The Couples Challenge

To be honest, I've enjoyed every minute of my challenge-free month. I have returned to my evil ways and eaten at least 6 cookies every chance possible. I have also stuffed myself with chocolate, cinnamon rolls and in a fix, I made a pan of those delicious no-bake cookies (the kind I sometimes don't bother to make cookies out of. The kind I just eat with a spoon from the pan. I mean, no. No. I don't do that. I share them lovingly with my children after shaping them into butterflies and princesses.)

I think my poor body is screaming out for protein and fiber and other nutritious (that was a sneaky word to spell) foods. I have suppressed its pitiful cries, but then it rebels in ways that are inappropriate to discuss in public.
So it's time for another challenge! (As I write this I just consumed a Snickers bar, and I bought a big bag of M&Ms that are calling my name from the kitchen.)

The Couples Challenge! Your task, if you choose to accept it, is to 1.Come up with a team name (with your significant other) and 2. Commit to eating just one sweet a day and 3. Exercise daily. Each team has the possibility of earning 28 points a week. One point for each team member a day for eating well (one sweet=one serving size), and one point each for exercising for 30 min. or more a day. I'll have a blog post every Wed. to collect points (This time it's Wed. because blog traffic is low that day). The Couples Challenge will start on Feb. 4 and run until April 1.

The last challenge I was a firmly devoted believer in no sweets to earn a point. But that's just mean. No sweets? What am I supposed to eat when I celebrate putting the girls down for a nap at the same time? Why in the world would I exercise if I didn't get to eat dessert afterward? During my last challenge I would eat one sweet, and since I'd blown it anyway, I binged away. Personally I think it is harder to eat only one sweet/dessert. So I'm trying for that this contest. We'll see how it goes. Also, I'm doing the couples thing because ummm, because instead of facing off, maybe by working together against everyone else we'll do better.

For a prize, each couple that joins also commits to $5 to the winning couple at the end. Money is a great motivator. So we're going to kick all your butts. :)

Our team name is "Team Awesomeness" and to quote Kung Fu Panda: "It is said that his enemies would go blind from over-exposure to pure awesomeness."

So post your team name in the comments below!

Planes, planes and planes

Do you think that could be the title of a really successful movie? Yeah, me neither. But it is a successful museum here at HAFB.
We visited the museum twice last week (it's free!), once with Kenzie's Joyschool class and once with Mike. I thought we went for the girls, but really we went for Mike.

Mike loves airplanes. His room growing up had every airplane imaginable pasted to the ceiling, with models hanging down from their pictures. He wanted to be an airplane fighter pilot, but chose engineering because he's a family guy. I shouldn't have been surprised by how much he loved the full size planes and informational plaques.

They also have a Learning Center where kids can learn about science with all sorts of fun experiments (balance a ping pong ball on a blow dryer, see those magic birds that balance on your finger, see what happens when you try to hold a spinning bicycle wheel and turn on a sit n spin, etc) You can fly a model airplane, play computer airplane games, dress up like an astronaut/pilot, sit in a life-size cockpit, and Mike yelled excitedly, "They have a F-16 flight simulator?!!!" It really is awesome. Unfortunately Mike was unable to learn how to fly an F-16 (his lifetime dream), because they were closing. The Learning Center is only open Thurs, Fridays, and Saturdays for limited hours. We'll be going back I'm sure.
(And if anyone ever has any connections with F-16 flights and passengers, could you please let me know? It really is Mike's dream to fly in one)

Hannah and I fly a plane together in the Learning Center. Good thing they really only let you guide the plane in a small area, otherwise we would be mourning the loss of another airplane. Oh, speaking of Hannah, she's decided that naps are okay again! (Well, not really, but she is falling asleep in the afternoon and staying there for at least an hour.) After two months of her falling asleep during lunch mid-bite or not sleeping at all, she is napping at about 1 or 2 in the afternoon, making me a happy camper! (And she's much happier too)

A volunteer shows Hannah the ping pong ball floating over a hair dryer. Hannah was not impressed and ran away with the ping pong ball as quickly as she could.

Mike, on the other hand, was very impressed with all the science experiments. Here he is spinning some rings. I'm not sure what that demonstrates, but I'm sure it has something to do with gravity and centrifugal force. (Umm, you don't know what that is? Well, Faith Hill sings about it in "This Kiss. This Kiss." You should know about it)

Here we are standing by some large plane, and if you look very closely behind the girls there's a tiny scale model of it that they built before they built the big one.

Here's Mike and the girls in front of Mike's favorite plane the SR-71, or the Blackbird. It holds speed records that have never been broken. It's been clocked at over 2,000 mph! They don't fly them anymore--something to do with it costing $200,000/hour to fly.

Remarkable Hair

In my never-ending quest to be the perfect mother, or at least a somewhat respectable mother, I have discovered that I need to do my girls' hair every day. Unfortunately, their baby thin, super susceptible to fuzz hair does not do a single back ponytail (my style of choice) very well.
I love hair blogs, and find them bizarrely fascinating (who comes up with these hair styles and then how do they coerce their children into sitting still to complete them?), but my girls' hair is not really long enough to complete most of those hairstyles (nor do my fingers seem to be blessed with the talent of twisting, braiding, nor parting in a straight line their 'lightening-storm-is-coming' hair).
I have found a solution that makes even the worst careening part seem okay--BOWS! I (I mean Santa Claus) found some awesome ones for a great price at Oh So Girly! I love them. I pretty much went crazy, and I could because they were affordable. She was super easy to work with, shipped my bows within a week, and even charges reasonable shipping rates.

(I'm not being sponsored or given any perks for this post, I just really loved her product and prices and wanted to share.)

Home is Where the Steph Is...

Alright, alright. I am sorry to say that I have hacked into this blog. I guess I shouldn't be sneaking in a post to my sexxy (don't worry, not an inappropriate link, just another association with the band who inspired the name of this blog) wife's blog. But I think it's high time she gets a little pat on her back like she is always patting mine, and if I have to hack into her blog and stay up until the wee hours of the morning to do it, so be it.

Steph is the most patient, caring, fascinating, person I have ever met. She is so good to me and our little girls. I don't know how she manages to keep them (and I guess me, too, for that matter) behaviorally proficient. I mean, I take them for 2 hours and I'm at wits end with them ready to lock them in their room until Steph gets home. Steph on the other hand manages to contain potential problems before major meltdowns occur. She is so loving to them as well, always planning little activities for them to do to keep them entertained. One of the girls' current favorites is to be butterflies, which they are very good at.


Steph is crazy good at budgeting her time. Many, many times I find extensive daily TODO lists of hers that would be impossible for me to accomplish in one day, but that she manages to complete mixed in with snacktime, playtime, naptime, stinky-diaper time, etc. with the 2 little rugrats. In fact, she averaged 1-2 newspaper articles a week last year! And that is including the time to go to events, interview, and write the articles. As further proof, may I remind you that Steph was able to finish her Master's degree while she was still working (as a high school teacher!) and while she had a little baby.

Steph does so much for our family unit. Birthdays, holidays, my days off from work, date nights, etc. are all made better by the little finishing touches that she puts on them. I don't think I ever relayed to her how truly grateful I was to her for all that she did to make this last Christmas so memorable. I was trying to finish up with school (I don't know what my problem was--I didn't even have to work while I was back in school!), and she took care of everything. The girls absolutely loved that day.


I love that she loves the outdoors and helps me to be "inconvenienced" by taking the girls on adventures with us as well. The girls are gaining such an appreciation for nature, and I know it is because we are including them in our trips.

The last thing I am going to mention is her laugh. Honestly, if I am fussy or if I had a bad day at work, it only takes Steph's laugh to cheer me up. I love making her laugh and that is part of the reason I find her so fascinating. She has such a clever, witty sense of humor. Here she is showing off that laugh of hers.



I love you Steph! And the girls love you, too! You win an all expenses paid trip to the luxurious Cafe Rio tonight!

