sweet moments

First of all, how much does my child look like bat boy in the above photo?

 

Tonight I was laying on the coach being lazy and I thought to myself "I really should do another day on my 5K app."  Tomorrow evening is crazy busy so I knew I wouldn't be able to squeeze it in then, and it was still early with some light out.  Ryan asked me to put Isaac to bed before I left, and in a desperate attempt to avoid bedtime, Isaac asked to come with me.  And I agreed.  Even though he was in cargo shorts and soccer cleats.

 

And it was really fun.  He ran with me through all of the running intervals and we chit chatted together during the walking ones.We would shout out encouragement to each other to keep going.   It was such a sweet little bit of time with him without competing with electronics or phones.    And as we approached the house at the very end, he turned to me, grabbed my hand, lifted it above my head and said "Should we finish this together?" and we sprinted home.  I think he has been watching one too many episodes of The Biggest Loser but it was totally precious. 

Monday

• I ran a mile and biked five tonight. Not bad. I could have run more but my allergies are causing my lungs to close up and I wasn't in the mood for wheezing and keeling over. Tomorrow is Zumba, so the week is off to a decent start as far as excercise is concerned. And I tend to eat a million times better on days that I bother to work out. Hopefully I can stick with it for a while, because I have a whole closet full of summer shorts and capris that are too small, which is just depressing.

• I got a great Groupon a few weeks ago 20 bucks for 45 dollars worth of stuff from the Body Shop. Since I am obsessed with The Body Shop, I couldn't pass it up. I bought two lip butters, a lip balm, a body butter and two shower gels and I am in love with the shower gels. One is grapefruit which is one of my favorite scents for shower gels. It just smells fresh and citrusy and yummy. The other is almond which just smells nutty and delicious.

• Speaking of depressing, I'm helping plan a bridal shower for a girl who goes to my church. Her name is also Lisa and I keep getting e-mails that are intended for her about aspects of the shower. I'm in charge of the invitations. I picked up a cute wedding type stamp at AC Moore tonight. I should be able to whip up something cute... I hope... or it will be horrible and I will end up spending even more money on store bought invites. We'll see.

Another E-harmony winner. This was on a new match's profile under the section "Other information you might want to know about me": I'm not on here for the right partner, but to choose someone and make her right. Uh... make her right? Not too sure how that works. I promptly hit the archive button on that one. Well that's all for now. Counting down the days until June 15th!!

Gym fail

So I ate it on the treadmill today.

I stepped off to retrieve the cap to my water bottle and without thinking stepped right back on. Not unlike this guy:

The gym was full of senior citizens and I think I gave them a good laugh. =)

ugh

Did this this morning. The girl is annoying perky but for only ten minutes it was a heck of a workout.

We had a snow day today but Isaac miraculously had school. His district cancels for anything and earlier in the week I had to take him along to work with me when they cancelled and I still had school. Anyways today, I sent him to school, went grocery shopping (a finally remembered to bring all my clipped coupons! I saved a ton), got my eyebrows waxed, etc. I squeezed in a gym trip too which I don't usually get to on Fridays. I ran nearly two miles, which is the furthest I have since I abandoned running this summer and felt incredible. Excercise is the ultimate energy booster. It was a good day. I had a dream about summer dating guy the other night. We were with a group of friends in Phoenixville trying to walk to a venue to see a concert. Except that as we were walking and hurrying we lost our group somehow. Then suddenly we were on rollerblades skating along towards the venue. Then he stopped to play guitars with a homeless person and said he would catch up with me in a minute. I went to venue and saved him a seat and he never came. I don't think you have to be Freud to read between the lines there. ANYWAYS... I don't know if you have heard about this, but here's reason number 309203844 to hate hope that lighting strikes dislike Glenn Beck. I know there is a following of people who subscribe everything he says, but let me assure you people are not being shot or stabbed regularly in Old City. It's a very safe area. It's where the Real World house was, for crying out loud. MTV would not put the Real World kids in the ghetto. Philly doesn't suck Glenn Beck. *YOU* suck. Anyways, despite a productive day, it's been an unproductive evening. I am just chilling at home on a payday Friday night. Isaac is at his dad's house and I am home and bored, laying on a freshly changed flannel sheets and listening to Aimee Mann. I got in touch with exactly five different people to see if anyone wanted to join me for a movie but sometimes it just doesn't work out. I am not opposed to going to the theater alone, but tonight I just didn't feel like it. I debated retail therapy to lift my spirts and even paid my old boyfriend TJ MAXX a visit (although I frequently cheat on him with my other lovers - Ross and Marshall). I oogled some sparkly platform shoes:

