How Wonderful Life is vol. 2

I really am enjoying this. Week 2 of writing what I am thankful for! It really is fun and therapeutic. Here it goes:

My health- I am so thankful for my health. That I am strong enough mentally, emotionally, and physically to be able to push myself harder than I have before and accomplish something that I once thought was impossible! I am not the typical looking runner. But is there really a "typical body type" that is only able to run? My body is doing it. I am doing it. It is hard, but man it feels so wonderful to cross that finish line and look back at what I have done and say, "I DID IT!" But seriously when I heard people say, "If I can do this, anyone can." I always thought, yeah right. BUT IT IS TRUE! Because I am the one that would rather sit on my couch watching TV and relaxing and not doing much. But where is that going to get me in life. We have to keep pushing ourselves and DO IT! YOU CAN DO IT!

My Studio- I love teaching! I LOVE IT! I knew in 8th grade that I wanted to teach. I thought that I wanted to teach JR. High Band. YEAH RIGHT! In college when I helped teach at a local high school, I realized that it was not the right type of job teaching multiple kids who really didn't want to be there. I was called more names and bad words than I knew existed at the time. I didn't have that "thick skin." I realized that I worked best one on one with kids. Not huge groups. So I decided that I would only teach a "studio" when I was in a place long enough to make a difference. That started in 2007. I began teaching. It was amazing. I love seeing the wheels turn in my student's head and then they finally get it! I have taught hundreds of students now and I LOVE IT EVERYDAY! Now that we moved to a new city, and having Mason, I knew I would have a smaller studio. I only teach a couple of days a week and it is divine to be a mommy and still be able to teach amazing kids piano!

(IF YOU ARE IN THE C-VILLE AREA AND LOOKING FOR A PIANO TEACHER LET ME KNOW! ACCEPTING NEW STUDENTS TO BEGIN JANUARY 2014! Click here to go to my studio web page! )

I had to do a little plug for the upcoming openings! I hope all of you have a wonderfully fantastic day. Keep on Moving!

QOTD: What are you thankful for today?

One More Step!

~I will be adding this to my running wardrobe soon! For Two fitness~

I'm getting stronger everyday that I run or even walk, walk quickly that is! Exercise while pregnant is hard business! It takes extra dedication to go to the gym and get your butt moving. Well that is how I feel because my butt doesn't want to get moving most days. It would be so much easier to just stay at home and rest, and let my body make a baby and just not push it to work any harder. But you know what the amazing thing about our bodies are. THEY CAN DO IT! Women used to work out in the fields up until they had the baby, and would be out working again in a few days. That happens still now! Women work up until they have the baby and are back at work in a week because they need to support their family. Those women are strong, and powerful and amazing! I couldn't do it. HONESTLY! Well, I guess if I had to I would do it but I sure wouldn't want to. I am so thankful to my husband in supporting me in our decision to be a stay at home mom, with an at home teaching part time job. I'm am doing the 2 things I love!

The cool thing I keep thinking about though when I am exercising now is, how much more easy this will be when I am not pregnant. How much more I will be able to push myself and yes, I might be able to run without stopping. This is a for seeable goal of mine now because I am pushing myself during the hardest time in my life and it will just be easier after this! (at least that is what I am thinking.)

So here is to one more step and getting stronger. Feeling empowered! And making great choices for me and my family in choosing to exercise!

QOTD: What did you do today to be one step stronger?

Veteran's Day

Today is my wonderful husband's day. He is a vet, well he is still in the military but this has always been his special day to spend with the family. This is the first year of teaching that I haven't taken the day off to spend with him. But that doesn't mean we can't spend the morning and most of the afternoon together.

~Matt leaving for his Iraq deployment when Mason was 3 days old.~

There was actually a time where I thought about joining the military. I thought about joining one of the army bands. (A good friend of mine from college is actually doing that now, way to go Kristen S.!) But my fear about joining the military was, I could NEVER run the 2 miles PT test. I could do the minimum number of pushups and the sit-ups but apparently I could never learn to do the run. I made excuses and didn't even really try. (In college Matt and I were in the ROTC PT class in the morning and I had a hard time running with the groups, we were living in Flagstaff, AZ at the time at 7,000 ft elevation, of course learning to run at that altitude would be hard!) So the idea just fizzled out. (at that same time I saw my first advertisement in a magazine for the WDW Marathon and the beautiful medal.) I wanted to run but I was too scared to really try.

