The New Accessory for Californians

July 1st, a law went into effect here in California. You have to be hands-free while driving. While that caused an influx of sales for Bluetooth Cell Phone Accessories.

Now, everyone I see around here has a Bluetooth hooked on their ear. People, it's for while you are driving. It seriously drives me crazy when I see people walking around with their Bluetooth headset on their ear. It is not a fashion accessory.

You can take it off and put it away while you are not on the phone. Are you really that important that you need to have it on 24/7?

Just curious.

E-Bay Hell

I've been working on Fall Auctions of Angry Toddler's Clothing for the past two days. I'm soo sick of typing up descriptions and taking pictures. You would think that when I do this every six months, I would shop less? Nope, I think I shop more and spend more than I ever have.

The kid has two wardrobes: school clothes and home clothes, plus he has some special occasion clothes too. Hopefully, I can get these listings up tonight.

It will help in my cleaning the office, which is still messy by the way.

Next time, I'm going to use an e-bay trading assistant like my friend, Tamara. Tamara did my friend Londie's auctions, and they rocked.

You hear that, Tamara!! I'm sending my Spring/Summer stuff to you!

Chasing Fireflies

I'm on several children's clothing forums. I've learned alot about shopping from them. I've learned about season's, sizing for each brand, and of course discounts.

There's an online boutique site, called Chasing Fireflies that has a website and a catalog. I love the unique things that they have in there.

Usually Angry Toddler is quite destructive with magazines and books. For some reason or another, he is obsessed with their catalog. He keeps pointing to things, and says "look mama, that's soooo cool". Yea, me thinks I'm passed on my shopping bug to Angry Toddler.

Unfortunately, one of the bad things about the site is the prices, they are kinda pricey. Note to self: Must list e-bay auctions asap!

Here are a few of the things that I like from their current catalog:





P.S. Don't even look at the girl's stuff. Thank god, I don't have a girl. There's some To Die For goodies on there. Including their Halloween costumes.

Baby Prayers

I went to pick up Angry Toddler from preschool today. He was sitting at a table with one of his friends. They had plates and dishes scattered all over the table. I think they also had some play food.

The one little boy went to grab for the food and Angry Toddler caught his hand. They both then put their little heads down, put their hands together, and said some kind of little prayer. All I heard it "Thank You God...or something".

I think they are praying before meals at his preschool. I don't know but I've never seen Angry Toddler do that before. But I thought it was soo cute.

And believe me, we are not the praying type around here.

The New Me

So I've called 2008, Operation Hair Grow Out. I've literally fought with my hair for the past 2 months. I've been growing it out since January-ish though. I had a moment last week where I wanted to shave my head.

I then did when I typically do when I'm comtemplating a new hair do. I put out the pictures. I went through all my photo albums, Shutterfly, Snapfish, and even polled my friends. Really, Julie is much better with shorter hair.

I have that inner voice though. The voice that says long hair is pretty, and feminine. Ya, not soo much. Long hair is frizzy and a pain in the ass for Julie. When my hair is past my shoulders, all I do is wear it in some sort of pony tail.

So I made the appointment. I took in two pictures with me. My hairdresser knew this was coming. I had it cut off. I still need some color added. I was too lazy to sit for some highlights though.

So, here's the before-Julie. This was taken about two months ago and almost 10 lbs. ago too:



and here's the after-Julie. WARNING! It's short, very short.

Fall Clothes

If anyone knows me, you know that I have a huge clothing addiction for my son, Angry Toddler. I love to dress him up. Since he's gotten older, he's been quite opinionated about his clothing. It has gotten very frustrating to me. I have really slowed down my shopping and stuck to such brands as: Gymboree (cause Angry Grandma works there, duh), Gap, Small Paul, Quiksilver, and Mini Boden.

Mini Boden is a British company that I fell in love with about a year ago. Everyone was raving about it, but I failed to jump on that bandwagon. I did the Spring/Summer pre-order this year and loved it all.

Well for Fall, I did my pre-order in June. You get 20% and free shipping/free returns if you do the pre-order. Well I finally received the last bit of my order last week. I love it all, but we are not keeping everything. I have to sort through it and pick the best outfits.

