Wow – it’s been a looooooonnnnnngggg time! I have been so busy that after working 8 hours on the computer I just haven’t wanted to sit and post a blog. Add in Facebook and Twitter and really trying to fill up an entire blog post just seemed too much when I could just give a quick blurb about what’s up on the other places. But I have missed writing and think I’ll like to try to keep up on this blog a bit more. We’ll see how that goes.

Kid Update

My last post was way back in February (sheesh!) and so much has happened since then. In March, DramaGirl was in Beauty and the Beast, Jr. as a Silly Girl and it was such a great show! Turned out soooo good – I was very proud of my girl. I worked as the Assistant Stage Manager/Curtain Operator for all 4 shows so I never actually got to see it live and the video left quite a bit to be desire but it was fun to be part of it. Then after that one wrapped, she auditioned for a part in The Trial of Goldilocks and was cast as Mama Bear. Then MathWiz decided he wanted to audition for a play too and the theatre company we are with was also doing The Adventures of Peter and the Wolf for the 5 to 9 year olds. He chickened out of the audition but then we found out they didn’t have enough kids so the director met him at a later time and auditioned him and he got the role of Ivan the Hunter. He was very excited and it was fun having both the kids in shows. So we had about 8 weeks of rehearsals and then two weekends of shows (10 for DramaGirl and 4 for MathWiz). I was pretty tired after it was all said and done and decided next time – we’ll do one show at a time.  Then before those shows were done, DramaGirl auditioned and began rehearsals for High School Musical, Jr. Those shows are on the 10th/11th of July and then she leaves for youth camp on the 12th. Whew! I’ll be glad for the week off. MathWiz is currently going to our church’s summer creative arts day camp 2 days a week so they are both a bit busy.

Knitting Update

I have not knitted in some time. I’m not acheiving my 2009 goals but I guess I just have needed the break. Actually I began reading the Twilight series and since then just haven’t picked up the needles. I am almost done with the hoodie vest I’m making for DramaGirl so I should get it done. I know she’s a little anxious for it.

Well, that’s it for today – need to get back to work. Have a good one!

It’s not night time – but it’s sure dark out with the clouds and rain. It’s been raining all weekend here in Northern California and I LOVE it! We need the rain so much and so I’m very thankful for it ~ even though it means cleaning up after my dogs everytime they come inside. Oh well. I like hearing the rain on the roof and the quiet of the house at this hour. It’s not really even that early – 8AM. But it is QUIET!! MIL left this morning to go to Georgia and will be gone at least a month I think which means I have my early mornings alone back and I am determined to really enjoy them!

So last week, the kids and I were all sick. As usually happens when I’m not feeling well, I didn’t eat so great. The funny/sad thing is I weighed myself and i was down 3 pounds, then the next day weighed again and was up those same 3 pounds. I HATE weighing but with the BFC I feel obligated too. In any case, I didn’t eat well and with Valentine’s day and my hubby buying me chocolates (we weren’t supposed to do that!) well … all I can say is I’m glad they are gone and I’ve informed everyone that no more junk is allowed in the house! I need to get back to eating better (including my 7-9 servings of fruits/veggies) and I KNOW I’ll feel so much better. So that is the purpose of today’s title – Fresh NEW Start.

I don’t really have a lot to share right now and need to work so I’ll sign off for now. Have a great TUESDAY!

I can’t believe it’s been this long since I’ve made a post – forgive me! I have all sorts of excuses – work has been busy (true), my eyes hurt from staring at the computer all day (this is true), Facebook has taken my time (also true) – but it doesn’t matter. I should have made more time to post to my blog. I don’t even know if anyone is still checking – probably not. It doesn’t matter though because I generally write for myself. Another truth – my life just hasn’t been all that exciting lately!

Ok, let’s see… what’s been going on… the last I shared I had a horrible stomach flu due to food poisoning. Turns out that 9 out of 11 co-workers in my department were ALL sick that same weekend! Clearly this was a case of food poisoning – yuk! I’m still working out but finding the weigh ins for the BFC is bringing me down! I know how much I weigh, but checking every week just makes me feel like I’m failing. I work really hard yet my weight doesn’t change a whole lot.  As I work out with weight and strengthening I know it builds lean muscle and eventually my weight will start dropping but the point of BFC is to lose the most weight so when I don’t, not only do I feel like I’m failing myself but the whole team and I have lost a little motivation to keep going with it. Not only that but KarateKid was down and out last week with 101 to 103 degree temps for 5 days, then DramaGirl got it, then me. So that’s another week NOT working out. I’ve been doing crunches/push ups at home but it’s not the same.  We are all better now and I’ll be meeting my trainer for the BFC for a workout today.

