Steamin' Clean

Gosh, It's been a few weeks. Nothing too exciting has really happened. Just the usual day to day stuff. I guess you know nothing too exciting has happened when I want to post about my new steam cleaner. I'll consider it an early Anniversary present. Thank you Jesse. Haha.

 

Anyway, if someone would have told me 10 years ago that I'd get this excited over something that could clean my house, I'd call them crazy. But now I'm the crazy one.

 

A coworker of mine from hers to work a few weeks back to clean her station. And I got talking to her about it and asked her if it cleans grout lines out well. And she said it would. So I went onto Amazon (my go-to website for everything) and I found this one on sale.



You see, our kitchen floor is just this beautiful travertine tile. But the grout lines had literally turned black from all the dirt and grime. Nothing I tried would clean it. Until NOW.... It came over the weekend and Jesse had to test it out on one grout line (he was sceptical it could work as good as my coworker said). And he was surprised. That one grout line was tan again.

Monday and Tuesday I spent alot of hours cleaning the house. Toilets, Showers, Sinks,  Floors, Stove top.. you name it I cleaned it. Cleaning had never been this fun.

But I had to take pictures of the kitchen floor because it made the most transformation and took the most time. I'm a little bummed that the pictures didn't show how dirty the grout lines look. But hopefully you can get the gist.

Dining Area Before:

 After:

Just that area took me and hour and a half. Skimming the floor inch by inch. On all fours. So I stopped for a bit and didn't finish the rest of the kitchen until the boys were asleep in bed. But this picture shows the difference of where I hadn't cleaned as to where I had, Unreal Right?

Kitchen Floor Before:

 After:

OH it's just so BEAUTIFUL again. It looks brand new. You could eat off that floor it's so clean. Seriously! The hot steam also sanitizes on top of cleaning. I love my new toy.

Legacy Duathlon

Saturday I had the opportunity to do my first ever Duathlon. My cousin, Timalee, had registered for the short course then found out she could get a free registration, so she transferred her original registration over to my name. So I just traded a haircut for it (I love my job for that reason). The short course was run 1.5 miles, bike 20 miles, and then run 1.5 miles again. Nothing big. But I thought it would be fun to go participate in.

 

The morning of it was really cold and super windy. So waiting for the race to start was rough. I arrived there around 7;30 to set up my transition area, then waited around with Timalee, her hubby Rolynn and their friend Ryan and his wife Sarah. When the race started at 9am they were letting people one at a time go ever 15 seconds. Being in the short course I was closer to the back of the line, so I didn't get started until about 9:45.

 

When I started I just had it in my head to do the best that I could do. And to enjoy the opportunity to race.

 

Along the course they had some photographers. Which I was grateful to because I didn't think to take any pictures. And it would obviously be tough taking pictures while I was racing anyway. haha.

 

The first run was great. It felt good to finally get going. I was keeping a 7:20min pace. Then when I got back to the transition I transferred into my bike shoes, helmet and adjusted my GPS watch to biking setting.

 

It felt awesome being on my bike. This was pretty much the first time really riding this season. Since the wind was blowing north and I was was riding north it gave me a nice little push. But once I hit the turn around point I had to go against the wind. Then I wasn't loving the wind so much. My quads were toasty. But I kept pushing and kept a steady pace.

 



 After 12 miles I returned back to the Transition Point and got back into running mode. This was a weird feeling going from biking motion into running. My legs felt like wet noodles and almost like they didn't know what to do. So my pace at first was a bit slower than the first run. But after a few minutes I was able so pick it back up and get to the 7:20 pace. My left IT Band was feeling a little bit tight along with my right shin... but it wasn't enough to slow me down.

This picture is right before I went across the finish line.

 I finished with a time of 1:04:13. I had no clue if that was a good time or not. But I didn't really care. I had to hurry off to work. My first client was at 11:30 and it was about 10:50 when I finished the race. So by the time I loaded up my bike and gear I left around 11. I rushed home with no time to shower and changed my clothes. So yes I went to work with my numbers written on my arms and legs, looking kinda grungy.

I get to work and about a half hour later I noticed I had missed a call from Timalee. She left me a voicemail telling me that I took 3rd place in my age division. And since I wasn't there she had to go up on the podium for me (she's the one on the right).

On her way home from the race, Timalee stopped by the salon and she brought me my medal.

