Friends

Transparent.  Understood.  Safe.  Loved.  Supported.   In a matter of two hours, I felt each of these feelings tonight.   I love this about the group of women who have been apart of my life for about seven years now.   Tonight, contemplating and processing,  I voiced something I have been praying about for a couple of years now.   With tears in my eyes, my friends encouraged me.   The best part of it all is that they are praying with me.   This is a comfort because this group has proven to me the power of prayer.   When they pray, things happen.   I love Wednesday nights when I get the opportunity to come together as a group to learn, grow, and together become who God created us to be.  

No Sweat

It was one of those moments that a person has when something profound happens and you can remember for a long time where you were, what you were doing, what you were thinking at the exact moment when a major event happens.   For example, I can tell you exactly where I was when I heard the news that a plane had flown into the twin towers.  I am talking about a moment like that.  One that I can distinctly remember happened on January 1, 2006.   After celebrating the beginning of another year watching the ball drop, I was laying in bed thinking about my New Year's Resolutions.   Up to that point I had never really set resolutions for fear of breaking them or the thought that I may forget about them a month later.   As I laid in the dark room contemplating what I most wanted to  happen, I came upon one resolution.  I wanted to loose weight.   After two pregnancies and not really sticking to any sort of diet,  I had put on more weight than I really wanted to deal with.   I hated the way I looked, clothes shopping was not any fun, and I just wanted to change.   My sister was getting married in September of that year, I made a short term goal to loose 2 pounds a month so that by September, I would be 18 pounds lighter.   There, resolution made, plan in place, I felt good.    September came, and I was just shy of my weight goal, but none the less, I felt good. 

Fast forward to Thanksgiving 2007, another day I will never forget.   I stepped on the scale to check the numbers before the holiday weekend began and that day marked a total loss of 50 pounds.   I had done it.   I didn't jump up and down or anything like that, rather I remember sitting on the steps thinking back about how I had done it.  I felt good, because I had lost the weight, but I had also stuck with something and had done something that was good for myself.  


This Thanksgiving marks 3 years that I have maintained very close to the weight I was at Thanksgiving of 2007.   It as been work and been a continual effort of keeping after my diet after slipping, as a diet tends to do.   January 1, 2011 will be the five year anniversary of making the goal, it is hard to even fathom it.  

Today begins a new personal journey.   I have proven to myself that I can keep the weight off.   I have done that.  My new goal involves exercise.   It is an area that I really lack in as I did not loose weight by exercising, but by portion control alone.   I mean, I walk or I will play Wii Fit, but really exercise was not a priority.  Last Thursday I joined the Healthy Living Center.   I was scared, excited, and overwhelmed.  

My dad took me to the center to help me get started as I had never set foot in a fitness center before.   He mentioned I might want an extra change of clothes depending on how much I sweat when I exercise.  Packing an extra set, I thought "I don't sweat much."  He gave me a great idea for remembering my code in the locker room so I am not one of the people staring at a locker that has my belongings locked in it that I cannot access due to forgotten codes.  Next he showed me where the towels are and grabbed one.   I followed suit thinking, "I don't sweat much." 

We started on the treadmills and I thought to myself, I can do this.   No sweat!  After about four minutes Dad said I seemed to be doing well, I could bump up the intensity if I wanted to.   Sure, why not?!?!  After about 15 minutes on the treadmills, my dad asked if I was OK, to which I replied, doing great!   He left to do some other exercises and I put my music on.   I followed each incline change that was on the program and all of a sudden I was walking inclines of 21% then 24% and yikes, it hit 30% incline.  Honestly I think it is the first time I have ever had a workout like that, and I am glad I grabbed a towel! 

Here is to day one at the fitness center.   It wasn't as scary as I had anticipated, thanks Dad!   I am planning to go back again tomorrow.   Next week, I have scheduled a Wellness Evaluation.   I have no high hopes or unrealistic expectations of this exam.   I know I am out of shape...after all, that is why I am going to the center.  I don't know how I am going to measure this goal yet, I am hoping the evaluation next week will give me some answers to that.   In the mean time, I am going to head back to the fitness center and hopefully get my bearings. 

