Spring Booty Buster Challenge 2014

It has been a while since I have posted anything on the blog. But trying to get back into the swing of things since I am challenging myself and participating in a Spring Booty Buster Challenge from RunToTheFinish blog. The SBBC challenges each person to drink 64 oz of water, 7-9 servings of fruits and veggies (freggies) to earn a point for reaching those. Lastly, you recieve a point for every 10 minutes of exercise.

Every since I signed up for the challenge a couple weeks ago, I have tried to pay attention to the amount water I drank and increase a little and add fruit or veggies to my meals and snacks to start out with a good base.  As I started to review the requirements for the SBBC, I was a little concerned about how I was going to get to 7-9 servings of freggies from my current 1-3 servings I was getting per day if I was lucky.  Thankfully, my sister has done a this challenge before and provided some excellent advice of how to the 7-9 servings.

I am happy to say that I was able to get 8 servings of freggies, a little over 72 oz of water and 39 minutes of exercise with walk during my lunch, run with my Dad and abs workout.

Looking forward to the next 7 weeks for the SBBC!

Poe Valley Camping

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Happy National Running Day!!!

I hope you got the opportunity to get out for a run whether it was outside or on the treadmill. 

SB and I had a nice relaxing 2.51 mile run from my parents house to 1.5 mile turn around point and came back, however we stopped at the bottom of hill and walked up since we both had harder run earlier this week.  We still kept a 9:45 pace for our run.

If you haven’t gotten a run in yet…you still have some time.

Motivation---perfect timing

A friend posted this on facebook 

Run through fat days.

Run despite whoever loves you or doesn't.

Run through regret and guilt

Run through frustrations

Run through loneliness.

Run through those blissful days

Run despite your dysfunctional family.

Run through people drifting in and out of your life. Run through your own fits of self doubt.

Because we are no longer those girls who thought constantly of their struggle to disappear.

I choose to be healthy, to grow stronger, to be as alive as I possibly can. 

Source: kaitgettingfit.tumblr.com

 

Here is scripture that was painted on Julia’s shirt (it was another gentle reminder)

Hebrews 12:1 ……And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us….

Spring Changes

It has been a while since I have posted anything probably because things have been crazy around here.  

March came and went by so quickly.  As I have mentioned before, my husband and I have been searching for a house (2 1/2 year roughly), we finally found one that we both really liked.  We were pretty excited about the house and we telling my parents about it and thought we had some time to think and talk about it before making a decision, however we were wrong…..others who looked at the house the day before we did put an offer on the house.  They put an offer on the house not 15 minutes after we went through the house with our realtor.  So late on the Sunday evening, we decided to put in an offer also.  Come 6:30 am on Monday,  our realtor let us know they wanted to know what was the highest we would go.  Well by 3:00 on that Monday, we were writing up the contract for the house.   So we were busy getting all the mortgage stuff around so we could purchase a house for the month of March. 

We also celebrated my husband’s birthday as well…..my niece throw him a wonderful birthday party with birthday hats, birthday cake, birthday candles and balloons.  She was so excited to have a birthday party for him. 

Another change was after we had some really warm 80 degree weather days, I finally can’t take my long hair anymore and I chopped it off…..really chopped it off. I had grown my hair out for the wedding, and figured by April before the hot weather came I would cut it off to donate my hair.  I have donated by hair previously to Locks of Love (3 or 4 times, can’t remember how many).  So I knew this donation would be to Locks of Love or Pantene’s Length that make wigs with women and girls with cancer.  I believe this was the shortest my hair had been since I was a baby.  I wasn’t fond of how sure it was but it has started to go on me.  

Most of April was the waiting game about the house…we tried out best to get things packed up but it was hard not knowing for sure when we were closing.  And to be stilly living there and needing things, make packing hard. 

