Grandfathers

I love spending time with either of my two grandfather's and listening to the stories they have to tell.  My grandfather on my Dad's side is an amazing craftsmans with wood.  He can make the most amazing and intricate wooden items from piggy banks, folding stools, picture frames, clocks, deacon type benches, and so much more.    My grandfather on my Mom's said is also an amazing man as well, he worked in a machine shop.  He is also wise regarding money and collector of "junk"/treasures.  My siblings and I all have some of his genes in regards to money, some of us have it more than others. 

This weekend in the snow storm, my mom, dad, brother, husband and I drive up to see my grandfather and spend some time with him.  When we arrived he wasn't home, he was out running a quick errand before we got there.  It was great to spend the time with him and hear stories about things my grandmother (who I never met) would do and he would bring up antiques from his basement.  While we were eating lunch, he told us about a red flying squirrel he had in this basement and how he shot and killed the squirrel in this basement (there isn't much room in this basement to do that kind of shooting).   It was funny that my Pap had a problem with the red flying squirrel in his basement because my brother is also having trouble with them too in his cabin.  My brother has trapped and killed 6 red flying squirrels in the past three days and there are many more to come.

After spending the time with my grandfather this weekend, it helped me realize that I need to carve out and spend more time with my grandfathers, my great aunt, aunts & uncles and cousins.

Family Fitness Challenge

Let the competition begin!!   My older sister has challenged the family to a Fitness Challenge for the next 5 weeks.  We are getting a point for every minute of exercise outside of work and a point for each serving of fruits and veggies we eat.  We are using the myplate.gov for our fruit and veggies serving sizes.  My sister put us into random drawn teams for the next 5 weeks, plus Ella who will be alternating between the groups with the lowest number of points each weeks.   It is really hard to say who will get the most points each week because we have some competitive family members and other who are taking this challenge seriously by taking at look at our diets and making some changes. 

I must say I am very proud of my husband over the last month with his exercise and watching what he has been eating.  My husband recently joined the local planet fitness to lose weight and he is really doing a great job at creating his own schedule and sticking with it.  He is also doing a modified Couch to 5K running plan.  He is at the point where he is running 2 minutes and walking 4 and he is getting ~2.4 miles in the 30 minutes.  I am also very proud of my husband for taking part of this challenge because he eat very few (aka corn, raw carrots, raw apples) fruits or veggies.  However, we have found some additional items that he will eat so he can get the fruits and veggies each day for the challenge.   

I am really looking forward to the next 5 week to see what the family can do to be a little more active and healthy.   I also like this opportunity to look at my diet and incorporate more "clean" foods. 

QOTD:  Have you thought about doing a Fitness/Food Challenge with your family? Would you have some fun competition?

Ella

It has been a relaxing weekend for Mister and I.  We started out our saturday by going to the gym and getting a good workout in, errands at the mall and out to my parents house to see my sister and niece.  She is growing up soo fast.  She knew who we were as soon as we came in the house and took us in to see all that she was playing with.   She enjoyed watching the marathon trials with us and then wanted everyone to go for a runnie run too. So we bundled up and hit the road for a nice 3.7 mile run from my parents house. The run felt really good to work out the kinks left in the leg muscles from the gym workout.   Ella even out of the stroller and ran some too as we got closer to the house.  
Sunday morning was another pretty relaxing morning, then it was off to church to run the sound board and the video for the church service.  I don't know who thought it was a good idea to have me run the sound board but I was on the schedule to do it.   Mister was on the schedule to do the video stuff and he did a great job after learning from someone last week.  We came home and lounged around for a while after church which felt strange since we typically go out to my parents house for lunch and a run.  My sister and mom wanted to run errands this afternoon so we didn't rush out to the house.  We ran a couple of errands then I got a phone call from my niece saying "come visit Mandwe."  So Mister and I go around and went out to my parents house,  as soon as we walked in she came running to the door to greet us.  She told us unzip and helped us unzip our coats and take them off immediately.  She did not want us leaving.  We played with crayons, bike, and caddies (my sister got a the dollar store).   After dinner, I got her tubby ready and got her all cleaned up and ready for bed but before she could go to bed we played in her castle for a while.  Now, I had to make some room for me to get in the castle with her because it had a doll stroller, barn box, a kitty, my niece and I all fit in there.  As we were playing in there, she would reach out the window to pull in more toys every couple of minutes.   Once we were all done playing, we got her milk and was getting hugs and kisses.  Then her mommy was taking her up to bed, not long after that I hear my sister (her mommy) saying, Mandwe please come say goodnight again.  So I rushed up the steps and there is my sister holding my niece and my niece says "Missed you" (AWWWWWW, now it was only like 3 minutes since I said goodnight but she missed me that just melted my heart).  My sister passed her over to me and I rocked her for a few minutes then laid her in the crib and got her all tucked in to bed and said goodnight again and love you and sweet dreaming.     

