Minnie Mama's Blog

Wordless Wednesday

minniemama — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 20:04:45 +0000

Persistance pays off…long story short as this is Wordless Wednesday. She wanted so badly to hold a butterfly, but they wouldn’t let her as it was against the rules. After much begging and pleading and asking why not? She’d be gentle they kindly agreed ~~gave up~~ and let her.

Holy Little People

minniemama — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:18:37 +0000

Okay so I come home last night and OMG it looks like Christmas in my hallway. Like literally there’s toys everywhere. Little people toys to be exact. The first thought that ran threw my mind is OMG I am gonna kill him because I had an appt. after work so the hubs was picking Isabella up from school and of course I assumed he took her to the toy store and spent our entire life savings on toys so she’d stop crying for Mama. Yes, there was really that many toys and yes bribery does happen quite often in our house from both of us. Now before you start sending me nasty-grams that bribery is not the proper techinique for parenting, trust me it works and if you claim to never try this amazing negotiating method then you are either a big fat liar or a Saint!

Anyways, long story short, one of the lawyers in the hub’s building was cleaning out her garage and kindly gave ALL of them to Isabella. Like literally there was thousands of dollars worth of Little People. There’s a zoo, school, pizza building, house, bus, castle, horse & carriage, farm, garage, hundreds of people & animals, etc. I cannot get over the kindness and generosity of this person. I am literally blown away, amazed, and so grateful! The hubs called me earlier to let me know there’s MORE toys on the way for Isabella…wow it’s like Christmas in July at our house!

Isabella played for hours and hours last night w/ all of her new treasures and this morning the 1st thing she did was run into the living room to play some more. It’s amazing how much fun that little girl has w/ Little People and I’m sure there’ll be many more hours of playing to come.

On a side note, I gotta admit this really couldn’t have come at a better time as her new favorite game was making me pretend to be Snow White who eats a poison apple and falls asleep so then she has to try every possible idea that pops into her head to wake me up only to find that kissing me is the only thing that works. And if I “Snow White” dares to smile, peak her eyes open a little, or move in the slightest then the little director screams start from the beginning or I get severely scolded for not playing the right way. She’s def a cutie pie, but man that child is a tough cookie when it comes to her fairy tales!

Happy Summer

minniemama — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:49:26 +0000

Wow! Where has the time gone? Seriously, it’s 1/2 way through July and I am just no blogging. Whoops… Okay so confession time, I totally realized I haven’t blogged in forever and honestly every single day I thought about it and even had funny, silly things to tell you guys, but then I just didn’t. Yes, I am a total slacker sometimes. I just haven’t been in the mood to get on here and share my personal busines w/ you guys. Sorry if that sounds rude, but it’s the truth. A lot has been going on, but at the same time nothing at all. Make sense? No? I didn’t think so either!

I’ve just been working and spending all of my other time w/ Isabella and the hubs enjoying the summer. Well let me re-phrase that — Isabella and I have been enjoying the summer and the hubs has been working a lot. Yeah, it kinda sucks for him, but he’s awesome and this is the time of year when he makes the most of his $$. Long story, please don’t ask…

Anyways, I decided to just hop on here and let you all know that I’m alive, well, and still around. I realize I prob lost a lot of readers (maybe even all?), but I’ll start blogging regularly again if you all start reading me again. As my little BFF loves to say does that sound like a good plan to you?…apparently my OCD planning has rubbed off onto the child.

I promise tomorrow will be an official silly / funny / boring sort of post so check on back. Okay so it won’t be all three, but there will be a post of some sort!

And with that, I leave you with this picture just because it’s that hungry time of day and ice cream sounds deeeeeeelicious to me right now on this hot 90+ day!

Yoplait Fiber One Blueberry Yogurt Contest

minniemama — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:19:57 +0000

As you all know Minnie Mama has been on a quest to lose weight and tone up for summer. Who isn’t, right?! In addition, to hitting up the gym and my 30 Day Challenge I also need to concentrate on what goes into my body. As a lifetime member of WW I am always very conscious about what I eat and don’t eat. For example, I could eat a fattening candy bar full of sugar that will just end up making me full sluggish and cranky or I could havea cup of yogurt (lots of awesome protein so it always fills me up!) w/ a piece of fruit and some almonds that will energize me and keep me going. What do I choose? The candy bar of course! Kidding, kidding. I choose the yogurt and if I’m not starving, but just need a little snack to tide me over till my next meal I could just eat the yogurt w/o anything else.

