working out for Disney

[Sans Souci]

Hello-

I did a full body circuit training workout.

I tried to make frosting yesterday and I was wondering why it wasn't fluffing up. I thought maybe it was too warm, so I stuck it in the freezer for 15 min. It still wouldn't whip up. As I was throwing it out, I realized I only used two sticks of butter when I should have used 4. Unfortunately, it was too late to fix. So, I just made an American buttercream, which is not my favorite, but it's super easy to make. I made a black velvet cake with peppermint buttercream, it was so good. I love chocolate and peppermint together. There's still loads left, but I am trying to forget it's downstairs.

We were supposed to go to the animal shelter, because my son wanted to look at a cat he saw on their website. He was an older cat who was surrendered because his human passed away and the family member who took him in had a dog. The cat didn't like that, so he was surrendered. He was litter box trained and the little paragraph about him said he was a very friendly, affectionate cat. Well, my husband decided to check the website before we left and this cat was no longer available--which is great for the cat. My son didn't want to go anymore. I was OK with that, because I need to talk to my doctor and see what my options would be for my cat allergies. I felt like this whole "adopting a cat" endeavor was going too fast, without a lot of forethought going into it. TBH, I don't know if I want a pet living in this house. I am concerned it will eventually become my responsibility. I don't mind walking a dog, I just don't want to have to do it at 5 AM in the middle of January. LOL

 

[Sans Souci]

Good morning

Checking in with a 30 min cardio workout.

It's been quiet here. I was going to start making cookie dough to freeze and serve at Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but the bowl on my mixer broke Sunday. I was whipping butter when it happened, which is not how I would expect a bowl to crack. It was hard to find a replacement bowl for this mixer and when I did, it cost me over $50 to replace it. The good news is will be here on Thursday, so I'm not too behind on cookie-making.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Our steak dinner was great. We really enjoy that place. They kind of bill themselves as being an American style steakhouse. It's one of the few places where you can get corn in the cob, and they also have baked potatoes. Neither are really "things" here. So it's nice to be able to get those somewhere. They also have creme Brule on the dessert menu, which I love. E always gets the "all American", which is basically a piece of apple pie crushed up in a Mason jar with cinnamon ice ream and whipped cream. It's her absolute favorite. They also have cheesecake and brownies, but they aren't as good as what I can make at home.,so we never order them, but those are typical American things you don't usually find here. But it was good to have a good meal that I didn't have to cook.

Sounds like a fantastic meal! Happy belated birthday!!!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Honestly, I am more fearful of fellow humans than animals. You could always bring along bear spray if you're camping. I watch a few of these camping channels and one woman has a wood burning oven that she wrapped some sort of heat proof material around the flue and had it poke out the zipper then she put some sort of silicone covering on the zipper to prevent it from melting. It just seems like so much work. My SIL and my BIL bought this old kicked out VW Westfalia camper van and totally refurbished it. It was really cute when they completed it. You could extend a tent from the side door opening of the van. She likes to go to a lot of multi-day music festivals, so she used it for that. I would be open to camping like that. lol

I am so clueless about camping, so I wouldn't even begin to know what you need v what's nice to have. How often do you go camping?

My old Nissan SUV had a vehicle tent option. It never seemed practical for our camping needs, but festival camping like your SIL and BIL enjoy seems like a good use.



The other set up with the wood burning stove almost sounds like the evolution of the teepee. Like you said, it seems like a lot of work. This reminded me of over-the-top tents. One day, I'd like to hit the Big Bend NP area in TX and do some glamping. No cooking in the tent, but they have several kinds of stargazing tents. And the best part...I don't have to set them up or break them down! They're also heated and air conditioned, so should be pretty comfy. Obviously, not my pictures, but the ones that look like big Hershey's Kisses sleep up to 4. Still, as cool as they look, that worry about fellow humans would be in the back of my mind and possibly keep me from really enjoying.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Hello-

I did a full body circuit training workout.

I tried to make frosting yesterday and I was wondering why it wasn't fluffing up. I thought maybe it was too warm, so I stuck it in the freezer for 15 min. It still wouldn't whip up. As I was throwing it out, I realized I only used two sticks of butter when I should have used 4. Unfortunately, it was too late to fix. So, I just made an American buttercream, which is not my favorite, but it's super easy to make. I made a black velvet cake with peppermint buttercream, it was so good. I love chocolate and peppermint together. There's still loads left, but I am trying to forget it's downstairs.

