What do YOU do at the first sign of Spring? After 6 months of cold Winter wind, snow, rain, snow, and blizzards, we broke out the grass-colored Popsicles, put on our sundresses, and sunbathed in lawn chairs...
until the snow came. AGAIN. We're ready for you, Mr. Sun!
Hello Gals! Because I was super pressed for time this morning, as I was getting ready for a little friend's b-day party, and peeling me naked child out of her crib from her "nap" ...where I discovered she must have been just dancing around naked the entire time,and because I am rehabilitating my elbow, I altered one of my favorite workouts to be the following:
...that's what you get when you refuse to find out what sex your new baby will be.
AH! I can't stand the suspense and it's not even mine!
So I made a yellow and green diaper cake...well, mostly green because I kept trying to do blues and greens (because those are my favorites together) and then had to remind myself that not everyone likes to put their girls in blue :)
Diaper Cake, that is. Someone asked if anyone knew how to do a diaper cake. I volunteered. I didn't lie. Just didn't volunteer the information that I had never made or seen one before. Bwahaha. Competitive? Maybe a little... with myself. The Tissue Pompom idea is courtesy of Martha Stewart. You can find everything cute 'n crafty on her site.
The pink flower is actually part of a headband I made for the new baby as well. And I tried to make the washcloths look like candles.
I was pretty happy with the results. And it only took a few hours!
And I love it! I especially LUV to squeeze and kiss her diaper-less bum in her new little undies. We've officially been out of daipers for 2 months. Yay!!!
- Warm-up Run (10mn) - Deadlifts until Failure each round. (You don't want this to be too easy, but you don't want to use your max weight either. I did 70% of my max...or 83% of my body weight.) - Pull-ups until Failure each round. (same goes here. You don't want these to be so easy that you're knocking out 30 at a time. Prob shoot for 50-80% of your body-weight)
- Rest 3-5mn in between each round
After Round 5, finish up with the following:
- 50 AbMat sit-ups - L-Sits (as long as you can hold)
My Total Reps: 58 Dead-lifts & 44 Pull-ups Post a comment with your numbers, and Good Luck!
Hello Gals! To motivate me, I thought I'd start posting some workouts as I do them, to help motivate & encourage you too. The great thing about these workouts is that you can do them at your own pace/level! Modify them to fit your "gym" ...what you have in your house. Start slow, go through each move, making sure you feel comfortable with it before you press "start" on that stopwatch.
Machines and equipment you will need: Treadmill/ hills 12 lb. med ball 12-20 lb. dumbbells-what your comfortable with but not too easy
Here's the Workout:
(For time! So grab that Stopwatch!)
- Walk/Run 1 mile at 12% incline (yes, 12% which is = hills of San Fran/ Monterey/ or parts of Missouri)
- 50 push presses or push jerks (with dumbbells-one in each hand.) "Mommy Modification": Gallon of water or milk in each hand.
Broken Down:
- 30 Med Ball Cleans
- 30 Wall Balls (10lb or higher) Mommy Modification: Basketball or Bag of Trash
- 50 Push ups(or in my case, because I'm rehabilitating my elbow, Handstand-holds)
- 30 Box Jumps Mommy Modification: Use your stairs. Start by jumping 2...then 3. Find an amount you are comfortable with and then begin counting to 30.
- Walk/run 1 mile at 1.5% incline
My Time: 42:14 Post your time as a comment. And GOOD LUCK!
"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know whatchya gOne-na get" & "when it hands you lemons... you make lemonade."
The more I study the scriptures the more readily I accept and welcome the challenges the Lord let's us endure. Let's rewind a few weeks and I'll splain:
It started with the loss of my iPhone I've never really been into "the latest and greatest" or been one to get attached to such. But since it only cost 1 Euro when we arrived here, I thought "why not." My phone was awesome. Then it took a bath.
Next: my spillage issues follow me to the computer keyboard. $180 later, we're on our 3rd. Next, the endeavor to potty-train Afton at 19months. I knew I'd be house-bound for a good week or more. No biggie. Suck it up. Do my workouts at home.
Stalk-call people
Bring travel potty with me in the back of the car for the grocery trips.
Our 2 daily outings would be walking Porter to and from school.
TOTALLY do-able.
Until you lock yourself out of the house w/ car keys but no house key on the ring... in the snow... no wallet... no cell phone... and still don't have your husband's contact numbers memorized. :)
So what's to be done? Bring the white-trash to Germany! Knock on my neighbor's door... wake her from her nap and ask to use her internet so I can send an S.O.S. to the hubby. Have her feed my child who still hasn't eaten lunch, and let us use the potty.
