Big D

Last Monday my brother-in-law, his Dad and his cousin went out to hunt. The night before they'd played with my nephews and watched the Steelers win. A good weekend all in all. Unfortunately after a morning of hunting they went to meet up and my BILs father was lying on the ground. He'd had a massive heart attack. He was just 60 years old. I have had my BIL in my head and heart all week. He and his Dad were so close. They loved to hunt together. His Dad had been his baseball coach, watched him become an all-American in college and play semi-pro ball. Bib D loved my nephews. My BIL being an only child, my nephews the only grandchildren they were spoiled with love and attention from Pap. Thankfully they got one last evening with him before he went on his last hunt. I went to the funeral. My BIL spoke eloquently about his Dad. His uncle spoke about him, saying that they'd been busy the last few years and didn't find time to go to their hunting cabin always putting it off until next Spring, Summer, Fall. He reminded us all that now is the time for living, you never know how much time you have. Big D, I didn't know you that well but I know the impact you had on many lives and I know that you will be missed.

Talking Turkey

My grandmother was sick one Thanksgiving and someone else had to host the family dinner. My mother, in a flash of brilliance took over Thanksgiving. In that one act she saved us from eating two turkey dinners every Thanksgiving. Instead, both sides of the family came to our house, one meal, everyone we love all in one place and time to go to a movie afterwards. One giant meal instead of two. Win-win-win.

About ten years ago, a few years after the Thanksgiving takeover, my mother got a new oven. A really cool Jennair with the grill on top, gas range and convection oven. On that first Thanksgiving with the awesome new oven Mom put the turkey in as usual except this year it was supposed to take much less time on convection. The pop-up timer wasn't popping up and Grandma kept opening the oven (hmmm and you wonder why it wasn't getting done). About this time my father decides to break it to my mother that she should be using convection roast, not convection bake. If looks could kill. I am not sure which was more likely, Mom killing Dad or pushing Grandma into the oven. Eventually the turkey was done and we sat down to dinner. I don't remember anything about that particular turkey or that Thanksgiving outside of the turkey debate.

Thanksgiving at my parents house is pretty much the same. Mom and a mediocre turkey, never enough mashed potatoes, a debate about stuffing in the bird or out, a selection of pies, and grandma's cranberry salad. The few times we haven't been at my parents for Thanksgiving I have put together a few of the favorites and even come up with a few new ones (try out the strusseled sweet potato casserole from Cooking Light sometime). Besides the food, the thing that ties all those meals together is family, whether the one I was born into, married into, or just joined along the way.

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by Butterball.

Run Fat Girl, Run

Ugh, the diet is not going so well. I don't know if my body has kicked into the mode where it needs to store up for the winter or if it is my "running piglet qi" but mostly I've been watching my weight bounce up and down. Why? Simple answer carbs, glorious carbs! Mostly sugary ones. Girl scout cookies (85 cases anyone?) abound, apple pie, pumpkin spice cake, pumpkin bars, donuts. I've fallen off the wagon and the only reason I can get up is because of running.

Buildermama and I are running an 8K (~5 miles) at the Richmond Marathon on November 15. To get ready I've been running at least 3 times a week, I'm up to a little over 4 miles and this weekend is scheduled for 4.5 and I am going to do a 5K race back home this weekend at my college Homecoming.

While we are home we will also be celebrating my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. My sister and I wanted to plan a trip for them. Mom decided she'd rather have lunch at a local restaurant instead. My sister and I said we'd take care of it. I took care of the inviting, my sister took care of the menu. Of course Mom had to put in her two cents. Let's hope her menu choices this time are more successful than at Thanksgiving when she insisted that no one likes pecan pie (because she doesn't).

A Dutch Wonderful Day: Now and Then

Yesterday we took Boobah to Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA for her birthday. She requested a trip to Dutch Wonderland with Tippy Tornado instead of a party. Sounded like a fantastic idea to me, no cleaning my house to have 5 year olds destroy it in record time or renting a place and being mobbed by sticky hands and loud voices all afternoon. Parties stress me out, I love the idea of throwing a party but the execution generally leaves me bitchy.

