There really isn’t great things on TV in the early part of the day. I do enjoy watching Regis and Kelly and sometimes The Doctors if they have a topic that sparks my interest. Other than that there really isn’t anything worth my while. I would much rather be playing with my daughter and when she is sleeping, putting in loads of laundry, picking up around the house, and making dinner. In between all those things I end up walking to my lap top every 30 minutes and check my Facebook. I admit I am a Facebook addict. Why waste energy on a television that isn’t even being watched? So I turn it off after Regis and Kelly usually if not before. Unless there is a guest I really like, I only watch the beginning of the show when they are joking around with each other and talking about recent news. I like peace and quiet or my favorite music while my little one is asleep.

When it starts to consistenly be warm and nice out I would much rather be doing something outside with my best little friend. The nice days we have had so far we spent at a local outdoor mall or the park. She is not yet crawling or walking so strolling her around is quite relaxing for the both of us! I can’t wait to be able to spend practically every day with her out in the sunshine! Just so I have baby sunblock!!!!!!

I have always been very particular about my hair. I honestly have bad dreams about it being cut too short when going in for a trim. Well last week the unthinkable happened! I have been trying for a long time to have long hair at least down to the middle of my breasts. It was almost there and then Friday came along. I was in one of those moods. You know the one ou get in when you just want a “change?” Well I marched myself over to my cell phone and sent a text to a girl I work with that usually cuts my hair. Well the last few times she has not been doing that great of a job and always is making comments how I am too chicken to go shorter. I like my long hair and if I wanted it short I would ask for it. Anyways, I decided to let her cut about 3 inches off. Well it was 3 inches too much! I regret it totally. I can’t stand looking at it. I mean, it isn’t ugly it’s just not me. Who even knows how long it’s gonna take just to get back to where it was. I started taking Biotin supplements because I was told that it promotes hair growth but I also heard that it only works if they are over 2500 mcg. The ones I bought were only 300 mcg so I am taking two but that still isn’t enough. The other ones are prett expensive and I really don’t want to spend that on something I don’t know will even work. I also started taking my prenatal vitamins again that the doc had said to continue taking after I gave birth. I hadn’t really been taking them since my daughter was born but I am now in hopes it will speed this process along. Now it’s a waiting game I suppose and I will try and make the best of it. I really hate the length of my hair, it is in the middle of nowhere! Below the shoulders and above the breasts but it looks like it is floating in mid-air! Ugh!!! Well I guess I will start making the best of it now but not complaining anymore!!!

GH is my favorite show. I have been watching since I was about 12 years old. 14 years later and I am just as big a fan as I was when I first started watching. Through the years I have had favorite characters, crushes, and couples. However if I went into all that now this post would be a gazillion pages long! Today, I still have my favorite characters and couples… I also still have my crushes! My all time favorite couple is Jason and Sam. When they were together there was no stopping them. They were the perfect example of “badass.” They were adventurous, dangerous, hysterical, romantic, lovable, funny, dramatic, and full of life. Each time they were on the screen together I felt s sense of reality. The were REAL unlike many soap couples. They loved each other so deeply and you don’t see that very often on a soap opera. While those two are no longer together, there is a new(ish) couple in town I am routing for. Spinelli and Maxie have just as much charisma and chemistry as Jason and Sam. I love the idea of the awkward computer guy with the high fashion beauty. I think Maxie is gorgeous and she and Spinelli are a perfect match. Although she is extreme, at times she reminds me of myself… her peronality that is. She is crazy and self destructive and will say anything in the heat of the moment. She knows where and who her true friends and loved ones are but sometimes she needs to just say and do things that are unorthodox or that can hurt others. Her heart is there and she always means well but doesn’t always do things right. Spinelli truly is her “essential person” as she says on the show. He is her solid ground and his personality in combination with hers balances out her crazy ways. There are many other aspects that I love. The whole mob storyline is still a great foundation for the show. It brings drama and excitement. Not to mention Sonny is still HOT no matter how old he gets. Sonny and Jason were my first crushes on the show and that fact has remained true. I adore the friendship between Jason and Carly. His love and respect for her is one that most women long to have in a friend. He is always by her side whenever she needs him and she is willing to do the same for him. Needless to say I have strong opinions about this show and the characters involved. For the most part I think the show is dramatic and exciting and at times even comical. Of course there are parts I loathe, but  that will be another post!

