Blogging 2015: 340 down, 1675 to go

It's my first day on and these days are always a balancing act. I slept all night (I used to try to stay up late so I could nap more easily, but that bit me in the ass one too many times when I couldn't nap enough so I don't do that anymore) so I'm energetic, but I still need to sleep at some point so I'm not desperately tired at 2am. 2-7am is a long ass time when you're eyes are on fire.

I had a couple of cups of coffee and talked to the fam for a while, then fantastic husband got the boys ready to go to the Y (it's gym day, they love that) and I got dressed to take the dog for a run.  It was kind of cold this morning, but sunny, and I wasn't sure how that was going to play out comfort-wise. It's difficult to dress this time of year, when it's not really warm but it's not really cold. I opted for pants and long sleeves as the air temp was below 40 and better a little too warm than too cold.

Do these stripes go with my LOBSTAHS?

I did 5 miles with the dog. Walked a half mile or so to warm up, then let her drag me for 4 miles with intermittent stopping to stalk birds. She is a bird dog, and watching her stalk them is entertaining. She doesn't realize that her collar jingles when she winds up to pounce and when the birds take flight she turns and looks back at me with accusation all over her face, because clearly the birds left because I suck.  We walked the last half mile so I could catch my breath and she could sniff things.  When we got home I realized I hadn't really eaten anything, so I threw a banana, some oatmeal, some protein powder, almond milk, and a blob of almond butter in the Vitamix and called it breakfast.

Mmmm...chocolate shake. I mean breakfast smoothie.

Then I plopped myself in the chair to drink it and another cup of coffee. The dogger, who spent about 15 minutes racing around the yard after our run, decided to grace me with her presence. She fell asleep and snored in my ear.

And when I moved, she groaned and pawed at me.

When fantastic husband and the kids came back from the Y I had lunch on the table for the boys. So it was lunch and then off to school. We walked them over as the temp had come up pretty significantly, then decided to go out for lunch and run some errands.  Lunch was Cranky Pat's pizza buffet. What is pictured is the sum total of what I ate. I did have two Spotted Cows. Those things are filling. I'm pretty sure that's why I didn't eat more pizza. There, I've invented a new diet plan. Just drink 2 Spotted Cow's before eating pizza and you'll only have 3 small slices. You're welcome.

#daydrinking

When you eat pizza buffet at Cranky Pat's, you get an ice cream too. I opted for a twin pop. Fantastic husband didn't want to share it with me, so I enjoyed that frozen HFCS all on my own.

Tastes like childhood.

One of the things we had to do today was go over to Lambeau to pay for our Brown County lottery Packer tickets. I hadn't been over there since they finished the renovation, so we walked around a little and visited the new Pro Shop.  It's a nice remodel, I guess. Probably take a little getting used to, but it's definitely more accessible. 

The Lambeau Leap statue. Very multi-culti.

As we were walking back to the car the alignment of the Curly and Vince statues struck me as funny. It looks like Curly is pointing directly at Vince. 

IT WAS THAT GUY!

It may have only been funny because I was a little drunk.

Once we'd finished our outing, fantastic husband took the dog out to play fetch and I went down for my nap. It was such a nice day I feel a little guilty for sleeping part of it away, but it had to be done. I got a couple of hours and woke up in time to enjoy delicious roast chicken.  I win.

Not very exciting looking, but tasty.

So now I'm done writing and the family is out walking the dog. I'm going to take this opportunity to go back to sleep for a bit. I've got about 2 hours until I need to get in the shower.  Not sure what'll to down tomorrow besides sleeping. Depending on how that goes I may make it to the box at noon. Possibly some happy hour yoga. It's weird only working 4 in a row. I won't even have to do laundry!

Monday I get my IUD placed, which will hopefully quiet the angry Vikings in my uterus. If it doesn't I may burn something down. Or eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's. One of the two.

Nap time, bitches.

Blogging 2015: 335 down, 1680 to go

I've been to the box three days in a row. Maybe I'll take tomorrow off. If it's nice it might be a good idea to go for a long run. We shall see. The beauty of not working until 2130 is I can see where the day takes me, as long as it takes me back to bed for a decent nap at some point.  This week I only have to work 4 days, so as of Monday at 0730 I'm free as a bird until the following Thursday. Pretty rad, right? Right.

