Trying For A New Record

A record for me. Two posts in one day. I'm sending this as a post to keep myself on the hook, so to speak. I had my weekly check-in on my Gruve. Okay week, several green, several blue. This will be the last week with my free month on the Gruve so I'm going to try to end on a really high note, GREEN all week. This will be a challenge, especially this coming weekend, but I think I can do it. Wish me luck!

A special thank you for all of you that sent me such nice email messages after my last post. I know some people may not want to register here to post or follow, but I thin you can send anonymous messages and I don't mind those. I know I did that, and then signed my name without registering for blogs before I started this one.

Green and Almost Done

Yesterday I got on green with my Gruve a little earlier in the night than usual. I credit Sam's and Target shopping for that. I think they bumped me up earlier in the day and then working at night put me over. I have it today, of course still on red this morning. I go in to have it downloaded at the RAC. I think I only have it either a few more days or a week, maybe, then my trial month is over. I think since I tend to stay pretty busy, I'll do ok without it. I will definitely have to remind myself instead of having the Gruve to remind me and keep me in check. I'll see today how I've done. I think most of the week, weekend excluded, I was on green by the end of the day.

Also yesterday, I took Duncan in for the check on his foot. All is well. Healing up nicely. We still have to keep it dry which is a little tricky on a dog that kills anything we try to wrap it in for outside. I've given up on that and now just dry his foot when he comes back in. The yard was icy this morning so at least no mud on him. The vet, our regular vet, was so much better than the the other one. They were nice and cared well for Duncan, but our regular vet, Plainview Veterinary Clinic, is just more our speed. An animal is an animal, not a child. He still has to stay on his antibiotics, but doesn't need his pain meds anymore. They said he is fine and judging by his Daytona 500 tryout around the house this morning, he is fine. We don't need to put anything on it, vet said the more stuff we put on it the more he'll want to lick it.

So, all is well, and another day to the gym and cleaning and then work. Should be busy and good.

Duncan's Impailing and Conehead

So I have been off line for a few days. I have a good excuse, really. Besides the school fundraiser and the kids, we had another Duncan emergency. Yes, another one. Besides him getting himself sick and electrocuted, yet another emergency. I almost think he has a deal going on with the vet except we have had to hit several due to the days this stuff happens.

Thursday Charlie and I came home from the gym and having lunch. We had a short time before we would have to head out for his playdate and me to help organize for the school fundraiser pick-up day (woohoo Chip Shoppe!). When we opened the door we heard dog noises, as we always do since they are pinned-up in the basement, but the noises today were different. There was Max's usual barking, but Duncan's yap was different, instead of the typical bark, there was more cry with it today. When I opened the laundry room door to get him out of the crate, I saw a very upset Duncan, stuck in the back corner of the crate with slobber, blood and a small bit of poop in his crate. He was stuck, hurt and really upset, hence the #2, listed as #3. When I got closer to look and opened his crate I could see his front floor was stuck on the bars of his crate, with the wire going through the webbing between two of his toes. I don't know how he did it, be he was harpooned between the toes. His foot was over the plastic floor of the crate, under the side wire wall, and the curved part, holding the side and bottom together was through his skin.

I realized there was no way to get in the crate with him to try to release him, I couldn't even get my arms around him. I first started taking the sides off to try to loosen things. The piece was bent and thick enough metal I couldn't easily bend it. The side was able to lay flat, as it was the bottom piece that was actually through his foot. (I will have a picture to really describe, no blood though) After trying to pry the piece off I realized that I would need pliers. Problem with that, I was in the basement, trying to keep Duncan calm and the pliers were in the garage. I called to Charlie, upstairs, he came running down and asked what. I told him to go to the garage and get the pliers. I was really hoping that he could do this as in the meantime I had scissors to try to bend think metal.
Thankfully only about a minute or two longer, who really knows, Charlie came walking down, nice as could be, with pliers. Yeah! I didn't even ask until way later how he was able to get them, I didn't care and was just happy he did. It took a little prying, and Charlie holding up the top that was still attached, but the metal did bend and I was able to slide Duncan's foot off. He still was hurting, but much happier, even if bloody and upset. I had already called the hubby to try to get any assistance possible and a trip to the vet, as well as a remedy for now wht since the crate was now too much of a mess to use again. Voicemail.

