200 squats

I am one that believes in setting attainable goals. Because of that, and also because I have the most cellulite on my thighs, I'm going to attempt the 200 squats training program. You are supposed to train three days a week. Obviously Mondays and Wednesdays are out for me because of that pesky work/class/come home at 9:30 p.m. combination. So tomorrow begins Week 1 of Operation Squats.

Hopefully it will go better than my initial test, because my legs are still stiff from taking that puppy four days ago.

(On a complete side note, the fantasy boards from the drafts are sitting next to our computer desk. I can still smell the permanent marker they used to write the prices with.)

A crusader

Hubby's new team might not have a band to entertain the crowd but they do have a horse that circles the field at halftime!

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

fantasy draft serious time

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime® 6.5 or higher is required.

My initial test

Just to see where I fell in these three training programs, I took the "initial test of each one. If you want to compare yours, feel free to leave a comment. To see proper form and goals for each one, click the links. Here’s the result of my test…

100 Pushups: Initial Test

Rank: 1 - 1 push ups (that's one for real push up, not a girly push up because I can do several of those! So I suck at pushups.)

200 Squats: Initial Test

Rank: Excellent - 100 (I was pretty sweaty and shaky after these.)

200 Sit-Ups: Initial Test

Rank: Good - 56 (proud of you, abs.)

I'm still debating if I will attempt to accomplish any of these. Squats looks like the most attainable, but pushups obviously needs some attention. Will ponder and get back to you, blogland.

Look how cute my new flowers are!

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime® 6.5 or higher is required.

Playoffs!?

I'm trying my darndest (is that a word? I know I've said it.) to not turn this into the Grad School Rant blog, but let's face it. A full semester's worth of class/reading/assignments/tests shoved into five intense weeks means it pretty much consumes your life and there's no coming up for breath until it's over.

But tonight, I will not read or study because I'm going to watch the hubs coach his first game with the new team. I know he's not having a great bonding experience so far with these coaches, but I'm hoping it will improve. It's probably hard because the guy he used to coach with was one of his best buds and now he's with a bunch of dudes he doesn't know.

Last fall, the hubs promised his players that if they won the homecoming game, they could shave a mohawk in his hair. Let's hope for the same result tonight, minus the mohawk.

For all you's teachers.

Somehow I managed to stay awake through three hours of monotone boringness, that some like to call "class." I can't really call it that, except I'm paying for it, so that's what the receipt says. I hope this New Professor works on her gig before tomorrow night so I am not tempted to snore though it again.

In honor of New Professor, a few pointers for any of you thinking "Hey, I have experience in x field. I'm smart. I think I'll teach!"

1. Be lively. Record yourself speaking. If you are bored at the sound of your own voice, it's not a good idea to stand in front of 30 full-time workers for hours at a time and ramble.
2. Learn how to use the tab button in word. Do not send a syllabus in which you have used the space bar to indent your lines.
3. Be black and white. While it is necessary to use the tab button, it is completly unnecessary to make each class a different color in your syllabus. We can all read the dates.
4. Be brief. We hope you have some experience or some sort of knowledge in the subject you are supposed to be teaching, but we really don't need to hear every detail for the first hour of class.
5. Let us out on time. While we are all loving your monotone discussion of ethics, when that little hand, yep the ticker that keeps track of the seconds, hits the big 1-2 at the top at 8:50, you are required to stop talking and walk out the door. We aren't listening after that anyway, so you might as well let us go home.

Yesterday while the hubs and I were playing catch I threw a rogue ball (gasp!) and he had to chase it. When he threw it back, I managed to bounce it off my wrist instead of catching it. It is hard to see, but there is a very painful bruise starting to show its pretty colors.

It hurts to wear my watch.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

what's a creeper?

Friday night, I came home from watching the hubs coach to see two dudes climbing around the drainage ditch on the side of my house. At first I thought they were kids playing (which is a normal occurrence) but then I realized these were full grown idiots. They seemed to be looking for something, hubs thinks maybe their pet snake. I looked around and saw no strange cars, so they must have walked here from wherever they came from. All I know is they were completely creeping me out!

