Saturday, July 28, 2012

This past Tuesday precious friends of ours had their lives change for ever. Their home exploded from what is expected a propane leak. The Johnson's have 5 children. Katie who will be 19 tomorrow, Hannah and Nathan who are twin 16 yr olds, 14 year old Sarah, and 10 year old Sam. Judy and Jody (mom and dad) are Christ-loving, hard working, amazing people. Jody retired from the Army after serving 22 years in the service and Judy is a veteran herself and now a Hospice nurse. Jody works for his childhood friend in construction. Hannah and Sam were not home the morning of the explosion. Judy has 3 broken ribs and 4 broken vertabrae's and was released from the hospital today. Jody and Nathan both were bruised, but otherwise amazing ok and were released yesterday. Katie suffered burns to 40% of her body, she had a skin graft on her foot and hand yesterday and although her face suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns, they  believe yesterday was the only time Katie will need surgery, nothing but the Lord right there. Sarah, sweet, sweet Sarah. She's with Jesus. She did not survive the explosion. Once Katie is out of the hospital, which will be a few weeks most likely, they'll have her funeral. This family is one of the most giving families you could ever meet. My heart is heavy for them, yet I have hope because the Lord is doing amazing things in the small town of Wilson, New York. He's bringing people to the Lord, he's showing this amazing family how loved they are. They literally have just had visitors one after another while in the hospital.

I don't know why the Lord allows the things he does. I can tell you though his glory will shine. There WILL BE Beauty from the ashes.
Please be in prayer for this family, as they deep for their precious Sarah and as they heal.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Running

Yesterday was a workout for sure! We had a fun day, going to a castle we'd never been to, or even heard of for that matter, only about an hour away, then went to Wurzburg and walked along the All Saints Bridge, which we'd never done. We used to go to Wurzburg a lot and love the city, but had never went to the famous bridge and I'm so glad we did. We walked a great deal yesterday and we didn't get home until after 8 PM. I had promised Jackson we'd go running, and have to say if it weren't for him, I don't think I'd have done it last night. We'd stopped and had Taco Bell on our way home and let me tell you, I will NEVER eat Taco Bell again. It didn't agree with me during my pregnancy with Olivia and well it still doesn't. So, Jack and I went out about 9 last night and off we went. I didn't plan on running a full mile since my stomach was just all over the place, but then I ran into my friend S, who was running and so she went off of her route and went with me. She pushed me to go faster, she talked which helped me to keep my mind off the pain in my legs and stomach, well until we slowed down to turn around and yeah, threw up and then kept on going, I ran the 2nd 1/2 mile home. I was definitely sore when I got home, but it felt good. It felt good to know I'd done something good for myself, and well thankfully all of Taco Bell was out of my system, thankfully.

Today I was sore, so very very sore. I'm still sore and it's almost 2 AM!
Tomorrow night I'm going running again and it'll again be after another busy, but fun-filled day. We're going to Pottenstein to the rollerbahn,paddleboats, and caves.

So I AM doing this! I'm hoping that in a months time I'll see 10 lbs off of me, then hopefully with diet changes and running as well as adding in weight lifting that I'll be adding in to my workouts in the next few weeks, will help to get this weight off. I plan on changing things up every month to every 6 weeks, so my body doesn't stop loosing weight. I know it may seem unreasonable, but I do have a goal of 10 lbs a month. I know I may not hit that goal every month. I know I will most likely it a plateau at some point, but I am going to work my butt off (hopefully literally!!).

So here's my various goals for the next 2 weeks.
Run 6 miles.
4 hours on Eliptical (the plan is 4 days a week for 30 minutes)
2 days of Zumba a week.

Then, the following two weeks I plan to up the running to 8 miles
5 hours of Eliptical
3 days of Zumba

Eating/Drinks:
Only water
upping my fruits and veggies
Planning on fruit for breakfast (not a big fan of breakfast most days) with scrambled eggs on weekend.
Lunch will be healthy sandwiches and wraps
Dinners will be a variety as our family normally does, but I will be limiting my portions.
Lots of fresh fruits and veggies for snacks..when I'm bored my plan is to grab fruits or veggies. I am planning on making angel food cake and enjoying strawberries and angel food cake (no cool whip).

