Tuesday, May 31, 2005

11 days

Only 11 days until I leave for California. I am so excited, but also nervous. It will be hard to be away from Keith and the kids for that long, but I am excited about what God has in store for me on this Journey.

Now that the Wedding and Memorial Day are behind me I can concentrate on getting ready to leave for my trip. I have so much to do in so little time.

Blog More Later,
Melissa

Thursday, May 26, 2005

A Wedding

Tomorrow my little brother, Jordan, is getting married to his highschool sweetheart. I am so happy for them and am very excited about Kelly officially joining our family.

I am in charge of the rehersal dinner tonight. We are doing Mexican because they are going to Cancun on their honeymoon. My Aunt Linda and 2 cousins are here from California. They are helping with the dinner along with another friend of mine. It will be a fun evening.

I was going to go and work out this morning, but decided that I will be getting a work out enough running back and forth from my car and up and down all the stairs that Moody Church has to offer. :-) This rehersal dinner will probably be a better work out then I could get at the gym. I don't want to be dead for the wedding. I will be back to my workout schedule on Monday.

I'm off and running.
Blog more later,
Melissa

Monday, May 23, 2005

Camp LaJolla Part 2

I said that I would write a little bit about why and how I decided that I would go to a Fitness Camp.

This past fall Keith and I were watching a 60 minutes story on people that travel down south to Weight Loss Camps and Clinics. I have struggled a long time with my weight and have tried every fad diet out there. I've lost the weight only to gain it back plus more. This story interested me in the idea of going away to a camp. Keith asked me if that was something I would be interested in doing. It was as if he was reading my mind. I went online and looked into the programs that they talked about, but they did not fit my personality or what I wanted to accomplish. A lot of them included liquid diets and boot camp style workouts. That would not work for me. Also, I was trying to figure out how I would work this out with leaving the kids and Keith having to work. He also wanted to dedicate a lot of his summer to working on his PhD, so I knew that wouldn't work if the kids were home and I was gone.

I was about to give up. I was trying to find camps in Illinois and could only find teen fitness camps. I started praying, "Lord if this is what I am supposed to do please show me the way and how it will work out." I googled "FAT CAMP" and did a nationwide search. A camp called CAMP LAJOLLA came up as the first link. I read the description on google and it said, "We are NOT a fat camp, we are a fitness camp. Consider yourself on a fitness vacation." Something to that affect. That caught my eye. Next I wondered where the camp was, so I went to their website. They are in LaJolla California, which is right by San Diego, California. My Uncle and Aunt only live about 2 hours from there. This was becoming more and more exciting as I was reading.

I read on their website that there was a Mature Women's camp. Ok, now I know that some of you might debate wheter or not I should be going to the Mature camp, but I am. It is camp for woman 30 and better. (Not older) You can go from 4 weeks to 9 weeks. The next step was to email my Uncle and Aunt. My Aunt Linda (My Mom's Sister) has always said, when we are ready we can send the kids to her for the summer, so I remembered to mention that in her email. :-) At this point Keith said, if my Uncle and Aunt were willing to help with the kids and the price was right we could go ahead and do it. While long story short (I know, too late) My Aunt and Uncle agreed to 4-5 weeks of watching the kids.

I called CAMP LAJOLLA and talked to them about price, duration of camp, what the program is. etc. I was getting more and more excited about it the more I talked to them. The price was right because I called early enough and locked in last years price. Also, because I called so early I got an extra week for free. The Lord is good all the time.

All the details have fallen into place. My Uncle and Aunt are going to watch the kids for me. Also, Keith's Sister and Brother-n-law are going to spend a lot of time with the kids as well. We are actually going to California for 6 weeks. We are going a week early, so I can spend time with family and friends. I have childhood friends there that have kids as well, so we will be getting together with the kids. My little cousin, Krisiti, is graduating from Highschool, so I will get to go to her graduation. I will get to see my Aunt's classroom and meet her class. She teaches 1st grade. They will still be in school when I get there. The first week will be busy, but a lot of fun.

Camp starts June 19th. Each week contains tons of activity. I will be suffering at camp right on the beach, so a lot of the activities are beach related. Ocean Kyaking, surfing lessons, beach volleyball, boogie boarding, hikes in the near by nature trails, hiking, walks on the beach, etc. Also, there is a multi-million dollar fitness center and olympic size pool. There will be aerobic classes, spinning classes (which I just started at the YMCA and love it.), raquetball. etc. You name it they have it. I will also have to attend behavior modification classes and nutrition classes.

The fun part is that there is a field trip every week to put into practice what we learn. We will be going to San Diego Zoo, Sea World, Knott's Berry Farm, and Universal Studios. My kids can come on the field trips with me and I get to see them almost every weekend. One weekend they will be on a camping trip with my Aunt Linda, but besides that I will see them a lot.

I have been working pretty hard on my healthy lifestyle change already. I am working out about 5 days a week and going to weight watchers. I have lost almost 30 pounds on my own. I'm very excited about this start and where I am going to go from here.

I am very excited about Camp LaJolla. I am considering this not only my physical retreat, but also my spiritual retreat.

Blog more later.
Melissa

Camp LaJolla

Well, my brother has turned me onto blogging. See www.pastorkarl.com for his great posts. I am getting ready to go to a fitness camp this summer called Camp LaJolla. I will be going for 5 weeks to continue on my weight loss and healthy lifestyle journey. You can check out their website at www.camplajolla.com

I decided to start blogging about how I am feeling leading up to camp and will continue to blog while I am there. I think it will be great for my family and friends to join me on this exciting journey.

Right now it is late, so I am off to bed.

Until next time,
Melissa