Sick Kids, Play "dates" and More

Over the weekend, all three of my children spiked fevers, and complained of sore throats. My poor Alyssa pretty much slept all day on Sunday. Today I took them to the doctor, and they all have tonsillitis, strep, or both. So, I get the great job of trying to get my youngest to take medicine. Again. Luckily, my awesome doctor took pity on me, and prescribed Lucas an antibiotic that he only needs to take once a day. Then Matthew gleefully announced that he "likes to swallow pills". Probably shouldn't brag about that, kid ;)

I also discovered, at the doctor, that Matthew has gained 11 pounds :(  Definitely not good. We hopped on the Wii Fit board before dinner, and that agreed. 11.4 lbs gained. He wasn't feeling up to jogging, but he did exercise for 30 minutes on the Wii. I did a body test too, and I have lost 7.7 lbs! Hooray :) The Wii told me that I only have 14.3 lbs to go before I hit my goal, which is awesome. That's not my complete goal, but it does put me in the 120s, which is fantastic. Then I told my husband, excitedly, that I was only 14 lbs away from the goal. His, loving, supportive reply? "Well, I like you best at about 110". Oh yeah? Well I like you best when you aren't an asshole. Guess we're both SOL ;)

I also got to go out kid free on Saturday night, which was awesome. My hilarious children called it an "Adult Play Date", haha. My sweet friend, and Zumba instructor, Jessica, invited me to see the play Gypsy with her at the theater in our town, The Snug. It was so much fun, and the show was great!! I never, ever do anything without my kids, so I'm very glad that I was able to go. Jess and I will definitely be doing it again. I had never been to The Snug before. I was very impressed. It's small, but beautiful. And, as Jessica pointed out, the size means that you never have a bad seat ;)

Back to a Duo

My son has gotten very lazy. He stopped walking/jogging with me, because it was "too hard". He also seems to have found all of the weight that I lost. It is not healthy, so I told him that he no longer had a choice. He will power walk (for now, we'll build up to a jog) three miles with me, every day. He was not pleased, at first. The first few days kinda sucked, honestly. I was desperately wishing for some other way to get him back in shape, and healthy. My nightly jogs had went from being my favorite part of my day, to feeling like a chore. I had just gotten to the point where I could jog most of the time, had my perfect "jogging playlist" and I had a nice routine going, then everything got changed up. Matthew complained and whined the ENTIRE three miles. He went super slow, didn't like the music I put on, we went too far, etc.

Then, yesterday, we found his charger for his MP3 player. I charged it, added more songs to it, and handed him it, along with his headphones. Talk about a difference!!! We went much quicker, he didn't complain one single time, and it was again a pleasant experience. The only downside to last night was that I had to bring my daughter, and therefore the wagon, so Lucas fell asleep sitting up, then woke back up with way too much energy for 10 pm. Tonight we will be taking the stroller, and getting back to the normal routine, only with Matthew along for the ride :)

I was also very excited the other day. On a whim, I decided to try on some of the jeans I have up in my closet that haven't fit me in years. I tried on every single pair, and EVERY. SINGLE. PAIR. FIT. Wow! That was awesome. So I have several pairs of jeans to wear now, which is good, since summer is apparently on hiatus. Then I put on this black sleeveless shirt that I have. When I got the shirt, several years ago, I remember thinking about how cute it would look plain, if I ever got thin enough for it to look right. It seemed like a pipe dream, so I always used it under other shirts for layering, or whatever. The other day, I wore it, plain. That felt good. I'm still a long way from where I want to be, but I'm making progress, and that's all that matters ;)

Parade!

We had a busy, but fun, weekend. Fireworks Thursday and Friday, then Saturday we Zumba'd in the parade! It was tons of fun, as always. The weather was perfect, Lucas happily stayed with his daddy, and we all did awesome ;)

Before that though, we had to celebrate Independence Day. The next town over does a carnival, fireworks, and the aforementioned parade, every year. This year they did their fireworks on the 3rd. Then the next town over on the other side does theirs on the 4th every year. Usually we only go to one. This year, we decided to hit them both ;)

I didn't actually intend to go to the fireworks both nights, but Alyssa's sweet little face is hard to resist. My husband skipped Friday's, because he had to work on Saturday morning. I purposely parked as far away as possible on Friday, and managed to get three miles in walking there and back, ha. Both towns put on great shows, and of course, I took a million pictures. Here are a couple of my favorites:

 Then we had the parade. I wore my pink breast cancer awareness Zumba shirt. I bought it specifically for the parade, but honestly, I wasn't sure that it would fit by then. I was pleasantly surprised that it did. I love doing the parades! I'm a little sad that this is the only one that we are doing this year, but we always have next year ;) Here are some pictures from the parade:

Sorry for the short, mostly picture filled, post. I will write a longer one tomorrow :)

Late Nights

You know, I have to say, I am incredibly lucky to live in the town that I live in. I am able to go for walks/jogs at ten or eleven at night, and still feel (and be!) safe. heck, I could go out at 2 am and still be fine! I tend to take that for granted sometimes. It's really great in the summer, because it's so much cooler at night. Plus the added bonus of less people, and Lucas falling asleep ;)

Of course, even living in a small, safe town, you sometimes can get a little creeped out. Well, I can at least, ha. Tuesday night, I was positive that I was going to get murdered. Partly because I was reading a "Creepy Stories" thread on Babycenter, and partly because I had just been talking to my sister, who now lives in California, about how safe our little hometown is. Naturally, talking about how I don't get murdered while I'm out walking should have guaranteed me a spot on the evening news. That didn't stop me from popping in my ear buds, and heading out though ;)

Last night I was able to go out much earlier, and with no kids. Lucas fell asleep very early, and so I took off at like 9pm. It was still light out, and there were tons of people everywhere. Teens jumping in at the Edison, families crowed around The Sweet Tooth, kids, and adults, on bikes, parents pushing strollers. Most people smile, say hello, or just move out of my way, but I do get the occasional strange look. Like jogging through town is a foreign concept. I made really good time, but I still prefer to do it later, when there are not so many people out. I like the solitude.

I have to say though, all of the looks, comments, and anything else is worth it when I run into someone I haven't seen in a while, and (s)he says "Wow, you look great! What have you been doing?".

Tonight is Zumba, and Saturday we dance in the parade :) I will try to get pictures if I can!!

Walk it off

Sometimes, you are out for a jog, and you look up and see this sky heading your way:

Scared the crap outta me for a second. I thought it was a huge storm coming, less then two miles into my three mile jog. Luckily it was just some funky looking clouds ;) 

Rain wouldn't have bothered me, except I had Lucas, and he was sound sleep. The very last thing I wanted was for anything to wake him up. These nightly jogs are my favorite end to my day. No matter how crappy my day was, if the kids drove me nuts, or someone upset me, or anything, I literally just walk it off. No matter how tired, or bad I feel at the beginning, I always feel better (and hotter, and sweatier) by the end.

Last summer I had to quit jogging when it got really hot, because I felt like I was going to pass out by the end. This summer, that's just not happening. I will NOT quit. I found my sports bra tank tops, and this year, they actually cover my stomach. I have shorts, lightweight exercise capris, and motivation ;) I was shocked to realize the difference in how my tank top fit from last year to this year:

I think I can probably get away with working out in that now :)

I still don't want to hop on the scale, or try on my too-small-for-me jeans just yet. Whenever I start to feel good about my progress, that is guaranteed to ruin it, ha. So, for now I will just stick with pictures, and how I feel as my progress tracker. It's too hot for jeans right now anyway ;)