Can't you feel the burn?

Oh.my.gosh. As I am typing this, my legs ache, my arms are stiff, my back feels like someone pounded on it, and my butt hurts. I am trying to lose weight and get back into some kind of shape other than round and flabby, so I tried "The Biggest Loser 2" DVD tonight. Sweet Lord...I am in terrible shape. The sadistic girl in the video kept smiling and saying, "Can't you feel the burn? Aren't you working up a sweat?" Yes, cute skinny girl with flat abs and a perfect body. This fat girl with a jiggle roll and granny arms sure can feel the burn. I HATE to sweat - and I had to shower afterwards because I was so sweaty. It sure is more fun getting fat than trying to get it off. I want some ice cream SOOO bad...thank goodness Tim is working late so I can't indulge my craving. Pray for me!

SPRING BREAK!!!!

So I have been a complete blog slacker this week. I joked to my adoption forum friends about updating their blogs and then I didn't write a single post all week! Sorry, girls! :( It has been spring break week here at the P house and we have been living it up all week long. For the first time, Tim got to work through his spring break so he could be off for ours, and it has been so nice to have some dedicated family time. Here's a quick recap of our week so far...

Monday - a trip to the Greenville Zoo and Cleveland Park where Tim spun Veronica so fast on this twirly seat thing that I thought she was going to puke but she kept telling him to go faster! Haha :) We also took M (my 9 mo. niece) and had fun teaching her all about the animals.

Tuesday - this day wasn't so fun. I woke up SICK and didn't move off the couch all day long. Poor V had to make her own lunch (PBJ sandwich and grapes) but was so proud of herself. She also made me drink lots of water, took my temperature, and asked if I was ok every time I coughed or sneezed. What a sweet girl! Tim spent the day getting my car aligned so his day kind of stunk too.

Wednesday - I got to clean my house! I mean, really clean the house! Like sweep and mop and dust and super vacuum. I love being off and having energy to clean it all at one time.

Thursday - went on a mini-vacay to Charleston, one of our favorite places to visit. Ate dinner at Bubba Gump's with some good friends who drove all the way down just to eat with us. Got a good night's sleep in the huge king sized bed. :)

Friday - finished our Charleston adventure with a great breakfast, 2 hr. and 45 minutes in the indoor pool, and lunch with one of the greatest Christian musicians in the world. Oh yeah, and a large gelato at the candy kitchen and a new phone for Tim at the apple store - gotta love Apple's warranty!

Saturday - tried to sleep late (didn't work because of my barking DOG!), finished a really good book, watched the very last episode of ER (cried and sniffed all the way through it), ran some errands, and sat in the yard and read while V and the dogs played outside.

What a great week....I really don't want to go back to work. At least summer will be here before I know it!!!

What do you like to do on time off?

Lazy day (aka random ramblings)

Today was one of those wonderful lazy days that I ADORE. I didn't get out of my pajamas until after 5 pm (I should be embarrassed but I am NOT - you know you would do it too if you could!) I got up early to start our taxes and found out that the IRS is revising a form that we need to claim the remainder of our adoption tax credit from finalizing V's adoption last year. So...we won't be able to file until mid-February!!! That is just annoying - who revises tax forms DURING tax season??? After that, I made a big breakfast and took a nap. I woke up, ate some lunch, and took another nap. I have been sooo tired this week - it was heavenly! V has been sick this week with a double ear infection/sinus infection so she just wanted to play in her playroom with her Polly Pockets. Thankfully I think she may be over the worst of it - she is the grumpiest sick person EVER! (Besides me...I admitted it). Tim is on his 2nd round of antibiotics, so hopefully all of our house will be well soon. :)

What are you up to this weekend?

Back to school...back to reality

The past two weeks have been absolutely wonderful. Because I am a teacher, one of the perks is getting two weeks off from school during Christmas time. I had so many wonderful plans of things I wanted to accomplish...clean out closets, get pictures framed and hung, organize my house, etc etc etc. All the stuff that I am too tired to do during the school year. What did I do instead? Over the break, I...
1. Made horrible tasting cookies and a lopsided gingerbread train with my daughter but had fun trying to cook with her
2. Spent lots of money that wasn't mine going after Christmas shopping with gift cards
3. Played with V and Madison in the playroom - we taught Madison how to "Hokey Pokey" - all the babies at daycare are going to be doing it once she goes back. :)
4. Started a routine of reading a chapter book in bed with V right before she goes to sleep..(and sometimes snuggling with her afterward for a while if she talks me into it)
5. Watched waaaay too many episodes of "The Office" with my sweet husband and stayed up way too late after looking at each other and saying, "Let's just do one more..."
6. Visited with family and friends
7. Went to Charleston just for the day to eat lunch at Bubba Gump's and get pralines and gelato from the Candy Kitchen
8. Stayed in my pajamas surfing the Internet or watching old 90210 reruns past lunch time more times than I care to admit :)

I think what I actually did was way better than my goals, don't you???

I really CAN believe it's not butter

Tonight V and I decided to do some post-holiday baking. I found this really cute Gingerbread Train the day after Christmas for half-off, so we decided to decorate it. The only thing was - it was NOT pre-assembled. I struggled with that dumb thing for over 30 minutes, with V trying to "help" me the whole time. "Mommy, let me see the box - I think I know how to do it!" We finally got the thing together and then we started decorating it. I had some frosting left over and I hated to throw it away. So....I thought, while we are already so messy, let's make sugar cookies and then we can frost them! Of course V was super excited. She got this holiday baking set (I found it after Christmas 1/2 off too!) with cookie cutters, a little ban, a rolling pin, and a wooden "flipper." So I pulled out my cookbook and found a sugar cookie recipe. I am not usually a "cookie from scratch" kind of girl - cutting open the tube and slicing the dough is much more my style. But I thought we would give it a try! I looked over the ingredient list to make sure we had everything we needed. The only thing I didn't have was butter or margarine, but I had a big bottle of butter spray so I thought we would be good. I start doing the recipe...but the dough is really sticky, more like cake batter than cookie dough, especially sugar cookie dough. I kept adding flour hoping it would thicken up. Finally I got it thick enough to roll out but it was so hard to cut with the cookie cutters. V and I finally just made little round cookies with our hands. By this time, my patience was at a frazzle and I still had dinner to cook and the kitchen was a mess.

Fast forward about 2 hours - V went in the living room and gave Tim a cookie with this big smile. He tasted it and asked if I had tasted them. I took one bite and almost gagged! They were HORRIBLE! V insisted they were yummy and wanted to keep them until I promised to buy some more dough and let her use the cookie cutters again. Life lesson learned: use real butter instead of spray - it really ISN'T butter!