Weight Watchers Report

I cannot believe that another week has gone by. I am disappointed that I didn't get to the gym like I needed to and am bummed that I haven't been feeling well. Anywho, I really don't want to post this, but I will. . .My Official weigh in for the week of April 19-April 26th is a gain of 1.4. I will be back with a great report next week. You can count on it!! Later, Melissa

My first time clipping into my pedals HILARIOUS

Well, today was the day. I took my bike off my trainer and reintroduced it to the great outdoors. (For those of you who don't know a trainer is something you can hook your bike into so you can ride your bike indoors during the winter months. You know like a stationary bike, but it is actually your real bike.)

I have mentioned in previous post about my AWESOME biking shoes that I got this winter and have been using to clip into the pedals on the spinning bikes at the YMCA. (Again, if you need a refresher, these are shoes that actually attach to the pedals, so you are one with your bike. This way not only can you push down the pedals you can pull up as well causing the ride to be sooo smooth and you get more bang for you buck. If any of you biker people out there would like to give a more technical explanation please do so in the comment section, but alas, I digress. ) I decided today was the big day. I would be clipping into my bike for the first time outside. I have clipped in a few times on the trainer, but it is not quite the same. On the trainer you are held up, outside you are not.

So I'm all ready and get on my bike, grab onto my mirror on my mini van, balence and get my right foot all clipped in. I mean, this foot is not about to go anywhere, so I start biking and head into the local subdivision, so I can work on clipping in my left foot before hitting the open trails. Here I am riding around in circles, with a bunch of kids, trying my best to get my left foot in when I finally give up. I decide I will bike with one foot clipped in and keep working on it the whole ride, so I head off to the trail in the distance. I'm still working on the left foot when it goes in a little. I'm excited, so I start pulling up on the pedals and D'oh, my left foot comes out, so I try again, give up, stand up to get going fast and VIOLA, my left foot clips in. I'm so excited I almost fall over. I finally make it to the trail and have my sites set on a Dad and his kid in the distance. I think to myself, I WILL PASS THEM. I'm closing the gap and am all excited that I'm about to beat an 8 year old kid and his old man, when out of nowhere a bug flies into my right eye. I was so going to catch up and pass this kid and his Dad, but the bug incident slowed me down and then they take a left and I needed to go right, so I decide that it is time for me to stop and take a little rest and make sure my eye is ok. I realize my feet are still clipped into the pedals. Before falling over I manage to get my right foot out, but my left foot is stuck now.

I see a fellow biker riding really slow, I think he was making sure I was ok and I notice that he is clipped into his pedals wearing the same cool shoes I have. I asked him if he had a sec and he did so I asked him about clipping in and that my left foot felt stuck and he showed me how I could loosen the clip on the bike when I get home and we talked for a minute and then he wished me good luck and we were off. The exciting part is that when I got back on I was able to clip the right one in right away and the left one only took about 2 minutes this time, just in time for a big hill, well, not really that big, but I hadn't been riding in awhile, so it felt big. :-) I make my way home all proud of myself and make it to my driveway, almost fall over, and finally get my right foot out. I then realize that my left foot is REALLY stuck in the clip. I mean I was almost spraining my ankle just trying to get out of this pedal, so I wheel up by the front door and start yelling at the door, KEITH, KEITH, KEITH. No answer. So I start again, KEITH, KEITH, when I hear my son, Parker, yelling through the door, MOM, YOU OK OUT THERE? He doesn't bother to open the door, so I tell him to open the door and he does and I tell him to get Daddy, so Keith comes to the door and I say, Honey, I'm stuck in my bike and he gives me this priceless look, so I have him hold my bike and I'm almost breaking my ankle at this point (ok, that's a little exaggerated), so finally I have him undo the Velcro on my shoe and I take my foot out and really have to tug to get my shoe off my pedal. It was pretty funny and then when I walk in Parker says, MOM, good thing I was going potty, we never would have heard you." I was glad too. I really don't know how I would have gotten out because I had just raised my seat and I don't think I could have reached the velcro.

So, there is the story of my first time clipping in to my pedals. I wish I had a great falling over at 0 miles per hour story, but this one was fun and now it won't be so bad next time. If anyone has any advice, great stories or better technical explanations than I gave feel free to comment. Also I have written a couple Hiakus (Haikus are short poems that have 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second line and then 5 in the third line. They are a lot of fun to write.) dedicated to the whole experience. If you would like to write a Haiku for me I would love to hear it too.

Shoes click into bike
I have fun getting them out
At least I fall not

Yelling at my door
I'm stuck in my bike no more
After Keith saves me

I like to bike ride
I like the wind in my hair
Don't like bug in eye

Have a great night.
Melissa

PS. Oh yeah, about the whole weight gain last week. I'm over and so remotivated after my bike ride tonight. It's great to be out in the fresh air again.