Last night at about 10:30pm, P came stumbling into my room with tears in his little eyes and babbled incoherently about 4K and playing outside and something about playing fetch. Basically he wasn't awake. I let him ramble a bit and then asked "Do you just want me to tuck you back in?" and I got a very sleepy "Yeeesssss". So that's what I did.  Some time in the wee hours of the morning C crawled into bed with me. I wasn't conscious of him until I realized I was fighting someone for the covers.  I was cold, so I pulled the comforter above my shoulders, then somehow they slid down again. So I pulled them up...and they slipped down again. I rolled over and smack my hand met a small soft object. A friggin' kid. He wasn't awake, but whenever I pulled the covers up higher they would go over his head so he pulled them down again.  Little bastard stole one of my pillows, too.  There might be a stuffed animal in the dark recesses of the foot of the bed as well as "little puppy" has gone missing.

Once everyone was up we did the usual morning routine, girl child off to school, boys watching PBS while I made my breakfast.

There were more berries at the outset.

Since fantastic husband had class today I took the boys with me to the box. Today was backsquats, rowing, and GHDs on the spankin' new rigs. My squats went great, I actually rowed pretty well, and the new GHDs are aces. When I extended down on the first GHD, my sore ass abs felt like they were going to tear free. Holy shit that was a bizarre feeling. 

After class I took the spawn and hightailed it home for lunch before taking them to school. They had PB&J, I had leftover quesadillas. I swear I took a picture, but clearly not. Oh well. Use your imagination. I dropped them off and headed over to Jenstar for lunch hour flow. Got some good stretching and balance work in, then skittered back home to relax for a bit before retrieving the kids from school.

Sweatpants and beer at 1pm. #swag

So we got the smalls, gave them a snack, and at 4pm we packed them up and took them to CF kids. They were thrilled as usual to go, red faced and bitching about how unfair it is that they have to leave at the end.  While they were being whipped into shape, fantastic husband and I went for a walk. Not a lot of dating profiles are going to say "Enjoys long walks around industrial parks at rush hour", but wherever we are it's nothing but motherfucking romance. Sometimes we even hold hands. 

Dinner was leftovers as we continue our crusade to clean out the fridge and attack the freezer. Meatloaf and roasted broccoli for me. I was starving before dinner, but this filled me right up. Definitely making this recipe again, it's really good and the kids fucking loved it.

Tiny florets because I used the toaster oven and they cook faster.

I swear I washed every goddamn thing in this house yesterday, so today we washed the kids so they could be clean bodies in clean jammies in clean beds.  Fantastic husband read a story and I laid on P's new bed ("You can lay here if you want, Mommy, I don't mind") with him beside me to listen. Midway through the story P slung his arm across my shoulders, leaned over, and kissed me on the forehead. It was so fucking cute I could punch a bunny.  Just when you're ready to toss them off a bridge in a burlap sack, they do something endearing so you decide to keep feeding them. 

I am very sore. I think even my scalp hurts today. Also I showered today, which I feel is a major accomplishment. 

Blogging 2015: 333 down, 1682 to go

What a beautiful day it was today. Minimal wind, lots of sun, and plenty of opportunities to get outside.  This morning we walked the girl child to school, then came home so I could fold some laundry because I lead a scintillating life. After that was all put away and another couple of loads were queued up I took the boys and the dogger out for a morning walk. It was really lovely. They ran to the park and I basically did laps around the edge with the dog while they played. This works out pretty handily as I can always see them and I can see the entry/exit point to the park so I can monitor cars that come and go. It's probably just my paranoia, but I spent my formative years in large cities and while we did roam around to a degree it was typically within a block or two radius. I have a hard time letting my kids out of eyeshot. I have really good vision, though, so they get plenty of "kind of on their own but not really" time. I don't need to be right on top of them every blessed second, but I need to know they aren't bleeding or dead. Scratch that. They bleed sometimes and it's no big deal...let's amend that to broken, paralyzed, or dead.

Breakfast was not exemplary. Remember that we're trying to eat down the freezer. Today I did my part by helping the kids finish a box of toaster waffles.

Not healthy.

I did eat a halfway decent lunch (again, clearing up leftovers and freezer stuff)

Leftover pork loin.

