Walk Colorado

Most years since I went off to college, I have participated in something called Walk Kansas.  It's a yearly event to "Celebrate Healthy Living" by having teams across the state compete for the most miles or just walking the distance of KS.  You record any moderate or vigorous activity as 15 minutes = 1 Walk Kansas mile.  You also keep track of your intake of fruits and veggies and try to consume 3 to 4 cups per day.  *Side note: did you know that "Most adults need 2 – 2 ½ cups of vegetables and 1 ½ – 2 cups of fruit each day." Yowza's!* 

Last year, our team 'officially' signed up.  Meaning we bought t-shirts and paid the entry fee and competed.  We came in 4th place and had 880 miles and consumed 856 cups of veggies. Which essentially means we didn't win anything...but...walked across KS twice!

This year, we've decided to "Walk the Colorado State Line!" No entry fee, no t-shirts, but competing against each other and the loser has to buy everyone else steak dinners.  Just kidding...although that would be motivation : )  We've (ok I admit it...I've) decided that we will each have a weekly goal of 220 min. or 14.667 miles (remembering that 15 min = 1 mile) and an average of 18 F/V per week.  Anyone who doesn't meet their weekly goals pays $1 in to the 'pot.'  At the end of the 8 weeks, the 'pot' will be used to buy the winner something fun.  If there is nothing in the 'pot' at the end that means we are all winners and Jake/Kev will hold a BBQ for us. (although they don't know this yet..)

Our 8 weeks began Monday.  I am already failing on my f/v intake!  It's amazing how much 3 cups of something, especially f/v adds to a day of food.  Or in my case, doesn't add because, max of 2 is a typical day for me.  But this morning on my way to work, I had the bright idea to buy...

Juice!

Lots of juice might I add.  Sadly I can see only two things happening with this:

1. drinking to much juice at the beginning of the 8 weeks and getting so sick of it I completely give up on the f/v after that  OR
2. Jake finding the juice and consuming more than me, making the juice idea to expensive

Hopefully though, there's a 3rd thing that happens, in which I succeed on all fronts and never have to pay in to the 'pot'!  Time will tell.  

Happy health!

A Little Bit of Life UPDATED

On Valentine's day, actually not Valentine's day but the Monday after, our BS group got together for our study and made and decorated a bunch of cookies!  I finally made a frosting that was delicioso and Kerry brought a phenomenal cookie dough.  I think we were quite successful, especially after getting together for Christmas and having had issues with both the frosting and cookie recipe. (Update: I didn't have these pictures before, and the cookie picture I inserted was one I thought similar to the ones we created, so it was fraud! Here are the TRUE pictures : )

 

Christmas.                                        Valentines.

I think it's obvious which is better : )  So anyway, I have been craving the V-Day cookies ever since.  And when you have a craving, why not give in! Especially when you have quite a bit of leftover frosting!

Bad idea. I couldn't stop eating them.  Good idea. I took them to work and then a supper invite at Wiegands!  They didn't last long.  Problem. Now I'm craving them again!  Good thing the Mr. won't let me make more.

We've had quite a few snow storms since the big one that canceled church, and so the weather had been pretty chilly.  We didn't have a ton of fridge or freezer space because of all the leftovers, so we decided to leave one of the leftover milk jugs just sitting in the garage.  We must have accidentally not gotten the garage door all the way shut because we came home to this.

How in the world Slate managed to chew the cap off but not spill the milk is beyond me.  The sad thing is we should have seen this coming.  He did the exact same thing to all the milk jugs we had next to our tomato plants last summer.  None of our plants were ever harmed, but every milk jug was demolished.

Speaking of plants, Jake got our onions and tomatoes planted a couple weeks back and now we have lots of little sprouts!  We also have seeds for green beans, carrots, cilantro, basil, spinach, sweet corn, and did I mention he ordered EIGHT fruit trees that should be coming anytime?!?  *hits forehed* But, although it sounds like a lot, it's actually kinda exciting for me because this will be my first time to have a garden/fruit trees. I'm sure it will be mucho trabaja, but I'm excited to have the fresh fruit and veggies and the opportunity to work outside. Another thing I have enjoyed already is the 80 degree room that our tomatoes are growing in! A haven from the we-don't-want-to-pay-for-heat experience.

The above picture was on a day that was beautiful and some friends and I got to go rock climbing.  It was a perfect day to go climbing outside, but we forgot our ropes so ended up climbing in the gym in Boulder.  It was a bummer, but at the same time really exciting to think that winter is almost past!

I will leave you with a video that my sister Steph sent.  My nephew Ithan celebrated his 1st birthday on Wednesday.  Steph said he's really in to laughing when everyone else laughs, which makes this video even cuter!

More Oldies

For Christmas one year when I was in college, I knew I could use Hale Library's media equipment so I got this great idea to make some old home videos in to DVD's for my family!  It ended up being a very time consuming idea and a lot of trial and error.  And you would think I would have given up but I had a desire then to convert ALL the home videos!  BUT, I decided it was worth investing in some of my own equipment so I could read directions : D When my old Gateway decided to die on me, I was to lazy to re-install everything on my new laptop and at the time it had become a not as important "project."  This was easily over 4 years ago.  A couple weeks ago my aunt sent us this picture that she stumbled across.

And it happened to re-sparked a desire for getting all those home videos put on my computer before they were damaged somehow.  I have accumulated ALL of them over the years!  It's quite the pressure to keep them safe. So as I've been working on these randomly throughout the last couple weeks, here is one I thought I would share.  It's a great capture of our early years: hours upon hours of trampoline time in the middle of nowhere.  It's so fun to hear all the random little comments made in the background such as "oh...I dropped my gum!" and then saying it 5 more times cause mom isn't listening.  One of my favorite parts is Chelsie prepping for her somersaults!  And then of course when we start to argue (quite typical probably) and all end up looking at the camera quietly. I think mom just MAY have been giving us the "STOP IT NOW" signal : )

Hair today...

Gone tomorrow...

Planned on only donating 8" to send to Pantene.  She cut off ten.  My hair is REALLY short.  Maybe when I get brave enough, I'll post an end result picture..