Otherwise known as Water Aerobics.

I tried what was called ‘Deep Water Exercise’ last night.  There was water & it was deep but the exercise was a little lacking.  I was hoping for 50 mintues of cardio in the water (my back & knees are a little sore this week).  What I got was 20 minutes of stretching, in water, followed by 20 minutes of water walking & an occasional water sprint, finishing up with 20 minutes of stretching, in the water.

I would have achieved the same heart rate at home trying to force the kids to eat their supper.

K~

This is post 600.  I’ve been feeling really burned out on blogging so this is almost as much of a milestone as the 500th post.

To celebrate, you get pictures!

Scarecrow Gavin

Ethan conquering the school's climbing wall

Monkey Tova

Creating Chaos since 2000.

K~

Today my small group was talking about ways to renew ourselves physically, emotionally, & spiritually.  Over the last 7 months I’ve really struggled with the emotional renewal as one of my biggest outlets, Mom’s Night, has disappeared.

I loved Mom’s Night.  One night a month, we would gather at a local restaurant, sans kids & hubby’s, to eat & laugh & relax.  Sometimes we’d extend the night with a trip to DQ, other times we’d all run our Walmart errands together.  Once we did a mass grocery shopping trip.  Of course, a lot of times we wouldn’t leave the restaurant until really late so there was no time for the ‘after party’ errands.  For me, it was always a wonderful opportunity to leave my responsibilities at home & be off the clock.

When I mentioned this today, more than a few people looked at me like I had 2 heads.  A lot of the woman just don’t do that.  Taking time for themselves feels wrong so they don’t do it.  Or they feel guilt about not spending that time with their spouse.

During the conversation I discovered  two things;  my purpose in this move – introducing a new set of woman to the joys of leaving it all behind, at least for an evening, & that I have a really great husband who has never balked at Mom’s Night & has always encouraged me to take time for myself.

There was definite interest in getting out.  We’ll see if we can manage to drag the most reluctant along & go out more than once.

K~

It’s NaBloPoMo.  Or National Blog Posting Month.  Never one to pass on a trend, I take it as a challenge to blog daily for the month of November.

Yes, I realize it’s Nov. 3.

Details.

I have been a huge slacker on the blog, hopefully this will be the jumpstart I need.

I’ll try really hard not to cheat with WordPress’s post date option.

Things you can look forward to reading about this month:

• Inappropriate questions for children
• Book Week
• Why we don’t do Santa
• Revisiting the Move Fiasco
• Recipes.  I have discovered a fabulous recipe blog.  I don’t know why I no one told me about this earlier *ahem* LESLIE!

Hmmm.  That’s only 5 posts.

I’m sure I’ll come up with something.

K~

Last night I was trying to get used to the new Facebook format & clicked on the links tab.  There was a video of the creators of Awkward Family Photo’s on Rachael Ray & for some reason I clicked Play.

I normally wouldn’t do that.

Guess who was the first photo featured?

I’ll give you a hint.  There’s a camel.

Go on, click the link.  I know it’s Rachael Ray but you only have to watch the first 45 seconds & it’ll be worth your time.  Promise.

Go on…

Told you it was worth it!

K~

It’s now 2 days post workout & I am still hurts-to-climb-stairs-&-sit-in-a-chair sore.  I have no idea where the Monday aerobics instructor gets her sadistic workouts, but OUCH!

Tuesday was awesome.  Tova & I had no scheduled plans so we spent the morning curled up on the couch reading books & watching a little tv.  We went on a leisurely search for Gavin’s birthday present & had a nice lunch followed by a 2hr nap.  A school day doesn’t get much better than that.

After school the kids had a snack & we headed out to go costume shopping.  Toys R us had a decent sale & everyone is happy except for Tova who doesn’t like the boys Star Wars costumes.  The other purpose for our trip was to spend the birthday money that was burning a hole in Ethan’s pocket.  He has talked about nothing but the AT-TE Walker for a week now.  He was able to pay for it all by himself & was over the top excited to finally have the box in hand.

He didn’t have much time to build last night & I had to shoo him back to bed at 5:20 this morning.  I think he snuck out of bed around 6:30, dressed, ate breakfast, & emptied the dishwasher so I’d have no arguments.  What a nut.

I generally hate shopping by myself with all 3 kids.  Usually I spend our time out & about feeling like I am herding cats.  Yesterday was actually fun.  Toys R Us was laid out so the Lego’s & the Playmobil, the boys two favorite things, were right next to each other.  For supper we ate at Fazoli’s.  It’s not my favorite place to eat but wow, the service was excellent!  The counter staff was super friendly & helpful.  It was an absolute pleasure to eat there.  Ethan was so excited he even told one of the workers that this was his favorite dining experience in all of Metropolis.  He didn’t phrase exactly like that, but I was impressed he felt compelled to say something.  He’s not usually one to do that.

