Swimsuit Season!

Since we are upon the dreaded swimsuit season, I thought I'd throw out a post for our rockin bods. I found a really good treadmill walking routine that I LOVE! I do it all the time, it's really easy. I feel so good and sweaty when I'm done too, who doesn't love that! It has a beginner and advanced routine, so it's great if you feel like your getting bored with the one. And I plan on doing it my entire pregnancy (when I can fight the urge to just sit). Anyway. Here's the routine. And holla to our bodacious bods!

Beginner Routine

Time.......................................Incline.............Speed
0:00-5:00 (warm up)------------------1%-----------3.0 mph
5:00-7:00 (intensity) ..........................2.5%...............3.3 mph
7:00-8:00 (recovery)-------------------2%-----------2.7 mph
8:00-11:00 (intensity)...........................4%................3.3 mph
11:00-12:00 (recovery)-----------------3%-----------2.7 mph
12:00-16:00 (intensity).........................4%................3.5 mph
16:00-17:00 (recovery)-----------------3%-----------3.0 mph
17:00-21:00 (intensity).........................4%.................3.5 mph
21:00-23:00 (recovery)-----------------3%-----------3.0 mph
23:00-25:00 (intensity)..........................3%................3.3 mph
25:00-30:00 (cool down)---------------1%-----------3.0 mph

Advanced Routine

Time.......................................Incline.............Speed
0:00-5:00 (warm up)-----------------2%------------3.3 mph
5:00-8:00 (intensity)...........................4%..................3.7 mph
8:00-9:00 (recovery)------------------3%------------3.4 mph
9:00-13:00 (intensity).........................5%..................3.3 mph
13:00-14:00 (recovery)----------------3%-----------3.5 mph
14:00-19:00 (intensity)........................6%..................4 mph
19:00-20:00 (recovery)----------------3%-----------3.5 mph
20:00-24:00 (intensity)........................6%................4.3 mph
24:00-25:00 (recovery)----------------4%-----------3.6 mph
25:00-30:00 (cool down).....................2%.................3.3 mph

Good luck!

Sweet Pea Bow-tique

My sister-in-law, Mindy, and I are in the hair-decorating business it seems! We made up a ton of hairbows, flowers and clippies to adorn either mother OR child... and we're selling them NOW! We call ourselves "Sweet Pea Bow-tique." We have practically our entire inventory over at Grandma's Corner Bakery in Richmond, and we are currently taking custom orders. Visit our website (or Grandma's Corner Bakery) to check us out, and TELL YOUR FRIENDS! ;)

Family Sign

My mom had this great idea for a cute little family sign. She had a bunch of frames that were the same style in different sizes and wanted to put each letter of the word Family in the frames. But she also wanted to have each letter be a different font. So that is where I came in, I played around with a lot of different fonts until we came up with this finished product:




What do you think? My mom was way happy with it, and I love it!

Parenting Book

I have been on a quest to find a good parenting book, and this book has been recommended to me by several people including my pediatrician. So last weekend I finally decided to get it- and so far I LOVE IT! After just a few chapters it really had me thinking and arranging my parenting style. I am not even done with it yet, but already I am using the suggestions. This book has really helped me feel like I can raise this crazy toddler to be a responsible adult- and that is a great feeling. So if any of you are looking or just feeling crazed try this book it is so great!

Spring Sign

So I made this cute little sign last night- and the best part about this sign is that it was made from things I already had! I am a craft pack rat, I like to have all this crafty stuff on hand and then I end up never using it! Which is why I had the wire! Anyway I made this to be the sample for a craft we will be doing at my family reunion this weekend.

By the way I made this using my silhouette I got for Christmas- it is awesome! It cuts any kind of paper, cardstock, and vinyl!

Chocolate Mug Cake

This is such a yummy recipe! It's super easy to make, and the portion is perfect! Just throw it all in a mug and cook in the microwave! Cooks in less than 2 minutes!

Chocolate Mug Cake
5T flour
2T cocoa powder (I use dark chocolate)
3-5T sugar
1/8t baking soda
1/8t salt

Mix together. Then add:

3T milk
2T oil
1/2t vanilla

Microwave for about 1 min. 45 seconds. Stop around 50 seconds, let deflate then continue cooking. I usually add some chocolate chips (dark chocolate for me, what?) right after and mix it all in, it gets all gooey and chocolatey! YUM!

$9.99 Movies!

KMart is having a sale on their movies. The list of movie titles are Shrek 1-3, Madagascar 1 and 2 (Escape to Africa, we love this movie!), Over the Hedge, Flushed Away, Bee Movie (boo!), Charlotte's Web, Spiderwick Chronicles, and Kung Fu Panda! I was quite excited about this, but you need to get there quick. My KMart was sold out. So I went to ShopKo (with the ad, since they match advertised prices), but ShopKo was ALSO having this sale on the same movies. My "family" dvd collection is a bit sparse, so this is yay!

Crafty sites

So I have been feeling in the crafty- mood lately. I might not have time for it but I am excited to do things so I have found a few blogs with fun crafty ideas. They are listed at the side and if you have one leave a comment and we will add it. A few that were added today are: Decorative Expressions, Design Mom, and You Can Make this. I really liked all of these. So let me know of crafty blogs you have found!

Five Things Super-Happy Couples Do Every Day

I "happened upon" this article, read it, and really liked it. I don't often research or read much about WIFING (wife + ing = the act of being a wife), just mostly about parenting. This was really quick (honestly... it looks long but took like 3 minutes) and sorta fun to read (ie. the intro). I'm totally going to make Derek read it, too. Maybe we'll get some ideas...

Anyway- here you go. Enjoy.


Dating 101: Five Things Super-Happy Couples Do Every Day
By Ty Wenger for Redbookmag.com Photo: Ron Chapple Updated: Jan 8, 2009

Lord knows this is not the sort of thing guys brag about. But I have a ridiculously happy relationship with my significant other. Really, it's almost disgusting.

We paw each other in public. We goof around like a pair of simpletons. We basically act like giddy newlyweds. Sometimes we'll do something so revolting, like sitting on the couch and drawing smiley faces on the bottoms of each other's feet, that we're forced to make gagging noises to maintain our dignity.

See, I told you it was disgusting.


It hasn't always been this way. In fact, I'm not ashamed to admit that our current bliss is the result of almost a year of counseling, a desperate effort undertaken several years ago, when we appeared destined for doom. What we learned then is something all happy couples eventually discover: A good relationship is a bit like a pet boa constrictor: either you feed it every day or bad things happen. Daily habits are extremely helpful in forging solid bonds, says couples therapist Tina Tessina, author of "How to Be a Couple and Still Be Free." "If you're really interested in making your relationship work, little rituals are a great way to do it."
We asked happy couples across the United States to tell us about relationship-strengthening solutions they've developed. Try your hand at incorporating a few into your daily life and maybe you can be as ridiculously, embarrassingly, revoltingly happy in relationship as I am.


Daily Habit #1: Talk to Each Other
Happily married couples typically say their relationships work better when they can sit down and gab one-on-one, like thinking, feeling adults. But who's got time for that? Actually, anybody who sleeps at night, if you follow the lead of Julie and Thom and their nightly visits to their "igloo."


"It all started one winter night years ago, when Julie had had a really bad day," says Thom, 33, a marketing director in Columbus, Ohio. "We were huddled under the covers of our bed, and Julie was describing how all the people who made her day miserable were 'bad polar bears' and how she didn't want any of the bad polar bears coming into the bedroom and how the bed was our refuge from them. You realize how embarrassing it is to admit this, right?

Anyway, that's when we started calling the bed the igloo."


"The igloo is a place to retreat to," says Julie, 31. "It's our little sanctuary; only nice things happen in the igloo." Eventually Julie and Thom began holding a powwow in the igloo at the end of every day, making a nightly excursion that Julie says has become a vital part of their five-year relationship.

"It's funny, because I always thought that when you lived with somebody, you'd automatically know everything that was going on," she says. "But we find that if we don't take that time to connect with each other, it's really easy for life to get in the way. The igloo offers one of the few times in the day where there's not a whole heck of a lot else going on, so you're able to focus on each other in a deeper way."


Daily Habit #2: Flirt
Most couples realize that getting intimate every night isn't possible, let alone a worthy goal. Indeed, a 1994 University of Chicago survey of Americans' physical intimacy habits found that only about a third of adults have physical intimacy more than once a week.

That doesn't mean, though, that you can't at least talk sensually every day, and that's the approach that Ed and Stephanie have taken in the more than six years they've been together.

"It's funny," says Ed, a 33-year-old San Francisco cab driver, "because we know plenty of couples who fight, a lot, about how often they have physical intimacy. The wife's upset because all he ever wants to do is get intimate. But this has never really been a problem with us, and I think it has a lot do with the fact that we're always talking sensually to each other."
"Absolutely," says Stephanie, a 32-year-old massage therapist. "We're always complimenting each other, tossing out fantasies, telling each other we're appealing. He gets to feel like he can have sensual feelings, and I feel like I don't have to have physical intimacy all the time to appear attractive.

