Oh Yeah!

Today, I...

Went to Work.

Went to the gym.

Had a great Pilates Reformer workout with Janna.

Decided to stick around for the next class,

which was...

We did some of this

And some of that
And, just in case you're wondering...

I was able to do it all!

Oh yeah, that's what I'm talkin bout! Bring It On!!

Bliss

Sometimes I need to be nudged. Today was one of those days. A few days ago I had planned to spend all Saturday alone with Dave - we hardly see each other anymore and I felt the need to reconnect. But then I couldn't sleep last night, finally pulling myself out of bed late morning, groggy and moving very slowly. I hate waking up late, it throws off my whole day.

The sun was shining when I woke up (one nice thing about waking up later!)and Dave suggested we go for a bike ride. One part of me thought that sounded like an awesome idea. The other part of me, the lazy part that was experiencing an overdose of inertia, needed convincing.

Dave and the less-lazy part of me finally prevailed and we eventually found ourselves on a lovely bike trail along the Weber River.
I'm so glad Dave nudged me to get up and get outside. It was total bliss, a perfect combination of pleasant temp, beautiful scenery, lots of sunshine and physical exercise.

After the bike ride we got a quick sushi snack, did some shopping and went to see Life As We Know It (cute). A very good day after all! Thanks, Dave. I love you.

Last Night...

Watched Karate Kid for the first time last night. I know it was in the theaters ages ago, but it just got to my movie venue of choice - Redbox. Laura "rented" it with a free code a couple of nights ago, so it will actually cost her a couple of bucks. She didn't even watch it! But I told her she should because it was good!

Sleep evaded me most of the night. I didn't get to bed till very late. I was finally on the brink of sleep about 1:30 am (to all my night owl readers out there, that's late for me!) when I heard the garage door go up (it's attached to the house and very loud, ugh!). Then a few minutes later I heard the garage door go down and realized my son had decided to drive home instead of sleeping here. I started worrying about him driving that far that late and couldn't sleep. (Okay, so he is 25 and getting ready to jump into the pool of matrimony, but I am still his mother!) After tossing and turning for what seemed like FOREVER, Dave started snoring! Exasperated, I got out of bed, took my pillow and a blanket to the couch and finally dozed off.

Today Dave redeemed himself by making me a yummy breakfast. Now we are tossing around a couple of ideas of what to do the rest of the day. Looks like a perfect day for some bicycling - not many of those kind of days left this year, should probably take advantage of the warm sunshine.

Hope your day is a great one!

Coming to Terms...

Today is my birthday.

I am 52!

You may be tempted to feel sorry for me in my old age. Heaven knows I have! But as I've wrestled with this whole aging thing I have discovered some hidden benefits. I want to share a few with you today, as my birthday gift to you.

1. I am much more comfortable in my own skin. Getting older has given me the freedom to be ME. I still like to present myself as best I can, but I have come to terms with who I am and that I don’t need others approval – at least to the degree I did when I was younger.

2. I think I have mellowed out with age. While others may challenge this, I am very aware of a shift in many of my attitudes. (This will be the topic of a future blog post.)

3. Finally, most people over 40 need reading glasses to see things up close. While this can be a hassle, I have discovered an upside - the worse my eyes get, the less wrinkles I seem to have! It’s all in how you look at things!

I want to discover more joy in this phase of the journey. If you have some to share, please feel free to leave a comment.

Death by Gym

I am going to be D.E.A.D tomorrow.

Hopefully not literally, but if you never hear from me again, check the obituaries and know that you were among the first to know.

But I am going to be D.E.A.D. tomorrow. So dead sore I won't be able to move tomorrow.

I neglected reserving a spot for my Pilates class this afternoon and since no one was signed up this morning the teacher made other plans.

I even went to work today, instead of staying home in bed (which at 6:00am seemed like the best thing to do to try and get better) so I could go to my Pilates class.

You know it’s that whole responsible thing I seem to have a problem with.

Anyway I decided that if I couldn’t do Pilates I would simply go to the next class that was offered.

(Did I mention I was going to be D.E.A.D tomorrow?!)

BodyPump. Sounded fun and good for me. I was even early, anxious to be a part of a new class. I mean, how hard could it be? A little weight-lifting? No problem!

D.E.A.D.

I knew I was in trouble when, after finishing a series of killer lunges, the teacher had us kneel down on one knee for a grand finale and when I tried to stand up I collapsed in a heap. The girl next me asked if I was okay. “Yes,” I replied, crawling to the corner to try and pull myself up, only to discover that my arms had been transformed into wet spaghetti noodles too.

D.E.A.D.

The sad thing is that several of the women who had been in my class felt pumped up enough to stay for the next class – BodyAttack. It was all I could do to drag myself into the locker room!

D.E.A.D

You can leave your condolences, or if you would rather, donations to my bank account would also be appreciated!

Avete Zumba?

A while ago I wrote about my Pilates Path. I have found my group class and always feel better after a great workout on the reformer (thanks Janna!).

I have recently discovered a new (for me) awesome workout in

I've known about Zumba for a long time, but I had never experienced it until a couple of weeks ago. I am hooked! It is so fun and such an amazing workout. A girl in today's class was wearing a bodybugg.

