Today's Workout

Turbo Jam Cardio Party w/1lb weights, 43 minutes, 500 calories

Total for week, 135 minutes, 1512 calories

Today's Workout

Turbo Jam Punch Kick and Jam, 47 minutes, 508 calories

Total for week, 92 minutes, 1012 calories


I'm having one of those icky days, but at least I still worked out. More tomorrow when I feel better.

Today's Workout

Turbo Jam Cardio Party 2, 45 minutes, 504 calories

Dr Visit

When I went to the Dr Monday it was for my annual exam (pap, bleh), but I really wanted some advice or help with my weight loss. I should have known that there is no magical solution. After going over my lab results (everything is fine except I'm a little anemic) she asked about my eating habits. She eventually suggested keeping a food diary, which I did back when I was losing weight last winter, and trying to eat 4-5 smaller meals a day. So I've been keeping my food diary and it really does keep me from eating mindlessly, but I also don't think I was eating all that much more before. We shall see. I am down 1/2 a pound from my minimun since September 1st, but according to what I've been eating and working out this week I should be down 2 pounds at least. So blah, blah, blah. Mostly that whole discussion can be summed up by saying nothing has changed, yet.

Today's Workout

Turbo Jam Turbo Sculpt, 39 minutes, 344 calories

Total for week, 276 minutes, 2996 calories

A new record for me. I worked out 6 days this week.

Today's Workout

TurboJam Punch Kick and Jam w/1lb weights, 49 minutes, 548 calories

Total for week, 237 minutes, 2652 calories

We can all celebrate because I am finally down 1/2 a pound. Woo hoo.
I started back keeping a food diary so hopefully that will help. I already realized that I am eating way too much cereal for breakfast.

Today's Workout

Turbo Jam Punch Kick and Jam, 49 minutes, 543 calories

Total for week, 188 minutes, 2104 calories

Today's Workout

Turbo Jam Cardio Party, 43 minutes, 513 calories

Total for week, 139 minutes, 1561 calories

Kid's Book Picks for November

I'm trying something new today from 5 minutes for Books.

The kids book picks for November:

Joey, at 6, has been really getting into chapter books. He likes Junie B Jones, Ready Freddy, and now Magic Tree House. I prefer Ready Freddy because it is a little boy like him and his adventures are normal and realistic. Joey seems to not have a preference. He can be caught reading one from each series at different times in the same day. I love to see him cuddled up and so absorbed in the book that he has no idea what is going on around him.

Ben loves anything that I'll read to him. The last few weeks he has been getting out "Go Away Big Green Monster" by Ed Emberly and "reading" it to himself. Kids like it for the predictability and repetitiveness. Moms like it because it helps with that fear of monsters.

I would also like to use this post to point out some childrens books that even parents enjoy reading. My favorites are the Skippy Jon Jones series by Judy Schachner. I kid you not, one night when I was reading it to the boys, my husband was cracking up listening to me. And you have to acquire a spanish accent to read them. Another fun author is Jon Scieszka. "The Stinky Cheese Man" really says it all.

Many times when we go to the library, the boys want me to find a book from something they see on tv, like Spiderman or Franklin. This drives me nuts. I want them to expand their horizons, not continue their nasty tv watching habit into their books. The only one that I tolerate and enjoy myself is the Charlie and Lola series. They are so adorable to me. And I love trying on their british accent.

Ok, next time I'll focus on one book we read for the month. This was fun.

Today's Workout

Turbo Jam Cardio Party 2, 45 minutes, 528 calories

Total for week, 96 minutes, 1048 calories

The Stories of Our Week

Story #1- I forgot to come back and update after our anniversary. Woke up and found a very nice card from hubby. Spent most of the early part of the day just hanging out with the boys while he worked in the loft. Then the 4 of us went to see Madagascar 2 at the theater. So funny. The grown-ups laughed more than the kids I think, and my husband was in the movie! I swear he is Moto-moto. You'll have to see it to believe it. After the movie we dropped the kids off at Grandma's with Burger King and we headed out to dinner at Outback. My favorite bad for you restaurant. And it was bad for me. But yummy yummy. We even had dessert- Sidney's Sinful Sundae. I almost passed out from the ecstasy. But then I couldn't even move for next 5 hours. Oh well. It was worth it. Over all a very good day.

