Thought for the Day

"Not Me" Monday

*I did not drink cough syrup out of the bottle this week even though the measuring cup was right there, and I did not think, "what the heck. It's close enough"

*I did not ask my family to go to Red Robin tonight when I had a perfectly good meal to fix at home. I would not ask them to sacrifice good health for a delicious burger and fries.

*I did not silently curse the Koman organizers Saturday as I was running with too many people that were there to walk (and should have gone to the 9:15am race). That would be wrong, since the race is for a good cause.

*I did not think my boss was purposely annoying me with his "I am right" speech (even though he was).

Don't forget to check out www.mycharmingkids.net for more "not me's"

L's playdate

Saturday was the first time L had someone come over just to play with her. She chose her best friend, Avery. They spent two hours playing, running up and down the hall, swinging and having the best time. L had been talking about this day since I set it up five days before. It won me "Best Momma" award last week.
Here the girls are doodling on the doodle pads. They love to color and draw scribbles.
Of course, Nonna has trained them well and they were always up for cheesy pictures.

Playing ball and dancing in her room as well as tea party was L's favorite thing to do. I think all the shrieking was my favorite part. Jeff said when Avery was coming up to the door, L screamed so hard and was so excited he thought she was going to pee her pants!! We're glad the girls had so much fun and we'll be planning another one soon.

Race for the Cure

I got up and ran the Race for the Cure 5K run this morning. It was a beautiful sunny morning. There were tons of people running this morning. I did pretty well. My time was 31:25. That beat my last 5K race (in March) by 1 minute. While I am happy with my time, I felt after it was over that I could have done better. Oh well.

That's 4 out of my 5 goal for races this year. My last race and the biggie is in 7 weeks. I'm running the Turkey Trot which is a 10 mile run. I'm excited and a little scared. I've never run that long.

"Not Me" Monday (on Tuesday)

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So I was checking out Cara's blog www.scrappinbootcamp.blogspot.com (who by the way, hasn't blogged for 2 months...that little girl will be a teen by the time I see another picture of her). And one of her favorite blogs is www.mycharmingkids.net. She has a wonderful blog that's insightful and inspiring. And she started a "not me" monday about all the things you absolutely did not do in the last week. Here I go.

I absolutely did not drink 4 cans of soda in one day this week because I thought it would taste better than water.

I did not stuff my face full of hummus THREE times this week. That would be wrong (even though it is kinda healthy).

I did not laugh out loud at Jill's blog about the Muffin Tops and I did not think of all the muffin tops I saw at the South game on Friday.

I did not let L eat a Rice Krispie treat for breakfast, especially the kind out of the box. I also didn't let her eat Pokemon mac and cheese, because I make all of her dinners by scratch.

And I absolutely did not plop L down tonight in front of her DVD player so I could blog and spend an hour looking at multiple blogs of people I don't even know.

Finally, I did not count the minutes until L had to go to bed tonight so I could watch 90210 since I have not been waiting all week to watch last week's episode (damn football!)

So here's my "not me" mondays. Let's see if you get inspired.

Not a Typical Saturday

Yesterday was a great day, but not my typical Saturday. It started off with a pedicure (always a great way to start the day). I was able to read through Real Simple (a simple pleasure for me). Then I stopped at McDonald's to get breakfast and decided to splurge on an iced sugar free vanilla coffee. It was very good. L and I dropped Jeff and T off at Beerfest and we did a little shopping.
Then we dropped L off at the sitter's and went out to dinner BY OURSELVES!! We ate at Bella Luna. It was very good. I had hummus and shrimp curry.
Afterwards, we spent the evening at Kay and Peter's watching Kelley Hunt play in concert. We had a wonderful time. She played over 1 1/2 hours and was so good. I hadn't really heard her much. We were very impressed.
It was a late night, but we had such a good time. What a great day!

I am sore.

I woke up at 5:11 am today (yea for me) and made it out to WSU this morning. I was a little sore after Monday's workout but not too bad. And I'm not sore today, but I am exhausted. 3 miles of running and walking and getting up early has left me ready for bed.

