Cool School

I just have to share with you one my favorite gifts Katie got for Christmas this year. It's a kid-friendly keyboard that attaches to your computer via USB port. It comes with software to teach math, science, art, music and reading/writing. Katie quickly figured out how to use it and it actually keeps her attention. I just found out today that other programs are available so I'm ordering two more from Amazon. Click on the picture above to learn more about it. It's a keeper, for sure!

As Katie Would Say... We Had An Adventure Today!

It all started this morning when it took several attempts to successfully jump start my car. We knew before our trip to Seattle for Christmas that my battery was dead, so it wasn't a surprise. When weren't having any luck getting it started, we began to wonder if the problem wasn't really the battery afterall. It wasn't completely dead. It just wouldn't start. I began processing in my head what my options would be for getting help while Regina was at work today. And then, it finally worked! Katie and I buckled in quickly and made our way to Sears Auto Center while Regina headed to work.

Throughout that whole process, Katie was very curious about this battery we had in our car. Afterall, it was news to her that the car had a battery! She thought only her toys and flashlights had batteries. She wanted to know where it was located in the car, what shape was it, she wanted to touch it, why did it run out of power, what would they do with the old battery - could she have it and she wondered also if it would be girl who would fix the battery for us or would it be a boy. I told her it is possible that the mechanic would be a girl, but most likely it would be a boy. Well, wouldn't ya know, we pulled in and a young woman mechanic came over and helped us! Katie was thrilled. I think that was a first, for me anyway. I don't know if she actually worked on our car or if she just tested the battery, but Katie got to see that there are indeed girl mechanics.

After she confirmed the battery was dead, she looked at my sad, worn out tires and suggested we get new ones sooner than later. This wasn't any surprise, for Honda brought that to my attention last time I got the oil changed. It never really occurred to me that Sears could also do the tires, but it made sense to me that I should go ahead and get that done too. I quickly called Regina to see if she agreed and she did.

I'm sure the conversation I had with the guy about what tires I should get was comical at best. I don't recall most of it, but I do remember he started out by asking me what kind of tires I wanted as far as features go. I really didn't know what to say and just said, "Um, just normal tires, I guess." What kind of features could a tire possibly have, anyway? Don't get me wrong, I knew there were tires for driving in the snow, but that's all I knew about besides the everyday-driving tires. He caught on quickly that I was clueless and he did a pretty good job explaining the options I had for my car and why I might want to choose each different type of tire. Don't ask me to repeat anything he said though. It's all gone now! I'm not even sure exactly what I ended up getting but they are higher end, on sale, goodyear, 80,000 mile warranty, decent traction in the snow, very good in rainy weather. And, I thought the design of the tread was cool. So, that's what I got. Four of them.

Katie and I walked across the street and ate an early lunch at Red Robin. Then we walked over to the mall and bought Grandma Kathleen's birthday present. By that time, the car should have been done so we returned to the auto center. Our car was almost done, but not quite, so Katie got to see it perched high up on the lifts. She enjoyed that.

When the car was done, we got in and just as I was ready to pull out, I noticed that the radio wouldn't work. All it said on the display was "code". I had no idea what was going on so we sat there for several minutes while I fiddled with it. I knew I had never set a code, so it must be a generic on they set at the factory. I tried all ones, 12345, 54321, all twos, etc. I tried too often causing it to yell at me with a big ERR on the display and it would accept no more input. Good grief, I had to pull out the manual. It wasn't easy, but I did manage to locate information about why it needed a code. It's an anti-theft mechanism. Anytime power is cut off to the radio, as it was when the battery was changed, it requires the code to reactivate it. If someone tried to steal it, they'd be unable to actually use it without the code. Fortunately, I found the little card with the code on it. But, the radio was no longer accepting input from me. I thought about asking the Sears staff if they had any suggestions, but decided to go home and call Honda instead.

