halloween happenings

brace yourself for this primarily pictorial review of halloween happenings in our household...

waiting for the parade at school and then our two paradettes
(take note that JASON is actually at an event, at school, during the day and not stuck in an impossible-to-get-away-from job!!)

princess leia
princess rosella
from barbie as the island princess (but you all knew that, right??)

spiderman

cute halloween kid

the whole fam damily

our house decorations and pumpkins (round two)
but the scariest thing i saw this halloween was in the car i parked next to in the meijers parking lot...i think it's a dog...

migraine day

it's another migraine day for me today, and another trigger...

so i'm at the fitness center this morning, gearing up for my long workout day (the 2 hour one) - full regime of weights and an hour on the treadmill.

i gather my record sheet (i track the weight machines and how much weight, reps, etc) and head to the machines and turn on my zen (mp3 player). the battery is so low that it turns right back off...great...an hour on the treadmill and i won't have my 80s playlist to keep me going? i think not. so i leave my clipboard by the weight machines and return to the coat rack to put my zen back in my bag. while there, i notice a woman i had just passed in the hallway examining the fitness class schedule and talking to one of the fitness center helpers :) i listen for a bit as i've been hesitant to do one of the classes...then i decide i'll join the conversation.

i'm usually at the fitness center on tuesdays and thursdays at about 915am. there are two classes offered at 930 - fun & fitness and bootcamp. now which of those two do you suppose is better suited for me?? so my first day at the fitness center i inquire about the fun & fitness class, labeled on the descriptions for beginners. i am told that class is in the senior center. um, no. the 'new girl' had just been told the same thing...and is now faced with the same prospect i have faced for the last two months - bootcamp or treadmill? seems like a no brainer.

the fitness center helper talks to the bootcamp leader and says she'll be out to talk to us about the class. she is very kind and helpful and tells us that she'll show us the 'low impact' versions of what the bootcampers do..but that this is a very high intensity class and the people that come really like it that way.

"new girl" and i opt to give it a go...i put my clipboard away, gather my belongings and head to the studio for class.

omg.

i felt like i kept up pretty well, really. the 'regulars' were very entertaining with their whooping, etc. 'new girl' left half way through class. i stayed til the end, doing some adjusted stuff and some of the high impact, too. at the very end, while laying on my back holding a huge pilates ball between my ankles...it hit.

and it's still going...many, many milligrams of my ibuprofen...even my migraine meds, and two naps today have not put it aside. back to the internet for more research. sure enough, yet another migraine trigger.

from one website i found:

"We think migraine sufferers have a heightened neurological system," says Newman. "They're more apt to develop a migraine when anything is out of the ordinary -- when they get up too early, go to bed too late, skip meals, etc." For that reason, Newman suggests that people prone to migraines establish not only a schedule of eating and sleeping regularly, but also of exercising on a regular basis.

this paragraph sums up my life, really. now to continue to find ways to treat it...but one thing is for sure, no more bootcamp for me!

decorations

on the drive back from jason's parents' house tonight to our house there is a home that is always a bit 'overboard' on the decorations for holidays - christmas is by far a 'griswold-type' display, with easter and halloween close behind. since it was dark we were pointing out the decorations to the kids.

as we continue driving (past the airport, aka large field) we encounter tonight's KQOTD:

Porter: WOW! Look at THAT big decoration!
Lilly: Porter that's the town and they have their lights on cause it's dark.
Porter: Oh.

bandits AGAIN

drove into the driveway this morning after dropping off the kids at the in-laws so jason and i could spend some qt with hazardous chemicals and paint...

jason looks at the front porch and says "where's our pumpkins?"

you guessed it...last night...bandits made off with all but one of our pumpkins.

happy halloween to you, too, you #$%$#@#$*&^%^!

ikea

i made my first trip to an IKEA store last weekend. i skipped all the way through the parking lot, thoroughly amusing the employee gathering carts, and reminding my friend tara that there are occassions when one might think i've been temporarily released from my special white jacket...

we only had about an hour and a half to spend in the store before they closed and it was not nearly enough, though somehow in that time i managed to spend hundreds of dollars...hmmm.

anyway, my primary shopping goal was to outfit my office/scrap room. for years i have used jason's old desk as my scrapping surface. his desk being a solid wood door resting on two file cabinets. it worked beautifully at my house in grand haven, however the new scrap room is a bit smaller and the dark wood door, combined with the dark wood paneling in the room, made it stiffle my creativity.

so, off to IKEA i went, with kate and tara to scope out desk options (i had previously done some research online, so i had some idea of what i wanted so as to not be completely overwhelmed by the greatness of the IKEA showroom).

i bought this light for the girls bedroom (have to find a new ceiling plate to cover the hole left by the giant ugly ceiling fan that this replaced).

i also bought a big roll of paper for the kids to use to paint and color on. i bought some really cool hooks that i'll put in the kid bathroom instead of towel bars, whenever we get to THAT room.

and then pretty much everything else i bought was for my scrap room. got the tables/desk, rail system and chair. LOVE IT. and now my creativity is flowing again.

10 days

since i last worked out. molly was sick last week, and being the thoughtful mother that i am, i decided not to infect all the other snot-nosed kids at the 'drop-in babysitting' to make them even more snot-nosier, so i wasn't able to work out. sometimes i think it would be nice for the community center to be open 24 hours so that i wouldn't be so 'bound' to their timetable...cause i COULD go work out at 10pm any night of the week, but NO, they're not open...and then i remember sometimes when i'm in the detroit area and i drive by a bally fitness that IS open 24 hours and i think about how obsessive and ridiculous it is that there are actually people there voluntarily sweating at all hours.

anyway, i digress. so it had been 10 days since i worked out. i usually don't work out on the weekends because i treat it more like family time and time to get stuff done around the house...which is slowly progressing into our home. well, i made it back yesterday, and both molly and i felt the impact of not having been there in so long...

first, she screamed like a banshee at the mere thought of my leaving her in the babysitting center. she usually cries for a bit, but yesterday, i stood outside the room 'hidden' for a good 5 minutes while she screamed, convinced that Ms. Nikki was going to come out to get me to calm her down and say sorry, but 10 days is too long and she's forgotten how this works and now you can't leave her. much to my delight, however, she calmed down enough that i could sneak down the hall to the fitness center. when i returned to get her later, ms. nikki pointed out that today was such a great day that molly managed to actually SMILE at someone. wahoo, she's making progress.

as usual, i started with the weight machines to gear up for an hour on the treadmill. it really takes a lot more for me to do the 30 minutes on the ellipticals so, i opted for the treadmill to ease myself back in. needless to say, i could definitely tell that it had been what seemed like forever since i was there, but it was good to be back. i did 3.6 miles on the treadmill, and decided maybe i'll start gearing up for a 5K run/race...though i imagine that most 5k runners complete their run in less than an hour, which is what it takes me to go that far on the treadmill...so, i might have to pick up the pace a bit!

what was not good, however, was that i spent a lot of time listening to the tvs instead of my mp3 player - listening to fox news talk about the california wildfires. (i don't normally watch fox news cause i think they're more 'sensationalized' than actual news, which did prove to be the case, however, i don't get to pick what channels are on, and it was the only tv that was covering the fires...and i chose that over rachel ray, who makes me nauseous.) anyway, several people have called or emailed to ask how my brother is doing, and my only news is that i heard from my dad that he is evacuated and safe with very few belongings...any prayers you can send his way that may protect his apartment and storage unit would be greatly appreciated.

forever

KQOTD
on the way to preschool this morning...

Porter: I'm a big boy now, right Momma? Cause I been a kid forever.

pumpkin patch

after watching newspaper ads for the last few weeks, and doing an internet search, we found a pumpkin patch today that would have enough activities to keep us occupied for awhile, and boy, oh, boy, we found the right one!

we took a hay ride to the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins, fed ducks and other assorted aviaries, saw lots of baby animals, bought some donuts and other outdoor decorations (we drove two cars so i could fill up the back of jason's trailblazer with all my finds - well, not exotic finds - just the usual bale of straw, corn stalks, gourds and pumpkins for everyone!), played on the playground and went through a 3-d straw bale maze (we opted against the 13 acre corn maze this year!)

notice molly and jason's festive apparel....jason had his orange crocs on too, which caught the attention of the family farm workers the moment we arrived. jason's also excited that at this time of year he can buy orange colored rubbermaid totes. go figure.

anyway, it was a fun adventure!

KQOTD
Porter: You guys go into the bathroom. I don't want to see you kiss.

KQOTD

so i saw this on another blog and thought, hey, i could totally add that to my blog...