I’m also thinking about NOT doing the Tri – I love the training but seriously, I can’t walk/job becuase my calf muscles blow up and are so painful that I am practically in tears just trying to finish a mile! I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, massaging, icing taking ibuprofen but they still hurt. I don’t know…I don’t want to quit but the pain is so severe. My doctor says all you can do is what I’m doing. The problem is that when my calves start hurting, my ankles hurt and so do my knees – that’s scary. This all starts after walking briskly after 10 – 15 minutes. When I switch to jogging the calf pain eases somewhat but then the shin splints start. I can’t win! However, the pain does not come when I ride the bike at the gym. I imagine maybe biking would be good for me but I’m not sure I want to go through an entire triathlon to find that the last leg I can’t finish.

So even though I’m struggling with the Tri training/bootcamps (just the walk/jog part – LOVE the rest!) I’m NOT giving up on working out. I LOVE it and realized how much I NEED it after not being able to really do it for a week! I do have a membership to the gym … for now. When I signed up I had a 3 month family pass, I paid first and last months fees so that gave me 5 months paid. After it’s done, end of May, I won’t continue to pay since it’s pretty pricey but more than that, my husband’s hours have been cut and so we have to cut expenses and the gym is one since really, I’m the only one who really uses it. Well, KarateKid comes but he can’t work out – too young – so he goes to the kids area and LOVES it. But it’s an expense we don’t need and so it will go with the other non-essentials. So what do I do in place of that? Well, I just ordered P90X from Beachbody.com. I have a few friends who are doing it and really love it but more importantly they are seeing results. That’s what I need, something I can do at home (with PokerGuy) and that will give me results. Best of all there is a whole community of people who can support my endeavers.  I should have it in a couple days and this may be the thing that takes place of bootcamp/tri training.

Onto Knitting News

I am STILL working on Surprise #2. I am on the sleeves and seriously if i focus today I could get it done. I wanted to send both the surprises off last week before Valentine’s Day but if I can get them out this week I’ll still be happy. I did make some scrubbies – for washing dishes, cleaning veggies. They turned out great thanks to the all the help from the knitters at KnittingHelp. I LOVE them – they work awesome! They don’t scratch non-stick surfaces but are safe to use on them and really gets all the gunk off. They are so much better than sponges because you can throw them in the wash, bleach them even, so they are able to be used for a long time! I am hoping to sell them. Here are a couple pictures of it.

It’s not “amazing” but it works and if you are like me and really hate the germy sponges – then you’ll LOVE this too. They are made with cotton yarn and nylon. I think I’ll try to sell them for $2.50 each or 5 for $10 – what do you think??

MIL News

My MIL will be leaving tomorrow morning – early – to go visit her daughter in Georgia. We’re not sure how long she’ll be gone but I think the break will be good for everyone. Sadly I think she’ll miss DramaGirl’s play, but I don’t think she will be that sad as she fell asleep at the last one.

School News

I’m not sure if I shared or not, but KarateKid is now being homeschooled. We had to pull him from the private school because we couldn’t afford it anymore. It’s going very well so far – he’s super smart and a wiz at math. In fact, I think I’ll change his “name” to MathWiz instead of KarateKid since he’s no longer in Karate. So both kids are now at home all day – it’s a bit of an adjustment but they are both doing so well with their schooling that I’m very happy.

Well, that’s it for today I think. I can’t think of anything else I need to share. I hope you all enjoy this President’s Day!

So last weekend on Saturday I came down with a horrible stomach flu. Oh it was bad and I was down and out on Sunday and Monday. KarateKid’s birthday was last Saturday – he turned 9 – and I was able to go out with the family but early Sunday morning I woke up sicker than anything. Sadly, I missed his birthday party. He still had a good time and had fun with his friends. PokerGuy and DramaGirl took care of the party for me.

