Happy (dating) Anniversary!

Today and tomorrow (yes two days) is Jim and I's anniversary! We never could agree what day was considered our anniversary. For those who don't know the story, here it goes....

We met on an internet dating site. Yahoo! Personals to be exact. I remember it pretty well. I had a horrible day and I think even a double shift at the banquet hall I was working at. The night before I kind of got "dumped" by a guy I was seeing. And the fact that he dumped me was just so absurd and strange since, to be perfectly honest, I was way too good for him. That is whole other can of worms though.
So I come home at around midnight and give my profile a look. This was the first day it was actually posted, I had just filled out all the info the day before. I already had about 4 or 5 messages. Wow, this was inspiring! I checked all the guys out and to my dismay most were divorced with children and in their 40's. Not really what I was looking for. The last one I looked at however, was very promising. Mid twenties, enjoys the arts and music. Non-smoker, non-drinker cute blonde haired blue eyed boy. I was sold at first glance.
I immediately signed up for my "free trial" since you have to pay for a full fledged account. I was then able to email him back and give him my real email address. We sent little messages back and forth for a day or two and then started chatting on AIM. That lasted for a day or two and then we had a phone conversation. We decided to meet in person the following Friday (so less than a week from when we first connected.)
8pm Friday, On the Border. It was in a part of time I was totally not familar with. And of course, I was a tad late. I gave him a quick ring to let him know I was almost there. I walked up to the restaurant and saw him there. Definite cutie in my book. Nice black shirt, khaki pants. We were seated and proceeded to have a bit of awkward conversation at first, but soon enough we both felt a tad more comfortable and overall had a lovely dinner. Near the end of dinner he pulled out a present for me.....two CD's that he thought I might enjoy! Now this was totally impressive! Funny thing is, I had burned him a few copies of some of my favorite CD's to give him as well. We were pretty weirded out for a moment that we both gave eachother CD's on our first date. Too cute.
When dinner ended we headed over to play some putt-putt golf. That was fun, and a bit of a challenge being that I was wearing a jean skirt and black heeled sandals. Finally we were done with that and looked at the time. It was only 10pm. What were we going to do now? We really didn't want the date to end, but we knew we didn't want to go hang out at a bar or club or anything like that. Well, he suggested we head back to his place, after all, he only lived right across the street.
Perhaps the red flag should of went up, probably not the greatest idea. We went in his car to his apartment. Single woman with a man she hardly knows going back to his apartment without her car......well, at least I had my stun gun in my purse. If he was going to try anything, he would get a nice zap to his nuts to say the least, haha.
Well, we went back to his apartment. It was very clean and well put together. Nice. I had happened to have my camera with me with all my pictures from my recent trip to Poland, so we sat as his computer and looked at all those. He then showed me pictures that he had from various trips and family events. We talked, listened to music, shared stories of our friends and family and really just got to know eachother better.
The hours just flew by....1pm, 3pm, 5pm, finally around 8pm we were still up and talking. I fancied the idea of breakfast to him and we head out to the local Big Boy. We had omelets and he finally took me back to my car. I thought, okay, time to go...I've definitey stayed long enough. Well, he asked me if I wanted to come back. Most definitely I did!! I was totally in love with this stranger. Head over heels for sure. We went back and watched dvd's and started to get a little cuddly. We just layed on the couch talking and cuddling for a few more hours. Finally at around 2pm or so, he kissed me. Sheesh, it was about time. It was totally sweet and romantic. At 3pm, I had to go....or else I was going to be late for work.
That was it, we have been together ever since. We actually saw each other every single day without fail for an entire year and half. Finally, the day came when he had to go out of town for a couple days and I didn't see him. We were pretty impressed we had made it that long.

So what day is it? June 30th or July 1st? Sure, I met him on June 30th, but I don't think our relationship became official until July 1st, the day we cuddled all day and he kissed me. He says the 30th because that is when the date started. So it's our two day long dating anniversary.

We commemorated the event by visiting the same restaurant we met at: On the Border. 3 years later, we are now husband and wife, and I am more in love with him than ever.....

Long story I know, thanks to anyone who read all the way through it :)

Warning: it ain't pretty!

But you know it's a good workout when you are dripping with sweat!

30 min on treadmill, 2.1 miles.

I'm not a quilter....

But I play one on television...

I am part of an online quilting group. This is only my second attempt
at making squares. Hope they go to good use. They definitely aren't
perfect, but they were crafted with love <insert cheesy smile here>

An apple a day...

Does it really keep the doctor away? I hope so cuz I've been eating an apple a day for the last few weeks.

I'm a little grumpy and bored this evening....oh and lazy too. There are plenty of things I should be doing (cleaning, exercising, other misc. chores), but instead I don't want to do anything. Jim is away at some class all evening, so I am left to my own devices. All I really want to do is jump into a nice swimming pool and relax. I'll just keep dreaming....

Holy Heck

It's hot. Too hot. I wish I had a swimming pool right now, that would be amazing! Just got back from a horrid walk/jog. I think I walked most of it this time. It was just really hot. That, and I was listening to really fast music so I think I didn't pace myself very well. I started out too fast I think, so by the time I got 1/3 in I was pooped. I still made it a little over 3 miles though, so for that, I am proud!

Still running....

Skipped a couple days, but was back again on Monday and Tuesday. My wonderful hubby went with me those two days. It is nice to have a workout buddy on occassion! Off Wed and Thurs, back again today. Today I used the treadmill though instead going outside. This was my first treadmill experience if you can believe that! I am more of an elliptical kind of girl, but I figured I would give it a go. Not too bad, more of a mental challenge than anything since it is so easy to just stop and go upstairs. I made it 2.55 miles. Not too shabby. I was going for 3, but just couldn't make it. Being that I actually jogged the whole time, and did so faster than I would if I were outside, I say it evens out. I think a good mixture of both outside running and treadmill running will be a good thing. I am totally sweating my arse off more so than when I run outside, that's for sure. I need to whip this body into shape....it's definitely a work in progress.

