Biggest Loser Update

Alright, here goes!

1. Running- I got in 4 days last week- woo hoo! First time since Sarah moved that I have actually run 4 days. :-( I was very happy. I still don't feel great when I run, but I know it will get better. I missed my run this Monday though, so I need to get back on track. Had a fantastic run this morning!

2. Basic Weight lifting- stinky! I did this on Wednesday while watching Biggest Loser with Jeff, but then not the rest of the week.

3. Sugar- I did well for the most part with this one. On Sunday made treats with my family and ate too many, but got right back on track Monday.

4. Veggies- Had more salads, but can do even better!

Weight Loss Update- Drum roll.... down 2.7 pounds!!!

How did everyone else do this week?

Biggest Loser Challenge

Taking a break from normal family coverage to give you this challenge! I have been very frustrated with my eating and exercise habits lately. I am a person who requires exercise and strict eating just to maintain weight, let alone lose weight. When I don't pay attention, my weight will steadily climb. I have not been able to get back in gear since around April. Jeff and I were doing P90X and started seeing some results, but my cardio suffered. So, I am back to running and trying to focus on healthy eating. I usually need a race to train for to keep me motivated. It has been hard for me to pick a race because...


we are trying to have a baby! Some of you already know that, but for those of you that don't I guess I am putting it out there. Quick recap of my "infertility"-
Dallin- tried for a year on our own and then it took 2 months of clomid.
Emily- went straight to clomid and after 6 months of no luck, switched to injectible drugs and it took 3 months after that.
Bryce- Came without any medical intervention!! :-)

So, we have been "trying" since last November. Mentally, I can't pick a race to train for because I am not able to run through pregnancy (if I were to get pregnant.) So, I have just been watching my weight steadily climb. I have still been running, but I just feel heavy when I run. I am about 15 lbs over my comfortable weight. (not my skinniest weight!) So, I need a new goal.

Here it is!! The Biggest Loser season just started! I am going to focus on eating healthy and exercising right along with them! :-) So, on December 13th (the season finale) I will either be announcing my pregnancy or my healthy weight loss success!!! (So, no asking before then. I promise I am not pregnant right now. I actually took a pregnancy test this morning. :-(


Who is with me?!!!

My goals:

1. Run at least 3 days a week for enjoyment.
2. Basic weight lifting 3 days a week. (at least my 4 faves- pushup, plank, squats, lunges)
3. Cut out sugar.
4. Lots of Veggies!!

I will report on a different blog. Let me know if anyone is interested in doing this with me!!

Ch-ch-ch-Changes

I am not really sure where to start! This summer has been crazy and fast, but very enjoyable! Sarah's brother took this picture of our family on the property, and little did we know it would be the last picture we took. When we moved into our country home, I knew it was an experiment. I wanted to see what it was like to live on acreage. I fell in love with the property when my good friend Ranell lived there and spent many summer days enjoying the view from her deck and the company! When the chance came to live there, it was a no brainer for me. I credit that house and the quiet with the accomplishment of my personal trainer certification. I loved the time away from the city and time to hang out with Sarah before she moved. My kids enjoyed the property, as did I, but we noticed that we did not get many visitors! In the winter and fall, it is pretty muddy. I was eagerly waiting for the summer, when we would have people over to enjoy the beautiful deck and peacefulness of the country life. What I found was, we were gone during most of that time! Between visiting family in California and Utah and going to Girls Camp, there were not many weeks left to just enjoy the property. My garden didn't even really grow because I wasn't there to take care of it. The last straw was that we lost 6 of our 7 chickens and realized maybe we aren't meant to be chicken farmers. So, when we found out a house was a available that had a good sized yard, with a fantastic floor plan and on a dead end street that backs to acerage, we decided it would be a better fit for our family. So, we said goodbye to the country life for now. I hope the new renters will still let me come visit with them on their beautiful deck! We were grateful for the chance to meet new friends in a different ward. Meanwhile, my kids are thrilled to be able to ride their bikes in the neighborhood. School has started and we are finding our new normal.

That's it for now. I will post more pictures from the summer soon.