When I got home, I found some info online about this. Based on what I read, it sounded like I could reset the radio so it would accept input if I could remove the fuse to the radio and then put it back. Then, I could try my code. Well, this is easier said than done. The fuse is located down by the floor on the driver's side. It's dark and hard to reach. So, I wore Katie's new flashlight that you put on your forehead (thank you, Santa). The tools I had weren't the best for the job and the fuse was in there very tightly, so I ended up poking my thumb and got blood everywhere before I even realized what I'd done. Anyway, even after resetting the radio with the fuse, it still didn't like my code. I walked back to the apartment and called Honda in Bellevue. I gave him the serial number of my radio and he gave me the code. It wasn't the same as what was on my card I got when we bought the car. And then I remembered I had trouble with the radio 2 or 3 years ago and it was replaced. But, I didn't get a new code for the new radio. The code the Honda guy gave me worked and Katie thinks I'm a genius now!

It's a Puppy Bank!

Katie got this "puppy bank" for Christmas from Courtney and Mel (thanks, guys - she loves it.) which is exactly as the name implies: a puppy-shaped ceramic bank. This one is extra fun though. It comes unpainted. Well, Katie loves to paint so she had a great time this evening after dinner painting her puppy-bank. Thanks again, Courtney and Mel!

Katie's New Pajamas

Thank you, Grandma Kathleen! Katie loves her new Tinkerbell pj's you gave her for Christmas. They fit perfectly and she's wearing them to bed tonight. Thanks, again!

Another "Beary" Snowy Day

We woke up on this day-after-Christmas, 2nd black Friday (supposedly), to clouds and freezing temps, but no precipitation. Kinda boring, after the spectacular snowy performance of yesterday morning. But, the trees are still covered with snow, which I enjoy.

At about 2pm today we finally got ourselves out of the house. And wouldn't you know it, but by that time it was snowing like crazy! Didn't seem like such a good idea to leave, when the roads could potentially be in worse shape when we return, but we left anyway. We went to the Bellevue Square Mall where we redeemed Katie's Build-A-Bear gift cards she received from her cousins Paige, Katelyn and Matthew for Christmas. She was so excited because stuffed animals are among her most favorite things to play with. Below is a picture of Katie with the pink, rock star, leopard she got there. She picked out a spectacular pink tank for the leopard to wear and also a Hanna Montana guitar so the leopard can jam with her. She's very interested in guitars and dancing and singing, all of the sudden. When we were in line at Build-A-Bear, she was chatting with the kid waiting behind us and I heard her say something about her "studio" ~ so, maybe we have a little budding musician on our hands.


As soon as we were done with "Love" the pink rocker leopard, we immediately headed home, just in case the roads were getting icey. They were okay, by the way. Our own neighborhood roads are the worst we encountered because they don't get plowed. Everything else is in good shape. On the way home we stopped off at Garlic Jim's and picked up a pizza. We just didn't feel like fixing our own dinner tonight. So, now we're safely back home, settled in for the evening. Katie is patiently waiting for me to finish this so I can help her make beaded jewelry with the kit she got from Mel and Courtney for Christmas. You guys were on target with that gift, for sure! Thank you! And thank you Paige, Katelyn and Matthew for the Build-A-Bear gift cards. Katie is thrilled!

We're Enjoying a Very Merry White Christmas Here!

What a treat! I can't remember when I've ever had the pleasure of opening presents on Christmas morning while snow was actually falling outside. But that's what happened this year. It's so incredibly beautiful and even as I sit here writing this blog, I am looking outside the window in our office and I see the snow coming down even heavier than it was earlier. There's no wind, so it's falling straight down, gently, but quickly. It looks to be good packing snow, so Katie will have a great time today building things.

We have friends coming over today, provided they can make their way through all this snow, so Regina is outside right now shoveling the driveway and walkway for them. Katie is all bundled up and is out there too, building a snowman, it looks like. I volunteered for the "inside" job of cleaning up before they arrive. I've got Christmas music playing on my iPod and the fireplaces are going. It's a beautiful, perfect day to be celebrating Christmas.

