Spring activities

Wow, can't believe I haven't been on here in a couple months! Life has been so incredibly busy. I am going to attempt to do a quick recap of the last couple months.

I joined a Healthy weight loss competition. It was 8 weeks long and focused more on creating healthy habits than on weight loss. During this 8 weeks I walked/ran over 10 miles, biked around 100 and did many hours of cardio and strength activities. I ended up with a loss of 22 pounds in those 8 weeks. After it was over, I kept in contact with my accountability partner but didn't stick to the "plan" anymore. During the next 3 weeks I drank pop (though not much), ate sweets (also, not anywhere near as much as I had previously) and didn't count calories. I lost 3lb in 3 weeks. How frustrating but also how eye opening! I realized that I really have to stick to this plan of eating healthy, drinking tons of water, working out, and most importantly, not drinking pop. Pop is so highly addictive. When I was off the pop, I didn't crave sweets at all. As soon as I had a single pop, I was craving pop and other sweets like crazy. I also felt constantly tired and depressed. So, I am now back on the plan, staying in daily contact with my accountability partner, and off of pop. Hope to start dropping the weight again!

Baseball: This was Bubba's first year playing t-ball. My how he loved it!! He is so good at baseball and was one of the best on his team. The first few games he got almost every ball the other team hit. He was really focused on the game and wanted to learn as much as he could. Unfortunately his coach had never coached before and he had many teammates that didn't care to play well, or even stay on the field. The coach spent a lot of time just rounding kids back onto the field. These things make it hard for Bubba to learn as much as he would have liked. However, we worked with him as much as we could ourselves, and he hit off the T in our own backyard almost daily. By the end of the season he was consistently hitting his balls into the outfield and did not need a T anymore.

Swimming: This was Mo's 3rd year on the Swim team. She really enjoyed reconnecting with friends from previous years and grew closer to them over the season. She learned many hand clapping games from them. Since we spent so much of the last year with a knee injury and in therapy sessions, her swimming had seen a negative effect. At the beginning of the season she was frustrated and wanted to quit since she wasn't as fast as she thought she would be. After some very hard work though, she became better and faster. She really worked on her form and breathing. Her rotary breathing for freestyle is very good. However, since she is taking a breath every other arm, it slows her down. I am sure that the more she practices she will learn to wait four strokes instead of two. This will help her speed up a lot. She also is trying to perfect the other strokes. She has an adorable little double head bob while doing her breast stroke. It is cause she is focusing so much on the legs and body movement that she doesn't realize what her head is doing. Very cute though! I hope that this year we will be able to work swimming back into our normal routine so that she can practice year round. Not only will this help with her swim times, but it is also great therapy for her.

We also celebrated our 9 year anniversary! We went on a 20 mile bike ride for our date. It was so much fun! However, it proved to be a bit too much for me and I had to cop out at 17 miles. I was so frustrated. It was a good ride and my longest yet, but I felt like my muscles were sluggish to start and I totally blame that on the pop. I am almost positive that if I hadn't been drinking pop that week then I totally could have finished that ride.

Mo also turned eight! My how fast time flies. Of course she was sure to remind me that she is half way to being able to drive a car. She is turning into such a beautiful young girl. She is 4'6" and 73lb! She is very tall for her age. She has many friends that are 9&10 who are the same height or even shorter than her. She wears a size 6 women's shoe already. But like all kids, she can't wait to grow more. She is so bright and full of life (and attitude at times). She loves photography, American girls, playing house, biking, swimming, knitting, and many other things. She is always interested in learning a new craft. She is constantly talking, singing, or doing something to make noise. It can drive us nuts at times but we love that she is so full of life. The other day she decided to write down a song. It was a love song! When she asked dad for help he refused to help her write a love song so she changed it to be a love song about daddy. It was cute. She is definitely going to keep us on our toes for years to come but with a steady amount of training, discipline, and therapy, hopefully she will blossom into a mature young lady with respect for herself and others. I know that God has big things planned for this bundle of energy!!