heart rate monitor (Works for Me Wednesday)

Let me tell you about my heart rate monitor – it’s basically the bomb diggity and I love it.

Background: When I first starting exercising back in college I bought a MIO brand watch that had a heart rate monitor.  I liked it and it was ok except that you had to push and hold 2 buttons in order for it to read and display your heart rate which was not very convenient and a bit awkward while running.  Sometimes it was hard to get a readout if you weren’t still or if you were sweaty, also not very convenient.  But for my purposes it was fine and I mostly just used it as a digital watch to time my runs until it bit the dust.

This spring I started feeling like I might be in a bit of an exercise funk and that I really wasn’t pushing myself hard enough in my spin and aerobics classes.  I figured the best way to measure that since I couldn’t really measure distance or speed in those classes was by my heart rate.  I (and when I say “I” I mean Michael) did some research online and talked to a few people, decided that a watch with a chest strap that monitored my heart rate was the best choice, and chose this Polar RS100 watch.

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I. Love. It.  It was a bit pricey but so worth it to me.  I wear a chest strap that has a transmitter which sends my heart rate to my watch at all times (when I have that function turned on).  All I have to do is look down at my watch and see what my heart rate is.  It also shows what percentage my heart rate it at and – get this – it shows how many calories I burn.  Awesome!  Of course it does other normal watch-type things like timers, alarms, lap time, etc.  But for me the two biggies are the constant heart rate readout and the calories burned.

I can tell that I have started pushing myself harder since I started using this watch.  Now when I look down and see that my heart rate is low I know I need to increase my intensity.  Also seeing those calories burned is highly motivating and when I have a certain goal in mind I push harder so I can reach that.  I think I am getting much more out of my workouts then I was a few months ago.

Lots of people ask if it is accurate and I really think it is.  It’s definitely consistent.  I enter my age, height, weight, and gender and the watch uses that to calculate my target heart rate zones and how many calories I burn.  For me personally I aim to keep my heart rate in the 150-170 range the majority of my workout, with it getting up into the 170s during particularly intense times.  A 45-minute spin class for me burns about 500 calories and a 50-60 minute aerobics class usually runs at 400-500 calories.

Using a heart rate monitor to help me have better workouts works for me!  (Linking up with Works for Me Wednesday)

name my fish

*UPDATE* – He has a name…Tim Gunn (thanks to my Project Runway obsession).

For those who know me in real life – I don’t really like animals.  Gasp!  I know – I’m basically inhuman, but that’s for another post.  Anyway, the science classes at school did a lab with Beta fish and so when they were done I got to adopt one.  I bought him a cute little bowl (although I think I traumatized him when I moved him out of his jar) and he now lives on my desk.  Now I have to do 2 things: name him and keep him alive – I’m hoping you can help me with the first part and maybe I can be a better fish parent than I am plant parent.  Meet my nameless fish:

Some suggestions so far (from my students, me, and Michael):  Pythagoras, Blueberry Pi, Blu, Acute Blue, Milton, Charlie Epps, Tim Gunn, Ray

Thoughts?

homemade McDonald’s mocha frappes

Fact: I love love love McDonald’s mocha frappes.

Fact: I don’t love the 560 calories that comes along with one 16 oz container of yumminess

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Fact: I don’t handle caffeine well and you can’t get mocha frappes at McDonald’s that don’t have caffeine.

What’s a girl to do?

Well, make a homemade, healthier, and cheaper version of course!

First I searched online for a recipe for McDonald’s mocha frappes.  I found this post where a blogger made her own version of one.  I used her recipe/directions and tweaked it a bit.

Here’s what I did:

I brewed a pot of coffee (just regular strength, but decaf) and then poured it into an ice cube tray and froze it.  Then for each mocha I put 6 frozen coffee cubes, 1/2 cup skim milk, and a generous squirt of Hershey’s sugar free chocolate syrup (actually I used the Walmart brand) into my blender.  I never have measured the syrup but it’s a few tablespoons, I’m sure.  Blend it all up and voila…

My own mocha frappe.  Much cheaper, much healthier (less than 100 calories!), and jitter-free.  Try it!

SlideBomb presentation

For one of my classes this semester instead of just writing a basic discussion board post about ourselves, we had to use some sort of Web 2.0 tool to create a presentation for our introduction (that’s the hardest part for me of being a library media education major – all the media stuff).  I chose SlideBomb, which is a website you can use to create slideshows.  It’s pretty easy to use and had a fairly simple layout so it would be good to use with younger students as well as older ones.  Kind of a unique way to jazz up a presentation.

Another girl in my class used Prezi and her presentation was really cool.  I haven’t used Prezi before but I definitely want to check it out now.