So for the next hour, while I waited for hubs or the neighbors I'm friends with to come home, I peeked at them through the bathroom window.

I took photos to document this event, should they turn out to be murderers or something.


They were also both really proud of their plumbers cracks.

After the neighbors came home, I ran over there to tell them the story. I started it with "two creepers were hanging out over by my house" their four year old daughter, and my BFF, responded with "what's a creeper?"

tree is busted.

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

tree needs to go.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime® 6.5 or higher is required.

Football=no hubs

This happens every fall. You'd think I'd be used to being a family of 1 + dog + .2 husband. I'm not. When football comes into full swing, I feel like a needy, unloved wife who constantly begs for more time with the hubs. It's not that I never get to see him, it's that he's tired, sweaty, smelly and crabby from about July-November. This year is 10x worse than any of the prior six though because he's working about 13 hour days to fit in the $ that a real job means and the pride that the part-time, mostly at night outside gig gives him. I fully support him in both endeavors, in fact I love watching him coach on the field every Friday night. He's so great with the kids and I can tell they respect him.

Instead, I spend waaay too much time watching cooking shows, stalking on facebook and playing catch with the dog.

Leave me some comment love.

Ready for the big screen?

I auditioned for to be in a commercial at work today. It was slightly strange because I used to be the one who stood behind the camera and convinced 18-year-olds to tell me the story (that I wrote for them) of why they chose to come to my place of employment for college. It was difficult because most of them just wanted to say that they came because they didn't have any other option. Well, let's face it - that does NOT make a good commercial. So I usually asked the kids I knew to be outgoing and semi-comfortable in front of the camera.

A lot of rambling there, but I do have a point.

We bought a new camera today for the office and I was playing around with it all day. It's a flip camera (which I kept calling a flip phone) and I ran down to the auditions to see if anyone was auditioning and I could video them on the new toy. Unfortunately, no one was there, so I decided I'd help out and audition myself. :)

We'll see what happens.

Fiber Muffins

I am not usually one to "play around" in the kitchen, messing with recipes and adapting them to what I want. Usually, I follow a recipe to the letter, and still manage to mess it up. However, I've sort of stolen this recipe from my mom, and then added a lil of this (brown sugga), subtracted a lil of that (fattening veggie oil my mom loves so much) and have come up with a pretty solid Fiber Muffin Recipe. And, it's super easy for this non-cook.

Mostly for my own record, but incase you need a fiber muffin every morning like I do, I will share.

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup spenda
1 Tbsp dark brown sugar

Combine above ingredients in a bowl.

1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups all bran cereal
1 1/2 cups skim milk
1 egg
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Put all these in a mixer bowl and mix until combined. Slowly add dry ingredients.
1/2 cup raisins - or any other dried fruit of your choice.

Stir in fruit, pour into 12-cup muffin tin. Bake at 350 for 22 min.

For my ww friends - 2 points per muffin.

P.S. It's a bad idea to eat more than two muffins a day.

Wildlife

Last night on our walk the pup and I ran into 5 squaking birds in the culdasac. I think they were just as scared of the dog as he was of them.

I have yet to see a deer in our new neighborhood, but I see plenty of birds and bunnies.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

boo rain and traffic

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime® 6.5 or higher is required.

Capa City

I've decided that the capacity of our small house is 10 for a sleepover. We only have 2 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms, but we managed to put 2 + dog in our room, 2 in the guest room, 2 in the man-room and 2 in the dining room, plus 1 jones boy on the couch. I think we could potentially sleep 1 more on the couch or floor if needed.

Having all those friends stay at our house made us feel loved and be-friended. I had a great time hanging out with all of hubs' friends this weekend, and I truly do feel like one of their friends. I'm glad for that because hubs spent half the time at practice while I hosted his friends :)

(the joke of the title is from a few years ago - on a bus ride with his football team, one of hubs' players asked him where Capa City was. He was reading the sign at the front of most school buses - capacity.)

