End Of Year Picture Dump

Almost to the end of 2015.  Wow.... I cannot believe I started this blog way back in 2012! End of 2012, but still!  My goodness, how things have changed since then.

Here's some pictures to finish out 2015 with a bang.

In no particular order.....

Christmas came and it was indeed glorious!  Aside from the fact that Mara was sick (more on that later), it was a great holiday.  Christmas Eve I accompanied my mom, dad and sister to the family Christmas Shindig that my mom's side of the family has every year.  It had been several years since I had attended.  I always felt out of place in that setting, but this year I agreed to go.  Mostly because my mom wanted to show off Mara!  As it turned out, though, Mara couldn't go because she was sick.  So Corky stayed home with her.  Later that evening his mom, stepdad and brother came over and we opened Christmas Eve gifts with them.  

Christmas morning I woke up earlier than the rest of my family.  I went downstairs and made the coffee.  After pouring myself a cup, I went and sat on the couch and just looked at the tree.  It was such a pretty tree this year!  It was such a nice, quiet, serene 30 minutes to myself before Corky, Mara and the bulldogs came blasting in, shattering the tranquility.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.  I love my chaotic, crazy, fun little family!

Here are some pictures from Christmas morning.

Mara has been obsessed with this little pair

of Snow White shoes that my bestie got her

for her birthday.  So now she has the rest

of the outfit to go with the shoes!

Of course she wanted to put it on right away!

Mara and BaPa (my dad) on a walk in the

evening on Christmas Day.

See?  I told you!  Obsessed.  She was fresh out of 

the bath and wouldn't even let me put a diaper

on her.  First, had to be the shoes.  Funny

little girl.  Love her! And look at those

thighs!  Heaven :)

December was not a kind month to us as far as health went.  First, in early December, Mara got the stomach flu.  That made for a really gross night spent running between her bedroom and the bathroom, with many pajama changes and a few baths (for both of us) thrown in for good measure.

Then, after I had had my turn with the stomach flu (thanks so much, darling!), we had a few little skirmishes with sniffles and colds.  But then came the really big one - Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease (HFMD) for my poor little princess.  She was pretty miserable!  BIG blisters on her face and a ton of little ones on her hands, feet and back.  High fever for several days straight.  Yuck!  Poor kiddo.  Her nose and eyes were all red and streamy.  She's still dealing with the aftermath of boogers.  Yikes!  So glad this virus came and went and, thankfully, skipped the rest of us.

Still playing, even though she felt like crap!

And a few more random pictures of Mara that don't fit into any of the other categories, but she's just so darn cute I wanted to include them anyway!

Cheesin' at mommy on a lunch date to

Starbucks (of course)

Playing with mommy's belly-dance skirt

Mara and BaPa (my dad) out for a walk

in the evening on Christmas Day.

All right, there's your daily dose of cute.  Now on to some other stuff.

Random Other Stuff from mid-late December:

Me getting ready to do base miles on the treadmill

on Christmas Eve.

I've been working on my core strength, trying to get those

darn muscles back to where they're supposed to be.

It's not perfect but it's getting a little better.

On Christmas Eve day I taught Zumba, and one of my awesome

regulars gave me this shirt for a Christmas gift!  How cool!

I love my job!  My people are the best :)

Abigail and me, posing on Christmas Eve Day 

while Mara napped.  Cute pup.

A selfie with my new headband from Corky. :)

Jaxxie chewing on his Nylabone - his favorite

Christmas gift. (his other gift was a stuffed animal

elephant that he already destroyed.  Fluff EVERYWHERE!)

Abby turned 4 on the 21st of December.  She's my

cute little watchdog!  Always protecting us.  Love

you to pieces Abigail Shula!

And that about wraps it up for December 2015.  Between the stomach flu, colds, HFMD, subbing classes like crazy and the half marathon, it's safe to say I am ONE EXHAUSTED MAMA!!!!!  But we are off to Disneyland, California on Friday for (hopefully) some R&R&R (rest, relaxation and RIDES).  So excited.  I have not been to Disney since 2004.  

Trip pics and some updates when I return.

Thank you to all who keep reading my blog! I appreciate you all.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!  Here's to 2016 - the best is yet to come. xoxoxo

December - What A Month!

It's not even Christmas yet and what a December this has been!  It's been challenging, that's for DAMN sure! 

But you know what?  Right this minute, as I sit here, things are peaceful and blissful.  The Christmas tree is glowing softly in the corner.  The rain is falling outside (which isn't so nice overall as we are dealing with flooding issues, but at least our house isn't leaking!).  Mara is napping.  I have coffee next to me.  I am in my warm, comfy sweats (read: Corky's sweats that I stole) and I just took a long, hot, well-deserved shower.  

