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I made it! It’s our last week-at least for this challenge! I’ll try to keep up with the Sisterhood with the next challenge which is apparently starting on June 3. I’ve got a few weeks to slack! Just kidding! I’m sort of loving Shredding with Jillian again, but realizing that I’m still missing running. I’ve got to get back out there!
Initial weight: 124.0
Final weight: 123.0
Not a huge change in weight, but I’m noticing some more tone in my arms and thighs. I didn’t take measurements, but I did take pictures. Those won’t show up here, or anywhere for that matter! I’m still not happy with my pooch, but that’s another story.
I’ve been loving the Sisterhood, keeping me going with my workouts, no matter how much I want to sleep in in the morning! I’ll stay with it.
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In other news, I’ve breathed a HUGE sigh of relief this morning when I confirmed that all of our paperwork was received by the lady at Macy’s and then heard from our Disney representative who will be helping to organize our crazy-cool vacation that I WON!!!
I’d been walking around with a terribly uneasy feeling in my stomach for about 3 days until I heard from the Macy’s lady today. I was so nervous that I would have to come back to bloggy-land to tell all four of you that we weren’t going on a vacation of a lifetime. But it’s all good. We’ll be heading cross-country a couple of times to partake in some amazing adventures at both Disney theme parks. I still can’t believe this is happening to us!
Oh, and by the way, I did buy some Powerball tickets for last Saturday, because I figured I was in a lucky run. Well, out of the 25 numbers and 5 Powerball numbers that got picked for me, only one matched! ONE!!! Oh well. I’m going to Disneyland/World!
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One last thing. I’m happy to report a one-two punch these past two evenings, as my favorite on DWTS, Shawn Johnson, won last night, and then tonight, Kris Allen won on American Idol! Awesome!
This week the fine people over at I Heart Faces is challenging everyone to submit a favorite face photo to possibly be included in an I Heart Faces Blurb Book. I have a lot-too many to choose from. But this one is definitely up there in terms of a favorite of mine. I’m still working on my Photoshop skills, but I was really happy with how this one turned out.
I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb book photo contest. If chosen, I grant I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites.
This morning started out like many others: Shredding, shower, breakfast, reminding the boys 8 times to go upstairs to get dressed, reminding the boys 5 times to put their shoes on, getting out the door to take Noah to school. I did not say “frantically” getting out the door to take Noah to school because I decided today that if he was late for school, it was his own fault, not mine. (I’ve been reading “Parenting with Love and Logic” and they talk in there about giving kids choices, making them responsible for their own actions, making them deal with the consequences, so I’m trying to implement that in my house-not so great so far.) Somehow, we ended up at school on time.
Caden and I headed home to get ready for the rest of the day. He had soccer this morning, so we got ready to head over to the field. He protested a little before we left, but then was ready to go. His soccer class is at a park with a pretty nice playground, so he played for a while.
 
