Holiday Recap

Hey blog world! I took a little break from blogging to enjoy the holiday weekend. I certainly am enjoying not working and just taking it easy. Yesterday I didn't get out of my jammies until after noon!

We were able to get to our Christmas Eve party which was delightful. Then we headed to Mass. Christmas day was spent at my parents enjoying their "new" kitchen and living room. Their remodel took a long time but I think it was worth it. I got a pretty tea pot and some holiday mugs which is just what I asked for! The husband and I didn't do gifts as we got a DVR earlier this year and we're getting new windows in the new year. The day after Christmas my parents, brother and I went to the Twin Cities to see A Christmas Carol in 3D IMax. It was pretty good. We then went out to lunch at Bucca. We headed back home and the husband and I met up with some friends from high school for dinner which I still wasn't hungry for due to the large lunch!

The husband decided not to fish or hunt on Sunday so we rented a ton of movies and stayed in our PJ's until after noon. By noon I was feeling, as Heather says, Rungry!  (Check out her new blog design and address). I hadn't run in over a week. I hadn't had a really intense workout since I taught cycling on Wednesday. I planned on going to the YMCA for a good run AND a short swim. The run went really well. The swim started out well but then the firs alarm went off. The whole building was evacuated including the 7 of us who were in the pool. We had to stand outside in 20 degree weather in our went suits! The life guards gave us these special blankets which helped to keep our heat in but it still was not fun! Needless to say I didn't finish my swim and jumped in the hot tub when we got let back in.

I'm still off of work today but have to teach group strength at noon. I also need to clean the house a bit and work on some Zumba songs for tomorrow. We get to celebrate Christmas all over again on Wednesday when my husband's family come in town. I'm sure I'll have more pictures since the little kids will be there. They are so cute!

I certainly notice the effect of not eating well over these last few days. I feel sluggish and some times sick to my stomach due to the extra sugar and fat. I have a few easy days of clean eating before we feast again. I think being reminded of how crappy I feel when I don't eat well will help my to make better choices!

AF did show up in full force this morning. I'll blog more about my thoughts on my up coming fertility consult!

The things I've done

You may have noticed my weight ticker went down this morning (finally!). I've come a long way since I wrote this post. I may not have lost a lot of pounds but I:
1. have completely given up drinking coffee and only drink small amounts of caffeine in tea
2. have completely given up eating "fake" sugars like splenda and equal. I rarely use any sugar and if I do it's cane sugar
3. am wearing the same jeans in those pictures that felt tight, they don't feel tight today
4. have consistently done yoga at least 1 time a week if not more
5. have cooked lots of new recipes I've found on other blogs that are healthy and wholesome
6. changed my out look on what it means to be "healthy"
7. stopped wearing make-up

Yep! Pretty good things I think! I wouldn't mind being down in weight but oh well. I am going to stick with Weight Watchers if only for my mother-in-law's sake. Most of what they say is good but when other members or the leader starts rambling on about their delicious Weight Watcher bars or baked chips I tend to tune out. Not that those are bad things they just aren't wholesome.

In other totally unrelated, shouldn't even be mentioning it on my blog since I'm trying not to think or focus on this news: I figure I'm about 9DPO (I'm still not charting) and I have had a back ache which I mentioned earlier and bad cramps in my calves. I'm trying not to interpret these as early pregnancy signs but it's kind of hard not too. Not to mention the night I went to bed at 8pm and woke up at 6:30am. I also am trying (unsuccessfully) not to imagine how awesome it would be to give my husband a positive pregnancy test or a little onesie that says, "I love my daddy." for his birthday which just happens to fall on my estimated 15DPO and when I should technically be 1 day "late" Or I'm trying not to envision how awesome it would be to announce this news at Thanksgiving or Christmas (just like I envisioned last year) to our families. Sigh! Oh well, I guess some things never change! Maybe I'm just sore from that crazy David Farmer podcast I did on Sunday which included about 1 million downdogs!

Go'n Good!

