End of 2011

As I look back and reflect on 2011, my goal was simply to get in to shape and exercise more and run a 10K. Well, the 10K was finished and I consistently workout 4-5 times a week, usually 5 times. And I did manage to lose a good chunk of weight over the summer.

For 2012 I plan to keep up with the working out. I am enjoying it and it has really become a social outlet for me. I have 2 fitness-related goals set up for this coming year, one is an indoor triathlon in March and the other is the Warrior Dash in June. I think I would like to try an outdoor triathlon except the one I wanted to do there is a scheduling conflict, so maybe if I can find a different one I want to go to. We'll see how the indoor one goes.

Some other things I want to do in 2012 is try out new things. And we are not waiting until the clock to strike midnight to start with that goal. Today, Andy & I are taking skiing lessons. I am also planning on taking a wheel-throwing pottery class. And I would like to make a rag rug (might as well dig through that donation pile to make something with it if I keep forgetting  to put it out for the donation truck that comes around.) Oh! And kayaking! My husband bought me a kayak for Christmas and I have taken an indoor course and have a friend who is willing to take me out to teach me more (same friend who taught me more about XXCing last year.)

Happy Everything!

5x7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

I ordered some cards from Shutterfly (using a code I had) and then they gave me the opportunity to earn a one-time $10 code if I posted the card to a blog. Or course I was going to do it!

I had decided on the Happy Everything card because if I get it in time I can use it for Christmas cards if I need more, or I can use it for birthday cards, anniversary, whatever. (So, MOM! Don't show this to dad cuz I will send it for his birthday! Can't very well send it to you if you are seeing it now.)

My cards (that I ordered today) are supposed to arrive between 12/19-12/23 (so glad I chose the design I did.)

So, enjoy seeing the preview now. You might just be getting one later. :)

Some Recent Xmas Gift Items I Have Made

Rolled Beeswax Candles

 (My New Hobby) Jewelry

Hats for fraternal twins to be born in the next couple weeks

Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon When You Take the North "Poll"

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South Beach Miami - Day 2 (Anniversary)

 The purpose of this trip was to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. We started out our day at the beach (pretty much how we started out every day) for 3 hours. As you can see, my summer tan has faded a lot and I am pretty white here at the start of our trip.

 The beach is so clean with smooth white sand. Love the beach! The warm is warm (& very salty, of course) and such clean water as well. So far I have seen a jellyfish & a large (about 10") angel fish and a small (about 3") angel fish in the water as I was searching for shells & coral to bring home for the kids (and a bunch of other little fish.)

 Happy Anniversary!  I love you!

 This evening we went to the Art Center of South Florida to tour their gallery. We really enjoyed the variety in each of the different studios.

 Here I am at the Kung Fu Sushi restaurant. We decided to have happy hour drinks, then stay for dinner and the Burlesque Show. We had fun giving our own names to each of the characters (Mustache Girl, Glitter Nipples, Chick-Dude, Dude-Chick & Little Hat). We talked with Little Hat for a while. And then got put in the show a bit by Mustache Girl, who proceeded to give me a spank with a large paddle (kinda stung, but was fun to be part of the show).

If you go here, we really liked the Kung Fu Crunch Sushi Roll, Salted Edamame & Tuna Tacos. Everything we had there was good, but those were our favorites.

The bartender gave us a complimentary shot  for our anniversary called "Watermelon Ass". I have no idea what is in it, but it did taste good.

South Beach Miami - Day 1

 We found the pool right away (although, as of day 5 we have not actually gotten in it and have only sat out here to read and for breakfast). The hotel we are staying at the is the Riveria South Beach Luxe Hotel Suites.

 I will post more pictures of our suite in another post and write about it. They serve a free continental breakfast every morning out by the pool, which is a nice way to start the day. It's a pretty typical continental breakfast with a couple choices of breads and baked good, a couple choices of fresh fruit and fruit cocktail, yogurt & granola, a variety of cereals, juices, milk & coffee.

 As we made our way out exploring (finally after took a 2 hour nap right after getting here, seriously waking up early to drive to MSP and fly out first thing in the morning was exhausting) we found the New World Symphony. It was too bad that the only show there during our stay was a Children's orchestra concert, very similar to the one we are taking our kids to in October in the Cities. But the grounds here are very pretty. It was kinda frustrating trying to find shows to watch since we came at the exact wrong time. The symphony was just kicking off their season this weekend with the kids concert, the ballet was on a 2-wk break while they waited to start their next season, the convention center had nothing at it, and the Jackie Gleason theater had a spanish speaking guy doing a concert. I would find us a comedy show to go to (more about that on Day 3.)