I took some pictures of the last of my loot. I also took a picture of Angry Toddler wearing some of his goodies. His outfit does not go together, but it's what he wanted to wear. I needed to try it on him for sizing.

Oh, and some people will say that Mini Boden is expensive. Cause really it is. But it has excellent re-sale on e-bay.

An open letter to my IRL friends

I have a friend, who will remain anonymous, who posted this on one of our parenting forums. I asked if I could use it for my blog, since I was laughing soo hard. We all have these issues in our real life, but sometimes, we behave ourselves and don't blog about it. I'm blogging it for her, so the world can see it. She says that she might even make it a weekly thing, because her friends in real life (IRL), are slowly driving her crazy.

1. I'm sorry that you found a tick on your 2 year old. Seriously, the chances that he has Lyme Disease is slim to none. Quit obsessing about it.

2. I don't understand why you want a pep talk from me about your son going to Mother's Day Out 2 days a week. You had him in daycare 5 days a week, so I'm not quite sure why MDO (Mother's Day Out) is an issue for you.

3. No, your 2 year old won't get beat up at preschool. On the other hand, if you continue to act crazy, one of the other parents may beat YOU up.

4. No, you shouldn't leave your huge Boxer in the house when people come to see your house that you've just placed on the market. Why would you even think you should do that? Oh, that's what you're gonna do anyway? Okay...quit asking my opinion on stuff.

5. A snake is not going to chew through your 2nd story window screens and come into your house if you leave your window open during the day.

6. You just showed up in a new BMW. Please don't ever, ever, EVER complain to me again about how bad your personal finances are and that you can't make ends meet. You are either lying or just make really poor life decisions.

7. Your son has a mullet. Please cut his hair.

8. Pets are not disposable. I don't understand how you've taken 5 of your pets (dogs and cats) to animal shelters in the 2 years that I've known you, and continue to get more pets.

9. Please quit emailing me pics of your kids all the time. I see you and your kids about once a week.

10. I'm sorry that no one is coming to your party on Saturday night. You only invited people with young kids who have to get babysitters. Seriously, don't give me a hard time about not wanting to pay a sitter $50 to go to your party, when no one but you and me are going to be there anyway.


Okay, I feel a lot better. Sorry, I'm sure I sound like a bitch, but I think that if they'd just stop and think about how crazy they are, the insanity would end. I know you guys must have friends like this, too!

By the way, this is why I love this particular friend, and I truly wished she lived closer. Although, I might be blogging about myself then...

Must Recover

56 hours of working this past weekend.

20 hour shift last night.

Must collect my thoughts.

Clean office still.

Watch my DVR.

Run.

I will be back later with more to say.

Project Clean the Office

Our home office is kinda been the dumping place for awhile. We put everything in there that we have no place for. For the past two weeks, its been also the "toys taken away from Angry Toddler cause he's bad and not getting them back" storage place.

Well, it's time to clean it up. Seriously, out of control. Also I have my e-bay crap everywhere too.

I thought I would post some before pictures for you all to see how much I need to clean. I really really need to get off the computer now...

My Weight Loss Milestone Today

We all have our varying weights from our adult life. I can't recall how much I weighed in High School though. I think I'm permanently blocked that out of my mind. I was soo traumatized in High School. You would think I was huge then, but I wasn't. I was probably in the 140's.

I gained some weight when I started college which carried through until I was about 21. When I turned 21, I discovered a wonderful thing, Phen-Fen. Oh my, the wonder drug. I think I lost 30 lbs. in umm, about 2 months. I was a wild girl then. I was taking 18 units in college, and working 2 jobs. Plus, I had recently discovered country music, bars, and line dancing. It was some very good times. I think I dieted down to 145-ish, except I had some damn huge ass boobs.

Slowly, I started gaining my weight back over the years. Marriage and working full-time does that too you. In 2001, I had breast reduction surgery. Unfortunately cause my BMI (Body Mass Index) was higher, my insurance, a nasty HMO, wouldn't pay for it. I did self-pay and I'm glad I got it done. After having the surgery, I felt alot lighter. I was able to work out with pain in my shoulders, etc. I also started doing WW aka Weight Watchers at that time. I got down to a weight of 166 that year. I felt great, I looked great. Everything was awesome.

