Christmas is Coming - I started this on DEC 12 !!!!

Dec 12, 2012

Brace yourself.... I do not enjoy Christmas. I put up with it for friends and family but in reality I just want to run away the entire month of December. I want to go far far away to somewhere where they do not celebrate Christmas or they just don't make such a big deal. I don't enjoy parties, I don't love a turkey dinner. I know I am evil. All I want to do on Christmas is give my kid a gift from Santa and sit in my jammies the rest of the day. That isn't happening though. Most days I can suck it up but some days I just can't.  Anyway, that is my rant.

Beyond that pretty uneventful week. Last week H and I went up on the mountain so he can try snowboarding. He loved it. We had a great day because they also have a winter wonderland thing on the mountain we went to. Santa, reindeer, outdoor ice rink, Christmas movies in the movie theatre.... wait a minute? I bet you are thinking didn't Jen just right a whole paragraph about hating Christmas? I hate Christmas, I like winter.

Winter = snow/cold.   YEAH
Winter = rain/rain/rain  NEY

It was fun. I haven't skated on an outdoor rink in years. I have pictures of both me and H however they are on my camera and I am too lazy to get the pics off the camera onto the computer onto the blog. I want a fancy new camera that can somehow do that. I hear they exist.

This is where I was going to post some pictures. Then blogger kept flipping them upside down. I gave up. Also our computers have died. Both. Blogger on the tablet is annoying.

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Dec 21, 2012

Today is Simon's birthday. Happy Birthday! that is about as sappy as I get. pretty emotional eh? Sorry no pics. Now our home computer died so I can't do it there either so I am quickly doing this on a work break.

Things I am sucking at right now; eating right, exercising, drinking water, walking the dog, relaxing...

Things I am doing great at; drinking diet coke, watching TV, eating potato chips, letting work get to me...

So I am trying to be all positive about this Christmas thing but I am not feeling it this year. I am not going to apologize. I will do what I need to do and hopefully next year will be better.

Do you know grumpy cat? you have to. me and grumpy cat are now one in the same. her words are mine. even Pinterest is not making me feel happy except for my buddy grumpy cat. I wish i was not allergic to cats cause i would get a grumpy cat and we can sulk together.

Merry Christmas.

it has been a while

i know i am a bad girl. beyond not blogging which is bad i also have not been working out a lot. this is odd for me. my schedule has been off and i am not forcing myself to get up early or workout after work. so that pretty much means i have been working out 2x a week. a couple of other days i may walk (to Starbucks) but that is about it. i have been pretty good with my diet though and sticking to about 1300-1500 calories a day.

i will do boot camp tomorrow. i shall also get workouts in Thursday and Friday too. i will do it. i swear.

besides that nothing huge going on. last week was my little man's 7th birthday so that is why my schedule was so messed. adjusting work for dinners/soccer/hockey games. i made that cake. well betty crocker helped. i made the icing. it didn't work out to swell but it was sugary and on top so i guess it worked?

besides that my child has been a hellion since his bday. can a child become adhd over night? maybe he is just coming down from all that sugar on the cake but seriously!!he  had a poor sportsmanship meltdown at soccer on Saturday and hockey on Sunday (this has never happened before), can not sit still at all, sulked the whole time at a big Albanian dinner thing we were at. maybe he turned 17?

well i gotta work. just thought i would let you know i am alive.

Vegas!

I guess better late than never. This blog is going to be heavy on pictures. I met some bunz in Vegas. Who are bunz? Bunz are some GALS i have been friends with online for 4 years. 4 years! that is insane? am i an insane for flying 2.5 hours to meet a bunch of strangers that could murder me? guess so.

well i am happy to report there were no murders or mischief. for those that have online friends it is always so weird when you finally meet in person. it is odd because you know people so well but you have never been in their physical presence. you kinda feel like you should hug but it would be like hugging a co-worker you see and talk to every day which would just be weird. it is an odd feeling.

so we (s&i) flew into Las Vegas on Friday morning. I met J (WAVEDANCER7), A (MARLIE13) , S (WAVEDANCER7'S FRIEND) and H (HOPERY) in our hotel lobby to drive them out to get their race packets. Honestly I was a bit skeptical the race is going to happen at this point due to some weirdness on the internet the week before. the race did happen though as you will see. We drove out to the lake to a little village and they got their packets. we returned back to the hotel and met for dinner at a little Italian place at the Venetian called the Trattoria Reggiano. Tiny restaurant and the Italinan waiter/owner were really concerned about part of our party being late. I took this picture while we were waiting for D (ZIRCARDIA) and her husband/sister to come.

 

Trattoria Reggiano

 While we ate some yummy pasta (well the GALS were carb loading for their marathon) there was a pink gorilla staring us down. A and H love this gorilla. I am not sure of their reasons but who is to question why?

