Just an update. Things on the homefront are going pretty well, considering. My step-daughter seems to be adjusting fairly well... there have been a few times that she has tried to test us, but DH and I have been right there to let her know what the rules are, and she seems to be falling in line. We are spending as much quality time as possible with her, while at the same time, dealing with all of the paperwork involved in getting legal guardianship of her so that we can get her enrolled in school.
Our 13 year old's school has their first real football game of the season tonight, so it will be her first time cheering at a real game.. should be fun.
Workout update... Monday I did Jiggle Free Buns and Jiggle Free Arms back to back, and then ran 2.5 miles. Yesterday, I did Ultimate Calorie Blaster and ran 3 miles. I have really been trying to bump it up a notch to increase the intensity and break through this plateau I seem to be at. Seems to be working. This morning I was 131 lbs.
Today I am scheduled to do.. heck, I can't even remember what I am scheduled to do... but I may end up making it a rest day anyway, so it really doesn't matter. LOL. It's gonna be a long and busy day, with the daughter's game and everything, so I may just rest. Not sure yet.
Guess I should start working now. Have a great day everyone.
We got a phone call yesterday from DH's ex-wife. His 16 year old daughter, who pretty much cut us out of her life for the last few years, has gotten out of control. His ex can no longer handle her.... So, guess who she's coming to live with.
I love her.... I've been with her dad since she was 11 months old. But I have to admit that from what I hear about the way she has been lately, I am a little scared. Not as in scared for our safety or anything like that, I think it's more "am I ready to deal with this?" She is dressing all in black, reading books on the occult, wants to drop out of school, has already had sex.... the whole nine yards.
I have 3 children at home, but I have a 13 year old who I am especially afraid will be influenced, and they will be sharing a room. I know that wonderful kid I know is in there, we just have to help her find her again and bring her back out!
Just keep us in your thoughts/prayers. We are going to need it, especially during the first few weeks/months... we are all going to go through a period of adjustment.
I went on a 4.5 mile run this morning to try to clear my head before it all begins. DH is going to get up in about 30 minutes and start getting ready to go pick her up.
And I sure am ready for it. It has been a high intensity week for me. I have run about 7 miles this week so far... and I have done Super Cardio plus other FIRM workouts... tomorrow is Super Cardio again, plus upper body weight work and Sunday is my long run day, shooting for 4.75 miles this time. So, yeah... I need a break today before tomorrow and Sunday.
I have definitely noticed an increase in my appetite this week with the increase in intensity levels and running mileage, but as Iong as I eat the right things, that is a good thing, I think.... The ol' body needs fuel in order to run.
I might be "kid-less" tonight. I have confirmation on two of them going to spend the night away... just waiting on confirmation that my son can go to his friend's house. I should probably go out to the car and check for messages on my cell phone..... It's been a really long time since all of my kids have been gone at the same time. I don't know if DH and I will know what do do if we are alone.....
I got this in an e-mail today, and I had to share this with you!!!!
A trip to the ladies'room: Men just don't understand.... When you have to visit a public bathroom, you usually find a line of women, so you smile politely and take your place. Once it's your turn, you check for feet under the stall doors. Every stall is occupied. Finally, a door opens and you dash in, nearly knocking down the woman leaving the stall. You get in to find the door won't latch. It doesn't matter, the wait has been so long you are about to wet your pants! The dispenser for the modern "seat covers" (invented by someone's Mom, no doubt) is handy, but empty. You would hang your purse on the door hook, if there were one, but there isn't - so you carefully but quickly drape it around your neck, (Mom would turn over in her grave if you put it on the FLOOR!), yank down your pants, and assume "The Stance." In this position your aging, toneless thigh muscles begin to shake. You'd love to sit down, but you certainly hadn't taken time to wipe the seat or lay toilet paper on it, so you hold "The Stance."
To take your mind off your trembling thighs, you reach for what you discover to be the empty toilet paper dispenser. In your mind, you can hear your mother's voice saying, "Honey, if you had tried to clean the seat, you would have KNOWN there was no toilet paper!" Your thighs shake more.
You remember the tiny tissue that you blew your nose on yesterday - the one that's still in your purse. That would have to do. You crumple it in the puffiest way possible. It is still smaller than your thumbnail.
Someone pushes open your stall door because the latch doesn't work. The door hits your purse, which is hanging around your neck in front of your chest, and you and your purse topple backward against the tank of the toilet. "Occupied!" you scream, as you reach for the door, dropping your precious, tiny, crumpled tissue in a puddle on the floor, lose your footing altogether, and slide down directly onto the TOILET SEAT. It is wet of course.
You bolt up, knowing all too well that it's too late. Your bare bottom has made contact with every imaginable germ and life form on the uncovered seat because YOU never laid down toilet paper - not that there was any, even if you had taken time to try.