Let's put it this way: The way I see it, physical intimacy is like chocolate cake. After five days of eating chocolate cake, even chocolate cake doesn't taste that great."


"Right," Ed says, "but after five days of talking about chocolate cake, that cake tastes really good."


Daily Habit #3: Get Stupid Together
Bob and Angie are ashamed to admit that the daily ritual that brings such joy to their 12-year marriage is none other than reality TV. That's right. They lived and died with "Survivor." They've adopted "Big Brother." "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" They do.

"Honestly, I think we just need to be dumb for a while," says Bob, 37, a shoe designer for Reebok in Boston. "We're both very into our careers. And when you're at work, with any job there's going to be a certain amount of professional stress. You like to come home sometimes and, for that lousy hour or whatever, kick back and relax."

Or as Angie, 36, a marketing executive, says, "Life is serious enough, isn't it? Sometimes you need to do something stupid. And if you can't be stupid with your husband, who can you be stupid with?"

Daily Habit #4: Declare Your Independence
So hold on, then: Is domestic joy found in partners smothering each other in obsessive daily rituals?

Hardly. In fact, Tessina says that sleepwalking through a series of hollow routines (although probably an apt description of your day job) is worse for your relationship than having no routines at all. The solution, she says, is to also make a daily habit of getting away from each other.

The point, naturally, is not to make space for each other in that I-can't-wait-to-get-away-from-you sort of way but to pursue your own hobbies and interests. It's a distinction that Joe tried hard to make to Lori during their delicate pre-engagement negotiations four years ago.
These days, Lori and Joe are practically poster children for the power of independence. Joe, who works for a nonprofit agency, spends his nights taking painting classes, building youth centers, and recording his guitar sessions. Lori, a college professor, spends hers directing community-theater musicals and indulging in trashy movies on cable television, a passion that Joe (go figure) doesn't seem to share.

"It all brings a freshness to our relationship because we both continue to grow as people," Joe says.


Daily Habit #5: Share a Spiritual Moment
In another University of Chicago survey, this one of married couples, 75 percent of the Americans who pray with their spouses reported that their marriages are "very happy" (compared to 57 percent of those who don't). Those who pray together are also more likely to say they respect each other and discuss their relationship together.

Not to say that prayer is a cure for all that ails you. But whether they're talking about a simple grace at dinnertime or some soul-searching meditation, couples routinely say that a shared spiritual life helps keep them close. And as Doug and Beth say, even couples who are on different sides of the theological fence can benefit from praying together daily.


"We have been married for seven years, but praying together is something we didn't start doing until about a year ago," says Doug, a 32-year-old Salt Lake City biochemist. "In the past, whenever we faced big decisions, we'd have discussion after discussion about them, but we'd never really come to a resolution."


"I soon found that praying together brings out a real sense of selflessness and humility," Doug says. "When you're praying for each other, not yourself, you're focused together and speaking from the heart on a whole different level. I would never have predicted this for us, but it really works."


"As bad as any problem may seem at that moment," agrees Beth, "prayer always helps us see beyond it. It doesn't have to be a long-drawn-out scripture reading, just a few minutes a day. When we pray, it brings another level of honesty to our conversations. I think it's the most intimate thing you can do with another person."


Now they pray together every night, once the "urchins" are in bed, which puts them in the company of the 32 percent of American married couples who say they pray together regularly. It also puts them in the company of Julie and Thom, when the other couple isn't holed up in their igloo, of course.


"It's pretty short and not at all scripted," says Julie about their giving thanks before each meal. "We just join hands and let it rip. Whether we're asking for forgiveness or giving thanks, saying it out loud holds a lot of power.


"Besides, regardless of religion or spiritual preference, I think that most marriages require a ton of faith," Julie sums up. "You've got to believe that somehow the two of you are going to make it through things. You've got to believe that you're being blessed with this person. And even if the power we feel just comes from the strength of our love, even if we don't believe that it's God who is helping us, I still think that it's good to acknowledge that there's a force between the two of us that's helping us out."

Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc.

Another Wee Pack!

Brittney had her baby!!! I'm not sure if the specifics are right (Micah called Derek, who called me...), but I think his name is William. He was (again, I think) 8 lbs 9 oz and 21 inches. And I haven't even seen him yet (*tear), but you can bet he is beautiful! Congratulations, Britt. We love you! And welcome to the world, little Will!