We have a truly fabulous day with Boobah, Tippy Tornado, PDQ, Karate Boy, Gman and Esmerelda in the land of all things wonderful. Esmerelda and I kept up a running commentary of the things we were there without--her ex, strollers, diapers, diaper bags, etc. The kids were big enough to go on almost all of the rides, if not by themselves with an adult. The only bad part of Es and Bubba not being together was being short an adult to match up with the kids. We compensated though and had a much better time for it. More than once we reminisced about our last trip, we decided it was two years ago. Today I took a trip back through Gman's archives to discover it was August 2005--how much they have all changed! Enjoy!

THEN NOW

THEN NOW

Then, we didn't even manage to get a picture of all of them together. I had a newly broken ankle and spent the day in a scooter.

Now--Wonderful Amish Fun

Only Half Crazy?

After running with my sister on vacation we agreed that we'd like to do a race together. I didn't think much of it, I was thinking Turkey Trot when we were home over Thanksgiving. Then I got the e-mail, "how about The Country Music Half Marathon?" At first I laughed. Then I checked it out. Its the week of my 40th birthday, I felt like that was a sign and told her I'd do it. We still haven't worked out who is going with us--is it a couples weekend with Gman and BIL or is it a family weekend and Mom & Dad will come too or even a girls weekend and we bring Mom along? Only time will tell.

So, after deciding I was going to train to run 13.1 miles I decided what the heck I'd add the Columbia Triathlon to my spring calendar as well. It will be my first Olympic distance tri. The bike is hard, the swim requires a wetsuit and well the run is 10K--I've never run 10K. But if I can run 13.1 miles what is 6.2 a few weeks later? Remember that this time last year I couldn't run At. All. No running to 5K was certainly more daunting than moving up from 3 to 13 miles.

So, I'll be looking to all my tri and running friends for advice on preparing for the half as well as the tri. First on my agenda after Iron Girl is being a diligent Weight Watcher and dropping at least another 25 pounds. It has to make everything easier. I have been stuck for about 6 weeks and while its better than being where I started I would like to be un-stuck.

I think this just proves that pushing yourself does make you believe you can do anything!

The house of nuts

Things have been a serious whirlwind--train, work, can, kids, work, cook, work, worry, work.


Work
The good news is there is a new VP at work and he thinks I rock. The bad news, I have to work my tail off to make sure he continues to think that. This week he is on vacation and he left me with several "can you look into this" assignments while he is gone. I went for acupuncture and he asked me pretty early on how things were at work. I spent an hour on his table, mostly just breathing and its amazing how much better I felt when I left.


Training
Last Sunday I did a "Brick n Pic" with the local tri club. They were wonderful to hang out with and someone always stayed at the back of the pack with me. I should never, ever have run before my ride. My heart rate was zooming the whole time and the ride was pretty miserable. My back was killing me after climbing but thankfully Mr. Don fixed that! This week I've done pretty well keeping up with the training but not the bike, they have the road torn up on the course and I hear it is NASTY, I'll need to do that when I come back from NY.





Canning
I picked 23 pounds of peaches (along with raspberries and blueberries) last Wednesday. That meant I had a lot of fruit to deal with! I did my first batch of peach hot pepper jelly. Gman asked if I could make the bits not float to the top. I read that rotating the jar during the process helped with that so I flipped them over. Oops, I went to bed without flipping them back. Now I have nine jars that look like this....

Kids

I don't know if it the end of the summer or what but they are non-stop fighting, talking, singing and getting into things they shouldn't. Boobah can't wait for school to start and I can't wait to have one drop off in the morning and no pick ups in the afternoon. On the other side, how the heck did my baby get old enough for Kindergarten?

Other Random Stuff

We are off to Albany, NY this morning for GMan's sister to get married this evening. We are brining our 18 year old neice back with us to visit for a week.

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

This morning Gman and I got up "early" and headed out to ride the Hockhocking Adena Bikeway (or part of it anyway). Getting there was a bit of a battle, the parking lot that the map says to park in was closed and the college lots were full (besides I figured we'd get ticketed in one of those). After a bathroom break and a bit more driving around we managed to find somewhere to park. Then it was a another delay to get the tires pumped up and all our stuff together. It was well worth it-what a beautiful, flat ride on well maintained trails with a few crossings of lightly traveled roads. Its not often we get to ride anything that is flat and without traffic! I rode with Gman for the first half and on the way back I got some training in and tried to keep my speed and cadence up. It was a fun ride and nice to be out by ourselves. I was determined that we didn't bring our bikes all this way for them to sit on the porch.