Because I was sick, I couldn’t work out until Thursday. I did go to bootcamp on Saturday (last week) but when I set out for the walk – my calves started hurting sooo bad that I just couldn’t make myself keep going. On top of that, I felt nauseous (this was before I got sick) and I just left. I’d never done that before and I felt a little bad but not too much. My calves have been hurting so bad I’m crying while I’m walking/jogging – shin splints they say. I couldn’t figure it out though because when I first started bootcamp, the first week my shins/calves hurt bad but after that they didn’t hurt at all and I was increasing my speed etc. Then I had my finger surgery and missed about 5 weeks. But I also stopped logging my food and I think my water went down – especially in the cold I’d been drinking a lot of coffee and not as much water. Then this past week I got back to my 100 ounces of water a day and yesterday when I went to bootcamp, my calves didn’t hurt AT ALL! So, my theory is that because I wasn’t hydrated enough my muscles were spasming when I walked. I don’t know if that’s right or true, but I’m not taking chances and I will get my water in every day! The pain was so bad I almost quit. In fact on my way to bootcamp yesterday I decided that I was going to quit if my calves hurt – then I remembered my word. PERSEVERE. So then I just prayed for God to help me because my flesh wanted to quit but I knew that if I didn’t persevere and push through I would regret it. So I went on that walk and I was pleasantly surprised with no pain. Of course, I didn’t’ walk as fast as I was but I’m just thankful there was no pain! Thank you Jesus!! So, I won’t be quitting bootcamp or Tri Training after all.

I also began the Body Fit Challenge at my gym this week. I had been meeting with my trainer for my 3 free sessions and we hit it off! She’s a Christian and when I shared my goals with her – well really goal – she was touched by it. My goal is not to look great or be really skinny or weigh 110. My goal is to ride a ride with KarateKid at Six Flags Marine World. That may seem really silly, but my rear is too wide right now and I don’t fit in the seats – well I can but it’s hard to get out and the one time I rode a ride with DramaGirl, I had a tough time getting out of the seat and I haven’t gone back. That was 3 years ago. I was supposed to take my son to Six Flags last August and I chickened out – I couldn’t make myself go. That’s when I decided this was stupid and I was going to lose weight so I can take my son to Marine World and ride all the rides he wants to with him!

Ok so back to the BFC ~ my trainer and I hit it off and we wanted to continue working together but I couldn’t afford the prices of private training so she recommended the BFC – 8 weeks of twice a week group fitness sessions. But I have tri training on Tuesday nights so I could only go to one session a week and she offered to work with me one-on-one each week to make up for that. So in essence a workaround the problem of the cost of private sessions. So on Monday afternoons I’ll be with her one-on-one and then on Thursdays I go to the group session. There are only 8 of us on our team so it’s still pretty personal. On top of that I have tri training on Tuesday nights and bootcamp on Saturday mornings. That just leaves two days for me to go do cardio on my own. That’s my weakness – going on my own so I need to make it a habit. I didn’t go on Friday because I took a nap so I have to go today. I really hate cardio but I know it’s good for my heart and will help me lose weight so I need to go. I’ll go after church.

Onto knitting news. I finished Surprise #1 and am working on Surprise #2. I haven’t gotten very far because I didn’t knit much this week due to being sick. I need to get busy though because I have other things I want to work on but since this is a gift and I want to send it before Valentine’s Day I need to get it done. I also have a baby cocoon that I’m making and it’s boring so I haven’t wanted to work on it. I don’t think I’d ever be able to make a living at selling knitted items – I get bored too easily. Then I want to get DramaGirl’s vest done too. So much to knit, so little time!

Well, I need to get going and get ready for church today. I hope you all have a wonderful SONday!

Tags: Birthday, Body Fit Challenge, CalFit, exercise, sick, tired, walking

I didn’t finish Surprise Project #1 last night but I’m super close! I’ll be done today for sure. I hope.

Went to the gym yesterday and worked out with my trainer. Oh I really enjoyed it and want to do it more but it’s pricey. I am finding that I really enjoy working out – going to bootcamp and the gym – but it’s hard to get there. Once I’m there, I’m good. DramaGirl loves to go and KarateKid enjoys the kid area. Tonight I have bootcamp/tri-training. I like it.

Not much else to chat about this morning. I need to get to work. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Tags: bootcamp, gym, knit, train, working out