Our Little Stink Pot

The other day I was trying to take some pictures of Cinder.  She HATES the camera.  When I started taking pictures she went and hid under the desk at the shop which is her "Safe" place she goes when she is scared.  I guess it didn't stop me from taking more pictures though.  Cinder is a very special dog :).  Although she has undergone knee surgery, gotten her spleen removed, has Bell's palsy on the right side of her face, was diagnosed with diabetes last April, and is going blind we love her so much.  She is currently fighting a sinus infection so she has feeling a little down in the dumps.  We are moving next week back to our house in town and this will be a very stressful time for her.  Because she can't see, new places are hard on her.  Some people say why do we do what we do for her.  She is just a dog.  But to us, she is not just our dog.   She is the one who gets excited when we walk through the door.  She is the one who depends on us to take care of her. She is the one who is so proud when she finds something (shoe, stuffed animal, clothes, whatever she can find) and brings it to us.  She's our little stink pot! 

Cinder-8 years old. 



Lack of Motivation

So the past few weeks I have had no motivation to work out at least to work out hard.  It has been bad!  So now I am getting down to business.  This morning I regsitered for the 5:30 AM Cardio Kicks class here in town.  It is two days a week for 10 weeks so hopefully that will get me up in the morning.  Quite a few people I know are in the class and I hear she works you pretty hard.  So I hope this will do me some good and whip me into shape.  I figure by the time the class starts at the end of March I will be back in Nevada and have no excuses :)

New Kitchen

John and I decided that we are going to get a new kitchen when we move back into our house in Nevada.  Our current kitchen is pretty non-functional.  We met today with the kitchen designer at Lowes and got an idea for the design and cost.  It quote came in lower than I expected so that was good news!  Below is the picture of the color and design of the cabinent doors we think we migh be going with.  We are going to home depot tonight to check it out there and compare so we will see if this changes but this is what we like so far!

We Had a Baby Girl!

Floppy

Born March 3rd, 2011 at 7:08 PM

82 lbs

 Our First Calf of the Season!

Week Five-LHI

So, I think I am going to take a new approach to my goal setting.  This past week I failed in all three of my goals. 

Goal 1:  Waking up early-did not happend.  Well I have been getting up earlier but I did not exercise. 

Goal 2:  Eat More Veggies-I ate more veggies but not 3 servings a day.  Mostly just at dinner and a couple of days I ate salad for lunch. 

Goal 3:  Run 3 times for 20 minutes in additioan to my walking-  I did this twice and it felt good but I only did it on the treadmill.  Because the weather was so nice I did a lot of outside walking so I didn't run when I walked outside.

I decided maybe I need to approach this in a different way.  This week I am going to focus on days of exercise vs. what I am going to do, or how fast, or how long.  I realized I like to decide that day how I feel and what I want to do.  Yoga vs. weights, walk vs. run.  I do know when I am on the treadmill I need to run to mix it up, otherwise I get bored. 

Goal #1:  Get in at least 45 minutes of intentional exercise 6 out of 7 days this next week. 

That's it, just one goal to focus on to help me get into a routine. 

Have a happy healthy week!

Week Four-LHI

Well week three did not go as well as planned.  In the middle of the week (Tuesday night) I came down with the flu.  So that threw off most of my goals for the week.  I made it until Wednesday morning without drinking pop but broke down when I was craving a sprite when I was sick. 

As I was on the treadmill last night I starting thinking about goals and whether I should set my treadmill goals based on time or distance.  Is it better to go a certain distance in as best of time as you can or should you set a specific time and go as far a distance as you can in that set time?
For example:  should I aim to go for 4 miles a day and it doesn't matter how long it takes me.  It could take 60 minutes if I walked the whole time or maybe it takes me 45 minutes if I run/walk or maybe 35 minutes if I run the whole time.  So do you set goals based on distance or time exercised? 

Also, does anyone have a good reccomendation of something to drink beisdes water or pop?  This past week I have been drinking a lot of green teas which then late in the week I realized that green tea has caffeine-which I didn't want to drink in the afternoon. I know with green tea it is not as much caffeine as coffee but. . . 