In the past 23 days I have:
-Taken care of a 1 year old with the stomach flu
-Gotten the stomach flu myself
-Spent hours and hours on the phone, dealing with insurance companies
-Taken care of a 1 year old (same one!) with an upper respiratory virus
-Taken care of a 1 year old (same one!!!) with hand, foot & mouth disease
-Caught the upper respiratory virus
-Taught 21 classes (Aqua Fit and Zumba)
and
-Ran a half marathon

And we still have 9 more days of December, including today!  YIKES!

It's Christmas Eve Eve.  Tomorrow morning, on Christmas Eve Morning, I will teach Zumba.  I taught on Thanksgiving Day too and the class was MASSIVE.  So we'll see what tomorrow brings.  At least the traffic on my commute shouldn't be too bad!  Today I made it down there in 25 minutes!  I was spectacularly early so I went on the treadmill for my first run since the half marathon on the 13th.  I felt pretty good!  I'm still nowhere near as strong as I was pre-stomach flu!  I struggled to teach my Aqua Fit class with the same pizzazz as I usually have.  But it was a good class nonetheless.  Not too big, not too small.  I don't really like teaching Aqua Fit as much as I used to but it's pretty okay.  I still prefer Zumba but I'm happy to teach a class and move around, and hey, it's money! 

I finally got offered a class at the LA Fitness close to my house!  YAY!  It's a Zumba class on Mondays at 4:30pm.  This past Monday, the 21st, was my first one.  It went well... except one thing.  There was a woman who came and stood up in the front, right next to me on my right..... and did all her own choreography to my songs!  I don't mind if people want to do their own thing, but it made it difficult for me because if I looked over at her at all I'd get confused and forget MY choreography!  My students were a little confused too.  Lol! Oh well.  She was having fun, so there's that!

Sorry for the rambling.  I am off to organize the bottle/sippy/kid silverware shelf in the kitchen!  Oh, and make more coffee. ;)

New YouTube Videos Up!

YES you read that right.  After a YEAR hiatus from YT, there are two new videos up!  Not just one, but TWO!

Click HERE to watch the first one
Click HERE to watch the second one

My poor baby girl has a cold today so I'm off to tend to her.  See ya later!

Just Breakfast

Good morning.  :)  Happy Thursday.  

Normally I'm already out of the house, fighting traffic on my horrendous commute to Tualatin by now, but they needed me to sub a Zumba class out here this morning so someone is covering MY class in Tualatin.  Confused? Lol.  The short version: I get to sleep in!!!!  I slept in till 7:30.  It was heavenly.

Another perk of subbing the 9:45am class out here is that I got to make my breakfast... for real!  It was glorious.  And I could take my time with my coffee!  I could get used to this.



It may not look like much but it was sooooooo good!  1/2 cup quick oats, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp honey, 5 almonds chopped and 1/2 cup skim milk.  YUM!!!!!!!  Mason jar oatmeal is one of my favorite things.  I am planning to do a post about it on FitMinute soon.  Stay tuned.

Have a great day! xoxo

Holiday Half Marathon

Well, today was the day I had been training for since August.  The Holiday Half.  I wasn't sure how it would go, considering I'm not quite back up to 100% after the virus that kicked my ass last weekend (great weight-loss regiment, horrible experience. Overall: do not recommend!)  The day started incredibly early for me.  I still had to pump before we left so my alarm went off at 5:30am. Yuck! 

Once we arrived at the Adidas campus (on a giant yellow school bus that shuttled us to the start line from the parking lot), we checked our bag and promptly froze our asses off waiting for the race to begin.  When it finally did, it was crowded and COLD.  After about mile 3 the crowd thinned out. 

The course was nice and flat.  It took us along the river, way up on the bluff, and afforded us a lovely view of the Swan Island industrial area.  Huge ships lined the banks of the Willamette river.  Not long after the beginning of the race we heard a series of booms and saw thick, black smoke billowing up from the far bank and across the river towards us. Unbeknownst to us, a semi-truck had collided with a train carrying something flammable and had ignited.  Flames shot into the air.  Parts of the race were actually canceled because of this, although we didn't know it at the time. 

Around mile 4 my stomach started rebelling.  I'll spare you the details but let's just say: thank goodness for strategically placed port-a-potties! 

There's a lot of emotions and thoughts that go through your mind during 13 miles.  The first being "Damn... 13 miles is FAR!"

Olympic runner Galen Rupp ran in this half marathon.  He won it of course.  He was on his way back (at like mile 9) when the main body of runners was at mile 4!  He looked focused. 

I ended up finishing 654th out of 2,071.  Not too bad! I finished in 2:00:08.  Would have been faster had it not been for my unplanned bathroom break! 

We celebrated with coffee and breakfast. It was fun! Looking forward to my next half in March :) 

Sharing Is Caring

Sharing is caring..... except when it comes to viruses! 

