Challenge #2

Oops. I should have posted this yesterday.

Challenge #2 is: No eating after 7pm. Nothing at all. You can drink water.

Are you thinking, "I could totally do that if I wanted to. But it's dumb."

Yeah, you can't do it....but my ladies can.

And they will.

Kung Fu Panda....I hate you

I have officially banned Kung Fu Panda from our home.

It's a tragedy really because Jack Black is truly hilarious, but while there may be no cost for awesomeness or attractiveness, there is a high price for jerkyness and mean-ness.

At least at our house.

The first problem started when everyone fought over who they were in the movie.

"I'm the tiger." cried Livy.

"I'm the snake." piped Morgan

"I'm the Panda." stated Owen.

"No, I want to be the snake." Livy decides.

"NO, I'M THE SNAKE!" yells Morgan.

"No, Morgan...I decided I want to be the snake."

"NOOOOOOOO!"

"Can't you both be the snake?" I try for some peace.

"No." Livy snaps, as if I just suggested the most ridiculous thing ever.

Then it really starts.

Owen starts jumping around, trying his "kung fu" moves. Trying to kick his leg in the air, using the pillows to throw up and try to hit them mid air with split kicks.

Next thing I know he is doing kung fu off the couch onto Livy on the floor.

Livy begins to cry her brains out, mixed with a lot of screeching about how mean Owen is.

I tell Owen no more kung fu.

He runs to the toy box and gets out his hulk hands (you know, the ones you've seen at Walmart 100 times and just kept on walking because you knew they wouldn't be a good idea. I didn't buy them, let's just say that).

So he starts taking everyone out with his hulk hands.

Including me.

Not a good idea.

He keeps saying, "Mommy, fight me. I wanna fight you." and I'm in the middle of doing something and he keeps hitting me in the head and back and I know if I react angrily he will LOVE that because he WANTS me to fight him. But how do I not get mad when he's hitting me...repeatedly?

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

I take the hulk hands away.

Next thing I know Livy is screaming her head off....again.

This time Owen has his dagger and is coming right at her with it.

Of course it's just a little plastic dagger (again, not something I got for him), but you would have thought by the way Livy was screaming he was a masked man with a chainsaw coming at her.

I take the dagger away.

Then Owen found his sword and tried again.

Seriously, this kid is a slow learner.

Here's a picture of the contraband.

Here's a picture of the price you pay.

It was a rough day.

Fitness Tip #4--Know Before You Go

So you're all geared up to workout, you get to the gym, you look at all the equipment and then you realize, "I have no idea what I'm doing." It may not even be that you don't know how to use the equipment, you just haven't figured out what you're doing.

This is a recipe for failure. You're much less likely to work out hard or long because you can convince yourself, after not much time, that you've done enough.

One of the best ways to work past this is to plan your workouts before you go to the gym. Plan them 1 day in advance (good), 1 week in advance (better), 1 month in advance (best). That way you know exactly what you will be doing.

And don't just plan it "in your head"....write it down.

But I don't even know how to plan a workout...I can hear you all thinking that. Just come up with some ideas of things you've done before, things you've seen other people do, things you did in high school....if you've still got nothin' Google "free workout routines" or something like that and I'm sure you will get a million results full of plenty ideas. Just start.

Or if you want to just be really simple and say "I'm going to ride the bike" or "I'm going to walk/run on the treadmill" that's a fine place to start too. But let me show you how to plan before you go.

Your Plans Before You Get to the Gym:

Not so good--I'm going to ride the bike at the gym today.

Good--I'm going to ride the bike for 40 minutes at the gym today

Great--I'm going to ride the bike for 40 minutes, doing intervals of 4 minutes fast, 2 minutes slow

Excellent--I'm going to bike 40 minutes, 4 min fast intervals, 2 mins slow and I'm going to keep my RPM's on my fast intervals above 95.

Again, it goes back to specificity. The more concrete your goal is, the more likely you are to attain it.

If you have no idea how fast you can go or how far you can go, start paying attention to that and then you can plan your workouts better each time.

Remember, know BEFORE you go.

The Answer

I know, I know...you could hardly sleep all night you were just dying to know what it's a picture of. :)

There were some pretty good guesses. It was fascinating to try and see what you were all seeing.



Props go to Lea's 4 year old and Vanessa for guessing a turtle, although I'm not sure if they were seeing the turtle correctly.



Also props to Jenalee for seeing an icecream cone.



The person that was closest in her overall guess, however, was Jenna on her 2nd guess where she said:

oh, oh, wait, I am cheating and taking a second one. A duck and some other bird/animal sharing an ice cream cone. There, final answer.


The direct explanation from Livy was:

"A turtle and a bear sharing an icecream cone."

That is the turtles head on the left with his tongue licking the icecream. And the bear, well, I'll admit I'm a little disappointed in her artistic rendering of it. She is usually a lot better...she must have been rushed.

Give Me Your Best Guess.

One of my favorite things to do is go through Livy's school folder when she gets home.

She always draws pictures on the back of her work.

The pictures are often of me with the words "I love mom". Those are my favorite.

She also draws a lot of princesses and dogs. We get the occasional Christmas tree or other seasonal items as well.

That's why when I pulled out this picture yesterday I was baffled.

I tried to figure it out for a second, but I wasn't seeing it. So I asked and Livy told me very matter-of-factly what it was.

What do you think it is?

Are You Up?

So the triathlon training for my girls has officially begun. They are doing awesome.

I have also incorporated a weekly challenge and decided I shall post that weekly challenge on here so if any of you feel so inclined you can jump on the wagon.

Challenge for week #1: No soda...for at least a week, but preferably for the entire training period.

We have a couple addicts in the group...they are going to do it.

Can you do it?

My Karma List

Okay, so when I was in 4th grade I wasn't the nicest person.

Well...I was mean.

There is an infamous story from those days, and it goes a little something like this:

I was at an assembly and the 1st graders were sitting in front of us high and mighty 4th graders.

Everyone knows that at assemblies you had better sit on your bottom...definitely not your knees.

So this teensy little blonde 1st grader with whispy long hair and a black leather jacket was sitting ON HER KNEES in front of me. (please note I can clearly remember thinking also that since she was wearing a black leather jacket, she was most certainly not Mormon...an obvious conclusion).

I told her repeatedly that she had best sit on her buns.

She ignored me! (in retrospect I wonder if she maybe didn't even hear me...but I choose to believe she ignored me.)

So I think I insulted her...told her she was dumb or ugly or something.

Then she says to me, "Well my mom says I'm the most beautiful girl in the whole world."

And then I, without missing a beat, said, "Yeah, well your mom lies."

Seriously, when I think about that now I feel so awful. And I think if I were that little girls mom I would find my 4th grade self and punch me in the face. What a jerk!

So I'm wondering how to make all right in the world. I don't even know who that girl was?

My conclusion has been this: When I volunteer in Livy's class I try to be extra nice to the underlings...the ones the other kids don't seem to play with so naturally. I tell them they look really pretty or how impressed I am with their work.

Maybe I can help them build enough confidence in themselves so they aren't hurt by jerky 4th graders.

Maybe.