and a fushia peacoat but ultimately left empty handed.

Anyways, my house is a big cluttery mess but I am just sitting wasting time reading and screwing around on the computer. I did take the time to go through my blog reader though and pair down my subscriptions to 84 blogs. That is reducing virtual clutter at least.

Tomorrow I have plans to get lunch with my mom and do some thrift store shopping. Hopefully I will have some good loot to show off after that trip. I really miss Isaac. I look forward to my weekends "off" but it is always sad to have him gone and always good to have him back home.

Anyways, now I'm just rambling. Have a lovely weekend all!

Saturday update

I just used this tutorial to make my new blog header. I know it looks pretty basic, but not too bad for my first try I think. New year, new look. I think it captures the basic elements of my lack of domesticity. Except I couldn't come up with an image that represents "perpetually single". =P I'm up ridiculously early for a Saturday. Isaac came in before seven o'clock. I love how during the week I have to drag him out of bed at that time to get ready for school but on Saturdays he is bright eyed and bushy tailed, climbing into bed with me. I kept laying there with my eyes closed, determined to drift back off, but my neighbor's car alarm was going off repeatedly. At about seven o'clock I gave up officially. My dad should be coming over today. I got curtains for my living room way back in November for my birthday and they have been sitting in a box in my kitchen ever since. My mom is in California visiting her sister so I managed to convinced my dad to make the drive from the Lanc to come and put them up and hang out for a while. I think it would go a long way to making my house look more cozy and homelike. After living here nearly two years, I have hardly any curtains up anywhere. I've almost knocked out Something Blue by Emily Griffin which will bring my total of books read since Christmas to 3. Some of my friends/co-workers are forming a book club, so I need to pick up the book and get working on that. I love discussing books with other people, but I haven't had a forum to do that since college. I hope everyone takes it as seriously as I plan to. The book is Sarah's Key. Anyone ever read it? I can't remember the author offhand. As much as I love my fluffy chick lit, I think I am ready to shift gears into something more meaningful. Anyways, I should clean my house before my dad gets here so he doesn't faint when he sees the state of my bathroom. I'm also trying to squeeze in a trip to the gym this morning. We made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies last night and I need to do something to try to counterbalance the five or six I have eaten since then. Plus, I am (very slowly) getting back into the groove of running again, and I am sort of looking forward to getting on the treadmill and pushing myself more. Hope your Saturday is fabulous!!

