Happy Halloween!!

Happy All Hallows Eve everyone!! Hope y'all are going to enjoy this day as much as we are. Everyone is still sleeping, but they should be up soon. We're taking the day off of school today so we can do hair, have fun, and eat wayyyyy too much candy. The girls are insisting that they wear their costumes all day long. I'll be sure to take tons of pictures.

We have mummy dogs, caveman clubs, and something else (though I can't come up with anything else - help!) on the menu for tonight. Maybe we'll bake some cupcakes, too.

Okay, I did week 4/day 2 today. I had not run for the past two days because I had a horrid migraine. I figured today would just kick my butt, but I was happily mistaken. Here's the cliff notes on how it went:
Warm up - fine
3 Minute Run - surprisingly okay
90 second walk - oh so thankful for
5 minute run - thought I might fall out for a moment, but recovered nicely and finished all 5 minutes.
2.5 minute walk - again, quite thankful for
3 minute run - I thought "hey, this isn't so bad!" And I wasn't ready for him to say that the 3 minutes was up. Hmmmmmmm.
90 second walk - yay!
last 5 minute run - Here's where I was beginning to run out of steam. I was huffing and puffing like the wolf in the 3 Little Bears. I was running slower than I would walk. Hopefully no one saw me. And then my podcast guy said "hey, one minute left." So I ran faster. Not much faster, but hey, every little bit helps. And then I finished. The whole thing with a bit of energy left to get myself back to the van. ;)

I'll do it again on Sunday and see what happens.

Now, for those of you that make your own pizza, I've learned something fascinating. (or maybe y'all already know about it and I'm the last to learn) Normally I make my dough, roll it out, put my stuff on, and bake it in the oven. But I watched on my favorite channel (The Food Network) how to make your crust in a cast iron skillet and then finish it all off in the oven. Can I tell you that it's wonderful?!?!? OMG. I did that last night and I was really glad that I tried it. I'm afraid I'll be eating way too much pizza now that I did that.

Well, time to wake up the kids; they seem to be too comfortable in bed! Though I am enjoying a nice, peaceful cup of coffee while the house is quiet. Maybe I'll leave them there. Shhhhhh.......

Enjoy your Halloween/All Hallows Eve/Samhain/candy eating day/whatever. Tomorrow we'll celebrate Dia de los Muertos and talk about all of our family and friends who have gone on before us. Besides Christmas, this is my favorite time of year.

Sunrise, kids, and other oddities

On Tuesday I decided to go out running in the morning again.  The program calls for every other day only, so I redid a day of week 3 on Tuesday.  I'm glad I went because today I have the migraine from hell and didn't make it to the park. 

Anyway, I brought my camera along with me so I could take a few pictures after I was done. 


The sun was just coming up when I finished.  The parking lot (there are 2) was fairly empty, too! 


Pretty, isn't it?


Here's the other side; there was no sun over there yet! 


And just for giggles, here's what it looked like down the street by my house when I got home a few minutes later.

Speaking of my house, here's a picture of it, too!


Well, at least it's part of it.  Even the house was sleeping.  :)


Here's my crazy hat girl.  "My hat, my hat, my funky, funky hat!"  I have no clue why I have a beach towel hanging up in my bathroom; odd!


She loves her hat, her hat, her funky, funky hat. 


We went to a Halloween "thing" (like how I know the technical names for stuff?!) at a park not too far from our house.  The kids had fun and happily stuffed their bags with candy. 


They had to play games for the candy, though. 


And yes, it was cold enough for our jackets.  Brrrrrrr.


Hannah and Kali both climbed to the top and rolled down.  :)  I want one of those for me!

You know those little, plastic googly eyes?  The kind that you use for crafts?  I have one stuck to my forehead right now and the girls are convinced that I can see with it.  It's fun to freak them out.  ;)  I told them I'm leaving it on all night so I can watch them while I sleep. 

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a good week 4/day 2 update!

