Moving Right Along

Well, it's Day Six of my 21 Day Tae-Bo Challenge. I can't say I'm really surprised that I've done this well so far. I'm very happy about it, and I feel like it's a big deal, but I believed I could do it. Maybe that's why I am doing so well.

Today was a very active day for me. Everything got off to a late start, since the kids had a two hour delay for school. I really dislike those, but there's not much I can do about it. At least I don't have a real job where it becomes a serious problem for me like it does for other working parents. I just get a later start on the things I want to do.

Once I got the brats off to school, I had to shovel the drive and walkway. We didn't bother doing it yesterday, which I ended up seriously regretting. Anyone who watched the Steelers play yesterday saw that it snowed all day long. I think it was somewhere around five inches yesterday, and then another two to three inches fell overnight. That left a buttload of wet, heavy snow for me to scoop today.

I started off well, which I always do. I scoop a path right down the center of the driveway, which is probably about twenty yards long. Every single time I do that, I think I'm making great progress and that this will be the time I get the whole driveway cleared in less than twenty minutes. Twice that time later, I'm finally finishing up. Every time. I don't know why I never learn that I get worn out by the time I make my way back up the driveway and must take multiple rests. Our driveway is dug into the ground as you go toward the house too, so there's four foot high walls on each side of it by the time you get to the garage. That meant lifting eight inches of wet, heavy snow up to shoulder height to dump it. We need a snowblower.

It is good exercise, and I'm young enough not to drop dead from a heart attack. At least I think I am. The way my chest and arms hurt when I'm done might not say the same thing. I usually feel pretty good when I'm done though, and I always tell myself, "I don't need no stinkin' snowblower." What always seals that deal though is when I drive around and see eighty year old neighbors out shoveling their driveways that are twice as long as mine. Maybe they're just cheap, but that doesn't make me feel any better about being the lazy ass 32 year old housewife with a snowblower.

I keep trying to nag John into doing what is supposed to be his job and scooping it himself, but either it snows while he's gone, and I have to shovel it off to go somewhere, or he whines and makes excuses as to why he shouldn't have to do it. It's too dark. I had a busy day. I don't feel like doing it right when I get home from work (and by the time he would feel like doing it, see reason number one). There's not enough out there; it'll melt. Make Hammy do it. And so on, and so forth. Loser. Who's the real lazy ass here?

I got that all done and left for "work." Today that meant sitting around FIL's office and chatting for three hours. But to back up my claim of having an active day, I did have to walk about three blocks from where I parked through a bunch of slush and snow. He and I also walked to the bank, which is about a block away. Then I walked back to the truck when I was done, so I got a little bit of walking in, which is more than my spud-like self is used to doing.

Oh, I did walk Booie to the corner for school too, which was another block there and back. I was just a walk-a-holic today.

Once the kids got home, I reluctantly took them to the Arboretum to go sledding. The Arboretum is something like ten acres of virgin land with one big clear area that is all hill. I guess when this area was settled, these acreages were sold to settlers who would clear one area and leave the rest wooded. I was once told the whole story, but I didn't retain much of it. There wasn't a test. Why bother?

Anyway, this place is the big sledding mecca of the neighborhood, and Booie's friend invited her to come up. Booie's not old enough to go on her own, so that meant I had to go too. Hammy and a friend came along as well, but we didn't walk the three or so blocks up there. Not only did I not want to walk that far through snow and slush, but I didn't want to listen to whiney kids dragging sleds home, because they were too cold and tired. I drove. I am the ultimate lazy American.

We couldn't have spent more than a half hour there before the kids were cold and crabby just as I thought they would be. Booie bitched all the way to the truck, which was just a few yards downhill from us. The parking lot in that place wasn't plowed, so it was a mess. There were kids and people all around as I tried to maneuver my unruly vehicle without flattening the uncooperative snow bunnies. I literally drove diagonally, because it was so slick and unmanageable, to the exit of the lot. I don't know how anyone without four wheel drive made it in or out of that place, and I didn't really care as long as I got out without putting another dent in my vehicle or killing some oblivious sled rider. In that order.

We were all cold, wet and irritable. I don't know why sledding ever seems like such a good idea. You spend most of your time trudging up the hill for only a few seconds of downhill excitement. Yet I seem to forget the frostbite, hypothermia and bitchy kids every time and go again and again and again. Just like thinking I'll scoop the driveway in twenty minutes, I'll never learn.

We changed out of wet clothes, and I got Booie relatively happy again before I set out to warm up by torturing myself some more doing a Tae-Bo tape. I did commit myself to a 21 Day Tae-Bo Challenge, not a 21 Day Exercise Challenge, so despite all the walking and shoveling and sledding I did, I still had to do some Tae-Bo, and I did.

I feel good, and I'm happy with myself, but you can bet your sweet ass that my own expansive fanny will be planted on the sofa tonight.