Then it came time for soccer to start. We walked out to the field. Oh, I need to mention that it POURED yesterday. For a while. So the field was a little wet. For the 4th week in a row! Caden was protesting as we walked out. He clung to my leg as we stood in the middle of the field. He stood by a soccer ball for about 4 seconds, then decided he was not going to play, and started to cry and scream. I gave him a choice (Love and Logic, remember?): Stay and play, or leave. He kept crying. Another choice: angry Mama when we leave, or happy Mama when we stay. He kept crying. I told him he made his choice: leave. I picked him up and he started screaming, “I wanna stay! I wanna stay!” So I stopped, and asked him again, stay or leave? He kept crying. So I picked him up again, and we left. He screamed the whole way to the car. I was mud-spattered, with water oozing into my shoes. We went home and did very little before going to the grocery store on the way to pick up Noah.
After getting Noah, we headed to my parents’ house because I worked this afternoon and my mom watched the boys for me. The boys played outside for a bit, until I heard Noah crying. Apparently it’s because Caden decided he didn’t want to play anymore and Noah wanted to play baseball and didn’t even have a chance to bat yet! The tragedy!
After lunch, it was time for me to go to work. I was fairly unproductive there, but I like to think I took some of the burden off of my co-workers on this crazy day. While I was at work, I got a call on my cell from a 305 area code. I ignored it while I was with a patient, then checked my voicemail when I had a chance. It was a woman from Macy’s calling to tell me I am a “potential winner” of the “Celebrate Mom Sweepstakes” and would I please call her back by 5pm tomorrow evening to claim my prize. So when I got a chance, I called her back. I’m too curious to wait until tomorrow.
You may remember that you entered a contest online with Macy’s for the “Celebrate Mom Sweepstakes.” Yeah, I sort of remember entering. Okay, would you please verify some information? Are you or anyone in your family an employee of Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Disney or any of their subsidiaries? Nope. Are you available to travel between these dates in 2009? I’m sure as hell going to make those dates work! Would you verify your name and address? Done and done. Okay, so to go ahead with claiming your prize, I’m going to need you to sign some forms, an affadavit, a W-9 form (because the IRS will still tax us on our winnings), and some other things and you need to get those back to me by fax or email by 5pm on Monday, May 18, then mail the originals to me after that. But I need to get the info by 5pm on Monday, May 18 or you will forfeit your prize. You bet your bippy I’m gonna get those forms to you! Oh, did I mention the prize is a trip to DISNEYLAND AND DISNEY WORLD?!?!?!?!?! I’m not kidding! I really won this prize!!! I never win anything! And I just won a freaking trip to DISNEYLAND AND DISNEY WORLD!!!
Yep, the trip includes both locations! We start in Disneyland with a breakfast celebration of sorts, then spend two nights in Anaheim, then fly to Orlando for 3 nights, culminating with a sunset dinner on our last night. Oh, and we get a “VIP experience” for each guest at each Disney locale, $200 to spend in Disneyland, and $300 to spend in Disney World, and it also includes all of our airfare, food, lodging, the whole shebang. I can’t even believe this!
I’m going to make some calls tomorrow to make sure this is legit, but it looks pretty freakin’ real! I’m trying not to get too hyped up yet, and I really debated whether I would break the news already, but I’m too freakin’ excited to keep this to ourselves! I think it was destiny: the boys and I were all wearing Mickey Mouse t-shirts today, and my mom and I were doing some preliminary research just today to look into planning an August trip to Disney World. Coincidence? Maybe. After my morning, I deserved some goodness!
This was a lot of fun this week! I had a bunch of ideas for this week’s “You Capture” assignment from Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry:
*I could have gotten shots of various rooms in our house. Andy and I aren’t scared of color on our walls, so I could have shown the red wall in our living room, our green kitchen, our blue powder room, the boys’ orange bathroom, or the yellow play room.
*I could have put in pictures from our various sporting events and team colors: Badger red, Brewers blue, or Packers green and gold (though I’m not so hot on that last one!).
*I could have gotten shots of the boys and their pink cheeks after they’ve been running around.
Instead, I started noticing all of the colors outside now that spring has sprung and flowers and trees are blooming all around. Sadly, none of these colors are actually in my own yard.
The tulips are at church, the daffodils are in my next door neighbor’s yard, the green bush is in my parents’ front yard, and the crabapple tree is in my parents’ neighbor’s yard, though there are many all around my neighborhood.
And then I started going through some old pictures, and I found these. They’re some of my favorites.
This is from Family Day at Camp Randall last summer before the Badger season started.
When I was out in California last summer for Catheroo’s birthday, we headed up to San Fran for some picture-taking and found the “Painted Ladies”, otherwise known as the houses shown during the opening credits of “Full House”!
Check out the other entries!
We spent another evening cheering on our Brewers tonight. This time it was Andy, myself, and the boys, along with our good friends, RJ, Angie, Nathan, and Teagan. Nathan and Noah are best buds in their preschool class, and Caden and Teagan have had music class together, as well as lots of play dates together. The Brewer game was a little bit of a last minute plan, but it was hard to pass up half-price tickets and $1 hot dogs and $1 small sodas! The icing on the cake was a win by the Brew-Crew! Here are some pictures. I think they speak for themselves!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Caden ate his weight in popcorn at the game-we’ll see how he feels in the morning!
A GREAT family outing!
Today could have been a little better, what with a VERY sassy 3-year-old and a whiny 5-year-old, but we had a nice day nonetheless. The boys sang in their cherub choir this morning (more on that in another post), then we headed over to Andy’s parents’ house for lunch. We had tasty brats, beans, salad, fruit, chips, homemade apple pie (thanks Lizzy!), and brownies. Yup, I had both pie and brownies-it’s my day! After lunch, I took an hour-long nap while other people entertained my boys. An. hour. long. nap! AWESOME!
It was a lazy day, but nice. I wish it had been warmer, but it was somewhat sunny, which helps. Here are some pictures:
  
A robin had a happy Mother’s Day today with her new babies, as long as I wasn’t hovering over the nest taking pictures as she squawked from a nearby tree!
And finally, a rare picture of me and my boys. They were misbehaving just before we took this picture-I can’t believe I’m smiling!
I really love my boys, no matter how much they test me! I’m so lucky to be a mom!
Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms out there, especially my own! I’m so lucky to have you as a mom!
It’s Thursday again, so it’s time for You Capture, hosted by Beth over at I Should Be Folding Laundry. I forgot about it until today, so I grabbed my camera as Noah and I went for a walk after dinner (Caden and Andy didn’t get to come because Caden was taking too long to eat his dinner, like always).
I love his face in this shot.
When we got back, Andy and Caden were watching the Brewers game (as usual), and not too long after we started watching, Ryan Braun hit a grand slam! This is what the boys looked like when we rewinded the play to see it again (I missed the original celebration, which was so much more enthusiastic!):
 