That night the running bunz had to go to bed early. So S and I met up with my parents who also happened to be in Vegas and we did a little gambling (penny slots) in our casino at the MGM Grand. We partied it up and were in bed by midnight bwahahahaha.

My alarm was going off at 430am so I could go and get the halfer bunz to take them out to the race. When i got off the elevator to go into the lobby there was some girls looking a little rough. I noticed they had no shoes on, then i noticed they were not even carrying their shoes. They must have had quite a night when they gave up on their shoes. We went out in 2 groups. H and D went out earlier because they were running the full marathon (crazy bunnies).

So we drove the 45ish minutes out to the race in the dark. Driving through the desert. We found the race and it was still dark. We saw the sunrise in Vegas which is something I will never probably see again. It is really pretty out at Lake Mead. However, if I was ever going to live somewhere warm it would be tropical.

 Derry our friend came out too. 

Guess who isn't running?

This race was just nasty. It started up this huge hill. The whole race was hilly so I felt sorry for the bunz. My calfs would have died on that first incline. What a way to start a race!

J starting the race up that dang hill.

A saying Hi!

So I knew the course would be hard. I brought a book to read but I didn't have coffee so I drove back into Boulder City to get myself a Starbucks. I also stopped briefly at the Hoover Dam which I have been to before. Driving through the desert I kept signing that song "i've been through the desert on a horse with no name..."  while i drove. That killed a bit of time. I came back and sat on the edge of the desert waiting for the return of my friends. Hoping a coyote or rattle snake or some tumble weed has not taken them out. Eventually they all did return and they were all smiling. The finish line is beautiful. You got to run down hill and towards the lake. Very scenic. Here is some pics.

Best Friend Butts

Gangnam Style Finishers

I had fun driving them. Once home everyone around here keeps asking me why I didn't race. Most people assume I am still running. They don't know I stopped. I will be honest. I didn't even really have a twings of "i should be racing today" too while i watched the race. I enjoyed being a spectator.

We didn't wait for H and D to come in for their marathon as it was going to be at least a couple of hours.

At that point we went back to our hotels. S and I went to the pool for a couple of hours. I needed my vitamin D. i was hoping to meet up with my bunz later that night but my back deteriorated throughout the early evening. We went out to Henderson to see my parents for dinner. When we got back to the hotel I hurt bad so I ditched the bunz (sorry gals) and ended up just playing some penny slots again. What show did you end up going to h and a? i don't think you ever said. 

The trip did have one hitch. My BACK. the day before we left I twinged it. It has been a mess since even with chiro. I thought it was getting better than a few days ago again I was cleaning the kitchen table and it went out again. i don't know what is going on. so i have been doing some light cardio when i can. I was sad to miss my boot camp class.

Also this is the first trip that both S and I have left H alone. Yes he has been away from us. For even weeks at a time but usually it is him going somewhere with my parents or something and not us leaving him. He kept calling and calling and calling. S didn't believe me until I showed him my cell with like 8 missed calls on it. I think part of it was boredom. He also doesn't understand the concept of roaming charges. I will be showing him my cell phone bill for sure!

So now I have 2 bunz left to meet (SKYFYRE, BRUIN2).

vegas time is coming

10 days bunnies until i can meet you guys! it is coming. it is coming. hoping your race works out for you and actually happens. if it doesn't happen i still get to meet ya. yeah!!!! don't forget to check out this bunny above at the vegas airport!

i haven't written in over a week. not much to say. working, working out, running h around, shopping, eating, sleeping, watching tv....

last week i finally sucked it up and did the boot camp at the gym i have been walking by for 2 years and watching from the comfort of an elliptical machine lately. my friend kept egging me on to come. it is intense. there is no rest for 75 minutes. basically it is set up in stations which you go through twice. it is 90 seconds at each station. there are no rest stations. examples of stations are trx stuff, ab stuff, cardio stuff, core stuff, kettlebell stuff... i know that was really specific. it was super hard and fun. when i was done i was exhausted. i have only felt that exhausted after running a half marathon. i do not joke. like i need a nap now but omg somehow i am supposed to work today??

the best part of it was i skipped, with a rope, for 90 seconds without stopping or tripping. seriously you don't know how exciting this is. do you remember the 80's? do you remember jump rope for heart?? it was a way of fundraising for the heart and stroke foundation. well my dad was in charge of it for basically all of western canada. he travelled/coached with skipping teams all over north america and did fancy skipping demos for schools and for competitions. stuff like this (video link to youtube with fancy dancy skipping). i on the other hand have never mastered the basic jump. so skipping for 90 whole seconds made me feel like i made my daddy proud. i suddenly felt like 8 year old Jenny. look at me daddy. unfortunately i ended up stopping to change stations and my dream died.  it was very very very exciting though for those 90 seconds.

