Vacation Wrap Up

Well, I finally made it home. I have a snazzy little Nissan Sentra rental car. Not quite the F-250 that my husband is used to, but even he admits that it drives well.

THANK YOU for all of the comments, emails, etc. I was soooo upset when I posted, but y'all made me feel so much better. I have kind of gotten over being upset. I got my insurance list made out for both auto and homeowner's and now I will start the process of dealing with both on Tuesday.

I have a few pointers for every single one of you to do RIGHT NOW in case something like this ever happens to you.

• write down serial numbers of your cell phone, GPS, your kid's electronics, etc and keep them somewhere where you can access them. Maybe you could find a website so that you can do that from anywhere? (Also, keep receipts if you have them on these things....very handy)


• have your auto and homeowner's insurance customer service numbers handy in case of an emergency FYI-homeowner's covers contents if a vehicle is stolen b/c your car is an extension of your dwelling


• Don't be afraid to ask a hotel if they have parking lot security cameras when booking your stay


• Periodically check your vehicle to insure that no bank reciepts, checkbooks, or any identifying information are kept in there.


• Take your GPS out of your vehicle when staying on vacation. Take it into the hotel room with you


• If your cell phone is stolen, turn off the service immediately unless it has GPS tracker. Apparently iphones have this. Know if you have it before something happens so that you can get tracking immediately.


• make a record of all credit card numbers and their customer service numbers, your bank account numbers and a contact number, etc in the event your purse/wallet is stolen so that you can easily take care of this. Again, maybe they can be stored online somewhere?

Now for some pictures....

There are lots more, but I saved you from the boredom of looking at all of them. The final verdict on Great Wolf? Fun, the kids had a blast, but beware and look out for yourself, because they aren't looking out for you.

Melissa

Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, TX

Well, guys, I have a few cute pics to share, but I'm just not feeling that into it. Let me explain....

We arrived at Great Wolf in Grapevine, TX at around 1:30 or so on the day of our reservation. Check-in begins at 1 pm, but your room is not guaranteed to be ready until 4 pm. I was greeted by the General Manager upon arrival; however, I haven't seen him since. I checked in and our room was not quite ready. No big deal, I went and got into my husband's truck (cue the foreboding music) to figure out what to do in the mean time. The hotel tells you that if your room is not ready, you can leave your belongings in the locked vehicle and go on into the water park until your room is ready. (dum, dum, dum)<-- That was the mood music...lol

Thank the dear Lord that as I was getting into the vehicle, the guy who checked me in (who was very very nice) came running out to tell me the room status was changed to ready right after I walked back outside. (Thank you dude...seriously...life saver!)

So, we parked, unloaded all of our clothes, and left pillows, Sea World souvenirs, LM's DS and games, and a few other things that really didn't fit onto the luggage carrier things, and headed up to the room.

We got to the room, dressed, and off to the water park we went. We had a blast. The kids rode slides (which was a shocker), had a blast in the sprinkler stuff, and I was very pleased with the cleanliness and number of lifeguards.

Around 4:30, Little Girl was hungry, and I had promised the kids we'd go down the road to the Rainforest Cafe, so we went to the room and got ready. We exited the hotel and the hubby decided to bring the truck around to pick us up. A few minutes later, I saw him walking back up to the entrance. He said that the truck was gone. I thought he was joking, but nope!

So, an hour and a half and much time with the insurance and police, we ate a pizza in our hotel room and listened to our kid cry over his lost DS and the fact that he has no vacation souvenirs and I don't have the money to replace them because I need to now buy new carseats, etc. Joy.

So, while Grapevine's Great Wolf is fun, lesson of the day is that they have no security cameras in their parking lot. We were there around 3 hours and have no vehicle. A few employees were very apologetic, but honestly, our vacation is ruined, and I would love to get my money back and go home.

State Farm did hook me up with a rental car this morning (yippee....not) and moral of that story is that Enterprise sucks and I love Hertz.

I'll post pics later when I get a smile on my face. Which may be a while.

Melissa

Sea World Day 1

Yesterday we got up early (I know! on vacation! what was I thinking?) and headed toward Sea World. As I said in a previous blog post, I booked the Ultimate Seafari Tour as a surprise for the kids. Boy were they surprised!

First let me say that our tour guide, Melissa (lol!), was fantastic. She knew a lot about the animals and Sea World. We did the tour with 3 other families. If you go to Sea World, I really think that the tour is well worth the money. It lasted about 4 hours. We fed the dolphins (the fish were provided with the tour), fed seals and sea lions, got a tour of Shamu Theater before it opened, special seats at the "Shamu" show (you'll see pics in a minute...great seats), got to touch and have our picture made with an animal (yesterday's was an armadillo...strange but neat), toured the penguin and shark areas before they opened to the public, and got Quick Queue passes to all of the rides (so very cool!).

