STOP the scowls and frowns

Today I've had a great day and achieved lots:

cleaned out two kitchen drawers and consolidated it down to 1 drawer

washed, hung to dry, folded, ironed and put away lots of clothes

put out two bags of old clothes for the mission

baked vanilla cupcakes

went grocery shopping

tidied the spare bedroom

........ it feels good to achieve so many things around the house.

Now onto the post 'title'

I go to the gym to TRAIN - should not come as a surprise. I have friends outside of the gym so it does not need to be a social event for me. This seems very different for some!!!! This is not the real issue - I will be honest and say I am pretty strong and this seems to give reason to other females and males in the gym to scowl and frown at me while i train and i am going to bereally honest and say I AM OVER IT BIG TIME!

Yes i ignore them and just get on with it but i know its happening and i find it quite FRUSTRATING!

Anyway now I've got that off my chest, we are off to Perth tomorrow afternoon for 2 nights. We are going to the opening night of the Perth International Arts Festival.

Have a super weekend and love life! xxx

Holiday snaps and massage

Tucker and I with a python at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary 26th January 2011



Lunch at Riverside Restaurant Ballina



Moi!



Coke Zero - no calories, no hangover!



Essie and I at Dreamworld


As i promised here are some more holiday photos from our trip in January.

On monday I found out that a new massage therapist had arrived in Karratha (50km drive away from me), with lots of experience. I decided with the amount of training that I am doing that frequent visits might all assist in the process. I went for my first session yesterday and she was AWESOME! She did full body yesterday and around 10 mins into the 1 hr session when I realised how talented she was I made arrangements to have a weekly appointment with her. Now you may find this a little over the top but I am giving this 100% and nothing less and if it all helps I say why not!!!! Each week she will either focus on lower body or upper body and covering which ever area she doesn't focus on for 10 mins of the time so it does not miss out all together.

I felt a bit sluggish in training yesterday and even sent my trainer a text asking for a foot up the bum - she must have been busy because i didnt hear from her - at that point I had two choices - continue to grizzle and tell myself I needed a lift or turn the music up, harden up and just get on with it - I took option two and had a super workout.

I think some other people at the gym where I train struggle with my training style and weight selection! I get so many scowls, frowns and shakes of the head at me while I am training, combine that with guys asking dumb questions - I suspect trying to pick up (sorry buddy i'm taken lol) - and my fuse is starting to run a little short with patience!!!!!

I need to remember to turn the music up on my ipod, tilt the hat down and just show them why i look like I do!!!!!

Have a super day - a friend is about to arrive for a coffee - me long black!!!

XXX

I'm back!

Well hi!!! You must have thought I had disappeared into thin air! The last time I posted on here was when I was in Tasmania. Well, that was a very busy and emotional time. packing up your mum and dads house is not an easy task, but we made it in the end and have also just had news that the house has sold.

I want to get onto some good things so lets go:

1. I went to Queensland after Tasmania and I had the best time. I had the opportunity to do 10 face to face sessions with my online trainer. She taught me so much in such a short period of time, and pushed me to my limits and further! I never realised how strong I really was and how determined I am for great things in 2011. We had a super family holiday as well with LOTS of quality time together spent doing lots of fun and exciting things!

2. I have come home and training hard has taken on a whole new meaning! I thought i used to train hard but it is nothing on what I can do now! I have never felt muscle soreness like I have felt over the last couple of weeks - and as sad as it might sound I love every minute of the pain!

3. I had started studying at the end of last year because I thought it would be a breeze and that I would enjoy it! WellI have found that its not a breeze, and I didn't enjoy it - in fact I found it very frustrating and I would constantly put off needing to sit down and do what I needed to do. I was studying for purely pleasure and as it was not pleasurable I have given it away. Day one study free today feels AWESOME!

4. I loved the time I had with Tucker over the school holidays. By the time it was time to go back to school he was ready to be with his friends again and I think he actually enjoys the routine of been at school. WE have had a couple of mornings where he has been a little sad saying goodbye to me but it has not been too bad.

5. I celebrated a birthday while we were on holiday. I am proud to say that I am now 37 - and I have never looked as good or felt as good as I feel now!

6. Essie is now walking! He is so proud of himself and laughs when he walks across the room. I am sure he will be running soon!

7. I am so fortunate to be blessed with so many wonderful opportunities, experiences, people, things, and good health in my life!

The photo above is taken by my husband with a Leica M9 on Main Beach on the Gold Coast 2 weeks ago. Back soon with some more photos from my holiday. xxx

In a cooler state!

.Location wise I mean - I am in Tasmania. I flew most of the day yesterday with my two little boys. I am so lucky that they are such good travellers! The biggest challenge now is the time difference of 3 hrs which is making things really tricky - they are both so tired from struggling to fall asleep at normal time - 1, because it feels much earlier and 2, because it is so light - used to it been dark at bed time in WA!

