House Update and More

Hey everyone.

First I want to give you an update on the house. A few days ago a bid was put in on a small house (1300 sq ft) that has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths and a walk out basement. While small (the kitchen doesnt even have a dishwasher), it sits on a half acre and has a walk out basement. Plus it has a 1300 sq ft attic that is accessible from off of the master.

Plus it has a two and a half detached car garage and two play structures and a playhouse for the kids.

The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. The small master/kitchen/dining area is easily fixable with an 8' bumpout off the back of the house. Not something we would do anytime soon, but for the right price, easily fixable. And who cares if bedrooms are small? We dont live in the bedrooms.

ANYWAYS...I found out yesterday that an agreement has been had on price. Hopefully everything has been sewed up last night and I will just need to find out the move in date.

I am very excited. This is going to be like country living but in the city. I LOVE country!

Once I find out it is a done deal, I will share some "before" pictures with you. You all know that I will end up tricking the house out and making it my own.

Back to my workouts.

Wednesday night was with Eric. We worked and killed my legs. Deadlifts up to I think 165 lbs.  Jump squats, standing leg presses.

Then we hit the seated leg presses. Went all the way up to 600 lbs. This time I didnt need help. And I think I did 10 of them. Then we did strip sets. Start with the 600, go to fail (9 or 10 cant remember), strip a weight off from each side, go til fail...etc. Ouch, ouch, ouch!

Surprisingly, my legs werent that sore yesterday. Then it was shoulder time before RPM. I killed my shoulders and it felt great. Then RPM. Oh baby. I got done and Eric asked how my legs felt NOW...to which I replied SORE! Good! he says. Right answer he says. LOL.

Today my legs arent bad. I must be getting stronger.

But because I have been stress eating, I am not very excited about taking my pictures for the month. But I will. Not sure if I will post them or not, but I will still take them.

Tonight is working out with Eric at 5:30. Then after that, I am going to my girlfriends house to show her some upper body exercises. She is the one that was in the hospital in critical care because of pneumonia and a super bug. Dr. has given her the all clear to do some upper body workouts. She has lost a lot of her strength and is trying to rebuild it.

Then after that, K, Penni, me and miss upper body are going out to Aubree's. We havent seen each other much and want to have a girls night. And some feta bread. Yum.

Thats the news for now. Sorry my posts have been so boring lately. Just lots going on. But I am still plugging away with exercise and trying to eat healthy.

Have a great Friday everyone and a good weekend!

Just Another Update

Well the stress seems to be compounding for me.

Packing the house

Working around selling the house

Looking for a house

Putting a bid on a house and now waiting. The wait is killing me.

And now I found out that my grandmas hasnt eating in 3...well 4 days now. So the end is near. So with everything else, I now have a funeral to prepare for and my mom to be strong for.

She is having a hard time. Yesterday she told me that no matter how old she is, that my grandma still treated her like her child. Telling her which roads to go down while driving, concerns over family...etc. I am sure many of you can relate. I know my mom still treats me the same way.

Well now that my moms last parent is dying, my mom will become "the old lady of the family". Her words not mine. She is the oldest sibling and needs to be the strong one.

My generation has become the middle aged ones. Holy shit! Since when did I become middle aged?

We are waiting to see when my grandma passes. My aunt passed April 26th 2007 so it would be something for my grandma to pass the same day.

SO if I am gone even more than normal, you will know why. And as soon as I hear about the house, I will let you know as well. 

Keep everything crossed and prayers coming.

Thanks!

House Hunting and Veg Fest

Good Monday morning everyone.

This is gonna be short and sweet.

House hunting is a pain in my ass!!

I found that home by my aunts and had a showing scheduled for 11am the day after it went on the market.

On my way out there, my realtor called saying there were multiple offers and our showing was canceled.

UGH!!

