The Weekly Chase

Well a couple days late is better than not at all I suppose. I was out of town from Sunday until last night so here is my weekly goals.


Last weeks goals were:

My weekly goals are:
1- Get my water in daily I seem to do great until I get busy or I am at my second job and forget. Did 95% with this goal I drank water at my second job more than usual but we were busy and gone most of the day on Saturday.

2- Bring my lunch daily to work. 50% brought a few days and ate out others but the days I ate out I chose healthy options.

3-Do my one minute exercises daily. I think I will do pushups, crunches and maybe give squats a try this week. Did good first part of the week by the end of the week I slacked off :(

4-Get in 3 walks on my lunch breaks this week. I am SO ready to get back to it I know running won't happen for a little bit but walking and building up endurance and speed can begin :) I have a 5k August 3 to get ready for. Ya EPIC fail.... Got in one walk on my lunch break. Did tons of walking on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday this week... Lots of running stairs at my second job so I got some workouts just not what I had planned

5-Spend quality time with my kids each evening they are only young once and I need to slow down and enjoy it more. Success! And even when they were crabby and fighting I still tried to make their moods better and do something I knew they would enjoy.


Goals for this week:
1-Continue drinking at least 80oz of water a day need to be well hydrated for the 5k Saturday night not sure if it will be super hot out but need to be well prepared.

2-Do one minute exercises daily.

3-Bring lunch each day to work.

4-Continue to spend quailty time with the boys each day.

5-Exercise daily weather its running stairs, taking a walk, doing squats etc at home.

First one... A little nervous...

I got asked two weeks ago if I wanted to do a 5k walk August 3rd.... The friend who asked me had been invited to race and needed team of at least 3. However this is honestly the last person that I expected to want to do a race however I jumped at the chance. 

We talked about it and we ended up with a team of six. Me my hubby him his wife her dad and uncle. No one but me has ever done a race and not sure any of them have walked that far at once. I was super shocked and excited that my husband wanted to do the race. He was always ya right no way but I think since its a group of our friends and we will all be walking he decided to go for it. Plus I paid his entry fee. 

Last Sunday we realized we needed shirts and a team name. The name half tracks was mentioned... I was at Walmart this week and saw some hot pink men's shirts jokingly I sent Donnie a text saying hey look here's our shirts for the race. We had talked before we needed bright color since race was in the late evening. Well he liked the shirts and color so I bought shirts and shirt paint. 

I even found glow in the dark paint ;) I was nice and threw in green since team is 4 guys 2 girls. 

Last night we had our board meeting so afterwards Donnie and I stayed and created our team shirts. 

This was half way thru process I was a bit OCD wanting them to all match bit when you have shirts ranging from large to 3x it was impossible.. So they are all the same just sized to fit shirt. 

I of course had to turn the lights off a lot to see them glow yes I'm crazy. 

Here are some of the shirts. We will turn them over and then personalize each one with the team members name. I'm not air sure why we are half tracks but that's what I get for letting guys pick name. 

I am excited to do a race and to do it with good friends and to share in their first race experience. I am nervous as I haven't walked 3 miles since before may 25. My only goals are to have fun not be last and to not be last in my age group. 

Hope that my husband, Donnie and Ramona have fun and want to do more of them with me. Be nice not to do all races alone.

Corn corn and more corn

Last night no sooner than the kids and I walk in the door my grandma calls. She informs me tonight is when we will start picking our corn... Not what was on my agenda and Kenny was going to be late getting home. None the less we all started picking corn. Nathan loved it Blake got bored with it quick. 

I was standing about two rows in and this is all you could see around you. 

We made use of the kids sleds to haul the corn from garden down to the house. Nathan was quite the helper. 

Nathan and great grandpa schuking corn he was pretty good at it. I remember doing the same thing at his age each night with my grandparents.

Blake helped off and on he was tired and crabby so I just let him do his thing and he ended up falling asleep early. 

