Recap of the past number of days of my 30 day challenge...

Sunday/Father's Day: Have to admit that because I was lazy and didn't get up before Keeley on Sunday, my workout didn't happen. I thought I'd maybe try to work it in after church, but the final round of the US Open was on (golf), so wanted to let Todd watch especially since he never insists on watching his stuff and often misses things he'd rather watch... And then of course after a heavy/yummy steak dinner & a glass of wine - a work out was definitely NOT going to happen in the evening... Planning on extending my "30 days" to accommodate for this.

Mon.: Level 1 @ 5:30am  - UGH. Started feeling a little weird in my right knee & ankle...

Tues.: Waited until LATE in the evening (10:30pm)... it was easier cardio-wise, but still felt stress/weakness in my right knee & ankle...

Wed.: Went for a "hike" with the girls around the neighborhood with Keeley in the backpack... Went up three decently steep hills (that Sarah ran up) and although this wasn't anywhere near an "intense" workout, I counted it as being active, getting some cardio going up the hills, but a rest day for the knee/ankle.

Thursday: Read Amber's post and was encouraged to do it today! Decided to see how hard Level 2 was. So you know when people (Beth Moore comes to mind) talk about the "ugly cry?" Well, I hit the "ugly sweat!"

DRIPPING. 

I may need to clean my carpet soon... Right now my outer Delts are tired (read: SORE arms tomorrow). I'm noticing that I feel much more challenged in the exercises for my upper body and wish I would feel it more in the legs... A step up in cardio difficulty too which is both good/hard...

I love that Sarah starts wanting to join in the work out dressed in her leotard & today, Buzz, Woody & Jesse joined in too... =)

Keeley is walking!

So tonight when were all just sitting around - Todd was trying to research options for us to figure out how to stop our stupid smoke alarms that go off randomly, the girls were just playing - and Hello! Here comes Keeley walking across the room (Todd estimated 10 feet) to me! From her rocking chair into my arms. It really couldn't have been better timed or played out... I love that we were all together to see it - especially since Todd is headed down to AZ next week. Here comes another way to get into everything FAST! Now I need to get the vid posted, but have discovered that blogger removed its upload option for videos? Hmmm..

  

 Day 3 of 30 Day Challenge

20 minutes already getting easier, but my triceps are screaming at me! 

Apparently it's been too long since I did a minute of push ups... 

It pays to keep your cool...

Today I went out to Macy's to buy a couple of wedding shower and wedding gifts. There was a guy in the dishes/china area who, when I asked, didn't seem to know much about finding the correct sku #s or anything about the Fiestaware that I needed to find. Anyway, after finally finding the right items (does anyone else have a hard time with this besides me?) and trying to make sure that the stroller and Sarah didn't destroy all the breakable things around us we went to go pay. I was quite clear that I had two separate wedding registries I was buying from, but the guy COMPLETELY messed up the transaction. Only one gift receipt (which said it was a gift to the bride from the bride - not me), and he only took the items off one of the registries - not both yada, yada, yada... By this time we had been at the register for at least 15 minutes. He was searching for the bride's name through all the Jennifer's in the Seattle area....not by her last name.... Yeah, you got the picture.

 I was very conscious of my attitude through all of this and tried to politely inform those around me to choose a different line if they wanted to be helped in a timely manner while my purchase was taking a long time. Both girls were past needing to get out of there and so was I, but the Lord really does answer prayer! I kept my cool despite my growing frustration.

Thankfully a wonderful woman, Françoise, stepped in and rescued me. She fixed everything. Separate gift receipts, found a box for the dishes, and even gave me the $10 off a $25 purchase TWICE! Then she walked me out to my car!

So thankful... I will definitely be writing a glowing letter to Macy's on her behalf!

Have a great weekend!

 

Whew, thank goodness I didn't puke! My history of working out in the morning hasn't been so great. I'm more of a "go for a night run" kind of person - or at least my body is... 20 min. with Jillian. I've made the decision I need to get lighter arm weights because if you know me, you know I don't need to bulk up! Going for tone... I started hearing Keeley around 5:45 but she's quieted down and now it's 6:30 and I'll get her up her in a few minutes. I'm really hungry so I'm going to go grab something to eat!

