Category Archives: Thoughts & Feelings

Another Tuesday Tune!

Well I’ll need to start posting more often or all you’re going to see is my “Tuesday Tunes” posts!

Jason unfortunately got injured doing the Insanity workouts with his ankles, so he’s biking now, and I’m running. We’ll still do the Ab workout, and the “cardio recovery” which basically is the workout sans jumping around! Think loads of pushups, squats, holds, and lunges!
I’ve actually really began running a lot over the past two weeks and am up to over 1.5 miles now! I decided to time myself with a stopwatch tonight, and was very pleased to find out tonight that I ran 1.67 miles at a 9:32 pace! That’s about as fast as I’ve ran since the Medtronic TC 1 Mile in 2009, and before that…. hmmm??? I’d say…. since at least 2004-2005! I’m very excited, and hope I can continue to maintain that pace, and increase it as well! (meaning running in less time). The freaking best part is that I got that pace while pushing Kirra in the jogging stroller which with her in it probably weighs over 45 pounds! So…yes I’m tooting my horn a little bit.
Our eating plan is going great! I discovered today I really don’t like coffee anymore unless it has Bailey’s in it so I’ll stick to water and tea. I’ve also discovered I like black tea the best! I love experimenting with new meals and creations I mix up for lunch, although I haven’t made anything yet that has really blown my mind. Hopefully soon though.
Kirra has been a total blast lately! Every day I’m so amazed at how much more of a little person she is becoming. I wouldn’t trade my life for anything although she longs to spend more time with me, as do I, but we’ve been creating our little rituals together so the time we do spend is precious. I heard this song on my way into work today, and it really sums up life in a nutshell. One traffic light, one changed split second descision and your life can be something you never intended it to be, although amazing,and wonderful it is… (for the better). I think of all the things in my own life…split second descisions i’ve made that have altered my future, and I am ever so thankful to God that it worked out this way!
I was supposed to go into the Army… but the Navy recruiter nabbed me coming out of the Army office… so I met Jason in the Navy recruiters office! We hit it off… so he changed the date he was going into the Navy to match mine! So off to Bootcamp we went! I was supposed to be in the air field, but didn’t pass my flight physical, so I had to change jobs… which then altered my course, and eventually I landed orders in Jason’s battalion. Honestly… the chances are about 1 in 1,000! Jason and I decided it was fate! We’ve had many other situations like these, and eventually we both moved back to Minnesota to get married and eventually have Kirra! I’m so thankful for the life i’ve been blessed with!
Without further adeu, and thanks to my friend Betsy for helping me find it!!!

Luck ‘O the Irish!

Is what I am going to need!!! Jason and I are on this healthy eating kick, so today when I went grocery shopping I filled up the cart with fresh veggies, fruits, whole grain cereals, and chicken… lots and lots of chicken!

Tonight Kirra and I had friends over so we were late to eating dinner, so I needed something STAT! I decided to try brown rice, black beans, chopped green onions, and edamame, topped with a little EVOO. The whole meal took 10 minutes!
I had tried edamame at work a few weeks ago… one of my co-workers is in love with the stuff, and has talked about it for years, so when she passed around the raw soybeans I had to have a taste… and then I had to have a puke bag! I told my co-workers if I never ate edamame again i’d probably die a happy woman…
So here I am… a few weeks later buying a whole bag. Thing is.. i’m not a big fan of raw vegetables… except sweet peppers. I hate sugar snap peas, and broccoli raw, but I LOVE them cooked/steamed… so i though what the hell… I’ll give it another go. Worst case, i’m out $2.99.
And boy was I delightfully surprised!!! Not only was it edible, but it tasted really really good! Plus it has 9g of protein per serving!
So! for a 10 minute meal I got super fresh, amazing, non-processed foods that were not laden with sugar and partially hydrogenated oils! Yahooooo!
Also….. dah-dah-dah-dah!!!! Basement is DONE! Carpet is IN!!!!!!!