Nicht so schlimm.
Same Day: Family-mobile died. 2 Days later: our 2nd car broke-down. No prob. We were even laughing still at this point! What more can be thrown our way that can't be handled with a little prayer!?
Com'mon, try us!
But SRSLY. In the midst of it, these two AWESOME missionaries told Luke they'd be over to fix our car and make us dinner!
SAY WHUT!?! They pretty much Rock!
Here's the Chef/babysitter:
And this is the Mechanic/babysitter:
The night the missionaries came to fix the car, Afton was just not herself. So cranky. Which by 4p.m. was making for a cranky ME.
Turns out, that was her first night with.... The Chicken Pox
She didn't want to pose for a picture because she said this was her "bad side." And I said, "Oh, sweety, every side is bad when you have the pox of a chicken! You need to smile and let me document this for posterity."
So then she made this face and said "Hey. it's all I got.": {Guess that's the picture that will live on for generations.}
And...
"WHAT. You don't ride scooters naked while wearing socks a nd begging for your daddy's cereal?" It totally helps when you have the Pox of a Chicken!
At least we've already had the Swine flu here. Cause who knooooooooooows what she'd be doing!...
running across the street wearing only a mask?
Next: Our computer caught a MEAN virus and crashed hard. BAD, Sony, BAD! Why can't you be a good boy like our lil' Apple?
We've got AWESOME friends! I called computer 9-1-1 and rushed my computer over where this amazing guy worked day and night to save our Vaio. He said we almost lost her... THANKS, Jeff!!! (and Laura, for watching the kiddos while he worked even longer hours!) Let's face it. REAL stressers aren't fun blogging material. :) As with anyone, the most challenging "stressers" have been unseen to the outside. It has just seemed to hit all at once.
I have a stronger testimony that God lives. He answers prayers. I have 3 scriptures in the Book of Mormon that have given me strength through trials this past year:
Mosiah 4:9 "Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend."
Alma 32:21 "...faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true."
Ether 12:4&6 "Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God." "And now, I, Moroni, would speak concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."
No, we're not living in a 3rd world country & No, my husband is not out of work & No, we don't promote cross-dressing & No, Luke no longer wears his man-boob-ventilation shirts with his surfing cap. He tried to wear one of these shirts that doubles as a pasta-strainer to church one time and that is where I was forced to put my size 10 foot down!
So I don't know WHERE Porter gets this:
Disclaimers: A: My 3yro is not still wearing diapers B: I realize that was the worst head-cropping job on the planet. But the REAL pictures of Luke in his sexy-beast-mesh-top might have ruined his career. C: Jon George is a name he named his froggy over a year ago! It is the name of one of my best college friends!? I still have no idea how he came to name his frog "Jongeorge!" :)
Oh how far he's come! Last week after arriving at kindergarten, Porter had barely taken his boots off and gotten into his "house shoes" before he started playing "grocery store" with the other kids. He then looks up and says: "okay, weave." (Translation: leave) Me: "what?" Porter: "just weave."
OUCH. and at the same time, YAY!
Lemme splain. It's taken 3 months for him to go From: gripping my leglike a koala grips a tree trunk and screaming "DON'T WEAVE ME!" (I have to say though, I'd be screaming too if I had a "woman" (?) principal sporting a curly mullet and saying things like "Porter let's go do thum-thing togetha") ... I'm just sayin'
To: "Just weave."
Which reminds me... Weevils. Are weEVIL! I'm disgusted. Sick.Nast. (can you see 'em?) I've never dealt with these ugly muggers. After reading up on them, it looks like my food storage will now be looking at me from the inside of a dumpster. The tainted boxes have been traced to my purchases here. I CURSE the commissary!
(the first box we opened was a bajillion times worse...it should have been called "weevils with some pasta" instead of "penne pasta". But I was too busy screaming like a girl to think to capture the little muggers on camera.)
What better time to post about Christmas than on a Sunday in February, right? Same focus... Same theme... Same happy, smiley faces... (Here they're waiting for Daddy to get the room picture-ready)
...and I realize it looks like I keep my children in a monkey cage, but really. It's just an unfriendly German staircase with a babygate that cost me my next born child.
