The Tree!

I think we've stumbled into a new tradition! 

Nobody (except maybe my mom) was super keen on my idea to film the family decorating the tree but I was insistent. I thought it would be cute. I think I was right. ;) 

Mark totally got on board when I started editing though. No way I could have made the music half as seamless as he managed. 

Honestly? It's actually much funnier to watch than we thought it would be. Tip: if you want to laugh just keep your eyes on Gabriel. 

We'd intended to decorate with my parents but wound up getting the tree a day late and then had to let it drop a bit before we could decorate and by that time they were headed home. 

The confusion doesn't come across in the video (which is a good thing!) but we are missing an entire box of tree decorations. Looks like it's back into the attic I go. Oh and turns out the star was completely out of frame. oops.  I wish I could have uploaded the movie in full resolution but that would have been a 3gig beast so the internets will just have to make do with the lower quality. I'm so looking forward to doing this every year now!

Weekly Weigh In 9,10,11, and 12!

Oh gosh... how behind am I? I don't even have an idea. I'm going to have to go back and look at my last post to work it out.

After finishing NROLFW stage 1 my dedication completely fell apart. Instead being able to knock out a workout in 35 minutes, stage two was taking me almost and hour and a half. I do not have that kind of time to devote to the gym 3 days a week. Add in visiting grandparents and I can honestly say I've only made it to the gym once a week recently (and that was for yoga!) I did make it to LifeBarre last night so I feel like I'm on my way to getting back in the groove but we'll see.

I only have 11 days before my final weigh out. Ideally I'd like to see that scale tip below 160 (it's been YEARS people.) I know it's just a number and if I start lifting properly for the next 2 weeks I know the scale might actually go up but it would be lovely to see. I'm going to try to really recommit myself for this final push.

Okay time for the numbers... (looks like the last weigh in was the 12th)

Stats

8/8/15     168.9lbs and 40.1% bf

8/18/15   167.4lbs and 37.9% bf 

8/25/15   168.2lbs and 38.8% bf  

9/1/15     165.1lbs and 38.3% bf

9/8/15    164lbs    and 36.9%bf

9/15/15   165.2lbs and  37.7%bf

9/22/15  164lbs  and   37.1%bf

9/29/15 162.9lbs and 36.5%bf

10/6/15  162.1lbs and 36.3%bf
10/13/15 163.1lbs  and 35.9%bf
10/20/15  161.4lbs and 35.8%bf
10/27/15  161.2lbs and 35.8%bf

and here it is in a pretty graphical representation

whoo! It's not a lot but it's progress. 

Weekly Weigh In 8

Despite celebrating a belated birthday weekend for my Mom in NoVa this weekend, I still managed to come away from the weigh in with good news! (Take that Cheesecake Factory!)

Stats

8/8/15     168.9lbs and 40.1% bf

8/18/15   167.4lbs and 37.9% bf 

8/25/15   168.2lbs and 38.8% bf  

9/1/15     165.1lbs and 38.3% bf

9/8/15    164lbs    and 36.9%bf

9/15/15   165.2lbs and  37.7%bf

9/22/15  164lbs  and   37.1%bf

9/29/15 162.9lbs and 36.5%bf

I have officially lost 5lbs LOL!! Slow but steady right people? I'll get there... eventually!

Stage 1 - Workout B recap

Call me absent minded. I totally forgot to come back and post Stage 1 - Workout B's recap!



 However, it's not like I'm saying goodbye to any of these moves, stage 2 just modifies them a bit. Lunges and deadlifts will be elevated, wide grip lat pulls switch to an underhanded grip, shoulder presses become Cuban dumbbell snatches.. planks and pushups will remain as is (just hopefully with better form!) Wish me luck folks! I made it through Stage 2 Workout A this week already but tomorrow will be my first go at S2B1! (stage 2, workout 1 of B)

 ps. Can I just add how totally impressed I am with myself after figuring out to embed that pdf file into the blog all by myself? Whoo!

Weekly Weigh In 7

Stats

8/8/15     168.9lbs and 40.1% bf

8/18/15   167.4lbs and 37.9% bf 

8/25/15  168.2lbs and 38.8% bf  

9/1/15     165.1lbs and 38.3% bf

9/8/15    164lbs    and 36.9%bf

9/15/15   165.2lbs and  37.7%bf
9/22/15   164lbs and   37.1%bf

Weekly Weigh In 6

You know when I drag my feet on the update this long that the news isn't good. It didn't go up much so I guess things could be worse. On the bright side, in the past week 4 different people have commented on how much weight I look like I've lost. Haven't the heart to tell them it's only 3lbs..... oi. We're halfway through and I still have so far to go. I'm so conflicted. Do I stay with the weights, which I enjoy and can see progress with or do I focus on my diet/cardio and try to drop some of this weight faster than lifting will do?

