......

I never know what to call my posts.

As I sit here, at 9:03 am, i have already been awake for 90 minutes. I am eating some old fashioned oats, with 1/4 cup of pumpkin puree, 1/2 a small banana, and a tsp of cinnamon, and a tbsp of chopped nuts. Its really yummy, and pumpkin is AWESOME for you. I am on my 2nd cup of coffee. ALivia is in the bathroom yelling for me to wipe her darn butt, and Bryson keeps coming over saying " bite, share" and wanting my oatmeal. I am listening to Pandora radio on the "adele" station.

 I have found some really amazing songs on there lately, like this one....

I like it in many variations, from many different singers. Almost obsessively.

Last night I had my first session with my new personal trainer. She was great.  We did 3 sets of 4 lower body exercises. ( we warmed up with abs) and we used 2 20 pound weights and 1 35 pound weight. YIKES! ANd then we did a bunch of stuff on the hill and stairs ( walking lunges, side squats, running etc), it was good stuff. My legs were very shaky by the end. And my hamstrings are pretty darn sore right now. And my low back. and even my shoulder/ upper back area from holding on to either 40 or 35 pounds of iron. HA!

It felt great. Tomorrow will be our 2nd session and we will work arms. She told me to only bring 5 and 8 pound weights. i never use 5s and was wary about it but she kept telling me to trust her and that 5 would be more than enough. so i am slightly scared.

I need to start packing soon. Me and the kids are headed to NY on friday morning at 6:30 am. I teach bootcamp till 6 am and plan to have the car fully loaded. I will come home, go pee, get new coffee, and we will load 2 sleeping kids in jammies, into the car to begin out 10-11 hour ride.

I am NOT excited about the ride at all. BUt I am SO EXCITED about my schedule when I am there....1. photoshoot with samantha, dinner at my moms with some friends, seeing 2 of my freinds new babies that i have not yet seen, a big hike with my brother, sister and beth, a sleepover at beths!, dinner and a movie with some friends, apple picking with my mom, a visit with my dads family, and church at Temple Baptist for the first time in many years.
I will probably take about 500 pictures when I am home!

Alright- well there is an update of a bunch of randomness. Gotta go do some abs, and stretching and figure out what to do with these kids today. I am thinking PARK at Great Neck. First time there in a long time!

no good on my word!

WOW! last week I said I was going to blog with pics of everything i ate. I didnt! I am a serious slacker! OPPS!


However- here is something I am doing... I am hiring a trainer. I picked this person for many reasons, and we are currently working out the details. ALthough I am a trainer, and it is my JOB to get other people fit, I still need help. Lots of it. Although, I do all of my beachbody programs and love them and see results from them, I still need help. The beachbody trainers are not MAKING me food journal.
I need a trainer. I need to get this weight off and that is my number ONE priority for MYSELF right now. Its got to come off.
I am confident that this lady can help make that happen for me.

Alivia decided she wanted to go back to tap and ballet. She missed her first class last night b/c she was sick.

she is also missing her first day back to preschool today. I tool her to teh dr this am for a well visit...turns out she has strep throat pretty bad and coxsackie virus. Boo to that.
She wants to be a mermaid and a dolphin. Just FYI

Bryson is FINALLY starting to put 2-3 words together and is super duper strong and super duper cute. I feel bad for alivia b/c whereever we go people always drool and comment on how cute bryson is. She is just as cute, in just a different way. But he totally gets all of the attention from strangers. As of right now, he is not sick. But they were sharing cups yesterday, so I am just WAITING for it to happen.

Jasons bday is coming up this weekend. He will be 33! YIKES! We are getting old! I remember when we were soooo young and getting married! Goes by fast!

Have a good day peeps!

TuTu Tutorial!

