Dr. Appointment/Exercise

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! Better late than never right? I stink....

Went to the Dr. for X-rays and a follow up this week. Of course the Doctor himself does the consult, Pre-op and surgery then leaves the Post-Op dirty work to the nurse practitioner. Meaning when (and I mean when,not if) we have pain or issues we'd like to discuss we can't really yell at the sweet NP (and I do really love her!) because she didn't technically do anything wrong so there is no blaming her. It's no wonder the Dr. keeps his office in the back of the clinic behind a secured area. Someone learned the hard way at some point wouldn't you say-ha!

For the most part I'm feeling decent. No more feeling like a bobble head, sleeping is slowly but surely getting better now that I sleep on my U shape pillow. My only issue still is that burning pain in my right collar bone,which is not localized anymore and has dramatically decreased,however, I still have a VERY weak muscle in the right side of my neck that still hurts when I lift my head off the pillow and there seems to be a constant low wattage pain in that muscle that radiates up into the back/side of my head and down my shoulder. It's REALLY annoying. Previously the NP hasn't been concerned about it,saying it's normal because of the pulling and tugging they did during surgery and how they pulled my shoulders/arms down and secured them to the bed and then put my neck in a funky brace to expose my throat,and that it'll get better. But at this weeks visit she expressed some concern. Gave me a prescription for massages & PT, and a low dose of a nerve med. I'm sold on the massages,not pumped about the PT (driving/wasting time/$) and not sold on the meds. So I'm in limbo pondering it all. NP said no mowing the lawn or jogging still. Also says she wants to follow me still and to come back in 2 months and see where things are,if I'm feeling great in the meantime then I can cancel my appointment but if I'm still dealing with issues then I'm to come in because then she'll order another MRI and see if "another disk might be constricted causing the muscle pain".

You have GOT to be kidding me????

:::SIGH:::

Thinking about feeling fine before surgery yet now dealing with pain after surgery,I can see why Dr.s hand out depression medicine along with pain meds. This can really bring a persons spirits down. It's been 13 weeks. Do you look at it as what it is,13 weeks? or do you look at it as only 13 weeks?! And the dreaded Million Dollar question is, is this my new normal? Lord,I pray it isn't!

Moving on..

So with that bit of cheery news I figured I'd turn my cheek and direct myself in another direction and go find my happy place. No I didn't take a trip to Hawaii or something fun like that. I'm talking 2010. The New Year. Fresh Start. Getting in shape!

I'm back on the weight loss bandwagon. again. for the 15-hundredth time.

Oh really? you too? well then... ;)

Instead of going gung-hoe like I usually do and then getting burned out after a week I've decided to put my expensive Wii Fit to good use. I now alternate days of doing the Wii fit and walking 2.5-3 miles. Leaves me with a 'wanting more' kind of feeling rather than 'do I have to..again' feeling. So far it's working!

A typical Wii Fit session looks something like this-

10 minutes of tennis (alternating arms)
3 minutes hula hoopin' to the right
3 minutes hula hoopin' to the left
7 minutes in Mii step class
" " repeat
10 minutes of skiing, tight rope walking, bubble balance, marble balance,
15 minutes of strength training exercises: squats,lunges,single leg extensions,torso twists,single leg twists,sideways leg lift,tricep extension & planks.
4 games of bowling (alternating arms)

= over an hour of play time..err.. exercise.

On my walking days I warm up for 10 minutes,then keeping my speed the same the whole time,I alternate between walking normal fast speed and walking really fast in this shimmy motion moving my legs and hips in a fast wiggly way. Remember years ago the infomercial,was it Walk away the Pounds?,about listening to their CD while it tells you to walk fast for 2 minutes,slow for 3,fast for 2,really slow for 1,and then seeing ladies walking on the sidewalk wiggling their tushies? Yea..that's pretty much what I do but on a 2 on/ 2 off scale AND in the privacy of my own home. Believe me,everyone will thank me :)

I think the key is intervals! Switching it up constantly through your routine so your body freaks out and doesn't have the time to adjust.

So it's been 8 days since working out. I made a Wii Fit 2 week goal of losing 2 lbs thinking it wasn't unrealistic. I decided to Wii fit weigh myself today at 1 week and see where I was at.

I've lost .9 lbs.

For some out there reason I was hoping that since I've been sitting on my butt for the last 13 weeks that maybe I would get a jump start and lose that full 2 lbs in the first week (if not a smidge more). Craig pointed out to me that my Wii goal for 2 weeks was 2 lbs and that the Wii says I need to lose 1.1 more lbs to meet my goal..meaning the Wii is calculating on a 10th scale so technically I lost more than the actual .9 lbs..it's more like .15 lb. Just this shy of 1 lb,so technically I did make my half way goal.

Then as I thought about the past week,eating habits,exercising etc.. and looking where I could improve I realized I wasn't even working out to my full capacity!! I hadn't been jogging & burning & sweating calories out because I'm not allowed to jar my neck AT ALL so everything I do has to be low key. I've barely been making a dent in the sweating department just walking. NOW it's all making sense! I've always sworn that my key to weight loss is jogging jogging jogging! I lose weight jogging.

So..for barely working out compared to what I used to do,an almost 1 lb weight loss isn't too shabby after all?!

