Scared???

Okay, so the kids are going to Tennessee next week for spring break and this post is purely for the fun of giving the Grandparents a little glimpse into Tyler's world. Grandpa, watch out for your trees and bushes! Don't be scared! He is wild, but sweet too! So, here he is, Tyler aka The Spectacular Spiderman!

I took Tyler and registered him for Kindergarten today! Crazy, huh? So, when we got home, he wanted to play outside so I said to heck with the laundry and the housework and we sat outside and played. This is him riding his tractor AND singing "Redemption", or as Tyler likes to say it "Redemptshhhuuuunnnnn".

Tyler Randomness

A couple of the conversations from today:

"Mama, do you want to sell your car?"

"Um, no, why?"

"I don't know, I was just wondering."


"Mama, do you know what I want to be when I grow up?"

"What"

"A brain surgery"

The mind of a 5 year old!

Is It Worth It? Part 2

Well, another week of boot camp has passed, but I couldn't fully let it go without telling a story. Last Wednesday night it was just beginning to sprinkle as we arrived on the track. Now, Ma'am really doesn't care if it is raining or not - you WILL work out. However, the last time it rained she kept us in the gym for an hour and it was a lot like torture and there was much pain and agony as a result of that hour. So, it begins to sprinkle on Wednesday and she lets us know that we are going to do our running first and then if it is still raining we will move in to the gym. At this point let me stop and tell you that there are two things that I do not do well - I don't look good in the rain, my hair turns into a stringy mess. Also, I don't cry pretty - I do the hiccupping, snot-flinging kind of crying. The crying thing is completely irrelevant to this story - just thought I would share! So, my hair has kind of been a problem for me lately and especially with this class because it is two short to pull up into a ponytail and leaving it to hang in my face is quite annoying too. Plus, I use ALOT of hairspray, ya'll. I mean, most days my hair could quite easily sustain 45-50 mph winds and still come through without a single hair out of place. So, back to the story - mix the rain, the stringy hair, and lots of hairspray, and what you have is a mess. This has been an extremely humbling experience for me because I hate for my hair to look a mess. Well, by the time that we finished our run last Wednesday night, I had ditched the hood on my sweatshirt and was looking like a sweaty, rain soaked animal. And that was just from the sprinkling that was going on. By the time we finished running, it was coming down much more steady. But, even still, all of us were begging her to just let us stay out in the rain because we knew what happened in the gym - I think we were all still having nightmares and midnight charley horses from that evening. Well, I think I mentioned before that Ma'am really likes the great outdoors, so she happily agreed to let us continue to work out in the rain. So we began our exercises. When my friend and I arrived at the track that night we had to take our place on a slight hill because that was the only available spot other than the front row and we try to avoid that at all costs! If you will imagine with me a rainy night, a yoga mat, and a hill. Basically, I had my own personal slip-n-slide. Every time I got down for pushups or the dirty dog or elbows and toes, I had to brace myself for the slide. As if that wasn't bad enough I was dirty - I hate being dirty - you know, sticky little pieces of grass and mud on your hands and in your hair and on your legs. Yuck! So, by this point, my hair is drenched and water is dripping off of me. My sweatshirt has been soaked, but I'm scared to take it off because I did not want my T-shirt to be soaked - SCARY! I'm covered with little pieces of mud and grass and the knees of my workout pants are drenched from getting into "front leading rest position". All of that and then the unthinkable happens. Scissor-Kicks. Yep, now I'm flat on my back on my slip-n-slide. By the time we left that night, I looked so pitiful that even Ma'am commented on how wet I was. Is it worth it?

I know this is getting long but since I'm having such a great time laughing at myself in this post I'll take it one step forward and tell you one more story about my hair. Apparently I got into some not-so-nice hair care products and have developed this really disgusting film on my hair. If you have noticed me having some not-so-great hair days, please don't tell me. After some tips from my hair-dresser I went into my shower last night intent on getting this stuff off the ends of my hair. Basically it went like this: mix baking soda and water until you get the consistency of pancake batter - does anyone know how much baking soda this takes - ALOT. Then, wet hair, and then apply pancake batter to your hair and cover with shower cap or whatever and let that eat the yuck off of your hair. I thought I had a shower cap, but apparently I didn't, so I had to take alternative measures. I wet my hair, applied the goop, and then tried to decide what I was going to put on my head to cover it while the eating process began. What I learned was that my head it too big to fit into a gallon size ziploc bag, AND that my family laughs at me when I wrap my head in purple saran wrap. BUT, when it was all said and done and I had washed it all out and conditioned, my hair flowed like the girl's hair in those Suave commercials. It was awesome and I am so happy to have my hair back!