The rest of the house stuff when pretty smoothly minus a several bumps at closing time but we finally closed the very beginning of May. After closing, we sent the next week cleaning and repainting all the rooms in the house since we couldn’t match paint.  And on May 12th, we were moving into our house.  We have been in our house for a week now, and only had one glitch with the water pump.  Thankfully my parents are only 5 miles away and my dad was able to come to the rescue to touch it have it working again.  My brother had the same magical touch on our water in the fridge too.  Here is our home:

I can’t begin to say THANK YOU enough to family and friends that gave up several days to help us clean, paint, pack and move into our new home.  Their love and support and willingness to help us during this time was amazing.  We are truly blessed by wonderful family and friends that we couldn’t live without.   I know I wanted the moving day to be better planned out and prepped before we moved but we just didn’t make enough time to actually pack like we should have.  Only two minor meltdowns about the packing and moving because I should have done more before the actual moving day.  

So thank you again to family and friends for all their help….we would still be packing and moving if it wasn’t for them. 

Since we are moved into our new home that means I have closed the chapter of my life and calling the townhouse my home.  I had lived in the townhouse for 6 years.  A couple years with my older sister, a couple months with my SIL, then give or take a year with my little sister and then the last couple with my husband.  I think we will all miss the convenience of the townhouse for family gatherings, family runs (long and shorts ones), and meeting place. I will also miss our neighbor, Miss Ida, the most active 90 year old woman you will ever meet.  She has definitely become family and we have become her family too.  We made some great memories in the townhouse.  But we are looking forward to the new memories we can make here in our “Country” house.  

Spring 2012 have been the time for change in my life.

He is Risen. He is Risen Indeed!

He is Risen.  He is Risen Indeed!!! 

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead... 1 Peter 1:3

Happy Easter Everyone!!  I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating the resurrection and spending time with family. 

National Epilepsy Foundation Walk

National Epilepsy Foundation Walk

SB and I made our way down to Washington DC for the National Epilepsy Foundation Walk.  We both took off Friday and traveled down to Georgetown, where our hotel was.  We weren't as close to a metro as we hoped so we did lots of walking instead and some running. 

First experiences:  taxi cab ride down to get our National Epilepsy Foundation Walk t-shirts, Crime and Punishment store, Frozen Yogurt place (similar to the ones HungryRunner and SkinnyRunner go to), and Georgetown Cupcakes.  

So at the end of the day on Friday, we had covered about 6 miles.  We ran about 2 miles of that trying to find the Crime and Punishment store (while coverings lots of DC and going to the very important Department of Treasury Building (aka past the White House), the rest of the day we did walking around to the frozen yogurt place, Georgetown Cupcakes and back to our hotel in Georgetown. 

We woke up early on Saturday monday to get checked out of the hotel and started our trek down to the National Epilepsy Foundation Walk at 12th street.  We had a 3.2 mile run down to 12th street, we also had a quick stop at a bagel place for breakfast.   Once we got to the National Epilepsy Foundation Walk, we did some more walking around trying to find coffee to keep warm and then the walk itself which ended up being a 5k instead of the 2.2 miles.  We knew we would be tired so we grabbed the Metro to head back to Foggy Bottom then walk the rest of the way to our hotel in Georgetown.  So our total for today was around 8 miles....wow thats a lot in two day...no wonder our feet were a little tired. 

Overall, I think we had a great time and had some laughs along the way and meet some fun new people.  I am blessed and enjoyed being able to go with SB to the National Epilepsy Foundation Walk and see the many people that are affected by Epilespy in some way (person who has it, to a supporter).

We had smooth sailing all the way home with not much crazy traffic. 

The Georgetown Cupackes was worth the 20 minute wait to see and purchase their yummy, yummy cupcakes. (Note: we didn't get to eat the cupcakes until tonight (Saturday)).   

Just what the "Dr" order...

... an Evening with family. Last night was a wonderful fun-filled evening with family. We did our Friday family fun run after, everyone was done with work. Then we came back and started cooking/baking spaghetti bubbles and fruit pizza. The homemade bread was already done and cooking when you got back from our run.

Scuba found the spaghetti bubbles on Pinterest and really enjoyed them so she wanted to share with all of us.  Ella really enjoy cooking so she helped make the bubbles, she was cutting up the cheese sticks that were used in the bubbles.  She might have been taste testing the cheese too. 

Everyone and Great Aunt Evie were here except my bil Joe, here at my place to have dinner.  My husband and I didn’t have enough clean plates for everyone so we broken out our new china, Corelle dishes for dinner.   We were excited to use them, we have wanted to get them out but just hadn’t done it yet and this was a perfect time to use them. 

