Somewhere Along The Way

First Reconciliation, and an afternoon ride

What a milestone for our 7 year old son.  He made his first reconciliation.  A Catholic Sacrament that comes after Baptism and in our case before he makes his First Holy Communion in May.  He did so well.  He was nervous Saturday morning, but had his act of contrition memorized.  We got to the church around noon and I had an extra copy of the prayer in my pocket.  The head of the religious program came by and gave everyone a very nice copy on parchment.  Tyler looked up and said "Mom where's mine?".  So I gave him the copy I had. 

When the priest, Fr. Converse, called the children over in a group, I had to hold Tyler back.  I told him he needed to sit with his Mom and Dad.  He looked up at me and said "but I have my copy".  Too cute.  He didn't want to be left out.

It took Julian all of 60 seconds to confess his sins and another minute to recite the Our Father as his penance.

We took the boys to Fireside pizza in Gales Ferry for lunch and by the way, they have fabulous salads. 

Since we were on the other side of town Bill asked me if I wanted to go see the Yale and Harvard boathouses.  Very surprising how quaint the village is surrounding the boathouse.  Here's a bit of history and my images.

"There is a complex of buildings owned by Yale University which serve as a training camp for the Yale Heavyweight Men's Crew for the Yale-Harvard Boat Race. The complex consists of the Varsity House, Manager's House and the Boathouse. The oldest structure on the site is the front portion of the varsity house which was originally constructed in the late eighteenth century as a private home and which has since been considerably expanded by multiple additions. The boathouse was designed by James Gamble Rogers who was also responsible for much of the gothic revival architecture at Yale's New Haven campus.

The boathouse adjoining the dock serves as a center of activity when the camp is occupied and provides storage and repair space for the boats. Freshman oarsmen are also quartered in the second floor of the boathouse. Upperclassmen, including all of the rowers in the varsity and junior varsity boats, are quartered in the top floor of the varsity house. Women on the team, if there are any serving as coxswains, are housed either in the front wing of the varsity quarters or in the manager's house. The varsity house also contains several common spaces including a game room, a central common room and the dining room as well as bathrooms and the kitchen.

Yale's Crew is the oldest college athletic team in America. The complex's buildings are filled with memorabilia and artifacts from the team's history. This is a living history however, because of continuing use and occupation that bring the camp to life every year for the race. As the center of Yale Crew's institutional memory and the annual home of the longest running rivalry in American college sports the Ferry serves as an important site in the history of sports."

And there you have it ! A little religion and a little history!

 

a birthday celebration, ww, and a yummy smoothie recipe

Sunday we celebrated my father's 68th birthday.  It was also the two year anniversary of his big prostate cancer surgery.  Way to go Dad ! Still exercising, still skiing and having fun.  We travelled to my parent's home in Newport.  The party included all of our loved ones, my aunties, uncle bruce, Jim and Katherine, Bill and our kids.  Tyler and Julian had such a nice time.  Uncle Bruce plays with them all afternoon.  As we were leaving to go home Tyler pulled me aside and said Mommy this was the best day of my whole life.  I got to play with our family all day.

Katherine looks great !  She's just entered her second trimester!  She feels wonderful and looks wonderful.

And above is her first scan!  All is well.  Thank God !

On starting over, which will forever be my mantra.  I'm finally getting back into my training schedule and getting my behind back to weight watchers meetings.  Why? Because like the ad says "It Works" and it's always worked for me.  So down 3.8 pounds this week! Woo hoo!  Last week's training Feb 12-18th looked like this:

Mon: run 3 miles

Tues: spin 45 min, run 3 miles

Wed: run 3 miles

Thurs: personal training with Cheryl 60 min

Friday: 45 spin, 30 arms and abs

Saturday: bootcamp outside with Cheryl.

This week so far:

Sunday : Rest day

Monday: run 30 min

Tuesday: spin 45, run 30 minutes, swim 20 minutes

Wednesday: run River road 30 min

Tomorrow - Thurs: hour with Cheryl

Friday - spin, arms and abs.

WW was great.  We talked about stress, learned some tools about managing stress.  I have perfected what I call "checking out".  Much too often I can look at a day, or an event or going out to dinner and just throwing every thing I know about what's good for me right out the window.  I can overeat at the drop of a hat.  Too many times I let the guilt of one meal give me an excuse to eat all day, to start over the next day or the next week and continue the bad behavior.  As my trainer likes to point out, why ruin all your hard work at the gym with bad food choices.  

Today's after meeting treat - a guilt free Pina Colada ! (4 points plus)

1 pkg. WW coconut smoothie

1 c. almond milk

1 c. crushed ice

1/2 c. crushed pineapple

blend

garnish with nutmeg !