The evening ended with me getting an Ugly Cry headache.  The Biggest Loser usually makes me a little weepy but, sheesh, last night was tough!  Good thing Jason wasn’t here to make fun of me…

K~

Even though Jason was home most of the weekend, he still wanted a blog post so he knows what’s going on around here.

My life in Bullets:

• The Proposal was better than The Hangover or Year One, but not by much.  At least is was sweet & had no gratuitous crotch clobbering
• The laptop is sort of not working.  It probably needs to have a bunch of stuff moved off it to the external hard drive but that is safely locked in The Safe Which Cannot Be Opened.
• Don’t buy a Honeydeepplacewhereyoudrawwater firesafe with an electronic keypad.  It eats batteries & when it dies, it dies.
• On the other hand, if you are a burglar, a Beenectarwell with an electronic keypad can be opened with a drill.  You have no idea how reassuring that is…
• I hate typing on the desktop.  The keys are too soft & are at an angle.
• I need a recipe for Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Soup.  There’s a restaurant here that serves it on Thursday’s & I should probably learn to make it instead of going broke buying it by the gallon.
• I’m really looking forward to Tuesday – no MOPS, no volunteer workshop at school, no class at the Y;  Tova & I might just stay home.
• Ethan is very patiently waiting for his aunt (*ahem* Jenny) to get her check in the mail so he can buy his ridiculously expensive Lego Star Wars thing.  He’s very cute about it.  Whenever he talks about his future purchase, he always phrases it “If I get any more birthday money, but I’m pretty sure Jenny said she was sending me some…”
• I was looking at ESPN The Magazine’s Naked People Edition & Tova was reading over my shoulder & singled out Adrian Peterson.  Peterson, as he’s known around here, (he even has 2 Mii’s, one is a righty & one is a lefty) was moderately dressed.
• Jason is very proud.  Not that Peterson was dressed, that Tova knew him by sight.
• I’ve decided to paint the trim in our house.  Yes, I realize it’ll probably take me a year & yes I’ll be sick of the project in a week, but it needs to be done.  The house looks so dingy & beat up, I think fresh trim paint will go a long way.
• I keep seeing more & more Rural City people at Target here in Metropolis.  A friend said that always happened to her at about 6 months post move.  Today it was you Jen E.  I have no idea why you didn’t say hi
• Facebook’s Visual Bookshelf recommended Somebody Else’s Daughter.  I read the whole thing but it was not enjoyable.  The author tried to pack way too much stuff in the book & didn’t cover any of it well or make me care for the characters at all.  I finished it but only because I hate to leave books unfinished.
• Tova’s bedtime routine now consists of a story with milk, prayers, a song (I’ll post a video of her singing it later), tucking in, & now counting to 10.
• She can also skip, just not in her bed.
• Gavin has impetigo & yes, I’ve been sending him to school all week with it, because I thought he was getting Kindergarten acne.
• I fully expect to start some sort of epidemic at the boy’s school.  We tried Hand Foot & Mouth earlier this month & we hoped to introduce the plague that has ravaged the Rural City schools, but that didn’t take, so we moved on to Impetigo.  After that, it’ll be strep or pink eye.  We haven’t had those yet this year.

How was that J?  Are you caught up now?

K~

I have no idea where the past week has gone.  I had every intention of doing Ethan’s birthday post & a couple other things here this week & now it’s Thursday I’ve logged in for the first time.

I know I’m just asking for it but, we’ve managed to escape the plague that has decimated the Rural City schools even though we visited with a couple families that were infected (one knowingly & one unknowingly).  Ethan had a birthday, I have spent an embarrassing amount of time on a new website, my new oven doesn’t brown evenly which is annoying, I spent the better part of a beautiful day slaving over said oven in order to create Ethan’s school birthday treat, the vacuum has another short, & it’s raining.  Again.

The important thing is Ethan turned 9 over the weekend.  The whole ‘last single digit year’ was replaced by the whole ‘he’ll be a teenage in 4 years’ thing.  If the next four years go as fast as the last four, we’re in big trouble.

The Birthday Boy

A few months ago, one of my favorite blogs, Cakwrecks, posted these in the Sunday Sweets section.  Ethan’s favorite food is the cheeseburger so I filed the idea away & over the weekend attempted to make my own.  For 26 kids.  This would be the year I get ambitious…  The cupcakes turned out okay.  I couldn’t find my food dye or piping bags & I had wanted to attempt to make fondant but I also ended up with a massive headache so that plan was quickly scrapped.  I thought they turned out pretty well, all things considered.

It sort of looks like a cheeseburger

Birthday Sliders

The kids loved them so it was worth it.

K~

Ethan’s birthday is this weekend.  A friend reminded me Sunday begins Ethan’s last year in the single digits.

I felt like I’d been sucker punched.  I don’t know why Ethan’s getting older is so hard to take…

K~

The boys woke the entire house up at 6:20 this morning discussing Star Wars & Lego’s in the bathroom.  Then tonight they talked until 9.  Guess who’s going to take great pleasure in  hauling their butts out of bed tomorrow with a water gun?

I really don’t like waking up an hour before I need to…

K~