Thursday night into Friday morning, Mara woke up vomiting.  My poor, poor, sweet baby girl!  It was a long, smelly night that involved several baths and PJ changes (for both of us).  Mara eventually fell back asleep around 5 a.m. but I didn't.  I subbed out my class on Friday morning to stay home and care for her.  By about 2 p.m. she was back to her old, smiley self. Her appetite took a few days to come back completely, but she's now all better.

Saturday night into Sunday morning, it was my turn.  Up until this point I had been pretty lucky - not catching any of the sicknesses Mara brought into the house.  Corky hadn't fared quite so well.  He received a cold or two from Mara, and took the full tour of early November's stomach bug that she so generously shared with him.  This time, however, my ticket was up.

I woke up at 1:30 in the morning and I just knew I was in trouble.  I had felt the telltale signs of round 5 of mastitis starting the day before and when I woke up I was feverish and achy all over.  Oh, and my stomach was churning.  I went downstairs and tried to sleep on the couch but by 5 a.m. I gave up and went back upstairs.  No sooner had I laid back down in bed than my stomach decided NOPE and I was up and running to the bathroom.  Fun stuff.

Thank goodness Sunday and Monday were Corky's days off!  Poor guy.  He got thrown into the Mr. Mom role without much preparation.  I forget that he hasn't mastered the multitasking thing and it wasn't until almost 1 p.m., when I asked him, "Have you eaten?", that he even remembered about food.  He and Mara ran errands and picked up fresh watermelon for me, since that's the only thing I can ever make myself eat when I have the pukes.  Sunday I could barely get off the couch.  I ate 6 cubes of watermelon, 4 crackers and 1 latke (since Hanukkah started that night).  

Monday I felt better.  Still no appetite but I was at least upright.  Today I felt even better and my appetite returned around 5 p.m.  I ate 3/4 of a sandwich and half a cup of soup, plus a yogurt.  Pretty sure that surpassed my entire calorie intake for the weekend! I got on the scale this morning, because ED always has a heyday with stomach bugs, and found that I've lost 4 pounds this weekend.  

Throwing up sucks.  Stomach bugs suck.  But... hey... at least that number looked nice!

Mara Goes Grocery Shopping

Mara decided she was going to make dinner for her daddy and me, so we headed to the store. (Lol!) 

She grabbed a cart... 

And we're off! 

"First we need some papaya spears...."

"...and an assortment of leafy greens.."

"....and now we need some onions.."

"..aaaaaaand some crustaceans."

Child, what are you cooking??

(In reality we were killing time til Corky was off work so we could go out to dinner! Lol.) 

Mara's 1st Birthday (and Picture Dump)!

Well, it finally happened.  My sweet little baby became my sweet little toddler!  How is that possible??  Where did the time go?  How do I not have an infant anymore?

Oh, but I am so in love with my girl.  She is spunky, stubborn, smart as a whip (no, I'm not biased or anything!), beautiful and sweet.  I have never known a love like the love I have for my kid!

Her actual birthday was Monday, the 23rd, but we celebrated the day before so that all her grandparents and aunt and uncle could come.  We didn't have a huge party, just a little family shindig, but she got some awesome presents!  (Mom-fail though, I didn't get a picture of all the gifts!  Bummer!  Oh well, I'm still new at this whole mom thing, so maybe next year I'll have my sh*t together! Haha.)

But first, I want to share these 2 pictures.  

The day before her party, we went to a baby shower for my longtime friend.  It was a tea party theme, so cute!  So we dressed up for the occasion and Mara just looked so beautiful I had to take photos.

How cute is she??  Seriously! I can't handle it!

Okay, these next pictures are from Mara's birthday party, pre-cake.

She stuck a whole melon ball in her mouth!  It was hilarious!  Of course I jumped up and got it out before she could choke on it, but it was so funny because normally she is so wary of food that isn't bread-like. Funny girl.

Mommy hanging out in Mara's new play tent.  LOL!

Don't judge!  I was tired! Haha.

Mara investigating her new tricycle from my parents.

Okay, now for the cake pictures.

Eyes on the prize!

Yeah, she went straight into the bathtub after this! 

The birthday collage I put on my Facebook.  Love my little bug!

I can't believe she's ONE!  I can't believe she was ever as tiny as she was

in the upper right picture! Lol.  Seems like a dream, but she was!

Now for a few random pictures that weren't numerous enough to make their own post about, so they're being tacked onto the end of this one. :)

On Mara's actual birthday, November 23rd, we went to take a piece of her birthday cake to our favorite lactation nurse.  Seriously, this woman is an angel.  If it wasn't for her, I'm certain I wouldn't still be nursing today.  She is the kindest, most compassionate person.  Thank goodness for her!  Anyway, Mara loves her (as you can see) and she was teaching Mara the importance of always matching your nail polish to your outfit.  Love her!

