February 20, 2015 by Stephanie

If I Were Famous…

The Oscars are this weekend. I LOVE watching the Oscars, even though I have to admit that I have seen very little of the films nominated. Who is excited about Neil Patrick Harris? This girl is. Except following Ellen’s performance from last year will be a little rough I imagine.

The 85th Academy Awards® will air live on Oscar® Sunday, February 24, 2013. image via

Anytime there is a red carpet, I wish I was famous and wonder what life would be like to go in front of cameras all dolled up. Sidenote: a real dream of mine is to be one of the ladies who is the award presenter/guider. You know the ones that don’t say anything but just stand there with the award and look pretty and point people where to go. You don’t really have to be famous to do that do you? How does one make that happen?

Anyway, It makes me wonder though what kinds of things I would want when I travel if I were a celebrity. Have you heard of a rider? A rider is a list of demands that celebrities make when say they are on tour. Each destination must meet these requests. I am not really sure what happens if they don’t. Perhaps they don’t perform or do the interview? These requests are supposedly to make them feel more at home and like themselves.

Anyway here are things I would want in my dressing room.

1. Chocolate Donuts. And not anything fancy from a real bakery. I want these: the Hy-vee off-brand. I eat 5 every morning so these would definitely be comfort food. (Also in writing this, I discovered I could order these online…dangerous.)

0072030015710_A1L1_ItemMaster_type_large image via

2. A big white robe and big fuzzy slippers. I want to feel like a cloud is hugging my body. Make it happen people.

3. Candy of the Twizzler and Ferror Rocher variety.

4. I would assume I have my own stylist team if I am famous enough to insist on a rider (which would be the one reason I would want to be famous), but I would like to have a masseuse waiting for me at every destination. Traveling is rough!

5. Panera Mac & Cheese and McDonald’s Fries. Because I need carbs when I travel. Who am I kidding? I need carbs all the time.

6. Straws in every drink. I am a sloppy drinker without straws. Seriously, it’s like I have never drank out of a real cup. I am an adult who needs a sippy cup. It would be even better if the straws were those fancy vintage looking ones, but I won’t be a diva about it. Just give me a dang straw so I don’t spill all down my front.

7. Hot towels. You know like when you get them right out of the dryer hot. Isn’t this the best feeling ever to be wrapped up in a warm towel after a shower?

8. A full smoothie station. Just have all the fruits and vegetables and ONE (brand) coconut water please. I would also ask that they are all local products from that particular area. Support small farms!

9. Listerine. I don’t know about you but when I travel I always feel like my teeth are more gross than normal. I need to clean up that dirty mouth.

10. A box of puppies. (And someone else to handle them). Because why not? There really isn’t much else that can bring joy quite like puppies!. Bring me all the puppies! (I would also insist that these puppies/dogs come from local shelters. This way these dogs can have a mini field trip from being in a shelter and maybe I can convince people with my celebrity status to adopt them. Fame for the win!

I may demand other things if were actually famous like J-Lo who has to have everything white, even her food. But as a non-A lister now, I think these things are pretty reasonable to feel comfortable. But let’s be clear besides the straws, Listerine, and donuts, these are not really things I have at home on a daily basis. Unless you put Grace and Crosby in a box, then maybe I have number 10.

So it makes you wonder if these riders are really what their lives are like at home or if they can just demand these things because they are famous. But then it makes you wonder why do we cater to these demands in the first place? But that is a discussion for another day.

Oh if I were famous…

What would you have on your rider? Are you going to watch the Oscars?

February 19, 2015 by Stephanie

Fit for Me 7/52

What I did last week:

Wednesday-15 minute ab workout

Thursday-30 minutes on a new machine. It is a cross between an elliptical and step machine. My legs were on fire the entire time.

Sunday-15 minutes on the treadmill before I broke it. I am still not sure what I did, but it cleared out my workout before I was done. I cover up the mileage while I run, so I didn’t know where I was and I didn’t want to start over. I moved to a bike and did 30 minutes.

Monday-1 hour of BodyStep. This is a class where you basically march and hop all around this step bench. This class kicked my booty. I need to step it up (pun intended). Never have I felt so out of shape or uncoordinated. It was a fun workout on the snow day though!

Tuesday-30 minutes on the treadmill

Impressed by:

Going to work out on a snow day when it would have been just as easy to stay in.

Struggled with:

My grandma’s passing. It is not really fitness related but it emotionally rocked my world which in turn affects everything else. Her funeral was yesterday. It is never easy to say goodbye to someone but especially someone who was such a class act like Grandma.

Did I meet my goal from last week?

My goal was to get 6 miles on the bike. Well I got 5.96, so I would say that is close enough. I also wonder if I could have gone harder if I had not run for 15 minutes first.

What is my goal for next week?

I am going to try again on the bike to get 6 miles in 30 minutes. I mean I was so close!

Fitness Thoughts:
Sometimes I judge my workouts by how sweaty I get. I had a couple this week where I was dripping. I always think this sweat means I owned that workout, or that I had to put in a lot of effort to be owned by the workout. Either way, it’s like a badge of honor that I put it all out there.

image via

Have you taken a step class? Could you get the moves down? Do you ever judge your work by the sweat?

February 17, 2015 by Stephanie

Mom Confessions

I think we always share our highlight reels on social media. I have been wanting to share the not so glamorous parts that most people won’t admit online. This confession link-up gave me the push to actually post it.

So here are some of my mom confessions.

