Fun Fitness Stuff

I was given a link to a great fitness website a few months ago. Spark People is the name and it's absolutely free to join. I am having fun with it. There are some great features there like a food tracker (food journal) and fitness tracker to keep track of the activities/exercise you do. It gives you the #of calories burned and a great analysis of your food's nutritional value ie: calories, protein, carbs, fat, and you can also set it to find out how much fiber and/or other nutrients are in there. I'm amazed at the nutritional value or lack thereof in many different foods. There are many other great features too.

I also found another great site that will give you a nutritional analysis of your recipes. You input the recipe and the yield and it will give you a nutrition label like the ones you see on packaged foods. I love that! I've used this to find out serving sizes so that I can go input it into my spark food tracker. Very helpful! I was pleasantly surprised at how great the Hearty Meat Lasagna scored since it is my new favorite! I won't even bother with my favorite cheesecake recipe though. Some things are better left in the dark.

Another site I've used to find out height to weight ratio--Body Mass Index and how many calories I would burn doing nothing--called Basal Metabolic Rate is here. I then use that to find out other fun stuff like "can I eat that slice of Chocolate Turtle Cheesecake?" There's also a body fat percentage calculator. Just to be informed. After all that "analysis" I might have to just eat the cheesecake anyway to lift my spirits! So fun!

Sunny days were here..and gone

I finally (mostly) got rid of a nasty cold just in time to enjoy the GORGEOUS weekend. The sun came out and actually stayed out this time. We spent a great deal of time outside so we are a bit tanner these days. It was hard to come back inside once the sun went down in the evening. Our high temperatures were in the upper 70s and up to 80 which is downright balmy for this area at this time of year. I love Oregon in late spring when everything is blooming.

Our neighbors have a cherry tree that hangs over our fence and it looks like a "Popcorn Tree."
The weekend is over and so is our beautiful weather, for now. April showers bring May flowers, right?

What I WANT to do isn't the same..

...as what I need to do today. So, I've been sick (again!) sniffle-sniffle. I am so sick and tired of being sick and tired! I know there are those of you who know exactly what I mean. Does having four kids mean that someone in the house is ALWAYS sick?! If the kids are all healthy (thank goodness) then either I am sick or Terry is. Okay, so I WANT to: take a nap, do my Turbo Kick dvd (but I have no energy), go find a great bargain on chairs (for the kids' desks), shop online (but Claire wants to push all the buttons on the keyboard), did I already say take a nap? oops. Well, I must REALLY want to take a nap then, and I probably need one too. There are a few things that must be done today, not the least being feeding the children. Can't get out of that one. So, I am going to make the Hearty Meat Lasagna that you can find on the "mommy recipes" blog link on the right. There are a lot of delicious recipes on that site and I would suggest that you check them out. I have posted a few there including Chocolate Turtle Cheesecake and my favorite yummy roll recipe. Another thing that I must do today...hm can't think of anything since I did the grocery shopping and the laundry earlier in the week. I even hung some curtains (finally!) in the living room, in between sneezes. Yawn! Okay, time for my nap!

Spring Break Whirlwind

We enjoyed a busy week before Easter. We celebrated our 15th Wedding Anniversary. A funny comic from the Reader's Digest showed an elderly couple reading the newspaper. The husband said to his wife, "Says here that married people live longer." Her reply was, "No, it just SEEMS longer!"

I am grateful for my sweetheart. He is a good man with lots of patience. AND he shares his chocolate with me! What more can I ask?

He was even willing to be a bachelor for a week while I took the kids to visit family in Ontario/Boise. Before our trip, we had a very nice Easter weekend. The day before Easter we went to Corvallis to visit Grandma and Grandpa. We took our plastic candy-filled eggs to hide and hunt in their big backyard. Grandpa was the Easter Bunny. The kids loved that. I'm not sure how much candy made it back home. I think they ate most of it at Grandma's. Later in the day Terry took me out to dinner for our anniversary at The Gables, our favorite special occasion restaurant in Corvallis. The food was so divine.


Easter Sunday Terry stayed home with two sick kids while I took the other two kids to church. Everett had a sore throat and nearly lost his voice. Claire had been battling a fever for a couple of days and was just so unhappy. I think she was cutting a tooth--her second tooth. Sacrament meeting was excellent. Our Stake Patriarch spoke to/about the youth regarding the fact that they were sent to Earth at this time for a reason and it's up to us as parents to help them to realize their potential and guide them to the Savior. I wish that I'd taken notes. Later, I substituted in the Sunbeams class. Sunbeam teachers are saints! That's all I will say about that.

Easter dinner was shredded pork and homemade rolls. Uncle Henry came to celebrate with us and brought the kids some fun Easter baskets. We had a great day!
Later in the evening we were busy preparing and packing for our trip.
PJs--check
toothbrushes--check
diapers--check
snacks--check
portable DVD player so we don't drive mom nuts--double check!

We had been checking the road cameras in the Santiam Pass all week long, watching as the snow came and went. We hoped that we'd get through on bare pavement and fortunately we did! We met my parents in Bend to caravan with them to their house (four hours away!) which really helped me. I had Mom with me and Dad took the older two in his car. Now, that's the way to travel! Thanks Mom & Dad!
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We enjoyed our visit very much in spite of having some raspy voices and a bit of fever. By the middle of the week everyone was feeling better. We were able to see family and friends. We got a little shopping in too, of course.

The highlights of our trip:
~ I got my hair cut. Yay! I had about 3 inches taken off.
~ Eating delicious Mom-made food and a trip to Burger West. We missed Belly Buster this time around.
~ Getting together with my sisters and eating more delicious food. (They are amazing cooks!)
~ Playing Wii with my friend and our kids. So much fun! I don't think I've laughed so hard in ages!
~ Lazy mornings visiting with my Mom. Ahh!
~ Pan Dulce
~ Seeing my friends and getting these from Jody:


Now it's back to school for the kids and time for MY vacation to begin. Ha-ha! I did take a much needed nap today. Claire has forgotten what it means to sleep through the night, it seems. It's rough getting up after a month or two of full nights of sleep. Crazy what sleep/lack of sleep can do, right Shannon? Good thing babies are so cute!

Happy Spring!