We were supposed to go to the animal shelter, because my son wanted to look at a cat he saw on their website. He was an older cat who was surrendered because his human passed away and the family member who took him in had a dog. The cat didn't like that, so he was surrendered. He was litter box trained and the little paragraph about him said he was a very friendly, affectionate cat. Well, my husband decided to check the website before we left and this cat was no longer available--which is great for the cat. My son didn't want to go anymore. I was OK with that, because I need to talk to my doctor and see what my options would be for my cat allergies. I felt like this whole "adopting a cat" endeavor was going too fast, without a lot of forethought going into it. TBH, I don't know if I want a pet living in this house. I am concerned it will eventually become my responsibility. I don't mind walking a dog, I just don't want to have to do it at 5 AM in the middle of January. LOL

Good morning

Checking in with a 30 min cardio workout.

It's been quiet here. I was going to start making cookie dough to freeze and serve at Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but the bowl on my mixer broke Sunday. I was whipping butter when it happened, which is not how I would expect a bowl to crack. It was hard to find a replacement bowl for this mixer and when I did, it cost me over $50 to replace it. The good news is will be here on Thursday, so I'm not too behind on cookie-making.

That cake sounds delicious! Mint chocolate is one of my favorite flavor combinations. That's odd that the bowl broke while whipping butter, but at least you have a new bowl on the way. You just reminded me that I was going to put a decorative bowl for my mixer on my Christmas list, but I forgot.

I can understand not wanting to jump into a cat adoption. Even if you were to find a good solution for your allergies, the possibility of becoming the primary caregiver for an animal shows the need for more discussion. I'm not a cat person, so I only have some basic assumptions on what all would be involved, but litter box duty would be reason enough to have a talk before any big decisions.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Good morning. We're hoping to get back into the gym today. Things have just been so busy of late that fitness has just had to come from everything we had to get done. Example- Sunday turned into 3-4 hours of walking around stores and Saturday was a lot of walking around the fields for Sam's 6 hour practice. The kids are in finals most of this week and with K's choir concert last night, we should be getting a break until the new year. So hopefully there will be more time. It will also be easier once K gets David's truck. If I don't have to drive her to volunteering or other stuff, I have more time to hit the gym.

Speaking of K's concert, her choir director decided to take a different approach to the standard holiday concert. They normally use the big theater for a traditional concert. Instead, they treated their commons area and cafeteria (which has a small stage) like a castle. We, the peons, were greeted in the commons area with music and royal proclamations before being led into the castle hall for an entertaining feast. I didn't video any of the more theatrical stuff...like the royal taster testing all of the food before the king eats, the love triangle between a knight-the lowly troubadour-and a fair maiden from the court, or the antics of the jester. I even missed all of K's lines (she was understudy to the queen and one of the ladies at the royal table). Bad mom! Still, I did get a lot of the singing and even some of the royal dancers. While we were given utensils, the main course was roasted chicken on the bone, so it had a real Medieval Times feel to it.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Good morning

Three of us went to the gym last night. Assuming David and I don't have errands to run, I think this will be our solution to K's library time. She took the truck to the library and I drove the rest of us to the gym. Although, I'm really hoping David can get it together and reach out to the sales guy so he can get into a new vehicle this weekend. He's losing track of time and didn't realize that Christmas is next weekend. Mind you, we haven't had time to decorate indoors, so it still has that early int he season vibe. Still, his truck is Kendall's big Christmas present, so he really needs to be in something new pronto!