Went and saw 5 houses yesterday. One is a possibility. It is overpriced but is sitting on the market because of that. Rooms are small and really needs an addition off the back to expand the kitchen/dining/master bedroom BUT it sits on almost a half an acre, has two play structures PLUS a play house PLUS a two car garage, a shed with a loft AND a walk out basement. OHHH and there is a walk up attic area that is the ENTIRE length of the house.

Waiting to hear on getting in to see two others. If I cant find something this week, I am basically screwed for a bit. Double UGH!

Yesterday though I went to VegFest. It was an awesome time. It is a way to try vegan foods, get coupons, try different products and just have some fun and learn about the vegan culture. I didnt even eat lunch yesterday because we were fed by almost all the vendors. Yummy!

I also went in and listened to two speakers: Comedian Carol Leifer who talked about compassion and comedy and then John Salley (former Piston basketball star) who was even MORE funny than the comedian and spoke about what does it mean to be healthy. Excellent and I plan on going back next year.

All in all a great time. I bought a tube of vegan pizza cheese that is supposed to melt and stretch just like normal cheese. That is one of the things I would really miss with being vegan. Cheese...and eggs. But I bought it to see if I could fool my husband and kids. LOL.

Ok thats it for now. Keep the prayers coming that I can find a house this week. Otherwise we are gonna be living in a van down by the river. LOL.

Have a great day!

Tip of the Day:

Prayers Please

Yesterday I took a rest day. I was able to get a lot of boxes from Target so I thought that it was best to stay home from RPM and pack.

My time is ticking on when we are moving.

Last night my mom texted me about a house up for sale. I remember seeing it and I had asked and it already had an offer on it.

Then a couple minutes later she texted me that a house just came onto the market on my Aunts street for $160k! 1800+ sq ft ranch, finished basement, 3 bed, 2.5 baths, attached car garage, dining room....awesome schools. Basically everything on my list. It doesnt have any pictures so it probably needs a ton of updating, but I am excited! I dont think it is a short sale either.

SOOOO....

I need some more prayers please. Funny that my mom found this house and that she also found my sisters house when she was looking. I just felt giddy last night.

I texted and emailed our realtor and she is setting up a showing while the house here is inspected today. I dont want this house to slip by. I will keep you all in the loop.

Then this afternoon I drop the boys with Aarons mom and grandma for the evening. I will have a free night tonight so hopefully I can get some major packing done. Sucky thing is that I need paper. BAH!

Then I have training with Eric tonight. Holy heck too! My armpit area on my chest, arms and back are SORE!! Luckily for me tonight is legs. Hmmm...lucky or unlucky? But I like it!!

Thats it for me today.
Please say some extra prayers quick for me this morning.

Stressors

Good morning everyone.

I just am doing a quick check in.

I am starting to get very stressed with moving and house stuff. Probably because I have very few boxes to use for packing right now and I can feel time slipping out of my hands.

I know it will get done and I will probably feel better after this weekend when I get a lot of boxes from my cousin. I just need to get my butt in gear and start calling Joann Fabrics to have them save boxes for me as well as the office supply stores.

Plus this moving when you dont have someplace to go is worrisome as well. I found a house I love but the listing realtor is unresponsive to phone calls and emails. What the heck do you do then? Do these people not want to sell or what? It is just VERY frustrating. So I will have to keep looking at houses.

Luckily I HATE the realtor that my in laws are using. But she is a bulldog and will hopefully find out what is going on with this house. As much as I hate to work with her, I guess I have no choice in the matter. All I need to do is find a house I like then sic her on it. Hopefully she cooperates with me and doesnt make things difficult. She has not treated me very nice in the selling of the house we are in and has treated me basically like a squatter. She has not listened to me and has steamrolled over me this whole time. Not a pleasant situation.

Anyways.

Last night was upper body gym night. First I ran for a mile and then stretched. I had asked to work on pull ups and dips. And of course we did. Then we added in chin ups. I still struggle with them and I have to do them with assistance. Then we did upward flys and then pull ups using a bar. So my feet are on the floor and I am under the bar hanging on almost laying down on the floor. Then I have to pull up so my chest almost touches the bar. Oh my. Then we did the flys again and then when we did the pull ups he said "how do we make this harder"? Of course he did. And guess what he had me do? Raise one leg off of the floor. Oh fudge.