All right, here goes! I'm going to participate along side my friend, Amber,  to do the 

30 Day Challenge!  

My challenge will also consist of 20 min. a day (since the workout I did today even before reading her blog was the 30 day shred and lasted for 20 minutes) of working out to one of the 3 Jillian Michael's DVDs that I have. Today was my first 20 minutes (completely humbling) and I'll complete the challenge on July 15th. If for some reason I miss a day (say July 10th when I have two weddings to go to) I'll extend it so as to complete the 30 days. Hopefully this will develop a habit and I'll go from being, well, not at my best fitness level ever (to put it mildly), to a better place fitness-wise. I'm not looking for weight loss per se, however, if that does happen, cool! Not sure yet if I'm going to blog every day about this or how to go about it, but however it works out (ha ha! love puns), I'll be honest! I'm excited! Thanks Amber!

Oh my goodness. If there ever was a blog post I needed to read...And the scripture of which I needed to be reminded...

So good.

A Taste of Summer...

Rainer on the horizon

Olympics to the West

Munching Girls in the back seat...

Madison Park's Playground

Figuring out what to play on first!

Sam. Love that boy!

Sunscreen, baby cuddles, sunglasses, hats...

Heather with sweet Kate
 And the answer is, "No," they cannot be any cuter!

Zip Line!

Sarah tests out her balancing skills

Keeley just chillin'

Baker to welcome us back North...

I'm Mad about my Rununculus!

They're so vibrant and delicate... 

I always have a difficult time deciding if I should cut flowers or leave them outside to bloom...

But since this is my first season with them, I decided to see how they fare when cut...

Possible Titles for this Post:

Girls Just Want to Have Mud

Building The Girls' Immune Systems

The Best Sensory Lesson Ever

Here's Mud In Your Eye

Getting Down to the Nitty Gritty of Why I'm a Cool Mom

When the Weather Gives You "Tide Pools," Pretend You're at the Beach!

Silly Boys, Mud is for Girls!

My Entry for a Tide Commercial Contest

Sarah has never had a problem with dirt. She embraces it.

Seriously, she's VERY serious about her playing in the dirt!

(Side note: She is wearing the raincoat she wore when she was 18mo.)

I was getting tired of having Keeley trying to wriggle out of my arms and go play with Sarah so I just let her join in! And she LOVED it! 

(Another side note: Attention Grandparent-types - it was a very warm afternoon, the girls were WARM.)

Once Sarah saw Keeley without her shoes, there was no having her boots...or coat...

Mama, may I?

And from there it just got better...

and better...

and BETTER!

(My apologies to anyone who recognizes any outfits they gave us that were possibly ruined in this adventure.)

The view out our back slider made me think that storm chasers were going to come roaring down the street in back of us... Swirling dark clouds, lightening, thunder then a pause before torrential down pours one after another... They left our back sand area more flooded and created mini-lakes under the swings... Come on SUN!!

Evening 5

 

Funny how one thing leads to another... First a bit of laundry, then all of a sudden I'm putting away clothes and get sucked into a major clean-out/donate/organize my closet/dresser mode. Actually, this happens to me on a regular basis. It even was something that drove my mom crazy when I was a kid. A simple, "Abbey, go pick up your room," turned into a major clean-out, room rearranging effort. So, no, it wasn't
on my list of things to do, but it did need to be done so even though I didn't get Deep Clean Kitchen Part 4 even started, I'm pleased I have more room in my room and fewer unworn items to confuse my "what to wear?" daily decision... I could probably go through and be more brutal in my down-sizing (literally because many of the clothes headed for VV are my "between" clothes from post-pregnancy to now), but I'll save that for another time...

I was meaning to get the latest coupons filed, but no. Didn't happen tonight.

Todd is coming home tomorrow having had finished the testing... That is GOOD! I know I've said a number of times to different people that having him out of town makes me get a chance to experience a very small part of what some have too do for months or even years. I'm waiting for him to call because he was out having a celebratory beer with his team and couldn't hear to chat via phone. He said he'll have stories (I'm assuming about the testing day, not the beer) so that should be interesting.

Random thoughts:

I think I'm going to go ahead and try to watch/follow The Next Food Network Star show. I caught the first one (never happens) and got sucked in (something else that doesn't really happen for me for reality shows).

What's up with the cupcake craze right now? This isn't just from the Food Network watching - it's seeming to pop up a LOT lately. Wish I liked cake and frosting more...

Todd just called and it's late, so later...

Making sure that I've got everything figured out for teaching the preschool class tomorrow needs to come first, so I'm not sure how much I will accomplish off the list tonight...

Todd said last night he'll be home a day later than he thought, but at least it won't be days more than he thought...

We broke out the sprinkler today. Keeley LOVED it, Sarah is really only a warm water kid, so she pretended to like it, but mostly ran around singing and then jumped on her towel. No pictures because Todd has the camera. I've commissioned him to try and get a cool shot of a Joshua tree for the collection of dessert-themed prints we've decided would look good in our bedroom. Now if another "free canvas" deal comes around again, I can take advantage of it!

