30 Day Challenge - Day 30 - OOPS!!

I had this post scheduled but it never posted. Sorry I didn't notice it sooner!
I did it!

I knew I would finish it, I was committed but to have done it feels great. Today's workout was longer than others, not in time but in the number of workouts. There were 22 workouts, we did a lot of rows and curls again today. There were also a great deal of squats, squat jumps, inline skating, dancing, boxing, tennis, baseball, and running/walking. All in all it was about 20 minuets long and I burned just over 100 calories. I will still be using Active but I think I will wait until next month to do another 30 day challenge.

30 Day Challenge - Day 29

We are in the final days! I can't believe how fast it has gone. Today's workout was alright, it worked me out but just wasn't as fun as some of them have been. We started out with walking, did some side twists, presses, rows and curls, boxed, more rows, played tennis, did some crunches and ended with a walk/run combo. It got me moving but didn't do any of my favs like basketball, inline skating, dancing or baseball. Watch for my final workout update tomorrow and see how much I lost (without dieting) by following the program!

Happy dance & frustrating!

I applied for some scholarships last quarter just for the heck of it, I hadn't really thought that I would get any but I logged onto the school site to order my books and I discovered that I had been awarded a $500 scholarship! WOOHOO! This amount covered my books for the summer semester and left just about $11 in change lol. How great is that?! It amazes me how the books are that dang expensive and then buy back they are worth less than 30% of what you paid, amazing.

A part of my schedule this upcoming semester is a work-study program. Esentially I have to find a job within my degree and work at least 20 hours a week. Normally this would not be a problem, however with the companies here and in Omaha releasing employees like hot rocks finding a job is increasingly hard. Each day I put in resume after resume and I have had a few initial phone interviews and ONE, ONE, actual interview. This is just craziness. After I was laid off from my previous job but before I had decided to go back to school I had dozens of interviews resulting in several job offers that I stupidly turned down. Looking back now, I see that at least three of those offers would have suited me well. I turned them down because it would have been a drastic pay cut-we are talking more than $5 an hour pay cut. Yes I made a rediculas amount of money at my previous job for doing very little and something that I liked. On top of the pay cut I would then have had to pay daycare since I was working graveyard and would have switched to days AND my school age kids would have been home alone for at least 2 hours a day (not a huge deal, but still). If I don't have a job lined up before 7/12 I will have to call my advisor and the Business Admin director (I think that's her title, something close to that anyway lol) and see if they have any suggestions. Let's hope it doesn't come to that though.

30 Day Challenge - Day 26, 27, 28

I have been trying to stay away from the computer on the weekends and spend that time with my family. I have still done the challenges and took notes to compose for today's post.

Day 26: Today was a slow paced workout of mostly upper body exercises. There was a lot of curls and rows, mixed in with some lunges, baseball and two reps of butt kicking boxing. The target calories for this work out was 67 and I only got up to 62.3. I fell far short, I normally exceed the calories, so I am not sure what happened today.

Day 27: This workout was much better than yesterday, as far as workouts go yesterday was a bit blah. Today we were moving, started out dancing, did some jump squats, jump lunges, high knee/kick up track work, running/walking, inline skating, basketball, volleyball. I had a lot of fun with this workout. I like doing the games in between the hard workouts.

Day 28: Today was a rest day. We finally got the basketball hoop set up and the kids, hubs and I played ball for most of the day and worked on the lawn for the rest of it. I have noticed that we have become more active since we started the challenge.

Friday Photo Flashback

Jan/Feb 2000

Kalysta was about 3 months old and unbelievably colicky. She would scream for hours on end from evening until around midnight. Toby was working late at the time and Loryn refused to sleep on her own. He came home and found us like this one night. Not even Mountain Dew could keep me awake after the night I had!

And this was after I woke up. I look thrilled to be having my picture taken, don't I?

For more Friday Photo Flashback click on the logo above.

