Adventure Is Out There!!!

Today is Fun Thursday because tomorrow starts the beginning of vacation! For the family and for me, and I am soooo excited.

Yesterday W graduated from pre-school and today is the girls last day of school. Since W and I had time today to do something fun I asked him to think about what he wanted to do while he got dressed and then let me know when we got downstairs. As he cam bounding down I asked him what the plan was and he yelled "GEOCACHING!!!!" Some of you may be asking what in the world is Geocaching?? Let me explain. It's basically a world wide treasure hunt. People put little caches everywhere and you can go and find them and log them online and put your name on the paper log. Sometimes there are caches that have different trinkets in it that you can trade your own for. (Those are mainly the ones we look for, the kids don't have patience for anything else) I found out about it through one of the magazines I met last summer and we have been doing it ever since.

We set out as normal and go look for one cache. After we find (or don't) one then I log it in my handy dandy Geocache App (It costs $10 but to me it's the best investment for loads of fun!) and we are off to the next cache. We usually just keep going and then when it's about an hour before we have to go home we head back.

Today we were sent to these baseball fields that W actually plays at to find out first cache. We had to search a little bit in the woods but eventually spotted it and pulled it out!

 

 

After this one we piled back into the car and headed to our next cache. We did not find is unfortunately, but that's ok. We got back in the car and just headed to another one. This one was at another baseball fields, we looked around for a bit when I saw a pile of rocks, I decided to look under them because that's the kind of places these things are hidden under when I realized the rock was the actual cache. I giggled as I took it out and showed it to W and he was so excited, until he realized there were ants everywhere and would not go near it, hence the picture of him 5 feet away. That silly boy!

 

The next one was on the side of the road in a huge log, supposedly there use to be a Tyson Chicken Factory there but not anymore. While we found it someone drove by and honked and waved and obviously they knew what we were doing. This one was a good size box so there were a few things he found that he could switch his items for. I think he ended up with a silly band of a man running.

 

After that we took off again and spent a good 10 minutes in front of a shopping center looking through prickly bushes for cache that we were unable to find. There were a few more that were close to us so we decided to hit those up. The first one we came to was by a really shabby gas station, (by this time we were way north of where we live which is really country). We walked up and found it inside of a pole and W thought it was neat. (Isn't he just the cutest kid, I love him so much!)

After that we decided that we wanted to make it to 5 caches found so I looked up the next one that was closest to us. It had some good hints and so off we went to search for it. This one was up in a tree and I was barely able to reach it. Or in the words of W "Jenny if you were any shorter, you could not have gotten that one!".



 



After finding our 5th one I knew it was time to head to get some lunch and head back home. We stopped at McDonald's and enjoyed some chicken nuggets and french fries. I cannot get over how adorable he is. I'm sure going to miss these days.

 

 

It's Saturday now... I have been a little MIA this week and it's funny because I have had posts typed up and ready to go but just haven't posted them because of pictures, or lack there of. My brother and sister in law come in today and I am really excited. We get to see them when they arrive and then go to dinner at Chick Fil A, yummy!!!

 

Jenny

A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That

This weekend was definitely a mosh posh of different things!

Friday night when I got off of work I headed straight down to Atlanta to go to a Braves game with friends (I ended up making a few new ones as well!!) It took me FOREVER because of traffic but I was in a good mood so the traffic didn't really bother me. (Until the idiot guy in the truck tried to hit on me because my windows down, I just looked forward and rolled up my window slowly and put back on my shade, incognito) Once I finally made it down there I parked my car and walked to where the other people had parked to hang out before the game. We hung out for a little bit before heading down to the field. After tickets and bathrooms and drinks we finally took our seats for some baseball. Since it was a Friday night and we were playing the Dodgers it was pretty busy in there. We had a great time especially when Justin Upton walked up and hit a Grand Slam, (insert crowd goes nuts!). After sitting and watching for a while a group of us decided we really wanted a hot dog so off we went. I ended up with a chili cheese hot dog, not really sure if it's weight watchers friendly but it was good! Towards the end of the night it started sprinkling and then it started pouring. We were only a few rows away from the top so we moved farther up where there was a covering and watched the rest of the game, and we won! After the game we headed to our cars and finally after like an hour made it out of the parking lot and on our way home. It was a ton of fun and such a great start to the weekend.

