Time Flies

Wow, it's been a while once again. Things have just been so busy as they always are at this time of year with school back in session and fall sports in full swing. The only night of the week where we don't have anything going on is Wednesday so roll on tomorrow! My days have been busy as well as my evenings. I have been consistently going to the gym and I can honestly say I'm loving it! Not only do I get to work out with my good friends bu I generally just feel so much better for exercising and I feel stronger.

Each morning I drop the kids off at school and then head straight to the gym which is only a few minutes from my house. I work out from 9-10.30am and then I usually run errands etc before heading home. By the time I get showered and eat some lunch it's often going on for 1pm! Needless to say I've been neglecting things around the house a little. Tomorrow I am going to come straight home after dropping the kids off so I can mow the grass. I figured it's still a good workout as I'll use the push mower and we have 1.3 acres so it takes a good while. We also have the pool company coming out in the morning and I need to be here for them so that's another reason for staying at home. If I get a lot done I may go to the gym for an hour before picking up the kids in the afternoon but we'll see.

On Thursday I have orientation at the school board so I can complete my application for substitute teaching. The class lasts from 8.30am - 4pm but someone I know did hers today and she said they were done by 12.30pm so that isn't too bad. Hopefully I have time to substitute if I get called - one more thing to try and fit into my day!

Well, it's a quick update for now. Hopefully the next post will be a bit more exciting!

Julie

Body aches!

Well since I last blogged I have been working out hard at the gym. I am really enjoying going in the mornings as soon as I've dropped the kids at school and I meet up with friends there to work out with. Last week I eased into it by walking on the treadmill a couple of miles and using the leg and upper arms machines and the aches the next morning told me I was giving my muscles a good work out. On Tuesday this week 4 of us paid a personal trainer and we had a group session for 1hr. Can I just say "Oh My God!!!!" What a huge difference it made having someone tell us what to do and push us to do the absolute best we could before giving up. We were all dying by the end but at the same time I felt really great and the workout was fun. The guy we worked with has a great personality and he is really funny so it helped to have that rather than some of the more serious trainers. I was seriously hurting when I woke up yesterday morning.

Yesterday I volunteered at school and didn't get home until 1pm so I did not get to the gym. I got my exercise instead by mowing at the front of the house on the steep hill. This morning I met Gina and Melissa at the gym again. After a quick warm up on the treadmill we moved to the floor and began trying to remember what the trainer had done with us on Tuesday. Luckily for us he was there and had no clients at the time so he ended up coming over and working with us again. It was another fabulous workout and I was there for a full 2hrs. By the time I left I was totally exhausted and HUNGRY!!!! Not a good time to hit the grocery store but I was careful about what I bought not wanting to ruin all of my hard work so I had a Kashi bar to calm my hunger and then for lunch I ate a spinach salad with fresh chicken breast and a low fat yogurt to follow. The only problem is that now I'm home I can't be bothered to do anything!!! LOL

We have soccer practice tonight and then at 7pm I am going to the school for Joe's kindergarten Open House. I have to leave there no later than 8pm to get back home as Shaun then has to head out to a soccer meeting at 8.30pm. Busy, busy, busy.

All in all life is good and I am feeling really positive. Funny how exercising and taking time out for myself can really do that. I should've done it a long time ago but I suppose it's better late than never. I'm determined to be a hot Momma by Christmas!!!!!

Have a great day!

Julie

A New Leaf

Just in time for fall I thought it was time to turn over a new leaf! lol What have I done I hear you ask - I've joined the gym! Yes, you heard right - me, at the gym :) I haven't been a member of the gym since I was pregnant with Amy!!!! I had to stop going 10 weeks before she was born when I was put on bed rest and I think I only made it back there a few times after she arrived. Since then I've just tried to do my own thing - walking outside, walking in front of the TV with Leslie Sansone, hitting the treadmill and then of course there's always the "sitting in front of the TV just flicking the remote ":) Now that Joe is in school full time it was time to get my butt in gear (literally) and really make the effort to get in shape. It's fine to admire people's figures and think how lucky some people are to be so thin but then I realize that these are the same people who workout regularly and take care of themselves.

