Caits Driving Test Today

Cait takes her test at 1 pm today. Wish her luck!

Making the Cut

I have decided to try the making the cut by Jillian Micheals book. I will follow this book to a tee for 30 full days. The book promises that if you follow it, you will lose your last 10-20 pounds. Fortunatly I have 10 stubborn pounds left on me to loose and one of my goals for 2010 was to lose 10 pounds. Every day I follow the menu given, plus some extra snacks she has listed in the book to keep my calories between 1230-1330. The days I am suppose to work out I go to the gym in the morning for 50-60 mins to do a cardio workout. I then return home to enjoy the day and then at 8:30 when the kids go to bed jeremy and I cruise over to the gym again to do the Jillian Micheals circut workouts she has listed. I have this amazing husband who keeps me moving through the circuts with speed. He makes a great coach.
I have rewrote this blog in my head so many times and kept thinking I should write it until the day I start the plan. Well unfortunatly I no longer have time. Between two workouts, to meals to make 3 times a day (one for the kids) and enjoying my kids and there busy life I completly missed the first 3 days of blogging. I can't remember what I all wanted to say, and the food isn't so bad now that I've had it.
I did take pictures in my way to small bikini and thought I would put them up on the blog. I thought this would hold me accountable and give me motivation. After taking the pictures I was so ashamed of the way I looked I couldn't put them up. No ones eyes need to be burned with that image. So if in 27days I look hot I will put up the before pictures. Motivation did come with the before shot. I took pictures of my backside and never would have known how much back fat I had until then. It was a very sickening and realization moment. How many people see themselves totally clothed that morning go off to a wedding and when the pictures come back think oh thta picture makes me look fat delete it. When I took the before picture I was 114 pounds, I am usually between 113-116 so it was a low weight day. I was feeling sexy and didn't think the pics would come back that bad. So the motivation is there. I don't want anymore pictures I am ashamed of. I want to be proud of how I care for my body.
I have had 4 babies, the last one took the biggest toll on my body. By 6 weeks post baby I was in the gym with a trainer. I worked out for a year and that following year I entered my first half marathon. Since then I have done 3 half marathons 1 full marathon and 1 10 miler race. I have trained hard which I think has had the opposite affect of what I wanted. After running 14 miles on a Sunday I would purge into a big Blue Cheese burger thinking I deserved it or I burned those calories so I would be fine.Last Winter January of 2009 I was at 128 pounds. I almost died seeing myself in a swimsuit at a waterpark and decided that was enough. I got my weight down to 115 pound by summer. I did this by cross training and eating 1200 calories a day. Once summer started it was train for Grandmas half marathon. Although I dropped time over the summer I didn't drop weight. After grandmas I took 2 months off and then started to train for Monster Dash on Halloween. I was able to get a 10 mile Twin City race in the same month which gave me my best time. At the twin city 10 mile my time was 90 mins at the Monster dash two weeks later my 13.1 mile time was 2hours 1 mins.
After that run I stopped exercising, in November started drinking pop again and December was all about the cookies. Jan 1 I weighed 118 pound. Jan 2 I started cross training at the gym. I found a new love for spinning or RPM class. I was real good about hitting the gym Jan and Feb my problem was I didn't care what I ate. Several meals were at Dairy Queen, Famous daves, San Pedro ect ect. I saw 3 movies in Febuary which included Icy's popcorn and nachos. I still managed to get my weight back down to a 113-114 and that is were I started for March on the Jillian Plan.
Here is a diary of my days
Monday morning weight 114.8
Calories 1000 ( NOt sure why it is so low)
I ate Kashi go lean for breakfast a roast beef wrap for lunch which had yummy cream cheese on it. and for supper Morrocan Chicken with rice and two Cups of milk. I went Body Attack a cardio 60 min class in the morning and at night Jeremy helped me get through 40 mins of 5 circut weight training.

Tuesday Weight 114.2
Calories 1430 Shit!
I ate Kashi go lean for Breakfast, a broccoli Cheese and turkey lavish wrap for lunch, a greek yogart for a snack, Supper was apricot chicken and milk. And lastely I snuck in a bowl of cereal.
I took a morning RPM class for 50 mins and at night Jeremy and I hit the gym for 5 Jillian hard core circuts. MY legs were so sore from the day before they kept cramping. As a runner I thought the one minute on the treadmill at an incline of 10 and speed 5.5 would be a walk in the park and I would for sure crank up the speed I was proven wrong. After weight training and then running to the tread mill by the 3 time you feel like you are going to slide right off that mill. It was so fun, I felt like I was on Biggest loser and going to puke.
Wednesday Weight 113.8
Calories 1090 (no wonder I was flippen starving)
Day off at the gym
Food well I ate a ton of cereal because the day was so busy. To start I ate Kashi go lean at breakfast with milk, Lunch was a roast beef wrap and then I had a snack of another bowl of ceral and for supper the whole family had cereal. Yes we love Wed which is usually cereal because of Church.

