08/24

Back to School!

Yep, it’s the end of the first week back to school for us.  It’s been SO crazy around here.  Between getting last minute things done before school started, getting used to a new routine and school and then getting supply lists from teachers that apparently expect supplies to still be possible to get this week.  *note to teachers – we need at least a week to get supplies in b/c in case you haven’t been around for the last 20 yrs, those effing 3-prong pocket folders are pretty much impossible to find a week before school starts, much less trying to find them AFTER school starts.

I have to admit that my first morning/day went a little like this…

However, our first afternoon/evening was not so awesome.  Long story, short, it was a monsoon during pick up time, I had no idea what I was doing at a new school and everyone else and their mother were having the same issues.  It took me 1.5 hrs to pick my daughter up.  Not what I expected at all.  Finally got home close to 6pm, had to fill out that ridiculous new school year paperwork where I have to write my ridiculously long name over and over again, then get the kids to bed and do it all over again the next day.  Yay!  Tuesday afternoon went much better and we’ve been easing into our routine more throughout the week.  I can’t say that I love getting up 2 hrs earlier than I used to, but the quiet mornings with my girl, drinking my coffee and making lunches, definitely has it’s plus side.

Here are my seriously adorable kids on their first day.  I was a bit sad that I didn’t get a picture of them together and hoped to get it after school, but that didn’t happen.

 

How handsome is my boy in his vest?!  He saw this vest and shirt while school shopping and he fell in love with it.  He had to have it for his 1st day of school outfit.

 

 

I was thinking before school started about what our “back to school” traditions are.  I think it’s pretty similar to what most moms do.  Most of the school year I don’t make a hot breakfast for them.  I know, terrible, right?!  Whatever.  The only thing they would really want is pigs in a blanket (biscuit wrapped mini sausages) and how many days in a row can you really eat those?!  So, on the first day of school, I make a special breakfast.  It’s usually pigs in a blanket (because that’s what they request) with fresh fruit or something of the like.  They get dressed in their first day outfit and we take pics.  Then daddy & I take them to school!  This year was different and that kinda made me sad.  I got up early with my middle schooler, did the whole breakfast thing, took her pics and then daddy took her to school.  🙁  I haven’t not been there on the first day of school EVER.  Ever since my girl started preschool when she was TWO, the hubs & I took them to school on their first day.  *sigh*  Things are a changing.  They are growing up faster than I realize and will be off to college before I can blink!

What about you?  Do you have any special “back to school” traditions?  Do you do something similar to me?

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08/13

Thinking about going Vegan?

Nope, I’m not a vegan and although I’ve thought about going the vegetarian route, I’m not planning on going vegan right now.  However, at the end of this month, my husband will have been mostly Vegan (he hates being labeled “vegan”, but it’s easier for people to understand since it’s a more widely used term) for 5 months.  He started out by reading a book based on the documentary, Forks Over Knives.  For him, going plant based, was more about his health than saving animals.  He has a long history of heart disease in his family and he’s had high blood pressure for years and years, even though he’s only 33 yrs old, very active and normal weight.  Since he’s the type of guy that is all or nothing, within a day or two of doing some research, he was completely plant based.  You’ll notice at the beginning that I said, “mostly” vegan.  For 3 months, he was completely plant based.  No meat, no dairy, no eggs, nada!  However, he had lost about 10-15lbs and he was finding it hard to get his calories at times.  This isn’t to say it can’t be done.  It’s just that not only is he an all or nothing guy, he also doesn’t really want to plan what he’s going to eat, until he’s hungry.  After about 3 months, he decided that he would incorporate a little bit of meat such as fish, shrimp and lean turkey.  He only has one of these about once a week though, sometimes less.

Anywho, I saw this today on PETA’s site and thought I would share.

Wondering About a Vegan Diet? – An infographic by the team at PETA

Also, a great source of information for going Plant-Strong, is the Engine 2 Diet.

