Zumba...

I keep hearing about Zumba.  Zumba, Zumba, Zumba.  It's the new thing.  A few years ago it was Pilates.  Then Yoga.  Then Yogalates.  Now it's Zumba.  I had never heard of this until a few years ago.  Hannah and Noah were in a Kindermusik class and one of the other moms happened to be a Zumba instructor.  As I talked to Megan (the mom/instructor) my first thought was "huh?  Latin type dancing?  Really?"  I truly had no clue what it was.

Fast forward to now.

It seems like everyone is doing it.  So, because I tend to follow the crowd, I thought I'd try it out.  One of the perks of Y membership is that there's a variety of classes and Zumba happens to be one of them.  Downside?  Megan happens to be in the instructor!  She's super full of energy.  I had been taking a kickboxing class directly after Megan's Zumba class so I'd always see the last few minutes of her class.  First of all, she's insane.  She jumps around and whoops it up a lot.  High energy just doesn't even tell the whole story.  Every time she'd see me she'd try to get me to come to a class.  So I did.  Buuuuttt...I cheated a bit.  On Saturdays there is an instructor's choice class.  The instructor's rotate who leads the class.  This particular Saturday was...any guesses?...Yep, Zumba!  Megan was not the instructor but I figured it'd be best to work myself up to her.

So I went.  Luckily it was a pretty small class and most of the women had never done Zumba before.  I stood in the back like a normal person and waited for class to start.  As I looked around at the other women I thought "man I'm going to look like a fool".  Let me just say this...I went to a private, very conservative school.  Dancing was not allowed.  We didn't have Prom or Homecoming in the traditional sense.  We had banquets.  We'd get all dressed up and go somewhere to eat and have a program of some sort.  At the time we didn't really know any better but now I look back and think "WOW, that was lame!"

So these are the thoughts going through my head as class is starting.  Amazingly I somehow kept up with the instructor!  My hips did not move quite as nicely as hers but I got the footwork down!  As the song would end there'd always be a few seconds of downtime before the next song would begin.  In that few seconds of silence I'd realize I was sweating like a pig but really didn't notice because I was having fun!  I had the goofiest grin on my face the whole time.  All I could think of was that I looked like a complete idiot and I just didn't care!  Most of the other women in the class looked as ridiculous as me!  It was a nice feeling.

So tomorrow night will be my first class with Megan.  Her classes are always super packed so LOTS of sweating.  As I've observed her classes in the past there's always a few women who think they are good.  I will avoid standing next to them.  I may get annoyed and pull out a kickboxing move just to knock them over.  It'd be on purpose a complete accident though.  Truly.  :)  Wish me luck!  I'm sure I'll have much more to say about Zumba after tomorrow night.

Heavy Heart

I posted a few weeks ago about a mom awaiting the birth of her very abnormal baby boy.  This story gripped me.  Click here to go the their blog.  I followed along as Lisa and Josh (the parents) struggled to understand why they were chosen to parent this boy, Jaxton.  He overcame many odds and survived the birth!  Many of the abnormalities they thought he would have weren't as bad as initially thought.  Instead of Trisomy 13, he was found to have Trisomy 18.

So fast forward to a couple days ago.  The doctors did a test on Jaxton to see if he could breath on his own, without the ventilator.  It did not go well.  They repeated the test a few days later just to confirm but bottom line, Jaxton could not survive without a ventilator.  So they made the horrific decision to unplug the vent.  They asked for prayers that God would perform a miracle for little Jaxton.  Then at the exact moment he had been born 2 weeks prior, the vent was turned off.

30 minutes later Jaxton died.

I can not imagine watching your baby die.  Even though the odds were stacked against them, to actually turn off the one device keeping your child alive?  I'd like to think I'd be strong enough but I just don't think I could.  

Bleh

I'm having one of those days months.  Seriously, it feels like I can't get into the swing of things.  Why?  I have ideas but I don't know for sure.  NO, I'm not pregnant!  :)


I can't seem to lose weight and it's driving me nuts!  I go to the gym 4-5 times per week.  I watch what I eat (although I'm the first to admit that my willpower it seriously lacking).  So why the heck won't the weight come off?  On the flip side, I can tell how much stronger I am.  I have a couple herniated disks in my lower back so my amazing chiropractor  has said core strength is very important for me.  While my 6-pack is tucked clear in the back of the fridge, I can tell I do have more abd muscles.  And my arms and legs aren't nearly as wimpy anymore.  Between kickboxing and the elliptical, I'm burning some serious calories.  