Well, I plateaued for a long time and I kinda gave up on WW. Bad me. The pounds started creeping up again. After taking Clomid for 6 months to try and get pregnant, I added on, oh let's see about another 30 lbs, before I got pregnant.

I had my son in 2005. I lost some weight right away. I even joined WW again. I lost like 15 pounds. I gave up again.

Well this Janaury, I started a new regime. I will wait until my goal weight to go into it, but alas as of today, I had my WW low weight. Yes, folks, I hit 166 lbs. today. I try and think of this as my lowest adult weight. Cause seriously, before age 25, it's all metabolism. After 25, I think it's all me working it, not nature.

I still have about 40 lbs. to go to my goal, but I wanted to take in this milestone today and enjoy it.

To celebrate, I went through my closet again. I got rid of everything that had XL on it. I even went through my coat closet too. I placed everything in bags and it's all in the back of the Angry Julie Tahoe. I will be taking it all to the Goodwill tomorrow.

I can't wait to go shopping for my goal clothes. I know that my weight loss has dramatically slowed down lately. The last 40 or soo pounds are going to be hard to get off. I expect or will try to hit my goal by the first of the year.

The weekend left in a haze

It's already Tuesday. Where did my weekend go?

Really for me, my weekend starts today. Unlike most normal people, I work Fridays through Mondays. It was sooo damn busy this weekend at work too. Yesterday was my long day, I was an idiot and signed up for some overtime again. I started work at 6am and left work a little after 2am.

I slept in till 10am this morning. I felt great. I was sick all weekend with this cold and I'm finally starting to feel a bit better. I really don't know where to start with my day.

I see that my Gap and Old Navy order has arrived. I placed that damn order on the 1st. I went through everything. I'm probably going to return about 1/2 of my order. The stuff I ordered for me is too big, can I get a BIG HELL YA for that. And the pants that I ordered for Angry Toddler, well, umm, he's still potty training and there's no way he would be able to take him off by himself. I'm going to return the stuff to the actual stores though, cause Gap has gotten some new goodies in and I want some things for myself.

I should probably clean and do some laundry. But really I just want to prop myself on the couch, watch some goodies on the DVR and relax. I think I might go and do that until 2-ish, then re-evaluate what to do today.

And on another note, I hit when of my all time achievements for weight loss today, but I'll dedicate a whole post to that later. I need to enjoy it for a few hours. I'm pretty excited about this.

Need to Motivate Myself

It's been hella busy at work lately. I've gotten kinda behind in things.

I'm going to dedicate myself to actually working and doing some paperwork today. I've got all my forms on the table near me, along with my ipod shuffle.

I've decided not to sign onto my chat platforms so I won't get too distracted. Although if you really need to get ahold of me, well my good peeps, you have my cell number.

I'm working a long azz day and I'm determined to get caught up.

YES, I'm still sick too. I had horrible sleep last night, and I probably should have called in sick this weekend sometime. But really I have too much to do.

Talk to you alls later!

Being Sick and Being a Mom

Gone are the days when I could go home, take some Tylenol PM and sleep all night.

Angry Toddler was sick Wednesday night. I kept him home Thursday. He slept about half the day and then I took him to the Dr. in the afternoon. They diagnosed him with an ear infection and a cold. They gave him some antibiotics and sent us on our way, minus a $25 co-pay.

Yesterday, Angry Husband stayed home with Angry Toddler since AT was medicated. AT is not good on medications. He has asthma and when he gets breathing treatments, he goes on a steroid-al high. That's why we kept him home. Well I got to work, all was fine and dandy. About 2 hours later, my nose started running..

By the end of the day, my runny nose had turned into a full blown cold. I waited until I got home to take some cold meds. As the night went on, my cold got worse.

I woke up this morning at 5am not feeling any better. I took a shower and drugged myself with some more Tylenol Cold. Why didn't I stay home from work? Because I would be all alone with Angry Toddler. Does that sound like a fun day when you're sick? My mom watched AT on Saturdays. But sometimes, well ok most of the time, she's pretty selfish. If she knew I was staying home sick, she wouldn't have come over to watch AT.