And, the Happy Herbivore.

For anyone wondering about my hubs’ health…he says he feels great, has plenty of energy and doesn’t miss meat at all.  As of his last doctor appt, his blood pressure was well within normal range.  He’d like to put on a little muscle, but otherwise, he’s at his ideal size.

*Btw, I’m tired of saying, “long time, no see” or “it’s been awhile” or reasons why I haven’t posted in a month.  Truth be told, I just get distracted or I feel  like I don’t have much to say.  🙂

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07/12

May 366

Holy geez.  It took awhile to organize May b/c I started slacking off apparently.  I missed a handful of days and there were a couple of days that were total crap pics, but oh well.  FWIW, here’s my May in a nutshell…

• Mother’s Day brunch with my girl

• my little (big) brother graduated from the JSO corrections academy

• I got a new ride!

• my kids picked out this awesome necklace for Mother’s Day

• my girl was recognized as being in the top 5th percentile of her school

• the dog busted a blood vessel in my finger

• we attended a USA soccer game

• took a joy ride through a tropical storm after our concert got cancelled

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07/10

100 Push Ups – day 2 | Challenge

Day 2 of the push up challenge…done!  I won’t be video’ing every day because, for one, they are a little long and boring to watch and for two, I don’t want to be on camera that much!  I’m having fun experimenting a little though so I video’d my day 2 today.  I did better than the last time, but I cut off my head AGAIN, had some environmental issues, and didn’t talk loud enough.  Please don’t hold my horrible video skillz against me!  Who likes watching a perfect video anyways?  :oP 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaYem5GEmBU]

Did you do your push ups today?!

It’s not too late to join me in the 100 Push Ups Challenge!  Remember, you don’t have to be able to do a regular push up to join in.  Do it with whatever modification you need to.

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07/09

100 Push Ups – day1 | Challenge

Yesterday was day 1 of my 100 Push Ups challenge.  Before I headed out on my run last night, I made a video of my day 1 to share with you all!  Holy moly, I hope I get better at this video’ing myself thing.  lol.  Sorry about cutting my head off, the excess background noise and poor quality (gotta learn more about video’ing!).  I also tried to edit out a good portion of the 60 sec rests so that it’s not so boring, but trust me, I definitely took my rest breaks.  Enjoy!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7e6sp9tS6I]
Psst….it’s not too late to join me in the 100 Push Ups Challenge!  Remember, you don’t have to be able to do a regular push up to join in.  Do it with whatever modification you need to. Whether you can do 100 push ups on your toes in the end or you progress from wall push ups to knee push ups.  Either way, you will be getting stronger!

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07/06

100 Push Ups | Challenge

I love push ups.  They are some of the most rewarding exercises for me.  Plus, pull ups and dips, but we’re just talking push ups today.  I’m not sure if it’s because there was a time when I couldn’t do one on my knees, much less on my toes, and now I can do a few sets of 10-15 or maybe it’s because it’s one of those exercises that not just anyone can do without working up to it.  When I first started working out, I got involved with some gym peeps that did 95% weight lifting and fell in love with building muscle.  I loved getting stronger!  I don’t remember when I started getting strong enough to do push ups, but now I can easily do them on my toes (usually called boy push ups, but girls can totally do them too so I usually just call them normal or on the toes push ups!).

The thing I love about push-ups is that they can be done anywhere and by most anyone.  If you can’t do a full push up on your toes, maybe you can on your knees, but maybe you’ll have to start with wall push ups or stair push-ups.  Regardless of your level, YOU can do push ups too…you just have to build up your strength!

