pa-jammy
Took the boys to the zoo after school with a friend. There was a 100% chance of rain, but thanks to me wearing rainboots and carrying two umbrellas, it didn’t rain at all!
It was really cute how much the boys wanted me to take pictures of them with their friend (who Oliver later informed me was his BFF.) I may have to get him over to our house for monthly pics now. Whatever it takes.
Some random things.
1. Inexplicably, the boys are into Power Rangers again. They stopped watching that dreck a year ago, and now it’s back. Yuck.
2. I was asked to be interviewed for a multiples-related podcast. Fun! If it happens, I’ll share more details.
3. I got to see my high school BFF this weekend, which was great. She was in town for another friend’s birthday party, so it was like a tiny high school reunion. I know most people would shudder at the thought, but my high school friendships are among my most enduring.
4. Miles says “night mirror” instead of “nightmare.” I love how their mispronunciations sometimes make more sense than the actual word. (They still say “movie feeder” instead of “movie theater,” because you eat there. Duh.)
5. Today would have been Stinky‘s 17th birthday. I was talking about her with the boys, and Oliver rather hilariously said, “it’s her afterlife,” whispering the last word for dramatic effect.
I did that 8k race this morning, so I’ll be working on that post next. Don’t worry, it’ll be short.
I have nothing to report, fitness-wise today, since I took this morning off. All planned, normal rest day, etc. Tomorrow I’ll be back at the gym in the wee hours. Saturday I may go to the gym but maybe not since I have that race on Sunday. We’ll see. I know, zzzzz.
After I picked up the boys from school yesterday, I had to take them to the shoe store so Miles could get a new pair. I swear, I feel like I am always buying them shoes. And I’ve discovered it doesn’t matter if I buy them cheap sneakers or more expensive ones, they destroy them just as quickly. So off to Payless we went.
The boys still don’t know how to tie laces, and it’s one of those boring things I’m not really interested in teaching and getting frustrated with and they won’t go to college unable to tie their shoes, right? But as they get bigger, velcro shoes are becoming less common, so I had to bite the bullet and buy lace up shoes.
I’ll admit, they also look a lot nicer. But I’m not looking forward to either tying six laces every morning or teaching them how to do it. If anyone has any great ideas or resources, I’m all ears. I’ve watched a few YouTube videos that supposedly will teach me how to teach them, but I’m not sold. I think learning how to teach someone to tie shoes is like knitting – I have to be shown in person how to do it, I can’t watch a video. Maybe a book instead?
(Note about the photo at the top: Linus got new shoes, even though he didn’t really need them, but I bought them a half size bigger so in theory he can wear them longer. But because he didn’t need them, I would only buy him the clearance shoes, which are the uglier shoes on the left. Of course, he thinks they’re cool. But he’s a 7 year old boy.)
I’d planned for my gym schedule to be Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, but I went this morning instead of tomorrow. I’m having dinner with work people tonight and I am pretty sure I’ll want to “sleep in” (you know, til 6:30) tomorrow morning.
My Achilles tendon (or something at the back of my left ankle) was a little sore yesterday so I decided to cross train today. My gym got some of those old-school stair climbers (like tiny escalators) so I spent a bit of time on that (14 minutes climbing stairs is a long time!) and then did some strength training, then got on the elliptical for a little while (booorrrring) and then more strength training.
Okay, enough of that. Other things I’ve been meaning to write about:
– 2/3 of the boys had their first sleepover last week! Big milestone, and especially since Miles actually made it through the night. I was pretty shocked. Linus chose not to stay, though. It was kind of fun having one kid. It was very quiet.
– I’m reading this book right now. It’s set in Baton Rouge, and it takes place in 1991, when the main character is 16. I grew up in Baton Rouge, and I was 16 in 1991, so it’s kind of fascinating. Some of the setting is fictional, but enough of it is not to keep me enthralled.
When people ask me if I’m from here (New Orleans), I always have a hard time answering. Baton Rouge is a totally different world from New Orleans, and it’s so hard to describe. But this book nailed it.
You have to understand. When people think of Louisiana, they think exclusively of New Orleans. We are okay with that. New Orleans has the culture, the allure. They are The Big Easy. The Crescent City. The Birthplace of Jazz. The people of Baton Rouge don’t even have accents. Our parades, when compared to New Orleans, are amateur hour. Even our most raucous bars close at two o’clock in the morning. Theirs don’t close down at all. So, whenever people in Baton Rouge feel wild, we drive the sixty miles to New Orleans. We stay in upscale hotels and spend gobs of money. We drink beer on the street and make bad decisions. We take wrong turns at intersections and feel perpetually lost, and when we wake up in the morning, regretful and satisfied, we go back home saying, “It’s a fun place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.”
From My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh
Well, I guess I did decide to live here, but growing up, I never had any desire to. Anyway, if you’re looking for a good read, I recommend you pick this up. (Even though I haven’t finished it yet.)
– I ended up signing up for that race on Sunday. I really really hope it’s cool and overcast. Hmmph.
– Last week, I got a box from HelloFresh. It’s one of those companies that’s cropping up that sends you the ingredients for meals and the recipe cards, and all you have to do is put them together. I got three meals, two of which were excellent (the third was good, but not outstanding.) We had a pasta bolognese one night, squash with quinoa another night, and chicken and potatoes another night. (The first two were the excellent ones.) (No, the boys didn’t eat this.) (Actually, George didn’t eat the squash one either. More for me!)