I can’t figure out how to embed the video into my post (or it’s possible I can’t – WordPress is picky about things like that) so here’s the link if you want to check it out: http://slidebomb.com/16315.

back to school

Well after a nice 3 week break (the only break I’ve had since I started grad school in January) it’s back to the grindstone.  Fall classes start today so I have to go back to hitting the books.

To get you caught up if you have no idea what I’m talking about: I’m currently working on my masters in library media education from Western Kentucky University (WKU).  In Kentucky all teachers are required to get a masters degree within 10 years of starting to teach, and half of the classes for that degree must be completed within the first 5 years.  Many college students in KY go ahead and get their masters before they start teaching but I didn’t do that since I went to school in TN (where it is not required) and I didn’t really know about the required masters in KY ahead of time.

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Anyway, so I wanted to wait until my first year of teaching was over before I went back to school.  Then I switched schools after my first year and so I gave myself another semester to adjust to being at a new school before getting started on my masters.  That put me starting this past January (2011).  Picking what program to go through was a little difficult since I never really planned on getting a masters before moving to KY and so I didn’t have anything in mind.  Getting a masters in math was out of the question and I didn’t really have any aspirations to go into administration so that didn’t leave me with very many options.  I do, however, love to read and so getting a masters in library media education (or library science, depending on the school) seemed like a good fit.  I also knew I wanted an online program if at all possible so I could be more flexible with my schedule and not have to actually go to a physical class.

WKU offers a 100% online masters program with the exception of various practicum/observation experiences, but those can be done in whatever location is convenient for each student.  I started in January and took my first two classes.  Then I took five over the summer (one three-week course that was actually during the school  year for me since our school year wasn’t over yet, two four-week classes, and then two five-week classes).  This fall I’m taking three classes, then spring 2012 I’ll complete my field experience/student teaching requirement, and then I’ll graduate in May!  I’m pushing hard through this so I can get done as soon as possible (and get that pay increase!).  I’m a little nervous about taking three classes while also teaching, but I was able to manage two fine last spring so I don’t think this will be that much more work.  I just have to take it one week at a time.

Overall I have been pretty pleased with the program.  I love that I can do assignments on my own time and work ahead if I get a chance.  I don’t love the group work that is assigned (yes, group work in online classes!) or the hefty price of the program.  But other than that, I highly recommend it.

If you’re still reading this, I applaud you – this was certainly not a riveting post!  But that’s the 411 on me right now and a little explanation in case I seem to fall off the face of the earth in the near future, or pull all my hair out, or gain a million pounds from stress eating.

t-shirt quilt

On the topic of sewing…

For Christmas, Michael got all of our old UCSC (University Christian Student Center)  t-shirts made into a t-shirt quilt.  I had been wanting to do that for a long time because the t-shirts mean so much to me and I wanted to find a better way to store them that just folded in boxes.  Michael found the Campus Quilt Company who are based out of Louisville, KY.  He ordered the kit from them and then we laid out our shirts and decided on a design.

This people we worked with were so great, they were very willing to accommodate our custom order requests.  On almost all our shirts I wanted to keep the back and the front but I didn’t want to have to use up 2 quilt blocks for each shirt.  We asked if they could cut the little pocket-sized logo or writing on the front of the shirt and then just add it to the bottom or corner of the square that had the bigger image from the back.  That way we were able to save and display all of it.

I was so happy with how it turned out.  I love that now I have our shirts on display and in a manner that is useful.  What great memories that quilt contains!

my new (to me) sewing machine

I have no.clue. how to sew, at least not on a machine – I can sew a button by hand.  But I’ve got it in my head that I’m going to learn.  And lucky for me my Mema had an extra sewing machine to give me so she sent it home with Mom and I got it tonight.  When I say I have no clue, I mean when I opened the sewing machine carrier case thing I didn’t even know which side was supposed to face me.  No biggie, I’ll learn.

And what in the world is this green box thing?  Good thing the instructions were included, I’ll need them!

So stay tuned for my venture into sewing!

my dream scrapbooking room…I’m drooling…

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been reading blogs for several years.  One of the blogs I love is Kevin & Amanda.  I basically have a blog crush on Amanda – she is super cool.  I found her blog a few years ago when I Googled “scrapbook rooms” and a post about her AMAZING scrapbook room came up.  Head over to her blog to check it out, but here’s a peek: Is that amazing or what?  If you click on the link above, you can even use the interactive feature on her post to see details about each part of the room (I just took a screenshot so I could show you her room; I hope she doesn’t mind – I’m still learning blog etiquette).

