Slowing Down....

Well we made it through all of the craziness of Christmas and now I'm thoroughly enjoying the after Christmas slow down....that time after all the get togethers, when the house is starting to get back to normal, and there's some time to just hang out.
We had a wonderful Christmas: dessert with all of the Bomers and Griggs at Mariann's house, Christmas Eve service at Groveland, Christmas at Opal's, breakfast and Christmas at Joyce's, some time at home to have our own little Christmas, dinner and Christmas at my mom's house, seeing the Nobles open Christmas at grandma's house, lunch with Natalie, sledding with the Nobles, dinner out with my parents and brother, and dinner out with my small group ladies. We actually have one more get together planned tonight with Brad's sisters. But it's nice to just have some time to hang out at home, no place to be at any particular time for a few days. The only downside to this break has been that Brad and I have been fighting off colds for the past week or so.
So now it's just getting back to a normal eating schedule that doesn't involve eating out every day. It was actually kind of nice yesterday to just have our meals at home, eating some regular food. It was a perfect night for grilled cheese and soup and cuddling up on the couch with Brad and Lucy.

Vacation is in full swing

It's when you hit a monday and you don't have to go to work that it really starts to feel like you're on vacation. Today I finished up the last of my Christmas shopping. I was almost done, but needed a couple more stocking stuffers for my family and the rest of Brad's present. I also had wrapped myself right out of wrapping paper, so I picked up some more of that and wrapped what was left. So everything is bought and everything is wrapped...and it's only December 21st. One year, Brad and I got home from Puerto Rico on Dec. 21st and pretty much started our Christmas shopping then. So for us to be all done, is pretty amazing. I've started a little baking as well. I tried out some new recipes from a magazine. They turned out okay, nothing amazing. Today I went for some old standbys - Ritz bits in almond bark and pretzals in almond bark, all topped with M&Ms. Perfectly bite sized and great for snacking :)
Brad has been working like crazy since he finished work. I think he's pretty much spent most of the past four days in the basement...working on the basement bathroom and repluming the entire house. So I don't have to worry about doing the dishes after baking since there's no water in the kitchen :)

Getting into vacation mode

Well vacation officially started yesterday around 2:30 when I got home from work. Most of my vacation so far has been spent wrapping presents. Everything is now wrapped except for one thing...I ran out of paper for that last one. Now on to cleaning. Whenever I have a break from school, I usually try to get a full house clean in. It helps when your whole house is only six rooms...you can really clean the whole thing.
Brad also finally got rid of some of the assorted old appliances already this vacation. One dryer and one hot water heater gone. Now if we could just get rid of the freezer, refrigerator, and stove...

The End

And that, my friends, is the end of the Fall 2009 semester. All finals are graded, all grades are posted, and everything is filed away. Ahhhhh....
Now we just wait to see if anyone throws a hissy fit about their grade and start planning the next semester.

Very Christmasy Weekend

This weekend has really started to feel like the Christmas season. Yesterday my church kids had their dress rehearsal for their Christmas program which is tonight. They are always very cute, though somewhat unpredictable once you put them up on stage. After the program practice, I made a couple varieties of Christmas cookies. I tried out some recipes from Country Living...thumbprint cookies and red & whites. They are both pretty good, though I wouldn't say great. There are some other cookie recipes in this magazine, so maybe I'll try some more kinds. And then last night Brad and I did some Christmas shopping in Peoria, and I think we may actually be done with our shopping...which is really something for us. We are always out shopping on the 23rd and 24th trying to finish up. Though I still need to get Brad's present, I think everything else is pretty well set. Just waiting on a couple more things ordered online. So I guess now it's time to start wrapping...which that part I enjoy much more than the shopping.

Being dragged by the bandwagon...

So after four good days of exercising, I've now gone three days with nothing but grading. Monday I was at school all day, Tuesday I graded all night and Wednesday I graded all night. So perhaps tonight I can actually have a non-working night. There so many tests that had to be graded and returned this week before finals that everything else has fallen by the wayside...like laundry, vacuuming, exercising...
One more week...

Getting Back on the Bandwagon

So maybe it was seeing all of those in-shape people at the Riverplex on Wednesday or maybe it was knowing that I really had not done any exercise in longer than I care to admit, but however it came about, I decided Thursday I was in need of a workout. While I still have swim passes at the Pekin Y, the lap swim schedule just isn't the greatest for my work schedule, so I decided to stay at home and use my friend the internet. A while back I had discovered sparkpeople.com for stability ball workouts, so I decided to see what else I could find there. I like that it's free and I can just take my laptop upstairs to get in a workout. The weekend routine included:
Thursday:
-Cardio Kickboxing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XFBkv2xjbU)
-Stability Ball (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it8Bn0MVJ4M)
Friday:
-Jump Start Cardio (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M38HDCGmhm4)
-Some much needed stretching after Thursday's adventure (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_MVPJ3dX_8 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBmy1T-3d6I)
Saturday:
-Nice walk with Brad and the pups
Sunday:
-Cardio Kickboxing
-Lower Body Stability Ball (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDXQcLDXYhg)

Tomorrow will be a day off as I have a 13 hour workday, so hopefully we can pick this back up on Tuesday...

O Christmas Tree

Just Another No-Beef Wednesday

Maybe I could write a little theme song for no-beef Wednesdays to the tune of "manic monday"...but that's another topic...

Anyways, tonight we enjoyed some garlic cheddar chicken. It's pretty easy...chicken dipped in garlic butter and then rolled in a mixture of bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and shredded cheddar cheese. Quite a tasty one.

Tonight I think I may even go watch Brad play volleyball. He's been playing volleyball at the RiverPlex for several years now, and I have never gone to watch...because he said people don't do that. But Shom is just watching tonight, so I think I may go join the cheering squad.