Wii Sports Active 2 - Last week of 9 Week Challenge!!!!

I did it!  I made it to the end of the 9 week challenge!

I am going to start with the last day I had blogged about.  This leave me at:
February 25, 2011:  I did my regular strength training this day and did my pre/after workout using the Wii Active program.

February 26, 2011: This is one of my off days!!!!

February 27, 2011: This is one of my off days!!!! I did do my strength training for the day from sparkpeople, but I did not use the Wii for my before and after workout.

February 28, 2011:   Back at it for my last week of workouts on this challenge.

March 1, 2011: Another day getting through it - they weren't too mean with the Mountain Climbers this week, or maybe I am just used to it now.

March 2, 2011: I know I only have two challenge work outs left and I am looking forward to completing the challenge!  I also did my strength training later that night.  I started a new strength workout!

March 3, 2011:  I DID IT!!!!!!!

I finished out the week with some video dancing workouts and using my calorie counting watch that is based off of my heartbeat to enter my calories on sparkpeople.com.

We gonna go see the Mardi Gras 2011!!!

This will be the second year my parents are heading up to Gatlinburg, TN for the Mardi Gras holiday.  My son is out of school that week so they are nice enough to let him have some Smokey Mountain fun with them.  I will have to work since we have other vacations planned later this year. 

With this in mind, I tried to take my son to as many Mardi Gras festivities this past weekend as we could possibly handle.  And it went a little something like this....

Professor Longhair says it best...
"While you stroll in New Orleans
You ought to go see the Mardi Gras
If you go to New Orleans
You ought to go see the Mardi Gras
When you see the Mardi Gras
Somebody'll tell you what's Carnival for"

We started out with a close to home parade Friday night, Krewe of Eve.  This is a Covington parade that has become an annual tradition for us.  We eat dinner at the Times Grill and then head out front to watch the parade.  It is a ladies parade (only women riders) so I stick my son and dad up front and let them go at it.  They successfully caught a nice little bag of beads, but my son wasn't getting enough stuffed animal action.  Well I mean if the kid wants me to handle it, I handle it, and Mardi Gras some how became my specialty.  I tell him to stand directly in front of me and as the floats pass by I give off my exceptional Mardi Gras scream "Heeeeeyyyyyyy Laday!" and I am pointing down to the top of my sons head. Moments after this a stuffed animal comes flying at his head and I am suddenly the best mom ever.  I have a photo of the Queen of Eve, it is a bit out of focus, but I'd rather show you than not...

The next morning we stayed even closer to home and rode with our fellow cub scouts in the Abita Spring parade known as Push Mow.  The thought being that anything you can push, or mow, or drive can be decorated as a float and you pay a registration fee of $25 the day of to be in the parade.  Their theme this year was "It oughta be a law".  Our float theme was the cub scout motto... It oughta be a law... "to do your best."  Unfortunately I was crammed in the bed of my dad's truck handing beads to my son to throw and I didn't get any pictures.  The pro of push mow is that it seriously family oriented, only a one mile parade route, makes a child feel like a float riding hero, and you can literally throw away all your catches from the year before!!!  It's the best recycling plan I know of for Mardi Gras beads.  After Push Mow we enjoyed a lunch at the Abita Brew Pub....mmmmmmmm Strawberry Ale!  Here is a shot of TomTom and his artistic place mat.

Later that night I took him to see "The Music Man" one of my most favorite musicals of all time!  It was on a national tour and it stopped by The Columbia Theatre in Hammond.  I'm out of focus again...

It was a beautiful theatre and was my first time being on the inside. 

There was a barbershop quartet in the lobby entertaining the crowd when we walked in and TomTom was all about watching them.  Every time the quartet came on stage and performed a musical number he was very attentive to the show.  And when the music man AKA Professor Harold Hill was on stage, TomTom would perk up and sit on the edge of his seat.  I think he really liked it!  And I LOVED it.  Every note, every number, it was perfection.  And the actress who played Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn had us all - every time she was on stage.