I went to 1230 power hour today at the box. It's warm at that time of day. Still, I got to work out with one of my rugby-wife homegirls and got almost a full hour of post workout chit chat so it was pretty boss. Today was a mile for time followed by kettlebells and burpees. I hate running a mile for time. I'm not fast. In fact it takes me 2 miles to warm up on most of my runs. Miles 3-10? I'm your girl. Mile one is always murder. So today I ran a 9:16 which is not terrible but also not great. Burpees are the worst, though. I always feel like I'm going to die. I always tell myself beforehand that I'm going to just push through them and it'll be fine, but then I start doing them and my brain starts screaming OMGSTOPYOUAREGOINGTODIIIIEEEEEEE. 

Sam is unimpressed with your pain.

Afterwards I went to Starbucks, because why not. I also had a nice post-WOD banana. I didn't have to choke it down today for some reason.

Balanced eating is my life.

I made it home just in time to walk over and retrieve the spawn. We came home and spent an hour tossing a toy for the dog, who was completely unphased by the exercise. More leftovers were had for dinner. I took a picture of my tomato/chicken orzo but the Google drive apparently thought it was delicious and ate it. The kids ate shockingly well (I'm telling you, fresh air and exercise make for a tantalizing sauce) and then we leashed up the dog and went for another walk.

I am not wasting one moment of this weather. Not one moment. Soon it will be melt-your-boobs-off hot and I'll be cursing the sun, so today and all 60-75 degree days will be enjoyed to their absolute fullest. The kids played at the park and I did laps again.  All told I got about 6 miles today. 

Oh, and I got this as well. There is no reason to have children if you can't raid their holiday candy stashes.

Fun sized my ass.

Well, these are why my ass isn't fun sized anyway.

Tomorrow it's back to the box for what will no doubt be more squatting. Tomorrow is also GHDs. I was going to follow that with core yoga, but fantastic husband has class so I don't have child care. Just means I'll be doing lunchtime flow instead. No biggie. Hopefully a few good miles with hills as well. The spawn have CF kids, which means they'll need showers and will probably eat their own arms off on the way home. But it also means they'll sleep like stones, so there's that. 

My sock club yarn has not arrived. I'm a teeny bit miffed as it was supposed to be here Monday. Fortunately I have another sock on the needles to soothe my savage soul. 

I'm so sore. Pretty much the only part of my body that isn't sore is my scalp. Hooray fitness.

Blogging 2015: 327 down, 1688 to go

Not much mileage today, but I did go to the box and yoga. I even did the extra credit GHDs and the inner workings of my core are already pissed at me.

Got up this morning and fantastic husband made eggs for the kids, he offered me some, but if I eat too early I just have to eat again before I work out, so I opted for some coffee instead.  It was raining this morning along with being pretty windy, so girl child got a ride to school.

Once there were fewer people to dodge, I made myself breakfast.  Pretty basic. I got these berries at Costco and they are fantastic. The last batch was giant berries, these were much smaller but also sweeter.

Mmmm...bacon.

So I WODed, and I GHDed, and I had about 10 minutes to get to yoga, so I slammed my pre-poured almond milk mixed with protein powder and a little glutamine (it's probably voodoo, but I feel like it helps me recover, and it's cheap so what the hell).  I hammered over to the studio and of course caught every fucking red light. I was a minute or two late, but no matter. I was the only one today so I got a bonus one-on-one core yoga session. #winning

Protein up, motherfucker.

Oh, PS I ate these cuties when I got to the box. I was hungry.

Cuties!

After yoga I came home to find my new shoesies had arrived. I used to wear the Launch before it was discontinued and I was so happy when they brought it back. This is the new version, the Launch 2, and I just couldn't pass up the Boston edition.  I mean, they're covered with lobsters. I feel faster already.

LOBSTAH!

So I was straight up starving at this point, and luckily for me there was some salmon and rice/quinoa left over. I roasted some asparagus in the toaster oven and voila, a lovely meal.

Which I shoveled into my face as fast as possible.

