Just for Nenna!

I know I'm not posting here very often, so I doubt if there are many people reading this, but one person I know who still likes to 'pop in' to see if I've posted is my sister Brenda :-) Hi Nenna! So I'm posting these pictures just for you. Thought you'd like to see the 'wheels' you'll be driving around in if you come over next year ;-)

This thing actually seats 8! See that tiny space in between the two seats, that's the '8th' seat that lifts up (we have it down as a drink tray for Kristen right now). It's a tiny seat so of course it's only meant for a kid, but that means if you come over next year Nenna, you could even bring the 'Wright's with you, and we'd ALL fit in here ;-) Just a thought!

Oh, and see that lovely blue sky and sunshine? It's still 'sun-bathing' weather over here'! Guess I should change my graphics again - it warmed up again today, the a/c just kicked in, the house is 79 degrees again!

Talk to you soon Nenna.
xxxxxxx

Saying Hi. . .

OK, so it's not snowing here, and there is no frost on the ground, but brrrrrrr, it sure was cold this morning. It was the coldest it's been since the end of last winter, so cold that I had to put my dressing gown on when I got up. The temperature in the house has been about 78 degrees throughout the summer, with the a/c on. This past week it's cooled down a lot over night and I'd wake up to about 74. That's still ok, I can handle that ;-) But this morning, the house temp was 67!!! A big difference and boy could we tell.

So, that is the reason for the change in graphics to a frosty blue, although now that I'm posting this the sun is shining outside and the sky is a bright blue, it looks like summer again out there!

This past weekend was a busy one for us. Saturday was taken up with many hours of 'car shopping'! I don't wish to sound ungrateful, I mean who wouldn't want to go shopping for a brand new car. . . but boy is the process long! After 5 hours though, we were the proud owners of a brand new (2009!) Honda Odyssey. I haven't taken any pictures yet, so if you want to see what it looks like - CLICK HERE. Click on the 'tour' and you'll get to see the inside too. The one we got is a slate/grey with grey leather interior. The only thing we didn't get was the navigation system. That's because we already have a hand-held one, and Jason said at the speed technology changes we more than likely would want to 'upgrade' our existing one soon anyway. Do I even need to say "I love it"? You know I do (love it I mean) ;-)

Gotta dash, it's already time to pick up Kristen!

Ready For The Weekend.

I thought I'd make a post tonight as I know I won't get a chance to over the weekend. I was going to post tomorrow but I probably won't get a chance to do it then either. My daily routine since I joined the gym has changed somewhat, which is half of the reason I am not getting on here as much to blog. In the past I used to take Kristen to school and come straight home, load the dishwasher, clear the kitchen, make beds etc, then I'd sit down and check my email and visit blogs, and try to do a post of my own.

That's all changed now. After getting home from the school run, I still do my morning chores, but instead of sitting at the computer I'm usually heading straight out to the gym. After the gym I will often call in to the grocery store or Target for a few food items that I need and by the time I get home it's at least 12.30pm. I have lunch, do some laundry and before I know it, it's 2pm and I have to head back out to pick up Kristen. I don't mind these changes, but as I said in my last post it just means I'm not as motivated to blog on here and so my posts might dwindle to just a couple of times a week for now.

I just want to clarify (cos I think I gave the wrong impression last time) that I am not feeling down, or blah :-) I just really don't want to bore you all with blog posts of nothing but 'gym visit's and housework. But speaking of 'gym visits' I will just say that tomorrow I am going to be doing some weight training all on my own, and it will be the first time! Usually I do the weights with my trainer and on the days I don't meet with him I do cardio on the treadmill. I won't meet with him tomorrow but he said he'll leave me a list of things to work on. Hopefully I can do well on my own too as my PT sessions won't last forever. I have to say though, so far they have been well worth the money. If I didn't have appointments to meet with the trainer I'd probably not be as committed to going on those days. I do hope that when the sessions end I won't start making excuses not to go each day.

This morning it was 'Muffins with Mom' morning at Kristen's school. That meant we had to get there 15 minutes earlier (7.15am). Kristen always enjoys this morning (the school does it every year, along with Donuts with Dad later in the year) but I think that has a lot to do with the muffin and not so much the Mom ;-)

So, with all that said, I wish you all a great weekend, and I promise to try my best and make a few posts next week.

Not in the mood for blogging!

It's hard to blog when you're not in the mood, so I just wanted to let you all know that if you don't see a post from me for the rest of the week it's just because I'm not really motivated to do so. Often times there isn't really much to blog about, although I'm sure if I put my mind to it I could come up with something of interest. The problem is I just don't feel like putting my mind to it.

I'm off out in a few minutes to pick up Kristen from school, then we have to head on over to her piano lesson. It's much earlier today because the one of the other school districts is getting out early, so this kind of messed things up for the piano teacher. It's not really a problem for us and it means we'll be home around 4.15pm instead of the usual 5.30pm.