We made it back home by 11 PM and he was passed out in the back seat as I waited in the longest line ever for a Nachos Bell Grande (no meat & no tomato, with fire sauce).  I was ready to give up and fall into my bed for the next three days, but the show must go on!  There will be no more Mardi Gras for TomTom this year.  When I grew up my parents took us to every parade possible, and then we spent most of our Mardi Gras days down town.  We saw every Bacchus and Orpheus, every day parade, and most night parades in town and in Metairie.  We spent all day on St Charles Ave for Mardi Gras eating Popeyes chicken and Ross' king cakes.  It is in my blood!  It is one of my favorite times of the year.  Most locals seem to hate Mardi Gras, but for some reason I just can't get enough!

Sunday morning, Thomas and I hopped back into the car and off to the grocery to get parade snacks, drink and beer for mom.  Then we headed across the big big bridge for some New Orleans style Mardi Gras.

"Get your ticket in your hand
If you wanna go through New Orleans
Get your ticket in your hand
If you wanna go through New Orleans
You know when you get to New Orleans
Somebody'll show you the Zulu King

You will see the Zulu King
Down on St. Claude and Dumaine
You know, you'll see the Zulu King
Down on St. Claude and Dumaine
An if you stay right there
I'm sure you'll see the Zulu Queen"

My cousin Toye's stepson Jackson was marching with the Brother Martin parade in Krewe of Carrolton.  Toye, JP, Meghan, TomTom & I hopped in the car for the ride from Metairie to town.  You really have to love the car rides during Mardi Gras.  You have so much time to get to know your loved ones as you search for the impossible parking spot.  I think I brought up TomTom's latest behavioral issues while Meghan tickled and poked him to death.  Toye was on the search for the parade and any open parking spot within a ten mile radius.  JP decided to go with the $10 parking cardboard sign a fellow down town neighbor was holding up because we didn't want to miss Jackson.  We pulled into her yard, parked the car and we headed for the parade route.  It was a warm day and the crowd wasn't very thick at all.  TomTom got an up front spot to view the parade.

Toye, JP & Meghan strike a pose.....

We saw Jackson coming and screamed his name trying to be as obnoxious as possible and he finally waved at us.  He was holding the banner this parade.

Toye & Meghan also knew someone on one of the floats and I took a gross of beads to the head.  I took it like a Mardi Gras pro, straightened my hat, and went back for more.  This is TomTom getting into the bead catching action.

After we caught the parade we headed back to the car and went to catch Jackson later in the parade route.  We got caught up in some traffic and the parade was high tailing it down Canal Street.  Toye, Meghan, TomTom & I jumped out the car and ran to see if we could catch him while JP drove around town in hopes of a parking spot.  TomTom & I kept up with the runners as long as we could and they hit a barricade.  Yes, and NOPD barricade on Canal St.  I told Toye to just ask the cop how to cross over and she responded with "I'm not that brave."  Toye!  Where is your Mardi Gras finesse!  Over to the cop I hurdled, the nice cops that will grab any bead off the street you want if you give them a harmless little flirt, and asked him where to cross.  He said check with the cop on the corner.  Down to the corner cop I scurried, he notified me the barricades ended down St Charles.  I got Toye and Meghan to the end of the barricade, across the street and let them take off down Canal after Jackson while TomTom and I stopped to watch the parade again. 
On Canal the crowd was pretty slim too and the breeze was fantastic.  He was directly behind the barricade and back to catching like a maniac.  A bit later I got the text to meet back up at the car and we headed back to St Charles and the barricade cross over.  We were waiting for the longest band ever to pass by so we could cross the street.  Toye was worried we would be late to pick up Jackson from Brother Martin and was calling me on my cell phone.  I had my cell in my right hand up to my ear with the bag of beads in it too.  TomTom's hand in my left hand with my mardi gras cup full of Strawberry Ale.  I could hear the urgency in Toye's voice and MAN does this band ever end???? So we dodged across the flag girls praying they didn't start swinging at us.  And that was it!  I knew my Mardi Gras was complete and that I did my best.  It was a personal moment of accomplishment when I dragged TomTom across that street, while talking on the cell phone and sloshing my beer all over the right half of his body.  At this point I had done well to fully saturate my son with Mardi Gras spirit.  He was upset that I spilled on his Star Wars tee shirt, but I wanted to give him a memory that would last even up to the highest Smokey Mountain of the Mardi Gras Season 2011!

How does your garden grow Cilantro?

This is awesome, not only can I use the egg cartons, but the actual egg shell too!  With my parents having chickens... MORE FREE GARDENING SUPPLIES!

tips on cilantro


Basically you use the egg shell as your plant pot, then just put it directly into the ground later.  Genius!!!!  I hope I remember this and use it for this batch of seeds!

How does your garden grow??

My excitement for all things garden has died down a bit as everything is in progress.  I have already shown you my egg carton planters that were waiting for their seeds.  Since then I started a paper towel method of seed germination for a bunch of seeds I had left over from last year.  I wet paper towels and put the seeds inside, then put them in a plastic Ziploc bag and labeled them with seed name, date started, and days for germination.  I put the bags on a covered heating pad at night on the low setting and then moved them to the window sill during the day time for some much needed sunlight. 

I started the process for four different types of seeds - grand rapids lettuce, salad bowl lettuce, dill, and garden bean.  Within the next three to four days most of my seeds had germinated and looked like they had little white roots sprouting out of them.  The only seeds that did not germinate were the Salad Bowl lettuce - no surprise being that I planted them last year and not one of them grew for me.

This past Sunday I transferred the germinated seeds to the egg carton planters and will send you a photo of those when I follow up this post.  The lettuce is moving along grandly and some dill sprouts have started coming through the soil.  No luck on the garden beans, I think one is barely sprouting through the soil.  All the seeds germinated (garden bean), but none have grown shoots.  I am still waiting patiently.

In the meantime I went to home depot and purchased some new seeds this past weekend too.  I have decided on a Salsa garden - Roma & Beef Steak tomatoes, Jalapeno peppers, & Cilantro.  I have started all these seeds in the paper towel germination process.  They have been on the heating pad most nights (yes I have gotten lazy with them and left them on there all day today - whoops)  and on the window sill during the day time.  I still have the Ziploc with the Grand Rapids lettuce in hopes it was a late bloomer, but no germination yet and they will probably get thrown out this weekend. 

I just checked on the paper towel seeds (you should check them daily)  and both of the tomatoes have germinated and I will transfer them this weekend.  However, absolutely NOTHING on the jalapeno and the cilantro only one or two of them possibly have little white shoots.  Maybe they need more time?  I will research this.  And I correct myself, it is the Salad Bowl Lettuce that has done nothing, the Grand Rapids is the variety that is thriving on in my egg carton planters.  This is what the seeds look like for the tomatoes that have started to germinate in the paper towel methods.  They are kind of out of focus, but you get the point.

To pass some time I am preparing my outside garden.  TomTom and I did a impromptu set up for the red onions we put in the ground three weeks ago.  We mixed one large bag of potting soil in with our clay soil and threw the onion bulbs down.  Covered them with some pine needles and what will be, will be.  Well, those puppies are shooting up all over the place.  Every day I have more green onion tops poking up through the pine needles and I make some room for them to blossom.  This is exciting!  No more buying red onions! 

This past weekend I also hosed out an old pond I had from my past when I had lots of time to garden.  It has since come out of the ground and sat in the back of my yard left for dead.  No mas!  I took a tip from Mrs. V at work and collected pine cones off of my parents property to use as filler.  I don't want to spend that much money on potting soil to fill this thing up.  My first step was drilling drainage holes in the bottom of it and then filling it with pine cones.  Here she is with the holes in her and that black bag in the background is the pine cones.  They didn't even fill the bottom of her so I will need to gather some more this weekend.

I haven't decided where I am going to put her yet...in the shade for my bell peppers??? Or in full sun for the whole salsa garden???  I am thinking the shade for the plants that won't be able to tolerate our summer heat and just planting the tomatoes and peppers right down in my front garden.  In other words, some how working them into the landscape so that they look nice and take away from my barren front garden.  I have a big tree in the back so this might help if I want the pond garden in the shade for most of the day. 

So far seeds are doing well - the ones that have sprouted.  The challenge will be keeping them alive in the weeks to come before I harden them off for outdoors.  I WILL DO IT!  And by the end of the summer we will have harvested our own veggies for a fraction of the cost that we buy them for and a little elbow grease.

Wii EA Sports Active 2, 9 week challenge - 8th week

This week the workouts are longer and I am burning more calories, but I did not lose any weight this week.  Sad, but true.  I didn't push enough with cutting my calorie intake back.  I could have done better!  But it is ok, I didn't gain any weight and I am still 6 pounds down in about 3 weeks.  Here is what I did so far this week.