Story #2- Ben had to go to the immediate care on Friday. He had been wheezing and coughing and the inhalor wasn't helping. Turned out to have a minor double ear infection so we have antibiotics and steroids for a few days. It has been very difficult keeping him from running around and he's had some killer temper tantrums from the steroids, but he seems to be feeling better.

Story #3 - I have a Dr appt tomorrow. Technically it is my annual exam, but I'm hoping for some answers as to why I haven't lost weight. I had my blood tests Saturday. There could be something with my thyroid, yet again. Either way, hopefully she can help me.

Story #4- The Loft. Lots of progress being made out there. I'm starting to see what it will be like. See if you can see:

This is the side wall (two big doors) before.

And after.Here is the inside before we got started.Add some walls, level out the floor...Raise the floor on the coop side...

And here is one of the pens. They have plenty of room to fly around, and they can go outside as they please when the window is open.

Here are the 4 birds we have so far. The 3 gray ones are the racers.

Story #5 - Oh, wait, my life is not that interesting. 4 stories was all I had in me. Have a good night.

Today's Workout

Tae bo Total Body Fat Blaster, 51 minutes, 520 calories

Thank-you for the encouraging comment, Candi. I need all I can get right now.

Lots to update later.

Today's Workout

Turbo Jam Cardio Party 2 w/1lb weights, 45 minutes, 530 calories

Total for week, 246 minutes, 2634 calories

Today's Workouts

Turbo Jam 3T, 32 minutes, 245 calories
and Turbo Jam 20 minute, 19 minutes, 219 calories

Total for week, 201 minutes, 2104 calories

Today's Workout

Turbo Jam Cardio Party, 45 minutes, 521 calories

Total for week, 149 minutes, 1640 calories

Book Reviews

I am a reader.
There, I said it. Maybe it should say I am an obsessive reader. I visit the library at least twice a week. At any given time we have about 20 books checked out (that does include kids books). I probably read 2 to 3 novels a week, depending on how much I have to do and how into them I get.
But I never really thought about reviewing them here.
Until now.
Don't you feel blessed that I'm going to tell you which books I like and which not to bother with?
Today I want to talk about The Secret Life of Bees. I choose this one because it is the one that drew me in the most in the last few weeks. And it's a movie that just came out.
So The Secret Life of Bees is set in the deep south at the time of desegregation. The narrator and main character, Lily, lost her Mama when she was little and her Daddy is a real piece of work. One day she can't take it anymore and runs away with her black "nanny." What happens from there for the rest of the summer is most of the book. I liked the book because it read like conversation - it was very easy to follow. And because there was a little bit of history in it with desegregation. I was quite disgusted with some of the behaviors that white people displayed, but everything turned out great in the end.
I hope I didn't ruin any surprises for you if you decide to read the book, but I highly recommend it for a quick, easy, but emotional read. I look forward to seeing the movie soon (girls night?) and then I will tell you how they compare.

11-11-00

Eight years ago today I walked down the aisle and married my high school sweetheart, my best friend, my one true love. Today I am happy to say he is still all of those things, plus the best Daddy two boys could ever ask for. Happy Anniversary.

And Veteran's Day. Don't forget our vets today.

Work Update

Most of you know that I am "interim co-director" of my preschool this year. It has been very up in the air what is going to happen after this year, though, which has had me very anxious. Well, a couple of weeks ago we had to meet with the board of directors who told each of us that there would not be co-directors next year. They either have to choose one of us or hire someone from outside. In order to make this decision, they will be doing observations, 2 appraisals in the next 3 months, and we have to write out what our goals would be as director. Shoot that anxiety level right up there. Oh, and they said that we should not look at it as a competition. Ha. So I really don't like competing for recognition and I'm not willing to be aggressive they way I think my co-director is. I'm just going to do my best and put my thoughts out there and then hope for the best. And I'm going to try not to be disappointed with whatever they decide (unless they decide to hire from outside - then I might need to look for a new job). Please wish me luck as I venture into scary territory at work. Thanks.

Today's Workouts

Turbo Jam Turbo Sculpt, 40 minutes, 352 calories
and Turbo Jam 20 minute, 19 minutes, 222 calories

Total for week, 104 minutes, 1119 calories

(I've been doing the math in my head and I'm just waiting for someone to say that it's wrong. Of course, someone would have to be bored enough to check it in the first place.)