Lately I have been thinking about toning up my body. It seems like after I gave birth to my daughter I can only think about getting into shape. I have always been thin but never muscular. Now that my abs have been stretched to all hell and are sitting quite lower than before, I realized that I should just totally reinvent my body. I don’t think that without reconditioning my abs to actually look muscular I can never have a flat stomach again. Perhaps in time it would tighten up to the way it was on it’s own but I am not willing to wait that long. Soooo… I have decided to work out enough to have “abs.” I want my tight belly button back, I want the “pouch” gone. It’s funny because when I contract my muscles up it all comes back but once I let it go, there it is, that deflated belly button! I am hoping that with toning up and getting strong it will pull my belly button up the way it used to be.

Another area of concern I have is my arms. They are so stickly and shapeless!!! I want sexy arms. Arms with some definition are much more attractive than just long stickly limbs. I just started yesterday with some weights but I think they are too light. I will just do more reps until I get out to buy some heavier ones.

Abs and arms… the start to my new body!

I absolutely cannot wait for when the majority of the days are full of sunshine. Since it is April still, every nice today comes with much anticipation. I am constantly checking the weather to see what my next few days could be like because if it’s nice, I like to make plans that involve being outdoors. Taking my daughter to the park, walking around at the outdoor mall, and taking walks in our neighborhood are all things we love to do. It is such a great feeling to be able to wake up warm. Getting out of bed and not having to throw on a sweatshirt or socks is such a treat for me! My favorite thing about the Summer is flip flips! I absolutely love to just slip them on and off I go. No socks, no uncomfortable sweaty shoes, just my Summer feet and a small barrier between them and the concrete. In the Summer I take my shoes off as often as possible. Being barefoot really reminds me of being a kid. In the Summer, all the neighborhood kids would be out all day and well into the evening with just a few short breaks for lunch and dinner. Coming in the house at night after a long day of playing always meant we had some dirty feet! Dirty feet remind me of Summer and oh how I love dirty feet. I don’t like them in the winter or due to not bathing. I only love them simply for the fact that they became that way from good Summer fun. It’s going to be wonderful being able to watch my daughter do those very things. Water balloon and squirt gun fights, riding bikes, strolling our dolls down the sidewalk, and running around in our bathing suits was part of our daily agendas when I was a kid. Who knows now… I do know that I will not allow my daughter to stay inside all day watching TV or playing video games, or chatting online. I really hope when she is of age to play outside kids still have the same anticipation to get out there and just be a kid. I know I am not a kid but I will still be playing outside this Summer! 

I am so glad we decided to go ahead and get our carpet professionally cleaned. Our dogs have been making some accidents in the house and it was really starting to smell. It’s terrible to think about such a dirty carpet and how my daughter will be crawling soon. There is no way I could let her crawl around on such filth! Getting the carpet cleaned was a great decision. It came out beautiful. We called Hagopian, a carpet cleaning company in your general area and they did a wonderful job. The two men were very nice and did an excellent job. I am completely satisfied with the outcome. Right now the carpet is still wet so I am trying to to walk much on it though they said it was OK. Most of the furniture is still placed in other rooms of the house but I think we will put it back tonight. Not only do I feel a sense of relief from getting the carpet cleaned but also the motivation to do some hard core cleaning… well not exactly cleaning but nick-nack eliminating! While moving the end tables and entertainment center to other rooms in preparation for the carpet cleaning, I realized I have way too much stuff! My house isn’t even cluttered but it is too much for me. I am going through and getting rid of lots of useless pieces of “decoration.” It’s going to take a while and I don’t expect to do this all in one day but eventually I want my house and belongings to be as simple as possible. Now I just have to get my husband to get rid of his box of 20 year old trinkets. 

Has anyone been to the SoapNet message boards? If you have then you will be able to relate. I am a huge General Hospital fan and that seems to be the board with the most threads on the SN message boards. It is a fun site and a great way to talk about GH. However, the board can get a little crazy at times. I have been a memeber for about 5 years now under various names. I remember when I first started posting there, there was a group of the same posters that would just attack me for no reason. It was like a high school clique picking on the newbie. Those 6 or so posters would gang up on new posters and try to scare them off the boards with personal insults, making imposter screen-names, and monopolizing the board. Since that first name I had that was attacked relentlessly, I have made other names and posted and been treated many different ways but it still came down to those same “bully posters” who like to control the board themselves. Now today, about five years later and a few new screen-names too, I am still a member of the board and no one on there knows that I was that one poster back in the day they used to gang up on. Many of those bullies are long gone and many still remain. I still see them bashing new posters, being rude for no reason and trolling like crazy. Within that fist year I posted on the GH board there were times when the fighting got so bad that the Moderators would come on and warn us to behave or the board would be shut down… and it actually was! They Mods would punish us by banning our names and at one point they shut down the entire GH board for a few days until people shaped up! As I said before, the board can get crazy at times but it is ALWAYS good for a laugh!