Stats

8/8/15     168.9lbs and 40.1% bf

8/18/15   167.4lbs and 37.9% bf 

8/25/15  168.2lbs and 38.8% bf  

9/1/15     165.1lbs and 38.3% bf

9/8/15    164lbs    and 36.9%bf

9/15/15   165.2lbs and  37.7%bf

Stage 1 - Workout A

I did my last NROLFW "A" workout this morning! (Technically I have one more workout but that's just going back to my beginning weights and seeing how many reps I can crank out. Perhaps I'll update later. Right now I'm just excited that I've completed something!) Friday morning will be the last B workout, but for now, here's Stage 1:Workout A in it's entirety.

I'm kinda impressed with the weights I was able to get up to, (disregarding the seated cable row because that beast refused to get any easier once I got to 85lbs!) My elbows still flare out a bit too much on the pushups and I'm definitely not getting as low as I should but I'm still proud of the ones I can do.

A Meal Planned Week.

After lamenting on facebook my inability to force myself to create a meal plan, my friends came to the rescue with multiple suggestions, commiserations and tips. Instead of nodding at their helpful advice and then promptly forgetting it 2 hours later [what you think I've done that before? Surely not.] I decided to commit to a week of planned meals, and we all know that I'm way better at sticking to something if I tell people I'm doing it first. Sometimes harnessing the power of peer pressure is a good thing.

However I'm not doing a week. I'm doing 5 days. A "work week" if you will. (Though that doesn't actually exist when you have kids. Enjoy sleeping in you yuppies!) I'm also not doing breakfast and lunch yet because I'm a completely newbie and we're taking baby steps here people.

[I'm going to write this as the week progresses so maybe you can have recipes and pictures as well but that also means I'll probably be all over the place with my tenses. Prepare yourselves for past, present and future all mingling about in the same paragraph! ]

Here's the plan.

Monday Night
Skinny Quiche (I've already misplaced the website I adapted it from.)
Whoops. Mark's tires were all low this morning, turns out he needed four new ones. The evening was a complete mess. We got a pizza to go from Mellow Mushroom. Off to a great start... 0_o

Tuesday Night
This needs to be a crockpot meal because JBear has swim lessons until 6:15 and it will easily be 7 by the time we get home. It also needs to be something I know both kids will eat because they'll be starving by the time we get home.

I did it! Pork chops in the crockpot with raw green beans. (No time to cook side dishes, hahaha) They were delish, but both kids chose to eat their leftovers from the weekend instead. Ie, hamburger and chicken fingers. Whoo, healthy.

Wednesday Night
Gymnastics until 6:45 not home until 7:30. I need something she can eat before we leave but then have 'second dinner' from when she gets home and is hungry all over again. Another crockpot meal. 

Oops. Forgot to plan crockpot meal. Turned into last minute stop at grocery store on the way home to buy mince and hamburger helper. Yeah. You can see why I need to try harder at this whole "planning" thing.  At least I served it with an organic salad!

Thursday Night
We'll all be home, so I'm choosing something that will be fun to pull together as a family.
Imitation PFchang's Chicken Wraps. (Hmmm.. I'm looking at this currently - Thursday morning. I think not. I have some italian chicken destined for the grill tonight. Let's see how this pans out...)
Hamburgers!

Hahaha In my defense I did cook the chicken to have on salads for the next few days.

And doesn't this salad look yummy???










Friday Night
I'm trying to resist writing the words 'Pizza Movie Night' with every fiber of my being... I sooo want to write 'Pizza Movie Night.'

Impromptu dinner with friends! A friend I haven't seen in 15 years and thus have not met husband or children of! I made steak pie, puff pastry and roast potatoes. They brought apple pie. Heaven help me but I refused to count calories and just enjoyed the company! 

In short I'm going to call this "meal plan" a complete fail. LOL I must try harder next time. 

Weekly Weigh In 5

Erg. I think I forgot to post last week. Brain is in total mush state at the moment. Kids are playing with both water beads AND kinetic sand simultaneously. This cannot end will. We'd started out optimistically cleaning out the craft cupboard but that just lead to the desire to play with everything.

I managed to get my workout in this morning, which is a good thing because after my first chiropractic adjustment in years this afternoon, I'm feeling a serious amount of... shall we say, discomfort? More on my wonky spine later.