 

 

I was debating doing my May 5K on Saturday but it was suppose to storm all through the morning and Mother Nature was in full force so I didn't feel like doing one. I attempted to sleep as late as my body would which was of course only until like 7:30 and then I was wide awake. I decided to knock out some budgeting, which we all love right -_- but now I know where  my money *should be going until September when I'll whip another one up. After that I was laying in my bed and decided that I needed to do some form of exercise and it was time for my Ease into 5K week 4 day 3 workout. I was a little panic-y but decided I needed to do it. This is usually the conversation that goes on in my head.

Good Me: Jenny, you can do this go run.
Bad Me: No, no, no Jenny it's like Saturday you need to take a day to rest.
Good Me: You gained this week and will be so happy if you run.
Bad Me: Girl you are cramping this is going to be awful
Good Me: Go now before you talk yourself out of it....

And on and on, but I did strap on my shoes and went to a place I don't normally run. I got out and set up all of my apps on my phone and just started clicking start on all of them until I got to my Ease into 5K and started it and headed on my way. It was a rough run but I made it through and did not stop running during the running portions, took a lot of pep talk but at least I finished it!

After my awful run where I felt like crap, I went home to change and get ready to hit up Six Flags with Kirsten. We both decided to get season passes since they are only 10 dollars more then a one day pass. So after we got there and got our passes we went in and rode one ride and then walked to other rides that had stupid long waits so we decided we were good to go and just wanted some Chick Fil A. So we grabbed some Chick Fil A and headed to my house. My roomie was working on some laundry and watching The Other Boleyn Girl so we sat and watched for a bit before going and getting some Cold Stone, and by we I mean her because I don't like ice cream, I am a weirdo I know.

Once we got back to my house she headed on her way and I went in the house to watch Le Mis with my roomie. We sat for the whole movie and while I got most of it I was still a little bit confused but I thought it was beautiful and well done. Probably something I could only watch once a year to be honest haha. We then put in Mean Girls to which I fell asleep.

Sunday I was with my kids all day as their parents are in New York for the dads birthday. He comes back today and the mom comes back Tuesday because she has some business to do. (Her company headquarters are there) The kids and I just basically sat around the house like a normal day, we had plans of soft ball games and swimming and those were thwarted by yucky rain. We ended up at Jo-Anns to get some frames and I was talked into getting fabric for the loves to make some pillows because they all love to sew, which makes my heart happy for sure. I decided to start a Pinterest project I saw since we were all going to be sewing and my machine just happened to be in the back of my car. It came out fantastic, I plan on doing a post about it Thursday for Saw it, Pinned it, Did it. So you can look forward to that, for now this is how it came out, I am in LOVE!

Now it's time to link back up with my Weekly Goals.

Let us see how last weeks goals went....

1. No Soda M-F --- Fail! I had one on Wednesday night and a few on Friday at the Braves Game....oh well.

2. At Lease 30 minutes of workout a day - I think I did all but like 2 days, so I'm ok with that.

3.  Write 10 motivational sayings and put them on bathroom mirror - nope, didn't get this out either.

So let us try this again!

1. No Soda M-F

2. More Water - I have been slacking and this is not ok. ( This is perfect since I just read that's the challenge this week!)

3. Write 10 motivational sayings and put them on bathroom mirror.


That's it for today, time for the next run on Ease into 5K, I can do this...I think.

Jenny

High 5 for Friday!

Well this week has been slow for me blog wise, it was a busy work week, we are getting ready for vacation and the end of the school year. The next two weeks are going to be crazy, but I am ready for it. (Actually the whole summer is going to be nuts, but let's do it to it!)

I am joining Lauren again for High 5 For Friday!!! Make sure you go and check out some of the other posts.

1. Monday Nigh is girls night and we ended up in Little 5 and the Virginia Highlands, which is a really nice and eclectic part of Atlanta. We went to a record store first and then dinner at Harry and Sons. It's a sushi Thai place that was delicious!