Today I joined an awesome gym called Pycsam here in Launceston for the two weeks that I am here. it has a great range of hammer strength and life fitness equipment. I am going to do cardio in the mornings, and my usual weight program in the afternoon.

My brothers and I have made good progress today in packing up my mum and dads house - so much to do though. It is also a really strange feeling.

Better go - I am multitasking. I am studying through OUA and am in a chat session at the same time as writing this - need to concentrate now!

xxx

Oops forgot to Blog!!!

Hi All,

Merry Christmas and I am also going to say happy new year because I am not sure if I will get back on here in the next couple of days.
I seem to work well with dot points so here goes.......

1. Enjoyed the Christmas parties at school and day care with my two beautiful boys!

2. Loved it when school finished because it meant extra time with Tucker (my 6yr old)

3. had lots of fun wrapping all the gifts for the boys and loading their stockings!

4. Felt so proud of the way Tucker waited until 7 am for his brother to wake on Christmas morning so they could do gifts and santa sacks together!

5. Had a lovely Christmas Day - all day at home. A bit of a bitter sweet day - last Christmas was the first without my dad and this one first without mum and dad!

6. Have had every day at home (apart from training) since the 24th December - this does not happen very often for me!

7. have loved the day with my husband and boys today - our 14th Wedding anniversary!

8. Bags are packed ready for Tasmania tomorrow - its time to pack up mum and dads house :-(

9. Training and food intake (dislike the word diet) is going GREAT!

10. Better go - its time to go and train shoulders!!! Trying to build boulders!!!

xxx

Is it thursday already.....

Reality really hit when I saw at school this morning that there are only 16 days until Christmas! WOW! Its a good thing I started my Christmas shopping on Tuesday and I think I nearly finished it yesterday online!

I've decided I'm going to have a big cook up once a week now - spending WAY too much time preparing each meal when I need it! Am sure I could be doing something more worthwhile with my time each day! As i don't work I have the luxury to cook as I go however this takes a whole lot more time than if I did it in bulk!

Yesterday I was approached to see if I would be interested to become an AUST SWIM instructor! I love the water, children and exercise so i said I would love to! More details to follow!

I received an email a few days ago asking for donations for the remote communities in my area. I've had a good look around and found quite a few things that I no longer need that can go to someone much more needy than our family! Its a great feeling when you can help someone who is struggling at this time of year!

This morning I had a strange "moment". I have always carried my phone very close to me, because when mum and dad were alive I never knew when the phone might ring as neither kept that greater health! I've now realised that I no longer need to be so paranoid (which I think it had become) about having my phone close by. I walked Tucker to school today and left the phone at home! I felt naked!

Essie is sitting up next to me eating his breakfast - but he is finished and wants to get out of his high chair and get moving!

Have a happy day everyone. xxx

What a great weekend!

We had a GREAT weekend!

We enjoyed a quiet Friday night at home - always a nice way to end a busy week! Mike had had something on every night of the week last week so a night at home with him and our 2 boys was just what we needed!

On Saturday we had FOXTEL people here installing cables etc - nice to have a few more options on the TV (not that I watch too much TV).

Saturday night was the Rio Tinto children's Christmas party here in Wickham! There was tea cup rides, merry mix rides, jumping castles, super slides, ice creams, drinks, sausages etc!!!! The highlight for the children was Santa arriving by helicopter!!!!! Always very exciting to then have a sit on his knee and get a lolly! Tucker loved that aspect - Essie was not so keen on the big man in the red suit!

AS the night progressed a band played and entertained the children - Tucker had had a BIG stick of Fairy Floss so he had plenty of dancing energy!!!! He had the best time at the party this year - he was that bit older and loved been able to go and do his own thing (it was in an enclosed area) and then come back and see us before heading off again. We sat with good friends and enjoyed each others company while the boys played.

Essie loved the music and had the head rocking and the body moving to the beat! He has music in his bones I think - always jiving or dancing to music when he hears it.

After a fairly quiet sunday at home(quiet with two boys......) with a roast for lunch, Mike and I left the boys with our SUPER babysitter / nanny and we drove to our friends in Dampier and had a BBQ dinner before then heading to Karratha to see Arj Barker - quite a talented comedian from the states. Another great night!

Included amongst all of that were a few training sessions, cooking, swimming in the pool, washing, ironing etc!

A great weekend and so far a cool Monday at home - Essie has been asleep since 10am and it is now nearly 1pm!!!!! I have got quite a bit of my study done - YAY!

Tonight we have Tucker's school christmas concert - Tucker is performing a christmas song with his class. This is not something Tucker really enjoys but lets see how he goes!!!

Until my next update remember to enjoy your life - you never know when the next "BIG" hurdle may come your way. xxx