Also on Wed I found out In addition to running the Monster Dash in October I was the winner of a lottery for Grandmas. This will be my 4th Grandmas run. I will be doing the half marathon this year. My full marathon days are over it was just to hard on my feet and to time consuming. I am hopihng to do the Chicago Urbanthon. Read about it if you have time. I would love to see fellow runners there. It has some twist during the run like Jumping taxis, climbing stadium stairs, jumping over Monster truck tires scaling walls plus more obsicals all inbetween a 11.72 mile run. This will be incrediable. The mack daddy of racing.

If my posts are jumpy remember I do have a ton of kids and so I often walk away and come back throughout the post.

As far as my other goal go I shared them on facebook here is what I wrote: Half marathon in 1:57, lose 10 lbs, 100 pushups, in one day at the gym 3 miles in 24mins 30mins eliptical 30 swim or bike all in a row.

So hopefull all my goals will come true this year. By losing weight my run should naturally come faster, by doing pushups It should help tone me up, Everything should fall into place with the weight loss and the cross training.
As for today Thursday, I am off to the gym to get my ass kicked by the stairmaster and then off for a 3 mile run. I haven't ran in quit awhile so wish me luck. Looks like Jeremy will be back in the gym with me tonight as we do our Thurs Fri Jillian circuts.

The TROOP

So we have Not sure if all have them in the right order or not
JarJar who is a English Lop (cream and white)
Freckles is a Hollan Lop (white, black and brown)
Hubert mutt (sable)
Carrots Lionhead (poof ball)
Missing is Anakin (looking for a new home since he turned out to be a boy, also English lop ears are at 22") and Charmin New Zealand (mother to Hubert big and white)

It wasn't me Monday confessions

Well my first confession is I never blogged yesterday but I have some good ones so here it goes today.
Two weeks ago Our lower level flooded due to the washing machine spilling on the floor. So My son Garets room was completly stripped down, no carpet, no bed, no toys nothing. Completly forgetting this Garet had been naughty and gotten into the cookies I had displayed nicely on a plate for the county fair competition. he was told he couldn't touch the cookies because mommy needed them and he could have a different one after supper. So here I am cooking in the kitchen when i hear my dear Garet saying words like Yummy! Its Deliousious! and again Its deliousious at that point panick set in and I ran to the kitchen table where the little mouse had taken off the sarahn wrap and started eating all the cookies. Trying not to laugh being he did this at Christmas with the 50 Gingerbread cookies I made for Rollie and Norahs class I acted quickly and sent him to his room. After a few moments I visualized my son in his room on his bed falling asleep. Then it hit me nothing is in my dear sweet boys room but a cement floor. There he sat patiently and said Im really sorry mommy for your cookies on a cement floor. I then sent him to time out on the couch.

Confession two, I love my Rollie so much that when he decided he really wanted a new English lop I got him Norah and I all packed up in the car to drive to Illinois. Instead of 1 rabbit we came home with 3 and one of them is pregnant.

Normal life is just canning and keeping up with the garden produce. We have 19 tomatoe plants taller than Jeremy and I but not a single red tomatoe on them. Bummer! Everything else is growing strong.

Our beautiful Chickens have laid 4 eggs so far, it is so exciting!

