The One With Lots of Links

I worked out last night! With this summer schedule (or lack thereof) I had been having a real hard time finding the right motivation. Before last night it had been almost 2 weeks since my last workout. Bad. Once you stop it's that much harder to get started again. So last night I had an hour before dinner. I plugged in my new Gym In A Box DVD (don't really like it, back to Jillian today), and did a 45 minute cardio routine. It felt so good. Why did I stop?

Also this week all I'm working is swim lessons. I smell so much like a chlorine tablet, even after showering. But the job is cush. Except today when my student didn't take his adderol before class. He was a bit on the wild side.

Friday it's zoo or bust! I bought the membership to Brookfield and I am going to get some use out of it. We have to get back to stingray bay, we didn't see the dolphin show the first time, and I'd like to see the monkeys again. (Hopefully we'll be joined by some friends, too.)

Today we went to see Circus Boy at Sinnissippi Park. The weather was beautiful, but the act wasn't worth writing home about.

Next week the boys are going camping with Grandma all week. Looking forward to the break. I hope I use my time wisely. Self, I say, please try to do something worthwhile with your time next week.

We got the school calendar in the mail the other day. The boys start school on August 20th! It's already coming up fast. Joey will go from 8:15 to 2:40 every day and Ben will go from 11:50 to 2:40 every day. Ben might also go to my school MWF mornings from 9-11. It sounds like a lot, but I think it will be good for him. The problem will be figuring out lunch in between.

I just finished reading Clean and Simple Scrapbooking The Sequel by Cathy Zielske. Yes, I started with the second one, but it happened to be at the library last time. Now I requested a whole bunch of books from the library (free is good) to get some new ideas. I really like Cathy's style and Stacy Julian (I have The Big Picture already). Anything that said Simple Scrapbooks on it, I requested. Now I'll probably overwhelm myself with ideas and projects that I can't get done. I already know that I need to take more pictures of the everyday stuff. And I'm doing more pages about myself, which involves not always being the one behind the camera. I did my page about learning the guitar the other night. Turned out real cute:)

We're Goin to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

Yesterday we picked up Ti-ti (she lives right by the Brookfield Zoo) and headed to the zoo for the day. When we went to buy tickets, there was a sign for memberships. For about the price of two visits you could buy a years membership and get free parking, free admission, free tickets to the children's zoo and play zoo, a free guest pass every visit, and discounts on everything else. I decided to go for it, and I know it is going to be so worth it. We won't have to worry about bringing a bunch of extra money every time we go, and we can do just the things we want to without worrying about getting our money's worth.

They had this awesome new area called Stingray Bay. We got to hang out around the edge of a pool and touch stingrays as they swam past. Ben loved it from the beginning, and Joey just had to be convinced that they wouldn't sting him. We stayed for about an hour, and the boys were soaking wet by the time we left, but it was really cool.

This guy was a show-off. He kept popping his head out of the water and then he would slowly swim towards us until we could reach him, then move down to the next visitors.
Here's the coolest part of the day for the grown-ups: We got to watch baby pigs being born! The boys didn't care, but we found it fascinating.

And my personal favorite is always the gorillas. I love to watch their "human" qualities. Another treat for us: we were there when they were being fed. It was funny watching the little ones try to battle it out for a piece of food. And a couple of times a bigger one tried to take the little one's food, but they ran faster. The zookeeper tried to throw a piece right to the biggest gorilla, but he missed and it hit his arm. The look of indignation was just hilarious. For several minutes after that, he would rub his arm and look over to the zookeeper.So if anyone ever wants to go to the zoo, I have guest passes:)