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.

A New Beginning

So, I'm a little behind on this blog of mine. I have a whole trip to Florida to post on, as well as the start of first grade and Pre-K for Ben and Charlie, respectively. I will get to that, I swear.

My new beginning here is not on updating, although I do need to do that. That will be part of my new beginning. I have decided a few things I need to get better on and I figure this blog would be a good way to keep tabs on myself. You could say I got a little inspiration from watching "Julie/Julia" yesterday. Which, by the way, if you have not seen, you really should. Pretty good little flick.

So here are where I am going to start new, and it won't be going through Julia Child cookbook.
1. Exercising! I started working the other week at the gym here, Rochester Athletic Club, fondly referred to as "The RAC" here in Rah Rah Rochester. Great place to work and work out. As a benefit of employment (even my 11.5 hrs a week) I get a free membership, woohoo! So my goal, seeing as I have not only gained weight lately, but my clothes are tight and that won't work when it gets super chilly and I have to put my long underwear under my jeans. Then they really won't fit.
2. Staying update on pictures, kids stuff.I am more behind on the boys pictures and albums than the worst procrastinator could imagine. I am spotty at best when posting to FB. Printing is just about non-existent.
3. Cooking. So I cook dinner most nights of the week, but I use the term "cook" very loosely. While I am a pretty healthy cook for the most part, pasta, with or without, is a meal for me. I do chicken and other stuff, but very few "recipes". I'm more of a throw in a pot what I see and looks good as well as somewhat balanced by food groups, kind of cook.

So here is where I am posting my goals for both me and you, if anyone decides to read this, to make sure I'm measuring up.
1. I will exercise at least 4x a week. I think, based on what I weighed at the gym today and what I weighed at my last doctors appointment in Florida, when I was teaching and fitting in my clothes, yes other a year ago, I want to lose about 12-15 lbs. Not crazy, but definitely reasonable, and it will save money seeing as I won't have to then buy new clothes.
2. I will empty out my camera of everything that needs to be downloaded, including the most recent boy camping trip, and actually save things to disk and start printing stuff. As time and sanity allow, I will put said pictures into albums.
3. Cooking, I will start by using a recipe to cook at least one meal a week, with a recipe. I'm going to try to use new recipes most of the time, but that will be budget and pantry dependent, seeing as I will need to get back to shopping after having planned my menu for the week (or at least one meal).

Ok, those are my goals. Please try to hold me to task. I have started the week off well, at least at the gym. I work tonight so the meal with be baked frozen fish, potatoes and some assorted frozen veggie for the boys until I get home.

All my love!