EA Sports Active *WINNER!*

Thank you all for entering to win the EA Sports Active giveaway. There was a great response, we had 349 responses. I used random.org and the winner is:

Congratulations ShaRhonda I will be emailing you soon!!

Don't forget to enter!!

The EA Sports Active Giveaway ends tomorrow at 10am CST. That means ONLY ONE MORE DAY to enter!! Click on the link above to read about this great product and enter to win one of your own.

Thousand Words Thursday - 2

A boy and his dog are life long friends.

See Kai Run Giveaway

Gena at The Morris Bunch Blog is having a Birthday Bash Day 3 for a pair of See Kai Run shoes. I love these shoes, they are so soft and flexible. Head over to Gena's blog and enter for a pair.

30 Day Challenge - Day 25

Don't forget to enter to win your own EA Sports Active, go to this post EA Sports Active Giveaway. ONLY ONE MORE DAY!!

Today is a day of rest, I do not intend on doing any challenge workouts today but I do not intend to rest. The kids and I will be hitting the pool this afternoon and playing in the yard this morning. Not sure what this evening will bring but I know it will be more outdoor activities (weather permitting). Should be a fun and active day!

30 Day Challenge - Day 24

Don't forget to enter to win your own EA Sports Active, go to this post EA Sports Active Giveaway. ONLY 2 MORE DAYS!!

Another great workout! I do not think I will get tired of posting that. Today was supposed to be a rest day but due to my skipping the workout on Father's Day I made it up today. It was another day filled with squats, squats and running. We did regular squats, jump squats, raise calf squats, squats, squats, squats! I love running but we did a lot today and it wore me out, I know that is a good thing but still. To break up all of that fun stuff we did inline skating and tennis, both are fun. We did do a new exercise today called side twists, this is a great ab workout and I know I will be feeling this tomorrow. For completing this new exercise I got yet another award, I have officially done every exercise on the game once. With only 6 days left of the challenge I have to say that is a good thing!

Wordless Wednesday - Summer Play

Kira enjoying the nice morning we had today.

More Wordless Wednesdays:
Mostly Wordless Wednesday HQ │Wordless Wednesday HQ │ 7 Clown Circus │ 5 Minutes For Mom │ MomDot

Father's Day.

The kids really have enjoyed spending some time with their dad these past few days. I didn't have the camera out much to take pix of it all but I did want to share some of the fun stuff that they made him for Father's Day.

We'll start with KaliShe actually made this last year at school before it let out. She hid it in her room so Toby wouldn't find it before Father's Day and LOST it. She was grounded recently and had to clean out her entire room and go through toy bins etc and found it.

Jake not being in school or preschool wanted to do something like his sisters so we grabbed some of the art projects that we had laying around and put a Toby head on it. It cracks me up Gorilla Dad rocks!

Paige made Toby two things, one in school that is identical to Kaly's (they are only one grade apart so this must be the standard 2nd grade project). Seeing that Kal and her had similar ones she decided to do something different and created the picture below.
I LOVE it! Her dad is A-some! I know she meant awesome but A-some is so funny, kind of like A-hat. Toby and I were in a bit of a fight when she gave it to him and it brought a HUGE smile to my face.

Forever the jokester like her mom Loryn put together this little card. She really tries to push the limits, but I can't help it, it really is a funny card!

Haley made a card as well but it wasn't around when I took these pictures, it did go something like "Hope you like this card, because it's all I got you!" LOL I wonder if she will think a card like that is as funny when she gets her's from Toby on her 16th birthday!!

I hope you all had an A-some F-day!

30 Day Challenge - Day 20, 21, 22, 23

Don't forget to enter to win your own EA Sports Active, go to this post EA Sports Active Giveaway. ONLY 3 MORE DAYS!!

My husband has had some time off and when he's home I try to spend more time with him. As a result I got behind on my postings. So to catch up I am going to put them all in one post!

Day 20: Today was a rest day. My daughter had 3 friends over to stay the night as well as her niece. There was a lot to do to prepare for the party, so it was a good thing I had this extra time.

