We arrived in Yakima safely. Poor Aidan, Donna and Lance. It was a rough day! Apparently Aidan did fairly well on their first flight from MA to Chicago, but had a total melt down on the Chicago to Seattle leg. They were all exhausted when I picked them up at the airport. Unfortunately Aidan does not sleep well when he's not in his bed with quiet space. He doesn't want to miss out on anything! lol So, he wouldn't even fall asleep on the 3 hour trip to Yakima. He did well though. Donna was in the back seat serving as head entertainer! Lance and I served supporting roles! We saw lots of broom-broom's (any truck or substantial size vehicle, tractor, etc) and wa-wa's (river's, lakes, waterfalls and the sippy cup with water in it). And even saw horses and cows and a couple of deer. As Aidan started winding down at the end of the trip the Bus Song was a hit and we all had a sing-a-long! No meltdowns in the car, hooray! And the puppies at our destination were well worth the wait,at least as far as Aidan was concerned! He was quite delighted at the tail wagging welcome party!
I put together a dish of Tex-Mex lasagna to bake and made a quick run to WalMart for french bread. We're having Middleton's over for dinner too and Wendy will bring a green salad. I'll probably wash and slice a bunch of fresh fruit to make a 'fruit salad' for dessert.
SATURDAY - JUNE 23, 2012
Today's the day! I get to pick up Lance, Donna and Aidan from the Seattle airport for their visit. It'll be so nice to have them here to visit and to let them visit Lindsey's family in Boise and Mom in Salt Lake City. Lots to do before I head to Seattle. Need to get my run in this morning before it heats up!
I'm already enjoying my new calling as the Valiant 8 teacher. It's really nice to only have to prepare one lesson each week AND because I'm team teaching with Wendy Middleton it won't even be that often once we get through the summer. We'll trade off.
Having so much time to prepare gives me an opportunity to take more time to think of creative ways to present the lessons. Tomorrow we're going to have a 'raft' in class. The kids will need to choose two items from a set of eight supplies that they'd like to keep with them in the raft. The lesson tells us to have the kids imagine that the raft is riding low in the water so they need to dump all but two of their supplies and to place a list of the supplies on the board. Instead of this I'm taking our blow up baby tub as the raft and will have sample supplies in the raft itself. Fun stuff!
HAPPY DAY! I worked through another mental barrier! I jogged 5 complete laps around Kissel Park this morning for a total time of 32:22 during the day. I prefer running at night, so this is a big deal for me. To run during the day AND to run for almost 1 1/2 minutes longer than my previous longest run. I'm sure for some this seems insignificant, but every new extra minute that I run is a true victory for me! I'm not sure how far I ran as I was into the 'recovery' segment on my Garmin, but I know for sure that I ran over 2.9 miles, another first! My pace was 11:17 which I think may be a PR. Almost to the 5k! Hooray!
FRIDAY - JUNE 22, 2012
When I got home yesterday after my visiting teaching appointment to Toni McBean's Darvin asked me if I wanted to go to Walmart. When I inquired about the purpose of the trip he told me it was to buy bike gear. He'd bought himself a bike from Jake's Bike Shop. I'd bought a used bike from Joan Fair a few weeks ago and we'd talked about biking together. Unfortunately a used bike big enough for a 6'4" guy is hard to come by, so a new bike it was! I couldn't find my bike helmet, so we bought me a helmet (he needs replacement pads for his helmet but they didn't have those at Walmart in the bike section), we bought lights and pumps and a liner for tire puncture resistance (only had one set unfortunately, etc. Darvin got everything put on and we're going to take a ride on the Greenway this morning.
What a delightful day! We dropped my car off at the Firestone dealer on the way to the Greenway, then took a 7 mile, 50 minute bike ride. It was cool and sporadically rainy, but made for a nice cool ride. All I can say is, burn baby burn! It was a great workout for the legs and wonderful to get to spend some time with Darvin.
Afterwards we went and picked up Grandpa Clement and took him to a belated Father's Day lunch at Red Robin. Apparently it's been a while since I ate there, they removed my favorite Asian Chicken Salad from the menu! Oh well, I found an acceptable alternative. Once we got Grandpa back home and reloaded our bikes into the truck Darvin took me back to pick up my car from the Firestone dealer.
I stopped at the Yakima Co-op first on my way home and picked up some more deworming medicine for Bear. Poor little guys (actually not really little any more, he's up to 39 pounds!) has had worms since birth. At first I think we weren't treating them close enough together to break the cycle, and now hopefully we're getting to the end of the process. He had one small worm last time we treated him. Yuck, YUCK, YUCK!! I feel like the parent of the child at preschool who has head lice! I know it's just a question of time, but come on now! At least he likes the medicine. He laps it right up!