Today is a first for me, I am doing a tutorial! FUN!
So yesterday I ran in my 2nd ever 1/2 marathon. It was the Rock N Roll 1/2. It was awesome and I had a lot of fun running it. For those of you who dont know how far a 1/2 marathon is, its 13.1 miles. yep, thirteen point one. Its a long way.

 I wanted to make a tutu to wear to the race. So i did a google and youtube search and I looked at a few things and then I made my way to JoAnn fabrics.
 Here is what we do...

I got 3 different kinds of Tulle. 2 huge safety pins, and 2 strips of 1.5 inch elastic bands. and you need scissors. I thought I was gonna spend about $15, not. It was actually $40 for all of this. You are looking at 12 yards of tulle there folks. and that dark pink glitter one cost 5.99 a yard, so i only got 4 of that one.

you then take one of the strips of tulle, and roll it up. after you roll it up you cut it, just about every 3 inches. each little roll give you 2 LONG strips. However, i made the mistake of making them way too long for my first tutu and wasted alot of tulle b/c i ended up just cutting most of it off.
 So what I recommend ( and what i will do next time) is just roughly measure from your waist ( or wherever you plan on your elastic band going) and measure down to where you want your tutu to stop...and then double it ( b/c you fold each strip in1/2)

In the first pic above you can see that i tied a knot at the top. that was a waste of time, and not needed. So all you do is fold the strip in 1/2 make a loop at the top, and then pull the whole strip through it. thats it!


you then repeat about 100 times...

 there was tulle all over my floor. I left it there and went to bed. It took me about 2 good long hours to get this far. I had to work on it for about 15-20 minutes the next day. I had to also make a second one for my friend to wear. Hers took way less time than mine. Now that I have to hang of it. I plan to make a tutu for each and every race I run from now on. Its my new thing. LOL

 also- i secured it around me with ONE big safety pin. and it worked great!

This was me and kelly in line for the nasty portta potties right before the race. I finished in 2 hours and 44 minutes. Crazy. The last 1/4 mile is always emotional for me. My eyes fill with tears, I am thanking God for allowing me to to a 1/2 marathon, I am searching the crowds for Jasons face, I see hundred of people yelling and screaming and cheering and telling me that I am almost there. Its an amazing feeling. I pick up my pace and basically turn into a sprint for me. I can see the finish line and I just want to cross it.

The emcee comments on my tutu as I come running in, he yells my name and I can think is I DID IT I DID IT I DID IT and Thank God thats over!

What a challenge!
 If you havent done one..... do one! Its an amazing accomplishment!

new things!

Hey Hey Hey! SO i have been a bad blogger! I havent blogged in over 2 weeks. YIKES. but during that time, i had family here for 4 nights, a mild earthquake that caused a small ruckus. Then hurricane IRENE, then we left town for 2 nights to avoid it, got a new ( used) car, and jason started doing some temp work with his brother. yada yada.
 Here is the dealy....
 I have been eating whatever I want. I need to stop. I am running a 1/2 marathon this coming Sunday so that has prevented  me from gaining any weight, but I have NOT lost any either. I have also been doing a new workout while lifting 20 pound weights for the past 1.5 weeks ( and loving it)....
 I will be heading home to NY in  16 days! I need to lose almost 10 pounds! I will set my goal to 7. 7 is a good number. So i am going back to food journaling and taking pics of EVERYTHING I eat. Beginning TODAY. Although0 the organic blue corn with flax chips with hummus i ate for breakfast are already down the hatch!
  Also- I am changing the name of this blog...... i want to include FAMILY in it b/c one of my dear old freinds doesnt want to read about my food and fitness. he wants to read about my family and kids. LOL. we love you Jon and Nic!

  So here is a quick update! Bryson has finally started to say more words...good thing b/c he is 26 months old and we see kids who are 20 months saying way way way more than him! Alivia is starting preschool 3 days a week this coming week and is as sweet as ever.


more update on them later ( promise) with pics! Promise!
come back tomorrow for that and all the pics of the foods i ate today!