My favorite Christmas song. Enjoy! I'm blogging, because I'm procrastinating doing other boring things that need done. Like vacuuming. And cat boxes. And mopping. I went to the gym today though, and sometimes when I work out in the morning, I feel like that gives me a free pass to be a lazy ass the rest of the day. I was not feeling the workout, but I made myself go over, because, I mean, it's a wide open Saturday and Isaac is at his dad's. How I can I possibly NOT go? As always, convincing myself to go is pretty much the whole battle because once I get there I feel great and when I leave I wonder why I don't make myself go more often. So anyways, I'm on the treadmill and I'm running and in the zone with Pitbull blasting through my ipod and I was actually covering a decent amount of ground considering I haven't been working out regularly since August when this guy from the gym approaches me. I pop out one of my earbuds, thinking that maybe the treadmill is making, like a horrible noise that I am unaware and he is coming over to tell me. But noooooo, he's coming over to try to pitch his personal training session to me. That is one thing I hate about this gym. They are so aggressive in pushing their training packages on you. But I've never been approached mid-run with headphones in and I was livid and lit into the guy about how I come to work out in peace and not be harassed. It was ridiculous. I get mildly annoyed when they approach me on the way in or out of class, but it is to be expected. But don't come over to me and interrupt my workout. Too much. Anyways... Last night was payday Friday and i did a little shopping and then PDH came over and we watched a movie (I know, I know, I know). It was a mediocre time at best. I keep forgetting that we had very little in common when we were dating, and now we have even less in common. We really don't have very much to say to each other beyond idle chit chat which is just dumb and pointless. We wanted to go to the movies, but nothing playing looked interesting. So then we decided to rent a video. We rented Date Night (which was cute!). He was texting back and forth with a girl "friend" the whole time which he wouldn't share any details about, but he did say it was someone he loaned all of his Big Bang Theory DVD's to, which is what he did when we first started dating. Not that I was jealous. Honestly. I don't want to get back with him. It just further emphasized what a stupid idea it is to keep hanging around with him and how we are both moved on and uninvested in each other and made me so annoyed with myself that I have this fear of being alone in my house all weekend to the point that I am sitting there next to someone who is texting someone else all night. It's ridiculous. My DVD player died part way through the movie (it's been on it's last legs for about a year now but it finally gave up the ghost), so we had to finish the movie on the computer balancing my laptop awkwardly between us. After the movie was over he ended up getting kind of sick and then the last straw was as he was leaving he purposely kicked my cat. I pretty much slammed the door behind him. I think I put too much pressure on myself to have big plans on the weekends Isaac is away, and as a result I end up in situations like that. I wish I could be more comfortable being alone. In about three months or so when I begin to think back fondly on our good times together, someone please redirect me to this blog post.

Speaking of old habits that die hard, Isaac's dad just texted me but I did NOT give him the satisfaction of engaging. We always have the same old fight over him taking Isaac back to Africa (where he is from). It's a moot point really because he has no money or actual plans to go back to Africa anytime soon but it is something we feel very strongly about. I resisted the urge to tell him the only time Isaac will be going to Africa before the age of fifteen will be if I am cold and dead in my grave and simply said "If you wish to discuss this please call me". He won't. He hates talking on the phone, especially when he knows I am mad. But come on, I refuse to have an argument serious conversation over text. Get real.

Let's see. What else? Oh, Monday I took a sick day and finally had good old tooth 31 extracted. The one that has been causing me so much pain since the summertime. I woke up, got Isaac off to school, sat down and ate breakfast and then put my bowl in the sink before I remembered: I wasn't supposed to eat or drink anything in preparation for the anesthesia. Which is just so classic me, isn't it? I freaked out, because I had taken the day off of work, and mom had driven in from the Lanc to be my driver, etc. We went over and they gave me the choice of doing it awake or coming back later in the day. I chose to come back later in the day. I was grateful I could still have the procedure done that day and with no troubles. They gave me a script for Vicodin but I didn't even have to take any OTC drugs. I was in no pain at all. I wish I hadn't put it off for so long. Anyways, I'm glad that's pretty much done. I hope it's okay to leave a big gaping hole there for a while, because I am pretty much tapped out in the "unexpected medical expense" column of my budget.

I was reading Cosmo in bed this morning and there was this whole article about how I am already more than halfway through my peak biological time for having babies. Cosmo, I hate you: I count on you for fluffy mindless drivel and now I can't stop thinking about how by the time I will probably have another kid my eggs will be all old and shriveled up and useless. Thanks a lot.

Christmas cards and gifts are starting to trickle in, which I love! I mailed a big pile of our cards and I will be addressing the rest before the weekend is out. My own shopping is pretty well underway, but I haven't done any wrapping yet.

Anyways, I guess I should log off and go do something. Enjoy your weekend!