I made a cobbler.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime® 6.5 or higher is required.

chairs complete.

See the before shot.

I know it's a little hard to see, but I am cuurently in the process of staining my birthday present. On purpose.

My dad made me a pair of adirondak chairs and a cute little table. Since I'm taking ETO tomorrow I thought I might as well get some work done tonight on the chairs. Tomorrow is Operation Tan While Staining the Fence.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

Back on the wagon.

Lately I've been thinking that I need to re-focus on the goals I set for myself back in January. I was steadily on the track to reach this goal:

• Weigh 175lbs by Nov. 18, 2009 by implementing weigh watchers practices and doing some form of exercise for 30 minutes 6 days/week. I think I can attain this goal before then, but that's my ultimate deadline.

Until we moved. I guess losing my routine and moving/eating out with the hubs has pushed me off track a bit. I haven't gained all of it back, but I'm not losing either.

When I gain a few lbs and realize it in my clothes, I have a hard time seeing myself as I really look. I still picture myself as this girl:

(senior year of high school 1999 and freshman year of college 2000.) While I never actually considered myself obese, I did weigh 260lbs at my highest. So back then, my BMI was a healthy 36.3. Obese is technically anything 30 or greater. I also wore a size 20-22 my freshman year of college.

The reason I set myself this goal is to weigh in at a healthy rate for my height. The hubs and I are discussing the possibility of producing offspring in the next few years and I do not want to cause our youngin's any extra health risk due to my love of food.

So in January, when I set that goal I weighed 193 - a BMI of 26.9. In April, I bought a size 12 dress - the first time ever in my adult life that I've purchased a size 12 for myself (green below). I considered that a pretty big step. However, even with that dress on, I still pictured myself as "the fat girl." I'm not sure that's something I'll ever get over.

As of this morning, my BMI is 25.9 - still overweight, but only one BMI point away from being at "normal" weight. I realize that BMI is not the best way to measure a body and how healthy it is, but for comparison's sake - that's what you get.

So now it's time to get my head back in the game. I've never stopped weight watchers, but I did stop logging every single thing I put in my mouth, and that was apparently my downfall.

with flippy floppies

New record.

I made it to work today without even braking on the bridge. It was glorious!!! 21 minutes from driveway to parking lot. It's a good day.

Last night the hubs and I had salad from the grocery store for dinner. I love doing that, but it's easy to get calorie-carried away. I put our own dressing on it because you know that stuff they offer is the opposite of light.

An update on the vita-muffins: LOVE THEM!! They are tasty, good texture, and only 1 point. You get them in a box, and you have to freeze them if you don't plan to eat them all within a couple of days. I love that I can save some. I bring one for lunch most days and it's a great way to meet the needs of my sweet tooth without eating donuts and pastries laying around the office.

My c-myrtle plant.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime® 6.5 or higher is required.

Food and Key West

I told the hubs we have got to get back on track with our "healthy lifestyle." I'm not calling it a diet, because it's not like I'm in a wedding and need to diet. It's more like I need to quit eating so much junk.

Last night I attempted the weight watchers version of Pad Thai. It turned out okay, but not amazing. We all know I'm not a very good cook, so I deemed it a success because it was edible. I attempted to go for a run, but got a cramp after about 1/4 mile, so I walked the rest of the way. I think I walked almost 2 miles. Again, not great but it's a work in progress.

In other news:
Here's my sunburn from the boat.
It's painful, but not nearly as bad as when we were on our honeymoon in Key West. (We stayed inside bars our last day there because it hurt so bad to be in the sun. Look at my collar bone just burning away there...)

Speaking of which, we will be in Key West again in only a few short months now. We've been looking for a good place to stay, and I have one picked out, but we aren't sure because we really wanted to revisit the cottage from our honeymoon. Unfortunately it is already booked. Some dang family and their dang family reunion ruined my plans.

