Jump on the bandwagon

I may not start trends, but I do follow them sometimes. Since I've been on sparkpeople for over a year now, I kept hearing about the "30 Day Shred". I've never really watched The Biggest Loser, so I had no idea who the heck Jillian Michaels was. But since so many people were talking about it, I figured it had to be good--right? ;)

I asked for the 30 day shred DVD for my b-day (I even told hubby where he could find it in Target) and did it once shortly after. Yes, the 20 minute workout kicked my ass. I couldn't finish it and skipped the cool down. BIG mistake--I couldn't walk for two day. My legs just weren't prepared for the multitude of squats Jillian put me through in less than 15 minutes. Anyway, I got over it and kept doing it, although not faithfully.

By following links on a friend's blog, I ended up here. This blogger is posting about doing the 30 day shred, so now I'm motivated to do it with them. They are doing 10 days of each level, taking a day off every week. I made it through 10 days of level one and one day of level two. Today I need to tackle level two again, and then for the next 8 days or so.

The 30 day shred workouts are perfect for me. She has them set up into 3 circuits of 3 minutes of strength training (broken down into two sets of 30 sec and 1 min), 2 minutes of cardio (30 sec each of 2 exercises repeated), and 1 minute of ab work. I can do anything for 30 seconds, even if you feel like you are going to die. I haven't seen big weight loss, but I have definitely toned up and hopefully lost a couple of inches.

C'mon everyone, you know you want to jump on the bandwagon, too! Target even has the DVD on sale this week! Happy Shredding!

Party Planning Mode

Emma's birthday is in about 3 weeks and I'm gearing up to party planning mode. This weekend she informed me that she wants a Webkinz birthday party, so we'll go with that. It is so different than the Littlest Pet Shop party she had last year--ha! I think I will get smart this year and only invite 3 or 4 girls. Last year the 5 year olds were a little out of control, so smaller is better, right?

The biggest thing will be the cake. I've found a few pictures online and I'm hoping I can re-create them. You know, because I'm that good.

Before she ever decided she wanted a Webkinz party, I saw these new Webkinz items and thought she would love the Chihuahua one:

I saw them in our Hallmark store about a week ago, but they didn't have the Chihuahua. When I went in last week, they were totally gone and weren't getting anymore in until summer. Of course, I wanted one even more then. I searched online (all out of stock, going for twice the price on e-bay) and even put a call out on facebook. No dice. These are like the second coming of Cabbage Patch dolls or something. Okay, not quite, but they are hard to find. I called my super-secret source this morning and they have them, so Leah and I are headed out to go shopping. And I can use my alumni discount and get them an additional 15% off.

So for the next few weeks I will have Webkinz on the brain. At least she didn't pick a Bratz birthday party theme. ;)

Yet again

Sometimes I tend to be a slow learner. Maybe someday I will learn that taking the kids to the doctor's office only gets us in trouble. Every time we go, whether it be for a regular check up or because someone is sick or because someone has her intestines in her chest, we come home with something we didn't have when we went. Every. single. time. Leah was just getting over her virus that lasted over a week when we had some concerns about her tummy. Took her in, spent 4 hrs doing x-rays and CT scans only to find out thankfully everything is still in the correct place. Now she has a lovely runny/stuffy nose, horrible cough and fever. Again. And how much did I pay for her to get sick? Ugh.

What we've been up to (in pictures)

Even though it seems all I've done is take care of sick kids all month, we have been doing other things as well:

Soccer


Gotta love having to play the first game/practices in full winter gear. Brr!

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt



Easter


So did the Easter Bunny ever hide your basket growing up? In hubby's house, the Easter Bunny always hid their baskets, so that is what we do. They find eggs around the house and the basket is hidden somewhere as well. I think hubby made it all up.

VEISHEA
Everyone loves a parade

One of the girls' favorite entries

Old people trying to act like they are in college again--Alumni Pep Band

StrangerDaddy handing the girls candy during the parade

Watching the parade with old neighbors

Trying to catch a picture of Cy as he walked by--didn't work too well

The balloon the Kappa Kappa Gamma girls carried in the parade. My freshman year we carried a giant pink elephant with a blue sailor suit on. A Care Bear is much cuter.

If you didn't go to Iowa State or live in Iowa, you are probably wondering "What the hell is VEISHEA?" It is hard to explain, but basically it is a showcase of all the different departments and colleges that make up Iowa State. The parade is a big part of it, and there are also tons of activities going on around campus during the weekend. Last year it snowed before the parade and this year we got some rain, but at least it was warmer. Most years we stick around campus and do activities after the parade, but this year Emma had a soccer game so we couldn't do much. The girls stopped by the microbiology club and made petri dish jello with candy to look like microbes, we stopped by the geology club and bought a small half of a geode, we went through the dairy science building and got homemade ice cream and saw them milking cows, and we bought plants at the horticulture club sale. That is just a few of the numerous activities they have going on. It is one of our favorite things to do each spring.

Random Cuteness

Sick

One or the other child has been sick for almost two weeks now, and I'm so ready for it to be over. I can deal with sick kids, but I'm nearing the end of this round. I haven't been to the grocery store in forever and we're on the last of the milk this morning. The house is a pit and I feel like it is just crawling with germy germs. We are supposed to have company tomorrow--while Leah is still contagious. This morning she is crying in pain non-stop because her eyes hurt. Her eyes? What the hell am I supposed to do about that?! She just screamed even louder when I put some saline eye wash in them. Ugh. I need a bottle of wine, a maid, and a live-in nurse. Mom, when are you coming? ;)

An oldie but a goodie

I was reading Darcy's blog and had to giggle at the pictures of the Attack Cat. Our cat Elway is usually very good with kids, although he may swipe at you if he feels like it. Even though he has his claws, he's never taken them out around the kids. I caught this picture when Emma was about a year old and showing Elway some love

As you can see in the picture immediately following that, no children or cats were harmed during the making of that picture

I don't even think tears were shed.

