In the beginning, there was sex. And it was good. And there was more sex. And it too was good… – Charlie at HowtobeaDad.com

That’s sort of how it was. The sex was good and the frequency was like rabbits in the Spring. Then I got pregnant with Ethan and there was this weird ‘You can’t get pregnant now, because you’re already pregnant’ condom-less hump-fest. It wasn’t even like having our first baby really put a damper on things because we tried having sex less than a week after vaginal delivery. Very. Very. Slow. Sex. followed by lots of dry humping and more slow sex  until things were healed up.

The good sex lasted even through Dylan’s pregnancy. Then somewhere between Tyler and Kristen, I developed a bit of post-partum depression, lost my ever loving mind and maintained over 100 lbs of weight gain from 4 pregnancies in the span of about 5 and a half years. I’m pretty sure my hormones are still trying to balance themselves out and my youngest daughter turned 4 in January.

Over the past 10 months, I’ve really been working hard on getting back into shape and getting healthy. I’ve lost 32 lbs and been eating (mostly) better foods. There have been some days where I was insatiable, but most days I just don’t have any interest in sex. It’s nothing Chad is or isn’t doing. He’s been awesome. He helps keep the house picked up  and deals with the kids on his days off. He would help more on days he worked, if he was home at all, but working 14 hours and the 2 hour commute keep him pretty busy.

Right now, my periods are starting to go all wonky again. I’m pretty certain the lack of interest is purely hormonal. I can’t even seem to psych myself out for sex no matter how hard I try. Here I am, with a ton of sex toy reviews that I am severely behind on. I can’t review them until I’ve actually tried them, but I can’t muster up the want to for plain old sex, let alone anything that involves getting out a toy.

The kids are out of school for the summer. Hooray. The few times I have been horny, it’s been the middle of the afternoon. Chad’s at work, and until sometime in the last week or two, he was working 5-6 days a week for various craziness going on at his job. Retail holidays, inventory, covering vacations, taking a 7 week management course, getting nominated to spearhead a new program and travel to various stores to help them execute and even traveling for a job promotion (that he apparently did not get, yet has not been notified one way or another about.)

He’s been busy, to say the least. But so have I.

I’ve been exercising (though not this week), getting college stuff sorted out, dealing with school related stuff for the kids, dealing with insurance claims for a dog bite, budgeting and paying bills, and sorting out a vacation trip for my birthday this weekend.

On top of all of this, we haven’t actually had a date in a while. It’s been two or three months. Our last date actually involved taking my father-in-law out to a sushi bar because my mother-in-law was in the hospital for about a week and he looked like he needed the break. We did go shopping afterwards, but we didn’t get to spend alone time together. Before that, we took the kids to the sushi bar because we didn’t have a babysitter. It’s really wearing on us and I can definitely feel the disconnect.

Saturday we are traveling to the coast and enjoying a day on the beach with the kids. While my parents take the kids back to their house, Chad and I are going to go check-in to a hotel for the evening. Hopefully there will be some pre-date shower sex or bed sex or some kind of sex. I’ll then put on a new sundress and panties (that I will buy when I go shopping with my sister tomorrow) and go on a double date with my sister and her boyfriend. I will get tipsy, stroll down River Street in Savannah, GA and spend the evening enjoying our time away from the kids. When we’re done strolling, we will head back to the hotel where Chad will get me sloppy drunk and we can get in some more sex (Hopefully. If I don’t pass out after two drinks.) We will enjoy the free breakfast at the hotel, if Chad doesn’t drag us all to IHOP, and then head back to my parents for lunch before we come home.

It’s going to be a fun, relaxing weekend and I am looking forward to it so much. Hopefully I find my sex drive down by the river. For now, I’m going to see if doing some Turbo Fire will make me stop feeling like crap.

This week has been great! Monday morning started off with a series of errands, most of which were to get me ready to start college in the Fall. I went by the local Health Department to get my immunization records. I had to get a new DTaP shot and my shoulder soreness is finally easing off from that. After that I went by the post office to send out my tax information and the immunization form to the college. I also sent off a written request for my high school transcripts to be mailed to the college. I’ve done everything I need to, at this point. Now I just wait for all of the proper forms to arrive and the decision.

