The Never-Ending Season

      4 Comments on The Never-Ending Season

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At the end of the fall/winter hockey season, you will usually hear me say that I’m so happy that hockey is over, and how excited I am for spring. Ideally, spring means things are more laid-back, because hockey is shorter and you typically have less time at the rink. This spring has been different, however, thanks to the addition of two sports I wasn’t expecting: baseball (JJ) and lacrosse (Jamie). I’m grateful that Jamie agreed to take the spring off hockey, but JJ wasn’t actually going to play baseball originally, so of course we signed him up for hockey. Then his school decided to form a fourth grade team at the last minute, and, well, how could I say no when he was so excited to play baseball with all his friends?

Because lacrosse is 30 minutes from the house (in a direction we never go), and of course it always overlaps with hockey, as does baseball, it has been a stressful spring to say the least. But I’m doing my best!

On a positive note, Thursday was Take Your Child to Work Day, and JJ got to go with me this year. JJ is enthusiastic about pretty much everything, and he was so excited to come to work with me. I work for a very large company, and they do the day up big! JJ got to do tons of fun activities, and the highlight of his day was…ice cream.

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He was so excited to use my headphone, like a real business person. 😉  Actually, the highlight of my day was when he wanted to ask our president a question at the presentation for the kids. He had his hand up almost constantly for the half an hour Q&A session, and when he didn’t get chosen, he asked me if we could stay after to talk to him. The line was kind of long, since everyone wanted to talk to “the big guy” and take pictures with him, but I agreed. When we got up to him, he introduced himself and very maturely asked a question: “How do you think you can raise the company stock price?” Ha ha ha!! The president looked surprised for a minute, and then he gave a wry smile and replied, “Actially, Jason, I get asked that question a lot.” And then he patiently answered in kid-friendly terms. 🙂

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I was really proud of JJ for having the courage to ask. What you have to understand is that we had listened to Bloomberg radio on the way to work that morning, because I wanted to give him the full “real world job” experience.  When the topic of stocks came up, he asked me what they were, and that led to a long discussion about stocks using a fictitious company that we made up, of which he was the owner. 😉 So that’s how he came to think of that question.

All in all, it was a great day for both of and he definitely got his money’s worth.

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Saturday, we had a youth group fundraiser at church to help send the kids to camp this summer. It was a euchre tournament, and one thing my husband and I love to do is play euchre. We actually met at college sitting around the Greek tables playing euchre. 🙂 My husband is an amazing euchre player, and I usually don’t enjoy playing against him, because he beats me pretty much every time. Which of course leads to some testy emotions for the rest of the night in our house. 😉 This tournament was organized so that you had random partners that switched up every round. We were actually paired together for the first round, and we smoked our competition. 😀 After that, I didn’t see him again for the remainder of the tournament. We had fun playing cards and enjoying the pasta dinner.  There was also a table of desserts, all of which were made by yours truly.

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I was a busy girl Saturday morning! And that was done after running 7 miles. 😉 I ate much more dessert then I should, but I sure do love my lemon cake. Plus, they had that frozen garlic bread with the fake butter slathered inside. I don’t ever buy it for myself, but I secretly love that sh*t.  I tracked it all as best I could, but sometimes it’s hard to gauge the true nutritional information for things you don’t make yourself. At least I know exactly how much the desserts were worth.:p We had a great time at the tournament, although I think I had a better time than my husband, who lost…to me!

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The tournament was scored individually, and I ended up having the most points, beating my husband by one. What a glorious day. Plus, I won a $10 gift card to Cold Stone Creamery. Yay, ice cream!

Sunday, I had the opportunity to go to the symphony…a youth Symphony, actually!

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I have a friend who’s daughter is in the Dearborn Youth Symphony, and I went to see their final concert of the season. As someone who has grown quite fond of classical music in the last couple of years, I’ve discovered that there is just nothing like hearing it in person. And when it’s performed by middle and high schoolers, it’s even more impressive. The high schoolers, especially, were absolutely amazing. They played some incredibly difficult pieces, and they were spot-on.  And then afterwards, they had cookies!   If I wasn’t convinced before, the cookies definitely helped me determine that I need to go to the symphony more often. 😉

So, let’s talk about my weigh in, shall we?

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Up exactly one pound from last week, but honestly, after all the desserts I ate on Saturday (and leftover lemon pound cake on Sunday), I’m not overly worried about it.  I’m still within a pound of my goal, and I know that my weight will fluctuate daily, so I can’t expect to be at exactly 120 every week. Maybe next week it’ll change for the better. 🙂

With all that said, I did take the time to log all my macronutrients for last week and chart them to see where I might have gone wrong.  Time for some geeky Excel charts!

050116Calories 050116Sodium 050116Protein

050116Carbs050116Sugar

You can see that, other than Thursday, when I did a lot of walking during the work event, I stayed within my calories every day.  Still, I clearly have other issues. :p  Carbs and sugar…my achilles heel.  I know I really need to cut back on both, but gosh, it’s hard.  I probably need a 12-step program, or an intervention. Of course, the first step is admitting you have a problem, and I’m not sure I’m ready to do that yet. :p

I haven’t talked at all about my running lately, but I really want to.  I’m making plans (for the first time since September!), and I want to put it all down in writing because I think it will help me solidify my plans.  And I will!  Right after hockey, lacrosse, baseball… 😉  In the meantime, here’s a neat picture I took Tuesday morning during my MAF training run.

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That’s a crescent moon just before sunrise. See–there can be beauty in slowing down. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

4 thoughts on “The Never-Ending Season

  1. Meg B

    I think one of the bes tparts about going slower is getting a chance to take pictures!

    Good job on your euchre tournament. I love tournaments like that!

    Reply
    1. steph Post author

      I agree! I’m finding I do enjoy running slower…it certainly makes me dread waking up early a lot less, lol!

      Reply
  2. Kitty

    Ha, ha! I love the stocks question! That was great.

    On the carbs/sugar thing I do think that SmartPoints helps with that. It makes me more aware. As someone on maintenance, of course, you don’t have to stay within specific points ranges… I know you aren’t trying to do that. But, seeing the SmartPoints in a food can sometimes be a wake up call about a specific food.

    Reply
    1. steph Post author

      That’s true–although honestly, I am well aware of which foods I should avoid most of the time. But…those also happen to be the ones I really like. 😉 Thanks for stopping by!

      Reply

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