Nothing stronger than a stubborn old man!

Great news on my Grandpa. They took him off life support and he decided he wanted to prove modern medicine and his doctors wrong. He woke up and said he was hungry. His sepsis is completely gone and he is going to be released from ICU soon. It just shows that we may be in a bit more control than we think. My Grandpa said he wasn't ready to die, and that's good, because I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye to him just yet.

Saying goodbye to grandpa

I went to Boston yesterday to say goodbye to my grandpa. He was put on life support and not expected to make it through the weekend. My uncle called to say that he went from totally conscious believing the pneumonia he had battled for the last year had finally cleared, to quickly deteriorating in two hours. Finally in a coma. My family began making travel arrangements to say our final goodbyes, those of us from out of town hoping that somehow he could hear us, understand us and know that we were here to help him make the journey. My uncle was over in Afghanistan; once he arrives the decision will be made on whether or not to continue the support. As I said my goodbyes I couldn’t help but feel regret, all of the weekends I could have visited but didn’t, all of the phone calls I could have made but chose not to, a simple email how hard could that be? We write a hundred emails for work, what does it take to write one, even just three special words I love you, or I miss you. I know my grandpa wouldn’t want my memory of him to be filled with regret, so instead I will remember him fondly, all of the good times I had with him, the visits I did make. I am happy that he is finally in heaven with my grandma, watching over my girls for me. I will miss him dearly but I know he knows that. Grandpa I love you XO.

Blogging from Delta flight 6560

I often find myself wondering while traveling, especially on planes, is this how you act all of the time or do you just become supremely annoying while on vacation? It seems as if there is only a small population of Americans who understand and abide by proper travel etiquette. This behavior, or lack thereof, I find is most evident in airports and while on planes. It all begins in the security line. There are some people who can handle the pressure of this event and some who fail miserably. I never understood the difficulty in it, but a large majority will fumble awkwardly with their belongings while simultaneously trying to remove their shoes forgetting of course to remove their liquids and gels from their oversized, overstuffed carry on. I guess it just takes practice and proper packing both of which I have down, if the security line were an Olympic event, I’d be a gold medalist.


Next in the airport adventure is the gate. When I am patiently waiting at my gate it may look to the untrained eye like I am engrossed in my book and/or magazine, but I am not. I am carefully scanning my fellow passengers identifying who I believe to the best and worst seat mates. Who make the best seat mates? Business travelers and teenagers these two demographics are both apt to demonstrate impeccable in-flight etiquette. For example they generally have some sort of activity to occupy themselves with and they stay out of my personal bubble (and they expect the same courtesy from me). Now sometimes you will get tricked (which is what happened to me right as I type these words). I am on a flight from Boston to Atlanta (where I will catch my connection to Mississippi). I am in seat 11C, one row behind first class and an aisle. A good amount of time and effort with the gate agent went into this carefully selected seat and it is a good one (not an easy fete on a completely full flight). Well I thought I was in seat mate heaven, a business guy on the window a young guy watching his movie in the center. I was mistaken, center seat guy has spent the entire flight hysterically laughing at some unrecognizable movie, every time resulting in the entire row of seats shaking, beyond annoying. Even more annoying than the stinky food guy I sat next to on my flight up here. Now there is some mid-air excitement as the guy in front of me is receiving oxygen from the flight attendant. Time to put the computer away and inconspicuously eavesdrop. Happy travels!

I own fat, I make fat work.

As you all know my post-baby weight loss plan includes mentally willing the weight away and eating whatever the eff I feel like.  As you might guess, this method isn't exactly working, at least not with record breaking speed.  When I had Lyric five years ago I was a fabulous size two (ok fine, size four), I gained 20ish pounds during my pregnancy and was back to fighting weight four weeks after popping her out.  What did I do you ask.  Absolutely nothing.  I was younger and apparently back then my metabolism was my friend.  Well flash forward five years, my metabolism has flipped on me, it is now my foe.  Pre-Brae I was size four (FINE size six), I gained 30 pounds and six weeks later am not even close to my fighting weight.  Granted, I didn't go into this at an ideal weight, but I'm not even at my acceptable fat weight!  I went back to work last week and since a naked first impression wasn't the impression I was going for, I needed an entire new wardrobe.  I had to swallow my pride, suck it up and buy the size 10 pants (and a few 8s) *sad face*.  I drowned my sorrows by treating myself to two weekends of retail therapy and since I felt so terribly for myself, I really spoiled myself, because I can and because I deserve it!  I love my new fat girl wardrobe and it will now be my new excuse to avoid the gym.  If I lose the weight, I won't fit into my new clothes; we can't have that now can we ;).