My grandma and I cut the corn off the cob a job I have helped with since I was old enough to use a knife. 

We ended up doing over 200 ears of corn and that was only a small portion of our corn crop!

We filled this huge stock pot up plus another pot by the time we were ready to cook it. 

Grandma and I cooking the corn up. It was a late late night then we got up at 5 this morning to put it in freezer bags.  I'm thankful that my grandparents are still around do show my kids gardening and things I have fond memories doing as a child. 

Blake is 8 how did that happen.......

Blake turned 8 last Wednesday and we had a few surprises for him for his actual birthday since his party wouldn't be until yesterday. He knew the Belle fair was starting on his birthday and requested to go to it the evening of his birthday and he wanted to eat McDonalds. Well what he didn't know was Kenny and I took the day off work to take the boys to the zoo then to the fair for his birthday. So they went to bed that night thinking they would get up and go to daycare... So when I woke Blake up I gave him his card I had made for him and had him read it to me.

He's not much of a morning person so it took me a bit to get him woke up enough to want to read his card.

His look when he saw where we were going and was like don't I have to go to daycare and don't you and daddy have to work... He was super excited and soon Nathan was awake and heard about our fun day we had planned.

I had made a Happy Birthday banner but never had time to put the letters on the string so I taped them to the door it worked and he liked it.

Nathan had picked him out some legos and some pajamas. We got him a Cardinals backpack that he had been asking for so he was a happy little boy. Nathan was a bit puzzled why he didn't get any gifts.. The joys of kids.....

I was worried that since it was so hot we wouldn't get to see to many animals but we saw a lot that day. The boys liked watching the apes and monkeys and chimpanzees playing and eating. Blake of course wanted to go to the snake house and well I wasn't fond of it but the boys liked seeing the snakes frogs and turtles.

We saw the penguin house and it was defiantly a good place to walk thru on a super hot day! Other than it was very smelly!!!!!! After a full day walking around at the zoo and back to the car Blake was still asking for dinner at McDonald's. I talked him in to Applebee's as he had never been there and I wanted to tell the waitress it was his birthday so he could have the birthday dessert.
Both boys ate a good dinner then I told the waitress and she brought him out a free dessert he was happy!

Nathan and I shared a chocolate lava cake with ice cream it was good but almost to sweet! We still had about an hour drive before we got back home to go to the fair so two tired boys wired on sugary desserts was a long loud drive!

Blake said he had a lot of fun for his birthday and I am glad that we took the time off and had a day with both boys. Its nice that Nathan is now old enough to do those things and not have to drag a stroller around. I wished I would have wore my garmin to see how far we walked. I know from where we parked to the entrance was a little over quarter mile if not more.

Weekly Chase

Last week got crazy busy and I never got around to posting weekly chase goals. However I was super busy but managed to get my water in as well as TONS of walking.


 It is July and a new challenge! Molly has created the All About the Minutes Challenge Each day this week you are to take one minute and do one exercise as many times as you can in that minute!

My weekly goals are:
1- Get my water in daily I seem to do great until I get busy or I am at my second job and forget.

2- Bring my lunch daily to work.

3-Do my one minute exercises daily. I think I will do pushups, crunches and maybe give squats a try this week.

4-Get in 3 walks on my lunch breaks this week. I am SO ready to get back to it I know running won't happen for a little bit but walking and building up endurance and speed can begin :) I have a 5k August 3 to get ready for.

5-Spend quality time with my kids each evening they are only young once and I need to slow down and enjoy it more.

Friday Already!!!!!!!!

This week has FLOWN by!!!! Have so much to blog about and pictures to post but have been way to busy to get pics from my phone to my computer. May try phone blogging tonight while I am at work. Will need something to do while the guys are either playing xbox or watching baseball or sleeping...

