March 21-27

The week managed to go by really fast, but the weekend has been hell. For starters, our lovely spring weather disappeared and left us with winter-like temps and we were not happy. It really stunk to have to put real shoes on again and dig the sweaters back out. We did get out and about Saturday to attend Todd's college roommate's son's 1st birthday party. Aubrey had a good time playing with the kids and she really didn't want to leave. Neither Todd nor I felt great before the party, but afterwards we just felt rotten. We both parked on the couch all night and watched tv, which is not like me at all. We went to bed around 9:30 (another red flag for sickness in the house) and I knew we were in for a night. The real fun begin around 2:30 AM when Todd and I were both up with vomiting and diarrhea. I am sure it was a pathetic site to see. We managed to get cleaned up and back in the bed by about 3:30. Luckily, Aubrey let us sleep until 8:00, but even then we were dragging. I made a quick trip the store for sick supplies (Gatorade, ginger ale, and chicken noodle soup) and we spent the rest of the day lying on the couch again in our jammies. Even though it was a yucky way to do it, the sickness helped me drop another 1.5 lbs for the week so I met my first mini goal of loosing 5 lbs in only 3 weeks. So, I am adding another 5 lb goal in, which will get me pretty close to my wedding weight. That is a good feeling. But, I've got to run more this week because I only got 1 run in last week and that is not good. My race is in 5 weeks so I need to get a move on so I am not passed by the 80-year old man again this year!

Playing with new toys at the birthday party.

Aubrey playing with her new friends.

We spent all day Sunday in our jammies on the couch.

Week 12

This week was about new toys. Todd ordered an iPad the day they came out and finally received it Wednesday. I must admit, it is a cool little machine. While I still like the power of having a computer more, it is amazing what it can do. My favorite feature is that you can download books for children that are interactive and Aubrey is already hooked. She learned how to turn pages after being shown 1 time and loves touching the screen to make different things happen. She' been using our iPhones for over a year so the touch screen is an old concept to her, but it still amazes me how much she knows how to do. It so crazy for me to think she will never know life without all this awesome technology and I can't wait to see what it does for her.

We also decided this week that it was time to buy Aubrey a tricycle. She loves riding in her Cozy Coupe, but her legs are really getting too long for it. We tried out one tricycle at the store and she could reach the pedals, but couldn't really turn it. So, we went for the Fisher Price tricycle because it has an adjustable seat and extenders for the pedals. It said for ages 2-5 so we thought for sure it would work great. There is a reason there is a joke about assuming things because she still can't push the pedals. For now it works because she just likes to go Flinstone style by using her feet to move around. The other frustration was finding a helmet to fit. They make bikes for 2-year olds but did not carry helmets for 2-year olds. So, we bought a 3-year old helmet that looks ridiculous to hold us until we can find something that fits a little better.

This is what she thought of the helmet at first. We had to do a lot of talking about no helmet means no bike.

Use feet power to move

I can't wait until she figures it out the pedal thing. It will give me an excuse to put some air in my tires and get out on my bike with her.

As for personal goals for the week, I finally managed to run a full 5k length again this week for the first time since November. I was still about 3 minute off my pace from then, but I was still proud to run the whole distance again with no walking. I only got 2 runs in this week because we had such a busy week, but I plan to up the ante this week with the warmer weather. Running outside is so much easier for me so I hope to add some distance to my runs to make my 5k time a little better.

I almost made a new recipe this week using the naked burrito concept. It turned out pretty yummy but I am hoping to find some different variations to keep it interesting. We tend to get stuck in the recipe blahs so I really want to work on new variations of a lot of things so this is my mission for the next few weeks.

I hope everyone has a great week has a beautiful start to Spring.

Week 11

This week was nothing special to write about but the weekend was fantastic. We had 70+ degree weather and we took full advantage of it. We spent the majority of both weekend afternoons outside taking walks, hanging out on the porch and grilling/eating dinner.This is my favorite time of year and I love being able to share with the family.