Norah's 6th Birtday

Pull out the Ballons and frosted Cake were celebrating Norah's 6th Birthday today! We plan on Cake and her favorite meal tonight and a trip to the Hyland Park reserve to a park called Shots and Ladders. It sounds a little low key but Sunday Grandma Betty came down and her, Cait, Maddi, Norah (AKA birthday girl) and myself went to the Mall of America for a lovely lunch at the American Girl Bistro followed by the American Girl Shop. Norah picked out her very first American Girl doll named Rebecca. She also got to pick out a beautiful dress for Rebecca and a dress for herself. We then headed over to the AG hair salon where Jess (AKA Maddi's American Girl) Had her hair done up for the party and Rebecca got her ears pierced.
At 1:15 we headed up to the Bistro where we enjoyed amazing meals and the American girls got to sit at our table. They were served lemonade, rootbeer, fruit and dessert. Norah choose some Veggies to get started. Then a picnic lunch which was a mini hotdog and a mini hamburger with fun shaped fruit on the side. Oh I forgot and tons of curley fries. She had a shake, which strangely her sisters drank and she had water. Lastly for dessert Milk and cookies with a candle on top. The day was so much fun and Norah got to be the star. With 4 other siblings days like this don't come often enough.
Our garden is growing like crazy, 18 tomato plants alone. Some are 5+ feet tall and I feel like Im walking through a jungle in there. Remember I am under 5 ft so everything seems taller. We have about 6-8 broccoli plants and I can't keep up eating Broccoli the asparagus was good but the season has ended for those lovely stems. The zucchini is finally in also and we will get our first tastes of it tonight. The rabbits and chickens have enjoyed the overgrown Zuchinni (rabbits didn't care for this one), Carrots, strawberries, and spinach. The Lord has provided a harvest much bigger than we could have imagined. We have so much more coming in also Tons of Eggplant, watermelon, blueberries, grapes, onions, apples, rasberries, strawberries, onions, Bell Peppers, jalepenos, ancho, banana peppers, thai peppers, to many peppers to name (I think like 15 different plants out there) Acorn Squash, Spagetti squash, butternut squash, Garlic, herbs galore, Cucumbers, Rhubarb, and beans. I will be canning like mad. I already canned 90 jars of Jelly and jams. Yummy! The jelly took first at the Ramsey county fair and the jams took 2nd. Will see how everything does at the washington county fair next month. I am also entering a ton of garden goods.
I haven't posted inawhile but Garet is finally out of Cloth! He is fully potty trained. This was an emotional time, my last baby. I got so into cloth diapers, I sewed them, personlized them, and sold some. Many memories with the diapers. I even got a letter from Sesame street stating they would sue if I sewed one more Oscar on a diaper butt. I find it flattering that they noticed my diapers. LOL! So I sold my supplies, sold my snap press, and am moving on to the next thing. Its looking like dresses for Norah. She seems to wear a dress everyday and she only owns about 4 that fit her. Mother if your reading this, Norah has wore her Cupcake birthday dress everyday. I predicted this when we bought it for her last Sunday. I bought a ton of the Olivia the Pig material and may be off to make some school clothes. All post pics.
As for the new button on the side of my blog. That is a link to the creators website of the Not me Mondays. Each Monday I will give a confession of the things I should have done but didn't. If you would like to add this link just go to her website and you can find the button code. I am under the impression she is from the metro area after seeing some areas she has been. We got the idea of Chutes and Ladders park from her website. I randomly was searching for things to do today and ran across the site. Nothing exciting on there but the woman does sound alot like me. I do like her idea of the Not me Mondays so I thougth I would try to incorperate it.
MJ just finished up some courses at the College of St. Thomas. She is in 8th grade and was selected to go to a 3 week camp at the college for free. She is a 4.0 student and has some crazy but for her realistic life goals. We are incrediably proud of her.
Caitlynn is fast approaching swim season where she was selected to be the Captain in Training. She will be a Captain her senior year and this year will shadow the Senior Captain. This is a huge honor because there were only 2 girls choosen out of the whole team. Cait also finished her Lifeguard Certficate this summer and is trying to get a job. Next week she will be the big 16 so she can officially apply for jobs.
Rollan was diagnosed with ADHD late Spring. Jeremy and I are confused how we would like to treat this so prayers are appreciated. he is currently attending a summer reading program to help him read better. Imagine a family memeber who has trouble writing, spelling and reading. OK everyone can clearly see I should have received some help but I excel in other areas and I feel he will find his niche too. Madison was in summer school and had troubles until about 4th grade then she bloomed. She writes books carries a 4.0 GPA reads non stop. So Im not to worried. Caitlynn also struggled until about 4th grade and I expect Norah and Garet to do the same. Sometimes parents know so much more that teachers and doctors. Caitlynn also is a wonderful student when she turns in her homework.
jeremy has been busy building a new rabbit hutch, and a huge Chicken coop. The coop run is about 35x15 which is large for our 3 hens. We will be adding another 9 meat chickens and 3 Easter Eggers, 1 black Frizzle, and 1 Blue silkie to the bunch. This will be our last run of Meat chickens for the season we will start up again in April. If your are unfamiliar with meat chickens we keep ours for 10 weeks and then send them to be processed at a local butcher shop. Our egg layers we keep for good. We ended up getting one Rooster in the bunch and he sounds like he is going through puperty. He is about 4 1/2 months and his crowing is aweful. He is going out to Jeremy's mothers this weekend to enjoy a truely free range life at the farm. Norah also got a unexpected birthday suprise. She got a Lionhead Rabbit she named Carrots. All the kids feel in love with it so since Caitlynn has hubert Norah has Carrots Madison decided she needed a lionhead and will be picking hers up next week. It name is Peas. Rollan feel in love with the English Lops he picked out a Blue Broken English lop that doesn't have a name yet. He is very excited, these rabbits have ears that are approximatly 11-14 inches in lenght each I think is the average. Rollie will be able to show his rabbit at the local fair and so will Norah if they want. I would love to get them into 4H.
Jeremy and I ran Grandma's. Jeremy ran the Marathon and I did a half this time. During that time I lost my Wedding ring. It has been a bummer but the nice side is insurance is covering the ring. Since I never wore my ring unless it was somewhere special I decided to buy a used one or a cheaper one. This leave Jerdog and I with a little cash in our pocket. I think we will be buying a feezer for all our chickens and stockpiles and a new Patio door. With the new energy tax credit this could be a great thing to pick up plus our door in the winter is like a freezer door open. It leaks so bad with the huge gaps in it. All post some pics of the new rabbits later. I will also post pics of our 4th of July weekend. You can also find picks on my Facebook page of everything.