We had a relaxing time laughing at Ella, and talking amongst ourselves.  I do have to apologize to my family for not talking much, I was in hostess mode (too much) and was preoccupied with making sure we had everything out and ready and everyone was full and happy.  The Ella entertain was making a tent with a blanket and all of us girls getting underneath it and Ella wanted more people to join us too (like BobBob). 

Ella was entertained by watching (& selecting videos) on YouTube.  She would tell us what video she wanted next or if the computer was close enough she was use the touch pad mouse and select it herself.  During one of the last videos, she was watching SB and I sneakily changed Ella into her Penguin pj’s, and she didn’t really notice until she was already in her PJ’s and the video stopped.   Here is Ella’s fashion when she was leaving since it was raining outside. 

Overall, the family time was just what I needed and hopefully it was what the rest of my family needed too. 

Fitness Challenge Results

The results are in for the Family Fitness Challenge:  We consumed 1030 servings of fruits/veggies and exercised for 239 hours(14336 minutes)!   I am very impressed and proud of my family for completing the Fitness Challenge with outstanding results from my perspective.   It was great to see the small changes we were making to our daily routine to incorporate more fruits/veggies and exercise. 

My brother-in-law, Rich and I were the overall winners for the challenge.  My sisters, Scuba and Heather Sue were in second place just 5 points behind Rich and I.   

Congrats to my family for amazing health changes we did for 5 weeks. I know my husband and I will be continuing this challenge on our own and recording the information.  

Grandfathers

I love spending time with either of my two grandfather's and listening to the stories they have to tell.  My grandfather on my Dad's side is an amazing craftsmans with wood.  He can make the most amazing and intricate wooden items from piggy banks, folding stools, picture frames, clocks, deacon type benches, and so much more.    My grandfather on my Mom's said is also an amazing man as well, he worked in a machine shop.  He is also wise regarding money and collector of "junk"/treasures.  My siblings and I all have some of his genes in regards to money, some of us have it more than others. 

This weekend in the snow storm, my mom, dad, brother, husband and I drive up to see my grandfather and spend some time with him.  When we arrived he wasn't home, he was out running a quick errand before we got there.  It was great to spend the time with him and hear stories about things my grandmother (who I never met) would do and he would bring up antiques from his basement.  While we were eating lunch, he told us about a red flying squirrel he had in this basement and how he shot and killed the squirrel in this basement (there isn't much room in this basement to do that kind of shooting).   It was funny that my Pap had a problem with the red flying squirrel in his basement because my brother is also having trouble with them too in his cabin.  My brother has trapped and killed 6 red flying squirrels in the past three days and there are many more to come.

After spending the time with my grandfather this weekend, it helped me realize that I need to carve out and spend more time with my grandfathers, my great aunt, aunts & uncles and cousins.

Family Fitness Challenge

Let the competition begin!!   My older sister has challenged the family to a Fitness Challenge for the next 5 weeks.  We are getting a point for every minute of exercise outside of work and a point for each serving of fruits and veggies we eat.  We are using the myplate.gov for our fruit and veggies serving sizes.  My sister put us into random drawn teams for the next 5 weeks, plus Ella who will be alternating between the groups with the lowest number of points each weeks.   It is really hard to say who will get the most points each week because we have some competitive family members and other who are taking this challenge seriously by taking at look at our diets and making some changes. 

I must say I am very proud of my husband over the last month with his exercise and watching what he has been eating.  My husband recently joined the local planet fitness to lose weight and he is really doing a great job at creating his own schedule and sticking with it.  He is also doing a modified Couch to 5K running plan.  He is at the point where he is running 2 minutes and walking 4 and he is getting ~2.4 miles in the 30 minutes.  I am also very proud of my husband for taking part of this challenge because he eat very few (aka corn, raw carrots, raw apples) fruits or veggies.  However, we have found some additional items that he will eat so he can get the fruits and veggies each day for the challenge.   

I am really looking forward to the next 5 week to see what the family can do to be a little more active and healthy.   I also like this opportunity to look at my diet and incorporate more "clean" foods. 

