Beautiful Spring Day

Yet another one. I could get used to this! The weather started out beautiful this morning. I woke up early to get Matt's breakfast and lunch together, and saw him out the door. Then, I worked out, even though it was supposed to be my "rest" day. I get one of those every week, and mine falls on Wednesdays. But, since I ate some junk last night at our class party, I decided to workout to burn some of those extra calories. Boy, do I feel sore! Yesterday, I went with Kate to her health challenge down at the beach. We ran in the sand and I ended up running over a mile and a half in the sand. The dry sand, too, not the hard-packed stuff down by the water. Also, we ran uphill, just to make it harder ;) Anyways, after THAT workout, I feel pretty sore this morning. So working out in the morning was difficult, but I made it through. Then, lo and behold, Kate calls up and says she wants to go to First Landing State Park and go on a "hike." (There aren't many hills or mountains, so really a "walk".) I agreed, and we took the three kids in the stroller and headed out. Kate had on her pedometer, and I think we ended up walking 3.5 miles. Most of the time Kate was talking to Penny, so that took her mind off the walking. And Parker and Preston did so well! They kept getting excited b/c along the way there are replicas of the Native American houses. They called them "caves" and all they wanted to do was eat some lunch in them. Well, Kate had brought snacks, so we let them! How cool is that? Also, at our halfway point was a little park, and the boys got to play. They had a blast, as usual. They're pretty easy to entertain. I had a great morning, lots of fresh air and a little bit of sunshine (we were walking through the trees). The temperature has cooled down just a bit since then, but it is still really pleasant. I could get used to weather like this! I'm not looking forward to summer with its energy-sapping humidity. Oh, and my plants are loving it, too.

My tomato "trees" :)


Mmmmm....Leafy, green lettuce!


My squashes are coming along nicely!


As are my radishes!


And finally, I have some strawberries ready to harvest today!


Now, doesn't that make you want to plant a garden for yourself? :)

Anyways, I'm doing pretty well today. Other than the fact that I have spent about 20 minutes with Matt since Sunday, things are great. The house is clean (sort of), I have no homework (except to study for a final), and I can just relax for a minute until Matt gets home. Hopefully soon!

Ok, well, guess I'll putz around on the computer for a bit.

~Pam

UPDATE-Well, see that juicy, red strawberry in that picture? The really big on right in the front? Well, it sure did taste good! YUMMY!

What do you need to walk 2000 steps?

Oh, and about 15 minutes. :)


So, I decided to try to fix my pedometer, and I think it worked. Every time I stopped during my walk, checked the number, counted ten steps, and checked again, it was right on. I think the worst part is when I'm just moving in a small space, and I jiggle the pedometer. It makes it think I'm walking more than I really am.

Anyways, I was hitting my afternoon/evening slump, and thought I would beef up my walking numbers for the day. BTW, 2000 steps is just about a mile for me. :) For some reason, I thought that the route I decided to walk was my 1.5 mile route, and when I got back and looked at the mileage on the pedometer, it only said .99 miles. So I was terribly confused, until I got on google maps and sorted it all out. It was my 1 mile route that I walked. Whew! I was afraid I had broken the pedometer even more than I thought! :) At least the steps are fairly accurate. I feel better now using it more. I'll just try not to drop it again. If I can manage that, that is.

I had a fun day today. I worked out really early (5am) and ate breakfast. I called Kate, thinking I would watch the boys for her while she did her challenge, but she's not doing her challenge until tomorrow, so she didn't need me to. I was more sad than I expected, so I offered to watch the boys for her while she cleaned her house-Monday is cleaning day. She decided to take me up on the offer and dropped the boys off around 9am. She came to pick them up around 1230. We had a fabulous time. We played in the backyard: looked at bugs, worms, and bees. Played croquet, watered plants, pulled weeds. We also had breakfast and lunch and watched a movie. We were pretty busy, and the day was pretty warm, so the boys were HOT! Sweaty! Kate came to pick them up, and Parker said, "I want to come over to your house and play again in a few minutes!" He doesn't quite have a good concept of time, but that is ok. I got the point. He kept saying to me "I love you, Mimi!" at random times. It was so cute! Preston is getting to be much easier to understand. He says my name, Mimi anyways, and most of the time I can understand what he wants. I can definitely tell his "yes!" from his "no!" which makes my life easier. So, if I'm not sure what he is saying, I can ask him a question that he can answer and it usually works out.