Deep Breath, I did it.

I finally cut my baby boy's hair. His hair was getting so long that it would constantly get in his little eyes. So I took him up to Wild Child to get it cut, everyone kept calling him a little girl so we thought the haircut would make him look like a little boy. Well he kinda looks more girly being he has so many curls but he is still so precious looking he could get a way with anything.

Easter Egging, and Chicks First day of Freedom

Easter Sunday was a blast, Jeremy and I got to stay home with the kiddos all day and not worry about a thing. Wait, I guess Jeremy had to run 12 miles that evening in prep for his Marathon in June. So let me rephrase, I had a wonderful Easter Sunday and got to stay home with my kiddos and enjoy the day. In the morning we colored Easter Eggs together and then mom suddenly got a caffeine headache so Jeremy and the kids went to the store to get mom a cold coffee. While they were out a sneaky bunny hid all the eggs and left behind some Easter baskets. What a sneaky rabbit. The kids came home and hunted for there baskets and luckily found all the eggs. Later that day Jeremy started Raking in the back yard in our garden which was covered with leaves for the winter. Sure enough he found a sure sign of spring, Our strawberry plants were already coming up. I am so exceited for spring!! What a wonderful way to celebrate Jesus, being home with the family no worries or hurries, and we were able to enjoy each other and the lovely Earth God gave us.

Yesterday Jeremy made the chicks a portable coop. They spent the day outside scratching the ground and fertilizing it. They have a much prettier coop waiting for them when they get a few weeks older but this is a nice inbetween. They still need to come inside when the temp gets below 61 degrees but during the day they are lovin the sun.

Finally pics of the chicks

The Chicks arrived last friday and were hatched on April 1, 2009. They are 10 days old today. Wednesday I had the wonderful joy of bringing all 11 chicks to Norahs class room and then to Rollans Class room. The kids enjoyed the chicks so much and had wonderful questions to ask. The last picture is a today picture, the chicks have almost doubled in size. The cute chick is named Black Betty and is my favorite. If I put my hand in the cage she runs up and jumps on my hand to be held. She is always looking up out of the playpen for me when I leave. I will post a new pic each Friday so you can see how they have grown. The Brown Birds are the Rhode Island Red and they have already gotten in there Footbal shoulder pad feathers and there tail feathers, these birds will lay brown eggs. The yellow birds are the meat birds, they will be harvested after a short 6 weeks. These birds will turn white and are called Jumbo Cornish If they are not harvested there heavy weight will put them into cardiac arrest and they will pass from that. Lastely is the Barred Rock which is a beautifly black and white striped bird. They will lay brown eggs after 6 months of age.

But Don't I cloth Diaper???

