Lacking Motivation

Disclaimer: There will be a lack of photos in this post!

We are experiencing an early spring/summer here. The weather had been in the 80's over the weekend! 80's in March! According to the news we are shattering records! hooray! :) Not about the record...I could care less about that. But the weather! The beautiful wonderful, lets-spend-loads-of-time-outside weather! I can't get enough of it! Skid can't either! She is loving it. The park, the walks, the trampoline (until it broke on Saturday!) So what, you may ask, am I lacking motivation in? Homework....housework....yard work....and work work! (notice the trend?) All I want to do it enjoy the weather. To sit outside and soak it all up with toy cars and chalk and bubbles! Skidamirink makes me feel 5 again :)

I have a ton of homework to do. That's a main starting point. I'm staying mostly on top of house work, but I know there is some more spring cleaning that could be getting done. On the plus side, I'm only about 3 days behind on my Bible reading! Hooray progress! Of for those of you who don't know; I joined Toastmasters International. Toastmasters? What the heck is that?! Well I'll tell you. It's basically a club that helps you develop and work on your public speaking and leadership skills. I'm actually pretty excited about this. I didn't count it as a "new" thing for blogging purposes, as I can't really document it via photos, but nevertheless, I've joined the club and I'm going to be giving my first speech in a few weeks! ahh! The first one is just an ice breaker speech, basically letting the people in the club get to know you a bit. We'll see how it goes. It's only 4-6 minutes long, but we all know that can seem like an eternity when up in front of people!

This past weekend was amazing. St. Patricks Day was a success! I had a Sr. High Youth Group party complete with clothing exchange and the breaking of my trampoline. Good thing Skid is so cute, because by the next day she had already convinced Grandpa to buy her a new one! Yay Grandpa! (softy! haha) The girls had fun and so did I. It's nice to be able to get to know them outside of the church.

I made them a dessert off of Pinterest :) It was delicious. It's called Pattys Pudding and you can get the recipe by clicking on the link. It's fast and simple and very yummy. I did use the mint green Oreos instead of the regular ones though, just for fun and added taste.

Later that night JD's brother and family came over for a BBQ. We made Hawaiian Chicken sandwiches which were great. Add a spinach and strawberry salad with raisins and a Very Berry Vinaigrette, a Suddenly Salad, some chocolate mint dip-n-dots and we had a great time! We even had a bonfire  and stayed up "late" playing tag and flashlight hide-and-go-seek with the kiddos! Skid loved it! She doesn't get to play games like that a lot considering she's an only child of a single mom!  Overall the weekend was a huge success! Which brings me back to the point that I am seriously lacking motivation in getting "work" done!

That being said JD and I have signed up to do a Warrior Dash! We are headed to out of state for it, as the one here conflicted for us. We are attempting to become St. Jude Warriors too, so if you want to help by donating, follow the link! Your support is much appreciated, that children and I thank you. :) Anything you can donate will help, and it all goes to St. Jude Children Research Hospital. Basically (check out the link above) we are going to be running a 5k from hell. Running through fire, over cargo net walls, crawling through the mud under barbed wire....good stuff. BUT for a good cause. And as we've learned, I'm a sucker for a good cause ;) So we are getting ready for that. I've upped my daily walking to start, started doing yoga and plan to re-integrate pilates into my routine for strength training as well. I know that eventually I will have to start actually dying RUNNING, and any advice would be much appreciated. I HATE  (we don't say hate, Mom!) DISTAIN running! I tried the couch potato to 5k and didn't care for it, so any other suggestions would be most welcomed! How did you start running? What works, what doesn't? How do you deal with shin splints (cuz I always get them then I decide to start running, it's a major contributing factor in me stopping every time I start)? I have 4ish months to get ready for this thing. My goal, to be honest, is to finish and finish strong (and not in last place). I don't want to win I just want to rock it! So I know I need to start something. . . Thanks for your input!

LETS DO THIS!

3 Down 9 to Go!

What a busy March!!! And it's only the 13th! My goodness time is flying by and to top it all off it was over 60 degrees today and only supposed to get warmer all week! Bring on the sunshine! So to start off with, reading the Bible has been going pretty well. Jim and I are both a little behind, but we're working on it :) I'm still enjoying the Old Testament, even though it is a little dry in places, but it's interesting to finally be reading for myself some of the stories and learning how things tie together. Dinner making has been pretty good too, tonight was spaghetti and homemade garlic and mozzarella cheese bread :) so delicious! We kept it simple so we could get outside to enjoy the sunshine! We even had time to make it to the park and play!

So my "new" thing for March came about through a work friend. She approached me one day and asked if I would like to join her team....her Polar Plunge Team. Now my first reaction was something along the the lines of "are you crazy in the head!? Jump into freezing water in the beginning of March, in Minnesota?!" No thank you, I choose life! But then she asked me the question....."have you ever done it before?" *sigh* No, no I had not and as fast and I had said "no" I switched my answer to a "yes". After all, I needed to try one new thing a month, and not only would it be a neat experience, I would be helping raise money for the Special Olympics of Minnesota at the same time. I'm a sucker for a good cause. :) So I signed up and started raising money! At one point I got an email that they were adding a Pee Wee Plunge for children under 12. Say no more, I signed skidamirink up! She raised over $250 (and got a shirt and a hat both of which she was stoked about) and she got to jump into a pool of cold water (about waist deep). She loved it. The work people and I decided to let our department choose our costumes via a fundraiser and we ended up dressing up like super heros! Hooray!

