Tuesday, August 24, 2004

It's Fun To Go To Thuh....

Y M C A !

It is almost impossible to believe but I have exercised 4 out of the last 5 days! I have been to 3 shallow aqua classes and 1 deep water aqua class (decided to do an aqua class Saturday instead of Pilates.) I know I'm getting a good workout and the classes are WAY more fun than any land class I've ever taken! Sure hope all this exercising will help me shed a few more pounds! I'm hoping to make it to class 6 out of 7 days a week! I'm sure that will be impossible every week of the year but I'm going to shoot for it as often as possible.

I'll tell you one thing. I'm grateful for being on a good antioxidant. We were doing deep water today and the grounds crew was nearby using their weedeaters and edgers. The gas fumes we were sucking down deep into our lungs were almost paralyzing at one point today. Thank you God that I have some "good guys" in my bod to help fight off junk like that!

He-Man & Rocky went swimming with me after class today. We didn't stay for too terribly long but they got in a little water time. I am seriously considering the swimming classes offered for their ages in September. He-Man shows signs of being quite a good little swimmer. Rocky's not bad himself and when he heard me talking to the girls about the opportunity they could have to be Olympic softball players, he chimed in that he was going to swim in the Olympics. Wouldn't that be something?

The girls are getting a little bit jealous of all this time the boys have had at the Y since school has started back. They know they are missing out on some fun times. I've got to do some quality time things with them in the evenings and on the weekends. They love me so much right now and I know these days of wanting to be with me will come to an end in the very near future. Puberty is not far away (ACK!)

We've been telling the kids for a couple of months now that we were doing something VERY EXCITING on August 28th. This secret surprise has been driving them crazy! They are really getting excited that the day is finally almost here! And if you promise not to slip up and tell the girls, I'll tell you where we are taking them....

Nah...better not. I'll tell you next week :)

Friday, August 20, 2004

Exercise - Day 1

I did it. I joined the YMCA. Now I have no excuses. A few variations of the same excuses for not exercising:
-walking is boring without someone talkative to do it with me
-the only time I can exercise is at night when Henry an watch the kids and then it's dangerous to go outside.
-taking the kids for a walk with me is just not exercise - it's more a test of patience

Now I have childcare. I have beaucoups of classes and interesting options. I know people who can exercise with me. Classes are offered at several different times during the day and many days a week.

I did the aquatics class today. It was really great. I enjoyed the class because it wasn't butt-kicking, however I really felt that I did some major exercising. My arms will most likely be sore tomorrow (need to restock my personal supply of SPORT.)

Things I need to do:
Pray for He-Man to get used to the childcare area. He screamed the whole time (so much for the good time he had in there on my trial visit.)
Get a combination lock for locker
Get water shoes (my right big toe is blistered from running in place on the cement-bottom pool!)

Any Y members out there that would like to exercise together? I did the Y membership that allows me to go to any Y in the area!

Think You're So Smart?

A much-deserved "thumbs-up" to anyone who knows what these things are:

Stack Lawyer
Lone Dark Wine
Ranch Eyelash
Ear Rash Inn
Acid Navy Dye
Rosebud Thorn

Guesses anyone?

Monday, August 16, 2004

Me and the boys

I think Rocky gets hushed out by the girls more than I realized.

Whew.

After leaving the girls at school this morning, Rocky was talking NON-STOP in the van. And it was about NOTHING! Most of it I just replied in some sort of grunt or groan or chuckle that seemed appropriate to the style of his speech. I don't really know what all his words were because I soon tuned them out. The talk started out explaining to me how he was ready for Me Me and Paw Paw to move into their new house. Then he said he wanted us to live in a big house. And it went on and on and on and on.....

He-Man is cracking me up with his talking and singing these days. He's getting really good at telling us what he wants. For example, if he wants to go outside, he will grab your hand, walk you to the door and say, "door" while he stretches up for the knob. If we say, "Do you wanna go outside?" He replies, "Kay" and has a big ol' smile on his face. Unfortunately, our question about what he wants is not an offer like he thinks it is. I've learned to just go ahead and answer him instead of confirming what it is that he's trying to ask. Like the other day he came to me and said, "Beh." I thought he was saying, "Bath" so I asked, "Do you wanna get in the bathtub?" He looked at me like that was a pretty good idea but since he didn't say, "Kay" I knew that wasn't what he was trying to communicate. I also realized my mistake in asking the "Do you wanna take a bath" question and remembered that if I ever figured out what it was he was saying, to not ask the question unless I was willing for the answer to be "yes".