So here I sit at work, miserable. I have to leave work at 2pm anyway, my parents are leaving for an anniversary party. Hopefully, Angry Husband will get home early and I can get some sleep. I already laid on the floor here in my office for an hour. Laying on a concrete floor, using your jacket as a pillow is not comfortable, just an FYI.

If I don't feel any better, I'm calling in sick tomorrow. Angry Husband will be home tomorrow and he can take care of AT.

I might be blogging a little or a lot today. I can't tell. I can't concrete on work right now, so Internet surfing will keep me preoccupied for now.

Operation Skinny Bitch

I have joined a group of bloggers with a common goal. What is our goal? To banish this extra weight we've been carrying along. Our team has formed and our coalition is now called......."Operation Skinny Bitch"!!

You can check out the OSB Blog at Operation Skinny Bitch
.

My mother the town gossip

So she calls me this morning from her house. She lives in a condominium complex here in Orange County. I refer to it as "The Trailer Park".

She is whispering on the phone to me. I'm like why are you whispering. Well she was talking about the neighbors. Umm, mom, you're windows are closed. They can't hear you.

Anyway, she called to gossip about her neighbors. They drive a Mercedes, and have a Bugaboo stroller for their one year old daughter. Well apparently, the neighbors went digging through the trash last night. My mom saw a kid's bike in the trash, and the bike showed up in the neighbors garage.

My mom is always calling me about shit like this. Seriously, she knows everything about everybody in her condo complex. Then, she was also telling me about another neighbor. I guess their son's house is going into foreclosure in Texas. The neighbors gave their son some money to get it out of foreclosure. Well my mom was whispering again, telling me that she was shocked that these "cheap asses" actually gave their son some money.

And I wonder where I get my gossip-y personality from?

Wandered Away from my Blog

I wandered away from my blog and computer this week.

I usually blog alot while I'm at work. But I was actually busy. Crime is up, people! Plus my totally undiagnosed A.D.D. is out of control lately. I've been finding it very hard to concentrate. Believe me, I've read everyone else's blogs. Everyone's had fabulous posts. But seriously the lack of concentration has kept me from even commenting.

I've been also trying to break my weight loss plateau this week. And yes, I did indeed break it. It's taken alot of work aka Slim Fast, Muscle Milk, and my good ole' treadmill. I've been running like a crazy woman. Now that I feel a little bit better, I can come back to reality.

Unfortunately, my week was starting to get better and then....Angry Toddler started getting sick. We should be thankful, he has not been sick since Easter. Angry Husband is like, well we've been lucky, etc. He started with a running nose Tuesday night. Well last night, he came into our room at about 11pm and started barfing. Seriously, why does the kid come to our bed to puke?

Then AH realized that AT was wheezing. Puking kid is ok, wheezing not soo good. Wheezing leads to full-on bronchitis. Ugh! So I had to break out our medicine factory last night aka Tylenol, Motrin, and the damn Nebulizer. AH graciously moved AT to the couch in the front room. AH advised me that he had to work today and that he needed his sleep. Gee thanks! Angry Toddler watched damn cartoons till 5am, YES 5am. The steroids from the nebulizer get him all high and keep him awake.

Finally, I said this is enough. At about 5:15, I moved the kid into our bed and he finally fell asleep. I hope he sleeps for a couple of hours. I'm totally unprepared too. I have no breakfast stuff for the kid. He usually eats breakfast at pre-school. Plus, I need to get some 7-up and other sick goodies.

Then, I'm going to have to call the doctor. His doctor's office loves us thankfully, and will squeeze us in. He'll probably need some antibiotics.

Hopefully, Angry Husband will come home early, so I can get a workout in.

My quest for the holy grail pajamas

I am always on a quest for something. This past week my quest was for a pair of Nick and Nora PJ Pants
. I went to three different Targets looking for them.

I should have known better. I always see something I like at Target. The first time that I saw these pants, I went into Target while working. I couldn't try the pants on, obviously cause I was in my work uniform. It would have looked rather funny if I was in the dressing room in my police uniform trying on some owl pajama pants.

So in the next few days after my first sighting, I went to some local Targets near my house. They were completely sold out. I didn't know the pants would be soo popular.