Stats

8/8/15     168.9lbs and 40.1% bf
8/18/15   167.4lbs and 37.9% bf 

8/25/15  168.2lbs and 38.8% bf  

9/1/15     165.1lbs and 38.3% bf

9/8/15    164lbs    and 36.9%bf

We finally have a downward trend!

Prospects are not good for tomorrow. I went to two kids birthday parties this weekend and both involved pizza and cake (which is as we all know, are the BEST birthday foods.) I managed to practice some restraint but come on people. Pizza. My workouts have also slowed to an average of one lifting routine every two days rather than every other day with one 2 day rest in the week. Tomorrows' Try It Tuesday is Pilates! I've been doing yoga since I started at this gym but pilates is a private class costing extra so I've not been to one. Should be interesting. 

Weekly Weigh In 4

Oh gosh. I can't even remember what I did last week. I had 5 sentences written but couldn't for the life of me fill in the blank spots so I'm just going to skip over this week's exercises and jump straight to the weekly weigh in. I was at the gym loads I promise. I was more tired and over scheduled though so I think I averaged more like 2 days between each lifting session but I still got them done. 

I'd signed up for the Try It Tuesday class but when I realized it was just in introduction to dumbbells and would add a considerable amount of 'getting to the gym on time' stress into my life I decided to cancel my reservation and just do some cardio and stretching. (That's another reason I've been adding some rest days this week - my left hip is achey. I'm not sure why and it doesn't feel like my normal tight hip flexors, so I'm trying to go easy on it till I see the chiropractor next week.)

Good news this week. The numbers on the scale actually went down!

8/8/15     168.9lbs and 40.1% bf
8/18/15   167.4lbs and 37.9% bf 

8/25/15  168.2lbs and 38.8% bf  

9/1/15     165.1lbs and 38.3% bf

Rank is #107 in my club. Definitely have a lot of hard work ahead to get back into the top 50. Just happy the scale was on my side this week though. Adding in some cardio was definitely necessary. \

We can't find my 'before' measurements... granted we only took two, but from what we think we remember I see to have lost almost an inch around my stomach. Whoo! Progress!

The third weigh in.

Soooo... yeah. No news was good news but I promised I'd keep you up to date. 

Tuesday was crazy. Like, "Oh my gosh, what I have done?! Why did I schedule so many things in one day?!" crazy. 

10:30am Gymnastics - Gabriel

11:30am Try to get my NROLFW workout in knowing that I needed a full hour and a half for Gabriel in the kids club that evening so tried to get it in as quickly as possible. I got through almost all of it. I had one set of lunges and one plank left when the kids club beeped me. He's pooped. That's okay.. I was almost done anyway and was running a bit over schedule. On the not okay side, he's still technically clocked in to kids club while frantically changing his diaper and trying to get us out of there before I use up the time I need tonight. 

12:30pm Home, lunch and nap. Alas for him not me. 

3:10pm Leave crazy early to get in line for carpool. If I get to carpool at 3:40 (school gets out at 3:45) then I'm not through the line until about 4:05. I'd signed up for the try it tuesday class at the gym which started at 4:30. The gym is about 24 minutes from the school and I'd still need to put my stuff in a locker and check the kids into the club. This means I needed to get through carpool earlier (but definitely not quicker) We got there about 3:20 and were still considerably far back through the line. We got out by about 3:55. Not worth it in the usual since but since I needed those extra minutes to get somewhere on time it had to be done.

4:30pm Try it Tuesday. Team Weight loss. Spend 40 minutes on the elliptical with my heart rate hovering around 175. Ouch. Then we head over to the dumbbells and repeat almost the same exercises I did this morning except with dumbbells instead of the bar. Fun. Class is running long. Which would be okay if I didn't have to get Jessica to her swim lesson by 5:45. (Thankfully it's in the same building.) This also means I don't have time to wait in the weigh in line before getting her to swim, plus Gabriel's out of time anyway. 

5:40pm Headed to kids club I pass a friend who I rapidly explain my situation to. She's all kinds of awesome and volunteers to watch Gabriel while I go weigh in. I get Jessica ready for swim, drop her with her instructor and deposit Gabes with AWESOME friend. 

5:50 Waiting in weigh in line (weigh in closes at 6 btw.) I'm watching the line. There's two machines. I want the one on the right because it's the same one I used last week. They're different models so I'm guessing variation between them is to be expected. I work it out and I'll definitely be on the one on the right. Hooray! Apparently slow foot in front of me wants the same thing. Both machines open up and instead of heading to the left she deliberately waits for the trainer to wipe down the right machine. Inner rage! Argh! I have to get back to Gabe though so friend may actually work out, so faffing about waiting for that machine isn't in the cards. Weigh in. 

8/8/15     168.9lbs and 40.1% bf
8/18/15   167.4lbs and 37.9% bf 

8/25/15  168.2lbs and 38.8% bf  

Noooo!!! That went the wrong way! I thought I was staying under my caloric target but when you stop weighing everything things can get away from you. I also went out to dinner twice this week which apparently sent me in the wrong direction. This week I will add more cardio and work harder on my diet. The leader board is all screwy this week. They somehow switched my club so the rankings are all off. I assume that my national ranking is right though. Ugh.

But wait... Tuesday wasn't over! 

6:00pm Collect Gabriel. Talk and lament my weigh in with awesome friend. Ack! Lose track of time. Must collect Jessica from swim lesson. 

6:15pm Collect Jessica, meet Mark in the locker room. Get Gabriel ready for the pool and send the kids off with Mark. I'm going to shower, get changed and head out to dinner with my craft club!

6:35pm Out of shower.... but where are my clothes... dude. The clothes I packed along with swim stuff for the kids, toiletries, shoes, snacks etc etc etc. No clean clothes! Grudgingly put smelly gym clothes back on. (Yes, the SAME gym clothes I was wearing at the gym this morning and then again for 2 hours this evening.) Head to semi fancy restaurant and meet friends for dinner. I knew I'd over packed the day and that something was going to give. I just never thought it was going to be my clothes.

When I got home that night I found them in a nice folded stack on the dryer. Whoo. Go me. 

Weekly Recap

eegads. It's Tuesday again already! That means tonight or sometime tomorrow morning I'm supposed to hit publish on this week's progress. Unfortunately (for me) I have not been journaling the week as it progressed. Let's hope my memory is up to the task.

Wednesday
Exercise: I don't think I did anything...
Steps: Fitbit says I didn't wear my watch today.

I do remember going to Chick Fil A for dinner... oh my. We are not off to a good start here. 

Thursday
Exercise: Up at the crack of dawn to make it to the 9am Yoga Yin class. (Excuse but getting out of the house with a toddler in tow by 8:25 after making sure the kindergartener is ready for school is the crack of dawn for me. We don't do early mornings here.)

After Yin I met up with a brand new buddy who's doing the NROLFW too. I met her online. What are the chances? She's awesome and it's great to have someone to cheer you on. I did Stage 1 Workout 3:B

Steps: Fitbit reports 7,168 steps but I took the watch off around 7pm so it should be a bit more than that. 

Friday
Exercise: I watched Jessica do her fun run at school. She ran 27 laps and raised $54 for her school. What do you mean that doesn't count as exercise for me? :(
Steps: Did not wear fitbit.

Saturday
Exercise: Multiple walks with the family. (Mom and Dad were visiting!) I also ran. Yes. You read that correctly. I ran. Outside, and there were no lions in sight. Dad has decided to take running back up and as much as it's not my thing I decided to go on a short run with him to help with motivation. We went .46 of a mile in 5 minutes 46 seconds and I thought I was going to puke. Super fun. 
Steps: 12,162!  Woohoo look at that! Fitbit is happy with me for once!

Sunday
Exercise: Stage 1 workout 4:A followed by an hour of Yoga Yin. Mark didn't get to come with me this week because Gabriel had a fever and needed to stay home. 
Steps: I wore the fitbit at the gym and only the gym. 2,540. 

Monday
Exercise: Definitely a recovery day. I took the kids swimming. I did two laps in the pool and sat in the sauna. 
Steps: Did not wear.

Tuesday
Exercise: Stage 1 workout 4:B in the morning. Team Training (a Try it Tuesday event) in the evening. 
Steps: Didn't put it on until 4pm! Only really used for heart rate today.

I've been trying to eat healthy but you saw how the week started.. I'm pretty nervous about the weigh in tonight. Check in tomorrow for the numbers and the leader board update! 

The second weigh in.

Now I've gotten myself all kerfluffled. I think I want Tuesday to be the LAST day of the weekly recap but that's not lining up with the numbers in my head. I weighed in on August 8th and I weigh out on November 7th which is actually 91 days. 13 weeks. I should have a recap 13 times. UGH this is too complicated. New plan. Instead of trying to match my recaps up with the amount of time passed (since we're 12 days in and I've only done one recap, I've obviously missed the boat. Technically, I'm so confused that I don't even know where that boat is/will be.) 