Opening Birthday Presents

As promised, a video of Katie opening birthday presents.

Thank you, to everyone who sent gifts!

Happy 5th Birthday Katie!

This morning we all slept in until almost 8am! How nice was that?! Of course, the first thing Katie wanted to do was open her birthday presents. So that's what we did. Why not? Of course, I took video and I'll upload that later today, hopefully. For lunch, we had cheese pizza, per Katie's request and after that we enjoyed chocolate birthday cake with pink icing. Pink, because that is Katie's most favorite color in the whole wide world.

It's a beautiful, wintery day to celebrate a birthday, I must say. It's been snowing all day and I'm certain we'll end up outside playing in the snow eventually. The last two nights we've taken walks around the neighborhood, enjoying the lights and playing in the snow. Well, Regina and I walked, anyway. Katie rode on a sled pulled along behind Regina. She (Katie) thought that was pretty great.

Okay, that's it for now. I'll post a video later on, I hope.

Happy Birthday Matt!

We hope you're having a great day!

Love, Regina, Suzie and Katie

Katie's First Mass...

Transit Bus Ride, that is.

This morning when it was snowing pretty heavily, I suggested to Katie that we should go to the mall to finish up our shopping and instead of driving in the snow, we should take the bus. Well, she was so excited about that and I was her hero for even suggesting it. I actually don't know why I was comfortable suggesting such a thing since I've never in my life taken a mass transit bus before. Shuttle bus, yes ~ subway train, yes ~ taxi cabs, sure ~ but mass transit busses scare me. Once I saw Katie's excitement, I knew I had to set aside my fear and figure it out or suffer the consequences. So, I went online and Portland's mass transit system, TriMet, has quite an easy-to-understand web site, allowing even ME to figure out how to get from here to there. Fortunately, all we had to do was get on one bus and it wasn't necessary to transfer along the way.

We walked only a few minutes down the street and waited maybe 10 minutes for the bus to arrive. Katie and Regina got on first and I followed behind to pay our fares. I overpaid, not knowing that Katie was free! Oh well. So we all sat down and for about 10-15 minutes, we enjoyed the ride. It was nice to just sit back and relax, while someone else worried about maneuvering the snow and ice on the roads. Next thing I know, we're sliding down an incline, slipping sideways onto a divider in the middle of the road, which actually prevented us from going further and eventually over a hillside. The driver was able to stop the bus before we entered crossing traffic and none of us were hurt. We did, however, have to wait there for about an hour for help to arrive to take care of the bus and another bus to pick us up and take us the rest of the way. I'm happy to say we did make it to the mall, without further incident. We shopped for a couple of hours and made it home before dark, which was our goal.

Another Snow Day

Katie is home from school again and Regina is working from home again. We woke up to 36 degrees and slushy, almost bare roads. If the snow plow could have just come through to push aside the slush, we'd have been in good shape for the predicted deep freeze for later today, tonight and tomorrow. But, it didn't. Oh well. And now, it's snowing again.

A Walk in the Snow

So, today Katie is home from school again and the word is that if it snows more tonight, as predicted, then she probably won't get to go to school at all this week! And then, of course, her school is closed for 2 weeks, beginning next week for Christmas and New Years. Boy, that sure is a lot of "together" time! Hope we survive it with our sanity...

Regina went to work today while Katie and I hung out here. Eventually we just had to get out of the apartment, so we bundled up and took a walk in the snow. Of course, I took some pictures:

Check out this mostly-frozen fountain
at an apartment complex up the street.
Katie slippin' and slidin' along the path.

The waterfall at the entrance of our apartment
complex is completely frozen over!

