I am NOT a morning person....and, MUSIC MONDAY! (on Tuesday)

Yesterday marked the beginning of the youngest kiddo's third week back to school. Being a notorious night owl I find myself, quite predictably, dragging, lagging, and almost forcibly having to drag myself out of bed in the mornings. Since Kiddo's bus picks up prior to 7AM this had made getting a healthy breakfast crammed down his throat a difficult, and sometimes dangerous (Seriously, me operating a stovetop BEFORE coffee? That is the definition of dangerous!), activity.

In typical Super!Jenn fashion I turned to my ever trusty companions, Google and Pinterest, to save myself from possible dismemberment and death. The result? CROCKPOT BREAKFASTS!! I am LOVING some of these ideas that I've found lately. This morning's treat du jour? Apple Pie Breakfast...which was actually HEALTHY! Steel cut oats, apples, 100% apple juice, and water. A sprinkle of brown sugar in each bowl and MMMMMMMMMM!

A little side note, though: I read a lot of comments left by people whose oatmeal burned and/or hardened. To circumvent this I used my crockpot as a double boiler. Prepare the ingredients in a bowl that will sit easily inside your crockpot. Place either a couple of balls of foil or a canning jar ring in the bottom of the crock pot, sit the bowl inside, fill the crock pot with water until a little over half of the bowl is submerged. Then just cook overnight, and VOILA!

Oh, and if you want to follow me over on Pinterest feel free...just click here and I'll whisk you to my boards straight away!

Now for my Music Monday Tuesday. (See? I told you I was dragging and lagging!) Did you know that ZZ Top released a new album in June? *nods* Yep! I love these guys! Sure, their music is predictable, but you know what else? It's predictably GOOD. Here's one of the songs from Texicali (the new album)..."I Gotsta Get Paid". Oh, and the album is less than $5 over on iTunes, so go BUY it already!!

Insert Catchy Blog Post Title Here...

Because I'm too sleepy to come up with one on my own. The Hubster and I had a great, fun-filled, weekend getaway to Cincinnati. We stayed in a full service hotel, so we didn't have to lift a finger. We just left the SUV with the valets and walked everywhere. We ingested WAYYYYY too much junky ballpark food. The Reds won (GO REDS!!), the weather was perfect, and the stress just kind of melted away.

Soon to be wall color in our guest room!

We're back home, now, and thus the work begins. I'm letting The Hubster sleep in a bit, right now, since we were up until after 1AM with post-trip hyperactivity. As soon as I finish this, however, I've got to get him awake and fed. Today we set the posts to move our outdoor building to a better spot. Right now the silly thing is about 4-feet off the ground, with stairs to get into it. Not optimal for storing lawnmowers and ATVs, huh? Since I'm helping him set the posts I'm enlisting his help this afternoon in doing paint prep in the oldest kiddo's room. (I need to come up with something else to call him now, since he'll be 21 in 7 months - perhaps man-child? - but, I digress.) He's coming home from college Friday, and I'm hoping to have his room painted beforehand. Keep you fingers crossed for me, as I'm attempting to cover a red wall with a sea glass colored paint (if you don't know what color that is, check out the image on this post!).

Oh, and I'm soooo proud of myself. I got everything from the trip unpacked and put up last night! No small feat, I assure you. Here's the way our evening played out, after we got home yesterday:

1. Arrive home at 5PM.
2. Throw the luggage in the house, all while yelling at the youngest kiddo to get his baseball gear on. (Game was at 6PM, but batting practice was due to start at 5:15)
3. Pack a cooler of water, strawberries, and pineapple (and Gatorade for the ball player!) to snack on. 
4. Make a couple of travel mugs of coffee to keep us coherent.
5. Dash out the door, making it to the ball field just in time for warm-ups at 5:45PM (WOOPS! Missed batting practice, but at least he got there, right?).
6. Tell the coach that we'll be back, then run up to my Parentals' house to retrieve our dog and the youngest kiddo's gear from his stay (This included a middle of the road, Chinese Firedrill that was giggle-inducing!).
7. Dash back to the game with the dog, arriving at 6:30PM.
8. We won the game by mercy rule, so we were done at 7:40PM, at which time we had to head to the store to pick up sandwich making goodies for dinner (What? Like I was going to cook after all of this?!).
9. Arrive home just before 9PM. The Hubster got sandwich stuff out and ready, I put groceries up and unpacked, and the kiddo did his chores and took a shower.