Last night felt like I was just going through the motions. I got onto a rower for 5 minutes and wasn't feeling it, so I tried something new. They have one of those seated ellipticals. I did it for 15 minute, but it really didn't feel like much of a workout. My friend swears by his, but this just didn't feel like I was doing anything...even with the resistance up. After that, I worked on arms and back before doing a weighted crunch machine and finishing up with about 10 minutes on a treadmill. I'm hoping to go today, but I also have to get K to a party and get a dollar store gift for Sam's gift exchange. I was mixed on having K go to a party in the middle of finals week, but most of her tough stuff is done and the birthday girl has been going through a rough time. The bday girl is an Italian exchange student...sweet kid, but was having a really hard time with her host family. They were going to send her back to Italy, but it looks like they found a new family to host her for the remainder of the year. So, even more reason to celebrate.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Good morning

Three of us went to the gym last night. Assuming David and I don't have errands to run, I think this will be our solution to K's library time. She took the truck to the library and I drove the rest of us to the gym. Although, I'm really hoping David can get it together and reach out to the sales guy so he can get into a new vehicle this weekend. He's losing track of time and didn't realize that Christmas is next weekend. Mind you, we haven't had time to decorate indoors, so it still has that early int he season vibe. Still, his truck is Kendall's big Christmas present, so he really needs to be in something new pronto!

Last night felt like I was just going through the motions. I got onto a rower for 5 minutes and wasn't feeling it, so I tried something new. They have one of those seated ellipticals. I did it for 15 minute, but it really didn't feel like much of a workout. My friend swears by his, but this just didn't feel like I was doing anything...even with the resistance up. After that, I worked on arms and back before doing a weighted crunch machine and finishing up with about 10 minutes on a treadmill. I'm hoping to go today, but I also have to get K to a party and get a dollar store gift for Sam's gift exchange. I was mixed on having K go to a party in the middle of finals week, but most of her tough stuff is done and the birthday girl has been going through a rough time. The bday girl is an Italian exchange student...sweet kid, but was having a really hard time with her host family. They were going to send her back to Italy, but it looks like they found a new family to host her for the remainder of the year. So, even more reason to celebrate.

I'm glad that girl from Italy was able to find a new host family. There was a student that was placed with a family (it was an older couple) in our district a few years ago and the boy was able to be placed with a new host family around Thanksgiving. Turns out the older couple was using the boy to do their farm work and housework, basically unpaid labor. It was wasn't a good situation at all. The boy was from Spain and from a wealthy family with high government connections. I'm actually surprised he stuck it out as long as he did. We were asked to take him but a pastor from another church in our town took him in before we accepted. That was a good situation, the boy from Spain was already friends with the pastor's son.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I'm glad that girl from Italy was able to find a new host family. There was a student that was placed with a family (it was an older couple) in our district a few years ago and the boy was able to be placed with a new host family around Thanksgiving. Turns out the older couple was using the boy to do their farm work and housework, basically unpaid labor. It was wasn't a good situation at all. The boy was from Spain and from a wealthy family with high government connections. I'm actually surprised he stuck it out as long as he did. We were asked to take him but a pastor from another church in our town took him in before we accepted. That was a good situation, the boy from Spain was already friends with the pastor's son.

That's awful! It's shocking that it ever got to that point, but great that they found him a better home. I know our district aims to place kids in homes with other high school kids before looking to homes without. I'm sure that boy enjoyed his time in the US much better after he was moved to a home with a friend. In this case, the girl was placed with a family that had another girl in high school. Unfortunately, the girls clashed a lot. I don't know all of the details, but it almost sounded like the girl in the host family got a case of sibling rivalry that was fostered by her mom's favoritism. It's further complicated because there's another female Italian exchange student at the school. This other girl gets along great with her host family, she gets along great with the other exchange student that was just moved, and has become good friends with K. This other exchange student's host family was granted a temporary allowance for the displaced girl to stay with them, but the program doesn't allow for two kids from the same country to be in the same home for the full stay because they feel it doesn't allow them to fully experience American life. Myself and the other moms hated the idea that she could be sent back to Italy over Christmas break if they couldn't find another host home, but none of us were in a position to take on the role as host either as it's a huge commitment. I'm not sure how they found the new family, but the new family held a small bday party for the girl last night, and K got to meet them. They only have young children, but it sounds like they are sweet and caring.

 

[Songbird76]

Hello-

I did a full body circuit training workout.

I tried to make frosting yesterday and I was wondering why it wasn't fluffing up. I thought maybe it was too warm, so I stuck it in the freezer for 15 min. It still wouldn't whip up. As I was throwing it out, I realized I only used two sticks of butter when I should have used 4. Unfortunately, it was too late to fix. So, I just made an American buttercream, which is not my favorite, but it's super easy to make. I made a black velvet cake with peppermint buttercream, it was so good. I love chocolate and peppermint together. There's still loads left, but I am trying to forget it's downstairs.