I'm going to start my week Wednesday morning and end it Tuesday night. It will still be called a weekly recap but it will not coincide with weeks of the challenge. Whew. That was complicated. You know what might have been simpler? Figuring that out on paper or even in my own head before I sat down to type.  Welcome to the workings of my brain people. It's a scary place in here. 

You're missing last Monday and Tuesday in this new system. Monday was a recovery day and thus super dull. I didn't even wear the fitbit so there's nothing to report. I went swimming with the children but as it included the 2 year old, there was less actual swimming and more 'keeping the child from drowing.'

Tuesday though, Tuesday was an important day. It was weigh in day! 

TUESDAY
EXERCISE: Stage 1 - Workout A:3  Followed by my first real cardio of the 90 days. I only did 16 minutes but it was an intense 16 minutes. I did a HIIT routine. So 2 minutes easy, 1 minute all out hard, repeat until feel like puking.  
STEPS: My fitbit reads 6,798 but I actually took it off when I got home from the gym so that number is a little low.

Okay okay now for the fun bit. The weigh in. 

I took my hair scrunchie out and stuffed my fitbit in my shoes. I may also have spent some time in bathroom using the hand dryer to try and dry out my yoga pants that had gotten soaked in the parking lot. (There was a mini monsoon when we arrived.) 

8/8/15     168.9lbs and 40.1% bf
8/18/15   167.4lbs and 37.9% bf 

That's a 2.2lb loss and 5.49% bf change! Better than nothing. I'll take it! 

My national ranking is 709 but my club rank is 38! (Perspective: 38 out of 427 participants who have weighed in)

Here's the link if you'd like to look at the Leader Board. Keep in mind I'm on the Transformation board and not the weight loss one. 

Weekly Recap - Week 1

For those of you following along with my 90 day body transformation challenge. 

SUNDAY 
I'm pretty sure I stayed in my calorie range but did I weigh and measure foods today? No. Very unlikely that I reached 170 grams of protein but at least I wasn't weight training.
EXERCISE: Yoga Yin class (1 hour)
STEPS: 6,255 (Gabriel skipped his afternoon nap and was seriously out of it around the time I'd planned to get in a family stroll.)

MONDAY
The plan was to drop Jessa off at school, get in my weight training and then pop into the kid's club to go to baby music class with Gabes. Ahhh the best laid plans. That did not happen. Gabes and I got to the gym and into kid's club about 9:40. It took at least 5 minutes to convince him that one crying toddler did not mean the whole place was a terror zone. I got to the locker room and realized I needed to be back for music in 10 minutes. So instead of running upstairs, I sat down with my book and figured out what my weights for today were going to be. After baby music I had to scoot home to meet the air/con guy but halfway home I got a message saying he needed to reschedule. Joy. No big deal really though since Gabriel conked out in the car. Jessica did have swim tonight though which meant I was going back to the gym anyway. Hurrah! Not a total write off.

EXERCISE: Stage 1 - Workout A:1. It took me about 30 minutes but there was also considerable confusion involved looking for the cable machine and making a fool of myself trying to to complete the Prone Jackknife move (I switched to the ab dolly!)
STEPS: 7,874 I'm sure I'd have made it to 10,000 if only I could have worn my fitbit in the pool!

TUESDAY
EXERCISE: No Exercise today! Eegads!
STEPS: Very low step day. An embarrassing 5,880.

WEDNESDAY
EXERCISE: Stage 1 - Workout B:1 Some Deadlift confusion but I'm getting there. I did some cardio to warm up as well but for the life of me I can't remember the times now. 
STEPS: 10, 255!!

THURSDAY
EXERCISE: Erm. No? 
STEPS: Turns out Tuesday wasn't my worst day for steps... Today was! Only 4,854.

FRIDAY
EXERCISE: Stage 1 - Workout A:2 Starting to get the swing of things now!
STEPS: 8,576

SATURDAY
EXERCISE: Took the kids to a 2 year old's birthday party. Does that count?
STEPS: 6,812

SUNDAY
EXERCISE: Stage 1 - Workout B:2. Made it to the gym with the entire family today! Mark spotted me through my deadlifts to help me figure out my form. I'm not sure why they confuse me so much. But I think I finally figured it out. Upped my weight 10lbs from Wednesday as well!
After the routine Mark and I hit Yoga Yin to stretch it out. 
STEPS: not yet tallied (it's still Sunday folks!)

