Boot Camp

Well, I did it. I signed up for boot camp. I'm 5 classes down already, so almost 1/2 done. It really makes me work hard. I guess that is the whole point of it, right?

The first day we had to run 200 meters, then do 15 squats, 15 push ups, 15 pull ups (on rings with our feet flat. It's easier than it sounds, but not easy at all, if that makes sense), 12 squats, 12 push ups, 12 pull ups, 9 squats, 9 push ups, 9 pull ups, and then 200 meter run. It took me 12:16 to get it done. I think we do it again at the end and see our improvement.

I can say that squats are easier than they were 2 two weeks ago. We do A LOT of them. It's part of the warm up and part of each workout.

Today we had to do "sumo deadlift thrusters". Yeah, they suck. It's a really wide stance squat, then you pick up a weight (I had 20 pounds), and thrust up and make the weight go to your chin with your elbows pointing up. After that it was "wall ball". That would be throwing a medicine ball (mine was 6 pounds). You start with the ball by your chin, squat down, then shoot up, release the ball, and catch it. It only counts it if goes above the 10 foot mark on the wall and bounces off... I had a few do overs. This is the first day that my legs feel like jelly 3 hours after the workout, since the very first day. I was SORE that first week! My abs should be sore tomorrow as well. We did a plank (one girl broke the boot camp record and held it for 4:04). I made it 1 minute, then took a rest. I kept going back into it though.

I'm very proud of myself still. I go into each workout trying to smile. I want to be there. I want to be stronger and healthier. After I'm up and moving I'm a pretty smiley person, so that part isn't a stretch. I have vowed not to say "I can't". I try my best and I do every single exercise to the best of my ability. I'm not even paying attention to the girls working out with me. I haven't made this a competition with them. Each workout is timed and I either come in 2nd or 3rd (out of 3) so far. I am beginning to suspect one girl of not doing all the reps, but it's her she is cheating, not me, so I'm OK with that. I have started each workout trying to do the move in the traditional way, then modify it for me (with help from the trainer). I may not be strong enough to do a real pull up yet, but I made sure I got a good workout with the modified version.

I think the trainer is impressed. I imagine he gets fat chicks who wimp out. He gives me a lot of encouragement and it turns out I have naturally good form, most of the time. (There are a few things I have to be conscious of. I already know this, it's the same thing that makes me throw out my back once in a while.) I told Aaron that my trainer thinks I'm doing well and Aaron told me that I may have some natural athletic ability! I laughed. No one has EVER accused me of that. My father has it, and my son has it, but I thought it skipped my generation! Aaron said that the biggest clue is that I don't walk like a fat person. I walk like a fit person, I just have a lot of fat on it. Believe it or not, I took that as a huge compliment. :)

My Baby is SEVEN!

Happy Birthday to Repete!!!

I can't believe my baby is 7 years old... He tells me it's the truth. It doesn't feel like that long ago to me. I remember that day like it happened this morning.

I'd had a doctors appointment on Tuesday the 19th. He told me that we weren't even close and we set up an appointment for a week later. My doctor was in Reno, but we lived in Winnemucca. That is a little over a 2 1/2 hour drive at 80 miles per hour (it's the desert, you can go fast, and 80 is only 5 over the speed limit).

I was working at the mine at the time. The bus left the parking lot at 5:30am. My alarm was set for 5:00, as usual (no, I never missed the bus. That was sleeping in compared the job I had before that! That bus left at 4:10). At 4:30 I looked at the clock. At 4:34 I looked at the clock. At 4:38 I looked at the clock. At 4:42 I looked at the clock. At 4:46 I decided that waking up every 4 minutes was crazy and I should just GET up and take a shower. Then it hit my that I may have been waking up every 4 minutes for a reason. I got in the shower just to be sure. 20 minutes later I decided that maybe we should head to Reno.
So we got Mom up (she was there to help out, and hold a new baby, lets be honest). We got Pete up. We packed our bags. Yes, I'm a procrastinator and didn't have it done yet. I was only 4 days past my due date, I had plenty of time.... We dropped Pete off at the sitter and made arrangements for someone to pick him up that night. He liked to spend the night with his buddy Henry, so he had no problem with that. Then we dropped off the Blockbuster movies so we didn't have late fees. Then, when Aaron was gassing up the car (we know we should have done it after we came home from Reno the day before, but we didn't), someone got Gatorade's for me. I think it was Aaron, Mom was thinking we could skip it, we needed to be on the road!