Here are some random pictures of my sweet girl.

(We were out for a walk with her new trike and her hands were cold, 

so I gave her my gloves LOL!)

And, last but not least, a few pictures that aren't of Mara.

Favorite outfit at the moment.

I'm just gonna leave this here....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING USA!!!! :)

I Have Something To Say

I think......

I think....... it might be time.

It might be time for me to give up this eating disorder.  Time to give up trying to hang onto it AND have a life AND be a mom AND be healthy.  The 3 latter things go together, the first does not.

And it's not healthy for my daughter to see it.  I may have the best of intentions to keep my mouth shut and not hate on myself in front of her but you know what?  It's going to slip out, I fear. 

It may just be time to say goodbye to it.

Somewhat Better

Okay..... I think I may be starting to come out the other side of that latest funk.  I did weigh myself yesterday... the number was fine.  Not as low as ED would like but you know what?  The mirror looks okay to me so I'll just go with that.

Check out my other blog, FitMinute, just for the hell of it.

www.fitminute.blogspot.com

Struggles

Having such a hard time with body image, food, etc.  UGH I just hate it.  I don't know what else to write, I just wanted to document that.  

Just To Write..

I haven't written just to write in a while.  Usually I'm making a point or documenting some event.  So I think, today, I'm just going to take a little while and just... write.  Let you in my head, if you care to see.

Things are going pretty well.  I've hit a creative streak recently and been making decorations out of construction paper and taping them to the windows.  I made a bunch for Halloween and now for Thanksgiving.  For Halloween my mom and I made: jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, bats, candy corns, a haunted house with a fence and pumpkins in front, glaring eyeballs, a spiderweb and several words (including "spooky" "Boo!" "Trick or Treat" and "Happy Halloween").  For Thanksgiving, so far, I've made 4 turkeys, a bunch of leaves, a sign that says "Give Thanks" and a bunch of words (listing what I'm thankful for, including but not limited to: family, health, friends, jobs, home, love and bulldogs.  Not necessarily in that order!)  I plan to try to make a big cornucopia to finish off the windows.

I can't believe Mara is almost 1!   She started walking the other day.  It's really cute!  She's still pretty wobbly but she can walk about 5 feet before falling down.  It usually works better if you have something she can walk to, such as a phone or a book or a sharpie.  She experienced her first stomach bug the other day (Tuesday.)  Between her and one of the bulldogs, I was cleaning up puke all day.  Pretty gross!  I felt really bad for her... but there wasn't much I could do except rub her back and tell her she'd be okay.

I'm still teaching Zumba and Aqua Fit.  I feel like I'm kind of burning out though.  Part of the problem is that my commute is SO BAD!  This morning, 217 was LITERALLY bumper to bumper and the travel time sign said it would take 40 minutes to get to Interstate 5 from where I was... and class started in exactly 40 minutes.  Uh oh!  So I got off the freeway and tried to go through Beaverton... but that didn't work out so well either.  Portland is just really overcrowded.  Anyway, long story short, I got there at 8:33am (3 minutes late.)  Not too bad.  Still a really discombobulating way to start the day.

Corky and I have a friendly rivalry going in the game of Tetris on the xfinity.  I currently hold the record in all 3 modes.  I cleared 40 lines in 2:28:10!  The record was 3:06:06 for the longest time (that was Corky's) and then I beat it by nearly 20 seconds one day.  It was all downhill after that for him, poor Corky.  I also hold the record in the 2 minute challenge, at 8,390.  I hold the record for the endurance one but I can't remember what it is.  71,000 or something.  I got to level 10.  It was awful. LOL!

Mara is down for a nap now, so I think I'm going to make another cup of coffee and finish watching a show I started yesterday while I fold laundry.  Then I have to clean.  My house resembles New Orleans after Katrina blew through.  (No disrespect intended to New Orleans on that... it makes sense for a city to be in shambles after a disastrous hurricane.  Not sure what my excuse is..... Hurricane Mara I guess!)

Halloween 2015

It was a great day! 

The day started with me subbing an Aqua Fit class dressed like this. 

Then my mom came over and we dressed Mara in her Batgirl costume for a photo op.  That Trick or Treat basket was mine when I was little - my grandma made it for me! 

Then Mara went down for a nap and we got to work carving pumpkins! 

(No I did not use a stencil for my scary Jack o' lantern.  Best one I've ever done freehand!)

When Mara woke up I had to take some more pictures of her.  She's just so cute!! 

The weather was HORRIBLE.  Cold and absolutely pouring rain.  So Mara and I picked up some cupcakes and went over to my friend's house.  Her son is a month older than Mara.  The babies played, we hung out and had dinner.  Then around 7:30 Mara and I headed home.  When she went to bed, I lit my pumpkin on the porch.  So creepy!!! Such a good Halloween :)