Cheese Snorker

My how early 6am comes on Thursdays. I managed to get back into going to my spin class this week. I missed 2 weeks because I was sick. Tuesday was ok, but this morning was hard! I had to do some serious self talk to keep myself pedaling. I was not particularly into cycling at 6am this morning. I’m proud to say I made it through though and even pushed myself for the last 2 songs. Want to hear about my new Courtenay Challenge? huh? huh? do ya?

In 3 weeks I’m going to the ladies conference that my mom and sister and I go to in Chilliwack. I’m super excited about it. At some point during the weekend we manage to get away and go shopping. A seriously favorite pass time of Roxy and my Mom. I like to shop, but they are pro’s. So anyways. I wanted to think of a way to have a little extra cash to shop with so I made a deal with Morgan. For every pound I lose before I go he’s going to give me $10. We already ruled out the loops holes of gaining it back and losing it again. Haha. So I have 3 weeks to work my butt off, literally. It’s not that he’s paying me to get skinny, I just needed some incentive to work harder at it. He already owes me $20! I would love this summer to be a summer I’m in really good shape and running and biking and outside lots. I’ll keep you up to date on the challenge as we progress…or don’t. hehe.

I got a Jorb! I got the summer student grant at the church. Morgan thinks it’s fantastic because technically speaking I become his assistant. Riight. Cause I’m really going to make him pies because my job title is assistant. Dream on. So anyways. I get to spend the summer doing things I love! I’m really excited for all the time I’ll have to work with youth and stuff. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll be doing, but I start Monday and hopefully I’ll find out more then. Yay!

Emily officially switches daycares next Tuesday. The day care she was going to was good, but they couldn’t give me full time daycare and I needed 5 days a week to make it work with this summer job. And they were going to be away for all of August, so it just wasn’t going to work out all that well. So now she goes to a daycare in the home of a lady from our church. She has great kids and during the day there will only be about 2 other kids there. She really likes it already. I think Emily is one of those kids who like anything though. Social butterfly that she is.

Random thought. Day before yesterday she shoved cheese up her nose and I had to get her baby nose snorker to get it out. ahh took my back to the good old baby booger days. She wasn’t impressed, but I was like “Um…I’m not the one who shoved cheese up there dude!” Oh and this morning’s cuteness. Emily woke up at 6:30, which would normally bug me, but I was at spin class and so she didn’t wake me up. haha. Morgan went to get her and just brought her to bed with him so she’d go back to sleep for a while. When I got home from spin class Emily’s door was wide open. I snuck into her room, but she wasn’t in bed. My heart sunk. I opened our bedroom door and let my eyes adjust. I couldn’t see her, but I could hear her sucky snoring. A little while later when I went in to wake Morgan up they were sleeping back to back under the blankets. It was soooo cute.

Well I’d better quit goofing around and finish this paper. Last class before summer vacation, which is just the weekend until I start at the church. haha

A Beautiful Wedding

I got a B in English!!!

My daughter is the most demanding little girl in the world currently. Even just in the hour we were at Save-On tonight she was randomly telling other people what to do. Here’s a few things she casually said while pointing her teeny little finger:

To a man in the produce department
“Don’t put that in your buggy!!”

To a lady in an aisle
“That’s rude, don’t do that”

To no one in particular
“Oh my Goodness you guys are funny”

To her daddy in the checkout
“Don’t pay for that!!”

To a lady from our church.
“Humpty dumpty did a BIG fall. I had bubba’s birthday cake!”

To me in the aisle
“We don’t want beans!”

As you can see it’s getting worse. She is turning into a little bossy two-year old. AHHHH!!!

On a better note, I am obviously doing ok with my weight loss progress because last night at youth I felt I was supposed to preach on the Bride of Christ and strongly felt I needed to do just that in my wedding dress. So, I made a deal with God that if it fit, I’d wear it. I was absolutely sure that wouldn’t be a problem on my part. No feeling silly at youth. So I came home and tried on my dress. 4 1/2 years later and the stupid thing fits! AHH. No I have to preach in a dress. Most likely the first and last time I’ll preach in a dress. So there I am walking out of my office into the youth room to Pachelbel’s Canon in D, Being all cheesey with my Extra special bridesmaid Coco carrying one of my seven layers of dress. It was pretty effective I think. My main message was just to be ready because Jesus is coming soon and he wants his bride to be ready. So, I’m hoping that the whole dress deal proved its point. If nothing else I’m happy that it fit again, because I know if God told me to wear the dress last year it wouldn’t have happened. I haven’t checked for a few days, but I’m pretty sure I’m only a pound or 2 heavier than when I got married! Here’s some photos of my second wedding dress day.

Such a poser

Always wanted to play the drums in a wedding dress!

My Bridesmaid Coco!

What BOY?

