Biking, Basketball and a Box of Childhood

This past weekend just flew by. Busy with basketball. 

Watching. Videotaping. Cheering. That's what I was doing. 

Hubs was gone, busy with biking (a weekend camp/bike trip). 

He just barely got home (left on Friday).

My 16-year old had EIGHT games this week. In addition to the time spent going and watching him play, the basketball continues when I get home. I man the video camera during his games, and so I need to go through the clips, discarding those where nothing memorable happened. I then take the remaining highlights and make a Muvee ... again going through the clips to highlight the important parts, adding a title/credits, and music. It can take a lot of time where I am just sitting at the computer. I was pretty happy when #2 and one of his friends did the first "going through the clips" portion. Saved me several hours, and I was able to get straight to the muvee making. I also updated the Basketball Blog, where I showcase the YouTube links (and I've been getting into Instagram and Twitter more too, as that's what the teenagers are using most these days.)

Here's #2 in action ...

... Wednesday's game against Riverton is up on YouTube. Here's a Cal clip...

A video posted by BlackhamBall (@blackhamball) on May 2, 2015 at 8:28pm PDT

Saturday, I also went to watch my nine year old play. I often jog the track during his games, if one of my other boys will come man the video camera. As they weren't willing, I was the videographer this week. I was glad I was, because the munchkin had an AMAZING game! Normally I only get one or two usable clips from these games, but on Saturday I had enough to make a muvee of just that game!

Between all the basketball ... I DID hit Zumba on Saturday. With Hubs gone, I stayed up late on Friday night. I really thought I'd sleep in ... but I was awake around 7:00, so off to Zumba I went. On Sunday, the boys and I went to my folks for a monthly celebration (all the current birthdays), and my brother brought "a box of childhood" in the form of records that he had somehow ended up with. I'm not sure why, because some of these records were MINE. 

I've been searching online for any updated digital editions of the "Animals" and had never had any luck. I had located "Music Machine" but not the Chip and Dale "Little Red Caboose" ... that one definitely did belong to my brother. He's apparently not as sentimental about it as I am though, as I ended up coming home with the box of records. Now ... I need a record player!

That was my weekend, it was marvelous. Weight actually stayed about this same Sat/Sun, but did bop up this morning, as it is wont to do. 158.9 for Monday morning ... back to the schedule, return to the routine!

Yea Monday!

 

I love Mondays. One of my Zumba instructors posted the picture above. I'm not a Zumba instructor, just a rabid follower, but I say that pretty much every weekend! Zumba does have a lot to do with it. But it's more the return to routine. I can do SO much better with exercise and eating on the weekdays. The weekends totally throw me off.  I mean ... I weighed in at 155.6 on Friday morning. This morning? 159.6. Up four pounds over the weekend. Now, I know much is probably water weight (hubs and I did indulge in popcorn last night while we watched several shows) but still ...

For a while there, I was pretty regular with my "Marvelous in my Monday" weekend recap. Then I started doing a weekly recap in my weekly weigh-in on Fridays, and felt it was a little repetitive, and my Monday posts kind of disappeared.  This past weekend was pretty busy though, so I thought I'd come back and post all about it :)

Friday night we went out to dinner with my folks and my brother and his wife. It was Chinese, which isn't too bad calorie wise. There's no bread/rolls for me to overdose on, we don't do dessert. I get the sweet and sour chicken without the sauce (not for calorie control, just because of my eating issues).

Saturday I went shopping. I cleaned out the fridge on Friday and the poor little fruit drawer was empty. We went to Sam's Club, and while I usually leave the kidlets home, today I invited them along. I gave them $10 and they went to the food court while I did the shopping.

They were pretty happy and full after ... and our fruit was restocked. Apples, bananas, grapes, clementines and the first watermelon of the season (I picked it out myself, and it was a good one!) I  don't like strawberries myself, but even I had to admit they looked awesome. They were huge! But the last package I had purchased had gone uneaten, so I passed them up.

Then, my youngest had a basketball game. He is playing at the gym with a track above the court. Often, I'll jog the track while watching the game. I can usually get in four miles or so. The problem is, I also like to get video of the games. One of my other boys had been helpful in coming and handling the video camera, so I could jog. But not this week (or last week). I really DO want to have the camera on though, I just love catching clips like this ...

Colton shoots and scores in today's basketball game. Follow @blackhamball for more Blackham boy basketball clips!

A video posted by JenB (@jenblackham) on Apr 25, 2015 at 2:32pm PDT

Saturday afternoon, we went with Hub's side of the family to the cemetery. On Thursday, it has been 23 years since my husband's father passed away. It's been an annual April tradition for our family. It was a little overcast and rainy, so we didn't stay too long.

After, we went out to eat, and this time there was most definitely dessert. 

High calories!