KQOTD - kid quote of the day

so here's today's
KQOTD:
Porter: "I didn't get my pajamas on. Know why?"
Jason: "No, I don't know why."
P: "Well, I know why."

migraines

well, it's been a 'migraine day' for me.

i am a migraine sufferer. i have been for as long as i can remember. i have several triggers, but i finally pinned down another one today.

frequently when i see a play or movie, i end up with a low grade migraine. usually sleeping that night with a dose of ibuprofen solves my problem, but recently that hasn't been the case, and today, for example, after watching what was one of the best productions of 'godspell' that i've seen, i had a migraine that started a little before intermission and carried me well over into this morning. thank goodness with jason's new job he could go in a little late to help me with meds to 'break the cycle' of the headache so that i could care for the kids today. i was, unfortunately, unable to help the girls with their 'picture day hair' (they love having it curled) as i was thoroughly, completely and utterly unable to get out of bed this morning.

so i finally did some internet research to find out WHY i keep getting headaches when seeing shows...and i found the answer - sensory overload...too much stimulation. in a house with 4 kids ages 7 and under, it's sitting quietly in a theater that gives me a migraine. go figure.

4 hours of exercise in one day...

....never again.

I've been very committed to making it to the community center to work out a couple times a week. Sometimes it's just treadmill, sometimes it weight training and the treadmill.

Well, it had been a few days (almost a week!) since I was able to make it - for a variety of reasons (maybe an excuse or two!) and so I went yesterday morning. Yesterday was Wednesday - my dance class day. I don't usually go to workout on Wednesdays for that very reason.

Because it had been so long, I wanted to be sure to get in my weight training and treadmill time - a full 2 hour workout. Then I had a 'few hours' off before dance class time, which by the time I got there, I was beat...so just imagine me after.

I will NOT be working out on Wednesdays (other than dance class)!

dreams and timeshares

nearly 10 years ago, jason and i were planning our wedding and honeymoon. we spent a lot of time deciding every little detail and trying to plan a 'dream vacation' based on the notion that your honeymoon really is a once in a lifetime kind of adventure. we considered europe, but didn't want to feel obligated to DO stuff. we considered hawaii, but there was no way we could afford it. so we decided on a cruise, which was fabulous from my perspective. we said that we'd go to hawaii for our 10th anniversary, a goal we set, not knowing what the future would hold.

and here we are, with our 10th anniversary looming. we've bought 3 houses in that time (and now can recently say sold two of them!) we've had 4 kids. we've just recently (well, within the last two years) paid off our wedding (even though both sets of our parents paid for a bulk of it!) and honeymoon and oodles of credit card debt. and that goal of making it to hawaii has just been hanging there....seemingly out of reach as our lives, and the expenditures that go with it, have been priority.

but last night....i booked our trip to hawaii (well, our lodging anyway!) and i'm beside myself with excitement that a goal we set for our lives 10 years ago is going to happen.

and it's because of a timeshare. silly, but true. when i was growing up, my parents owned a timeshare with the Marriott Vacation Club. their 'home' resort is in florida, but we traveled all over...hilton head, various resorts around orlando, california. given my parents' work schedules, we could always squeeze in that spring break trip to somewhere 'exotic' - which was just about anywhere but big rapids as far as i was concerned! growing up with that experience made me place quite a bit of value on it - particularly since we have been able to travel with our family and my parents in recent years on these timeshare condo trips.

in march 07 jason and i took the plunge and bought one ourselves - on an every-other-year plan, knowing that with jason's work schedule that we might not be able to guarantee an 'exotic' week-long vacation every year (seeing how we would only get about 25% of our rite aid vacation requests approved, and could only ask a few months in advance at best, we were taking a risk!) we bought into an excellent family resort - Horizons by Marriott. with our purchase, we got a bonus week, which we are using to take jason's parents and our family down to orlando and disney world around christmas this year. and, by luck, we ended up with another week through an exchange (with a small fee associated)...and this is the week we had 'designated' for hawaii.

i've been searching for months through our exchange system waiting for hawaii. waiting. searching. hoping. i had come to the conclusion that people who buy hawaiian resort timeshares don't exchange them to go elsewhere and so i should look into hotels for our 10th anniversary trip. yeah right. remember why we didn't go for our honeymoon? the same problem was now staring me in the face again - there was simply no way we could afford to go without 'free' lodging.

and then last night. there was a week available. not on the island that was our first choice. and not necessarily our first choice of week to go but we've made it work, and for our 10th anniversary trip (in september as opposed to july) we'll be staying here....all thanks to our timeshare!

since we bought our 'unit', we have 3 weeks of vacation planned...one we've already taken, and two to go. those three weeks are already pretty much valued at what we bought the timeshare for in the first place, and we get to go to hawaii for our 10th anniversary, which to me, is almost priceless. yes, we'll still have maintenance fees, but that's like buying 2 nights at one of these condos and getting 5 free.

financial experts will tell you to never buy a timeshare because it's not an 'investment' - our timeshare's monetary value will not grow. it has, however, already proven itself to be an incredible decision we made to ensure regular family vacations to exotic locales that are affordable. that, to me, is a true investment.