We were supposed to go to the animal shelter, because my son wanted to look at a cat he saw on their website. He was an older cat who was surrendered because his human passed away and the family member who took him in had a dog. The cat didn't like that, so he was surrendered. He was litter box trained and the little paragraph about him said he was a very friendly, affectionate cat. Well, my husband decided to check the website before we left and this cat was no longer available--which is great for the cat. My son didn't want to go anymore. I was OK with that, because I need to talk to my doctor and see what my options would be for my cat allergies. I felt like this whole "adopting a cat" endeavor was going too fast, without a lot of forethought going into it. TBH, I don't know if I want a pet living in this house. I am concerned it will eventually become my responsibility. I don't mind walking a dog, I just don't want to have to do it at 5 AM in the middle of January. LOL

What kind of frosting do you usually make then? I usually do buttercream. Peppermint buttercream sounds AMAZING...is black velvet a kind of chocolate cake? I know red velvet is chocolate, but over here in the past 2 or 3 years they've introduced "Red velvet" cake, but it's not red velvet as we know it. They use fruit to get the red coloring, so it's usually a berry flavor and it's not very good. I love chocolate and mint, but my husband and A won't touch it, so I can't make that.

That's one of the reasons we don't have a dog. I love them, but everything eventually becomes my responsibility, and I don't want to be out there in pouring rain, or in freezing temps, waiting for a dog to do its business. And our house is so small, we couldn't have a very big dog to begin with, but it's just a lot of work and not very fair to the dog who can't run and play.

 

[Songbird76]

Good morning. We're hoping to get back into the gym today. Things have just been so busy of late that fitness has just had to come from everything we had to get done. Example- Sunday turned into 3-4 hours of walking around stores and Saturday was a lot of walking around the fields for Sam's 6 hour practice. The kids are in finals most of this week and with K's choir concert last night, we should be getting a break until the new year. So hopefully there will be more time. It will also be easier once K gets David's truck. If I don't have to drive her to volunteering or other stuff, I have more time to hit the gym.

Speaking of K's concert, her choir director decided to take a different approach to the standard holiday concert. They normally use the big theater for a traditional concert. Instead, they treated their commons area and cafeteria (which has a small stage) like a castle. We, the peons, were greeted in the commons area with music and royal proclamations before being led into the castle hall for an entertaining feast. I didn't video any of the more theatrical stuff...like the royal taster testing all of the food before the king eats, the love triangle between a knight-the lowly troubadour-and a fair maiden from the court, or the antics of the jester. I even missed all of K's lines (she was understudy to the queen and one of the ladies at the royal table). Bad mom! Still, I did get a lot of the singing and even some of the royal dancers. While we were given utensils, the main course was roasted chicken on the bone, so it had a real Medieval Times feel to it.

How creative and fun! Nice to do something different once in a while!!

 

[Songbird76]

Good morning

Three of us went to the gym last night. Assuming David and I don't have errands to run, I think this will be our solution to K's library time. She took the truck to the library and I drove the rest of us to the gym. Although, I'm really hoping David can get it together and reach out to the sales guy so he can get into a new vehicle this weekend. He's losing track of time and didn't realize that Christmas is next weekend. Mind you, we haven't had time to decorate indoors, so it still has that early int he season vibe. Still, his truck is Kendall's big Christmas present, so he really needs to be in something new pronto!

Last night felt like I was just going through the motions. I got onto a rower for 5 minutes and wasn't feeling it, so I tried something new. They have one of those seated ellipticals. I did it for 15 minute, but it really didn't feel like much of a workout. My friend swears by his, but this just didn't feel like I was doing anything...even with the resistance up. After that, I worked on arms and back before doing a weighted crunch machine and finishing up with about 10 minutes on a treadmill. I'm hoping to go today, but I also have to get K to a party and get a dollar store gift for Sam's gift exchange. I was mixed on having K go to a party in the middle of finals week, but most of her tough stuff is done and the birthday girl has been going through a rough time. The bday girl is an Italian exchange student...sweet kid, but was having a really hard time with her host family. They were going to send her back to Italy, but it looks like they found a new family to host her for the remainder of the year. So, even more reason to celebrate.