Week 4/Day 1

Hell.  Yes, I've slipped down into the 7th circle of hell (and why did I go past the other 6???).  First of all, let me mention that when I left the house this morning, I could see my breath.  Why is that odd, you ask?  Because it's October and I live in FLORIDA!  That is not supposed to happen yet.  Freaky.  So I put on my little jacket over my long sleeved t-shirt and warmed up the van.  Brrrrrrrr.  I was shivering.  Got to the park and debated on weather or not I should leave on said little jacket.  I left it on.  My face was frozen and probably bright red; not that you could see it though since it was pitch black outside still.

So I started up my iPod and got to my usual 5 minute fast-walking warmup.  And then he said it (my podcast guy) - welcome to week 4.  We'll be warming up for 5 minutes, running for 3 minutes/walk for 90 sec/run for 5 minutes(yikes!)/walk for 2.5 minutes/repeat the whole thing/cool down for 5 minutes.  And then I knew I was in trouble.  The first 3 minute run wasn't so bad (did I just say that?) but it was the 90 second walk that did me in; I needed more time.  Then the 5 minute run started - oh my god.  The first 3 minutes were okay, the last 2 minutes were hell.  And then I began to wonder why on earth I left that jacket on.  I was roasting.  Roasting, sweating, and gasping for air.  Where is that oxygen tank when I need it?! 

Thank goodness the 5 mintues ended and I had 2 1/2 minutes to walk (fast) and catch my breath!  But then the next 3 minute run came up and off I went.  I wanted to die.  I ended up only running about 2 1/2 minutes of it.  So I walked for the next 2 1/2 minutes thinking "how the hell am I going to run for 5!!!  The run started and off I went again, and then about 2 minutes into it, I stopped for about 10 seconds.  I realized I better get my ass moving because stopping is not an option.  I mean, really, if I were to keep stopping, how the heck would I ever get through it?!  I think I ran slower than I walked, but I kept going, hoping that no one would see me or they'd probably call 911.  THANK GOD THE 5 MINUTES ENDED!!!  I was oh-so very happy. 

For those of you that run on a regular basis, I envy you.  I've never, ever run (on purpose) for more than, oh, 1/2 a block.  You know, chasing kids, playing, etc.  So y'all just continue to giggle with me while I work through these weeks and build some lung power and stamina.  Now you know why I run in the dark; no one can see me!

Week 3/Day 3

Thankfully it wasn't raining this morning, so I headed off to the park around 6:30.  There was only one other car there when I pulled up; guess everyone else decided to wait until the sun came up! 

Thankfully there was no need to rush an oxygen tank to me or pick me up off the ground.  I'm thinking I might go back tomorrow morning for one last week 3 day before I start week 4, which I'm thinking might be completely hellacious and cause me to swear a lot.

Tomorrow we're taking the kids to see High School Musical 3.  Oh my.  While I don't mind watching the HSM movies at home, I can't escape the theater!!!  Thankfully there will be a bag of Good n' Plenty to keep me occupied.

The girls are really looking forward to Halloween next Friday.  I told them if they did all their school work for the week by Thursday that they could have Friday off and wear their costumes all day long.  Kali has now decided that she'll go Trick or Treating; hopefully she means it.  If not, I'm fully prepared to hang out here with her while Daddy goes out with Hannah.  Kali's looking forward to The Day of the Dead, too.  Anyone else out there celebrate?  I've been having some wild dreams this past week and am certain they'll just get more interesting as the week goes by.  I love this time of year.

Off to bake bread and hum HSM songs while I do it.

Running, etc.

So today should have been week 3/day 3, but it was POURING at 6am and I wasn't about to go running in the pouring rain.  So I will go out tomorrow morning.  Week 3/day 2 was fine, so I'm hoping tomorrow goes a little easier for me.  I might do week 3 next week, too, and try to do it every day next week just to see what happens. 

I've got some new pictures, so here they are........


Mary was hosing down her sisters while they washed the van for her.  She kept blaming it on the wind. :)


Hannah and Kali were soaked.


Here's Hannah's 'evil eye' look.  Dang, she's good at it!  Besides the evil eye, I think it's a great picture.


Here's the batch of pasta I dried today.  It will be used next week.  Hey, you can see into my pantry!  See my cauldron, I mean dutch oven on the bottom?  I love that thing!


This is Bay & Sil.  :)


And this is Rose & Mary.  ;) 


See the fresh rosemary sticking out of the bread?  It was sooooooo good.

