My Triathon Date

A lot of you have asked if I have picked a Triathlon to do in 2006, so I have decided to post it. The first Triathlon I will be doing is around June 24th, which by the way is my 12th wedding anniversary. It used to be called the Reebok Women's Triathlon in Naperville, Illinois. I will be swimming .46 miles, biking 14.5 miles and running a 5k, which is 3.1 miles. If I am up to it I will be doing a second one around July 8th. It is the Danskin Women's Triathlon in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. For that one I will be swimming 1/2 mile, biking 15 and running a 5k. For all my Triathlete friends reading this, please let me know if you think that is enough time between the two races. I'm not sure that will be enough time for me to recover and get ready for the second one, but that is just the newbie in me. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Later,
Melissa

Last day of 2005

I went to my kickboxing class last night. The class itself was good and I'm going to try it again next week. The only bummer was when we were working on our ABs at the end of class she had us working on a ball and had us stretch out our back. I pulled a muscle. Because of the muscle pull I was not able to go to my regularly scheduled spinning class this morning and weight training. I'm so bummed that it has affected me this way, but I am having a great day with my eating and getting stuff done around the house, so it hasn't turned out so bad afterall. And I will get my workout in when we go glow in the dark miniature golfing later. We will be doing that with the kids and out to eat and turning in early for the night, so we are not asleep at church tomorrow. I'll let you know how the golfing goes. I'm sure I'll get my Heart Rate up. LOL

Have a great New Years Eve celebration. Please be careful out there.

Melissa

Great Workout Day!!

I have to admit and I hate to do it, I gained the holiday 5 pounds. The average American will gain 7 pounds over the holiday season, so I am happy to say that I am below average. :-) I am now back in my grove with working out and eating. I had an AWESOME day yesterday.

I woke up at 5am to head to my spinning class (which is an aerobic workout on a bike) and got there early, clipped in and starting warming up. My instructor was running late, so he got there and got our class on our way. Half way through, he comes up to my bike and says take over Melissa I really gotta go to the bathroom. I freaked out and then took over for one song and I tell you it was a blast. Everyone told him when he got back that I did great. I know now for sure that I will teach a spinning class in the future. After spinning I headed home and got some work done around the house. I then headed back to the gym in the evening to do my weight training and another spinning class was starting, so I jumped on a bike and took another 45 minute class and then did a full body workout with weights. It was awesome. Eating went well too, so yesterday was a very good day for me. Today I am off to a great start and will go to the gym later to try a kickboxing class. I'm excited. I'll let you know how it goes. Later, Melissa

Tricia's new hairdo

Tricia has been growing out her bangs so her hair can be all one length. Her bangs were finally down to her chin. On Tuesday, Dec. 27 she decided it was time to cut her hair, so off we went to get to her haircut. She was hoping that her hair would be long enough to donate to locks of love www.locksoflove.org It has to be 10 inches long and she had 12 inches to donate. This is an organazation that makes wigs for kids who have lost their hair to cancer.


Here Tricia is holding her 12 inches of hair that will make some kid very happy!! She looks so grown up with her new do.
Here's Tricia before her haircut. Look how long her hair had gotten. We cannot wait for it to grow out and be all one length again. It should grow fast.

We had a quiet, but great Christmas. Christmas eve we spent at my brother, Karl's, house. My sister and her 4 kids came, my little brother and his wife and us. It was a good time. Christmas morning we went to church and had a nice lunch out and then a quiet afternoon and evening to ourselves. It was nice just to be at home. I'll post some Christmas pictures soon.

Later,
Melissa

Please Pray

Tuesday night there was an accident outside my kids school. A mom who was leaving a PTO meeting with her kids pulled out of the school's driveway into the path of an oncoming pickup truck. Her 3rd grade son, Brennen, died 45 minutes after the accident happened. He has a 2nd grade sister that was injured and according to the paper was in good condition today. Tricia and Parker do not know the kids, but as you can imagine this has been hard on us to hear especially at this time of year. Please pray for the parents and for Meghan who has lost her big brother. We do not know if there are other kids in the family, but these are the only 2 school age kids. Also, there are kids that go to my preschool as part of the daycare program that were in class with him last year, so this might become an issue at work for me. Thanks for listening and for your prayers for this family at this time. I wanted to blog about some fun stuff, but after hearing this the timing didn't seem right. I'll blog more after Christmas. Thanks for understanding.

Later,
Melissa

King Kong and Spinning

Last night I got to go and see the new movie KING KONG. It was very good, but has some very intense scenes. I definetely wouldn't take my kids to see it. The special effects were awesome!! There were some aspects that I could have done without, but overall very happy with it. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to ruin anything for those of you who do want to go and see it. If you do go and see it please post your thoughts. The movie was over 3 hours long and my brother and I went to an 8:30 show, so we were home late and I didn't get bed until after midnight. I asked my spinning teacher Jeff if he could come to class by 5:15am today to help me with my new clip in shoes. Once I was in bed after the movie I realized I had to keep my appointment with Jeff, so I was up at 4:45 to go to spinning.
I got there at 5:15 right when the gym opened and put on my new shoes. If you have joined my blog recently you might not know that my spinning instructor bought me my shoes when I was really down about working out, weight loss and was ready to throw in the towel. He made me promise to come to class for a week and he would get them for me. This was a while back and he kept his word and I have my new shoes. Clipping in was weird, but AWESOME!! For those of you who don't know, you can buy shoes that clip into your pedals on your bike. It really makes you get more from your workout. It's hard for me to explain. It was pretty easy to catch on to clicking in, had a little trouble getting out and I'm really not sure how I am supposed to do these on a real bike. I'm going to click into my regular bike on grass the first time I do it. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about an awesome compliment my spinning instructor gave to me last week. He told me that the YMCA had an opening for a Spinning Instructor and that I should apply. I thought he was kidding and he said I would be good. I'm not able to becuase of the time of the class and I'm not quite to that level of confidence yet, but I do want to teach a spinning class in the future, so this really encouraged me.
Have a great evening. Melissa

My new workout schedule!!

Here is my new workout schedule.

Sunday-REST

Monday- 9:30-10:30 Swimming
10:30-11:30 Water Aerobics- This ain't your Grandma's Water Aerobics
11:30-12:00pm-private swimming lessons starting in January for 5 weeks

Tuesday- 45 minute spinning class
WORK
Back to gym for weight training

Wednesday-Swimming
Elliptical or Treadmill after pool

Thursday-45 minute Spinning class
WORK
Back to gym for weight training

Friday-Swimming
Bike or Treadmill after pool

Saturday- 90 minute spinning class
Weight Training

I got home on Friday, Dec. 9th. I woke up early the next day a little late and so I did an hour of my 90 minute class and than did some weight training.

Sunday was my day of rest.

Monday. I went to H2O aerobics and than swam a 1/2 mile in 45 minutes which is good for me. That used to take me almost an hour. I was in the pool a total of an hour and a half. I cannot wait to take my private swimming lessons in January. That will really help. I have taught myself how to swim, so I haven't gotten the whole streamline thing down yet. In time. :-)

Tuesday-today- I made it to my spinning class and will get some weight training in tonight at home with some hand weights and my excercise ball. I am unable to get back to gym due to my schedule.

Any comments or advice would be great.
Later,
Melissa

Some more pics

Hi Everyone, Here are some more pics of our trip. We had a blast and I wish I had more time to write. I will keep posting pictures and short notes until I can sit down and really write about the trip. I figured this is better than nothing. It was a great time together. There were no crowds and we made a lot of great memories. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.

For those of you in the Tri community. I will be posting my new workout schedule for you to help me tweek and keep me motivated. So far I have kept up with it and I have sore muscles to prove it.

I hope everyone had a great week while I was gone.

Here are the kids playing with their light up toys one night at Magic Kingdom. We were waiting for Grandma, Grandpa and Daddy. This picture turned out so cool. Here we are at the entrance to Magic Kingdom. I love getting our picture taken here. I have a silly tradition that I can only enter the park through the left tunnel. Even though the locker we rented was way over by the right tunnel, I made everyone walk over to the left. It's just something I've done since I was little.

I need to run and get my butt to spinning. Have a blessed day!! Later, Melissa

We made it home!!

Here are some pictures for your viewing enjoyment!! Darlene screaming while Parker was driving in Tomorrowland. It was his first time behind the wheel. I will post this one again bigger at a later date. It is too funny!!



The kids acting like Pluto!!

I'm the real Mrs. Incredible!! Check out my muscles!!
Here is the happy fam with the mouse himself. Keith and I didn't realize how big his ears were until we posed for this picture. We kept hitting his ears. Sorry Mickey!!

I'll post more later. I've been crazy since getting home. Talk to you all later. Melissa

YIPEEEEE!

Well, we leave tomorrow for Disney World and I'm finally excited again.

Parker got his clean bill of health yesterday. We do follow up with one more doc today, but everything just disappeared like he was never sick in the first place. I say it's because of all the prayers. :-) Thanks everyone!!

I will try and blog while I am there, but if not I will be back with tons of pictures.

I need to run for now and get the kids to school and me to work and then off to run a million and one errands.

I'm also excited to leave because it is snowing here and cold.

Have a magical week while I am gone.

Melissa