So I text messaged a friend, Londie
. I asked her if she was going to Target anytime soon. I know to ask Londie, cause that woman shops as much as me. Well Londie went to her local Target to look for me. Unfortunately, they only had an extra large at her store. But she took a hilarious picture of her husband, Brandon, holding up the pants with her iphone.



P.S. Blogger is angry with me. My HTML keeps messing up, just an FYI!

Award Time

Jennifer at Another Online Mom gave me this cute little award a couple of weeks ago. So I'm passing it along to my blogging girlies!!! So here you'll are. Accept this award and pass it on.

1. My Charmed Life (Londie)
2. No Cheese Please (Manisha)
3. Pieces of Me (Tamara)
4. Beautiful Mess (Erica)
5. Multi-Slacking Mamalicious (Holly)

Tag..I'm It!

1) What do you add to your coffee? Nothing. I don't drink coffee. I can't stand it.

2) What are you reading now? Subpoenas at work.

3) Do you own a gun? Actually no. But seriously, I'm around them all day. I kinda get sick of looking at guns. A taser might be nice though, snickering...

4) Are you registered to vote? yes.

5) Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Nope. Well maybe my OBGYN, she's Italian and nasty as all hell. She always argues with me about my weight.

6) What do you think of hot dogs? I was ok with them. But we had them for dinner last night and I got sick.

7) Favorite Christmas Song? Jingle Bells

8). What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Water

9) Can you do push ups? Yep.

10) What was the name of your first boyfriend/girlfriend? Keith.

11) What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? My Hawaiian wedding ring, but alas, it doesn't fit right now.

12) Favorite hobby? Shopping of course. It's a sport and hobby all rolled into one.

13) Do you work with people who idolize you? umm, I don't think so. Some people idolize my job though.

14) Do you have ADD? Definately undiagnosed A.D.D.

15) What’s one trait that you hate about yourself? My laziness.

16) What’s your Middle name? Ann, plain ole' mid 1970's middle name.

17) Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment. I really need to be working, I should get off the internet, and I'm thirsty.

18). Name 3 things you bought yesterday. Wii Fit (yay!), lunch at Pick Up Stix, and 1 month of tuition at Angry Toddler's preschool.

19) Name 3 beverages you regularly drink. Water, Gatorade AM, and Iced Tea

20) Current worry right now? Getting my e-bay auctions up and running.

21) What side do you dress to? This makes no sense to me at all.

22) Favorite place to be? In bed after Angry Toddler is asleep, just chillin'

23) How did you bring in the New Year? I was home.

24) Where would you like to go? Somewhere tropical.

25) Name three people who will complete this. I have no clue, but someone try it out. It seems between Londie and Manisha, alot of people have been covered.

26) Whose answers do you want to read the most? Everyone's

27) What color shirt are you wearing? Navy blue, lovely police uniform

28). Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Nope. I slide all around.

29) Can you whistle? Nope.

30) Favorite colors(s)? I love purple, black and brown. In no order of course.

31) Could you be a pirate? hahaha, Nope

32) What songs do you sing in the shower? I don't sing in the shower.

33) Favorite girls name? I love all kinds, nothing particular.

34) Favorite boy’s name? Caden, of course.

35) What’s in your pocket right now? Compact flash memory card.

36) Last thing that made you laugh? Angry Husband. He was teasing me on the phone. He was at Sonic. He knows I love me some Sonic.

37) Best bed sheets as a child? Holly Hobby

38) Worst injury you’ve ever had? I went over my handlebars when I was mountain biking a couple of years ago. I almost broke my hip.

39) Do you love where you live? Yes. I would like it if my house was a little bigger and if I had better neighbors.

40) How many TVs do you have in your house? 3

41) Who is your loudest friend? Londie, of course

42) How many dogs do you have? 2

43) Does anyone have a crush on you? I hope so, doesn't everyone love Angry Julie

44) What are the most fun things you ever did? All our Disneyland trips. Sorority life in college. Good times with friends and family.

45) What are your favorite books? Chick lit type books. I don't have one in particular.

46) What is your favorite candy? See's Candy

47) Favorite Team? I'm soo not a sports fan.

48). What songs do you want played at your funeral? Something upbeat, I hope.

49) What were you doing at 12 AM? Sleeping

50) What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Seriously, it's 5am ALREADY?