I am so excited! A while ago, Barry and I made a new resolve to have Family Home Evening every Monday night. We're pretty good about doing it, but tonight was my most excited F.H.E. of all time. We are going to invent: The Ricks Signature Cookie. You know how people have a secret recipe, that they refuse to share because it's an old family secret that has been passed down forever? We are going to invent that! The cookie that we will pass down to all our future generations. THE cookie!
Barry was gone almost all day hanging up posters for a class he will be starting so we decided that we would would count the sidewalk outside of Albertsons as our new place. We spent almost an hour, perusing the store, for ideas for our Cookie! We came home with TONS of stuff and tomorrow morning we are going to have a baking marathon that would impress even Betty Crocker!!! I am so excited!
(And it may seem like a lame excuse to count the sidewalks outside of grocery stores and things, but the point is, Barry and I discuss the challenge, and discuss which sidewalk to use, so even the silly minor sidewalks have helped us have discussions and have opened to some fun and interesting conversations. I would say that counts as enriching our marriage one step at a time, right? )
Monday, June 7, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Back on blogging-track
Day 20:
About two weeks ago we received The. Best. News. Ever.
Fun City was re-opening! Let me describe Fun City in five words: go-carts, putt-putting, batting-cages, oh yeah! (A lot of hyphenated words there). It has been my favorite place to go since my parents moved to this dinky little town 6 years ago, and the night I excitedly took my fianceed Barry for his first time, we discovered it was closed. Worst. News. Ever. But now it's open again! The day I heard of its reopening, I knew I had to go putt-putt golfing (my favorite activity in the whole entire world!). So for Day 20, I told Barry we should count the sidewalk surrounding the golf course as our challenge for the day. See what I did there? I used the challenge to manipulate Barry into coughing up the dough to take the fam golfing! It was sooooooooooo fun! And officially my new favorite sidewalk in this town!
Day 21:
Holy Hotness!
This town is ridiculous! 107 degrees! At 6 in the evening! Barry has this application on his Ipod that tells him the weather of any town in the nation. It's so obnoxious to hear how pleasant the weather is up North where we are from. He likes to remind me when it's SWELTERING! But we pushed through the heat to Normandy Street. We decided it was time to take a real walk on a real street's sidewalk. And it was hot. Grayson was beat red by the time we got back to our street, and begging us to carry his scooter the rest of the way home. But every day he says "I wanna walk!" so I guess we aren't abusing him too badly in this heat! If we try to take a longer walk I'll be the one asking Barry to carry me the rest of the way! SHEESH!
About two weeks ago we received The. Best. News. Ever.
Fun City was re-opening! Let me describe Fun City in five words: go-carts, putt-putting, batting-cages, oh yeah! (A lot of hyphenated words there). It has been my favorite place to go since my parents moved to this dinky little town 6 years ago, and the night I excitedly took my fianceed Barry for his first time, we discovered it was closed. Worst. News. Ever. But now it's open again! The day I heard of its reopening, I knew I had to go putt-putt golfing (my favorite activity in the whole entire world!). So for Day 20, I told Barry we should count the sidewalk surrounding the golf course as our challenge for the day. See what I did there? I used the challenge to manipulate Barry into coughing up the dough to take the fam golfing! It was sooooooooooo fun! And officially my new favorite sidewalk in this town!
Day 21:
Holy Hotness!
This town is ridiculous! 107 degrees! At 6 in the evening! Barry has this application on his Ipod that tells him the weather of any town in the nation. It's so obnoxious to hear how pleasant the weather is up North where we are from. He likes to remind me when it's SWELTERING! But we pushed through the heat to Normandy Street. We decided it was time to take a real walk on a real street's sidewalk. And it was hot. Grayson was beat red by the time we got back to our street, and begging us to carry his scooter the rest of the way home. But every day he says "I wanna walk!" so I guess we aren't abusing him too badly in this heat! If we try to take a longer walk I'll be the one asking Barry to carry me the rest of the way! SHEESH!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Catch-up.
I am loving this challenge! Twice we have gotten to the end of the day to realize we hadn't walked. Our solution has been to wait till Grayson falls asleep and then take Jaye on a brisk walk to the closest street. (There are two streets very close by!) Twice we have been driving and one of us will randomly say "Pull over!" and we will just jump out of the car, walk to a street sign, take a picture, hop back in the car and drive away. (I think we have scared a lot of people! I'm sure our car is on neighborhood watch in a few places!) Other times, we will be walking somewhere familiar and realize we can count the sidewalk as one we haven't walked yet for the challenge. And on a few occasions, we have actually planned a long walk down an entire street. It has been so fun to see the different ways we have approached this challenge, and seeing how committed my husband is makes me love him all that much more!
Things to note:
1. I got my first blister from the challenge! We had to go to Albertsons after visiting a store, and just decided spontaneously to just walk from the store to Albertson's. I was wearing POOR walking shoes and now my feet hate me! But it was fun, we discovered this really cool house that looks like an old church converted into a house and would be the perfect setting for "The Secret Garden"
2. I think my husband is officially in love with our new camera! It has been fun watching him test it out!
3. I'm beginning to think Grayson could ride his scooter all day and not get tired!
4. Walking on new streets lead to fun impromtu photo shoots of the kids! And I have hundreds of pictures to prove it!
5. Grayson has to point out EVERY SINGLE time he finds bird poop on the ground. It's weird pretending for the sake of my child that bird poop is fascinating... for the billionth time!
6. I think strollers are one of the greatest inventions. Ever.
Anyway, I seriously got off task with blogging, but instead of trying to write a blurb from every single walk, I will just list where we have been. And try to do better from here on out!
SIDEWALKS WE HAVE VISITED!
May 21: Ortega Street (LONG WALK!)
May 22: Walmart (lame, I know, but we had friends visiting from out of town so this is our freebie)
May 24: Carlsbad Caverns (about two miles of awesomeness!)
May 25: Roswell Main Street (We took our friends to the Alien Museum and Research Center up in Roswell and to this goofy place where you can take pictures with aliens. It was a blast!)
May 26: Elm Street (EXHAUSTED after the friends left, so we walked about 100 steps down our street late at night)
May 27: Lotaburger Restaurant Sidewalk (We picked up my little brother from his last day of school, went disc golfing, then the whole family met up here for lunch)
May 28: Halagueno Street (One of our drive-by jump out sidewalks! But we did it after a date night so I don't feel too guilty about the ten steps to the sign!)
May 29: Northgate Strip mall (We rented a movie and just decided to walk the entire strip mall sidewalk. P.S. I do NOT recommend watching "Valentine's Day". )
May 31: Mesquite Street (HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY! We did another drive-by walk and took a photo of the street sign while all these people having parties in different houses stared at us. Awkward.)
June 1: Sidewalk to the Tennis courts (We played Tennis at 10:30 in the morning and it was already sweltering! Needless to say, the game didn't last very long!)
June 2: Canyon Street (My first blister!)
June 3: Boyd (Holy Busy Day! I had to make a Purse Cake for the Relief Society Party, and I offered to make dinner for a friend who needed it, and I'm a terrible procrastinator... so I'm REALLY surprised we actually got a walk in today! But my wonderful husband had his shoes on and ready after we got Grayson in bed, so we walked another 100 steps to the other street by our house.)
I can't believe we have actually been doing this challenge successfully!!! And I can't believe we are enjoying it so much!!!
Things to note:
1. I got my first blister from the challenge! We had to go to Albertsons after visiting a store, and just decided spontaneously to just walk from the store to Albertson's. I was wearing POOR walking shoes and now my feet hate me! But it was fun, we discovered this really cool house that looks like an old church converted into a house and would be the perfect setting for "The Secret Garden"
2. I think my husband is officially in love with our new camera! It has been fun watching him test it out!
3. I'm beginning to think Grayson could ride his scooter all day and not get tired!
4. Walking on new streets lead to fun impromtu photo shoots of the kids! And I have hundreds of pictures to prove it!
5. Grayson has to point out EVERY SINGLE time he finds bird poop on the ground. It's weird pretending for the sake of my child that bird poop is fascinating... for the billionth time!
6. I think strollers are one of the greatest inventions. Ever.
Anyway, I seriously got off task with blogging, but instead of trying to write a blurb from every single walk, I will just list where we have been. And try to do better from here on out!
SIDEWALKS WE HAVE VISITED!
May 21: Ortega Street (LONG WALK!)
May 22: Walmart (lame, I know, but we had friends visiting from out of town so this is our freebie)
May 24: Carlsbad Caverns (about two miles of awesomeness!)
May 25: Roswell Main Street (We took our friends to the Alien Museum and Research Center up in Roswell and to this goofy place where you can take pictures with aliens. It was a blast!)
May 26: Elm Street (EXHAUSTED after the friends left, so we walked about 100 steps down our street late at night)
May 27: Lotaburger Restaurant Sidewalk (We picked up my little brother from his last day of school, went disc golfing, then the whole family met up here for lunch)
May 28: Halagueno Street (One of our drive-by jump out sidewalks! But we did it after a date night so I don't feel too guilty about the ten steps to the sign!)
May 29: Northgate Strip mall (We rented a movie and just decided to walk the entire strip mall sidewalk. P.S. I do NOT recommend watching "Valentine's Day". )
May 31: Mesquite Street (HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY! We did another drive-by walk and took a photo of the street sign while all these people having parties in different houses stared at us. Awkward.)
June 1: Sidewalk to the Tennis courts (We played Tennis at 10:30 in the morning and it was already sweltering! Needless to say, the game didn't last very long!)
June 2: Canyon Street (My first blister!)
June 3: Boyd (Holy Busy Day! I had to make a Purse Cake for the Relief Society Party, and I offered to make dinner for a friend who needed it, and I'm a terrible procrastinator... so I'm REALLY surprised we actually got a walk in today! But my wonderful husband had his shoes on and ready after we got Grayson in bed, so we walked another 100 steps to the other street by our house.)
I can't believe we have actually been doing this challenge successfully!!! And I can't believe we are enjoying it so much!!!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
YIKES!
Alright folks... Bad News. We lost our pedometer! We have scoured (is that how you spell it?) our house for that darned piece of equipment. And it's gone. Is it worth buying a new one? Debatable. So we no longer know exactly how many steps we are taking. Sad.
Good news! We are still taking steps! Are you surprised? I thought you would be. There has been a temporary vacation from the online world as my best friend from high school came to visit, but we HAVE intentionally walked on a new sidewalk every day. And I almost have photographic evidence for each excursion!
BUT, the pictures and tales will have to wait until tomorrow. It's almost tomorrow. So you don't have to wait too long.
STAY TUNED.
Good news! We are still taking steps! Are you surprised? I thought you would be. There has been a temporary vacation from the online world as my best friend from high school came to visit, but we HAVE intentionally walked on a new sidewalk every day. And I almost have photographic evidence for each excursion!
BUT, the pictures and tales will have to wait until tomorrow. It's almost tomorrow. So you don't have to wait too long.
STAY TUNED.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Day 7:
Tonight is officially our last night here! I can't wait to move back home but surprisingly, we have had a lot of fun babysitting these two boys! We've played tons of board games, watched a bunch of (kid-friendly) movies, and it's just been fun to sit around the dinner table and talk. We decided to end our reign as head- of-house with a bang. We took the the boys and the fam to a local chinese restaurant (where everyone thought the 13 year old and 8 year old were OUR KIDS... weird.) Then we took them bowling. It was a busy day, so we decided that our "new sidewalk" tonight would be outside the bowling alley. I imagine when this gig is over, we will have much more availability to walk. So 7 steps was our "enriching walk" tonight. But it was a new sidewalk so it totally counts! Besides, I beat my highest score with 92 and Barry did awesome with 126. Nothing makes you feel better about life than doing well at bowling. (92 is my "doing-well".) So a short walk but a super-fun night. Consider our marriage: enriched.
Just wondering, has anyone else done anything to improve their marriage? Let me know!!! Give the rest of us some fun ideas!