Seeing as it’s summertime, my motivation is seriously lacking.  I’m supposed to be training for a 5k next month and a 10 miler in September, but I’ve only been out running a couple of times for about 2-2.5 miles each time.  Plus, the kids are out of school for the summer so it’s much harder for me to get motivated to get to the gym since I would have to work it around when Eric was home.  Soooo, I decided to start up my 100 Push Up challenge again.  I started it sometime back, but only made it about halfway through.  I fell off the wagon and missed days and then at some point, I just said, forget it.  I’m telling YOU ALL this, so you can join in this challenge with me!  There is actually a website that lays it all out for you.  There’s an app too so you can do it on your phone!

Here’s the main website to get you started…

one hundred push ups

Make sure you peruse the website well and read about proper form and what not.  I’m a stickler for good form!  I overhear an occasional comment in the gym when I’m doing my push ups and other than the fact that I’m doing them on my toes, they are impressed with my form.  I figure it’s not worth doing, if you’re not going to do it right!  😉

For those who can’t quite do push ups on their toes, I found this video on YouTube that shows a couple of modifications.  She’s apparently a coach for BeachBody so she references P90X, but then she gets in to the modifications.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jM5y5nLHQg]

The first step in the challenge is to take the initial test to see how many full, good form push ups you can do.  I did my test today and made it to…20.  I was losing steam around rep 13-14, but I was able to eek out 20 without losing form.  I even video’d the test for you, but it was my first time video’ing myself for something like this and I was in a hurry because we were getting ready for the pool and I underestimated what all you would see on camera sooo…let’s just say, it’s not fit for blog posting.  lol.  I’ll have to try again when I’m not in a hurry and wearing more than my bathing suit top!

Once you read up on the challenge and do your initial test, come back and share your results! We’re all in this together!

(image source)

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06/22

Friday Randomness…

In no particular order…

Random #1:  A couple weekends ago, my baby boy & I went to a food truck rally downtown.  I’ve heard of people spending the day hitting different food trucks and whatnot, in cool cities like New York or Chicago, but we don’t really have that here in Jax.  There are laws that prevent the trucks from parking and doing business certain places so the trucks end up all over the city in different spots.  They are hoping to get those laws changed and make our city a little cooler so they organized a food truck rally to raise awareness.  There were 10 trucks, in one location, $1 per person to participate (plus whatever food you bought).  The $1 participation went straight to the charity, Second Harvest of NE FL.  It was rainy that morning, but I really wanted to try some yummy food truck goodness so I decided a little rain wouldn’t hurt us.  My boy ended up loving it and we had fun trying some different foods, even though it was difficult trying to hold the umbrella and eat said food.

Below was my dessert for the day…a delicious white chocolate warm bread pudding served in a waffle cone from Monroe’s on the Go!  It was SO good!

Random #2:  You might not be aware of this, but there’s an internet craze going around lately called “no heat curls” or “headband curls”.  Basically, you quickly wrap your hair around a headband, keep it in for a few hours or overnight, and then in the morning you have gorgeous curls with minimal effort.  Sounds easy enough, ya?  Well, I tried them one night and my stupid hair wouldn’t stay in the headband.  I tried multiple times until my arms got tired of being in the air and I got too frustrated to keep trying.  I realized that I needed to do some more research and try again another day.  I found a couple more videos and knew what to change and try differently the next time.  Fast Forward to last weekend.  I was getting ready and really did not want to blow dry my hair out, so I figured I’d put it up in the headband, keep it in while I was getting ready and then see what it looked like.  Worst thing that could happen would be that I would just put all my hair in a ponytail…what did I have to lose?  Now, truth be told, they weren’t completely heatless.  Once I got all my hair wrapped I put the blow dryer on it for a few minutes to dry my hair the rest of the way.  I didn’t know how long I would be able to keep the headband in so I wanted to at least make sure my hair got dry.  Total time in the headband was about 1 hr.  I was so stoked with my results!

There are a ton of videos out there that show you how to do headband curls, but here’s one to get you started.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLeSKaPaUOA&w=500&h=375]

The video is pretty basic.  I found out after researching that you want to dry your hair mostly, but not all the way and you probably want to put some kind of product in it before hand.  Plus, when you get to the back, you might need some bobby pins to hold some of the hair in place and the back sections need to be wrapped around a few times until you just enough left to tuck in.  You’ll need to experiment a little and see what works for your hair type, but this is what I found worked for me.  It only took one try this time and they all stayed in place.

