Ridiculous

I'm telling you...if there is anyone at all who still checks in here...maybe I'm not cut out to be a blogger after all! This is ridiculous that I'm going so long between posts! Seems a lot of bloggers are experiencing this for one reason or another lately. I don't know why, but I simply haven't felt like doing it!

And I don't know why...because I really do enjoy it! I'm not throwing in the towel just yet, but as I've said before, I'm not making any promises as to how often I'm going to be doing it!

Since I started this blog as a way to keep family updated and to document things my kids say & do, I want to keep at it. When my parents lived two hours away, this was a great way for them to check in. But now that they live close again, my Dad isn't constantly telling me I haven't added any pictures lately!

And, all the aunts who read, I haven't seen lately...so they aren't "nagging" me anymore either. And I DON'T mean nagging me in a bad way! More like encouraging! Guess I needed all those reminders to get me to do something on here!

So...I'm here today, but I'm going to TRY not to let this turn into a marathon post!

I wanted to get something on here that Ruthi said the other night before I forget. If I write it down, it will just get lost. And though I posted it on facebook, that will soon be buried forever and I'll never find it again.

The other night (May 23) I was putting Ruthi to bed. When I got to her room, I realized how loud the TV in the living room was. I told her I needed to turn it off, that it was too loud. She said, "But I need some peace and loud!"

A few minutes later, we were starting nighttime prayers. She usually starts out with "Dear Jesus" or "Dear Lord" or something like that. On this night, she said - very enthusiastically, "Hi Jesus!" As if she could see Him sitting there and started talking to Him. It was so precious!

Let's see if I can sum up the past few weeks: (not necessarily in order!)

* My computer has decided it doesn't want to work anymore...at least most of the time. Some days it will come on, and the others it won't. And when it does come on, I have to tilt it to get it to work properly...oh and blow on the back of it to keep it cool. Ugh.

* Because my computer isn't cooperating, I'm sharing CJ's computer. He's not crazy about it. But hopefully it's only temporary!

* May 7 was a terrible day. We had to put down our 15 year old dog, who had been ours for over 12 years. It's still painful for me to talk about, so that's all I'm going to say about that.

* Didn't get to run my 2nd 5K due to the weather. Haven't got back on track with running...first I was just down, then I started having a problem with my foot. I would have run today, but it was raining, and I really didn't want to run in the mud! Hoping to get back out there on Thursday!

* Had a great time at a family fun day for the Firefighters & families! Wasn't going to go because Chip had to work - but then he called to let me know he was going to be there while he was on duty, so the kids and I went and had a blast!

* Visited Chip's station for the first time since he's been at the one he's currently at. He's only been there for over a year! But...it is quite a drive, so it's not exactly convenient! Ruthi had an absolute blast! She is always saying, "When I grow up, I want to be a mommy and a fi-der fighter!" So when she sat behind the wheel of a firetruck with a little helmet on her head, she said, "I'm a REAL fi-der fighter now!"

* Enjoyed spending part of Mother's Day with my Mom. My Dad grilled yummy steaks for dinner. I love having my parents close by again!

* Had a very nice day visiting Chip's parents. His Mom's birthday always falls right around Mother's Day, so we went to celebrate both. The kids had a blast riding the riding lawnmower! (Pictures to follow)

* Worked on something creative! I thought my creative juices were gone. But I was asked to make a little something for a friend's daughter who was graduating, and I ran with it. What started out as some thank you cards & pen, turned into something much bigger. I had a blast...it felt so good to get my hands "dirty" and make something again. Hopefully I'll get pictures up on my craft blog soon.

OK, so much for this not being a marathon post! So, I'll stop now and leave you with a few pictures!


From the family fun day:




Mother's Day. I love being Mom to these kids! Didn't get any of me with my Mom though - just forgot! :(


At the Fire Station:





Fun at Memaw & Papaw's!








Memorial Day:

And that took a while...it's after 1 am. This night owl is going to bed!

Menu Plan Monday

Sheesh...looks like I slacked off blogging again..not one post last week! Let's see if I can get back on track here, starting out with our menu for this week.
I never got around to posting last week's menu, I was late getting it planned. My favorite two meals (because I can't pick just one!) were Mexican Lasagna and Italian Nachos....YUM!