George is the worst nap taker and refuses to take naps at home. And there is no transferring him from the car-seat or your arms without waking him up. So if he falls asleep in his car-seat while we are out, I will leave him in the car-seat until he wakes up. There have been some times where he stays in his car seat for more than 30 minutes once we get home.

When I am driving and can’t find his pacy because well I am driving, I have put my finger in his mouth to calm him down. You do what you have to do sometimes.

I unintentionally may have flashed my entire office a couple weeks ago while I was pumping. I have blinds on my window, and I was all hooked up with boobs out when I noticed I forgot to shut them. MORTIFIED. My office is the kind though that someone would have kindly sent me a message reminding me to shut them. So I don’t think anyone saw anything, but I am still embarrassed that someone may have. Seriously my heart is pounding just thinking about it even though it was a couple weeks ago.

Speaking of forgetting things, every single day I think I forget to shut the garage door. Almost daily I have to circle the neighborhood to make sure that I closed it. Not once have I actually forgotten, but every day I am terrified once I get out of my neighborhood that I did. Just this morning I had to circle; and even after checking the second time out of the neighborhood, I still thought I may have forgotten.

The only songs I know without music are “The Star Spangled Banner,” “America the Beautiful,” and “Amazing Grace.” These are the only songs I sing when I rock George to sleep. So yes my kid falls asleep to the national anthem every night.

I use baby wipes to clean upstairs when I am too lazy to bring the cleaning stuff upstairs. Ok, I may use baby wipes to clean everywhere.

This is George’s original Halloween outfit. It is a 0-3 month, he will be 6 months old next week. Yes I still made him wear it in February.

What are your confessions?

February 16, 2015 by Stephanie

Snow Day

This morning I woke up to every school in the area being closed in the area except mine. So I begrudgingly got up, fed George, and got in the shower. I took my time hoping that my school would get with the picture and call for a snow day and also accepting that if they didn’t I probably would be late.

You see snow days aren’t just fun for the kids. Adults get giddy too seeing their school scroll across the bottom of the TV.

Halfway through my shower, Tom gave me the news that I did indeed have a snow day. SNOW DAY! I shaved my legs in celebration. I seriously never have time do that.

This free day off was much need after the weekend we had. It is giving us the chance to breath before having to go back to the real world.

This will probably be the only snow day the three of us ever have together. Police Officers don’t really get snow days, but since Tom is in school he got one today. (He is already back in bed for the morning.)

So we are going to do this snow day right.

Here is what is on the agenda:

watch 3 hours of Pretty Little Liars
take a nap
exercise for more than 15 minutes
read a couple chapters in my new book
do some laundry that I didn’t have time for yesterday
take some pictures of George that I didn’t get to this weekend for my photo challenge
write a couple blog posts I haven’t had time to complete
watch the SNL 40th with Tom
eat lots of donuts and cookies
And lots of this. I may just wear him all day. I didn’t put him down most of the weekend dealing with Grandma stuff. He was such a comfort.

The nice thing about snow days is it is like a free weekend. It’s like a gift. We plan to enjoy every extra moment we get to have at home.

What do you do on your snow days? Did you get one today?

February 15, 2015 by Stephanie

Life.

One year ago, we were celebrating the news that we would be adding life to our family. Valentine’s Day we found out we were pregnant.

This year we celebrated life in a different way. We celebrated a life lost.

Such a big life.

Friday night my sweet sweet grandma passed away.

This is such a hard loss because of the huge place Grandma held in our lives. While we knew this was something that was going to happen, her passing is still very much a shock because of how she has always been there for us.

She was one of the sweetest and most selfless women I knew. It’s hard to sum up everything that she was and meant to us.

She is colored popcorn balls.

She is lunch dates to Andres.

She is our first trip to Silver Dollar City.

She is the blue suede jacket that was forever a staple in her closet.

She was a trip to the movies to see the latest kid blockbuster.

She is her insistence that she was always 5.8 and a size 8 shoe.

She is watching Curly Sue, Heidi, and Big Business with me on repeat.

She is the shrimp holiday meal.

She is the immaculate manicure and updo. (Come to think of it, I don’t think I ever did see her nails not done.)

She is trips to Japanese Steak House.

She is the Hallmark movies she would save.

She is the angel Christmas decorations that would flood her house in the winter.

She is the call to make sure I was ok on campus, and that I was carrying a flashlight.

She is the family she embraced (blood and not). She adopted anyone as hers.

She is the laugh that fills you up.

She is the way she talked about each of her grandchildren and great grandchildren with great pride and love.

She is the support she showed us at every band concert, play, sports event, etc.

She is the way her eyes lit up when you walked in the door to visit.

She is a role model as a wife and mother.

She is the sparkle you saw when she talked about the love of her life (Grandpa).

She is the way she said I love you.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Grandma was so much to all of us that there is definitely a void that is felt by all.

We spent so much time at her house growing up. It was a safe haven for us, and we knew a good time would be had with her. All of these moments, I will cherish.

She was a mom to three, grandma to eight, and great-grandma to thirteen. And she loved as all so fully. Goodness it is hard to explain the emotion and all that she gave to us.

She was one of those people who gave everything that she was and then just a little more. She was seriously the best.

This was just a start to remember all of it. There will never be anyone quite like her. She was one special lady. This is my attempt to put it into words, but it’s still tough to process this loss. I just can’t imagine going home to Kansas City without seeing her face or hearing her voice. So much beauty wrapped up in one person.