I didn't mention my goals for doing the fitness regimen. First of all, I want to get toned again. I was there last year and loved it. Then I got lazy and didn't go for 4 months to the gym and lost all my toned muscle. I want to be more fit and one of the exercises we do is climb the stairs and I want to make it all the way to the top. Finally, I am going to run the Turkey Trot (10 miles) in November and I need this to help me get into shape.

I'll be glad when Friday's over so I can rest for a couple days. And even though I think that now, I'm looking forward to Friday's workout.

WSU fall fitness

This morning I was up at 5:15 am to join a few other suckers at Cessna Stadium for Coach Rainbolt's WSU fitness program. It's supposed to be similar to Red Dog Days that is held in Lawrence every summer. Although it was a chilly 51 degrees when I stepped out of the car this morning, it didn't take long for me to get hot. I was happy to see my friends, Denise and Jaime, there as well.

This is a 10 week program 3 days a week for an hour each session. We run, do core conditioning and run the stairs at the stadium. It took 3 hours for my legs to quit quivering. I hope I'm not too sore tomorrow. I'm off to take some ibuprofen and a hot shower. The workout was so much fun and I don't think I've worked that hard in awhile. Someone commented that [his] warm up was her main workout. So true. I'm ready to go back on Wednesday.

L's new bike

We tried to get L to use a tricycle and a big wheel. But she refuses to pedal one. I was talking to my dad about it this summer and he and my mom were kind enough to get her a scuut (pronounced scoot) bike. The theory behind this bike is the child will stand or sit on the seat and push with their feet and just work on balance so that when they transition to a regular bike, it's easy. I was skeptical. I thought she'd hate this bike. But I was proven wrong. She loves to ride it. I think the bike makes her feel in control and all the frustration is gone.

Here's the smiling girl on our journey today. It is such a beautiful fall day. It must be in the upper 60's and sunny. We rode over the the shopping center near our house before she quit. She doesn't really like the helmet part.

Thanks again Dad. Way to go!

Alice Cooper at the Fair (finally)

Last night, we braved the rain and watched Alice Cooper put on a great show. He played for 1 hour and 40 minutes. I recognized many of his songs (more than I had thought I would). He had so many cool props and he was very energetic.
The band did a great job of playing together and having fun. The rain held off until the end of the show.

After the concert, we spent a short time at the fair. I ate a Pronto Pup (delicious), a gator tater (also good) and a deep fried Twinkie (it was okay). We didn't hang out much because of the rain.

IHOP does make it better

Today sucked. Even worse than yesterday. Work was long. I didn't get home until 7. L slammed her fingers in the door. Did I mention it was a long day at work? I was ready to come home to a nice glass of red wine (school wine would be fine). Instead, Jeff took us out to IHOP for dinner. After a nice dinner of garden stuffed crepes and strawberry crepes (two different dishes) and a real (not diet) vanilla coke, I felt much better. I think I'll make it through one more day until the weekend.

Tomorrow night, we get to see Alice Cooper at the fair. I am looking forward to the concert, but I'm really looking forward to the food. I better eat light for lunch!

A little godsend

L loves the idea of shopping. She likes the going, but when she discovers that it'll take longer than five minutes, she gets bored. For Christmas last year, she received this shopping cart . Recently I read a parenting post about bringing the cart with them and I thought it would be great. And I was more than right!! We can shop for an hour and no complaining. I love it!
She wanted her picture taken with the cart because she's so happy to be a big girl and hold groceries!

You Can't Wash a Razor

So I found out last night that you can't run a Razor thru the washer and have it come out ready to use. It might be clean, but upside down is how I felt when I discovered it at the bottom of the washer. At least we have cell phone insurance. Jeff's new phone should be here in a couple days.

This Weekend in C-ville

This weekend we traveled to my grandparent's house. Grandpa was celebrating his 84th birthday. He fixed us bbq chicken, pumpkin and pecan pie, baked beans and homemade bread.
These two are so sweet together.
After the festivities, L went over to the girls house to play. And she played all evening and had so much fun. They went hunting for frogs and found several.
This is Blackie. He adopted my grandparents. It's amazing how a cat shows up on the doorstop and they feed it and give it a towel to sleep on, how come it stays? (this is what my grandma says). I'm thinking it's a great stop for this little guy. He is sooo cute and friendly.
C and L take a quick break from hunting for frogs.