See what I mean? Now you know why The Hubster and I were up until 1AM...it took as that long to wind down! Well, it looks like it's time to dash. Got egg whites and crumpets to nom, work clothes to don, cement and paint to buy, a garden to fertilize, posts to set, and paint prep to do. Crikey, I'm tired just thinking about it!

Couch to 5K - Week 1 Day 2

I had an easier time today. I again warmed up with a 5 minute 3MPH walk. This time, however, I managed to do the first 4 of 8 jogging segments at 4.5 MPH, segments 5 & 6 at 4.3MPH, and the last 2 segments at 4MPH. I cooled down with 3 minutes at 3MPH, 1 minute at 2.5 MPH, and 1 minute at 2MPH. I also didn't feel like I was going to give up this time. I knew I'd get through it. Thanks to my extra pushing on the jogs I burned about 20 more calories this time. Not too shabby, right?

What worries me, though, is that I really didn't enjoy what I was doing this time. There was no sense of pride when I was done. I just felt tired, hot, shaky, and quite sick to my stomach. I couldn't stand the thought of sitting, so I refilled my water bottle and folded a load of laundry before I typed this. I'm hoping that it's just because my body is exhausted from dealing with the bee sting I got the other day. I'm allergic to them, and even after several days on Benadryl the sting site is still red, swollen, and itchy. Of course I also woke up exhausted this morning, and graced with a not too good mood.

I did it though. I came, I jogged, I conquered, and all that rot. Now I'm going to throw a load of towels in the wash, make a cup of holy basil herbal tea, and sit on the porch in the sunshine for a few minutes. Maybe that will put some pep back in my step. I've got a lot of failed deadlines pressing on me, though, so it may not be too effective. One can always hope for an upswing!

Laundry Lottery!

Apparently I am special. I mean, how many people can say that they had Raphael's shell in their laundry, right? Only someone truly special, exceptionally unique could accomplish such a feat; I feel sure!

For those of you scratching your head, Raphael is one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. My youngest son is quite enthralled by them, and has a Raphael costume that he dons quite frequently to fight the evil that hides in his closet.

Also a part of this week's "winnings" are:

• the ever present Bakugan card
• 6 peppermint candies
• 2 empty candy wrappers
• a fuel receipt
• a Post-It note with some hubby scribbles on it
• a HUGE wad of tissue paper (Yeah, I'm still trying to figure this one out!)

That's all for this week, folks! I'm off now to feed my hungry hoard who are, yet again, snowed in with me. The poor kids are going nuts...they've only been to school for 2 1/2 days since December 21st!

Laundry Lottery!

I've been a little remiss in posting my Laundry Lottery pics for the past 3 or 4 weeks, but never fear! I've still been snapping pictures. I'm gonna catch you up in this one post.

From August 25th:

1. A hairnet.
2. The endcap from my ironing board leg.
3. 1 1/2 breathmints.

From September 1st:

1. A quarter.
2. 2 Bakugan Battle Brawlers
3. One Bakugan action card.
4. One receipt.
5. $10.00, BABY!!!! (needless to say we had pizza for dinner THAT night!)

From September 8th:

1. An umbrella.
2. A NY Yankees ballcap.
3. 6 Bakugan Battle Brawlers.
4. A Bakugan action card.
5. My 9-YO's entire Bakugan Battle Brawler gameboard, all the cards, etc., all wrapped up in the quilted orange thing.

