An evening of baseball

Youngest son and his class made a banner for this special minor league baseball game. They earned free tickets and had the priviledge of walking out on the field and having their school announced for particpitating in "Hit the books" campaign. Youngest son was so excited to do this. This first picture is the banner his class made.

Here is youngest son and I after he walked the field.

Here is a pic of the family.

This was youngest son walking on the field. Look at that smile.

Lastly we enjoyed fireworks after the game.

We had two bonus things that night. First our team won...woohoo. And second was a promotion by Applebee's. If our team was able to get 3 strike outs in the 9th inning, every one in the stadium would receive a $5 coupon to Applebee's. Our pitcher pulled it out for us and struck 3 guys out. Woohoo!! We received $30 in coupons to Applebee's and the game was free to us too. JACKPOT!!!!!!! What a fun night!

Encouraging words

It's amazing how powerful encouraging words can be to someone.

To have someone say "you look nice" can give your posture a little lift as you walk a little taller.
To hear someone say "you are so smart" can make you feel so intelligent and wise, you are ready to write that book..
To hear the words "you are so strong" makes you feel you can climb Mt Everest.
To hear someone say "your children are a blessing" gives you that warm fuzzy feeling and relief that maybe you are doing it the way God wants you to.

Saying encouraging words is not my strength. I so want to be better at encouraging others. I want to be used by God to bring that needed "lift me up". I want to spur my loved ones (family, friends and those around me) with their walk with the Lord. To encourage them to keep strong in raising their children in a Godly way. Someone did that for me yesterday, and what a blessing that was for me to hear. It certainly does give me a push to endure the difficult times.

To that I say THANK YOU!!!!!

My Assessment

Well the dreaded first session is over. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. He did all my measurements (ok, that was bad-chest, thighs, belly, calves, and arms), weight, health history, injury history, etc. Then he took me over to the weights to see what I could do. I was a little nervous, cause I have only done weights twice since joining the gym 3 1/2 months ago.

First I had to do these push-up on this bar that was about my chest height (it was like doing a push up against the wall), then he lowered the bar about a foot and I did a few more. Then he lowered the bar another foot, and a few more push ups. By the time I ended, it was about a foot off the ground.

Then onto another aparatus that I had to do these pull ups, or chin ups, but you put your knees on this platform and it lowers you down. Basically, you are pulling up your own weight up and if you can't, you pull only a portion of your weight. I couldn't do a pull up on my own to save my life (too much weight and not enough muscle, LOL). Thank goodness for advancing equipment, so doing pullups with only a portion of my weight was a breeze. We did that many times until we got the right weight. Whew!!

Then onto one of those giant 1/2 balls. It is flat on the top and a ball on the bottom. I had to stand on it and then do squats while balancing. That actually was easier than I thought it was going to be. Who knew?!

And then time was up. He was just testing, now comes the next session when he starts kicking my butt. My mom has termed it "Justin's torture chamber". LOL. (She has heard what hubby is going through.) Time will tell.

Uh-oh

Oh no. I am not sure what I just did. My husband convinced me to sign up with his personal trainer. Yikes!!

So I just signed up for my first session which will be my assessment. How much body fat I have (like I really want to know that), my bmi (ok, I already know I am in the overweight catagory, do we really need to go there?), what I can (or cannot) do with the weights and my diet info. Oh no! Do I really have to tell him how much I cheat?

I am VERY nervous about this. My husband nearly got sick after his first session. I told the trainer he needed to be nice or I might not come back. I would come back, but I don't want him to know that. LOL.

So Wednesday morning at 8:30 am, I am preparing for my first session of torture. AHHH!!

16 more days

That's right 16 more school days until the last kid is done with school!!!!!

I can't wait.

No more getting kids up at 6:15am.
No more running out the door to make the bus.
No more packing 4 lunches.
No more checking Math homework.
No more projects.
No more quizzing spelling words.
No more vocab. quizzing.
No more having to wash uniforms.
No more making sure gym clothes are clean.
No more carpools.
No more "My stomach hurts. I need to stay home."
No more "Where is your belt, and jacket."
No more "Oh no! I forgot....(fill in the blank)"
No more book reports.
No more phonics test to help study for.
No more looking for last minute show and tell.

AHHHHH!!!!!!! School is tough work for me. Man oh man. Making sure all 4 kids stay on top of things. I think I am more excited for the kids to be out than the kids are.

Here's to looking forward to summer break!

School search

Just an update on the ever constant quest for the perfect school. Ok, I know there is no such thing as the perfect school. Believe me I know that.

But we are in search for the right school for our youngest 2 children. Mostly our youngest son. Babygirl will do fine wherever she goes (which will most likely be with youngest son). Anyways, after praying about it, we have made the decision and feel it is the right one. Unfortunately, that does mean the younger 2 kids will continue to go to a different school than the older two. We had just hoped to get them all in to the same school at some point in time. Now that would be a foreign concept to us. LOL. Well, it won't be next year.

At least we have next year figured out. (We tell the kids we take it a year at a time.)

Girls Night Out!!

Don't you love it when you get the chance to go out with just the girls, or the guys go out with just the guys!

Tonight was one of those wonderful times of GIRLS NIGHT OUT!!!

We had a blast just laughing and talking. One of the girls even made us play a game and brought along a prize for the winner. I didn't win. And one girl decided to treat us all and secretly paid for all our food and desserts. I didn't pay. But I did take pictures. And we all laughed and laughed. At one point I was laughing so hard I was crying. Gotta love those belly gut laughs!!!