Finally, I looked through some older pictures and found this one of Caden, which I just love. It’s a very regular expression of his.
Check out what everyone else did!
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While Noah and I were out on our walk, I took some shots of the blooming that’s happening around here:
  
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The other night, Andy buzzed Noah’s hair. While they were in the process, Andy thought it would be funny to do something a little different:
 
As soon as I got a few shots, I told them to finish they haircut. I’m not raising Maddox Jolie-Pitt here!
Initial weight: 124.0
Last week: 123.2
This week: 123.0
Yep, I’m kind of hovering right at that 123 mark. I’m sure a lot of it is because I’m not really watching what I eat as well as I probably should. Sure, I make some good choices at times. Like today, when I had tuna mixed with celery, green onion, lemon juice, pepper, a small dollop of light mayo over a bed of lettuce, followed by about a cup of strawberries. But then I just finished 3 Oreos. I’ve also had a few handfuls of M&Ms, some jelly beans, and some more M&Ms. Have I mentioned my sweet tooth?
I’m not so good at eating as many veggies as I should. We have some well-rounded meals at times around here, but lately they’ve been pretty sporadic. I’ve never been much of a cook, and I don’t really want to take the time to work at it. I tear recipes out of magazines all the time, then just throw them in the cabinet with my numerous cookbooks. We usually stick to the stand-bys: spaghetti, pizza, burgers on the grill (thank goodness for nice weather again!), barbecue chicken breasts, scrambled eggs, and pancakes. If we’re good, we’ll throw some frozen veggies in the microwave to have as a side. But that’s about it.
I’ve been working out. I’ve been Shredding with the Sisterhood, but have lately been slacking a bit. I worked Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and it’s really hard to motivate myself to get going early enough to get the workout done in the morning. I skipped Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday. I still really like it, and it’s definitely a workout, especially Level 3. I hate jumping lunges, but they totally work my quads! But it’s been hard for me lately because I’m missing running. I haven’t run in almost 2 weeks. And with the weather getting better, and the sun rising earlier, I’m longing for my morning run. But I have a hard time doing both the Shred and my run.
The Sisterhood has decided to continue with the 30-Day Shred, starting again on Monday at Level 1. My sister-in-law wants to make it a 365-Day Shred (CRAZY!). I don’t know if I can fully commit to the Shred this time around. I’m feeling a little guilty about that. I know I shouldn’t, but I do. But I know the important thing is that I keep working out.
So here’s my plan: I’m going to plan on working out (almost) every morning, and I’ll make the decision between Shredding or running. If I choose Shredding, that will probably be the workout for the day. If I choose running, I’ll try to Shred later in the day (which is really hard for me, but not so bad when I actually get going). I’ll keep up with the Sisterhood. I won’t worry about the scale. I’ll just pay attention to how my clothes fit (about which I’ve been sort of bummed lately because of my post-babies belly–damn diastasis recti, but that’s a different post altogether). M’kay?
Today, while I was at work, it was boys’ day around here. They went to Menards, played outside, and ate mac n’ cheese. Caden also decided to try a bite of Noah.
Look closely…
A not-so-accurate recreation of the incident:
Now, for the most part, since I’ve been home, they’ve been pretty loving toward each other. Caden wanted me to read to him, and I suggested he ask Noah to read to him. Noah happily obliged.
He struggled on a word here and there (they were reading some small phonics-based books), but generally Noah can read pretty well. Add “reading to Caden” to my list of things I love asking him to do for me: getting milk from the fridge in the basement, getting bread from the freezer in the basement, bringing in the garbage cans. I’ll take advantage of his being agreeable to chores for now!
Boys will be boys!
All week I assumed the assignment this week was “Fun”. I don’t know why. I didn’t bother rechecking the assignment. I had all sorts of ideas, especially with the Brewer game yesterday. So imagine my surprise when I checked Beth’s blog and saw that it’s “Joy”! Well, we found some joy at the game yesterday, too.
I love Caden’s face in this shot of him with Noah and Andy’s sister, Lizzy. I took about 4 or 5 pictures of the three of them, and by the last one (this one), he was getting smooshed and he was laughing about it. CUTE!
Seeing my parents with my boys brings me great joy! We’re so lucky to live so close and to have parents who are (usually) willing to watch them often!
Since I wasn’t so sure about the assignment, these will have to do. I’ll add more pictures about our day at the game later. If you’re really anxious to see more, click either of the pictures above and go through my Flickr account.
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