Illinois State Fair

You always know the end of summer is coming when it's State Fair time. I haven't been in many many years to the fair, I think the last time was to see Kenny Chesney when his tickets were still reasonably priced.

Today was Veteran's Day at the fair, and Veterans and their families got in free today, so we thought we would take advantage and make it a family trip.

Our first stop was by the Veterans tent to check dad in so he could get his commemorative pin, and a bunch of official looking people with ear pieces walked right by us, turns out it was Governor Quinn, if you look closely he is over there in background giving an interview. Mom was a total groupie and wanted to shake his hand. We were afraid she was going to get tazzed for scooting closer and closer. But she soon gave up and we moved on.

Next stop, the Dairy Barn to check out the famous butter cow.

Marvin & A.Drama hamming it up in the dairy barn

Then we all took a turn feeding Melman the giraffe.

Dad

A.Drama

Marvin

and a parrot

My only goal for the fair was to win a giant stuffed animal. I thought it best to try my luck at the Skeeball games. 180 points wins your choice! Best I got was 160. So of course NiBo had to be the one to win... ugh. But he was nice enough to give me his prize.

Then we saw the Budweiser Clydesdale horses, and the dalmatian dog too!

Then there was some fair food...

Mom had a delish corndog and a lemon shake up.

Dad enjoyed a funnel cake

A.Drama and Marvin tried Allagator on a stick, tasted like chicken apparently. 

I stayed away from the fair food, did try a friend oreo and a couple bites of mom's corn dog. Good stuff.

fried Oreo's... not too bad!

NiBo enjoyed his dip n dots

Aww aren't we cute.

By the end of the day we were all pooped, and a bit redder than when the day started. Thank goodness for refrigerator cooled aloe lotion. We decided that we are good to go on the State Fair for a few more years. I think everyone will sleep good tonight.

Hope you all had a great weekend too! 

Missing In Action

I promise this time I have been MIA for a legit reason. You see my friend MB has been working hard to lose weight and has been doing an amazing job. She talked me into signing up for a gym in the big work city and then took it another step further when she talked me into the personal trainer program at the gym, she got a week head start. 

The program "Fat to Fit in 84 days" promises to kick our butts into smokin hot shape by time fall rolls around. It's 6 days a week for an hour- hour and a half working with a trainer and food program. We alternate weight days and cardio days and increase the intensity. Our weights are mostly done with kettlebells so far, and I'm kinda loving it. 

Monday- Weights light day
Tuesday- Cardio light day
Wednesday- Weights medium day
Thursday- Cardio Medium day
Friday- Weights heavy day
Saturday- 8:30 am cardio heavy day
Sunday- Rest

I survived my first week. It wasn't exactly easy and dare I say kinda fun. It's been great having someone to workout with and to help me push and motivate myself. The food part of this consists of 80g carbs per day/20g fat per day/24g of protien per meal and eating six small meals every 3 hours. We meet at either 6 or 6:30pm with the trainer so I've been working some overtime hanging out in work city to pass the time, then getting done at the gym around 7/7:30 with a 45 minute drive home, you can see where I haven't had enough time to blog; but I promise in the coming weeks I will work harder to get some blogging in. Be prepared though it may become a slightly more exercise/healthy food zone and me venting/sharing my struggles as this time goes on.

Our trainer Annette is amazeballs. She is so nice and encouraging that you can't help but love her and want to do everything she says, I really do feel that she believes in me more than I do myself right now, but hopefully I'll get there.

My biggest struggle this week has been the food. During the week I didn't even notice, but these past two days have been a little rough. I want pizza and I want McDonalds. Ugh how awful, it's just the knowing you can't have something that makes you crave it I think. But don't fret I didn't give into temptation, I just kept thinking how bad I want this and it's only up to me to screw it up, and I'm not going to. During our 84 days we need to follow the plan to the T. Once the 84 days, in moderation, there will be room for those kinds of things, hopefully I won't want them, but there will be a place.

84 days in the gym will conclude on October 19th. By then, Annette is bound and determined that I will be smokin hot. So we shall see. Six days down, 78 to go. Monday is a new day and a new week, let's get this!

PS
If you have any good recipe that will fit into my plan please share. I'm already getting blah'd out on salads.

Keep It in the Zoo!

Summer Bucket List Item: Go to a Zoo... .check!

I've never been to a big zoo in my adult memory, so I decided to take a day of vacation and head out of town with my friend MB and hit up the St. Louis Zoo! It was hotter than Hades I won't even lie. I wore a tank top and got a bit of sun. The St. Louis Zoo is free to get in... um plus! It's $15 to park close or park free and hoof it with off street parking. The only things we paid extra for was $4 to pet the sharks and stingray... more on that later, and $4 to see the sea lion show. Here's some of the highlights of the day...