I know muscle weighs more than fat.  I totally get that.  But there is no way in the world that I have that much muscle!  *sigh*  So what am I doing wrong?  Is it just because I have no will power when it comes to sweets?  Really?  Cuz that really sucks.  Is it because Diet Mountain Dew is the sweetest nectar on earth and I drink it constantly?  But it's diet!!  If I have to give up my diet dew, I may have to go away while I'm detoxing.  I will not be a pretty person for a few days. 


Any ideas or advice is completely welcome!  I know I'm not the only person who struggles with losing weight!   

Today was one of those days...

We've all had days when we're at our wits end.  Nothing seems to be easy.  Everything seems to take 10 times longer than it should.  We've all been there.  The more kids you have, the worse it gets!

Hannah and Noah have been driving me crazy today.  Hannah's in that "I don't want to eat anything and I'll whine about everything" phase.  Noah loves to throw things.  Literally, everything.  So this morning when I walked out of the living room to put away some clean clothes, I returned to both kids throwing an entire 140-piece box of blocks down the stairs.  Yep, it was going to be one of those days.  (Thanks Aunt Salli for said box of blocks.  They love throwing them!)


I went to the Y for a while and had a terrible run.  My head was throbbing and my legs just didn't want to cooperate.  Then Noah cried and cried the entire car ride to pick up Hannah from preschool.  On a high note, my mom happened to have today off work so she watched them for a few hours this afternoon so I could go the chiropractor (oh yea, my back is hurting too!) and get a mani/pedi.  If only I had remembered to shave my legs...oops!  My bad.

After returning home with the kids, they continued to whine and cry about every little thing.  Joel got home from work and within a few minutes, he was thinking he'd come home to the wrong family.  Who were these children?  Who are their parents?  Oh wait.  Crap.  It's us.  :)

Joel was forced graciously offered to watch the kids for a little while so I could sit down...which, of course means checking facebook!  As I scrolled through the news feed, I noticed a link to a blog of someone going through a hard time.  I like reading blogs, so off I went.

And when reading the blog, it hit me.

My kids may drive me insane some days.  They may take me to the edge of my rope but...they are beautifully normal.  Normal.  That word is so...well...normal.  We all dream of "normal" babies and assume we're going to have one.  This blog I read was about a baby anything but normal.  The very first post was written just a few minutes prior.  The couple was in the hospital anxiously awaiting the birth of their baby.  The birth of their severely deformed baby.  He was going to be born with Trisomy 13.  This trisomy is most often fatal.  And by most often, I mean seriously...most babies either don't make it to term, are still born, or die within a few minutes of birth.  Their abnormalities are just too great for their little bodies.

I read down through past postings all the way back to when they found out the news on a routine ultrasound.  Yep, I'm an ultrasound tech.  Have I ever found something abnormal on an ultrasound?  You bet.  But it never hits home for me.  My heart may be breaking but I can't show emotion.  So as I was reading this blog, it was being updated as the mom was being wheeled into the OR to have a c-section.  The parents are praying for a miracle.  Their lives will never be the same.  Their son may beat the odds and live.  But what kind of life will he have?  The mom had previously posted that the ultrasound showed severe brain abnormalities.  Will their son be "normal"?  Without a miracle, he would not.

So as I hear my kids screaming, crying, throwing things, driving me insane, I can't help but think.  They're being "normal".  I have 2 beautifully NORMAL children and I wouldn't trade them for anything.

My first Y locker room experience...

So before anyone thinks this is going to be some boring story about me opening a locker for the first time, let me assure you...it's not.  And because it's ME, I always do something dorky and stupid, therefore funny. :)  I find humor in everything I do.  Why?  Because I'm weird like that.

So Monday mornings I do a PHAAT class from 9:15-10.  Usually I pick Noah back up from child care, race home for a quick shower, then off to pick up Hannah from preschool at 11:30.  Or conversely, I'll do some errands after class, before picking up Hannah then take a shower later.  Today I decided to shake things up a bit.  The Y has a locker room with showers.  Why not take one there?  Then I wouldn't be rushing around, not driving as much (thus saving a few cents in gas!), and Noah would still be in child care so I wouldn't be hearing "MOMMY" every 5 minutes.  Win/Win/Win.

