Saturday, April 19, 2008
This girl's got some hair!
Pilates King
Back in January, I joined a group of my friends in what we call a Weight Loss Get Healthy Competition. For part of this competition, I get points for doing healthy things on a daily basis, exercising being one of them. In my efforts to "get healthy," I started doing a Winsor Pilates DVD that my sister gave me. A few times, I asked Jacob if he wanted to join me. He politely declined with some little smirk about how men don't do Pilates. Well... much has changed since then!! Read on.
With me stepping it up as far as my efforts towards improved fitness go, Jacob wasn't about to be left in the dust! However, while he is coaching (first basketball and now track & field), he has little or no time left to exercise. He realized that if he was going to exercise, it had to be something that he could do late at night after the kiddos are in bed. Hmmmmm? What could it be? What exercise can one do quietly at home, not spend any money, build muscle strength while getting the heart rate going, tone, sculpt, condition... PILATES!!!
Most nights when I come home from my runs, I find Jacob doing some of these fancy moves. When he first started doing it, Jacob called Lara (we've moved on from Winsor to 10 Minute Solutions with Lara Hudson) a weirdo for being able to do this move and hold it. It didn't take too long before he could do it (I still can't!).
He also didn't understand how she could get that leg straight.
One night when he was doing a flexibility workout, he reached up to the ceiling and put his hand flat against the ceiling. He almost fell over from the shock of being able to do this. Just one week earlier when he'd first started, he could only put his fingertips on the ceiling (Pilates really does lengthen you!). And this morning when we went on a family bike ride, he made a comment about how it was easier to get on his bike than it was last fall because he's so much more flexible (his bike is humongous and even with his height, it's hard to get on).
Jacob is not the only one enjoying Pilates. His high school track kids are also doing Pilates moves now. Even Ammon and Abraham have occasionally joined in on the fun.
Here are Jacob and Ammon doing the move Jacob calls the Bird Dog???
Now on the nights when I don't run, Jacob is the one that encourages me to do Pilates with him! Talk about a complete turnaround!
Even with this newfound venture, he still has a tiny bit of that "Pilates isn't for men" attitude. Just the other night, somebody knocked on the door while he was in the middle of his workout. He scrambled up off the floor, turned Lara off and changed the channel to SportsCenter before answering the door! I laughed so hard when he told me this!
When I asked him if I could blog about this though, he didn't seem to mind. Hey, why not share a good thing???
With me stepping it up as far as my efforts towards improved fitness go, Jacob wasn't about to be left in the dust! However, while he is coaching (first basketball and now track & field), he has little or no time left to exercise. He realized that if he was going to exercise, it had to be something that he could do late at night after the kiddos are in bed. Hmmmmm? What could it be? What exercise can one do quietly at home, not spend any money, build muscle strength while getting the heart rate going, tone, sculpt, condition... PILATES!!!
Most nights when I come home from my runs, I find Jacob doing some of these fancy moves. When he first started doing it, Jacob called Lara (we've moved on from Winsor to 10 Minute Solutions with Lara Hudson) a weirdo for being able to do this move and hold it. It didn't take too long before he could do it (I still can't!).
He also didn't understand how she could get that leg straight. 
One night when he was doing a flexibility workout, he reached up to the ceiling and put his hand flat against the ceiling. He almost fell over from the shock of being able to do this. Just one week earlier when he'd first started, he could only put his fingertips on the ceiling (Pilates really does lengthen you!). And this morning when we went on a family bike ride, he made a comment about how it was easier to get on his bike than it was last fall because he's so much more flexible (his bike is humongous and even with his height, it's hard to get on). Jacob is not the only one enjoying Pilates. His high school track kids are also doing Pilates moves now. Even Ammon and Abraham have occasionally joined in on the fun.
Here are Jacob and Ammon doing the move Jacob calls the Bird Dog???Now on the nights when I don't run, Jacob is the one that encourages me to do Pilates with him! Talk about a complete turnaround!
Even with this newfound venture, he still has a tiny bit of that "Pilates isn't for men" attitude. Just the other night, somebody knocked on the door while he was in the middle of his workout. He scrambled up off the floor, turned Lara off and changed the channel to SportsCenter before answering the door! I laughed so hard when he told me this!
When I asked him if I could blog about this though, he didn't seem to mind. Hey, why not share a good thing???
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Random catching up...
It seems that I'm always trying to catch up.
Two weeks ago we spent the entire weekend moving into a new apartment (pictures soon to come... I promise!) Just three or four days later, I had to have not only our new apartment looking spic-n-span, but our old apartment semi-cleaned up as well so a realtor could come and take a look (it's a long story... but the apartment owners where we manage are trying to sell the units as condos and they came to get a feel for the type of work that's being done in the building!). Needless to say, I didn't get a lot of sleep that week. A bunch of boxes that we didn't get a chance to get unpacked had to go into hiding back in a storage closet. My goal this week is to get caught up by unpacking just one box per day. Wish me luck!