Here's what's up for this week:

Monday: Taco Mac & Cheese

Tuesday: Quesadillas

Wednesday: Pizza Spaghetti Casserole, Salad

Thursday: Hot Dogs or Leftovers

Friday: Carbonara, Salad

Saturday: We will be eating at an outing we are going to.

Sunday:

For more menu ideas, be sure to stop by Laura's!

Coloring Fun

We had some fun coloring eggs this evening. Ruthi had been looking forward to it all day. She was very excited. When CJ saw the eggs, he got a little excited too. That sort of surprised me - I really didn't think he had any interest in coloring eggs anymore. I was wrong! So he got in on the fun and colored a few as well.

I posted these pictures on Facebook, minus the ones of CJ. He didn't want them on there, and I honored his request since his friends are on Facebook too. However, his friends don't read my blog, so I'm posting them here!

Ruthi loved dropping the eggs in the cups and fishing them out. When they were dry, she added stickers them. She was very proud of her creations.

The little color kit I bought this time didn't come with a white crayon. That's the first thing CJ looked for! So he raided Ruthi's crayons for one so he could draw pictures and add messages to eggs.

They both had fun. I loved watching Ruthi's excitement. I also enjoyed seeing that my son, who thinks he's all grown up most days, have fun doing something so simple as coloring eggs! It reminded me of watching him when he was Ruthi's age doing this!

Here are some pictures!





















Now I'm off to iron our clothes for in the morning, and then to bed.

I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Easter!

Tackle it Tuesday

I missed last week's tackle post. I planned to do it, had pictures ready and everything. But I was so tired at the end of the day, I just never got it up.
So...the refrigerator part of this post is what WOULD have been posted last week.

My refrigerator was pretty bad - it had gotten so stuffed full that I was afraid stuff was going to fall out when I opened the door. Actually, I think stuff did fall out a time or two.

And the outside was a pretty big mess as well. My daughter is constantly coloring something new and sticking it on there. Plus, since we homeschool, the side of the fridge is used as a place to showcase her latest creations.

But it was time to clean it up - inside and out.

Here are some before pictures:








And after:

(Please ignore all the wires - they are annoying but thankfully only temporary!)





As a bonus - I even cleaned under it! I didn't really plan to, but I had to move it to unplug the phone that was plugged up back there. The phone was old and needed to be tossed, and I had to get it unplugged. What amazed me was how dirty it was under there. We had new floors put in the end of November, so it was clean then. And it was filthy under there! So, I'm glad that phone needed to be unplugged!

Ok, what else did I tackle? Not as much as I had hoped to get done. But I DID clean my living room from top to bottom and corner to corner. I moved the furniture and vaccuumed under it and removed all the couch/chair cushions and vaccuumed them out. I didn't take any pictures though, because since most of it wasn't surface stuff, there wouldn't be an obvious difference.

Next, I tackled some food. No - I didn't EAT it! (Well, not all of it anyway!) I'm trying to stock my freezer with quick and easy breakfasts and lunches. I didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted to, I have a long list still, but here's what I did manage to get done.

24 bagel pizzas made and packaged for the freezer. I had done some of these before and learned a little something. Before I prepared them like I prepare any pizza I'm about to bake. Sauce, cheese, then pepperoni. I put them in the freezer to flash freeze then bagged them up. What I found was that the cheese and pepperoni would fall off the bagel.

So this time I added the sauce, then the pepperoni and the cheese on top of that. Then I popped them in the oven for about 5 minutes - just long enough to melt the cheese so it would act like "glue" to hold it all together. This worked MUCH better! 10 minutes or so in the toaster oven and we have lunch!

Here's one pan, cooling from the oven.


And all bagged up!


I made a batch of banana-chocolate-chip muffins.


And I made oatmeal cream pies! YUM!


Then I made some refried beans. I soaked my pintos in my crockpot overnight. Then I drained them the next day and cooked them most of the day. When they were ready, I put them in a pan, mashed them up, added some sautéed onion, some red sauce and some cheese.


Then I made flour tortillas. These are good, but they are really difficult to get thin enough. I did these because I was out of store bought ones. I don’t know how often I’ll make them myself, because I also found them harder to work with, but they work fine if I’m out of the others!


