Creepy Crawlies

One thing I've always been squeamish about is spiders. I hate them. They freak me out. It used to be that I'd never ever come close to touching one no matter what. Of course I grew up and realized I had to be more mature about it and would kill them if I found them...the little ones anyway. The big ones...forget about it. I'd rather leave my house and all my posessions behind. As any respectable spider hater I am especially freaked out about the idea of black widow spiders. Until today I'd only ever heard about them and seen pictures. But now my life is changed.

R came running to me saying there was a spider in their outdoor toy box and I had to go look at it. I really didn't want to go look at it. I was about to just tell him to ignore it and stay out of the box...but at the last second I decided I'd humor him and check it out.

And there is was. A big, black spider. Ewwww, just kill me now, how the heck am I going to kill THAT?!?! But then I noticed something, and I looked closer...oh crap, seriously kill me because that thing is no ordinary spider, there's a freaking red hourglass shape on it!

Of course I can hide my freaking out even though I really want to run far, far away...but R is now freaking out (what the heck do they teach kids about spiders in 1st grade anyway???) and there's just no getting around it, we have to do *something* about it.

I immediately decide the best course of action is to call my husband and tell him he needs to come home NOW to kill the damn thing.

Thankfully he misunderstood me and thought it was in the house, because he DID come home right away and he did kill it for me despite it actually being outside. Aww, he's such a great guy!!

Tuesday TV

I've missed a couple weeks of commenting on my Tuesday night shows, but they are nearing the end now, so its more exciting anyway.

First, American Idol. I missed Kris, Allison, Matt, and half of Danny's performances because of my stupid dvr. So, I can't really comment much on them. What I heard of Danny was great. The other 3 didn't sound bad in the recap. Adam was of course amazing, the guy is definitely growing on me. But the thing about him is, he's just SO theatrical. I can see him becoming like THE most famous guy Broadway has ever seen. Its so much a part of him, from the look in his eyes to the way he moves on stage to the over the top screeching that he occasionally does. No matter how hard I try I just can't picture him making an album or hearing him on the radio, ya know. I really think the guy was born to be on the stage.

Now, Biggest Loser. Its really amazing at this stage of the show to see just how much they have all changed. They look nothing like the people that came in on the first day. I love the train the trainer episodes, its hilarious. Bob telling Filipe to shut up was priceless. Not that its *really* the same as when the tables are reversed, but it still fun to see Bob and Jill sweating and huffing. They all did so great this week losing so much weight, makes it hard to think any of them should have to go home. But, I've never been a huge fan of Filipe, so I'm not broken up about his departure or anything.

Baby steps

I know I said I was sick of hearing myself talk about this...but I'm kinda bored and I'm avoiding the massive mess that's taken over my house.

So I just did my 3rd day in a row of cardio, woot! *happy dance*

Really its not MUCH to be excited about, I did the elliptical for 15 minutes on Wednesday, 17 minutes on Thursday, and 19 minutes today. But after not being able to do ANY exercise for over 2 weeks due to my back problem and then I got sick and wasn't feeling up to much, it had been 3 weeks since I'd moved much at all.

I knew I'd be miserable if I tried to jump right back to where I'd left off prior to my back getting hurt, AND I was still coughing a bunch...so I figured I had to start somewhere. Much to my surprise it wasn't that tough doing those 15 minutes and it felt really, really good.

I really have a love/hate relationship with the elliptical. Sometimes it feels great, like I'm running on air, and I could keep going and going...and I love it. And other times it feels like I'm running up a mountain where there is very little oxygen and my lungs want to burst out of my chest...and I hate every second of it.

Although I suppose I feel that way about pretty much every exercise. Sometimes its great, more often than not it sucks. Depending on what it is it either feels awesome or horribly painful when its done.

I always think about those poor people on the Biggest Loser. They have to be sore 100% of the time...for weeks...on end...never stopping...only getting worse. I'm sure I'd have a hate only relationship with exercise if I was on that show.

Anyway, hopefully this will be a start to slowly getting back on the workout wagon and nothing will get in the way of me staying there this time!

Active imagination or am I just nuts?

Do you ever get woken up from a dream too early? At some pivotal point in the "story line" something (like your children who wouldn't sleep in to save their lives...) tears you away from your sleep and you're left feeling like "Woah, wait...WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?!?!?!?"

I had one of those dreams last night. Its strange because I can't even really remember many specifics of the dream, just the overall story. Had something to do with me giving a piece of chocolate to my sister's brother in law (not my real sister, don't have one of those, just my dream sister) who had some crazy reaction to it and we thought he died but really his breathing and heart rate just slowed down so much it seemed like he was dead (you know, like in the movies) and his father and I tried to hide how he died, but then, well he just wasn't dead anymore. Right as he started moving and talking to us I was so rudely interrupted by my son so I never found out what really happened.

If you're me, you just can't let it go, you just have to know. You try to get back to sleep hoping that the dream will resume at that same exact moment, yet knowing that will never happen. So then you start making up things in your mind that you THINK happened, or should have happened. And you never really get back to sleep because that would interrupt your mind trying to re-create the dream. And then sometimes you go off on the wrong direction so you have to re-write those scenes and try again. Then even when you HAVE to get up and can't lay in bed letting your mind wander anymore...you still can't stop thinking about what was going to happen next. And so throughout the day you find moments when you imagine the story continuing, of course you have to try to hide it otherwise people will think you're just sitting there staring off into space...or worse, if you're not REALLY careful, talking to yourself.

