IT'S WORKING!!
Between jogging 3 days a week and the cross training with the Biggest Loser dvd the other 3 days my body shape is finally starting to slim down again and the weight is coming off!!! The first week of the Getting Healthy Challenge I lost 7 pounds. I attribute much of that to water weight and just changing eating habits. The second week I lost 1 pound, this third week I lost 2 pounds. But the most important thing is I'm starting to see the results on my body! I had to tighten my heart monitor earlier in the week and my pj scrub pants are finally getting loose again! At first I wondered if exercising 45 minutes 6 days a week was sustainable after the 7 weeks of the challenge is over. I'm happy to report that I feel that it totally IS! Particularly if I am able to achieve similar results. I could get down to where I want to be in about 16 or 17 weeks! Especially since I'll be training for the 1/2 marathon next. My running mileage will be continually increasing until the end of September. I'm certain that as I keep losing the weight it'll help me a lot with my endurance to be able to run longer and longer. Hooray for making healthy changes!! After the 7 weeks of the challenge I'm going to make my own personal 7 week challenge. I can't wait to be in good physical condition with some stamina!
FAMILY IS COMING-HOORAY!! - Saturday June 16, 2012
My brother Lance, his wife Donna and their son Aidan are coming to visit a week from today! It will be so nice to have them! It's going to be a triple bonus too, because I'll be traveling with them to Salt Lake to visit Mom and we'll stop in Boise Monday, June 26th and spend the day and night with Lindsey and her family. Then we'll pick up a rental SUV on Tuesday and Lindsey and Brooklyn will join us on the trip to Salt Lake. Mom was able to get permission to take some time off her mission that week while we're there. We'll stay until Thursday when we'll return to Boise and spend the night and then head back to Yakima on Friday. The following day, June 30th is the 5k race the Stake is sponsoring at West Valley park. So we'll be back in time for that. Hopefully I won't be too exhausted by all the traveling. Later in the day Lindsey and Thomas will be arriving from Boise to spend the following week with us as well. We'll have a full house again. Hooray! They'll bless Brooklyn on Sunday, July 1st. I'll take Lance, Donna and Aidan back to Seattle on Saturday, July 7th and Lindsey and Thomas will head back home on Sunday the 8th. Only a week to go!
SUPER DUPER END TO THE DAY: I went out running with Abby this evening. This is the first time I've taken her since I've been back in Yakima. She was 'chomping at the bit' to go with me. Pulling on the leash to begin with. But it seems that maybe she got a little out of shape while I was gone because by the time we were done, I was pulling at her leash to make her keep up! :^)
I'm in the 9th week of the couch to 5k program and I was determined to run the full 30 minutes tonight. I DID it!! It was a snail's pace at 12:00/mile BUT that was a personal record for me. I don't think I've ever run better than 12:15/mile, and I've never run 2.51 miles in a row! I ran 12:20 for the first half and 11:40 for the second half (that's kind of strange!). Wow, maybe there IS hope that I can eventually run far AND at a respectable speed!
On a side note, I know I've had a good run when a few minutes after I walk in the door sweat starts pouring down me! The weirdest feeling is when it starts pouring from the top of my head!!
WORK DAY - Friday June 15, 2012
Today I met Barney Zauss down at the little house in Union Gap. There was some structural damage to an exterior wall and some of the floor joists that needed to be repaired. The wall in the back bedroom was bowed and loose as if it could just be pushed through. We didn't know the extent of the damage until we removed the cedar siding. After the work was all done Barney shared that once he realized how extensive the problem was he was concerned about what we were getting into. He actually had to jack up the house to get some additional support under the floor, and he pulled off and replaced a lot of rotten wood. It was an all day job, but he did it and he did a great job! Then I primed and painted the new siding. Whew! After opening up the wall we found that there's only 4" between the siding and the interior walls and no insulation in the walls. I'm going to check on youtube to see if I can find some do-it-yourself information on blowing insulation into the walls. The material itself isn't too expensive and Lowes and Home Depot will loan you the blower machine if you purchase a minimum quantity of the blow in insulation. I'd love to blow insulation into the walls and add more insulation in the attic. My current tenants Jill and Travis indicated that they'd be willing to repaint the house if I'd provide the paint. Travis said he'd measure the house tomorrow so we can calculate how much paint we need.
Today's supposed to be a running day, but I'm feeling too tired and it's pretty late, so I'll probably do my cross-training video for the 3rd time this week and run tomorrow. I picked up the video from Costco for about $8 it's The Biggest Loser At Home Challenge workout. They use the winners of an at home challenge that was given a couple of seasons ago to demonstrate on the video. It's a great workout. I follow the girl that does the wimpy version of the workouts and I'm still pouring sweat by the time I'm done!
SEMINARY PARTY AND DIVINE INTERVENTION - Thursday June 14, 2012
Well, my Seminary teacher responsibilities are almost done. The party's over, but I need to finish entering attendance on the computer, make sure everyone's completed their self-grading sheets, enter the grades online and mail out the sheets along with Scripture Mastery and Scripture reading certificates for the kids that didn't attend the party today.
There were about 13 or 14 kids in attendance. We had plenty of food, the kids played a few games, threw a few water balloons and seemed to enjoy just relaxing with their friends after finishing their freshman year of school. They are such a great group of kids! I certainly won't miss waking up early, or studying for lessons hours each day, but I will sure miss those kids and being with them each school morning next year.