Every basement needs a bar right?


Insanity

So… Jason got these DVD’s called Insanity. Its a 60 day workout program that is said to be the hardest workout video you can own, and basically guarantees you to have a “beach body”… CLICK Here to see what we’re in for.:

We start this INSANITY on Monday the 21st. I’m scared. Jason is scared! But we want to get our beach bodies on! We started our diets this week, in kind of a “trial and error” mode… so we’re not fully into our “diets” yet…
We’ve also decided to cut out all sodas, and refined sugars (think PROCESSED FOODS). So… here we go! I thought about becoming vegan, but… that only lasted until Dinner tonight. 🙂
Took Kirra to Storytime at the library tonight, and that was a BLAST! I can’t believe we never went before! We’re planning on going every week, with a friend!
Carpet comes in tomorrow, and I am so excited to move our living room downstairs, and see the finished product! I also can’t wait to post photos tomorrow. It looks so much different than the last time I posted photos on it! So nice. A shout out goes to my dad, and Phil for helping us finish up!!!

A time to reflect….

Today officially kicks off lent, which I observe, and reflect. Every day of every year we should strive to be closer to God, but lent always has a way of giving us a little nudge, a little check up if you will…

This year I’m doing a few things for lent. For starters… I’m making a concerted effort to going to bed, lights out by 10:30 p.m.
Secondly, I’m only listening to Christian music on my way into work, and no music at all on my way home. I’m using my time on my way home to reflect, and pray. I have far too many distractions in my life, and I need a little time of solitude.
Most likely I will pick up another good read. Each year I like to pick up a book that talks more about the Passion of the Christ. (Not meaning the movie specifically).
Last year I read, Murder at Golgotha… I highly recommend it to any Christian wanting to learn more about Christ’s death, or other history/science buff’s.
Lastly, and I may fail at this one… but i’d like to write by “snail”/USPS mail 40 letters to 40 different people whom I either don’t e-mail, or people who would be lifted up by a snail mail letter or card from me. To show them I’m thinking about them etc.
Super lastly… I heard this song today, and it really really sums up the kickoff to the lenten season.

Tuesday’s Tunes!

I follow a lot of blogs, and one thing people do is pick different “themes” for different days… so… I am going to try that out for a little while and see if it sticks… not every day will have a theme necessarily… so don’t hold me to anything!

Tuesday’s… will be Tuesday’s Tunes… maybe a song I heard new that week, or an old time favorite I’ve got stuck in my head and want to get stuck in yours….
Today’s tune… is Hometown Glory by Adele. I heard this song at work, because I listen to Pandora, which is an amazing website/app if you’ve never heard of it. You enter in a song you like, and then Pandora picks out songs like that, and you can judge the songs so it really fine tunes what you like… so this came on.. and I heard it today and just turned it up in my ear bud. I just simply love this song! I love how raw her voice sounds. It gets into my bones!
Enjoy!
Tonight is Ravioli and homemade garlic toast! Kirra is watching Toy Story 4 (aka Toy Story 2…) She wasn’t satisfied that there was no Toy Story 4… so I just told her this TS2 was TS4…. 🙂 Safe for now!

March!

So, as you may or may not know, Jason’s been working in the basement for quite a while. I thought I’d show you a sneak preview of the progress he’s made in the basement. For some reason the upstairs looks like it’s mint green… but its not… it’s nearly the same shade as the basement, but my Android isn’t always the best.

Unfortunately I never took any pictures before he started, so if you’ve never seen your basement you may not have a full appreciation of how far it’s come. When we got the house it was just concrete floor, cinder block walls, and stud walls, and an open stud ceiling.



Meanwhile, we’ve gotten to the whiny three’s with Kirra, and it’s come out in full force! I’ve never heard som much whining in all of my life! Kirra is still pretty good, but she just whines, and acts like the whole world is ending so much now! I think part of it, is that she’s given up naps… but I think physiologically she still needs them very much.