Yesterday we ventured out into the parks to commune with nature. In the morning with the whole family we went to Ash Cave--a paved trail took us to the spectacular cave and Gman, BIL and I took the big kids back via the slightly longer "hiking" trail. After a trip to sis' house and lunch the MM crew headed to Old Man's Cave. There was a bit more hiking here as well as the cave and waterfalls. We made two of the loops (having to take two bathroom breaks, oh the joys of hiking with kids. Someday I'd love to come back and hike all 6 miles (each way) of the trails that lead from Ash Cave to Cedar Falls and then to Old Man's Cave.

Last night we went out to dinner with my sister and BIL at the Grouse Nest Restaurant. The food was good, the company better but the drive up to the place was a little rough, gravel and all up hill. I wasn't sure the Mommy Van was going to make it! We've definitely had the Appalachian adventure a pleasant change from our "normal" lives.

Today is sis' 35th birthday, happy birthday sis! She and BIL headed out this morning to Jamboree in the Hills. Part of me wishes we were with them. The other, more mature part that hates crowds of drunk people is just as happy to spend another night in the quite lodge even if it does mean we have her 3 y.o. and 6 month old sons! The older one and Boobah keep each other busy and PDQ is a big help with the baby--when Grandma lets her have a turn.

Stay tuned, I know there will be pictures when Gman has a chance to get them published!

First Open Water Swim

Sorry I've been scarce, first there was the viewing and the funeral and now its vacation, in the woods. We are staying in a beautiful house in the middle of nowhere, its quiet, there is a hot tub and plenty of yard for the kids to run and run and run along with the requisite beds to then collapse into at night.

Today we went to Lake Logan park so the kids could swim. Since there were also plenty of other adults I got in some training time time as well. I have not gotten in nearly the training time I should have over the past week and a half. This was one I really needed though, I haven't had a chance to swim in open water and knew it was different than the pool. On the good side, it is much less repitious than swimming in the pool, the water was mostly warm and there was little vegetation. On the not great side the lake must be spring fed because there were REALLY chilly spots randomly around the lake.

You will be missed

This is the last picture I have of my grandmother, when we were there for Easter this year. She is with my cousin who was also celebrating her 16th birthday while we were there. Look at that hair and those nails, the nursing home where she spent the last year and a half was a good place where they took great care of her. She passed away this morning at the age of 81.

Grandma retained her humor right up to the end. My mother said before they took her to surgery on Wednesday the anesthesiologist asked if she smoked. She told him yes, cigars. He asked if she smoked one a day. She told him no, two. He asked if she'd had one that day and she told him no, they wouldn't let her have one. Mom said by that time he wasn't sure what to believe and asked her if it was really true and she laughed at him. She'd never smoked a day in her life! There was a really difficult period after her stroke when she was confused a lot of the time, she told stories about her neighbors and that she had been out on trips. She repeated things and made strange requests. As hard as it was to see her disabilities from the stroke it was harder to lose "her." We were all grateful when she came back to us and was her old self telling us what to do and asking embarrassing questions.

Thank you grandma for cutting up my apples, complete with taking off the peels (Mom wouldn't do that) when I was little. Thank you for teaching me to cook. Thank you for being a great role model for marriage. Thank you for sharing your love for God. Thank you for trying to teach me to quilt, now I wish I had listened and watched more carefully. Thank you grandma for being the port in the storm when I needed to get out of the house, you always welcomed me with open arms. My best friend told me tonight that she'd miss you as well, she hasn't had grandparents in many years and she so appreciated that you were there for her without judgement as a surrogate. I will miss you, she will miss you, the rest of the family will miss you and many, many other people whose lives you have touched will miss you as well. You lived and loved well.

Fun run?

Esmerelda (sorry dude for the eyes closed picture, usually that is my role!) and I signed up our whole families for the Howard County library's summer reading kick-off fun run/walk this morning. What a great way to promote reading AND fitness--I hope the kids soaked in a little of the meaning. The seven of us headed out into the fog--yes fog, it was so humid that you could SEE it. The group was relatively small and Esmerelda and I settled in with the four year olds in the jogging stroller at the back of the runners pack. Gman took the older kids (& many pictures but none of all of us) and stayed with the walkers. 2.5 miles I thought, piece of cake. Sponge cake perhaps. I was soaking wet and had it dripping off the end of my nose before we'd gone a quarter of a mile. I had no idea that pushing the stroller would take so much extra energy. Maybe my arms DO help when I run.

