Blogging Comes to Life!

It has been a busy week since returning from vacation. Hanging out and catching up. Getting the baby's room ready (a little anyway). I have been working out hard (well, my usual). I also got to have a nice little visit with some fellow bloggers. You may recognize them. See the picture below.

I am on the left (forgive the yucky appearance but that is what I actually look like). The pretty young girl in the middle is A Merry Life. The handsome young gentleman on the end is author of The Fat Lazy Guy's Log. He traveled all the way from New Zealand and is road tripping across America with his lady. They are so cute and sweet. Super nice folks with awesome blogs. We went out for Texas BBQ (read we fed them big, smoky mounds of food). We spent the next day at Hurricane Harbor water park. I heart water parks. Although I mostly people watched, it was quite entertaining. And these two fellow bloggers went on like every ride. They have no fear!! I desperately wanted to try the surfing rides but my baby bump prohibits me. Maybe next year!! Hope you all are enjoying your week.

Took me by SURPRISE!

When I was home I had to stop at the grocery store to get some lemons for my mother. While at the check out, the only magazine there was Family Circle. It was the August issue. At the beginning of July. So I flipped through and there I was. On page 142. I could not help myself but throw it in my husband's face and shout "It's me!" The people behind us in line could not believe it (maybe because of my huge belly now). So I bought 5 copies and then gave them to the family that came over that day and finally got myseld a copy yesterday. My 15 seconds of semi-fame. Check it out next time you are at the store.

IN OTHER NEWS....
Hubby and I went to a childbirth preparedness class all day yesterday. Some good info, some funny stuff, lots of videos and posters. Here is my favorite. The other folks in class did not laugh, just me. I wonder why?

Tools for labor? Fear, tension and pain. Sounds like a winner. And seriously? It looks like it was created in the 60s. I hope the tools used during labor are a little more advanced and impressive. Especially the pain meds.


Enjoy what is left of your weekend!!

Back to Reality

On the way home from Michigan, we stopped at the farm (my in-laws house). Here is a rare picture - me barefoot and pregnant and doing dishes.

But now I am home and spending time with the twins (2 year old god-daughters) and best bud. They were so missed. I look forward to catching up on your blogs!!

On Vacation

Hello all! I am still on vacation but just thought I would drop in for a moment. Today was the 4th of July and my folks wanted to do their favorite activity. This is what it looked like from my perspective (that is my ma up in front of me).

Yup, we went kayaking. It was very fun. Especially when my ma said "follow me" and then got stuck on some rocks. I made a sharp turn when she said (from perched upon some rocks) "um....don't go this way" a nice young man helped push her off since I was laughing and crying so hard that I got turned around and stuck on a tree while trying to get a picture. I seriously laughed so hard I almost wet myself. Ah, memories.

Hope you had a great Independence Day!! I hope to catch up on your blogs soon!

Weekly Recap

Revisiting my goals:

1. Lots of water and vitamins daily - ACCOMPLISHED
2. Eat 2000 healthy calories per day - FAILED (excellent until the night of my birthday and the entire day after - I love to eat)
3. 40 push-ups everyday - ACCOMPLISHED
4. Walk the dogs 1.2 miles everyday - FAILED (it rained yesterday when I wanted to walk them, but we did the other 6 days)
5. 5 days of 1 hour cardio sessions - ACCOMPLISHED (turbo kickboxing, body attack, water aerobics, zumba, in the zone - a new mix of every crazy tv exercise infomercial)
6. 2 days with weight training - EXCEEDED (3 bodypump classes)

Feeling pretty good considering all the birthday cake and the fact that I had to cut water aerobics short the other day. I also feel good that hopefully by the end of the weekend baby girl's room should be finished paint wise. I am also proud that I picked out baby furniture and got it ordered.

Next week's goals will have to change. Actually, the next 2 weeks. Going home to see our families. There will be 2 solid days of driving in there so I won't be able to exercise like I have been. I can take my workout dvd for the days I am at my folk's house. We have not seen our families since the holidays. Telling them we were having a baby has all been done with pictures via the internet, emails and phone calls. This will be the first they have seen us. What a difference 6 months make.

So my goals this week are:

1. Vitamins and water daily
2. Walk the dogs 1.2 miles 5 days
3. Driving days to stop every 2 hours and walk a little (doc orders)
4. Do not over eat too much, I do not want my stomach to hurt
5. 40 push-ups everyday
6. 3 days of 1 hour cardio sessions
7. 1 day of weight training

I am excited to see friends and family. It is hard sometimes that everyone we are related to lives so far away. I especially cannot wait to see my grandpa! He is so cute and perfect. You know that person you put on a pedestal and can do no wrong in your mind? That is my grandpa. And he does not travel so to see him, I have to go home. I will try to post while gone so stay tuned...