Then for the last 90 seconds he had me do burpees. Fuck. I hate burpees. With a passion. He kept telling me "dont quit". Hard to say that when my legs go to goo. When I was done and I was walking out down the ramp, I literally almost fell. My legs were just done and we didnt even DO legs. We did upper body. Oh man.

Today I am feeling it a bit. But I must plug on and push forward. Tonight is RPM if I make it there. We might be looking at houses.

Keep on thinking about us.

Have a great Thursday everyone!!

Tip of the Day:

Heart is Breaking

First I want to say that my heart breaks for all the people and families that have been affected by the bombings yesterday at the Marathon.

I had a couple friends that were there and thankfully both of them and their families that were there are safe and unharmed.

I hope they find the bastard(s) that did this and quickly.

I am wearing a race shirt today in honor of them.

Sigh. So much pain this past week. They say God only gives you what you can handle though but he sure is testing it.

It feels like it has been forever and I guess it has been quite a few days. So much has happened since last Thursday. Let me fill you in.

The funeral for Lori was as wonderful a sad occasion can be. A ton of sorority sisters were there and we sang a last song for Lori at the funeral before the service. Her son was there so they did a closed casket. We were able to go to the funeral home after the luncheon where they opened the casket so we could say good-bye. Afterwards, we as a sorority, went to Buffalo Wild Wings to drink and eat and remember her.

Our home that we are living in has an accepted offer on it. Now it is time to pack and find a new place to live. Our moving day is June 19th. I am starting to freak a bit.

Prayers are needed for my grandma. I think I have mentioned before that she has a form of Parkinsons where your different muscles shut down. Now that it has frozen her basic muscles like arms and legs, it is now going to her mouth, throat and eyes. That means she cant see, cant really swallow or close her mouth. Think of a mummy and how the mouth is drawn back above the lips exposing the teeth. That is her. She is a strong woman that is starting to slide quickly. I am hoping she transitions to the next life soon. Family has been coming in from out of town to say final good-byes while she is still sort of with it. And I know I couldnt live this way. I already told Aaron that I wont if I get this disease.

Landry had his appointment with the ENT yesterday. He needs to have his adenoids and tonsils out. I am assuming Xavier will as well when he goes next week so their surgery is scheduled for June 19th. Yup. Just 9 days after we move. Oh boy!

I had a great time at the 10k this past Saturday. I finished in 1:05:15 which could have been much faster but Ambreen and I started way in the back of the pack and had to contend with the very slow runners and walkers to get around them. That slowed down my start by probably that five minutes. The rest of my pace was under 10 min a mile. It was freezing and my hands were numb until mile 2 but I would definitely do this run again next year.

I look absolutely HORRIBLE in this picture. Friday was the funeral where I drank WAY too much when I was going to be running the next day. Two tall beers and a shot of Jack Daniels which was Lori's preferred alcohol. I was running on 4 hours sleep as well. But arent the running shirts cute? That is the shirt I am wearing today in honor of Boston.

And after I ran that 10k, I went to the gym and taught Zumba. By myself. Maggie had hurt her back and I told her to stay home and I would teach. Crazy huh?

Yesterday Maggie and I taught Zumba. We had one person but we had a good time. It was a great way to go into a bubble and forget about the sadness of the day.

Then I went and worked with Eric. It was leg day. We did squats and standing leg presses on a machine for one circuit. Then Eric introduced me to front squats. Instead of the bar being on your shoulders, you cross your arms in front of you and put the bar across your chest and rest it on your arms and in the divots of your shoulders. You cant lean back with them like you do with a normal squat. It is more of a straight up and down move. And you use a LOT less weight BUT it is very effective. Then we did momentum lunges. Step back into a lunge then jump straight up bringing your knee up. After that circuit, we did abs. Basic sit ups but then again, nothing is basic with Eric. Went to the sit up bench and hooked my legs in. As I started doing sit ups, Eric started lifting the bench up at my feet so I was almost straight up and down. Yeah. Fun times. LOL. Cruel and unusual is what that is. LOL. But again..effective.