I will try to update in a few days. Until then, hope you all enjoy your week.

Happy Birthday Twinny!

I didn't get a chance to post over the weekend when it was 'our' birthday. I'm headed out to the gym so I will post later today. Just wanted to send belated birthday wishes to my wonderful twin brother - Ken! (not really late wishes, you should have got your card last week) ;-) And my thanks to everyone who left birthday wishes for me and sent cards. Back later!

Hump Day Already!

It's finally raining here in Texas! I don't think we've had rain for well over a month so we are certainly in need of it. The temps are dropping too, in the 70's today with the rain and possible thunder forecast, and mid 80's the rest of the week.

It was very dark when we went out to school this morning at 7.10am and very wet and rainy, making the roads a little busier and of course slippery. It's still raining a lot now and as much as I'd like to stay home and be cozy I will be going out in half an hour to meet Cindy for coffee. We haven't managed a 'starbucks' for about 3 weeks now! It will be nice to catch up and then I'll see her again tomorrow night for book club :-) After coffee I'm going to head to the gym which is right near Starbucks and do my cardio workout on the treadmill (as per my PT instructions) ;-) Yesterday's workout was really good. I told my PT that if I didn't have him I'd have certainly stopped at 5 when working on my abs, instead he pushed me to do 15! It's well worth having someone push you that little further. I hope I can do the same for myself once our sessions are over.

So, other than the gym and coffee this morning, not much else going on right now. Kristen is doing well, she had no more incidents on Sunday. I just made sure she ate more veg and fiber and she's been fine ever since. She's doing great in school right now, all of her grades are between 95-100 :-) I had a parent/teacher conference with her 2nd grade teacher last week and she is very happy with Kristen's progress and said she 'has many strengths' - hopefully she continues to do well throughout the year. Jason and I are so very proud of her.

OK, I'm off to get ready to head out. Have a great 'Hump' day.

Think Pink!

It's almost the middle of October already and it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month! I wanted to change my graphics for a couple of weeks to remind us all how important it is to take care of ourselves and continue to do 'breast self-exams' on a monthly basis. I know I haven't posted about this in a few months, and I have to be honest and say that by not doing so, I got off track and stopped doing a BSE each month. But it's never too late to start again. And I find that when I post about it here it helps me stay accountable not only to myself but to my friends who read this blog too. So, if you're like me, and it's been a month or two since you took a few minutes to 'feel' that you're ok, then why not do it now. Early detection - it can save your life!

So, how was your Sunday? I hope it was a fun and relaxing one for you. We didn't go to church today. Kristen had diarrhea in the morning and she was nervous about going to church because she said they don't have bathroom breaks once their service starts. Of course that's not to say she wouldn't be allowed to go to the bathroom, but I was concerned too that she might not make it to the bathroom in time if she HAD to go. She'd already had an accident that morning at home!!!

So we popped out for a quick lunch and went to Lowe's to get some mulch and some fall flowers for the yard. And yes, I have some pictures to show you today :-) Remember this . . . .

this was my yard at the beginning of the summer when I just planted the marigolds and some other flowers. See the little red leafed plant (on the left) well I thought you might like to see how it grew over the summer. . . . .


seriously! this is the same plant - can you believe it? Here's a close up of the pretty leaves. . .

The days are cooling down a little here which is why I wanted to get out the front and clean the flower bed up a bit. I bought some chrysanthemums to add to the borders as the marigolds had all died away, and I added some new mulch too. The mulch I bought though is different to last time and I don't really like it. The bark is much bigger than I thought it would be, but it will have to do for now. Here's a couple of close up pictures I took of the flowers that came out really pretty. . . .

These orange flowers have been in since the beginning of summer, you can see them in the first picture next to the dianthus and marigolds. They've spread out a lot too and have been flowering all summer long.

No school tomorrow, it's Columbus Day :-) So no early rising for me, yay!

Thursday (for want of a better title!)

I'm feeling much better today and despite how stiff I was yesterday I still managed a good workout with my trainer. That is what's great about having a personal trainer - if I hadn't signed up for one I would not have gone back to the gym this week until my legs had stopped aching! Yesterday when I told him how sore and stiff my legs were he said we'd work on my upper body and he'd help me stretch out too. I felt much better for having him stretch my legs. I could stretch the front of my legs by bending my knee and grabbing hold of my foot, but to stretch the backs of my legs he had me lie on the floor and he pushed my leg upwards, keeping it straight. It was a much better stretch than I could have done on my own!