The Rolling Hills on Rolling Hills are Rolling

Huh?

Went for my run like I said I would, fancy that? And come to the realization that my sub has a lot of hills. Not noticeable hills, I wouldn't notice them while driving. But you sure start to notice them when you are running. All of a sudden I look up and there is this steady incline that seems to go on for-ev-er. I found myself walking off an on a lot, especially towards the end. But I made it.
3.23 Miles.....take that! It was a forced 3 miles. How so you ask? Well, the way I ran through the sub, if I wanted to get home, I had to run/walk the 3rd mile to get there! See the map below:

It's a little blurry, but you get the gist. I ran up and down the two sides streets that led to the main road first. Then headed towards the big 'ol loop. By the time I hit mile two I was getting tired. I started getting really thirsty and to top it off my batteries died on my i-pod. Craptastic! I started avidly running through peoples sprinklers wondering....would anyone mind if I just bent down and drank out of one of them.....eh, better not. Well, since the only way back to the little green arrow was around the loop and then over the river and through the woods, that's how I accomplished 3 miles! This will be my new official route for awhile. Until 3 miles gets easy (hopefully sooner than later), then it's off to find a new one.

I feel good!

Ho-Hum

Yet again, I am taking too long between updates. But I have come to the conclusion that my life is just rather boring right now! Not in a bad way, but it's just the same 'ol, same 'ol. Work, clean, hang with friends every now and then, lather, rinse, repeat.

We are having a lot of fun, but again, it's nothing that makes me want to run to the computer to update the blog about! I mean, we went to the bar last weekend to watch the Wings pummel the Penguins. Then again, last night we had friends over to watch the Wings get their arse handed to them in a basket......it all comes down to Friday....Game 7....we will head out to the bar again I'm sure!

Other than that, I FINALLY did some working out yesterday. Decided to go for a jog/walk around the subdivision. Made it about 2.38 miles. Not too shabby! I'm hopefully going to kick it gear and go for another round shortly. It was kind of fun. Just a slow jogging pace for now with an occasional power walk in between when I got winded. I just feel disgusted with myself, I really need to get into shape.

Things will start to pick up soon. We have a wedding next weekend, a graduation party the weekend after that and a trip to Cedar Point in the works at some point. That, and plenty of geocaching will take up our free time. So heres to summer! Glad it is finally here!!

Burn baby burn

That's what I did to my friggin' hand the other day. Excruciating pain. I do NOT recommend grabbing a 450 degree pot handle after it has been taken out of the oven. My poor hand was throbbing so badly on Wednesday night. I didn't get to sleep until about 3:00 am. Totally missed work Thurs. morning. Made up a couple hours at home. Today is better...popped a massive blister on the bottom of my middle finger...gross. Now I am slathered in neosporin for awhile and hoping I don't get any kind of infection. Ah, the joys of cooking. Next time I'll try to not be so stupid!

Amazing Bread

Shawna from Daily Deliciousness recommended this bread to me after I made the first bread that was posted on her blog. She had said this one was much better, and boy was she right. This bread is the simplest no-knead bread ever and was so good! I am setting up another loaf as we type. Although it is super easy.....it is also super time consuming. It's all about patience with this one. The recipe comes from Mark Bittman of the NY Times who got it from Sullivan Street Bakery. I got the detailed instructions from here.


Ingredients:

3 cups bread flour
1/4 tsp. of active yeast
1 tsp. salt (3/4 tsp. kosher salt)
1 1/2 cups very warm water

Mix ingredients together in a large bowl. Dough will be very loose. Cover and let sit for 12-20 hours (see...time consuming!)

Dough should roughly double in size. It will still be sticky. Poor dough onto floured surface. Form into a ball shaped loaf. Place back into a small greased bowl. The other recipe recommends putting dough ball into a floured towl. This did NOT work for me, I ended up with a dough covered towel after trying to get the dough into the pot. Let dough sit for 2 hours.

1/2 before the time is up for the dough to rest, place a 5 or 6 qt. oven safe pot with lid into the oven. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Be sure your pot or container can withstand this heat. After 30 minutes of your pot in the oven and two hours of your dough rising, you are finally ready to bake! Pull out the hot pan from the oven. Plop the dough into the bottom of the pan. Shake the pan to even out the dough blob. Bake in oven with lid on for 30 minutes. Remove lid and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Memorial Day Weekend

I just loooovvvveee 3 day weekends. And this weekend was no exception. We really had an awesome time the whole weekend. Friday we hit up St. Mary's of Orchard Lake Polish festival. It's just a glorified high school carnival with really good Polish food! We each got a polish combo platter. It consisted of 3 pierogi, stuffed cabbage roll, polish sausage and sauer kraut. The pierogi are deep fried making them super delicous. We then walked through the carnival and of course had to get an elephant ear with cinnamon and sugar. Yum!

Saturday we got up super early. It was going to be a busy day! I proceeded to get up and bake an amazing loaf of bread. I will post the recipe after this. It was really easy and really really good. Much better than the first bread! I then set up a corned beef in the crock pot to have for dinner. That is one of our favorites, and the crock pot makes it so easy!

We then were interviewed for a Geocaching podcast: Cache-A-Maniacs. We met up with Darryl and Drie while were leaving a geocache in Troy. They contacted us a day or so later asking if we wanted to do an interview for their podcast. We thought it would be fun! They called us up Saturday morning and asked us a handful of geocaching questions. Why not :)

We then loaded up our geo-gear and headed out for the day. Their was a whole series of geocaches scattered around the cities of Troy, Sterling Heights and Warren. They had just been placed early in the week so we were like the third or fourth to find a lot of them. We ran into other geocachers that were out and about and we just had a great time. We found 28 of them which is the most we have found in one trip. Here is the map of the area of the caches. The ones we found are smiley faces. There are still a TON in the area!