Anteater and a large rodent animal

Rhino

Hippopotamus, hip hop, hip hop anonymous? (get it? Big Daddy, Adam Sandler?)

Mama elephant and 2 mo old baby elephant

These elephants were doing all they could to keep cool

using their trunks as a hose and spraying off

The sea lion show

Gorilla pickin it's nose

Chimp backside.. he wouldn't turn around :/

Grizzly bear.. just paced in a circle

Camels and a baby camel

Kangaroo and baby kangaroo

Small Giraffe and larger Giraffe

Flamingos

This guy was a total GQ Model, totally posin

This turtle may or may not be dead...

Zebra family

I was bummed all the big cats were no where to be seen. I mean really, you live in Africa, can't you handle a little Midwest humidity!? But other than that we got to see almost all the animals! We forewent the birds, who cares about birds. My favorite part was getting to pet the stingray, who knew they actually like being petted? They would line up like a little stingray parade and actually come up to your hand to get a pat. The sharks were a little less enthusiastic but still would come up to you. They felt not like I expected them too, they were slimy feeling but at the same time not slimy and kinda velvety. It's hard to describe, I highly recommend trying it out! Oh and don't worry, they had their barbs removed so no chance of a Steve Erwin encounter (still too soon?)

I was also very very glad that there was lots of shade around, that helped a lot! They even had the mister fans set up around the park to help cool you off. It was very very humid and sweaty hot, but the sun was shining and the rain stayed away, can't ask for much more!

Is It Wrong?

Is it wrong to want to stick your head in the freezer and just stand there?! Perfectly normal, ok good.

For realz y'all it's hot in here! I'm not ready for summer just yet, well I mean summer can come but could Spring not say goodbye so fast? But alas, it's that  time of year again. The time of year when I feel like an ass complaining about not having central air, total first world problems I know. It seems too soon to get the window units put in, I like to enjoy the fresh breeze through the open windows with the small town sounds coming through the window. Every year I ask myself how did the prairie people survive the summer in their long dresses? I like to think that global warming has made the summers hotter therefore making me slightly less of a whiny wimp for sweating so much. But all of these brings us to the summer bucket list time....

So my dad sometimes, ok almost daily, sends me interesting articles, most of the time I just forward them to my home email "dad" folder and read them later but this once kind of stuck out, and it was short so that's always a plus. Who is Josh Linkner, no clue, he sounds fancy judging from his website. But his blog post was called More, Less, Stop basically the short premise of this blog was we have an limited amount of time in each day and to help us prioritize we can make a list 1. More- what do we want more of? 2. Less- what are some things we could do with less of and 3. What are some things that we need to stop doing altogether. He challenges us to think of seven things for each list and try to do them for 30 days. I think this shall be tomorrow's daily distraction. I'll get back to you with my list and I'll keep thinking about my summer bucket list.

Maybe I could enlist your help for one of my summer bucket list items. I'm looking to take a solo adventure/vacation to someplace with a good mix of things to do/relaxing down time, I was thinking possibly Savannah, or just a straight up beach trip and maybe to go to Hilton Head Island in SC, I'm still brainstorming. Do you have any ideas? 

Pinterest Project: Mason Jar to Go

My very first non-food Pinterest Project! The mason jar to go glass. Super easy to make and only costs $1.85. My only complaint is the condensation, but other than that it's totally cute! We threw around the idea of a knitted sleeve (but I don't know how to do that) or some kind of fabric wrap, maybe some burlap and a cute gingham bow (I just now thought of that!) 

What you'll need: 
Supplies
- Mason Jar any size (mine pictured is a Quart jar)
- 2 #14 finishing washers (got them at Ace $0.14 each)
- reusable straws (I found mine at our Alco store, Starbucks sells them too) 

Tools
- hot glue gun
- something to punch or drill a hole in the top of your lid

Directions: 
1. Wash your jar and straw obviously.
2. Drill a hole in the top of the lid (I used the drill press, but you can use a hammer and nail or something fancier)
3. Take your finishing washers and fill the inside with hot glue. I found it best to fill in a layer of glue first, then let that cool. Then go ahead and fill in another layer of glue (since it's kind of deep) You'll do this for the top and bottom of the lid.
4. Let your glue dry and bam you're done! Enjoy!

I'm not 100% on how the hot glue will hold up after washings but I'll keep ya posted. 

Update:  I am having problems getting the hot glue to stick to the top of the jar lid. While the top piece is more for show, I appreciate it being there to help give a finished look. I tried scoring the top of the lid around where the glue would go to give it something to stick to but no luck. Man they just make it look so easy on Pinterest don't they...

