Walking

I knew I had to get back on track with getting some exercise in. My foot has been feeling much better, and as much as I miss walking, I don't miss the excruciating pain I'd have in my foot when I get up in the  night to go to the bathroom, or first thing in the morning, or any time I get up after having sat for an extended amount of time.

We walked last Saturday, up Mt Rubidoux. It'd been the first time I'd walked in two weeks. Let's just say it was a BIG MISTAKE. My foot had been feeling really good, and then we walked up the mountain and I could hardly walk by the time we got home. Someone suggested that all the incline wasn't a good idea on my feet that hadn't walked in two weeks. So for the time being, I've sworn off walking Mt. Rubidoux.

But this morning, I got up, got going, dawned my walking shoes and grabbed my ear buds and walked. I'm starting off easy. I only walked 1.6 miles and I'm thinking maybe I should try every other day for a while. I didn't walk very fast, but I did get out there and walk. My foot did hurt/ache with just about every step the first half of my walking. But I came home and stretched and hopefully it'll be good to go walking again in another day.

I looked at Runkeeper this afternoon at my records for the last six months. June has been by far the worst month of my walking! I've only walked 12 miles this month! I'm trying not to get too depressed about that as I really was needing to rest my foot. On a more positive uplook, I've walked 348 miles since January 2nd! That's way more miles than I walked (for exercise) last year!

Exercise: It's Dangerous for Your Heath!

Exercise, it's dangerous for your health!!!

If you read my prior post about the weight loss and exercise kick I'm on, then you're up to speed as to how I've been exercising. But I'm tellin ya, it's given me problems! LOL.

So I've dropped a good amount of weight. I've got some weight off my knees, and my feet, but for the last 2-3 months I've had this horrible pain in my heel. I thought it was heel spurs, but after inquiring as to what it could be as a post on my Facebook page, and then researching it on the internet, I'm pretty sure, I have plantar fasciitis. It's horribly painful and is only in my right foot. I've been  doing some stretching exercises I found online and have absolutely not been going around the house barefoot, in addition to taking some time off from my excessive walking, as a result it's starting to feel a lot better this week!!

But,  as if that wasn't enough! Two weeks ago, I spent almost three hours in Urgent Care as a result of finding excessive blood in my urine. My history was taken, as was some blood work, and an Xray to rule out a possible kidney stone. The diagnosis: the blood was a result of an excessive exercise session the night before in the form of an eleven mile bike ride! Turns out that excessive exercise in a single session can cause blood in your urine! Google it, then you'll really believe me!

See, they say exercise is good for you, but I have proof it's harmful! LOL.

A Goal for 2013

This October, I will celebrate a milestone of a birthday. I'll be turning 40!!!When 2013 started, I set a goal for myself to loose a certain amount of weight by my birthday.

Therefore, on January 2, I started counting calories with the help of Sparkpeople.com. In this day and age of technology and smart phones, counting calories has never been easier, with convenient Apps on the smart phone, and restaurant websites at your fingertips for looking up nutritional values.

In addition to counting calories, I also started exercising in the form of walking. My goal was to walk three days a week at the track, and then some sort of exercise on the weekend as a family, whether it be a bike ride, or walk up Mt. Rubidoux, etc. But I exceeded that goal and was walking 6-7 days a week, my minimum was 2 miles every time I walked, but rarely did I walk just 2 miles. I was walking 20+ miles a week! It wasn't long before I hit 100 miles walked, then 200 miles, then 300 miles!   I found that I'd become 'addicted' to walking. I had to get my walk in everyday, at some point. I've had many a stressful situations over the last few months and I always felt much better after dawning my walking shoes and hitting the neighborhood or track for 3+ miles. In March, Steven and I went away for our anniversary for a few days to Coronado, and we even packed our walking shoes and workout clothes and wound up PAYING to use the hotel's gym one day so we could use the treadmill and elliptical! Exercising, let alone paying for it, while on vacation was something I'd NEVER ever done before, but I was proud that I'd come that far! Same held true for me last month when we camped over Memorial Day weekend. I walked the campground, walked the beach, and climbed the 100+ stairs that led from the sandy beaches up to various spots of the campground. I'm proud of how far I've come in the exercise department. 

The last two months have been rather slow for me in the loosing department. I'm playing around with the same 5 lbs over and over. A couple people have suggested I've hit a plateau and that my body may not remember being below the weight I am right now and is holding on to where it's at. At any rate, I need to figure out how to break this plateau and get back to loosing some pounds!!!!