Let me just say that I'm a very private person.  I don't like parading around in all my nakedness.  Really.  Who wants to see that?  Apparently Monday morning is geriatric swimming class.  So after class, all the older women come in the locker room to take a shower.  Let's just say that I got a serious visual of our bodies change through the years.  The song "Do your ears hang low?" was going through my mind.  Only, change the word "ears" to "boobs".  THEN to make things even weirder, there was some girl staring at me the entire time I put on make-up and dried my hair.  I was getting a tad creeped out.

However, it was nice to be done with the shower, pick up Noah, and have plenty of time to make it to Hannah's preschool.  I've learned many lessons by my first Y shower room experience.  Most importantly, when I walk in the door next week, I shall keep my eyes firmly SHUT.  :)

Pictures, Pictures, and more Pictures...

I haven't posted any new pics of my kids for a while.  I thought Noah had hidden the cord connecting the camera to the computer but in reality, I'm just blind.  The cord was right where it was supposed to be. :)  So...enjoy...

Hannah was really excited to have her picture taken with Noah.  

This picture reminds me of a Sure Deodorant commercial

I think I had told Hannah to hug Noah.  Instead, she's choking him.

Not sure what was so funny.  Perhaps I had made a funny face.  

Hannah helping daddy make pizza

I told Noah to smile so Hannah thought she needed to help

I have no words...

The awesome benches my friend Laura made for my kids.  She designed them after their rooms.  

Trying out their new stools so they can "help" daddy.  Poor Noah is still a little short.  

Spinning makes me dizzy...

I've been looking to change up my work-out routine.  Since I'm planning on running a few more 5Ks this year, I wanted something to really challenge my legs.  While visiting my sister in Minneapolis, we went to the Y up there (seriously better than ours!!) and tried a spinning class.  Let me just say, those bikes are much more complicated than they should be.  Seriously, what's with all the knobs??  Salli had to walk me through how to prepare my bike.  So the instructor starts walking around before class talking to us, making sure we all know what we're doing and she sees me.  Now, when I packed for this trip, I just grabbed the first t-shirt in the drawer.  It happened to be a Iowa Hawkeye t-shirt.  And I was in Minnesota.  Oops.  Then she tells me she played basketball...for Iowa State.  Double oops.  I think she made the class extra hard special just for me.

So we started pedaling away.  I thought it wasn't bad, for the first 30 seconds or so.  Then it started getting harder...and harder...and harder!  By the time the class was over, I was surprised my legs didn't buckle.  I sweat like a cow/moose/pig/sweaty person.  (whatever is super sweaty!).  But it was a great work-out!  So as soon as I got back to Ankeny I looked up the classes at our Y.  I found a spinning class that would work for me.  So off I went.  Now let me just say that the Ankeny Y is a bit on the old outdated used broken-in side.  So their bikes were not anything like the ones in Minneapolis.  So right off the bat I felt like a total moron.  I finally got the bike where I needed it and off we went.  As I looked around the room, there were a few people wearing some serious biking gear.  As first I thought "really? You look dumb".  But then after a few minutes I realized why biking shorts are a glorious thing.  My butt hurt like crazy!  Seriously.  Every time we had to go up and down on the seat I thought I was going to die.  I was sure I was going to have a bruise the next morning in a very bad place.  Alas, all was well in that regard.  So here's what I've learned about spinning class...

• Contrary to what the name says, "spinning" has nothing to do with turning in circles.  Before I went to a class, I honestly thought there was some circle movement.  That's sort of why I'd never done a class before.  Dumb?  Yep.  
• Always take a towel with you.  The amount of sweat coming off my face was rather disgusting...but good in a way.  It's like calories running out of my body.  
• Water is a must!  Oh my word, with the amount of sweat you've GOT to replenish the body.  
• When you have to go up and down on the bike, sit gingerly.  Seriously.  Owie
• Make sure you're wearing cute underwear.  Sound weird?  Well, take it from me.  You're pants may start to ride down a little as you move and you may show your underwear to the person behind you.  This could be quite embarrassing if you happen to be wearing granny panties.  At least if you are wearing something cute it's slightly less embarrassing.