Bunnies, baskets and . . .

(Photo of Bakerella's absolutely adorable cake pops all done up for Easter)

So when you think of Easter you think of cute little bunnies, baskets full of goodies and . . . barf, right? Because that is what I'm thinking of today. I thought we had dodged the bullet when Emma was sick last weekend, but there are a few things going around school right now. She was up at 4am and her tummy hasn't settled since.

We didn't really have big plans for Easter. Emma didn't have any time off from school, so traveling to South Dakota was out of the question. We told the grandparents they were welcome to come visit, but they had made a commitment to sing at the Easter services at church. My mom went to visit my grandparents, who are celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary. We were just going to celebrate at home, so if we can't do too much its okay.

There is a neighborhood egg hunt later this morning, so I may still take Leah out. I'm sure it will be one of those 2 minute scatter drills where all the kids run around like crazy and grab everything in sight. We are to bring 12 filled eggs for each kid, so in theory you would go home with 12 different eggs. We'll see how that works.

Happy Easter to everyone!

My vision came true

Remember this post? Well the spring issue of VISIONS came out yesterday and we were one of four couples featured in the lovebirds story. Our story is just a slightly shortened version of what I sent in, and here is the picture from the photo shoot.


"It was a beautiful summer night as we walked through central campus, past the library, and around Lake LaVerne. We ended up under the Campanile, and as the bells rang out at midnight, he proposed. A year later we were taking our wedding photos under the Campanile."

Hopefully we only slightly look like dorks. ;) All the featured couples had "kitchsy" pictures like this, so overall we are happy with how it turned out.

I know a lot of people don't ever look through or even read their alumni publications--I hope people actually look at this one! :P A few people have already seen it and commented about it. It will probably be my only 15 minutes of so-called fame I will get.

Remind me again

Remind me again why we live here? Because I'm not feeling the 6" of snow that came yesterday and the accompanying windchills in the 20's today. Have you seen the calendar? It's April. It's even officially spring now. The girls have closets full of capri pants and short-sleeved shirts and dresses with leggings. What are we wearing now? Fleece, and lots of it.

I know this isn't anything too far from the norm. Last year on this weekend it snowed as well. We thought it was a fluke. Ha. Last year at Easter Emma was doing an egg hunt with Grandpa M where you had to dig the eggs out of the snow.

We chose to live here. We could've flown the coop and been in sunny Colorado right now. Where they also had a blizzard last week. We just can't win.

To add insult to injury, Emma is sick. Playing soccer in the cold with a sore throat may not have been the best idea and she's been laid up with a fever ever since. Maybe by June we'll all be healthy and the sun will be out. Once can only hope.

And so it begins . . .

Tonight is the first night of soccer practice for Emma. This is her first experience in any sort of "organized" sport (we'll see how organized it is after the first practice--ha!) and I'm excited. She has always shown more athletic ability at age 5 than I think I ever had.

I can't say that I didn't try. I did softball from about 1st grade through junior year of high school--except I never really got over my fear of the ball. I loved playing first base but I lost that position to left-handed girls, so then I got to play outfield. Fun. I played basketball in junior high and high school. I wasn't too bad, but back then it was still 6-on-6. That means I could play defense and never have to shoot the ball. I played volleyball and liked that a lot as well, although I wasn't ever really good at serving. Or setting. Or blocking (height challenged). But I liked it and hubby and I even took a volleyball class in college and played co-rec. Heck, I even ran track a few years. I just wasn't ever great at any of them and didn't get past the junior varsity teams. My senior year I stopped all sports and became a cheerleader instead.

Hubby's family has some athletic ability--more than mine, I dare to say. He played baseball when he was younger and still likes to play in men's softball leagues. Of course hubby golfs, which is athletic, but a Dr. he once saw said it doesn't count as physical activity. Ha! His sister was the jock of the family, playing softball, basketball and volleyball competitively through her first year of college.

So now it begins. Tonight there will be six 5 and 6-year olds running around a soccer field trying (not) to kick each other while going after one ball. In May, softball starts. I have a feeling it is just the beginning of many years to come. Let's play ball!

Now the joke's on me

This is one of my notifications on Facebook today:

Kristyn, Barack Obama confirmed you as a cousin on We're Related see how you are related:

Isn't that about the funniest thing you've ever seen?

Oldest trick in the book

Me: (after getting off the computer looking for the school lunch menu since I apparently threw the April newsletter away) Hey Emma, I guess you can go back to bed this morning after breakfast. I was just online and I see that school is cancelled today. They couldn't get the buses started.
Emma: Really? That means we get two days off this week! Friday and today! (Friday is one of those famous "teacher in-service" days)
Dad: (comes out to leave for work) Good morning, Emma!
Emma: Dad, guess what? We don't have school today! They couldn't get the buses started!
Dad: No school, huh? Maybe you can come to work with me.
Emma: Only if they have a play area there.

We had her going; five year olds can be so gullible. ;) We kept alluding to the fact that it was April Fool's Day but she still didn't get that it was a joke. I even told her "April Fool's Day!" and she did her little nervous laugh. When the bus was coming in 5 minutes and she was in her room playing, she still didn't believe that she really did indeed have school today.

Since we got her, she was trying to plot revenge. Except she isn't so stealthy. "Dad, what kind of cereal are you going to eat tomorrow?" Hmm, maybe dad should skip the cereal and have a muffin instead.