Humid hot please stick around

I do love hot and humid temperatures in the early morning. Biking feels a lot better when warmer, rather then cold. Hot and humid was exactly what we got this morning.

Yes, I was a sweaty mess after my 11 mile bike ride but who doesn't like to sweat and make their fat cry. I need to make it cry a whole lot! 

My mountain bike still has a flat. Until I fix it, I'm using either Steve's bike or one of the kids. Yesterday, I tried out Steve's bike and really liked it. The seat was definately a lot harder then I'm use to. This morning, I rode Logan's bike. It seemed similar to my own bike but more upright so my back wasn't killing me like mine usually does from being hunched over. I'm going to check out Celina's new bike tomorrow and then I'll pick my favorite to ride till I replace that tire. 

Logan is finally back to soccer this week with practice starting Thursday. He's had a few weeks off which was probably very needed since he plays year round. We weren't sure if he would be playing fall soccer due to the age group changes and being in U15 when he is 13. Most of the 15 year olds are in High school and then they play with school but for those kids not yet in H.S. they still get to do traveling soccer. I think we are both ready for Logan to be doing something again. 

We also had other good news on Monday. Celina made the High School JV tennis team. Two more girls joined tennis and since she was #1 singles they moved her on up. Exactly where she should have been to begin with  and where she wanted to play. She probably won't be playing singles but she is happy about the move up to JV. 

I sure did miss this little guy on Monday. Last week was my last Monday to spend the entire day with Evan. I'm picking up more work and that means working on Mondays. We have braces to pay for Logan and car insurance to pay for Celina which is like making a car payment. Added bills means I need to start earning more $$. I picked up three new clients last week and hope to add on at least one more this week. I have a goal amount of money I want to earn per month. When I reach that goal, I told Steve I wanted to make a deal with him. If I reach my goal, he has to tile the mud room, 1/2 bath, closet and laundry room. I've wanted to get rid of the flooring in those area's since we moved in over 16 years ago. Now that gray, wood like flooring is popular might as well join the trend and redo that area. We saved all the Menards rebates and actually have enough money in those cards to pay for all the materials. It's just his labor and time. 

It's that time.. time to get going to work! I have a full day of working and then taking Logan to his ortho appointment, plus back to school open house today till 7pm that we need to fit in a visit to the middle school so Logan can check out his classes, get his photo taken and then dump his school supplies off in his locker. Logan has been waiting for back to school forever! It's nice to know he is excited and ready to go back to school for 8th grade! 

Mishaps of biking

Oh what fun.. we will just chalk it up to a lot of bike mishaps all on one day.

What could go wrong, did! I some how got a flat tire between my morning ride and my attempt at a afternoon bike ride with Celina.

It started off all good, with Steve loading up the bikes for me on the back of the car.

I didn't figure out I had a flat till I went down the huge hill at Fort Snelling State Park. 100%flat and no way to keep riding on it if I didn't want to wreck my wheel. I had to walk my bike back to the car. We had a super hard time getting to the park with construction and me going off a bad memory of how to get there. We did a lot of going the wrong way and making a huge circle around and back on the highway. It took double the time to get there.

My next mistake was forgetting to take my credit card and ID out of my bike pouch whIle driving home. I they were going to fly out on the highway. Instead of that happening, Celina's bike came off the rack on one side when we were on the big bridge with no where to stop. Ugh... got that all fixed once I could stop in a safe place. It was just not a good bike trip. 

A toad

I had a long night of not much sleep. I let Zoey out front last night and when I returned to let her in the house, she was foaming at the mouth. Talk about a scary situation! Thank goodness for Google. I figured out pretty quickly that she must have ate or picked up a toad. I never found a toad outside, but there was lots of saliva all over from Zoey. Dogs can die from eating poisonous frogs. The only symptoms were just the foaming and clenched jaws. I did what was recommended, rinse her mouth out for 3 to 5 minutes. Instead of a garden hose, I used a squeeze bottle. It worked and she stopped foaming. I still wanted to watch her all night just in case she threw up or had difficulty breathing. She was acting some what weird, but I guess thats to be expected. She just was very tired and just wanted to sleep. Thankfully, she back to normal this morning.

 

After Saturday spending the entire day pretty much on the couch, I was ready for some exercise. I still felt tired from my night with wathing Zoey but with her back to normal I wanted to go out biking. My stomach felt awful all day Saturday so I had no choice then to take a rest day. Thankfully, my stomach doesn't hurt and feel crappy any more. We rode up to Starbucks, had a hot chocolate then biked back in the thick fog.

 

Fair = lots of walking miles

Steve and I spent 10  hours at the State Fair on Friday. We walked close to 8 miles throughout the day. I usually want to eat a few of my favorites every year. The roasted corn is my top pick for all time best fair food. I always want the mini donuts and then I really don't care what else I eat.

We had a coupon for a dollar off the apple dumpling with vanilla ice cream. I really liked this better then the mini donuts.

We also shared a foot long hotdog, I had a few bites of a gyro, a few cheese curds and some garlic fries. All that junk food made my stomach hurt so I didn't eat much, just drank a lot of water.

We made sure to wear purple for Prince day. I thought more people would be wearing purple but it was probably only 20% of the masses. It was crowded at the fair. It felt like a record for attendance. People were every where all tightly packed lining the streets. 

We took a short break from walking inside the animal buildings and watched a draft horse judging.  

We walked the midway with the games and rides then headed out to take the bus back to our car. We decided to take the express bus from the Mall of America to the fair. It was a good decision  on our part since we heard the parking lots were full every where.

Sleep is important

I slept in this morning and in order to get in my workout, I had to cut my bike route short. I tossed and turned most of the night so the sleeping in later was much needed. I didn't get in the full 12+ miles but I still did most of my bike route. Sleep is super important to recover from all these bike ride workouts. I feel much better when I get enough rest and of course, don't skip my morning cardio. 

I sometimes want to skip my morning exercises, those planks when I am short for time. I'd much rather bike longer or run more miles then to do these planks. I just don't want to give up my plank fitness. I stopped for a few days here and there and lost some fitness. Instead of 2 minutes being some what easy, it quickly became when am I done.. Not always easy to keep going but I get up every day, do my exercises and go for a run or a bike ride. I always feel much better for keeping at it. I'm just not sure I have more energy for doing all this exercise. I still love my afternoon naps. Some days I do skip the nap but usually I am able to do a 30 minute to an hour power nap. Oh sleep.. 

I had some great work news.. I'm trying to build up my business again. We have new expenses with Celina driving, equals more insurance to pay and Logan getting braces, plus Steve's dental work. It all adds up and I needed to start earning more. I picked up two new jobs this week and one last week. I'm well on my way but there is more work to be done. I have a dollar amount I'm working towards making next month. Got to have goals. Hopefully, I'll be able to hire help again too! Well, see how busy with work I really want to be. Good news to that Logan is ready to get braces. We were just waiting for all his teeth to come down and the last two are good to go! Next week he has the consulation and away we go. 

A fast ride.

I had a quick 10 mile bike ride this morning and a fast Motorcycle ride to Northfield with Steve. This was the first time this summer I actually wanted to go for a ride.

Goah, I look like a mushroom head. Well at least my noggin is protected.

My favorite little person hung our with me on Monday. We played a lot outside, at the park and in our front and back yard.

I noticed our grapes and apples were perfect to pick. I am not sure what we will do with them since there isn't enough grapes.

I will take a 1.5 mile run

I was back running this morning. A quick 1.5 miles was all I had time to run. The sun takes it sweet time coming up.   When it was light enough, I didn't have an hour or even 30 minutes to get in a bike ride. What else can you do in 15 minutes? RUN!

See that apple tree behind me? It's loaded with apples. Will they be edible or bug filled? That's the question, which is mostly likely a yes. Unfortunately we usually never pick or eat the apples off our tree for this reason. Steve did spray a few times so I am somewhat hopeful they aren't all bad apples.

I  I should recap my weekend. Thus not having Internet working on my laptop is getting old. I am still undecided if I should just get a new computer or just fix the old one. In the mean time I am using my cell phone to update my blog. It's not been an easy transition for blogging.

Kendra,  my daughter makes the best plantation. I tried to make them last night with coconut oil to fry them. They didnt turn out as sweet. That might have been from how ripe or unripe they were. Well, just glad I tried to make something new for me.

pizza sounded good Sunday night. I was being lazy about making my own pizza dough which I regretted. We purchased some whole wheat pizza dough from the new Thyme food store. The dough when baking shrunk up a ton. We has two very small pizzas for the three of us. Celina didn't want pizza because sheade herself a special loaded salad.

In all the pizza turned out okay. Lesson learned, make my own crust!

Saturday night we ended up getting two free tickets to a concert at the MN Zoo. A band called Har Mar Superstar. The guy took off his shirt and did a weird side headstone while singing at one point. In all it was okay music and just a different night out. I was super glad to have ear plugs. A must do to save your hearing!

Steve and I got in 74 miles of biking last week. The most miles all summer. My plan is to ride that much this week too. Steve usually rides all but one or two days where I go alone. He didn't want to go ride in the rain Saturday and I can't blame him. I was complete muddy wet mess after that ride. 

That was pretty much it for our weekend. I did mow the lawn, clean our house a bit, went out to eat for breakfast and a dinner. Just the usual weekend junk. 

Muddy, wet ride!!

If you can run in the rain with out melting then you can bike.

biking isn't exactly like running. I was super muddy from the dirt road. Covered on mud from eyes to toes. I did it... 12.6 miles for my hour long morning ride. I was determined to bike no matter what. The entire ride I kept thinking how good pancakes would taste. Instead I had a big bowl of fruit with some bacon Steve cooked up and was waiting for me on the kitchen counter.

Happy. Hour

I meet up with Patty last night at Vivo's for happy hour Sangria and a pizza.

Such a good pizza and it was nice having leftovers to bring home.

Steve and I didn't go riding Thursday so we made sure to take the long bike route this morning.

I waant sure what I just biked past on the dirt road. It looked like a giant spider. Steve and I just had to turn back and look. A crawfish and them another one on the road. We rescued them by putting them next to the pond.

 

Life...

How is life.... just remember to appreciate what you have.. work hard and enjoy life.

Celina got a car!  Just in time for tennis and back to school. 

Early bird

Some days I can not wait to get up and start my day. I love being an early bird, getting in yoga and my daily exercises before the sun comes up.

The best part of the day is the start and what you do each morning is a reflection of how the rest of your day will follow. 

Steve and I biked our short route early Tuesday morning. It was nice to be forced to stop and rest for a bit while the train passed by. I can finally tell my biking fitress level is back where it should be. I was struggling a few weeks ago on this same route. I always dislike losing fitness when I have to stop a sport and the start back up when seasons change. I never can pick up from where I left off. It takes at least 3 or more weeks. 

Fitness levels, just like a game

Today its complicated. Computer issues are never fun and I have a laptop that won't start up. Until I figure that all out, I will try and post via my Samsung tablet. 

What if we created fitness levels just like in computer games. Would in computer push you to get to the next level? Could some how Pokémon go and exercise ...other the just walking keep us motivated? Someone needs to work on this... fitbit and Pokémon go maybe? You get rewards and challenges based on your real fitness level? 

Pain in the BACK.. not Butt!

Could it be an age thing.. Back Pain? Here I am 21 days from adding another year on to my age and I'm having tons of back pain. I'm still doing daily yoga, but with the addition of Advil.  I'm sure my job doesn't help my back pain, but I want to keep moving so I'm doing everything I can to strenthen my core. Which means back to my daily planks etc..

Tuesday was one of those quick get in a fast, hilly hard 11 mile bike ride in 45 minutes then rush to work, work all day long and then go boating. Even hitting the waves in a boat hurt my back. 

I have zero photos of boating with Zoey from last night. I do have a photo in the car waiting for Steve to pick up our picnic dinner. 

I have a photo from our morning bike ride..Which I'm skipping riding at all today. It's one of those extremely hard work days where I just need to get through my work and I don't need to add anything else on to my schedule. I just have to ignore that it's a perfect weather morning to ride some miles. 

I've been making cookies again. This time the traditional Snickerdoodles with cinnamon and sugar. Mostly when I make these cookies I top them with sprinkles or colored sugar.. and leave off the cinnamon. 

I have this habbit now of searching for Zoey everywhere in the house. I am always wanting to know where she is. Usually I find her under the table or curled up on some chair. She usually gives me this look when I disturb her quiet sleepy time, which is 99% of her day. 

Back from being GoNE

My fitbit is back from being Gone! Yippee. I did the on line chat with a rep from Fitbit. My issue was as simple as could be to fix! Monday I woke up to my Fitbit completely dark and would not turn on. It was fully charged, so I knew that was not the issue. Come to find out, you just plug it into your computer, hold the button down for 12 seconds and unplug.. Ta da.. back up and working perfect! You have no idea of how lost I felt without it. What is GONE? My bikes speedometer. It some how either fell off my bike or got taken. I have a feeling it just fell off on our way up North. I'll have to replace it at some point since I do like to know how fast I'm biking. Maybe an upgrade? 

I'd be lost with out Steve too. I just am liking biking far more then running and it's because we can do this together. I don't have to go it alone. Plus, he pushes the pace with his new bike. I use to be the one out in front and now he is extra speedy. 

Steve had this great idea to go to Yogurt Lab last night for a late night treat. It was acutally his dinner and my snack. I mostly loaded on the fruit but it's hard to eat chocolate without peanutbutter cup on top. This place has become one of our favorites, not only because the yogurt is good but they charge per the cup, not by weight. You can really load up this cup! 

Monday was a work day and an Evan day. Celina and Logan both took turns watching Evan while I worked for a few hours. I promised him we'd go swimming at the pool. We took him a few weeks ago and then he went on vacation and swam a ton. Well, his swimming has improved a lot! He is a little fish in the water!

 Just a few more north shore photos of Tait lake and on top of Eagle Mountain. I almost feel like setting up the tent again and just sleeping outside. We just have a few racoons that like to visit during the night, so I'm not so sure I'm up for animal visits? 

I stuck to my plan

It's a good thing that I couldn't sleep past 4:30am this morning. I got up and stretched then went biking. I wanted to get in a ride before Evan came over for the day. 

My plan was to get in 12+ miles of biking ASAP in the morning. It felt great biking. I biked as fast as I could and made it back in 45 minutes! 

Biking hits my butt and legs more then running. I kind of like that. I'm not giving up running, we just are on a break right now. 

Zoey watched me do my daily exercises. Any longer of a break from doing planks etc.. and I would have had a tougher time. I'm so glad I didn't lose much fitness over the week+ I skipped these exercises. It's just not a good idea to keep passing on my exercises. I'm going to make a plan to get to the gym this week and start lifting again. It's the only way to tone up along with diet. 

I was in the mood for good pancakes and when Steve had left over batter, I made one up for me. I'm trying to work on my diet. Baby steps. Usually, I do have a healthy low cal breakfast so I'm not too worried about this pancake with real maple syrup. I just need to make good snack choices.