Here we are at the final cache. We had to get several codes from the preceding caches to figure out the coordinates for this one. It was known as a "puzzle" cache. We are such dorks!! hehe



There were tons of bugs, so hence the hooded shirts, haha. I'm sure we didn't looked suspicious crawling out the forest in hooded sweatshirts and sunglasses!

Sunday we headed out to the family cottage. We of course had to stop for another geocache. But this one was special. We found our 100th cache!


Yep, we've now got 101 geocaches under our belt. Still a drop in the bucket compared to the seasoned cachers (they have thousands!). But we are working on it!

We spent a lazy afternoon at the cottage enjoying the sunny day, building a campfire and making s'mores. Later in the evening we took a pontoon ride. Monday rolled around and we spent the afternoon again on the boat with Jim's family. Overall, it was a practically perfect weekend!

Frankenmuth!

We took a great trip to Frankemuth about a week and a half ago. It was the World Expo of Beer. We headed up early on Saturday morning and did some geocaching. We got all of the Geocaches we were comfortable with (we do not like going to find them on private property like in someone's backyard!) in the Birch Run area and stopped at Tony's for a huge sandwich (we split). For those who don't know about Tony's....basically their portions are ridiculous. A BLT contains 1 full pound of bacon. A banana split consists of a whole half gallon of ice cream. Seriously! Check it out!

The beer fest was fun as expected. Tons of people watching and lots of good beer. My favorite was a Kuhnhenn Creme Brulee Java Stout. Tasted like a coffee drink kind of. It was very tasty. I was wasted by 5:00 (it started at 3:00). We headed back to the room and had dinner. Then popped our heads back into the festival and decided we had had enough. The place was packed and we were out of tickets anyways.

Sunday morning, we hit up the local catholic church for mass. We then walked around town and of course had to stop at the Cheese Haus for some cheese! We got some awesome Jalapeno Cheddar cheese spread. This stuff was great. The Horseradish cheese spread was also very good, but we passed on that one. We walked through town and found most of the Frakenmuth area geocaches as well. This one was from the Veteran's Memorial right in town. We had never knew this even existed until the geocache!

After a nice morning stroll through the town, it was time for the famous Frankemuth chicken dinner. OH MI GOSH....Best.....chicken....ever. We slipped into a food coma soon after and headed home and vegged out the rest of the day. It was a great weekend!

Banana Chocolate Hazelnut Crepe Heaven

Banana Chocolate Hazelnut Crepes

Adapted from a couple crepe recipes found here and here.

Crepe batter:
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups milk
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pinch salt

Sift together flour and cocoa powder. Create a well in the middle. In a smaller bowl, combine milk, eggs, sugar, oil and salt. Whisk together and then add to flour and cocoa mixture. Mix until smooth. Lightly oil a small fry pan with butter. Pour about 1/4 cup crepe mixture into the pan and make sure it coats the bottom evenly. When edges start to bubble, flip with a spatula. Placed cooked crepes onto wax or parchment paper.


Banana and Hazelnut Filling:
2 bananas sliced
3 TBS butter
3 TBS brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Nutella Hazelnut Spread

Heat bananas in butter. Add brown sugar and cinnamon. Stir until sugar is melted.

Lay out crepe flat. Spread Nutella spread down the center. Spoon a serving of bananas on top. Fold up crepe on both sides. Sprinkle with powder sugar or top with whipped cream....or both!

Artisan Bread and Daily Ramblings

It kind of looks like a heart shape doesn't it?

Artisan Bread

I came across this recipe on one of my "net" friend's blog: Daily Deliciousness. It was pretty easy to make and tastes really good. She actually ended up giving a different bread recipe that is similar but she said tastes a lot better. So, once I use up this dough, I will go ahead and try this better recipe. And well, if it's better than this bread, that it must be amazing, because both the hubby and I thought this was really good.

As for the rest of daily living.....last night both Jim and I were awoken from a dead sleep by a huge crash of thunder. I was in the middle of a dream actually and just bolted awake. Scared the living daylights out of me! That was about 3:30 am. And about 10 minutes later while Jim snoozed away, I was still tossing and turning....until about 5:00 am or so. Not cool. So I'm a little sleepy today nonetheless.

It is super windy today, and it's garbage day. Never a good combination. I lugged all the trash out this morning and about 10 bags of yard waste, yuck. When I got home from work this afternoon, all our cans were strewn in the middle of the road. We still have a lid to one of the cans that is MIA. I looked all around for it, it's probably chillin' in someones yard halfway down the street. I sent a small note to the association, so we will see if I get it back!

This damn cold still hasn't fully gone away yet either. I am still dealing with a runny nose and a phlemmy (sp?) throat. So I am irked by this and want this to GO AWAY! I'm hoping by next Monday I can finally get my butt exercising again. I really want to go out for a couple of runs before our 5K coming up at the end of the month. Wish me luck.

It's pretty much a blur....

Last week that is. Here's the rundown:

Monday: All is well, Monday's suck, but other than that, ready for the week.
Tuesday: Funny feeling in my throat...uh oh.....Jim comes home from work and we opt for a dinner of soup and hit the sack early
Wednesday: Yep, we're sick. I am so not going to work. Jim comes back home from work after only working for an hour.
Thursday: Still not going to work. Jim managed to make it through the day. Yuck.
Friday: Managed to get to work. Felt like crap most of the day still.
Saturday: Feeling a little better. Still ended up spending the day inside and watching tv and playing video games.
Sunday: Hmm...think I'm getting better! Mother's day went well. Had a great brunch with Jim's family in the morning, then headed to my mom's house to visit. By the time we got home, we were both exhausted. Watched some tv and hit the hay a little early.