Es' younger son, Tippy Tornado, urged her on "faster mommy, I want to go faster!" There is motivation for you-NOT. Boobah joined in a time or two but thankfully just settled in for the ride most of the time. It seemed lik 90% of the run was uphill, really, is that possible? Our goal was to stay ahead of the walkers. Then we noticed the guy with the purple stroller behind us, I don't know if he was jogging or just walking incredibly fast but it became VERY important to stay. in. front. And we did. Es called it the "Bredders Cup." There was a fast guy with a stroller so we finished second and third in a field of four in the self proclaimed stroller division.

After we finished up the pointed us to food and water. I immediately thought of Pasta Queen, there were Panera Cinnamon Crunch bagels free for the taking. It made the miserable run worth it--eating half that bagel without guilt. As we discussed our strategy to stay in front of the guy with the stroller he let us know that he was keeping us in sight, he didn't want to get smoked too badly. HA! Gman was the big winner for the day winning door prize tickets to the Body Worlds exhibit at the Maryland Science Center.

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So that post was actually written on Saturday but blogger appeared to have eaten it for lunch. I went back and looked and there was no draft. Alas today, there it was so enjoy the regurgitated post.

Holy cow, three days until race day! This week has had me seriously on edge thinking, thinking, thinking the whole darned thing over. I was up obsessing over the bike route on Sunday night, see here is the fruit of my labors, an elevation of the course. I haven't worked out much, I know its supposed to be a taper but I feel like I have taken it a bit too seriously. The weather has been miserable hot, its the end of the school year, birthday parties galore and work is hoppin' as well and I just kind of generally feel like a slug. Perhaps it is my body telling me to slooooooow down.

One perfect mother

Saturday was one of those days when you just want to call a do-over. My children just about drove me over the edge with the whining, complaining and non-stop demands. Gman sent them to room when we sat down to eat because they were bickering again. Boobah spent the next 5 minutes screaming "I am STARVING!" Finally we made it through dinner, I told them all I really wanted for Mother's Day was a day without whining. I am not proud of myself, I yelled and I wasn't very nice.

Sunday morning the girls had cards and presents for me and Gman had the family pictures we had done before the holidays framed for me. Unfortunately the no whining didn't last past 8AM but the day was infinitely better overall. I went for a run, we went to church. The children's choir sang and they were great. Then during the children's moment the minister asked if anyone had a perfect mother. One lone hand shot into the air--it was PDQ. A good laugh rolled through the congregation. Afterwards she told me I was the best mother ever. Lovely to hear but also a bit guilt inducing after the prior day. My friend Lisa told me that she was writing it down and when PDQ was a teenager she would be happy to remind her that Mother's Day 2008 she had declared that I was perfect.

Three little letter, so much meaning M-O-M

In this week's blog blag Parent Bloggers Network is joining up with Microsoft to spread the word about Portrait's of Mom. I've spent a lot of time thinking about my Mom, my mother-in-law, my grandmother's and what it means to be a Mom.

I come from a long line of strong opinionated women who tend to live a long, long time. I am so fortunate not to just have relationships with my grandmothers (who are both alive and reasonably well at 80 & 81) but I was also privileged to know my great grandmothers (who lives to 96, 98 & 101) and even for a time to have had a great-great grandmother and pictures to prove it. Its now that I am a mother to understand what an amazing legacy it is to have known these women, not just known about them. I know where annoying habits and great recipes come from. I was there to hear the stories straight from their mouths and now its my chance to pass those stories down to my girls.

Being Moms has brought my sister and I closer together. We are 4 years apart and were never in school together, didn't have the same friends or interests. Now that we are both Moms our worlds are a whole lot more alike than ever before. She was always the urban hip one--now she lives on 3 acres in the middle of nowhere. I was the less worldly and now I live in the Baltimore/Washington suburbs. We both have 2 kids, two girls for me, two boys for her. We each had our first just before our 32nd birthdays and our second at 34. We've developed a deeper bond telling stories about our mother, exchanging sleeping tips, discussing breast feeding and pumping, and just generally sharing the trials and tribulations of motherhood. We share so much more now that we both have the title of mom. I hope that my girls can find that same closeness when they grow up and are Moms (they are both planning for that day already!).

