9.30.10 ER

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Years ago before we moved and I was a member at a gym I took a pilates class every week. I know it helped me get back my pre-pregnancy posture. I think I slumped over too much while nursing. Well I sorta got away from it when we moved. And I never wrote down the routine, so I bought a few DVD's, mainly the Exhale Spa with Fred DeVito and Elisabeth Halfpapp. They are good, really good. But I missed my old routine. It was so basic, yet challenging for every level. Well I found it again.
This website is chocked full of pilates exercises. And it's free. They do explain them well, but because I had done the routine multiple times it didn't take me long to get back in the swing of it. That's what I did this morning. And it felt great. This is the particular routine I did this morning. I'm going to try to incorporate this routine once a week. It really helps with other exercises too. Core is so important!

9/29/10 Exercise Report

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Normally I don't take Tuesdays off. Usually I take Sundays and Thursdays off. However, Rhys was having an all night pajama party in his room Monday night, so I decided to take Tuesday off. That's why there is no report for that day. I'll workout Thursday to compensate.

I did Jillian Michael's Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism today from start to finish. She had some burpee's in there. The first set I did the two leg hop back, the second set I did one leg at a time. But then on the laying down ab pikes I actually lifted both legs at the same time in both sets. I know I wasn't able to do that before. It was a good, tough, sweaty 50 some minutes of exercising. I feel good, even though I'm still tired from all that sleep loss.

I am trying to do planks on all four sides before going to bed. We'll see how that goes. I'm at a lower weight than last year at this time, although I've not lost anymore since the initial eating more two weeks ago, but that's ok. I feel good, no, I feel great and that's what matters.

I have a goal to do the same 5K I did this year, only to win in my age division. I know I can do it.

9/27/10 Exercise Report

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I've decided to post my daily exercise doings. Helps keep me accountable and I can sort of track how I'm doing.

Treadmill Run Intervals: Warmup 2 mins, speed walk 1 min, easy run 1 min, sprint 1 min. Completed a 5K distance in 38 mins. 4.5 mins slower than my PR. But, I'm conditioning myself to run faster. I don't think I'll ever do anything over a 5K, but I'm seeking to increase my time. They say that intervals is how athletes train to become stronger. So I figure if I run some hard intervals, I'll get stronger and be able to run faster when I just flat out run.

I was able to do this pretty well. Although afterwards when I was upstairs getting water, I felt really lightheaded and wanted to almost pass out. Gotta fix that. I'm slower on the treadmill, I'm not sure if that's because of the intervals, gotta be. I mean I was walking, even if I was speed walking, it was still walking. I'll have to run a 5K distance sometime in the far future to see how this conditioning is working.

I'll keep you posted.

Birthday Boy

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My baby turns two today.

Boo.

He's not supposed to be this big. Granted I'm glad he's two, I wouldn't do the newborn stage again if someone paid me. I don't do newborns well.

But he's two. And a far cry from that little bitty baby in the pic. 

 

Happy birthday Rhys!

New Quilt

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Well I finished it. It's done. My junk, er I mean my Whimsical Quilt, as Andrew calls it.

Here's the story. I received a bunch of scraps and got tired of them laying around, so one afternoon I just started sewing them together and got this:

The hearts you see are an effort to cover up mistakes. I think the mistakes turned out pretty cute! It did bust out my stash and it will go on the end of the bed as insurance against those extra cold nights.

Now this next one I didn't do the quilting.  The Lord, however, did some nice knitting....

 

Har har har. 

Did you notice the rounded corners on the quilt?  That was my first attempt.  It went ok.  But one thing I know, I hate using bought bias tape to do the bindings on quilts.  I've used it on two and it just doesn't turn out as nice.  Yuk.  But I had a ton given to me and I wanted to use it up. 

What do you think?  At the very least, it is warm and serves it's purpose.  I don't think I'll ever quilt something just to hang on a wall.  I want all my quilts to work.  Heck, I worked to make them, they should earn their keep! 

Christmas

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There. I said it. We've all been thinking it, so I saved you the pain and said it first.

I'm sewing this year. In an effort to save money, reduce my stash and strut my stuff, I'm sewing everyone's christmas gifts. That is, everyone in my house. I'm super stoked about these ideas I found online, so I thought I'd share.

Rhys is getting a quilt. A jean quilt to be exact. Nadia got one on her 2nd year christmas, so will Rhys. (I'm type A remember? Things have to be precise!) Her's looked like this:

She still uses it.  It's on her bed right now, in fact.  It's quite heavy and yes it's made out of old jeans and an old jean skirt.  She stuffs clean tissues in the pockets when she's gota cold.  It works quite well.  Anyhoo, Rhys' will be more of a diamond strip quilt.  I will not put any batting in the middle, the flannel backing the heavy jean material make it thick and warm enough.  I do, however, put a layer of muslin just to keep the raw seams from wearing out the flannel.  I'm about halfway through this project. 

Nadia's Christmas gifts are super cute this year.  And super easy.  Check out these links for ultra-girlie, ultra princessy gifts.  She is going to go ga-ga.  Hopefully, she won't change her tastes in 4 months.  Ugh.  I'd hate it if she suddenly liked Hannah Montana, or something super trendy like that.  Oh perish the thought.  Anyway, the links:

Fairy Wings

Tutu T-shirt

Tutu

I told you, super cute, super princessy, and super easy! 

And Andrew is getting another vest.  It's about time.  He's been rotating through the same 5 vests for two years now.  Poor guy.  I haven't quite figured out what color to do for him, but we'll find something.  

Now don't tell them what they are getting.  Hopefully it gets cold here soon and the garden will die and I can get more sewing done.  

I should have my Junk quilt done soon to show you.  

Till then my friends!

Screamin....

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I had THE most screamin awesome weekend I've had in a long time. I think the last one was the weekend spent away for our 5th anniversary.

To start with, I got to preach sunday morning! Woohoo! Now that being said, the kids were sick, I mean Nadia was puking and Rhys was coming down with a cold. Nadia had a cold too, but when she gets one she pukes. (Anyone got any advice on that, I'll listen!) Yuck. So Andrew couldn't go to church. I was there, all alone. Well not all alone, but you know, I didn't have my most amazing hubby to look at for courage. I had to totally rely on the Lord, which I suppose is a better lesson anyway. But it went well. He is faithful and I'm glad I did it. I look forward to the next time I can do it again.

Then, today, I completed my first 5K! My time was 34.24. Which for me was great! Most of the time in my training sessons I did about 40 mins. So I improved! And the course was tough. Rocky, rutted, dirt trail, with wet grass, hills and then some road. I'm used to road. But I finished and I finished well. I'm super excited and am dreaming about the next one. That's nuts. I am going to take a break a bit, I get bored easily with the same thing. I will still run 1 day a week for a few months, 5K distance just to keep it up, but I'm also getting out my bike and biking once a week. I'll still do strength training 2x a week and then the other cardio will be whatever my little heart desires. I need to keep it fun and fresh or I'll get bored and whimpy in my workouts. Not good. Here are a few pics from the day: