Boise Road Trip

Took a quick road trip to Boise last weekend to visit my parents and to celebrate my unbirthday. The view from my parents backyard was amazing with all the leaves wearing their fall colors. Unfortunately, we took no pictures of the unbirthday portion of the weekend, so you will all just have to imagine Mom, Dad, Kim and Jeff singing happy birthday to me while I blew out three of my four candles (I think the fourth candle was rigged). Thanks for making my birthday so much fun Mom and Dad and thanks for the great gift!

10000 Steps A Day Challenge - I Call Do Over

So 8 weeks ago we launched the 10000 steps a day challenge. Let's just say the results were not as impressive as we all hoped they would be. Some got sick the first week and never got remotivated, others kept forgetting to wear their pedometers on a regular basis, some made it a week or two and then dropped off, while others only made it a week or two beyond that. So far though, no one has reported having stayed motivated for the whole 8 weeks so I call do over!!!

Let's just call the last 8 weeks a nice warm up period and start this challenge over on Sunday. We will go from October 18th through December 12th. You have two days to buy your pedometer (Walmart, Target, etc.), get those walking shoes warmed up, blister block your feet, and get excited about the 10000 Steps a Day Challenge.

Are you in????

Friday Flashback - Vacation Time

My 2009 vacation begins in 20 days (woohoo!). I am so looking forward to it and am having a lot of fun getting ready for it - buying new clothes, researching events and things to do, etc. It has also made me remember family vacations growing up. My favorite memories involve heading to California. We would load up the van at night and my dad would drive the 12 hours from Utah to CA while the six kids slept in the back and Mom stayed awake to keep him awake. I remember the scent of the flowers as we arrived in CA - that's how I knew we were there. This is where my love affair with California began. We would head to Disneyland (I think the picture above was taken while we were waiting for the shuttle bus), Seaworld, the San Diego Zoo, San Juan Capistrano, Universal Studio, and the beach. We often stayed at "the castle", which in my grown up years I now realize was probably a Sheraton. We had our share of fights (he's on my side, he's touching me, it's my turn), my dad rigged a video player so that we could watch movies in the van (he was way ahead of the times), we had our tape playing Walkmans, and of course, plenty of Dramamine (except the one time at Universal Studios and I don't want to talk about it). There were no cell phones, text messaging or MP3 players. Thanks mom and dad for the memories and for always finding a way for us to go on family vacations.

Has This Ever Happened to You?

My friend Debbie moved back to Utah from Australia four months ago and we have been trying to get together for lunch ever since. Our schedules finally coincided (OK, I admit, my ridiculous travel schedule has been the problem) and decided to meet for lunch at Chili's at 12:30. I walked over (that was my "green" thing for the day) and arrived a few minutes early. The hostess said no one was waiting yet and seated me on the north side of the restaurant. At about 12:40 I was beginning to worry that I had been stood up. I checked her Facebook status to see if there was a clue there (and updated my status so everyone out there would know I was waiting for my lunch buddy cause that's the world we live in now) but found nothing so I called her to see where she was and got no answer. I then got a text message from Debbie...she was seated on the south side of the restaurant and had been for quite some time. Don't ya hate it when that happens??? So what did people in this situation do before cell phones and text messaging? Eat lunch by themselves on opposite ends of the restaurant and then go home? Moral of the story - don't trust the hostess to know if your party is already seated and waiting for you!

Childhood Skills Revisited

As a child I learned a relay game at school. We would run down a path to a pile of clothes, put them on as quickly as possible, run back, take them off again and then the next person would put them on, run down the path, take them off, and on it would go. Every time I go through airport security I am reminded that the skills I learned from this game, to take off and put on clothes as rapidly as possible, are finally paying off.

Now that I am "thinking green" and moving away from bottled water to filtered water, I realize that I have put some additional skills that I learned in childhood to good use - skills I never really thought I would need again.

First we have my Camelbak water bottle. The Camelbak is a great little invention especially when driving. It is a water bottle that uses a straw like feature so there is no tipping of the bottle required to get water from it. It does require me to press down the intake valve while sucking - basically the same principle of a babies bottle.

Next we have my Intak water bottle. This one requires less effort than the Camelbak and with it's spill proof features is really nothing more than a sippy cup.

It's good to know that that these early childhood skills are finally paying off. Still haven't found a use for Algebra 2 but maybe someday...

12 in 12 - Think Green

Last month was the first month of my 12 in 12 goal - creating one new good habit a month for 12 months. September's habit was to walk 10000 steps a day. I did pretty well at it although I have slacked off a bit in October and need to pick it back up. For October, I false started on a couple of possibilities but finally landed on "Think Green" for the habit to form this month. Every day I am trying to do at least one thing that's a little bit green. For instance, I finally broke down and bought a Brita water filter so I can phase out bottled water. I am going to try things like washing clothes in cold water and air drying more clothes, turning the thermostat down a few degrees, turning off unused appliances, actually remembering to use all the grocery totes I have instead of plastic bags, etc. If any of you have ideas for "think green" things that I could be implementing, send your ideas my way.

10000 Steps in Boston

Last week I had meetings in Boston and was lucky enough to spend the weekend in New Hampshire with the Peterson clan there. I got there in the wee hours of the morning and of course Laura and I stayed up talking so we were wiped out a few hours later when it was time to get up. We headed out to a museum on the seacoast which was a lot of fun and we were victorious in completing our scavenger hunt (which was harder than one might think). We then toured a submarine which was really cool but definitely not for the claustrophobic at heart. I think once was enough for me. On Sunday we hung out, watched conference, took a walk and before I knew it, it was Monday and time for me to head out. I always have such a good time when I visit that it just keeps me coming back as often as I can! After the fun-filled weekend, I was off to Boston for meetings. One night we walked a mile and a half through Boston to dinner. It was a lovely fall evening and we had such a great time seeing the sites. Sadly, I was having just too much fun on this trip to remember to take pictures of the kids and then my pictures in Boston turned out all blurry so this is the only one I have! Thanks Peterson family for a great weekend - I will come back again soon (I hope)!