November Reading

Our family project continues with Adventure stories this month.  If you missed the post explaining our project check it out here.   Last month's genre was Historical Fiction.  As a family we read stories from fourteenth century China to Texas just prior to becoming a state, from Eastern America in 1904 to South Carolina during World War II.   At the end of the month we shared what we had learned about the time period, what our favorite part of the book was, and rated the book on a 1 to 5 star rating. 

This month the genre is Adventure.   The reading continues! 

It Is Time

The weekend is just around the corner, and I am so excited and ready for it.  Consisting of dancing to toddler tunes, playing with stuffed animals and/or dolls, loving, laughing, supporting, and yes, sometimes tears, these weekends have become an important part of what we do.    I love these "girls" and I cannot wait for girls weekend.

Alchemist

I have recently finished reading Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.  It is a wonderful story about Santiago's mission to find his Personal Legend.   Through the northern part of Africa, Santiago faces many choices about whether to continue on his journey or settle for the circumstances of the present as good as they may seem.   Through the desert he finds inner peace, true love, and self respect.   

This book has caused me to ponder daily interactions and events knowing that somethings are brought into our lives that we can choose take the step forward, or we can choose to ignore the opportunity and stay in the present wishing we had a different option.   We may not always know where the next step will lead, or what is to come in the future, but if we keep taking a step forward, moving to make ourselves better, we just may find our own treasure. 

A Little Late

I know, I know, Halloween is over and the costumes are put away.   I have been so busy I didn't get to share the kids' costumes with you so, I am going to take a brief minute on this wonderful November day to do that.  

E decided that he was going to be Shaun White this year for Halloween, who could blame him?  Shaun White is the best!   The things he can do on a snowboard make me want to get out on one....almost.   The catch to this costume was to find the red hair that Shaun has, and we did!  

For the parade at school E decided that wearing a winter coat inside for an hour, so we gathered up some knee and elbow pads, a helmet, and a skateboard, and voila!   Another great person in sports.... Tony Hawk!

In this picture E is standing by his teacher Mrs. Kuisle who dressed as the Queen of Hearts and played the character to the hilt with accent and all!  


Addy became a beautiful Renaissance queen and was dazzling in her long hooped skirt dress and crown.   She received a lot of comments on her gown.

For trick-or-treating, Rae-Rae joined the kids as Elmo and quickly got the hang of saying Trick-or-Treat, Thank you, and "next house!"   

Every Vote Counts

Today was the day for voters to go to the polls to vote for their choice as to who is going to be in charge of the state or their representative in congress and/or senate.   The problem for me is, as the sun came up on this day we exercise our right and privilege as an American citizen, I thought I knew who I was going to vote for, but if anyone asked me why, my reasoning wasn't anything concrete, just based on hearsay from other people.   As I was sitting at the breakfast table contemplating this, an email from my brother-in-law came up in my inbox.   It was a link from MPR radio that gave you a quiz and would match you with the candidate that matched your views and opinions about different topics with the candidates running.   Perfect, this is just what I needed.  Upon completing the test, I had more information and less answers to my question of who I was going to vote for. 

The results of the quiz gave me the exact opposite choice of who I was thinking I was going to vote for.   I had to decide if I wanted to vote for a candidate with whom had similar views on a majority of the issues the quiz asked about or if I wanted to vote for a candidate that had the same view point on two issues I feel particularly strong about right now.   Unfortunately, no one candidate covered both areas.   So, I spent the afternoon trying to decide if I wanted to vote with the general campaign of a candidate or the specific issues.   At one point in the afternoon, I was tempted to just not vote, what is one vote anyway?   I mean, really, in the grand scheme of things, does one vote really matter?  Yes.  Yes, it does I told myself and continued to process the information I had in front of me.  

By 3:00 in the afternoon, I could not process anymore and I decided to go vote.  I decided to vote with the specific issues and know that at least I had made a decision.   It is a first for me.   I have traditionally asked Mark who he was going to vote for and followed suit or voted along political party lines.  I know that the voting process is in place so that the general population can choose the leaders, and in this race, no, my one vote was probably not going to sway the campaign one way or the other, but at the end of the day, I read the information, made a choice, and voted upon that choice.