There’s so many different kinds of yogurts on the market and I swear I’ve tried them all as I am a HUGE yogurt fan. Love it! And one of the awesome new ones that I just recently tried thanks to My Blog Spark is Yoplait’s Fiber One Blueberry. It has only 50 calories, 5 grams of fiber, and 0 grams of fat so it’s a totally guilt free snack. Plus it also contains vitamins A and D and it’s a good source of calcium. Not bad, right?!

And did I mention that thanks to My Blog Spark in addition to the free yogurt, I also received an awesome fitness / food journal w/ pen (love it and use it everyday to track my progress!) blueberry stress ball (came in handy the past few weeks at work), sport towel, and a water bottle?! Seriously this is was an amazing gift pack and all of the stuff gets used literally every single day. Well except for the yogurt, that only lasted about two days in our house till it was totally polished off.

So now it’s your turn and I want YOU to have a chance to win this awesome prize too!

How to Enter:

Leave a comment telling me your favorite healthy snack and why.

Additional Entries:

Subscribe to Minnie Mama’s Blog and leave a comment letting me know you did.
Comment on any of my other posts. I love, love, love comments!
Blog about this contest on your blog and then leave a comment w/ your blog link letting me know you did.
Tell me how you like to eat your yogurt? Straight up plain or do you add in fruit or nuts? You get the idea…

Rules: You do not need to be a blogger to enter, but you must have a valid email address and be 18 years or older. This contest will be closed on Friday, April 29th at 1pm and a winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will be contacted via email. However, the winner must respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be chosen.

Important Disclosure: No monetary compensation was received. My Blog Spark, Yoplait, and Fiber One provided me with a gift pack, information, and an additional gift pack for one of my lucky readers. All of the opinions expressed are 100% true based on my own experiences.

Holy Cow

minniemama — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:50:06 +0000

Holy Cow! Where has the time gone?! Like I knew I’d been slacking off on this lil ‘ol blog, but OMG I totally didn’t realize it’s been almost a month since I’ve popped in. Wow & sorry!

I hope all of my loyal readers didn’t give up hope on me?! I realize I suck and am a crappy blogger, but thank you for loving me anyways or at least checking in every now and then!

And speaking of love as a token of my gratitude for all of you I’m gonna host a really fun & exciting contest that will be super quick so be sure to come back here ASAP to enter as it’s literally closing tonight which is code for OMG I dropped the ball on this and realize I suck at this too so trying to get it in before the deadline.

So a lot’s been going on w/ me and at the same time nothing new at all really. Make sense? I didn’t think so either, but I never claimed to be logical… Life’s just gotten in the way yet again and I’ve been trying to do it all which means this sad little blog got left behind. I really hate when I do that, but sometimes you gotta pick and choose priorities. Unfortunately, speaking of priorities my 30 Day Challenge has also taken a backseat to all of my daily priorities and that totally sucks! I really hate feeling like a big, fat failure. I do.

On the plus side I’ve still been keeping up w/ the gym for a minimum of 3x week which I realize isn’t the greatest, but all you working Mamas out there can relate — it’s hard to balance FT work, commuting, daycare schedules, night time routines (dinner, bath, stories, lunch prep, playtime etc.) and then find the time to leave the house for the gym. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen, sigh… But I have been walking about 3 miles at lunch everyday so that’s a good thing and I am proud of that.

I am planning to start up the 30 Day Shred Challenge again this weekend and this time I am determined to make it work. In fact to make myself stick w/ it, I think I might post before pics cuz honestly I am totally vain and there’s no chance that I’ll post these awful before pics of myself w/o knowing there will be better pics to come. Ha ha.

Okay so this is a super quick post as I gotta get on the ball and post that contest. There’s just never enough time in the day to balance it all which is pretty ironic considering my professional job is based on this concept….