Now today comes and I feel worse than I did yesterday! Ugh! This thing needs to go away! Jim said he is feeling better, so hopefully I will too soon.

This week is dragging...

Will it ever end??

Workout today was kind of lame, but I still did something. My calves are really sore from the shred, so I opted to take break from that today. I focused on doing a lot of the ab movements from the shred since I don't feel the workout focuses enough on abs. I then did some brief cardio moves such as jumping jacks, running in place. I pretty much did about 20 minutes of random exercises that were in the shred, focusing on the abs today. I think this may come a good routine to adopt so I can get my midsection into shape quicker.

Keep it going

The exercising is still kicking my butt which is a good thing of course. I'm just glad I could get myself to do them today. It's been an icky day spent in my pj's...yes, I even went to the office in my pj's since I knew I wouldn't be seeing anyone this morning. Alas, now it's time to finally hit the showers and get on with life. I have totally screwed up my chore schedule this week. I need to get back into my morning routine again....

Whilst doing some sneaky investigating, I found out my ex is getting married. I am very glad for him of course since I was a bit worried at first that he wouldn't get out of the terrible funk he was in and move on. I won't lie and say I don't feel a little weirded out about it. I can't really put a finger on it as of why.

But it is what it is. I am in a much better place now with my wonderful husband and I wouldn't want it any other way. He is truly my soul mate and I love him with all my heart!!

So I say, best wishes to him and his fiance. I hope he can find the same everlasting happiness that I have with Jim. It is one of the greatest feelings in the world...

Nope, it's still kicking my butt!

So I thought Level 1 of the 30 day shred was going to be a breeze this time, being it's my second time around. I was wrong, haha. I woke up sore today. I just finished doing it again this afternoon and feel like jello. I'm glad it's working!

It's been a rough couple days. The weather is blah and there is some things going on that are pretty stressful. I'm not going into detail, but any good vibes and prayers you got, please send our way!!

And if you have some sunshine....you can send that over here as well!

Back in Gear

Alright, we are getting back in the workout saddle again. Saturday was the March of Dimes. It was a perfect day for a 6 mile walk (I think I previously said it was 8 miles, I was mistaken!). It went well and afterwards we got free hot dogs, so that was a nice bonus, lol. I got a huge blister on my foot, but other than that, it was a great event.

This morning, I decided to just do it. I am going to be late for work today, but luckily that is no big deal. I woke up later than I wanted to, but earlier than I usually do (around 7:20 or so). I lounged around, ate breakfast, and around 8:00, the urge hit me. I decided to get the heck up and do my workout again. I stuck with Level 1 still....and it went well! I think I will do maybe one or two more days of Level 1 and finally suck it up and move to Level 2. It's totally going to kick my butt, and I know it. But it will feel good to move forward.

Next month is Race for a Cure. 5K run/walk. I would love to be able to run the whole thing. So I need to really keep this going so I can have the strength and endurance to do it. This is the third year in a row. The first year I walked most, ran the last part and almost died (literally I felt like I couldn't breathe.) Last year I ran most, walked a bit and it was better....still was hard, but definitely better. I had started working out shortly before the race, so my endurance was up a bit.

So third times a charm right? This is the one I'm going to run the whole thing, right? Well, it's good to have a goal....

Update overdue!

So I'll try to make it short and sweet since I don't really like really long drawn out blogs! However, since I am covering a long span of time, it will probably still be long.....Basically here is a recap of the last couple weeks!!

1. We painted the kitchen as I mentioned and I will soon post pics! It turned out pretty well!

2. Had our families over for the Easter vigil service last saturday to celebrate my entrance into the catholic faith. We had a nice spread with cheese and crackers, chips, fruit, veggies and rolled sandwiches. Went really well and had a wonderful time! The service at church was amazing and it was overall a wonderful experience!

3. Went to Ohio for a few days while Jim was there working. I worked from the hotel. We just cuddled up at night and relaxed. One of the nights we spent geocaching. It was fun going around a completely different state to find them.

4. Went geocaching yesterday.....not as fun as before. Went to a nearby state park. It was rather warm, but we still had to wear long sleeved sweatshirts since we were trudging through the forest. We got poked and prodded non-stop by some stupid wild rose bushes or whatever they were. They were EVERYWHERE! Thorny plants = the devil. After 3 hours and only 5 caches....we were done. We hit the road and relaxed at home playing some Pokemon (yep, we're dorks.)

5. Yesterday night, we went and saw Death Cab for Cutie. I scored free tickets when I got an email from a poster on a knitting group I am signed up for looking to get rid of the tickets since she couldn't go. I was the first to respond, so I snatched them up. It was in East Lansing, which was about a 1 1/2 hr. drive. Not terrible for a free show. Opening bands ending up being "Ra Ra Riot" and "Cold War Kids" both of which we liked. Everyone put on a great show and we had a good time. We stopped for an awesome "Banana Split Shake" at Steak 'n Shake right before we got home....mmmmmm.

I have come to a conclusion about concerts however.....I just can't do concerts of bands that have slow, mellow music. Jim and I noticed that we both got tired and just a tad bored when we were just standing there listening. You can't dance to it, you can't really do anything but "sway" slightly. So, rock concerts only from now on. Good thing Nine Inch Nails is coming up next month!!! I need a good rock show.

6. Back to life as usual today. We skipped mass this morning since we got home super late and needed to sleep in a bit. But we made it to our RCIA class....we only have two left and then we are done. Did some house chores and went grocery shopping today. Bought more of the old liquid vitamins I was taking. Not sure of it completely, but I seemed to have felt a lot better when I was taking those vitamins compared to the ones I started taking after I ran out of the liquid. Pretty much as soon as I switched is when I started noticing my loss of energy which meant no workouts, all day fatigue, and unable to wake up early. So...back on the liquid regiment and we will see what happens.

Now it's practically 8:00 pm and time to start thinking about the humdrum of the work week all over again. Can't wait until next weekend....

Bad bad blogger

Yeah, I have been out of sorts for the last couple weeks. Lots of stuff going on (nothing terrible). I am feeling run down and tired a lot again, hence my lack of exercises. I might have pinned it down to a vitamin deficiency perhaps? I will definitely update this weekend, I promise!!!

The Weekend

I decided to keep the exercise posts separated just for the heck of it. So here is everything else from the weekend...

We starting painting our kitchen last week. We are having family over next Saturday for dinner before we head to church for my confirmation. I will be officially Catholic next Saturday night. It's been an interesting journey and a huge learning experience of little religious factoids. It sounds like it is going to be quite an event at the Saturday vigil. I am pretty excited! ANYWAYS....so we have to finish the kitchen by then of course.

So this Saturday was a beautiful day....there was no way we were going to stay indoors and paint!!! Instead, we went out for a day of Geocaching again. We headed to Seven Lakes State Park in Holly. We found every single geocache in the park. It was a beautiful park with great winding, hilly, hiking trails. We spent about 4 or 5 hours there. We then hit up one more geocache on our way home. So we got a total of 9 out of 9! It was defnitely a sucessful trip! So being that we galavanted all day Saturday, Sunday was the day to paint. So we kicked butt and got all the primer done and a full coat of color. I started round 2 of the color but stopped at around 8:30 or so. So today we have a church thing to go to and then we will come back home and paint the rest of it hopefully! I can't wait to have the kitchen back!!! I will post before and after pics when it's offically done.

Day 11

Well, I chickened out and stuck with Level 1 today. Considering I didn't work out ALL weekend...shame on me....I thought I would like a little refresher this morning. Well, I just breezed through it. So it really is time to move on. I broke a sweat and got winded....but barely. So time to push on. I may have to alternate or take more breaks this week, simply because I have a ton of plans this week for Easter and all that jazz, so I have to be able to function properly. We will play it by ear. I may end up just waiting until next Monday so I can fully embrace feeling like a blob of jello after I start Level 2.

Day 10

Well, yesterday was Day 10 of the 30 day shred. I was slightly disappointed that I didn't lose any inches and ended up gaining almost 1 pound. I'm hoping that at least I gained muscle. I skimmed through the level 2 workout and it looks tough. So perhaps I just need a harder workout to see any concrete results. Level 1 has definitely improved my overall stamina and I definitely did improve my form throughout. So I think it has done it's job.

I am supposed to move on to Level 2 today, but I am just really tired this morning and I think I need a break today. That and I need to come home from work and paint today, so being that I am already tired, I want to save any energy I have to take care of that. Depending on what the game plan is for tomorrow, I will either do Level 1 one last time, or go ahead and move to Level 2. I may end up waiting for Monday to start Level 2. I will definitely try to work out both Saturday and Sunday though. I don't want to skip more than one day in a row in fear that I will lose my routine that I seem to be sticking to fairly well.

Day 9

Phew! Another tough workout. Tried to push through some of my rough spots. Still not 100% there yet. When I was done, I decided to look over Level 2 just to see what I am in for. Holy crap, I'm scared, lol. Those girls were struggling, so I can only imagine what it will be like for me! Most likely I am going to have to do the modified version of EVERYTHING for awhile. I am going to go ahead and give it a go on Friday. If I am still alive after that I will update. Tomorrow is my "weigh in" and measurement reading. I really don't think I look any different, so we will see. My endurance has improved, but that seems to be about it for now. If I can conquer level two, perhaps I will see more improvement.

Day 8

I feel a bit "stuck." I have troubles on the same parts of the workout each time for the last couple days. I can do 3 to 4 normal pushups the first time around, but second time, I'm lucky if I can do one before I have to go to the modified version. The first string of cardio always trips me up after doing the pushups and squats. Then the side lunge with arm raises ALWAYS gets me. It's my arms....I just can't do those arm raises for the whole set. I am only using 3 lb weights and It feels like I am lifting an elephant! I'm almost to day 10 in which I should move on to level 2. I will probably give it a try on Day 11 and see how it goes. I might end up going back to level 1, or perhaps alternating level 1 and 2. I don't plan on just stopping after day 30 anyways, so it really doesn't matter entirely when I move forward. I have to admit though, the same dialog each day gets a little boring. Still a good workout though!

Day 7

Phew! So after Saturday's adventure, Sunday was due for a well needed break. But back to the grindstone today. It is still tough. I still can't get through every exercise nonstop. The first circuit of cardio always gets me, but by circuit 3 I am kicking butt (literally, lol...one of the exercises is called butt kicks). I can do about 2 full formed push ups...even though I can't take it all the way down. But still another improvement from day 1. I am still having struggles with the combo strength moves when it comes to lifting the weights. My arms just want to give out on me. I try to push it through, but there are still a couple times I have to stop during a couple moves. No noticeable body improvements yet. I don't necessarily expect anything too drastic in only 30 days. Especially since I haven't altered my diet any. I don't eat horribly, but let's just say this weekend included cookies from Max and Erma's, Pizza....3 times (twice made at home), and half a box of whoppers candy last night. But, we will keep this going for as long as it takes....

Our Saturday advenutre

We had quite a day on Saturday! We decided we wanted to spend the day Geocaching. Orginally we had planned to head to an event that was being held on Belle Isle, however, we had some GPS malfunctions and some other issues that we were a bit overwhelmed and decided we would rather just go off on our own and "practice" more.

So following the advice from a seasoned geocacher, we headed towards Lansing to Sleepy Hollow State Park. He had told us that it is best not to find all the ones that are closest to us, since as time goes by, we will probably get lazy and not want to venture out as far to find them.

So we got to the park around 11:00 am. We gathered our things and started out into the trails. No more than 5 minutes and both of us stepped in a soggy puddle and got our feet wet, lol. And of course we didn't pack extra socks! We continued on to the first one which was rated as rather difficult, but figured, hey why not. We looked and looked....nothing. I decided we should head back to the car real quick and dry off our feet. Luckily Jim had some work clothes in the car which included socks. So we changed and head back out. Number 2, nothing. Number 3, nothing! They were all hidden by the same guy, so we were getting rather annoyed with him. But we were still having an awesome time trekking through all the trails! Finally we got to one by a different guy and we foud it! It felt nice to find at least one of them.

By the end of the day we had tied....found 4, didn't find 4. We left the park around 4:00 pm. What a great day! We can't wait to go out and do it again!

Here is where we were:
(Smileys are the ones we found....the one in the middle of the lake and the one to the far right of the group of 3 in a row we didn't look for.)

Day 5 and 6 of 30

Well I'm half way through Level 1 and am already noticing some
strength and stamina results. It is still a tough workout and I still
have to take a few quick breaks during the first circuit of cardio and
during the lunges with arm raises. But it is a definite improvement
from Day 1.

I am scared of Level 2, haha. I hear it is the hardest Level of all,
even compared to Level 3. But I am excited to move on. Hopefully by
Day 10 I will be able to fully complete Level 1 with no stops. If not
I will decide on wether or not to move forward.

I will officially check my weight and measurements on Day 10.
Hopefully there will be some improvements!

Sent from my iPhone

Day 4 of 30

This is my 10th consecutive day of working out. Only the 4th of the 30 Day Shred. Pretty amazing for me I would say! Aunt Flo is here to visit this week and is screwing up my workout a tiny bit. I put her in her place and proceeded as usual though. But now I feel like I want to barf. Ah well, such is life.

Parts of the workout are getting easier....some parts were harder today (due to above guest I am assuming). My legs aren't burning as much as they were on Day 2 and 3. So that is a definite sign of improvement. My muscles are recovering and getting stronger I hope. My arms definitely need some beefing up. The 3 lb weights feel like 2 tons when I am doing some of the arm workouts. I am debating on whether I should get smaller weights or just keep doing what I am doing. I can't complete a whole set of some of the arm workouts with the weights, so it is rather annoying.

I am thinking, this may change, but I am thinking I may need to spend more than 10 days on level one. I figure I want to do level one until I can do everything easily. We'll see. I may get bored and want to venture into level two. Perhaps I'll ease my way in and after day 10 just alternate level one and two. We'll see when we get there. Also I day 10 I have a date with the bathroom scale. I bid adieu to my daily weight routine beginning on day one. I told myself I would not come back until day 10. I hope I am not disappointed...

A little late....

My wonderful hubby got me flowers a few days ago :) I finally took a picture this morning. He is such a sweetheart and I love him very much! Thank you sweetie!!

Day 2 of the 30 Day Shred

::cries:: Ow, it hurts!!

I woke up very sore this morning, but pressed on and did my workout anyways. I feel better now! I know it's going to start to hurt again later, but I loosened up all my muscles through the workout and feel better than I did before I started. It was still pretty hard and I had to do the "modified" beginning movements still since my body just won't bend and stretch that far to do the normal versions. I'm sweating my buns off and looking forward to moving on!

Holy Crap....we have paint!

We have FINALLY finished painting the family room. It's only taken...let's see...2 months or so??
This is only Phase 2 of the project (Phase 1 being that we had the whole ceiling replaced due to a leak and the fact that it was a horribly textured ceiling).

We still have to get a new ceiling fan and light covers, curtains, entertainment center, and other decor. But for now, we are just happy that we can sit and relax and watch tv and actually LIVE in this room again!! No more watching tv in the bedroom all the time now!! We were so happy to move the furniture back in and watch a movie!! I am looking forward to curtain shopping this weekend and hopefully getting the light fixtures too!


Before:


After:

Day 1 of 30....

The 30 day shred began today. Holy crap, that was quite a workout. You physically move non stop for 30 minutes. I struggled a bit at times and I fear what my body is going to feel like by the end of the day today/early tomorrow. They were all real simple basic exercise moves, just done in such a way that leaves you gasping for breath and clutching your side with cramps....

30 Day Shred

I've been hearing reviews about this workout program off and on for the last year or so. I finally decided to try it. I skimmed through the video and it is laughable how basic the exercises are: jumping jacks, push ups, crunchers, jump roping, lunges....all the stuff you learn in gym class in middle school and high school, but I know doing them all in combination and with weights is going to kick my butt. I am excited to try it, but am scared at the same time. I hear all the stories of people being sore and exhausted after the first workout, it doesn't sound all that fun. But if I could really start losing some weight and toning up after only a month, it would definitely be worth it. No pain, no gain, right? Anybody have any experiences with the program?

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Perfect Friday lent dish!

Cooked pasta noodles (we used elbow macaroni)

1 can tuna

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar

1 cup peas (optional....we did not use peas)

Bread crumbs

Fresh grated paremesan

Preheat oven to 350. Combine noodles, tuna, soup, cheese and peas. Put in casserole dish. Top with bread crumbs and parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes.

Makes two modest servings. It was really good! If you like larger portions, definitely double the recipe. We probably would do that so we can also have some leftovers.

3 Days and Counting

I've worked out a solid 3 days in a row every morning. I have to say even though it is a small accomplishment, I am proud of myself. If I could work out at least every morning M-F I would be pretty happy. And honestly.....not to jinx anything....I feel a little better the last couple days. A little less tired, less cranky. I've been drinking more water as well (trying to). I fill a large blue jug every morning before work and my goal is drink it by the end of the day. I came close yesterday. I'm just not a huge water drinker. But as long as it stays nice and ice cold, which it seems to do in the jug, it's not too hard. Now if only the scale reading would start moving in a downward fashion that would really kick me into gear!