Sunday there was sleeping in. I'd laid out some frozen croissants for breakfast. They rise overnight, then you bake them up fresh and warm. Delicious! NOT low calorie. Then there was church, then a nice nap. I did make Sunday Circles (Belgian Waffles) for the boys ... and myself. Then Hubs and I watched several episodes of American Crime and the latest Game of Thrones ... while munching on popcorn.  Not a low calorie day. I did elliptical 40 minutes both Saturday and Sunday, but that was not even close to competing with the calorie intake. 

So back to Monday morning ... when I am uber active, and can usually make better food choices, when we aren't going out to eat and such. How was your weekend?

MIMM - Easter Weekend

For a while there, I was participating in the Marvelous In My Monday link-up every week. Recapping the weekend, admitting to my weekend weight gain. I got a little out of the habit, as I'd recap the entire week on Friday, and felt like that was enough.

But this past weekend (and a few days before) have been full of family and fun. It was Spring Break for the kidlets, they were out Thursday and Friday, and today. As I'm in charge of bringing eggs to the family party, I put the kids to work filling eggs. I really thought I had enough stuff,  but I had to make another trip to the store for "fillers" ... in addition to candy, we try and have a lot of non-edible stuff too. Little toys, stickers, balloons, etc. We put some monetary prizes in some of the eggs too - a $2 bill, a silver dollar, and a copper coin (Hubs is a collector).

 A big basket of eggs!

Hubs decided to run to my folks house ... it's about 10 miles. He left about an hour before we did. We caught up to him around the 6 mile mark, and he said he was done and accepted a ride the rest of the way. 

It was fun to see ALL the Fitbit's at the family gathering ... let's see, there were eright ONEs (me, Grandma, Grandpa, three of my boys, ny brother and his wife), five of the FLEX (two brothers, two SIL, one sister), one FORCE (it's been recalled, but my oldest brother didn't give it up), one Charge (my 11-year old), one ChargeHR (me) and one Surge (Happy Easter Hubs!) I hope to get my 14-year old to wear the Flex Hubs had been using.

 There was too much eating this weekend. Not enough exercise (well, Hubs got enough in on Saturday!). I barely hit 3000 steps on Sunday, it was such a lazy day. My 11-year old asked me how many steps I had, and I admitted my number to him. He had over 12,000! No "exercise" just lots of playing around!

So with Easter behind us, my weight UP ... I really hope to get back on a schedule, and reign in the eating. It was back to Zumba this morning, errands, then putting away all of Easter. We hadn't dyed eggs, and the little guys complained about that, so I hard boiled some and we did it today. Dyeing a day late!

How was your Easter weekend?
What Easter Treats temp you the most?

It's Monday?

It doesn't feel like Monday. The kids aren't in school due to the MLK holiday. There was sleeping in, a late breakfast, and we're going out with family tonight. Not my usual "Motivated Monday"  but I'll still do my best!  It was a great Zumba class this morning and I've done one elliptical session so far. My littlest one had some homework due tomorrow. A worksheet on Martin Luther King Jr. It was fun to help him work through it and learn a little more about the man myself.

As usual for my Monday, I'm linking up with MIMM and recapping the weekend. It was a memorable one. On Friday, #2 was playing in a big basketball game over at the high school. Normally it's just me and #3 coming to watch, sometimes Daddy will try to hit the game. But this week, it was a big fundraiser dinner, so all the brothers, Maga, Aunt Ana and her boys, were there. And what a game it was! This was against our main rival, and it was ending up tied at the end of every quarter ... including the fourth. So into overtime. Just a second left on the clock, it's tied up again and MY SON, from way behind the 3-point line is passed the ball ...

Check out the video below!

Clutch Callahan for the win in overtime! I shared this on Facebook yesterday and just figured out how to share here. #chhsbasketball

A video posted by JenB (@jenblackham) on Jan 17, 2015 at 10:04am PST

It was SO awesome! A link to all the game highlights is here. I spent some of my Saturday and Sunday going through the clips and making the video. I have video from two other basketball games (#3 and #5 played on Saturday, I'll need to get to them at some point too *Ü*  Basketball Mom!)

Also on Saturday, Hubs and I played racquetball again. I'm so glad we've got back to the court! We used to do it all the time. I hope we can keep it up, it's a perfect Saturday activity for me! 

Another Saturday event ...

With five active boys, we've never had a broken window! The weather was quite nice on Saturday, and the boys were playing outside. Makeshift baseball with a piece of pipe and a hard ball. The pipe ended up flying. It was quite the crash for those of us in the house! Broken glass everywhere, inside and out. Right now we have a nice piece of cardboard over the broken pane, I'm not sure when we'll get around to having it replaced.