My mother worked when many women didn't, certainly none of my friend's mom's did. I think that experience has made it easier for me to be a working Mom today. I know she understands how hard it is. I also remember that her job as a nurse didn't allow her to run out to my school for special events which sticks with me today. I know its one of those things that makes me obsessive about making it to school for every special day at both girl's schools. I don't want them to remember that I wasn't there for (insert day here). I am sure there will be plenty of other things that will come up as they progress through school and I'll have to make tough decisions, I feel very lucky to have had someone pave that path for me. Life is easier when you have examples that you can choose to follow--or not. One of the few things that stops me cold is the thought of her not being there. Two years ago my best friend's mother died. I'd known her since I was 6 and it was hard for me, I couldn't imagine what it was like for my friend. I spent a lot of time imagining what my life would be like without my mother and it incredibly hard to face.

What a bunch of jocks

My parents came to visit this weekend to see the girls play soccer on Saturday.

But first...
I had my tri training class-our first ride and run on the Iron Girl course. I gotta say, riding on the road with traffic scares the bejeezus out of me. It wasn't so bad when we started shortly after 7AM, on the way back to the park an hour later was a different story, there was the regular weekend morning crowd along with a walk for the Special Olympics, and the big local triathlon is coming up in three weeks so everyone was out trying to get in a practice ride. The camaraderie among riders was good, they'd pass and give a "keep going" or the "downhill is the fun part!" Gotta say the manners of the riders far outweighed some of the drivers. SUVs hugging the line when there is nowhere else to go is just damned scary. But I made it. I got up all the hills, not without feeling like my heart was going to pound out of my chest but I made it without falling over. After the ride was a 3 mile run around the lake. It wasn't too bad, my legs weren't nearly as spent as they have been in the past when it was time to run, I'll take that as a good sign!

I made it home and it was off to soccer. PDQ scored a goal! Unfortunately the folks, Boobah and I hadn't made it to the field yet and GMan was still unloading the camera. The other parents were happy to tell me all about it and the fact that it was a "real" goal, not one that she slipped by someone paying attention. We hurried from her game all the way back across town to Boobah's game. She spent most of her time picking her nose. My little multi-tasker. There was a little guy on the other team with sunglasses that matched his jersey, complete with headband. He was seriously out of control--at last count he scored 10 goals. I know because he was keeping track and showing it to his parents on his fingers.

Mom and I did our favorite sporting activity in the afternoon--sale shopping at Kohl's. It was great to see my parents. The girls adore them and Boobah was Pop's girl. She wanted nothing more than to spend time with my Dad. He eats up every minute of it. The girls are off to spend a week with my parents in June when schools out and I know they will all love it.

Where did the week go? And the month of March?

Wow, last week is a total blur!
We started off in Ohio to visit my family. It was a great trip. I got to play auntie to my nephew Brady who turned 9 weeks old while we were there. He is one of those sweet baby boys who look more like wizened old men than chunky babies. He always looks like he is deep in concentration or has something to add to the conversation. After hearing what a fussy baby he was I was delighted to find out that he has a fussy evening session but the rest of the time he is easy going--after the child who didn't sleep until she was 3, this kid is nothing!

The girls got to spend time hanging with Brady along with big brother Matthew. This is the only picture of the three big kids where everyone is a-in focus and b-hand are not in or near the nose!
At almost 3 Matthew has become the train savant rattling off Thomas facts at the drop of the hat. They go everywhere with him--including the tub. We took the kids to a hands on children's museum in Lancaster, OH (if you are near there, check it out). The neighbor and her daughter went along as well, a great time was had by all. Matthew was NOT happy when we were leaving so we ended up with a fourth child (the oldest child stayed behind to work) for the trip back to my parents for Easter. I was a little worried he'd freak out once we'd left home behind but he was content to travel with us, in fact he slept driveway to driveway. Halfway through that trip I realized that the girls' Easter dresses were hanging in the closet at my sister's house. Ooops.