I needed tonight more than I thought I did. Thank you girls!!!!

A month to go

Today is exactly one month until our first 5K run. Uh oh.

I feel as though I am going backwards in my exercise. Yikes. I ran last week or was it the week before? Hmmm. Not sure. When I did, I ran 4 miles on the treadmill. I was sooo tired by the time I was done. I was bored too. It took me 51 minutes to run the 4 miles. I have yet to run on the road or on a track. I think I need to do that soon.

Lately I have just felt so unmotivated to exercise. Maybe it is all this dreary rain we have had. It seems to be an unusual amount of rain. So many days in a row.

The weight loss has continued at a snails pace, still going, just ever so slow. I am at a total of 13 pounds lost as of yesterday. I am pleased that I am still at least going in the right direction, down instead of up. I still have a long way to go...20 more pounds at the minimum, 24 pounds preferably. I have not been strict with my diet, and therefore the snails pace. But I want this to be a life style change not a diet. So I allow myself a brownie if I want it, it is just one brownie not 3. Or if I want ice cream, I don't have a bowl full, I have a weight watchers ice cream bar for 130 calories. Better choices is what I am trying to do, and better portion control as well.

It took me many years and 5 pregnancies to put this weight on, it is not going to come off overnight. If it did, it would be so unhealthy and would surely all come back and then some. So I am trying to do it right. To do it a way in which I can live with for the rest of my life not just a period of time.

I guess I better get out there and start running so I know I can be ready for the 5K. Yikes, I have only a month left to prepare! At least I have 13 less pounds to be dragging along. That should make it a tad easier. I hope.

Want to do something fun?

Last week I got a text while I was at work from Hubby. It said "Want to do something fun?"

After nearly passing out (It was a school night, I had to work the next day, and hubby is not a spontaneous type of guy) I texted back "YES!!!!". That was my exact response. Then he texted "Want to go to the beach, have dinner and walk the boardwalk, and get funnel cake?"

What? Are you kidding me? That is one of my favorite things to do. Of course I want to do that.
WooHoo!

Wait a minute. My hubby is being spontaneous and asking me if I want to do one of my favorite things. Hmmmmm. Now, I am getting suspicious. I am thinking he has something up his sleeves. It could be good news, so he is in the mood to spoil me. Or it could be bad news so he is buttering me up. Hmmmm. The wheels are turning. He had been in meetings all day. I wonder what is going on.

Well, after getting the kids from school and ball practice. The kids were not so keen on our idea. They were tired and didn't want to be out late. PARTY POOPERS!!! Aren't mom and dad supposed to be the party poopers? So we do a modified version and go to the mall get dinner at the food court for one specific reason......they sell funnel cakes there! LOL.

Then we proceed to a nearby park that has a walking trail and several different playgrounds along the trail. Oldest son was not excited at all about this. His response was "Oh great the younger kids will have fun on playground, you and dad will be talking, so what does that leave me doing? This is going to be so boring!" The joys of having a 13 year old.

Oh phooey on you, was what I wanted to say, but I let it go. Well off we go. As soon as we are out of the car the kids dash for this real cannon that was used a way back when. Next thing I see is oldest son, climbing on it with the other kids, sticking his head in the barrel. Boring eh? So we proceed along our walk and come to the first playground and all are playing on it and even hubby and I were swinging on the swings. They had a high bar and oldest son was showing off how many chin ups he could do. I was impressed. I couldn't do a single one. LOL.

We proceed along the path and start having running races. Then we come to a fountain and the kids are all loving playing in the water and throwing coins in making wishes. Then we walk some more and stumble upon some fitness station so we are all seeing if we could jump on the logs that are standing straight up. Now that was interesting. Back on the trail for some more walking and playgrounds. We found lots of wild life. The kids spotted a Blue Heron. Oldest son is carrying babygirl on his shoulders and they are laughing. I asked oldest son "Was it as bad as you thought it would be?" He looked at me with this sheepish grin and said "No, it was actually pretty fun." I give him a half hug, smiled, and thanked him for giving it a try. I am so grateful he wasn't determined to be bored.

Time to leave and the kids were not ready, including oldest son. Ok, 10 more minutes. After all they were all getting along and having a blast.

That gave hubby and I time to talk. "Ok what is this all about?"
"Nothing."
"What? Nothing?"
"Nope. Nothing other than I just wanted to woo you and I know you like this kind of thing. I just want to court you."

AWWWWWWW! If that wasn't the sweetest. I love my Hubby! Too bad I was wondering what was up all evening instead of enjoying what was going on. That will teach me to look into everything, instead of just enjoying the moment.

Spring

Spring is here. This so far, is the first spring in a long, long time, that I can remember not being so totally busy that I don't know which end is up.

Normally we are living at the baseball field, eating at the baseball field, and sometime someone is sleeping at the ballfield. Not this year though.

We did not sign up the younger 2 kids for ball this spring. Instead they want to take a tennis clinic, and cheerleading clinic which will happen in the summer. Hey, I am for spreading the sports around so I don't go completely nuts like every other spring.

We are still able to enjoy ballgames through oldest son, as he is playing on the middle school team. Widget is playing soccer. We love to watch him play, but I think he is getting either tired or bored with it. He wants to play tackle football come fall. Yikes. We will see on that one.