I headed to K-Mart next to exchange some hair color. They'd had it on sale a while back and so I try to stock up, but they didn't have as much in my color as I had coupons to purchase, so they'd told me I could buy the wrong color and then exchange it later. Glad that's done because I'd had the color in the trunk for a while and kept forgetting or wasn't down in the area when I did remember. I use Clairol, Nice N Easy, 116A Light Golden Brown. My daughters are in charge of keeping that detail, so when I die if my roots are showing, they can cover them up! I'm not kidding girls!! One last act of vanity!! lol
Then I went to Costco to get gas for my trip to pick up Lance and his family, and some groceries and more rawhide for the dogs. Did I mention that my brother and his wife and son are coming to visit tomorrow?!!!! I'm so excited!!! They arrive about 6 p.m. in Seattle and then we'll head straight for Yakima.
When I got home and gave the dogs each a piece of rawhide Abby acted quite standoffish about hers. Now that Bears had his share, she's currently working on one. I'm not sure if it's hers or if she's stolen his, she always seems to prefer what he has and vice versa! lol
In a little while we'll go pick up the Gum's and take them out to dinner. They did puppy daycare and sometimes night care for us when I was gone to Boise and Darvin was at work.
THURSDAY - JUNE 21, 2012
I am extremely tired. I don't know if it's just the fact that I've never exercised so hard and so much in my life, or if I need to do some nutritional adjusting with my diet. Today I need to run. And I need to do it during the day since I have Bunco this evening. I need to take some Primary materials over to Wendy Middleton's (my team teacher). She lives out in the country with nice paved streets and not a lot of traffic so I think I'll drop off the materials to her and then get my run done.
Denise Gum and I have a visiting teaching appointment at Toni McBean's this afternoon. We'll meet her at her office today. Usually we schedule a temple trip each month for our visit, but it just didn't work out this month with everyone's schedules. Darvin is off work and feeling a little neglected. I try to spend as much time with him as possible on his days off but today is going to be hard.
Last night my visiting teaching appointment with Nancy Whalen was cancelled. So Darvin and I took the opportunity to attend the Bears season opener game against Salem-Keizer. The Bears won 8 to 2! Hooray! There were fireworks afterword that were REALLY good! Oh, and during the game I thought for a time that we must be at Walmart. We were sitting in the general admission seats behind home plate. There was a heavy set woman that was sitting in the reserved seats down below us. She stood up and we saw about a mile (ok maybe 8 inches) of butt crack! OH MY GOSH, I'm not kidding either! I think Dad and I were scarred for life by that, totally disgusting! I'm totally amazed at people's lack of modesty sometimes! Dad said that he considered telling the woman that he'd buy her a belt and some underwear. I think what she needed was a belly band (like those kind that pregnant woman wear, because he jeans were definitely WAY too low!
Tonight was Bunco. What a fun time! I love the women in my Bunco group!
WEDNESDAY - JUNE 20, 2012
Another milestone! Last night after I delivered the new printer to Darvin's dad (which won't work because the operating system on the computer is Windows Millenium) I stopped at Kissel park to run. I was 'supposed' to run 30 minutes, but decided if my watch advised me that I was done before I ran 5 complete laps around the park I'd continue on a little longer. It went off about 2/3rd of the way through the 5th lap so I decided I'd keep running until the end of the current song. When the song was over I checked my Garmin and I'd run an extra minute, so I ran 31 minutes in a row for the first time in my life as far as I know! I made it to 2.73 miles at an 11:20 pace (which is good for me-I think another personal record!). Hooray!!
My total mileage including warm up and cool down was 3.72 miles. I'm going to bump my run time up to 32 minutes for the next run day and every time I hit the goal time I'll add another minute. If I can keep the same pace I should be able to hit the 5k mark at just under 35 minutes! It's my goal to run 35 minutes and 5k by the last workout of next week. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!
I'm finally breaking through my mental barriers that have confined me all my life. The mental self-talk of what I CAN'T do. Well now I'm turning that self-talk around telling myself what I CAN do! It's AWESOME to be making new good habits and feeling healthier and stronger and more balanced each day.
Here's a quote that my nephew Jordan posted on facebook today: "One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his greatest surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't."
- Henry Ford
TUESDAY - JUNE 19, 2012
Darvin's on graveyard shifts which began Sunday night and end tomorrow morning. It's really hard for him (and me) to transition from a regular day shift to graveyards and then back again. It seems like he has to work graveyards at least a few times a year when the regular graveyard pharmacists go on vacation. So, being the night person that I am, I procrastinate doing too much during the day because he's sleeping and I'm trying to be quiet. I know, excuses, excuses! Last night was a typical late night for me and I didn't get my run in and it was cold and dark outside so I decided to do the Biggest Loser dvd workout instead. I was getting tired, but gave it my best shot and actually worked up a pretty good sweat! The dogs were down with me at the beginning of the workout getting underfoot. When it got to the point that I had to get down on the floor in plank position I knew that Bear was going to have to go to bed! Little stinker was up in my face trying to 'help'! So I ran upstairs with him and put him in his kennel. He must have realized it was after bedtime because he entered willingly! Then I headed right back downstairs and finished the workout. I'm so glad I bought that dvd because I've been seeing tremendous changes in my body since I started it such a short time ago. It's a full body workout so I'm burning maximum calories and lots of different muscle groups. Hopefully by the time of the half marathon in September I'll be looking and feeling a lot more like a runner instead of a fat couch potato! I'm really starting to see results in my hips and thighs and in my upper body, losing some of those disgusting flubber rolls! AND, I'm still in the lead for the Getting Healthy Challenge. I have 1364 points, Dadra Clement has 1354 and Tanya Permann has 1350 points. It's still too early to predict, but I might have a shot at winning this challenge! I have 'an edge' over the other two leaders because I have a lot more weight to lose. Both of them have lost some, but they're both super fit already so they don't have much, if any, left to lose and I have a bunch. Apparently I'm the only one of the 'fat girls' in this challenge that is trying to get maximum points every single day! lol
MONDAY - JUNE 18, 2012
As part of our Getting Healthy Challenge we're supposed to make a journal entry every day. Thus the reason for beginning a daily entry on my blog of late. Rather than posting daily I decided that it would be better to post once a week.
