Wii Fit = Smart A*#

I've been having a hard time finding the time to get to the gym lately and while I was at Wal-mart this morning, I happened to walk past the electronic section and almost died of excitement when I saw that they had TWO Wii Fit's in stock. I've walked by many times and there has never been one there. So I grabbed it.

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After I got home from my little part time job at school, I started setting it up.

Yep, that's the Mii I set up for my self sometime ago.

You should be ashamed asking for asking a lady how old she is! Fine, let's get started with your little pretesting, shall we?

No. I do not trip a lot. Then it tells me that my Wii Fit age is 42 years old and all of sudden my Mii becomes rounder. I almost threw the remote at the TV.

Hmm, chose a trainer? Male or Female? What do you think?

The jury was still out on how well of a work out one could get with this, but 38 minutes later I have to admit that I was a little sore and working up a sweat, but having fun at the same time. I think we'll keep it!

Do I Dare?

Last night was the big neighborhood girls night out Christmas Party and I'm proud to say that I had no desire to go outside and smoke at all. It have now been a nonsmoker for 10 full days!

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We gathered at Amy's house for food, drinks and our famous White Elephant Gift Exchange. What did I choose, you ask? You'll just have to keep reading.

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Us girls.

Amy, our friend and hostess.

This is where things took a little turn towards the insane. If you are shocked easily, you may want to look away now.

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Libby showing off her gift from Emily. Hippy Headband? Ponytail holder? Hmm. Too bad Gwen stole it when her turn came around.

Jennie was feeling pretty good.

Super Gwen! She's wearing the gift she opened last year.

Everyone got a huge kick out of my gift. I was going to be nice and give a cute Christmas decoration, but then I thought that if I did that than surely everyone would wonder what had happened to the real me. So I went for the laughs. I googled a phrase that would horrify my mother and mother-in-law, looking for a picture of pole dancers and photo shopped some of our faces into it. This is what I came up with. Not professional by any means, but I think that just makes it funnier. I then printed, framed it and wrapped it up. Emily was the lucky one to take it home, but she may not think it's so funny when she looks a bit closer at it and realizes I put her head on the pregnant body.

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May I present to you - The Timberbrook Drunko Pole Dancers!

I may have to make a few more of these for kicks and giggles. I wonder if I'll still have any friends left after I hit the post button.

Recap Of A Busy Week

• Ashley's biopsy came back normal. What a relief. We'll hear the final results when her doctor comes back from vacation on Monday or Tuesday next week.
• Next Wednesday, I'll be watching a newborn baby boy two mornings a week. A friend of mine that also does daycare passed my name along to a lady that I use to work with on the PTO board at Ashley's old school. I'm so excited, because oooh....baby boy!
• Gold's Gym came to see the error of their ways and Chloe and I are now being welcomed back into the daycare there. The owner got my letter on Wednesday and called me immediately to apologize and to let me know that supposedly the ladies in the daycare must have misunderstood the new guidelines. However, according to one of those ladies, they must be making an acception for me, because they were told otherwise. I guess I made a really good case. Regardless, I am thrilled with the outcome and took my week's aggressions out on the eliptical machine this morning.
• Ryan is really excited because Emily and the kids (our neighbor's that recently moved) are coming over after dinner tonight to visit. I finally get my drinking buddy back for a night. So, I guess that makes me excited, too.

Have a great weekend, everyone! (Ha - All, what, three of you that ready this little 'ol blog?)

Finding Your Inner Child

To find your inner child, all one needs is a trampoline, fellow wanna be gymnasts and a lack of dignity.

Bret and Scott doing their warm up.

Bret scores a 9.8 for lift. Deductions taken for belly and shirt defying gravity.

A perfect 10, is it not? It takes a great deal of skill and strength to launch someone that high off of the trampoline.

This may have been an attempt at a backflip. 5.0 for effort.

1.0 for the total wipeout. I nailed Teri.

9.9 for the "Butt Bomb". Could have been a perfect 10 with no hands.

Whew. That was fun. Embarassing, but fun.

Glen Oak Zoo

Here's some of the pictures Bret took of the kids at the zoo today. You'll find the rest over at Flickr.

The kids played at the huge playground outside of the zoo for quite some time before heading inside.

" Shh, don't tell the girls where we are!"

Yikes!

Don't worry, honey. Maybe next year you'll reach the tips of the wings.

The kiddos.

Am I sensing a "moon" theme going on here?

Aww...

(Sings) "Ashley, the camel has 5 humps..."