I made two loaves.  One will go into the freezer for next week. 

That's all for the pictures!  On Sunday we're taking the girls to see High School Musical 3."  They've been waiting oh so patiently for it to come out.  Even Mary and Jordan are coming with us.

Week 3 - Day 1

Holy hell.  Someone send me an extra set of lungs, please.  I made it all the way through the workout, but it was soooooooo not easy.  Of course, if it were easy, I wouldn't be on week 3, right?!  I'd just be out there doin' it.  Week three consists of run 90 seconds/walk 90 seconds, run 3 minutes/walk 3 minutes, lather, rinse, and repeat.  For those of us that have never run on purpose, 3 minutes is like a lifetime.  But I did make it through and was quite pleased with myself.  Hopefully it will be a bit easier on Wednesday.

Cooking Sunday

Phew, I'm exhausted!  I'm ready for a good nap, though I think going to bed early tonight sounds better. 

We (I) cooked alllllll dayyyyyyy long today.  Though I will say that Alex did a ton of dishes, and chopped a bunch of onions so I wouldn't have the "onion cry face."  Dang, that's love, right?  A man who will do the onion cry face so his wife doesn't have to.  He wins brownie points.  Plus, he took them to the park for a while and then they stopped for some ice cream.  More brownie points.

So here's what I made today:

1 big pot of chilli - split up into two batches for two dinners.
2 batches of rice (last night's dealie) split up into 6 bags.
1 pot of French onion soup - split up into two batches for two dinners
12 chicken breasts (my pressure cooker cooked them in 12 minutes).  6 shredded and 6 cubed.  All in 4 bags for 4 different dinners.
1 batch of beef/onion/pepper/etc taco filling for whatever I decide to do with it.
1 batch of pizza crust dough split up into 6 bags = 2 large pizzas and 4 mediums
2 loaves of bread - just the regular stuff, but we were out.
1 big thing of chicken broth from the 12 chicken breasts.
and a partridge in a pear tree.

Now don't ask what we're having tomorrow night because I haven't figured that out yet!

Week 2.

Well, I finished week 2 of the Couch-to-5K 'thing.' I did an extra day this morning and was glad that I did, though I completely forgot to eat something before I left - oy. Not a smart move. My poor muscles had nothing to feed off except for whatever energy I had left. Anyway, I made it through the 2nd week and am looking forward to the beginning of week 3 (after Monday morning, I may regret saying that!).

Alex and I did our co-op pick up this morning and then went to Publix. Mary stayed home with her sisters - yay! Tonight I made two batches of brown rice, bagged 'em, and stuck 'em in the freezer. Oh my goodness, can I tell you how cheated I feel?! I've been making my rice on the stove and it was always, well, just not right. Someone said to bake it in the oven, so I gave it a shot. Holy hell. I've been missing out on awesome brown rice for years!!! Tomorrow Alex and I are going to cook a bunch of stuff, freeze it, and hope that it makes weekday dinners a bit less chaotic. I cook 99.9% of everything from scratch and that can be time consuming (if you're me and have all these little quirky issues). Add that to the homeschooling, house keeping, etc., etc., etc., and it was leaving me a bit drained. Hey, this could be fun!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

More Running

So this morning I started week 2 of the Couch-to-5K program.  Holy hell.  Is it possible to run with an oxygen tank?  Okay, so it wasn't THAT bad, but geeze louise!  I was soooo happy to come to the end of my last running segment; I nearly kissed the ground.  Of course, I was so exhausted that I could have just fallen over and then kissed the ground!  It felt good to get through it and I'm hoping that it will be just a tad bit easier on Wednesday.

Shopping

Alrighty, so I went out and did my weekly shopping today.  Can I still give another big 'shout out' to our 2nd fridge?  Thank goodness for it, or there would be no shopping, and more importantly, no food!  Hopefully Mr. Kitchen Fridge will be back up and running by Tuesday or Wednesday (y'all keep your fingers crossed.)

Anywhoooooo, I started at Target today.  Their receipts never give you a true savings amount, so I know I saved at least $10 more than it said.  I spent $24.94 and saved $17.53 (+another 10).  Not too shabby.

Then I headed off to Publix.  They had some great sales, and having my Grocery Game list makes it oh-so easy!  I got a few things to stock up the stockpile with, but nothing insane.  Anyway, I had a cart full of stuff.  Spent $109.56 and saved........$73.54.  Go me! 

Tomorrow Alex and I are going out for dinner.  We still have our anniversary cash (thanks mom and dad!) and figured we should probably use it before our next anniversary rolls around.  I have a few holiday things to pick up while we're out (sales are great this week on a few things on the list) and maybe we'll stop off at Hudson Beach.  Sounds like a plan!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Running

Well, I really can't call what I do "running." It's more like trying not to look like a complete dork while attempting to move at a pace faster than walking. But since that's too long to type out, we'll just call it running.

I was back at the park around 6:50 this morning. I'm on the last day of the first week of the couch-to-5k program. I made it all the way through without turning blue and needing oxygen. That's a good thing. Monday I start week 2. Hopefully I'll make it through that without much swearing. I'm determined to do this. I realized that the only difference between me and someone who really can run a few miles is this - nothing. I just need to get off my ass and do it. And just like everything else in life that one wants, you have to be more than interested in it, you have to want it even though that it might not be easy. Losing weight wasn't easy, but I wasn't going to be fat anymore. Birthing an 11 pound baby without drugs or a 2x4 wasn't easy, but I wasn't taking any drugs. And homeschooling these girls isn't easy, oh helllllllll no, .........hey, maybe I'll take those drugs now and it will be easy!!!!

Gee, I'm rambling. What else is new, right?! It's what I do.

Alex brought me home two rosemary plants today. Since I haven't killed the basil yet, I figured I could give ol' rosemary a whirl. Lets hope she doesn't suffer at my hands.

Sorry!

It seems like it has taken me wayyy too long to update this.  Things are, as always, a bit hectic around here.

Kali finally lost that darn tooth of hers today.  It has been loose for quite a long time, but she wouldn't let anyone near it.  She would run out of the room screaming and crying if you even mentioned it.  Today she sat down with us this morning, and after trying to run out of the room on numerous occasions, finally relented when she realized it was nearly falling out on its own.  I was very proud of her.  :) 

Mary and I took a tour of UCF on Wednesday.  Oh my.  Can I go to college?  Seriously!  It was a beautiful campus with a great academic program.  I'm hoping she can get in there.  Please send all donations to cover tuition to our home address please.  Of course, on our way back we stopped off at our favorite place - Downtown Disney.  It was nice just to have the whole day with her; we don't get to do that very often.

I'm still enjoying the heck out of the Grocery Game.  I made a stop at Walgreens yesterday.  I bought nearly $29 worth of stuff and paid.......drumroll please.......10 cents.  Yes. 0.10  Gosh that was fun!  And speaking of food, our fridge is on the fritz.  Great.  Thank goodness for the fridge in our garage or we'd really be up a creek.  Alex now knows what ISN'T wrong with it, which means we're down to one or two things it could be.  Hopefully he'll have it fixed soon, because if I have to keep going out to the garage for everything, I may go nuts.  Of course, I should just shut up and be glad we have a fridge out there, right?

And what would an update be without a ton of pictures?  Nothing I tell you, it would be nothing.  So here they are.......


This is the closest thing we have to fall colors.  Those are brown, dried up leaves since it's been hot and dry here.  Hey, it's close!


Here's another shot.  This is right across the street from our house.


Hannah and Kali went to Home Depot with daddy last weekend and built boats.  Aren't they cute?  They're going to Lowe's tomorrow; I think they're building skeletons.


Cute, isn't she?!


And this is where I found her the other day.  Hannah was using our bathroom, and Kali, I guess, was still talking to her.  So she sat there, talking to her, while Hannah was using the bathroom.  Oh my.  No privacy for anyone around here!


I made a batch of strawberry jam last weekend.  Looks yummy, doesn't it?
And there's that crazy teenager of mine sitting on the couch, while her sisters have the bathroom door open to the lanai while they load their stuff up with water. 

That's it for now!  Hope everyone is having a great week.