Monday, September 15, 2008

Work in Progress

Well, it's actually almost done. My afghan for Frannie. I need to finish two more multicolored stripes.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Neighbors

Just a fun collection of pics from the neighborhood.






Friday, September 12, 2008

Where Were You?

I'm stealing this from Kristy's blog. Hi Kristy!

20 Years Ago…

1. I was 9 years old, so I suppose I was in the 4th grade. I was a "know it all" kid who always knew the answers and would "me! me! me!" to get called on every second and when I didn't get called on I would collapse on the desk. When someone got the answer wrong, I would think "How could they be so stupid?". I'm sure it was irritating.

Hmmm...how much have I changed in 20 years? ha ha!


10 Years Ago…

I was 19 and a student at Cal Poly Pomona. I had been dating Jason for 3 years at that point. I found college to be fairly lonely all up until my final year when I FINALLY made some college friends. Cal Poly is such a commuter school that it seems you never see the same face twice.

5 years ago…

I was 24 and had been married for 1 year. I was student teaching at I-Poly with Miss Lorelei Ortega who is now one of my very best friends :)


3 years ago…

I had Frannie! She's my darling girl and my waterbirth baby. Becoming a mom is the best thing ever. This year was also the year that I stopped working and became a full time at-home mom. That was a big life transition. Being a "Suzy Homemaker" has some strange benefits. You have more time to follow up on stuff. So you have more time to follow up and nurture friendships, more time to complain and write letters if something bad is going on, more time to learn to cook and stuff like that. This is of course in addition to the obvious benefits of "clean house, kid lovin', marriage nurturing" that you'd expect. The bad thing about it is that you make zero money and no one ever gives you a raise.


1 year ago…

I had Adam! He is my darling boy and my fast baby. Being his mom has taught me how DIFFERENT two babies can be and appreciating their individual wonderfulness. As different as they are, they are a team and grow closer all of the time.

This year so far…
I continue to teach Bradley classes. I keep on with motherin' and homekeepin'. I'm the secretary of the San Dimas MOMS club. What else? We bought a house.

Yesterday…

I visited my friend Lauren and I went to the gym. Other than that it was a slow day.



Today…

I went to the LA County Fair with my dad and Lauren and her kiddos. It was a very nice time. We spent most of our time in the animal section. Some lady thought dad was my husband which weirded me out. So now I feel like I have to purposefully say "Frannie go give GRANDPA a kiss." Or "Hey, DAD, we're going to stop at the bathroom." Ew.


Tomorrow…

Jason's going bike riding as usual, and I'm...I'm...I have no idea. Oh yeah, we're going out for pizza with Lorelei and Meme and the kids.

Next Year…

Hopefully I'll have another baby. No this isn't some sort of "announcement". I'm just saying that it would be nice to have another baby, if that's what's going to happen!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Workin' Out 2

Tomorrow is day 5 of my early morning workouts...
Admission: it is getting hard.
It's hard to get to bed on time because I get sidetracked on the computer.
It's hard to drive 20 mins to Mt. Sac at 5:30 in the morning.

Other than that, I enjoy it a lot. Once I get there I'm good. But realistically I don't know if I can stick with this.

Edit: Ok, it is now Friday morning and I didn't go this morning. I just didn't wanna. Which I probably knew was going to happen when I wrote this post last night. Anyways, I have called EVERY GYM in a 5 mile radius and none of them offer early morning classes. Can you believe that? It seems like Mt. Sac is my only option if I want group exercise in the morning!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Workin' Out

So for some time, I've been trying to figure out how I am going to work physical fitness back into my life. As the saying goes "Use it or Lose it" and I don't want 10years to go by with me doing nothing purposeful about my health and all of a sudden I'm 40 with a real fitness problem on my hands. So here are the various options I've thought of:
1. We have a treadmill right there in our garage. I know, I know, this is brainless. I should just use the darn thing. But the problem is that running on a treadmill is really...really...boring. And the time just ticks by so slowly. True enough that once I'm finished I feel great, and running does get me in shape FAST. Realistically I could do 30 mins on the treadmill while the kids are sleeping in the afternoon. But for whatever reason I just don't do it. But perhaps it is something I could discipline myself to do.

2. Doreen keeps inviting me to go with her to the gym. She has a one month guest membership to LA Fitness and they have a Kids Club that I could use while I work out. I DO prefer group classes to solo exercise. The time goes by faster and I like having a class to report to. But so far I haven't taken her up on this offer for 3 reasons. #1 I just know Adam will not stay in the Kids Club. I know he will cry after 5 minutes and I will get paged out of my class. I just know this. So to me it seems pointless to even try this option. #2 An actual gym membership with the Kids Club is quite expensive. I think it is $29 per month plus $10 per kid for the Kids Club. Ouch. On the other hand, I have decided that I am willing to spend some money on exercise as long as it is something I genuinely use and stick with. #3 The timing of the classes cut right into Adam's nap time and the times I am usually out and about doing errands and such. It just doesn't seem to fit with the flow of my day.

3. Walk with the kids!! People always say this option. "Just go for a walk!" And my response? Ummm....no. I don't like going for exercise walks with the kids. Why? Because I have to stop every 50 feet to dole out Cheerios, hand someone a drink, adjust the sun-shade, pick up a fallen shoe, etc... I don't mind going for leisurely walks with the kids, but if I have an exercise goal in mind it just never works. I like to attain a certain pace and focus on my breathing and get into "exercise mode" and this just doesn't happen with stroller walks.

So this brings me to Option 4 which I have just launched. My friend Lorelei has been getting her heiny up at 5:30 in the morning to attend a step class at Mt. Sac. She gets home by 7 am and drives off to work (as a senior high school teacher) at 7:30. Amazing, isn't she? Anyways, the Mt. Sac membership is $50 for 3 months, or $135 for the year (for non-students/staff) and the full year membership includes a full biophysical health profile. So I am going to try getting my booty out of bed and going to the step class w/ her in the morning. It starts at 5:50 am and then when I get home, Jason will leave for work. We'll see if I can do it. I'll update either way! I signed up for the 3 month membership. The only issue I've discovered so far is that it takes 20 mins to get to Mt. Sac. I really thought it was closer! But with all of the surface streets it takes to get there, it is a full 20 there and back. That is a bit more driving then I was counting on having to do just to go exercise! But Lorelei says she now thinks of the quiet time in the car as "me time" so it doesn't seem bad to her. So I'm going to try and adopt that attitude, even though for now all I can think about is the cost of gas just for exercising.

If I take to this morning thing, I may even look into the local health clubs and see if they offer an early morning class. That way I won't have to pay for any kids clubs. I'll get my group exercise. And interruption free exercise. We'll see. I am hopeful :)

Danielle had her homebirth twins!

A friend of mine and fellow Bradley instructor just had her twins. Her midwife made this awesome slideshow and she is just so beautiful it takes your breath away. You can see how the second baby is born with her amniotic sac intact. That is very special!