Chilly Saturday

It's not a payday weekend. And Isaac and I found ourselves pretty bored with nothing to do. It's easy to think of free/cheap stuff to do when it's nice out, but it's definitely more of a challenge to keep from going stir-crazy when the temperatures begin to drop. So I got out the bike rack, bundled us up and headed back to our old stomping grounds to do the bike trail. Now that Isaac is a whiz at the two wheeler, I thought it would be fun to take him to an endless paved trail where he wouldn't have to worry about watching for cars. Once we got there I realized it was actually quite a bit colder than I had thought. Isaac was a good sport though and off we went.

Doing pretty well on his two-wheeler.

We took a break on the swings.

Taking a picture of yourself on your cellphone while riding a bicycle is not as easy at you would think.

I sure miss my old neighborhood where we had a variety of bike trails available at our fingertips.

Poor kid had to really keep his little legs pumping to try to keep up. It's hard on a one speed bicycle.

I want a coin belt...

Found this online video (can't imbed it sorry). It is the same routine that we do in my Zumba class but no one in my class wears cool coin belts. No fair!

"I kill people and I eat hands... that's two things"

I've been very busy lately. With what? I'm still not sure. But anyhow, I'm catching up on my 30 Days of Me. Whatever Tickles My Fancy: This video. It is sort of twisted but Isaac and I have watched this video probably 75 times today. Everytime there is a quiet moment Isaac will quietly say "Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarl!" A Talent Pounding out IEPs at the last minute in a single sitting. A Hobby Yoga. My favorite new hobby/obsession. =)

A Recipe

This was Becky Moulder's Fabulous Raisin Swirl bread that we made one of our "get domestic" tutorials.

Perfect Swirl Raisin Bread 5 ½ -6 cups bread flour 1 packet (1 tablespoon) dry active yeast 2 ¼ cups milk ¼ cup Crisco/shortening (butter flavor or regular) 1/3 sugar 2 teaspoons salt 2 cups raisins 2 tablespoons cinnamon ½ cup sugar 4 cups powdered sugar (6x or 10x is fine) ¼ cup milk ½ teaspoon vanilla Combine 2 ½ cups flour and yeast in a large mixing bowl. In a 1-quart glass measuring bowl or microwave-safe bowl, stir together the milk, sugar, shortening, and salt and heat in microwave for about 3 minutes on HIGH until shortening is melted. The milk mixture should be about 100-110°F (bath temp). Let it cool for a few minutes if it is too hot. Add the milk mixture to the flour and yeast and stir well. Mix in the raisins and enough flour (generally another 2-2 ½ cups) to form a slightly sticky dough. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead for 3 minutes, adding more flour as needed. You usually won’t need all 6 cups. The dough should feel smooth and elastic at this stage, like a baby’s bottom.

Cover the dough with a clean dish towel and allow it to rise in a warm area until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. Once the dough has doubled, punch it down and divide it in half. Use a rolling pin to roll out each piece of dough into a rectangle measuring about 16” x 10”. Sprinkle each rectangle with a teaspoon of water and spread it evenly with your fingers (this helps the sugar and cinnamon to stick). Sprinkle each rectangle evenly with 1 tablespoon cinnamon and ¼ cup of sugar, making sure to spread both to all edges. Be liberal with the cinnamon; that’s where the elusive perfect swirl comes from! Carefully roll up each rectangle lengthwise, starting with one of the longer sides. Tuck the ends underneath the roll to form a long loaf and ensure that the seam is on the bottom so that the bread doesn’t unroll while baking. Transfer both loaves to a lightly greased baking or cookie sheet. You can also place the loaves on a lightly greased sheet of parchment paper before putting them on the baking sheet to save some cleanup time and make sure they don’t stick to the pan.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Allow the loaves to rise again in a warm area until doubled in size, this time about 30 minutes. Bake the loaves in the center of the oven for 30 minutes or until nicely browned. The bottoms should also be slightly brown and the bread should sound hollow when tapped. Allow bread to cool. In a bowl or large plastic Ziploc bag, combine powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Mix or squeeze well to make a thick, but still pourable icing. Add more milk or powdered sugar as needed to get this consistency. Spread the icing over the cooled loaves using a spatula or cut a small hole in the corner of the bag and drizzle the icing over the loaves. Enjoy! You’ve earned it! A Website This cute tutorial for crayons letters...