I have a book that my little sis highly recommended. It's called Chi Running by Danny Dreyer. Isa claims that she keeps waiting for her knees to hurt from all her running, but they just haven't since she's adopted some of these running techniques. My knees told me I had to give this a try. Anyway, our public library didn't have it so I got it through an inter-library loan program and the book had to come from Washington. For two weeks, I've been telling myself that I must read the book (and read it quickly) because it's due back on the 14th and they're not going to let me renew it. I think I've read about 5 pages... and tomorrow is the 14th! I don't know how I'm going to catch up on this one.
Soccer season started with a fury. Ammon and Abraham are on different teams (Ammon wears a gray shirt and his team calls itself the Bomb Sharks while Abe wears orange and belongs to the Kardinals). This past week, I also babysat for two of my good friends who had to go out of town suddenly. One of the little boys also plays soccer. So in five days' time, I took three little boys and a very active almost-one-year-old to six different games. Saturday was the worst (or was it the best??). Abe had pictures and a game at 10 a.m. Then we came home to eat and went back for our little friend's pictures and game at 12p.m. Then we came home again, rested, ate and went back a third time for Ammon's pictures and game. Here are a few pictures of Ammon and Abe. They're absolutely loving soccer. I need to try to get better pictures. This will be a big part of our lives for the next couple of weeks. I'm glad my boys are on different teams so they can have fun and successes independently of each other... it's going to be fun to stay caught up with all of this.
I'm really enjoying our new apartment. It's completely remodeled and feels sooooo different than our old apartment. I actually enjoy cleaning this one. I clean and it actually looks clean when I'm done (imagine that!!). This is what I have to keep caught up with though... at least she's having fun! Now all of our new toilet paper rolls have been unrolled and re-rolled!
Another one of my catch up goals is this blog. I really want to get back to the point where I'm posting regularly. My new friend Leaca is insisting that this is my Simon Birch and I'd be making a huge mistake to let it go. I think she's right.
One final picture from this past week. One morning, I had five little boys and one little girl to get ready for the day and for school. We all knelt by the door for a prayer before going out and I made them all stay put... I was sooo thankful to have all the backpacks packed, the jackets and shoes on and all hands off each other - I just had to snap a picture. We love our little friends!
Anyway... one of my biggest catching up games is with my sleep. Jacob is now prodding me to go to bed soon. It's only 10pm, but I think I'd better do as he says this time. Today during choir practice, I actually fell asleep in the middle of singing one of our songs. I hadn't done that since college when I made the mistake of taking a Philosophy course at 7a.m. It was quite embarrassing!
Two weeks ago we spent the entire weekend moving into a new apartment (pictures soon to come... I promise!) Just three or four days later, I had to have not only our new apartment looking spic-n-span, but our old apartment semi-cleaned up as well so a realtor could come and take a look (it's a long story... but the apartment owners where we manage are trying to sell the units as condos and they came to get a feel for the type of work that's being done in the building!). Needless to say, I didn't get a lot of sleep that week. A bunch of boxes that we didn't get a chance to get unpacked had to go into hiding back in a storage closet. My goal this week is to get caught up by unpacking just one box per day. Wish me luck!
I have a book that my little sis highly recommended. It's called Chi Running by Danny Dreyer. Isa claims that she keeps waiting for her knees to hurt from all her running, but they just haven't since she's adopted some of these running techniques. My knees told me I had to give this a try. Anyway, our public library didn't have it so I got it through an inter-library loan program and the book had to come from Washington. For two weeks, I've been telling myself that I must read the book (and read it quickly) because it's due back on the 14th and they're not going to let me renew it. I think I've read about 5 pages... and tomorrow is the 14th! I don't know how I'm going to catch up on this one.
Soccer season started with a fury. Ammon and Abraham are on different teams (Ammon wears a gray shirt and his team calls itself the Bomb Sharks while Abe wears orange and belongs to the Kardinals). This past week, I also babysat for two of my good friends who had to go out of town suddenly. One of the little boys also plays soccer. So in five days' time, I took three little boys and a very active almost-one-year-old to six different games. Saturday was the worst (or was it the best??). Abe had pictures and a game at 10 a.m. Then we came home to eat and went back for our little friend's pictures and game at 12p.m. Then we came home again, rested, ate and went back a third time for Ammon's pictures and game. Here are a few pictures of Ammon and Abe. They're absolutely loving soccer. I need to try to get better pictures. This will be a big part of our lives for the next couple of weeks. I'm glad my boys are on different teams so they can have fun and successes independently of each other... it's going to be fun to stay caught up with all of this.
I'm really enjoying our new apartment. It's completely remodeled and feels sooooo different than our old apartment. I actually enjoy cleaning this one. I clean and it actually looks clean when I'm done (imagine that!!). This is what I have to keep caught up with though... at least she's having fun! Now all of our new toilet paper rolls have been unrolled and re-rolled!