I had to go pick up a copy of my daughter’s birth certificate (btw, why the hell does it cost $25 to get a copy of that now?!) so that she could be enrolled in pre-k. Upon arriving at the pre-k to fill out the registration forms, I notice a sign on the door that says teacher requests won’t be done this year because of budget cuts. The teachers are having to apply at the elementary schools and they are unsure how many teachers and which of them will be around next year. It’s a first-come, first- serve program, so I hope she gets in. If she doesn’t, I will have to postpone college for another year. Unless I can get her into Head Start.

I had to get various items for the kids’ classes for their Easter celebrations. I spent Monday afternoon stuffing candy into plastic eggs.

Our budget is coming along great. There were a few unexpected things that came up this time. Like the things that needed to be paid for, for college. I lucked out at the Health Department because they were still sorting out a contract with my insurance company. My shot was going to cost me $50 out of pocket since they didn’t take my insurance until one of the women in the back told them that it qualified me for the uninsured/underinsured price of $14. Phew. Other than that, most things are right on track.

I did find out, Thursday afternoon, that my (step) sister is prediabetic. She’s only 19 and it was kind of scary. I’ve been telling her for over a year that she needed to get to a doctor and that she needed to take care of herself. She works in a gas station and her boss refused to allow her lunch breaks, so she would often come in without eating and work an 8+ hour shift. The choice of food in convenience stores is not very healthy, so she’d grab a pastry or something to tide her over until she finished the day up with a huge fast food meal because she was starving. Recently she began shaking, a lot. When I asked about her eating habits, it was always that she hadn’t eaten yet. I told her it was her blood sugar dropping. Now that a doctor has confirmed this, she’s on a medication to try to help balance it all out and a new diet that’s low in sugars and high in fiber. She’s gotten a doctor’s note saying she has to have a lunch break and eat every 4-5 hours to keep her blood sugar balanced. Hopefully her boss will stop being a douche bag.

There was a nice bonus with her doctor’s orders. She was told she needed to come over to my house and take walks with me and exercise every 3 days, if not more. I’ve been trying to get her to exercise with me for a while. I got a chance to let her do Turbo Fire with me yesterday and she wound up loving it. I hope she wants to do it more. It’s a lot of fun to exercise with someone.

Speaking of Turbo Fire — I’ve finally broken my weight loss plateau! I stepped on the scale yesterday and was 242 lbs! I’ve been hovering between 243-247 for 3 months, which put me at a 21-25 lb loss. I’m so happy to finally be making progress with weight loss again. There have been incredible changes in my body, including my strength, muscle tone and measurements. I know there’s more to health besides weight, but to be honest, it’s freaking hard to do exercises with 100 excess pounds on your body. It’s hard to hold a plank position, do push-ups, bend into some stretches and what not when you’ve got more fat in certain places. I have built up incredible endurance and stamina, but I’d like to be able to stretch and bend and do more yoga poses.

I’m getting ready to have a delicious breakfast and spend my Saturday reading Name of the Wind. I hope everyone else enjoys their weekend!

How Beautiful

I never really had a desire to travel until the past few years. I guess I was too caught up in motherhood. Taking our trip to Asheville last year inspired me and showed me how fun it is to go different places and experience new things. I’ve added several places I’d love to visit to my list. Hawaii, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Japan, Ireland, England, France and Italy are all on there. I imagine Tuscany would be one of my favorite places. It just looks like the sort of place I’d enjoy.

Titanic the Experience!

We had a wonderful time in Orlando. We didn’t arrive until around 8 or 9 on Monday. We ate at TGIFridays for dinner. Tuesday we went to the Titanic Experience, the Ripley’s museum and enjoyed dinner at Kobe. Wednesday we took it easy. We spent the afternoon on Daytona Beach, just walking in the surf and enjoying each other’s company. We stopped at the Melting Pot on our way back, because so many friends had recommended it. Then we found out that we had to cook our own food for $100 and walked out.

Daytona Beach

Lots of friends told us it was really romantic and gave us time to talk. Maybe I’m getting old, but I can cook at home. I do cook at home. If I wanted to cook, I’d have stayed home. The entire point of going out to eat was to have someone else cook for me, serve me my food and clean up after me.

We wound up eating at Bonefish Grill and were very pleased with this decision, despite the long wait outside in the chilly air.