From September 15th I have no picture because *insert creepy drumroll here* DUM, DUM, DUMMMM.........there were no "winnings" in the laundry. I almost passed out, for real!

Then, today, I thought I was going to have a dud day again, but was saved at the last minute.

1. A Bakugan Battle Brawler.
2. A used eyeglass lens cloth.

I see from the comments on my original post that we have a new "Laundry Lottery" gal. Welcome aboard, I'm tickled to have you, and make sure to spread the word!!

Laundry Lottery!

Last Tuesday I had something horrible happen. Tuesday is my laundry day. I trekked back and forth to and from the laundry room dutifully. Sorting, washing, drying, folding. Then I got to my dark load and everything came to a halt. You see there was something sticky ALL over everyone's clothing. Something that used to be green. Something that smelled like sour apple. Still clueless? Well, it was what turned out to be 6 pieces of Double Bubble Sour Apple chewing gum. They had gone through my washer and dryer, where they had melted and - much like Voldemort's soul fragment attaching itself to Harry's forehead - become one with my load of clothes.

So, it's now Tuesday again and - you guessed it! - I'm doing laundry. I was determined this week, however, to NOT have a repeat episode. Last weeks almost sent me into a stroke. I was diligently sorting clothes and checking every pocket this morning when I had this idea...

LAUNDRY LOTTERY!!

I mean, c'mon! We've ALL washed gum, frog spawn, rocks, marbles . . . the list goes on and on. We've also all told ourselves, over and over again, that we won't ever forget to check pockets again. *snorts* Yeah, right, like we're never gonna go into a daze sorting and forget to do that again.

Here's the rules:

1. Every week on your laundry day make a pile of your "winnings". This can be either in a pocket OR just mixed in with the laundry.
2. After you've emptied every pocket and basket take a photo of your "winnings".
3. Do a blog post with the subject "Laundry Lottery" and including the picture of your "winnings" and an itemized list. (It's okay to leave embarrassing items off the list and out of the picture, if you wish)
4. Link back to this original post somewhere on your blog so that others can join in and know the rules!
5. Make sure to tag your posts with Laundry Lottery.
6. Comment here so that I can follow your blog and see what you "win"!

To start it all off, here is my Laundry Lottery for this week:


My itemized list is, going from left to right:

1. 2 hairnets
2. $0.55 USD
3. One Strawberries 'n Creme CremeSaver
4. Once croc, which had been missing for 4 days.

Okay, folks, hit me with your best shot!!

Food Journal (3/24/2009)

Breakfast (5)
1 bowl maple & brown sugar Cream of Wheat
3 egg whites
8 oz. coffee
2 Tbsp. non-dairy creamer
2 tsp. sugar

Lunch (7)
Weight Watcher's Smart Ones Pepper Steak
1 1/2 cups salad
2 Tbsp. light ranch dressing

Dinner (11)
2 turkey smoked sausages
1 cup sauerkraut
1/2 cup baked beans
10 tater tots

Evening Snack (5)
10 tater tots
8 oz. coffee
2 Tbsp. non-dairy creamer
2 tsp. sugar

I went 2 points over, because of the whole tater tot thing again. *hangs head in shame* I think I'm going to have to quit making tater tots - they appear to be my weakness!

Food Journal (3/17/2009)

I just started my day by having to call and exchange my Old Navy order for a smaller size. *beams* It has made me so ridiculously proud of myself and what I'm doing that I'm almost in tears!

The best part? One more size to go down and I'll be out of plus size in bottoms!! I sure hope this great feeling lasts throughout the day!!

