Just Catching Up

So much has happened since my last entry...but then again...not so much. Nothing really worth blogging about, I suppose. And yet. Here I sit. We survived our dinner get together last week. It was just lovely. Then I spent Saturday morning playing with my neighbor's three sweet kiddos so they could go to the hospital to visit with their precious new arrival. Then that afternoon Chris announced he was in need of new socks and underwear and what not...so we all headed off to Kohl's for some shopping excitement. Now...I can't really say the kids were that excited. But it WAS a chance to get out of the house and do something different for a change. That evening we had a quiet dinner and watched a movie. The National Treasure movie. First one I think. It was good and we enjoyed it. Then we all hit the sack and were up and at it early the next morning and headed out the door for church. After church we all went to lunch at the mexican restaurant. Yummy! Then Chris had to get on out the door and hit the road for San Diego. That left me behind here with the three kiddos! So that was last week.

This week finds us in the VBS flow of life. Clara is attending VBS at St. Andrews. The boys are LOVING the fact that she is attending and is GONE for three hours each morning. I have been making good use of the time she is down there as well. Mostly I have been trying to use the time at the gym...or at least part of it. I've been taking that danged heart monitor for a spin this week. Or rather, it has been taking me! There is a huge frustration level with that thing. HUGE! But I finally felt like it was halfway accurate here on Tuesday. Finally! I didn't make it to the gym on Monday. I generally go for Bodystep...however, Mother Nature came and got me Monday morning and boy was she pissy this time! It was like some revenge period from hell. I don't know when I have cramped so badly or hurt so much. I had a chiropractor's appointment that morning because my back has been bothering me for a few days now. I couldn't really tell whether or not the adjustment did any good at all because my period was making it feel as though someone was trying to rip my spine out through my lower back. You know it's bad when you catch yourself taking those cleansing breaths and just trying to recall enough lamaze breathing to not die. It was a multi ibuprofen and multi menstrual relief meds kind of day. On the way out the door at the chiropractor the Dr. tells me "Don't run today. Let all of this adjustment settle down before you do that." LOL! LIke I could have run! I was thinking "Holy crap! It's all I can do not to hit my knees and CRAWL out to my car...let alone RUN!" So Monday was pretty much just agony. Tuesday much better. I had my heart monitor going. Lot's of bad words in my brain and frustration...but in the end I think I was triumphant. I suspect it was working fine earlier in the day...just a matter of figuring out which freaking button to push. MEN obviously invent these stupid things. Probably men that work for Apple and make the Mac. SO not female user friendly. Tuesday I did my pump class then went upstairs and ran 3 miles. Then I had to shower and go get my girl from VBS. Then we had friends come over to play and then just called it a night and crashed! And so that brings us to Wednesday.

Today is Wednesday. I decided to try something new on Wednesday. I went to Body Combat. Jenny keeps telling me how awesome it is and how much she just loves it. She also loves spinning, and I can tell you that never in a million years can I learn to love that class. Or like it. I do NOT want to develop the calluses that I would need on my behind in order to make it through that class without my butt being in pure agony. Been there. Tried it. Hated it. Now, I have also tried this Body combat class once before and was not a huge fan. First of all, it's a lot of yelling and I am NOT one to yell. Oh, I might be yelling at you rather loudly in a secret, in my brain kind of way. NO doubt about that. But as far as just yelling out loud...well, that would not be my thing. And about that yelling. On the one hand it's somewhat entertaining. I mean, the instructor...I think she's like Sybil. One minute she's all serious in a pump class, commenting about technique and form and all. Then on another day she's dancing like Sister Soul and moving her groove in all sorts of ways pretty impossible for the average white girl to grasp. THEN, when she's cooling down the Flow class after some serious stretching and what not, she's just short of sounding like one of those 1-900 operators. Body Combat brings out yet another Sybil side of her. And I think it's a loud and fairly angry Sybil. Lot's of Hi-YAH! And SMASH! And TAKE THAT! She's a little thing too. Totally scary though. VEry intense. I don't think I'd want to meet Combat Sybil in a dark alley. Know what I mean? Anyway I headed on in there to do the combat thing. And I have to say it was pretty much a Kung Fu Panda experience. You know the part, right at the beginning, when Po walks into the presence of the Furious Five? Yeah...that was me, fat, fluffy and mighty uncoordinated. It was pretty darned awkward. And I knew people in the class. I hate that. It's so much easier to kind of just muddle through it and look stupid if you don't know anyone. But nope. Knew several in there this morning. So of course...I had to dig deep for my best Kung Fu master kind of moves. Then I REALLY looked liked Po on his first day of training at the Imperial Palace! However...also much like Po, mere humiliation alone was not enough to drive me home! Nope! I'm not a quitter! I stayed and saw it all through! In the end it was almost fun. Probably by the time I master enough of it not to look like a total idiot trying to perform such feats, the track will change and I'll get a whole new chance to pull out my best fat panda moves again. On the other side of that coin, it certainly wasn't any worse than the Body Jam class where I realized a LONG, long time ago that my hips will never wiggle like that, my body will NEVER groove like that and it's best to just acknowledge defeat in some areas. Ah...speaking of fat Pandas...

I struck a deal with my hubby tonight. If I lose 20 pounds then I can have a BMW 330Ci convertible! Yeah. Can I just tell you that he did not even pause for one second to think about it? He's like "SURE"...instantaneously. SO instantaneously that I am quite sure he doesn't believe for half a second that he will EVER have to make good on that deal. Probably won't ever drive my BMW 330 Ci...but it's always good to have a goal!

After the gym today I got to play again with my neighbor's three little ones. Can I just say that they are totally delightful. They CRACK me up! Their oldest daughter LOVES princesses and anything to do with princesses or tiaras or ballerinas! And their son is about the sweetest little thing I have ever encountered. He loves dinosaurs and math problems and painting very meticulously! Today we all made spoon puppets and painted little wooden models. And we colored in princess and dinosaur coloring books and read lots and lots of stories. It was such an enjoyable afternoon to be sure! Those three little ones just make you feel so special and loved and appreciated! Then I went and picked up my own three! But that's another story for another day!

That said, it is now Wednesday night. It's been a long day and I am sleepy! We have an awesomely nice storm cooking outside and I am going to crash and just enjoy the lightening and gentle roll of thunder I keep hearing. Tomorrow is a new day!