Another one of my catch up goals is this blog. I really want to get back to the point where I'm posting regularly. My new friend Leaca is insisting that this is my Simon Birch and I'd be making a huge mistake to let it go. I think she's right.
One final picture from this past week. One morning, I had five little boys and one little girl to get ready for the day and for school. We all knelt by the door for a prayer before going out and I made them all stay put... I was sooo thankful to have all the backpacks packed, the jackets and shoes on and all hands off each other - I just had to snap a picture. We love our little friends!
Anyway... one of my biggest catching up games is with my sleep. Jacob is now prodding me to go to bed soon. It's only 10pm, but I think I'd better do as he says this time. Today during choir practice, I actually fell asleep in the middle of singing one of our songs. I hadn't done that since college when I made the mistake of taking a Philosophy course at 7a.m. It was quite embarrassing!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Yes, I know...
I have no legitimate excuse for not posting for such a long time. I've thought about it many a time... and ended up overwhelmed by the thought of all the "catching up" I had to do. In the end, I did nothing! Tonight though, with Easter and Abe's birthday just having passed, I decided to just do it - post a few pictures and forget about trying to catch up! Maybe later I'll go back and try to do some re-capping... maybe!
Hmmmmm... there just might be a life lesson in this post. If it weren't almost midnight and if I didn't know that I have to be awake in about 5 1/2 hours, I might expound on that. But I won't, not tonight anyway.
Hmmmmm... there just might be a life lesson in this post. If it weren't almost midnight and if I didn't know that I have to be awake in about 5 1/2 hours, I might expound on that. But I won't, not tonight anyway.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Happy Birthday Abraham!
Our little Abraham was finally “allowed” to have his fourth birthday! (is it bad parenting to brainwash your child into believing that they won’t have their birthday unless they do certain things??? i.e. learn to buckle your own seatbelt, open the car door by yourself, try new foods, etc.)
Abe got a really cool pirate set by PlayMobil (I highly recommend this toy for any imaginative four-year-old). We were asked to baby-sit at a friend’s house today… even though he usually asks to go to friends’ homes at least 10 times per day, today he didn’t want to go… he would have been content to just stay at home and play with the pirates ALL DAY LONG!!!
We had a Spiderman/Easter party planned for last week, but the little guy got sick and we had to postpone. It will most likely be this coming weekend. We’ll be making Spiderman Easter eggs… one week after the fact! Oh well! I’ll try to post more pictures of the party after it happens!
A little Abraham update...
1. He's hilarious!!! He has make-believe friends (Paul from Antarctica and Kubu from Africa) that teach him everything he knows and does (and get him out of many "difficult-for-a-four-year-old" situations). For example, we'll be sitting at the table trying to convince him to eat his broccoli and he tells us that one time his friend Paul ate broccoli and he died because it choked him!
2. He's trying so hard to be a big boy! Just this past weekend, we took the kids to an indoor water park in Anchorage. Abe met the height requirement for the biggest water slide there - the MASTER BLASTER! He sat in the front and Jacob sat in the back of a double inner tube. I nervously watched from below as they took their turn. The next thing I knew, I saw my little boy flipping out of the inner tube and hitting the netting that keeps the tube enclosed (we discovered that even though he's tall enough for the ride, he's just too lightweight to stay on the tube during such steep drops). My heart stopped. I ran frantically to try to alert somebody. In the meantime, Jacob threw himself out of the tube, grabbed Abe, and managed to stop their downward descent. Apparently, when they managed to stop, Abe hopped right back on the tube and said, "Come on papi! Let's keep going!" Unfortunately, the lifeguards wouldn't allow this. Jacob had to get his battle wounds taken care of and file a report. If it were up to Abe, they would have finished the ride and then hopped in line to do it all over again! Mami didn't allow this!
3. He has a gentle heart!!! Abe is my little helper when I go grocery shopping while Ammon is at school. For good behavior in the store, he gets to buy a gum ball on the way out. He always uses his quarter to buy two small gum balls instead of one large one for himself. He puts the extra one in his pocket and when we pick Ammon up from school, he excitedly gives it to his big brother. This warms my heart every single time he does it. You see, his own gum ball is long gone by the time we go to get Ammon. Nevertheless, he has never waivered and decided to keep that second gum ball for himself. He does this in lots of other situations, too! He has declared that the birthday toys he has received so far are just as much Ammon's as they are his.
4. He loves hugs and kisses. While "others" in our family wake up and just need to be left alone while they come to, Abe wakes up and smothers Ziya with hugs and kisses and asks her how her night was. Then he likes to cuddle on the couch before starting his playing.
I could go on and on about my little Abe. What a blessing he is to our family. HAPPY FOURTH BIRTHDAY ABRAHAM! I love you.
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