Humility

This pregnancy has taught me a little bit of humility. I am a pretty open and honest person. I take the advice of others. I learn from my mistakes. However, it is hard for me to admit that I cannot do the things I was doing a few months ago. I love to exercise now. A little of piece of me feels unfulfilled when I cannot do the high impact moves in class. Sometimes I do them anyway and then extreme guilt consumes me. What if something turns out to be wrong with this baby because I just HAD to jump around in my workouts? Then I back off. I still work hard. I still burn alot of calories. But it is not the way I am used to. It is not the exact way I want to do it.

Most humiliating moment of the summer (so far)? Well let me just remind you that I will take the most difficult cardio classes. I will do (or try) every high-intensity move to up my burn. I will take the class repeatedly until I get it. I have spent 2 years going out of my comfort zone and pushing through pain to get to the next level. This is the best and most accomplished I have felt in my entire life (and this includes graduating from college - undergrad and grad). But I did not feel that way Tuesday.

I decided to take a water aerobics class for some cardio and toning. I was running in the pool for about 10 minutes when it started. This horrible pain on my right side. So I push through it. Or I tried. After 5 minutes it got worse. I tried to bring it down a little, adjust my stance. More pain. Then guilt about what my body was trying to tell me. After 20 more minutes I could not take the guilt anymore. I swam through a full pool of 70 year-olds and climbed the ladder to land. I lasted 30 minutes. In water aerobics. Me. Me who loves turbo kickboxing and body attack. Me who competed in the Mud Run and completed it. After I was out, the pain stopped. Turns out to be round ligament pain from my super stretching uterus (now the size of a basketball). I know I made the right choice but it saddens me to feel like less than I was.

Triumphant moment of the summer (so far)? Well. I have been waking up around 3AM about twice a week, starving. The only way I was able to go back to sleep was to eat. I was eating cereal. And then something crunchy. And perhaps one more thing. But twice this week I awoke hungry at 3AM yet again. I did not eat a thing. I watched TV until I felt I could sleep again. I waited to eat until breakfast around 8AM. VICTORY!!! This did not happen before I was pregnant. And I hope it will eventually stop.

Doc appointment today. I gained 6 pounds in the last 4 weeks (my scale says it was 5). My percentage of weight gain per week is decreasing. I am hoping to get it down even more. My total gain is already at 28 pounds. And I feel it. I know she weighs over 1 pound now so at least that one is not on me. I feel pretty happy. I eat healthy stuff, I exercise daily, I feel the baby moving everyday, and doc did not say anything about my size or weight gain. Although, it is pretty obvious there is nothing she can say to me that I do not say to myself before I get there.

I ate better this week because of the appointment. But today is my birthday and there will be a lot of crab legs eaten tonight. I will enjoy myself and worry about the next weigh-in in a week or so.

Stay cool, get in a pool!

Weekly Recap

Time to review this weeks goals:

1. Lots of water and vitamins daily - ACCOMPLISHED
2. Eat 2000 healthy calories per day - SOMEWHAT ACCOMPLISHED (yet again, I did not count but I am pretty sure I did decent in this department)
3. 40 push-ups everyday - ACCOMPLISHED
4. Walk the dogs 1.2 miles everyday - FAILED (oops, I forgot 1 day, my routine was off, they were not happy)
5. 5 days of 1 hour cardio sessions - ACCOMPLISHED (water aerobics, turbo kick boxing and body attack)
6. 2 days with weight training - ACCOMPLISHED (I did body pump twice)

I did get a few naps in, nice visits with friends, even went to crappy trainings (well I learned things but I could have been at the gym, in the pool or in bed). I also made baby registries (thanks to best bud's help), did lots of reading of baby product reviews and hubby and I had the big daycare discussion. We had a friend offer to keep her for us. I went to visit a daycare to see what the pros and cons would be. This daycare was clean but all I could think of when I was in the infant room was - cages. The set-up of the cribs look like cages. No joke. Right now I think we are going with our friend watching her - for many reasons but I do not want anyone to put my baby in a cage.

I think I will keep the same goals for this week. There will be more visiting, doc appointment (oh lord help me on that scale), best bud's birthday and my birthday. I hope I can do it. I NEED to do it. Hope you had a successful week.