I volunteered in the boys' 4K class this afternoon (after a shower, of course, though I did wear sweatpants). We painted rainbows. Working with 4-5 year olds is alternately really cute and really frustrating. Lucky me, today I also got to cut out some house shapes and since I'm super fast at menial tasks, I also got to start drawing the details on them. I am the greatest kindergarten craft whore ever.

Tonight was CF kids, so the spawn were all jacked up. They were barely in the door and already running around. Fantastic husband and I went for a very windy walk while they frolicked. When we came back they were red faced and grinning. Then proceeded to whine that they never get to stay and plaaaaaaay.

When we got home we had another freezer meal, this one is Italian meatloaf with marinara. The kids had meatloaf, green beans, strawberries, and milk. The demolished all of it pretty handily. If there's one thing CF kids is good for, it's increasing appetite. Another bonus? They often fall into bed and crash immediately on CF days. 

Come to think of it, the same thing happens to me.

Slab o' meatloaf. OMNOMNOMNOM.

Full disclosure, I had a Point Root Beer. It was fucking delicious. I don't know what it is with me and root beer lately, but it's so good right now. There are worse things.

Tomorrow will be a trip to the box and a run. Not sure how I'll work out the scheduling of that, but it'll be fine. I'm back in the salt mine on Thursday, but only for 4 nights...then I get TEN DAYS OFF. 

I'll also mention that I took a week plus 3 days off in October, which means I'm going to have 24 days off in a row.  Third shift for the motherfucking win.

I want candy.

Blogging 2015: 325 down, 1690 to go

Only about 20 miles since my last blog, and considering I did 12 today that should tell you how my distance is coming along. I did pass the 1700 mark which is cool, but I clearly have a lot of work to do for the rest of the year. I haven't been running much, but I have been CrossFitting and Yogaing quite a bit lately.

Right now we have an extreme First World Problem at our house. We have way too much food. Way, way too much food.  Every year we get a whole cow from a friend's dad.  Last year our cow was about 700 pounds, and we ate nearly all of it before this one arrived. This year's cow yielded 856 pounds of beef. EIGHT HUNDRED AND FIFTY SIX POUNDS.  Now, we have a gigantic freezer.  It's easily large enough to hold six children or three Northeastern Wisconsin sized adults. The freezer is packed full. It can literally hold no more. We moved all our other incidental frozen stuff into the freezer attached to the fridge. A ham, some leftover ground pork from last August's pig, all my freezer meals, popsicles, waffles, frozen berries, etc. The inside freezer (which I'll grant you might hold two toddlers...maybe) is packed so full I'm afraid to open it. I had to thaw all my freezer meals, so we're eating those all week. The fridge is jammed full of leftovers, fruit, and veg.  It's embarrassing, but we have so much food that I don't know what to do. DO YOU LIKE YOUR DINNER? HAVE SECONDS!!! We can't even start making a dent in the new beef until we eat up all the other stuff that won't fit in the freezer.

First. World. Problems.

We even sacrificed a shitload of frozen pizzas because we simply had nowhere to go with them. (They went to fantastic husband's work).

This morning I was hoping to sleep in, as it's...you know...Sunday.  HA. The boys were beating down my door at ten minutes to six. They got new beds yesterday and put themselves to bed early last night in their eagerness to sleep in the new beds.  That was cool and all, but for fuck's sake can I not sleep past 6am ever? I managed to fend them off until about 6:30, but that was it.

Since we had to pull the loaf of frozen bread out of the garage (see previous paragraph) we have two "active" loaves of bread on the counter. I decided to make french toast as that uses up lots of bread and eggs (which we also have a shitload of right now).  The kids at the shit out of it and there was even some left over for fantastic husband and myself. I haven't had french toast in an age. It was pretty good. With butter and real maple syrup.

I put vanilla and cinnamon in the egg mixture.

I had a couple of cups of coffee and then got ready to run. I ran the arboretum chip trail and a little spur through the neighborhood.  I got a little over 7 miles and felt pretty good.  It was warm, but not unpleasant. I'm ready to start seeing signs of spring. The arb trail was nice and springy, just a few mushy spots, but there wasn't a whisper of greenery at all. I'm hoping these few warm days will cause the trees to bud. It smells like spring, but it sure as hell doesn't look like it.

Covered in salt. Summer's comin'

Oh, I had a banana before I went for my run. I used to eat bananas all the time, but lately it's hard to choke them down (that's what she said). I don't know why, exactly, but I just...can't.  I got today's banana down, but it was a struggle.

