Happy Halloween 2013!

Today marks my favorite season of the year! I love Holiday season. I really love Halloween for that reason! I am in a constant change of decorations around my house from Oct-Dec. I LOVE IT! It makes the house just so different.

~This is Wanda's Wardrobe (I named her Wanda), a hanging quilt my mom made for me a few years back~

~Halloween 2008. I made this with the help of one of my student's mom.~

I love halloween because it is the one day that I can be whoever I want to be. No rules (well some rules, not reveling, modest costumes) Just an excuse to wear that crazy outfit you have in the back of your closet. Or wear PJ's out and about and no one will think less of you if you do. Or bring out your old Letterman jacket from High School. (Haven't done that one yet.)

~ Halloween 2009. No he is not dressing up as a soldier. He actually had to go to military drill right after an activity we went to.~

Today, I get a special treat! Pre-natal yoga to start with. Then I get to see my fabulous chiropractor. (Been needing an adjustment for a few days now). Then right after is my amazing monthly hour massage! I AM SO NEEDING IT. My low back has been hurting for about a week and look forward to a nice relaxing massage. Then go pick up the last of the halloween candy at the store, take the kid out trick-or-treating and then pass out candy for the rest of the night! Debating on following a couple of friends traditions and busing out Hocus Pocus tonight. (I LOVE THAT MOVIE!)

 ~Halloween 2010. Look at all the weight I LOST!~

~Mason in 2011. We were Arizona State Fans~ 

~Halloween 2012. Renaissance Princess and her little spider~

~Archer from about 7 years ago! Love his face, "Mom, you have got to be kidding me!"~

I hope you all have a wonderfully ghoulish Halloween today!

Water and Toys!

Loving the water today. It was so relaxing and just so, perfect. I have been having low back pain, so glad that tomorrow I see the chiropractor and my massage therapist. It just did a body good today! Side affect to exercise, I am exhausted afterwards. So thankful for Mommy quiet time in the house so that I can get some much needed sleep/rest.

On another note: Mason's Nabi tablet, a tablet designed for kids, decided to die on us the other day. It hadn't worked right for a few days prior to Monday. This tablet has been part of his mommy quiet time. I put him in his room and let him play his tablet or sleep. He gets to choose. He usually plays for 30-45 min then sleeps for 2.5 hours. I am truly blessed!

We called the company and told them what was going on it with and they are sending us a BRAND NEW ONE! I can not wait till we get that tablet back because the little guy has taken over my cell phone wanting to play his puzzles and games! We use that thing so often.  He loves it! I will play pandora's toddler music station and he can continue playing his games while getting to hear nursery rhymes, and I get to learn the words to those nursery rhymes. As he gets bigger we can do chore charts with points associated and it has learning sections to help him grow and learn, like math and science. That tablet is seriously an amazing thing to have!

QOTD: Do you let your kids play on your computer, phone or tablet?

Some Days

Are not like the other. I am coming to the end of my first trimester next week and I am hoping for some relief of some of the common pregnancy related symptoms. My morning sickness is almost all gone, all the time. YEA! But fatigue and now dizziness has been more of a annoyance.

Yesterday was bad with the dizziness. Anytime I get up I have to take a few seconds to right myself so I don't end up on the floor. I have to remind myself that I can not stand up as fast as I used to. I don't remember having the dizziness this badly with my 1st pregnancy. So this is something that I have to either just get used to or just be more careful with.

My gym solution. The treadmill and elliptical have been giving me motion sickness. Inside my gym there is an indoor track. I call it the gerbil wheel. It is a small little thing. 12 laps equal a mile. So that is what I am doing. Walking and moving with things moving as they should instead of me running in place and bobbing seems to work best. So for the time being now, I will be running around on the indoor track. Yea for gerbil wheel track!

Oh and here is a pretty neat site for natural homeopathic remedies for morning sickness that goes along with my picture.

QOTD: What exercise would you give up if you had to due to a sickness or pregnancy?


Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. Contact your doctor or medical professional for any medical questions you have, diagnosis or treatment. All information found and offered on my blog are of my own opinion. 

Monday, Monday

Mondays are the hardest day to work out, for me at least. Why? Who wants to work out after a nice long relaxing weekend? Even though I take one day off, Sundays, it still requires a swift kick in the butt to get me out the door and to the gym. I usually like to go later in the mornings on Mondays personally because there are the select few people that LOVE going to the gym on Mondays to work off all the stuff they ate or drank over the weekend. I am not that person.

My big problem, if I miss Monday, I tend to miss Tuesday too. EEK! NOT GOOD! Being pregnant, I need to exercise as often as I can until I can not. There will be that point again where my body just says, "REST!" As I had many a days in the first trimester that I just could not go. Point in fact, the week after I found out I was pregnant, I went to the gym 6 days. I felt great. They the next week, I was hit with violent morning sickness that things just set my tummy rolling. So now that I am approaching the 2nd trimester I should be going to the gym quite frequently as hopefully the morning sickness subsides and the all day long fatigue goes away too!

So here is to Mondays and getting my butt in the gym every week!

QOTD: What is your hardest day to get to the gym?

Pregnant In Running Shoes!

I HAVE BEEN WAITING NEARLY 2 MONTHS TO WRITE THIS POST!!! I am so excited to start this topic of exercise while pregnant. This is the reason why I have not been posting as much. All the posts I have wanted to write about have been about my pregnancy and running and I couldn't spill the beans until we passed a certain point. Yesterday was that point.

I am currently 11.5 weeks pregnant. Yesterday we had a doc appointment and we have been waiting to hear the heartbeat over the doppler and yesterday was that day. It took a good 5 minutes to find the heartbeat but the doc did and yeah I pretty much lost it in pure happiness. With the 2 previous miscarriages I have been a nervous wreck but was thankful everyday that everything was going ok.

So here is the thing. I have been running while pregnant. I ran my 4 miler before we even found out I was pregnant. We found out a week after actually. Continued to exercise and run as best as I could. All those posts about having a hard time and such, was because of morning sickness. It seems running on a stationary object while pregnant can make me very motion sick with the morning sickness. The elliptical has been the worst culprit to bring it on. More swaying. But I have persevered and have continued as best as I could.

2 weeks ago tomorrow was my 10k. I was 9.5 weeks pregnant. I told my doc at my 7 week appointment about the race and he ok'd it. He asked me to have a running partner for safety so that I was never running alone and to slow down a little on my pace. He said that I would naturally slow down anyways, which I have. That is why I was aiming for the hour and a half time. I pushed myself but not too much. I actually felt really great during the race. No cramping, no pain just really empowered and strong.

So a couple of things. My blog is going to follow me training for my half marathon in Feb. Yes, I am still planning on running in it. Yes, I will be 28.5 weeks pregnant. Just I will be doing run/walk more than what I was planning on. My doc has ok'd the half as long as no complications arise in the meantime. He is actually really proud of me for continuing to run. (He is a marathoner, and usually take 1 week a year vacation to run a race.) The other thing is that I hope to encourage you that if I can do this pregnant you can do this anytime. It is not easy. I am exhausted after exercising. I want to sleep for days, but on the flip side there have been so many positive reason why I HAVE to continue to exercise. One, I have LOST 8 lbs since we found out I was pregnant. 6 right in the beginning and 2 in the last 4 weeks. I am hoping to gain as few pounds as possible!

Anyhew please join me on my journey of pregnancy and exercise. Tell your friends all about me too! I am so excited to take this turn on my blog and can't wait to see what I learn.

QOTD: Did you or do you plan on exercising while pregnant?