Back Away From my Chicken

This week is my first full week back to work, and it is only Tuesday and I am SO tired, I shouldn't be. It isn't a hard job, I am just adding one extra child to my day, which can be challenging at times, but the main challenge is getting out the door in the morning. My other challenges so far have been with keeping up with all my other "duties" There is still laundry to be done, floors to clean, and dinner isn't going to make itself. Tonight I had planned on getting a little bit ahead. My husband loves when I make chicken salad, I feel like sandwiches for dinner isn't much, but if he loves it I'll make it. I don't say this about many things but I do believe I make a mean roasted chicken, this said, I roast my own chicken to shred for my chicken salad.( it is also cheaper this way ) I get my chicken into the oven and tend to it throughout the night as needed. After my little prince is off to bed the chicken is finally ready to come out. It looks perfect {which makes me smile, I like perfect, it doesn't happen much} I look at my creation and leave it un attended while I take a shower. There was no way I was shredding up a chicken straight from the oven so I figured I might as well check something off my to do list, and smelling good was high up there. I finish my shower, get into my jammies and walk the dog. I get back to see that my perfect chicken has been... well its not perfect anymore. My husband not only loves my chicken salad, he loves my roasted chicken { with all the butter I smoother on that bird, anyone would love it} Okay, so he had a little chicken, I'll take it as a compliment and start shredding. Here's where I almost loose my cool. Now I will say I have a crazy high patience level... well when it comes to kids... when it comes to my husband my patience seems to run thin. I cannot explain this nor do I have a reason why I will happily pick up smashed banana from my CLEAN laundry pile and simply tell my little man that it is a "no-no" but if my husband leaves his coke can between the coach cushions one more time I may leave him. {I am not truly going to leave my husband, but it makes me REALLY mad. Especially when my son finds it before I do and pours the remaining contents on the floor, yet he will not get yelled at, just the hubby} Anyway, back to my chicken. I am in my chicken zen zone shredding chicken and putting it into a bowl when my hubby comes over. He starts to pick at the chicken, silly me thinks he is going to help {which would also kind of bug me, when I cook I like to have my space, even when its just shredding chicken} But no, he just wants to eat some more. Okay, fine. Well he just keeps eating... and eating....and reaching over my head to get the salt....and eating..... and dipping his chicken into the melted butter and chicken stock... and eating....and picking....I almost screamed!  GET AWAY FROM THE CHICKEN. If he eats it all what will I make chicken salad with.... well I debate saying something, I decide against yelling and go with a nicer comment "you want chicken in your chicken salad tomorrow right?" Well he doesn't take this well ,and I am sure he could hear my insides yelling at him through my tone of voice, even though I was trying to sound light hearted. He argued that there was tons of chicken and that I always make too much food anyway. AHH well okay, I keep my mouth shut for the remainder of his Chicken pig out and look at my sad pile of shredded chicken in the bowl. Yes, there is plenty, but not as much as usual, or as I planned. It's not a huge deal, but did he have to sit there and eat it right in my ear? He could've gotten a plate, taken a little, brought the salt with him and I wouldn't have given him a second look. But no I got to hear every freakin bite. Well, I am done with that now. I now know I need to roast and shred my chickens during the day, before my husband can eat it all and make me go crazy. Maybe I need to try and be more laid back when it comes to cooking, or just my husband in general, but it seems that in any relationship there will always be those things that just REALLY bug you. And I know I love him everytime I  keep my mouth shut. My little man on the other hand can not bug me for more than a minute, he may..okay will do bad things, and make crazy messes, but he is exploring his world, he wants to find out what happens when you squirt your juice box on the TV, and hopefully now he knows that it's a "no-no" and that he can't play with mommy while she is cleaning up his mess. But he doesn't annoy me, and I am with him ALL the time, a lot more than I am with my husband.  I am so happy I have my little man, he is the best guy I've ever met. Period.

Kelly Callahan

Back to Work

Well, I knew it was coming, and here it is. Time to get back to work. I still feel like I am very lucky, because back to work does not mean any less time with my favorite little guy. It just means more hectic mornings and less free time. But, since I will be working for a great family I will still be able to go places while I am working, getting paid to go to the zoo is always a plus in my book :) I love the zoo, I still remember how much I loved it the first time I took the little girl I used to nanny for 4 years ago. Ever since then I have been a regular at the zoo, and why not. With a season pass in hand it is a cheap way to spend our summer days, and with a nice big circle it is a great Mom workout for me! I have officially started my "diet" I guess its not truly a diet, I am just going to eat healthier, I am not counting calories or anything, just thinking before I eat. This also means I might be passing up some free stuff with my coupons. At Target today I saw bags of chocolate I could get for free.... but if I buy them guess what? I will eat them. So I passed up my good deal. I was very proud. If I find freebies for things I don't want to eat but I know my hubby or son will enjoy I will get them, but if it's a "mom" treat, I will say no. We'll see how it goes, but as much as I have been wearing a bathing suit lately I am VERY motivated, and they say loosing weight is 90% diet and 10% exercise, and sure you could work out more....but if you watch what you eat you don't have to add in a crazy workout schedule so that's what works for me. I figure I get a pretty good workout with my everyday activities, so hopefully eating right will do the trick. I will see if my bikini starts looking better. My son and I enjoyed our last day of freedom walking around Belmar, an outdoor mall. My son got a cup of ice from Jamba Juice (he loves ice) and I got a long walk in. We ended at the cute fountains where my son soaked himself playing in the water. Wow, did he love it, he was running , jumping, and splashing like a mad man. By the end we were both wet and happy. So why not go to Target? We go in just to get a few things, and sadly they were things I didn't have coupons for. We got all fresh produce except for our salsa purchase. I love that you can get food at Target, it is so easy sometimes, especially when there happens to be a Target right by your favorite summer hangout. I love being able to walk around and enjoy my summer with my favorite little man, and recently we have been walking better, my hubby got me a new jeep stroller that I LOVE, it actually turns unlike my old stubborn one. The next big adventure? The Sand Dunes!! This will be my little escape from work....I will only work two and a half weeks before my escape....but that's fine with me :) Then I will be on to planning our next weekend adventure. I look forward to my new job, and hope it works out as well as I am expecting....we'll see.

Kelly Callahan

Camping, with an 18 month old

 

Well, we did it, we went camping. And I'll tell you one thing I would NOT have made it through the weekend with out my best friend there. Not only did she remember everything that I forgot but it was a lot more fun when we were both chasing toddlers, or even switching off who went to get them. And, when our husbands disappeared for a whole afternoon it was great to have a companion to go explore with. My son loved being outdoors, collecting rocks, and running through the cabin(not that there was much room to run) I loved getting away from my routine, but I have to say I did not like the walk to the bathrooms or the pressureless showers. It was nice at naptime to just sit, I never just sit, I am always doing something {well, I am sitting now, but I am writing and I will be right back to cleaning when I'm done} but when you are camping there isn't much more to do than sit down and have a drink. After the boys took their nap we took a fun bike ride to a nearby park, where my friend and I tried our skills {ha} on the little skate park.... the inclines look a lot steeper when you are at the bottom, trust me. That sure didn't last long. We headed back to start dinner. One thing I didn't forget was food, we had a lot, I mean, a lot of food. And our first dinner was a great one. We had chicken fajitas with guacamole, chips, and salsa. It is amazing what you can do on a little grill when you plan it out. Dinner was amazing, and before we knew it it was bed time. This went better than I had planned. My little guy cried for a little bit, probably because he wanted warm milk, and his Mommy gave him cold milk. But then he was fast asleep. Time for some drinks and card games. I may have had a little too much fun but hey that's what vacations are for. Once again I was happy to have my bestie there to walk with me to the bathroom a hundred times to pee. As soon as we started to wind down my little guy woke up....it was cold in the cabin and he refused to lie with me, so I had to let him cry it out. He eventually fell back asleep only to wake up again very soon. I was trying to find my phone to even see what time it was, I knew it was too early by the amount of light outside, but I wanted to know how early I was really getting up. Yep, it was a little before 5am. Great, my little guy was set on staying awake so we put on our shoes and headed outside. It was a cold and foggy morning so I dressed us both warmly and we went off on a walk. It was neat to see everything when everyone was asleep, I ended up reading all the license plates to see where everyone was from, lots of Texas, Kansas,and New Hampshire. And of course there were plenty of Colorado plates as well. I said hi to a few sad dogs whose owners had them sleep outside {I treat my dog like she is my daughter, so to me this is crazy and mean} One dog was happy for me just to give him his stick that he had pushed just out of reach. We do some laps and then go back to the cabins to collect rocks {my son thinks this is great} I am sure we were loud, and at one point my son even opened the door to our friends cabin {I really did think it was locked or I would have stopped him sooner, sorry guys} So, soon enough my friend was outside to join me. We were cold and tired. By ten in the morning I decide Max and I both need a little nap, so we lie down and get a little sleep. Then we try and go to the garden of the gods, we planned on riding our bikes around....well we thought we parked at an okay place to start, but after 2 big hills with no sight of the part of the park we wanted to see we went back to the cars. This is when I realized how out of shape I am, just two big hills and I was out of breathe....wow, I really need to workout more. During the boys next nap time it was the girls turn to get away, so we went to get some sun. Yet another reminder that I need to workout. As I tried to tan my pale legs we had some nice "girl" time. And although we spend a lot of time together it is nice to have time together without our boys sometimes. We decide against a dip in the pool, we came to the conclusion that people used it as a bath tub, so we went to rinse off in the showers instead. We then took a nice stroll through the town of Manitou Springs before making our second delicious meal. Tonight we had steak and pasta salad, the steaks had been marinating a long time and were SO good. The boys drive around in their little F-150's before we make our final decision to leave that night. I think I just couldn't imagine waking up at 5 am again. And if we were leaving in the morning anyway, I figured I'd rather sleep in my own bed. I guess I should've sucked it up and stayed, but I  missed my bed, and heat. All in all I had a great time, and I really hope our friends did too, hopefully we were fun and not annoying. I hope to have many more fun trips in the future, and as my son grows I will love getting him excited over where we are going, and being able to do more things with him. As for now, I think I'll stick to hotels.....just until he's older {thats my excuse for now}

Kelly Callahan