You've got to be kidding me.

Last Wednesday the majority of the Chicagoland area was under a tornado watch all afternoon. It looked pretty nice outside, so I wasn't toooooo worried about the possibility of huge storms. Boy was I wrong. Stormy weather started moving in around rush hour (not fun for Abb and Andy) and by 5:30 the power went out, the sky turned green, rain was blowing horizontally, and it started to hail. PANIC. Thank goodness my emergency kit has a little radio! I turned it on an immediately was informed we were under a tornado warning, and a second later, the sirens started sounding. PANIC AGAIN! It was just at this time that Abb got home from work. She ran upstairs to my apartment, grabbed Torii, and we headed downstairs to the lobby where people were congregating. The lobby, however, is anything but safe. Large windows, glass doors, pool area with retractable roof...but no one seemed incredibly worried so we all just hung out. Old people were drinking wine which I found slightly humorous. People were stuck in the elevators, which really sucked. It was SOOOOO HOT and humid in the building already, I can't imagine how these people felt in the elevator. Once the worst of it passed, we headed back upstairs and ate some turkey sandwiches while watching the incredible lightning display light up the sky. I seriously have never seen so much lightning in one evening. It was happening in every direction you looked! This was on the Chicago Tribune the morning afterwards.

After an hour of waiting for the power to come on, we decided to venture over to my dad's house for the evening. Our apartment had turned into a heat chamber and we were miserable. On our way over we were amazed at how many trees had fallen. A huge tree had fallen less than a block before my dad's house, blocking the street entirely. It was like navigating through a maze trying to figure out a clear path to his house! Before the sun set, the sky turned a crazy yellow...something I've never seen before. It was eerily amazing! This photo, again, is from the Chicago Tribune.

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Two big storms in 1 week! We also had several smaller thunderstorms throughout the week as well. The storm last Wednesday was by far the worst I've been in in a while. Oakbrook, our neighboring city, was hardest hit. Lots of damage to buildings and flooding. I'm thankful that we were all safe, and our only loss was our fridge full of groceries that I had just bought on Monday. Grrr!

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My fingers are crossed that the worst of the storms are over for the summer!! I suppose the storm was a great diversion though...I was too busy worrying about tornadoes to even think about my surgery scheduled for the following day. More on that tomorrow.

All because of a damn sandwich.

Friday started off as a lovely summer day. Storms were predicted in the late afternoon, so instead of going grocery shopping I decided I neeeeeded a Jimmy John's sandwich for lunch. Around 3:00, Isla and I headed out to Jimmy Johns, which is a 4 mile drive from my house. Immediately we got stuck in bad traffic. It took us 30 MINUTES to drive 4 miles. I didn't even actually get to Jimmy John's because the traffic for the left turn lane was backed up for almost a mile. I was done waiting so I headed the opposite direction to go to Subway. I was super annoyed at this point because there is a Subway 6 blocks from my apartment and I was really craving the yummy avacado spread at JJ's. Oh well. As I'm driving to Subway I'm noticing the clouds starting to roll in, so I am trying to make this a super quick trip. On our way home as I'm driving down York Road the sky becomes BLACK. Literally in 5 minutes. I started to freak out at this point, and then out of nowhere the winds pick up and start blowing debris all around, and branches start flying off of trees. Something hit the side of my car and I went into full panic mode. Traffic was at a dead stop because of a train up ahead. There was 1 car blocking my turn onto the street that leads to my dad's house. I started honking frantically to get the guy to move up a bit so I could turn. Thankfully he did and I raced down the street that was already littered with large tree branches. I saw a little boy on his bike and I was so scared for him. He looked terrified. Just as I got to my dad's house it started pouring and the wind was crazy. I ran inside, gave Isla to my step mom and ran back outside to move my car (I was afraid our basketball hoop was going to fall over on it).

By the time Isla and I were inside and safe my whole body was shaking. I truly thought a tornado was coming, and for a few seconds I thought we were going to die. It was awful. I felt much safer at my dad's house than I would have felt in my 5th floor apartment, but I hated knowing that Torii was at the apartment by herself.

When the storm let up, I got a call from Andy saying his flight was cancelled. He wasn't coming home from Florida until the following day at 5pm. Ughhhhh. I missed him and I was so tired of taking care of Isla by myself! Thankfully Abb came down for a movie night, and we rode out the following storms in the apartment together.

I'm totally a baby, but I hate storms. I had my emergency kit sitting by the door in case we needed to bolt to the basement. Luckily, the following storms were less severe, and I did not die in a tornado as previously thought. Phew.

Isla walks, eats dog food, and has really long fingernails.

-Isla is walking 98% of the time now, which is just crazy for me to wrap my mind around! My little baby...not even 11 months yet should not be walking! She only crawls if she has to get somewhere fast...like if she sees a weakness in my security barricades, she bolts! Anyway, earlier today I was in the kitchen getting breakfast and around the corner walks Isla with a huge smile on her face. I realized at that moment that I have a big girl now, not a baby! I know I say that all the time...but I just can't get over it. In order to get into the kitchen, Isla had to move the pack-n-play (which I use to block off the entrance to the kitchen/dining room). She has learned to pull it just enough to give her a tiny bit of room to squeeze though. Smart kid.

-Yesterday Isla ate dog food. Well, she didn't actually digest it. She put a handful in her mouth and you should have seen the disgust on her face when she realized that Torii's food is not yummy. Priceless. She opened her mouth, stuck out her tongue, and the let dog food fall to the floor. Ever since she started crawling, I had become super paranoid about her choking on dog food. Since we leave Torii's bowl full all the time, I knew it would be a matter of time before she got into it.

-Now that Isla is walking, she follows me everywhere. Normally she doesn't even like me sitting at the computer and she tries to pull herself up and touch the keyboard. She screams when she isn't able to pound her little fingers on the keys. Right now, she has been reading books for a good 20 minutes, which is a nice little break for me. I love being home with Isla...but I have a hard time playing with her. I don't know what to do for hours and hours each day! Play time is not very fun at this age...I can't wait until she is older so we can play dolls, barbies, and do fun crafts. Earlier, we spent 15 minutes or so taking turns putting the little dump truck driver in our mouths. Back and forth. Woooo!!

-Isla refuses to hold her bottle or sippy cup. I have tried everything I can think of to get her to use her hands. I will hold the bottle and then let go. Instead of holding it, she will grab the bottle and throw it on the floor! Then she screams. She prefers me holding the bottle so she can stick her fingers up my nose and mouth. After she cut the inside of my mouth this morning, I realized her fingernails are longer than mine. I better get on that...

Surgery!

I have waited 28 years for this....next week I will be able to breathe out of my nose! Woo! Although the thought of surgery is not at all pleasant. I have only been put to sleep for a surgery once when I was 7 years old...I still remember being asked to start counting backwards from 10. I was too young to be freaked out by what was happening.

I had my wisdom teeth pulled out 3 years ago and I remained awake and used laughing gas and Novocaine to numb the pain. I refused to be knocked out. Now, I have no choice. The doctor is going to go in and remove the massive nasal polyps that are restricting my airway and straighten my septum. Obviously it's not something I'd like to be awake for if it was even possible. I'm mainly scared of never waking up again. I know it sounds ridiculous, and the chances of that happening are virtually zero...but still.

I'm trying to focus on the positive aspects so I don't send myself into a worrying frenzy. So aside from the fact that I'll be able to breathe like a normal person, I also get ME time Thursday-Sunday as Andy is taking over full duty of Isla so I can recover/be lazy. Bring on the girly movies and One Tree Hill DVDs!!

I steal cookies from children.

Isla and I were at Subway a few days ago and I had to resist the urge to get a yummy chocolate chip cookie. After I paid for my sandwich, the cashier (one of the many women there who LOVE Isla) asked if Isla wanted a cookie. I said no, but she took one out anyway and gave it to her. I gave her the tiniest crumb and then scarfed the rest of the cookie down in three bites, Cookie Monster style. Of course, I waited until I got to my car to enjoy the chocolaty goodness. I didn't need everyone to know that I enjoy stealing cookies from small children.

The hyphen.

I hate, HATE having a hyphenated name. It causes me nothing but problems everywhere I go, specifically at the doctor's office. Our insurance card only says Andy S*****. And since my last name is W***-S***** I run into problems. My name gets filed under S a lot, instead of W, which I don't understand. Sometimes people don't use the hyphen when they spell my name, and then when I go to type my name to check in...there is no match, because it hasn't wasn't spelled right in the first place! Grrr.

Usually, I still go by only my maiden name if I'm making an appointment somewhere. I just ignore the hyphenated crap all together. This sometimes makes me feel like I'm living a double life, or have multiple identities. Sometimes I get confused when I call and make an appointment...I can't remember what last name I've given them in the first place.

I love my maiden name. I don't want to give it up, but I may just throw in the towel and change my name to S***** to make life easier on myself. I'd prefer to drop Andy's last name and continue to use my maiden name, but I'm pretty sure I'd be sleeping on the couch for life if I did that.

I pay money to get my ass kicked.

When I signed up for boot camp, I knew it would be HARD. It's not hard. It's brutal. Intense. Almost unbearable. I assumed this boot camp was for people who needed to get in shape, like ME! Wrong again. Almost the entire class, minus 3 or so people, are in GREAT shape! They run circles around me, literally.

Let's rewind to my first day of class. (I missed the official first class because of my MN trip). By my first class, my brother, Tom, had already dropped out! He didn't officially quit until the next week...but we knew he had no intentions of coming back. Anyway, so we get outside and our warm up is almost a mile run. YIKES. If that was our warm up, I knew I was in trouble. Then, our workout consisted of sprinting roughly 100 meters, then doing 10 squats, lunges, push ups, mountain climbers and jumping jacks. Then we had to sprint back and do 9 of each, then 8, then 7...you get the idea. It doesn't sound too horrible when I write it, but living it, SUCKED. After that, there was more running, ab work, and a cool down. It was a 50 minute workout, but it seemed like hours.

I hadn't worked out since the summer of 2008...and that was just half-assed working out. Going from no working out, to boot camp is KILLER. My body is in constant pain. Getting up at 5:00am Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays is rough. Especially when I know I'm just going to get my ass kicked. It's very tempting to sleep in, although I haven't missed a class since I started!!

Yesterday, we ran a mile for our warm up, ran up and down a hill for 15 minutes, did stairs for 5 mins, and then ran up the hill backwards for 5 mins. We also did some arm work, ab work, and core work before the cool down.

On Wednesday we ran to York High School and worked out out on the track. It totally brought me back to my track days. In track, I ran the 400 meter dash (one lap around the track). The 400 is tough, because it's essentially a sprint the entire way around. Now, I could barely jog 1 lap without feeling completely winded. WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?! I could still picture high school Betsy at practice, running effortlessly around the track, leaping hurdles, sprinting, and overall kicking ass...I miss that! It was definitely motivation to keep me going.

Each workout is different, and brutal. I have been close to passing out more than once. I keep reminding myself that no one on The Biggest Loser has died during a workout...and I continue to push myself each workout because I hate being so out of shape. I'm hoping at the end of boot camp (in 3 weeks) that I will see some good results.

I'm running my first 5K (since college!) in July, and I'm hoping to run the entire way. I'm also hoping to rid myself of this flesh fanny pack I've been lugging around for almost a year now.