Today's Workout

Turbo Jam Cardio Party 2, 45 minutes, 545 calories

Today's Workout

Turbo Jam Cardio Party Mix 2, 46 minutes, 565 calories

Total this week, 225 minutes, 2599 calories

Woo hoo
(still no weight loss)

Spur of the Moment Adventure

So we have this 4-day weekend that we were trying to figure out what to do with when Daddy's cousin down in Florida called asking if he wanted a car (an old car that was his grandpa's). Of course he wants this car, and of course he has to drive down there to get it. And of course winter is coming so he would need to go real soon. Well, we were almost adventerous and we almost decided to leave first thing in the morning, drive down and drive back by Tuesday. With a big sigh I said that I wasn't sure I could take that many hours in the car that close together. So we're not leaving tomorrow, but we do have a five day weekend coming up for Thanksgiving. That still feels pretty adventerous, while giving us time to actually get ready to go. We can't really afford $500 for tickets to Disney World :(:( but we might try Sea World and we will definitely be doing some day after Thanksgiving shopping while we're there.
Now I just have to worry about apologizing to all the families that we won't be spending the holiday with. Hopefully they will understand just this one time.

Today's Workout

Turbo Jam Cardio Party, 45 minutes, 500 calories

Total for week, 179 minutes, 2034 calories

Funny how I can do the same exact workout and not burn the same calories.

Today's Workout

Turbo Jam Cardio Party, 44 minutes, 511 calories

Total for week, 134 minutes, 1562 calories

Today's Workouts

Jillian Michaels Maximize Back and Turbo Jam 20 minute, 45 minutes, 506 calories

Total for week, 90 minutes, 1051 calories

Did You Vote?

Well, did you?
Joey and I went first thing this morning. None of those long lines we've been hearing about. Just in and out. Now we wait and see the results.
I'm interested to see the record turnout for this election. It's great that so many younger people are getting more involved. Get ready for some change.

Today's Workout

Turbo Jam Cardio Party, 45 minutes, 545 calories

Boring Genealogy Post

Finally, finally got into some genealogy research after a big long break. I thought it would be nice to share some of the process on here. You will either be bored to tears or want to look up your own family.

What I started with was that I knew all of my great-great grandparents, and at least one more generation except for one person- my great-grandma Rausch's dad's name was Harry Robinson. I knew he was born in 1866 in Ohio, but I couldn't find out anything else. His name was not uncommon enough to narrow it down in the census, and I haven't been able to get his death certificate to get more info.

So a couple weeks ago I was looking at the later census records that I had on him and realized that while his name is pretty common, his heritage is not. He was born in Ohio, but his father was born in Louisiana and his mother was also born in Ohio. Moving from Louisiana to Ohio is not a normal migration pattern. So I did a search for Harry Robinson born in Ohio with a father born in Louisiana. Sure enough, there was just one that fit everything.

In the 1880 census, Harry and his parents, EA and Ella, were actually living in Kansas.I kept looking and found them in the 1870 census in Ohio. This time dad was listed as Edwin. These people really moved around. I would be very interested to know why.

Then I put it all away for a while. Yesterday when I started looking at it again, I noticed that Edwin's heritage is a little different as well. He was born in Louisiana like his mother, but his father was born in New York. So I went looking for him in earlier census records. I found him with his parents Elihu and Rachel in the 1860 census, and then I found just the parents living near Edwin in the 1870 census.

So I found two more generations on that line just by looking at details that I hadn't considered before. Now I just need to figure out why they moved around so much and where they actually settled and are buried.

The Week in Photos

This hot air balloon was right over our house last weekend. We thought it was pretty cool. This is what we do when the kids are naughty :)

Daddy's brother got married last week on a cruise. The reception was at Lino's. Congratulations.

Finally got to the Apple Orchard.

This is the fly pen. It is where the pigeons get out to fly around each day.

Ben finally decided to be Handy Manny

Joey was a shrimpy Hulk.

Daddy carved the marvelous jack-o-lanterns.
Ready for trick-or-treating.

Today's Workout

Turbo Jam Ab Jam + Turbo Sculpt, 60 minutes, 466 calories

Total for week, 271 minutes, 2766 calories

Call me Superwoman.