Happy Anniversary!

Just a quick post to celebrate my little family! Jeff and I celebrated our 13th anniversary this weekend. I love the chance to reflect on our lives together. I feel very lucky and loved! Thanks Jeff for all you do. (Especially for your support of my little event the weekend of our anniversary!)

Happy Birthday Dad!

I always spend my dad's birthday doing some of my favorite things that remind me of him. We decided that we celebrated his birthday yesterday by spending a beautiful day at the beach with some of our best friends. My kids know that my love of the beach comes from my dad. I feel more at peace there than any other place. Pure happiness.

Here is the slideshow my awesome friend Sarah made!

http://suziepetunia.blogspot.com/2011/08/day-at-beach.html

Happy Birthday, Dad. I love and miss you every day! I am glad to spend the day with my sister Crystal today.

New York, New York

Back in November, we watched our good friend Ranell's kids for a week, so in May it was her turn to return the favor! I am so glad I have friends willing to do this kind of trade. We chose to go to New York because neither of us had ever been there and my Uncle George has a place in Manhattan and LOVES being the tour guide. We were told not to plan a thing, but of course I found a couple of things before we got there. The first thing we did was run a race through Central Park.

Running is my favorite way to see a new city, and what better way to do it, then to run it with 8,000 other New Yorkers! It was a beautiful race and the only bummer was that Jeff was running on a broken tibia (didn't know it at the time) and had to stop after 2 miles.

I had never been to an art museum, so I was very excited that our "tour" would include the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I could have stayed there for days. It is amazing!

The one plan I made was to go to a taping of David Letterman. I had emailed them months before and got the call 2 days before we left. All I had to do was answer a trivia question. I was reminded why I should never be in a situation where you have to think on your feet! Luckily they still gave us the tickets and we had a fantastic time. I even got emotional as I remembered all the nights I spent watching the show with my dad. Great memories.

Broadway was on the list and the first one we saw was Mary Poppins. We had great seats and I thought it was phenomenal! It was so much fun and even Jeff enjoyed it.

The only bummer about the week was the weather. I apparently took the rain from Oregon and brought it to New York. I left my little town with a week of sunshine (you're welcome Oregon) and we had pretty wet weather. We decided to take off for 2 days to my uncle's getaway in Pennsylvania and it was beautiful and peaceful. Some of my favorite parts of the trip happened there including having our own private chef who made us amazing meals! (and then wouldn't let us clean up!) It was heavenly. We had great conversation and I enjoyed spending time with my Uncle. He is intelligent and an artist and from Cuba and has had many amazing life experiences. He also had fun stories to share about when my dad was little.

The rest of the time in New York was spent enjoying the city sights. We rode on the Staten Island Ferry, took the subway, and walked everywhere you could think of. We ate great food every night and just enjoyed being together. One of the most emotional sites was the Ground Zero Memorial. I was awestruck and subdued thinking of all the lives that were lost on that tragic day.

Our last day we did a "crazy Kelly" trip and took a rental car to Boston. We walked around Boston, which was so cool , including seeing MIT and part of the Freedom trail. We then watched the Red Sox kill the Cubs 15-5 and drove straight back to New York to catch our flight home at 6am the next morning. Crazy end to an awesome week with my sweetheart! I love any time I get with him.

Thanks Ranell for making that week possible! We got back on Bryce's birthday and celebrated at Red Robin and then with our friends the Jensens. Bryce and Melissa share a birthday so it is always fun to see them.

Top 20 ways to move in a week and (mostly)survive!

This post is for Suziepetunia. She is one of my closest friends and is more like a sister than just a friend. We met briefly 8 years ago, but then 6 years ago became running partners and a lifelong friendship began. In March of this year, her husband was offered a great, exciting job opportunity, but the bummer for me is that the job is in another state. We had recently become next door neighbors and were enjoying the time together. I thought we would be next door for a couple of more years. I was very disappointed, but excited for them to have a new adventure. Her husband has already started his new job, so much of the packing and moving would be done by her- this week! They had a pod delivered to her house last Friday and the fun started! Taylor helped her over the weekend and then had to go do that work thing! She made a list of which area she would pack each day. She was very methodical about it and I was impressed with her optimism. :-)
Here are some of the highlights that made the move successful:

20. Let your neighbor's husband and your husband play Tetris with the boxes to get as much space out of that tiny pod. Finish with the beloved mattress!