Weight Watcher Report

I had a rougher week than I realized. I knew that I had gained, but how much was a surprise. My official weigh-in for the week of April 12-19th was a gain of 2.6. I was very proud of myself because I didn't want to go and weigh-in, but I remembered that I blogged that I would be blogging my progress, so I didn't want to skip and have to blog about skipping the meeting, so I guess putting this on here really does hold me accountable. I know exactly what I haven't been doing and am so remotivated tonight in my journey. Gotta go get my prune boy out of the tub and in bed. Thanks for listening or should I say reading?

More Pictures of Luke

Here is little Luke. He is such a happy baby, well at least for 10 minutes. After he eats he is soooo happy and his Daddy calls it his 10 minutes of happiness.

Here I am with Little Luke. For those of you who don't know all my nephews and nieces call me Aunt Meepa. That is because when my 23 year old little brother was learning to talk he couldn't say Melissa, so it came out Meepa and it has stuck.

Here we are, proud Daddy and Proud Auntie. Ahhhh, he sleeps like a baby, wait a minute he is a baby!! If you would like to see more pictures please check out the proud Papa's blog at www.pastorkarl.com.

This is my 100th post and it's exciting!!

We have exciting news in our family. My brother, Karl, and his wife Sara are Parents. They have been praying for 10 years to have a baby and Easter Sunday their prayers have been answered. They are adopting a beautiful little boy named Luke Given. It is an exciting time for our whole family. Here is a great picture of Dad and Son. Enjoy! There will be more pictures to follow of my new little nephew. Have a blessed day!!

Pictures of the kiddos

Here is a picture of Parker right after he received his White Belt in Kung Fu. He received his uniform after this picture was taken. He now has 2 stripes. You need 10 stripes on your belt to move up to the next color.
Here is Parker with Shihan. Shihan is the title above the more commonly known Sensei. He is a great teacher and a great match with Parker. He is tough on him, but very kind as well. When Parker prays at night he always tells God how grateful he is for Shihan. This is right after he received his belt.

Here is Tricia on her first day of Skateboarding getting some advice from her teacher Anthony. She really likes him and he is very helpful and thinks it's cool that she's into boarding.

This next picture is of Anthony helping Tricia get ready to DROP IN. Lookin' good kid. Anthony got her feet already and was reassuring her that if she trusted him and leaned forward everything would be ok.

So she trusted him and DROPPED IN, literally. Hey, it's just the first week of class. She did Awesome and has been back to the Skate Park twice since class. She can't wait for me to take her to Kohl's where they have a line of Tony Hawk clothes. She also can't wait to get to the Skateboard store to check out the shoes. Who knows maybe we have a future X-gamer on our hands, afterall, she already has a snowboard on her Christmas list.

Weight Watchers

On wednesday nights I attend Weight Watcher meetings to help with my weight loss journey. I decided on Wednesday nights I will be posting if I gained, lost or maintained. I know that I need accountability in this area, so this will help me.

Official Weight Watchers Report For the week of April 6th-12th: Lost .2 pounds. The Weight Watchers scales are very accurate. :-) I will let you know next week how I did. Keep on keepin' on.

Later Gators,
Melissa

It's been over two months!!

Hi Everyone! I cannot believe that it has been over two months since I've blogged. As you can tell from my last post I was missing my Mom. I figured out that I haven't really grieved her and had a tough time there, but am doing better. I am doing better emotionally there, but had a setback with working out and weightloss. With my Triathlon right around the corner I am getting back in the swing of things. About 4 weeks ago I started swimming lessons. My teacher cracks me up and keeps lessons fun. I have my last lesson on Monday and will probably sign up for 5 more. This week I feel like it all clicked. I never realized how much there really is to swimming. I am going to get my bike off my trainer after Easter. The weather has been gorgeous, so it has been hard not to go biking, but I have 25 people coming over to my house on Easter and am distracted enough as it is. I don't need my bike to be an added one. :-) I'm starting a running program next week. It is called FROM THE COUCH TO A 5K IN SIX WEEKS. Considering I don't run yet this seemed like a good place to start. We will soon see. My goal for my first Triathlon is to finish and after that set time goals, so that's pretty much where I am on the Triathlon route.

One of my posts talked about my Friend, Chris in Iraq that was hurt. He has been home for awhile and is doing AWESOME. In fact as soon as he can get the doctor's ok, he will head back to Iraq as early as June. He still has guys over there so I understand that he wants to go, but don't like it. :-)

Tricia is doing great. She started Skatebording lessons last Saturday and is doing great. She is the only girl in her class, but has no problem with that and the teacers are great with her. I will be posting pictures soon.

Parker started Kung Fu about a month ago. He is a White Belt with 2 stripes. He loves it and it is teaching him great discipline. Again, I will post pictures of him soon.

I'm off to volunteer in Tricia's class. It feels great to be back. Blog more later, Melissa