Deconstructing Jen

cabin fever

How long until it's warm enough to do this again?

or this?

ice day numero dos

Today is snow ice day number 2. We are all about to climb the walls. Why is it that I don't really have to go any where until I'm told that I can't go anywhere? Do I really need rechargeable batteries for Princess Peach's game right this second? Not really. But something in my brain has snapped and forced me to scrape the car off and brave the horrid streets in search of said batteries.

My other snow day epiphany is that I am officially old. Remember when snow days meant freedom from the established routine and it was awesome and all you did was dream of the day when you weren't going to have school because of snow. Well now that I'm old, I still crave the snow day and the old feeling of freedom it's just that when the snow day actually happens I find myself missing my routine and productivity instead of reveling in the wonder of the day of freedom. What's next? Am I going to start waking up at 5 am even without my alarm? Nah.

why does he speak russian?

Ben is so cute these days especially in his verbal abilities. He has just recently started to change the way he babbles and it's my favorite stage. He's past the googoo's and the gaagaa's stage but not quite to the "NO!" stage. It's what I adoringly call the "Russian" stage. The babbles are all consonants and very few vowels. Some favorites are "voot" and "kutspk".

Evey has reached the "why?" phase and I'm about all why'ed out. Here's a taste of our breakfast conversation...

Me: Evey put your shoes on.
Evey: Why?
Me: Because we are going to Amanda's.
Evey: Why?
Me: I have to work today.
Evey: Why?
Me: (Here we go...) To earn money.
Evey: Why?
Me: So I can feed you.
Evey: Oh. Can I have a lollipop?
Me: No, we just ate breakfast. (Trying to head her off before the why...)
Evey: Why? (Denied.)
Me: Because lollipops will make your hair turn purple and your skin turn green.
Evey: No they won't!

happy news

Happy, happy news here in Jenville. My brother and sister-in-law are having a baby! WooHoo!!! Bill and Keeley are going to be awesome parents. Well, Keeley is already an awesome parent. *wink*

You can read all about the experience, Bill is documenting it for posterity. It's a hillarious read - you will find out soon enough that Bill got all the funny genes in our family. I highly recommend this post as well as this one. Make sure to check out the pictures.

jelly legs

Today has been mui productive so far. We got up early - well not early for everyone but early for us. Had breakfast and WENT TO THE GYM!!!!! We had our fitness evaluations. We do some squat type things so the guy can evaluate  where we could use work and how our muscles are balancing, etc. Chris is already in shape and just needs to work on building muscle where he desires it and or gain some weight. I am not in shape and really need to lose some weight. Yep, knew that. We got some info on personal training packages - which I will likely do since I need all the incentive I can get to actually keep this up (and my general knowledge about getting into shape is weak at best) and then we hit the cardio area.

Cardio is not my favorite and being out of breath is not something I like. I've been telling myself I'm doing fairly well on our bike at home and I am really happy with how I've been pushing myself to actually work up a sweat. Sweet. Here I am at the gym feeling all cool cause I've been doing our bike at home and working up a sweat. I jump on the torture device elliptical machine. It takes me a minute to get a good balance since I haven't used one before. I think I'm being smart so I set it to do a program. 30 minutes - excellent. Then the ridiculous thing changes resistance to like 15 and incline to 10 and my thighs start screaming - apparently my thighs aren't happy about this combined with the 35 20 squats I did early for Jeff, the personal trainer. I lower it and tell my self to suck it up and do it anyway. I get through 25 minutes and my thighs and shins and ankles are all yelling profanities at me. I some how manage to make it down the stairs.....side note, WHY do fitness places put the cardio machines UPSTAIRS, are they trying to kill people who can't feel their legs by making them walk down stairs after working out?? side note over....I make it to get the kids and then to the car. Whew.

3 Advil, 2 glasses of water and one grocery shopping trip later (no this wasn't torture, it actually helped) - my legs are beginning to feel better. I'm not looking forward to waking up tomorrow with sore legs.

make it stop

Please. Please, please, please. I beg you. Please. The security box for the school is right outside my door. Apparently it's not working. And it's beeping. Again. And again. And again. Since yesterday. At noon.

I'm going to hear it in my sleep tonight. I just know it.

a healthy amount of water

You know what drinking a healthy amount of water means? It means you have to pee. A lot.

feeling the burn

So it's not really a secret to anyone who knows me in real life that I'm not the most athletic person in the world. As a matter of fact I think it might be generally excepted that I am one of the most out of shape people in my circle of friends. I'm also fairly over weight. I unfortunately got the "you will gain 5 lbs for even looking at that cheesecake" gene while my brother (and husband) got the "I will have this donut metabolized before I'm even done eating it" gene. That is all hopefully about to change, well for me anyway - I hope they keep their lucky gene as long as they can. We've joined 24 Hour Fitness. I love the facility - I just am having a hard time getting there with work and the kids but I'm working on that. When I can't get there I am using our NordicTrac cycle at home, which I had to dust off with the vacum cleaner it hasn't been used in so long. I did 35 minutes on it last night and my legs feel like Jello this morning. That is the desired effect I believe so all is going well. I hoping to start a regular routine of alternating 45 minutes of cardio on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a weight/cardio split on Tuesday/Thursday. And if I can get up there for some cardio on Saturdays I'll go.

Next comes the diet change. I've started doing a few things, like making myself drink milk again. I really don't like milk but I need to drink it if I'm going to get healthier. I've also started adding more water so I can hopefully cut back on soda. Soda is probably my biggest vice but I have recently switched to diet so that is helping. I'm going to concentrate more on the diet after I get the workout schedule down and into a habit since working out is harder for me than changing what I eat.

Wish me luck. If anyone needs a virtual workout partner - I'm game. I need someone to help keep me accountable.

real men play paper dolls

And Chris is the ULTIMATE at paper dolls. We have an entire paper village at our house.

Meet the newest member. He's farmer Dan. Also known as the High Tech Farmer.

it's official, we're moving

In short the weather here sucks so bad that we must move. Now. Right now. Yesterday it was a balmy and beautiful 73 degrees. At 6:15 am this morning it was 34 degrees and I heard the first hint of thunder. When I was putting the kids in the car there was a bolt of lightening so close to the house I thought it was in the garage (that is NOT an exaggeration). It's pouring the kind of rain that drenches you the instant you step outside. By the time I had both kids into my mom's house I had to re-blow dry my hair. Now let me move on to the temperature - it's 34 degrees and falling, it will be 21 degrees by 5 pm. You know what kind of rain that makes - really stinking cold rain. Now for the best part....the freezing rain, starts at noon. Love that.

Does any body know of a place in Pheonix that's available???