You know that your mother would be utterly appalled if she knew, because, you're certain, her bare bottom never touched a public toilet seat because, frankly, dear, "You just don't KNOW what kind of diseases you could get."
By this time, the automatic sensor on the back of the toilet is so confused that it flushes, propelling a stream of water like a firehose against the inside of the bowl that sprays a fine mist of water that covers your butt and runs down your legs and into your shoes. The flush somehow sucks everything down with such force that you grab onto the empty toilet paper dispenser for fear of being dragged in too. At that point, you give up. You're soaked by the spewing water and the wet toilet seat. You're exhausted. You try to wipe with a gum wrapper you found in your pocket and then slink out inconspicuously to the sinks. You can't figure out how to operate the faucets with the automatic sensors, so you wipe your hands with spit and a dry paper towel and walk past the line of women, still waiting. You are no longer able to smile politely to them.
A kind soul at the very end of the line points out a piece of toilet paper trailing from your shoe. ( Where was that when you NEEDED it??) You yank the paper from your shoe, plunk it the woman's hand and tell her warmly, "Here, you just might need this."
As you exit, you spot your hubby, who has long since entered, used and left the men's restroom. Annoyed, he asks, "What took you so long, and why is your purse hanging around your neck?"
This is dedicated to women everywhere who deal with a public restroom (rest??? you've got to be kidding!!). It finally explains to the men what really does take us so long. It also answers their other commonly asked question about why women go to the restroom in pairs. It's so the other gal can hold the door, hang onto your purse and hand you Kleenex under the door!!
Sometimes I look around me and wonder "Why do I keep doing this?" I know, the daily grind gets monotonous for everyone, but lately it's been pretty bad. Seeing the same cars coming in the gate to work every morning, the same faces walking into the building, the same faces smiling fake smiles to everyone they pass in the hallway, doing the same thing all day every day, the trips to take the kids all over creation for this and that,.... I just see a bunch of hamsters on a wheel, running in circles but not getting anywhere. And sadly, I am one of them.
Oh, I am trying to get somewhere... (aren't we all?) I work hard, try to make a reputation for myself of dilligence and hard work so that I can make more money in a different wheel, but it will all still be the same, I think.
I'm not really depressed, not really down at all, just bored with the day to day. I think that I just need something fun and exciting to happen in my life... Maybe I should find a new hobby outside of home. I scrapbook and I do genealogy (or at least I used to when I had time and extra money for scrapbooking supplies) but haven't in a while. Maybe I just need to get back to it.
Ok, now that I have "vented"......
I worked out with Super Cardio again yesterday. It was a great workout. I am supposed to do FIRM Strength today and I might go for a short run tonight if it cools off enough. The last few days it has been terribly humid in the early mornings and rainy in the evenings, so I haven't been able to get outside and run as much as I would like. So, tonight it's all up to the weather.
A FIRM buddy on the boards gave me a link to a website where you can plot your run and it gives you the distance... I am loving it because I was having to get out and drive the route to see how far I was running... the link is http://www.mapmyrun.com.
Super Cardio, as I may have mentioned, kicks my fanny every time I do it, so OF COURSE, I do it at least once a week! It is my usual Saturday workout (except for last week, when I ran the 5K)... I just finished and wanted to share....
"I am officially pooped"
For those of you reading this who don't know the FIRM's workouts, when I talk about Super Cardio, I am talking about 60 full minutes of medium to high impact, high intensity cardio that doesn't let up until the last 5 minutes when you get down on the floor for a short abs/planks segment. OH MY GOODNESS!
But I feel good because when I was in there doing it this morning, the kids woke up. My 13 year old daughter had a friend spend the night last night and she was watching me for a while and said "I wish my mom would do this."
Anyway, I had another post all typed out earlier this morning about how I am a technology queen because I fixed my computer (I am really computer illiterate, but somehow managed to switch wires around and get them right). But that post got lost when I tried to preview, so let me just say that I fixed my computer and will be able to post more often now. YAY ME!
My diet and exercise routine is starting to get back to normal, my workouts are getting back up to full intensity after about 2 weeks of slacking off.... and the diet is improving. I have decided that I do NOT want to go back to the way it was, as I think I was depriving myself of too much that I really enjoy. I know that is why I keep having these over-indulgent spells. I deprive and deprive and then binge for a week or so and always have trouble getting back on track. The thing is I don't starve myself when I eat clean.. stay around 1500 calories a day of good healthy clean foods, but I guess there just wasn't enough chocolate in there,
Well, our inspection at work is finally over. I don't know how we did.... We were supposed to be breifed on how we did when the inspector was finished, but he never even finished. He went to lunch and said that he was about 75% complete, and never came back.
Oh well, maybe no news is good news. The really good news is that it's over. I have my work cut out for me cleaning up some of the mess that we found internally, though. At least WE found it and not the IG (Inspector General). So Monday, the work begins preparing for the next inspection in March.