Here are pics....hope you enjoy. Also, for anyone planning a trip to San Antonio to Sea World, our hotel was great. Very good prices, easy to get from here to Sea World, and they also run a shuttle in a 5 mile radius. You just call them to come pick you up...no waiting for the next bus! Great pool, 2 hot tubs, sprinkle fountains for the kids, and a swim up bar.

Anyway...the pics....

Melissa

Still here!!!

My hard drive crashed on my home computer and I finally got that repaired and my work has cracked down on "blogging at work", so....limited time peeps. :) I hope to catch up while on vacation and stuff.

So, quick updates. Insanity is going quite well. I am loving it really. In important news on that front, I went swimsuit shopping. I bought a one piece, a tankini thing, and (are you ready for this???)....two bikinis!!!

Now, whether or not they will see the light of day, not sure. I wanted one bikini to wear under my clothes to Sea World because I know that we will get splashed and stuff. (front row here baby!) But, I really do think that I will wear them at the pool. Could I look better in them, yep. But am I happy with how I look in them, sure. I never ever in a million years would have thought that I would have been happy in a bathing suit at all, much less a bikini a year ago, so heck, I'm going to enjoy it!

We are headed out on Saturday for a vacation at Sea World and Great Wolf Lodge. I decided to use the money that I won from Shamrock Farms to surprise my kids with the Ultimate Seafari Tour where we will get to the park a couple of hours before it opens, go around with someone for animal training and tours and some other perks. I am so excited and can't wait to tell them!!!

I hope you are all having a GREAT week and end of the school year. Stay tuned for more blogging from vacation (hopefully!!)

Melissa

Week in Review and Tell it Like it Is Tuesday

First, here's the week in review (I'm a day late) **I meant to hit "publish" on this on Tuesday, but didn't get it done until this morning (Wed) due to a late night giving scholarships at a graduation last night. Sorry!***

Sunday: 3 miles with my brother

Monday: nothing - I had a school board meeting

Tuesday: 4 miles at lunch

Wednesday: 3.1 miles for Tall Mom's Virtual 5K

Thursday: Insanity Day 1

Friday: Insanity Day 2

Saturday: Insanity Day 3



Yesterday should have been Day 4, but I pulled something in my back about 10 minutes into the video, so I stopped and I'm going to let my back rest today also (I have a graduation to attend to give out scholarships). So, I'm going to try and get in a run today at lunch. On a side note, I'm

fairly certain that this Insanity stuff is going to my running much faster.



Tell it like it is Tuesday:



Baja Bob's Strawberry Margarita Mix (Sugar Free): I'm a HUGE fan of the regular margarita variety, however, this was very disappointing. I could barely choke down a few ounces. It had a Splenda taste to it that I think the lime and tequila taste of the other drown out.


Danskin Now Shorts: I tried the shorts that were being sold with the tanks I talked about last week (and LOVED). NOT A FAN of these. No liner (which is usually a must for me), they rode up, and I overall was uncomfortable in these.

Gone for a Run T-shirt: Got a tshirt for Mother's Day and got tons of compliments on it. It's very cute and didn't fit too big or too small. My only suggestion when ordering from them is to order at least $40 or more to get $5 shipping. I saw my hubby's receipt and our order of about $20 had around $12 of shipping. So, the $5 is a bargain.

Brooks Adrenaline GTS 10s: I got these for Mother's Day and didn't realize how worn out my old ones were until I tried these. LOVE them, I think even more than my last ones.

Well, gotta get going. LM graduates from Kindergarten today! *sniff sniff* and I have stuff to do.

Melissa

Happy Mother's Day, Insanity, and a Blog Award

First of all, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!! I hope you all had as great of a day/weekend as I did!! I started the weekend off on Saturday morning by getting up before all of my family and getting on the internet. Within a couple of minutes I found out that I had won the Ultimate Sports Mom contest that was hosted by Teamarcia and Shamrock Farms Rockin' Refuel. The funny thing is that all my lunch friends know how obsessed I am with Subway's milk. I think they have the best milk EVER and they laugh at me about it. Guess who makes it? Yep...Shamrock Farms.



I was beyond excited! I woke my hubby up with my squealing! I have big plans for the gift card. My first purchase will be a Running Skirt. I can't decide between pink plaid, a solid color, purple plaid (but they don't show my size!), or polka dotted. Decisions, decisions. :) The rest will probably go toward our family vacation in a few weeks.