If you can imagine I was on a total giddy high. I couldn't believe that I had placed at the very first Duathlon I'd ever raced in. I went out to do my best and the fact that I placed just excited me.

I later found out that in all the women that raced in the short course I was 5th over all. A total of 44 women raced and I was number 5?  Seriously?

I then get a text from Timalee telling me that Top Gear wants me to be on their Tri Team. Could this be happening? I felt like a little school girl all giddy with excitement.

Being on the team will give me the opportinity to do the triathons through out this coming summer. This is going to give me some awesome goals to strife for and chances to grow. I'm totally stoked! (I'm going to have to really work on my swimming skills)

When I got home from work that night, Ryker saw my medal and asked if I won the race? I said yes (sort of) and he was so happy for me. He kept telling me how proud he was of me. What support. I love that he's so enthusiastic.

I'll post more about the Tri Team when I learn more of what it all entails. But for now I'm just really excited and wanted to share.

Taking advantage of the days off

This last week Jesse had Monday through Thursday off. So we decided it would be fun to take the boys to the Dinosaur Museum. I  love that we get to do this now. Taking time to be together during the day. Ryker doesn't have preschool on Tuesdays so we thought that would be the perfect day to go.

 

We drove separately to Jesse's school. We left his truck there so that Jesse could go to school right after the museum.

 

I had never been to the museum and I was pleasantly surprised how good of a museum it is. 

 They had a sandy area with water and little dinosaurs where the kids could build up the sand to make islands or barges.

 I was happy to see that they provided waterproof aprons for the kids.

 The skeletons were really fascinating. The thought of these huge creatures roaming the earth is pretty dang cool. I've always wondered if they were around before Adam and Eve were put in the Garden of Eden? I'll add that to the list of questions I have when I get to the other side.

 Sometimes... this kiddo just cracks me up. Look at this cheesy pose. He's just hilarious.

 Another cool thing that they had were these huge magnetic puzzles. Since Ryker loves puzzles he just had the greatest time. I am always impressed with his puzzle skills.

 Like always, Cy wants to be doing what Ryker is doing. I really like this picture.

 Another hands on exhibit was a sand pit with dinosaur bones to be uncovered. They had brushes they could use to brush away the sand to discover the bones. If we would have let them, these two boys would have been in there all day.

 Jesse and I sitting back and watching the boys. I love, love, love that we could spend the day together. This man makes me so happy. I don't know where I'd be without him. He truly is my other half and we make a great team.

After the museum we went to Wendy's to get a late lunch and then had to take Jesse to school. It'll be nice when school will be over so that we can have him for the entire day of his day off. But for now we will take what we can get.

Easter Sunday

Jesse worked a shift yesterday and he got home around 7:30 this morning. My plan was when he got home is when I'd hide the eggs in the back yard. Around 6:30 I woke up naturally (kinda hard to sleep in since my body is used to getting up early every morning). I thought since I'm up I'll at least put the Easter Baskets together. Then I went back to bed to wait for Jesse to come home.

 

Next thing I know Ryker comes down stairs to tell me...

 

"Mom, the eggs are still in the fridge. The Easter Bunny didn't hide them."

 

Oops.

 

I made up some silly excuse that the Easter Bunny must have been busy, but he'll be back to hide them before daddy got home. I then text Jesse to fill him in about the Easter Bunny's "mistake". Ha. He said he'd hurry and hide them when he got home if I put them outside for him.

 

I did that very thing. And when I got the text from Jesse that he was home, I read a book to Ryker so that he wouldn't have the random urge to look in the backyard.

 

When Jesse came inside Ryker went running to him and told him all about the Easter Bunny forgetting to hide the eggs. He went to the fridge to prove his point...BUT... they weren't there. The "Easter Bunny" had snuck in and hid them. Phew! Close call.

 

That Easter Bunny needs to pick up his game. Next year he'll be better :-)

 

In their baskets they got a new church outfit along with a few polos and a Camelbak No Spill Water bottle.

 



 He was pretty stoked about his Easter Basket...

 ...and of course Cy was too.

 Then we were off to hunt for eggs.

 Ryker was so sweet by helping Cy.

 He seriously loves the chickens. Now that we are having warmer days there isn't a day that go by that he doesn't want to play with them. And once Ryker is out there, Cy is too. It's a pretty funny site to see Cy carrying a chicken around.