Random #3:  Traveling is stressful!  I’m about to leave on a trip to Washington D.C., with my girl for her end of the year Safety Patrol trip, and I’m fa-reaking out about packing.  I usually just pack everything & the kitchen sink, but I’m trying to pack light.  Plus, I’m flying there and she’s riding the bus (15hr drive) so I have to make sure she has everything she needs with her at all times.  I’m a little OCD about it all and I always (ALWAYS!) have to have a list.  I find that if I spend a day or two making a list and mentally going over everything we might need, then I’m less likely to forget something.  Most of the time it works, but there are the occasions that I forget an item or two.  Usually they are insignificant items though or items that can be easily purchased (i.e. lip balm, deodorant, shampoo, etc).  Every time I’m writing a packing list I am reminded of the fact that I should make a digital list and save myself a little time!  Then, I write my list, pack, travel and forget about it until next time…thus, the endless loop!  I thought it would be helpful (for me and you) if I made a digital checklist, but I started it kind of late and it’s not that great so I decided to work on it a little more.  No sense in giving you a crap list just for the sake of giving you something!  However, I did do a web search and came up with these nifty sites to help you pack next time you go on a trip.

This site is a complete website teaching you how and what to pack: http://www.onebag.com/list.html

This one gives you a bunch of items that you might need, you check all the ones that apply and then it will generate a checklist for you: http://www.independenttraveler.com/packing

This site asks you what kind of trip and for how long and then it generates the list that it thinks is appropriate:  http://upl.codeq.info/

Random #4:  I was watching the Kardashians last week (maybe the week before) and Brandon Jenner was on that episode and apparently he’s in a band with his girlfriend and they’re trying to make it big, yada, yada, yada.  I’ll spare you the play by play.  Anywho, they played a clip of one of their songs and it sounded really good.  Like, REALLY, good…like go look it up on iTunes good.  I was telling Eric about it in the car and I told him it reminded me of sunshine.  He laughed at me a little.  I’m not the best at describing.  lol.  It’s bubbly though and I like it a lot.  It’s called “Life Happens” by Brandon and Leah, but I’ll save you the trouble of looking it up…you can check out the video below.  🙂

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyz6RiU6YQQ&w=560&h=315]

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06/21

Blueberry-Banana Green Smoothie

Last year I tried my very first green smoothie.  For those who don’t know, a green smoothie involves a leafy green and sometimes vegetables.  I went safe and used spinach for my first one.  I believe Spinach and Kale are the most commonly used, but with spinach you can easily mask the taste, where I’ve heard that you can’t really with kale.  In the green smoothies I’ve made, I don’t taste the spinach at all.  I haven’t been brave enough to try kale yet.  😉

If you’re new to green smoothies I highly recommend this one.  It’s pretty tame as far as green smoothies go and it’s very tasty!

1 large handful of baby spinach

1 cup unsweetened Almond Milk

1 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used Jay Robb)

1/2 cup blueberries (frozen)

1/2 banana (frozen)

1 packet Truvia (or other sweetener of choice)

1 cup of ice

Tear off the stems of the spinach (optional).  Blend the spinach and the almond milk together fully.  Then add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth.  Makes about 16oz.

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06/20

April 366

Slowly, but surely getting caught up!  Only 2 months behind now.  🙂

April 2012 Highlights…

94/366 – We found out our girl made it into our magnet school of choice, La Villa School of the Arts!  She was so excited.

99/2 – Easter

108/366 – I made overnight oats for the first time.  Super yum and deserves a post all to itself!  I’ll write more about them another day.  🙂

116/366 – Started reading Fifty Shades of Grey series.  Loved, loved, loved them!