In my new calling as Primary teacher of the Valiant 8 class one of my students is autistic. It's interesting because when he and his family moved into our ward years ago he was in our Nursery class! As I went to the church after the party today to 'put away' my room and gather up my personal supplies I noticed on the wall in the hall that they're having a workshop tonight at the Stake Center for Leaders, Instructors and families with Special Needs Children. Strategies for Welcoming, Teaching and Embracing Members who have Disabilities and Their Families. What fortuitous timing! I consider it Divine intervention or the Lord's tender mercies! I need to get changed into Sunday clothes and head to that in the next few minutes! Afterwards I'll stop by the Gum's to give them a thank you card and treat to let them know how much we appreciate them taking Bear while I was gone to Boise. I'll try to get a lunch or dinner date scheduled with them as a thank you too!
PREPARING FOR THE END OF YEAR SEMINARY PARTY - Wednesday June 13, 2012
Today was a weird day. Had a hard time getting myself moving. The motivating factor was when Darvin called wondering if I could buy some eye drops and deliver them to him at work. So I finally got moving. After stopping at the hospital I made a stop at the City of Yakima offices to pay the utilities on the Yakima rentals, bought some printer ink cartridges for Darvin's dad and picked up some energy bars and Clif shot blocks from Target and then went to the bank. Stopped at Darvin's dad's on the way home. He was walking on Mead headed toward the cemetery when I drove up, so he hitched a ride with me back to the house. I delivered his ink cartridges and read a couple of memory books that he'd put out for me and Darvin to read. One was copies of Christmas letters, the other was a poem book Vona had written to Lee for one of his birthdays. I ended up spending an hour or so there, Lee seemed happy for the company. When I got home I started prepping for the end of year Seminary party. I'm almost done with the Betty Crocker Traditional Brownie Goody Bars (a class favorite). I need to finish washing and cutting up fruits and vegetables and then need to try to get the grades finished so I can give the kids their certificates and self-grading sheets tomorrow. The kids will be coming after school (10 a.m.) except the kids that have driver's training, they'll come a little after noon. We'll eat when the 2nd set arrive. We're going to have bbq hot dogs, potato salad, sliced vegetables with ranch dressing, a fruit tray including strawberries, cherries and watermelon, Aunt Eva's banana cake and the brownie goody bars. We'll play spoons and the can game and whatever else we decide is fun. It sounds like one of the girls Kiera Dearinger will be bringing water balloons. It will be bittersweet for me, I love these kids and will miss them dearly!!
Apparently Bishop Kimzey didn't want any moss to grow under my feet because one of his counselors came over last night and issued a new calling to me effective on Sunday! AAaggh, I'm not even finished with my Seminary responsibilities yet!! lol I guess that will be motivation for me to get everything completed to close the Seminary year! It hadn't deterred the bishop at all to know that I'm going to be gone half the summer! Hopefully this will help keep me out of trouble! ;^)
SETTLING BACK IN AT HOME - Tuesday June 12, 2012
Whew! It's always an adjustment to come home after 2 or 3 weeks and get caught up and readjusted to 'normal' life! I got through the piles of mail yesterday evening and got bills paid. Darvin had yesterday and today off, so we've been spending time together, working on our to-do lists. We picked up our taxes from JV Accounting today. I won't use them again, they were very expensive and took longer than promised to get the taxes finished. But, at least it's done and we're getting a refund so no penalties for late filing. I'll be looking them over tonight, comparing to the information that I gave and then if all looks good I will get them mailed off tomorrow. I got the food planning done for the end of year Seminary party that's on Thursday. I had accidentally scheduled a project on one of the rentals with Barney Zauss for Thursday morning and just found out that the kids will be out of school at 10 a.m. so Barney was kind enough to reschedule for Friday morning, hooray!
Did I mention that Bear is HUGE!?! How can a dog grow so much in such a short period of time?! He's up to 29 pounds! He's mellowed out a lot since I left. We can now safely keep him out of his kennel with Abby for short periods of time when we have running around to do. Before we'd make him stay in the kennel for fear of accidents and the path of destruction that he would leave! It's nice that he's growing up and that he's such a mellow guy! I have high hopes that we'll be able to leave him with Abby and our regular pet sitter Erika when we go to Ashley and Justin's beach wedding in August. At least I'm keeping my fingers crossed. We need to give him longer and longer 'tests'!
Darvin's bbq-ing chicken and pork this evening and I'm making Lipton soup mix potatoes to go along with them. The bbq smells heavenly! I need to head to the grocery store tonight or in the morning to stock up on fruits and veggies and get the rest of the food for the party on Thursday.
TRAVELING DAY - Monday June 11, 2012
I'm heading for home today. I was awakened around 6:30 a.m. with noise from upstairs. The apartment is vacant and they've been doing work on it. But 6:30 in the morning? I thought it was 8:30, so I got up and went to the bathroom, then checked the time again and it was actually 6:30! So I went back to bed. Got up later and took a run/walk. No time records this morning, but I wanted to get the exercise done before I started for home. I'm going to jump in the shower and get myself ready and go.
Made it safely to Yakima about 6 p.m. this evening. I have never seen so many cars that had run off the road between Boise and Tri-Cities. There were at least 3 or 4 different locations and a couple of cars in 2 locations. The roads were perfect and the weather was beautiful, so I'm not sure why so many problems. I felt very grateful that my trip was uneventful.
It was really hard to leave that precious little Brooky! Today was Lindsey's first 'solo' day. Thomas left for work a few minutes before I left for Yakima. Lindsey said that Brooklyn was fussy for quite a few hours and then finally settled down for an afternoon nap! Silly baby just wanted her Nana and Daddy I'm sure!! lol
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