Read. Write. Mom!

hungry hungry hippos= winning!

Posted on March 13, 2012January 10, 2016 by Mandy

Well, it’s day 2 of Spring Break and so far all I have accomplished is cleaning out a bookshelf in the living room, cleaning out the bathroom drawers and cabinets (which I am very proud of, by the way), and whooping my 7 year old son at Hungry Hungry Hippos. I know. I should be totally ashamed for not purposely losing each game we played, and yes, there were many tears and angry accusations of me being a “cheater”, but I am the Hungry Hungry Hippos Spring Break Champion. Boo-yah!

The time change has not helped matters at all. We’ve been staying up late (because, really, an hour was stolen from us) and sleeping in, which will be quite interesting to figure out when 4:30 A.M. comes calling on Monday morning.

Clyde helped me sit down and pay some bills. Clearly, he was a *huge* help.

Going…..

Going….

Gone.

My dad took the training wheels off of E.B.’s bike today and thoroughly ticked my son off.

He was NOT happy. We finally convinced him to get on and give it a try, so Daddy took him down the street. All I could hear was screams of, “DO NOT LET GO!!! DON’T LET IT GO!!!!!!!”. Naturally, this will require more practice. And screaming. But we have the rest of the week!

And, sit down, but I took the back vent cover thingy off of my hairdryer and cleaned all the trapped lint out of it!

Have you ever looked into the back of your hairdryer? Eww. I’m pretty sure that cleaning alone shaved two minutes off of my drying time.

Clearly, we are off to the start of a wild and crazy week around here.

Use It Up And Wear It Out

Posted on March 11, 2012January 4, 2021 by Mandy

I’m about to show you my tennis shoes. But first, let me tell you about these shoes. I’ve had them for three years. Yes, I said three. I wear flats to work in and these shoes are pretty much only worn around the house and to do the grocery shopping. I paid $29.99 for them and, although they aren’t the latest style or anything, they aren’t completely unfortunate looking. I can’t promise I haven’t been patting myself on the back for how frugal I am for hanging onto them for so long. You know, the whole “use it up and wear it out” thing.

But then this started happening:

The plastic in the heel started wearing through, and yet, I still wore them. They weren’t digging into my skin, so I figured they were still good. Isn’t that hideous?

A couple of weeks ago I ordered E.B. a new pair of tennis shoes and figured I would poke around the website and check out the Fila brand for women. I used to be a die-hard Fila tennis shoe freak. They were so comfortable and stylish back in the day. However, a few years after I got married, it seemed like their designs changed drastically and they were just flat out ugly. It made me sad, so I switched to New Balance.

Well, lo and behold, Fila has finally impressed me again, and now I’m the proud new owner of these:

Can I just tell you how amazing my new shoes feel? I don’t know why I waited so long.

This shoe immediately relieved so much joint pressure in my hips and knees that my legs almost felt like Jell-O because suddenly they were so cushioned. My back feels so much better. I feel like a brand new woman. Almost. And maybe any old brand of tennis shoe would have done this, but all of this rambling and gushing over new shoes is just to say that I can finally understand why people invest in good shoes, and often. When I was younger (and free from Rheumatoid Arthritis and possibly Lupus), it was all about style. Now, it’s all about comfort. I will never try to wear another pair of tennis shoes to the ground again. I’m also checking out new dress shoes for work. Standing up on flats all day is not helping matters, either.

Do you have a comfortable pair of shoes you just love? Tell me about them!

***I purchased these shoes myself and I am not being compensated in any way to write about them. Just showing off my new kicks, that’s all, and shouting from the rooftops that I feel SO much better.

Spring Break

Posted on March 10, 2012January 10, 2016 by Mandy

Today officially marks Day 1 of Spring Break for me. I haven’t had a Spring Break since 2006, so I’m really excited about 9 whole days of doing nothing. Well, I’ll definitely be doing things, but Spring Break just isn’t quite the same since growing up.

When I was a teen, Spring Breaks were spent watching MTV’s Spring Break on television. Remember when they actually played videos but you looked forward to the Spring Break coverage because it was “special”? I laugh thinking about that now. The bands were way cooler back then, the girls in their bikinis actually had some meat on their bones, and it was just fun-looking. When I was in my early twenties, my girlfriends and I had a couple of not-so-wild Spring Break trips to Florida and the Mississippi Gulf Coast and I thought we would shop until we dropped. We were big power-shoppers back then. We also dined on seafood and hit the beach. Good, clean fun.

Flash forward almost twenty years and my 37-year old Spring Break will be spent hanging out with E.B., tackling some organizing projects around our apartment, reading, blogging, and spending time with family. At my age, this sounds perfect to my tired body. Back then? I would have thought this would be a complete snore.