Last Saturday we had our lemonade stand and I will have to borrow some pictures from our facebook page. Not real sure if I ended up in any pictures or not which sort of bummed me out a bit.... Anyway it was a fun day and we had a couple younger girls I think they were 10 or 12 there and they had lots of fun helping us. We ended up raising over 400.00 for the Take a Stand Against Child Abuse for our county and our stand won 3rd place for creativity! Not bad for our first go at doing the lemonade stand.
When we were cleaning up from that one of the medics asked if I could cover for him for a couple hours while he attended his son's birthday party. Well his couple hours ended up being 6! It felt so odd being back to work but in a good way. We ran one call when I was there. Sunday I worked a full 24 hour shift and we were steady most of the day. We didn't have any calls all night which was good if I could have slept... I had just started getting used to sleeping there when I got hurt now its back to square one with that.


Monday was a driving class at the ambulance base and it was mandatory. Well lets just say I had myself all worked up freaked out and nervous... The guys on Sunday didn't help any telling me things about the course and the class... So Monday morning came I was nervous but the classroom part was a breeze the driving part well not so much. They had an obstacle course set up we had to go thru. I have drove an ambulance maybe 20-30 times since I was hired in March. I haven't had to maneuver thru any tight spots yet and had all pretty much drive forward and go and only backing was in to the bay at the base. So I waited and got in with the medic/instructor that I knew I would be comfortable with and he knows me well enough to know I am super hard on myself and that I was nervous as I was only newbie taking class everyone else had taken it yearly for lots of years. Well the driving forward weaving thru cones was fine the backing back thru them SUCKED. I tried several times and got super frustrated mad upset and ended up in tears. I felt so stupid that I couldn't do something that other made look easy. Oh then the instructor realized no one had shared with me the trick to doing the back up while weaving! So after a few more people went we gave it another go and I got it first try! Makes a difference when they tell you tips and tricks on how to do it!!!
I was upset and that medic knew it and understood and I was like ok they are all over there laughing at me and he said we have all had our first time at this and none of us ever got it all on first go.. Guess that made sense just hard when you work with people some who have been in that job for longer than I have been alive.

Once I got parked another medic jumped in and she was super sweet and told me not to worry about it that no one thought less of me for it. I got out and went over to the group and another emt who I was pretty sure didn't like me and is a jerk 90% of the time was actually nice and came up and talked to me. Other who wanted to joke about it got told by the lead instructor to back off and let me have space. Right there I realized I  am a part of their group and I need to let go of my self conscious ways and not be so worried that they are judgmental.

Later in the day I thanked the medic/instructor for being so patient and not a jerk about it. He replied and told me no problem they all want me to succeed and be a part of their family and that it will keep getting easier. I hate that I let them see me upset but at least they know I tried and didn't give up and got the job done.

Wednesday was Blake's 8th birthday when did he get so grown up!!!! I will do a post with pictures about our day. But we surprised both boys that morning by telling them we had taken off work and were heading to the zoo and then to the fair that evening. They were shocked and happy, it was a long long day but they did great and had fun.

Blake's party is this Sunday and I still have so much to get done! My grandma baked the cakes and cupcakes and made me some frosting. I had planned on decorating late last night but the fair and the kids wore me out so I will work on it between job one and job two this evening. And finish up tomorrow morning when I get home.

Hope to charge my camera batteries for Sunday and give my camera to a friend to take pics since I usually am running around like crazy trying to get everything cooked and ready.

Weekend Fun, Random Things and winning

Really meant to post a few days ago and then work happened to get busy and never had a chance.. Need to figure out how to blog from my iPhone I know its possible saw blogs where they have mentioned posting but I have yet to figure it out.

Last weekend we had a good weekend kids actually got along fairly well which is rare now days.

Saturday the kids wanted to go swimming at our friends house where we went on Fourth of July. This time I was smart and took a blanket to lay on the grass so I could work on my tan some. The water was still super cold and I never got fully submerged. The kids and Kenny did and swam for almost 2 hours before they were wore out. I decided on the way home to treat them to Steak N Shake to eat at home. Blake asked for a oreo blizzard type thing and I said he could and Nathan wanted a chocolate shake. I got us all something to eat and drink and headed home and got caught in an awful thunderstorm and downpour. By the time I walked the 10 steps from car to garage I was as wet as if I had jumped in the pool!

