Oh wow, I seriously can’t believe I’ve let this much time go without updating my blog! Gah.
In my defense, life was insanely insane last week…Kev was out of town for three days (I hate that!), we had Halloween and all the stuff that accompanies Halloween, and I was running the kids all over heck and back. It was crazy.
The problem with not blogging for a while is that now I have a zillion things to say! I will do my best to not be long winded. Ha.
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My cute daughter got her braces off last week. After two and half years of braces, she was thrilled!
She and I both agreed that she looks several years older now! I’m not so sure that’s a good thing….
I also snapped this beautiful picture last week when I dropped my daughter off at school…
Love!! Now that Daylight Savings Time has ended, I probably won’t be seeing too many sunrises. 😉
I also went to the Elementary school for the annual Halloween costume parade last week. It’s always so darn cute, but it’s soooo hard to get decent pictures of my kiddos!
Exhibit A (my son’s the cowboy at the end of the hall)…
Exhibit B…
Ha ha. Pretty typical. I did snap a couple of normal-ish ones too though…
Yay. My little kindergartner is in Afternoon kindergarten, so he didn’t walk in the parade. I did help in the classroom for his Halloween party though!
We had a very fun Halloween and I was so glad it fell on a Saturday this year! It was great!!! We decided to take the kids to see the movie Goosebumps in the early afternoon.
It was a really cute movie and such a fun thing to do on Halloween! I was worried my 5 year old would be too scared, but he liked it! He was a little bit scared, but he hasn’t been able to stop talking about it since. I guess that means he’s come to grips with the scariness of it all. 🙂
After the movie, we took the fam out to lunch at The Olive Garden (we had a gift card) and it was great! We usually don’t take ALL the kids to nice restaurants, so it was a fun experience for everyone. Case in point, as soon as we got there, my 5 year old asked if they had a PlayPlace. Ha ha ha…uhhh no. The kids all loved it despite the lack of a Playplace, but sadly I didn’t take any pictures. 🙁
As far as Halloween night went; my oldest son hung out with a couple friends, my daughter went to a Halloween party (with girls AND boys….and I gave her a bunch of grief for that….ha ha ha), my 12 year old went Trick-or-Treating with his friends and Kev and I headed out with the little kids.
It’s kind of freaking me out how quickly I’m losing my little Trick-or-Treating sidekicks. Two of our kids are TOO OLD to Trick-or-Treat (sniff, sniff) and another child is too cool to go out with his parents (sniff, sniff.) I thoroughly enjoyed going out with our little ones though. Here was our lineup…
A “Super dog” who looks like a zombie, a Red Ninja, a cute little owl and Batman (complete with the Batman voice.) I even attached a glow stick onto the dog so he would be safe. Hee hee.
We had a fun night and I was proud of my hardcore Trick-or-Treaters.
We left the house around 6:30 and we were out until about 8:30. I’m a HUGE lover of Trick-or-Treating!!! It was such an epic part of my childhood and I have so many fun memories of it, so I’m always trying to live it up (and relive my childhood) with my kids!
Thankfully, we usually have pretty decent weather on Halloween, so it’s a lot of fun to wander the neighborhood and enjoy the evening out and about. We love seeing all of our friends and neighbors out and about as well!
I seriously LOVE Halloween.
However, every year as I see all of the makeshift graveyards and ghouls show up in people’s yards and all of the giant spiders, skulls, witches, goblins, coffins, bloody stuff and people missing limbs appear, I just shake my head and think….WOW, Halloween is such a strange holiday!??!??! My neighbor also has a giant skull on her front porch that glows and I think it’s really beautiful! Really.
So weird.
I really don’t quite understand how Halloween, and all the weirdness that accompanies it, came to be. Even though I’ve read all about the origins of Halloween on the internet, it still doesn’t make sense to me. It baffles my mind that it’s actually an official holiday and is so mainstream…BUT, strangely I love it!
I’m not a fan of the evil stuff though and I do think it can be taken a bit too far. There’s a fine line between good, clean (albeit, weird) Halloween fun and over-the-top evil, creepy stuff and disrespect for human life. Y’all know what I’m talkin’ about.
