Amazing the things you hash over during a mani/pedi.  After a pedicure Friday, I was getting a polish change when I started talking to the two ladies next to me.  I overheard them talking about a blind date that night.  Turns out they both knew me and jogged my memory to remind me how we’d met.  One is a 30-year-old nurse and mother of three (youngest 20 months).  She is recently out of a not-so-great relationship that dragged on for six years.  This weekend was the first time she’d gone out on a date in years.  Her friend is a 25-year-old aspiring singer, never married with a son.  She is dating someone who both agreed is not supportive of her musical pursuits.  In the few minutes we chatted I (being a few years older ) shared some of my relationship rules.  At least what’s worked for me.  First off, I said you’re wasting your time settling for someone you know is not marriage material–if you’re ultimately planning to get married, that is.  Also, your man should make you a better person and make you feel better about yourself; not complete you, but bring out the best in you.  Finally that you can’t get discouraged in a small town when you see the same people every time you go out.  Halfway across the country I met Dave, through mutual friends, in a town of like 60,000.  Who knew the love of my life would turn up in a bar at a Mexican restaurant?  They both felt God would be their best guide to steer them toward happy and healthy relationships.  I totally agreed.  Someone is out there for you, I reasoned, but are you available to accept him?  

Next Level Extreme Fitness (NLXF):  It’s Week 5 so no more planks with my knees down.  I am so much stronger than when I started this latest fitness journey, but my eating has not mirrored my exercise.  I pledge to eat healthier the second half of the program!

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Too cute not to share.  This email was forwarded to me twice in 24 hours.  If you have yet to get it in your in-box, here is an explanation and my favorite three of the attached photos:

Next Level Extreme Fitness (NLXF):  Charlotte and Thomas came with me to class as their preschool had a delayed start.  They enjoyed watching Mommy through the window in the playroom.  Charlotte said when I put on those boxing gloves I looked like an exercise monkey, apparently referring to some toy she’s seen.  I was so red-faced and frizzed-out from the numerous planks and crunches, I looked more like an 80s rocker chick with a sunburn.

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If everyone has a passion, I’ve yet to pinpoint mine.  I know this because I’m around others with clearly defined passions they carve out time to pursue.  My mom loves flower gardening.  She spends hours when it’s warm plotting and planting.  During the winter months, she reads magazines about outdoor living and designing.  Dave loves baseball.  He played the sport for hours a day as a child, coached it for years after playing in college and is thrilled to meet Hall of Famers when we travel to All Star Weekends nationwide.  My husband also loves lawn care.  He is already concerned about how much top soil will be down before the sod on our new lot is laid.  Searches for shade plants and landscape layouts are being done on his computer.  Me, well I don’t devote time to any one thing in particular like this.  I don’t like to cook or do much outside beyond sitting in the shade.  I don’t spend money collecting anything or take on projects like scrapbooking or stamping.  None of that interests me enough to use free time on it.  Of course I feel passionate about things like my kids and my job, but I enjoy breaks from both.  I guess I’m passionate about food and eating.  I put a lot of effort toward consuming as much as possible while still being able to fit in my clothes!

Next Level Extreme Fitness (NLXF):  Strength and resistance training today… “Get ripped up!  Get ripped up!” Creed shouted as we were carrying out some intense exercises like 15-second squats with bands and burnout push-up sets.  I AM ripped, I thought to myself, you just can’t tell because the muscles are covered up with fat.

