Not so Sick

I'm not so sick of myself anymore.
Its been a good week. I exercised on Mon, Tues, Thur and Friday. Not too bad a week for just getting back to it. I bought a new exercise DVD - The Biggest Loser (can't remember which one specifically) that is a 30 day shape up plan. The first week was pretty easy (still have to do 2 of the workouts since i missed today) and each workout was only 10 minutes for the first week. On Friday Jared and Kamryn did 2 of the sessions with me. They were so cute with their weights and following along. When it was finished Jared wanted to do more and Kamryn was "too tired" about 2 minutes into it.
Even better were my eating habits. I jumped in big time going back on a diet I did before Jared and kamryn were born. It was from e.diets but was basically following recommendations from the American Heart Association (I had and still have high cholesterol). Luckily I saved everything from when I did the diet before so I'm just following all the same meal plans. That's the worst part - meal planning and now its all done for me for about 8 weeks. I didn't cheat at all, haven't had any soda in almost 2 weeks, and hardly any sugar. That is a miracle for me. I have been seriously addicted to sugar and chocolate for months and going off pretty much cold turkey has gone much better than I predicted. Its so great to get some self control back in my life.

Quote for Me

Just read this the other day from the book I Am Scout: A Biography of Harper Lee

...Regarding people who were difficult to accept or respect, Nelle (Harper Lee) said "Our response to these people represents our earthly test. And I think that these people enrich the wonder of our lives. It is they who most need our kindness because they seem less deserving. After all, anyone can love people who are lovely."

This was one of those moments where I really needed to be told that.

I'm Sick of ...

I'm so sick of myself! I've been a fat, lazy slob for way too long! Today, that is going to change!

This is my usual cycle - get in shape, get sick of being good, then let everything go to pot. And then I have to get to the point that I hate myself and then start over again.

So, here's to starting over - I hit the treadmill again for the first time since Thanksgiving. I'm going to follow the same schedule I did for my marathon training, only doing the 1/2 marathon schedule this time. I'm not sure that I'll be doing a half marathon this year but at some point I'd like to try it.
I'm also starting e-diets again. It worked for me before (the summer before I got pregnant with the twins) and its one I can put the whole family on so I don't have to fix different things.
I'm putting it out there so I have to be held accountable.

Valentine's date

I just got back from a little getaway with Paul. We decided to celebrate Valentine's this weekend (since we couldn't actually go out on Valentine's day since it was Sunday and the night before was our adult stake conference meeting). We were gone for 24 hours and spent only $5.07.
We headed up to Park City to have dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. We'd been given a gift card (from one of Paul's sub-contractors) 2 Christmases ago and were finally going to use it. We'd been to Ruth's one other time so we knew what to expect going in - VERY pricey place. Paul is not really comfortable in places like that but he survived.
Ever since we went the first time I knew I wanted to order the Sweet Potato Casserole. YUM!! It really is like a dessert to me and that's what I had for dessert. Its probably a sin but neither one of us ordered steak - Paul had their stuffed chicken and I had a very good vegetarian dish of sauteed mushrooms and grilled portobellos mushrooms served with mashed potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes and asparagus that I lovingly gave to Paul. It sounds like a strange a dish but it was very good. We also had ravioli for an appetizer and their chop salad too. We had all that and it came to $77.00. Its unbelievable to us that people really go there and spend that much money on food. And the really crazy thing was to see how many people had their kids there with them. Since it was Park City I'm sure they were all families on a ski trip from the East Coast (their accents gave them away). It was a very entertaining place to people watch. We left their so stuffed that it was almost painful.
Next we headed to our hotel. This was also FREE. From all of Paul's hotel stays up in Idaho at Best Western up there he had earned a free hotel stay. It was based on points and when I called to reserve a room in Park City they told me I didn't have enough points but said that the Best Western in Coleville would be covered by the points on our voucher and some in his account. So we stayed in Coleville (not actually right in Coleville but right off the I-80 exit to go to Coleville). Before we headed up to our room we drove through Coleville - a true small town with only the one Main Street and no street lights. At 9:00 pm the town was all shut down and we couldn't any place open to get some ice cream.
Our room was nice, when we checked in they upgraded us to a suite! We enjoyed the king size bed and fell asleep watching the Olympics.
This morning we enjoyed the complimentary breakfast buffet and then headed downtown to go to the SL Temple. After the temple we stopped at Red Mango for a treat and then went to visit Paul's parents. When we got home the little kids were excited to see us and the house had obviously just been cleaned up. That was a nice treat to come home to.
What a great date weekend.

