Union St. Bridge

Okay we're playing catch-up (or ketchup?) tonight. This was like 2 months ago, but I'm going to tell you about it anyway. Here was our first walk over the new walking bridge, "Union St. Bridge," which used to be a train bridge but has recently been renovated. It's very cool, we take this walk regularly now. Rychen P. loves riding his scooter across.

Beautiful view!!

Accomplishments

I am a woman, hear me roar! I felt very empowered today. Let me explain. Rychen always sets up for me at the farmers market, and has always taken down...until today. I was alone for the last stretch (with Elisabeth) and said I would take down and meet back home. But by the time the market closed, I was exhausted and dehydrated, of course, and took a look at all my tables, chairs, pack-n-play, and Kelli's stuff, and said "Uh, Where's my MAN? How can I possibly take all this down and get it in the car, while holding Elisabeth?" But you know what? I DID IT. I did man's work, yes I did. I got the job done! And I felt VERY "Boo-Yah!" about it. It was very similar to birthing a baby... From the "Holy cow, how am I going to do this?" to the, "Whoa, yeah! I Did it!"

 

Oh, and another accomplishment this evening. I ran more than 2 miles without stopping. For the first time IN MY LIFE!!! Yay!

Family Fitness

We decided to run together as a family, to go to the track everyday when Rychen is off work and take turns. Each of us has goals. Here's what we expect to accomplish by the end of the month.

 

Rychen - 2.5 miles in 18 minutes

Annalise - 2 miles in 18 minutes; front and back walkovers

RP - run around the track without stopping (.25 mile)

Elisabeth - to walk by herself (so far she can do 1 step)

 

Today was awesome. I ran 1 mile in 9:15 (during which I peed my pants...if you have had children, you understand) after which I did 4 front handsprings. Earlier in the day I attempted to do some contemporary dancing (I am teaching myself as I watch So You Think You Can Dance, heehee!) and did several backbend-kickovers. After trying to dance, I REALLY have an appreciation for dancers. Holey Moley--dancing is like flexibility plus stamina plus MUSCLES plus endurance plus stage presence plus attitude.... Whoa!! I have learned that I cannot do hip hop or any type of dance where I have to have a certain attitude. My only hope is contemporary (well I could probably learn basic ballet and tap) besides ballroom, which I would LOVE to learn if only my husband would try it out (but that's a post for another day).  Anyhow, I have always had really tight hamstrings so I have to work on those a lot. And endurance... I can dance like 5 minutes and then I'm spent! But perhaps if I can work on my flexibility, endurance, and strength, then I can take dance lessons....

 

Being productive!

Well I am actually getting a lot done. I actually got a tan since I was at the pool two days last week, and I've gotten in a few workouts too where I can. I've had great energy, the only thing now is sleep. Last night I actually stayed up to watch a movie and I got 7.5 hours of sleep instead of my usual 9-10. And oh, I am feeling it. Sleepy sleepy.

We've had a lot of fun lately doing things with some girls in our ward. They play well with Rychen and it's fun to have some company and conversation. I really like the idea of staggering ages, instead of say a 4-year-old playgroup. When you have older kids playing with younger kids, everybody feels special and the younger kids get a role model, as well as a break for/from the parents.

Anyhow, hopefully I'll make it to be selling at the Wednesday market tomorrow. Come visit me and check out my products! I am selling all kinds of greetin cards, scrapbook pages/photo pages for framing, and little memory books. Soon I will have kits to make your own of all of the above as well, and gift boxes.

Also for a little heads up, I will be selling holiday cards this year, in multiples of 25, with a great bulk buy price. Contact me for more details and get your order in early :)

Raw treats

We've made several raw desserts this week, especially since I bought some raw cacao powder. For Rychen P.'s birthday I made an Apple Pie Ice Cream Cake, Lemon Ice Cream Pie, and Raw Brownies. A few days later I got the idea to dip strawberries in a chocolate sauce that would harden into a shell when chilled (coconut oil is great for this since it's a natural, unprocessed saturated fat). Those were rich though! I will have to try again with a more diluted version. Anyway, the brownies were my favorite at least. They were awesome. We ate the leftovers for dinner with some broccoli also. The great thing about raw desserts is that it's all whole foods, and they can be meal-worthy on their own. Brownies are basically nuts and beans (cacao is a bean) with some honey to sweeten it up.

One year, ready set go!

I figure I have one year to have some fun before getting pregnant again. Elisabeth is now staying with a sitter well so I can go out. But also, I have good energy again and back to my body size, and that coupled with the alone time means I can go work on some physical things. I want to learn to dance. But I don't have money to take classes right now. What I can do is get my gymnastics skills back. I bet I could be doing walkovers one month from now. Also, I might job regularly with Rychen and establish a bit of a competitive athleticism between the two of us. When Rychen and his family were all running for this Monmouth Parade run, I got curious about where I stood in comparison and how quickly I could run a mile. So I went out and timed my mile, and got 9:30. Last time I ran was 2 years ago, and my endurance quickly increased with each time I ran. So I am excited to see my progress if I can get out often enough to keep my fitness level up. Lots of fun ideas here, so we'll see. But either way, when I get pregnant again I won't be able to run or do gymnastics, so it's kind of a race to hurry up and get in shape while I can!

Sprinklers!

We have a fun routine now of running through the sprinklers when they come on at 5:15. Sometimes we get the hose out too, and play "hose tag." I admit it is fun for me because (a) I get to tan, and (b) I get to run around and scream like a little kid! hee hee..... Cartwheels in sprinklers is my favorite trick.

One-nap Girl

Today was Elisabeth's first one-nap day, and it went well. although we had to keep busy so keep her happy at get through her tired late-afternoon stage. I wanted to try this because lately she's been delaying her second nap to the point that it's so late in the afternoon, that she stays up til 9:30 or 10. It really sucks to be tired, wanting to go to bed, and yet waiting for your kid/s to go to sleep. This is why we have always had Rychen P. on an early bedtime. So now maybe Elisabeth needs it too. I'm hoping they will take their mid-day nap together for 2-3 hours to give me some break time. We'll see how it goes.