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I’ve been told timing is everything with real estate.  I now believe it.  In 3 months our roller coaster ride on the housing market forced us to constantly question our motives and reevaluate our options.  First we were convinced building was the way to go.  Then we panicked over the volatility of interest rates and woes of temporary housing and decided to buy an existing home.  In the end, we struck a perfect balance:  a new construction home that will be done on the main floor when we close on ours!  We already locked in a great rate and have met with the builder who says our basement should be finished by mid-March.  But for our family the enjoyment of living is as much about people as place, and our new neighborhood is already proving to offer an incredible fit for a 4-year-old social butterfly.  Two of Charlotte’s classmates live there, one a few houses down.  And I’m told she will be the 15th child going into kindergarten in the fall.  We’ve already been invited to a swim party with her new classmates next month.  48 hours after our offer was accepted, an email came from a family I know who lives there inviting me to join a Wednesday night women’s Bible study on our new street.  That’s rolling out the welcome wagon.  My parents are coming this weekend to talk paint colors and cabinet knobs.  We are so excited.  And glad this unique journey is close to wrapping up, honestly.

Next Level Extreme Fitness (NLXF):  Back for more kickboxing and ab work, among other cardio challenges.  I still do the planks with my knees down, but I will get there…. I hope.  Do feel so much better about myself after getting in a workout today!

Interviewed Pauly Shore today

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It’s sad to me that most of my close friends have never seen my children in person.  After college we moved to other states and life got in the way.  Five years after graduation a group of us met in Chicago for a reunion weekend.  Of course we talked about making it an annual thing.  That was 10 years ago and it’s never happened.  We got jobs, married our boyfriends and had kids.  So there was little time or money left to rearrange schedules and to pay for plane tickets.  Sure some of them came to Peoria for my wedding in 2005, but that was pre Charlotte and Thomas.  Now I’m trying to get my 4-year college roommate (Allison who lives in New York City) and our other close college friend (Gina currently in Chapel Hill, North Carolina) to visit the same time this summer.  “I want you to see my children before they grow up,” I emailed them.  Neither has kids.  Neither is married.  Odds are after they spend a couple days in my world, they’ll stay single and childless.  But I’ll get my fix and then we’ll have to make plans to meet in 2021.

Next Level Extreme Fitness (NLXF):  Could not make it to class this morning.  Now I feel ultra guilty about it.  And that’s the point.  You want to feel like you need to work out, make it a habit.  I will be back tomorrow and will feel much better about myself as a result.

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At last count, just one of the two basement rooms we’re storing all our stuff in at Mark Schnackenberg’s has 41 rubber storage bins.  And those are the ones we filled and hauled in just the past two days.  So far we’ve cleaned out every bathroom cabinet and all the closets except for the one with coats.  The kids are down to minimal clothes in their rooms and we donated Thomas’ crib to House of Hope in Waterloo.  He’s getting the twin bed that slides under Charlotte’s bunk bed/loft.  No word on when those will be moved and they’ll be sleeping in them!  Thankfully I am much stronger now than I was three weeks ago, because of my fitness classes.  It’s true.  Dave is still hurting from his procedure–scar tissue from two previous ones, apparently.  So it really helped that I was capable of hauling so much from our second floor and our basement to the garage and out and down again at Mark’s house.  By the way, moving is hard on the nails.  Mine are chipped and cracked in a couple places.  I did what any resourceful woman would do.  Cut them all down, thereby cancelling the need to touch up the tips where the polish had come off.  Great, now they’re too short to pull the tape away from the roll when I need to label a thousand more bins.

Next Level Extreme Fitness (NLXF):  Another Monday kicked off with the opening music of Jock Jams.  Remember the let’s get ready to rumble thing?  I tried to get into it.  By mid-way through the hour, I was doing high roundhouse kicking with oomph.  Today rubbing lotion on my arm, I actually felt my tricep was more toned.  I kid you not.  It was a great discovery at the start of Week 4.