Here's what my Stage 1 - Workout A looks like

and this is Workout B

So... Sunday to Sunday isn't exactly a week and for the observant among you, you'll have noticed a lack of weighing in. Turns out they didn't do a weigh in for week one, since technically it was only 2 days after our first weigh in. I'm going to try to switch my weekly recap to better align with Tuesdays. Next week's recap will begin with Tuesday. 

Life Time - 90 Day Challenge

This morning wasn't nearly as fun as I'd hoped it would be, but it's done now.

I had an appointment with my trainer (when I say 'my trainer' I mean the trainer I've worked with twice using my free LT bucks that I got on sign up) at 11:30. I headed up to the training desk at 11:25 only to wait around until 11:40. A few folks asked me who I was waiting for and after I told them, they'd nod and then go on about their business. It wasn't until I'd been there 15 minutes that a more helpful chap said that she was actually working downstairs and I needed to go through the 90 day check in line downstairs to get to her. Okay. Off I go. Get in line. VERY LONG LINE. Wait from 11:45-12:00 at which point I have to get out of the line because I'd scheduled Jessica a haircut at 12 (thinking my 11:30 meeting should only last 30 minutes). Thankfully the salon is in the same building.  I take Jessica off to have her hair done. Hair cut. Totally cute btw. Didn't actually cut much, baby steps here people! It's the first time I've taken her to get her hair cut since "the incident" 2 years ago!

Back into the line we go. This time Jessica wants to hang out with me instead of going back into kids club. I'm not entirely sure how long it takes this time but it wasn't quick.

Initial stats: 168.9 lbs and a whooping crazy 40.1% body fat. Obviously my 'pre-game bulking up campaign' was successful... erm. Yeah. That's it. On purpose. More to lose more to win!

2 hours later we leave the gym, having not worked out. At all. No exercise. Great start there.

Tonight I take my before pictures... which I'll obviously have to share at some point. Let me just get some momentum going before I put it all out there.  Ooh, I should probably take measurements too if I can find the measuring tape.

Wish me luck guys. It should be an interesting 90 days!
Here's the link to the actual challenge: http://www.lifetime90day.com/

BOY

I'm sick and feel like I'd like to curl up and die so obviously.. B.O.Y.

This is an action shot. He's busy dumping cubies and hitting things with his olaf bat while I sit here, practically laying on the table, waiting for their tatertots to finish baking. At least he's quiet and not hitting his sister. I'm calling it a sick day win.

Just waiting for hubs to finish his painful commute and I can tag out... sorry babe!

Tires.

So by now you're probably aware that I'm more likely to write when things go wrong than when they go right....

Tires. TIRES. Seriously, why must tires plague me so? I'm always getting nails in my tires or they're leaking for no reason. Recently they've taken to skidding in the rain. NOT COOL. Saturday we took the Rogue in for it's checkup and it as it turns out... we're still running on the original tires despite having over 50,000 miles on the car. Erm.. oops? No one ever suggested needing new tires. They kept passing the state inspection and every time I got a new nail in one Nissan just plugged the hole instead of replacing the tire. I think one tire had 4 plugs in it. Is that safe? 

I asked them to price up a new set for me and told them I'd make an appointment this week to get the new ones on. 

Sunday: Torrential rain. Mark's driving home. Handling is horrible. Skid light even comes on at one point.

Monday: I don't schedule the appointment yet because the tires they'd recommended were getting bad reviews online and I wanted to do some more research. Plus it's not raining so I'm not worried.

Tuesday: The low pressure light comes on in the car. I head to the gas station and fill them up. Three were at 28psi instead of 33 but the back passenger tire was at 23. I drive to Raleigh and home again. Everything seems fine. Still no rain, no need to panic. I ask dad to recommend tires and he finds a set he thinks I should get at Just Tires, but it was a long busy day and I still haven't made an appointment.

Wednesday: Get kids loaded into the car. Preschool, baby gym, playdate, starbucks. It's going to be a fun morning. Car feels funny... like uneven funny... drive out of neighborhood. Low pressure light comes on. Car is not happy. I'm worried. Really don't want to drive on the rim but Sheetz is sooo close. Know I can get there... HOPE I can get there. Jessica is prattling on about whether I think Tinkerbell is real and how she wants to have her next birthday party at Disney World. I try not to bite her head off and remind her that Tinkerbell is NOT real, death grip on steering wheel. (We've had the Tinkerbell conversation sooo many times.) Say prayer to God out loud that we make it to the gas station. I think Jessica finally gets the point. Back tire is at 16psi. I fill it back up to 33. Do I go the dealership who might not have my tires in stock but have a place for the kids to play or do I drive past them to get to Just Tires who I know have my tires...?? I drive on. Ugh.