And hopefully in a couple months I'll be down 10 lbs so that by the time I can start running again I'll be a little lighter on the feet. If I am going to take up running again,the less I weigh will have a huge effect on the jarring of my neck. The lighter I am the bouncier steps and lighter impact..the heavier I am the clunkier the steps. I'm on the right track I think..one pound at a time.

One more thing! I've been doing planks (google it) and boy oh boy what a core exercise that is! If I were to pick one strength training exercise to do a day it's by far planks! My tummy feels tighter (remember 3 c-sections?)and it totally targets that area,upper body for sure along with the rest of my body and only takes a couple minutes a day. I noticed yesterday that my shoulder pain I've been having has gone down some since my Dr. appointment on Monday. Maybe I need/needed PT after all? or what I'm doing is working?

Lets hope & pray!

Christmas pics/updates coming soon.

Boston & Gus

Aren't these guys cute?











And just to let you know,we do NOT condone this type of lazy behavior around here.





This is completely unacceptable,nor do they sleep here often especially at night. They are dogs who sleep ON the ground like normal dogs should and who are totally unloved and not spoiled rotten or treated as a kid. Nope not them!

I'm just thankful my dogs don't get out the door and run loose around the neighborhood. As you can see though, they are clearly full of energy and ready to take on the streets at any moments notice. Do you know any one's dogs who love a night on the town? woof woof :P

A first!

because she......

lost this....

and now looks like this....

she whistled for the first time ever today!

Her brother & sis have been trying to teach her :)



A little glowstick fun.

dryer & flashlight revealed.

I get these feelings every so often that really put a pit in my stomach. It's like somethings off or somethings going to happen and the moment it,whatever it is,happens then the pit in my stomach goes away. It's not that it's anything dangerous or bad per say it's just I've never had the feeling about something good or exciting. I think it's God preparing me loud and clear? Craig's always given me a bad time like it's a lucky shot,but I think after this incident he's a believer.

So a few nights ago we were in the kitchen turning off the lights getting ready to head to our bedroom for bed. I had 'the feeling' and grabbed the flashlight out from under the sink. Craig laughed and asked why I was grabbing it. I told him I didn't know but that I think we may need it due to a power outage. He LAUGHED! No power outage happened that night or the next.

A couple days later, I bought some parts for my dryer and put the thing back together during the day but left the top lid off so when Craig got off work we could turn it on and see the drum rolling over the new pads to make sure the pads wouldn't fall off. Woohoo my dryer works again!! He struggled with putting the top surface back on and ended up having to take the back part,with all the buttons,off and as he did he leaned it back and the wires hit the metal (he forgot to unplug it after our test run) and a huge spark lit and knocked the power off.

power outage!!

The pit in my stomach disappeared an although it would have been very convenient to have the flashlight under the kitchen sink where it was in the first place,since the laundry room is roughly 3 ft from the kitchen,I knew where it was. Unfortunately I didn't have candles in place,so the dark trek down the hall to my bedroom into the pitch black bathroom trying to remember where I put it wasn't fun. By the time I got back to the kitchen Craig found the breaker box in the laundry room and turned it back on.

The important part of the story is that he no longer calls me crazy and embraces my 'odd feelings'. Ha! :)

What would you call 'the feeling's I get?

Welcome!

You have arrived!

Thanks for coming on over. I'd like to say what your about to read from here on out on my blog will be profound, awesome & encouraging literature but...well..that's just gonna happen. I type whats going on or what I'm thinking and however it comes out.. is what it is. I would also love to admit that I spend hours upon hours rough drafting and finalizing my blog posts to make them perfect but as a homeschooling stay at home mom to 3 kids who also babysits on the side and keeps her house somewhat clean and kept along with running errands among many other things a mom and wife does... whew...I just don't have the time. I'm not a professional blogger nor do I strive to be. I'm just me. This is more for me to blog about the kids,things that happened,things on my mind, and things I don't want to forget.

(I think I just lost the last 3 blog followers I had left)

If you know me already this won't come as as shock to you,but for those of you who show up here along the way that don't? Let me tell you I'm kind of an open book- so ask away,a little on the sarcastic side- so please don't be offended, try and use my spell checker but there is no guarantees,talk a lot-so beware. I will show my sensitive side occationally don't worry,but if I do get overly emotional & touchy on ya,then you can probably bet that it's around you know what time of the month so go easy on the comments, I don't want my feelings to get hurt.

That is sarcasm right there yes ma'am.

So this is it. This is my new blog. I had another blog,but I explained in my last post on the old blog, I was starting a new one for no apparent reason and that I might venture to say that the sudden decision might have been born from my OCD tendencies about list making. What does that have to do with my blog you ask? Well, I'm having a hard time dealing with the fact that I can't remember the first few items (or years in blog world) on my list (old blog) and I simply don't like the feeling. In list making terms, if my lists gets too long I simply divide the items and make two lists.

I'm just ready to start fresh.

Twisted in the head I know...hopefully you'll just bare with me and see past my insane thoughts and swipe it under the rug or perhaps we should talk about it?

I guess I should have titled this first post 'disclaimer' or 'beware' or even 'turn around and run away fast', instead of 'welcome'. Schucks,I really hope I didn't scare you off. I'm a nice person. Really I am.

Help me out here. Anyone?

just, jump in anytime you want. Anyone? hello?

I'll wait. It's all good.

*What does a flashlight and a dryer have in common? New post coming soon!