That should catch me up for now. I'll post a life update soon.

Random gym stuff

• Why every time do I go to the gym and I want to watch some Bravo is it super old reruns of Top Chef? I don't want to watch Carla and Hung. Give me some Kathy Griffin or some Bethenny Getting Married. Sheesh.
• Speaking of gym pet peeves what is with women my mom's age wearing THONGS to the gym. THONGS!!!!! Don't ask me how I know; I mean, it's obvious. You're standing right in front of me in your skin tight workout pants with obvious thong lines. incidently, I'm talking black leggings with lace at the bottom. **Shudder** Now don't get me wrong, I've been known to rock a thong. There are certainly times when it is appropriate. THE GYM IS NOT ONE OF THOSE TIMES!!! It's okay to have granny panty lines when you are sweating to death on a treadmill. Or better yet, wear pants that are a tiny bit looser. Sheesh. **Stepping down off soapbox**
• In other news, I've started a running regimen. Never in my whole life (even when I was skinny and in super in-shape) have I ever been able to run for more than a few minutes and I pretty much felt like I was going to die the whole time. I got sick of it though. I'm only 28 for crying out loud. There is no reason that I shouldn't be able to run a mile, despite my someone more rounded physique. Also, I can bike 20 miles. I know it's different muscles and stuff but if I can pound out 20 miles on the bike there is no reason I shouldn't be able to run ONE.
• So I am proud to announce that for the first time IN.MY.LIFE. I have been able to run more than a mile. Today I've built up to 17 straight minutes which is *almost* a mile and a half. I know, I'm sure there are serious runners reading this who are scoffing but it's a big deal for me. So anyways, I working on it. If I can keep progressing my goal is a 5k sometime in the fall. And at this point I would now say I would I have a love/hate relationship with running, as opposed to my former hate/hate relationship. I am finding myself looking forward to my running days. So that's fun.
• I'm also still loving yoga again. Unfortuneatly I haven't been able to go as much as I would like, because one of the classes is scheduled when the gym childwatch is closed.

Here are some of my favorite poses (I love the balance ones!):

Chair Pose

Tree pose

So fun and relaxing.

namaste

I did yoga tonight for the first time since college. Suprrisingly, I am still pretty limber, considering how round and out of shape I have become over the years. Anyways, I forgot how much I LOVE it. I hope I can continue to do it at least once a week even once school starts up again. It's so relaxing. I love the chance to be still and focus on breathing and stretching and being in the moment. Check out this (not terribly research based) article that lists 77 benefits of yoga.

show me what I'm looking for

• I just finished twenty mins of jump rope in the driveway. It's the only cardio I can do here. After Isaac's in bed I take the jump rope out. I can't do it for very long but it sure gets my heart pumping and makes me feel like at least I haven't spent my whole day being a lazy bum.
• I'm also relearning all the old jump rope tricks I used to be able to do, like skipping, crossies and swinging it around twice in one jump.
• What I really need to do is give in and get a gym membership again. There are so many that just opened around I want to take the time to compare all the costs and I just haven't taken the time to do that.
• Speaking of excercise, how about my one sneaker just vanished? I have waited almost a month hoping it will turn up and it just hasn't. I changed out of my sneakers in the parking lot by the river trail and I think one of them must have fallen out of the car or something. I need to call Nike and see if I can purchase just one shoe, because it was a brand new pair. Only me....
• I had a dentist appointment today for a filling. It hurts like hell and I still can't chew on that side. The dentist said it could be sore for possibly the next month.
• Just finished another Jodi Piccoult book House Rules. I was 207th the waiting list at the library when I saw it on a shelf at my mom's house. I am a big fan of her books generally and this book is set around a character with Asperberger's, so I was into it at first. But my overall thought was just meh. It was extremely repetitive (at least 1/3 was descriptions over and over of charactertics of aspbergers) and the ending didn't make sense. Definitely did not compare to My Sister's Keeper or 19 Minutes.
• My next book is:

• So I'll let you know how that one is.