Maybe I should write a book about it and become the obsession of millions. (That was a Twilight reference for anyone not into the obsession.)

Yeah, that would be a bad idea. The only thing I ever really wrote outside of assignments was some short stories about a guy named Wendall back in high school. It made absolutely no sense unless you were 15...nah, even then it was just totally random stupid stuff. A friend of mine even guest wrote a story including Wendall.

I wonder what happened to those, I know I kept them, maybe they are at my parents house. If I ever find them I'll post one, and then you'll see (as if this blog wasn't already a clue) that I wasn't meant to be an author.

Ok...I did it.

I read them. I know, I know, I swore I wasn't going to. At least not until it didn't irritate me endlessly to see them everywhere and I stopped seeing my friends dropping like flies joining Team Edward. (This post is for you Corra, LOL!)

The opportunity arose for me to acquire them with no financial obligation (my irrational annoyance with them would have NEVER allowed me to pay money for them), so I figured I might as well, and I'd just wait for that day that I figured would take ages to come.

Then I hurt my back last week and for days on end I was completely useless. So what else was I going to do?? Well, read the entire Twilight series in 8 days, that's what I did. Anyone who hasn't read them and wants to may want to stop reading here, just in case I give anything away.

As I begun reading "Twilight" I was surprised to find that the story did keep me interested despite the very weak excuse for a plot, and so I kept going. Not the greatest book I'd ever read, but it was quick and easy and with my life I like quick and easy reads. Knowing the original target audience was young teenagers helped me forgive some of its flaws as well. Although...knowing the target audience also made some of the themes seem a bit inappropriate as well, but I decided I was just going to push that out of my mind and live in denial until my children are 30. There were things I just shook my head at and thought "what was she thinking?" Like the whole sparkly thing. But, whatever, its fiction right? "New Moon" and "Eclipse" felt much the same to me, I was compelled to keep reading despite the flaws.

I was able to understand the draw to Edward. Although I still don't get the obsession with him. I mean, he's a character, in a book... But yeah, who wouldn't be attracted to the fantasy of being loved so fiercely by someone so perfect in every way, who would die a horrible death for you every day of his life to keep you safe, someone who would go to the ends of the earth to make you happy, not to mention the whole physical aspect that I'm in denial about. But, its just that, a fantasy...and I did get bored at times with the constant "I love you's" and "I want to be with you forever's", it got very redundant. So, rest assured I will, as I predicted, NOT be shouting to the rooftops that I've joined Team Edward.

Then I got to "Breaking Dawn"... And somehow I could feel my thoughts changing. I'm not sure if it was because it was so different from the first three in that there was an actual resemblance of a plot and it was just structured differently, or if Ms. Meyer programmed hypnotic suggestions into the text. But I quite literally could NOT stop reading. It wasn't just that the story kept me interested enough to want to find out what happened next, it seemed vital to me that I know how everything turned out. In the logical part of my brain I knew that I should not be so enthralled in the story, it was JUST a book, and not even that amazing of one, but I couldn't help myself. It was like literary crack and nothing better stand in the way of me getting my fix. The kids would want stuff from me and in my head I was screaming "GO AWAY, CAN'T YOU SEE I'M READING!!!!" I had to tear myself away and then the only thing I could think about was how fast I could get back to it. During the times when I HAD to stop reading I could not stop thinking about it, it was overtaking my brain. It was the strangest sensation, I could feel my internal struggle over my sanity, and in the end sanity lost and I finished that one quicker than the first three even though its the longest.

I'm glad that Bella and Edward got their happy ending. And I suppose I can actually say I'm glad I read them.

And even more glad that I came out not having fallen into the rabid obsessed fan club wondering how they can con a sparkly vampire into taking out their husbands.

Tuesday TV

Well nobody had any ideas for me, so we all will just get what we get, most likely in the form of useless blabbering.

So what better topic...reality tv.

Tuesday night is American Idol night, and The Biggest Loser night, gotta love it!

As much as I didn't like Adam Lambert at the start, especially after he desecrated that Johnny Cash song so exponentially...I must say he is growing on me a bit the last couple weeks. I still don't like his shrieking, but the guy really is talented.

My favorite of the night though, far and away, was Kris Allen. Wow, he was awesome!

Danny Gokey has been one of my top picks and I thought he definitely did justice to my boys last night. I wasn't expecting to love it being the Rascal Flatts fan that I am, but he really did a good job.

The rest of them, eh, they weren't horrible last night (well, aside from Megan who I think has always been horrible and needs to hang up the microphone) but nothing that really stood out as great. It is an interesting season.

Ok, so Biggest Loser. I'm kinda bummed for Nicole that she got sent home already, she was so happy to come back. It must have been a huge shock for her to gain 5 pounds. But, on the other hand she was so succesful on her own I know she'll be fine. Plus whatever she was doing at home was working, and whatever she did on the ranch was not!

I'm getting kinda annoyed with some of the contestants. Filipe for one, he's like a big whiny baby and Sione is like this dumb, oafy guy who'll go along with whatever Filipe says just because he's his cousin. And Tara, get a grip already, sheeesh.

I was surprised to see Allison Sweeney back so soon after having her baby. I wouldn't have been too thrilled to stand there through that weigh-in so soon after giving birth. Its fun to see her though, I feel like I've watched her grow up on tv, LOL. I watched her so young when she started on Days Of Our Lives when my grandma got me hooked on it, and now she's all grown up and a mother of 2.