Demoralized

Today I lost one of the most valuable and precious things to me in the world-- nap time. Not my own nap, but Hannah's.
I feel demoralized and defeated. (And perhaps a little overdramatic)

Exhaustion

For some reason carrying a 30 pound child on my back through the snow exhausts me. It reminds me of the good ole days when I backpacked. Back then my pack didn't stink so much, because there were no dirty diapers nestled cozily next to the granola bars. (Next time I offer you a granola bar, beware)

Mike had today off, so after Joyschool (which I would have skipped, but I was in charge), we headed off to Snowbasin to show Mike the Yurt.

Right now, I'm going to wax ecstatic about Joyschool. I love it. I love it. I love it. Today we talked about Goals, which they might have got some of it, but we also danced, ate granola bars (the non-contaminated kind), and jumped on paper plates across the room to the couch. We also played with origami frogs. Oh yeah. When was the last time you folded up one of those little hoppers? They rock.

Anyway, back to the yurt hike. Kenzie has been excited to show Mike the Yurt since we went on Wed. with my friend. She was also excited to show him the tree stump she went potty on last time we were up there. Ahh, the joys of childhood. She was slightly disappointed that Tracey wasn't coming along. Tracey is fun and more patient than we are.

The hike went well. Mike carried Kenzie, all of our water, supplies for hot chocolate, and survival gear (in case we got mauled by a cougar or stranded for days just outside the luxurious Snowbasin lodge). I carried Hannah and fruit snacks.

The snow was super packed down (i.e. snow shoes not necessary, but still adding to our "we're rough and rugged" look), and we met a few people on the trail. One guy passed us as we stopped to make sure Hannah's beloved puppy was wrapped in her mittened hands, only to be surprised when we caught him at a junction later in the trail. Apparently he took the long route (or so he said. I'm pretty sure we're just super fast hikers. Being motivated by whining and marching songs helps).

It took us about 40 minutes to hike in and it was a nice day. Mike was in a short sleeve and I was sweating away in my fleece. We managed to forget Hannah's coat, but Kenzie's is a two-piece (unlike a bikini this implies more warmth, not less), so we unzipped it and they shared.

At the Yurt we made a fire, found a new potty spot for Kenzie (someone had peed all over our other spot. The nerve.), and the girls played happily in the "house". The whole way to the Yurt Hannah kept saying excitedly, "House! House!" "That's right," I would say, "We'll get there soon." And then she would order me to tell her she looked cute.

Mike singed his eyebrows and eyelashes getting a fire started in the stove (the wood wasn't very dry), and then we drank lukewarm hot chocolate and ate oranges. We managed to placate the girls all the way out, and keep them warm in the shadows of the setting sun by wrapping my scarf around Kenz, and my shell around Hannah. When the trail headed downward, Mike and I ran, crashing into each other, making the girls laugh hysterically.

I also played "motorboat" with Hannah until I wheezed out a new version of the rhyme, "Motorboat, motorboat go so slow. Motorboat, motorboat, go so slower. Motorboat, motorboat stop and rest while you gasp for air." I think that should become a new classic.

Since children I've had to change my idea of a good hike. A mile and a half is a great distance. The sound of silence is meant to be broken with quacking noises and songs (or crying and whining). Treat breaks are mandatory. Camelback nozzles are meant for chewing and should be bought by the dozens.

Sometimes though, I still catch a glimpse of what I love about hiking. The scent of the pine trees, a quiet moment where I can hear my shoes crunch. The feel of doing something not too many people are doing. And when it's over, when I ask Kenzie what her favorite part of the hike was, she says, sweeping her hand in a grand motion, "All of it."

(No pictures because a 30 pd child was on my back, and my camera just felt too heavy to bring along.)

Last minute cancellation

Exhaustion has pretty much overwhelmed the Chambers household, and since I didn't get any positives on the Cheesecake Factory, we're canceling.

I am so sorry if you planned on attending. If you were going to come leave me a comment and I'll make it up to you, somehow. I'll mail you a piece of homemade peanut butter cheesecake. (No pretending you were going to come just to get the cheesecake)