After the exhausting trip home it was back to work. What a zoo! The three days I took off? Well all the meetings for those days had to go somewhere. They were packed into 4 days of almost nothing but meetings and not the kind of meetings where you can just go and have a vacation in your head. No these were meetings where I had to listen so I could act on stuff later or even better, lead them and try to take notes that would distill down the hours of talk into a few salient points. To end the week my new boss who is the president of one of the divisions suggested that he'd like to have me work for the new head of technology saying he thought he could use my help. Its an interesting opportunity, we'll see what shakes out in the coming weeks! The two of them are my first male bosses in ten years. While I've worked mostly with men I've had a female boss since coming to the company, its an interesting switch to say the least.

Its finally Saturday night, Gman had a work crisis and went in to try and figure out how to make it better and hope he isn't to blame, wish him luck on both counts! Now I am off to bed, had a good swim with Es today, she is a fish in the pool! I thought I'd like the slightly warmer pool but alas no, I think I actually worked up a sweat swimming and I didn't like it! Tomorrow I totally loafed for about a week, my allergies were acting up and then there was the traveling. I am so happy to get back to my work-out routine this week. morning is our first bike and run outside for the Spring. Send warm vibes!

Also while I had a few minutes this evening and was perusing the pictures from the trip I came across this which may be the best picture ever taken of my sister and I together. One of us always has her eyes clothes, a whacked out look in her eye, or drool in the corner of her mouth.

You know that warning about drowsiness?

Take it seriously. Last night I took a couple of Benadryl to try and rope in my allergies. I have a nasal spray too but its just not doing the trick. At that point I'd have done anything to stop the itching and runny nose. Someone should have warned me it just wasn't driving that I wanted to avoid. "Do not, under any circumstances attempt hair removal of any type while under the influence of these drugs" is the warning I would add to that label if I were queen.

Boobah begged me to trim her bangs so I obliged and between my haziness, Gman's "help" and her moving her head it wasn't a great experience for any of us. She kept moving her eyebrows and right in the middle of her bangs there is a short place. I gave a fleeting thought to sneaking into her room last night and evening them up while she slept and was still. It didn't look that bad this morning but I am sure grandma will have something to say about it when we go visit for Easter.

Then in another stroke of genius I finally remembered that I needed to wax my eyebrows to look a little less like Sasquatch. I got out the wax (which I never intended to buy, I thought I got the strips), warmed it up and went to town. I managed to get a lot more in my eyebrows than I had intended as well as trapping a good hunk of eyelashes. I tried everything I could think of to try and get the stuff out of my eyelashes and brows without pulling out hair. I was only marginally successful. I have a little bald spot in my right eyebrow and am missing a clump of eyelashes as well. Gman found this too highly entertaining.

What IS that smell?

Our bed is horrible. I got a bonus at work and we decided it was time to spend it on our comfort and hope that it might improve our sleep experience. On Saturday I told Boobah we were going to go buy a new mattress when we went to pick up PDQ from a birthday party. And only as a four year old could put it we had the following conversation:

Me: We're going to buy a new bed after we pick up PDQ.

Boobah: Why do you need a new bed?

Me: Because ours stinks!

Boobah: Oh, that is because Daddy farts in it all the time!

So now GMan and I await our new Tempurpedic bed. Funny how once the decision was made the old bed is even MORE uncomfortable. I am counting the days until the spring quits jabbing me in the hip.

Mavens New Groove

I spent a lot of my sick time thinking about what it means to be healthy and have a healthy lifestyle. Obviously some of my healthy habits are sticking, everyday one of the first things I considered was "do I feel good enough to work out?" For four days the answer was not just no but, hell no! Yesterday though I asked the question and decided yeah, I was ready to go, first I hopped out of bed and signed up for today's cycling class so I didn't end up on the waiting list. I went for a good 30 min run yesterday afternoon. I could have done more but I kept telling myself that I needed to ease back into things and not push it. The really cold wind didn't hurt that decision making process either. This morning I made it to that cycling class and again held back just a little bit, having to dig out a tissue halfway through was a good reminder. And tomorrow morning I'll be back in the pool at oh-dark-thirty for my first swim since being sick.

Although my exercise routine has been great for the past several months the pounds are not disappearing. Four days in bed did get me a 10 pound weight loss. That weight loss has really inspired me to try harder in the food department.