My legs and butt are sore today so I know it works.

Today is basically a rest day for me. Usually I go in and see my grandma Tuesday nights but I need a night off to see my family. My plan is to go for a run tonight but we will see. I might just do shoulder work.

I am cruising along in my Personal Training Certification. I am on Chapter 14 out of 33. Almost half way. That is another reason I need a night off. I need to study.

As far as eating goes, I havent been doing that great. It isnt all day that I am bad, but more prevalent in the evenings with snacking and alcoholic beverages. I always knew that I was a stress eater so I am trying to crack that and get back on track. Because of this though, I am not sure if my month shots will show much of a change. I guess we will find out in 15 days huh?

So you can see that I have had and do have a lot on my plate right now. So I will be checking in now and again but probably not as regularly as I would like. Know that I am cruising around trying to keep up with you all though!!

Please say some prayers for us. I found a house that I love that is a short sale. The listing realtor has not called back our realtor after multiple phone calls and emails. I walked into this house saying yup. "This is my house" last Tuesday. I am hoping now that there is an offer on our house that the stars are aligning and agreeing that this is my house. Livonia, where we are moving to, is a HOT market right now to the point that I get new listings at 8am and when I call my realtor a bit later, they already have offers on them. This house has been sitting there for whatever reason for a month. Maybe because it is MY house and it is waiting for me. So pray, pray, pray for us. That they call back and that the short sale goes quickly. I have heard from our realtor that this bank that holds the mortgage is a pain to work with. I just want to have a place by the time the kids start school in the fall. Until then, we can stay in the 5th wheel or at the cabin or at my parents house. I really appreciate it.

Ok. I am done for today.
Saying prayers for everyone out there.

Tip of the Day:

Still Not Feeling It...But Moving On...

Morning Everyone!

Tomorrow is Lori's funeral so I wont be on here. Because of that, I thought I would do my update on here from yesterday even though I am not really feeling it.

First though, I want share with you a really nicely written article about my sorority sister.

You can read about her here.

She was a soft spoken, genuinely nice person and will be missed.

Ok back to yesterday.

Last night I ran a mile on the treadmill then walked another quarter mile before going to foam roll. I had messaged Eric letting him know that I wanted a soul crushing workout last night and he didnt disappoint.

We did rows (I got up to 100 lbs), presses, upright rows, then moved onto clean and presses and one arm presses. I love the clean and press. And he really challenged me. They are much harder than they look and I want to keep working on them. He said that we havent so far because we were waiting for my shoulder to strengthen and it was obvious that it has by my performance last night. Woo hoo!!

After that we did ab work, tricep push ups and a new exercise he made up last night using the seat on the row machine. Basically you put your feet on the rower seat (facing backward off the rower), arms down in a full plank position. Then you slide the seat into your chest bending your knees. I have done this using the ball before but this was WAY harder. There is no resistance in the seat so you really have to concentrate and hold your core. I will definitely be doing this more.

Tonight is RPM. I messaged Eric about working on tricep dips and pull ups tonight but I dont want to overtrain from last night. He said to wait because just because I am not sore doesnt mean that it didnt work. And I know that. My concern wasnt about not being sore, it was about overtraining a part. So I will wait til tonight and see how I feel. If I start  get sore I will just work my shoulders again like normal.

Friday I will be gone to the funeral all day. Saturday is my 10k race and then I go right from the race to teach Zumba. That should be interesting. Sunday will be another rest day for me before getting back to my normal schedule on Monday.

Ok thats about it for now. Have a great day everyone.

Tip of the Day:

Just Not Feeling It

Morning Everyone!

Today I am just not feeling this post so I am going to make it short and sweet.

Yesterday was a rest day. I was doing well with staying on track with eating until last night.