Then I discovered the free fonts that Amanda creates? offers? I’m not sure how that works exactly.  But anyway, she turns people’s handwriting into fonts that you can download and type with.  I love them and use them all the time when I make signs for my classroom; I even used them to create a pi day t-shirt at school a few years ago.  Once I learn more about blogging maybe I can use them here too.

She also has some really great recipes.  I made her chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes for a super bowl party with church friends and Mom and I made her Reese’s chocolate peanut butter cake for my birthday.  Both were rich and amazing!  Those cookie dough cupcakes were to die for!  Here are pictures of both – these are my very poor pictures, her food pictures are much better so look at the ones she posted.  I just wanted to show what they looked like when a less than professional cook (me) made them.  Someday, ya know in that far away world where I get my scrapbooking room and super nice DSLR camera and all, I’ll take fantabulous pictures of my food too.

chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes – plain (yellow? white?) cupcakes with cookie dough in the center and buttercream frosting that tastes just like cookie dough – yummylicious!

chocolate cake, with chopped up Reese’s baked in the cake, with peanut butter frosting, and more Reese’s covering the outside – chocolate peanut butter heaven.

So now that I sound like the craziest stalker ever, you should go check out Amanda and her blog.  I love to live vicariously through her travels, pictures, food samples, and her mad blog computer code making thingermajig skills.

headband love

I like headbands; I really like ones with flowers on them.  I don’t like how they make my head hurt, but I like how they jazz up boring hair so it’s worth the pain.  All over blogland recently I’ve been seeing tons of cute headbands (lots on etsy), lots which are being worn across the forehead rather than the traditional on top of the head way.  Little Miss Momma’s Ashley and Casey Wiegand wear them like this and I was inspired by how cute they always look so I decided to try it out for myself.  I might look like a total dork but I’m glad I tried.

The first time I decided to do this I didn’t have any soft headbands to use so I improvised with one of those stretchy headbands that you use to keep your bangs out of your eyes when you workout (which never work for me anyway because they roll right off my head and won’t stay put – what’s up with that?!?) and just clipped on a flower pin that I had.  The result was painful because the headband thing was so tight since it’s meant to stay on during a workout.  Ouch.  I had a red mark on my face for hours after wearing it.  I think you can even see it squishing my forehead skin in the picture below.

Then when I was doing my back-to-school accessory shopping at Burlington Coat Factory (did you know their accessories are thebomb.com and are super cheap?) I found a stretchy one that wasn’t so tight.  So today I wore it and it was much more comfortable!  I also didn’t wear it quite so low across my forehead so I didn’t have as much of a hippie thing going on.

So, cool or crazy?  My students rarely seem to notice my clothes but one student did ask if I meant to wear my headband that way…

P.S. I may or may not have been late leaving for school due to the fact that I wanted to take pics of my hair…fashion vs. school round 1: fashion wins.

Card Keeper Book Thingy

While babysitting for some kids from church I picked up a Family Fun magazine that their mom had and saw this cute idea of what to do with all those cards you get through the year.  I decided it looked like an easy way to store, organize, and display all those cards I had shoved in a drawer organized neatly in my closet.  This was created pre-blogging (which covers anything more than 2 days ago) so I didn’t think to take pictures as I was creating.  I haven’t tackled the mass quantities of wedding cards we have yet, so when I do those I’ll do better about taking pictures and making an actual tutorial.  It’s pretty easy though so I bet you smarties can figure it out.

I just cut out 2 pieces of cardboard (I used the thin cardboard pieces that sandwich my scrapbooking pages to keep them from getting squished) just slightly larger than the largest card.  I picked out coordinating scrapbooking paper; one piece I glued to the front and wrapped around the back, the other I cut to glue on the inside to cover the rough edges.  Then I used my hole punch to punch 2 holes in each piece as well as in each card.  I then used those metal circle thingys (I think they’re called binder clips?) to put the book together.  The smaller one needed a 1 1/2 in circle but the larger one needed a 2 inch.  I used my Cricut to make the labels.  Each one took less than 1 hour to make.

inside of 2009

view of the side and binder clips

2010

this was the super fat one that needed the 2 inch rings

2011 – my favorite one

here’s the outsides of the 2011 book before I put it together

Family Fun calls these “card keepers”; I’ve been calling them “card book things” – any suggestions for a cute name for these little guys?

When I finally create these for my wedding cards I may use a stronger cardboard.  I’m thinking about buying old textbooks from Goodwill and cutting and covering the covers so they will be more sturdy.  I also may try sewing them together rather than hole punching.  Not sure yet…I’ll let you know (and post pics!).

Making little card keepers works for me! (Linking up to Works for Me Wednesday)