I don't know what this face was about, but it cracks me up.

I wish the Cozy Coupe hadn't been in the corner of the picture, but oh well. They were watching airplanes in the sky and I couldn't resist the picture.

Eating some yummy dinner on the porch.

I managed to get some work done towards my goals over the week. I got 2 decent runs in through the week and then 1 great run outside yesterday. I'm still about 3-4 minutes off my 5k pace from November, but I've got a month and  half to get built back up before my first race. I also got serious about my eating by downloading an app for my phone to track all of my calories and exercising. Being diligent about my eating and exercising led to a 1.5 lb weight loss which is great. I'd ideally like to loose about 9 more lbs, but I'm trying to take it week by week so I'll see how it goes over the next few weeks.

I also worked on cleaning out some closets this weekend. We have a goal to clean the guest room out by late in the summer which means my dresses and summer tops needed a a hanging place other than the guest room closet. So, I made another huge Goodwill donation bag by cleaning out my side of the closet and ditching things I know I'll never wear again. Our next project is to paint our bathroom and then we have storage up high in that room to store things from the guest room. So, we won't be able to get any more work done in the next few weeks until we finish buying all the things we need for the bathroom. I'll be so glad to get the bathroom done because it is so white and blah. I started painting 3 years ago and lost motivation when I got pregnant, so its beyond time to get it finished. We also have a huge spring cleaning list for this year that we will be starting in April. Always a million projects to do, but I'm excited to plan them and see them get done.

Hopefully we'll start having more of the gorgeous weekends now that it is so close to spring. Spring gives me so much energy and motivation which means its time to get some things done!

Week 10

I can't believe we are in the double digits in weeks already this year. The first 2 months went so fast.

Todd's dad was discharged from the hospital Monday night with strict orders to make some changes. So as a family, we are setting up a weekly accountability plan to make sure we are all healthy. My goal is to run 2 5ks this springs and loose 5 pounds in the next 5 weeks. Completely realistic goals for me, I think. I ran twice this week and I did my Tae Bo another night so I did pretty well. I really need to get that third day of running squeezed back in because I need to start training harder to be in a good place for the 5k on April 30th.

Todd took the GRE yesterday and did a great job so now he can start the application process for grad school. I am so proud of him for studying so hard over the past 2-3 months in preparation for that test. Hopefully all of his hard work will pay off with an acceptance letter for the fall class and then the real fun can begin. Apple announced the iPad 2 this week and he is hoping to buy one for school and we are all excited about that. While I don't want one for myself, I am sure it will be a fun thing for Aubrey and I to play with when he is not using it.

It was such a rainy dreary weekend that we didn't do much of anything that was interesting. I did spend some time learning a new hobby involving a piece of plastic called the Knifty Knitter. I learned to crochet 5 or 6 years ago, but I had really gotten bored with it. So a lot of the ladies on a message board I visit were talking about this knitting tool and I've always wanted to learn to knit so my mom found one for me and I just got it this week. It's a pretty neat little thing to use. So far I've made one hat and started a scarf to match and I am pretty excited. I have a ton of chunky yarn that was a pain in the rear to crochet with, but is perfect for the Knify Knitter. Here is a picture of my first hat made with some chunky variegated yarn. Not perfect, but not too bad for my first try. Sadly, it probably won't be worn until next winter because it is a really warm hat, but that's ok. I'll be excited then to have new hats to wear then.

 

Aubrey spent time playing with her new friends called the little people (really). I returned a toy for her yesterday and I wanted to get something new for her to play with. So, I found a little horse and carriage toy that included blocks and two of the little people and she was instantly hooked. We then bought another car with 1 more little person and blocks today while getting groceries and she was so excited.  We really shouldn't buy the child any more toys because she has too many, but she was happy so we were happy.

I hope everyone has a great week!