Great weekend!

Jay and I had a great long weekend.  We both had monday off, so that was a nice treat.  We went out to lunch at Zupas (YUM!) and then went and saw Horton Hears a Who at the dollar theater with the kids.  It was a cute movie and the kids behaved perfectly.  We later had my parents over for pizza with us.  It was fun to just hang out for a bit and eat some yummy food (that I didn't have to make).  I'm so blessed to have such wonderful parents.

The highlight of the weekend for me was Saturday afternoon... When Jay got back from what I thought was just running to the bank and surprised me with a new lens for my camera! I've been wanting a 50mm fixed lens for a long time, but couldn't ever justify the price tag.  I have such a great husband! He said that I work hard and deserve it... and that he knew it was something I wouldn't ever buy for myself. Soooo, I played with it quite a bit on Saturday and WOW! I LOVE IT! It makes a world of difference in the pictures I take.  Jay played with it some too.  :) The first two are ones I took and the second two are ones that Jay took.  I have to say, I think I like his pictures better!  I need to be more creative with my picture taking.

Hello, hottie! Love this picture of Jay!

Maddy Jane is such a pretty girl!

I love that Hyrum has his hands in his pockets... such a Hyrum thing! And I love the angle of this.

And I don't know if you can see it here, but there is a bee on one of the flowers on the right. SO COOL that Jay caught that! Not to mention the awesome colors!

The Host

So, I started out slowly and thinking I could stretch reading this book over a couple weeks or so.  I was doing well until yesterday morning when I picked up the book to read while the kids watched a couple morning cartoons.  And that is when I got completely sucked in.  Stephenie Meyer does such a good job with getting you to really love the characters in her books.  I finished the book yesterday with cringing when I looked at the clock and saw that it was 2:00 and realizing that I must stop reading to feed myself and my children (by the way, they didn't complain at all about being hungry).  I don't think I even got dressed until about 1:00 and that was because Jay gets off at 1:30 and I didn't want him to think that I didn't get dressed because I was too busy reading.  Not that he would really care that much.  Anyway, good book! Loved the ending and have been thinking about the book and characters all day today.  If you liked the Twilight books at all, then you must read this.  It is more of an adult novel because it is kind of more serious and -- not really scary, but I can't find the right word that I'm wanting to use -- graphic maybe? Anyway, you must go buy this or borrow it from someone you know and read! And then, when you are done, call me, because I would love to talk to you about it.  And now I'm really wanting the Twilight series' fourth book to read! 

Well, at least I got to sleep lots.

So, yesterday was mother's day... Happy Mother's Day to all those wonderful mothers I know out there!  I got Dance Dance Revolution as my gift (YAY! Thanks, Jay!).  We went and got it on saturday and I couldn't wait to play it (yes, I felt like a little kid excited to play my new game hehe) so we opened it as soon as we got home and played for about a half hour.  Whew! I was tired the rest of the night! Turns out it was a good thing I played it some on saturday as I woke up about 4:30 that morning sicker than sick.  The kids had all had some nasty bug and I guess I didn't get to escape it either.  I felt horrid for most of sunday and then was just feeling very weak until this morning.  I think I probably slept more than I was awake yesterday.  Right when I thought I was done sleeping, Jay took the older two kids with him to have a potluck dinner with his family and Miles fell asleep.  My head hurt, so I laid down and was surprised to wake up two hours later not even realizing I had fallen asleep again.  Good thing is that it seemed to be a 12 hour bug, so other than feeling hungrier than ever and my stomach muscles feeling a little sore, I feel perfectly normal.  Jay got sick last night/this morning, so now everyone here has had it and we are DONE with it for good! It was awful and I hope no one else got sick from us.  Hopefully, everyone else's mother's day was a bit less, well, painful than mine.

Exercise.

I walked/ran (mostly speed walked) on the treadmill on tuesday and went 2 miles in 40 minutes.  I thought that was pretty good... until I was talking to my family yesterday about it.  Apparently, that is pretty slow. So, I tried stepping it up today and mostly ran and wore myself out pretty quickly.  I did go 1 mile is 16 minutes, but felt like I might puke by the end of it.  I am going to DIE in the relay race we are going to do in about 10 days (I think?)!  I think on saturday I'm going to go outside and see if I can find my rhythm easier when not forced to go a certain speed on the treadmill.  I can not believe I liked to run a couple years ago.  Was I temporarily insane??? 

For the record...

In case anyone was curious and didn't have the guts that two Archiver's customers (within the last 2 1/2 months) have had to ask, I am most definitely not pregnant.  Yep, I have now been asked twice when my baby is due when I was at work.  I'm just carrying some extra weight, not a fetus  that I haven't been motivated to exercise off.  Apart from being a rude question, I have to admit, I can't blame them too much from asking.  And now thanks to those two ladies, I am NOW motivated!  I usually hesitate to actually say anything about exercising, especially in such a public way because then if I fall off the band wagon and I complain about wanting to lose weight, then I've got a myriad of people to remind me what I said I was going to do and failed at.  I actually called my mom tonight to vent a bit and to get an exercise buddy.  With both of us working and Jay working early in the morning, it might be a little difficult to come up with a time that we can work out together, but I think we can do it.  We discussed that Kara got a Dance Dance Revolution for her Mother's Day present early and that I'd see what Jay thought about me getting a computer version for me and she would buy a pad so we could do it together.  I've actually wanted to get one, but haven't made it a priority.  I think it would be a great, fun way to get exercise!  If it doesn't work out, I can always go on the treadmill downstairs... it's just not as exciting.  Anyway, wish me luck! I am wanting to be able to fit into my capris soon! :)