Even though we just HAD Saturday, it SO feels like a Saturday today! This week will be a little off schedule. Hubs will be out of town for a few days, which can impact my days/nights. The kids are out of school on Friday too (for the end of the quarter).  My son's early morning driver's ed is now done (YEA!) so I don't need to make an additional early morning carpool to the school every day. I SHOULD still continue to get up early and get started on my day, but, we'll see.

How was your weekend?

Weekend Worries and Monday Mornings

Ah ... Monday Mornings.

Monday mornings have been a bit traumatic in our house of late. Anxiety Child (#4) gets comfortable being safe and sound at home over the weekend, and so the thought of returning to school for SEVEN WHOLE HOURS is completely overwhelming to him. I'm sure other kids, and even adults feel the same way.  But Anxiety Child? He refuses to get out of bed, to get dressed, to eat breakfast. He says he's sick. He cries. He begs to stay home, or have me stay with him at school. 

Sigh ... it was that kind of morning.

I tried to distract him by reflecting on the weekend and all that had happened. 

• He's had a loose tooth that has been causing him pain for a few days and on Friday, he finally pulled it out! I'm so glad to have that troublesome tooth gone. Oh ... the tooth fairy STILL hasn't come! Flaky fairy!
• The boys got  haircuts (I actually cut #4's myself, although the other boys required a "professional" at the local salon). Would his friend's notice?
• I picked him up the brand new Pokemon game for DS that he had been anxiously awaiting and saving his money for. Was anyone else lucky enough to get it too? Red or Blue?
• Daddy took him and #5 to see the movie "BigHero6" which he loved. Maybe some of his friends had seen it too ...
• He memorized all the state capitals and was ready to pass them off to his teacher ... one step closer to earning the "Great American Award" in school. 

#4 and his new Pokemon game.

 #4 in a silly mood.

 Me and My Boy...

He Survived School!

It wasn't really a great weekend for me. Last weekend recap I mentioned that on Thursday night at Zumba, I wasn't feeling well. I made it through the class, and went to my Friday morning class, but felt a bit off the entire weekend. Well this week ... it happened AGAIN! Not at Zumba Thursday night. I felt great! It was Friday night. I was making #4 a toasted cheese sandwich when it came on. I felt dizzy. Cold and clammy. Nauseated. I needed to lay down before I fell down, but I also wanted to finish up the sandwich. I couldn't find the spatula, until #4 handed it to me (after I burned the sandwich). Off to bed. I felt awful. Hubs checked on me when he got home from his derby. Brought me a heating pad as I was still so cold. I mentioned #2 was still out with friends and he took care of getting him home.

I felt better on Saturday, but still had a bit of a "hangover" from whatever it was that hit me the night before. I stayed in bed for a while, and didn't bother to make it when I got out. It was just one of those "I'm not even going to make the bed" kind of mornings. I got a little elliptical in and felt fine, but not up to doing a lot. I played some games with the kids (Scattergories,  BabbleOn, Boggle), made cookie press cookies (pumpkins for Thanksgiving) and caught up on some blogging (still REALLY behind on the family blog though!)

I'd actually thought I might get a lot of exercise in on Saturday. Hubs and the two older boys were helping get Maga's (grandma) stuff from storage into her new home and were gone most of the day. It was a yucky, overcast, dreary and depressing day though. Rain in the morning, snow in the evening.

 The Blackham Boys & Maga's Move

So ... Monday morning. Hubs took the day off work to continue working on the move. #1 was off to work. The boys (including Anxiety Child) were off to school. I made it to Zumba, ran some errands, got in some additional exercise, did some cleaning and laundry). #4 was fine when I picked him up from school. They say he's always fine AT school... it's the anticipation anxiety that kills us! Linking up with MIMM ... hoping for Marvelous Mondays (on medication *Ü*???) in the future!

How was YOUR weekend and Monday morning?

Do you have any anxiety issues to deal with?

"Weak"ends

Oops ... I didn't get a post up yesterday. Usually I do! Monday is my MOTIVATED day. The return to routine, back to the structure of the schedule. I do SO much better Mon-Thursday. Weekends?  I'm "weak" ... exercise and eating suffer. I don't know that I really relax, but I don't hold myself to the same standard. It's the weekend ...

Yesterday, I was a little nervous to step on the scale. I'd bumped up a bit even for my Friday weigh-in. Up a little more Saturday morning. Up a little more on Sunday. Would I be able to stay on my "under 150" trend? I did. 148.9 Monday morning. But as I didn't get my post up yesterday, I also didn't keep my calories in check (had the folks over for "Grandparents and Games" night, with pizza and ice cream). Even though I got in quite a bit of exercise during the day... I was up to 149.6 this morning. So if I want to stay in my happy 145-150 range, I'd better shape up! No relaxing!

