6 weeks down and Mother's Day already?

I am officially done with 6 weeks of kickboxing and I have 4 more. I can not believe that it has gone by so quickly. I have definitely seen improvements and I feel healthier. Joseph told me yesterday that I looked thinner and almost like the pictures before I was married! I thanked him and then said I still have a long ways to go but someday...... I am still 4 sizes away to get there. My friend asked me the other day if I am going to be sad to be done with this and I think I will be. I definitly will not miss getting up a quarter to 5 in the morning but I will miss going there. Hopefully I can keep up with something at home or join a gym. I have learned a lot about different exercise moves and how to keep moving and the right form for doing excersice and more about nutrition and I think all this will help me to keep it up, at least until I get pregnant and get sick again. Who knows maybe I won't get sick (this is wishful thinking!) (this is not an announcement yet but hopefully will be in the next 4-5 months.)

The kids are doing great and keeping me plenty busy. Megan is excited for summer and better weather and having a break from school. She loves school but sometimes going 5 days a week from 9-4 is a little much and I think she wishes she could just stay home sometimes. She still loves to do crafts and likes to color or glue or make rockets lately. She has done so good in kindergarten this year. We are so proud of her!

Joseph is still learning like crazy and being a boy. He is always trying to pick on Sarah. He doesn't know how to play with her just yet so he is constantl putting either his hands or feet on her and that drives her crazy. He has 3 more times at preschool and next year he goes 3 days a week to preschool. I am afraid he will be bored out of his mind. Megan has taught him much of what she has learned and so he knows the entire alphabet and sounds of the letters and is starting to put them together. The same for numbers, he can count to 100. He just turned 4 in April!! What am I going to do with him!?!

Sarah is growing and growing. She loves to go on walks and be outside. She is talking a lot and always singing. She handed me a yogurt container last night and said as clear as day "open it".
She really is saying new words every day and Megan and Joseph are always trying to get her to say new things. She just adores them so most of the time will cooperate. We feel like she is still a bit wobbly in the walking department but that will improve with time. She is constantly taking out the hair clips I put in her hair. Her hair is long enough right now that is goes right in front of her eyes down to her nose, so I try to get it out of the way and she just pulls them right out! She is a stinker.

My kids are so wonderful and I love them so much. With tomorrow being Mother's Day, Brent took them out shopping today to get me something. I was thinking that just being their mom and looking at their beautiful faces and being able to give them hugs and kisses is the best present ever!!! I love you Megan, Joseph and Sarah!!!

I also want to wish my mom and Brent's mom a very wonderful Mother's Day!!! We wouldn't be where we are today without great mothers like you two.

improving! woo-hoo!!!!

It has now been 5 weeks since I started kickboxing. I have seen many improvements. We did our half way testing today and I am proud to say things are much better than they were in the beginning. Here are my improvements:
beginning - today
1. 9 sit-ups in a minute (terrible!!!) - 28 sit-ups
2. 19 push-ups for 1 min. - 48 push-ups
3. mile run 12:42 - 12:15
4. ran the last half of the mile - ran/jogged just about all of it
5. (my favorite) things jiggled running - things didn't jiggle so much anymore!
6. got a side ache running - didn't get a side ache
7. hadn't lost inches forever - I lost 2 inches in my waist, an inch in my hips, chest
and just a little in my arms

I am very excited about all of this! things have been the same for a long time and now I am seeing results and now I have new commitment to push it these last weeks and really work hard so I see even more improvement in the end. I will right more late, right now Sarah is demanding attention!

Full sit ups and new pants

Full sit-ups - When I started the kickboxing program, for our first "test", we had to run a mile and do a minutes of push-ups and sit-ups. Doesn't sound to hard, right? Well, it was harder than I thought. I walked/ran the mile, did okay on the push-ups and did about 10 full sit ups. Someone had to hold our feet down and we had to grab our shirt and sit up all the way, like in gym when I was in school. So today, during our workout, we did rotating exercises and one of them was full sit-ups for about 30 seconds. I am proud to say that I did full sit-ups for the full 30sec.!!! I counted to 20 before I got distracted by listening to the next exercise to do. This proves something is happening!
New pants - For the last year I have been wearing the same 3 pairs of pants. The last few days I have noticed that I am constantly pulling them up and I could pull them down without unbuttoning/zipping them. So I tried on my pants, the ones I fit into before I got pregnant with Sarah. They don't fit. Yet. But I did have to go buy new pants yesterday, because I am a size in between what I was wearing to what I wore before Sarah! This is sooo exciting to me. I have not seen any difference in my actual weight, but obviously I am losing inches!
This is the 4th week since I started this program and I was starting to feel a little bored since I haven't seen any difference and these two things have given me new found commitment and excitement.
Since the weather has been nice too, we have been going outside a lot and either taking walks or practicing t-ball in the backyard. Megan and Joseph are becoming very good little baseball players and Sarah is enjoying walking around stealing all the balls! She especially likes the baseballs that Brent pitches to the kids. It has all been a lot of fun. If any of you have ever seen SpongeBob, my kids have been saying at the end of every day "This is the best day ever!" singing to the tune of that song.
Today, I sent Megan off to school for the first time this year in shorts! She was so excited, she asked me if it looked like she was "going out to summer". I also noticed yesterday that people our finally getting out to take down their christmas lights. Can you believe it?! It is the end of April and people are still needing to take them down, I saw 2 people yesterday doing this! Thanks heavens for nicer weather!

rain + rain + more rain = lots of worms

It has been raining for the last few days and I think the worms have come out in force. Last year Megan and Joseph would pick up the worms and move them back to the grass and "save them", this year Megan has learned all about germs and says we can't do that again because they have germs all over them. Joseph believes whatever Megan says so now he won't touch them either. Not that I want them playing with the worms. Last night I took the garbage can out to the street and had to tip toe all the way down so as not to step on one and I am sure the garbage can ran over about 20-30 of them, they were all over. It makes my stomach squirmish to step on any type of bug but especially worms! I should have taken a picture of it. The grass is turning a nice bright green so that is nice. It has been a really long winter here in Iowa so I think everyone here is sooo excited for spring.
My healthy eating is going well still. I am not a big fan of english muffins, but in eating healthy I can eat whole wheat english muffins. I have not wanted to try them, but the other day I bought some and thought I would give it a shot. So last night for dinner, I made myself a whole wheat english muffin (i toasted it), with mustard, turkey and tons of lettuce on it and it was Really good. And it has just the right amount of carbs for me. It was quick and very tasty. My friend also told me her new favorite healthy snack: canned peaches (in its own juice) with cinnamon warmed up with a healthy special K cereal on top. I am planning on trying this very soon.
Excersing is still working me good. I come home and all I want to do is go back to sleep, because I am so exhausted from my constant 45 minutes of moving! (and getting up so early) But I have my 1st meal, and then rest until it is time to get ready for the day. I wish I could sleep in tomorrow, but Megan has a game at 1:00 and I have a sharing time lesson to prepare for sunday, so it will be another busy day!
And in exciting news, my pants are starting to be more loose!

Joseph climbing the bleachers at Megans first baseball game.

Sarah wanting the camera

Megan up to bat.

Megan running to first base.