Liam playing

Liam has been loving spring. Everyday he wakes up and sings to his "popcorn tree" (a tree outside our window that has flowers,) he plays with his rabbit Gabe outside, waters the flowers for his mom and looks for bugs and counts the worms. Recently we went on a field trip to the MSU dairy to see cows and today we found a ducks nest under a tree. He wanted to stay and wait until the baby ducks came out of their shell, told me "I wanna see a baby ducky break a egg and see it out", and started army crawling towards the nest trying to be all sneaky when I said it was time to go home.

Health Eating Challenge

Brady and I both eat pretty healthy on a daily basis- lots of salads, veggies, fruit smoothies, and we rarely eat pasta, rice, and processed foods. We both love chocolate and could think of no better entertainment than eating dessert. It only takes a few winter months of laissez-faire chocolate eating, and clothes start to get tight.
For the past 3 weeks we've been doing a health challenge with a few members of my side of the family. Besides having leftovers from a brownie sundae party at my house, it's been pretty painless and a good reminder of healthy dietary guidelines. We've both found that when we eat sweets in moderation then we actually enjoy them much more.

The hardest of the rules (to be followed 6 days a week)-
5 fruits and veggies a day
No more than 150 calories of sweets
No eating after 9:00 pm

Other rules-
3 servings of whole grains
1.5 liters water
cardio 5 times a week, strength training 2-3


Total pounds lost- Brady 5, Dani 4

Our plan is to do this for 6 weeks, take a few weeks off and do another 6 weeks. If anyone wants to join in on our fitness let us know. It really does help having the social support. Also any tips and recipes are welcomed too.

Liam playing randomly

Liam loves to run, do summersaults and throw things. In this movie he's just being himself. He says "I want grandpa" because he misses papa, as we all do.

$25 Home Update

This past week the weather has been great so I have been spray painting, staining, cleaning and fixing. We bought some $ 5 previously returned paint and painted the door, light fixture, shutters, mailbox, decksides, and took off the railing. It looks so much more inviting. I can't wait for the flowers to come in. It's hard for me to stomach paying much for plants so most of them have been divisions from friends, dug up from ditches, or bought on clearence. I'll post more as I get closer to the finished product. Thanks family for the DIY tips, any more ideas would be very welcomed.


The Old Look

Happy Easter!

Liam loved dying eggs, and pointing out the different colors. I'm sure next time he eats eggs will request that he bathes his in color first. This weekend's other Easter festivities included a church kids easter egg hunt, a potluck easter dinner with a pinata, and eating candy sent from the grandmas (thanks!).

Go Michigan State!

All of Michigan was on the egde of their seats Monday night as Michigan State played in the NCAA Championships. MSU ball has definately been the buzz here and it has been fun to see this underdog team blow pass basketball powerhouses to make it to the championship game. Win or lose we're proud of the Spartans.

Brady just got back from New Orleans from an Organizational Psychology conference. He was there to present research on multitasking and cognitive ability. His presentation went well and he should be on track to getting the paper published in a top tier journal this summer. Go Brady! (Oh and he also got to listen to some good jazz, eat some stellar gumbo served by a cool guy with dreads.)

Indoor cycling (aka 'spin') Workshop, March 2009

My favorite way to workout these days is spin, or group indoor cycling. I've been teaching Spin for the past 9 months and absoluely love it. If you or your knees hate running but you want an efficient workout there is nothing like it for high intensity, low impact exercise. (I still like running but it's still too cold here in Michigan) I have a guy in my class that has lost 8 lbs since starting Spinning 6 weeks ago. It lifts your butt, burns lots of calories, and gives you an excuse to listen to loud music. Give it a try.