The Brat Fights the Fat

Okay who's idea was it for me to go back to school?!? Oh yeah, it was mine. ~sigh~

Actually, I don't hate school, I just need to be like the little Japanese guy on the show Heroes. He can stop and manipulate time. Wouldn't that be nice? He even managed to teleport himself from Japan to New York. That would be cool too. Think about all you could accomplish in a day if you could stop time or just think yourself instantly to another location. No more traffic. No more road rage. More sleep. Hell, I'd be happy with more than 5 hours of sleep a night.

Anyway, since it's unlikely that I'll learn how to bend the space time continuum, I guess I'll just have to keep at it.

I'll try to post more.


Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA JO! Yesterday Grandma Jo got even older!!

It's Friday! It's Friday! TGIF!!!

This has been a very long week, but it's FRIDAY!!
Today is our departmental picnic, so only have to do actual work until 10:30 am and then since I was "volunteered" to help out, I get to go shopping for the food 'n stuff. Woohoo! Plus, since I'm on volunteer team, I'm administering the "get to know each other" game and don't have to actually participate. Woohoo! Can you tell I'm in a good mood this morning? Plus it should end early enough that I'll be able to get in my workout at the gym!


My DH was nice enough to clean out the van and cooler for me for today (part of my volunteer duties includes transport), so even though our definitions of clean differ, thanks Scott!!


Speaking of the 30303 Challenge. Grandma Jo sucks!! I was very proud that I got 60 minutes in yesterday, and could she let me bask in the glory?!? NO! She had to go get 70 minutes!! Alright, it's on now!! Did I mention that GRANDMA Jo is getting EVEN older next week!! Hehehe! (she's gonna smack me next time I see her).


Though, I probably had way more fun getting my minutes in. I took the kids to the park and taught them how to play freeze tag. Then we went climbing on the monkey bars (even attempted some chin ups and crossing the monkey bars), did some walking, and tossed around the football.

I'm thinking I might need to start going to bed earlier. Apparently, not only can I fall asleep standing up in the shower, but I can actually sleep for a good twenty minutes. Yup, late for work this morning. Didn't make it to the gym this morning, but will have to go this evening. The new week for the 30303 Challenge has started and we have new teams. A couple of my fellow bloggers are on my team so the motivation to do well is there.

Team B is for Bodacious
Jill
BeccaLynn
Lauren
Tara
Liz


And if that wasn't enough motivation, I'm competing with Grandma Jo!! And she kicks butt when it comes to exercise minutes (i think she averages about 100 minutes a day - Yikes!!).

Came in fourth (out of 7 teams) last week, which wasn't bad since I was the only member of my team that posted any minutes.

Looks like the WW at work thing is a go. Starting next week. Guess I won't have any exuses left. Crud!

Have a great day!!

OMG!! Less than two months until Mexico!!!

I'm taking a Spanish for Travellers class at the local community center. Boy do we ever have a wide range of abilities. There's one lady who's having trouble with pretty much all of it and another who can pretty much carry on a conversation in Spanish. I'm somewhere in the middle and am very glad that I studied French growing up. I can at least roll my R's and have a pretty good grasp on the whole conjugation of verbs.

I went to the gym after class and did my workout. That brings me to 245 minutes so far this week for my 30303 Challenge. Happy to see Alea join us!! Welcome Alea!! And my Grandma Jo is joining the challenge too!! That's so stiff competition as both exercise a lot.

At the gym, tried running (run/walk) for the first time since my surgery. Happy to report that the "girls" felt fine. Though my legs and knees are in a bit of shock. I highly recommend running to Dancing with the stars. They did the Mambo & Quick Step last night, so that increased my tempo a bit. It felt good.

Not so good was the slurpee and small bag of chips I had when I got home. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Just read that Anne has joined the challenge too! Woohoo!

I have to give a huge thank you to Crystal & Sarah. I've been hearing about the 30303 Challenge on a couple of your blogs and wanted to get in on things as I've done ZIP in terms of exercise since my surgery. I asked Sarah about it and she pointed me in the direction of Crystal's board (where the challenge resides). I'm happy to report, this morning I went to the gym and got a solid 45 minutes in!! Yeah me!! So thank you!!

Now just have to get the rest back on track. Again. ~sigh~

Finally heard a bit more about the WW at work. It'll cost $180, but until we know how many people (if there's even enough), we won't know how many weeks that covers. Apparently anywhere from 10 to 15 weeks. I haven't decided if I want to do it yet. It'll be good for motivation and accountability, but that's a lot of money.

Another fun note (~evil laugh~), my stepmom had her session with the personal trainer and apparently Connie had some wonderful new ways to torture her. hehehe! I love being nice and evil at the same time (I bought the session for her). Good job Jo for keeping it up!

A Fallen Hero – Firefighter Thomas P. Holohan Jr.

I’m not a very eloquent writer, but when I hear about this tribute, I felt I had to take part. I signed up and was assigned a victim. Call it fate, call it coincidence, but the victim I was assigned really touched a cord inside me. As the daughter of a firefighter, and a wife and mother myself, I can only image the pain and loss the friends and family of Thomas must be feeling. My thoughts are with them today and always.

He was a firefighter. He was a husband. He was a brother. He was a friend. He was a father and he was a hero. Like many of the heroes from that day, he entered the Twin Towers to try to help and save others. Some might say, that’s what firefighters do, but Firefighters are trained to battle the fires and save lives while minimizing the danger to them. 9/11 was different. Those brave men and women that entered that building would have realized how much more dangerous this job would be and went anyway.

Firefighter Thomas Holohan was 36 years old when he died. He was from Chester, NY and came from a large and loving family. He had three beautiful children and a loving wife. I won’t try to talk about who he was, as I never met him, but reading the stories that friends and families have written about him, I wish I did. I encourage you to follow some of these links and learn more about what an amazing man he was and the legacy of love and friendship he left behind. Thank which ever God you believe in that we have heroes like Thomas in our world.


Links
Thomas P. Hologan
Thomas Hologan: A Solid Rock that Guided his Family
Thomas and Colleen

To answer Michelle's question... my title is actually a countdown until my trip to Mexico. T-70 means Time minus 70 days. It's a geeky scientific type way of referencing time in experiments. I just thought that since I'm workign towards a goal rather than counting up (Day 3/70), I'd be different and do it this way. I am, after all, I geek.

Did well today on points. Had a lunch meeting and since I was organizing had sandwiches and salads brought in. It was nice. Okay, the big cookie with white chocolate wasn't so good, but what can I do.

Pizza & Cupcakes here I come tonight!!

(I must confess that I tested two cupcakes last night... oops!)

Today wasn't as good as yesterday. We ate lunch at McPukes and while I did go for a smaller meal, it was still not good. On a positive note, I had porride for breakfast rather than cookies. Only used 5 flex points and will try to gain some AP's once the kids go to bed. Tomorrow and Friday will be a challenge... we're having Pizza & cupcakes for my brother's birthday tomorrow and Friday night is Girls' Night In (watching a chick flick at my house). Will try to be good and plan for it the best I can. Anyway, have to go drag the kids to the store for milk and eggs and then have to bake the cupcakes. And they're already cranky. Won't this be fun...

So the first day back on the wagon wasn't too bad. Stayed within points, even with a couple of bad choices. I was hoping to start working out tomorrow, until I remembered that my DH is out of town from Wednesday to Sunday. Which means that I can leave early unless I want to rack up some nanny overtime. I'm going to try to workout at home in the evenings. At least I have a lot of exercises I learned from the bootcamp that just require an exercise ball and some 5lb weights. Plus with two flights of stairs in our house, I have a pretty good idea of how I'll get my cardio. Of course that means working out in the evening, sometime between... feeding the kids, bathing the kids, getting the kids to bed, homework/studying and sleeping.

I have to say I have a lot of admiration for single parents. The idea of the next 5 days on my own is daunting. And that's with a live-in nanny and kids that not yet in school. Hats off to those who do it day in and day out.

Food for the Day:
Famous Amos Cookies (6)
1/2 Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwich (7.5)
Pork Chops with Cream of Mushroom Soup & Potatoes (7)
Corn (1)
Green Beans (0)

1 Multivitamin
2 Calcium Chews
1.5 L of Water

Well, despite my pledge to cold turkey on pop, i haven't. I've been better with the water (thanks everyone for the slaps), but still haven't been eating very well. Well tomorrow is the end of "summer" fun and time to get serious. Time to get my butt in gear. To actually study. Life is about to get insane again and if I'm not organized and on top of things we'll all drown. So, today, I coloured my hair. Did some exercise. Shaved my legs. Scrubbed my bathroom. Organized some of my pictures. I feel great. It's nice to accomplish something after several days of imitating a slug.

So tomorrow, I'll be back on the WW bandwagon. Wish me luck!