And with that, I made bean burritos for the freezer.


And I made a batch of granola. This is one of CJ's favorite things, and he's been asking me to make it for a while. So I finally got some made!


And I think that pretty much covers it for this week. I’m a bit disappointed in myself because I lost my momentum and didn’t get half the stuff completed that I wanted to! Oh well…I’ll keep trying to get those things done!

To see what everyone else is tackling this week, be sure to visit 5 Minutes for Mom!

Menu Plan Monday

It's another simple food week here. I'm just not feeling very adventurous.
I have two carry-over meals from last week. There were a few changes, so two meals didn't get made. One was what we ate tonight and the other will be tomorrow.

Monday: Spinach Rice Casserole, Rolls
I actually altered the recipe a bit. I browned a pound of ground turkey and added it along with a few more seasonings. It was very good!

Tuesday: Mini Cheddar Meat Loaves, Green Beans

Wednesday: Hot Dogs, Mac & Cheese

Thursday: Homemade Chicken, Spinach Alfredo Pizza

Friday: Mexican Lasagna

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: We will be celebrating Easter at my parents' house and eating with them.


For more menu ideas, be sure to stop by Laura's!

Fiber One Gift Basket Giveway

Erin over at $5 Dinners is hosting a Fiber One giveaway. I really want to win this mostly because I want that food scale! If you want a chance to win, be sure to go enter!

This, That, and the Other

So, can you tell this is going to be a very random post?

I've been meaning to blog all week, but I only managed my menu on Monday. I had pictures ready for a Tackle it Tuesday post, but just never made the time to get it posted. I'll save it for next Tuesday.

Hey, I was busy! Really!
Well, at least Monday and Tuesday. I kept busy all day. Then Wednesday came and I kind of lost my momentum. And it didn't come back today. I'm hoping my productivity picks back up tomorrow, because I certainly have plenty to do!

So....I DID IT!!! I ran my 5K on Saturday! And I must say, I was pretty proud of myself. It rained the entire time, but it didn't bother me at all. I was thankful it was just rain, and not a bad storm. I was really worried the race would get cancelled. Thankfully, it didn't!

Before Saturday, the fastest I had completed 3.1 miles was 40 minutes. But on Saturday, I did it in 36 1/2 minutes! I was very happy. Especially considering just a few months ago, I NEVER thought I'd EVER be running! The girl who's been allergic to exercise all her life RAN A 5K!!!!!!!

Here are a couple of pictures.


This was taken right before we took off. That's my running partner Suzanne on the left. On the right are two other friends, Caleb and his dad, Al, who I didn't even know were going to be there. Very cool to see them there. Al's daughter was also running, not sure how she didn't make it in the picture. I also had another friend running, and she didn't make it into the picture either. But Chip got there right before it began (he had just gotten off work) and didn't have much time to get a picture, or we would have made sure no one got left out.


This is my friend (who is my neighbor) Denise and Ruthi. They were there just in time to wave to me as I ran by!


And here I am crossing the finish line. I was so happy to be there!

I felt amazing! I'm so glad I did it, and now I'm ready to get prepared for another one. I want to run FASTER next time!

On Sunday...I totally rested. I planned to go to church, but when I got up, I could hardly walk! I was a little surprised as to how sore I was. I guess I really pushed myself a little harder, and I definitely felt it!

Ruthi kept asking me, "Mommy, do your cabs still hurt?" So adorable...and yes I had very sore calves!!!

Let's see...Monday I did lots of cleaning. Tuesday I did more cleaning and a bit of baking. I planned to continue baking on Wednesday, but like I mentioned, I lost my momentum. So I'm planning on lots of baking tomorrow.

Today, I've been pretty lazy. It's been the perfect day for it...cold and rainy. So I've been trying to catch up on email and blog reading and facebook and such.

But for the last little bit, I've been playing...with this:

My picture order came today, so I've been putting everything in place and having fun. I have a lot of journaling to get caught up on! But I'm having fun with this...I'm so glad it finally came!