I am always amazed at how smart she is.   She makes so many connections with words and actions that I never thought a two year old would.  She also loves her family (GrandBob, GMom, HeyHey & Richie, B and SB, Mister and Mandwe) very much and enjoys the time she gets to spend with us and we enjoy every minute with her (happy, sleepy, sad or grumpy---we love every minute of that time). 

I thank God for my family and the time I get with them. I am truly blessed!!

I hope everyone has a speedy zoom zoom kind of week.    I can't believe tomorrow is monday already, I sure wish weekends were longer. 

2011 Reflections and Goals of 2012

Happy New Year!!  I am excited for 2012 and see what God had planned for my husband & I and for my family. With the start of the new year, I have been reflecting on 2011.  2011 was a pretty exciting year for me and some goals were met.   

A big goal of mine was run a marathon.  Early in 2010, we decided that we would run the Disney Marathon.  My dad was turning 60 and running a marathon was something I wanted to complete before I turned 30 (similar to what my older sister did).   On January 9, 2011 around 5:30 am, we (my dad, sil SB, and I) started our Disney marathon experience.  It was great to run the Disney marathon and have my family and friends to cheer me along right beside me or long distance.  My dad and I ran the whole thing together, we did not meet our goal time but we finished the marathon in 4 hours and 54 minutes.   It was also very exciting that we took my niece to Disney for the first time and my older sister, Heather and lil' sis, Scuba ran the Donald Duck Half Marathon the day before our marathon.  

Another big thing of 2011, Mister and I got married on 9/10/11 of 2011.  We got engaged on June 10, 2010 and planned the wedding in a little over a year.  My family has become pro's at planning a wedding, in the past three year we have had three weddings.  My lil sister got married in 2009, my older sis got married in 2010 and I got married this year.   So we had lots of things streamlined and were able to pass address files between the three of us and many other lessons learned.   My husband and I have been together for 6 years, we meet while still in college. 

As many people have stated in there blogs: resolutions do not make a lot of sense because we all know we never stick with them.  I am going to make some goal to reach for in the coming year. 

Goals of 2012 (no particular order):

• Location and Purchase a house
• Enjoy more/any/all time with family and friends
• Enjoy the motorcycle more with my husband
• Remain Injury Free for running
• Encourage and assist my husband in reaching his goals 

QOTD: What are some of your goals for 2012?

Vacation --Stir crazy

Since I work for a university, I have the the week between christmas and new year's off every year.  Having the week vacation is great because it is typically much needed, however since I do not have much planned this vacation I am starting to get a little stir crazy.   If you haven't noticed, I am not a person who sits still well, between me and my husband we are always on the go.  

Monday was nice because my husband, SIL SB, and  I got to run some errands together and exchange/return somes gifts.  Tuesday was also nice because I met Heather and SB for a workout at the gym.  I did 8 miles on the bike and a little under a mile  on  the stair stepper thingy and abs workout (much needed).   Then I did some clean-up around my house and finally met my Dad and SIL for a run in the late afternoon.  Today, I had absolutely no plans and didn't know what I was going to do all day at home however my sister came to the rescue and asked if I wanted to go the Beagle club with her and hike around as her two beagles ran some rabbits.  It was a pretty cold and windy day but it felt nice to be outside in the fresh air.   After the beagles were done running rabbits, Heather and I met up with my Dad and SB for a late afternoon run.  The afternoon run felt really good, it was alittle chilly and wind but more fresh air  

The only plans, I have for tomorrow are to go to the gym at 8 am with SB other than that I am not sure what I will get into yet.  My little sister mentioned that I could always go up and visit her and my cutie pie niece, which does sounds pretty tempting.   My niece said on the phone earlier today, that she wanted to go shoppin'.   She is soo cute!!!    

QOTD:  What do you do to help with being stir crazy? 

Merry Christmas (belated)

Merry Christmas!!  Hard to believe that Christmas has already come and gone.  It is a busy time for Mister and I.  Christmas Eve Eve, we had the "Gang" annual Chrismukkah party so we drove to Bloom for that and stayed the night since we didn't go to bed till 4 in the morning.  Christmas eve with spend the evening with his family to celebrate christmas.  We did appetizers for dinner, exchanged gifts and went to Candlelight service, went to visit Mister's Aunt, and then we drove home. 

Christmas morning we woke up and went to church which was surprisingly empty.  Then we were off to my parents house for the annual Christmas breakfast tradition and my parents were hosting dinner.  My niece was adorable for christmas.  The first gift she opened was a wooden train the my pap made for her.  She LOVED this train, she didn't want to open any other gifts she wanted to play with her train. She kept call it is a Train Truck but she loved it. 

Christmas Cookie Tradition

After we did the train ride and the boys were done hunting, we got together for the annual cookie baking night.  Everyone brings the batter or ingredients for a cookie or a couple types of cookies.  Then we get started with getting them on cookie trays and start making and continue the assembly line of cookie making until we are out of cookie dough. 

Check out our big helper while making cookies:

Yes, I was taste tester and ate some cookie dough to make sure it was safe for everyone

She wanted a scrapper in every color to use

Only two of the 4 or 5 different kinds we had.

We had another successful cooking baking night and have gotten to enjoy them the past week.