We let Duncan outside to potty. Tried gently wiping off his foot and looking at it. While on the deck I poured hydrogen peroxide all over it. Figured couldn't hurt, might help and really my go-to move with the boys and certain amounts of blood or bloody messes. Got through to the vet, but nothing until hours later and we had the huge fund-raiser delivery and pick-up of stuff, like over $10k worth of stuff for hundreds of kids and parents to pick-up, that day. Hubby finally called back, finished his mid-workday run. Said he could meet us at PetsMart to get a new crate. While we were there, and realizing how much a new crate was going to be, hubby thought of seeing if the vet at PetsMart could look at his foot and see how bad it was. They could, and we would see how bad this vet bill would be.

After an assessment, and finding out Dunan is 84 lbs, Charlie was 34 lbs, turned out is wasn't just his webbed skin part, but also part of the bottom pad and oh yeah, the skin between the toes is a pressure point for dogs so they are super sensitive there. Youchy waawaa! They could keep him a bit, clean it out, get him antibiotics, we were concerned with not just his mouth, but also the 11 year old metal through his foot, a pain killer, and of course a lovely Elizabethean collar (yes, a lamp shade thing for his head:).

We were off again, Duncan staying with the repair team, Charlie to the playdate and me to the fundraiser. Duncan was fixed up shortly, and we picked him up that night. Bandaged foot, happier spirit, and the "idiot hat", as it has come to be known. It's now three days later. He has destroyed the original wrap they gave us to keep the bandage dry outside, destroyed 2-3 other wrappings we have done, taken off the "idiot hat" and bitten it up in the new crate, but his foot looks considerably better, although reddish. I take him tomorrow to our regular, and much preferred, country vet that is great and charges reasonably. Hopefully it will be a good visit, good report for Duncan, and not much more than some car sickness on the way there. Please see the pictures of him, too funy, and sad looking at the metal that was through his foot.

Gruvin' to the Laundry and SORE!

I was correct. Yesterdays workout made me sore. My shoulders are super sore and I have shin splints. Didn't realize what it was until I came home to my sick hubby and asked why the lower part of my leg hurt. Since it was the from of my calf, in all saorts of areas, that what he said it was, fun. I haven't had shin splints since ballet in middle school. Started back up in fall after easy summers always killed my legs.

I had my weekly check-in on my Gruve. Mostly good. I missed my green goal a couple days, but they were explainable, mostly. One I realized a chunk of the afternoon didn't help me as I was swimming with the boys. Yesterday I totally missed my goal. That's what happens when I forget to put it back on when changing for work. Just over five hours, and of my busiest time, didn't count, argh!

I discovered another way to help with my activity too. Music and laundry. A couple years ago I added a radio to my laundry room at my old house. Really helped, especially the night I painted, but really anytime I'm in there. With boys, a husband and now winter clothes and work-out clothes, laundry runneth over. Today, in adition to the regular listening I kind of gruved to it. Helped that it was "Sweet Home Alabama". Song I sang too way too many times with friends at parties back at UF. Oh, sweet college parties. Lots of fun, but my gosh, I'm old now. Anyway, I think even the rocking back and forth should add to my activity. Speaking of, I need to get off my duff in from of the computer and vacuum. I WILL get to green today!

I linked Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jacksonville, FL natives by the way, singing Sweet Home Alabama on You Tube. Not my favorite version, but certainly better than other home made versions I saw on YouTube.

I'm Gonna Be Sore and There IS Still Great Customer Service Out There!

So I went to the gym this morning. Had nothing but a typical workout in mind, then a friend got on the treadmill next to me. That can either be my downfall or a new push for me. Today it was Jen and she put in to be on 45 minutes, I had already been on 5-10 minutes. Needless to say, socializing got the best of me and I was on forever, ran most of the time, figuring if I'm on I should at least make it worth my effort. That was one thing. Then she was going to a Core and More class. Reassured me it was only 30 minutes, I would have time to get a quick shower and pick-up at preschool in time. Yeah, plenty of time, but I am already sore, less than a hour later. I'm not going to be able to move by the end of the day. So I'm sore, but had a GREAT work-out and pushed myself way harder than I ever do on my own. Thanks Jen!

Onto customer service. So I have my Gruve and have been good about wearing it, and am careful, seeing as it goes back to the RAC. Well, the other night part of the piece that covers the usb hook-up came off, something. I have no idea what I did. Either way, I was a bit worried. I contacted Muve, the people who make the Gruve and their great contact Joel Silverman. He reassured me it was an easy fix and he'd help me out and even contact the RAC for me. How great is that! And people say there isn't customer service anymore. I say you just have to look and be open for the opportunity.