Spring Cleaning

minniemama — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:00:19 +0000

I really have Spring fever. Maybe it’s because it’s officially Spring and I am sooo sick of winter? Of course it still feels like winter and it’s freeeezing here in Boston, but whatevs. Technically it’s Spring and I am so ready for it. So much in fact that I’ve already started ~~tearing apart~~ organizing our closets. Now I am totally not a hoarder and if anything am the extreme opposite, I absolutely hate / loathe / despise / cringe at clutter so cleaning out the closets is actually something I try to do on a regular basis. I hate holding onto stuff and just want to get rid of it rather it be through donating or selling which is my preferred method cuz I love making a little extra $$ on the side. But then there’s the whole issue w/ what should I save if there’s ever baby #2 and what should I just not hang onto? I’ve actually sold all of Isabella’s baby basics (high chair, tub, jumper, swing, etc) because I HATE clutter and while I will prob be cursing myself 10 million years from now, at the time I felt a sense of relief when selling this stuff. But I did hang onto her cute teensy little outfits because honestly I bought ~~super expensive designer~~ quality outfits that were worth the $$ to me at the time. Now if there’s ever a next time around of course I won’t buy the same type of clothes because I am very frugal now, but at the time I was ~~crazy~~ justified as I was young & had the money to ~~blow~~ invest on designer duds. So why am I babbling on and on about this? Well, I started thinking the other day what if there’s never a Baby #2 and then if there is a baby #2 what if it’s (gasp) not a girl or what if the baby is a girl, but the size / seasons don’t even match up w/ the outfits?! That means I saved bins and bins of clothing for all those years for NOTHING! Ugh. Do you seem my dilemna?! God help me, this is serious business to a control freak neatnick like myself! I am seriously contemplating going through all of her old clothes and selling them as it seems silly to hang onto clothes for a what if…

And while we’re on the subject of hanging onto stuff — I am also contemplating selling my wedding dress (it’s almost 10 years old and obviously I am not gonna wear it again!) and perhaps even my treadmill. Both of those do have sentimental meaning, but if they never get used then why keep them around, right? Of course the treadmill used to get use 24/7, but life changes and now it’s sadly more of a disturbance in my little BFF”s playroom. Although the thought of parting w/ my beloved treadmill does make me kinda uneasy — again it goes back to the what ifs. But I could totally use the $$ so I see myself selling lots of things in the next few weeks and I like the rush from selling stuff. Yes, I am nuts, I know.

Shake Your Booty Playlist

minniemama — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:00:38 +0000

I absolutely love going to the gym. Okay so I know that sounds nuts and kinda sarcastic, but I am not kidding. I am dead serious. I love working out! It’s MY time and while it’s typically only 1 hour, it’s 1 hour that’s just for me. For those of you who don’t have kids yet, you might not fully appreciate / relate to that statement, but trust me when you get to the point in your life when you can’t even use the bathroom w/o a little person coming w/ you and inspecting what you’ve “done” if you know what I mean then you too will cherish those moments at the gym! And yes, toddlers who are potty training / trained are curious to see and compare bathroom stuff — good times, good times.

And so when I ~~escape~~ run out to the gym, I really try to get in my zone and have the best sweaty workout I can in a short amount of time (45 min – 60 min typically). My gym has TVs on their machines and while sometimes I am tempted to catch up on my guilty pleasure reality TV shows (Kardashians or Holly’s World) I find that I kinda slow down and don’t kick it up into high gear like I would if I had the headphones pumping in my ears. Do you feel the same way? Or if I am listening to music and the sing is kinda slow then I also find myself slowing down to the pace of the music which is also no good!

And so I bring to you Minnie Mama’s current fave playlist to keep my booty moving and the sweat dripping down my…you get the idea. Feel free to copy my playlist and leave a comment if you have any other ones you wanna share. I’m always on the look out for new songs!

Minnie Mama’s Booty Shaking Gym Songs

Breakin’ Dishes – Rihanna (An oldie, but totally gets me moving)
Club Can’t Handle Me – Flo Rida (wonder if he’s from Florida? lol)
Fighter – Christina Aguilera (Another oldie, but awesome still!)
Hips Don’t Lie – Shakira (Again – I like the old stuff)
More – Usher
Take it Off – Kesha
Pretty Girl Rock – Keri Hilson (Change the words to Katie. Trust me on this one — you will LOVE the song so much more! Ha ha)
On the Floor – Jennifer Lopez
S&M – Rihanna