BBQ Pulled Pork and Mashed Sweet Potatoes

I'm lazy with the pics, but oh well, here's the recipe!

BBQ Pulled Pork

Recipe acquired from here.

1 Pork shoulder (at Meijer it was called Western Style Ribs)
1/4 c. Water
Salt and Pepper
BBQ Sauce (I used Sweet Baby Rays...sooo good!)

Heat up your crockpot for 15 minutes. Place pork shoulder in pot with water. Season with salt and pepper. Cook on high for one hour. Then set to low and cook for 8-10 hours.

Remove pork from crockpot. It should be falling apart by now. Try to separate all the fat. Discard the fat and juices. Shred the pork and return back to the now empty crockpot. Add about a bottle of BBQ sauce. Cook on low for 1 hour.

Serve on warmed kaiser buns!

Makes a lot....we have lots of leftovers!

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

3-4 Sweet Potatoes
1/4 c. Milk
3 Tbs. Butter
4 Tbs. Brown Sugar

Boil potatoes until soft
Drain and place in bowl with milk, butter and brown sugar. Mix until desired consistantcy. Add more milk/butter/brown sugar to taste.

I always just eyeball all the ingredients.

This also makes a large amount, probably could serve at least 4.

A quick update

Not much new going on right now. Just the humdrum of everyday life. We still have to finish painting. It's a bit ridiculous that it is taking us so long. We are slated to finish this weekend as long as nothing comes up. It just always seems like we are interrupted by something whether it be Jim's work schedule, getting together with friends that we don't see that often, or things like that. So hopefully this will be the week we can finally get our family room back.

This week is going pretty quickly so far. Much better than last week which was a big drag. Just finished working out and getting dinner ready in the crockpot. Off to shower and get this day going!

A day of Geocaching!

We went out and about today geocaching. It was a beautiful day and we really had a lot of fun. People are very clever on where they hide things and what the name them. This is really an interesting and entertaining hobby, and even better, it is practically free! We use our phones built in GPS to do the searching, so we didn't have to buy a GPS unit. We may in the future since it will probably work better and won't drain the phone batteries, but for now since we are still new at this, the phones are working fine. We found 8 of them today. Took us a few hours to find them all, and a few that we stopped and looked for we couldn't find. Always a little disappointing, but just move on to the next one, we figure we can always try them again later. This is going to be a fun summer! Here are today's highlights:

Our New Hobby: Geocaching

So Jim decided to find a new hobby, and little did he know that I would want to participate in it as well. We went on our first "mission" yesterday. Geocaching is like a scavenger hunt. People hide objects in random places. They usually just consist of a log book to sign and maybe some little trinkets or something else fun to look at. There are other types and in goes more in depth, but that's the basics. You use a GPS navigator (we use a program on the iPhone) to find them via there coordinates. There are over 700,000 of these things all over the place. You can find out more info at the website here.

So there are quite a few located near our house. I mean, even in the parking lot of the mall! We looked for about 6 of them, but only found 2. We really weren't sure what we were looking for. So we did some more research and once the weather gets nice again, we will have to go check for them again. Here are the finds from yesterday....yes I am dressed as a fairy, that is what was inside the cache!


Here was find #1, rightfully called "The Fairy Cache"


Find #2 we almost thought was on someone's private property....I must admit, I thought I was gonna get shot (just kiddin')!

We were out in Troy today meeting with a financial adviser and Jim noticed there was a geocache located right behind the building we were in. Lo and behold after a few minutes of searching (in the rain), we found another one. It was tiny! He is holding part of it in his left hand. A tiny log book to sign was rolled up inside (that's what is in his right hand).



I am already addicted and ready to hit the road to find more! This will definitely get us out more this summer!

Super Stuffed Pasta Shells

I forgot to take a picture...this is the second time I've done that!!

Stuffed Pasta Shells

Pasta Sauce of your choosing
12 jumbo pasta shells
1 small container of ricotta cheese
1/8 cup parmesan cheese
1/8 cup romano cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg
1 pkg fresh baby spinach (optional)
Salt and Pepper

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Boil pasta shells. Drain and then lay them out upside down on paper towels to dry them out.
• Combine cheeses and egg. Mix well.
• Boil water. Add spinach and stir until wilted. Drain. Make sure ALL the water is out of the cooked spinach or else the finished dish will be watery.
• Chop the cooked spinach and add to the cheese mixture.
• Season with salt and pepper
• Spoon the cheese mixture generously into the shells.
• In a glass baking dish, coat the bottom with desired pasta sauce.
• Line the stuffed shells in the dish. Cover with remaining sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
• Bake for 45 minutes.

One of our favorite dishes to make. It is a little time consuming, but worth it. Again, I love to serve all my pasta dishes with the awesome Bruschetta recipe!

Donations!

Thank you so much to Chris from the Waterford Area Knit and Crochet group for donating these awesome newborn and preemie hats! I am looking forward to getting these to the local hospitals as well as my own finished one blanket (they take forever!).

Day 2

30 minutes! An agonizing 30 minutes, but I made it. I just don't have that kind of energy in the morning. I ate a breakfast bar and had some water. I still got off the machine feeling a little queasy, but nothing like yesterday. My body just needs to get used to doing things in the morning. I got my heart pumping and sweat like crazy, so even though I wasn't moving too fast, I was still getting the job done. It will improve over time.

Healthy Smoothie

Vanilla Orange Soy Smoothie

1 c. Vanilla Soy Milk
3 Tbs. frozen orange concentrate
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
The juice of one orange (optional) *it would probably be fine without it*
Ice cubes

Blend together until smooth!

**I think I would want to add a little splenda or small bit of honey or sugar to make it a little sweeter next time**

Exercise Day 1

And I nearly puked....well, I sure felt like I was going to. I aimed for 30 minutes on the elliptical....only made it about 20. After 10 min, I needed a drink and forgot my water bottle. I paused to go back upstairs and got all dizzy and nauseous. Yeah, I am a totally out of shape...and I really need to keep with this. Went back down and did another 10 and figured I should just stop for the day. If I make it a miserable experience every time I am there, I am definitely not going to want to do it. I just don't think my body is used to getting up so early and doing something so active. So tomorrow I may do some weight exercises for my arms, then back down to the machine on Wednesday.

I have a new workout buddy too. My dear friend Crystal set us up a spreadsheet online so we can track what we are doing. She's in Boston, so we are virtual workout partners. It makes it a little more fun that way.

So wish us luck, God knows that I for sure need it!!

New Layout

Sheesh! After much tampering with confusing code, I finally got my own background and header for my blog. Nothing fancy, but I just wanted to be able to have the control to change it myself! Now I can make my own backgrounds and perhaps "theme" the blog per season. This seems to have a wintery-turning-to-spring-soon kind of feel....maybe?

Yesterday was a poopy day!

Okay, it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't the best day ever either! Woke up around 3am sweating my arse off! Had to strip off the socks and shirt and attempt to fall back asleep. Rolled around until about 6 when Jim left for work. Took my temp (for charting purposes....see two posts back) and of course it was high! Then rolled around for another 45 min and got up. Work was average, got home and had a nice lunch with Jim since he got home early.

Then I proceeded to vacuum the entire house. That's when it hit me.....cramps, crabbiness and really tired from lack of continuous sleep! I pretty much just dragged around the rest of the day. I forgot to put the pork roast in the crock pot in the morning as well....so I attempted to make it in the oven. "30 - 45 min" my butt. It was in there over an hour and still not done. We had to take it out a pitch it because we had our financial class to go to and there was no way I was gonna try to eat a partially done pork roast and risk getting sick over it. We hit up a coney island and grabbed hot dogs before our class. I felt like a totally failure, but eh, it happens to the best of us, right?

Came home and pretty much crashed. Woke up this morning at 1am to rumbling thunderstorms. Then again, woke up at 5 when Jim's alarm went off. Tempted at 5:25 when Jim left and it still seemed a little high, but that's okay. I just don't know why I can't sleep through the night the last week or so! I keep waking up at some point earlier than I usually do. It's kind of annoying.

Tonight is the sleep study for Jim. We are nervous and excited to get this issue taken care of. I just hope everything is easily treatable.

It's Lent

So I've contemplated and figured out what I am "giving up." I'm not really giving up anything...except for perhaps an hour of unnecessary morning sleep. I have woken up about an hour earlier than I used to for the past 3 days. But with this time, I have to do something a little more productive than laying in bed watching tv.

Today: Laundry. It's a good place to start since I can still kind of relax at the same time while the wash is going. The goal is work up to exercising. If I could get up and exercise for 30 minutes in the morning before I start my day, hopefully it would improve my health issues and would definitely be a good routine to stick with. Supposedly it takes 30 days to acquire (or break) a habit. So lent is 40 days. If I can incorporate exercise into daily life (hopefully God will be enough motivation I need since I have a hard time just doing it for myself), then hopefully I would have a healthy habit that will stay with me forever.

Wow...A lot to talk about...Kinda!

There just seems to be so much going on in our lives lately. Nothing overly exciting, but a lot of changes. Not only am I becoming Catholic officially at Easter, we are changing the way we live with a new budget, trying to fix up our house, trying to schedule our lives better, eat better, and we are starting to think about (just thinking about right now) starting our family. We are of course waiting until we get the house together and get our budget under control.

But that doesn't mean my research hasn't already begun! And well it has led me to an amazing book that EVERY woman should read. It's called "Taking Charge of Your Fertility." Without getting into too much detail, this book is like the handbook to what a woman's body is doing at any given moment. Does anyone really know? Some of you I'm sure don't care, but just by doing a few simple "tests" each day such as taking your temperature, you can pinpoint what your body is doing and what part of your cycle you are on.

This is VERY useful to both women who are looking for a natural birth control and for those who want to plan a pregnancy. By timing sex to the most fertile time in your body, you are most likely to conceive of course. And the opposite, planning to use back up protection during this time of the month you will be sure not to!

End of that subject.

So lent is approaching. And being that on am on the journey to Catholicism, this lent is a little more important than any I have particpated in in the past. I want to make this a good one. And being that Jim and I are going through so many lifestyle changes as it is, might as well keep up the good work. It has to be something challenging, but not too challenging. I have a few ideas. My one idea that could be good for a lot of personal issues would be: Give up morning tv and make myself get out of bed in the morning. Just like now, I get up, and proceed to lay in my comfy bed and watch the morning news. Today I am getting a little more done by blogging and surfing the net, but it's not that much better than watching tv, and I should be out of this bed and doing my interneting in the kitchen or something. I should do something more productive in the morning. The looming "exercise" comes to mind, and well, perhaps it is really time to give it a try. Aparently it is the answer to all my problems (excessive tiredness, moodiness, weight gain). So if the answer is so easy, why is it I can't seem to do it! Something for me to think about. Lent starts on Thursday.

It's a busy week for us this week. We are free and clear to paint today and tomorrow. We haven't gotten very far since we've begun, but we are still motivated to get it done. Wednesday is the Ash Wednesday church service, Thursday is Financial Planning class, Friday Jim has a sleep study in the evening, Saturday is my Rite of Election as part of the journey to Catholicism, Sunday is church and RCIA (Catholic class) and then we have dinner plans with some good friends.

Here's to a good week!!