Lately I have been stress eating and well drinking. Ugh. I have to stop.

But yesterday I got some really sad news.

Monday night I lost a sorority sister. Her husband shot and killed her and then himself because she filed for divorce. I know more details but I wont go into it. Just know it was a very sad, sad situation. Her 8 yr old son was in the house when it happened and ran to the neighbors.

While I wasnt close to her after we graduated and went on with life, Facebook allowed all of the sorority to still connect so it still hit home. I am still really sad today. Her poor son. I cant imagine the fear both her son and Lori felt as her husband held a gun to her and shot her multiple times.

Sickening.

The funeral is Friday. I will be driving 3 hours to go to it. Aaron is taking the day off work so I could go. Have I said lately how much I love my husband?

So here is my Tip of the Day:

Hug your loved ones a little tighter today. Let them know how you feel about them. You just never know what is in your future and life is just too damn short sometimes.

And if you know someone who is the victim of Domestic Violence, help them. Report it. They may hate you at first but you might just save their life.

Finally a Slow(er) Day

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Good Tuesday Morning!

I thought I would start off the day with a little humor hence the BMI joke.

Finally today I feel like I can slow down and just BREATHE.

Yesterday I took Landry for the park for the first showing. Wouldnt you know it was WAY cold and our hands were freezing. A couple times when we were down there it started to rain and we had to take cover in the pavillion. THEN on the way home it started to pour. We got soaked!

I had him warm by the fire as I made our lunch and then we were off again this time to K's house. It was nice because I could sit and look out her window as we ate and see the showings over here.

Then we came back here and I got Landry down for a nap. He was exhausted. When I went to get him up to get Xavier from school, I found out he had pooped his pants. UGH. Why? I dont know. And of course it wasnt solid either. So I am stripping him down and it is going everywhere. Im trying to clean him up, clean the bathroom, get him redressed and get us out the door so we arent late getting Xavier. What a pain. I dont know what caused that whole thing. I think he was just really really tired.

Then last night I had 3 for Zumba class. Woo hoo! One was my mother in law, but still that is 3 more than we had last Monday!

After that I went and worked legs with Eric. We did lots of box jumping, squats, lunges, kettlebell work. Lots of fun. Sick, sweaty, torturous fun.

All in all, for my time at both gyms last night, I burned 1116 calories.

Last night I didnt sleep well. I tossed and turned all night. Not sure if it was from sore legs or house stuff or what. Not even a dream or nightmare that I can remember. I just know I am exhausted today.

So today is a slower day for me. Both kids go to school which means that now that Eric is gone back to work, I dont work out with him this morning. And THAT means that I can come home and study. Or sleep. Ha!!

And we only have one showing tonight from 6-7. Aaron will probably take the boys for ice cream. I will be going to see my grandma again. HOPEFULLY before that I will be going to look at a house. I am getting frustrated because our realtor called the listing agent yesterday and hasnt heard back from him yet. This is a short sale and if these people dont sell the house, it will be going to foreclosure. I would rather get a short sale. I think there is more wiggle room with pricing even though it takes longer to go thru. We have from now until school starts in August to get a place. So keep your fingers crossed for us.

Ok that is it for me today. I am quite cranky today and dont even want to be around myself today.

Toodles.

Tip of the Day:

Checking In

Good Monday Morning everyone!

Just doing a quick check in as today is a fucking busy day for me.

Well my mom is doing great. Still a little bit of pain and she HATES laying around, but she has little to complain about.

I was able to go for one run on the rail trail while I was up there. I did 4.35 miles and was able to complete it with my pace under a 10 minute mile. I was very happy with that.

Friday when I got home I worked out with Eric and surprise, suprise, my legs were STILL sore from my 600 lb leg presses from MONDAY.

Because Aaron and I had no kids this weekend, my eating wasnt the best SO I am back at it and on schedule today.

And as I mentioned before, we will be moving this summer. WELL today the house is available for showings. And we have 4. Not kidding. And one more tomorrow.