A 2.5 hour drive was managed in less than 2 hours. Aaron called ahead to the hospital, but he was concentrating on driving and not panicking (I swear), so he gave them his social security number, which, of coarse, they couldn't look me up with. And then, he gave them my birthday, but his birth year, which also didn't help them. They knew we were coming, but they had no idea who we were until we got there!

When we got there the hospital was packed with women in labor. They didn't have a room for us. So what we got was a labor and delivery room that they had been using as a janitors closet. It had a bed (they had to make it up), and that was it. No other equipment at all, other than mops, buckets, and cleaning supplies. No kidding. There wasn't even a box of gloves in there! I was in such control of the labor pains (meaning no screaming or swearing) that they thought I'd have LOTS of time to get comfortable and checked out and they could move me to a real LDR, when one opened up, sooner or later.

They were wrong. Repete came only about an hour after we crossed the hospital threshold. I think Aaron had barely parked the car. He was born at 9:00am, in a janitors closet. I was ready to go home approximately an hour after he was born. I felt GREAT! (Big difference from when Pete was born). We did stay the night per doctors request, but checked out as early as we could the next morning. And we attended our weekly "Thursday Night" gathering of friends and family on the 21st.

He was a hearty eater from the very first moment and scored perfect APGARs (again, unlike the previous experience). He had a head full of black hair that stuck up all over and the palest complexion, no olive skin tone like the rest of us. Other than that he looked exactly like his brother.

Today, Repete's hair has lightened up and is the same medium brown that I have naturally. He has eyes the color of denim and a dimple in his right cheek. He isn't light skinned with freckles, like I thought he would be. He browns right up in the sunshine! Right now he is missing his two front teeth on the top and the 2nd pair on the bottom, which gives him a very amusing smile, and a slight lisp. He is a natural athlete, and will try absolutely anything! He adores catching and throwing a football, with anyone who will play with him (I watched him play with a fella who was a stranger to him for 40 minutes. The man is a friend of my fathers and an ex college quarterback. Repete loved it! I think the fella did too!). His arms and legs are typically skinned up from all of his adventures.

Repete, I love you. You bring a smile to my face every single day. I love your spirit, your wit, and your smile. Your sense of adventure makes me so happy! Happy birthday kiddo! Thanks for choosing me to be your MOM.

Punt, Pass, and Kick

Yesterday I signed Repete up for Park and Rec flag football. All summer long he begs anyone to come outside to throw and catch a football. I don't know where he got the passion for football. He didn't learn it from anyone at our house. We have football on the TV twice a year, max. Thanksgiving (when we have guests) and Superbowl Sunday (sometimes). So he is pretty excited about playing, even though it isn't "real football".

Park and Rec posted on Facebook, yesterday (talk about timing), that NFL punt pass and kick (http://www.nflppk.com/) was going to be in the evening. It is for ages 6-14 and, most importantly, it is a free event. Hmmm. NFL, that's football. It's free. Repete wants to play... Lets do that!

LAME. I didn't have a clue what we were getting into. I thought there might be some coaches there to show the kids how to do these football skills. Nope. At 6:00 they had everyone line up. They started with the oldest kids (dumb). Then they had each kid pass, punt, and kick a foot ball. They had to stand behind a line (loose points if they cross it) and then get the ball as far down the line as possible. They measured where the ball landed and then subtracted the distance away from the center line from the actual distance. They asked each kid what kind of tee they want to kick the ball from "traditional" or "soccer style". Like kids that age have any idea what they are talking about. Repete just shrugged. I don't know which was he kicked it. They look the same to me. Each kid has only one shot at it. We went home without knowing anything else. I guess they will email me his scores, but it really doesn't mean anything at all to us. He didn't learn anything (except maybe there are 2 ways to tee up a football).

Some of the parents there were serious about their football. One dad had his boys doing drills! His kids were blocking each other and anticipating where Dad was going to throw the ball. This is obviously something they do a lot of. And each kid was wearing what appeared to be authentic football jersey's with their hero's names on the back (I even recognized the names, yikes). Repete might be at a disadvantage in this family. He is a sports NUT, but it doesn't come from his parents. All I can do is sign him up for teams and encourage the attitude!!

The best part of the evening was that he got to toss a football with one of his buddies. Buddy and Repete have been friends since they were about 3 years old in day care. We haven't seen him all summer.