After that it was family time all weekend. We ended it up tonight with my hubby grilling some AWESOME food and baking my favorite, apple pie (Mrs. Smiths....lol)



My kids bought me a shirt from Gone For A Run (check them out...CUTE stuff...hmmm...maybe I'll buy a Bibfolio with my winnings!), my new Brooks Adrenaline shoes, a really awesome planter, and some flowers. They are awesome!!



I hope all of you mommies and mommies-to-be had a great day!!!



I also have done more Insanity the past couple of days. I think the last time I blogged was after Day 1. I wasn't nearly as sore as I thought after doing these, but definitely sore. I figured that would be a problem when doing the next few days, but it wasn't.



Day 1 was the Warm Up and Fit Test, which was H-A-R-D. The next day was cardio and plyometrics. I can't say enough how much FUN these DVDs are. They are hard, but I don't want to curse the TV like I did with Jillian and the Shred. I do have to stop for a few reps during some of the stuff, but I noticed that the "models" do too.



Day 3 was cadio and maybe something else, I honestly can't remember. But today, today was awesome. It was Cardio Recovery and while it was hard, in that tired muscle kind of way, it was wonderful. The stretches felt awesome and there were quite a few that I really see me doing before running, etc from now on. I honestly can't wait until it's time for that one again.

My legs feel so much stronger, and my arms are decently sore as well. Tomorrow is a cardio day and I have a feeling that I will be soaked with sweat. I've been dripping before the warm up is over the past few sessions.

I highly recommend this set. I think you would need a certain threshold of cardio built up beforehand, but if you can run for 30 minutes straight, you can do this. Just don't be upset if you can't do every rep....I'm not. I'll catch up even if I have to do an extra week of the first month's stuff.

Tomorrow I'm going to blog about an award I received from a very special blogger and recap my exercise week which is honestly the best one I've had in FOREVER.

Keep on keeping on and you mommies ROCK! OH! and congrats to Katye on her sub 2 hour PR 1/2 marathon!! :)

Melissa

Insanity Day 1

I got home from karate last night around 7 pm and there was a package waiting for me. It was a really simplified looking brown box (to trick you I think). I opened the box and there it was....Insanity in a box.

It was late, but I decided to do the fit test that you are supposed to do on Day 1. 30 minutes later and dripping with sweat, it was done.

Just the warm up had me sweating, but I liked it. Jogging in place, jumping jacks, butt kicks, etc and I was proud that I was able to keep up and do fairly well.

After the warm up there were 8 exercises that you had to see how many you could do in 1 minute. I minute is a LONG time guys. I was decently happy with my results on all but one of the exercises. I was also exhausted when it was over.

My legs are sore this morning, but not unmanageably sore like when I did the 30 day Shred last year. I also really enjoyed myself while doing the videos.

So, tonight will be Day 2 and I can't wait to see how it goes.

Also, an update on the Music Swap. I only have 3 people signed up. If you are interested, let me know!! I am going to end signups next Wednesday, May 12 and then get you the details and who to send your CD to!

Melissa

Tall Mom's Virtual 5K

Well, I had totally forgotten about signing up for Tall Mom's Virtual 5K until Tuesday afternoon. That wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that I did my first ever speed workout on Tuesday. So, needless to say, I wasn't going for a win, PR, or anything like that.

The race director (lol) made this race bib at the last minute with a sharpie and a pink highlighter. She said that she saw the slogan "Save Second Base" online and thought it was hilarious, so she put that on the bib.

My number was 332, 33 for Tall Mom, 2 for the 2nd base thing. :) However, that turned out to be a funny coincidence. The race started just past my driveway (how fortunate for me!) My legs were sooo super tired from the speedwork the day before and after 1 mile, I decided there would be lots of walking and running intervals.

Around 1.5, I started doing a lot more walking and breaking it down into .25s and .3s and bargaining with myself. I wanted to give up, but knew I needed to finish.

It was hot hot hot (about 94 according to the weather) and I could feel my skin scortching. I had forgotten the sunscreen because I came home and got the kids situated before I started out. It was around 5:30 pm. I then started to think about my skin cancer scare when I was in high school and then wouldn't you know it, the person who found that crazy mole during that scare drove past and waved (long story!). I thought that was strange.

Unfortunately the race director for this race was the same as the one for the last virtual Tall Mom race, and she tends to forget about the water stops. I'm thinking about having her fired. I need to find a feedback form so that maybe she'll get fired.