My workouts are getting back on track, and my diet is better, but still not where it was a couple of months ago. Any progress is better than none, though... and at least it's not getting worse.
I am sending in my registration form next week for the Labor Day 5K in Macon, which is about a half hour drive from home. My brother in law and his wife live about 5 minutes from the starting line of the race, so we may just spend the night with them so we don't have to get up so early to get there.
I bought some new workout clothes today.... my reward for my race last weekend. Today is my rest day. Gonna go watch some TV or something.
Have a great weekend. I'll try to check in with everyone tomorrow
I did it! I ran my first 5K and it was such a wonderful experience. I truly think I am hooked!! Looking for the next local race now! Here's how the day went down:
Registration at the race site was from 6:30 til 7:15 with the race beginning at 7:30. I had already pre-registered so all I really had to do was get there and grab my race packet, but I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep (nerves)... I had a glass of water and a banana, got dressed in my running gear and headed to the mall (the starting line) to get ready to run. I parked, not knowing that the finish line was going to be directly in front of my car.... This becomes important later in the story. <GRIN>
I picked up my packet and milled around, feeling rather awkward for a while because everyone seemed to know each other and I didn't know a soul. Being an introvert really doesn't help either... I wasn't out there saying hello to everyone. One lady did strike up a conversation with me, and we ran together at the start until I pulled away.
At the start, I was afraid I was going to be trampled. Everyone seemed so much faster than me! But I hung in there and when the crowd thinned out a little, I found my pace. Well, actually it wasn't MY pace... mine is usually a lot slower than what I was running.... At the 1 mile marker, my time was 9:16. My 1 mile time is usually somewhere around 10 - 11 minutes. The 2nd mile marker was a water station, and at the finish line, I couldn't believe it when I went under the clock at... are you ready for this...??? 28:34. I ran it in under 30 minutes. I have never run 5K distance in under 33 minutes. I thought the clock was wrong until I looked at my heart rate monitor and saw that it said the same thing. I was amazed.
Ok, so I am now finished running... but I can't leave. I am parked at the finish line, and there are about 200 bodies in front of my car. So, I grabbed some fruit and water from the refreshment table and hung out. The lady that I had started running with had to leave, but she had mentioned that someone told her that she might get an award for her age group, so I figured I would listen for her name when they handed out the trophies.
They CALLED MY NAME for 2nd place in my age group. I brought home a cute little trophy! Yup! I am hooked. I have called everyone I can think of except my best friend and my aunt, mainly because I didn't want to wake them up.... (Beth, if you read this before I call you, call me!!)
Have a great Saturday! Time to get ready to go to my brother in law's to help them move.
Tomorrow is the big day.... RACE DAY! I can't believe it's finally here. My First 5K. I won't even be able to commemorate it in my scrapbook. Noone will be there to watch me and take my picture. Heck, at this point I will consider myself lucky if I get to go!
My husband has to work, and my oldest daughter made plans to spend the night with a friend, and her dad and I said yes, forgetting that she was supposed to be home to babysit the younger two when I go to run. So I am working out those logistics right now.
Anyway, I will be sure to update! Looking forward to it tomorrow, I just hope I am not too exhausted and collapse halfway through. I have had a horrible time sleeping this week (probably because of the way I have been eating) and have been getting up early to work out because it's my late week at work and I have no time to do it in the evenings when I work this shift. Not to mention the fact that I have been working longer than normal days getting ready for this stupid inspection that starts on Monday. I will be SO glad when it's over.
I'm sooo sorry I haven't been able to check up on everyone, Hope you are all doing good. I'm just considering myself fortunate to find time to post at all....
Ok, so I took another 'vacation' from the blog... Life gets so busy sometimes that I just don't have the time to get online. Especially since the storm that killed the ethernet card in my desktop computer. I have to get online on DH's laptop, and it can get tricky finding time to do that when he isn't on it. Work is insane, getting ready for a huge inspection that starts on Wednesday, so I haven't had much online time there either.
I have not been doing very well with my diet... it could definitely be better. But I am trying not to beat myself up about it. I was having knee trouble for a few days and had to skip a few workouts too. But I did do Super Cardio today, and about 45 minutes of work in the yard. So it was a good day.
My 5K is this weekend, I am very excited about that. Nervous too, but excited! I will be sure to post the results Saturday afternoon. Another busy week starts tomorrow. School started back on Friday, so I am thinking about taking tomorrow off of work and going to see my Grandma for a couple of hours, I didn't make it today, wanted to go when I could see her alone for a while....so I have to get over there tomorrow. She turned 101 today!
This is the article that was in the newspaper about her yesterday:
I have confirmation on two of them going to spend the night away... just waiting on confirmation that my son can go to his friend's house. I should probably go out to the car and check for messages on my cell phone..... It's been a really long time since all of my kids have been gone at the same time. I don't know if DH and I will know what do do if we are alone.....