So, I think I'm going to get off here and play some more. And pray the weather doesn't get worse. We are under a tornado watch until 3 am, so I don't know how much sleep I'll be getting since the hubster is on duty. I hate this about spring. And I hate it even more when my hunny isn't home to keep me calm! Hopefully the night will be uneventful!

Menu Plan Monday

I'm managing to get it up a little earlier this week! At least I won't be at the bottom of the list this week - I'm getting mine in under #400!

From last week's menu, our absolute favorite meal was White Lasagna.
Our menu got shifted around a little and I ended up making this on Saturday. I had a thing to go to at my Mom's house at 4:00, so I assembled this before hand and stuck it in the fridge. I called my hubby to let him know when to put it in the oven.

He was a little frustrated when I didn't get home as quickly as he thought I would, and I couldn't figure out why. Well, it's because he was smelling this bake and he said it was torturing him! I was on my way home and told him not to wait on me, to go ahead and eat!

He called me a few minutes later and told me I should probably stop at McDonald's because the dish was ruined! I knew that just couldn't be possible, so I inquired further. He told me he wouldn't want me to have to eat it. It only took me a second to realize what was going on. I said to him, "You don't want me to have to eat it because you want it ALL, right?" And that was indeed the case. He THOROUGHLY enjoyed this meal!

So, if you want something that's a little different and oh so good, try it!

This week is going to be pretty simple. I've had two weeks of lots of cooking and trying new recipes, so I'm going simple this week. I'm hoping to get lots of baking done, so I need to have simple meals to cook!

Monday: Leftovers - gotta clean out that fridge!

Tuesday: Chicken & Rice Wraps, Chips & Salsa, Refried Beans

Wednesday: Hot Dogs, Mac & Cheese

Thursday: Spinach Rice Casserole, Salad, Rolls

Friday: Homemade Pizza

Saturday: Mini Cheddar Meat Loaves, Green Beans

Sunday: TBD


For MANY more menu's, be sure to stop by Laura's!

It's Wednesday

How's that for an interesting title for a post? Yeah...I can't come up with anything else right now!

It's raining here. A lot.

We NEED the rain - we've been in a pretty serious drought for about 3 years now. So we need it. And I try not to ever complain about it. Because of the NEED!

However...

My first 5K race is this Saturday, and I really don't want to run in the rain!
But I will.
BUT, there is the threat of thunderstorms. And I'm a little concerned that the race is going to be cancelled. And then I'm going to be HIGHLY disappointed!

Technically, I've already run a 5K...several times...while training for this. But, this will be my first "official" 5K, and I don't want it to get cancelled!

So, I'm just waiting to see what happens.

I've been working very hard to get ready for this, and I'm quite proud of myself. Then on Sunday, I started not feeling as well as I was. Nothing big, just feeling tired, and my my throat was all scratchy. I ran anyway. I figured it was just allergies.

Then Monday came. And I felt awful! I was coughing all day and just not doing too great. When I woke up Tuesday morning, my chest felt very congested. Tuesday was supposed to be a run day. I decided it was probably best that I not run and try to rest. My chest was really tight and I was feeling pretty miserable.

Then my son reminded me that when I got sick back in November, the doctor had given me an inhaler because I had a bronchial infection. I had completely forgotten! So, I started using it. About 30 minutes after I used it, my chest started loosening up! So I continued using it and drinking hot tea.

By this morning I was feeling much better, just a little congested. So I decided to go ahead and run today...in the rain! I was prepared to take it easy and just walk if I needed to. I didn't want to push myself too hard this close to race day. But I ended up feeling great and running a longer distance without a power walk break than ever before! And when I was finished, my chest felt like all the congestion was gone! Amazing!

So, I'm feeling SO much better. I'm just having one odd thing going on that I haven't figured out yet. The roof of my mouth (at the back) is red and splotchy, and has white dots all over it. It doesn't hurt at all, but if feels like there is a sweater in my throat! I actually woke up this morning like that. Weird. I give the doctor's office a call in the morning and talk to a nurse and see if I can figure out what's going on. I'm thinking it could possibly be a reaction from the inhaler...not sure.

Anyway, I'm planning to run in the rain again tomorrow. I don't usually run consecutive days yet, but it will be the last chance I'll have to run before the race, and I feel like I need one more run.

Wow, that was a lot of talk about running!

I'm getting tired, so I'm going to get off here and try to get some sleep. But before I go, I thought I'd share a few pictures since it's been a while!

I took these pictures of Ruthi recently. She had on my hat and was just being silly, so I started snapping away. I got some cute shots, and these were my favorites. I think she likes the camera just a little bit!





This is her "kissy face". I have pictures of her doing this from way back when she was little bitty. I love this face!

In Her Words

Yesterday, Ruthi was making some silly faces. She was trying to make a scary face, but they really just all ended up cute. So she added sound to get the scary face to work. (It was still just cute though!)

That led her to talking about dinosaurs. She let out this roar and said she was making her dinosaurus-rex face! We got a good chuckle out of that.

Then she mentioned another breed - the Sci-ter-i-tops. How cute is that?

Then CJ asked her to say "Velociraptor". It came out so-lop-i-tap-tor.

I think I like her dinosaur breeds!


Lately, she's been pronouncing words correctly that she wasn't before. It kind of makes me sad, because it just means she is growing much too quickly. But at the same time, it's pretty cute.

She will say a word correctly and catch herself. Then she says (excitedly), "MOM! I just said _________!" I think it's pretty neat that she realizes that she has just said a word differently than she was saying it.

One of the biggest things is words that begin with the letter s, followed by a consonant. She would always leave the s off and start with the next letter. Here are a few words she has begun to say correctly lately:



Kool work became school work

Fire Tation became Fire Station (and gas station too)

Tairs became Stairs

Tick became Stick

Teps became Steps

And a few other words she has changed:

Kank you became thank you.

bacuse me became excuse me.

Fwidge-u-fwate-u has become fwidge-u-rate-u. Not a BIG difference, but closer to the real thing (refrigerator).
And this one makes me the most sad, because it's always been one of my favorites!

Yes, she is growing up WAY too quickly for me!!!



And on a compltely different subject - I've begun blogging on my craft blog again. It had been almost a year since my last post there - sheesh! You can check it out by clicking the link over in my sidebar.

Tackle it Tuesday

I really am trying to get back into the swing of blogging, so what better way than to participate in these carnivals to get me going again! Yesterday was the menu, today is the tackle!

This will be slightly boring, as I didn't get any pictures, but I did tackle two things for today. I actually did these yesterday. If I had waited until today, this post would end up being put up late tonight, and I wanted to get it up early!

The first was a pretty big one for me. One that I'm embarrassed I put off for so long. It was my car! It was really bad. I just didn't mess with it while it was cold, and even on the warm days, I had better things to do. So I finally decided to get it done.

I was planning to take it to the car wash, clean it out and vacuum it there. But that would have just given me another reason to put it off some more. So I decided to get in there and clean out the junk and then take it to the car wash and vacuum it.

After I got all the junk out, I wanted to vacuum it right then, so I decided to just do it at home. My vacuum worked great, and it's like a new car! I then pulled out the Armor All and went to town making everything clean and shiny.

I still need to take it and wash it. I would love to be able to do that at home, but thanks to the drought that seems as if it will never end, our water restrictions don't allow that. But it is so much nicer on the inside now, and it feels good!

My second tackle was my front porch. A much smaller and quicker tackle, but another one I've been putting off. I knocked down cobwebs, swept everything off and removed the junk. Much better now!

And as a bonus, my daughter really enjoyed the day. It was so beautiful outside! She played and played while I sat on the porch and played on the computer. I would have played with her, but I wasn't feeling my best. I don't know what gave me the energy to finally get up and complete my tackles! But she loved helping me out with them as well, and she had a blast. This child LOVES to help me clean. I hope that doesn't change when she gets older! It would be so awesome if, when she's grown and married, she actually enjoys cleaning her house!

If you want to see what every one else is tackling, be sure to visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

Menu Planning Again!

I know that if anyone is still reading this blog, you no longer believe that I really am trying to be a better blogger! Really! I have great intentions, but life gets in the way.

Well, life and facebook! I'm telling you, it's like crack! I am so addicted! I think I love the ease of it all, the fact that I can communicate in just a few words (yes, even ME...I realize few words and Jennifer aren't words that seem to go together, but it works on fb!), and I get a bit of instant gratification when someone else leaves a quick comment. I can pop in and out quickly, it only takes a few minutes to catch up, and I'm done! Plus, it's even quicker to upload pictures there.