 Here we are at the Kung Fu Sushi restaurant. We have spent a lot of time here because our hotel is a part of the South Beach Hotels Group and we can go to the bars (3 of them) at the  Catalina Hotel from 7-8pm for free drinks by showing our room key. We are not going to turn down free drinks, so we tend to go to Kung Fu Sushi every evening because they also have sushi happy hour food specials during that time. We have eaten so much sushi; it's great!

 This picture was taken when we went next door to Maxine's Bistro & Bar for dinner. We had this cheese ravioli with meatballs that had the most wonderful sauce on it. Part of our stay, we get a $20 dining credit at Maxine's or Kung Fu. So of course we are going to use it.

This was really as close to all-inclusive as I could find (free drinks 7-8pm, a bottle of Verdi champagne upon arrival {really tasty!} and a nightly dining credit.)

Another picture of me at Kung Fu. I look kinda goofy here.

Monster Shirt

I had meant for this to turn out more symmetrical than it did. I suppose it looks more monster-ish this way. I think next time I will need to use heat & bond to adhere the picture before stitching it down so that it will keep from moving. Plus, it's not as easy to stitch something on an already assembled toddler-size t-shirt.

I'm a Runner

Well, I think I can finally admit it. I'm a runner. I honestly thought I would never have those words come out of my mouth. But now after I have done two 5Ks and my first 10K, I can honestly say I am a runner and I enjoy running with friends.

Make sure you notice the key words there "with friends". I still do not like running by myself very much, which is why I love to run at the gym with my friend Jennifer. We can run at whatever pace suits us and we are always by each other and talking. It's a social thing for me. I'm a social runner.

So, when it's time for me to run outside with a friend I choose to slow down my pace and they choose to push themselves so that I am not slowing too much.

This past Saturday I ran my first 10K. Earlier in the week I was starting to doubt if it would happen since they were predicting severe thunderstorms and hail on Saturday (we pretty much got nothing but a little rain on Saturday night.)

I ran the entire course with my running partner. I just wanted to enjoy myself and hang out and finish. I wasn't looking to PR or kick someone's butt.

So, what's next for me. Well, my daughter and I are going to run a 1K next month (there is a 5K there as well, but she won't be able to do that and we ran it last year when it was a 1mi rather than a 1K together, so it's our race, maybe some day we'll run the 5K together.) After that I am running a 5K that the proceeds benefits buying new playground at my daughter's school.

I am not sure what is after April (both those are in April yet). I have not decided if I will do an area 5K in May or not because I am doing a Women in the Outdoors weekend later in the month and that kinda takes up a chunk of my budget for recreational stuff.

Right now I am currently working on convincing my running partner to do the Warrior Dash with me in July. That race is 3 miles long with 11 obstacles. It looks challenging and fun!

And in August I am thinking I will do the 4-mile run for our County Fair. I am toying with the idea of adding in a 10K in October.

I find it helps that I have a fitness challenge/race to make. Starting next week, we are changing up our routine which was to meet twice a week and run, run, run. (I also ran 3 miles once a week on my own, did yoga once a week, and have been adding in Zumba every other week.) So, now we are planning to work on increasing our 5K speed so that we can PR in a later race and add in weights to start working on strength and intonation.

This is a picture of me with my running partner/friend Jennifer and our friends (another) Jennifer and Stephanie. The other Jennifer & Stephanie are running partners too and ran the entire race together. We came in right behind them.

I started running 9 months ago with a group of us doing a C25K program with a trainer. Anyways, I took measurements 9 months ago when we started running ( & was still nursing my son.)

After 3 months (ended nursing right after this):
1/4" loss on chest
1/2" loss on waist
1/4" loss on hips
no weight loss

After 6 month (no longer nursing, so I account for some chest loss because of this):
3/4" loss on chest (1" total)
1/2" loss on wasit (1" total)
1/4" loss on hips (1/2" total)
no weight loss (nothing total)

After 9 months
1" loss on chest (2" total)
1.5" loss on waist (2.5" total)
1/4" loss on hips (3/4" total)
6.5 pounds weight loss (6.5 total, just in last 3 months)

Also, I did not change my eating at all. I eat and drink whatever I want. So, ramping up to the longer workouts of an hour really helped. I much prefer to excercise for an hour with friends and do stuff with the kids and eat whatever I want.

Well, guess we'll see what the next 3 months brings.

Dinosaur Hat

I saw a crocheted dinosaur hat on some blog and thought it was so cute and knew I could figure out how to make one from fleece. My son has kind of a big head, so I thought I would use the adult small earflap hat pattern I had. Only thing is that the earflaps are kinda long since adults must have taller heads, even if his circumference is the same as a small adult head.

The pattern actually called for velcro on the flaps, but since they are long for him I can tie the ear flaps under his chin easy enough. I stitched this while he was napping, so I didn't have a chance to try it on before I started assembling. So, now I need to think about how I can alter the lenth of the earflaps when the stitching is on the inside and is closed. But for now I can tie it. It might not look too bad if I just so a straight stitch where I want them to end and I can use my pinking shears to create a pointed edge. That's the great thing about fleece, that I can leave an unfinished edge or use pinking shears and it's not going to fray. I think that might be what I do.