That must be rough to be an exchange student and not get along with your host family. I don't think they should really place kids in homes without kids...it seems so creepy. Why do they even want an exchange student, you know? There was a kid from Spain that was placed with a single man in our home town and I don't know why, but it didn't work out and he ended up having to move part way through the year. At least they found another placement for him. I don't think he was very happy anyway. He was from Madrid and had said he wanted to go to a big city and they put him in podunk nowhere in the middle of Wyoming in a town of 1200 people where the closest entertainment was an hour away by car. It couldn't have been farther from what he had asked for.

 

[Sans Souci]

My old Nissan SUV had a vehicle tent option. It never seemed practical for our camping needs, but festival camping like your SIL and BIL enjoy seems like a good use.

View attachment 684977

The other set up with the wood burning stove almost sounds like the evolution of the teepee. Like you said, it seems like a lot of work. This reminded me of over-the-top tents. One day, I'd like to hit the Big Bend NP area in TX and do some glamping. No cooking in the tent, but they have several kinds of stargazing tents. And the best part...I don't have to set them up or break them down! They're also heated and air conditioned, so should be pretty comfy. Obviously, not my pictures, but the ones that look like big Hershey's Kisses sleep up to 4. Still, as cool as they look, that worry about fellow humans would be in the back of my mind and possibly keep me from really enjoying.

View attachment 684978View attachment 684979View attachment 684980View attachment 684981View attachment 684982

Wow, I love the starry sky in the "Hershey's kiss" tent. That's really beautiful.

 

[Sans Souci]

Good morning. We're hoping to get back into the gym today. Things have just been so busy of late that fitness has just had to come from everything we had to get done. Example- Sunday turned into 3-4 hours of walking around stores and Saturday was a lot of walking around the fields for Sam's 6 hour practice. The kids are in finals most of this week and with K's choir concert last night, we should be getting a break until the new year. So hopefully there will be more time. It will also be easier once K gets David's truck. If I don't have to drive her to volunteering or other stuff, I have more time to hit the gym.

Speaking of K's concert, her choir director decided to take a different approach to the standard holiday concert. They normally use the big theater for a traditional concert. Instead, they treated their commons area and cafeteria (which has a small stage) like a castle. We, the peons, were greeted in the commons area with music and royal proclamations before being led into the castle hall for an entertaining feast. I didn't video any of the more theatrical stuff...like the royal taster testing all of the food before the king eats, the love triangle between a knight-the lowly troubadour-and a fair maiden from the court, or the antics of the jester. I even missed all of K's lines (she was understudy to the queen and one of the ladies at the royal table). Bad mom! Still, I did get a lot of the singing and even some of the royal dancers. While we were given utensils, the main course was roasted chicken on the bone, so it had a real Medieval Times feel to it.

Madrigal dinner Christmas concerts were really popular when I was in HS. It's funny how things reappear again. Our choir did one one year. It was a lot of fun.

 

[Sans Souci]

Happy Hannukah @HouCuseChickie!

 

[Sans Souci]

Good morning

Three of us went to the gym last night. Assuming David and I don't have errands to run, I think this will be our solution to K's library time. She took the truck to the library and I drove the rest of us to the gym. Although, I'm really hoping David can get it together and reach out to the sales guy so he can get into a new vehicle this weekend. He's losing track of time and didn't realize that Christmas is next weekend. Mind you, we haven't had time to decorate indoors, so it still has that early int he season vibe. Still, his truck is Kendall's big Christmas present, so he really needs to be in something new pronto!

Last night felt like I was just going through the motions. I got onto a rower for 5 minutes and wasn't feeling it, so I tried something new. They have one of those seated ellipticals. I did it for 15 minute, but it really didn't feel like much of a workout. My friend swears by his, but this just didn't feel like I was doing anything...even with the resistance up. After that, I worked on arms and back before doing a weighted crunch machine and finishing up with about 10 minutes on a treadmill. I'm hoping to go today, but I also have to get K to a party and get a dollar store gift for Sam's gift exchange. I was mixed on having K go to a party in the middle of finals week, but most of her tough stuff is done and the birthday girl has been going through a rough time. The bday girl is an Italian exchange student...sweet kid, but was having a really hard time with her host family. They were going to send her back to Italy, but it looks like they found a new family to host her for the remainder of the year. So, even more reason to celebrate.