But I really do miss blogging. And I'll say it again...I am trying to make it a regular part of my life again!

Recently, my cousin Beth commented to me that she missed me sharing my menu for Menu Plan Monday. To be honest, for several weeks, I had gotten really lazy and was not planning my menus. But I'm back on track now. I had planned to post my menu last week, but the days got away, and I never got it on here. So I'll post the menu for this week. Plus, I'll post some links to some recipes I've made recently that I've really liked.

I'm just listing the dinners this week. Breakfasts and lunches look like they do most weeks - pretty boring! So here's what's for dinner this week:

Monday: Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Lasagna (This turned out so good!)

Tuesday: Leftovers (we have lots!)

Wednesday: Tacos, Homemade Refried Beans

Thursday: White Lasagna, Salad

Friday: Leftovers

Saturday: Homemade Pizza

Sunday: TBD

Yes, I realize I have lasagna on the menu twice this week, but they are TOTALLY different!


Now, for a few recent recipes I've tried.

I've posted this link before, but I made Kirstin's Stuffed Zucchini again last week, and it is yummy!

This Cordon Bleu Casserole was very good.

I made Pioneer Woman's Olive Cheese Bread, and it was OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! Oh my goodness, was it good! I cooked half the night I made it and froze the other half. I pulled it out later on a night my parents came and ate with us. They loved it too. So, I made it again and shared it, and they loved it too. Chip doesn't like olives at all, and he even ate some and didn't hate it!

I tried Chick Pea Stew, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I saw the recipe here, but then clicked on her link to the original she got it from. After reading both recipes, I made it following the second link more than the first, but still made a couple of changes. I liked this so much that I ate all the leftovers myself! My parents really liked it, and Ruthi liked it. CJ wasn't crazy about it and Chip ate it, but said it was a little to "healthy" tasting for him.

I made Whole-Wheat Peanut Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies that were absolutely amazing! I originally found the recipe at Money Saving Mom, but I can't seem to find it on her blog anymore, so I'll post it here. My kids loved these, as did some friends I shared them with. Chip doesn't like raisins cooked into things, but he loved the parts that had no raisins. So I plan to make a raisin-free batch!

Whole-Wheat Peanut Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups oats
1 1/2 cups raisins (you could use chocolate chips instead)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream first six ingredients. Mix together next four ingredients and add to creamed ingredients. Mix well and stir in raisins. Roll into balls (1 1/2 inch or so). Place on greased cookie sheets and bake for around 10 minutes. Makes five dozen. Freezable

Apparently I made mine a little bigger, because I got just a couple more than four dozen. I'm telling you...these are amazing!

OK, so that turned into quite a long post for Menu Plan Monday! I'm going to link up since it is still Monday (barely). So for more recipes, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday!

Um, Yeah....What Blog?

No, I actually did not forget I have a blog!

Even though it seems that way!

Not sure what's going on. Too much time on Face Book I suppose. At least that's one reason...something else taking up my time.

But really, I just haven't had much blogging inspiration lately. Actually, I haven't had much of ANY inspiration lately it seems.

Not really sure why. January was great. February was blah. Maybe it was the winter blues? But I've had very low motivation to do anything! And I'm not happy with myself about that!

But I came to a little bit of a realization the other day. January was happy - and I was doing lots of scrapbooking and card making. For some reason, when February came around, I didn't get around to any of that. And I just wasn't as happy!

A few days ago, I sat down and stamped some images and started coloring them in to make some cards. And all of a sudden, I felt happy! I'm NOT kidding...it was like my happy endorphins kicked in, and there's been a bit more of a spring in my step!

So, I told my husband that apparently need to make myself work on my stuff more often, to keep those happy endorphins going! So, maybe I'll start posting on my craft blog again too...I really can't believe how long it's been since I posted something there!

So...not too terribly much is new. I'm running again. After a good start last fall and then nothing over the holidays, I'm back. I was so mad at myself...my weight crept back up, and I was like a slug.

