Ya buncha bed makers, you

I asked one simple question on the 4th Frog Facebook page the other day:

How many of you make your bed every morning, or almost every morning?

Whoa! I had no idea how many people would take the time to answer. To date, 123 people have responded (that's a lot for my page). Of those 123, I would say everyone except about 5 people make their bed every day or almost every day. 

For realz? With hospital corners and everything? 

It probably won't surprise you that I am not a bed maker. There are several reasons why I don't feel compelled to tidy up my sleep space. 

1. Once I'm up, I hit the ground running and just don't have (or take) the time to make the bed.
2. I have a king size bed and making it amounts to an aerobic workout, which I try to avoid at all costs.
3. Why make it when I'm just going to get back in it in 18 hours and mess it up again?

In fact, the only time I do make my bed is when I'm cleaning the bedroom so I have a flat surface to put all the junk that's cluttering the floor. 

When I was in college, I kind of made my bed most mornings. I lived in a sorority house (Ahoy there, Delta Gammas!) and we all slept upstairs in one big dormitory filled with bunk beds. During rush week and when talking to parents we referred to it as an "open air dorm." But really, it was a cold dorm -- made that way because the windows were kept open all the time to air out the germs that could collect when 70 girls were sleeping in one room. If you didn't at least pull the covers up over the mattress and your pillow in the morning, you could be in for a very cold welcome when you got back in bed at night.

That's probably why, even today, I like climbing into a bed with cold sheets and pillowcases. I don't like it to stay cold, but I like to start out that way.

Some people in my unscientific Facebook poll said they only make their beds on the weekends. What I want to know is why? The weekends are "off-duty" time, although I do tackle several other chores over the weekend.

But all you bed makers have gotten me thinking. Maybe I'll make my bed today. Or maybe I'll just climb back in it and take a nap.

For Mary

The other day, a reader named Mary left a message on the 4th Frog Facebook page saying that she missed my weekly reactions to the Biggest Loser episodes. So Mary, this one is for you. (Howie, avert your eyes.)

This was Team Captain week on the Biggest Loser. I was pretty surprised how quickly and easily each team came up with a captain. I thought for sure that Hannah on the black team was going to pitch a hissy fit about not being captain. I'm pretty much over her. More on that later.

So the black team chose Marci as their captain and the red team chose Justin. Both logical choices, I thought.

The team captains had to choose one person to be the chef for the team for the whole week. Marci chose Olivia and Justin chose Ken. They both appeared to be pretty good sports about it. Though, if it were me, I would not have been happy. Of course the team would not have been happy either because I'm a terrible cook.

Being in the kitchen took up a lot of time and both Olivia and Ken had trouble getting in their workouts. I thought Olivia's solution of bringing a spin bike to the kitchen was a great one. Though she did keep talking about how this experience was giving her some insight into being a mom. Honey, if you were a mom in the kitchen all day, your spin bike would be covered with finger paint and you'd get about three pedals in before you had to yell at someone to back away or they were going to get their fingers pinched.

Anyway, the other decision the team captains had to make was which two people they were going to send to work out with the trainers. Marci chose Hannah and Sarah because they both gained a lot of weight after accidents left them with severe injuries. This is where I'm hoping Hannah will cringe to see herself on TV because she was so arrogant. She basically said, "I'm better than Sarah and I don't want her holding me back and I don't want anyone to think I'm as weak as she is."  Oh, she got her psychobabble boohoo moment with Jillian in the gym and ultimately thanked Marci for her wise decision-making. But as I said earlier, I'm so over that girl.

I'm also not particularly enjoying the Bret and Kara, the new trainers. It seems like they are trying to hard. I'm sure it's not easy to walk in Bob and Jillian's Nikes, but they just don't seem very likable to me. What do I know? Maybe they don't want to be likable.

The challenge this week was a muddy obstacle course that looked pretty fun, actually. The black team had one more player than the red team, so Marci had to choose someone to sit out. She chose her own daughter, Courtney, to sit out. Courtney was definitely disappointed, but was not immature about it.

Ultimately, the black team won (splitting a $6,000 prize). Then it was off to the weigh in -- presumably after hitting the showers to wash the mud off.

The red team may have lost the challenge, but they killed on the scale, which meant that someone from the black team would be going home. Marci said all along she would sacrifice herself before she sent any of her girls -- Courtney, Sarah, Olivia, Hannah, Irene, and Jen -- home. But what Marci didn't foresee was that she would be the biggest loser on the team and had won immunity.