• I've been doing more reading in my room at night since I can't watch TV. Why not, you ask? Because the cats have chewed through both of the cords I use to sync/charge my ipod and then recently Cody chewed through the cable cord, so no more TV in my room. It's ridiculous. Good thing they are ridiculously cute.

• I don't have to much to write about. My days are filled with a few hours of incredibly easy work, catchy up on odds and ends, and doing whatever I can to maintain my tan. It's a tough life, but I think I deserve it, as hard as I work during the school year.

"We need society, and we need solitude also, as we need summer and winter, day and night, exercise and rest." -- Philip Gilbert Hamerton

What I'm Up To

Life is good... seriously.... I freakin LOVE summer vacation. Crossing things off the to-do list Kind of mundane but now I finally have time to cross things that have been lingering on the to-do list forever. Things like seeing the doctor about the excema patch I've had on my eyelid for like six months. It's great to get my life a little more organized. Also some fun things too. Isaac and I took a trip down to the beach which was lovely. Hopefully we can squeeze in at least a few more day trips there, plus our big trip as a family in August. Summer School Easy breezy. The kids aren't too bad, the day goes fast, and I like to think they are having fun. I'm putting a lot of effort into trying to make it exciting and not just worksheets and flashcards all day. The kids who were such pickles during the year aren't a part of summer school, so that helps as well. I just turned in my time sheet yesterday and can't wait for my next paycheck with the extra cash. Maybe then I can finally afford get some paint up on the remaining walls. Walking My friend Kim and I are on a big walking kick. I figure, if I'm only working 8 hours a week, there is no reason why I can't get serious about excercising this summer. We have been walking along the River Trail. The past two days we did about 4.6 miles. Yesterday, due to the heat wave we are in the middle of, I totally tried to bail. I mean, I figure the fact that it is literally 105 degrees outside should be reason enough to skip. She insisted we still go and we were about a half a mile into our walk when it began to POUR with crazy lightning and wind. I seriously felt as if I were drowning! The crazy part was the amount of steam that was coming up off the sidewalks. It's that hot here. When it was all said and done our fronts were 100% soaked but our backs and bottoms were nearly dry. This was useful since we had to get back in the car and drive home. Anyways, afterwards I saw that power had gone out all over the place, it had hailed in many places near the city, trees were down all over and that some people had suffered property damage. Sheesh. Wedding Season So I went to this lovely bridal shower for my friend from Pitt Nicole. She was my randomly assigned freshman year roommate and we ended up living together all throughout college. She is from Lancaster, which is where my parents live now. Anyways, my friends (also girls I lived with at various points) showed up and it was the first time I had seen them since the Pitt days over seven (!!!!!!) years ago. Let me see if I can wrestle up a before picture.

Here was the picture we took at El Serrano:

It's wierd cause on the one hand college doesn't seem that long ago but on the other hand I have a five year old. Unreal. Oh and while we were there Nicole gave her bridesmaids their dresses. It is the EXACT same dress in the exact same color as my bridesmaids dress for my sister's wedding. It's a good thing I saw them because it had sort of been my plan to wear the dress to Nicole's wedding (it's more like a party dress). How awkward would that have been to be wearing the same dress as all of the bridal party????

Anyways, that's all for now. How is summer treating you?

so what?

How you can tell I am *not* a hardcore biker on the River Trail:

I do not have these: or these: And I DEFINITELY don't have these: And I was passed 3 times by people in their 70s riding these: and I think this:

works as well as that:

And my cars keys/cellphone and ipod? They are stored RIGHT in the sports bra. (I'll spare you a picture of that one).