Anyway, I loved that I can make these again, because none of the ingredients were particularly unusual. It wasn’t like I’d have to buy from that company, you know? Just some more meal ideas.
If you want to try it and get $40 off your first box, you can use this referral code: R7KT4K (Yeah, it’s not cheap, but great for special meals, and the portion sizes mean you have enough for leftovers.)
I suppose I could come up with better post titles, but I really don’t want to name them all “DIY Bootcamp Day 2.” What if I manage to keep up with this for an extended period of time? I don’t want to have DIY Bootcamp Day 273.” Well, I mean, I do, but I don’t, if you know what I mean.
Anyway. Got to bed earlier last night, so was definitely a bit more well-rested (though was in the middle of a weird dream about miniscule bunnies in a balloon and my friend Lindsay and the zoo when the alarm went off) and this time managed a bit over 3 miles in 35 minutes.
My friend Heather is trying to convince me to do the Shamrock Run on Sunday (I’ve done it for the past two years, ever since it started, and part of me does like the idea of doing a race every year from the beginning) but I don’t know if I can run the whole thing (it’s 8K which is very nearly 5 miles, and maybe I can if I run slow enough, but it’s also mid-March and it could be warm and humid) but I have to decide today because the price goes up $15 tomorrow.
Also, you may have noticed I left out any mention of strength training. Well, I did a set of tricep somethings, but then I decided maybe I could do my arm stuff at home. So if anyone has a source of an arm routine that I can do at home that doesn’t involve the floor, I’m all ears.
In other, non-fitness news, Oliver and I had some one-on-one time at IHOP last night (every time I want to write iHop, good lord) which was super sweet and fun. We rode the bus (I mean, we sat on the same side of the booth, which in my opinion is only acceptable for parents and children) and ate pancakes. Well, Oliver ate the shit out of some chicken and waffles AND a short stack. So now I know how to fatten that kid up. I very virtuously only ate 2/3 of my Harvest Nut ‘n’ Grain waffles.
Oh, one last thing. If you blog (regularly or not) can you fill out this very short survey for me? Thanks!
I had a friend take a picture of the boys and me at the New Orleans Moms Blog Easter egg hunt today. They had more fun helping with the setup than actually hunting for stuff. That said, we brought home plenty of Smarties. Woot!
Some more pics from the zoo yesterday. Still loving my new lens!
It’s funny because for the past seven years, we had zoo memberships but the boys weren’t interested in going. And when we did, it was mostly to ride the carousel or the train. So we let the membership lapse. But ever since they had their time at the zoo for school, they’re obsessed and have been dying to go back. So we renewed our membership yesterday and actually went around and looked at animals.
These are the photos that I think are good…
And here are the photos that I just find amusing.
Hard to imagine, everywhere else, it’s just Tuesday.
Oh yeah, it’s Valentine’s Day, huh? Mardi Gras pretty much supercedes anything related to February 14, but we did manage to exchange them anyway.
George gave me Hot Tamales, which you know are my favorite but the cards the boys made me were absolutely the best gift I could have gotten. I literally teared up at Miles’s card. Gah.
I wanted to blog about a few things that don’t really merit a post of their own.
I baked a king cake!
I’ve been wanting to try this for a while, and finally got around to it this weekend. I used the recipe in this blog post. [Please ignore the line, “(Pronounced Nawlins in case you don’t want to sound like a fool)” because that is absolutely, 100% untrue. Please don’t ever say “Nawlins” in my presence.]
The only changes I’d make next time are:
1. Three strands instead of two. It was very puffy. Not necessarily a bad thing, but there was definitely a higher ratio of bread: filling than I’d prefer.
2. Get a real baby, not a LEGO minifigure that I sterilized. Though it made for a hilarious photo. I crack myself up.
3. Get the colored sugar to sprinkle on top. I colored the icing instead, but sugar would be prettier sprinkled on top of the icing (not in lieu of.)
I was really happy with how it came out, though. So yum! And P was really happy to get the “baby.”
Hair product recommendation
Saturday night, I went with some friends to a walking parade, Chewbacchus. I think you can imagine what the theme was. I looked all over the house for the Princess Leia wig I had at one point, but then I remembered that I have long dark brown hair. No wig needed, just a Pinterest tutorial!
Worked like a charm, and I was so enamored with the bun-making technique, that I went and bought a hair donut thingy yesterday from Ulta.
Oliver’s writing
Oliver had his writing journal from English class in his backpack and HOLY COW it was a treasure trove of cute. I can’t wait to get my hands on Miles’s and Linus’s. My favorite entry was the one that said, “Today I will inoy my dad.”
Yesterday was a big day. It was Oliver’s class’s last day at the zoo as well as the school’s mascot unveiling and their Mardi Gras parade.
The kids (dressed as animals for the parade later that day) gave presentations about things they’d learned in the last four weeks at the zoo. Oliver discussed endangered animals and something else. Reptiles?
After the presentations, we went to the zoo auditorium to watch the movie they make at the end of their 4 week session. Looks impressive up on the big screen, eh?
After the film, there was a potluck and then we headed to school for the big mascot unveiling and the parade.
The kids had voted for which mascot they wanted, and so there was much excitement in the air as they unveiled…
So here’s the problem with the kids going to a French school. Now I’m going to have to say “Loup Garou” a bunch of times over the next eleven years. Maybe can we agree the non-French-speaking amongst us can just call him the Werewolf?
In any case, he was pretty awesome. Very Teen Wolf.
Next up, the parade!
I guess this means the boys probably aren’t going to try my favorite recipes anytime soon.
pyjammy dot blog 