So the week of the plunge, we are all excited. The weather had been great, it had been an incredible mild winter and the weekend forecast was looking good. A little chilly but not too bad.Well we woke up Saturday morning to snow and wind! Not the combination we were looking for while standing on a frozen lake in relatively little clothing! (at least Skidamirink got to jump into the water in a heated tent!) So we got there and were waiting our turn, getting dressed and what not. Skidamirink wanted to pose as a super hero and everyone there was loving the smallest member of the Westside Wipe Outs!

So here we are fully decked out as super heros. We made our capes the night before. I bought cheap white curtains and colored Ducttape and we went to town! Skidamirink had an "A" on her's and I had a "P" on mine. Skidamirink wanted stripes and poke-a-dots on hers so I made that happen too.  She wore her sparkle shoes too, because what good super hero doesn't have awesome shoes? :) So JD came along and was an absolute saint. He took care of Skid, and watched all of our stuff (of which there was a lot) and he took the photos for me, and he was just amazing and so helpful. (thanks again JD!) So we got the whole group together for photos before we had to plunge. 

The Westside Wipeouts!

So that is the team. I have to apologize for the photos of us jumping as I forgot to bring my telephoto lens  so JD was forced to deal with the other one, and therefore could not properly zoom in on us.

Plunging!

Making the exit for the hot tubs

Skidamirink also Jumped and I'll share my favorite from that:

My brave girl

This is the exact moment she noticed how cold the water was. She was in for about 2 seconds and she ended up crying. :( However, when she was done she was so proud of herself and so excited! She was even asking when she would be able to do it again! Hooray!  The whole day was a giant success. From frozen water, to hot dogs, free coffee to face painting we had an amazing time. I will definitely be participating again. The plunge was not as bad as I was anticipating and was actually over pretty quickly.  The hot tubes do a great job of warming you up almost instantaneously.

March has brought with it another first! For both skidamirink and me. Skidamirink got her first ride on a 4 wheeler and I learned how to drive one! 

Learning to drive

Skidamirink riding: Notice the ecstatic screaming

Skidamirink had a blast, she did not want to stop riding. I on the other hand was nervous. I enjoyed riding more than driving, but I can see where the excitement lies. I was nervous about damaging the 4 wheeler or making some mistake on it and injuring someone! Luckily my fears proved to be nothing and nothing bad happened to anyone.

The first 13 days of March have been amazing. From house hunting, to celebrating my wonderful sisters 28th birthday at a dueling piano bar, to sledding, plunging in a frozen lake, grilling out and riding on 4 wheelers. We have some fun things planed the rest of the month as well. We are hoping to participate in a parenting class, we are hoping to go shoot archery (but I think that will have to wait until April) and I am having a party for St. Patricks day with the 12:2 girls. I'm looking forward to all of it!

LETS DO THIS! 

2 Down 10 to Go!

Greetings! So this past Sunday I did it! I finally tried Sushi. Not going to lie, I still do not know how I feel about it. Parts were good, others were not. JD became a fan though! Skidamirink tried some cooked and then deep fried shrimp tempura and even liked it! I too was a big fan of that one, I could have eaten those all day! We went to a little restaurant in Stillwater that JD's mother likes, called the shanghai bistro. The place was lovely, great environment and very friendly staff. The staff was also very helpful in helping the newbees order some sushi.

This was our Poo Poo Platter App

Spider Rolls

JD working the chop sticks

California Rolls

My First Taste

Jims First Taste

Pondering...but he loved it

Trying a Shrimp Tempura roll

Pondering...but it was really good

This one? This is that nasty Spider Roll

Basically what I concluded was that, California rolls are mediocre at best. I did not like how sticky they were. Deep friend shrimp tempura is amazing, Shrimp Tempura rolls are tasty, but I'm not sure I could eat more than 3. Spider Rolls are the gross and I never want to eat one again. Overall I had fun and learned some new things. I also tried their egg drop soup because I love egg drop soup but theirs was not so tasty. It has mushrooms and red peppers and tasted weird, so that was a bummer. I'm not crazy about eating the whole shushi roll at once either. I would prefer to cut it in half which I did for some, but then it was a little messy. Surprisingly the seaweed did not bother me at all. It was actually pretty good. JD really liked it, and I think he'll be trying more. As for me? We'll see. I'm not sure I would actively seek it out again, but if it was around I may eat it. 

That being said, today is the 1st of March! AHHHHHH!!! Where in the world did February go?! With March comes preparation for new thing number 3! What is that new thing? Well my friends, it is the Polar Bear Plunge on Lake Calhoun on Saturday March 3rd! I am plunging with a group from my work: The West Side Wipeouts and skidamirink will be participating in the PeeWee plunge! She is super excited to jump in a big pool with ice cubes. We held a fundraiser at work, so know that we will be in costumes, but you will just have to wait for my next post to find out what we will look like! 

Other than than life is amazing. I'm still behind on my reading,but catching up a little more (almost) every day. Today is a "sick day" not for me but for my baby who was up throwing up most of the night. She's passed out on the couch currently giving me time to update! Not a lot is on the adgenda. I have every intention of getting homework done, we'll see how far I get though. I'm feeling a little over whelmed in that area, BUT God is in control and He will get me through all of it! 

We're ready for March over here! Ready for the Polar Plunge, ready to work on my thesis, ready to live life! 

LETS DO THIS!

On a side note, I did add a "follow by email" options for those of you who didn't want to sign up on the site, and I added a "share" tab at the bottom, in case I ever say anything so profound you feel like sharing it with others! Thanks!