Better go make sure I'm remembering everything for the lesson...I may be back with an update.

Deep clean kitchen part 3 ! 

 
It'll be great to actually have the freezers, fridge, and oven clean all at the same time... I've daydreamed about what it would be like to have the entire house organized and clean at the same time... But, at least for me, it's always in process and that won't happen any time soon if ever. Heck, I create some of the messes myself with MY projects!

Talked with Todd tonight and it seems that "Management" has been pushing really hard and some of his team are on work day 11 or 12 in a row... Thankfully one of them finally put their foot down and they're taking tomorrow off since they can't be the primary test anyway. So off to Magic Mountain...again - at least for Todd. No, not feeling too sorry for him right about now... I'm just glad he has friends who are able to keep up with him on roller coaster enthusiasm since I can't/don't/won't go there...The thought almost makes me nauseous... Off to bed to try and knock out this cold that seems to finally have caught up with me after both girls had it... G'night.

Day/Evening 2

So yesterday was a harder one...We had sunshine, but I was not always having a sunny attitude, however we all made it! After the girls were in bed, I pulled the movie equivalent of  "I ate the carton of ice cream so it wouldn't tempt me any longer,"  and I watched Episode 2 & 3 of Cranford while I organized my coupon binder! Now the Netf,ix envelope is in the mailbox and I don't have that out so...

Day/Evening 3

Today was a LOT better.We went for a walk in the rain this morning. The cup holders on the stroller had their bottoms covered in water even though we weren't out that long... Came back to hot chocolate, a nap for Keeley, playing a game, making 3 batches of play dough (turned out great! I'll see how it holds up after the preschoolers use it at church), and more playing with Playdoh (the real stuff) etc... Didn't make it out for doughnuts because Keeley slept so long, but none of us really needed a doughnut right? Quesadillas for dinner and early bed times! 

Now comes the attempt for deep clean of the kitchen part 3: Set the oven on clean, reorganize the freezers, clean the fridge and listen to more Tim Keller sermons while I do it...We'll see how it goes!

Day 1 Progress

Watch Cranford - Episode 1
I forgot that Disk One has three episodes so guess I get two more nights! Hopefully this won't deter me in getting the other items accomplished. Last night this won out because my upper back was very tired/sore/hurting from picking something up (picking up a 25lb box of cat litter and keeping it extended out from my body as I bent over to pour it into the litter box. Have I said how much I look forward to being "cat-less?" and how much I should probably get my back in better shape? I don't have a bad back, but still...)
On a side note, I think I may be addicted to popcorn...and Victorian Era films... and BBC productions...Certainly something that is good to do when Todd is not around... I know it doesn't look terribly exciting, but it IS good drama for those of us who appreciate historical dramas and it is hilarious too!

Clean out K's closet, go through clothes, etc.
Not on my original "When-Todd-is-in-Palmdale" Project List, but the mood hit me and it needed to be done to store the months of diapers stockpile I've got going on... It was getting hard to walk up the steps in the garage because I had so many packs of diapers on/beside our storage shelves!

Replant Rosemary
In another time/place I would have been a farmer...there is just something in me that LOVES digging in the dirt! So much so, that I sometimes invent things to do just so I can go play outside... in the dirt, like replanting things... But now my pots that had the rosemary in them need a little something... I'm sure I can find some cheap plants/flowers somewhere...

My "When-Todd's-in-Palmdale" Project List

Deep-cleaning kitchen Parts 3 & 4 (bottom cupboards inside and out, weed-out unneeded stuff, reorganize)
Finish making the girls' tutus
Replant the rosemary
Get two more painting bids
Research plants for shade area in back
Weed
Read
Watch "Cranford" Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3
Have a girls' night at the house
Make a list of camping stuff we still need to get
Make some fun crafty gifts for my girls
Clean out K's closet, go through clothes, etc.

To be continued...

What I've been enjoying lately...

Flowers from the garden... 

Getting ready for summer adventures with a new tent

(old one was the blue/grey, new green/grey)

Silliness from two super cute girls

Time with Todd

Projects when Todd is down in Palmdale

Sisters-in-Christ who empathize/sympathize and don't jump to "fix" with advice

Seeing growth in those around me and myself

Hearing God speak to my heart whether in conviction or encouragement

Listening to Tim Keller's sermons

Successes in gardening

Letting go and just being rather than feeling guilty for not doing

Coffee

Saving money by being creative