The Perfect Day!

I know this posting is a little overdue. On Easter we traveled to Denver to our nearest Old Spaghetti Factory and spent the day together - just the four of us. It was great! We have such diverse schedules that this doesn't happen very often. We went to a nice park. The boys romped, ran and didn't cooperate one little bit for their "capture-every-single-moment-on-film-mom."It's no Hawaii. Not even Canada. But we had our day in the sun. No one got sick or cried too much. It included no airport security or border crossing. And it was glorious.

Some days are just paperwork . . .

I just returned from THE Walmart. And I still can't believe I saw this myself. This is usually the stuff you get forwarded to your email and you never know when someone's "doctored up" their photo. And who even knows who actually took the picture.

Well, I assure you, this picture was taken by ME. And I'm no doctor (as far as you know!) It's not the clearest because I was trying not to be too conspicuous. I'm classy that way. And even when Ron picked me up off the floor, while I was hysterically laughing my a** off, I was sorta kinda maybe a little discreet. And also it was taken with my blackberry, which I will never use for special family portrait sittings because they don't take the best pictures. Also, I probly wasn't holding the camera very steady. And I will probably go to hell for putting this picture on my blog.

PUT ON YOUR GAME FACE!!

The rules: Use the first letter of your middle name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things, nothing made up. You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name questions.

• Middle name letter: A
  
• Famous artist/band/musician: Abba
  
• Four-letter word: acid
  
• U.S. state: Alaska
  
• Boy name: Aaron
  
• Girl name: Abby
  
• Animal: Aardvark
  
• Something in the kitchen: asparagus
  
• Reason for being late:A line at Starbucks
  
• Body part: Ankle
  
• Drink: Absolut Vodka
  
• Something you shout: Attagirl!
  
• Something you eat: Apple

My sister made me. If you want to take part in the game, please copy and paste into comments and do your own!

The Heinie Chronicles - Part 3

So I continue to work on this "Simple Steps" stuff. I'm not great at any of it, but if I keep making those daily attempts, I'm bound to get good at SOMETHING!

WEEK 2 gives the next four assignments:

• Keep a food journal - who hasn't tried this?! They're right, though, because I know firsthand that I've skipped eating something unhealthy just because I couldn't dare put it in writing. Some food journals take it a step farther and say to write next to the entry, what emotions you're experiencing at that time. Another thing I thought was interesting is to think about eating something healthy instead of the jalapeno poppers. If apple and pear slices don't sound appealing, maybe I'm just not hungry. Sometimes simplicity can be darn-right brilliant!!

• Set up a laundry system. Well, since Ron's not working right now, HE'S my laundry system. But once he's working again, I'll be putting together a schedule so it's not such an overwhelming task. And it will include a timer.

• Do isometrics. I have my drive to work and back divided mentally into 6 sections. During section one, I work on isometrics in my neck/shoulders. Section two I do stomach/butt isometrics and so on . . . I try to do kegels at all the red lights. (I SO don't want to be a pee-pants old lady someday!)

• Take a good multi-vitamin. It's a proven fact that women who take a good multi-vitamin everyday have more energy and lose weight much more effectively. When we're lacking certain nutrients, our bodies don't process food well. We store it to sap out all the nutrients we are lacking otherwise. A good multi-vitamin helps all the body processes work better. I've been taking Juice Plus capsules for the past year. As soon as I finish those up, I'm going to a good vitamin/mineral combo from USANA. I've heard great things about their products and I've taken their CoQuinone 30 for awhile and my migraines are way less often. (Good thing - next step was to cut my head off or put a screwdriver through my eye.)

Chatty-Kath's extra tip:

• Do something beautiful for yourself! This week, bleach your teeth. With the over the counter products available these days, there is NO excuse for dingy teeth.
  

• If you're exhausted and can't stand the thought of getting up to do anything but also hate the thought of waking up to a dirty kitchen AGAIN, set the kitchen timer for 20 minutes and work until it goes off. I get a lot done this way. And sometimes, the timer goes off and I'm so happy with the progress I see, I reset it and keep going!
  

The Heinie Chronicles - Part 2

I recently found a great book on CD called "SIMPLE STEPS: 10 WEEKS TO GETTING CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE" by Lisa Lelas et al. I started listening to it on the way to and from work everyday. It keeps me off the constant news channels and I hope it's improving my attitude. Anyhoo, I challenge any one out there to get it (I got it at the library) and "start the program."

Every week you get assignments from 4 different catagories. For instance,

Week One:

• Drink 8 glasses of water everyday
• Clean out one drawer, cupboard or closet each week
• Take a 20 minute brisk walk everyday
• Save $2 from your budget daily

I was recently at a conference for work, and they recommended "AquaMantra." It's bottled water with mantra's printed on them such as "I am loved, I am lucky, I am healthy." Nice messages but at $2/bottle, I can print my own! I put several of my own goals on a label and stuck it on my water bottle at work. Every time I take a drink, I'm reminded that "I only eat foods that are healthy" and "I drink lots of water."

I cleaned out my personal drawer at work. Now I only have all the drawers, cabinets and closets at home to clean. At one per week, I'll be caught up by 2011. Baby steps . . .

I have been taking walks around the community where I work. Instead of having the service technicians put notices out to residents, I'm walking out there and doing it myself. I'm making several people happy this way!

Save $2 per day?? Ok, I thought about going to Starbucks everyday this week but only went once.

So, I'm most excited about the "getting control" part. It's easy to feel like I have no control - everything in life is determined by something or someone else. So, instead of that defeatist attitude, I'll try their way. I would love to hear from anyone out there who wants to try this as well. I may just post the weekly assignments on my blog to save you from having to find the book.

Chuck Night

Chatty-Kath here. I spent my evening last night watching "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry" and "Good Luck Chuck." I would now like some of those hours back. I love Kevin James and Adam Sandler, but it wasn't as hilarious as the previews would make one think. It did have a great message about friendship and made me think about how far would I go for my friend. That part was actually sweet and touching.

Good luck, Chuck??? More like Lame Duck Chuck. It was HORRIBLE. And the clip it ran after the credits was just plain sick. I used to like penguins. I think this movie ruined that for me. Dane Cook and Jessica Alba are probably really nice people. I just hate what they spent their last year doing.

For the record, Chuck Norris takes back his approval.