2. This is Morgan, I met her at Passion 2013 when she and 12 other people stayed in the same 2 bedroom 1 bathroom house with me. It was crazy fun but it worked amazingly well. Anyways she happened to also know my friend Kirsten which makes this world continually smaller and smaller. She was in town with a bunch of other people and we all went bowling, it was so much fun!

3. This is Kristen, who was apart of that big group too. She also stayed with us at Passion. She came bounding in the door and we were running to each other to hug when we both stopped and looked at each other because we just happened to be twins. It was rather funny.

 

4. This is me when I was 4 years old. As you can see now I am a brunette and not as tan as I could be. Back in the day I was super blond and super tan, my parents kept us playing outside often and my brother and I tan more then burn. (Except for this past weekend and now my back is molting like a bird, ew) This is at a butterfly garden in Columbus, Georgia.

5. My sisters and I are HUGE Grey's Anatomy fans. I have watched the show since it first aired on Sunday night at 10pm right after Desperate Housewives aired. I have followed it ever since and have a loyalty to it. I also own all of the seasons up to this one (and I am so tempted to pre-order it online) and just watch it all the time. Well my sisters and I attempt to watch it when it airs and we text during the show, this is the text I sent them last night in preparation. Everything mentioned below did happen especially the yelling and crying.

 

That's it for another fantastic week. I am headed to bowling for Fun Friday with Wyatt and then later tonight I am going to another Braves game and cannot wait. I love baseball and it is finally over 70 out there so it will really feel like baseball season.

 

Love you all!

 

Jenny



Weigh In Wednesday! Week 9

It's Wednesday again!!! Woohoo!

Lets see this last week was mailer busy for me and it included a trip to the beach and back. You can read all about it here! I had a blast and didn't go too crazy or so I thought. I was in my points range this week but we will see.

I have cut my soda intake like crazy and only allow myself one a day on the weekends so that's a total of 2 sodas a week. When I look back at like January and I was having 4-6 a day I am amazed. For me it's nice to see it as a simple treat rather then a "necessity" which it was for so long. I do not wish to go back there again any time soon.

I didn't really track my exercise or water intake this week. But am starting to again this next week and will have a report next Wednesday on how I did.

Usually when I am home by myself I cook. Well last night was the case and so I decided to make something I have made before. Asian Chicken Drumsticks from Skinny Taste and then just some green beans with garlic. Yum. So good. And now I have some meals for this week.

I am planning on doing my May 5K this Saturday because next weekend it's gonna be crazy with my bro and SIL and the kiddos coming in. Not to mention my bro has only 24 hours in America before he has to go back to Germany for a training. Gotta love the Army.

I competed week 4 day 1 of Ease into 5K! The farthest I have gotten on one of these things. I did 2.05 miles in 30 minutes just gotta keep trucking and I'll be running 30 minutes solid in no time!

 

I hopped on the scale this morning, mother nature is intended to hit today so I gained 2lbs. I'm not upset I know it's because of that. I am soooo bloated. Just gotta keep up my water intake and by next week it'll be gone along with some more.

Thanks for checking in with me!! Make sure you click around on all the other posts in this link up for some great inspiration :)

Jenny

Mini Vacation!

Whew it's been so crazy that I am just now getting this joker out, oh well at least it's posted now!

Friday night after work I went and got my car a much needed oil change (he thanks me I know). I was way overdue and am stubborn about that stuff so I usually put it off but with driving all the way down to the Sunshine State, I wanted to make sure we wouldn't die. After that I went to my friend Kirsten's house to pick her up and we attempted to talk her sister into coming with us but she ended up not :( sad day. So we didn't really leave Woodstock until 8 and we knew we had a good 6 hours ahead. Our GPS said our estimated time of arrival was 2:18 (in my mind definitely a time to beat) and I drove for the first three hours. After that we stopped to get a snack and switch drivers, now normally I am always so super tired and fall asleep but I was pretty awake and we turned off the music halfway down and just talked the rest of the way, it was good. We arrived a little before 2 and I drove her through downtown on our way go the island. Then we went immediately to the beach and walked on the sand for a bit. And we weren't the only crazies there at 2am. We got to the fantastic house we are staying in and unloaded our car and went to bed.