This past WEAKend wasn't great as far as food/fitness. The decline actually started Thursday night. I went to Zumba in the evening (after hitting a class in the morning too). Usually this is a good thing. One final push before the official Friday morning weigh-in. But last Thursday? I felt off. A little light-headed. I was COLD (instead of sweaty and hot). My heart rate dropped ... and I didn't care. I finished the class, but didn't get great numbers. I thought maybe I hadn't eaten enough, so I did eat more when I got home.

Friday morning weight was up a bit. I went to Zumba and felt pretty good. Not my usual bouncy self, but nothing like last night. I got in my hour of elliptical spread throughout the day, but I took it pretty easy.

Saturday was fairly low-key. I slept in. The hubs and I hit a matinee at Hale Theater. This is more high class than the Desert Star theater which we also frequent (and which I really do love). I actually performed at Hale Theater myself years ago when they first moved to Utah ... before they turned professional.

The show was "Catch Me If You Can" which you may recall as a movie starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo Dicaprio some years ago. I really enjoyed the movie, and I also read the book and really liked it. I enjoyed the play too. It was a musical, a bit too much dancing. I like dancing ... admire it as I can't do it myself. It was just a little overpowering on such a small stage (it's theater in the round).  It really must be quite a workout for those dancers every single performance! It would be interesting to strap a heart rate monitor and Fitbit on them and get their stats! *Ü*

Unlike Desert Star, it isn't a dinner theater ... so I didn't go completely overboard on popcorn, cheesy bread & drinks. But they do sell concessions, and Hubs bought me a GREAT BIG chocolate chip cookie.

#3 had a basketball game Saturday evening. I did my usual pacing around before and during the game and got in 7000+ steps. Not really active steps, but steps none the less. Better than just sitting. I don't like just sitting. I just hope I don't look too weird walking around. Everyone should be watching the game anyway, right? Pretty easy win for the boys, the final game of this season ... but the next season is just around the corner  (and I'll have three boys playing then, #3 playing in two leagues, so double the games and practices for him).

On Sunday I made the traditional Sunday Circles breakfast. This week I DID NOT EAT A WAFFLE. Every week I tell myself I can make them but not eat them ... but I always end up eating one. I didn't this week. I missed it a bit, but you know ... it was ok. I still snuck some bacon and hash browns, but I actually kept calories in check. I made baked ziti for the boys for dinner ... I don't eat that myself, so no temptation there. I actually LOVE making dinners I don't like. It's very helpful in controlling my eating!

I didn't even have any "anxiety child" excuses yesterday! #4 went to school ... maybe not happily, but willingly, with no tears. Unheard of for a Monday morning lately! He really struggles going back to school after spending the weekend in his home happy place. I think distraction is a key with him. We were very busy in the morning finding homophones (those words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings). It was fun and it kept his mind occupied I think. On that note ...

I need to make sure my WEEKends aren't WEAKends!

Linking up with MIMM (a day late and a couple pounds over!)

Monday, Monday

My Polar greeted me this morning. Yup. It's my birthday. It was actually 6:30 in the morning when I picked it up ... I never got around to changing its clock during daylight savings last weekend. I'm not sure that I will.

I actually had a pretty good Monday morning weigh-in (147.1). Yes, it's up from Friday's official weekly weigh-in, but not as bad as last Monday. We are going out to a birthday dinner tonight, and then having some cake, so I'm not sure about tomorrow!

It was a pretty good weekend though ...

• Friday, the elementary kids were out of school. I still hit my Zumba class, but went on a bit of a Halloween candy binge. I didn't get in quite as many steps as usual, as I spent much of the day making a quilt for Hubs (his birthday is coming up quick too). Friday was my mom's birthday. The siblings were getting together, but Hubs and I weren't able to make it.
• Saturday ... started the day cheering on #3 at his basketball game. Lately, I've been trying to walk around during the games. I usually get in 4000-6000 steps. There wasn't really a good walking spot, but there were bleachers. I had a section to myself (so I wouldn't bug anyone) and I did a little "step up, step down" during the game. I got in 4000+ steps and actually worked up a pretty good sweat!

 Saturday Stepping

Saturday evening, I had made plans to take Mom out to dinner. My sister, my brother and his wife joined us. We went to a nice Chinese restaurant, and then back to the folks house to play games. 

• Sunday was busy. We had the primary program at our church. #4 was NOT very happy about participating. Hubs mom (Maga) came out to see the boys. Then we had to rush to my brother's church, where they were blessing their baby. We went to their house after to socialize ... and eat too many cookies!

 The little boys and Maga ...

I did get in elliptical each day, and tried to combat the calories. With the candy, dinner out and cookies, I'm pretty happy I am where I am this Monday morning. I SHOULD have eaten better today ... banked some calories for Texas Roadhouse and some cake. Alas ... oh well, it's only my birthday once a year, right?

Linking up with Marvelous in my Monday ... how was your weekend?