What a day:)

I was Blue and the Wild Things

Yesterday was the first day I only made it to blue on my Gruve. Very sad. I will add in though that I played in the pool with the kids and I can't wear it in the pool. That aside, I will need to see what I can do today to make sure I get to green. I do have work so that will certainly help more than sitting around on my duff.

After a successful day of letting the boys survive, school holidays can be rough with bad weather, hubby and I took them to see Where the Wild Things Are. Pretty good flick. As we watched we started thinking that it was a bit deeper and more "adult" than we would have thought for the kids. I even questioned whether it was good we went or not, for their sake. After a short conversation about the movie, they don't do long thought provoking talks on film, turns out they did love it. All the deep stuff we had thought about went totally over their heads, but not in a rude way. I was nice because all the stuff that was really geared at the adults wouldn't have been a rude joke for the kids to hear if they understood it, like some kid movies. The boy that was Max was great, I am no good at actor names. All the creature costumes were amazing, just as wonderful as the illustrations in the book, but brought to life, Author Maurice Sendak. Hubby pointed out that they were done by Henson, of course! All in all, I do recommend it. Great movie for kids and adults.Check out the website. I looked at it a bit finding the link and it was pretty neat.

Wasted Gruvin' and Laundry

I goofed. I forgot to charge my Gruve last night and so today hasn't been logged at all:( While I was a bit lazy this morning (boys off of school for a teachers' holiday), we did make it to the gym and I even par-took in the Aeroball game (small trampolines in mess cages where you shoot hoops with a soft basketball). So hopefully I can make up for it or have Brad at the RAC do my average for the week without today. If not, having 0 for today will kill my average even though I have had green the rest of the week, since they upped my numbers on Tuesday.

Now for the topic of a good percentage of my waking hours, laundry. The laundry pile has certainly noticed the change in weather. While I slightly noticed a change in the amount of laundry in Florida in the winter, boy is it considerably different in Minnesota. Florida had some increase in summer laundry with beach towels. Beach towels though do not hold a candle to multiple layers and we haven't even really started on the snow pants and jackets with two little boys who play outside at school and home. Unfortunaly, I ran out of detergent a couple days ago so now I'm really behind. Luckily though prices and the environment are finally catching up to each other. I was able to get the Seventh Generation detergent (99 loads size) at Target for the same price as the Tide (96 loads). Woohoo! They didn't have the large size bottle of Mrs. Meyers, but I'm happy with the other option. Finally, I can afford to be environmental! Now if only other products would come on board.

An apology to all the Target cashiers for me thinking I was not getting a coupon for using my bags previously. I did find out today, from the cashier who game me my 5 cents off for my bag, that Target did just start this a few weeks ago. Thanks Target, especially since they don't care what store is on your bag.

Gruvin' and 5 Cents at Target

I hit Green! It was my first day with a higher Gruve requirement for activity so I wasn't sure how it was going to be, but I did it. It certainly took longer in the day and I was conscious of it. Considering I was wearing it while vacuuming the main level and down stairs, plus work, we'll see how today goes, although I do have an extra shift to help a friend out.

On a totally different note, but something that really altered how I thought about the last couple years, ok being a bit mellow dramatic. We, the family, went to Target to do grocery shopping the other day. Me, mostly shopping, hubby and the boys, Halloween looking. After filling the cart way full, we went to check out. No big deal. I actually remembered my bags (you know the reusable grocery bag type). The cashier went through all of my bags, even the one I use to hold the other bags, nine in all. Before he rang up the total he asked how may bags we used. I thought he was just being funny, as it does seem a bit obnoxious that I had 9 bags with me. Then he did something that I have never seen a cashier do at Target or anywhere else.

****Drum Roll****

He gave me a 5 cent coupon for each bag I used. That was 45 cents off. I realized that 5 cents isn't a big deal, but I started doing the math. Even if I only used 20 bags a month, that's a dollar a month off. $12 a year. I have used these bags for several years. I asked the cashier about it, seeing as he was the first to ever do it. He mentioned that most cashiers forget and to remind them and they'll do it. You can bet I will do my best to remember that. And now I have another incentive to remember my cloth bags.