So I decided to get serious again. And I made a commitment to myself to get healthy, once and for all. And I'm feeling much better.

I'm running my first 5K on the 28th of this month. I am very excited! And I'm SO hoping that I'm actually going to be ready. I mean, I'm doing it whether I'm truly ready or not, but I want to run the entire thing, and not end up walking too much of it! I'm not concerned about the time I finish it in, but that I can just run the whole thing. I'll work on increasing my speed on the next one!

It just feels good knowing I'm doing something good for my body. And I've seriously changed my eating habits. And...the scale has started moving in the right direction again, so I'm quite happy about that!

Let's see...well, I was planning to post my pictures for my Project 365, but obviously that hasn't happened! I'm not going to go back and post all the ones I've taken since the last post...I might pick a few and share. And I probably won't try to post every single one for the rest of the year here either. But I will share a lot of them.

I just got notice today that my kit has FINALLY shipped! I was so irritated in January. I was sure it was on the way. I mean, I had received notice that it was! So I finally called customer service only to find out there was a mistake, and that it was processed as a backorder. That would not have irritated me if they had bothered to let me know! Anyway...I was told that they would have them in mid February, and they would ship then. February was gone, and I decided to just not worry about it, that I probably would end up not getting one. Then, yesterday I received an email saying they were shipping! And today I got another one saying it was shipped, complete with a tracking number! So, it really is on the way! Now I just need to get pictures printed so I can start putting it together!

Well, this is getting long, so I suppose I should sign off. And I really will try to blog more than once a month again. Wait a minute...I didn't blog at ALL in February! So, I've already beat last month! LOL!

Seriously, I will try to quit neglecting this thing.

Now I'm going back to trying to pay attention to American Idol. I'm so under impressed so far this season. I'm getting bored, and the final 12 aren't even completely decided! Oh dear. Ok...that is all for now.

Back in the Saddle

In the bike saddle that is! And it feels good!

Chip had to go out for a while this morning. On his way home, he called me and asked what I thought about going for a bike ride. I was thinking...it's cold! And I haven't been on my bike in 3 months! I won't be able to keep up! I might not survive! Then I thought, what better time to get back on track?

I stepped outside to see how cold it was. It was cold. Too cold to take Ruthi. So we left CJ in charge of her and went on a bike date.

I warned Chip that he was probably going to be disappointed in me, because I would probably not do very well. I thought I'd be whining inside the whole way.

But you know what? I surprised myself!

When we reached the point we planned to turn around, I was feeling pretty good, so he asked if I wanted to keep going. So we kept on. I got a little tired on the way back, and pedaling got tough a couple of times, but all in all, I felt good. We only did about 10 miles, but that's not bad since it's been so long for me! And I'm so glad we went!

We got back, and I got myself ready and went to the store to buy a few more clothing items for the cold weather. I had borrowed CJ's biking coat, and it was great, so I got one for me, along with some pants and a couple of shirts. I don't want to look like a dork wearing the wrong clothes out there - gotta look good! LOL!. But I didn't want to get too much, because I really hope those clothes are going to be too big for me next winter!

I did have to take some ibuprofen this evening - I could feel my muscles aching. And I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow, but I think I'll be ready to ride again in a couple of days!

So...I took my camera along today to get my photo for today. But my camera wouldn't work! I think it was a combination of the batteries being low, it being so cold and maybe the jostling around it probably got being in the pouch on my bike. (It's working fine now!) Thankfully, Chip had his phone and we used it. The pictures aren't as crisp, but that's ok. He took both of these.

Jan. 19

I really wish my eyes were open more in this one. I have the hardest time not looking like I'm squinting in pictures!

Today was a good day. We even had some snow flurries tonight. I don't call that real snow. It doesn't count unless it sticks, and I'd be happy if we could have a LEAST a foot! I won't hold my breath, but I'm sure hoping this is our year for REAL snow!

Looking forward to another good day tomorrow. Goodnight!

For Fun

I was just trying to catch up on some blog reading, and I discovered this at Carrie's blog. It's a little photo contest, and looked fun. So I thought I'd submit a photo. There are two categories - adult and kids. I'm entering this one in the kids category. Just for fun.




For more info, click on the button above to go to the site.