QOTD:  Have you thought about doing a Fitness/Food Challenge with your family? Would you have some fun competition?

Ella

It has been a relaxing weekend for Mister and I.  We started out our saturday by going to the gym and getting a good workout in, errands at the mall and out to my parents house to see my sister and niece.  She is growing up soo fast.  She knew who we were as soon as we came in the house and took us in to see all that she was playing with.   She enjoyed watching the marathon trials with us and then wanted everyone to go for a runnie run too. So we bundled up and hit the road for a nice 3.7 mile run from my parents house. The run felt really good to work out the kinks left in the leg muscles from the gym workout.   Ella even out of the stroller and ran some too as we got closer to the house.  
Sunday morning was another pretty relaxing morning, then it was off to church to run the sound board and the video for the church service.  I don't know who thought it was a good idea to have me run the sound board but I was on the schedule to do it.   Mister was on the schedule to do the video stuff and he did a great job after learning from someone last week.  We came home and lounged around for a while after church which felt strange since we typically go out to my parents house for lunch and a run.  My sister and mom wanted to run errands this afternoon so we didn't rush out to the house.  We ran a couple of errands then I got a phone call from my niece saying "come visit Mandwe."  So Mister and I go around and went out to my parents house,  as soon as we walked in she came running to the door to greet us.  She told us unzip and helped us unzip our coats and take them off immediately.  She did not want us leaving.  We played with crayons, bike, and caddies (my sister got a the dollar store).   After dinner, I got her tubby ready and got her all cleaned up and ready for bed but before she could go to bed we played in her castle for a while.  Now, I had to make some room for me to get in the castle with her because it had a doll stroller, barn box, a kitty, my niece and I all fit in there.  As we were playing in there, she would reach out the window to pull in more toys every couple of minutes.   Once we were all done playing, we got her milk and was getting hugs and kisses.  Then her mommy was taking her up to bed, not long after that I hear my sister (her mommy) saying, Mandwe please come say goodnight again.  So I rushed up the steps and there is my sister holding my niece and my niece says "Missed you" (AWWWWWW, now it was only like 3 minutes since I said goodnight but she missed me that just melted my heart).  My sister passed her over to me and I rocked her for a few minutes then laid her in the crib and got her all tucked in to bed and said goodnight again and love you and sweet dreaming.     

I am always amazed at how smart she is.   She makes so many connections with words and actions that I never thought a two year old would.  She also loves her family (GrandBob, GMom, HeyHey & Richie, B and SB, Mister and Mandwe) very much and enjoys the time she gets to spend with us and we enjoy every minute with her (happy, sleepy, sad or grumpy---we love every minute of that time). 

I thank God for my family and the time I get with them. I am truly blessed!!

I hope everyone has a speedy zoom zoom kind of week.    I can't believe tomorrow is monday already, I sure wish weekends were longer. 

2011 Reflections and Goals of 2012

Happy New Year!!  I am excited for 2012 and see what God had planned for my husband & I and for my family. With the start of the new year, I have been reflecting on 2011.  2011 was a pretty exciting year for me and some goals were met.   

A big goal of mine was run a marathon.  Early in 2010, we decided that we would run the Disney Marathon.  My dad was turning 60 and running a marathon was something I wanted to complete before I turned 30 (similar to what my older sister did).   On January 9, 2011 around 5:30 am, we (my dad, sil SB, and I) started our Disney marathon experience.  It was great to run the Disney marathon and have my family and friends to cheer me along right beside me or long distance.  My dad and I ran the whole thing together, we did not meet our goal time but we finished the marathon in 4 hours and 54 minutes.   It was also very exciting that we took my niece to Disney for the first time and my older sister, Heather and lil' sis, Scuba ran the Donald Duck Half Marathon the day before our marathon.  

Another big thing of 2011, Mister and I got married on 9/10/11 of 2011.  We got engaged on June 10, 2010 and planned the wedding in a little over a year.  My family has become pro's at planning a wedding, in the past three year we have had three weddings.  My lil sister got married in 2009, my older sis got married in 2010 and I got married this year.   So we had lots of things streamlined and were able to pass address files between the three of us and many other lessons learned.   My husband and I have been together for 6 years, we meet while still in college. 

