Tuesday, April 08, 2008

The Many Faces of Kellen

The face of "Woo-hoo, here comes the cake!" (and yes, please take note that I remembered to buy candles this time, thank you very much ...):




The face of "How much longer until I can open my presents?":



The face of "Oooh, nerf guns, the best gift of all!":



The face of "Seriously, should the boy be this happy shooting round puffy balls at his friends??? What are we raising, some kind of militant gun freak???":



The face of "Total gayness and a career in cheerleading in case that NRA spokesman job doesn't work out.":



The face of "Ah, this is what I wanted ... for them to burn off as much energy as possible":



The face of "Kellen trying desperately to tackle his older cousin but dude, that kid is FAST!":



The face of --- Holy cow, what *IS* this really the face of???



Excitement? Happiness???



Total and complete sugar overload???




Oh, well, the best faces of all by the end of the night, "A boy and his dad spending quality time together ... bonding .... aiming beams of light at one another and laughing maniacally when they manage to hit one anothe ...." On second thought, perhaps we need to re-examine our faces and offer Kellen a Disney Princess party next year.



Happy (final) Birthday, Kellen. All I can say is I hope you and your friends had a good time, and I for one, am GLAD that it's over.


PS. I went to the gym again and walked another two miles today. I also added one lap warm up and one lap cool down .... and most importantly .... jogged ONE-HALF of ONE LAP. According to my calculations, that is almost 40 yards. And seriously? I liked to have DIED. The only thing that kept me upright was the fear that none of the elderly people in the gym would have the upper body strength to do chest compressions in the event I was to need CPR.

In truth, my shins are the part of my body that hurts the worst this evening, which leads me to believe I need new work out shoes, which should make it OBVIOUS to anyone reading this that my exercising will have to be put on hold until such time as I can go shopping. Shopping and maybe even lunch. Yes, definitely lunch. And then I'll probably be tired from all that activity and need a nap. (sigh, it's so exhausting being an athlete like this.)

PPS. Lynne, are you kidding me? You don't have the cookies in a tube that you slice apart and bake with pumpkin faces at Halloween and egg shapes at Easter and flags on the 4th of July??? Well, ok, naturally you probably wouldn't have the 4th of July --- but none of the others either? Ok, geez, I'm going to have to re-vamp any plans we might have had to ever visit Britain again. Sure, you've got Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London and Trafalgar Square and Westminster Abbey and Stonehenge and what have you ... but no cookies in a tube? That's barbaric!

13 comments:

Monica H said...

Just to let you know, I made a birthday cake for my grandpa this weekend and I used your lighted toothpick trick. It worked- thanks!

brent said...

shin splints are your body's way of saying "get off me fat person!"

If your shins hurt, then, yes, you should get new, proper, shoes.

But shoes alone are never going to fix your problem.

As long as your heart rate is hi (say, above 120??) then it does not matter at all if you're running, jumping, cart-wheeling or even pogo-stick-jumping.

For _weight-loss_ the _only_ thing that counts is the amount of time you spend each day with an elevated heart rate.

Note - it's really really worth counting (or better yet, getting a heart rate monitor) your heart rate when you exercise - if you're 'out of breath' your heart rate is probably too high, but if you're not breathing fast then your heart rate is probably too low.

Keep walking until you get the right shoes, just don't push your luck with anything that going to jar your legs or put undue strain on your shins.

lack of appropriate footwear is no excuse to not exercise at all - it just means you can't RUN.

Anonymous said...

You should try Gillian Michael's (biggest loser trainer)30 Day Shred video for a work out! I did that on Monday and it is Wednesday and I can still barely walk, move, cough, whatever.... and it is only 20 minutes long! and to further shame myself it was only level 1 for beginners!!!! But to my credit, she is a hard ass! (OK, its not like she was really in my face or anything, but still)

"M"

Oh and Brent, (or anyone)
can you tell me if I am supossed to continue the next day when my body feels like this or am I supossed to take a break and only do this every other day and let my poor aching body rest?