After our one hour Zumba class, her bodybugg calculated she had burned 800 calories!! And she had fun doing it!

I approached my first Zumba class with a little uneasiness, not sure what to expect or how I would fit in. Any anxiety quickly disappeared as the music was cranked up and we started dancing. Everyone was just there to have fun and we were all so busy trying to keep up with the teacher we didn't have time to think about anything else!

Pilates is an integral part of my fitness regime, and now so is Zumba! You should Zumba too!

(the time I spend in the steam room afterwards is not too bad either!)

If you want to know a great place to Zumba, leave a comment with your email and I will get you all the details!

Labor Days and Brownies

Today I had a very Lazy Labor Day.

I slept in until 10:00 am.

I watched more TV today than I have watched in the past six months combined:

Two (or was it three?) episodes of Bones,

The end of Never Been Kissed,

and, No Reservations.

I am in a real funk.

I feel like I am flatlined.

It hit me today during a commercial for Martha Stewart's TV show how very little creativity I am expressing right now - in any area of my life.

I can't even find something interesting to write about on my blog!

I'm not depressed, just a little empty. It's kind of like when you make brownies. You have this bowl of rich, creamy chocolate. After you've filled the pan with batter and it's tucked away in the oven, you still have the bowl (and spoon) with chocolate brownie batter on it (because no one ever puts all the brownie batter into the oven, right?!) So, what do you do? Wash it out? No! You lick that bowl and spoon until they are almost clean. And it's always kind of sad when there's no more brownie batter to lick clean! So, there you have it - I feel like a used up bowl of brownie batter! Nice. See what I mean... there's just nothing left!! I need to refill that bowl! But, how?!

Lest you think my weekend was dreary, fear not!

I did have a very fun time being silly with my girls.

I was happy that I was able to see most of my kids.

I loved being home with Dave, he takes such good care of me.

I was grateful for the time to rest.

My bowl is actually quite full, isn't it?!

How do you fill your "bowl"?

Evidence of a Mother's Love (?)

Saturday I gave one of my college-aged daughters my prized haircut/color appointment I had scheduled for me six weeks ago. I even paid for it.

I either really love my daughters, or I'm beginning to resort to desperate measures to get these girls hooked up with some handsome men!

You decide!

The Yin and The Yang

Laura and I had a fun time on Wednesday.

We ended up here and did some shopping.



We had a yummy lunch on the patio at Applebee's.

There were rain clouds threatening, but they didn't bother us much. We were enjoying the afternoon too much to be bothered by a little rain.

When we left it didn't look like stormy weather over our house. But as we continued our drive south and saw storm clouds gathering over the mountains, I became a little worried that I had neglected to give Sophie her sedatives which sort of help her during thunderstorms and fireworks.

Surely she would do fine until Dave got home a couple of hours later. Right?

Our fun afternoon was brought to a screeching halt by a simple text message from Dave which included a picture of what he found when he returned home.

Apparently, the storms were a little more severe over our home less than 15 minutes north of where we spent the afternoon shopping!.

Needless to say, the picture kind of dampened my spirits! We finished up where we were at and ran through the rain to the parking garage. Looking back I think we should have stayed at the mall, but all I could think of when I saw the picture was how much it was going to cost to fix, and shopping is not a good thing to do when a huge unexpected expense is looming.
Sure, the carpet is old and needs to be replaced, but other changes will be made when we change the flooring and we are not in a position to make those changes right now.

A couple of days later Dave came up with a good solution - a carpet repairman. Of course! The carpet is not that damaged (despite what the picture looks like!) We are so fortunate that the rips were straight and not shredded. The repairman will come look at it on Wednesday, hopefully he can fix it. He sounded concerned to tell me the charge would be between 79.00 and 149.00! I wanted to jump through the phone and kiss him! I hope he can fix it.

I have recovered from the shock of it all. Sophie is still amongst the living and still in our home. I have even started to talk to her again. I came to an understanding about the whole thing that you can read about on my other blog - The Musings of The Mama B.

Time for a Re-Charge

My battery is running low, so I've decided to take a day of vacation and do a little "re-charging"!

I woke up at the same time I always do, but not having to rush and get ready and out the door was a re-charge.

I went out to my patio and puttered around the pots holding my "garden" this year. The tomatoes are finally looking good. They were suffering for awhile and being a novice at this whole gardening thing I was at a loss as to what to do! However, thanks to

I was able to diagnose the problem...

Blossom End Rot

and learn what I needed to do to fix it. All at no charge to me!

I have since harvested 2 perfect tomatoes and there are lots of healthy tomatoes growing on the vine! Yippee for me! Thank goodness for Google! Spending the extra time taking care of my garden was a re-charge.

While I was out on the patio I cleaned it up a bit. Working full-time, I tend to push aside tasks that aren't "urgent" here at home. Getting those things done was a re-charge, too.

Cleaning my house (even a little bit!) will be a re-charge.

Laura and I are going to do some school clothes/supplies shopping today. I look forward to milling around, lunch out, and just spending time with Laura. That will be a re-charge, and if we can actually find treasures that will be a bonus!

The day will end here

Bountiful Temple

at the temple with Laura and the rest of the Young Women in our ward. The best re-charge of all.

I can't think of a better way to spend the day. Can you?