I finished the race and was thrilled to be done. Sidenote: I have already done 10 miles for the week, which for me is amazing. I think my groove is back.

Self timed photo in the kitchen. Terrible.

Here is my finish time. Look familiar? (332 race bib. 33 minutes and 2 second time) Look even more closely... 33:02 and 99, so really, 33:03 almost Hey hey Tall Mom!

It was fun overall though and I was glad I pushed myself. I am still fairly new to running and never run two days in a row, much less after my first ever speedwork day.

I also need to update my 3 changes challenge:

1) Apply sunscreen before running. I was doing well, but see above.

2) Clean out clothes that are too big. Still working on that one, but doing better. Until I got a freebie shirt at work today. Size L. I have told them a hundred times to change me in the computer, but I still got a L. I'm hoping they have a smaller size that I can trade for.

3) Floss every day. Still doing fairly well, but I have to admit, I've slacked on the side that my tooth infection is on because I am soooo scared of hurting myself again.

My Mother's Day gifts came in this week and I am itching to get into them. The kids don't know that I know what I'm getting and plan on wrapping and giving them to me this weekend. :) New running shoes and this shirt from Gone for a Run. How freaking cute is that? I think I have the hubby talked into the bibfolio for my anniversary present. :) I think I want the running girl one. Tall Mom, you need this one with the pic from your new blog header!

What are you giving your Mother for Mother's Day? I need some ideas. I haven't bought my mom anything yet!

Melissa

Tell It Like It Is Tuesday

Well, it's time for more reviews on things I've tried this week. First off, Skinny Cow Caramel Cone single serving ice cream.


One word: Sinful. You'd never guess this is a 3 point (I think I have that right!) dessert! (and just barely a 3...sooo close to a 2) However, for 3 points, you could have a McDonald's ice cream cone. Just sayin'
Second product review, Batter Blaster. It's organic and in an aerosol can so it's easy to spray. 2 regular sized pancakes are equal to 2 Points. (I think 80 calories). It was very very yummy and fun for the kids. However, I just made them for myself.

Here are my two pancakes. The spray can makes it easy to make interesting shapes.

So, here's a quick meal idea that's very filling and not too bad in Points. 2 pancakes (2 Points), Orowheat toast with Smucker's Simply Fruit (2 Points), Sugar Free syrup (1 Point), Egg Beater Omlette with 2% cheese and real bacon crumbles (5 Points) Total for the meal: 10 Points.

And my final product review (no pictures) is a new Danskin Dry Fit Tank from Wal Mart. 7 bucks and I was really really pleased. It was a snug fit (in a good way) through the chest and felt great while running. For $7 it was a steal!

Hope you all had a great day. Cinco de Mayo is tomorrow and I'll be testing Strawberry Baja Bob's Margarita Mix and celebrating with Fajita Wednesday with my BFF Susie!! :)

Melissa

Goodbye April....HELLO MAY!!

Well, April is over and I for one am thrilled. April sucked it up big time for me on the fitness front. I think I was in a funk until the last oh 4 days or so. :)

So, here are my "April in review" stats (all pictures can be clicked on to make bigger)

So, as you can see, nothing for the record books really. Like I said, I was in a funk and had a kid with mono, then a kid with sores in her mouth and a high fever, who then gave the mono kid the sores and the fever. So, you can see that I was busy. Add a few hundred (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating...but just a little) birthday parties to that and you have my month.

But, it's over and now I have goals for May.

As you can see, I'm still pretty pumped about ordering the Insanity Workout DVDs. I also started off the month by going for a little 3 mile run with my little brother.....
I hope you all had a great weekend. CONGRATS to Tall Mom on her BQ!!!!!!!!!!

Melissa

New Stuff

Well, my second Mother's Day gift was ordered yesterday from Zappos. I am sooo excited to be getting a new pair of running shoes. I love my Brooks Adrenaline GTS 9s, so I ordered the 10s. I don't so much love the red color of my current ones, but I love the blue color of the ones I just ordered.

I've heard excellent things about Zappos customer service and shipping, so I hope I'm pleasantly surprised.

With all my tooth pain lately, I haven't been sleeping. So, unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on how you look at it, I was up watching infomercials last night. I saw the infomercial for the Insanity Workout and this morning I found it for half price online and ordered it. I'm pretty excited. I'm thinking that my brother is probably going to do it with me, so that should be fun. He and I are supposed to go for a run today too, so I'm looking forward to a run with him.

I hope you are all having a great day. I'm crossing my fingers for an awesome finish for Tall Mom at the Eugene Marathon today so that she can get her BQ.

Melissa