Is It Worth It?

About three weeks ago, I started an exercise class that, for most people, in any kind of shape would probably just be an intense workout. Since I am NOT in any kind of shape except big and round, for me it is a matter of life and death every time I go. I would love to tell you that I have enjoyed every minute of this class, but that would be a lie. I love how I feel when the class is over and I have gotten home and had a shower and my legs and arms have regained a little stability and no longer feel like jelly - does that count? Seriously, this class is called Body Boot Camp - heard of it? Basically it goes like this... I have paid money to be abused! Our drill seargant, her name is ma'am, is about a size 0, has a six pack that any man would kill to have, and she loves the great outdoors. So, our workouts are outdoors, unless it is raining, and then, if she thinks it is not unsafe, those will be outdoors also. So, for an hour, she yells at us. My name is Recruit. If, at this point, you think I'm joking, please stay with me - this is NO joke.

I'm doing this class with a friend from work and the first night that we showed up I wondered what in the world I was getting myself into. We were running slightly behind because of a mix up in where we thought we were supposed to be. So, as we enter the class, Ma'am begins telling all of us what happens if we are late - Scissorkicks! And lots of them! And, they are not just for the ones who are late. If anybody is late and didn't call to tell her you were going to be late, the whole class does scissorkicks. Apparently scissor-kicks are her favorite exercise because she also likes to make us do these if we are not following directions well, if we don't count loud enough, you get the picture. My body has learned to despise scissor-kicks. Now, if you don't know what scissor-kicks are, let me enlighten you. Flat on your back, feet six inches off the ground (not six feet, as Ma'am would say) and you lift one leg at a time, never touching the ground. If you are thinking these don't sound too hard, please let me come over and show you how they are REALLY supposed to be done, because if it don't hurt, you ain't doing it right! Okay, so back to the first night. She is telling us all this and then we begin to exercise and she is yelling at us and I just could NOT help it - I started laughing. What can I say? Uncomfortable situations make me laugh hysterically. After a few minutes when I realized that Ma'am was for real, I tried to stop laughing because I was afraid she might want 20 pushups or something.

So, what did I learn on the first night? I learned that I do NOT know how to do a jumping jack or a side-straddle hop as Ma'am calls them. I learned that people who are well-endowed in their upper body(and I ain't talking about triceps) need to be extremely careful when jumping around. I also learned that I actually CAN run, though it is not very pretty, and I run like a girl. I learned a whole new meaning for "pushing yourself", and I also learned that you can exercise for an hour and not throw-up. I didn't even have to call my husband to come drive me home. For the day after the first night of boot camp, I learned that your body can really hurt ALL OVER, that you DO, indeed, have muscles that you may never know about, and that pain relievers are the BOMB!

On Friday, I will end my third week of boot camp. I have pushed myself like I never knew I could. As a matter of fact, last night I pushed myself so hard that I made myself sick. Seriously, we exercise on this track and right beside where we exercise is a porta-potty. Wasn't that nice of them to put that there for us? I make it a point never to go into a porta-potty unless it is a dire emergency. So, you can imagine where I was at last night and how I was feeling when the porta-potty was beginning to look like a great place for me to hang out. I made it through all the exercising, made it through an intense jogging/walking situation, and made it part way through stretching before I knew I either needed to sit down or call a medic! I opted for sitting down. I had not felt that great yesterday anyway - Craig thinks I have walking pneumonia, but, ya'll, you don't not want to miss a night of boot camp because that just means it is really going to stink when you go back. Oh, did I mention that there are kids practicing soccer on the field that we exercise on? Yea, so not only are you working out like a dog, but you also have an audience! Isn't that special? I am learning to really get over what people think of me. Like last night for instance, there was this doctor running his laps on the track - he is not in our class, apparently, he just likes to run for fun. I do not even try to understand that! Anyway, I am running/power-walking and, basically, breathing like an elephant who has been out for his morning jog, and Dr. Man goes running by barely sweating and this is, like, the fifth time that he has lapped me. Do NOT think that I am so saintly that I didn't seriously think about tripping him.

I guess that is it for now on the humiliations of boot camp. I have to get up from my chair now or else the muscles in the lower half of my body will cramp up and I will be here all day. Sorry for any mental pictures that you have had to endure while reading this!

400%

FINALLY!!! We have a grade on our Science Fair Project! Remember our title? Cookies: Can You Blame The Burnt Ones on the Cookie Sheet? The grade is in and Kayla got a 400% out of 400% - pretty good, huh?

Pitiful

The miserable life of a little boy who did NOT get to buy an ice cream cone from the ice cream truck. Sad, isn't it?