i plan on doing the class again tomorrow.

anything else going on? hmmmmm.

i have ran twice in the last couple of weeks. running is probably not what i should call it. intervals i guess. both times i felt like my insides were going to rip out. i bet you loved reading that. odd. hurts a ton. "running" for 2 mins and walking for 1 minute. my dog enjoyed it. he is about the only one that did.

i haven't been eating well lately. most days i am over my calorie allowance. i am still tracking. i am proud i am tracking even though i am going over. on days i do not exercise i am always over. i am not that motivated to exercise lately beyond my 30 mins 5x a week most of the time. i am not enjoying spinning lately. the world may have stopped spinning?? however, i am not eating too much so not a huge deal. i am just not planning and planning is the most important part. having leftovers helps too so i stop eating on the run.

ok. i'm out. catcha on the flip side.

i am boring

ok, not much going on to write about around here. last weekend was thanksgiving here and it was a nice weekend. weather was nice, being off work for 3 days was nice, no sport things with h was nice, and time with family was nice.

on saturday we went to the pumpkin patch. first time in my life it wasn't a messy muddy mess. seriously like in 35 years. ok i have not been to the pumpkin patch every year of those 35 but i can say for the last 5 or so it has NEVER been this dry. the weather has been amazing this fall. on monday the kids were actually playing in the sprinkler (24c). crazy. it has been foggy though the last couple of days and the RAIN is supposed to be here by the weekend. so sad. so i am being proactive and planning a sunny holiday for february. i was thinking cancun or cuba again. so was s. now he is thinking orlando which i am not so excited about. i will win. yes i want to disney/universal but i want to relax more. the thought of theme parks, driving, eating, ... makes me anxious. i think cuba/mexico and i sigh with relaxation. i seriously just sighed. i love holidays. if we do orlando i think i want to do it with more people.

i am drinking a herbal mojito tea. i was hoping it would magically transport me to somewhere tropical.
nope, i am still here.

here is a picture from the pumpkin patch. my son and 3 out of 4 of my nephews. this is what happens when there is a gang of boys around. i can not show you the pictures when they included the little pumpkins as another male part of the body. seriously, they are embarrassing.

So bad but SO good

So this is what i am making for dinner. Oh my gawd it is good.  I have been sneaking mouthfuls of it all day and it was yummy BEFORE i put an entire pack of cream cheese in. Next time i will use half a pack or none. I added bacon. Of course i added bacon.

So yummy.  Pinterest link below.

Source: laurabrowe.blogspot.com via Jen on Pinterest

How you doing? (say it like joey, come on i know you want to)

so how am i doing? i am doing well. adapting to working full time still and trying to squeeze life in. we seem to be doing ok. mondays and tuesdays i am now working a couple of hours earlier so that means i can be home for dinner 2/5 week nights a week and home before he goes to be every night. that is definitely a huge bonus. i am enjoying being a supervisor but i would not want to do my normal job full time. i think i would go nuts or nutser? right now i am supervising until the end of november and then we will see where life takes me. wow, that was very chill for me. ommmmmm.

besides that i have not been exercising a ton and when i do it isn't really intense. i did strength train twice this week and i hadn't done that a while. i also did not ride my bike this week but i do not care to discuss that right now. i am walking and doing the elliptical mostly. i am not burning a crazy amount of calories or working out nearly as intensely as i used to. you know what i have noticed? i am not having huge hunger cravings nor junk cravings. i am able to stay in my range of 1200 net calories most days. when i used to exercise the way i did i would think about food all the time. ALL the time. now i do believe part of this is because i am working all day for 5 days and i am not home alone and somewhat bored so turn to food.

nothing else really exciting going on. trying to figure out our vegas trip. s keeps flopping back and forth if he is coming or not. then he was going to go with a friend for the same weekend but not stay with me? weird? i refuse to sleep in a room with another strange man cause i have never even met this dude. i would like him to come with me and when i am spending time with my girls he can spend the time with his guys but i would like to come home to him at some point. oh, vegas is dumb expensive on the weekend. seriously. 2 nights is going to cost us what 4 weekday ones usually cost us.

we are also looking at a trip south in February. likely cancun or mayan riviera. however, i found a package to panama that looked pretty cool and was on sale. only issue flight to panama is almost 8 hours compared to 5.5-6 to cancun. i haven't been to either but panama obviously feels more foreign. not sure if it matters if we mainly stay on the resort anywhoo.

below i put another picture from Kauai which i stole from s's facebook page. it was taken at a place called Queens Bath. very pretty. pictures never do places justice.

tata for now! gotta go finish cleaning my oven. i am using a way i found on pinterest.

Source: somewhatsimple.com via Jen on Pinterest