Keeping the Focus

minniemama — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:51:59 +0000

Do you ever feel like it’s hard to keep the focus and concentrate on the big picture? I totally do. I know what my goals are and what I need to do to achieve them, but sometimes it just seems so outta reach and unattainable that I crash. Hence, my desire to devour 3 100 calorie chocolate cupcake packs the other night. Yes, 3. Major fail. Sigh…

But as I say over and over again (yes, I am a broken record) today is a new day and I can do this. I’ve done it before and I can do it again. In my early 20′s I lost over 85lbs on WW and while it was hard, I did it. It’s been almost 10 years now (God, I feel old) and I’ve managed to keep that weight off w/ the exception of being prego and these couple of pounds that recently crept up on me. So why is it so hard to lose the weight now, I ask myself?! Why can’t I just do it? Are goldfish and tempting little chocolate cupcakes that awesome? Are they really worth wasting my goals on? Don’t I want to look hot in my bikini this summer and rock the cute sundresses w/ hot mama heels?! Of course I do! And I am gonna do it!

Okay so that’s my self pep talk to myself today and hopefully it helps. And if you needed a pep talk then I hoped it helped you too. But if you didn’t need one and you have any pep or will-power left to spare then please send it my way!

Update on the 30 Day Shred Challenge

minniemama — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:45:51 +0000

Hey guys! I just realized I’ve been MIA since last week. Don’t worry I didn’t drop dead from the 30 Day Shred Challenge, although at times I thought I might, I’ve just been super busy! And honestly a little lazy…

So here’s an update, last week was my time if ya know what I mean and I got a little lazy w/ stuff so I kinda slacked off a bit. I skipped one day last week of my Shred Challenge and OMG the next day I was a total biatch. Not even kidding — I really was a witch to be around and I knew it, but I just couldn’t help myself. Exercising really takes me to my happy place and if I miss a day apparently it’s not good for anyone. So I skipped that day, but the next day (Thursday) I was back in the swing of things and going strong w/ Level 2. Of course I then ended up skipping Saturday and Sunday (Yes, I know I SUCK!), but in my defense I did hit the gym up both days so that kinda off-sets it, right?! Ugh…

Well, today is a new week and a new day so I am starting fresh and throwing myself right back in there w/ my 30 Day Shred Challenge. Sure, when all is said and done it might end up being more like a 45 Day Shred Challenge, but that’s fine w/ me — I just need to do this! And before you ask, no I didn’t Shred this morning, but its in the plans for tonight after work. Hopefully my little BFF will go to bed early so I can do it then, but if not then we’ll be Shredding together – most likely we’ll go back to Level 1 and start fresh as she totally HATES level 2. She really is too funny!

30 Day Shred Challenge: Days 4, 5, & 6

minniemama — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:17:59 +0000

So I took a little break from blogging over the weekend cuz honestly everyone needs a little time to unwind and unplug. I really feel it’s important for your mental health to step back from all of the technology and just chill out sometimes! And so chill out is what I did — I had a wicked busy / fun weekend and will tell you all about that in a different blog post, but right now here’s a quick recap on my 30 Day Shred Challenge.

Saturday (Day 4) was my last day of Level 1. Like I said before I felt like I would be graduating soon so decided to make it be my last day in the comfort zone of Level 1. Saturday morning I hit the gym at 7am and then came home to Shred it out w/ my little fitness partner. BTW, we got a pink yoga mat for her to use and she’s in love! Seriously this kid is obsessed w/ exercising — it’s so funny!

Sunday (Day 5) I hit the gym again 1st thing in the morning and then did groceries and headed home for a fun day w/ my Mom and Isabella…more on that later. During Isabella’s nap, I decided to Shred and move on up to Level 2. Honestly, Level 2 isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but I def feel it in my shoulders w/ the strength circuit. The cardio isn’t bad at all, but I’m not so graceful so some of the moves are funny to see my try to do — the ballerina spin thing is HARD for my coordination. lol

And then today was Day 6 so I got up wicked early before our morning got hectic and shredded it out again on Level 2. And I feel like I am starting to get the hang of some of the moves, but honestly I am a clutz so we’ll see. I am def getting a good workout in though as I feel the burn and I love it!

Oh yeah and before I forget — in Level 2 when Jillian says she wants us to feel like we’re gonna die, I honestly did feel that way at times!! Ha ha