Mom's Night Out Dancing

This was a fun night. I was planning on going then bailed since I was so tired (& almost everyone else bailed) and then made a last minute decision to go out with the two moms who were still planning to go and called up two other mom friends I thought would be game (& they were). So, here we are posing for some group shots. It was a fun night and I am glad I went out. Our next mom's night out with this group is to go tubing at Buckhill (just like we did last February). I can't wait.

Getting in Shape

I haven’t gotten on the scale recently. Seeing the numbers rarely change is more discouraging to me, but when my clothes start to get loose, then I am happy. But I know I am motivated to workout if I am able to be social.

A couple of things that I do is meet a friend once a week at the gym. We are lucky enough that a local gym (with childcare) offers a punchcard (in addition to a monthly rate), so I don’t have to feel pressured to go more often to make it worth it. And I pay for the childcare as we use it. And at the first of the year they decreased their punchcard rate by almost half. Awesome! It ends up coming down to $4.33 for me to workout with a friend and our kids to be in childcare. That’s actually cheaper than paying a babysitter. So, we allow ourselves to splurge on that for ourselves once a week so we can get in a long run w/o interruption.

And I do yoga with 3 other moms once a week. We switch between a couple houses that have enough room for us, but we all contribute our different yoga videos we have, so the routine gets mixed up all the time and we don't get bored. It’s nice. We do this while our kids are in preschool and the ltl ones are either napping or playing.

Usually I make myself workout once a week by myself, either a yoga video or get on the treadmill. I try to workout 4-5 times, but the other 2 times I try to make it fun with the family. So, my daughter & I try to get out sledding or ice skating (all free) or we go swimming as a family at the community center ($3/person and my son is free). Or I try to get out to do some other winter sport with a friend like cross country skiing (which I bought on ebay for hardly anything) or snowshoeing (go to the nature center when they have the rental free or discounted for members).

As soon as daylight savings starts & its warmer, my gym/running partner & I will go running outside in the evening after the husbands are home and can be with the kids. I think we will get a couple other moms to join us as well. We set a goal to run a 10K in April (ran our 1st 5ks this fall), so we’ll need to pick up our running more in March.

And I can’t wait for summer when we get a family membership to our city’s community outdoor pool, which is an affordable $75 for the summer. And we are at the pool ALL THE TIME! And we’ll start hiking at the nature center more once it warms up. And the my daughter really wants to go geo-caching. And since I have the smart phone now I can download a good android-based free app to do this. I'm hoping that this summer my daughter will be able to bike faster and we can do more bike riding around the town. And of course, we'll have some fun playtime in the yard and at parks that will help keep us in shape.

Profile Pic

I am pretty happy with this picture that Skye took of me at the Nature Center this fall and it has become my new profile picture & avatar, pretty much everywhere.

Homemade Gifts for the Adults

My mom made all of these gifts here. The top are necklaces for me. The top necklace is a crocheted washer necklace and the bottom necklace is a crocheted ribbon necklace.

Well, actually this can crusher was made by both my mom & dad and was for my husband. All the guys got one of these and it works quite nicely.

Homemade Gifts for the Kids

Grandma S crocheted all of the grandkids some slippers for Christmas, they are the pairs that my kids received.

Grandma M sewed my daughter this paint smock. She made her one a couple years ago, but now it's just too small and it was time for a new one. And she certainly needs this with all the crafts we do.

Grandma S crocheted my son this dinosaur puppet. It is quite the hit with him. When he sees it he gives it to one of us to put on our hands. He likes to try to grab the tongue while we try to eat his hand. One of his cousins loved playing with it in the same way at Christmas time.

Grandma S also crocheted this purse for Isabel and sewed a fleece liner in it. It's a very pretty purse and she will find lots of stuff to carry in it.

Next Challenge: Run a 10K This Spring

Ok, so I just joined the gym again (I'll have more about that in a later post) so that I can meet friends there to run on the treadmills. I enjoy running with other people, but I don't enjoy winter running. I don't like the cold & ice.

So, today I was back at the gym and haven't looked up a solid interval (run/walk) training plan, but came up with my own today by trying to push myself, but not kill myself.

Today I did (number is minutes and w=walk and r=run): 5w, 15r, 5w, 10r, 5w, 5r, 3w, 2r, 2w, 2r, 1w. I kicked it up an extra 1mph faster for the last 2 minute run.

My mileage today added up to 4.6. It's really only another mile and a half to get me to that 10K. So, I know I can do it.

My plan is to do interval training or run twice a week. Other times I will be doing yoga or some fun winter sport.