Mom & Wayne's Ski Trip to Kirkwood...January 26th-29th!

Wayne's company, Power Engineering has a cabin in Kirkwood up near Tahoe.  The owners allow their employees to sign up for and use for free during the winter months!  Wayne reserved 4 days from Wednesday January 26th through Saturday January 29th 2011.  Wayne, Amy and Kailey went for all the days and Mom joined them for a couple too!!!  They had a good time and it looked like they had really great weather the entire time!!! 

Carters 2nd Birthday Gift--The Rakkiddo Shoe Wheel...

So...Carter is really into his shoes!  He seemed to go through a phase where not only did he want to wear shoes at ALL times, he wanted everyone to wear shoes at all times!  It was all fun and games until it was bath or bed time and he STILL didn't want to remove his shoes!  Anyway...Sherry has a slight shoe fetish as well and tends to cater to Carter's obsession--he seriously has SOOOO many pairs of shoes!  So for his birthday part of his gift from me included this super cool shoe carousel!!!  It can hold nearly 20 pairs of shoes and it spins so even Carter can pick out his own pair!  Of course, at the party it wasn't much of a hit because it came in a flat box (but that night after some assembly by Matt) it was MUCH cooler!!!  Carter learned to put his shoes in it and spin it!  :) 

Carter's 2nd Birthday Party!!!

Carter's 2nd birthday party was held at a little place called My Gym on Sunday January 23rd, 2011 at 4:30pm.  My Gym had all kinds of things for the little ones to play on...from a mini trampoline, ball pit, a zip line and all kinds of different swings hanging from the ceiling!  The kids were allowed supervised free play for 5-10 minutes then they were all called in to the middle circle where the two ladies would tell fun puppet stories or lead the kids in songs (they were REALLY good at keeping the kids attention!).  Then the kids were released back to free play again--this process continued for about an hour and it seems none of the kids got bored!  After the play it was time for pizza, cake, and presents.  All in all it seemed like all the little ones had a good time!

 

Carter turned 2 years old on Jan. 22nd, 2011!!!

On Saturday January 22nd, 2011 (Carter's true birthday) Sherry, Matt, Carter and Mom (aka: Grandma) all headed towards The Picture People at the mall for their family photo appointment. Sherry and Matt asked her to come along to help keep Carter's attention and help with the smiles. I hear that Carter actually cried the majority of the time and they were all surprised that good pictures came from such and ordeal! Once I got to see the pictures I was really impressed--you can't tell any tears were shed and there are a bunch of good shots! Luckily Sherry and Matt bought the CD of pictures so they have the rights to reproduce the photos (which in turn gave me the opportunity to nab them from Sherry's blog to show them off on mine!) :-)

First Bootcamp Injury...January 2011

So...I've been going to bootcamp now for a while and actually really LOVE it!  It is super fast paced and I always leave feeling accomplished with fatigued shaky muscles but this day I left with a little less--skin that is!!!  One of their favorite strength building exercises is called a plank were you are essentially in a push-up position on your toes, body strait but on elbows (usually).  This day we did a lot of different variations one after another!  We had to lift a leg, then add a row using elastic bands, then a rotation--long story short, we were propped on our elbows for a loooong time while we proceeded to grind them into the 1/4 inch mats on the gym floor!  By the end of the workout I don't think it would've mattered if we'd  have been positioned on  marshmallows...everybody's elbows were a mess!  The worst part, was that it took forever to heal because day after day band-aid or not I continued to rip it back open!

Random Cute Pics...Stolen from Sherry's Blog! Thanks!!! :)

 

What Busy Looks Like!!!

With everything that's been going on in the last couple of weeks--crazy days at work (some longer than they should be as the spring semester gets rolling) and boot camp every morning I find myself with barley enough time to make it from one place to the next! This particular day I knew my gas gauge was low and my car said I had 20-some miles left before empty on my way to boot camp and I had every intention to stop at 6am on my way home so it'd be full for my drive to work. One problem though, in my haste to leave by 5am I forgot to bring my debit card and I didn't have any cash in the car so getting gas after class didn't happen. So my next plan was to get ready as quickly as possible so I'd have enough time to stop before work. One thing lead to another and once again I found myself without enough time...as I drove to work I watched the miles count down closer and closer to empty. The gauge said I had 17 miles left and work is about 13-15 miles away (I've never really clocked it) so I figured I'd make it. I knew that if I made it there were 3 gas stations right on the corner by school so I wouldn't need to go far after school. I drove into the school parking lot with 2 miles left according to my gauge and was relieved! After school Kim and I walked to the parking lot together when she realized she'd parked in the front lot that day and asked if I'd drive her around (of course I said yes, but admittedly I panicked a little to myself!). The gauge clicked down to one remaining mile as we arrived at her car and I told her to keep an eye out for me on the side of the road, because I may need a push into the gas station! I said goodbye quickly and made my way to get gas. As I pulled into the station my gauge clicked down to ZERO! So as you may have guessed, I did make it and was amazed at how accurate my car monitored my gas levels. I put $50 dollars worth of gas back into it and it STILL didn't fill it up! Note to self, make time to get gas sooner because it's not worth the stress on me or my fuel injector I'm sure! :)

Secret Survaillance Rig--For Bootcamp!