Sunday I took Nathan with me to pick out some stuff for Blake's birthday and his party. Well it went good until Nathan realized we were getting stuff all for his bubba.... Then the meltdown started partly from being tired and hungry. Made it out of target with no major meltdown and let him choose where to eat lunch. Luckily it didn't take us long to get our food and I kept him busy by letting him play games on my phone.  Had planned on two more stores after lunch but he wanted no part and I didn't want to fight him on it so we headed home.

Kenny and Blake were gone cutting wood so Nathan and I got in the pool and played he was happy I got in there with him and of course being a kid he wanted to get in and out to play and ride bike and back in. Now I know why the water gets so yucky so fast!

Tuesday the sitter asked if the kids and I wanted to go with her, her grandkids and daughters to swim at the big fancy pool they went to a couple weeks ago. I hadn't planned on anything like that but said sure and kids were happy! We were there for a little over an hour and that water was cold. Not sure what is up with pools this year but you would think several hot sunny days that the water would warm up.

I was so proud of both my boys! Nathan was swimming with his life jacket on with no help. He just wanted someone close but not touching him. Blake did great by the time we left he was jumping off diving board and swimming to the side. Still not swimming enough that I would allow him in deep end with out an adult right there but way better than he was!

A few weeks ago I entered a giveaway on a blog I follow.. I enter the giveaways all time and have won stuff a couple times. But its still fun to enter and hope that you will win something. And sure enough I won this awesome shirt and its so soft can't wait to wear it!

I have looked and of course there aren't any of their races anywhere close to me but if there is ever one I plan to enter.

Then this week I was contacted via email that I had one another prize pack. I will blog on it when it comes in. It has several items I have been wanting to try just didn't want to buy it and not like it and be stuck with stuff I won't use.

Tomorrow should be the last doctors appointment and I have my fingers crossed I will get the work release I need to work my shift on Sunday. I still haven't tried jumping or running but walking fast and going up and down stairs is back to almost my normal speed.

The Weekly Chase

Its been quite a while since I have done a weekly chase post last one was back in May! But I am once again ready to set goals for myself to get/keep me on track.


1- Drink at least 80 oz of water daily. I did fairly well the last 5 weeks with water but could tell I wasn't drinking as much as I normally did.

2-Start back to doing wall pushups at work and also add in morning crunches and ab work before starting my day. Would love to start doing plank a day but need to wait until my ankle will hold up better for that.

3-Eat healthy and cut out processed crap and fast food. Over the last 5 weeks dinners have been a quick not very healthy dinners. Like frozen pizza hotdogs mac n cheese and sonic.

4-Spend time doing fun things with the kids of an evening. They have been enjoying their small pool and I have been trying to sit out there with them watching them swim.

5-Get the house all back in order from the last 5 weeks, hubby did decent with keeping up on the necessities but there is lots of laundry dishes and general cleaning that needs done.

4th of July & Some Other Random Things

We had a pretty low key day yesterday lots of things I would have liked to have got done or took the kids to. However didn't want to fight crowds and try to walk careful while keeping up with the boys and hope no one plowed over me or stepped on my foot...

So we decided to go to a friends house to swim in their "big" pool. Its just an above ground pool but Blake can only touch on his tip toes and well Nathan defiantly can't touch. I was excited because I knew I could get a good workout in along with getting to kick my legs and work my right leg more.

It has been fairly cool here the last several days and boy was the water chilly. One of those days you just jump in and get wet all over and then stay down in the water. I was nervous climbing up the ladder to the pool as I hadn't tried steps yet but it was pretty easy.

