Weekend Redux: COLD

I'm not built for the cold. It's 26 degress in Las Vegas right now. Even though I'm typing from the warm safety of my desk, I'm still freezing.
It was cold all weekend, so I spent most my time hiding under a blanket in warm fuzzy pants and thick fuzzy socks.

Saturday evening we had a show. We played with Asesino, featuring Dino from Fear Factory and Tony from Soulfly. We played an awesome set and had a great response from the crowd. We had a lot of fun too. We got to hang with friends, make new friends, and enjoyed ourselves as you can see.

Productivity

On Monday a coworker/ fellow blogger and I attended the New Media Expo. We only had exhibit hall passes which unfortunately excluded us from any of the great classes they had available.
We met some interesting vendors and I found some great opportunity for my little blog here. Almost every vendor I spoke with commented on how cool or unique my blog topics were.

Unlike a lot of the blogs I read on the regular, I don't have a big readership (yet) and I don't really make any revenue off of it. Which is fine, as it's more of an outlet for my writing and ranting about being an unsigned musician than it is a career choice.

I would definitely like to grow my audience... I mean in all aspects of blogging, music, and such. I want to know from you, dear reader, what you like about my blog and what topics you think I should tackle.
Thanks!

Healthy (metal) Living: Trying a Diet

If you look to the left you'll see a link to a book I bought recently: Flat Belly Diet. Thanks to my awesome gift giving guitar player (say that three times fast) who gave me a gift card to Barnes And Noble I picked out this book in the bargain section to give it a try.
I walked around the store for over an hour with a handful of books. This one I set down at least four times and then came back to it. Making the final decision as I stood in line.
Unlike most women my age when I look back at pictures of my twenties or teens I don't wish I had that body again. I was twenty pounds heavier at 19 than I am now. I was two sizes bigger and had struggled with my weight since eighth grade.
After I had Hayden in 2006, for the first time in my life I tried to lose weight. I started with Namaste Yoga: Season One  while I was on maternity leave. I had been super skeptical of my ability to do Yoga. Mostly cause I'm not very coordinated. After watching a few episodes I was convinced and bought myself a Yoga mat and everything. I lost all the pregnancy weight but was determined to lose more.
A few months later I started walking with my coworkers on breaks and started my own version of a low-carb diet. That was the first diet I ever tried.
Within three months I had lost about 28 pounds. The thinnest I had been since eighth grade.
It's been six years. I've only gained eight pounds and a pant size back but I lost the muscle tone that I had due to lack of exercise.
My belly has always been an issue. Never in my life, not even as a baby have I had a "flat" belly. My father's ex-wife used to call it a "pooch" and she wondered why I wore baggy clothes in high school.  I hated it.
No matter how many crunches, sit ups, or exercising I would do it never be flat.
So when I saw a book entitled Flat Belly Diet that claimed no exercise necessary, I thought for $6, it might be worth a try.
I started on Friday with the four day induction, as of this morning I lost four pounds.
So far, so good. I'll try and post updates as I go.

Singing All The Time

We're a musical family. Not like the Sound of Music type musical, but like a modern rock n roll version with only one child.
We all walk around the house singing. We make up our own songs mostly out of other songs we hear.
Hayden is obsessed with the chorus in this song thanks to a fantasy football commercial



He's also obsessed with the acoustics in the bathroom. He takes full advantage of not needing a microphone. I snuck up on him the other day "Rocking out in the bathroom"

The picky-ness WILL END

I remember this look my friend Jimmy gave me when I was in his kitchen cooking Hayden some meal for breakfast while we were there visiting.  It started with an eye roll and then it moved to me hearing this in my head "Really?! You're making him that crap while my perfect NON picky kids are eating blueberries and cereal for breakfast?"
Yes, my kid is THAT picky. I've tried for four years now to break him of it, but it just hasn't worked. I've struggled getting him to try new things, I've read numerous "solutions" and taken dozens of suggestions. Nothing has worked.
His palette consists of less than ten things he'll eat without a fight.
On New Years Eve as a family we sat down and discussed this problem. Hayden really likes these cheap microwave meals that are pretty much crap wrapped up in nugget form with some corn.
I read Hayden the ingredients and explained what some of them were and why they were bad for him.
That officially freaked him out. He's no longer into these meals (for now at least).
I also told him he needed to try some new things for the new year.
So I made him a deal. We made a list of 5 things he wants to try this year. For every new food he tries, he gets a toy worth $20 or less. Here's his list:

1. Bacon
2. Chicken Noodle Soup
3. Scrambled Eggs
4. Rice
5. Spaghetti

What I learned in 2012

On New Years last year I made a pact with Brian that 2012 would be a year of making shit happen.
With this motto in mind and positive thoughts I pushed through and made 2012 a great year. Now I want to look back and share the things I learned in 2012.

January 2012.

I had made a list of needs. Things I felt I needed to a) get to work b) do more freelance design work  and c) accomplish some goals I had set for myself. In January of 2012 I bought myself a laptop. My G4 desktop had kicked the bucket and I wanted/needed to have a computer.

Most of January was cold, rainy, and we were sick and broke. Kind of a gray start to such a great year. 

February 2012

I had an idea to throw a local musicians swap meet/garage sale and the idea became reality in February of 2012. I learned that ideas are awesome when they manifest into something great for the scene. I won a Kindle fire off a survey I took for one of the advertisers on my blog. Hayden calls it "mommy's big phone." 

I also started to try some Healthy Eating. That didn't last long but at least I tried.

March 2012

March was a month of change. Some negative sources were eliminated in a big way. I kept my lips sealed about it for the sake of being "a better person" and tried to be positive about the whole thing. Looking back I'm so glad it happened. Negative people who cause drama in our lives are not welcomed in any form; friend or family and things have been great without them all. With that release of negativity came a windfall of positivity in our lives. It pretty much started with my 32nd birthday

I had an amazing 32nd birthday. It was a Quentin Tarrantino themed party. 

I learned that my band, my friends, and my husband loved the themed parties and trying to find costumes in the middle of March. I also learned that things were on the right track for us. 

Right before the show Hayden and I got sick. A little cold of sorts. I learned not to push myself too hard at shows when sick. That cold turned into walking pneumonia and I was out of commission for five whole days. 

April 2012

In April I learned that I had to keep my best foot forward and work on improving things constantly. Things were still rough for us financially, and only having one vehicle was taking it's toll. We got better after being ill for a while. Then tackled one of the big things on my bucket list of making a music video. We started the process with our friend/director Calvin and with the help of some more awesome friends who filled the rest of the shots to make it look like a good time. I learned that the music video process is longer than expected, and that I don't like to watch myself on video that much.

May 2012

We formed a secret band with the same exact band members to play the same exact songs with addition of a few covers for a friends birthday. We tried for weeks to come up with a cool name and ended up using the Rock Band name Hayden and Chris had come up with months prior; Penguin Throwup. I learned that dressing up as penguins and playing a show is a lot of fun. This was also the month that after about 8 months of working at it things were finally fixed in our marriage. 

June 2012

In June Hayden graduated from Kindergarten and started losing teeth. My band got a decent review in a local magazine.  I learned that the Lake Mead beaches aren't too bad. I also learned that if you work really hard to attain a goal, speak to your bosses to make a change for the better and prove yourself that it sometimes works out to your benefit.

July 2012
We celebrated the 4th of July, then Brian's Birthday, then Hayden's 6th birthday and then our 13th anniversary of meeting each other.

I learned I can handle all of this stuff. And then....I GOT A PROMOTION AND A RAISE which helped start the process of fixing our financial problems. For the record our "problems" weren't as bad as a lot of other peoples problems. We weren't hugely in debt, losing a home or out of work like most. We were just struggling with household bills, only having one vehicle when we really needed two, and picking ourselves up after some other issues. Our problems were an easier fix than most and with the promotion we were able to fix these issues quickly.

August 2012
In August we started recording our sixth album Amor Fati. I learned a lot about how different recording experiences can be from one guitar player, to one producer, to one studio, to the next. I also learned that I was not cursed with getting sick before recording any longer like I had been the last five recording experiences. We took a vacation at the end of August to visit Brian's family in Washington state. It was a hectic trip but we got to spend some quality time together in Portland that was nice. I learned that even in Washington, it can't rain all the time. Visiting the rose gardens in Portland was one of my favorite things we did this year.

September 2012
In September I learned that my approach of being direct is good in business. An unfortunate lesson was that sometimes people suffer silently when they should really reach out to those around them.
At the end of September I learned not to be scared of buying stuff on eBay. Like a car. I purchased a vehicle from an eBay motors auction and ended up getting an awesome deal for half of blue book value. I celebrated with a fancy manicure and white wine. Then we took a road trip to California to pick up the new car whom I think I will name Green Disco. On that trip we reconnected with our always amazing friends Heather and Steve, parents of Hayden's BFF Julian.

October 2012
We learned how amazing the Springs Preserve is. We learned that 1st grade homework is no joke. We celebrated our 13th anniversary together. We had a blast on Halloween.

November 2012
I learned that I valued the opportunity to vote more than I expected.
Hayden learned that snow tastes like ice.

We played some amazing shows and attended an amazing Deftones show.  We celebrated Hanksgiving with good friends. Hayden learned to mix foods to get great tastes like carrots and onion dip. He also won his first electric guitar from a great locally owned music store.

December 2012
This month has been a month of gratitude for such a great year. We celebrated an amazing Christmas together and reminded ourselves that our lives together are pretty amazing.

I really feel like I use the words amazing and awesome a lot. I'm not worried about it though cause I'm HAPPY and GRATEFUL for every little bit of this life I get to have.
This year we tackled some problems and knocked them right out of our lives.
We upgraded some material things, visited family, taught a lot of valuable lessons to our child, worked hard to push forward with progress in the band, and cultivated important friendships with valuable amazing people.

Christmas 2012 Redux

This Christmas has been the best yet. We had an amazing Christmas Eve dinner with our friends AJ, Chris, Dave, Rob, Claudia and her children Anthony and Vivian.
I love having a full house and doing my best at playing hostess to appease the part of me that wants to be domestic and another part of me that wishes for a bigger family. I got busy in the kitchen all day and didn't really get everything done that I had hoped to but everyone enjoyed the food and had fun for as far as I could tell.  I made a beef roast, ham, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes with cranberry sauce and Claudia brought over some amazing enchiladas. We ate, chatted, laughed and exchanged some gifts.


For the last month and a half Hayden had been counting down the days till Christmas. He would mark off the days on the calendar and remind us how many were left. This was the first year he was THAT excited. The so excited that he got super hyper around everyone and the so excited that he couldn't sleep on Christmas Eve. He's been singing all the time. Sometimes Christmas songs he's heard on movies, heard me practice in the shower and sometimes little songs he made himself.

At about 6:45am he came rushing into our room to use the bathroom. He came to cuddle with us and Brian asked if he had seen what Santa had brought yet and he said he hadn't. I was waking up slowly but hadn't opened my eyes yet when I heard his little feet run down the stairs. A few minutes later he came running back up. He whispered to Brian "DADDY, he brought me both the ninjas I asked for and a bunch of movies!"

We both got up and dressed and rushed down the stairs to revel in his excitement.

After presents and breakfast we spent the day watching new movies, building legos together, drawing on the chalkboard of Hayden's new desk, and enjoying every single minute of it.

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas!