Lauren

Yesterday I heard all about a little girl’s ‘pancake sore’ in her mouth. I didn’t have the heart to correct her.

Have a good Tuesday, everyone!

(Haircut) I did not have big plans for the weekend. In my ‘be healthier’ mindset, I do have the mild goal to walk around a bit, so I’ve gone to the mall in Lincoln the past few weekends just to walk. Yesterday Lloyd and I walked around the mall, but first: we needed haircuts.

I stopped at two places that used to be haircut places and they were both gone, which caused me to question my sanity. As it turns out, if you cut your own hair for about three years, you don’t realize that places close or turn into other stores. Who knew?

Anyway, we went to one that we knew had not closed, but it would have taken too long for both of us to get a haircut. Lloyd won, and I walked around Target (2,000 steps).

In other news, it is Spring Break at Concordia, so most of our college students are gone. That means longer days in the classroom, as opposed to getting my other stuff done from 4-6. Wish me luck.

So, the floppy shoe situation – I thought I had it all figured out. Sam needed to run some errands last weekend, so we went to our favorite store: Harbor Freight. There, I purchased a grommet/eyelet tool and a bunch of perfect, shoelace-sized grommets. This was going to be so easy!

I decided to begin this project before church on Sunday. I took a deep breath and plunged the awl on Lloyd’s pocketknife into my quasi-new shoes. (The other shoe is there for measurement help.)

As it turns out, poking holes in shoes is incredibly easy. However, realizing that you don’t just need to poke holes but that you need to remove the actual material from the future grommet-sized hole (and that you can’t) causes one to break out into flop sweat, and one has already taken one’s shower before church.

Ugh. I just went to church all gross and figured it out later.

Later in the day I tried using a drill to enlarge the holes (I didn’t want to order a leather punch), but it actually didn’t matter – the grommets that came with the kit were too shallow to go through both the leather and the cloth lining. Great. Just great. My solution?

Just put the shoelaces in the holes. It’s working great, even though one is kind of off. The shoes don’t flop around anymore, and now I just have the regret of buying a grommet kit.

Need any holes in anything? I’m your guy.

Our internet was out Sunday through Wednesday. It was brutal, people. I don’t want to say I’m an addict….. but I’m an addict. I struggled through mid-Sunday by finishing a book that I’d started a while ago, but I then I wanted to veg out watching t.v. – and we had no t.v.!

I went to my school to borrow a tv/DVD player, but the only DVDs we have are Zoolander, Zombieland, a gift box of Family Guy (which I don’t watch) or some wedding videos that wouldn’t play sound.

I watched Zoolander twice Sunday night. Once while paying attention, then about half of it with the director’s commentary on.

Anyway, the internet is back! I’ll have to tell you the story of my shoe fix later. 🙂

So, since I’m trying to walk more, it became apparent that my shoes needed an upgrade. I hate buying shoes. My feet are all weird and lumpy with weird issues, so buying shoes is usually a huge pain. My school shoes this year have been two pairs of cheap ($20 on clearance) men’s tennis shoes. They have a ton of toe room – perfect for my lumpy feet – but soles that are just a step above a piece of paper.

For summer wear, I have a couple of pairs of Jambu sandals. They are great – made for people who have less-than-perfect feet. I looked online at their other shoes, and found a nice looking pair for school. They are slip-ons, and when I walked around I kept saying, “There is so much shoe between my foot and the ground!”

They are working out ok. The leather is slowly molding to my foot lumps, but as they stretch out a little bit, there is a new issue. Since they don’t tie, now they fit like untied shoes – a little floppy. Great.

The fix is to get a grommet punch and add shoelaces. Ugh. I hate shoes.

This website has been the most neglected thing. Don’t you feel sorry for it?

Let’s all blame it on winter. When I come home (around 6), I eat and then sit on the sofa until bedtime. Very lazy, Lauren. Very lazy.

Let’s talk about the Apple Watch. I’m loving it! It is actually better than my flip phone, because there were a handful of times that I had left it at school, meaning that I had to crawl off the sofa and go back for it. You can’t leave something behind that is strapped to your arm. I pretty much only use it to call my Dad, text people, and I use the timer function at school ALL the time.

I leave the actual iPhone at home. I’ve actually only used it a few times, so that is a bonus. I mostly use it to check in with my Vitality points. Let’s talk about Vitality. It’s a thing connected to my insurance, and their gist is: “If you take care of yourself now, we can spend your insurance money on our yachts instead of your medical care. Get walkin’, lady.” The more I move around and eat better, the more points I earn. The more points I earn, the smaller my monthly payment for the watch is, plus I can earn some gift cards to spend at places….. for exercise stuff.

They have game-ified exercise, and I’m totally on board. Everyday I have three goals to meet – burn up 350 calories, exercise for 10 minutes, and stand up for one minute and hour for __ hours. Each goal can be modified, and I certainly do modify them on the weekend, when I’m so close to my sofa. It also counts my steps, and I was surprised that in my regular day I only take about 7,000. I thought it would be much more than that, so I’m trying to up them. (Karla, I do set the workout to ‘bowling’ when I’m setting out cots. Thanks for the tip!)

I’m only on my first month of this, and I only knocked three bucks off my monthly payment, but hey – I’m learning. I certainly won’t be doing actual exercise, but I am trying to be a little more healthy.

Have a great Saturday!