Alive and Well

I am alive and well, and life is slowing waaaaay down for me. I really want to try to get back into blogging. My three blogs are so neglected, there's no way I can make up for a year of not blogging. So I'm just going to start afresh at this point.

The 2012-2013 school year officially ended on May 30th and it's been a great two and a half weeks of sleeping in, lounging about, reading for pleasure, Disneyland trips, and doing lots of fun things with my girls. 

The end of the school year was a huge relief for me as I completed my two year stent as PTA President at our Elementary School. The final weeks of the school year were especially busy and stressful for me.    Being PTA President wasn't an easy job. I loved the organizing and administration part of it all, as I do feel that's one of my God given gifts, but there was a lot of stress that comes with such a position. I had  never ever been called to the Principals office more times than I have had in the last two years! All I will say is the difference I was trying to make, wasn't sitting well with some of the teachers at the school. But enough of that, needless to say, I am happy to have the last two years behind me...

My Grandparents House

My last living Grandparent died the end of August. While I was not real close to my Grandma, it's still weird to think I no longer have any grandparents here on earth. My grandfather passed away nine years ago, and now that my Grandma is gone, the time has come to sell the house.

This house is filled with many, many years of memories. My grandparents were the original owners of the house, it's the house my Dad grew up in as a teenager. 

Growing up, we had a family tradition of a Christmas Progressive Dinner, whereas we went to the four houses within the family, always ending at Grandma and Grandpa's house for dessert and a fun activity.    Grandma always did things up creatively and fun.

Almost my entire life, with the exception of the last couple of years, this is where we spent Christmas Eve. The family would gather together for a traditional Christmas dinner  and a gift exchange, and in the last twelve or so years, a fun game or activity that the entire family would participate in, organized by my Uncle. Over the years, our family has grown with the adding of spouses, us grandkids getting married and having kids of our own. We kinda outgrew the house years ago as far as big family functions went.

Within two weeks of the house being on the market, it sold! And after a couple of trips to go through things, as of this week, escrow has closed, and it's no longer "my grandparents house", but it's a place that will be in our memories for many years to come. 

Getting Married the "Right Way"

In the last couple of weeks, there's been some postings on Facebook from people about their impending marriage.

For days leading up to their special day, the bride posted about how excited she was for the big day, how she couldn't wait to spend the rest of her life waking up beside her soon to be husband, and other statements like that. One bride put as her status the morning of her wedding that she felt like a kid on Christmas morning.

Those are all very touching and meaninigful statements when you're embarking on the adventure of marriage. I know I said the same statements. However, in my opinion, those statements loose something when you've already been shacking up and already sleeping together. Really, what's changing, beside the fact that you'll now have his name, and have made a life long commitment to one another (which in this day and age, sadly, we know for a lot of people isn't really true). You're already living with each other, already having sex, already waking up to the man. Not much is going to be different, aside from the titles and such.

Steven and I were both excited to get married. Our lives, once we said those vows, were forever changed. I had still been living at home, with my parents and brother,  it was AFTER we were married that I moved in to Steven's condo. We hadn't already been sleeping together, we were saving that until AFTER we were married. There was so much for us to be excited about.

Over the weekend, we were sitting and chatting, and I was telling him about my Facebook friends and their statements and how it made no sense to me, he told me about this article, Getting Married the Right Way and it hit the nail on the head, it was a really great article for those of us who've gotten married the "Right Way."

Helloooooo Out There!

It's been a very long time since I've updated this blog, or any of my three blogs for that matter. I've missed writing, I've missed keeping a journal of what life has held for me, for our family.

It's been well over six months since I've last updated and so much has happened in that time. I have been putting off blogging until I could go back and write 'catch up' posts from everything our life has held for us since my last posting in January. But I've come to the conclusion, that if I want get back into blogging, I need to just start afresh and not try to go back and write posts from the past. However, I will highlight some of the big things of the last 8+ months.

********
My position at school kept me very busy. In addition to my duties as PTA President, I was the chairperson for Teacher Appreciation Week, headed up the Year Long Perfect Attendance Lunch with the Principal, and many, many other little things that definitely kept me busy. As for this current school year, I am once again PTA President, but know the role better this year and have learned to really delegate and not overextend myself. I'll be honest and say I've lost some of my steam as two of my closet PTA girlfriends have "abandoned me". LOL. One left the school completely, and the other was just fed up with all the drama and isn't a part of PTA at all, I don't blame her one bit.

The beginning of May found Steven scheduled to go to Maryland for a week on business. The company in which he is employed with, is located in Maryland. This company bought out the old company last October and have expressed interest in him coming out once or twice a year. May was his second time in going out. There's been several times through the years that he's been scheduled for business trips and he always suggests finding a way to have me join him, etc. But it's just never worked out due to finances, the girls ages, their school schedules, and just life in general. But this time, it was looking like I'd be able to join him! And I was beyond excited!

He flew out early Monday morning and I would join him Thursday and together we'd spend the weekend touring Washington DC!! I flew out Wednesday night and took a red eye flight, my air travel coming to an end around 9:00 Thursday morning! I picked up my rental car and found my way to the hotel in which Steven had been staying. I had all of Thursday to relax, nap, and unwind from what had been an extremely busy few weeks, while he worked his normal work day.

On Friday, I met a dear, dear girlfriend for lunch. She lived a little over an hour and a half from where we were and there was no way either of us was going to miss the opportunity to see each other. We met for lunch and spent hours talking. That evening when Steven was done working we made our way to our hotel in downtown Washington DC. We had booked a room on Priceline.com that landed us just two blocks from the White House! We dropped our bags in our room and set off to see the first thing on my list...The White House!

There are no words to express the emotions of seeing something you've always seen in pictures, on the TV, heard about. I was truly in awe, and couldn't believe I was actually in Washington DC!!

Saturday morning we hit the ground running. We spent the next 12 hours INTENSELY sight seeing!! You name it, we probably saw it. We packed days of sightseeing into that day, as well as the few hours on Sunday morning we had before flying home.

We flew home Sunday afternoon (Mother's Day). I am so incredibly thankful for the opportunity to have had this trip. The girls stayed with my parents, and I had a girlfriend pick up the girls from school along with her daughter and drop them off at my parents house the two days they had school while I was gone.

To see our Nations history left me speechless. Seeing the White House and the Lincoln Memorial brought tears to my eyes. And all I can think of is I cannot wait to go back! There is still so much more to see of our Nation's history. I loved traveling, I'd never flown by myself but enjoyed it, and I LOVED the red eye experience and having an entire extra day on that end. I can't say enough great things about those four very full days. I will say that within weeks of getting home, we'd opened up a credit card that gives you points that can be applied towards traveling - hotel, airfare, etc, and I've started using it EVERYWHERE I can to earn more points! THAT's how much I wand to go back. And in my mind, it's not a matter of "if", it's "when", because as long as Steven works for this particular company, there's always the chance he'll be going back!

Once the girls finished the school year, we had 8 1/2 weeks of summer break and we tried to make the most of it! We took day trips to the beach with friends, went to Hollywood, to the movies, and so much more! Including a week long of VBS where Steven and I were both very much involved.

We also spent a week camping at our favorite beach campground! Normally a large group of people from church go, but no one got reservations this year, which meant, there'd be no kids there to entertain our kids. But I had the bright idea of taking our nieces with us for the week and that worked out wonderfully! The four girls had a tent to themselves and got along all week and had a blast....all the while making memories!! It was a great way to end our summer break, as Rachel started school the very next week!

The school year started with a bang....Rachel fell and hit her head and sustained a concussion and couldn't go the first day of school! But she went the second day. Hannah started Jr High a week later, which gave her and I some mother/daughter days....shopping, shopping with a friend and her daughter, lunch, etc. And then once she started school....my taxi services started right back up, however, now I go to two different schools. I think I'm finally used to it, however, it's the afternoon pick up time that's starting to really wear me down. Rachel gets out of school at 1:55 and Hannah at 3:00. There's no since in coming home for such a short time, so Rachel and I have to find things to do in that hour between schools letting out. I created a homework basket that is stocked with everything needed for doing homework (pencils, crayons, scissors, gluestick, etc) and we've gone to the library, gone to my parents house to visit Gramma, we've run errands, and this week, with the temperatures cooling down a bit, we've been able to go to the park. But there's two hours every day that's taken up with pick up, waiting, and then pick up again. Once the weather cools down even more, I can have Hannah walk to my parents house some days and she can spend time with my parents and come home after dinner.

There's so many more things I can think of to write about, but we'll save those for another day. I'm happy to have written this post and look forward to blogging again!