Just wondering, has anyone else done anything to improve their marriage? Let me know!!! Give the rest of us some fun ideas!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Day 7:
I need to show more appreciation for my husband! When I have a rough day, I always think about how hard it would be to be a single mother. Today, my husband offered to take both kiddos to the store so I could clean... in peace. It was wonderful! To you single mothers, I admire your strength. To my husband, I appreciate you so much! Thank you!
Today we decided to take our walk in the cool of the morning. But by the time we got home, got the stroller out and packed, got shoes on, etc... it was already mid-morning. In other words: It. Was. Hot. Today was the longest walks we've taken thus far, and by the time we got home, I was ready to just take a nap! But a friend is coming to visit on Friday, and since we are watching the boys, I only have their school hours to clean my own house! So once again, I Thank you husband for being a knight in shining armor today! It's soooo much easier to clean without a two-year-old who thinks it's hilarious to stand in front of the vacuum, or an infant who cries the minute you step out of sight! And thank you for not judging me for eating an entire king-sized candy bar tonight! And for holding our whiney, tired child so I could write this blog!
And thank you for the 2700 steps you took with me today.
Today we decided to take our walk in the cool of the morning. But by the time we got home, got the stroller out and packed, got shoes on, etc... it was already mid-morning. In other words: It. Was. Hot. Today was the longest walks we've taken thus far, and by the time we got home, I was ready to just take a nap! But a friend is coming to visit on Friday, and since we are watching the boys, I only have their school hours to clean my own house! So once again, I Thank you husband for being a knight in shining armor today! It's soooo much easier to clean without a two-year-old who thinks it's hilarious to stand in front of the vacuum, or an infant who cries the minute you step out of sight! And thank you for not judging me for eating an entire king-sized candy bar tonight! And for holding our whiney, tired child so I could write this blog!
And thank you for the 2700 steps you took with me today.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Day 6:
I've mentioned before that I taught a "Dating your husband" class for the Relief Society sisters in my ward. I based the entire class after a marriage book I read, and one of the points that hit me the most was this:
"Love thy neighbor as thyself"... The most important part of this commandment is that we can't love others if we don't love ourselves. This is a particularly sensitive subject to me, as I have not been happy with the way I have looked since having kids. My grandma has told me (on several different occassions) that I would make a beautiful plus-sized model. For her, this is a compliment. For me, well, I joined weight watchers.
Today (five months after starting the program) I had to take Grayson to an appointment. They weighed him and pointed out that his BMI was a little low, but that just meant that he was going to be "tall and thin like mommy"! That's what she said! No more plus-sized model here!
I'm not telling this story to dig for compliments, but because I feel soooo much better about myself now! I'm happier, more energetic, more confident, etc. And because I like myself, it has improved our marriage so much! So, if there is anything that you don't love about yourself- be it physical, spiritual, etc. There's a chance that it will inhibit you from loving your neighbor! So what are you going to do about it?
That's what we talked about tonight on our brief excursion. Once again, we sneaked into the darkness after the boys were in bed, and walked briskly down the street and back. I love these brief moments I get to share with my husband... I LOVE MY NEIGHBOR!!! :)
(350 steps)
"Love thy neighbor as thyself"... The most important part of this commandment is that we can't love others if we don't love ourselves. This is a particularly sensitive subject to me, as I have not been happy with the way I have looked since having kids. My grandma has told me (on several different occassions) that I would make a beautiful plus-sized model. For her, this is a compliment. For me, well, I joined weight watchers.
Today (five months after starting the program) I had to take Grayson to an appointment. They weighed him and pointed out that his BMI was a little low, but that just meant that he was going to be "tall and thin like mommy"! That's what she said! No more plus-sized model here!
I'm not telling this story to dig for compliments, but because I feel soooo much better about myself now! I'm happier, more energetic, more confident, etc. And because I like myself, it has improved our marriage so much! So, if there is anything that you don't love about yourself- be it physical, spiritual, etc. There's a chance that it will inhibit you from loving your neighbor! So what are you going to do about it?
That's what we talked about tonight on our brief excursion. Once again, we sneaked into the darkness after the boys were in bed, and walked briskly down the street and back. I love these brief moments I get to share with my husband... I LOVE MY NEIGHBOR!!! :)
(350 steps)
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