Thursday was Universal Studios. We had breakfast at IHOP (ohmygod stuffed French toast) and then headed over. I wore my Slytherin shirt and the bag checker (who was English) commented that it was the best school and that he was from England. We booked it all the way through the park to Harry Potter World. Several employees high-fived me and commented on how awesome it was to see a Slytherin shirt and tie. It was kind of neat. We spent so much money on food, gifts and such that they froze Chad’s atm card for security reasons. Eek. Fortunately I had mine on me and we were able to finish up the trip by enjoying a meal at Emeril’s. It was delicious.

Waiting in line for Hogwarts.

Friday we packed up the car and headed back to Georgia. It was kind of sad. I was excited to get home to the kids, but I really had fun. We’re planning on taking the kids in a year or two and we’re glad we went to kind of see what it was like, so we can better prepare for when we take all the kids.

Chad’s vacation is over and he’s gone back to work today, so it’s just me and Kristen at home. Things are back to normal. It feels calm and I like it. I’ll write more and get some posts scheduled for later this week. Since Chad is back on 3s, I’m going to make the effort to not spend time online so much while he’s home.

Enjoy your Tuesday, everyone!

Enjoying a Butterbeer!

Ahem...

I have a few artists that I listen to faithfully. Usher, Coldplay, and Beyonce are some of my favorites. But this man? He’s beautiful and so is his music. I know he gets called a douche bag and people get all whiny about P.C. crap, but I don’t get my panties in a bunch and refuse to listen to someone’s music unless they start beating the shit out of women (e.g. Chris Brown) or something that’s actually worth being pissed about.

John Mayer just has a voice that makes me swoon. His songs, as a friend once put it, could make a girl who fell all the way down the ugly tree, hitting every stick, twice, feel beautiful. I’m not sure what it is, but I love it.

*So yeah, he has a lot of the same features Chad has. I like my men Chabo style. Dark hair, dark eyes, scruffy facial hair, and a playful little smirk.

Yuck!

I am not a fan of bananas. I haven’t ever really been. The only time I ate them was when I was pregnant with Ethan. I ate them to help alleviate muscle cramps and sleep and they actually tasted good during that time. Before that, I rarely ate them. I could stomach them if they were mixed up with some strawberries in syrup or on pancakes, or in some good ole’ fashioned naner puddin. Now? I’m back to that tolerance. If something has a heavy banana flavor it makes me gag. The texture on top of the flavor is what does me in every time.

Sisters

This is a picture of Kim and I. We’re actually step-sisters, but for some reason people get us confused and ask if we’re twins. She’s 19. I’m 27. We’ve got completely different parents. So, no. She is my partner in crime, though. We act crazy, rant about everything to each other, go into too much detail about each other’s sex lives and laugh at things that we’ll go to hell for. I love her dearly.

Thought you might want an example.

Silly Face

This is a picture that I took about a year ago of my daughter. Yes, that’s masking tape around her arms. She and her brothers thought it was funny to tape each other up like this and I happened to snap this photo of her as she was explaining what her brothers did to her. She’s quite the expressive child and makes faces like this all the time. What a silly little girl.

Simple and beautiful

My wedding band rarely comes off. I take it off when I exercise. I learned the hard way, during my years in flag corps, that rings get warped and stuck on your finger when you do certain things with them on. Using weights is one of them. I also take it off when I am mixing raw meat or particularly sticky ingredients. I feel naked with out it. Especially if I slip up and leave it on the dresser when I leave the house. I get lots of compliments on it and it makes me happy.

When Chad and I were first married, I had a different wrap. It had some more delicate stones and settings. Two of the stones came loose and I was very upset. I do too much housework to worry about the delicate settings bending again, so I upgraded to this one about six months after we were married and haven’t had any trouble with it. The photo behind my hand is one of my favorite, and one of the few that turned out well, from our wedding. On the corner of the frame is my garter that my grandmother made me, that I will give to my daughter to wear if and when she ever gets married. It’s also kind of a goal, to be able to fit my thigh into the garter again.

Happy Wednesday, everyone.

Chabo

Okay, so it’s cheesy. I asked Chad who he would trade places with for a day because I couldn’t think of anyone I really wanted to swap with. I like my life and there aren’t many things I wish I could experience through someone else’s eyes. He said he would swap with me. For two reasons.

1. Because he would want to trade with someone he could trust with his body and that’s obviously me.

and

2. Because he would want to experience sex from my perspective. He says he would literally spend his entire day masturbating.

So, I guess I would swap with him so we could share those experiences. We’d probably just stay in bed having sex all day long. It would be kind of awesome.

Also, coincidentally, I’ve got the perfect Usher song to go with that.