Recently, my friend Vanessa called and asked if I'd join a Fitness Bootcamp with her and because I'd already been working toward getting back into better shape since about Thanksgiving I thought it'd be the perfect thing to boost what I'd begun. We were planning to start on Monday, January 10th 2011. Class was scheduled for Mon-Fri @ 5:15 am and we vowed to attend every day! I felt bad about the idea of waking up at 4:45am and having to kick the dogs outside into the cold out of a dead sleep. So...prior to the first day of class I did a couple trial runs on Sat. & Sun. by getting up by 5 (yeah, I know--I'm nuts but whatever!) and leaving the girls in my room (praying Ginger wouldn't eat her way out)! Saturday I only left the house for a 20 minute jog around the block and when nothing was in shambles I thought, hmmm...maybe she'll be alright!? Sunday I borrowed a video camera from Kim (my friend and co-worker in the Deaf-ed dept. at work) and I rigged the camera up in my room on top of my dresser mirror. I wanted to "SEE" what Ginger did while I was gone because if it caused her more anxiety to be locked in I'd rather put her outside where she's used to being while I'm away. I again left around 5am Sunday morning but this time I extended my absence to 45 min. After returning home I reviewed the video and she did freak out a little in the beginning by whimpering and pacing back and forth and standing by the door drooling but didn't shred anything! I didn't want drool puddles on my new flooring so Sherry and Matt who were planning to go to Costco Sunday afternoon picked me up a rug (that matched the one I'd bought a few days earlier to put in front of the sliding door) so I could put it by the entry door as a drool catch. Monday morning was the first BIG test because I knew it would be a bit longer than 1 hour due to having to arrive a bit early for waiver signing! I pushed record as I left and when I arrived home a bit after 6am things still looked good—nothing outta place in the bedroom so I was happy! I continued video taping her for the whole first week and by Friday the video showed that she barely even got outta bed after I left. Her anxiety of me leaving seemed to have dissipated and she'd become used to the routine (which Baylie of-course figured out by the second day of the trial) but I was super relieved and crazy proud of her!

Anyway, I've cancelled my gym membership because quite honestly I don't go by myself and after the 3 consecutive weeks attending this bootcamp class I'm trying to figure out if I can afford signing up for a year long membership! I know it's a bit crazy but I LOVE it! I leave feeling like jello and sweating enough to instantly fog all the windows in my car afterwards but I also feel super accomplished everyday! The class is crazy intense but it is fast paced and runs in short circuits so just when you can't do anymore you rotate! I also like that everybody regardless of skill level is struggling with the same exercise...they just may be lifting a heavier weight or jumping up onto a larger box but everybody grunts and sighs together! Plus because it is from 5-6am all the girls come in naked-faced ready to workout instead of ready to pick up dates in perfect hair and full face makeup like at the gym which is so nice!

Everyday has been different so I haven't gotten board ever! Not only are the exercises different but so are the rotation times...some days we do 60sec work with 20sec. of rest/rotate and others 30/30sec with no half way breaks and yet others we stay in one place for 8-20sec. rotations with 5 seconds to breathe between each of the 8 rounds and then rotate to the next torture station within 10 sec.! Each morning is a surprise that I actually look forward to!

Broken Basketball Hoop

The kids that live behind my mom's house often play basketball in our driveway and have an understanding with mom--as long as there are no cars parked in the driveway they are allowed to play. For a few years now this agreement has been respected and there hasn't ever been a problem until this particular day! Mom said that it was a little after dark and she could hear the ball bouncing and the kids talking and laughing from the office (which is the closest room to the driveway)where she was checking her email. All of the sudden she heard the loudest, strangest noise followed by a reverberating crash and silence. She knew the sound was way wrong and started toward the door when the front door bell started ringing incessantly. When she got outside she couldn't believe what she saw! The basketball hoop had literally snapped in half and was bent to the ground in a triangle hanging on in the middle by a thin piece of metal and right next to it laying flat on her back was the 11year old girl! Come to find out that it didn't just spontaneously break the boys had "helped" it by jumping from the top of the fence to the rim and swinging like monkeys. After a few jumps the basketball hoop that had been around for more than 15 years couldn't it. The pole cracked in half with the momentum and came crashing down towards the concrete hitting the girl on the head and knocking her to the ground on the way! The girl was crying and my mom was trying to see if she was bleeding when the boys finally quit ringing the doorbell and came back around. Mom sent the boys to get their parents and once they arrived it was determined that although there was no blood she had a headache and wasn't feeling well. Her parents decided to take her to the ER just to be sure. The next day I went over to Mom's house to deal with the 4 foot portion of the pole that remained with jagged edges. After a phone consult with Wayne I took a hacksaw to the pole being careful not to go deeper than the metal because Wayne said making contact with the concrete would instantly ruin the blade! I sawed around about half of the pole as near to the ground as possible without grinding off my knuckles and then took a sledge hammer to the pole! It was great for anger management although it took a few tries...sawing, sledging, sawing, sledging and finally success! I then took the sledge hammer to the last half inch of the pole to curl the leftover edges so that it was as low to the ground and as smooth as possible so it was not a tripping hazard. As we were making a ruckus the kids from next door stopped by and the poor little girl said that she was alright but she definitely had a black eye and cheek and said the doctors diagnosed a mild concussion. Luckily nothing a bit of Tylenol and an ice pack couldn't cure! The boys were very apologetic for breaking the hoop and using it

incorrectly. We were glad no one was

truly hurt by this crazy incident but

also glad that it was caused by horseplay because the kid's parents were apologetic about the broken property. The basketball hoop was of-course the least of our worries because in the back of our minds we worried about getting sued as it happened on mom's property! So all is well that ends well...there just won't be any more half court press in Mom's driveway.