Day 21: Since it was Father's Day I didn't even touch the Wii but spent a lot of time outside with my family. I will have to make up this extra rest day on Wednesday to stay on track with the program. I did stay active doing some gardening, t-ball, and lawn care. I am surprised I had the energy for it all since I was up until 5am with sleepover guests, sick niece and a very fussy baby. Hubby was a sweetie and let me take a nap, it really did help.

Day 22: Today was a lower body workout. My legs are burning and I am totally out of breath! This was a great workout. The new raise calf squats are a killer, I have to work on my balance a bit because I nearly fall over with each but I got through both sets. We also had two sets of squat holds. I have talked about how much I enjoy squats (lol) so today was fun! I do have to say that for all the squats, I at least gained another trophy for completing my 100th squat. The games really help to break up the workout, we had two sets of basketball and one of volleyball. Today they introduced blocking on volleyball, it was interesting. I do have to say that I still love my trainer. The encouraging words she says really help to keep me motivated "You look like a track star with the pace your setting." I also noticed how they place runners on the track to motivate you to try and beat them, it works for me. I am constantly trying to beat that person to the finish line.

Day 23: Today was an upper body workout. We did a crap ton of rows and curls broken up with some lower body workouts and cardio such as track work and dance. I enjoy running on the track, just keep the kick-ups away. I don't know what it is about them but they just annoy me, maybe it's because they do their job and kick my butt. Another great workout and another day closer to my goal of completing the challenge!

June's Blue Ribbon Photo Contest

Kira at about 4 months old, she didn't care that it was 1am and was having a great time. I couldn't resist taking this pic of her.

Friday Photo Flashback

Loryn was about 3.5 years old and had just learned how to wink. She wanted me to take her picture winking and she threw her thumb up at the last second and isn't quite caught in the picture.

For more Flashback Friday, click on the logo above.

Friday Fill Ins - #2

1. All children alarm their parents, if only because you are forever expecting the worst.

2. Show me a good loser and I will show you mine.

3. Heaven is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs at one time.

4. Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy going to broadway shows and choking on pretzels.

5. I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine dirt and water.

6. It is impossible to think of any good meal, no matter how plain or elegant, without bread or butter in it.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a party, tomorrow my plans include listening to girls giggle all night and Sunday, I want to sleep!

For more Friday Fill-ins click on the logo above.

30 Day Challenge - Day 19

Don't forget to enter to win your own EA Sports Active, go to this post EA Sports Active Giveaway.

Whew, what a great workout! Today we did inline skating (with jumps) twice, side to side jumps, dancing twice, a ton of curls and kick ups. I have to say that I am not a fan of kick ups. In short they kill, I would rather run or jog. They do the job though, my heart was racing after the set of fast and slow kick ups. I burned 104.8 calories and feel great!

Thousand Words Thursday - 1

This picture was taken about six months ago. The kids were cooped up in the house because of the cold and snow and were making paper hats. Kaly decided that Kira needed one and to be funny she wrote "Silly Kira" on the hat. We didn't know then how right the hat would be. She is a silly baby, a little jokester in the making. She's a smart one too, she has figured out the art of distraction. When we tell her 'no' she will look and smile the biggest smile and say "hi" in the highest, screachy voice. You can't help but laugh!

30 Day Challenge - Day 18

Don't forget to enter to win your own EA Sports Active, go to this post EA Sports Active Giveaway.

Today I decided to add the Wii board back into the mix. It was interesting to do both tennis and volleyball with the Wii board. You have to step (lunge) off the board to whichever side the ball is thrown to. This was a bit tricky as my board is very sensitive and would jump all over the place when I lunged to the left. I believe it is just my board and something that I will have to fix-could be the rug we have is too plush, I'll have to dig out the yoga matt to lay down before the board and see if that helps. There was a lot of lunging in todays workout, I much prefer that to squats! I burned 121.6 callories and had a great workout.