The day got even better. Coming up tomorrow will be pictures of myself and Teri reliving our youth on the neighbor's trampoline. I know, I almost can't believe it myself!

New Neighbors

Well, since we had to lose Emily and Jon as neighbors, I've decided that it's okay to be excited about our new neighbors that are moving in next month. Ashley is going to flip when I tell her about it. Her friend Brianna from school, volleyball and softball is moving in behind us. We've been here for almost 4 years now and we're finally getting a girl the same age as Ashley. Sure, she has quite a few friends here, but another girl her age is just what we've been hoping for. Yipee!

Wonder if they know that their new house is the official neighborhood party spot...LoL.

It's All Too Real Now

Em and her family move next week. I've been doing okay with it so far, trying not to think about it too much, until this morning when she brought over all of my stuff that's accumulated over there over the past 3 years. I never knew Rubbermaid container lids, a plastic lid to a baking pan and an old cassette tape with God knows what taped on it (from prehistoric before DVR ages) could bring me to tears. It's all too real. Next week, they'll be moving on to the Quad Cities for 18 months for Jon's new position at State Farm. I really do wish them the best, but we're going to miss them so much!


It's going to be very strange without them right in our backyard. What's Bret going to do without being able to shovel a path from our deck to theirs this winter? Maybe whoever buys the house won't mind if we still make a path for the kids from our yard to the cul-de-sac the next time we get 12 inches of snow?

What will Ryan and his 4-wheeler do without Reece and his gator?

Who's going to host the impromptu backyard neighborhood parties? Um, us I guess.

We've had some good times over the past three years. Hope they don't get sick of us visiting!

Party Of The Year

I think I had the most fun that I've ever had in my life last night. It helps when your with your best friends. It's moments like these that you'll always remember. I'm keeping it nice here, though. I'd like to keep those friends, so I'm only posting the nice ones here. Besides, I've already emailed all the other pictures proof to them anyway. Ha.

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Shawn, me and Emily.

"Pucker up!" (The stuff was called Pucker.)

Em, Shawn, Me, Rod and Jon.

The Bunco Girls. This is the group that gets together once a month for a girls night out. I don't think we've actually played in 2 years though.

I said I would be nice here, but you know I can't ignore it when Bret and Emily broke out the worm!

Great night. Great friends. I'm going to miss them so much!

Not Sure What I'm In For

Ashley is off and on her way to her horseback riding trip and Ryan will soon be over at Grandma & Grandpa's house. Bret and I are going to see The Bob & Tom Show down at the Civic Center with some friends and I'm not really sure what to expect. I've heard some of their stuff when Bret's alarm clock goes off in the morning, but still couldn't tell you anything about it. I have been warned that I will probably pee my pants from laughing so hard, so we'll see. It should be a good time, especially since we're meeting for drinks before hand.

Update on the mixing of medicine and alcohol

This is Kelly, Cece's mommy, not Lynda. So, at about 5 pm, my husband and I decided to see if any neighbors wanted to come over to have a few adult beverages. The W********'s were out because a new Lego Star Wars video game was at their house. However, Scott called them over... all attended initally but Lynda. However, Bret called her a few hours later and Lynda, in a medicine "coma" showed up. From about 8:30 pm to 11:00 pm, Auntie Lynda, as we call her, had ONLY 3 drinks. In this time, she went from the normal, jovial Lynda to a woman who was laughing hysterically as she twirled back and forth on a bar stool! I love this lady... because she just shared a beer with me... I praised her long before this little glass of beer appeared before me though! For those who have never watched others' children... Lynda, as I am sure Chloe's mommy would agree, is an amazing woman who truly makes working moms feel blessed for the opportunity to ""have it all!" How one woman can be the matriach of a family of 4 and still find time to be the caretaker of 2 young infants is well beyond my scope of imagination. Thanks for all who read about my little treasure... and thanks to you, Lynda! You always make going to work a pleasure instead of a guilt trip!

Who Knew?

I discovered that I have a talent that I didn't even know about! Teri and I met up over at Kelly's house to make Christmas wreaths this morning. I was expecting something much more hideous so I am plesantly surprised with myself.

The kids did get off to school this morning. I was determined to get them there so I drove them myself when it finally looked like the bus wasn't going to make it. Good thing, because it was over an hour late getting into our neighborhood.

Doesn't look like we'll be getting mail anytime soon. The mailman just drove right by all of our burried mailboxes. Ugh!!!