Hello! Happy Friday! Yes! We finally made it to Friday! Too bad I have to work both Sat. and Sun.! Oh well! I'll enjoy the fun times when I can. I started out having a great. I let myself sleep in until 6:00am (wow I know!) and decided to run with the dog so I wouldn't have to walk her later. I enjoyed a nice green smoothie too! When I got to work I noticed a call on my cell phone from my mom. Last night she and my dad were leaving Hawaii to come home. I guess it was late afternoon there and evening here. So when she called this morning they were in Houston getting ready to fly back to the Midwest. I called her back and she said my dad was really sick with flu like symptoms. With all this H1N1 business going on that's kind of scary. Not to mention my dad is in pretty poor health anyway. He has extreme heart problems and is over weight. They kept calling and telling me all the activity they were doing in Hawaii and I found it hard to believe, he's so bad he can barely walk a few feet with out stopping to catch his breath. My mom seemed really upset so I'm pretty sure something else is going on. She's also really tired as it's 2am her time. So I'm a little worried about them and hope they get home okay. They are scheduled to land in Minneapolis is about an hour (I'm tracking their flight). Other than that my work day has been a blast! I went shopping and prepared bread with a student for a brunch we're hosting on Sunday. Now I'm just surfing the net and later I get to do Nia. I'm part of focus group who is trying to decide if this is something we want to offer at our church. I can't wait to go out with my girlfriend tonight but I'm a little bummed because some other friends are stopping in town on their way to Milwaukee and I might not get to see them. I hope tomorrow to have some time to myself and so the stuff I want to do before heading to church. Have good Friday everyone!

So many blogs..so little time

So, I've been getting a little blog obsessed these days. I started this blog over a year a go to write about my challenges working in ministry. At that time we were just starting to try and conceive our first child. Little did I know that over a year later we would still be trying! Some how during that time I stumbled across a few IF blogs. I think I just searched IF blogs one day and WHAM! I hit a ton of them! I don't even have half of the ones I read on my blog roll! These blogs give me comfort and even though many of them have turned into pregnancy blogs or even new baby blogs I still enjoy reading them. A few weeks ago I did a google search for "raw granola bars" I have no idea why I chose "raw" I don't eat "raw" I don't think I ever will but for some reason that's what I searched. The first hit I got was Angela's blog Oh She Glows. Let's just say I LOVE this blog and have become a little obsessed! She writes three times a day and is a really good writer. There's no way I could become vegan like her but a lot of her recipes are awesome and easy. She's also into green smoothies, which she calls "Green Monsters" which I started drinking even before I found her blog. She always has great pictures and other great tips. She also is on Twitter. Now, I haven't gotten into twitter much but the priest I work for says he is going to start Tweeting in order to reach more of our college students. This is amazing to me since the man doesn't even own a cell phone and just got voicemail at the office last spring! So I decided to start tweeting and even though no one is following me I started following a lot of people..like Angela. She tweets a lot and because of that I've discovered other healthy eating blogs like Jenna a Eat Live Run It just keeps going an going! Not to mention I'm already hooked on Facebook but mainly to keep up with my RL friends and relatives who live far a way. It is very distracting at work too! These two blogs (as well as others) have inspired me to to do more with this blog. I believe these women make money with their blogs because they are read by so many people and they are good. I really think I could do this too! I have always loved writing and even took a few writing classes. Unfortunately I do not have good grammar and make frequent spelling errors even with spell check. I also don't have a lot of time. I just looked at my work schedule for next month and it looks like for the first two weeks in September I'll be putting in 45-48hours a week, that includes the weekends, and lots of nights! I don't feel right updating all the time from work (even though I do) and can't see how I could upload more photos and spend more time on the blog without my coworker noticing. Just some ideas I've been musing with. Who would have thought that blogs would take on such a huge roll in our society. Many of the conversations I have with my husband start with, "Today I read on this blog..." He doesn't get it! He's not a computer guy! Stay tuned we'll see what I decide!