I'm having a day off from training today. My trainer said I could go in and just do 7 minutes in the sauna, which would help sweat the toxins out of my sore muscles. I was going to go in, but I've been catching up with housework instead. And I actually need to get a lock for the locker rooms there. I don't have any way of locking away my purse until I get my own lock. They don't provide them at the gym! I'll get one soon and perhaps treat myself to a sauna and a swim one day next week. I've also been told to eat more protein so I'm trying to eat protein bars and make protein smoothies in between my meals. If I don't, I can't seem to get the amount of protein (which is about 63 - 70g daily) from just the foods I put on my plate. I'm a 'grazer' and I don't often eat big meals. The only time I would normally have a lot of protein is from a chicken breast for dinner. Sometimes I have a tuna salad for lunch but not always. So I'm making a concerted effort to make sure there is a good amount of protein in each meal, or at least the snacks in between if not in the meal.

This morning for breakfast I made some 'protein pancakes' from the Eating for Life cookbook. They are made with oatmeal, egg whites and cottage cheese. Rather a strange texture but not too bad. Lovely with a little drizzle of pure organic maple syrup. For lunch I had a turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread. I'll probably make a shake or have a protein bar sometime before dinner.

OK, not much going on around here and I don't want to bore you all too much with 'gym' talk, so that's it for today.

Can we say S-O-R-E. . . .

. . . actually that would be an understatement!!! I am so sore and stiff from my first workout on Monday I can hardly move! That didn't stop me from going back to the gym yesterday though. My trainer wanted me to do 45 minutes on the treadmill. I managed 42 minutes, but didn't keep my heart rate as high as he'd suggested. Today I don't know how I'll manage. If we do the same as Monday, well actually I don't think there is any way I can do the same as Monday. I can't bend my legs without it really hurting (you should see me trying to walk up and down the stairs!).

I'm doing all this so I don't feel like an old woman. . . . . so why do I feel like an old woman? Of course I know I'll get better. I'm just so not used to working my muscles this much I'm bound to feel sore. So off to the gym I go in about 15 minutes. We're meeting earlier today because it's another early release day at school. I'm picking Kristen up at 12pm.

I'll make this short as I have to get ready and head out soon. Sorry I have no photos to share, not much been going on lately that I can take pictures of.

The start of something new!

I'll make this just a quick post and hopefully come back later today to post more. It's 5.59am as I type this, Kristen woke me up at 5.40am saying she was hungry and couldn't get back to sleep! I think she's going through a growth spurt as she's been eating a lot over the past couple of days!

So, last week I didn't do much but there was a couple of main things that happened that I can tell you about which will bring you up to date with what's going on in my little world. Remember I was having trouble with my allergies? I went to the Dr last Monday and she prescribed a 6 day steroid for me in the hopes it would clear the inflamation in my nose which in turn would help drain the congestion I had in my nose and even in my ears! She said if it didn't do the trick I should go in and see her on Friday. Well that's just what I had to do, because I really felt no different by then. I still had a lot of pressure in my ears and couldn't hear well at times. You know how when you get water in your ears and you hear that 'gushing' sound? That was what it was like for me, but from the inside! It was so frustrating, not to mention I was still getting sinus headaches nearly every day.

Long story short, the Dr sent me for an x-ray on Friday morning to determine if I had acute sinus infection or if it was chronic. If it is chronic I would need antibiotics for a month!! And that's exactly what it turned out to be. So I'm now on antibiotics for 30 days and already my ears are feeling better. I think it will take a bit longer for the congestion to clear though, some times I'm coughing and sound like an old woman, it's not even funny.

The other major thing that happened last week for me was that I joined a new gym :-) I have been going to the Ladies Workout Express (a bit like Curves) for over 18 months now and to be honest I was bored with it, I didn't even make it in there some weeks! There's a new 'Gold's Gym' opened up near us so I went along to that and looked at joining. It was the same monthly amount each week as the ladies place but the difference obviously being that they have much more equipment. Not just weights to pull which was all I did at the ladies place. They have treadmills and ellipticals and they have a pool, and one of the features I liked the look of was that some of the treadmills etc were in a movie theater room! They also have yoga and pilate classes and spin classes. It' just sounds much better and exactly what I need to motivate me to workout more.

I've never really liked going to the gym and unfortunately right now I don't have anyone to go with me that could hold me accountable. That's why I signed up for not only just the gym for a year, but. . . . . I got myself my own personal trainer for 6 weeks!!!! Let me tell you, that part didn't come cheap, but I think it's just what I need to help me get started and focus on the things I need to do to tone up. I did my orientation with him on Friday and today at 11am is our first 'real' session together. I'll meet with him 3 times this week! I'm excited, I've never really been in shape before. I often look 'skinny' (not so much right now) but I've never been 'fit'. So I'm looking forward to changing that. This month is my birthday and I'll be 45! I don't want to get to 50 and feel like I am 'getting old' because I can't walk up the stairs without being out of breath.

OK, coffee is made, I'll jump off here and get the day started. I'll try to get back to posting more this week and keep you posted on how my day at the gym went.