Single-Digit Wind Chills Today

Dec 14 8:27am

Dec 14 2:51pm

Dec 15 9:00am

We're all home today. Katie's school is closed and Regina closed her office so that only a few people (who live within walking distance) are there to run the call center. It's no longer snowing and the sun is shining, but the wind is howling and the temps are frigid. Fortunately, we have not lost electricity, unlike some people in the metro area. In fact, we just heard on the news that if we were still living in the Hillsboro apartment, we'd be without electricity right now. Good thing we moved!

We have everything we need, so we won't be attempting to drive anywhere today. It would be nice, however, if we had more firewood on hand. Having a fire going is so comforting and just plain fun on a day like this. We have only a few hours worth of wood left. Oh well. We'll make sure we're stocked up for the next storm, no doubt.

Arctic Blast Hits Portland

Sumpety Sump Sump

Christmas Party

Regina's employer held their annual employee Christmas party this evening. This year they held it at the Oregon Zoo. Katie and I joined Regina there to enjoy a light buffet meal with live music entertainment and complimentary access to the the ZooLights holiday light display. It was a fun time.

If Christmas Has a Smell, This Is It

Oh how I love this hand soap and lotion set from Williams Sonoma. I discovered it last year and just had to have it again this year. It's the perfect hand soap and lotion for the holidays. Go get some!

Garden d'Lights

This evening it stopped raining so Katie and I ate dinner out and then headed over to the Bellevue Botanical Garden to see their holiday display of lights. It was magnificent. Even Katie said several times how beautiful it is. Usually all Katie wants to do when we visit places like this, is run around. Tonight she was too busy looking at everything to run around! I'll post a couple of pictures here, but they don't even begin to give it justice. If you're in the area, you really must go!

Getting In Shape

After the hysterectomy and starting a new job, I gained 30 pounds. I knew eating out a lot would do it. Add to that all the life changes. Then tack on driving back and forth to Seattle from Portland to see Suzie and Katie almost every weekend for months and you get weigh gain.

I started to watch my calorie intake in April and dropped 20 pounds quickly. I then spent most of the summer "coasting" - getting in some exercise and maintaining the weight with somewhat good food choices. Now, it is time to drop even more. To get motivated, I started a Biggest Loser competition at work. My executive team took on any challengers -- starting a month ago and ending on Valentines Day. To our surprise, we got 7 teams (each team ranges from 7 to 11 people) to challenge us. It has been great to have so many focused on healthy eating and exercise throughout the company. Great team building and good fun competition!

Yes, my team is winning - with a month into it we have an average of 8 pounds lost per person. The next team is at 5 pounds lost per person.

I felt like I didn't know what to do with respect to exercise so a co-worker and I decided to get a personal trainer to help us. We work out every Sunday morning with weights and cardio. Here is what I have learned:

• All you need is 20 minutes of cardio with interval training - 1 minute easy, 4 minutes hard x 4 on a treadmill or elliptical machine. Three to five times a week is good. You want to get your heart rate up but in the range of 140 to 155.
• Weights, weights, weights. Women start to lose muscle at age 30. Muscle helps burn calories. You don't need a fancy gym (my co-worker has one), but some free weights and good old fashion exercises (remember Jack Lalanne?).
• Start your workouts with something that gets your heart rate up. We start each workout with jumping jacks (yes, I said jumping jacks). We do 1 minute, rest 30 seconds, do 45 seconds, rest 30 seconds and then do 30 seconds. You are now ready to work out on your cardio or to lift weights.
• "Build your core" is the new thing but it is really about old fashion exercise that works multiple muscles. Push-up are the best. You should be able to do your age in push ups. Women's are fine. Men's are better. "Paint cans" are excellent too. You take a weight (weight ball is better) and pick it up on one side and lift across your body and twist to put it on the "shelf" on the other side at face level - one constant motion with 20 on each side. Works tons of muscles if you squat down when you pick up the "paint can".
• You need protein too. We don't eat a lot so add it as a supplement. I have a protein shake every morning now - cup of non-fat milk, some strawberries (blueberries or bananas work too) and a scoop of protein powder. I like "True Whey" from Source Naturals. The key is low sugar. I also bought at Target a shake mixer (as scene on TV product called Magic Bullet). It is great as you put it in a cup, mix it and drink out of the same cup. Easy clean up.
• Sugar bad. If you are hungry, find any thing but sugar. I am having a hard time with this one because I love the Christmas peeps (trees and snowmen).
• Soda (even diet) bad. Creates sugar cravings. I am down to less than 5 a day and working towards zero! Ugh.
• Water, water, water. They say you should drink your weight in water (oz) but I like about 70 ounces a day.
• Sleep. Get your sleep. We eat when we are tired. To relax before bed (and they say it helps migraines) take magnesium. It relaxes you and your muscles. We take Magnesium Citramate from Thorne Research.