Both kids did really good Nathan was a bit nervous not sure about the life jacket and believing it would keep him floating. But he got to where he would jump off the step to us. Blake got a bit better at swimming but still flips out every now and then. Even tho he knew he just had to put his feet down and his head would be above water. I remember being his age and learning to swim in the big pools and it is scary. We plan on going back this weekend. Our friends that have the pool are on vacation and we are going to swim again and then clean the pool it had lots of stuff stuck to the bottom.

After an hour and a half of swimming I got out and sat in the sun and a while after that Nathan decided he wanted to get out and dry off and warm up.

Two hours of swimming both boys were tired and very hungry. Nathan told me he wanted Sonic so we went there and ate. Both boys ate their burger and tater tots usually one or both of them have some left but not yesterday.

We didn't go to see any fireworks most all the ones around here started super late and the kids were tired and ready to go to papa's for the night. So we are doing fireworks on our own tonight at my in-laws and having a bbq.

Tuesday night I wanted to walk up to see our garden. I had only seen it from the house for the last 5 weeks. So Nathan took me up to show me how tall the corn really was.

Can you find him :) That was one of the shorter stalks most are about 6 foot tall now or taller.

It was almost dark so the picture isn't great. We have 7 rows of corn and the row on the right has lots of peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes. We have several little peppers lots of green tomato's and cucumbers are blooming. On the left of the corn is a full row of potatoes and I think they are just about ready to dig some up to have a mess of fresh baby potatoes yum!

Tuesday was also my dr appointment and about an hour prior to the appointment I got a nice surprise.

A very good friend of mine brought me a soda and a snack. Funny thing was I don't know how she knew my favorite candy! Or that I had been wanting M&M's for a while. She had been texting me all day and knew how nervous I was about the appointment. She has been there with me the whole 5 weeks and super supportive and kept me from giving up several times. Can't thank her enough, she had went thru an accident had has pins plates in her leg and ankle so she knew the struggles and understood. It was nice talking to someone who had been down similar road while having kids and knowing the struggles. I do think those were the best M&M's I had ever had not sure if it was from the surprise or just hadn't had any in so long.

Today at work I wore my tennis shoes and walking is a lot easier I haven't got brave enough to try and run or jump or do squats but i am walking with slight limp. I still need to get my ankle joint flexing more and need to search exercises to help with that. I also made my first trip upstairs at work and it was way easier than I had thought.

Of course everyone thinks I am taking it to fast and trying to do to much but I feel good and yes I can tell my right leg is a bit weaker. However I don't think a lot of people realize I had a lot of leg muscle and a lot of strength from workouts running and being active. Its a bit sore still and I feel a bit off balance since my ankle was held so rigid for 5 weeks but I plan to drive starting this weekend and drive to work on Monday.

Slow but moving again

Had my much anticipated doctors appointment yesterday we arrived at 4:00 appointment was for 4:15. We finally got called back at 5pm! To say I was frustrated is a huge understatement I HATE when clinics do that to patients. Not to mention they had a lady walk in with no appointment wanting her scar looked at... Then they took her back before me.

Anyway we got back there and they did the x-ray and the x-ray tech was shocked I could bend and twist my foot each way she asked. I was glad I impressed someone with my still there flexibility.

The dr came in and was feeling it and talking to me. Of course my first question was could I walk on it and could I go back to my EMT job on July 14 and then asked about working out running etc. He told me to take it slow that I could walk on it now while in the ugly boot but to start wearing tennis shoes and walking carefully around home to practice. But that there should be no reason not to be able to go back on the 14. However he wants to see me on the 12 in regular shoes walking normal so I can get my work release. I was super happy with what he said.

He was surprised/happy that my bone had healed in 5 weeks and that I had never had any pain at all with the break. Then he asked me to stand barefoot and walk to him and I did and he tried to hide it but he was a bit shocked I was moving so well. So I walked out of the doctors office on my own two feet.

This week and weekend I will be wearing my tennis shoes and start driving again. The ankle joint is sore from being in one spot for the last 5 weeks but feels no worse than a hard race where your joints are angry.