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Wake me up when the temperature is back over 50 degrees.  I absolutely hate these months of frigid conditions, especially with kids.  It never fails.  The colder it is, the more resistant Thomas is to being strapped in his carseat.  And of course Charlotte can never quite find the buckle for the seatbelt around her booster seat when it’s freezing outside, yet she has no trouble doing it on her own in warmer weather.  Growing up I loved playing in the snow and skiing and pretending like the frozen puddles on the playground were mini-ice rinks.  Now I dread even going into the garage.  Mark annoys me when he delivers the forecast with a smirk on his face, having nothing positive to share.  I obviously don’t hide my disdain.  My hope is through my children I will eventually get some winter joy back.  I plan to take Charlotte to a local ski resort, as she’s old enough for a lesson.  Odds are, though, after 30 minutes on the bunny hill Mommy will be ready to head to the lodge for a hot chocolate.

Next Level Extreme Fitness (NLXF):  Statue of Liberty made an appearance on the exercise roster today.  Ugh!  I have to admit my quads and arms are getting way stronger.  I can actually go lower on push-ups (on my knees, of course).

Deb Hageman's granddaughters

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Charlotte is turning out to be a perfect blend of tomboy and girly girl.  One minute she is wrestling Thomas on the floor, the next putting Hello Kitty glitter gel on her cheeks.  I really saw the feminine side of her emerge this past weekend when a preschool friend came over to play.  “Don’t look at us!” she shouted as they ran through the living room decked out in dresses, jewelry and plastic princess high heels.  Of course various colors from her Tinkerbell make-up kit were smeared randomly on their faces.  It really cracked me up.  To be a 4-year-old again, with the freedom to express yourself through dress-up and role-playing.  At one point they were playing house, of course, and Charlotte had a doll stuffed under her shirt as she was pregnant.  Enjoy the pretend pregnancy now, Sissy, if you’re like Mommy you’ll weigh over 200 pounds before it’s all over.

Next Level Extreme Fitness (NLXF):  A lot of kickboxing drills today.  One fun highlight, cheering one another on as we ran down one-by-one and did a roundhouse kick on the bag.  The hardest kicker of the day will win a $25 gift certificate.  Doubt I am in the top 30.

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For some time Thomas has shown interest in being like some of his classmates and Sissy and going on the big potty.  Our encouragement and promise of a new Wiggles DVD finally made it happen.  Sunday morning dressed for church, he was victorious on his Spiderman potty insert.  We were ecstatic!  Since then he’s peed on the toilet, too, peed on the floor through his Elmo underwear and peed through his jeans in the basement of a house we were looking at during an open house!  It’s been a wild ride so far and the potty training journey has seriously just begun.  This morning I put him in his Toy Story pull-ups for preschool and had a chat with one of his teachers about his progress.  She already knew about it from Facebook.  Yes, I posted the above pic on there as well.  Yes, he will kill me some day.

Next Level Extreme Fitness (NLXF):  Really feeling the abs tonight!  Another intense class, but the plus is the variety.  No two classes are alike.  That not only benefits your body with muscle confusion but keeps me from getting bored.

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Many of you knew better.  I have never been through selling a house then moving to another one so quickly.  The 80 days we had ours listed turned out to be less stressful than the past few days since it sold.  I am eating everything in sight and changing my mind regularly about where I want to live.  During the past few days we’ve met with a builder twice, gone to multiple showings and open houses and made 3 offers!  The first was rejected as we were outbid the same day.  The second was countered and we had decided to go for another house in the period it took to hear back so we rejected it.  The third is yet to be determined but we’re keeping our fingers crossed.  I have been up for 2 and 3-hour stretches the past two nights with various scenarios running through my mind.  Our priorities seemed simple, simply to have a bigger basement and garage in a neighborhood like the one we’re leaving with a lot of young children.  Oh, and lock in an incredible interest rate to finance it!  Fulfilling those desires has been way more difficult than I anticipated.  Gotta wrap this up… I’m ordering a pizza.

Next Level Extreme Fitness (NLXF):  This week has been dubbed Abs Week… great.  Guess that means I will be unable to laugh or cough without pain.  On our backs raising our arms and legs straight up to crunch we were told by Creed, “You’re not always going to look pretty doing it, but your abs will look pretty.  I promise ya that!”  We’ll see. 

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