Of course they're busy. Of course these tires cost more than the ones at the dealership (they're special rain tires though so I hope they're worth it!) I ask how long it'll be. The guy tells me an hour an half. Well there goes our morning and any hope of getting Jessica to school today.

We walk across the street and spend an hour in Kohls. AN HOUR. With a toddler and a 5 year old. I pretty much let them decimate the toy section for 30 minutes and then we tidy it all up again. We come out of Kohls and my car hasn't moved. They haven't even started yet! Ugh. 

Walk over to the Dollar Tree. Promise both children balloons. Jessa spends 20 minutes trying to decide with $1 piece of junk she wants. Gabriel wants to throw himself from the trolley. I start to lose my mind. Finally get to check out. Gabriel gets a spiderman balloon and J gets a heart. The checkout lady ties Jessica's to her wrist while I tie G's to his belt loop. Gabriel freaks. The WORLD IS ENDING. He wanted to hold his own balloon, tying it down is the worst punishment ever. Howls of rage. I am 'that' mom with the squalling toddler. Trying to console Gabriel and get his balloon out the door I don't notice that Jessica is messing with hers and it's loose. We walk out the door. Poof. Pink heart balloon heads for heaven. I can see the tears in her eyes. She's about to lose it. I quickly promise a new balloon if she can hold it together until I get Gabriel changed. She takes a deep breath. Oh did I mention? Somewhere along the line Gabriel pooped and there's no wipes in the diaper bag... they must be in the car with ALL THE SNACKS AND DRINKS.  (Yes you read that correctly I'm trying to entertain a 1 year old and a 5 year old with NO SNACKS!)

Walk to the grocery store. I guess I could have bought snacks here but was I thinking straight? No? I had to buy wipes and change a poopy toddler. [He's still angry the balloon is attached to his belt loop.] 

Walk back to the Dollar Tree. Buy replacement balloon for Jessica because I'm nice like that and it really wasn't her fault. 

Walk back to Just Tires. Gabriel doesn't want to walk. He seems to to suddenly weigh 50lbs. Car is not done. Not Done. arrrrrgh! Kids squabble over the tiny bat and ball we got a Kohls. Gabriel runs amuk. Do you ever have the feeling that if you could just tie your hair back things would be easier to deal with? Mine is everywhere, but you know what? My hair claw is IN THE BLOODY CAR! You know what baby boy? Cry. Maybe they'll work quicker. 

Jessica is hungry. She starts to pout. Begs me to take the balloon off her wrist. I tie it to the diaper bag. She sits in the chair and while I try to stop Gabriel from smashing in the vending machine with his new bat, she kicks the balloon and it separates from the string........ seriously? It floats to the ceiling. The super high, like not even a really tall man standing on a chair could reach it, high ceiling. Hmm... no sympathy left. Sorry J. No more balloon. This time it was all your fault. 

I ask about how much longer. He doesn't give me a time but says soon. It's already been 2 and half hours. The wifi in their store doesn't work and for some reason it's a cellular black spot so I can't even resort to youtube videos for the kids. I'm going to die. Should I just take the kids a couple blocks over for lunch? He assures me "soon." I don't like soon. It's too vague.

FINALLY they pull the car around. He checks me out. Price is lower than expected.... wait. I don't see the warranty on the receipt that we agreed on. He didn't add it. He wants to know if he should go back and add it now. So he can rerun the bill, print new papers, spend 10 more minutes in this store. No. Thank. You. I told him I'd call him tonight if I decide I still want it. (I kinda do want it because I have such bad luck with tires.... but I don't know if I can bring myself to deal with them again.)

We head for the hills. Jessica and Gabriel split the lunch I'd packed her for school. 

After leaving this morning at 9am we're finally home by 1. Gabriel almost instantly goes down for a nap, and because I have very little active parenting left in me Jessica is watching Rescue Bots. I try to decompress. I'm off to make a cup of tea now. Hopefully tomorrow will be better (and my tires will still have air in them.)

Electronics With Jessica

Another guest post from Mark.

Jessica and I have been playing with some electronics lately.  A number of months ago I backed a Kickstarter campaign for the Circuit Scribe Maker Kit.  It's this neat concept where you get a special pen with conductive ink and you can draw out any circuit you like.  The maker kit then adds a set of magnetic components that attach to the paper you drew on by having a metal sheet behind it, with LEDs for the blinkey lights, a buzzer, a 555 timer and number of other components.  There's also an educational workbook that teaches you basic concepts and what each of the pieces do.

