Crack of Dawn

I am making a concerted effort to become, once again, a morning exerciser. I used to be, way back in my PK (pre-kid) days. Back then, I would get up and hit the gym at 4am, when it wasn't crowded, and then come home and get ready for work. I actually got quite used to it. The past several years, however, the ability to rise so early has definitely eluded me. I find myself quite addicted to the snooze alarm, truth be told. But this morning, I managed to haul my oh-so-exhausted body out of bed and bypass snooze altogether. This is, as you can imagine, quite a victory. I'm hoping this trend will continue. I guess I'm once again trying to turn over a new leaf, huh? Thankfully, we have such a variety of gym equipment (not to mention workout videos) in our own home that I don't have to hop in the car and go anywhere. Hopefully that'll help. Ideally, I'll be in such a sleep-deprived coma that I won't even notice I'm working out until I'm already fully entrenched in it and past the point of no return. One can only hope. This morning's workout featured a new workout video, so that was at least entertaining. So now I can come home at 8pm after the kid's practices without the mental stress of having to figure out when to squeeze a workout in. AND, when we do our four mile walk around the fields during practices, that will get to be just a bonus calorie burn, rather than my sole source for staying (getting?) in shape. Life is good!

project 365 - day 247

The first season that Owen played football, we ordered this magnet for the car. Last year they didn't offer them, and so far this year they haven't either. I would totally order one for Nicole if they had them available. But every year we pull out this one and sport it on one of the cars during the season. Nicole likes it on her door of the car.

project 365 - day 247

Super cute fold-up jewelry travel bag that I got from Thirty-One for the cruise. I might get one for grammy and grandma, too. I haven't decided. Not sure if it's something they'd actually use or not, or if they already have ones that they'll be bringing.

project 365 - day 246

I got a new charging station for the kitchen, to put my stuff and the kid's stuff on. Perry has had one forever, but he's got too much crap for the rest of us to really share it. And mine is cooler anyway. =)

project 365 - day 245

Our first football game of the season. All the way down in Bradenton. This is our hardest team, traditionally, of the year, so it was no surprise that we lost. Hopefully this will be the worst game of the season and it'll only get better from here.

project 365 - day 244

We finally got Rock Band 2 for the Wii. Normally it's like $160 but I saw it on sale for just $79 so I couldn't resist! It's a lot of fun, when we've played it at friend's houses, so I am excited that we have it. I think they have it so cheap because the RB Beatles edition is about to come out, but frankly I could give a crap about getting Beatles edition, so I'm good with RB2.

project 365 - day 243

I am so proud of myself, I've managed to get Owen's birthday shopping done and wrapped already. Completely amazing.

project 365 - day 242

With all the rain we've been getting, our lawn is getting completely flooded out. I guess the plus side is at least it's green. Over the winter it was pretty much all dead.

project 365 - day 241

First day of school! Woohoo! I am far more excited about it than the kids are. They are so cute all dressed up in their brand new, clean uniforms. Of course within the first couple weeks all these shirts will have stains on them and won't be looking so fabulous anymore, but at least they start the year nice.

project 365 - day 240

For the last day before school started, we all took the day off from everything and went to Busch Gardens. It was SUCH a good time, as we'd not been there in a couple years. We rode on all the water rides at least once, and a couple of the other rides, too. And of course saw the animals. They were all super cool, but the elephants are always one of my favorites.

project 365 - day 239

The pre-season scrimmage against the Patriots. Naturally we won! We beat them every year, without fail. This year we're not playing against them in regular season, which is a shame. It's always nice to play them because we always get bragging rights.

project 365 - day 238

This is my new (to me) Clip-it-up storage system for scrapbooking. I am SO excited to have it. A friend of mine on one of my email groups was getting rid of it, and I was the first one to respond that I would like it, so she sent it to me, completely free. These things are so adorable and I've been eyeing them for over a year but the couple hundred dollars I would have spent on it seemed a bit excessive for just a storage unit for my thickers and stuff, so I never got one. LOVE it! And I've pretty much filled it up already.

project 365 - day 237

Here's our football boys, all wound up and ready to play, but instead stuck under a building overhang because we're on yet another lightning delay. I think that's the hardest part about the season, is that we're constantly getting cancelled and delayed for storms. It's amazing we ever get to practice at all this time of year!

project 365 - day 236

I picked up some more fishies and a couple new frogs for the fishtank. It always looks so much nicer when there are a lot of fish swimming around. They are SO pretty! And somehow I never notice when the fish die, just eventually there are very few fish left. And then I stock up and all is well.

project 365 - day 235

This is Owen's Sharks bag for the year. I expect it'll pretty much live on my kitchen floor for the season. Something else to be in my way and try to clean around, I guess.

project 365 - day 234

This is my messy desk. Or at least one half of it. I do really make an effort to clean it on a fairly regular basis, but it never sticks. Somehow it ends up like this again. The other half that you don't see in this picture is pretty much the same. Oh well. Don't they say something about a creative mind being messy? Or something entirely more poetic than that?

project 365 - day 233

Rico is such a sweet baby. He's hyper as hell, but SO happy all the time. And SO much energy. More so than any dog we've had, he follows me all over the house. Which actually makes him super easy to take pictures of, because he's always wherever I am.

project 365 - day 232

Mr. Orange Cat - Sherbert, on the back of the couch in one of his favorite spots. For some reason both of the boy kitties love this spot. And the couch has the claw marks to prove it.

project 365 - day 231

Today I met up with a friend that I haven't seen since the 8th grade, Jill. She found me again awhile ago when she was pulling together a reunion, but this is the first chance we've had to get together. She lives over in Orlando now, so not too far away, and was going to be in town for the weekend visiting another friend and going to the Rays game. So the kids and I met her for lunch. My son snapped this pic of us.

project 365 - day 230

Little miss Lily cat. The least photographed of all the kitties. Actually I guess of all the animals in the house, period. She spends a lot of her time in the closet, though when Perry is home during the day, if the dogs are outside, she'll come hang with him in the office. She's not a huge fan of the dogs. As much as I am sure they would like to be her friend.

project 365 - day 229

The kids have set up the trains in the loft, for the first time in forever, and they are having fun playing with them. This is good, as we spent hundreds of dollars on all this stuff, so it's nice they are using it. The downside is that we can't play pool or ping-pong at this point, but oh well.

project 365 - day 228

I decided it was time for me to have my own bag, so I got this one from Thirty-One. Perfect for taking my workout clothes with me in the morning to change into before cheer practice, as many of us moms decide to work out rather than just sitting around for two hours while the girls are doing their thing.

project 365 - day 227

For quite some time I have been on the hunt for a cool spice rack. Why? Absolutely no practical reason, other than I thought it would be easier to find the spices we use regularly than having to dig through the drawer for them. Well, I found this one at Homegoods and I'm test running it. I think I like it, but I haven't completely committed. Well, I did buy it, so I suppose I did actually commit, but the jury is still out as to whether I will actually keep it.

project 365 - day 226

I remember at some point I took a photo of my own "mission control" that I have set up when I work from home. This is Perry's. Since he works from home at least 3x a week, his is more elaborate and certainly more permanent than my own.

project 365 - day 225

We took the kids down to the beach to my uncle's house, to hang out with them and my cousin Sam while she and her family were in town. The kids had a great time, and I think we really need to make it a point to go to the beach more often. Living in Tampa, you'd think we would do so, but alas, it doesn't often happen.

project 365 - day 224

Perry claims that I never take pictures of him, which is undoubtedly true. So here is a shot of him. Bad hair day, apparently, so hence the hat.

project 365 - day 223

This was absolutely THE deal of the week for me. This is a couple hundred dollars worth of Homemade Gourmet that I got for only $8 through an auction on one of my groups. How amazing is that?? Thanks so much to Shellie for putting this out there. I'm AMAZED that I snagged it so cheap but I know it'll be put to good use!! Woohoo!

project 365 - day 222

This is one of my latest purchases, from Caroline over a Wildtree. I am very excited to try the Alfredo Sauce mix. I love doing things "homemade" rather than just from a jar, but truly homemade from scratch just takes entirely too long. So I'm very glad that there are all these food companies out there that can help me take some of the hassle out of home cooking.

project 365 - day 221

If you have kids, you probably know what this is - UB Funkeyes. My kids LOVE this thing. It's kind of similar to Webkins, in that they go online and "are" this little character online at the website. They can play games and such with it, and there are a ton of the little guys (the grey guy on top of the white guy) that they can get to play with online. My kids have probably a dozen or so now, and we've got these hooked up to pretty much every computer in the house. Good times!

project 365 - day 220

To the untrained eye, this may just look like a messy pile of crap. But in fact, this represents years of activities for my family. This is my personal supply of Once Upon a Family stuff. The stuff I accumulated over the past couple years of selling it. The stuff I can't part with, because I know what a difference these things can make in my kid's lives. All of these things, while in desperate need of organization until such time as they are used, will someday be the stuff that memories are literally made of.

project 365 - day 219

This is my favorite clock in the house, the one in the dining room. I like it so much, in fact, that I'm a little worried that it might have already been the subject of a P365 picture. But I can't remember, so here it is. I guess I will know when I go to print out my latest batch of pictures (much easier to check then than look back through all the posts). And if so, then years from now my grandkids can look through my P365 album and think there grandma was nutty for some damn clock (but man is it cute!)

project 365 - day 218

Nicole was being her silly self for this picture. I think she's being a dog. Could be a cat...hard to say. At least she's not making totally strange faces. And yes, she's a wee bit sunburned. Oh well.

project 365 - day 217

Another fab item from the new Thirty-One collection. I don't know if I just don't read dimensions or what, but this thing is WAY bigger than I thought it was going to be. This will be awesome for going to the beach or the park, etc. It really can fit the whole picnic! Hence the name "picnic tote" I suppose. Go figure!!