Anyway, here’s a picture of my 12 year old with his scary clown friends…
He was so excited to “get a ton of candy” with his friends! He wanted to head out Trick-or-Treating at 5:00?!, but I had to keep telling him to relax and just wait until it at least got a little bit dark. He can be quite stubborn at times. 🙂
After we were done Trick-or-Treating, we took our oldest son and his friends to Baskin Robbins to get some ice cream ($1.31 a scoop!) On the five minute drive there, our 5 year old fell asleep in the car. We woke him up to come into the store and he sat down at a table and went right back to sleep! Batman was worn out!
We went to our friend’s house afterward to watch a movie and our 5 year old slept through the whole thing! When we got home, we put him in his bed and he slept all night. He was sooooo tired!
Here are a couple more fun Halloween pictures…
Oh that cute little owl!!! He loved snagging all of the kid’s candy.
My 12 year old and his EPIC candy haul…
He LOVES coming home from Trick-or-Treating and dividing up his candy into groups. I loved doing that when I was a kid too!
Ya know, even though I’m a big fan of healthy eating, I don’t mind Halloween candy too much. Maybe I should care more, but I just know what a FUN childhood memory it is! I’m a sentimental sap. My little kids usually only eat the suckers and gummy/chewy candy anyway and give all the good stuff (a.k.a. chocolate) away to us needy folk (me, Kev and the older kids.) My kids also only seem to eat a lot of candy for a day or two and then forget about it.
Well that pretty much sums up our Halloween! I’m sad it’s over, but I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas! I love this time of year!
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Well, as far and health and fitness goes, I’m just trying to keep things simple!! I really love it. I’ve been trying to simplify my workout schedule, uncomplicate my meals (focusing on eating good food, eating less crap and just eating less in general) and get more sleep (thank you Daylight Savings time!) It’s a great plan for me right now. I’m sure after the New Year, I’ll be ready to start something more hardcore, but for now, this is working out just great.
I’m still not running because my foot STILL hurts! I went to the doc and he said I had Peroneal Tendinosis. I also told my doc about my elbow that’s been bugging me and he said I had Tennis Elbow. Nice.
I feel like an old man.
Yes, I’m pretty much beating myself up. These are both overuse injuries; Peroneal Tendinosis is from running and Tennis Elbow is from weight lifting. I haven’t had too many injuries in my life, so this has been eye opening to me! I like to push myself really hard, but I guess I need to remember that I’m human and I need to take care of my body too!
I’m in an interesting spot in my life right now because I’m almost 40 (ahhhh!) and I’m done having babies. Those two things right there make me want to hit it hard and get into kick-butt shape! However, I know I’ve been working myself too hard. I’m not very good at taking things slow or being patient.
My body is also in a vulnerable spot right now because I did just have a baby (14 months ago…but still!) and I’ve been severely sleep deprived this past year. I can’t help but think that the body would be more prone to injury in those circumstances.
I researched my injuries on the internet, and I must say I’m not too encouraged. It sounds like it can take months or even a YEAR to fully heal! What the???? I think I should eventually heal just fine, but I also read that if these injuries don’t heal then surgery is necessary. What the????? AND TO THINK, I did this to myself!??!?!?
Ya, I’ve really been rethinking things lately.
I seriously need to start doing yoga. I’ve been wanting to add yoga to my rotation for a long time now, but for some reason it just doesn’t interest me!!! I think I need to just do it anyway and maybe it will grow on me!
So, I’ve still been weight lifting, but I’m lifting a lot lighter. I also wear an elbow brace when I work out and I avoid exercises that hurt/strain my elbow and forearm. I’m not running or doing jumping exercises right now, but I’ve still been doing non-jumping Tabata type workouts (squats, Mountain Climbers, push ups, plank ups, etc.) and a little bit of Elliptical and bike riding at the gym.
I recently signed up to run a half marathon with some friends in March!!! Um, ya. I’m nervous. I probably should have waited to sign up until I went to the doctor about my foot, but I didn’t. 🙁 I really didn’t think my foot issue was a big deal and I certainly didn’t think it could take this long to heal!!! I’ll just have to be patient (which I’m not good at) and see how it goes.