Well now 7 years later, no military but I AM RUNNING! I am a runner. I will be running in my first Disney race next year with my husband and kid cheering me on!

~Matt having a little fun at training many, many years ago when he was a Private~

I am so proud of my husband and for his amazing choice and decision to join the military and remain in the military for nearly 13 years now. He has accomplished so much, gained great respect from his fellow soldiers and protects and provides for our family!

Matt's opinion of Veteran's Day:
My wife has dealt with the frustrations and pain that being an army wife can bring. From multiple deployments to raising our first son without me. Being an army wife is not easy. I thank all the Army Wives (spouses) out there for their continued support! I'm grateful to have a companion that actually stayed and supports me in my choice to serve our country.

I'm grateful that we have a day to remember all the people who have sacrificed for this country. I'm lucky to have a Grandfather and Dad who are vets. One who served in WWII and the other in Vietnam. I wonder if my children will follow in my footsteps and join the military one day.

Becky here:
Thank you to all the veteran's and spouses for all you have done and sacrificed! So proud to be part of such a strong community of military families in my town! Post your comments below to show your support to the military!

QOTD: Are you doing anything special to celebrate the day?

Baby It's Cold Outside!

(Disney and New Balance will be announcing new running shoes next year. This weekend at the Wine & Dine race weekend is the last chance to snatch up these beauties!)

Ooooo! BURRRR! It was cold, cold, cold this morning! Morning run was in the upper 30's when we finally set out. That kind of cold just burns your lungs awake!

This morning was the 3rd week of the training program, 1st week for me though. There was a ton of confusion though with which training group to join and such. The program has us broken down into 6 different groups. I was put in the 2nd group. (I was hoping for the 3rd but I run/walk and don't run straight.) I do have to meet a certain mileage by January and the 3rd group is where I need to be.

I met my running captains for my group and one of them happens to be a Labor and Delivery nurse at my hospital. We had a bit of a talk during the run. She is going to tell my doc that she will watch over me and keep me safe and such. She gave me pointers on what to "listen" for with my body if I pushing too hard and when to back off. She did say that it is ok the whole time to just do run/walk intervals because my focus right now is for health for me and my baby and keeping up good exercise habits, not breaking personal records. She was very helpful, and I will probably do the mileage for group 3 next week because the 2 miles today just wasn't enough. I felt ready to go and it was time to stop. 3 miles is my base amount during the week. Anyhew. I will figure it out.

QOTD: How did you transition to run/walk to run all the time?

Dinner vs Cookie?!?

(source)

Oh what a dilemma we have in our house tonight! I made 14.5 dozen cookies today for a church activity tomorrow. 14.5 COOKIES! That is a ton. Needless to say we are on a bit of a cookie high right now!

Mason now knows how to move a chair to an area to climb up onto it and grab the something he wants. (Smart little cookie). Well, tonight was no different. He wanted a cookie. He only had 2 earlier today. (They are small cookies, and he doesn't eat a lot of sweets because I don't want him to be addicted to sweets like I am.) Anyhew. Dad ate a cookie while I was heating up left overs and Mason wanted one too. So I gave one to him, but I said he had to eat dinner. When dinner was ready to eat we took away said cookie, tears did ensue, and I told Mason, you may have your cookie back after dinner but you need to eat at least 5 bites. After oh, about 10 minutes of fighting, tears, and crying we walked away. While I started to write this he went back to the table all on his own and took his first bite. Then another, and another. He ended up eating 6 bites. Then he was done. I gave him his cookie and I asked, "What do you say?" He grabbed my head and gave me a long smooch right on the mouth! I would say that that was a thank you if I ever did get one!

So Mommy won the war tonight. Dad was super impressed. We worked on what is important, that dinner comes first over cookies, and worked on our counting! (I even did silly little songs to show what number we were at. He loved it, and it worked)

QOTD: How do you enforce healthy eating habits for your kids when there are little temptations in the house?