After I recorded her playing with it some, she insisted that we should make a video for "the Facebook people".  I was surprised at what a natural she was, even calling out some "safety tips" :)

Checkout the results below (be warned though, it's the full, unedited 15 minutes of 5 year old exposition).  What do you think, should she have her own Youtube channel?

The Minion Party Prep

Okay, well she turned 5 almost a month ago but hey I'm getting there. (She's lucky I even let her turn 5. I think I might have been happy for her to stay 4 forever.) So to catch up - here's a recap of her party.

This year she was a bit Minion crazy and everyone knows a theme makes party planning easier, erm I mean more involved, so we ran with it.

 The little love posters actually came with the Valentines we'd bought this year. Each balloon was tied to a cake pop that we sent home as favors. Oh my gosh. HATED making cake pops but did learn something; my husband is in love with cake pops. He'd never had one before and now often asked when I making them again. Silly man. I think I added too much oil to my melted chocolate and they would not set. The glitter sugar just kept falling off with globs of chocolate. Thankfully these do not actually have to look pretty to taste good.

 Cupcakes that looked fabulous but tasted like yuck. Box cake mix and by altering the strawberry frosting from last year without actually figuring out a way to compensate for the lack of strawberry syrup first left the taste a bit lacking. Thankfully 5 year olds aren't picky. They tasted like sugar and were thus devoured.

 My minion 5! Honestly I no idea what to do with it now that the celebrations are over. It's kinda a bit much to keep around as random decor.

 The waters! Loved these mini squirt waters. I learned my lesson from last year. These are un-spillable! I hate that the one label I cut too small was in the front row for pictures... I'm sure this bothers only me.

 PX41 Serum (grape juice) which turns the minions into purple rage monsters and the Antidote (lemonade) to change them back. The plasma ball was Mark's last minute addition. He thought it would make the kitchen more like Dr. Nefario's lab. (I was just excited he wanted to contribute to party prep!!) Apparently I didn't get a good picture of my minion cups. Aren't the cute?? I just printed minion goggles (and after a small war with my silhouette cameo) had a machine cut them out for me.

Coloring, tattoo and hat station. A party isn't a party without a bowl of m&ms somewhere.

Birthday girl had a fabulous time! Hopefully I'll get a sec to come back and write about the actual party in a few days. :D

Poor Gabriel, I may have reached my "pinterest" party threshold and might be straight back to a backyard bbq for his birthday in July.

project updates

Super quick update just to let you know what happened to my early year momentum.

365:2015

It's still happening, though almost all the photos are phone pics now. They're uploading to my cloud and trapped on my phone simultaneously. I can't get to them to actually edit because my computer is out of hard drive space. Like completely. Totally. I just tried to take a screen shot to show you my hard drive capacity and current use. It would not let me because I don't even have enough space for that photo. I deleted a few pictures but virtual memory consumed every tiny megabyte I freed.

Project 52

Gabriel broke my virtually indestructible SD card so I don't have a card for my camera. I'm in contact with Samsung. I've mailed them back the bent card and they're in the process of getting me a replacement. Note: do not leave your sd card in the reader, in the usb slot in your computer, WHILST your computer is resting on the arm of the sofa. Yeaaaah. He pushed the computer off the sofa and destroyed both the card and the card reader. My super amazing 64gb Samsung Pro card! *sob sob*

Now I'm off to bake some banana bread with my little while the littlest is still asleep!  (also I'm hoping a restart will give me enough memory to open more than a web browser.)

Lactation Cookies

A couple of my friends have had babies recently. Adorable babies. So what to do? Cookie time! I lived off these lactation cookies in the weeks after Gabriel was born. Thankfully my mother can bake! In hindsight the large glasses of milk I downed with these cookies were wreaking havoc with my baby boy's dairy intolerant belly.... if only I knew then what I know now.

After we collected Jessica from school we got straight to work. 

Baking cookies with a toddler is not an easy task. To quote Jessica, "Gabriel shouldn't be baking. He's too little." 

 

One extremely messy kitchen later we have cookies! Now to box them up and deliver them to the new mommies. Hopefully they enjoy them as much as I did. Jessica thinks they should be dinner.

If you want to print this as a recipe card just right click, save as, resize to your preference and print. :) ps. You don't have to be lactating to enjoy these cookies! They're just packed with good for you yummies.