Case in point! We had a play-date at my friend Nicole’s yesterday…[She has a daughter Izze who is just 21 days younger than Kirra]. And towards the end of the play-date… Kirra crawls into my lap and starts falling asleep! She’s NEVER done that!

Today she cut two little toes pretty badly tripping over a toy in her room. It’s the first “real” bad owwie we’ve had, besides her fractured femur at birth, but she obviously wouldn’t remember that!

She didn’t need a doctor or anything like that, but if I scraped my toe like she did, I’d be whining too! She doesn’t understand why it still hurts, and keeps telling us she wants it [the pain] to go away. It’s sad because we can’t really do anything about it besides Band-Aids, antibiotic gel, and love!

I’m super sick of winter, and really ready for spring… but… today, we got another little snow storm, but… it was sort of pretty, and magical in a way…the really sparkly glittery kind of snow!











MOA Day

Thanks to a friend of mine we got an unlimited wristband for Nick Universe at the Mall of America, and Jason and I have season pass to underwater world, so we though since it was going to be a crappy Saturday outside we’d go INSIDE! We met up with Missy, Brian and the kids.

We were hoping that since Kirra had so much fun on the man-powered rides at the Renaissance Festival, we’d get lucky and she’d like real rides, and boy she didn’t disappoint! Here are some fun highlights of the day!
Kirra and I on the Diego bus… which made me really dizzy
Jason & Kirra on the little rollercoaster! Weee
She even got to meet Dora!!!
So did we…
Next it was time for the Log Ride! Yes… they let her on it! You
can see in the video… she is in the very front, and I’m second.
That’s probably me who is screaming!
The Wonder Pets ride! She loved it.
In the video as you can see from the photo above,
Kirra is second in from the left
Blue’s Clues with Gabby
Hot air balloon ride with Daddy
And because Saturday at the MOA wasn’t enough, we took Kirra sledding down a HUGE hill on Sunday too!

Bait and Hook…

Tonight was Spin class again with “Crazy Don”…

I got to class and it was slightly less busy than the last time (yes I’ve been on a hiatus because of a vacation…. please forgive me… but hey! I’m back). I got my bike and was able to be a little bit more in the back this time, which my view was better because I could see myself in the mirror. I know… totally ridiculous, but I like to check on my form now and again!

My shorts were..um.. too short for spin class today. Totally fine for running…. but not Spin…especially when there is a guy behind me! Last time my capris were too hot, today…I need more coverage. Eventually I’ll figure it out but hey… I didn’t have wool sox on today!!!

The cycling seemed a bit easier… I think he went easier on us tonight. We still had some ferocious hills and did that ridiculously hard to keep up push up routine… but time seemed to go by faster anyways… I’d like to atribute that to my skills.. .haha.

So… after an EXCEPTIONALLY hard climb to the song “I had the time of my life”/origional version…which Don said his new lyrics and ours should be “I had the climb of my life” (yes I got stuck, because I turned it [the dial] up too high, I couldn’t pedal at all…) our amazing instructor DON…. passed out chocolate truffles to everyone! I really couldn’t believe it, but I think he’s on to something…. he said its the only way he’s going to get us to keep coming back on Fridays.

I take back what I said about him being a Nazi Slave Driver… well… sort of. He really did whip us hard two weeks ago, because I was about in tears, but today we have a great workout, AND he hands out chocolates! I love it. If he hands out wine at class next Friday I’ll never skip again… but I’ll live with truffles…

Of course we paid for it by finishing up with a hard sprint, but the delicious truffle was sooo worth it!

Running Hearts

Despite it being Valentine’s Day I went for a quick run at the gym. Just a 20 minute jog workout on the treadmill, but worked on pace more instead of walking most of my trip. It felt pretty good, but the time didn’t go by quite as fast as when I walked the first 5…ran for 10-13 and cooled down the rest… O’well.. I ran 1.75 miles this time in 20, so I have improvement! I’d LOVE to run at least 2 miles for my first Tri on March 20th!