Home

We are home from vacation. Got back late Thursday afternoon and spent a good portion of today unpacking, doing laundry and getting birthday stuff ready for Fred. His birthday is today and we have presents. :)

Had so much fun on vacation and I fully plan on sharing lots of photos, I just have to get some time to edit and proof them. Lots of fun stories to share!

We have also started our Hy-Vee Extreme Family Nutrition Makeover Challenge! It started on Monday, the 21st. Connor and I did okay while in California, but now that we're home, we have to make up for lost points. Fred kept focused and stayed on track while we were gone.

Today, we all did really well, we were finally able to score points for cooking a meal together, eating together and doing a family activity for 30 minutes or more (in our case, yard work....Connor mowed, while Fred and I weeded, weedwacked and deadheaded). I also did not have ONE diet soda today.

Prior to leaving for California, we all had to go to meeting with all of the other families and the respective dietitians/YMCA Wellness Instructors to go over the rules and how the challenge works. Before we left, our dietitian, Elizabeth handed us a recyclable bag chock full of good for you food items to try...



Glad I don't have to go back to work until Tuesday. I have a list full of things that I want to accomplish over the next three days. Hope I have the energy to get it all done and if not, there is always next weekend (which BTW is another 3 day weekend). :)

Garden Glimpses

It's been so stinking rainy the last 4 days that it's been hard to get outside. We've had some heavy rain come through. It's nice to have once in a while, but I know that after it moves through and the suns comes back, the weeds are going to be abundant. :(

Here's some recent shots from around my yard and deck -

Stone Crop


Primrose


Hosta on the north side of the house


Delphinium


Delphinium close up - I love that color of blue!


A basket of flowers and cats


Pansies and Mushrooms


The vegie garden has produced radishes and some spinach lettuce so far.


Our side garden bed filled with daylilies, grasses, hydrangea and iris


The wrought iron spire is a $3.00 dollar find of mine


A view from the yard looking up at the deck


We have an incredibly busy week. Connor and I are leaving on Thursday for San Diego and we have something going on every night before we go. I almost wish I would have just taken Monday and Tuesday off also....

Have a good week!

More House Projects

Haven't had much to say lately on my blog. I find that I use Facebook more, but I don't want to quit because I know my long distance friends that aren't on facebook keep us with us this way. HINT HINT - you can leave a comment, it's okay. :)

The weekend of my nosebleed, my boys take the proverbial bull by the horns and painted our downstairs bathroom and switched out the fixtures for me. I had previously put up a chair rail and wallpaper which I still like, but I never did paint the walls and they were looking worse for wear. I chose a light brown/khaki that's pretty neutral. I also HATED the faucet and light fixture, but wasn't ready to commit to anything else until now.

I couldn't find a light fixture I liked that didn't cost a fortune, so I re-purposed what we had. It wasn't so much the style that I hated as it was the gold/brass finish, so I bought a can of metal paint and ta-da, a perfect fixture for $7 bucks.



We also changed the faucet from a cheap chrome that the builder had used, to a much nicer bronze finish faucet.



and since we did that, of course we need to change the toilet paper holder, hand towel holder and the electrical plates.





Even the guys liked the finished product and thought my choices were perfect.











Another project that I did the last couple of months is a fireplace cover. I ADORE having a fireplace, but when it's not in use, it rather ugly. It's just there. I had seen some ideas with using large framed prints and then attaching small shelf brackets to stand the framed print up in front of the fireplace, but I could never find a print I liked, then the idea hit me to use a mirror (which will also reflect to make space larger), so off to Hobby Lobby I went with a 40% off coupon knowing that they had a large selection of mirrors. I found the perfect one and then after couple of weeks of living with it hiding the fireplace, I decided it needed something. I thought about words or a quote, but when I went to one of my favorite wall art websites Vinyl Wall Art I found the PERFECT graphic.

Here's the finished project and it makes me smile every time I look at it.



Have a great weekend!

A Memorial Day Weekend

This is usually how our weekends end during the warm summer months. Pool towels drying on the deck.

It's been a weekend, that's for sure. First my nasal surgery last Thursday, off and recuperating on Friday, then a three day holiday weekend. The local aquatic center opened and we went all three days. Since I had to take it easy, I just loaded up on the SPF 50 and my magazines and books and relaxing poolside. I need to get a head start on my tan for when we're in California. 17 more days!

It only a 4 day work week this week......hurray!