Never Saw It Coming

So I had plans last night to go out with Teri for my birthday and got the mother of all surprises. First she took me to Kohls to pick out a birthday present and then we headed on over to Alexander's Steakhouse for a yummy dinner. As we turn the corner, I see a table full of my friends and my mom yelling, "Surprise!" They managed to keep a secret from me - all of them! I can't believe it. Even my mother didn't spill the beans. I have Teri to thank for all of this. She was the one who has been planning this for over a month now. I never even thought that there would be any kind of surprise party - not a single one of them have acted any different than they normally do this past month. I am so blessed to have friends that care about me so much.

Here's me, coming around the corner, totally surprised!

Teri & Scott.

Tom & Cat (baby Chloe's mommy and daddy).

Me & my mom. She's never kept a secret before in her life! I had no idea she was coming.

Jon & Em.

Kelly & Dan (baby Cecelia's mommy and daddy).

Bret & I. He kept it under raps the whole time. I even believed that he was dropping the kids off at his parent's house so that he and Scott could go catch a movie.

Isn't it great to have such wonderful friends? Thanks, guys!!!

More pictures over on Flickr.

Tried To Kill My Friend Today

You know how misery loves company? I talked Teri into trying Body Step at the gym today. Afterwards, she leaves me this comment on last Sunday's post...

"Ok, I'm waiting for more on your blog!!! =-) Must be old age that is slowing you down... Just wanted to say thanks for trying to 'kill me today'..."

I just wanted to let her know that, yes, I was trying to kill her, but I only succeeded in killing myself. Man, is that class brutal! I even made her do the 15 minute ab class before step began. We laid on the floor trying not to laugh during the hovers.

There is also the issue that I haven't had a new post on here since Sunday. All I can say is that I'm on baby schedule. I feel like a new mom three days a week - going to the gym and then sleeping when the baby sleeps. My life is now dicated by her routine. I better get my act together soon though because come January there will be two babies here during the day. Chloe and I are still trying to figure it all out. Some day we will have a schedule and it will be heavenly.

And yes, I'm turning the big 30 in a couple of weeks, but I'm not talking about that. Last year was my 29 and holding birthday. This year will be the second anniversary of my 29th birthday. Yep, no denial here.

Party Time

The kids had a great time at little Jarred's 2nd Birthday party this afternoon. All of the neighborhood kids ran around Perry's house like they owned it.

Ryan gets his baby swing fix. What is up with that kid?

"Drunko"

Going out for a much needed night out with a group of friends from the neighborhood tonight. We no longer use the pretense of "Bunco" anymore. (Since it's been over a year since anyone has actually played.) It's now called "Drunko". Some have tried to name it a much more tame sounding "Ladies Night Out" but we all know the truth. We're there to unwind. So if you see anyone climbing through the cornfields home back to our neighborhood from Buffalo Wild Wings tonight, you'll know who it was. Right, Kelly? (I'm just saying.)

Children's Museum Visit

Teri and I and a friend of hers took all of the kids to The Children's Museum in Bloomington today. It's a really neat, fun and educational place and the kids had a great time. Suprisingly, after being together all day, the kids really got along very well.

"Let us out of here!" Ashley, Ryan & Quentin scream as they plaster themselves against all the little needles that outline their bodies.

Ryan really enjoyed the water table. Good thing they had jackets for them to put on so they wouldn't get all wet!

Ashley learns all about the body's muscles.

Ryan flies down the slide.

The pretend market was one of Ryan's favorite places to play. I now have more groceries than I know what to do with...lol.

This was Ashley's favorite place. There were carpeted platforms set up in a maze that were suspended over the first story lobby. (Thank, God for nets!)

While Ashley had no problem being suspended over the first floor lobby, Ryan wasn't having it. He crawled in, saw how high up he was and was right back out of there!

Everyone had a good 'ol messy time in the painting area. (Ugh, how I hate paint and the mess it makes!) (Note how I am on the opposite and clean side of the glass!)

On a much cleaner note, the kids had a blast pretending to be doctors. And thanks to today, the mystery of what Ryan wants to be for Halloween is over. He wants his own lab coat (which I believe they do sell in kids sizes in the local uniform shops) so he can be a doctor.

Ashley may open her own restaurant some day.

After leaving the museum and touring Teri's old neighborhood, we headed over to Bob Evan's for dinner because Ryan had to have pancakes! Sorry Teri - this is the only photo in which everyone was looking at the camera...lol.

The food was great at Bob Evans, but the service was terrible. We were there for an hour and a half and Teri got tired of waiting for the waitress to clear the table. As you can see, Ashley and Quentin tried to stop her, but she wasn't to be deterred. LOL.

Check out Flickr for more.