Just one 'nana.

I was pretty hungry when lunch rolled around.  Look at this lovely balanced lunch. It's fucking beautiful.

Bistro quality, bitches.

Then I grabbed a shower and headed outside to play fetch with the dogger for a while.  An hour actually, and she wasn't even phased.

You have to give me the damn thing, dog.

Our yard is still swamped and squashy down in the corner. Still not a hint of green. The dog practically disappears.

THROW THE TOY! Oh wait. Iz here at my feets.

The kids had a short nap, then we got them up for snack time and took them (and the dog) out for a 2.5ish mile walk. Kids got some park time and fantastic husband and I got to walk together for a while.

Granola bar with Justin's hazelnut butter on it. Divine.

Since we're eating through the freezer meals, tonight was chicken quesadillas. Tasty, if not terribly colorful.

Woo! Cleanin' out the fridge!

After supper we went out for another 2.5 miles. It was such a lovely evening, and who knows when we'll have another. Could be tomorrow, could be June. 

Tomorrow I've got CF (probably 9:15) and yoga at 10:30.  I'll be doing some GHDs tomorrow, too. I can still feel every muscle fiber in my obliques after the last round.

Kids will be going to CF kids (and they are so excited!!!!).  In bigger news, fantastic husband is going to OnRamp in May!  Only took 3 years and family pricing to wear him down.

My legs are sore.

Blogging 2015: 305 down, 1710 to go

It's the beginning of my work week, so things could be spotty up in here. Fantastic husband took the kids to daycare early, so I slept in until almost eight o'clock. Eight o'clock. I don't know who's life I stumbled into, but it's pretty rad.

So I woke up in a leisurely way, made myself a bowl of oats and almond butter, and got ready to go to the gym.

With a little protein powder.

Now, I've noted before that oatmeal prior to a hard workout leaves me hungry and a little light headed.  I thought adding protein powder might help, but I was wrong. Pretty wrong, actually.  I didn't look at the WOD before I went today, so I didn't notice it was a 20 minute AMRAP. That's a long ass time. The skill work was handstands and L-hangs, so I was already a little lightheaded (from the upside down of it all) before we started the real fun. About 13 minutes into the workout I started getting the cold sweats which precedes the passing out.  I kept moving and drank water, and I finished...but had I eaten smarter I could've gone a lot harder. Stupid oats. Lesson learned...look at the WOD and don't eat oats before CrossFit. Afterwards I wanted to EAT ALL THE THINGS! but first I had to run an errand. Then I came home and had a big fat pile of eggs with a little cheese, also some cajun spice, avocado, and a great big fucking delightful grapefruit.  

Mmmmm....lunch.

Since I have to work tonight, I decided to take the dog out for 3 miles in an effort to get her to sleep a little this afternoon. It worked pretty well.  I kicked back in the chair, she mashed herself in next to me, and we had a nice snooze. 

Kindly ignore my big meaty leg.

I did get a couple of hours of serious sleep before getting up to food prep prior to picking up the spawn. I made Southwest Turkey Burgers and packaged them up with broccoli and sweet potato for the week. I ate one for dinner and the kids opted to clean up some leftovers. I added a little salsa and avocado (because I bought a big bag of those bitches and they are all coming ripe at once). I gave the kids some broccoli and the boys actually ate it without complaint (L always eats it)? You know why? I told them it was Coach Grant's favorite vegetable. I'm going to start using that for everything. 

This was a lot of food.

I was a lot of hungry.

So now I'm just kicked back watching Jeopardy. I love Jeopardy. I feel as though that doesn't make me old. Loving Wheel of Fortune makes a person old. I'll watch it, but I don't love it. It's a fine line, but a line nonetheless. 

I did do a bit of laundry today, likely more tomorrow. My problem is I don't like to put laundry away, and then I get pissy because I can't find my favorite clothes. I declare tomorrow "Put Your Goddamn Laundry Away" day. Maybe if I'm feeling motivated I'll go to the gym for an evening workout. We shall see, we shall see. 

Yawn. 

Blogging 2015: 302 down, 1713 to go

So I didn't blog yesterday.  Oops.  I didn't get home until after 10pm and that's way past my bedtime. I tried out the 12:30 WOD, and I met some new people. It was a full day. Here's a bunch of pictures of shit I ate over the last 2 days in no particular order.

Ok, so the computer actually assigned them the appropriate order.

Oats and shit.

Another fucking delightful grapefruit.

P&C giggle factory had their 5 year well child check-ups and Kindergarten immunizations (OMG they'll be in all day Kindergarten this year. I'm so excited I could squeal.  Oh fuck it. SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE!) The pediatrician checked them over, declared them ridiculously healthy, then got their shots, and we placated them with dessert. We are great parents. They wore the same shirt "so everyone will know that we're twins". When the ped asked them who was older, they both responded "Ummm, we are the same age because we are twins." I thought that was pretty hilarious. They remain exactly an inch apart in height. They were exactly an inch apart at birth and have been at every single appointment since then. And the ped always remarks on it. When they are 6'4" and 6'3" people will still be remarking on it.

We got done at the doc and dropped the boys off at 4K just in time, then jetted home so fantastic husband could go pick up some OT and I could mash some food into my face before heading out for CF. Can you tell I got a good deal on salmon at Costco? I've been eating it like fucking crazy.

Also a tater. No time to steam veggies.

After the WOD I put down some glutamine and protein powder.  I've been using these Advocare shakes. I don't use them as meal replacement, but I do use them in place of other protein powders when I make smoothies or as a between workout snack. It's probably the tastiest protein I've used. I've tried a bunch of different brands and they are mostly yucky. Metallic, artificial, bitter...this one is good.  I mix it with unsweetened vanilla almond milk instead of water and it hits the spot.

Sorta shake-y. Pricy, but I feel worth it.

I got home in time to walk the dogger for 3 miles before picking up the smalls from school. After school they get a snack so I had one, too.

Do you want to touch the Mango?

Fantastic husband wanted to go to rugby practice, so I pulled out a freezer meal from Sunday's workshop and made skillet jambalaya. The kids were not down. I thought it was good.

So colorful!

I had a glass of wine at a trunk show later that evening. No picture. Use your imagination. I know you lushes can picture a glass of wine.

Today I had planned to get up for the #fiveonefive but when I woke up my triceps and shoulders felt...bruised. I don't have another word for it. So I made the decision to rest today. I'll be hitting the 9:15 tomorrow. I'm back in the salt mine tomorrow night, so if I get my errands and my workout squared away in the morning I can nap in the afternoon.  I made a smoothie this morning and I forgot to add the banana. It was still good.

Strawberry.

I went to a CE seminar on Spices as Medicine. It was fairly interesting. I wish it had been more specifically targeted to pharmacists, but it was open to all disciplines and even to the community. There were lots of interesting references on spices for inflammation of all types, and since inflammation is the source and trigger of all maladies (at least this month) it was useful in at least a cursory way. I got 6 CE credits for it, which will count for my RPh and my CNSC.  The woman behind me was an absolute idiot, so I got to listen to her gasp and say "Really?!?" quite a bit.  She also indicated to the woman sitting next to her that she would like to pet a lion's mane. I think the zoo should let her. Survival of the fittest and shit.

Lunch.

Got done a little early so I was able to go with fantastic husband to drop off the spawn at CrossFit Kids. While they played, we went for a 2ish mile walk. It was a nice day, so we made the most of it and got a little alone time and some fresh air.  

Pre-walk snack.

We still have a fair amount of leftovers in the fridge so we cleaned those up.  I had salmon (go figure) and asparagus.  You'll see this one more time as I made 5 pieces and husband doesn't eat fish. 

It's so good, though.

People often ask of fish dishes "does it taste fishy?".  I have no idea how to respond to this. It's fish...so...yes? It tastes like fish...does that make it fishy? I mean it's not going to taste like steak or elk or marshmallows or something. 

I was in the mood for something sweet so finished with some grapes.

Crunchy.

Tonight it's spawn washing, then tax filing. I can't believe we waited so long this year. Usually we do this shit in January.  Oh well, better late than never.  Hopefully we'll get some decent money back. Maybe I can sweet talk fantastic husband into letting me put some of it on my student loans.  

I need to do laundry.