 Once our egg hunt was over we all got ready for church. I wanted to get a picture of our little family in our Easter outfits. But it took several attempts. Cy kept saying cheese with a weird face...

 ...haha not sure why Cy is tipping his head back. At least he is trying to smile.

 Then he finally makes a good face and then Jesse and I weren't looking at the camera. Oh well. Close enough.

 Two handsome boys amongst the pretty daffodils.

I was so grateful for the beautiful warm weather. It was perfect for this Easter Sunday. How fitting is it that we celebrate our Saviours resurrection while the earth seem to be resurrecting as well? This time of year is so refreshing to see everything come back to life again after a long dead winter.

 

During church today we had combined Relief Society and Priesthood and we talked about the Resurrection. I enjoyed the lesson. It's always a good reminder the sacrifice and suffering that the Saviour did for all of us. He was alone so that we don't need to be. He has felt how all of us feel.

 

I'm grateful to my Saviour for providing the atonement for all of us. There is nothing better than having that in our lives. Giving us the chance to always change and become better. Having Him as our strength so that we will NEVER be alone. 

Just "Dye"ing to be together

I know we are a little early to be dying Easter Eggs. But since tonight is the only night that Jesse would be home before Easter Sunday got here we took advantage of the opportunity. We probably confused Ryker because he kept asking if the Easter Bunny would be coming tomorrow. Explaining that he had to wait until Sunday was tough because days seem like forever in his eyes. 

 It is nice to have this guy around for the night. Kinda can't wait for Paramedic School to be done with so we can have more nights together again. Love having him around.

 This guy was really excited to dye eggs.

 This guy just repeatedly said 'aegg'. It's like he's got an Australian accent when he says egg.  Kinda cute.

 Testing out the new dye kit I found. Required painting instead of dipping in the dye baths.

 He's just loving every minute of this...

 The first little bit, Cy just sat back watching then wanted to paint his own. It's like he was analyzing the technique and then went for it.

 He did pretty dang good if you ask me.

 Once his egg was complete then he decided to paint himself.

Dance Party/Concert in the Ktichen

Today was the first day of Jesse's 6 days off from Ogden. When he came home he ate breakfast and then napped for a bit (since he was up most of the night). Once he got up him and I went to the gym together (put the boys in the Child Care). It was nice to do that together. We won't get to do it too often, but hey at least we will get to do it. Where as before we never got to.

 

Anyway, Jesse went to a massage appointment at my salon afterwards. He needed it so bad. And deserved every minute of it. When he got home he studied a bit for school then had to head out to class.

 

Which left me and the boys to ourselves. For dinner I was trying to recreate Rumbi's Rice bowl. Brown Rice with Chicken, Zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, celery and broccoli with Teriyaki Sauce. And normally dinner becomes a fight with the boys. But tonight Ryker ate his entire bowl and his exact words to me he said...

 

"Thank You Mommy for this Wonderful Dinner."

 

Speechless I was. Where was the whining and the complaining? Tonight it wasn't there. How refreshing! Not only is it nice to get compliments from adults about my cooking... but it's even BETTER when my five year old compliments me. I was on Mommy-Cloud-Nine!

 

For Dessert we went to Orange Leaf. Self Serve Frozen Yogurt. The boys and I love it. And it gives us something to do together.

 

Once we got back is when the real party began. I turned on some music and  it started out as a little dance party in the kitchen. But then we got the "microphones" out and started to sing along. Ryker was totally into it. It was making my heart smile. But then I couldn't help but get into myself.



 Then it turned into a concert. Cy pulled up a bench and we ate popcorn while we watched Ryker "Perform". We would cheer and clap for him after each song.

 I'm telling you... this kid has got some moves. Haha... seriously though. Such a hoot.

Cy went up to join Ryker in the fun, while leaving me on the bench alone to be the crazy fan taking all the pictures. I couldn't help but giggle at him. I guess he thought he should EAT the "microphone" instead of sing into it.

 When a song would end Ryker would then take a bow. He's got that bowing thing down. Hand on the chest and everything.

 Another thing that was making me laugh was his collection of "microphones" he was putting in his back pockets (potato masher included).

Our little concert party went on for about 45 minutes. Constant. It was 45 minutes I don't ever want to forget. We had a blast! Love these little guys!