ribbet, ribbet

Megan with loud hiccups and a serious face: "I think I have a frog ribbeting in my throat."

Goin' Green!

"Do you know what the new spinach is?? Kale. We're going to 'adopt' (clap, clap) a new attitude toward kale."-- Mitchell on Modern Family

Have I ever mentioned how much I love that show?! Trent and I watch it and bust up laughing the entire time. I love Phil and whoever created his character is brilliant, brilliant I tell ya.

But I digress...

Green smoothies are all the rage right now. I've tried some really healthy smoothies and they weren't quite for me, but this, I can live with. Live with and love. A banana, handful of frozen strawberries, milk, a little vanilla yogurt, a little splenda, and a whole lotta spinach. Blend it up and drink it down baby! I love it and I love that I'm getting a serving of veggies for breakfast! Who does that?! It chops and blends so fine that I never taste a stem or leaf and I don't think it changes the flavor of my sweet and fruity morning smoothie at all.

P.S. 2 cups of spinach has about 8 grams of fiber, strawberries 4g, banana 3g. DON'T add more fiber powder to this. Yeah, learned that one the hard way... I was getting my daily intake of fiber in one shake and my body hated me for it...

P.P.S. The girls love it too. Trent won't try it. Still working on him...

P.P.P.S. I have no desire to jump on the kale bandwagon and I refuse to believe people who tell me they can bake kale with a little EVOO and make it taste like potato chips. Sorry, I think they're lying. Just sayin'...

Totally Tubular!

I don't know if I love the hair more or the leggings and shirt rubberbanded?! Whichever it is, Mikayla rocked out 80s day at school!

Good Day

I'm going on nearly 3 years of teaching water aerobics. Some days are really good and I feel like I was born to teach, other days, I secretly count down the minutes till I can get out of the chlorine-saturated air and take off my mic pack.

Today was a good day. I have taught water aerobics every day this week. My classes and subbing for other people as well. Friday came and I was a little burned out from teaching and felt sure they didn't want to see me for 2 more classes this morning. (And seriously, sometimes I get no feedback or blank stares and I don't know what they think of me!)

I made a new cd last night which really helped and let me tell you, belting it out to "I Love You Baby...and if it's quite alright, I need you BABY...trust in me when I say.... Oh PRETTY BABY!" is quite the mood booster. I said it was time for Karaoke Aqua and they needed to help me sing and boy did they! We had a blast singing while I led them back and forth across the pool. I'm glad all 25 of them were loud enough to drown me out singing into my mic I have strapped on my head! In retrospect, I probably should have let the trumpet solo be and not belt out those notes too--oh well!

Then, good 'ol Frank came on. This class doesn't just like Frank Sinatra. They LOVE Frank Sinatra. I caved in and played "New York, New York" and I kid you not when I say there was shrieking and squeals of delight at hearing the first few bars of his song! I had them kicking and doing jazz hands and at one point during the song I thought, "You know, I am good at this."

That doesn't happen often. I don't often feel like I'm good at things and to feel confident and happy and that I am just plain good at what I do is a good feeling. It may be something small, but if I can make a group of 25 seniors smile and feel happy and healthy and ready to take on the day, then I've done my job-- and that's a good day.

Carefree

This 17 month beauty just hit 20 lbs. She has 6 teeth and a few obnoxious molars that are taking their sweet time to come in. She loves being held by mama, waking up mom and dad at 2am and 4 am for Tylenol and loves stroller walks and swinging. She's nicknamed "Godzilla" at the gym, because if you build a tower out of anything, she will spot it and knock it down before you can think of protecting it! Quite a whirlwind of energy this one is.

she was swinging for quite some time...

feeling the breeze through her hair

Love love love my little munchkin!

50s Night!

For date night this week, Trent and I went out to a 50s themed burger joint with friends and then to a church adult dance complete with dance instruction and hanging out with friends. We had an absolute blast! We love to dance and loved having somewhere to go to do so!

I had Mikayla take a pic of us before we left and this is what we got! haha

Trent Dudley, R.N.

He passed the boards and is officially an R.N.! We are so happy for Dad and glad to have all the schooling and studying and test-taking behind us. Now on to finding a job... dun, dun, dun... Trent's applying EVERYwhere and we'll post with any updates!

If You Found A Pot of Gold...

What would you do with it?

Mikayla received this topic at school and had to think about and then write her response.
She said, "If I found a pot of gold, I would use it to buy food for the poor."

That is so sweet. I thought it nice that we have children who think of others before themselves and want to unselfishly give their 'gold' to help the needy. Wow, lessons on sharing with others and giving to those less fortunate actually entered their hearts.

So, Megan, what would you do with a pot of gold?
"I'd buy a really fast pink race car, some dolls, a pig, and a toy store."


Well, one out of two ain't bad...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We passed these out to some friends...

Made our now-traditional rainbow cake,

and enjoyed pesto pasta, green pistachio pudding fluff, green salad with green ranch dressing, and green limeade/7Up drink. Hate to say it, but Megan's poo actually bled green food coloring today. The water was turning green and she kinda freaked out! TMI I know, I know.... lol

And here's proof that Kendra can now climb the swingset and go down the slide face first all by herself. We let her play outside with all the kids after dinner, hoping they were watching her. Yeah, they watched her do a faceplant in the mud. The only redeeming factor here is that unbeknownst to us, Mikayla picked her up, dried her tears, and sopped up Kendra's bleeding lip with her own shirt before bringing her inside to us. Now that's a pretty nice sister.

5K baby

I actually ran a 5k. The whole darn thing. Like without stopping to walk.

Pounding the pavement for miles on end is not my idea of fun. I'll do it once a year and that's about it. Haha, I like to workout in the gym, but I tend to run a mile, walk a mile, and repeat. I don't like to run for long periods of time because I get bored out of my mind, but this time it was different. Different because we were outside and I was running with friends.

Saturday morning came and my mother-in-law and I drove over to the church to begin our run. Our Stake Relief Society had planned the 2nd Annual 5K walk/run with service projects afterward. We had great weather and when the time came, we took off. We wound through the neighborhood and around a local elementary school through a 3.2 mile course that had been mapped out for us. There were a few men and young boys along the way telling us where to turn and which way to go which helped a lot. A few were eating donuts while we ran which did not help at all. I would much rather have been eating a donut than stuck in my Nikes trekking it down the street.

I am proud to say that with my bad knees, a toe taped up, and my lungs desperately desiring more oxygen, we crossed the finish line. AND, we were number 3 and 4 to cross it! Only two 20 year old runners beat us! I do not consider myself a runner. I'm just competitive enough to keep running a race till the end while hating it the entire time. I do not ever think I'll be a runner. I had to pop some Ibuprofen soon after to combat the throbbing knees and I know that I'm on my way to a torn meniscus and have to take it easy to avoid that.

Now, what about my mother-in-law? I'm ashamed to say it. She's twice my age and did better than me. We got done and she said, "Wow, that felt good! I could go another 15 minutes more!" Are you out of your mind?! We just ran a 5K in 28 minutes and you want more?! Okay, I am thoroughly impressed. I might be up to 30 push-ups on my toes at the gym, but my mother-in-law can run! Well, we all have our strengths...

Surprise!

Grandma and Grandpa D came into town and surprised the girls with a visit! We didn't tell them they were coming so Mikayla was pretty shocked to answer a knock at the door and see them. We had lots of fun going on walks, playing games, they went golfing with Dad and helped for an hour in Mikayla's class at school, we went out to dinner, played dolls in the house, and much more. So fun to have visitors! Thank you for coming Grandma and Grandpa D!

Pajama Day!

And I don't know who was more excited, Mom or Mikayla? I used to love pajama day at school and Mrs. Valdez sure made it a fun day for her first graders. Mikayla was so excited to wear her new doggy jammies to bed and then to wake up and go to school in them. They were also allowed to bring a sleeping bag, pillow, stuffed animal, and books. All the desks and chairs were pushed out of the way to allow for the sleeping bags and much reading. What a great ady! Kelsey and I got to go in and read Dr. Seuss books to the class (in our jammies of course!) and it is always so much fun to see how much Mikayla loves her first grade class and her wonderful teacher.

Gettin' cozy for storytime!

Megan and Brea at preschool pajama day. Megan was THE ONLY child to not try the green eggs at preschool. Each kid got to crack their own egg and add food coloring and mix it up and then the teacher scrambled the green eggs. No way, no how was Megan going to try the nasty looking egg. I called her "Sam I Am" in hopes that a little good-natured teasing might help, but alas, stubborn as all get out. She refused.

Megan loves going to preschool and has so much fun with her friends there. She started the year really shy and wouldn't talk to anyone. Now, she wants to bring an item from home everyday that starts with the letter of the week to get up and share in front of the class. She loves to be the line leader and song leader and has made lots of little friends. On pajama day, she even shared her blanket and pillow with a little girl who forgot hers. She's very sweet and likes to help others.

Harder, Better, Stronger, Faster

Calories. If I'm not counting them as I consume them, I'm counting them as they fall in a puddle of sweat on the floor at the gym. I'm tired of the little buggers and wish I didn't have to think how many are in each morsel I eat or how many I can burn in a mile on the treadmill.

I made my goal of 15 lbs. lost since Christmas, but gosh darn it, I still am not where I want to be. I worked out for 9 hours at the gym last week, sometimes going twice in one day to get my workouts in. I do strength training, cardio, teach aerobics classes, stretch, and.... still not where I want to be.

Granted, I feel great. I have energy, I love the post-workout soreness that lets you know you've done the body good. I love watching the calories add up on the elliptical after being on it for an hour. But all that and breastfeeding and there's still a horrible layer of jiggle in the middle.It's nice to fit back into size 4 jeans, but not if there's a muffin top spilling over.

I know it's probably the eating, but c'mon, I'm trying to eat dessert once a week and I've added a ton more fruits and veggies in... IDK. For the love...

Okay. Vent over. But this blog is my journal after all. Sorry.

This song is one of the track's in Body Pump, my strength training class, and though it's short on lyrics, I like the message. It's become my gym mantra.

"Work It Harder Make It Better
Do It Faster, Makes Us stronger
More Than Ever Hour After
Our Work Is Never Over"

So, I guess it's okay that I'm not where I want to be yet, because each day I can work it harder, make it better, do it faster, and become stronger.

Important Stuff

Driving in the car, Megan said, "Look Mom, a popcorn tree. But, it's not really popcorn, it just looks like popcorn. It really is little tiny white flowers on the tree."

I said, "Wow, Megan. Did you learn all that at preschool today?"

She looked straight at me and shook her head, "No Mom! We are learning about the letter 'C' at school right now! We can't cancel the letter 'C' to talk about popcorn trees!"

Silly me.

Fasin Yoh Set Belts

Mikayla and Megan made invitations for us to their song/dance show that they performed for Trent, Kendra, and me. Translation: "We are going to sing lots of songs. So fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride!"

Love it.