Office Space

Although I shared some photos on facebook, I never got a chance to talk about my new office space. I had been in the same location for 15 years, ever since we moved into the annex in February of 1995. In fact, just a few months, later, I discovered I was pregnant with Connor. In March of this year, my employer decided to hire some new employees and what that, those employees were going to need a place to call their own.

I had been wanting to make a location change for a while for a couple different reasons, but every time I broached the subject with the appropriate people, it didn't seem like it was going to happen. We had a space in other area of the office that I felt would be perfect for me, so again, determined female that I am, approached the boss and gave her my reasons why this move would benefit the office, asking her to hear my out before making a decision. My approach worked because she said yes this time. Because I was going to move, there was going to be some shuffling of people out in the case management area, so we all needed to coordinate with each other and our IT department so we could get computers, scanners and telephones moved.

















Since moving, it's put a whole new perspective on my job. It's quieter, I can concentrate better and I like having a window. Hopefully I can stay here for the remainder of my career....7 years, 6 months and a smattering of days. :)

Garden Update

Been getting my bedding plants and containers planted over the last few days. Even got Fred outside last night to help me weed the triangle garden...Yea!

My mother's peach iris are starting to bloom and every time I see them, I have to smile. Why? because they remind me of her and the circumstances surrounding how I got them is funny. Shortly before my mom's house went up for sale, my brother and I went over to the house and raided her yard. We dug up everything we could. Iris, rose bushes, hosta, you name, we raided it. Iris were one of my mother's favorite spring flowers and these peach iris are unusual.



I also have some traditional purple iris that are starting to bloom and the color is just so deep and gorgeous.



Someone else likes looking at the flower beds....



I also got the rest of our vegetable garden in last weekend. I planted a zucchini plant and 5 tomato plants, 4 Better Boys and 1 Grape tomato. I may throw a couple pepper plants in there also. I decided against cucumbers this year because they take up too much space and I can buy them at the Farmers Market for cheap. I decided to try the Topsy Turvy planter than my brother bought me for Christmas for one of the better boy plants. We'll see how it goes.

The vegie garden is looking good...



We'll see how this fella grows....



Just call me Farmer Kristina....lol!

Fitness Update

I haven't been good about updating my blog lately and prior to a couple months ago, I was blogging about my fitness journey, but since starting my SparkPeople.com blog, that's where I do my blogging about my fitness.

I've been really proud of myself for staying consistent and I'm finally starting to see some results. I've ramped up my workout sessions to 45-50 minutes rather than 30-35 minutes. I've been going to the gym, walking or biking at least 4 times a week instead of the 3 times that I was doing.

I also just recently purchased a heart rate monitor and after two days of reading the how to manual, I wore it when I worked out today at lunchtime. It was awesome! It tells me what my heart rate is and what kind of calorie burn I'm getting.

I'm shooting for 2000 burned calories a week and on the days I do workout, I'm shooting for at least a 5K....3.1 miles or if biking, 10K....6.2 miles.

Still struggling with my water intake. I just don't like water unless I'm really really thirsty, so trying to drink 8 glasses is almost impossible for me.

Food choices are good. I have a cheat day and I also don't deprive myself on something that I want. If I over indulge one day, then I take it easy for the next couple of days.

I really need to get before and after pictures. :)

Damn that Basic Grey!

I just get done buying the collection pack of Max & Whiskers and now they have to come out with Oliver!



There goes another 25 bucks.......

May, Mother's Day and Tulips

I can't believe it's been since April 24th that I've updated my blog. I have things to share, but no time to share it. The month of May is uber busy between work, the garage sale I'm having next weekend, jury duty the week after and then my sinus surgery the week after that, I'm pretty well booked until Memorial Day.

My weekends are feeling like one big blur of activity. I can't say that they have been all work, just busy.

I did switch out the kitchen tree last weekend to a spring themed tree. I'm not altogether happy with it, but that's okay, I can always tweak it if I find cool things to use.

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. Mine actually started yesterday when we got up early and headed to Pella, Iowa for the annual Tulip Festival. It has been years since I've gone and neither Fred or Connor has ever been. Unfortunately, the weather didn't want to cooperate and it was pretty nasty when we first arrived, but as we walked around, it got a bit better. We would duck in the stores on the town square to warm up a bit and had plenty of hot coffee to warm us up. Here's a few photos from the day -


Tulip Toren


Schlote Tulip Garden


Beautiful ceramic tile work




More tulips - we were lucky that they all weren't gone, there were still some varieties blooming








Vermeer Windmill


Sunken Garden Park


On our way back home, we decided to stop in Prairie City for this, but more about that on a future blog post -



Have a good week!