When it’s not just you and your spouse who think he/she is adorable. When strangers come up to you in the mall, or the grocery store, church, the park, etc. just to tell you how pretty your baby is. I am not trying to brag but my baby is a beauty! She has gorgeous eyes and chubby cheeks, perfect full lips and a cute nose. I am not sure who she looks like, my husband or myself. I think she has eyes from my side of the family, hair color from my husbands… I can never tell who a baby looks like until their features are more developed. Many people say at first glance she looks a lot like my husband. Then other people say she looks a lot like her cousins (my brother’s kids). Some parents are blinded by love when it comes to the way they view their children. I am not only referring to looks but behavior as well. My child is only 6 months old but I do believe that I would be able to realize if she wasn’t a pretty baby and when she is older I won’t have the “she can do no wrong” image of her.

AHHH! I am 5 foot 2 inches and weigh about 90 lbs yet I have this little belly that makes me look like I am 4 months pregnant! I am 6 months post partum and my muscles are still sagging. I am working out doing ab work and I have seen an improvement but I have this thing called Diastasis Recti also known as abdominal separation. This causes my tummy to pertrude just below the belly button every time I eat something. I have been to my OB about this, a personal trainer, and a physical therapist. I cannot seem to get a straight answer out of anyone. They all tell me “you’re so skinny it’s not even that bad.” Just because I am small and don’t have loads of fat and flab around my post partum belly does not mean that “it’s not that bad.” They all think it’s not a problem because compared to a lot of post partum women my belly is not half bad. I will be the first to admit that it’s not. But it bothers me and it is not “normal.” There isn’t stretch marks, or loose skin like what is expected after pregnancy (thank God). This is a condition that does not happen to most people. I have been told that in time and with conditioning the muscles can get closer together… but that isn’t good enough for me. I want to know (without surgery) if the muscles will go back to their pre pregnancy place with lots of dedicated work and conditioning. Were the muscles ever attached by tendons? Or were they just close together? I don’t know because nobody can give me that straight answer. If they were attached somehow will they ever “grow” back together? I am not being petty or superficial… I am just a girl who wants to know if  I can ever wear a bikini again. I care because that is a part of who I am and who I have been for the past 26 years. I used to have a belly button that was so tight it had that little flap (some get that pierced) at the top. Now it looks like a deflated balloon. When I contract my muscles, it goes right back to normal which give me hope to believe that with more toning it will be ok. I have read other blogs and no I am not alone in this I just wish I could get an honest professional answer.

Anyone who has ever suffered from migraines knows exactly how painful they really are. I am 26 years old and have been getting them since I was 12. Never has my doctor recommened a CT Scan or MRI. They say migraines are so very common and I fall into that exact diagnosis. Recently, I gave birth to my first daughter just a few short weeks after the sudden passing of my Mother. Needless to say that two of the most life changing events happened within weeks of each other. This was not good for my migraines. Between the stress of losing my Mom and the lack of sleep and irregular sleep patterns that come with having a newborn took a toll on my health. I was getting migraines every few days for weeks at a time then it tapered off to about once a week. This was still much too often for me. When I get a migraine I am basically incapacitated for the entire day. Finally, I went back to my family doctor to see what she suggested. She recommended I see a Neurologist at this point because one migraine per week was too many to have. The Neurologist told me that at this point she does not need a CT Scan or MRI for my condidition because I was still falling into that ever-so-common migraine sufferer category. I explained to her that sometimes I would feel numb in my face, hands, neck, mouth, head, etc., without even having a headache. She reassured me that all these symptoms were also part of the “aura” and was common to get them without the migriane headache itself. I was under the impression that the “aura” was just the funny colors I saw in my eye about 20 minutes before the pain began. In actuality it is all the symptoms that come with the migraine headache.  I describe those colors as what it would look like if you put water on your TV or computer screen. The doctor told me that those symptoms I was getting was most likely from a migraine that never fully went away. She said that mini migraines can spawn off of the main one if not taken care of properly and in my case that is lots of sleep. She prescribed an amazing medicine called Norgenic. It is part muscle relaxer and when I took ,it just knocked the migraine right out of me. I was able to rest and get rid of the annoying symptoms such as blurry vision and numbness. It has been 3 weeks since I have had a migraine or symptoms. First she suggested a medicine which had caffeine in it but I informed her that Exedrin Migraine makes me shake because of the caffeine so that is why she prescribed the other. If you are a migraine sufferer do not panic if you have some of those crazy symptoms, they are totally normal. Also, ask your doc about the muscle relaxer, it relaxes the blood vessels in the brain that are said to cause the pain. It worked great for me so hopefully it can do the same for you!