I have also found that a good multi-vitamin is good plus start taking Vitamin D. The studies are now finding that taking calcium is not making any difference. What you really need is Vitamin D. We are not going outside as much as people used to do, and we are wearing sunscreen. The combination of the two means we are Vitamin D deficient. Go outside peek hours (noon to 2:00) with as much skin exposure as you can without sun screen. Since most of us can't do that every day or in the winter, we need a supplement. We take Sun-D3 (3,000IU) daily from Priority One.

With all I take both in supplements and medication (acid reflux and migraine), I also take Milk Thistle. I heard about this from a friend who was a nurse. This helps your liver work better. I think this has helped with the weight loss, too.

I found a website where we can get most of these items, much lower than in the stores. If we order larger amounts by combining what we need with multiple months supply, we hit the dollar amount to get free shipping. So far, we have found the http://www.luckyvitamin.com/ is the best for selection and price.

I also found a great snack with high fiber and low sugar. Katie loves them. You can find them at Target and most grocery stores -- Fiber One Chewy Bars from General Mills. They have three or four kinds, but we love the oats & chocolate and the oats and strawberry.

Hope this all helps! I am closing in on 30 pounds lost and now working on the next 25! It has made for an interesting holiday season. Suzie was a great sport for Thanksgiving - we had turkey, rice and green beans. Katie loved it as did I. We splurged with cranberry sauce and Suzie with gravy. No pumpkin pie :-(

I need to survive the holiday cookies as I am sure Suzie and Katie will make chocolate chip and sugar cookies - my favorites!

Katie Met Santa Today

Katie and I went to the Cougar Mountain Zoo in Issaquah today. We hung out for a couple of hours to check out everything. Our first stop was to visit with Santa and feed his reindeer. Katie was a little starstruck by Santa and wouldn't sit on his lap, but after quite a bit of coaxing, she was willing to stand in front of him long enough for a picture. He gave her a piece of chocolate afterward and she said she got to touch his glove when she took the candy from his hand. It was soft, she told me.

On our way out of Santa's house, we stopped to say hello and feed the reindeer. Katie threw small pieces of apple on the ground near them and they promptly gobbled them up. Rudolph wasn't there, but all the others were.

Next stop was to get Katie's face painted. She got cute Rudolph on one cheek and a beautiful snowflake on the other cheek.

Then we heard quite a noise over in the tiger cage, so we rushed over to see what was going on. We discovered that the two tigers in there together were playing rather roughly with each other. There was lots of growling, hissing, swatting, rolling and pouncing happening. It sure was fun to see such activity from zoo animals. That doesn't usually happen, in my experience anyway.

When we got home, Katie rode her scooter and played with the neighbor, Tyler, while I put up some Christmas lights on the bushes out front. Then for dinner, we headed over to Mel and Courtney's, after stopping off at Home Depot for more lights. Our yard looked dull compared to our neighbors, I thought. Anyway, we enjoyed the evening with Mel, Courtney, Stef, Jack and Avery. Mel whipped up a yummy breakfast for dinner consisting of pancakes, hash browns, bacon and a creamy orange fruit salad leftover from a batch Mel's Mom made recently. Good food and good company. Doesn't get much better than that. Thanks, guys.