Matt has duty today :( So I won't get to see him until tomorrow night. Late. B/C my class tomorrow night won't get out until around 10pm. I'm not looking forward to that class. Even though it is the last class and it will be a "pot luck" dinner/snack session, the topic at first will be on death and dying. I'm not sure I'm ready to talk about that subject. Just reading the chapter on it had me in tears...

Anyways, I think it is almost time for me to eat some dinner. I'm having Roasted Red Pepper Spread Sandwiches. Yumm....Maybe I'll post the recipe. It is so easy!

All righty then. I'll write again later!!!

Pam

Wonderful Summer day

Ok, so it is really still spring, summer doesn't get here until June, right? But, holy cow! Today was FANTASTIC. Matt and I woke up early (6am-on a weekend, no less) and worked out. Workout was done by 7:30am, and we ate some breakfast. Called Kate, to see if she wanted pictures of the boys taken, and she did! So we took showers, got over to Kate's, helped the boys get dressed. Loaded up the van, and headed to the beach. We ended up over by the Lesner Bridge, which is right by the inlet to Lynnhaven Bay. Matt took some amazing pictures, and we all had fun.

Kate's boys are such a riot! I taught them to wait for the water to come up and get their feet wet, and then run screaming away. Preston kept saying "Mi Mi!" I would say, "yes Preston?" Then, he would hold up a rock, or stick, or shell and show it to me. Then he would throw it into the water. Repeat about 80 times! And it never stopped being cute!

Parker is starting to be so grown up! He informs us of a lot of things. For instance, while we were driving in the car, he said "Emma isn't at her house." It was so random, we were like, "What?" He said, "My friend Emma isn't at her house." He was referring to his friend who used to live here in an apartment along the way to the beach. Kate said, "Where does she live now?" Parker said, "By the temple." Very matter-of-factly. (The family moved to D.C.) Hilarious. Especially since he was so serious!

After we got done at the beach, Matt and I headed home where we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. After lunch, we decided to take a load of bricks and concrete to the dump, which took us about an hour and a half. We spent the rest of the afternoon
1)mowing the lawn
2)fixing the outside faucet that burst when it actually froze this winter
3)adding mulch to the veggie beds
4)spraying weed killer over the lawn
5)playing croquet

Yes, that's right, Matt and I finally set up our croquet set and played a few rounds. Matt had never played before, but he's a natural. He even won the first game! Of course, I won the others, but hey, I'm an experienced player. It was so much fun. We kept the wickets up, just in case we want to play again soon.

Tomorrow morning, Matt and I are going to ride on a memorial bike ride. A fellow cyclist in the area was killed recently in a collision with a car. So, a bunch of cyclists are going to get together and ride, and they are going to construct a ghost bike for him. It should be a good experience.

Well, I hope everyone had wonderful weather this weekend and got out to enjoy it. It is so funny because there was a time in my life where I never would have thought to get so much accomplished in one day. Ask my friend Matt Timmermann, once I talked myself out of doing ANYTHING for the whole evening because "I only have 5 hours left to get it done." So I didn't do any of the things I needed to do. Boy, am I glad that I am not like that anymore! I like this new me. I think I'm going to keep her :)

Done, Done, Done

I just finished the last assignment for one of my classes for the semester. What a good feeling that is! I'm not sure I did the greatest this semester-it seems that the 150 hours of classroom time I had to complete interfered with my motivation to complete assignments and study for tests. But I think I made it ok, and I'm looking forward to the very end of the semester.

So, I have class today, I have to leave in about a half an hour. Then I have two classes on Tuesday, my last for both classes. One of those I have a group assignment to complete by Sunday and a Multiple Choice test to complete for Tuesday. Those are my last classes! Then I have a final next Wednesday (not the one coming up, but the next one). I should have PLENTY of time to study for that test, but we'll see about that. I'm glad I took the classes this semester that I did. I think they were the ones with the most course work due. So the summer's three classes should be a piece of cake, right???? I sure hope so.

Ok, I am SO ready for my daily ice cream bar. Did I mention that I reward myself for working so hard with a 100 calorie ice cream treat every day? :) That is seriously what keeps me going some days. I am not joking!

Later,
Pam

New Pants

Ok, so I've been really frustrated lately. I mean, it is getting to be summer time and none of my clothes a) are cute or b) fit me. So, I finally broke down and went shopping for some suitable pant/shorts. Here's what I came up with :)





If you can believe it, the pants and the shorts are a size 4!
It is crazy! I've never worn pants that small. I went directly from wearing Junior size 13s to size 6 in women's. I'm glad that I finally have some clothes to wear. Oh, yeah, and I bought one more pair of shorts. They look similar to the other ones, just a different color. It was really frustrating shopping. I think I tried on every pair of shorts in Kohl's. It was hard getting the right fit. I mean, if I'm going to spend $18 on a pair of shorts, I want them to fit and look good. I got the pants on the clearance rack for $13. Incredible, considering they were normally $70. :) I love getting good deals.