Feeling Accomplished While Being Lazy

I don't get out much but I've got a summer bucket list that I need to get working on so that requires a little resourcefulness. While I pretty much did nothing this whole weekend it was great, I also put a lot of thought into my summer bucket list. I have a few additions, ok I'm stealing a few The Frisky but they had some good ideas and it was just the kind of random fun list I had been looking for originally but couldn't come up with on my own. But it did inspire me to come up with a few of my own.

*Create a mini pool paradise Check!

yes it is completely possible and acceptable to create a new list item and immediately check it off. Creating my mini pool paradise was no easy feat and required some man hours searching for the perfect pool aka I had to drive around to like five different stores until I found the size I was looking for.  Finally I found it! I plan on spending many hours out here on the patio in my little corner of solitude. I feel much more accomplished and less like a spinster if I'm at least outside, even if I am doing the exact same thing that I would be doing inside. Slightly frustrating was the fact that after I got it all set up and filled the sun disappeared on me Saturday, bummed. But I did manage to get some sun while I was preparing it, I have the tan lines to prove it. With it's secluded from the public view placement I will be able to sit in the mini pool and read all summer, effectively killing two birds with one stone as I intended to add be outdoors as much as possible to the list. If nothing else just sitting outside listening to music with my feet in the water is enough to make me not feel like a complete loser sitting at home.

Today in an effort to get out of the house again NiBo and I went and saw Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. I really liked this movie, who knew ole Honest Abe was such a BA. This movie is based on a book by the same title, I have it on the Nook to possibly read this summer. I like the movie partly because as ridiculous as it seems that Abraham Lincoln was a vampire hunter, they story makes just enough sense as it ties in with actual events that it could just possibly be true.

Then the Taste of Champaign just happened to be going on today as well so after the movie we stopped by to get a taste and had a Back to the Future moment when we saw a Delorean.

And needless to say now that I've got my little Mini Pool Paradise set up I think I'm pretty set for this whole summer thing to get swinging. At least I'll be soaking up some vitamin D this summer looks like. I've already got more color on me than I did last year... still need to work on those pasty white legs. Bring on the sunshine!

Please note I am also on track to actually finish this months book club book prior to the night before our meeting... this is big. I may be finally getting my crap together! ;)



Sweet Summertime

Tomorrow, June 20th is the first day of summer, I'm pretty sure it's here already based on the recent temperatures. So here's the deal, we have until September 21st to add and cross things off our Summer Bucket List, that's 93 days. I think we can do this...

Here's what's on the list so far, plenty more to be added I'm sure, but this is a good start:

* Volunteer

* Go Fishing

* Read 10 books

* Take a random class and learn something new

* Take a day trip somewhere

* Take a week off from technology (well I'll keep my iPhone)

* Make something I saw on Pinterest

* Dress up for a night out on the town

* Cubs game

* Start a good habit

I've spent several days thinking about this list and that was about all I could come up with. It's a start but I need more ideas. Anyone got any good ones?

Happy Summertime!  

Six Down, Six to Go

Has anyone else noticed that twenty-twelve is half over?! That means it's been six months since January.

3,864 hours
231,840 minutes
161 days

..and I feel I have accomplished nothing. The only big thing of note I can come up with is making a small step towards change. I posted for a new job in my unit and got it. I spent three months in training which totally drained me of wanting to do much else other than cope with the self induced stress that came from being a new person and not knowing what I was doing. It's getting better but I'm still clearly the new person and I don't like being new.

I have been a terrible blogger too, only 24 posts in 161 days?! Terrible, and one of my 2012 resolutions was to blog more. I had 122 posts last year, I've got time to get that one done. Looking back at the beginning of the year I was slightly on top of it, going to the gym and working with a trainer. That all stopped when I started getting stressed with new job and got lazy. I signed up for the Warrior Dash in December and will probably die Saturday.

The saddest part is I have no excuses. Not a one, just me. I got in the way. I'm scared to try new things and I'm unmotivatedly lazy. I'm trying to fix it but just can't seem to get over the hump.

But Summer is coming and I'm bound and determined to make a good fun one. June 20th is the official start to summer, that's 103 days until Fall. I'm in desperate need of getting out of my funk, although I don't feel as much in a rut as I have in the past, it's still a looming feeling. 

I'm working on a Summer Bucket List with the main goal of getting myself out of the house and changing stuff up. I started with changing the blog design, I like it, makes it feel a new. I'm thinking of changing my hair up too I think it will help to look in the mirror and there be a physical change looking back.

Any suggestions for a Summer activity to add to the list, what are some of your Summer bucket list items?