Getting my Gruve on!

I started using this new little device, the Gruve, courtesy of my new gym, The Rochester Athletic Club, RAC. The tiny little thing hooks onto your belt or pants and then monitors your activity for the day. As you progress past certain activity measures it changes color. The goal being to get to green. I started this last week and managed to get to green each day, even Sunday when I was little more than a sloth for most of the day, my typical Sunday goal:)
Please note that it took about a dozen pictures to get this to turn out, flash and tiny white things don't mix. I took the picture next to my hand so you can see how tiny it is.
Today I went in for the "assessment" at the RAC. Brad hooked it up to the computer and downloaded my activity. The darn thing had not only a daily log of when I went from one color to another, but the calories burned during my regular activity (it's not meant to judge treadmills, and the like, they do that on their own). Plus, on top of that, it broke it down by the MINUTE! Seriously. I could easily see when "quiet time" was, seeing as I usually had to hang-out with Charlie to get him to do quiet time. I need to remember when I vacuum and see how many calories I burn doing that and laundry, seeing as I go up and down the stairs so much.
Very cool little device though.
Since my goal is to not just know when I'm lazy, but to actually be more active and burn more calories, Brad went in and changed the number I have to burn to get the color to change. Hopefully, I can be more conscious of it now and still get to green.

Snow in October

Well, it finally occurred to me, when my darling husband mentioned it the other day, that we will have to be concerned about the weather for the kids this Halloween. That had never occurred to me before, at least not as far as cold went. I guess that is the difference with Florida and Minnesota. Down south I worried about the kids being too warm, here, too cold.
On that note, it's snowing today. We had a little bit of snow this weekend, not much, but today is has snowed all day so far. Not so cold that it's all sticking, but it's still coming down. The boys woke us up by asking if they could shovel the deck. While we said no then, 7am and we were in bed, I'm hoping that excitement sticks around through February.
All of that said, we have been told this is very early for snow here and it won't continue through all of winter, we should get a break of more fall like temps before winter really kicks in. In the meantime, it's pretty, very calming since the roads aren't icy and still very new for this life-ling Floridian who is still new to the Great North.
By the way, the image above is our yard on the left, the neighbors yard on the right. I thought it was so strange that the snow is sticking more to their yard than ours. I know theirs was shorter, mowed more recent, but wow, what a difference.

Pumpkins and my effort to not be one

This week, as well as last, have been a little nutty. With working I'm trying to get a new schedule together, and it's not quite there. Things are ok, but not great. I need a new day to do sheets or I need to get a lot better at time management, actually both. I have been going to the gym more and that has been good for everyone. Really enjoying that and found out there is a program where you log in your exercise and you earn points to get stuff. Starts out with a water bottle and you can work your way up to a massage. Free stuff! What's not to love.
As far as cooking, I'm counting checking my recipe for meatloaf to make sure it was the correct time as my recipe last week. Tonight I'm making taco salad, recipe from the gym, so that will be counted too.
The weather was wet and cold today so I even got pictures downloaded to facebook and am waiting for the slowest download EVER to shutterfly of pics. If it takes this long with dsl I can only imagine how many years it could have taken if we were back in the days of dial-up. Oh for the days:)

The picture above is of the boys and I at Tweites Pumpkin Farm. It took about 15 minutes to get there and was SO much fun. We spent several hours there and honestly, the boys (and Jamie and I) could have stayed longer. That's saying something with as windy as it was. The wind here rivals, if not surpasses hurricane outer bands in Central Florida, gusts of 45mph.
We had such a great time playing at this place and then picking out the most amazing pumpkins. Charlie found his first and quickly named it "Pumpkin". Ben found his next and went with "Pumpkiny". I think I might have the spelling wrong, but it has a strong ee sound after pumpkin. Jamie and I took a bit to find ours. I know we have never seen this many great pumpkins at patches down south. It's like the tea in China I think, they keep the great stuff local and ship out the second tier to non-locals. Not specifically Tweites that is, I'm just saying pumpkins in general.
On top of the amazing pumpkins, we went through and honest to goodness Corn Maze. There were clues to help through and Charlie was great at all the other turns. I think he only took maybe 2 or 3 wrong turns. It was such a blast. I posted a bunch of pictures of that on my facebook page.
Have a great week, I'm hoping to keep up with exercising, the pictures, and maybe actually cook a real meal with steps and parts next week. One can hope.