When I couldn't figure out what he was saying I said, "Show me what you're talking about" and I held out my hand. He grabbed it and walked me to David's room. "Beh" was "bed". The child wanted to be on the top bunk! Sheesh. I said, "look over here. You can get on the bottom if you want." Thankfully, that seemed to satisfy him. He sat there and smile and flopped around on the pillows for a little while but it wasn't long before he was wiggling and saying, "dit down."

He-Man can sing a couple of verses of songs. Our favorites:
"Nah, nah, nah, dood-bye"
"M A I L !" - he says this with his hands in the air after shaking his upper body and, obviously singing in his head, "Here's the mail it never fails, it makes me wanna wag my tail, when it comes I wanna wail" and then he throws his hands up and yells, "Mail!" It's ADORABLE!
"Bockababy Bock" - Rockabye Baby -- obviously!

After school today, I took the boys with me to the YMCA to check it out. I'm really thinking I'd like to get a membership on Friday (when my paycheck gets here!) I needed to check out the childcare before I signed on the dotted line, though. So I went in with He-Man and he wanted to "dit down" and play. There were a TON of kids in there and lots of toys. He played SO good and kinda wandered off from me. I decided to do the big test. I told him, "Bye bye. I'll be right back to get you in just a minute." Then I kissed him on the cheek.

It didn't phase him!

I walked out of the room....stunned.

He does NOT do this in Sunday School!

I stood outside the window and watched him for a couple of minutes. And it only took him a couple of minutes to realize I was gone. He walked to the door and started saying, "Momma." The girl that works there knew what I was doing and picked him up. He was OK with that. He didn't get all excited with her or anything and kept pointing at the door but he was OK. I was impressed.

Rocky desperately wants to go back to the Y. They have a huge Playland area. It's really cool.

I'll let you know how it goes. If I join on Friday, I'm gonna try doing an aqua class on Friday and PILATES on Saturday. Any advice or opinions on Pilates anyone???

The big thing that's going to be great about this membership is the INDOOR pool! Awesome cool and cold weather fun!

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

The Hallway Dash

The kids are running from the girls' bedroom one at a time while Henry times them to see who is the fastest sprinting to the kitchen floor and back. You see, we encourage running in the house. Sigh...

Next event, The Mattress High Jump.

Found out last week that too many people won the cruise so Mannatech had to work out a second cruise date. The second cruise is a day shorter and pays $250 spending cash (in exchange for the shorter trip) and leaves on the same day the first Manna Cruise comes in. They're looking for volunteers for the 2nd one and we have volunteered. All things are good for the 2nd trip other than the AL/AU game being during the trip. HOPEFULLY it will be on ESPN and HOPEFULLY ESPN will be available in the sports lounge or something! Otherwise we'll be getting the extra cash and will get the opportunity to rub elbows a little closer with the Corporate folks and doctors. And I'll enjoy the shorter trip. Henry will have to take less days off of work and I won't have to be away from the big kids as many days (He-Man will be with us since he's still nursing. Leaving him here would be absolute torture for everyone involved.)

He-Man is really doing well with potty-training. He's peed and poohed a couple of times (actually has poohed every time since the first time -- even though it's not a 'perfect' potty request. It's him telling me he's about to poop and me running him to the potty just in time.) He's still wetting his diaper because he only pees in the pot when he's considering poohing. And he's said he was going to pooh a lot more often than he actually did. Some of it is novelty and requires entirely too much time in the bathroom. Hopefully that will wear off soon. I'm also totally expecting him to lose interest soon, too. Maybe not but I won't be surprised if he does.

We had the big kids' year-older pictures today. They did really well. The change in Rocky from last year is HUGE! Not his looks but his willingness to have his picture made :) I'll try to send a picture from last year to the blog in just a minute....

Today is my sister's birthday. I had to do the math to figure out how old she is. That makes ME old, doesn't it? She was born in 78 so she's 26, right??? YIKES! That's old -- too old to be my baby sister, anyway. We partied at her house this past weekend and we gave her a tshirt that says "I Love Zack Morris" -- isn't that hilarious? She seems to really like it so that makes me happy. She's hard to shop for.

Allrighty, I have 4 kids surrounding me and making all sorts or racket so I guess I should close for now. He-Man is telling Ray (who is in my lap) "No, no, no, no." He's trying to push her out of my lap. Sigh.

Ray would like to say a few words:
He is making a lot of noise! I am not kidding! (TRUE) He is pushing me around now! Ummmmmm...Stop yelling in my ear He-Man!!! (I am just talking to He-Man!) Now my mom can start talking now! Here she is...........

Later gators :)

Saturday, August 07, 2004


After church on the Sunday that the girls "walked the aisle" to make their public profession of faith in Jesus. Posted by Hello