I am writing this all out for an accountability.
I've told Chad to not buy me anymore Dr. Pepper. He loves me no matter what my size, but wants to support me in getting healthy. He knows how unhappy I am with my weight and just how I look. I know I will never be the size I was when we got married. 6 babies have widen these hips and there's no way they're ever going back to where they were! I'm truly ok with that. I don't expect to have a flat stomach, just a smaller one (and smaller butt! LOL no seriously it needs to be smaller). These are not just temporary changes, these are forever changes. I want to be healthy for myself and my family. I want my kids to never feel embarrassed by me, because of how fat I am. I want to be a good example to my kids, especially my girls and show them a healthy body image. I don't want them to be obsessed with their weight, just show them that with hard work and eating healthy will keep them healthy. Being skinny does not equate health. I know many see this and don't understand that, but it's true. I have seen and know some very unhealthy "skinny" people. It's about excercising and eating healthy. I don't want to eat our of boredom, sadness, happiness anymore. I want to fuel my body with food and then move on. The fact is, food has never made me emotionally feel better, instead it's made me feel worse. It's time to use food as the Lord designed it. That's to fuel my body, give me energy.

I plan to have one day a week where I don't workout and allow myself a splurge on eating. I plan to make this normally Friday's when we go to the Hospitality House.
I can do this. I will do this. I AM doing this.

Thank you for your prayers and support, it means far more than you can imagine. I can do all things through Christ!!



Monday, July 09, 2012

Here I Go (Again)

I have fallen off the wagon so to speak. I've not been running in far too long and started drinking stupid dr. pepper again. I have one left and then no more and tomorrow the running will start up again. With drinking the pop, I've been craving the sweet, a great deal more than when I was running. I'm so tired of this ridiculous cycle. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. We have an eliptical that I'm going to drag inside tomorrow and on my off days of running or on rainy really hard days, this is what I'll work out on. I have big changes in eating that are about to start and once I start it, I'll blog about it, because I need the accountability and hopefully the encouragement.

I can say that without a doubt working out really effects my mood. I've been honestly really sad lately, find myself not feeling sorry for myself, just not overwhelmed in all the joy that is my life. I want to be clear that I'm not depressed, just find myself feeling sad or blah more often than I like. I have a husband who loves me, beautiful, funny, smart children who are all in different fun and challenging stages...I want to enjoy all of it. I find myself grumpy and yelling more than I like, more than is necessary by any means, and find myself just flying off the handle over little stuff. So...here I go, again. I recognize that excercising and eating right has a huge impact on me emotionally as well as physically, so I MUST do this. I can't quit, ever. I know that my weight will be a fight for me for the rest of my life, if I don't stay on top of things. My biggest prayer over all of this is that I don't get a dellusional image of my body when I have reached my goal weight/size. I have seen it happen to people who've lost a lot of weight like I need to. They get to a healthy weight and size and then keep going to a point that they're unhealthy on the otherside. So, I'm ready to get healthy and stay healthy. I'm ready to be healthy physically as well as mentally/emotionally.

I know that part of my emotional well being is being in the Lords word daily, multiple times a day. I have been feeling the Lord reminding me that I must be in his word every day and I must be in it on my own, as well as with my children.

So, here I go. Tomorrow's my day.




Thursday, July 05, 2012

My sweet baby girl is 4 months already. It's amazing how quickly time goes by. Don't let anyone tell you that it doesn't and it does not matter how many children you have, it goes by too quickly no matter what. Oh if I could only slow things down.

So Miss Olivia is Miss Personality. She's always smiling and just a happy baby girl. She's rolled a few times, but honestly I haven't really put her down on the floor much to give her an opportunity. I learned that the less you put them down, the longer until they're mobile and lack of mobility is a beautiful thing for as long as you can do it! LOL I'm joking, but honestly I'm in no hurry for her to be rolling all over, because rolling leads to crawling, crawling leads to walking. Sigh...then running, jumping, and then heading to collage. Ok so maybe I skipped some years in there, but it just all goes by so quickly.

Olivia just hanging out in her carseat
she was 3 months old here 

My sweet, happy girl 
3 months old 

My cutie...3 months old 

Silly face...4 months old 

Miss Flexible

She smiles with her whole face 

My beautiful girl 

Jack,Noah, and Jacob 

My beautiful girls...Olivia and Emma