So Christmas started later than usual this year. I like to start decorating after Halloween. We didn't get decorations up until the first part of December! {Gasp} But alas, we made the most of it. We bought our first REAL Christmas tree and decorated it as a family in whites and golds ...my FAVE! I got to hang all of my hand-made garland and wreaths which always gives me a tingly feeling, we participated in some Christmas programs, & Daphne and I decided to choose one Saturday to just bake. And we baked for 13hours to put together a deliciously lovely arrangement for neighbors and friends which had the following: Coconut Cream Macaroons German Chocolate Cookies White Chocolate Pecan Toffee Lemon Sugar Cookies with a Lime Icing Raspberry Almond Thumb Cookies & Cake Pops
You're probably starting to ask yourself "where are all the pictures of these so-called events and gorgeous decorations?"
Well, I'll tell. We had an unfortunate turn of events... or our Sony Vaio did anyway. He crashed, taking our December pictures with him... a mean little virus got to him. But, lucky for you, I had 2 pics saved to blogger draft before he succumbed. :) The 2nd of which is of total scrumptiousness. Be forewarned, though, just looking at this picture may magically make you increase one pant size... or more.
Just sayin'.
...(sigh) I feel my back-side growing as I drool over this picture again.
Either way, we had a wonderful Christmas. Our 1st Christmas NOT traveling to see family. Although we missed our loved ones, It was nice just spending it with our little family and free of travel-stress!
Yeah. I took them. IN PARIS! In person. Over Thanksgiving. That is all.
Okay, that's not really all. I'm sorry we couldn't spend this wonderful "season of thanks" with all of our loved ones! But alas, life must go on.
And so it did in Paris.
We arrived on the eve of Thanksgiving. The chillins were wonderful during our 7 hour ride in the car!
Thanksgiving Day, we ventured out and learned how the Paris metro system works , (same as the others) saw the Arc de Triomphe walked down the entire Champs Elysees and ended up at the Eiffel Tower. Our 2nd day in Paris, we visited the Louvre (I REALLY want to photoshop that lady out...)
where we saw...
Aphrodite (approx 323 B.C.... I hope I look that good at that age!) The Great Sphinx of Tanis (said to be 4,000 years old!) Dennis and Ann Leary And, of course, the great Mona Lisa... which is now behind a wall of plexi-glass, with a wall in front of that, and ropes in front of that... dumb thieves! ...okay, okay, because I KNOW you're dying to hear about my encounter with Dennis Leary, given that he's like the #1 hottest actor on the "Who's who of the B-movies" list, I will tell.
He was there with his wife and son... with us at the Louvre. He and I were chattin' it up. I told him how great I thought his mullet was, or rather, his "business on the sides, party in the back" 'do was. He thanked me and told me not many people complimented his hairdo. I told him " no problem. I speak the truth." And then I told him how great movie make-up is! 'Cause it hides some serious freckelage! Then he said "Happy Thanksgiving, crazy Lady." and they went on their way.
After the Louvre we headed over to the Notre Dame Cathedral. ... Now fast forward to the evening where Luke and I went on a hot double-date. And by "hot" I mean I got to play dress-up. I wore a silk blouse, and tight black pants with my highest, blackest heels. Did I get any pictures of our hot selves? No. Got so caught up not having children, I think I forgot. We sat at a cozy French restaurant with our good friends, Laura and Jeff and enjoyed great cuisine and 4 hours of relaxed conversation. 4 HOURS! No crying. No pooping. No fighting. No whining. It was nearly 1 a.m. when we left the restaurant. We decided to then go see the tower in it's nocturnal glory, because I have a "thing" for shiny, glittery stuff. What girl doesn't? Give a girl glitter, and send her to Paris on a pony and she could die happy... (well, according to Luke, anyway...) ??? Whatev, honey. We'll let you have your little fantasy.
So anyway, after forcing Jeff and Laura to let me take some cutesy pics of them, Luke and I got into our contrived pose, Jeff got into his photographer pose and as he was pressing the button, the glorious, sparkly, twinkling lights shut off! {GASP!} And they did not come back on! Our last night in Paris! SAD.SAD.Night for Steph. But all is well. Our friends have some cute shots and I was able to take in the Eiffel Tower in all of it's shiny glory!!! At least the memory will live on in my little noggin.
Out of all the shots I got of the great Eiffel Tower, we did not get ONE with the entire family or of Luke and myself!
Ah! Frustrating. But, that just gives us a reason to go back :) I guess I'm a little glad we didn't try to suffer through trying to get the perfect couples/family shot because I just had my hair done. (*this pic was taken in the Louvre. Porter had his Sully, and Luke saw a photo op.) Don't like it. Too harsh. Getting it fixed in a week. I only wanted the dark that was already in my hair, a little richer. Not all of my lightness gone.
We'll call him the "dododad bird"