At the church

I managed to not get a single photo of my cousin and his new wife at their wedding. I did get this of me and the hubs all gussied up and below of me and my only living grandparent - my mom's mom. Like she told me at the reception, she'll be around for another 20 years.


(You can't really tell, but I'm pretty much sitting in the air because she's maybe 5'1" and I'm 5'11".)

On a boat

general swam. lost my sunglasses. big day.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

We look good all dressed up!

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime® 6.5 or higher is required.

No poop in here.

General likes to hang out in the fenced-in backyard.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

Great Birthday

Even though I had to work today, it's been a great birthday. My coworkers are awesome. A group of us all went out to Pickles Deli in the CWE (which I highly recommend - I had the reuben) and then we had cake this afternoon from McArthurs.

I don't think 28th birthdays get much better than the week I've had. The hubs was amazing on Saturday. I cannot tell everyone how great he was. It makes me literally smile every time I think about how much effort he put into making me happy. He must really love me. :)

Dinner with the fam was also good. Love Cunetto's. Love Ted Drewes.

carrot cake at work!

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime® 6.5 or higher is required.

Sweet tooth birthday

There will be no pie today. As it is my birthday and I love me some sweets, I plan to eat some cake this afternoon with my coworkers and some tiramisu tonight at Cunettos with the fam.

I also plan to enjoy every minute of it. Its not everyday a girl turns 28.

(I took this photo in a stairwell at work and found it hilarious.)

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Kitchen curtains

My mom and I picked out this cute curtain fabric at hob lob and mom magic-ed them into perfectly fitting in my kitchen!

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

The plan:

My Very Good Buddy (since I was 16 and she 15) KT and I are planning to hang out this evening. We are headed to my house (since we tend to alternate MO and IL sides of the river) to bake a quiche and plant some flowers.

I was reading online that it is not ideal to do what I did, and randomly pick the prettiest flowers at the garden spot. Instead, you should put facts and figures in the idea machine and formulate a plan. WELL, I didn't bother to do that. I already bought a bunch of random plants, all needing full sun and not annuals, as they will bake all day in front of the house and I don't want to do it again next year. We'll see if they bother to show their pretty colors again. If not, I'll go back and pick out different random plants.

We are also planning for a delish dinner of multi-flavored, muffin tin-sized quiche nuggets. I watched Alton Brown make some crepe-quiche things last night that looked amazing. We'll have to save the crepe part of that project for another day when I have time to figure out how to master that task.

crazy RV

Yesterday while walking back to the office, I saw this high-class vehicle sitting outside my place of employment. I think the photo speaks for itself, but I just want to point out that on the front bumper there is a phone number with a 573 area code. Right above or below the phone number it says "we buy guns." And a confederate flag was hanging inside the cab draped over the two front seats. Some people use towels or tshirts, others use confederate flags.

Birthday present from my parents

My dad made these for me. A perfect spot to sit outside drink wine and be the neighborhood watch.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

All Day Birthday Celebration

My actual birthday isn't until Thursday, but since my cuz is getting hitched next Saturday, we celebrated yesterday. Hubs has been planning surprises for a few weeks now, if not months. We stayed close to home Friday night to "rest up" for Saturday. I was exhausted by the end of the night yesterday, so I'm glad we did.

Here's my day in photos:

We woke up and went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. The NiceHostessLady sat us at the checkers table.

After coming home to take out pugster, I opened my presents.

Then I had to put a blindfold on while hubby drove me to my next surprise.

It turned out he dropped me off at the spa!! I had a 1-hour massage, a mani and pedi. It was awesome!!! Then our next trip was out to dinner at the Melting Pot!! While the Melting Pot is special fun anyway, it's extra special because hubs asked me to marry him at the Melting Pot almost four years ago.

It was a great day. One of my best birthdays ever.

all that's left...

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime® 6.5 or higher is required.

Raw meats and veggies cook in the pot

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime® 6.5 or higher is required.

birthday dinner

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime® 6.5 or higher is required.