As far as my healthy eating goes, I’m just keeping things low-key and simple. I’m not following any rules, but I’m just trying to be accountable and smart in my food choices and portions!
I’ve still been having either a green smoothie or protein shake most days and I love it. They are so quick, easy and simple….perfect for a crazy mother who likes to overcomplicate life! Ha ha.
I also usually have eggs, interesting Greek yogurt creations and things like salads, leftover chicken, protein pancakes or just weird random concoctions such as this….
This is a white cheddar rice cake (yum!) topped with a light smear of natural peanut butter and cottage cheese? Yes, it’s weird…BUT, it’s good! It’s kind of a strange sweet/salty combo. It also fits into the “easy, quick and simple for crazy moms” category.
The other day I realized I had a giant container of cottage cheese in my fridge that was about to expire, so I’ve been putting it on everything. I made a giant batch of Chocolate Protein Pancakes, which has cottage cheese in the mix yesterday….
I put all of these into a freezer bag in my freezer. They are so “quick, easy and simple” to pop into the toaster for a quick snack or meal. I love them! They also scratch my “I want to bake something yummy” itch sometimes too.
I also made some of these today too…
Coconut Chia Seed Protein Balls and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Balls! These are great to have on hand when cravings hit. However, I have to be careful to limit myself to ONE or sometimes TWO after a workout. I’m glad I keep them in the freezer, so I’m not tempted to eat them all day long. Oh, and FYI, I put them on these plates in the freezer for 30-40 minutes (to harden them up) and then I transfer them to a container…
Simple and easy.
I’ve also been keeping dinner very simple these days. I made some easy chicken, mashed potatoes and veggies on Monday. Tuesday is our crazy night, so I just made Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and tomato soup. Easy peasy and everyone loves it.
I made this tomato soup from Costco…
I love it and all of my kids (expect my oldest picky son) enjoy it too. I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich on Ezekiel bread and it turned out great…
I usually make my sandwich open-faced, with only one slice of bread, but this time I decided to get wild and crazy and use TWO slices. I’d also just gotten back from the gym and decided I needed the extra carbs. 😉
I realized later that I probably should’ve added more protein to this meal, but OH WELL, I’m livin’ low-key these days.
I made some White Chicken Chili tonight and everyone loved it. I used the leftover chicken from Monday’s dinner and it made it really slick.
Well, that about sums it up!
I splurged a little bit here and there on Halloween weekend, but now I’m trying to keep it extra healthy until Thanksgiving! My weight has pretty much stayed about the same, but I guess that’s not a bad thing. I still would like to lose about 10 pounds, but I’m not obsessing over it. I’m just focusing on living a healthy, yet livable lifestyle and being consistent with it!
I hope you all have a wonderful night!!!
That white chicken chili sounds scrumptious! I have no trick or treaters at home anymore, but my 13 year old enjoyed helping me hand out candy, and then he went over to my mom’s house and helped her. I’d have let him go out if he wanted to, but he didn’t really have any interest.
My husband had plantar fasciitis one year after we’d signed up for a run and was still able to stay fit until he could train again by doing spin class and cycling. It’s not the same as running, but he was surprised at how easy it was to ramp things back up once his foot healed, and ran one of his best races ever. Good luck!
Oooo, I’m encouraged by your husband’s experience! I worried that my issue was plantar fasciitis as first too. I wish I had a stationary bike at home, but for now I’ll just get ‘er done at the gym! I hope my darn foot heals soon! Thanks for your positive story….it makes me feel a little better. 🙂
You’re NEVER too old to trick or treat!! I went into my 20’s!! Free candy can’t be beat hahaha. I saw Goosebumps too, it was a fun movie and Jack Black was great!
Oh I LOVE that you went Trick or Treating in your 20s! I totally approve and will always be a child at heart. I loved Jack Black in Goosebumps too. It was such a cute show!
OMG I remember when I got my braces off! BEST DAY EVER!! SO happy for your daughter! 🙂 Look out boys! ha ha ha! She’s going to break some hearts, that’s for sure!!
LOL, yes she was counting down the days to get her braces off!
Congrats on your daughter getting her braces off! That’s great! Also, your kids are just so cute! I love all their costumes! 🙂
Thank you so much! My daughter was thrilled. 😉