Our soccer club has made a deal with World Gym to work on Speed and Agility training and as a result of that they have offered parents of players the chance to join the gym at a reduced fee. So, it was a really good opportunity to join at a great price - only $19.99 a month - and have that price locked in for life. I joined yesterday with a couple of friends and I took part in my first workout. First off Julie and I just mosied around and took a look at everything and when she had to leave to get to an appointment Melissa turned up and dragged me along to a spinning and abs class. Needless to say my butt hurts a lot today and I'm not sure I can sit on the bike again tomorrow!!!! In the morning I'm meeting Gina there to have our orientation with a trainer and figure out what we are doing. I may go back to the spinning class too. I plan on being a goddess by Christmas. If all goes well I will post my progress. Fingers crossed!

Not a lot else is happening at the moment. We've been running from soccer practice to soccer practice as usual and it's getting tiring and we only just started the season. Shaun has been very busy with work and I have been coaching Joe's practices but hopefully over the next few days things will calm down a little and not be so crazy.

Today I volunteered at school. Firstly I worked in Joe's class for 2 1/2 hours helping with centers which is always fun. The kids are so funny and cute. I don't think I could manage a full day as a kindergarten teacher - they wear you out as they have to be micro managed. After finishing up in kindergarten I went off to help in Amy's 3rd grade class. There wasn't a lot to do there other than file papers and then sort out the Wednesday folders with this weeks flyer's and graded papers. There was nothing else for me to do so I left there and headed to Prince Frederick. I stopped at Panera bread first to have some lunch - yumm :) From there I ran to Wal-mart and GNC and then headed back home to quickly clean up. Melissa then called to say she had her days mixed up and was at school ready to volunteer though she forgot it was Wednesday and not Thursday. So, she came by my house and we had coffee and cookies before heading into school to pick up the kids.

We had a lot of homework to get through tonight including studying with Amy for a math and spelling test tomorrow. She did good so hopefully her tests will go well. Other than that we've just been hanging out and catching up on Tivo'd TV shows. Shaun has been in VA all day and he left before 6am this morning so we have not seen him. He is playing soccer tonight - his first game of the season in his over 30s league and he went straight there from work. He will be home around 9pm and I'm sure he'll be exhausted. Tomorrow he should be working from home so it will be good to actually see him!

Ok, well I think I've rambled enough and I had only planned on making a quick post! Hope you all had a great day.

Julie

Soaking Saturday

Tropical Storm Hanna arrived in our region last night and it's been raining cats and dogs ever since. It was pretty light rain last night and early this morning but now it's pouring. At least we haven't got the high winds they were predicting - unless of course they are still to come. It's forecast to rain most of the day but be nice tomorrow.

Amy was supposed to play her first game of the season today but needless to say it was rained off. She also has a game tomorrow afternoon so we are waiting to hear the status of that one. Hopefully it will still be on so we won't have to make up 2 games already. Joe's first game isn't until next week so he hasn't missed anything yet.

So, what will we do today? We are planning to just stay home and keep dry. It's is the perfect day to be lazy and just hang out. Luckily for me I have my new laptop to play with :)

Shaun is back from CA. He got back around 6pm yesterday and stopped by the park for the last half hour of Joe's team practice. We were all very pleased to see him and he was very happy to be home again.

Not really an exciting post for today but it's a post all the same.

Happy Birthday Amy!!!!!

Today my baby girl turns 8 and I can't believe the time has flown that quickly. There are times I look at her and still see my little 2yr old who was so dependent on me and so mischievous and now I see a 3rd Grader who is pretty independent and her own person.