19. Pass on some of your unwanteds to your good friend!
18. Somehow in the middle of all this, help your son earn his green belt!(figuring out that a good friend who also happened to be a 2nd grade teacher could help him write his reports! Thanks Trina!)

17. Find your son's DS that has been missing for 9 months and be able to laugh at the irony that it was found in its correctly labeled bin- where it should have bin!
16. Allow your husband to give away your perishables by first attempting to auction it off!

15. Let your neighbors light a big fire with your stuff you are throwing out! (wish I had a better picture- it was too awesome to take my eyes off to get the camera)

14. Have your kids help! (Even if they sometimes put boxes on their head.)

13. Give your 12 year old the label maker and she will have fun!

12. Go running 5 of the 6 days you are moving even if you are exhausted. Some of those runs will end up being walks, but they will all be worth it.

11. On the last run, do your most favorite(hard) run and take lots of silly pictures! (Spencer, you can see the view is much better on a clear day! Wish we had your mad photography skills to capture this! We had to ask random strangers driving by!)

10. Follow your list and when your packing for the day is done- celebrate with your friends and kids! Go bowling followed by Sonic (Although 10 kids under 10 really was a little crazy!) Enjoy having just 1 kid to get ready because another good friend (Ranell) had your other kids for a few hours.

9. On a beautiful day, even when your list isn't done yet, join your good friend at the pool (without your kids!) and get a break! Then let your kids come and swim while you get back to packing!

8. Let people take your kids and have members of the ward help you when you are about to have a mental breakdown when you realize how much you have left to do.

7. Stay up until 1am going through clothes and loading the truck with your best friend, and find things to laugh about. Such as boxes in boxes and bags of bags. Maybe you won't get these jokes later, but it helped us to survive!

6. Enjoy the meals brought by many good friends who love you. (Even share them with your neighbor!)

5. Get rid of your guilt by taking pictures of some of the sentimental items that you are throwing away.

4. If in doubt, throw it out. (Especially at the end!)
3. Find out how much you are loved by having a party on your own property the night before you leave and have over 100 people show up.

2. Have help from great family members who show up to help finish things off.

1. Let your neighbor do the fun stuff and take your kids to the Balloon Festival while you finish off the last of the cleaning!

I could go on and on about my friendship with Sarah. Very shortly after beginning to run with her, I wrote this post about her on her 30th birthday. We were instant friends. Spending hours a week running and talking sure cements a friendship. She has seen me at my best and worst and loves and accepts me as I am. She was there through an ADHD diagnosis, the loss of my father, my frustrations with my weaknesses, and all the fun stuff in between. We have some great memories that I will always cherish. Our families became entwined as our friendship grew. Living next door these last 8 months has allowed us to have even more experiences and makes it that much harder to lose them. I know we will keep in touch and I do look forward to hearing more about her new life with her family. I am just so grateful I had these last 6 years with her. The memory that sticks out to me that shows her dedication and love as a friend is when she offered to come with me to California to watch Bryce while I was at my dad's funeral. It was the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me and I don't know if she knows how much it meant to me. That is one of the hardest, most awkward times to be around someone and she was willing to do it. Taylor took time off work also so she could be there. I knew then how special her friendship was. We were pregnant at the same time and had Bryce and Alice 6 weeks apart. That was also a special time to share. There are so many more memories I could share. I feel lucky to be her friend.
Good luck in this big step, Giles Family. We love you and will miss you so much. Sarah, I still look forward to many, many more years of friendship and memories, even if many of them will be long distance. You are amazing! There are great things ahead for you- I just know it!
(PS This started as a top 10, but there was too much to share! This process was not easy by any means, but with a good friend it is always more enjoyable. It was like a big slumber party without the frozen panties!)