I checked the weather Saturday morning when I got up, which is always super early because my body is screwed up like that and it said a bad storm was suppose to roll in around 1 so I woke up Kirsten and told her and we were ready and out the door in 7 minutes! We headed to the beach which was literally a 5 minute drive and found a parking spot and then got on the sand.

That blue dot was where the house we stayed at was in relation to the beach.

At first it was kind of overcast which was nice because then it wasn't too hot. I read magazines and my new book Boundaries and Kirsten just laid out. We ended up walking up and down the beach once and realized we were hungry so we decided to go grab some lunch and then go back out to the beach. We went to a Mexican restaurant called Casa Maria that I frequented while I lived there and had some yummy lunch (you can never go wrong with Mexican).

Then we loaded up and headed back out for the beach round number 2. Now I put sunscreen all over my front and arms and legs but forgot to have Kirsten put some on my back. Since summer is not in full swing yet it was still pretty quite there and very relaxing.

 

 

 We were out for another 2 hours and then went back to the house to get ready to go down to Deltona where my sisters live, only about an hour south of where we were. I haven't seen them since Christmas and I miss them always. They are both teeny tiny and taller then me...go figure haha. We picked them up and took them to Texas Roadhouse for dinner...mmmm yummy. We had fried pickles and so I didn't get french fries with my ribs.

 

 

We even left a little random love letter in the menu for the next person to find, go to www.moreloveletters.com to read more about this fantastic idea.

 

 

Then we went and grabbed some dessert from Chick Fil A and Baskin Robbins. By that time you could really start to see my burn and my baby sis took my phone and started taking pictures.

 

 

After dropping the girls back off and getting some aloe rubbed on me I headed over to what was my second home/family when I lived there. The Hehre family consists of Mom Laura, Oldest Son Patrick, Middle Child Robert, and Precious Girl Rachel, they lost their dad Bob this past January suddenly and this was my first time being able to see them. It was so great to catch up with them. They are coming up to Georgia for the mountains in June and I am going to spend a few days with them. They even let me sign a Yankees flag that was draped over Bob's casket and that was such a nice thing.

 

 

Kirsten drove back and we headed to bed. On Sunday I was not going to be going to the beach again after my burn so I decided to go to church to see all of my friends. I stopped to see Abby first because she was about to have to go into work and was on the way. I was her mentor in college and I love her dearly, God is doing amazing things through her! After church I went back to the house and Kirsten and I got ready to go to my favorite restaurant in all of St Augustine, Mango Mangos. Yummy!

 

 

Then we packed up, left some flowers and candies for the people who let us stay at their house and drove through downtown so Kirsten could see it in the day time we even passed by the house I lived in while in college, they have recently painted it from green to tan, I'm not really a fan but so many memories flood that place.

 

 

Then we stopped at the big cross which is probably my favorite thing in St Augustine, I use to walk there and back from my house. It's massive and I always stand in awe when I am there. We took a ton of pictures and then got in the car to head back North.

We made it back around 9 and I ended up at my house and in bed by 10:30!

Now I am checking back in with Jess over at Operation Skinny Jeans to see how I did on my weekly goals.

1. Get More Sleep - I am very proud to say that I picked a couple of days and was in bed between 9-10 there was only one night I can remember when I went to bed past 10:30 but I will take it. I can tell it helped a ton.

2. Do the next three workouts in Ease into 5K - Well I get about a 67% on this one, I did the next two days but then the weekend rolled around and I had all the best intentions of working out in Florida but didn't on Saturday and because of my burn I couldn't on Sunday. I was hoping to do it today but my back is still really red and hurts a lot so I a going to wait until Wednesday.

3. Don't go TO crazy on vacation - I am happy to report that I sat down this morning and tracked all of my food from the weekend and I did do pretty well, a lot better then I thought I was going to do. We stayed so busy so I didn't snack and that allowed me to have some bigger meals, which I did...

Now lets set some new goals for this week.

1. No Soda M-F - I use to be a HEAVY soda drinker and am cutting back so I am limiting myself to one a day but only on the weekends.

2. Get at least 30 minutes of some sort of work out in every day!

3. Write 10 motivational sayings on cards and put them on my bathroom mirror.


That's all folks, except not, because I am writing another post later today to link up with Halie for From Firsts to Lasts!

Jenny