(A quick side-note: Marci and Courtney are from Indiana. I don't usually get starstruck, but I would absolutely love to sit down with them for lunch and just soak up the inspiration.)

In the elimination room, Olivia and Jen each received one vote, but Sarah received 4 votes and was sent packing. But woowheee! Does she look good now! She's lost 91 pounds total and looks beautiful.


So there you are, Mary. What did you think of the show?

Oh my achin' frags

Today's Friday Fragments are brought to you by Mrs. 4444s and copious amounts of ibuprofen.

I returned to the gym yesterday after being away for nearly 3 weeks. I started out easy -- 30 minutes on the treadmill. 20 at a brisk walk and 10 at a jog. It felt so GOOD to be exercising again and I was surprised at how easily I could keep pace. All in all, I was pretty pleased with myself. Fast forward 4 hours during which I had basically been sitting -- in meetings and in the car -- and YEEOOOWWWCH! I leaned over to put sunscreen on Robbie at the pool and wasn't sure I was going to be able to straighten up again. After 12+ hours with a heating pad, a hot shower and a few well-timed doses of ibuprofen, I'm upright again. A little tender, but happy to be mostly mobile.

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All my time on the couch was not wasted. I've gotten caught up on all my DVR'd shows -- the last episode of Glee, a couple of episodes of Chopped, and the 2-hour season opener of The Next Food Network Star. I don't like to cook, but I love watching other people cook!

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Thanks to my gig as a blogger for the Indiana Dept. of Tourism, I've gotten invites for 3 "fam tours," which means I'll get to go (with a guest or my family) for two-day trips to a couple of very cool Indiana locales...FREE! Woohoo! Better get out my calendar and start scheduling the fun.

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I was so looking forward to the end of school so that we could embrace the simple life. Who was I kidding? Simple is dropping them off at 7:15am and picking them up at 2:30pm. Driving to 3 different camps, each with a different start and end time, is NOT simple. We're 14 days into summer vacation and I'm already wondering how many days until school starts.

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To my neighbors who might be reading this, Annie will mow the backyard today. I swear.

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I am falling behind in my blog reading. I'm thinking about making a schedule of which blogs I'll read on which days. Does that seem a little crazy? The good news is that I'm behind on reading blogs because I've been reading actual books! Just finished Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult. I'll give it an A-. It was a little long. 150 pages fewer would have been perfect.

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If you haven't checked out the 4th Frog Facebook page, you should. We're having lots of fun over there. Up for discussion right now: Name 3 things you can do with a paperclip besides clip paper.

Friday Fragments: Back for more

It's been a while since I've done Friday Fragments, but I hate to miss a good party, so let's frag! Be sure to stop Mrs. 4444s's place for more fragments.

End of an era? I'm contemplating dropping the Biggest Loser blogging after this season. I still love the show, but am not as enthused about the blogging. What do you think?

In with the new. After much consideration, I started a Facebook fan page for the 4th Frog. I actually created it a few weeks ago and kept it under wraps before deciding to go ahead. If you're on Facebook (and who isn't?!), I'd be honored if you joined my fan page.

A good news update. I spoke with the parents of two of the kids I wrote about yesterday. Both were apologetic and said they'd talk with their kid. One kid told Charlie he was sorry today. I hope that's the end of it. (BTW - If you were a 4th Frog fan on FB, you'd already have this update by now. Just sayin'...)

Just plain inspired. There are some great writers/thinkers out there in the blogosphere. Two of them who have made me go hmmmm... lately are Momza with her post on living authentically and Rebecca who wrote about what feels natural. Go check 'em out. You're gonna love 'em.

In case you were wondering...what Mike said in his deleted comment on "From the top down," he reposted it for your reading pleasure.

Tempting...Annie asked this morning if we couldn't just stay home. I didn't say no right away, but alas, I went to work and they went to school. The more I think about it, the more I think this would be fun. Once a year -- maybe once a semester? -- let one kid stay home from school and just have fun goofing around with that kid. Watch a movie. Eat ice cream for lunch. Play video games. Would you do it?

Recharged. With Mike in the hospital and other life junk going on, I felt like I lost the month of March on the weight loss front. But I'm recharged, in a good groove at the gym and in new numbers on the scale. I can see my next mini goals -- another 4 pounds by the end of the month, a total of 9 more pounds lost by the end of May -- and I feel confident I can do it. That feels good.

Think that's all the news that's fit to print. Have a great weekend!