Sunday, February 20, 2011: This was just some strength training to get me back into the swing of the weekly workouts..

Monday, February 21, 2011: I don't have any specific memories of this workout, but I did it!

Tuesday February 22, 2011: Again, no specific memories.  However, I have been adapting to a constantly whining dog chasing two mischievous cats around the house while I work out.  My quiet time has been zapped into mass chaos and I am NOT liking that!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011: The mountain climbers are creeping back in to the workout, and look... I went 3 miles today!  There was a lot of running and I have resorted to running from one end of the kitchen to the other to give me some variety.

Thursday, February 24, 2011:  Yep, Mountain Climbers in full force, followed by skipping, then jumping and driving your knee up after alternating squats.  YIKES!  It wasn't easy, but I'm done the hard workouts for the week!

Edward & Alice

Today TomTom & I decided on a name for our two new kitties.... Edward and Alice. 

They are pretty much settled in to their new home, but I am steadily freaking out.

First of all, TomTom seems to be having some sort of allergic reaction to the cats.  He has the stuffy nose and sniffles as expected because he has seasonal allergies, but it is one step worse - his face is starting to break out in little bumps (hives possibly).  The second night we had the cats he woke up at about 5 AM sneezing in search of kleenex.  Then when he woke up officially later that morning his eyes were bright red and he had bumps all around them.  We solved that problem with his zyrtec and some eye drops for allergies.  I also gave him more allergy medicine later that night when he came home and eye drops.  We also washed all the sheets and made our rooms designated no-cat-zones for sleeping.  All went well and he seemed to wake up this morning in better condition as far as bumps, but they were still there.  He came home today and the bumps seem to be getting worse.  And they are slowly but surely making an appearance all over the rest of his body. He is also still sniffly and blowing his nose when he comes home.  So is all of this running full circle?  When he was born I had cats, one passed away days before he was born and the other a few months after.  Thomas suffered from skin allergies at the time too.  We associated them with milk formula and he changed over to soy and zyrtec and we haven't had such serious issues since then.  I am wondering if this was all owed to the cats and not the soy?  I am slowly freaking out because after administering protopic ointment his face seemed to get worse!  We washed that off and I put him in an oatmeal bath and coated it on his face to let it dry out.  I also gave him 2 tspn of Benadryl after researching hives as an allergic reaction and it said antihistimine was the way to go with it.  I also put the lotion on his face we used last night that seemed to help him.
My parents HATE cats, HATE the fact that I ever had them.  And ofcourse, now they are drawing the lines as I am that the skin issues are a result of the cats.  I have researched a lot online about this and supposedly these are symptoms that you can slowly get over from desensitizing yourself or being around them.  It also says that HEPA filters help eliminate pet dander and that is what is causing the reaction.  So out of this I have to wait until I get my income taxes to go buy multiple HEPA air purifiers, a steam cleaner for the floors, and HEPA vacuum cleaner.  Hundreds of dollars of accessories so that he can be around the cats.... if they even work!  But when is enough, enough?  Is he going to be able to suffer through the week until I am able to purchase these things?  We have a dog that he has never been allergic to, but after research the dander cats give off is different.  I am starting to freak out here because I hate seeing him break out like this... it looks miserable.
To top it all off I have NEVER taken a pet and given it back in all my years.  I've always adapted to or dealt with the issues that come with owning a pet.  I would feel a bit defeated if I have to talk about returning these cats where they came from or trying to find another home for them.  This isn't about what is happening to me, it is about what is happening to my child so it takes it all to the extreme level. 
TomTom seems to be ok with it, like it is a minor inconvenience and no big deal.  I am the one freaking out and he is the one sleeping soundly in his bed (thanks benadryl).  He wants to try to get through it and keep the cats.  What in the hell am I supposed to do??????????????????
I'm at a loss here.  Cat haters say get rid of them instantaneously.  I would like reassurance that the HEPA purifiers are going to work and my child won't be a big ball of snot and bumps by the time I get them in!

New Additons to the Family

Today is the day we added two new members to our family. 

Two little kitties that needed a home. 

One boy and one girl.

Brother and Sister.

Here they are getting settled in after an afternoon of investigating their new home.