Summer Activities

This past week (on my anniversery) we went to a birthday party for Kelly's sister's kids. They live at the end of Steamboat Island Rd and so we spent our time at the beach. This is the turtle that Mackenzie and I made. Notice the "eggs" she is burying. Just a little touch of realism. The party was pretty fun this year because we didn't just lay around eating sweets. We played volleyball, built sand sculptures, and tried swimming, but since this is Washington and swimming doesn't work we just got wet up to the waist.

Related to water, I was giving Spencer his first bath alone where we just let him play in the water. He is definitely a splasher. I should have been playing the song "Splish Splash" just to top off his bath. The main reason I let him play by himself is he is scooting along pretty well. I will post a video of him scooting later.

In other news Kelly is on her final week of Once Upon a Mattress (the story of the Princess and the Pea). It has been a long 6 weeks of being by myself. People would think that I am just getting a taste of what it is like to be a stay at home parent, but Kelly leaves for work just just before afternoon naps and comes back just before dinner. The time to get outside passes because the kids nap for about 2 hours and wake up in time to help me make dinner. It would be easier if Kelly was gone a little earlier so we could all go out and play without worrying about what time it is so Kelly can leave on time. It will be nice when we have a little more stable schedule in the Fall. I will miss the time with the kids, but I will enjoy the time I do have with them.

Here are some new pics of our kids. Enjoy.

Personal goals

Kelly and I decided that we need a goal other than losing weight and feeling better while we work on changing our habits. We are entering a mini-triathlon next August that has a 400 meter swim, 14 mile bike ride and a 5k run. I think it will be fun. If you want to see more about the triathlon goto http://www.buduracing.com/

Spencer Stages

Spencer is currently trying to crawl. I love this stage cause he looks like he is revving an engine just before he takes off. He will get on all fours and rock back and forth for a little while, fall over and roll around a while till he gets enough strength to try again. It's rather funny to watch.

Bedtime routines

Lately Mackenzie has been having a hard time going to sleep. She has been going to bed kicking and screaming. This started a day or two after she got rid of her pacifier. After talking with Megan, Kelly and I changed the routine so Mackenzie would find some other way of relaxing and going to sleep. We read and sing to her still, but we gave her time to read on her own. We prop a pillow up and give her two books, then leave. She gets 5-10 minutes of reading time (depending on whether or not we remember to check on her) then we come back in turn off her light and kiss her goodnight. It's worked the last two nights. Let's see what happens tonight.

Exercising Blues

Last night Kelly and I decided we needed some new motivation to exercise. I have been working hard at it. I exercise 6 days a week and have done really well for the last two weeks. By the end of the day yesterday we were both exhausted and needed something new. We decided to by new workout clothes. So now I have new workout clothes and I got up this morning and am way too tired. That just kills the motivation. I feel like I haven't slept more than an hour. I don't think I had a bad night sleep but I guess I don't know I did sleep through the experience.

Weight Loss update

Well, losing weight is going okay. I stepped up my work-outs this week and they are definitely more intense. I'm really tired tonight and the only reason I'm still up at 10:40 tonight is because of Spencer.

In this time of trying to lose weight I started to use sparkpeople.com (That was in April) but I was so busy with concerts and packing up my room that I just couldn't keep up with it. I started it up again and have found it to be helpful with exercising because they have strength training exercises that don't need a gym or any equipment really.

While exploring sparkpeople I found some recipes that I really like. Here's one that we had tonight for Dinner:

Slow-Cooker Salsa Chicken
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup salsa
1 package reduced sodium taco seasoning (Half packet was more than enough)
1 can reduced fat cream of mushroom soup (condensed) (I used cream of chicken)
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream (This is more to taste than anything)
(Next time I am going to shred the chicken and add black beans)

Directions

Add chicken to slow cooker.
Sprinkle taco seasoning over chicken.
Pour salsa and soup over chicken.
Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.
Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.
Serve with rice or in a tortilla


Number of Servings: 6

The Cornwall Melting Pot

Yesterday was an interesting day. Kelly and I have discovered that we are expert melters. We melted a latex bottle nipple in the dish washer (That smells really bad, by the way). In the evening we were making cookies and left a plastic tupperware lid on the stove and apparently our oven heats up the stove top really well and now we have some goo for a lid. I do have to say that these meltings are comparable to the time we lived in Pullman and melt a bag of oreos to the top of our toaster oven.

The other part of our melting experience yesterday was a good part, we went over to mom's house and made strawberry jam. I like cooking and jam is so easy. The last time we made jam was last year and we still have a little bit left. So now it's time to stock up again. I can't wait till raspberry's and blackberry's are ready. Yummy!

No Pain No Gain

I don't know who came up with the phrase no pain no gain, but I am sore and I weigh more. I tend to lose weight when I don't exercise and don't spend my days being so sore. (*This is simply a fluke, I just happened to weigh myself this morning and was up a pound from the last time. My muscles are really fatigued because I have been working out all week at a fairly high intensity.) It can be depressing when you know you need to exercise, but not much comes off when you do.

If you don't know my goal is to be about 210lbs. by the end of the year. Most of the work needs to be done during the summer and the school year will be about maintaining. Ideally I would like to be 190. Currently I stand at 248.

In other news, Mackenzie has started trying to distract us to delay things like nap and bedtime. We will mention that it's time to go to bed and she will say she has to go potty even though she just did 2 minutes before that, or she'll point to an old scrape and say that it hurts and needs to be kissed. Then, after this has all failed to delay the inevitable, she wants the other parent to put her to bed.

Spencer is rolling over like mad now. I have learned very quickly that a clean house keeps the parents happy because they aren't constantly pulling paper or magazines out of the mouth of small children. Maybe that's why I still lose weight with out formal exercise.

A Very Simple Dance

I think Mackenzie is the cutest kid in the world, and just to prove it I have video taped her doing "A Very Simple Dance" from Bert and Ernie Sing-A-Long.