For the four days that I laid in bed I watched a lot of TV, much of it either on FitTV or Discovery Health. Sunday I caught quite a bit of Dr. Oz and Dr. Rosen talking about healthy eating and exercise. Watching them make house calls and throw out 90% of the stuff in people's pantry and explain how easy it is to do a makeover of your eating habits. Eliminate things with refined ingredients, sugar in the first 4 ingredients, hydrogenated oils and you are well on your way. The other thing was eating food in a more natural state gets you the most bang for the buck. So I am reading more labels and traded my Weight Watchers bagels for some smaller but whole wheat ones for about the same calories. I have stocked up on more fruits and veggies.

Last night my TV orgy continued with The Biggest Loser Couples. They got to go home for a visit and the show followed what they did while they were there. Watching them back with their families in the real world was interesting. Two of the guys were freaking out a bit over things their kids were eating. One little boy kept finding the donuts no matter how many they took away from them. In another family they found healthy options for the adults and then when the food came and they realized they had huge plates of fried foods for the kids they felt bad. I know that I fall into that trap as well. Gman and I have really tried to start moving the kids to healthier habits--less dessert, more fruit, more veggies, and trying to understand what is acutal hunger rather than just wanting to eat.

All of those things lead me to one conclusion, I need to be more intentional about my food and exercise choices. I need to remember that my choices extend to the health of my family. I hope the changes I am making will help us all be happier and healthier. When the weather is warmer I hope we can all spend more time outside in physical activities rather than at home in front of the tube. So to help me with those goals I have joined the Healthy Lifestyle Bloggers over at IowaAvenue. Another site that I found recently and love is Half of Me, which chronicles a 2+ year journey to lose half her body weight and adopt a healthy lifestyle. I love her quirky style and her honesty, good week or bad she reported her weight loss through it all. Now that she is closer to her goal she shares her new exercise and food experiences. Finally, I have been visiting Sparkpeople again to account for my food and exercise (and its free!).

Here's to healthy choices!

He's here!

My new nephew Brady arrived a littl before 6AM this morning. Yesterday they put my sister in the hospital because they didn't like some blood work they'd done the day before. Lucky for her, she went into labor last night and they did a c-section this morning. So much for the scheduled c-section later in the month! Now we have to figure out when we can go visit, the girls are so excited to have a new "cousint."

Our new addition

Meet Thumper, the newly adopted rabbit member of our family. He's not nearly the giant he appears in the picture. The girls have been after us for almost two years about getting a pet. We were saved by the goldfish in the pond out back for awhile--then I killed them. At Boobah's preschool they have a rabbit, Graham Cracker, and it got me thinking.

I am allergic to cats and a dog is so much work. Hmmm, maybe a bunny. Gman's response was if YOU are going to be responsible for it, knock yourself out. So I started looking this fall. Contacted local rabbit adoption places as well as the humane society. The local rabbit rescue wanted a lot of information, home visits and only hosts adoption day once a month. Around the holidays Abby came home with a note from a teacher at her school--her brother had a bunny he needed to get rid of. I managed to put her off through the holidays.

Last night we finally agreed that things were as normal as they are going to get and went to meet Thumper. He's very sweet and soft. It'll be a good chore for the girls and a good incentive to get other things done so they can hang with him. So we loaded up the bunny, food, cage, extra bedding and litter and brought Thumper home.

Somehow, I imagine that you'll be hearing more about Thumper in the future.

The Brick

In Tri-Speak a brick is a workout where you do two of the sports. I was lazy (and ran out of time) yesterday so I needed to run so this morning I did my Saturday morning spin class and then I ran for 20 minutes. It wasn't nearly as horrible as I expected. As I've said hundreds, maybe thousands of times, running is not for me. As time goes by and I do it more I feel less like throwing up as I do and realize that getting started is the hard part and once you get into it a little bit there is a sweet spot in the middle--that place right before you just want it over with.

I felt great, I had done it and according to my heart rate monitor burned 1300 calories this morning. By the time I got home and into the shower I wanted nothing more than a nap. So much for my grand organizational plans. I did get a few things done today. Most importantly Gman got all of the curtain rods and blinds up that have been sitting around for a few weeks. I did finally succumb to the bed for an hour after a trip to Lowe's and Costco because really, after a trip to Costco with three kids and the husband--you. deserve. a. nap.