I may not be the spiffiest or the fastest, but I'll still be out pedaling.

*bang, bang*

If listening to "The Warrior" by Scandal on repeat play for roughly an hour is wrong, I don't want to be right.... Whatever helps you keep your heartrate up, right? Even if it means embarassing yourself because you don't see your neighbor in his front yard with his dog at the moment you decide to belt out "Viiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiictory is mine!"

...yeah

So I have a question for all you excerciser types out there.

What do you do to prevent this?

I'm hoping there is another answer besides "Wear thick dorky socks".

Will my heels eventually develp calluses?

Or will the insides of my shoes just forever be a bloody mess?

It's not fair

How come you can eat a cheeseburger and immediately grow a food baby and feel fatter and disgusting, but you can excercise and excercise and excercise and eat tons of salads and vegetables and still feel like you are struggling to buckle up your jeans? I know I need to be more patient and keep fighting the good fight... These things don't happen overnight... I'm trying hard, but it's discouraging. I was never a heavy girl growing up, and I hate that since my pregnancy five(!!!) years ago I look in the mirror and literally don't recognize the person I see staring back at me. I have much more to write on this subject, including some new fitness equipment purchases and the report on adult gymnastics... I'm so tired though I will end it here.

so I'm a creepster

But I had to document my neighbor's making a full blown gym in their front yard last weekend. Considering our yards are the size of postage stamps it was fairly ridiculous. As if it wasn't bad enough seeing all of the squats and lunges... See that blue scooter on the middle of the sidewalk? They were laying with it on their stomachs and propelling themselves along like beached whales.

Isaac and I spied on them and mocked them for the whole two hours or so they were out there (and yes, I realize I will probably be going straight to hell, since the last time I did a lunge was probably over a year ago).

Quick update

• I've never been a fan of crime type shows but can't stop watching Criminal Minds. Probably because it is so psychological. And they always start the next episode as soon as the first one is finished so you get sucked in watching episode after episode.

I want to be Garcia:

• I was social and went out with a friend Friday; King of Prussia Mall H&M, Urban Outfitters, and DSW = fantastic Friday. I oogled somethings in Urban Outfitters home section, but I didn't ultimately buy anything. Then we finished up our evening at California Pizza Kitchen. It was fun. While I was out with her she persuaded me to try out her adult gymnastics class. It's on Wednesdays which is the night mom sleeps over, so it would actually be doable. I am 98% certain I will feel ridiculous attempting the recreate the gymnastics moves I had perfected as a kid. I'm not sure how my chubby out of shape body will take to it, but she assures me there are all different ability/fitness levels, so I am willing to give it a try. I need some new things in my life and if it helps me be a tiny bit more physically active instead of laying around all day cooking under the laptop, that's a good thing, right?

• Speaking of physical activities I used to be into, my church is now offering a kickboxing class on Thursday nights. I would love to go to that as well since it's free and the teacher just recently had a baby, so I'm thinking it shouldn't be all people in spandex with rock hard abs. Swinging a sitter is the only thing, because in typical Relief Society style, they said to have your husband stay home to watch the kids. *Sigh*.

Back to school tomorrow....

2010

2010 Resolutions

(in no particular order)

• Ride my bike to work at least once
• Organize office, craft, sewing and scrapbook supplies and start using the office as a functional craft space
• Finish painting the rest of the house
• Make a loaf of bread from scratch
• Go one week without the internet
• Take at least one mural tour in Philly
• Fly a kite
• Scrapbook 3 pages a month
• Work out twice a week
• Start composting
• Take Isaac camping
• Drink 8 glasses of water a day
• Take a class on something hobby related
• Make progress towards getting my elementary certification (right now I am highly qualified in elementary ed, but it is more desirable to be dually certified)
• Floss daily
• Read three books before I head to the beach
• Eat more homemade meals and less frozen stuff and fast food
• Grow something edible and eat it
• Write a blog post when each of these is completed