Here’s a little ironic tidbit for you…one of the main ladies who worked at my last gym works out at my new gym. Hows that for an obvious answer to the best place to work out. It made me laugh when she came in today. “Even you don’t think a 30 minute circuit is good enough?” Just a funny thing to see thats all. Today was my third spin class. So far it was the hardest of my three classes. I finished well though. I took a circuit class yesterday. I thought it would be good to get myself acquainted with the rest of the gym and the equipment and everything. I got there a bit early because I woke up early. So I thought Id use the elliptical for a while. I spent almost half an hour on the ellipse and then I was just about ready to call it quits, but a lady asked my if I was in the circuit class and for some reason I said yes. Having worked out at curves for a year I figured I’d do just fine with the circuit. Then mostly older women were in my class so I thought “This isn’t the class for me, I need a tougher one I think”. Wrongo! My arms still hurt as I’m typing a day later. I thought it would be about a half an hour class. Nope. Wrong again. and hour and a half later I was stretching and cooling down. By the time I got home Morgan was starting to worry about me because I’d left more than 2 hours earlier. My abs feel like I got beat up. My legs feel like rubber, and my arms feel all shaky if I pick up anything heavier than a pencil. Well they did yesterday. It’s better today, but my abs still hate me. So after all that I think I’m going to go again next week. It feels good to work so hard. It helps that all the older ladies had no problem with the circuit. One of them could be my Grama and she held the plank for 3 minutes. I think I made it 30 seconds.

I had a frustrating night last night because I got a mark on a paper I’d worked really hard on and I wasn’t happy with the mark. I’ve become such a perfectionist. I’m ace-ing Psych, but Ive got a C+ to a B in English and it’s bugging me. I think its kinda funny that I’m bothered by that. Anyways. I think I’m going to get one of my friends who is an English teacher to look over my final paper. Just to give me tips and stuff.

To finish off todays blog I’m going to give you a few conversations we’ve had with Emily in the last few days. One of them even made me cry.

Conversation over breakfast:

Em: I prayed for Wendy.
Me: Yep, you did. Wendy is with Jesus now sweetie.
Em: I want to see her.
Me: You will one day.
Em. She’s sleeping now. She’s hugging Jesus.
Me: *Choking tears.* Yeah. She is sweetheart.

Conversation at bath time:

Em: I’m going to see the boys.
Morgan: What boys?
Em: Not THE boys. A boy.
Morgan: What BOY?
Em: At church.
Morgan:How about you see the girls?
Em: Nope, I see the boys.
Morgan: Say no dating Emily.
Em: No dating Emily!
Em: I’m making waffles!

Conversation with a telemarketer offering to lower our interest rate:

Morgan hands the phone to Em
Em: Hi Nanny!!
Telemarketjerk: *Click*

Conversation on the way to loon lake:

Bubba talking to auntie Roxy with Emily interrupting them.
Emily: That was a boat. *pointing at boat*
Roxy talking to Bubba : What?
Emily to auntie Roxy :TTTHHHAAAT WWWAAASSS AAA BBOOAAAT  AhTee Woxy!!
Everyone: *Laughing sooo hard*

Iced Rooiboos Tea

So I’ll admit I’m a bit more sore today than yesterday. Got a bit of bike bum going down. Needless to say I have been seeking out comfier chairs today. Still looking forward to my class on Tuesday morning. We had a nice good Friday service with the other churches at Horse Lake Church. They have a beautiful new building. I got to play my Djembe with Rick and Pat. It was pretty fun. Except at one point in the service one of the pastors came up to share for a couple of minutes and the worship team stayed on stage. Rick and pat moved way back from where they were standing, but there wasn’t anywhere for me to go, so I sat in my chair. Feeling all awkward and kind of on display. Some one even asked Morgan if I was speaking today. Thats how in the open I was. Then this girl kept looking at me. She is a friend of a friend and I’d met her before, but every time I’d look in her direction she was looking at me. I started to get nervous. Um teeth check, fly check, wearing clothes check. I’m starting to think I must be a heretic by something I’m wearing or doing. Because all the other churches are there I’m wondering if something I’m doing would be considered inappropriate for them or something. I mean I even dressed nicer than normal and put in earrings so my gaged ears weren’t noticeable. AND I did my hair because maybe some churches would have issues with my bandanna. So WHATS UP???Finally the pastor comes up to speak and I get to go sit back down. He shares about the phrase Jesus says “It is finished” and what that meant. He even said that same phrase was found on documented tax papers from the same time period with the same phrase Jesus spoke. That way it still meant “Paid in full”. cool huh? The rest of the service goes just nicely until we go back up on stage to play a last song. And there she is again. Looking at me. AHH. Whats wrong with me. So as we are packing up and getting ready to leave I’m carrying my Djembe and we pass this girl. She looks over at me and points her finger. “Great bongo playing!!”. I smile and say thanks and crawl back into my embarrassed mind that is making fun of me for my perception. Makes me wonder how wrong I’ve been every time I try and figure out what people are thinking when they give weird looks or scowl. Chalk that up to another weird story for me.

