I love animals that could scratch my face off.

Honestly, my heart is heavy for the people of Haiti this morning.

Only one thing could possibly cheer me up
without fail and that is photos of tiny animals.

So I spent some time over at Cute Overload
and found comfort in...

This little fella

and these wide eyed buggers

and cute little bunny feet

and a hedgehog dressed as a cowboy

and a hamster that is very proud of her Jello mold.

and a Jedi squirrel

and this little couple just breaks my heart right in two

I think that this one looks like Nellie Olson.

Crazy just got a little less insane in my brain.

This Recliner lives in my head.

This is where I choose to sit (in my mind) at any point during my day when I feel that I am in danger of my head exploding. If everything is crazy all around me, I am in this chair. I had to do something...I needed a place to just sit and relax because the daily grind of being a Mom was starting to rob me of my joy.

Little things started to get to me. Things that shouldn't matter. Like the 20 minutes before I take Griffin to school. For some reason I was feeling really tense every single day at this time. From having to tell Griffin ten times to put on his shoes to watching him dawdle his slow little butt to the car as we froze half to death in unseasonably cold weather that we are all ill prepared for. I would get vexed with how heavy Koen felt in my arms as I rushed to get Griffin settled in his classroom so that I could get the baby back home where it was warm. It was like a mad insane dash that was designed to drive me crazy. I have to repeat this process everyday, so why be all tense about it?

I decided to get a recliner for my brain. I know that it's an ugly chair but it's so comfy. I sit in it at the grocery store too. When Griffin is touching everything in sight even when I asked him to keep his hands in his pockets and he knocks down this and that off the shelves. We simply leave a little trail behind us as I plop down into my mental recliner. When he begs over and over for me to buy him whatever crappy food he saw advertised on Nickelodeon, I just take a seat. Sometimes, I pop out the footrest and recline back when I am in traffic and the baby is crying and Griffin is screaming over the baby that he wants candy or that he wants to watch Spongebob and play video games at the top of his lungs over and over and over. Even better is when he starts freaking out that the Koen is freaking out and both of them are in tears. I mean, moments like this will continue happening throughout my career as a Mom. So why get all worked up about it?

Since getting this mental recliner, I am a much more laid back Mom. Once I made the decision to relax a bit, my kids got cuter and less annoying. The housework (though forever daunting) didn't seem to overwhelm me so much. My shoulders aren't glued to my ears anymore. I even caught myself laughing yesterday when I discovered that I accidentally washed yet another dirty diaper in a load of laundry and not the cloth kind either. No, this was Huggies and do you know what happens when you wash a Huggies diaper in the laundry? You don't want to know.

I love my chair. It keeps me sane.

The part where I make good on my promise.

Yesterday was day one of my new life.
I started Weight Watchers
just like I promised myself I would.
I was only starving from 4:30-6:00 pm.
I drank a ton of water in hopes that I could
trick my stomach into believing that it had eaten a Big Mac.
It just made me have to pee like crazy.

Earlier in the day, I accidentally hogged out on 100 calorie snacks.
I ate five points worth of Baked Doritos and
a Little Debbie 100 calorie snack cake.
I don't think that it works that way.

Next time, I'm just gonna eat an apple.

Don't worry though,
I did my best impression of Olivia Newton John
and got physical after the kiddos went to bed.
I did 30 minutes of a virtual workout on Wii Active.
Now my butt is sore
but it will be so worth it soon.

I am a repeat offender of Weight Watchers
so I know the drill.
You count the points,
you drink the water,
you work out,
you don't get drunk
on Vodka drinks
at 7 pm
on a Monday evening,
and BAM,
you get skinny before you know it.

So, I'll report from time to time
when I feel all proud of myself for losing the pounds.
I might even post some yummy recipes now and again.
I'll probably also confess any
moments of weakness that get a hold of me.
Like that one time
when I was doing Weight Watchers before
and I freaked out
and ate 3 candy bars
in one sitting.

It's staggering how much I can shove in my mouth during a good binge.

Enough about me and my fat mouth.
I'm off to drink some water and snack on air.

Thank you for your support.

Winner: Little Boy Blue Edition

We have a winner for the latest installment of Freakshow Friday. Please take note that my super freaky and non-biased best friend was the judge yet again. Here are the top three in no particular order.

Singedwingangel

"I look FAB-U-LOUS and I'm SPARKLY"

metsuke
"RAWWRRRR...needleth to thay I heart blueberries
and puthycats and walks through the gumdrop foreth."

Working Mommy
"CUT, CUT, CUT...
Wonka, Baby...
for the LAST time...
the script says, "Violet turns into a blueBERRY...not a blue FAIRY!!!"
Get it right next time...
mmmmmmkk?!?!"

The winner is...

metsuke

"RAWWRRRR...needleth to thay I heart blueberries

and puthycats and walks through the gumdrop foreth."

metsuke is the funniest Blogger in all the land.
Not only that but I happen to actually know this dude
he went to my high school and
I don't know if he was aware of it but I always
thought that he was Super Fine!

Of course, I'm a happily married chick now
but who wouldn't love to find out 17 years later
that someone had an unrequited crush on you
and would get stoked every time you
walked by in the halls of MacArthur High School?

I digress, yet again.

Please head on over to his Blog

and marvel at this fantastic award he just earned
to proudly display forever.

Thanks to all the people who played.
Tune in this Friday for another instalment of Freakshow Friday!

This is flippin awesome!

ENJOY!

Now, it would be even more awesome if you would scroll on down, hit the link down there, and vote for my babies!

Shameless self promotion

Okay peeps. I need your help in a big way. A photo of my kids has been entered into a contest and if we win we get a HUGE canvas print of this glorious photograph. You know that I want that prize!




So please, be a lamb and hit this link and go VOTE VOTE VOTE for my babies. The pic to choose is labeled Newborn 7.

http://www.stylizedportraiture.com/best-of-2009-maternity-and-newborn/

Thanks friends!

Keep scrolling down to enter this week's Freakshow Friday.
It's a doozy this week!

Freakshow Friday: Little Boy Blue Edition

It's time for an installment of Freakshow Friday where I challenge my readers to come up with a story or caption to a funny photo. This week's photo comes from Peter Pan Pages.
This dude is for real, you have to go check him out. I just showed this photo to my Mom and even she wants to beat him up. Bless his heart.

Look at this queer fruit that fell from the tree.

(not that there's anything wrong with that)

You got a better one for me?

If so, you may just when this awesome award

and have bragging rights forever.

I'll also linkup to your Blog and make a big deal
about how flippin' funny you are.
Simply leave your funny caption or story
in my comments section.

The winner will be announced on Monday.