Ok, enough drama!!! lol This week has been pretty dramatic in itself. Firstly we had Amy's birthday party on Sunday afternoon and invited 14 kids, both boys and girls from school and from her soccer team. This years theme was "Amy's Olympic Games." She's so into sports and with it being Olympic year I thought it would suit her down to the ground and she thought it was a great idea. I usually try and think of something original for the invitations and after watching the first couple of days of Olympic action I suddenly had my idea - to make security passes as the invitations. Here is what we came up with.

I made the cards, laminated them and then bought some lanyards from Office Depot and attached them for the finishing touch. Each person was required to wear theirs to gain access into the Olympic Village on the big day. We started off with Track and Field at Birds Nest Stadium. I was so busy I forgot to take pictures of the first couple of events but I managed to remember by the time the Long Jump cake around. Look at these kids go!

Next came the hammer throw - and no we didn't use the real thing. Instead we used Spud's Kong toy that we have tied to a piece of rope so you can give it a good swing and then release it. The kids loved this event and Joe was winning until Christa knocked him off the top spot.

Once track and field was finished the kids were ready to hit The Water Cube! It was very hot and humid and they were really ready to cool off in the water. They chose not to do any races and just have fun playing instead which was fine with me - I was tired too!!!!!

Does my have 6 pack Abs???

And the overall winner was..........Amy and not just because it was her birthday either. My competitive little over achiever just put everything into her running etc and she is fast! I had ordered proper medals from a trophy store online and they were pretty nice. We awarded one gold to the winner, a silver to the runner up, Christa and then everyone else got bronze.

Oh, I almost forgot about the most important part - the cake!!! We went with the Olympic torch and podium theme and I made the torch flames from boiled sugar which the kids were dying to eat. It was a lot of cake but thankfully the neighbors are always willing to accept donations of leftovers.

So, we relaxed the rest of the night away, Shaun and I stayed at the pool for a while and Amy and Joe went inside and started rummaging through Amy's gifts.

On Monday morning Amy came into our room around 6am and said she wasn't feeling so well. I went and lay down with her and immediately noticed that she was burning up and her temp was over 101F. I got her some Tylenol and a drink of water and got her settled back down. She didn't get back to sleep and came in to our bed a little while later than had to run to the bathroom to throw up. Thankfully it was just the water she'd drank but by now she was feeling really grotty. The fever spiked and dropped all day long which was sad because we had agreed to do her "pretend" birthday on this day because Shaun was leaving on a business trip to CA on Tuesday. She got up and opened her presents and was genuinely happy and excited but as soon as the Tylenol started to wear off again she wasn't so good. This went on all day long and her fever eventually got up to 103.7 which was worrying. She wasn't even able to keep ice chips down but by the afternoon we had started allowing her just one ice chip every 5 minutes and it stayed down doing it that way. She didn't throw up anymore but the fever still came and went. The next morning she still had the fever so I kept her home from school. Both her and Joe were really upset when Daddy left and it didn't help Joe that he had to go to school while Amy got to stay at home with me all day :( He survived though :) I ended up taking Amy to the Drs just to get checked out as she winced when I was taking her temp in her ear. Sure enough she had a small ear infection and because of that mixed with the fever we got a Rx for an antibiotic which was has made a huge difference. She still had a low grade fever at bedtime last night but woke up feeling good and healthy this morning for her "real" birthday. She went to school very happy.

I worked at the school this morning in Joe's classroom helping out with one of the reading and writing centers which is always fun. After I finished in Joe's class around 11.30am I then went to Amy's class to help out there. I didn't have much to do and I was finished just in time to go to lunch with the class. It was fun to sit with them and hear their chit-chat and the chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes were pretty good!!! Amy shared the decorated cookies I'd made (and forgot to take a picture of but they were gold medals with each child's name on).

Since we had already done birthday etc on Sunday and to make up for Dad not being here I told the kids I'd take them to Maggie Moos for dessert once we'd eaten dinner. We took a candle and lighter and sang happy birthday - hey it's like another Olympic torch!!!! It was a fun day all in all and Amy said it was a great birthday.