I missed one day this month and I’m pretty sure I’ve missed a few in the May/June time frame, but I’m still trucking along.  Can’t just quit because of a few missed pics!

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06/19

Happy Father’s Day!

I’ve been working to get caught up on my blog posts.  Albeit moving at a snails pace, but catching up nonetheless.  However, it’s super boring living in the past and although I have a ton of older stuff to share, today I’m sharing something recent.  😉

Sunday was Father’s Day and while my biological father chooses to not have a relationship with me, I have a wonderful step father who has been there since I was 6 yrs old and would do anything I asked of him.  There were a lot of times growing up when I wanted that connection with my biological father and chose to ignore the man who signed up for this job, not being bound by blood or obligation.  When, in fact, my step father was the one who has always been there for me, whether I wanted it or not.  I’m just sorry I couldn’t see that when I was younger.

Hopefully, my children will never have to go through that.  So far Eric (aka hubs) & I are 14yrs and going strong…so far, so good!  😉  Even if we weren’t together though, I’m certain he would never abandon his children.  He is an amazing dad.  He’s definitely the “fun” one of the two of us.  I’m the cuddle bug one and daddy is the one who you can have adventures with.  He’s very particular, so I usually just let him choose what he wants to do for his day.  Something else you should know about my hubs, is that he’s more of a morning person than I am.  I am a big grump in the morning.  I don’t like to get up early and if I have to, then I will not be happy about it.  So, you can imagine my mood when Eric came in at 8am on Sunday to interrupt my sleeping and cheerfully inform me that today was “his” day, here was the itinerary, we have to leave in an hour, get up!  O.M.G.  I tried to close my eyes and pretend it was a dream.  “Please be a dream, please be a dream”.  Alas, it was not.  In the back of my mind, I knew what I wanted to do…whine, be a grump, complain, etc.  However, being that he was right, today was “his” day and that his day included a whole day of family time that the kids would revel in, I decided to stuff my whining down deep, get up and start getting ready.  I was still a tad grumpy and I think I might have been called ornery as well, but I think I did pretty good considering I didn’t go to be until 3am the night before, I don’t like being woken up and I certainly don’t like surprises coupled with being woken up early.

So, like I said before, my day started with Eric abruptly waking me up (after only 5hrs of sleep!) and handing me this paper…

After OMG, I think, “Are you serious?”, was the next thing out of my mouth.  It was just a lot to take in 60 sec after being woken up.  As I mentioned above though, I sucked it up, took a mental note of what I needed to do to get ready and got started.  The above schedule was a parent itinerary.  The kids got a folder that looked like this…

Eric is awesome at thinking up fun stuff like this.  The kids were only allowed to see one item at a time and could only advance to the next item when we completed the one showing in the cut out window.  They thought this was a super fun game!  The anticipation almost killed them.  lol.

After eating breakfast and driving to our destination, first up was to hike/explore.  We visited Fort Clinch in Fernandina Beach and spent about 45min-1hr strolling around the fort and exploring.

Next on the itinerary…the beach!

The collage below pretty much sums up my beach experience…soaking up the warmth of the sun, being visited by a little crab and watching the fam play in the ocean.  One of my favorite parts of the day!

The only fault I found in Eric’s itinerary was that he had us eating lunch AFTER making an hour drive home and being out for several hours.  I knew this wasn’t going to cut it because we’d all be starving and he agreed when we started the drive home.  So, we changed it up just a bit and had some yummy Mexican restaurant goodness on our way home.

Part of our play at home time was finally trying the experiment of dropping mentos into diet coke.  It was super cool!  We all had a blast.  Next time we’ll buy more 2 liters and more mentos so we can do it several times.

We were all exhausted at the end of the day, but Eric had a great Father’s day so that’s what matters most!  Whatever ya’ll did with or for your father’s or husbands, I hope everyone’s day was awesome as well!

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