365 days of ANYTHING

I ran across a blog today called A New Dress A Day. This cute, skinny, lady, (with more time on her hands than me) watched Julie and Julia and decided to do the same sort of thing and find something to do each day for a year. So she is altering a dress each day. She is only spending $1 on each dress (though I believe she doesn't count the cost of thread and embellishments). She had turned some really UGLY dresses into items that a person could wear today. Very cute. The blog site is http://newdressaday.wordpress.com.

Running

I used to run. I was never fast, but I could run a good distance. My boyfriend was athletic and he ran, so I ran with him. At some point I started to enjoy it. I ran less when I went to college. I was intimidated by all the really good and serious runners. And my boyfriend wasn't close so I had no running partner. Eventually I didn't run anymore. I was skinny when I started running, a product of being 17 and to busy to stop and snack all day. I stayed skinny when I ran. I got less skinny after I quit, of coarse. Now, I am far from skinny and there is no way I can run. I am pretty sure it will kill my joints as well as my heart. Yikes....

But I have a new friend. She is young (22) and skinny and cute. She is signing up for "Boot Camp" to stay that way. She wants me to join with her. And I'm tempted. I'm pretty sure it will kill me. But it doesn't cost much and you practically get a personal trainer for 4 weeks. Maybe it's the jump start I need. It starts on Monday. I'm too busy tonight and this weekend to go check it out (there are quilt group meetings and parties to go to. Maybe that is part of my problem?). I could do it on Sunday, but they are closed on Sunday. So if I join, it's sight unseen, never talked to these people, two feet in.

I have run across several blogs about the joys of running recently. It has really made me feel like I am missing it. And it makes me feel like a blob. The boys run cross country in elementary school. The school has several small scale meets with the other 4 schools in the district. Pete's age group runs a mile and Repete's a half mile. Repete loves it and I encourage Pete as best I can. They also have a track set up at the school. Each kid gets a "mileage card" and each time they run around the track a playground duty punches the card. 10 laps is a mile, I think. The boys each ran 50 miles this spring. 50 MILES. They have short legs and small lungs and had to take time away from RECESS to do this. If they can do that, I certainly can get up a half hour earlier and do something too.

I might not be up to jumping into bootcamp, but I'm still thinking about it.

I never thought I'd say it...

I never thought I'd be glad to see summer coming to an end. (I probably think that every year though). And I'm not so sure that I'm ready to see it all end, but rather, I am ready for a rest. I'm tired. I feel like our family has been in non-stop motion for 3 months! This weekend I managed to get ALL of the laundry done and most of it folded and put away (the hardest part). It was the first time all summer that everything has been clean at once. Now I have a basket of wet beach towels and a basket of filthy kid clothes already! I did all that, and mowed the lawn, and tidied the living room, and sorted through the kids clothes to inventory what they need for school, and attended a WW meeting while Aa took the kids to swim lessons. AND we spent an afternoon on the neighbors boat, and went to a company picnic. (We have had 2 Netflix movies sitting by the DVD for most of the summer. The same ones. We just haven't had the time to watch them!)

School starts a week later than usual this year. I can't find any information about the reason behind it, and I guess that really doesn't matter for us anyway. It's just unusual to me and I'm anxious to get a routine back! I always thought it was strange to start the school year before labor day, just to have a short week right off the bat. But now I think it's odd that they aren't doing that. I guess you just can't please me.

Fortunately for the boys they don't have to get back into a routine of having a bedtime and getting up early. We still do that in the summer. They are the first kids at kamp, usually. When school starts they will have to get up a few minutes earlier than they do now, but that shouldn't be much of an adjustment. They will have to remember to get their homework done before they get to play outside and that video games are only allowed on the weekends. The video game rule is one that I relaxed on in the summer. The reason I let it slide is that they are at kamp all day long, in the hot sun, swimming at the beach, playing games with their friends, and otherwise active all day long. It isn't too much for them to ask to play an indoor game, with the fan, and be still(ish).

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The kids are almost at the end of this round of swimming lessons. I haven't seen them swim at the pool even once this time. Aa has been home EVERY weekend that they swam. It has worked out nicely that way. My WW meeting is at the same time their lessons are. I was prepared to go to the early meeting or to just weigh in and go on the days that Aa wasn't around to take the kids. But it never had to happen this time. They are better and better swimmers. Pete is practicing diving and Repete can do the front crawl like a pro.

We have been taking them to the river to swim. There is a public park within blocks of our house that has a sort of lagoon that is great to swim in. Someone has made a rope swing there. It is very popular with teenagers and my boys. It's great fun to watch my boys fly through the air and splash into the water. Their different personalities come out on the swing. Pete (who is usually Mr. Cautious) climbs the hill behind the tree as high as the rope will let him, grabs the highest knot on the rope with one hand and jumps to grab even higher with the other. He lets go at the precise moment the rope starts is backward swing and falls straight into the water. Repete, on the other hand, grabs the rope as high as he can reach and lets go of the rope while it is still on it's outward swing. This give him even more forward momentum and he lands as far from shore as he possible can manage. It is also great to watch other adults watch these kids. Several times, before the kids swing, I have been warned that the water is deep. Over the kids head deep. Do I really want to let them do it. When they see Repete swim front crawl back, or Pete come all the way back to shore underwater their jaws hit the ground!

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Summer is almost over and I still haven't completed the house projects that I had hoped to do this summer. I ripped down the back porch, but I still haven't put in the patio. It rained in all that dirt today and probably made a mess. I still haven't finished painting the back of the house. That was a project that we started the summer before last. To my credit, the big stuff is finished, but the trim still needs work. And now that the porch is gone it needs more work.

I did get the kitchen re-tiled. It just needs to be caulked, still.

The roof is still in need of replacement. The cedar shakes blow off when the wind blows hard. We haven't developed any leaks so far but if the roof on the back porch is any indication (and it should be), the leaks should starts soon.

And the house still has no closet doors. I'm sure it will look tidier if, no, when we get that done...

The house looks adorable from the street so I must be doing something right.... Just don't come too close.

When was that?

This morning on the way to Kamp the boys were pretending to fly spaceships. They each had a command station and were in their own Star Wars inspired ships (X-wing fighter maybe?). I smiled all the way to kamp while listening to that. Mostly because it reminded me of when my sister and I were that age. We had our own spaceships (with a piece of invisible glass that separated us in the car. I think that was my mom's idea and kept us from touching each other or breathing each other's air). We were the leaders of 2 teams that were on the side of good. The "Ladybugs" and the "Butterfly's". The bad guys were "Spiders" and "Beetles". The back of the chairs in front of us were state of the art computer screens, TVs, buttons, and all sorts of gadgets that may have come from Star Trek (except we weren't allowed to watch that).

When we pulled into the parking lot at kamp I told the boys about their Aunt and I playing the same game. In all seriousness Repete asked me "Was that in the civil war?"

How old does he think I AM???

Monkey Bars and Broken Bones

For some reason, when I was driving home yesterday, I was thinking about the time that Pete broke his collar bone by falling off the jungle gym at the day care.

He had just turned 4. When I picked him up from the day care he usually ran over and gave me a big hug before grabbing his backpack and heading for the door. This day he got his stuff and slowly walked over to greet me. I didn't think to much of that until later. I signed an "Ouch slip", which told me that he'd fallen off the gym and landed on his NECK!! They gave him ice and cuddles and he was better. The time on the slip was around 10:00 am. (I picked him up at 5:30!!)
When he was climbing into the car seat he started screaming. The motion of pulling himself up hurt, and because he was around mommy he could feel safe to cry. I couldn't get him to stop! When I got him home I took off his shirt (not an easy task), and saw a definite deformity on his shoulder. I could easily tell it was a broken bone. Took him to the Urgent Care and they gave him pain killers and a figure 8 to keep his shoulders back. There really is no way to set that kind of fracture.
I'm still very angry that the child care workers couldn't tell his shoulder was broken. He's a tough kid, but not that tough. He suffered through a whole day of school. If a kid falls off the gym and lands on his neck, it deserves to be checked out and a phone call to the parents made.

So driving home today I'm going through this event in my head. I don't know why it came to mind today. I was thinking about it happening as if it was today...

I got to Camp before Repete's field trip bus returned. So I sat at the picnic table with Pete and waited. When the bus arrived the counsellors got off and one ran to the Leader and told her all about the little camper who fell off the Monkey bars, hyper extended his elbow and broke his arm!! It was one of Repete's buddies and Repete said he was the one who ran to find a counsellor! They took the boy off in an ambulance.

I'm so sorry for the little guy with the broken arm. But I am counting my lucky stars that it wasn't one of my kids this time.... I still find it a little weird that I was thinking about Pete's jungle gym accident the same day this happened to Repete's buddy.

After hugging my boys and thanking my lucky stars that they are both all in one piece today I had a moment to think about camp and monkey bars. (I think I have to preface this all with the fact that this school has been given a deadline to replace or remove the playground equipment, some of which is no longer safe by current standards. Fundraisers are rampant right now because playground equipment is expensive.) So, earlier this summer a bunch of children (and one counsellor) were sitting on top of the monkey bars at the elementary school, when one of the wooden legs crumbled. It turns out that it was rotted on the inside. Even treated lumber doesn't last 30 years! All the children and the counsellor tumbled from the top. Thank goodness no one was badly hurt in this incident, but it certainly could have been a terrible accident. Again, my kids were lucky. Pete had decided NOT to sit up there, because they were talking about scary movies that he hadn't seen and wasn't interested in the conversation. He was standing underneath it only minutes before it fell.

I think monkey bars are off limits for the rest of the summer....

Getting older

In no way am I saying that I am old. But I AM getting *older*. The most recent evidence shows right up on my face! I break out like a teenager for one week of the month. That never used to happen to me!!! What the HELL? So, now, I look like a teenager for a week, then I act like one for the next week as I suffer from cramps. Cramps? Really? I NEVER got cramps when I was younger. EVER. It made my friend angry that she got PMS and cramps so badly that her mother let her skip school (she was throwing up as well, but I try to leave that out when I tell the story), and I never got either PMS crankiness or debilitating cramps.

So I'm learning, at the tender age of thirty-few, to remember to pack the ibuprofen with the tampons in my purse (yep, I have to carry a purse these days)... And I invested in Clean and Clear zit soap and moisturizer with salicylic acid. The effect of the soap and moisturizer is that the zits are getting harder to see. My face also itches like CRAZY!!

The itchy face goes right along with the allergy I have developed to my new favorite, and subsequently least favorite, shampoo and conditioner. That will teach me to pay too much money for fancy shampoo!! I bought the shampoo from an actual salon, after my most recent haircut. It makes my very fine limp hair nice and fluffy! I loved it. Until it made my head itch!!! I kept using it for a week after I started itching in hopes of "getting over the allergy". It didn't work. I used my old fall back Aussie brand shampoo this morning, and now only my FACE itches, but my hair isn't fluffy. (The people I work with are probably glad I'm not scratching my head today. No one would come to my office all last week! hmmmm I'll have to remember that.)

I've decided to start telling people that I am Forty-seven. Nothing against anyone who is 47 or older, but it is more than 10 years older than I really am, and I just want people to tell me I look good for my age.

Pete was asking me who got their drivers license first, me or his father. I told him that it was probably me, because I wore my parents down when I was 15, and his dad had public transportation in the city and didn't need to drive. This conversation lead into "What is 37 minus 29?" I finally worked out that he really believes that I turned 29 (again) on my last birthday!! He was trying to figure out how much older his dad was than me!! He got an extra scoop of ice cream for desert that night!! It must not have been the week I was cranky.

THIS time I'm really going to do it....

I say that ALL the time. About many things. Loosing weight, exercising, getting organized, keeping my house clean, NaNoWriMo, etc.... I have decided I'm just plain lazy. It's not that I have a zillion things going on all at once. It feels like that sometimes, but no. I could *make* the time, if I wanted to.

I am signed up for WW, again/still. This summer has been really up and down though. No forward progress at all. So each week I say, "this time I'm really going to do it". I'm frustrated with all of that. But I could do it, if I felt like it. I'm lazy. I quit counting points mid-week and eat whatever I want. It's hard work to loose weight and I get tired. This week I'm making a plan. I'm planning each lunch and snack early in the week so I have more chance of success later. This time I'm really going to do it.

I *have* been keeping my house cleaner. I'm developing a system, which is sllllooooowwly turning into a habit. The kids know what to expect and are quick to deliver. Their room is tidy most of the time and they pick up all their toys from the living room when I ask them to. All of this gives me hope for the rest of my world.... If I can keep this up, and not resent it, I can eat better, exercise more, and find time to work on NaNo. This week, I'm going to get the laundry washed, folded and put away, so I don't have to search the clean clothes basket for the shirt I know is clean but not hanging up yet.

I'll never be more organized. It's not a part of my personality. I have decided that if I can just keep my house a little tidier, that will be sufficient. It will help me be organized to an extent. So, this time I'm really going to do it... this week, instead of dumping the mail in the pile on the table, I'll sort it and toss the junk and file the bills.... This week I'm really going to do it.

All of that and keep my kids active and engaged, so they don't develop the bad habits that I am trying to break. It all takes a lot of energy. But I think I have set small, reachable goals this week.

This time I'm really going to do it.