Breakfast (7)
Maple & Brown Sugar Cream of Wheat
3 egg whites
1 banana
8 oz. coffee
2 Tbsp. non-dairy creamer
2 tsp. sugar

Lunch (8)
Weight Watcher's Smart Ones Pepperoni Smartwich
1 1/2 cups salad
2 Tbsp. light ranch dressing

Dinner (9)
Made a run for the border :P
2 Fresco Ranchero Chicken Soft tacos
1 Pintos 'n Cheese

Evening Snack (2)
8 oz. coffee
2 Tbsp. non-dairy creamer
2 tsp. sugar

Food Journal (3/10/2009)

Breakfast (7)
1 slice whole wheat toast
1 Tbsp. peanut butter
1 banana
8 oz. coffee
2 Tbsp. non-dairy creamer
2 tsp. sugar

Lunch (7)
Turkey Italian sausage & peppers sandwich
100 Calorie Snack Pack Sun Chips

Afternoon Snack (2)
1 apple
1 Weight Watcher's yogurt

Dinner (8)
1 pork chop
1/2 cup mashed potatoes
2 cups spinach

Evening Snack (2)
8 oz. coffee
2 Tbsp. non-dairy creamer
2 tsp. sugar

Food Journal - Day 16

Breakfast (7)
1 slice whole wheat toast
1 Tbsp. peanut butter
1/3 cup Craisins
8 oz. coffee
2 Tbsp. non-dairy creamer
2 tsp. sugar

Lunch (5)
Tuna Sandwich (2 0z. tuna, 1 Tbsp. light mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, red onion)
100 Calories Snack Pack Cheetos

Dinner (9)
1 slice of meatloaf with homemade gravy
1/2 cup mashed potatoes
1 cup broccoli

Evening Snack (5)
8 oz. coffee
2 Tbsp. non-dairy creamer
2 tsp. sugar
100 Calorie Snack Pack Sandies
1/6 cup Craisins

Food Journal - Day 2

Breakfast (6)
1 slice whole wheat bread
1 Tbsp. peanut butter
1 slice turkey bacon
8 oz. coffee
2 Tbsp. non-dairy creamer
2 tsp. sugar

Lunch (7)
1 cup navy beans
1 Roma tomato
1/4 red onion
1 1/2 cups salad
2 oz. tuna
2 Tbsp. light italian dressing

Afternoon Snack (4)
8 multi-grain crisp crackers
1 slice American cheese
1 Tbsp. hummus

Dinner (7)
6" Subway Club on wheat (no cheese, mustard, veggies)
1/2 serving of Craisins

Evening Snack (2)
8 oz. coffee
2 Tbsp. non-dairy creamer
2 tsp. sugar

Met my 26 points for the day, again! I also had 72 oz. of water.

Tuesday

Today was good, surprisingly enough. The boys were out of school today for Veteran's Day, so we all slept in and got up just before 10:00AM. I woke up with a pretty bad headache, so after doing a little bit of my computer work (i.e., checking & answering e-mails, saving & renaming images) I decided to go ahead and do my Tai Chi workout to see if it would ease up my head. I ended up relaxed with a headache *giggle*. I caved in, then, popping a couple of Excedrin Migraine and drinking a glass of ice water.

After a while I realized that even the medicine wasn't cutting it, and decided I needed a good long soak in the tub. I couldn't bring myself to soak in the tub without scrubbing the toilet and bleaching & mopping the floor, first, so I stuck in and got to work. I then rewarded myself with a good, long soak in a clean tub, in a clean bathroom with a candle and a great book (New Moon, for those interested). When I finally emerged I was headacheless and completely relaxed. YAY!

It's funny how something as simple as a headache can force you to take care of yourself and make you feel so happy and content. I didn't manage to finish knitting the hat from yesterday yet - I'm having attention issues with it. It's getting there, though, so no worries. I'd say that, all in all, it's been a very productive day for my stress-level. Hopefully I'll remember to take the time to soak in the tub next time when I don't have a headache and just need a little time for myself - that's what this journey of mine is all about, after all, remembering who I am and what makes me happy.

Hugs & chocolate~

Jenn