Mmm feta

What you need: three fairly thick chicken breasts, 6 oz. of tomato basil feta cheese, butter, seasoned bread crumbs.


Pre-heat the oven for 350
Cut the chicken in half (but not all the way, you want to create a "pouch")
Lightly grease a 9X13 glass cooking dish
Fill the middle of the chicken breasts with feta cheese and smoosh down and place in cooking dish
Brush the chicken with the butter and cover with bread crumbs, then lightly spray with cooking spray
Bake at 350 for 35 - 45 minutes

I served this with pasta salad and a regular salad (lettuce, feta cheese crumbles and croutons).

How it was received:
Stefan made a happy plate and loved it. I thought it was really good. I think the next time I make it, I'm going to try to stuff the chicken with regular feta and add some salt and pepper. Lyric wasn't thrilled, but unless its ramen noodles or spaghetti she rarely is. She refused to even try the chicken and had a MAJOR melt down when we wouldn't let her have dessert. This morning on the way to school she asked me why I didn't feed her dinner last night, so I'm sure she is going to tell everyone who will listen how deprived she is and how we starve her. I kindly reminded her that I did feed her dinner but she chose to only eat the pasta salad and refused the rest, but I'm sure it fell on deaf ears. Tonight on the menu: meat loaf, roasted potatoes (my mom's recipe which NEVER taste as good as mom's) and bread.

SAHM no more

I'm headed back into the workforce next week!!  I've accepted a position as Director of Marketing at MRIS.  I couldn't be more excited about the work I will be doing, the company, and my new co-workers.  I spent my last four months at AOL taking a deep, hard look at the position I had ended up in, the new management team and their strategies/work style and whether I was still happy and excited to come to work each day. I came to the conclusion that it was time to explore other opportunities after Braelynn was born.  Well, we all know how that ended up, a month before my due date I was put on the list!  I have always been a firm believer of everything happens for a reason, and once again I have proven myself correct. 

Now what this means for the girls and I over the next week is this: pure chaos!  I was thinking that I still had 2-3 weeks to get all of my loose ends wrapped up.  I really didn't expect to have an offer and start date so quickly.  Now we have one week to accomplish the following: get Lyric registered for her new school, find Braelynn daycare (Lyric's school doesn't take infants), change my name, go to DMV get new license, get Brae's hip ultrasound, go to my 6 week doc check up, buy all new wardrobe because I still am not fitting into pre-prego clothes, and I'm sure I'm leaving off about a million other things!  But I'm a total workaholic and beyond ready to get out of this house and get started on building out my strategy and plan for the new position!

Hooked on funics

It would seem I go to McDonalds a lot seeing as how it is the scene of crime for many of my blog posts. Since my weight loss plan is to mentally will the weight away, I think I may need to re-evaluate my food choices. Or not.


On to the subject of my blog. While visiting the McDonalds drive through this weekend I witnessed, first hand, a sad mutilation of our fine language in the form of a sign. If the picture is hard to see, here is what it says "Nex window please tanks" *sigh*

Baby updates: Sleepless nights and a doc apt.

Brae had her two week check up (well I slacked a little and she was actually four weeks old) but we eventually made it to the ped's office and everything checked out just fine.  She now weighs a whopping 6 lbs 13 oz and is 20 inches long.  When Lyric was born she was 6 lbs 15 oz and 19 1/4 inches long.  Which is interesting since Brae technically was due right around now.  When I have another baby I'm having a contest to guess the weight and length I am fairly certain, unless other participants read this, I have it in the bag!  We are getting there as far as sleep is concerned, on good nights I get about a four hour stretch.  I certainly am not going to complain about four hours,  I know what two/three hours feels like, and its not pretty!  Nights right now are still kind of a blur though, I often find myself falling asleep in the middle of feedings waking up to Braelynn on the bed next to me with the nipple poking her in the eye or half the bottle pouring out all over the bed.  But we are troopers and we are powering through it!