Week Four Goals:
I have been struggling a bit with getting home to get my exercise in before dinner so...
Goal 1:  Wake up at 6:00 twice this week to get in a workout before work.  This one will really be a challenge

Goal 2:  Eat more vegetables!  At least 3 servings a day

Goal 3: Bump up my running-after my whole back pain thing I cut back on my run time.  I would like to work back up to at least 20 minutes of running in addition to my walking 3 times this week. 

Hope everyone has a happy healthy week ahead!

Vegas Vacation 2011

  Friday, January 28th, John and I left for Vegas to meet up with my parents and my brother who is currently temporarily deployed there from his home base in Germany.  We hadn't seen him since Christmas 2009 so it was great to spend time with him.  We spent our days off the strip and our nights on the strip.  Most of our pictures are from our daytime adventures. 

When we landed we met my parents, picked up our rental car and went out to the base to meet my brother. 

After we met up with my brother, he took us to the where the jets take off to head out into the desert to do drills.  We were able to watch jet after jet take off for an hour.  Here are some pics that I got as they were taking off. 

Friday night we walked around on the strip.  I failed to take pictures at night of the sights on the strip.

Saturday we got up early and off we went to explore the sights outside of Vegas. 

First Stop:  Hoover Dam

We went on the Dam tour which led us into the middle of the dam.  At one point we were able to look out the side of the dam out down the river.  I am glad that we spent the extra money for the dam tour versus the visitor's center tour.  Our guide was awesome! 

Recently, this bridge behind us was built for vehicle traffic so that cars, trucks and semi's wouldn't have to drive over the top of the dam.  I believe it was just finished in October 2010.  This bridge is about 900 feet above the Colorado River.  Not only do cars drive across but you can walk across it as well. 

 (See pics below)

Lake Mead--the difference between the dark and light is where the lake normally is.  Right now it is like 70 feet lower than normal, which worries many people in the area.

This plaque marks the division between Nevada and Arizona.  Bonnie is in Nevada and Craig is in Arizona.

The picture below is from when we walked out onto the bridge.  It was sooo high!  But you can get a good picture of the dam from this view. 

After Hoover Dam we set off on another adventure.  Derick told about this place he saw on the History Channel called Pioneer Saloon.  He said it was this really cool place that had a lot of history to it.  He said it was a bar that people go to when they want to leave the strip and go somewhere interesting.  I can tell you it sure was interesting.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of this place, however, I don't need them to remember this place.  Thanks again Derick for the recommendation :)

On Sunday we visited Red Rock Canyon not too far from Vegas (about 30 minutes).  It was the coldest day of the trip and really windy.  Unfortunately, we did not dress for the elements so we mostly had a auto tour of the canyon. 

Burros are run wild in the canyon.  This one was along the side of the road.

Sunday night John and I decided to try Eifel Tower Ride where you ride an elevator up to the top.  As I am afraid of heights, I was a little nervous about the experience but it was awesome!  The view was amazing.  While we were up there, the Belaggio played one of thier water shows and it was so much better looking at it from up above!  Here are so views of Vegas from the top!

We left on Monday.  Our original flight was set to arrive back in Des Moines around 4: 30.  I was excited to be able to get home, unpack, start laundry and relax before heading back to work the next day.  Well those plans changed when our flight from vegas to denver was cancelled.  We were rerouted on a later flight that went to Chicago instead.  That flight was set to land in Des Moines 9:21 pm.  Well when we were getting ready for decent into Des Moines the pilot got one to tell us that we were put in a holding pattern until the ground crew could see if they could de-ice the taxi and runways.  The flight attendants started talking to eachother about how they thought we were going to be diverted to Kansas City.  Fortunately, the were able to de-ice and land in Des Moines around 10:30 PM.  I can tell you that it was one of the worst landings I have ever experienced.  We were just grateful to make it home before the blizzard really hit.  Besides our air travel on Monday we had a wonderful vacation!  It was great to see my brother and spend time with the family!