I'm good at taking care of my things. I don't destroy them, ignore them, rip them, mess them up, break them, smear crap on them, or just leave it to luck it won't malfunction somehow if I don't maintain it.

I learned very early on money does not grow on trees and that your parents won't always be able to pull whatever you want/broke out of a hat. I learned very early on that living in/caring for the house was a family responsibility and NOT something you had to do only when it occurred to you to do it. I learned early on that if you knowingly neglect to care for your home and the contents within (including family members), and it results in breaking/malfunctioning, it will not be replaced.

However, in MY experience as matriarch of THIS household, here are the following things I've learned:

I learned that 5 seconds of cleaning out the lint trap in the dryer will prevent the dryer from eventually breaking down, taking longer to dry clothes, expending more energy (e.g. higher bills) or worst case scenario, burning down the frickin' house and killing everyone within the house.

I learned that if you continue to load the dishwasher with wads of food and coffee grounds still in/on the dishes, the dish washer WILL break and your spouse will have to increase her credit debt and buy a new dish washer to fix YOUR mistake.

I learned that crumbs strewn all around the toaster (or all over every available space on the kitchen counter) are in fact NOT visible to the naked eye for some odd reason and therefore, does not need to be removed.

I learned it's okay to clean/clear things around the house half-way even though you have two very young kids in that house who get into and touch EVERYTHING.

I learned that asking for something to be done is not enough. Demanding/ordering for something to be done isn't enough either when asking doesn't work. And when the demanding/ordering fails to give you results, and you have to resort to screaming/yelling and threatening, that IT is also not enough b/c you've only done it about 523 times.

Maybe the 524th time will be the charm - but who knows. Apparently, I have a great deal of lessons still to learn.

I have a prediction....I think the next lesson I learn will be "Laziness - why mine is more important than your well being".

Progress Report

I have not blogged in many weeks...or is it months? I'm not sure where time goes.

Anyway, the last time I blogged, I was consumed with bad news from my doctor during my annual visit. Here's an update....

I've been working out since late March. I've been waking up at 5am on the days I go into the office as we have a fitness center in the lower level. I started out walking, then I tried the stationary bike and fell in love with the good sweat it worked up for me. Then I decided to mix things up with cycling for 45 minutes, then fast walking on an incline for 30 minutes. Now I'm cycling to warm up for 15 minutes, then getting into a medium paced jog for 2-3 miles on the treadmill.

I mixed it up with a bit of yoga to break the cardio boredom after a few weeks.

On some days I worked out twice a day. It proved to be awesome when it came to shedding pounds, but I felt very tired at the end of the day. I learned I need to eat small frequent meals during the 2 workout session days.

Weight wise, I've lost about 12 pounds. My clothes fit comfortably now and are not too tight. I'm happy to say I can get into shorts I wore before getting pregnant with Ben 2 summers ago.

Energy level has soared compared to where it used to be for me. I go on walks with the kids whenever I can. I move faster around the house when doing chores. I jogged a mile around my neighborhood a few weeks ago which always took me forever to do, but this time, I was able to warm up, jog the mile and cool down within 25 minutes (I warm up for a long time cause jogging/running just isn't second nature to me right off the bat).

Nutrition - I discovered the following salad: tomato, cucumber, basil, red onion, a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and a bit of kosher salt with fresh mozz. cheese! Yummy! Add grilled chicken and you've got a complete meal! The basil adds so much flavor. This is a good alternative to the regular green leafy boring salads and avoiding tons of calorie filled salad dressing.

I can also have the 'sometimes' food now without too harsh a consequence. My metabolism has kicked in (I couldn't believe I actually had one).

The one thing left to do is my pulmonary test which I scheduled, then completely forgot about this past Sunday. I need to schedule that in again before the Florida trip so that I can have my results. I'll be taking my workout stuff on the trip so I can continue my progress and see where I end up. I'd like to get to a 10 minute mile...nothing too lofty or out there.