So in between running Xavier to school, doing chores, picking him up, lunch, nap, etc, I need to keep the house clean from Landry and be out of here for the showing at 10am, two showings at 12, and then Aaron has to get the boys out of the house at 6:30 for a half hour for a fourth.

The realtor that my in laws have is a real piece of work. She copped an attitude with me because I changed the showing criteria. Well ya know what? I have two little kids and I cant afford to be taking my family out for every meal. So I think 3 showings a day is plenty unless they want to overlap like the one at noon is. She can bite me. I felt like telling her that the house may be my in laws in their name, but we live here bitch. UGH. Hopefully my in laws get an offer quickly.

And Tuesday night I am going to look at a house...so keep your fingers crossed.

AND on top of all that, tonight I have my Zumba class and then I work with Eric. I am going to do two upper body work outs this week with him because on Saturday I have a 10k and then I need to teach Zumba right after that. LOL. So I will need my legs fresh.

Well that is the news for now. How was your Spring Break? Is it feeling like spring in your area yet?

Tip of the Day:

Checking In, Checking Out, and Big News

Morning Peeps!

Easter weekend was a good one. Not much happened to report on. Just a nice time with family.

Yesterday I had no one show up for Zumba class but Maggie and I stayed and practiced for an hour.

Then it was time with Eric.

Started off with leg presses with a light weight about 200 lbs.

Then he had me do walking lunges using a 50 lb barbell on my shoulders. To get across the gym took me about 30 lunges.

Then back to leg presses. We had decided to just KILL my legs because that workout needed to get my legs til Friday.

Back and forth we did the circuit with presses and lunges. Leg presses with 300 lbs....400 lbs...500 lbs...then finally...

600 lbs. I cannot tell you how awesome it felt to see two guys at the leg press next to me watching me. LOL. Eat Iron boys!

I did the 600 10 times. 1 time in the middle I needed an assist from Eric because I went too low with it. And the last 2 my legs were just DONE and he had to help a bit. The other 7? Those were all me. Oh yeah!

Then we had some fun. Eric set up an obstacle course of sorts.

The shortest box (about 18" high), three bosu balls in a row with space between, and the second lowest box (about 24" high). On each box was a kettlebell which he would switch out in weight when I was done with the line.

So this is what I would do. Stand on the first box. Pick up the kettlebell. 10 deadlifts. Set the kettlebell down and jump off the box to a squat. Jump up onto the bosu ball and fly off of it landing in another squat. Bosu ball again, another squat. Bosu again, squat. Pick up the other kettlebell and do 10 squats. Then I had to jump up onto the box.

First two times thru the circuit I couldnt get my legs to function enough to jump up onto the box. I really couldnt. They were like wet noodles. So Eric gave me his hand and I jumped up.

Third circuit he had me do 30 deadlifts, I think with 50 lb weights, go thru the bosu's, then do 20 squats with the 50 lb weight and THIS time I jumped up unassisted. Mind body connection people. And because I did it, Eric had me do it 4 more times. Nice guy huh? LOL. After that, we were done.

Legs today are SORE but they feel so good.

I will be heading north today to help my mom out while she recovers from surgery so I will not be on here until probably Saturday or Sunday.

I am packing my food to bring with me. I am packing my trainer book. I am on unit 7 of 33 so making good progress.

I am bringing my workout clothes. My parents have a treadmill and some hand weights to use.

Friday I will be coming straight from their house to the gym to do legs with Eric again. Cant wait!

Also I have big news. My family will be moving this summer.We arent sure if we will be able to get a house or rent a condo but a move is in the future. While I dont mind the move, taking the kids out of this school district scares the begezus out of me so please say some prayers. We are moving closer to Aaron's work so his commute isnt so far. Right now he commutes 100 miles a day. Also with where we are looking to move, my commute to the gym where I teach will be closer and I wont have to give up training with Eric either.

Ideally we would find a house to buy but we just arent sure. We shall see. Prayers please.

Tip of the Day: