since I did not become a Marriage and Family Therapist for families with Autistic children.

My gracious parents paid for me to go to a perfect college in Louisiana.  A small, private, liberal arts college to be exact.  Did you catch that “private” part?  Yeah….that means that I ran through my college fund VERY quickly and left none for Graduate school.  Thus I applied for student loans. Well, no more!  You see, I made my VERY last payment on my student loans today.  Well, actually two days ago, but the paymen went through today.  Never again will I have to send a payment to ACS.  Never again will I have to hit the “submit payment” button on their website.  I have officially bought and paid for my Graduate degree. Glory Be!

Now, way back when I said that I was going to throw myself a party when I completed my student loans.  Since that money is promptly going to daycare, a party doesn’t look to be on the horizon.  Not until the credit cards are paid….which is slowly, but surely, happening.  Until then I will relish in the knowledge that I can look at my diploma and know that it is mine…..free and clear.

If you have ever found yourself:

A) Looking for a new blog to read

B) Wondering if your life could get any worse

C) Thinking your luck is the worst

Then I invite you to read my friend Emily’s Blog.

I met Emily when I was in Graduate school and she was in law school with a college friend.  She is hysterical, and I mean this in the best loving way possible, her life is a vertible comedy of errors. Stop on over and say hello!

Love you, Emily!