As many people have stated in there blogs: resolutions do not make a lot of sense because we all know we never stick with them.  I am going to make some goal to reach for in the coming year. 

Goals of 2012 (no particular order):

• Location and Purchase a house
• Enjoy more/any/all time with family and friends
• Enjoy the motorcycle more with my husband
• Remain Injury Free for running
• Encourage and assist my husband in reaching his goals 

QOTD: What are some of your goals for 2012?

Vacation --Stir crazy

Since I work for a university, I have the the week between christmas and new year's off every year.  Having the week vacation is great because it is typically much needed, however since I do not have much planned this vacation I am starting to get a little stir crazy.   If you haven't noticed, I am not a person who sits still well, between me and my husband we are always on the go.  

Monday was nice because my husband, SIL SB, and  I got to run some errands together and exchange/return somes gifts.  Tuesday was also nice because I met Heather and SB for a workout at the gym.  I did 8 miles on the bike and a little under a mile  on  the stair stepper thingy and abs workout (much needed).   Then I did some clean-up around my house and finally met my Dad and SIL for a run in the late afternoon.  Today, I had absolutely no plans and didn't know what I was going to do all day at home however my sister came to the rescue and asked if I wanted to go the Beagle club with her and hike around as her two beagles ran some rabbits.  It was a pretty cold and windy day but it felt nice to be outside in the fresh air.   After the beagles were done running rabbits, Heather and I met up with my Dad and SB for a late afternoon run.  The afternoon run felt really good, it was alittle chilly and wind but more fresh air  

The only plans, I have for tomorrow are to go to the gym at 8 am with SB other than that I am not sure what I will get into yet.  My little sister mentioned that I could always go up and visit her and my cutie pie niece, which does sounds pretty tempting.   My niece said on the phone earlier today, that she wanted to go shoppin'.   She is soo cute!!!    

QOTD:  What do you do to help with being stir crazy? 

Merry Christmas (belated)

Merry Christmas!!  Hard to believe that Christmas has already come and gone.  It is a busy time for Mister and I.  Christmas Eve Eve, we had the "Gang" annual Chrismukkah party so we drove to Bloom for that and stayed the night since we didn't go to bed till 4 in the morning.  Christmas eve with spend the evening with his family to celebrate christmas.  We did appetizers for dinner, exchanged gifts and went to Candlelight service, went to visit Mister's Aunt, and then we drove home. 

Christmas morning we woke up and went to church which was surprisingly empty.  Then we were off to my parents house for the annual Christmas breakfast tradition and my parents were hosting dinner.  My niece was adorable for christmas.  The first gift she opened was a wooden train the my pap made for her.  She LOVED this train, she didn't want to open any other gifts she wanted to play with her train. She kept call it is a Train Truck but she loved it. 

Christmas Cookie Tradition

After we did the train ride and the boys were done hunting, we got together for the annual cookie baking night.  Everyone brings the batter or ingredients for a cookie or a couple types of cookies.  Then we get started with getting them on cookie trays and start making and continue the assembly line of cookie making until we are out of cookie dough. 

Check out our big helper while making cookies:

Yes, I was taste tester and ate some cookie dough to make sure it was safe for everyone

She wanted a scrapper in every color to use

Only two of the 4 or 5 different kinds we had.

We had another successful cooking baking night and have gotten to enjoy them the past week.

Christmas through the eyes of a 2 yr old

Wow, time sure does fly!  Well things have been busy around there for November and so far into December.  Thanksgiving came and went to quickly and I didn't get a chance to reflect and write down how thankful I am for my amazing husband, family and friends.  God has truly blessed me and my family and friends.

Well it has been hunting season since the Monday after Thanksgiving.  It has been a long 12 yers for my husband however he finally shot his first doe and on the last day of the season he actually shot his second doe.  His hunting luck is finally changing.  My SIL, SB also has her luck change for her as well and she shot her first huge doe. Use this link to read more about her hunting story.  So we have been busy processing the deer to make into hamburger, steaks, jerky, bologna, and canned some too. 

To get into the christmas spirit we took my neice on the Polar Express train ride.  She loved it.  She loved looking out the window and she loved seeing Santa however her was a little diappointed when he didn't give her a Jingle when he came throught the train. 

Here are some pictures from our train ride.

Eating some popcorn while we are starting out and sitting on Auntie HeyHey's lap

Enjoying the train ride

Handing her ticket over to be punched

Fun on the train ride with Great Aunt Evie and Auntie HeyHey!

Overall, everyone had a great time on the train ride and will do it again next year.

Happy Feet

It was a short week for me this week. I took Thursday and Friday off as vacation. Thursday and most of Friday, I watched my beautiful niece, she is soo much fun. Then it was Friday Family Fun Run with just the girls (HeatherSue, Scuba, SB and Ella Beans) since my dad was on vacation and out hunting.

It was a chilly and windy day so we did the normal loop around my apartment but backwards. As we were running the loop, I told my is Heather Sue that she has happy feet. She laughed at me and ask when did her feet start talk to me. I don't know what it is about her feet (stride) but they always keep happy when we run on Friday's, maybe its the fact that is the weekend they are so happy. She also probably laughed at me because this is was not the first time I told her I thought she had happy feet when running. I may be going crazy/gone crazy already (..for years) or I enjoy having more footsteps running with me. I love having my sisters and dad interested in runnning, they are my motivation to keep running and to stay in shape.

My feet were happy again this weekend with another road race. My SIL is a Girls on the Run (GOTR) Coach and another local GOTR chapter was doing their 5k race of the year so we went down to support that and help her get ideas for their Spring 5k. Scuba and I ran and placed first and second respectively in the race. I also started off the race with my SIL's girl until she caught up to us on the roller blades. It was a pretty nice easy course with some hills.

We have one more road race coming up next week, the Turkey Trot then I am think I will have a couple weekends off from races before the Frostbite 5Miler in December. It will be nice and strange not having a race after next weekend since I have been running a 5k race every weekend since the beginning of October.

That never happens for me.

Today my Dad, Mister and I ran the annual Habitat for Humanity 5K race sponsored by the local college.  It is not always the most organized race but we like the course so we do it every year.   It was a beautiful fall day for the race.  SB was there to cheer us on while she is taking some time off to let her injury heal and she was our photographer today.  

During the first loop and half I was 4th female finisher then the one Dr.'s Wife passed going up the one hilll while  was stuggling with my breathing.  However, I stopped briefly to recover my breathing and then picked up the pace again because I wanted to hold on to my 5th female finisher (other than the other weekend when I was the 4th female finisher but there was only 35 runners and walkers.....being in the top 5 female finisher never really happens for me).  I pushed it hard to keep my 5th place and was able to finish the race in 25:22.

My Dad went back to bring Mister in and he was doing very well.  He finished the race in 30:35, which is pretty darn good for not training ever!

The other that never happens for me that I got first in the 20-29 Age group for female finishers.  I believe this is my second first place award I have ever gotten....So its been a good day and a good race. 

P.S. I was 15 seconds faster this year then I was last year and two minutes faster then 2 years ago. Mister was 1 minute and 20 seconds faster than last year. 

Now its time to get cleaned up and off to eat a late lunch/early dinner with the in-laws.

Big question: Why?

The big three letter word....Why?  It is one of the first questions we learn in life and continue to use it all the time.  We also question: Why is the sky blue?, Why is the grass green?,  and Why does bad things have to happen to good people?

The last question is the one that I am struggling with the most right now.  And the reason I am struggling with this question is accumlation of several things:  5 years ago, Mister (my husband) lost his mom to leukemia, a week before our wedding my husband's sister's fiance was killed in a car accident, a third cousin of my husband passed way last weekend and just yesterday we got the news that my husband's uncle was killed in a work accident.   

So the new question we have been asking is: has become hasn't this family being through enough death and loss of loved ones in the past 6 years?   Myself, family and friends are asking ourselves and Our Creator this very question.   I think my husband has a good response to this questions: 

Yes we have weathered many storms as a family...

But with God as our rock and friends and family as our shelter, we will continue standing as we always have.

Please keep the Mowery family in your thoughts and prayer while they are going through this difficult time.