Yesterday we got to church right before Sacrament meeting started. I had a picture that I needed to hide in my classroom before Primary and needed to make a copy and get Book of Mormon's from the library. So I sent Darvin into the chapel with Wendy and Evan Middleton. We sit together and they'd arrived at the same time we did. The meeting had started by the time I finished and I knew they would have called my name to be sustained as a Primary worker since I was teaching that day! When I sat down between Wendy and Darvin Wendy said, "They didn't waste any time giving you a new calling did they?" Which had been my sentiments exactly. LOL I replied in the affirmative and she then asked if they usually had team teachers in Primary. I told her that they sometimes did, and that, in fact, they'd indicated to me that they wanted my class to have a team teacher. She started pointing to herself, which confused me a little bit because Brother Lonnie Ellis had told me when he came over to extend the call that they were going to ask Wendy to team teach with me. She was so emphatic that I asked her if they'd called her to team teach with me. She said, no, but she WANTED to! That delighted me!
After sacrament meeting I walked up to the stand to give a member of the bishopric our tithing. When Brother Ellis saw me coming he hopped up and rushed over and asked me if Wendy was planning on staying for the rest of the meetings. I told him I thought so and headed to my class.
A little while later I see Brother Ellis's head peaking through the window in the door of our classroom, he opened the door and in walks Wendy! She left early because Evan was creating quite a diversion with the kids, but she called me later that evening and we talked for quite a long time.
It is going to be so fun to team teach with her. She's a school teacher by profession, so that part doesn't worry her at all, but she is worried that the kids will ask gospel questions that she can't answer. So we brainstormed about how to handle that if it happens and I'm not there to help (since I'll be gone about half the summer!)
She told me that her mom and step-dad were ecstatic about her receiving a calling! Yesterday morning her step-dad had been thinking that it was nice that she didn't have a calling to worry about and then he changed his mind and decided that it would be better if she had a calling and that Young Women's would be a nice place for her to serve, but as he thought about it he decided that Wendy would probably worry about the girls knowing more of the gospel than she did, so he decided that a Primary teacher calling would be perfect! How about that for an outside confirmation.
I told Wendy it reminded me of when I was called to be Primary President the first time around. I was TOTALLY taken by surprise by the calling and although I accepted I felt so very inadequate. I kept thinking about all of the other women in the ward that were much more qualified in many, many ways than I was. I really had a sense of apprehension and anxiety about it until the day I was sustained in Sacrament meeting. The Sacrament meeting chorister came up to me after the meeting and told me that she KNEW that I was going to be the new Primary President. I don't know why, but that seemed to be a divine signature from my Heavenly Father letting me know that indeed HE was calling me to that position and whatever I lacked in qualifications He would make up the difference.
Speaking of divine signature, my dear friend and visiting teaching companion, Denise Gum loaned me a book on cd: Divine Signatures: The Confirming Hand of God. I listened to it on the way to and home from Boise. It is PHENOMENAL!! I highly recommend it to everyone that has ever had any struggles, struggles now or will have struggles in their lives. In other words, EVERYONE should read or listen to this book. You can get the kindle version on Amazon for $14.29. This is a must read!!
This is from the book description: "Heavenly Father, are you really there? As Latter-day Saints, we know God exists, but at some point we may wonder, Heavenly Father, are you really there for me? When trials seem beyond our ability to bear, some people lose their spiritual bearings, while others are made even stronger. How can we strengthen our faith and deepen our testimony to the point that we can endure whatever life holds in store for us and come out stronger than before? In this unique book, Gerald N. Lund Reminds us of how much God loves His children and that He is anxious to bless them, especially when they are striving to do His will. Teaches that God often sends blessings in such a highly unusual, dramatic, or precisely timed manner that its as if the Lord signs the blessing personally so we know with certainty that it came from Him. Relates stories from Church history, from his own life, and from acquaintances that illustrate the inspiring and life- changing insights he shares."
Showing posts with label aidan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aidan. Show all posts
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Traveling Day & the week after
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
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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