Olympics

Our family LOVES to watch the Olympics. We watch it every night (and this year it is especially great watching it on our big TV downstairs) and are up late every night. Its so great to watch the triumph of the athletes and so sad to watch them crash. And we love how America is doing in the medals count. We feel so patriotic.

PS. Post update - love this from a friend's status update on Facebook:
Olympicing: a verb used to describe what I do every night from seven to midnight on the couch with the laptop and Bob Costas in my ears.

A Good Feeling

tonight i was able to go with my three oldest kids to the salt lake temple to participate in baptisms for the dead. it was taylor's first time to be able to go. i was able to watch all three of my kids be baptized and it was such a great feeling to watch them and know that they were worthy to be and made the choice to be there. it was also neat to watch the boys be baptized by Bishop Johnson, the man who was bishop when I was a youth in this same ward.

50 Bucks

What would you do for 50 bucks?
Well, today I went downtown to listen to radio music for 2 hours and they paid me 50 bucks. A couple of weeks ago I answered the phone and it happened to be a real person asking me questions about my radio listening habits. I guess I passed her test and she asked me if I'd be willing to help on some radio research. When she said it involved $50 for two hours, I thought why not - that's $25 an hour. And I would use it to pay for (mostly pay for) our family to go see Avatar.
There were probably 2 dozen women in my group - ranging in age from 30-50. We were in a room in an old house and told we would be listen to 3-5 second snippets of songs and then we had to rate on a 1-5 scale how much we liked the song and also if we were Not Tired, A Little Tired or Very Tired of the song. We listened to almost 600 songs in just under 2 hours. The hardest part of it was my hand cramping up so bad from filling in all those little bubbles with my pencil. By the end I could barely hold my pencil. It made me wonder how Justin got through the ACT last week. But then he's used to it and I'm not.
Overall it was an interesting experience and worth the money.

A Very Rare Occurrence

Yesterday, our family did something we very rarely do - went to a first run movie in the theater. Not only did we go to the theater, we went to the IMAX at Jordan Commons to see AVATAR. We left Jared and Kamryn with my mom and brought my dad with us. It was a very amazing visual experience and it certainly made me wonder how some people can dream up so much.

So Great

Yesterday morning i woke up around 7:15. Not to an alarm, just woke up. And felt good and not tired. I thought about it for a minute and realized that I had slept the WHOLE night through, and didn't wake up once! That was a miracle. The last time I did that was who knows when and with the aid of Ambien. I never sleep through the whole night (I'm usually up at least twice to visit the potty). It was a great gift and one I was very grateful for.

So True

Just received this from my friend Leslie and had to share:

Women are angels,
And when someone breaks our wings . . .
We simply continue to fly . . .
On a broomstick.
We are flexible like that.

A Movie You've Got to See

After posting every day for over 2 months I ran out of things to say. The website that does this challenge has a theme for every month and the theme for February didnt do anything for me (the theme is "ties"). So its been a few days and thats okay.
Now I have something to say:
Justin and I just finished watching Iron Jawed Angels. It was so good and everyone should watch it (well, everyone over 10 probably). Its about the women who fought for the 19th Amendment. I wished that Paul and Brooke had been watching it with us (Paul was working and Brooke was out with friends) so we'll be watching it again very soon. Its an HBO movie but I got it at the library. There is one scene of naked women in prison (just shows their backsides) and a little mild language, I think. Definitely a movie that makes you grateful for courageous women who fought for us.

Happy Groundhog Day

Did you know the famous groundhog has his own website?
Check this post about groundhog day - oh so true.
I watched the movie somewhat recently with my kids while we were at the cabin and fell asleep during it. When it was over they said, "you really liked that movie?" That's how it goes with the movies we grew up with, fond memories but when you actually watch the movie again as an adult you wonder why you liked it or you notice how much bad language that movie really had in it.
And the bad news - more winter :(
Now, I guess I better get to work. Have a great groundhog day.

How Sweet is this ?

When Paul and I got home from an adult family dinner with his family, Jared was asleep but Kamryn was awake. She came in our room to give her a daddy a kiss and asked him to sing songs with her. Paul plays primary songs and old classic rock songs along with some Elvis and John Denver most nights with the kids. They love to sing along with him and sometimes get out their own instruments to play along too. Its a great tradition he has with them.