First goal is to walk in normal shoes and then drive myself to work on Monday. Second goal is to get my work release for the 14 and then start working out again. I am going to leave the working out part for the bottom of list at the moment. I really want to get back to EMT job and ease back in to workouts.

I am however going to look at bikes tonight while at Walmart and then look online at Target and buy myself a bike so I can ride with Blake on our gravel roads.

Super glad that all my hard work of building strength and muscle has paid off and I am able to walk same day as done with crutches after no weight bearing for 5 weeks. Yes slow and yes get tired but my leg is holding up well.

We are going to hopefully go swimming at a friends house tomorrow with the boys and I am very much looking forward to it I think the water will feel nice and being able to kick and swim will stretch out my leg muscles and get a good workout at the same time.

Did get on the scale last night and it was after dinner and after eating and drinking all day but it was down a few pounds from May 24. I will weigh tomorrow morning first thing and see where I am at.

Monday

Normally on Monday's I participate in the Weekly Chase that Mindy at Road Runner Girl has each week. But since I haven't been able to work out I just haven't felt the urge to post any weekly goals. My goal has just been to survive and not be to  crabby....

Friday after work we had to go to my mom and step dads to pick up the boys. We had dropped them off on Thursday evening so they could spend the day helping papa farm. As we were driving down the driveway we heard a horn honk and look over and Blake is driving Nathan and papa thru the field.

Yes you can't see Blake but he is behind the wheel. They were to far away for my phone to get a good picture.

There you can see his head in the truck on the drivers side. He followed us down the driveway Nathan kept waving to us the whole time. Oh my he's growing up to fast! He told me he got to drive the truck and tractor a bunch of times that day. So glad I am at work and don't see this....

Once we were home they talked us in to letting them get in and play in their pool. I got a lawn chair out of the garage and sat in it to keep an eye on them. Of course they can't just stay in they have to get out and then back in a hundred times. I looked over to see what they were doing one of the times and this is what I saw....

Yes boys like to pee outside and I am SO glad we live out in the country and far enough off the road they can't be seen peeing off the concrete or running around naked...

Saturday they begged and begged to go out and swim so I went out and sat in the lawn chair and soaked up some sun. Watched them play/fight/play in the water and watched the guy bailing hay in our field.

The pool is only half full until Nathan gets used to it. When its all full its chest deep on him. I looked at walmart online for a bigger pool and they have some on sale and we may get it since we have a good spot on the concrete to put one.

Blake told me he wanted the Dukes of Hazzard theme birthday party. I have searched and searched and found some awesome invites on esty.com and ordered them custom for Blake. Now I need to get them uploaded to walmart and printed this week.

I found black plastic plates and orange ones from party city online and ordered those along with silverware, napkins and plastic cups. More money than I wanted to spend but he doesn't ask for a theme birthday party often.

Still need to scour the Internet for some DIY decorations to have in the house and on the porch so it don't look like a Halloween theme party.

Tomorrow is my long awaited and anticipated doctors appointment and I have lots of things to ask once he tells me if I am healed. I want to start back to work on the ambulance the 14, start working out ask if I can ride a bike (which then I will talk my husband in to taking me to Walmart to buy one). Along with how long I have to wait to do a race.

My mood still is a roller coaster and I am scared and nervous about the appt tomorrow. There really is no reason why the bone shouldn't be healed its been 5.5 weeks since the jump. I have been good haven't put ANY weight on it. Swelling is pretty much gone it will swell some when its super hot out (but my feet always have swelled some in heat) bruising has been gone for several weeks and it don't hurt... I was told at 2 weeks I could start rotating it and moving my ankle some when I had the boot off so I have been doing that and have really good rotation and movement with no pain. Hope he is happy about that tomorrow! Not sure what I will do if he tells me it needs longer or that I can't return to working out or work for several more week. I am choosing not to think of that and just think positive that I will WALK out of there on both feet tomorrow.