Yes I do cloth diaper Garet. But Garet will be three next month and he has started to wet a ton. Unfortunatly when we go to the gym and overnight his diapers just can't hold up to his power 3 year old bladder so we opt for sposies (AKA paper diapers). This was a hard thing to do and I know if I was a little more dedicated I could put a woolie or fleece cover over his diapers but there have been such great deals on diapers and I know I only have about a month left of the diapers that it is tough for me to purchase a 15-20.00 woolie or fleece cover. So If your wondering what should you do with your child to be thrifty I say CLoth diaper all the way. Cloth diaper until they are at that 2.5-3 years of age and then if you can't keep up with the wetting through switch. You will save so much money, your child will love how much they stay dry and they will have little no diaper rash with cloth diapers. Unlike sposies which cost .20+ cents a piece, cause diaper rash, smell way worse than I cloth diaper could ever smell, hang down to there knees in the morning, and fill your garbage and the landfill. (no I don't believe in global warming, but I do believe in the diseases spread through bugs hanging out on dirty diapers in landfills and the uglyness of diapers that will NEVER break down)plus your garbage bill will be smaller since you are not throwing 6-10 diapers away a day. Water costs for Cloth diapering are equivilant to a toddler that is potty trained. They say as much as a toddler flushes the toilet after going is the same amount of water you use to wash the diapers. I spray my diapers off with a toilet sprayer and then add the close to clean diapers into my whites load so I see no difference in my water bill. Please note the average child is usually potty trained before 3. All my kids Cloth diapered or not have not trained until 3 years of age. So your chances of them wetting through like my little guy is rare. Cloth diapers can be spendy at 15-18.00 a piece but remember you only need 10-12 diapers, you can find cheaper more inconvient ones out there for 2-5.00 a piece or you can sew your own with all the free patterns out there for about 4.00 a piece. I loved Fuzzi Bunz and so I sewed my own diapers that were close to the Fuzzi Bunz syle.Tthere will be a few new ones at Essence of Flowers in Litchfield by Monday. If you like them I can sew you some at 15.00 a piece. I have a ton of colors otherwise I can show you how to sew your own. If I know you well enough I will lend you my snap press to get that professional and convient diaper. If you don't know me and still want to make diapers you can make great ones like Thirsties or BumGenius with velcro. I think there diaper patterns are out there also. I found them on the sewyourowndiapers yahoo group which posts a few free diaper patterns. There are also used diapers on Craigslist. I would suggest this but I am a little leary. If I child has a yeast infection or any other type of infection it can stay in the diapers and travel to the next child. Yuck, buy or make new ones. Covers are fine to buy used if you go that route. I prefer pocket diapers which don't need a cover and are very slim fitting. My old store that I sold is www.mysweetpickles.com The new owner is very nice and has some good info on her site. IF you have questions please call me or email me. I did own a store and I have made my own diapers so I do think of my self as very experienced in this area.

Above are some pics of some diapers I made this year. The sesame street and Muppet ones Had to be discontinued. I actually received a ceist and desist letter from Sesame street for making them. Anyways you can see how fashionable your babies bum can be. The character faces are put on the bum and I used to make them for 30.00 a piece.

Its Pouring over here

My crazy thoughts took over today and I talked my dear husband into driving to two different Fleet Farms and a Menards to find Maple tree taps. After going to Blain MN we found 6 Maple taps and 6 1 gallon Buckets. Little research I did I felt comfortable drilling into our 2 beautiful Maple trees for sugar water A.K.A. Syrup. My husband is so wonderful he just goes along with my thoughts. This time he thought there is no way I am going to get syrup. He told me the season is almost done and you need at least 10 gallons to make a quart of syrup. I somehow still talked him into it and said it would be a great experience for the kids even if we were only able to get enough syrup for a quart.
When we bought the stuff I was expecting this slow drip that would maybe give me a quarter to half a gallon a day. I thought I would be lucky if I got 10 gallons by the end of the week and then the season would be done. Well as it turns out the season can go on until the later part of April as long as it is over 40 degrees during the day and under 30 degrees at night. So I do wish for this miserable weather to stay for at least 2 more weeks.
Moving on with the story, Jeremy tapped our trees around 6:30 tonight. About 7:30 I started getting nervous because they were filling so fast, Jeremy told me to get a large pot and we would dump them in there. For sure all the bucket would fit in this pot. WRONGO! We had only made it to two buckets and the pot was full. So he ran to back to fleetfarm and got two 5 gallon buckets, while he was gone I filled 2 milk jugs and then when he came home we emptied the rest of the buckets and got another 5 gallons. So in 2 hours we have over 6 gallons of syrup. We could have had more but we had nothing to put them into so they overflowed and spilled all over the ground. We will empty them before bed again about 11 pm and then early morning. After that I am out of 5 gallon pails. I plan on sending the kids out to the neighbors tommorow to gather milk jugs. I have attached some fun pics.

The last pics are of CAITLYNN, Yep she is driving legally almost. She passes her permit test and so she is behind the wheel with mom and dad until Aug when she can take her behind the wheel with an instructor. Please, Please, Please pray for the saftey of our family. Caitlynn has never driven before and Thursday night was her first night behind the wheel. You can see from the pics everyone is scared. Good news is she passed her written with an almost perfect score!