Anyways, just thought I would share. Now I really, really need to get going on my homework. I have class this evening and have a bunch of stuff to get done.

Later,
Pam

New Challenge?

So, most of you know that our Helm family was involved in a Health Challenge for the last 12 weeks. I had a lot of fun, and I'd like to think that I was motivating others to change their lives. I know the other participants were motivating to me. :) Well, the challenge just ended, and I'm kind of sad. Kate and I were talking about starting up a new challenge. I've heard about people doing a "walk across America." This is where they keep track of their steps and workouts, calculate how far they've walked each day, and then charted their progress "across America." Well, Kate and I thought it might be kind of fun to "walk" from Lani's house in Florida to Jill's house in Washington, which, according to Google Maps is approximately (since I didn't have addresses handy when I was inputting the info) 3861 miles. Wouldn't that be crazy? What do you think? Would it take us the whole summer? Would it take us a year? We could go from Lani's to Gwen's (in SC), to Kate's (in VA), to Pam's (in VA), to Peggy's (in OH), to Matt's (in ID), to Beth's (in ID), to Penny's (in WA), and end up at Jill's. Those would be our "checkpoint's." We could set goals, like "I want to reach Gwen's by June 1st." Or, "I want to beat Kate to Peggy's." Using a pedometer, you could keep track of your steps you make each day, but since I workout every day, I think that should count. How about calories burned? We could calculate how many "miles" we walk by converting calories burned into miles walked. For instance, for myself, walking 1 mile at a pace of 3.5 miles per hour burns about 70 calories (this is different for everyone, depending on weight). So, for every 70 calories I burn I would get 1 mile.
Here's a table to give you an idea--

Calories burned per mile by walking

Speed/Pounds	100 lb	120 lb	140 lb	160 lb	180 lb	200 lb	220 lb	250 lb	275 lb	300 lb
2.0mph	57	68	80	91	102	114	125	142	156	170
2.5mph	55	65	76	87	98	109	120	136	150	164
3.0mph	53	64	74	85	95	106	117	133	146	159
3.5mph	52	62	73	83	94	104	114	130	143	156
4.0mph	57	68	80	91	102	114	125	142	156	170
4.5mph	64	76	89	102	115	127	140	159	175	191
5.0mph	73	87	102	116	131	145	160	182	200	218

Biking of course would count, but we would count every 3 miles riding as one mile walking. Or something like that. I'm thinking that Matt will set up some sort of bulletin board or forum for us on his server that we can keep track of our progress and motivate eachother.

What does everyone think? Is this doable? Is it something you guys would want to do? I was also thinking that we could have teams. Maybe families, maybe mix it up. So, maybe me and Jill would be one team, while Kate and Beth are another. Lani and Gwen could make up a third, with Penny and Peggy a fourth. It would be cool if Matt and Mike would join in (all four of them :) but you guys get the picture. I think this is something we all could do, it would motivate me knowing that you all are "walking" the same path as me. And shoot, maybe this is a way for me to "walk" across the country before I bike it. :)

Let me know! Comments are appreciated. Neices, Nephews, Cousins, Spouses, In-laws, everyone is invited! The more people doing this, the better. Mom, that means you, too! I know you walk about a thousand miles a day, so you would probably be ahead of all of us!

I'm going to do this, and anyone that wants to join in can certainly do it! I am fairly certain that Kate is going to join in. We'll probably start sometime next week. I'm not sure exactly how it is going to work, but we'll get the kinks worked out and let you all know. Email me or comment and let me know if you are willing to do this.

I love you all,
Pam

*UPDATE* We have a platform for this challenge. It is at http://helmwalk.ning.com . Anyone interested is welcome to join-you don't have to just be a Helm sibling. Let me know, and I'll "Invite" you to join our "social network," (I need your email, if I don't already have it) since that is what it turned into- a social network, just for us and this challenge. I'm actually hoping that it turns into something more than just a fitness tracker. I hope we're able to share with eachother more easily as a family and get to know one another better. :)

Thanks Pam?

My wife calculated how many hours I worked in the past 4 days... since monday, I have put in a 60 hour work week in 4 days... I also have work tomorrow and on Sunday.... I hate the Navy...
-Matt