Summer Reading

Although I work all year, my husband does not. And at the beginning of summer, I thought it would be fun to see how much summer reading I could get done. L completed her 20 books through the public library and I didn't do so bad, reading 9 books between Memorial day and Labor day. So here's my list and my thoughts on them.

1. Waiting by Debra Ginsberg. This is a memoir about a woman who was a waitress. Boy does she have a lot of stories!! Although I waited tables in college, I can't imagine doing it forever (but the instant money was really really nice). I thought this book was very good.

2. The 4th Summer of the Sisterhood/ Traveling Pants. Gosh, I love teen girl books. Almost as good as chick lit. Just as good as the other three.

3. Marley and Me by John Grogan. Loved it!!! Really made me appreciate my dogs more, especially when they are being naughty. A must read.

4. The Last Lecture by Randy Pasch. So I read this after Marley and as much as that book helped me appreciate the dogs, Randy really makes me appreciate life and my family. What a courageous man. I'll be reading that book again.

5. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. This is a Columbine like story about a boy who kills several kids in his school. While I was reading the book, I thought it was good and liked the story line between the families of the dead and the family of the killer, but after I read the last few words, I thought there were too many words and pages.

6. The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty. I read this for my book club and it was good. I liked the characters and the fact that it was in a fictional town in Kansas in the 80's. I can't remember the girl's name, but the book takes her through several years and growing pains of growing up. Decent book.

7. Travels by Michael Creighton. I thought this book would be really good and it was for the first 2/3. Michael describes tons of places he's traveled and the stories were all very interesting. But then he launched into his quest for "finding himself" and seeing all sorts of psychics and I was snoozing away. I think I skipped the last 20 pages.

8. The Greatest Man by Christensen. Our most recent book club book about an artist named Oscar who's been dead 5 years and how his sister, his wife and his mistress all come together. Very interesting book.

9. Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris. As mentioned in an earlier post, David's new book is a cluster of short stories about himself. It was okay. I like him for about 100 pages and then I get bored with him. He hates doing anything and he's kind of a baby. Oh well...at least I checked it out at the library instead of shelling out $25 for it.

So that's part of what I did this summer. Now I'm moving on to fall (as evident by the 60 degree weather today).

The Ick List

I made an "ick" list on Saturday. That is a list of all the things you really don't want to do. I was talking to my mom yesterday and read her off the list and she says, "that sounds like something you could put off". Yeah, that's the problem. I keep putting them off. So here's my ick list and what has been accomplished.

*Clean out the hall closet-done (thank goodness. Now I can close the doors).
*Clean out the linen closets-not done (may not get done...I'm trying to convince myself they look okay).
*Give the dogs a bath-done. They smell much better.
*Finish the new David Sedaris book-done. I realized that I like him for the first 100 pages, then I think he's a big gay sap.
*Sign charts for work-not done, but will do soon.
*Clean out the fridge-done. Looks much nicer (see below)
*Clean up L's room-also done. Looks so much nicer (after fridge pics).


Now I can walk in L's room without stepping on some small toy (although I stubbed my toe while I was in the process). I actually organized her things a little better and I think the room is much more open. As you can see, even Reggie liked it.

At least I feel a little productive this weekend.

Movie Marathon

Jeff declared this weekend to be a movie marathon. Yesterday we watched 'After the Sunset' with Pierce Bronson and Selma Hayak. It was good. Jeff watched 'Grindhouse'. I skipped Planet Terror...not my favorite, but I watched Death Proof. I love that Kurt Russell tries to kill these girls and they retaliate back....girl power! The finale Saturday was 'Hitch'. I really liked it. I've been waiting to see it for awhile.

So far today we've watched 'Garden State'. Not so good for me. I think 'Saw IV' and No Country for Old Men' are next on the watching block. It's kind of fun to hang out and watch movies we've had taped forever.