Did your husband find a new vehicle yet?

I've never seen a seated elliptical, only recumbent bikes. I don't care for the recumbent bikes, either. I feel like I can't get my heart rate up. When I used to belong to a gym, there was this high school kid who would bring his drumsticks and air drum while using the recumbent bike. I guess that was one way to get the heart rate up on one of things. That's a relief that exchange student could get a new family to stay with for the remainder of the year.

 

[Sans Souci]

I'm glad that girl from Italy was able to find a new host family. There was a student that was placed with a family (it was an older couple) in our district a few years ago and the boy was able to be placed with a new host family around Thanksgiving. Turns out the older couple was using the boy to do their farm work and housework, basically unpaid labor. It was wasn't a good situation at all. The boy was from Spain and from a wealthy family with high government connections. I'm actually surprised he stuck it out as long as he did. We were asked to take him but a pastor from another church in our town took him in before we accepted. That was a good situation, the boy from Spain was already friends with the pastor's son.

Wow. Not cool. I am surprised that an exchange student would be placed with a couple who didn't have HS students living with them. I would think that living with a HS student would part of the quintessential American HS experience. That's really stinky for them to use him as unpaid labor doing farm work yet! That's physically demanding and I would imagine it entails waking up at some ungodly hour, too. That must have been awful for him.

 

[Sans Souci]

What kind of frosting do you usually make then? I usually do buttercream. Peppermint buttercream sounds AMAZING...is black velvet a kind of chocolate cake? I know red velvet is chocolate, but over here in the past 2 or 3 years they've introduced "Red velvet" cake, but it's not red velvet as we know it. They use fruit to get the red coloring, so it's usually a berry flavor and it's not very good. I love chocolate and mint, but my husband and A won't touch it, so I can't make that.

That's one of the reasons we don't have a dog. I love them, but everything eventually becomes my responsibility, and I don't want to be out there in pouring rain, or in freezing temps, waiting for a dog to do its business. And our house is so small, we couldn't have a very big dog to begin with, but it's just a lot of work and not very fair to the dog who can't run and play.

I love chocolate mint, I think it's one of my favorite dessert combos.

I make ermine frosting. You make kind of a pudding from milk, sugar and flour and let it cool. Then you whip up butter and add the pudding gradually, until it looks like Swiss Merengue Buttercream.

I use black cocoa to get the black velvet. It is the type of cocoa used in Oreos, so it has a deep, intense cocoa flavor.

I don't like the sound of that "red velvet." Make it chocolate or go home! I think original red velvet cake was colored with beets, so I guess their rendition isn't too far off of the original.

 

[Sans Souci]

Hello-

Checking in with a lower body workout. I signed up for a fitness app, but I didn't understand at the time you have to commit to 12 months of monthly payments. I had never seen this subscription model before and I have been subscribing and unsubscribing from fitness apps/streaming services for 8 years. I usually subscribe until I get bored and then I unsubscribe. I can't do that with this app, so I feel like I have to use this app exclusively for the next 12 months. I mean, I like it, the workouts are solid and there is a nutritional component. It's all strength training and I like to mix up my workouts. It's not the end of the world, but they could have been more transparent about the subscription model. I think it's a little bit naughty. I can buy my way out for $70, though.

It's going to get really cold, so my husband had some left over mylar insulation from insulating our garage door and he and my son insulated Callie's little house with it. They also elevated her house a bit more to help keep out rain and snow. She lets me pet her a bit now and my son gives her chin/cheek rubs and she rubs against his hand.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Wow. Not cool. I am surprised that an exchange student would be placed with a couple who didn't have HS students living with them. I would think that living with a HS student would part of the quintessential American HS experience. That's really stinky for them to use him as unpaid labor doing farm work yet! That's physically demanding and I would imagine it entails waking up at some ungodly hour, too. That must have been awful for him.

It was, I think the original placement was a bit of an emergency. It worked out well for the student in the end, he had a great family and loved the second half of the year.