So now I’ve officially been a Vegetarian for 1 week. I think I am some what similar to a baby in that regard. I keep saying dumb things like “Is shrimp meat?”. Morgan is being really supportive of my change in diet and I’m really grateful for that. It would be really hard if he wasn’t. I borrowed some cook books from Georgia. I kinda need to relearn my cooking habits. I’m still going to cook meat for Emily and Morgan, but I’ll just have to find a way to not make two meals for dinner every night. Last night worked out good. It was pork strips with veggies on rice. So I just cooked the veggies first and took some out and then fried the pork for Morgan. The funny thing is that so far everything I’ve made for Morgan thats meatless, he’s really liked. He says I’m making this pretty painless for him. I’ve been changing other little things about how I eat too. I’ve been cutting back on salt, trying to use a realistic amount of cheese and I think I’m going to have to stop drinking aspartame. I already know I’m allergic to it, but its one of those things Io end up drinking anyways. I prefer the taste of diet Pepsi. I haven’t had any pop for a few days either, and it’s felt really good. It helps that I’m eating so much healthier that I don’t choose pop I choose water. I think I’m even enjoying salads again. I’ve been trying to be more creative with them.

In honor of the first day of spring I made a jug of Iced Rooiboos tea! YAY for summer and Iced tea. I made some licorice tea and it’s in the fridge too, so we’ll see how that tastes and I’ll get back to you. Here’s my recipe for iced rooiboos just so you have no excuses not to try it.

ICED ROOIBOOS TEA
Fill a juice jug with boiling water and add 2 Rooiboos tea bags. I use loose leaf tea in a tea sock, but my second favorite is Madagascar Vanilla Red.I think it’s celestial seasonings. Let it steep for a few minutes until its a pretty reddish colour. Then take out the tea. Let the jug cool for a while before putting it in the fridge. I can’t remember why, but its a good idea. Then when it’s cold pour it into a tall glass with a couple ice cubes.(remember to make ice.I always forget) Then squeeze a few drops of lemon into your tea and 1 drop of Stevia sweetener. You can use 2 drops, but I find it too sweet then. Then I make it all fancy and add a lemon slice to the side of the cup. So there you go. easy peezey. Zero calorie tasty treat. Thirst quenching too.

Just keep spinning…

Well I think I am as crazy as I think I am. My spinning class this morning was great. I got up at 5:30 am and grogilly threw on some shorts and stuff and walked across my parking lot while it was pitch black out with a huge almost full moon up and everything. Nice hey. I was like “They said this was a morning class, not a middle of the night class”. It was stinking cold this morning too. I normally wear sweatpants over my shorts to the gym, but today I couldn’t find them. Even my seatbelt was stinking cold. I think my gym has the only non-street lights that are on at this point in the darkness. My instructor showed me how to set up my bike and adjust everything and wear the towels and water were and kept telling me “Now, these people have been doing this along time, so you just forget about them and do what is comfortable for you ok”. Then her says a few words I couldn’t forget. “It you want to quit after half an hour thats fine, you go ahead”. I was like…”oh no you didn’t challenge me like that. If you think I’m getting off the stupid bike now, you are wrongo.” about now some of the others in my class start to arrive. Great. I’m the chunky kid. Although shortly after I felt better about myself because seriously I understand them, but guy biking shorts are funny.

So I thought about it for a bit and know I’m happy with my decision to leave curves and join this gym. I think partly it comes down to my quest for novelty. Secondly I think I’ve discovered something about gyms. Maybe they don’t want you to know this. If you go to a gym where the majority the people are larger than you(not that I’m the smallest one there)…chances are you are at the wrong gym. Because then you are already winning the skinny butt race and you have no one to race against. So now I’m at a gym where wit the exception of the weird guy who was lifting weights when he should be dropping some weight before adding muscle, I’m the bigger one. Perhaps I should feel badly about this, but I’ve decided to consider it a challenge to myself to be one of the fit people at my gym. Hard work is gonna feel good. Lastly I’m excited about my new class because I don’t hate it already.It ended and I wasn’t out the door in a flash, I was smiling and feeling good. My legs felt a bit funny off the bike, but overall I was actually quite happy with everything. AND I never had a push yourself to keep running “I hate this.I hate this.I hate this!!!” moment. I never stopped pedaling. I may have sat down for more than the class did, but I never stopped pedaling. Ooo stretching afterward felt sooo good.

So then I’m home at 7am. Cool I have time for my new organic granola I picked up yesterday and some coffee. A little devotional time too. Spending some time wrapping my brain around the book of Hebrews. Which leaves me at 7:50am. No one is up. So I go back to bed for a nap nap. Ahh. The wonder of having a toddler who both sleeps in her own bed and sleeps through the night. So know its 10:30. The sun woke up and I am enjoying my regular morning coffee and email checking. Emily is singing to herself in bed and enjoying it, but I think it’s time to get her up and start the daylight portion of my day.