Spontaneous vacation

How's summer treating you?  I know I've been fairly quiet... just not a lot to say.  Summer is icky to me, as usual.  Stressful, hot, lazy.  Ugh.  I tend to get really "blah" in the summer, and this summer is no exception.  I'm trying, but I can't shake it.  

We had Olivia all registered for her summer program that she went to last summer.  It's for gifted children, and we had to apply and provide recommendations and test scores.  So it's a fairly big deal to get accepted.  But she refused to go.  After weeks of her getting upset whenever we brought it up and several days of soul searching, I declined her spot.  I'm disappointed, but I can't force her to do something that upsets her.  It's an anxiety thing, I know... she is frightened of going all alone into a school full of people she doesn't know.  I just didn't feel right making her go.

Since we had the money saved up for that, and we had saved up a little more to put Isabelle in a different summer camp at the same time, we decided to take that money and put all three of them in a day camp 2 days a week for the rest of the summer.  The only problem with it is that the older two get to go off campus a few times to do fun field trips, and Zoe won't get to go because she's too young.  This Friday they're going to Jump Zone, so I anticipate a very ticked off 5 year old when she figures it out.  I haven't told any of them about the field trip.  However, I am hoping that getting them away from the house for 2 days a week will help with the boredom going on with them.

They have been fairly good this summer... up until this week.  This week, the boredom finally really settled in and they have been into EVERYTHING.  It's like the whole house has been turned upside down.  I'm not the world's greatest housekeeper, I will freely admit that.  But even I am just appalled right now.  I can't walk into Isabelle's room to kiss her goodnight, there is just so much junk on the floor.  They've gotten into craft supplies... glitter all over the other bedroom.  My bedroom is trashed and my blankets scattered all over the room every day.  The living room looks like a frat house.

Make them clean it up!  I TRY.  I came up with the ultimate reward for the week.  When we visited my friend last weekend, her daughter had a lot of make up (she's in dance) and they've been begging me for make up ever since.  So I said, "For every day you clean the living room, you will earn one item for a makeup box."  They were screaming, they were so excited.  How many have they earned, as of today (Wednesday)?  None.  I cannot find a reward that works.  I've tried going the negative route... lose the TV and computer for the rest of the day if you don't clean.  They're perfectly content playing without them.  It's really frustrating.

But I am truly sick of living in a pig sty.

Anyway, this morning, my coworker came in to work and announced that she's accepted another job.  :::sigh:::

We have 3 people who work in the front office.  Me, Coworker, and The New Girl.  The New Girl has been there about a month, and it took us over 3 months to find her after The Other Girl quit.  It was a horrible, excruciating 3 months of bizarre interviews and two other New Girls that lasted a week or 2.  It was awful.   Coworker and I have worked together for 8 years now.  I like her.  We get along great.  I hate that she's going.  But... Coworker is the Boss's daughter and working together has taken a huge toll on their relationship and causes a lot of stress at work in itself.  So I fully understand and support her.

I just don't want to spend months trying to find a replacement.  And I definitely don't want to do her job.  Period.  Scheduling.  Just shoot me.  Please.

We do already have an interview lined up, so fingers crossed....

When we were discussing when Coworker's last day will be, I made the decision that the week of vacation that I had yet to plan the dates for needed to happen before she leaves or else I just won't get to take it.  I was going to have a 4 day weekend this week.... today would have been my last day this week.  But I'm not finished with June's billing.  So I'll go in Friday (we're closed so it will be nice and peaceful), finish up the billing, and then I'm taking next week off.

And I'm going to clean.  Purge, organize, clean, clean, clean.  I know it's going to be like shoveling snow in a blizzard, but I'll duct tape the kids to the ceiling if I have to (joking.  maybe.) to get it done.

I'd rather go somewhere and not have to look at the mess for a week, but it's not in the budget to take a real vacation this year.  So I guess I'll be an adult and deal with the mess.  =)

I'm running a 5k in the morning.  I've been Super Slacker this week (or two) exercise-wise (um, diet-wise, too, maybe.  Definitely), so it might kill me.  If you don't hear from me, you'll know why.

My newest scheme

We made a quick little visit to an old friend of mine this weekend.  She lives 3.5 hours away, which is the longest drive I've made in quite some time.  We drove up on Friday, left Saturday evening... quick, but fun.  She has a little girl about Isabelle's age who is named Isabella, which is a fun coincidence since we had lost touch for a while about then and had no idea we were pregnant at the same time and named our children basically the same thing.

We had a lot of fun visiting, and our kids hit it off big time!  We visited a museum, which I could have spent days exploring inside and out, but we only stayed a few hours because of the kids.



On our drive back home, I had this crazy idea.  And it's even crazier that I am still thinking about it after the drive home, which was really tedious towards the end with 3 over-tired children.

I want to take a massive road trip with the girls.  I want to take about 2 months off of work one summer, and visit every state (well, 48 of them anyway).  Get up, drive a few hours into the next state, find something fun to do or see for the afternoon, move on the next day.  We'd stay a day or two longer in states with family, of course.  I know Bill won't ever be able to take off time like that so we'd maybe fly him out to meet up with us a few times, especially when we're out east near his family.  

It would take a few years to save up the money and properly plan.  It would be crazy expensive...  and it would take a lot of planning.  But I think it would be such an awesome experience for the girls.  

I'm sure Bill won't be crazy about the idea.  He'd hate being left alone that long.  And he'd hate not being able to see all the things we'd be seeing.  He hates flying so he wouldn't even be excited about flying out to meet us places, either.  

I think it would be a blast.  So I'm going to start working up a plan to make it happen and see where it goes.

The weight of the world

First, I just have to say that I am extremely happy to report 2 important milestones this week with my weight loss.  I reached 40 lbs lost!  Not only is that 40 lbs, but it's 25 lbs for 2013 - my halfway mark.  I was really concerned that I wouldn't hit 25 lbs by the end of June, so it was a relief.  I probably have my salad kick I'm on to credit for that...  I love salads and it's just so much easier in the summer.  

Now, lets talk about my kids' weights.

In Arkansas, the law for booster seats is that they must remain in one until they are at least 6 years old AND 60 lbs.  Olivia, being the walking stick figure she is, is 8 and not even close to 60 lbs.  I don't know her exact weight, but I believe the last time she was in the lower 50s.  The newest recommendations by the powers that be is that kids remain in boosters until they are 4'9" and 100 lbs.  4'9" is nothing new, but 100 lbs???  Olivia will be learning to drive in a booster seat at the rate she gains weight!  

Isabelle decided to get on the scale today and she weighs in right at 60 lbs.  She is super excited.... she knows the law is 60 lbs and she's 7, so she can legally ride without a booster.

I'm not sure yet if I'll let her, though.  Olivia will be devastated to still be in a booster while her younger sister rides without.  I know some people would tell me I'm stupid for entertaining the idea since they aren't tall enough or weigh enough for the newest recommendations.  But here's the thing... while I believe in safety, I also believe there is a line that gets crossed into being just too over-protective.  

Is it safer?  Certainly.  If we're going for ultimate safety, they shouldn't be in vehicles at all.  Unpractical, yes, but we're talking safety, right?.  Why are we not all using 5 point harness systems and helmets in the car?  That would be safer, too.  Is that silly?  Where's the line between being as safe as possible and being ridiculous?  I happen to think it's before 100 lbs, myself.

Yes, people can show me all sorts of videos and pictures of kids' injuries saying "this is what can happen without a proper booster."  But can you tell me, without a doubt, that the same injuries can be avoided with one?  Show me the pictures of a kid who better survived an identical crash, and I do mean identical - same cars, same conditions, same speeds, etc.  You can't.  Because there are so many variables to each and every accident.  I don't buy into the scare tactics of die-hard car seat advocates, or anyone for that matter.  If I responded to things like that, I'd never eat, or leave the house, or touch anything without gloves.  Danger lurks in every corner for some people.  I can't live like that.

So, yeah, I'm just generally not a paranoid person.  I don't even mind my kids riding around the driveway on their bikes or scooters without helmets or pads.  I guess I'm just not one of those people who feel that they have to try to remove all risk from their children's lives. We all have our own limit to the risks we're willing to take, and I know some people would consider me terrible for being willing to take more risks on my children's lives than they would, but I'm not strapping them to the luggage rack, OK?

And another weight issue....  My Zoe.  Isabelle weighed 60 lbs today.  Zoe weighed 61.  A year and a half younger, several inches shorter.  Isabelle is not the stick figure Olivia is.  She's a solid child.  So Zoe weighing more than her definitely is not a good thing.  We've had problems lately because Zoe's having trouble finding clothes that fit her.... clothes that fit her sisters are now becoming too small for her.  This is BAD.  I'm really concerned about her weight, but I'm also concerned about how this is going to affect her self-esteem if we can't get this under control... and I need to make sure that I'm not doing damage there myself with how we get it under control.

I try to limit snacks, but my kids will sneak food.  All three of them can be found at any time munching on dry cereal that they stole out from under my nose.  And if I manage to keep them from eating nonstop, there's the issue that I'm not the one in charge all day... Daddy's not quite as observant.  But obviously we have to control this somehow.  I really hate locking up food so I can control them, but I'm kind of at a loss right now.  It's one of those things were I don't want to give them food issues later in life, but I have to do something.

I try to keep them active, as well, but they HATE it.  I guess I need to get more creative and make it seem less like exercise and more like fun.  We go for a walk on Wednesdays, usually between 1-2 miles.  They act like I'm killing them.  It's embarrassing, really.  It's been unanimously decided among them that they HATE Wednesday.  I don't plan on stopping though.

Anyway, I need to really figure this out.  I think they're about to start going to day camp a few days a week and that should help some... they won't be home to snack all day and they'll be more active, I'm sure.  

Ah, the fun of parenthood... always walking that thin line between screwing your kids up for life and molding good kids.  Good thing that I believe being a little screwy is a good thing...

That was a first.

You know how some people are really afraid of storms?  Like standing by the window wringing their hands, whispering "Lordy, Lordy" kind of scared.  That's not me.  (That was my grandmother though, bless her soul)

Storms only bother me if they interfere with my electricity.

I have had friends who would be whimpering in the corner at the mention of a tornado watch, and be yelling at me when I'm calm as can be about it all.  I can't help it.  I've known people who have had their homes demolished by tornadoes.  I've been mere miles from the path of tornadoes.  But they just don't scare me.

However, I've become more cautious with children.  Where I never even bothered to pay attention to the weather people during storms, I will actually sit and listen to them to make sure we're safe.  And it always seems to happen after I put the kids to bed, and when Bill's at work, so usually I don't even take shelter for a warning - I'd have to wake the kids up and that's just something I avoid.

So, tonight the storms moved in.  I really didn't think much of it, but I used it as an excuse to skip the rec center tonight (bad me) using the reasoning that I would just do a workout at home (yeah, as if).  I put the girls to bed, had a couple of flash flood warnings sound on my phone, heard the sirens a few times (but they go off if there is a warning anywhere in the county) but really didn't think to even look at the weather until the power flickered a little.

I changed into my jammies and had this random thought that maybe I should have kept my bra on just in case.  Which is a really odd thought to have.  So I thought I should check the weather.  And what do you know?  A tornado warning for my area.  So I sat down to watch and see how close.  Pretty close.  Nothing confirmed, but the radar showed all the right stuff for one. (I'm no meteorologist.  It's just "stuff")

I paced back and forth from the computer to the girls' bedroom, debating waking them up.  What if that random thought was some sort of premonition?  When the weather chick was listing areas to take cover, and mentioned the fire station right down the road, I decided it was time.  Time to see how many of us can fit in the bathroom (our only room without windows or an outside wall).

Here's what I learned:

*** My bathroom is not big enough for 3 kids, their pillows and blankets, and me to fit inside comfortably.  Lucky Bill is at work or someone would have had to sit in the tub.

*** My kids are extremely hard to wake up.

*** Random thoughts are thankfully not premonitions.  No tornado.

Better safe than sorry, right?

Long Weekend

Happy Memorial Day!  I'm very blessed to have several people in my life that have served in the military and made it back home, and my heart and everlasting gratitude goes out to those who did not make it home.

We've spent our unusual amount of family time out and about.  We've had 2 full days, minus my time racing on Sunday. 

Yesterday we decided to go out and play some Frisbee.



Silly Olivia, that's not how you play Frisbee.



The girls really didn't know how to play.  See how intent Zoe is trying to learn, tongue out and all!



That child needs to stop looking so grown up.



But then it started to rain.  So we drove around a bit until the shower stopped and we ended up at this pond.



It wasn't all that impressive, really.  Kind of run down.  Blah.  But we wandered around and found a little trail.



You would think my husband is the most unpleasant person ever, he always has to look so grumpy in pictures.  Our kids are going to look back at their childhood pictures and think he was just miserable all the time.

We left there and had some dinner.  Went to bed, woke up, cleaned the house a bit, and then were out of the house by 10am, which is a miracle.  We're usually doing good to get out by 1 or 2pm. 

Bill had been wanting to check out a new State Park, and we had to wait for a day that we had all day to do it in, because it was a 2 hour drive.  Personally, I don't really want to make a 2 hour drive unless it's somewhere we're staying the night.  Because it means a 2 hour drive home, too... and I don't want to be in the car for 4 hours in one day.  But, he wanted to go, so we went.



It was really pretty there.  Lots and lots of dirt roads.  



We had a picnic with the bumblebees.  My kids aren't fans of bugs of any sort.  Somehow Bill telling them that bumblebees don't sting because they'll die made them feel better.  I don't know if that's true.  Personally, knowing something would die doesn't make me feel any better about the prospect of getting stung, but I'm not afraid of bumblebees anyway.



We did a little hiking but those pictures were kind of blurry.  Not sure what happened there.  It was a nice trail, though.  Isabelle and I got to take a little walk by ourselves while Bill drove the other two to the bathroom.  She said she was glad she was exercising with me and the other two just don't understand exercise.  I assured her that they'd understand it plenty this summer... I intend to keep them active.  

That was about it, though.  It was fun, but totally not worth the time spent in the van.  Especially since we got stuck in traffic on the way home, so we were in the van more like 5 hours.  We were all a little testy by the time we got home.

Hope you all had an excellent long weekend!

Flattery and Fear

I had like a million things to do tonight.  The girls trashed the living room (what else is new?), there's laundry to be done (when isn't there?), I should have done some yoga or something.  But instead I ended up getting addicted to a show.  When the girls were winding down in bed, I thought I'd check out a show I queued on Netflix that I figured would be too short for running to, Wilfred.  Just one less-than-half-hour show while the girls found their way to dreamland.

Holy cow, that show cracks me up.  It's about a really depressed guy who tries to kill himself unsuccessfully and befriends his neighbor's dog, who looks like a guy in a ratty dog suit.  It has Elijah Wood in it, and I just think he's adorable.

I watched 5 episodes.  I tried to stop after 2, really, I did.  But it's so good.

Yeah, nothing got done tonight.  But I laughed.  

*warning... the show would probably be offensive to a lot of people.  I tend to find offensive things funny.  Sorry.

Anyway.

Let me tell you what happened to me today.  

I was at work and went into the nursing supervisor's office to get something and she stopped me to ask me a question.

She said she let her husband sign her up for a half-marathon (possibly the same one I'm doing, there aren't that many that happen around here) and asked ME how to train for it.

*jaw drop*

She had asked me before about running and I know my boss likes to tell people that I did a half-marathon all the time.  When she doesn't get mixed up and tell them I ran a triathlon.  Good grief, can you imagine?  I actually discovered earlier today that there's a duathon and a triathlon later this summer, but I neither bike nor swim, so I don't even know why I'm mentioning that.

Chocolate.  I had chocolate.  You'll have to forgive me.

I was really flattered that someone came to me for advice like that.  I don't really talk about stuff like that at work much, and only a handful of people at work are on my Facebook, and most of them are the type that just have to have everyone they have ever met as a friend so they barely notice my posts anyway, so I'm usually caught off guard by anyone there even knowing that I run now.

Then there was another thing that happened that made me think a little bit about something.  This is a little personal, but you know... the chocolate is making my fingers chatty I guess.

Bill had told me the other day that he and Zoe's teacher had talked about church, and told me not to be surprised if she asked me to go to church.  I don't usually go to church, for reasons.  I try not to get into religion here (or anywhere) so I'll leave it at that.  Well, today she actually did mention it.  Part of me feels like it's her way of trying to be able to see Zoe after this school year is over... she's been her teacher 2 years now and is really fond of her.  And then the thought that made me think..

"What if she's just trying to be your friend?"

I'm sure I've talked about this before, but it feels like the dumbest thing to say, but that kind of scares me.  Even with the nursing supervisor talking to me today, she's being friendly and, while feeling flattered, I felt like bolting out the door.

I don't have any really close friends.  I have a few people at work I would call a friend, but it rarely goes outside of work.  I have some old friends from school that I keep up with online now, but rarely see in person.  I have some good internet friends that I've never met.  Hell, for all intents and purposes, it's like all my friends are imaginary because without a computer they may as well not even exist.  Since cutting my two closest friends out of my life last year (and there were real reasons, not just this social anxiety I'm fessing up to), I really and truly have had ZERO social life outside of family.  I've gone through phases where I'll be "I need to get out there and make friends!" but I just can't do it.

I'm not having a pity party.  Most of the time I'm perfectly fine with it.  But I just don't understand it.  Why is it so difficult for me?  Am I just afraid of being used and hurt?  Am I just too lazy to put forth the effort?  I mean, it's really easy to not have friends.  Seriously.  No coordinating schedules when you want to do something, no trying to balance family/friend time.  Do I feel lonely sometimes?  Sure, but not as often as you'd think.  Is that wrong?  It does bother me that the idea of making a friend freaks me out.  I don't think I should have some sort of fear about it.  I think maybe I'm a little too comfortable with solitude.  Or maybe I just tell myself I am. 

I don't know.... I think I'm just thinking to much and should go to bed.  =)

The Liebster Award

The adorable Katy (I can call you that, I'm old. LOL) from From KATYpillar to Butterfly has tagged me for The Liebster Award.  I like being random and throwing weird facts around, so I thought this would be fun.

Here are the rules:

1) Post 11 random facts about yourself

2) Answer the 11 questions the tagger has asked you

3) Choose 3 deserving bloggers, and ask them 11 new questions

4) Don't tag the person that nominated you

 Here we go...

11 Random (and long) Facts About Jennifer

1)  I'm claustrophobic and do not like to be touched on the neck or face.  Not even by my kids or husband.

2)  I was a summer intern at the National Weather Service in between high school and college.  My Calculus teacher had me apply and I got the position, but I really couldn't have cared less about the weather.

3)  If I were to ever have another kid (not going to happen), I'd name her Lucy.  On the rare chance that I'd pop out a boy we'd have a fight over William Samuel and George (I'd want George)

4)  I've never seen Star Wars, any of them.  At this point in my life, it's my mission to avoid it forever.

5)  I have 4 Kanji tattoos... Dream, Love, Believe, and Happiness.
I have 5 other tattoos... a stick figure, a dragonfly, a falling star, a flower, and a sun/moon (which I'm going to either have fixed or covered up soon).  And I want more, specifically 100 stars going across my shoulders, symbolizing my weight loss.  Just have to reach 100 lbs lost!

6)  I've been at my current job 13.5 years and have been there longer than any other person (they've only been in business 15 years)

7)  I can't stand Country music.

8)  While all my friends plastered their walls with NKOTB posters, I had about a billion posters of Sebastian Bach on my wall as a teenager.

9)  I used to shave the bottom half of my head.  My hair is super thick on the bottom now.

10) I had a teddy bear named Paxton Anthony Ainsley Ian Van Alec Hareton Heathcliff Dexter.  (And, yes, I had just finished Wuthering Heights when I named him)

11) My first car, which I purchased from my grandfather a month before he died, was haunted.  And named Duncan.

Katy's Questions for Me

1) If you had to spend the rest of your life in one place, where would it be?    I love Arkansas.  I have no desire to live anywhere else.

   

2) What is the most exotic food you have ever eaten?    That's tough.  I've had Jamaican patties (they're like a Hot Pocket) and I ate Japanese food in Japan...  I'm not a very adventurous eater.

    

3) What is the most common compliment people give you?    That I'm smart.

4) What do you consider your most prized object?     I guess it's a toss up between my two medals.... my Valedictorian medal and my half-marathon medal.

     

5) If you found a $50 bill on the street and had to spend it immediately, what would you buy?     A pedicure, because I've never had one and it's on The List.

     

6) What is your favorite holiday?     Christmas, which used to be my least favorite holiday, but then I had kids. 

7) What will you be doing 10 years from today?     Stressing out over having 3 teenage daughters, one of which will be graduating. 

8) If you could be a member of any TV-sitcom family, which would it be?     This is tough, since I don't watch TV.  Facts of Life... they weren't an actual family, but I loved that show.

9) What color looks best on you?     The only times I remember ever being told that was when I wear pink.  Which is rare.

10) What is the first thing you do when you get out of bed?     Put on my glasses.

11) If you were on a deserted island, what two books would you want with you?     Lisey's Story and Rose Madder, both by Stephen King

My Nominees

I promise it won't hurt my feelings at all if you pass on doing this, but these are the 3 blogs I picked...

Natalie @ Path to Petite

Ang @  Dropping the Plus From My Size

Tabby @ Buzzing Around the Apple Tree

And your questions are...

1) What is your favorite food?
2) Sweet or salty?
3) Can you roll your tongue?
4) What was your clique in school (prep, misfits, jock, band, etc.)?
5) Do you have any pets, or what would you have if you don't have any?
6) If you had unlimited funds, and a month of free time, what would you do?
7) Who is your celebrity crush?
8) Do you collect anything?
9) What size shoe do you wear?
10) Favorite color
11) Do you sleep on your side, stomach, or back?

That was fun =)

Turtles and ROUS's

Mr. Bill is out of town this week.  It's weird.  I usually only see him for about 20 minutes a day anyway, so you would think it would just feel like business as normal in the evenings.  But I feel at a loss.  

Plus, I'm not used to getting the girls ready for school.  I go to work at 5:30am, before they even wake up (usually).  My favorite description of what it's like is that it's like herding turtles.  Slow and painful.

The older two have to be at school by 7:45am and Zoe can't be dropped off at Mother's Day Out until 8:30am.  So there's at least 45 minutes to kill.  The past two days, we've just taken walks around the parking lot and sat in the sun.  Tomorrow promises to be nice and rainy, so I don't know what we'll do.  Bill likes to take her to Walmart, so there are several employees who know them very well.  It's kind of embarrassing.  =)

Today wasn't a rec center day, so I decided we'd try to stay out of the house this afternoon.  I needed to pick up a jade-colored tshirt for Olivia (don't ask, it irritates me) and they wanted some flip flops now that it's warm out.  Then we decided to go for a walk.

We have several pedestrian bridges that cross the river here.  One of the biggest ones is the Big Dam Bridge, and yes, that's the real name of it.  There's a smaller one close to it that the girls like to call the Little Dam Bridge, but it's really called the Two Rivers Bridge.  That was our destination, but there was some construction going on and the road to it was blocked.  So I thought we'd head to the Two Rivers Park, which is where the path from the bridge eventually ends up.  The girls thought we'd walk all the way to the bridge, but it's about 1.5 miles to the bridge from the park, and I knew they weren't going to want to walk that far today.



This path is part of the long trail I frequented when I was doing my long walks during my half-marathon training.  I didn't realize how much I missed it until we got on it.  I was really glad to be done with those super long walks one the half was over, but I'm actually really looking forward to being back out there to train for the next one.

As we started out on the trail, this animal ran out a few yards ahead.  I have no clue what it was.  It looked like a giant rat, the size of a cat... really.  My first thought was possum, but it was too dark-colored to be a possum.  I wispered, "R.O.U.S!!"  Which, of course, means nothing to the girls.  And then it ran into a swampy area, which just reinforced it... ROUS's live in the Fire Swamp.  

If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm really not sure we can be friends.  ;)

I wanted to get a picture of it, to prove that I saw a ROUS, but there wasn't enough time.  

There was plenty of time to get this picture, though...



I thought it was a fake snake at first and thought it would be funny to show Isabelle, who is deathly terrified of snakes.  Joke was on me, though... it was dead, but it was very real.  Between that and the giant rat, she was whimpering on the way back.  So I'm not Mother of the Year...  again.



I wouldn't let the girls run in flip flops, so they eventually decided to just go barefoot so they could run.  Olivia looks like a marionette when she runs, limbs flailing about.  She'd totally break her face if she ran in flip flops.  I imagine I look like Zoe when I run, just not so cute.  She makes me giggle when she runs.  But she seems to like it right now so I'm encouraging it.  They can run barefoot as much as they like until the asphalt gets hot enough to cook their tootsies.

On our way out of the park, there was a turtle crossing the road.  The girls told me to stop and rescue it, so I decided to appease them.  I don't think I've ever rescued a turtle before, and I don't think I'll ever attempt it again.   Who said turtles are slow?  That bugger was FAST!  As soon as I reached down for it, it spun around and bolted back the other way.  So I went to put it on that side of the road and it spun around again and bolted.... under the van.

Good grief.

The girls were all in a panic, certain I'd have to crush the turtle to leave.  But I was not going to crawl under the van to have some turtle go all kung fu on me.  They were very relieved to see it unscathed through the back window as we pulled away.

I thought, "I shouldn't say the girls are like herding turtles in the morning."  Then I thought, "No... that's exactly how they are in the morning."  Trying to get them to where they need to be and end up chasing them around and hope in the end you don't smoosh them to death.  

Definitely herding turtles.

My addiction

Since I work stupid hours (5:30am to 1:30pm), my lunch falls at an odd time.  10:15 am.  It's usually no problem when I bring my lunch, and I do try to do that most of the time.  It's cheaper and generally lower calories than anything I could get if I go out for lunch.  My options for eating lunch out at that time are somewhat limited.  A lot of places don't open until 11am, or are still serving breakfast.  

A few weeks ago, I wanted a salad really badly.  I'm all about salads lately... I'd love to just bury my face in a Newk's Favorite.  But Newk's isn't open that early.  So, Panera popped into my head.. I knew they served lunch early enough. I looked over the Panera website for nutrition info and decided to order a Fuji Apple Chicken Salad.

I may as well have gone out to snort crack (or whatever you do with crack, I certainly don't know).

It's like heaven in a bowl.  I sit there and just melt into the booth, in rapture.

I know, I'm such a dork.

It's the dressing.  Apple vinaigrette.  It's weird, because I usually don't like sweet vinaigrettes like raspberry or strawberry.  But apple.... man, that's some good stuff.

Panera is a little on the expensive side though.  Otherwise, I'd probably be there every other day.

I'm trying to find a good recipe to make it myself.  I tried out one, but it was a little too heavy on the apple cider vinegar, too light on the apple juice, I think.  A little too acidic, not sweet enough.  I'll keep looking and trying.

Tonight, the girls' school had a fundraiser at Chik-Fil-A, and the school so nicely bribed the kids with an extra recess to guilt the parents into going.  I went online to see what I could have that wouldn't totally blow my calories out of the water.

I looked at the salads, and I saw it.... a salad with zesty apple cider vinaigrette.  The salad itself was different from Panera's... but they had me at "apple vinaigrette".



Look at it.  Look at it and drool.

The cashier even gave me a knowing nod when I ordered it and said "That's a really good salad."  He knew.  It's probably wrong to compare a Chik-Fil-A employee to a drug dealer, but yeah.  He knew what was about to happen.

It's definitely tied with Panera's salad in my book.  I think the girls could have danced on the table and I wouldn't have noticed, I was just so in love with my salad.

I only allowed myself a quick glance at the ingredients of the dressing packet (I don't have that option at Panera LOL) and it's definitely not "clean" or Paleo.  I really need to find or concoct my own at home for that, I imagine.  I haven't seen it in the stores, either.  I need it.  I need a big bowl of mixed greens, some sliced chicken, gorgonzola cheese, tomatoes, and a bucket of apple vinaigrette.

Then my life will be complete.

By the way, I ran 23 minutes today, 1.75 miles.  Then a small 2 minute burst, but my shins were complaining and I thought I might want to be able to walk tomorrow, so I let it be at that.