Anonymous said...

Kristie, your new workout has inspired me to get off my tush and stretch. I did some knee bends and plies this morning just to start off easy. Now, however, my right thigh feels as though someone is twisting it into a knot! lol! So that means I should sit out the rest of the week with it propped up, right? just kidding, if I stop nopw I may not start again. Anyways, keep on moving- you are inspiring us out here in reader-land!

Hilary said...

Kristie,

I'm doing a semester abroad in Australia at the moment, and I noticed within the first couple weeks here that even though my Aussie classmates cook, no one bakes. I thought that I would be the cool new friend who makes fresh, warm treats for everyone...until I got to the grocery store and made the horrible discovery that pre-made dough just doesn't exist here either. Not in a tube, not in a box, nothing. I'm with you, it's absolutely barbaric. Two months later and my friends still haven't gotten any treats because I'm lost without the Pillsbury doughboy. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

Brent knows these things...

Anonymous said...

Well Kristie--- Yet another successful birthday party under your belt! Great pictures--- especially the one of your two "boys" playing together. And, wow, am I ever impressed--- another two miles--- YOU GO GIRL!!!!

Kelly said...

UGHHHH...I can NEVER find those pre-shaped cookies in a tube!!

Unknown said...

Love the pictures of Kellen "living it up" on his birthday.

Just so you know, you shamed me into actually doing some brisk walking. Brent knows his stuff but I'm fat and I do get out of breath so I stopped singing while I walk. It's still painful and I still huff and puff, but I'm fat.

I have good nu balance walking shoes but I think when you are out of shape you just have to suck it up and expect pain. It's just my legs saying...WTF????

Does anyone know anything about the FitFlop sandals? I have only read good stuff about them but I don't know anyone who actually has them..except the cute salesgirl at Bath and Body Works. It sure would be nice to be able to slip those on to go walking if they really work...for $49 BUCKS!

Anonymous said...

Kristie, those pictures of Kellen making that crazy face made me BURST out laughing. The funniest part is his hands....it looks like he is definitely on a sugar high and lasers of energy are shooting out his fingers. Hilarious!

brent said...

"Oh and Brent, (or anyone)
can you tell me if I am supossed to continue the next day when my body feels like this or am I supossed to take a break and only do this every other day and let my poor aching body rest?"

Rule #1: listen to your body.
Rule #2: push yourself.

Of course you need to seriously listen to your body and make sure you don't hurt yourself, but you're never going to get anywhere while you're in your comfort zone. The trick is to learn to tell the difference between being "sore and sorry" (a good thing the day after a workout) and "sore and injured" (a very bad thing). The goal is to become an active person for the rest of your life, with all the benefits that come along with that lifestyle - rather than the goal being to (without effort) flip the switch on your life and somehow become an olympic weight-lifter just by doing enough star jumps.

Remember that rest is a significant part of training - your body needs time to repair itself. This means that you should be taking a rest-day every several days, a rest week every several weeks, and even a rest month every several months.

I would say that if you want to stay 'active' during the time that you're convalescing from pushing yourself too hard (don't try to push yourself too hard too early, you're just setting yourself up for defeat and disappointment. You end up making it a power struggle with yourself. Instead, just plug along naturally, take your time, take the long-view... before you know it you'll be running twice around that track as a warm-up. I promise). if you want to stay active you could look at doing some stretching on those days. 20 minutes spent stretching out your legs and torso can greatly improve your fitness and well-being... which is the point right??

Anonymous said...

Kristie - I just loved this entry.
I have a big 'ole smile on my face - all your comments on Kellens pictures cracked me up - especially one of them...especially the one that looked like he should be holding the sparkly baton than the gun. ;)
He is getting so big. I wish he and Riley could visit....coming this summer?! Please?!
Love Erin

URBAN BLONDE said...

You do such a wonderful job of documenting your children's lives! Looks like a great birthday party, a kid so happy he could burst and maybe just one or two future blackmail photos! LOL

Blondie